Lingle: Public Being Misled About 'Common Core'
It's Time to End Public University Speech Zones
Hawaii Rifle Association Final 2014 Legislative Report
Strange Lights Caused by Barking Sands Missile Launch
Rothenberg: Mufi Could Swing Gubernatorial Race to Aiona
Roll Call: former Honolulu Mayor Mufi Hannemann’s decision to run for governor as an independent changes the math of the race. The Honolulu mayor should be a credible enough candidate to raise the possibility of splitting the Democratic vote with Abercrombie, allowing the Republican, Aiona, to win the race with less than 50 percent of the vote.
Hannemann has had his share of election losses, but Abercrombie is a polarizing figure, even within his own party — particularly because of his appointment of Brian Schatz to the Senate over Rep. Colleen Hanabusa after Sen. Daniel K. Inouye died.
Aiona is still a long-shot to win, but Democrats can’t take this race for granted anymore. We’re changing our Rothenberg Political Report/Roll Call rating of the race from Safe Democrat to Democrat Favored.
read ... Roll Call
Republicans Can Win By Reaching Voters on Issues that Matter to Them
Star-Adv Editorial: The Republican Party of Hawaii has its biennial chance to improve its marginal standing as the primary opposition party in state governance. Broadening the islands' political landscape, with the entrenched dominance of Democratic Party leadership, would benefit public discourse.
But that goal will be achieved only if the challengers read the electoral mood correctly and reach voters on issues they care about in their daily lives....
...the party leadership has rightly decided that pocketbook concerns and other issues should dominate Republican messaging, not proposals to revisit the same-sex marriage question....
...The party has no intention of exerting tight control over the campaign message of individual candidates, Saiki said, so there's always the possibility that some will make marriage a central issue. They would be ignoring the lesson of previous election cycles, when efforts by previous party leaders to rally around such isolated wedge issue ultimately fell flat with most voters....
(That's good advice. Do what the gay-atheists did. Campaign on issues that matter to the voters and use those issues to stay in office. Implement your agenda gradually once elected. Let the other side be the frog in a pot for the next 20 years. Turnabout is fair play.)
read ... Hawaii GOP must broaden its base
No Republican Running After Convict Withdraws from Race Against Corrupt Rep Rida Cabanilla
HR: Bryan Earl Jeremiah has been campaigning as a Republican for state House District 41, but after learning he had an extensive criminal rap sheet, elected Republican leaders asked the 51-year-old on Wednesday to withdraw....
“Mr. Jeremiah informed the Hawaii Republican Party (Thursday) that he is no longer a candidate.” said Kayla Berube, executive director of the Hawaii Republican Party.
As Jeremiah takes down his campaign signs, Republicans are scrambling to find a replacement candidate.
Still remaining in the race is House Majority floor leader Rida Cabanilla, D-Ewa, the district’s incumbent, who has been involved in her share of controversy.
Most recently, she was in the news for the $100,000 grant she secured from her peers at the Hawaii Legislature for her charity, which was out of compliance with the Internal Revenue Service when she was awarded the grant.
Cabanilla told Hawaii Reporter she wanted the money to hire six people to “weed whack” the grass at the historic cemetery, but critics of her plan said the cemetery already is under a city maintenance contract, which includes yard maintenance.
Cabanilla’s nonprofit is still in contention for the grant, which still must be approved by the state Department of Land and Natural Resources.
Republican strategists believed Cabanilla could be defeated because of the negative publicity she received over her nonprofit grant....
read ... Crook Getting a Free Ride to Reelection?
Maui: Most Anti-GMO Signatures Phony
MN: County Clerk Danny Mateo says a review of the petition shows 9,768 signatures were submitted, but less than half of that, or 4,720 of those signatures were deemed valid.
According to Mateo, a total of 5,048 signatures have been deemed invalid due to a variety of issues including duplicate signatures, insufficient or incorrect information provided, or illegible handwriting.
Mateo says the SHAKA Movement needs 3,745 more valid signatures in order to be placed on the ballot, and now has 20 days to submit supplemental signatures to the Office of the County Clerk in order for the petition to move forward in the Charter-mandated process.
read ... About a bunch of phonies
Mufi Joins Call for UH Presidential Do-Over
HNN: A day after State Senate President Donna Kim called on the University of Hawaii Board of Regents to re-open the search for UH president, gubernatorial candidate Mufi Hannemann said Wednesday he agreed the board should re-start a search.
"I believe they should have more than two candidates. They should keep the two they have now, I think they are good candidates. The fact that they said at the outset, they would have five to six, to me they really have to identify that," Hannemann, who is running for governor as an independent, told Hawaii News Now.
Hannemann said women and business people should be among the finalists considered.
read ... Mufi Swings Presidential Race?
HSTA Steps Up Anti-Evaluation Agitation
HNN: The Facebook page Hawaii Teachers Work to the Rules is a clearinghouse for comments and complaints about the new teacher evaluation system. Some say it saddles teachers with paperwork and handcuffs them to multiple meetings....
School Renewal Specialist Yuuko Arikawa agrees the evaluation system is a big change from what teachers are used to. But she says a key part of the program is controlled by teachers.
"They choose the standards. They choose the instructional strategies. They get to choose the targets that they set for their students. So they are in complete control with that," she said.
Still some teachers give the evaluation, as it stands, a failing grade.
"It's far less consistent than it's been painted. I think it's far more subjective than it's been painted. I think it's far less equitable than it's been painted," Wailuku Elementary School teacher (and dependable HSTA mouthpiece) Alan Isbell said.
"Some people are getting so fed up they're saying, 'I'm not going to do it. Let the DOE fire me,'" Rosenlee said.
SA: Teacher evaluation system undergoing review
read ... HSTA undermines its own Contract (again)
APEC Sweeps Forced 445 Homeless to Accept Shelter
SA: The effort kicked off in May 2011 and concluded three months later as planned — just in time for a large group of dignitaries and thousands of international journalists to descend on Oahu for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation conference in November.
According to numbers provided by the Governor's Office, the coordinated effort among government, community groups, nonprofits, community and faith-based organizations, businesses, shelters and outreach services resulted in more than 445 homeless people being moved off the streets and into emergency shelters — including 200 individuals helped in Waikiki, 85 helped in Waianae, 136 on Hawaii island, 65 on Maui and 44 on Kauai.
read ... About What We Could be Doing Every day
Chinatown Businesses Push $500K Plan to Build Public Toilets
SA: Neighbors don't have to look at the small, city-owned Dr. Sun Yat-sen Memorial Park to know there's a problem.
They can smell it.
"The homeless are living, urinating and defecating in the park every hour of the day," said Andrew Friedlander, principal broker for Colliers International, which operates a number of buildings downtown. "It's repulsive."
A meeting at the park with city officials and frustrated neighbors was postponed Wednesday but is expected to be rescheduled soon.
Friedlander said city officials need to experience for themselves the filth created by the growing number of homeless engulfing the park. He and others want the city to build a public restroom there to cut down on the stench.
"We need to get the homeless out of Waikiki. We know we can't get them out of downtown. But we do need to take care of the filth and the smell — because it's embarrassing," he said.
Right now there is only one place where the homeless can use a public restroom: at the Honolulu Police Department's Chinatown substation at the corner of Hotel and Maunakea streets. But it is often out of order due to the abuse that users inflict on the facilities, officials said.
City Councilwoman Carol Fukunaga, who represents the downtown-Chinatown area, has been pressing the administration to install public restrooms in Chinatown, and she has proposed spending $500,000 in the fiscal year 2015 budget in support of a solution.
In addition, the city recently completed a study looking at potential restroom locations at Fukunaga's request.
Pam Witty-Oakland, director of the city's Department of Community Services, said her staff found only a few locations where a public restroom can work. She said there was some resistance from business owners who don't want a restroom built nearby, believing it to be an attractive nuisance.
Dr. Sun Yat-sen Memorial Park, next to Hawaii Theatre Center, was not one of the sites identified as a potential location, she said, because there is a larger homeless problem near River Street several blocks away. However, Witty-Oakland said she would be willing to look at the park again.
Friedlander said the problem in and around the park is so bad he's afraid people who want to support business downtown will abandon the area and go elsewhere. Public restrooms are essential to improving sanitation and enhancing the overall experience of the area, he said.
"Otherwise, downtown will return to the haven for drugs and prostitution that it was only 15 years ago," he said.
read ... Homelessness Industry at Work
No Ethics in Legislative Allowances
PR: State Senate President Donna Mercado Kim and state House Speaker Joseph Souki have told the state Ethics Commission that the Legislature has the sole responsibility over legislative allowances.
Kim and Souki informed the Ethics Commission in an April letter that it is up to the Legislature to monitor usage and provide sanctions in regard to any misuse. "With that said, the Legislature will be reviewing our current guidelines to see if further clarification on usage is needed," they wrote.
Commission staff has been preparing recommendations on the legislative allowance for the commission to consider, but has been slowed because the Legislature has not provided all of the information the commission has requested.
Leslie Kondo, the Ethics Commission's executive director, said at a commission meeting on Wednesday that he considers the information public records. He also noted that some of the information has been released to reporters.
The legislative allowance -- about $12,000 a year -- is authorized by the state Constitution.
Background: Rep Tom Brower uses Allowance to buy sledgehammer to attack homeless people
read ... $12,000 Allowance
State Task Force Members Must Disclose Financial Ties Under Ethics Ruling
CB: Wading into murky legal waters, the Hawaii State Ethics Commission decided Wednesday that members of task forces that advise boards and commissions must disclose their financial interests.
The ruling came in response to a petition the University of Hawaii filed in July. School attorneys sought a declaratory order from the commission as to whether the volunteers who served on the Athletic Director Search Committee and the Operational and Financial Controls Improvement Advisory Task Group are exempt from filing financial disclosure statements as long as they don’t have a conflict of interest.
Ethics Executive Director Les Kondo had been asking for the disclosure statements from the two UH groups, whose members include private attorneys and the heads of major banks, since they formed in 2012.
The commission’s order, which isn’t publicly available yet because one of the members forgot to sign it before leaving, is expected to provide guidance for current and future task forces, Kondo said, adding that it should not affect the members of the two now-defunct UH groups.
Link: UH petition for declaratory ruling on financial disclosures
read ... Disclose
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