Full Text Push Poll: Schatz beats Hanabusa 49%-34%
Honolulu Ethics: 100 Building Permits, Free Golf, Prizes for 40 City Employees
Hawaii Republicans Get Back to Basics at Upcoming State Convention
After 9 Years, City Reopens Section 8 Waiting List for 6 Days
Calling all Cronies: Hawaii to Burn $150M on Subprime Energy Loan GEMS
Proud to be American and Hawaiian - Keli'i Akina
Schofield: 100 Soldiers Deploy to Afghanistan
VIDEO: Elwin Ahu Its Time to File!
Eco Activism: A vapid shell that allows people who are grasping for meaning to sustain the illusion
KE: “Big green NGOs present an ‘exciting’ semblance of resistance — a vapid shell that allows people who are grasping for meaning to sustain the illusion that they can really make a difference. All they have to do is click here, sign there, watch a flashy video about an adventurous ‘direct action’ that costs hundreds of thousands of dollars to stage, make bi-annual trips to the White House to really give that damn President a piece of their mind and pay their monthly tithes to their NGO of choice. These NGOs market themselves as catalysts for what they love to refer to as ‘movements.’ By proposing simple and false solutions inside a framework of what’s been cleverly branded as ‘Peaceful Resistance,’ potential disruptors of the capitalist system are pacified, placated and rendered ineffective while simultaneously being led to believe that they are engaged in meaningful resistance to ‘save’ the planet.”
That's exactly the scenario that I've been watching play out here on Kauai over GMOs, replete with de rigueur direct actions, click and sign email campaigns, flashy videos and the despair that's lurking right around the corner when the reality comes home to roost: You cannot expect real change from corrupt people — and by this I don't just mean politicians, but ideologues and egoists — working within a corrupt system.
read ... Kauai Eclectic
Cachola Busted: $64,000 Paid With Campaign Funds for SUV & 'Hundreds of Questionable Expenditures'
HNN: The state Campaign Spending Commission wants longtime state lawmaker Romy Cachola to pay back more than $64,000 in campaign money that allegedly went to his personal use.
HD30: Cachola UNCHALLENGED IN ELECTION
Hawaii News Now has learned that the commission also is seeking to fine the Kalihi Democrat nearly $4,000 for dipping into his political coffers to buy a Nissan Pathfinder and to purchase dozens of meals at local restaurants.
"It does look fairly suspicious and is probably indicative of a culture where this is common practice and where he didn't think anyone would catch him or investigate it," said University of Hawaii Political Science Professor Colin Moore.
In an eight-page complaint, the commission cited hundreds of questionable expenditures, including:
-- $30,437 to purchase a Nissan SUV in 2008;
-- $21,827 to gas, insure and keep the car running for nearly six years;
-- $9,194 in food and beverage purchases;
-- and, $2,774 in public relations expenses.
As part of the investigation, the commission placed Cachola under surveillance for a week back in January. Investigators for the Attorney General's office tracked Cachola's use of his SUV and found that none of his trips that week were campaign related.
Instead, Cachola was seen driving his car to a church and to his office at the State Capitol. He also used the car to drive to the Honolulu Country Club twice.
read ... $64,000 Cachola
Rep Brower Billed State for Sledgehammer Used to Attack Homeless
KHON: “I want to do right by the people who voted me in,” Brower said, “and I want to spend the least amount of state money possible.”
But KHON2 did find a receipt within an “office supplies” reimbursement of his for the sledgehammer he took to shopping carts the homeless used. Originally turned in as an office supply, he’s since bought that back from the state.
When asked why the sledgehammer was turned in as a state expense in the first place, Brower said, “Because I was using it in the community as community cleanup. I think that’s a fair state expense, but after there was all this notoriety with me taking away the shopping carts from sidewalks and parks, I said you know, I want to pay for that sledgehammer myself and keep it because it kind of has a life of its own.”
(He thinks it is a collector's item?)
read ... Fair State Expenses?
Waihee Backs Tsutsui vs Hee
HM: Hee has several key advantages that immediately make him the front-runner over Tsutsui, Moore says. "Even an incumbent can lose if there is a challenge from a candidate who has been around forever and has a huge campaign war chest."
Tsutsui is largely unknown to the electorate, with recent polls showing that an overwhelming majority of people has never heard of him. On the flip side, who hasn't heard of Clayton Hee? He's been in public life for as long as I've been alive, holding his first state office in 1982 and then serving as a trustee with the Office of Hawaiian Affairs for more than a decade. He ran unsuccessfully for lieutenant governor in 2002 and has been in the state senate representing Windward Oahu since 2004.
The lieutenant governor's race doesn't get much attention from voters, either, says Moore. "Often these races, because they are decided in the primary, are all about who voters know," Moore says. "This could be pretty concerning for Tsutsui."
In the battle for endorsements from former governors, Hee has snagged long-time pal Ben Cayetano, while Tsutsui enjoys the support of John Waihee.
LINK: Everything you ever need to know about Clayton Hee
read ... Waihee v Cayetano
OHA Trying to Push Forward With Akaka Tribe Scheme
HNN: OHA officials say Dr. Crabbe's indication he would attempt to put a hold on nation-building efforts are what led them to send a rescind letter to Secretary Kerry....
Dr. Crabbe says his state department inquiry was never intended to disrupt Kana'iolowalu, but aimed to acknowledge concerns that have been raised by legal and political scholars about the existence of the Kingdom of Hawai'i.
"Perhaps maybe we should consider some of the feedback and voices from our community who have alluded to these questions and very grave concerns if we move forward that it would invalidate the claims of the Hawaiian Kingdom in the international arena," Dr. Crabbe said.
OHA Chair Machado confirms trustees will move forward with their $3.9 million commitment to upholding Kana'iolowalu's efforts and honoring the more than 125,000 Native Hawaiians who've registered to participate in a nation-building process.
"Let the people decide -- who am I to say nine trustees going make that decision or one individual, our executive director? We cannot take that responsibility. Those that have come out and said, 'I am a Native Hawaiian' and we have certified you to be with your proof of birth -- that's their decision on what they want. That's democracy at its highest level," said Machado....
"We have to create something viable for them to rely on and that's the only way to do it is creating a governing entity -- to protect all of our rights -- the land and secure all of this for the generations to come," said Machado....
OHA officials confirm the Native Hawaiian Roll Commission will move forward with the election of delegates and a convention this fall, in which governing documents and perhaps a constitution will be written, that will then be shared with all Native Hawaiians who registered for Kana'iolowalu to vote on perhaps as early as January of 2015.
AP: The U.S. State Department Press Office said it could not comment on the letters
read ... Native Hawaiian Roll Commission not in jeopardy following state dept. inquiry
1,417 Gay 'Marriages' so far in Hawaii
SA: ...Guests from six states and at least two continents flew to Hawaii to see local surfer Joanne Howard, 33, marry 32-year-old Denise Baron Luna, formerly of California, Wednesday in Waikiki in one of the largest same-sex weddings held in the isles since the Marriage Equality Act took effect late last year.
"We're at about 230 guests, and I'd say 70 of them are coming in from California, Kentucky, Washington, Oregon, New York, Florida, Europe and Guam," Howard said Monday. "They are keeping us running. We're doing one airport pickup after another."
It's also arrival time for Hawaii's same-sex marriage market, which between Dec. 2 and May 1 made up 15 percent of all marriages in the state.
Since the act gave members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender communities marriage equality and opened up business and tourism opportunities throughout the state, 1,417 same-sex couples have tied the knot in Hawaii. Pent-up demand among mostly local residents made December, at 533 same-sex marriages, Hawaii's busiest LGBT month to date....
...by May 1 fees for same-sex marriage licenses brought the state an additional $91,000 in revenues....
HNN: One in every 7 'marriages' in state are same-sex couples
read ... $91,000 to Change the Structure of the Family
ERS Hits Record High, Will be Square by 2014
SA: Hawaii's largest public pension fund eked out a small increase in its fiscal third quarter as assets climbed to an all-time high of $13.7 billion.
The state Employees' Retirement System posted a 1.5 percent investment gain in the January-March period to boost its nine-month fiscal-year return to 12.5 percent, according to a report presented to ERS trustees Tuesday by Portland, Ore.-based Pension Consulting Alliance Inc., which advises the ERS trustees on investments. The fund, which provides retirement, disability and survivor benefits to 115,350 active, retired and inactive state and county employees, targets an annual 7.75 percent fiscal-year return to help fulfill its commitment.
Despite the record asset total, the fund is still far short of its pension obligations. It was 60 percent funded as of June 30 and came into the fiscal year with an unfunded liability — all benefits due qualified recipients — of $8.49 billion. But due to pension reforms made in the past three years by the ERS trustees, Gov. Neil Abercrombie and the state Legislature, the fund is expected to be 100 percent funded by June 30, 2041, if investment returns hit their targets and mortality rates are in line with expectations, according to an independent actuarial report released in December by Gabriel, Roeder, Smith & Co.
SA: DBEDT: Local economy still on track despite tourism slowdown
read ... 2041
Perfesser: Wiercinski is just like Eisenhower. Therefore he does not meet the high standards for UH President set by Lassner, Greenwood and Dobelle
CB: Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower became the president of Columbia University after serving as commander of all allied forces in Europe during World War II. By most accounts, (weasel words) his tenure as university president was a “disaster.” (source?)
The military culture and the world of academia are vastly different. In one, orders come down from the top, and orders are obeyed — “or people die.” (This kind of drivel is seen as highly advanced though at UH Manoa.)
Translation: Wiercinski is just like Eisenhower. Therefore he does not meet the high standards for UH President set by Lassner, Greenwood and Dobelle.
HNN: Wiercinski: "If I'm asked to serve, I will do that 100 percent."
read ... "Or people die"
Some UH regents appear open to adjusting tuition increases
SA: The university is completing the second year of a five-year tuition schedule that began with the 2012-13 academic year and in the end will raise tuition by more than 30 percent.
Full-time undergraduate resident tuition at the flagship Manoa campus -- currently $9,144 a year -- is scheduled to go up by about 7.5 percent in each of the next three years.
The tuition schedule was approved in late 2011 as UH faced drastic cuts in state funding.
But some regents, citing the financial impact on students and their families, appear poised to revisit the increases.
Regent Jan Sullivan, chairwoman of the Budget and Finance Committee, said national studies show that enrollment can start to decline once tuition hits a $9,000 threshold for a four-year degree.
read ... Some UH regents appear open to adjusting tuition increases
Hawaii DoE Keeps Graduating High Schoolers
SA: The story in Hawaii is full of both steady progress and lingering challenges.
Under the new national graduation cohort rate, Hawaii slightly outpaces the nation with a graduation rate of 82 percent. The percent of fourth- and eighth-graders testing proficient in reading and math, respectively, grew, as did the rate of those who took at least one Advanced Placement exam during high school.
These are encouraging trends. Graduation rates have been increasing right at a time when finishing high school became more difficult, with more AP courses offered and course credits and exit exams required to graduate. This suggests schools and districts are rising to a standard of excellence.
The graduation rate gaps that plague the nation are being narrowed in Hawaii.
Nationally, the gap between low-income and non-low-income students is 15-percentage points, but in Hawaii that gap is just 4 points. Similarly, the national gap between students with disabilities and the general population is a dismal 20 percentage points, but in Hawaii that gap is just 8 percentage points.
Overall, Hawaii is doing a better job than most states at narrowing persistent achievement gaps amongst white and African-American students and between white and Hispanic students. However, with only 56 percent of "limited English proficient" students and 65 percent of Native American students currently graduating on time, Hawaii will need to do more to ensure these students are getting the supports they need to succeed.
read ... Hawaii on pace to meet high school graduation goal
Hawaii Tops List of Little States That Couldn't on Obamacare
B: The state of Hawaii’s insurance exchange for the Affordable Care Act seems to be a financial disaster: The rollout of Hawaii's health exchange was delayed and plagued with technical problems. The Connector was awarded more than $200 million in federal funds. It has used about $100 million. It signed up 9,217 individuals, plus 628 employees and dependents. To date, the Connector has raised only $40,350 in user fees, according to Nathan Hokama, the exchange's spokesman.
The exchange was projected to have annual operating costs of $15 million, which works out to about $1,500 a person. Those costs will be lower than expected, because enrollment is lower, but presumably a significant chunk of its expenses are fixed costs, which don’t fall just because the number of users does. The legislature has allocated just $1.5 million, or $150 per user, which is a lot cheaper -- but not necessarily enough to run the exchange.
Hawaii is not the only place having funding problems....
read ... We're Number 1!
Keeping the Homeless on the Streets, City Council Guts Housing First
SA: Funding for Housing First, one of Mayor Kirk Caldwell's hallmark projects, remains shaky after the City Council Budget Committee voted Tuesday to slash its budget to roughly $12 million from the original $18.9 million and inserted language restricting the use of the remaining money to housing for projects that must benefit "homeless families with children."
Caldwell officials are warning that the changes will hinder their ability to put in a program meant to provide permanent housing options for chronically homeless individuals.
Community Services Director Pam Witty-Oakland said Oahu's 2014 Point in Time Homeless Count, released Tuesday, shows clearly that there are seven times as many homeless individuals without shelter than homeless families without shelter.
"Our intent was to use affordable-housing funds to create additional apartments, housing units, best suited for the greatest need -- which is smaller units for individuals," Witty-Oakland told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser after the meeting....
read ... City Council panel strips about $6M from Housing First
Star-Adv: Sweeps help but not solution
SA: Police lack the most direct enforcement tools, given that Honolulu does not have laws prohibiting loitering, vagrancy or public intoxication. But there are laws against public drinking, disorderly conduct, aggressive panhandling near ATMs, obstructing sidewalks and being in public parks after hours.
Police can't force homeless people into shelters, where they must abide by reasonable rules designed to foster safe and sanitary conditions. But officers can encourage people to go on their own, through strict enforcement of laws we do have on the books. Such interventions can improve the quality of life in neighborhoods where chronically homeless individuals congregate, and steer the down-and-out to agencies that can supply some of the help they need to rejoin mainstream society. Social-service outreach is a crucial part of this enforcement strategy, lest the homeless folks simply shift from street to street, park to park — one step ahead of the police.
Another risk is that officers will overreach, targeting only homeless people. Flawed enforcement would easily be challenged as unconstitutional. Police arresting people for public drunkenness, for example, must apply the statute uniformly; tourists acting up after too many mai tais might be cited every now and then.
HPD Chief Louis Kealoha emphasizes that these sweeps also uncover evidence of other criminality among homeless people, such as warrants for outstanding arrests. That's a bonus, but he need not justify this overdue enforcement against minor infractions. Police are doing their jobs — the number of addled individuals in certain neighborhoods raise legitimate safety concerns and full community access to public places must be restored throughout the island.
That said, the police can only help so much, and their intervention comes at a very high cost to taxpayers. Moreover, many infractions are plainly related to the violators' homelessness. It's doubtful there would be so many people defecating in the bushes, for example, if Waikiki, Kakaako and Chinatown had more bathrooms open 24 hours a day. The time for arguing about whether providing such facilities will attract more homeless people is long past. They are here now. It is inhumane to have so few public facilities, just as it is wrong to nitpick funding for Housing First, which would put the chronically homeless in subsidized housing and follow up with health care and social services. The City Council should fund Mayor Kirk Caldwell's full request for this needed program.
read ... Star-Advertiser Editorial
How Counties Using Extra $10M TAT
SA: The counties would have preferred $62 million more from the tax to cover those extra costs, but they're putting the $10 million to use:
» The City and County of Honolulu receives 44.1 percent of the counties' TAT haul, for a $4.4 million increase. Mayor Kirk Caldwell had been looking to raise resort and hotel property taxes by $1 per $1,000 of valuation, to $13.40. That would've generated about $8.2 million. With the $4.4 million from the state, the county this week is considering a mere 50-cent increase.
"Right now Honolulu property taxpayers have to make up the difference, and they're subsidizing services for tourists while the state keeps the rest of the money," said Jesse Broder Van Dyke, a spokesman for Caldwell's office. "In a budget of $2 billion, it's a very small increase, though we're happy to have it rather than nothing."
» Maui County gets 22.8 percent of the counties' TAT revenue, for a $2.3 million bump. That's a far cry from the $17 million the county might have received with a return to the old revenue model, but it buffered some of the cuts the County Council made, said Sandy Baz, the county's budget director. The balance of that money would have paid for more security at county parks and a new ladder truck to replace one that required extensive repairs last year. The County Council shelved those projects rather than raising property taxes.
"We actually had a really strong case, everybody thought, to have that cap lifted or some large portion of it restored," Baz said. "Money's always a source of tension, whether it's between siblings or between governments."
» Hawaii County is dedicating its 18.6 percent share of the TAT increase, or $1.9 million, toward future health care liabilities for public employees. The county had balanced its budget before the change in the tax sharing structure. Mayor Billy Kenoi "decided early on that we wouldn't budget for any money we didn't have," said Kevin Dayton, the mayor's executive assistant. The county's contribution toward its future health costs will be $6.1 million in the coming year, almost double that of the previous year.
» Kauai County's 14.5 percent share, worth $1.5 million, will plug part of a budget shortfall it is reckoning with this week. Specifically, it's likely to put the money toward more fully funding its employees' health plans, to 89.9 percent of its liability, according to Mayor Bernard Carvalho Jr.'s May 7 supplemental budget submittal to the County Council.
read ... Extra $10M from hotel tax funds
Honolulu Least Affordable Housing in USA
NW: 1. Honolulu, Hawaii -- Honolulu was the least affordable metro area last year, and this year it is again one of the least affordable, with a home price-to-income ratio of 9.2.
But residents shouldn’t despair. The 162-unit Rycroft Terrace, set to open this month, will offer units priced between $123,480 and $274,990—quite a bit below the median home price of $661,500. Rycroft Terrace’s developer, Peter Savio, has promised that applicants making 30% or less of Honolulu’s median income will get priority housing.
The Aging and Disability Resource Center also offers specific housing tips for seniors.
read ... We're Number 1!
Lobbyists: Ghosts in Hawaii's Legislative Machine
CB: Another legislative session is over and it’s time for assessing the outcomes. For the most part, it’s pretty straightforward. The rather robust legislative website makes it much easier than it used to be to find information about what passed and how.
Want a list of bills that passed this year and were sent to the governor for his signature or veto? It’s just a click away from any computer, tablet, or smartphone. Same for resolutions that were adopted, and for constitutional amendments. There’s a list of bills that have already become law and, coming soon, a list of those the governor intends to veto....
So you know what legislator introduced the bill, how each legislator voted on the measure in committee or on the floor, who appeared at public hearings to testify, and how each amendment along the way was justified.
... a key element is missing — the lobbyists who remain largely invisible, ghosts who manage to avoid leaving any fingerprints for the public to find.
The lobbyists who work the hallways and offices of the State Capitol on behalf of their clients’ special interests are rarely spotted in the official records that make up the legislative history of a bill or resolution, despite the fact that insiders can tie particular bills to specific lobbyists.
“That’s so-and-so’s bill,” you’ll often hear. And to those in the know, that says a lot about the role of lobbyists....
read ... Ghosts in the Legislative Machine
Enviros Launch New Attack on Fisheries
CB: The meeting held in the conference room of the Western Pacific Fishery Management Council’s Honolulu office on the afternoon of Jan. 29 must have been a doozy. (or not)
As a result of what he claimed was uncivil behavior of a participant, Robin Baird, a cetacean scientist with the Cascadia Research Collective and one of the most published experts on the subject of false killer whales in Hawaii, resigned his seat on the council’s Protected Species Advisory Committee.
When approached by Environment Hawaii, several other participants in the meeting of the council’s Scientific and Statistical Committee’s (SSC) subcommittee on false killer whales would not discuss what transpired there. They did, however, note that council staff had made an audio recording of the proceedings.
On Feb. 24, just a few days after learning of the existence of the recording, we filed a formal Freedom of Information Act request to obtain a copy of it.
The response came on April 4. “The Western Pacific Fishery Management Council staff has advised that an audio recording of the subcommittee meeting was erased on February 22, 2014,” stated the letter signed by Samuel D. Rauch III, administrator of the National Marine Fisheries Service. “We are in the process of reviewing the circumstances of this action.”
read ... War on Fishing
Honolulu Pays $50,000 to Bicyclist Hit by Garbage Truck
CB: The city settled for $50,000 after lawyers considered the circumstances and the anticipated costs of litigation, according to Jay Parasco, a spokesman for the city.
Fernandez has had several driving-related convictions in the past two decades.
Court documents show that Fernandez was convicted of driving under the influence in 1990; driving without a license in 1991; and had citations for speeding in 2000, 2003, 2006 and 2011.
read ... $50,000
PGV cited by EPA for violations
HTH: Among the highlighted issues, the agency says the 38-megawatt power plant has not followed schedules for maintenance and tests of its geothermal wells and may not detect small leaks around its well casings.
In regard to maintenance, the report says, “The records reviewed by EPA indicate that, for the five production wells, about 38 (30 percent) of 125 scheduled tasks were not completed as scheduled, and at the time of EPA’s inspection, almost no tasks scheduled for 2013 had been completed.”
The inspection occurred in August.
The EPA also says that ultrasonic testing of “pressure vessel wall thickness” is supposed to occur annually, but has not been done since 2006.
The report says PGV’s casing monitoring program presumes that a failure causing loss of geothermal fluid “to the formation” may be detected as a pressure and temperature drop at the wellhead. The agency said it is “extremely unlikely” that this approach would detect such a leak unless it was “very large.”
“Thus, the (monitoring program) provides almost no assurance that a casing leak will be detected in the early stage of a failure,” the report says.
It also notes EPA found no records of hand-held hydrogen sulfide analyzers being re-calibrated, when that is supposed to be done monthly.
Additionally, the report says the devices are supposed to be re-certified annually. Only one had been re-certified prior to March 2013.
read ... Geothermal
Feed Mill to be Built in Hilo
CB: Ulupono Initiative, the Honolulu-based social impact investment firm created by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar, has given Hawaii Pacific University $1 million as part of a newly formed partnership for the development of a state-of-the-art facility that aimed at helping with the issue of local food security.
As part of its mission to increase local food production, Ulupono Initiative is helping to finance HPU’s prototype feed mill to be built on the Big Island.
The long-planned project is spearheaded by Oceanic Institute-HPU, which became a direct research unit of the state’s largest private university last year.
HNN: Ma'o Organic Sued for Wrongful Death
read ... Calling all Protesters!
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