How to Submit Your Comments on the Proposed Rule to Recognize a Native Hawaiian Government
OHA Trustee Stender and Former AG Lilly question current efforts to create a sovereign Hawaiian nation
Voter Registration Drive Set for Hawaii Catholic Churches June 21-22
HGEA Refuses to Endorse Governor, CD1 Candidates
Modifying the Future of Food: What If GMOs Are the Only Option?
Criminal, Energy, Emergency, Agriculture--Abercrombie Signs Bills
Engineers complete nine-month Afghanistan mission, return to families in Hawaii
Hawaii school principals predict substantial drop in reading and math scores
HR: Sixty five percent of Hawaii’s public school principals are predicting a drastic drop in math and reading test scores the coming school year, in one case by as much as 50 percent.
The main culprits: Common Core and government bureaucracy.
The principals made their report on their required Academic Plan for the 2014-2015 school year where they set learning targets for math proficiency and reading proficiency on the state test.
Of about 210 principals who posted their scores, 98 predicted student math test scores will drop by 30 percent, while 94 school principals estimate there will be a 30 percent decline in reading scores.
Just 18 percent of principals expect scores to improve.
read ... Hawaii school principals predict substantial drop in reading and math scores
Schatz' Chief of Staff Target of Campaign Spending Investigation
CB: The Hawaii Campaign Spending Commission is taking an interest in the Pacific Resource Partnership and whether it violated any laws during the 2012 mayoral campaign.
Recently released emails show how PRP and its consultants worked to undermine the campaign of former Hawaii Gov. Ben Cayetano, who was running for mayor on a platform to kill the city’s $5.26 billion rail project.
Among the revelations was that PRP was working on its campaign several months before officially forming its political action committee, doing opposition research and poll testing future attack ad messages....
Campaign Spending Commission Attorney Gary Kam said his agency is now looking into the “apparent vendors” who did not appear in PRP’s finance reports. He declined to go into specifics.
They include Texas-based opposition researcher Jason Stanford; Barbara Tanabe and Jim McCoy, who worked for Hoakea Communications at the time; and Andy Winer, U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz’s chief of staff, who in 2012 was working on U.S. Sen. Mazie Hirono’s campaign.
SA: Lay bare just how crass and manipulative the backstage crew can be
read ... Jail Winer
Cayetano to Schatz: Fire Winer
KITV: Cayetano added that if Schatz did not know of Winer's involvement in the smear campaign, he most certainly knows about it now.
"Andy Winer should resign, or Brian Schatz should fire him," said Cayetano.
In reaction to Cayetano's comments, Schatz spokeswoman Meaghan Smith issued the following statement to KITV4:
"Sen. Schatz is too focused on getting things done for Hawaii families to get in the middle of Mr. Cayetano's attempts to settle an old score," said Smith.
read ... The Advisor Becomes the Issue
Hawaii school principals predict substantial drop in reading and math scores
HR: Sixty five percent of Hawaii’s public school principals are predicting a drastic drop in math and reading test scores the coming school year, in one case by as much as 50 percent.
The main culprits: Common Core and government bureaucracy.
The principals made their report on their required Academic Plan for the 2014-2015 school year where they set learning targets for math proficiency and reading proficiency on the state test.
Of about 210 principals who posted their scores, 98 predicted student math test scores will drop by 30 percent, while 94 school principals estimate there will be a 30 percent decline in reading scores.
Just 18 percent of principals expect scores to improve.
read ... Hawaii school principals predict substantial drop in reading and math scores
Proposal expands 'sit-lie' ban to Chinatown, Ward
SA: Days after Mayor Kirk Caldwell unveiled a measure prohibiting people from sitting and lying on public sidewalks in Waikiki, Councilwoman Carol Fukunaga has introduced a bill imposing the same restrictions for an area from Chinatown to Ward Avenue.
Both bills, along with a separate measure barring defecating and urinating in public areas of Waikiki, will be heard as part of a special meeting of the Honolulu City Council at 8:45 a.m. Thursday, Council Chairman Ernie Martin announced late Friday.
Bill 45, Fukunaga's bill, would cover the area from Nuuanu Stream on the Ewa side to Ward Avenue, in the heart of Kakaako, on the Diamond Head end. It would reach the H-1 freeway on the mauka side and the ocean on the makai side.
read ... Chinatown, Ward
Governor Silent on Homelessness Issue
HNN: ...unlike others who haven't really come up with solutions, Caldwell talked about moving 11 tons of items from the homeless from our sidewalks and parks every week.
He is working to get more restrooms opened in Waikiki and to clear the sidewalks there. A proposal to increase hotel and property taxes on resorts could help with moving out the homeless.
He wants better laws to keep people from sitting or lying on public sidewalks and fines for those are using the public places as their bathroom. And he is trying to get the homeless into permanent housing, called housing first.
Caldwell calls it "compassionate disruption" in getting our island back to normal and now, with the city council's help, he is finally securing some money to find that housing.
So I guess there is something government can do. Meanwhile, we are still waiting to hear from the governor about what his plan might be.
So, if the city council can step forward to assist our mayor, then we sincerely hope the elected officials at the state level will do the same to help governor Abercrombie....
read ... Governor
Documentary Examines the Sierra Club's Decision to Support Rail
HR: I am writing to urge those of you who have not yet seen it to watch the documentary Railroading Paradise, which will be broadcast this Saturday, June 21st, at 6:00pm on KGMB and next Saturday, June 28th, at 6:00pm on KHNL.
The documentary follows the deliberations of the Executive Committee of the O‘ahu Group of the Sierra Club of Hawai‘i as they wrestled last year with the issue of whether or not (decided) to support the highly controversial HART rail project.
Background: Railroading Paradise: Pro-Rail Sierra Club Releasing Rail Documentary
read ... Independent Documentary Examines the Sierra Club's Deliberations on the Rail
Homosexual Child Molesters to be Targeted for Two More Years
SA: Gov. Neil Abercrombie on Friday signed SB1354 into law that will extend a window for another two years to file lawsuits over decades-old childhood sexual abuse and allow suits to be brought against the state and counties.
Dozens of child sex abuse lawsuits have been filed in Hawaii against the clergy, churches and others homosexual child molesters and those who shielded them over the past two years after the state temporarily lifted the statute of limitations to bring claims. The new law extends the window until April 2016 and adds the state and counties as potential defendants.
SA: Church of the Double Cross Dumps Lesbian Minister
read ... New law adds time to file abuse suits
Opponents fail to stop Kulani Correctional Facility reopening
HTH: The state won Friday morning an important ruling in 3rd Circuit Court in its bid to reopen Kulani Correctional Facility.
In response, opponents of the plan announced their intention to file a motion for a preliminary injunction to prevent the prison from reopening July 1, as scheduled, before their legal challenges are completed.
Native Hawaiian group Ohana Hoopakele (The usual suspects) wants the state to establish a puuhonua, or a place of refuge or healing, at the site 20 miles southeast of Hilo as an alternative to reopening the prison. (Oddly enough, they do not want to recreate the gauntlet of death that surrounded the real puuhonua of days past.)
The reopening would return about 200 of the roughly 1,700 Hawaii inmates currently held in private mainland prisons. The move is part of the national Justice Reinvestment Initiative, and has been supported by Gov. Neil Abercrombie.
read ... Failure
Family sues HPD, firefighter over deadly arrest
HNN: ...Dinnan does not live at the home where the stolen truck was found. He was only visiting after he went shopping at Ala Moana Center with his family, the suit said.
According to the suit, Serhant's truck that was being worked on at the Waimanalo home. Dinnan smoked several marijuana joints with friends at the home when Matsumoto and the truck owner pulled up.
According to the witness, the officer tried to question Dinnan, who then tried to leave the scene. After a brief chase, Dinnan was pinned against a railing by Matsumoto and was hit by the officer, the suit said.
The owner of the truck -- off-duty firefighter Nolan Hanohano -- then began to choke Dinnan, before Dinnan briefly escaped, the suit said.
Dinnan was then pinned down by Matsumoto and kneed him in the back, rendering him unconscious, the suit said.
"Mr. Hanohano was very, very angry when he strangled Mr. Dinnan. He said 'this is what you get when you steal from Hawaiians,'" Hsieh said.
Former Attorney General Mark Bennett, who represents Hanohano, could not be reached. Police declined comment on the lawsuit.
read ... Family sues HPD, firefighter over deadly arrest
City sewer fees will increase 4% starting July 1
KHON: Currently, a single family or duplex dwelling pays a $65.76 monthly base fee along with a usage charge of $3.93 per 1,000 gallons.
There is a 20 percent irrigation credit per household that goes to watering yards, plants, washing cars and other water uses that do not enter the sewer system.
Starting July 1, those charges increase by four percent for fiscal year 2015 to $68.39 and $4.08, respectively.
read ... Another Fee Hike
OHA Gets 21 Ac Site in Luxury Development
MN: The site also includes the old Dowling sales office, a nearly 900-square-foot structure that is being converted to a classroom, she said Monday.
Dowling had wanted to give the preserve to the University of Hawaii about six years ago, but UH had problems accepting the property, Lindsey explained. When the developer had sought to change the zoning of the 44 acres in the area that included the cultural preserve in 1999, he set aside one of the 18 lots in the subdivision - nearly half of the project - for the preserve, according to a story by Lurline Wailana McGregor in the June 2013 issue of the OHA publication Ka Wai Ola.
He also created a fund where 0.5 percent of the sale or resale price of any of the 17 lots in the subdivision would be donated to the Palauea Cultural Preserve fund.
There currently is $230,000 in the fund, Lindsey said, which is being held and managed by OHA. In fact, the new stewards will be able to tap those funds, she said.
read ... OHA development
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