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Tuesday, June 24, 2014
June 24, 2014 News Read
By Andrew Walden @ 8:06 PM :: 4425 Views

DoI Hearing: 'A lot of noes' on Akaka Tribe

Abercrombie Sends Notice to Veto 10 Bills

Ward Questions DoT Plan for Kalanianaole Hwy

USDoE: Federal Funds at Risk as Hawaii Special Ed Programs Fall Short

Schatz Should Fire Winer

CB: The authors argue Sen. Brian Schatz should get rid of his Chief of Staff Andy Winer, who was a political operative in the successful PRP campaign against Ben Cayetano.

read ... PRP Owes an Apology to Oahu’s Voters

Borreca: PRP Tactics Work for Unpopular Candidate like Hanabusa

Borreca: According to the emails made available by Cayetano's attorney, PRP's consultants polled and found that rail was unpopular with Honolulu voters.

After first toying with a plan to defend rail, PRP, which controlled millions in campaign money, instead decided to try to ruin Cayetano's political reputation.... 

(Clue: Polling shows that Hanabusa is unpopular, just like rail.  Thus PRP's tactics could become Hanabusa's tactics.)

In the middle of the PRP anti-Cayetano campaign was Andy Winer, one of Hawaii's most aggressive political tacticians.

Winer has worked in Hawaii Democratic campaigns for more than 15 years. He is now working for U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz, both helping on his campaign against U.S. Rep. Colleen Hanabusa and as Schatz's chief of staff.

Knowing the power of a negative campaign and his experience in its application, it will be interesting to watch Winer's strategy in the closing days of the Democratic senatorial primary campaign.

Will Schatz be ready?  www.TheRealHanabusa.com

read ... Hanabusa's End Game

Caldwell Admin Stifles Investigation into Corruption

CB: Honolulu’s Ethics Commission, tasked with ferreting out government corruption, hoped to purchase a $600 GPS tracking device last month to investigate city employees suspected of getting paid for work that they didn’t do.

The alleged scheme is believed to be costing the city a quarter of a million dollars a year, according to a draft of a letter the Ethics Commission intends to send to Mayor Kirk Caldwell.

A copy of the draft letter from Katy Chen, vice chair of the Ethics Commission, was provided to Civil Beat by the commission. It provides no further details about the fraud investigation.

The investigation was hampered by the amount of time that Donna Leong, the city’s corporation counsel, took to approve the GPS device, the letter states.

Leong “waited five weeks while apparently mulling over ‘policy implications’ before conditionally approving the $600 purchase, by which time the investigative window on the case had closed,” the letter states.

read ... Protecting the Corrupt

Legislative ethics need tightening

SA:  The state Ethics Commission is fulfilling a key part of its oversight duty with its recent vote — albeit a narrow decision, 3-2 — to issue guidance on the way lawmakers spend their annual allowances, which amount to about $12,000 for each of the 76 legislators.

Judging by the range of items that appeared on the ledger for the period under study, 2012 through October 2013, some guidance is clearly in order.

Background: Grace for Waikiki: Ethics Commission Should Ban Sledgehammer Purchases by Legislators

read ... Legislative ethics need tightening

NYT: Honolulu Shores Up Tourism With Crackdown on Homeless

NYT: “It is generally true in sunshine tourist states that there is a war going on between tourism and development (versus those who do not want to) helping the homeless (and instead want to keep them homeless),” said Michael Stoops, director of community organizing for the National Coalition for the Homeless (corrected for truthfulness.)

read ... Honolulu Shores Up Tourism With Crackdown on Homeless

Caldwell Returns Budget Bills Unsigned in HART Power Grab

CB: Honolulu Mayor Kirk Caldwell will allow the city’s 2015 fiscal year budget to take effect in July without his signature, a symbolic gesture meant to underscore his position that the City Council doesn’t have authority over the budget of the quasi-city agency overseeing the $5.2 billion Honolulu rail project.

Caldwell returned six bills unsigned to the City Council on Monday, three of which relate to the budget for the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation. Three others are the city’s legislative, operating and capital budgets.

read ... Caldwell Returns Budget Bills Unsigned in Protest of HART Oversight

Six More Days: Longshoremen Contract Threatens U.S. West Coast Port Trade

BB: A six-year pact between the Pacific Maritime Association and the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, which represents about 20,000 dock workers at 29 West Coast ports, expires June 30,

read ... Longshoremen Contract Threatens U.S. West Coast Port Trade

Lawmaker requests oversight committee to change Hawaii’s prison system

KHON: Following up on last week’s escape and capture of an inmate from Oahu Community Correctional Center, Sen. Will Espero (D-Ewa Beach) is asking the governor to put together an oversight committee made up of lawmakers and experts.

He says the committee would have ideas on how to prevent escapes, visitation cancellations and contraband being smuggled in.

read ... Committee to Tell Warden to Fix Holes in Roof

Honolulu man must repay $200K defrauded from state

HNN: A federal judge is sentencing a Honolulu man to five months in prison and five months of home detention for collecting disability payments for his dead mother.

Steven Splater must also pay back the $200,000 he fraudulently collected from the state.

Defense attorney Alexander Silvert said Monday his client is also being sentenced to three years of supervised release.

read ... Honolulu man must repay $200K defrauded from state

9th Circuit Court Orders Gay Juries for Marriage cases

AP: A federal appeals court on Tuesday refused to reconsider its ruling granting heightened legal protections to gays and lesbians, prompting three dissenting judges to warn of far-reaching implications in same-sex marriage cases in the Western United States.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in January banned the exclusion of potential jurors because of their sexual orientation, saying such action was akin to striking someone from the jury pool because of their race or gender.

An undisclosed majority of the full 29-judge court voted against rehearing the case over the objections of three judges.

The dissenters, led by Judge Diarmuid O'Scannlain argued that the ruling "bears significant implications for the same-sex marriage debate and for other laws that may give rise to distinctions based on sexual orientation."

O'Scannlain argues giving gays and lesbians the same protections as minorities and women prematurely decides the same-sex marriage issue without the U.S. Supreme Court's input. O'Scannlain pointed out that officials in Nevada and Oregon have cited the 9th Circuit opinion to drop official opposition to same-sex marriage.

read ... Stacked

Marijuana Dispensaries Coming to Hawaii Next Year

SA: Years after coming close to establishing a pilot program, state officials are meeting with policy experts, patients, caregivers, lawmakers and others with the aim of crafting a bill that would allow medical marijuana distribution centers to operate legally in Hawaii.

The Medical Marijuana Dispensary System Task Force, authorized by a joint resolution of the Legislature, convenes Tuesday to develop recommendations for establishing a statewide dispensary system for medical marijuana.

Officials say the ultimate goal is to offer qualified patients safe and legal access to medical marijuana.

"I'm committed to improving access to medical marijuana and building on the reform of 2013-14," Senate Health Committee Chairman Josh Green (D, Naa­lehu-Kai­lua-Kona) said in a text message. "I envision legislating and forming a pilot dispensary program for Hawaii with proper safeguards this coming year."

read ... Meeting to tackle medical pot dispensary

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