Hawaii Convenes First Marine Resources Enforcement Conference
HB2427: One Stroke of the Pen
As Voting Begins, Abercrombie Still Apologizing for Pension Tax
SA: Gov. Neil Abercrombie, haunted politically by an unpopular pension tax proposal, has sought to assure seniors he will not support taxes on pensions or senior benefits if re-elected.
Abercrombie had proposed a pension tax in 2011 to help reduce a projected state budget deficit, an idea vehemently opposed by seniors and rejected by the Legislature after state Sen. David Ige, the governor's Democratic primary opponent, refused to go along.
In an open letter to seniors and retirees in an advertisement in the Honolulu Star-Advertiser on Sunday, Abercrombie explains that nearly all options had to be considered in 2011 to close the deficit. Along with a pension tax, the governor had also proposed eliminating state Medicare Part B reimbursements for retired public workers and their spouses....
(Clue: This is not what Abercrombie wants to be talking about right now.)
The pension tax has returned like a boomerang at Abercrombie at an inconvenient time in the primary campaign. Ige had brought up the issue as a campaign theme, but the governor's decision this month to withdraw from three of four debates hosted by AARP Hawaii ensured that it would remain alive as a subplot. (His own idiocy makes him the loser that he is.)
Shapiro: Old leaders need to make room for younger talent
Meanwhile: 98,000 absentee ballots mailed to Oahu voters
read ... Doomed by Pension Tax
Machado: Fear the lawsuits, Embrace the Fake Tribe
SA: ...we will build a strong sovereign governing entity which will be embraced by all of our people. Such an entity will set the terms for the re-establishment of the (fake Indian Tribe with) government-to-government relationship with the U.S. government.
Since the Rice v. Cayetano decision in 2000, the system of law out of which OHA was created has been challenged in numerous lawsuits aimed at preventing OHA, the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands and our alii trusts from providing services to our Native Hawaiian people. Such lawsuits have attempted to dismantle our Hawaiian-serving institutions.
While we have successfully defeated these lawsuits, (Ooops! Not much of a bogeyman anymore, eh?) OHA strongly believes that in the long term, the most viable way to protect and expand existing Native Hawaiian programs, trusts and rights is to reestablish a government-to-government relationship between a contemporary Native Hawaiian government and the United States.
Rebutted: Indian Tribe? Hawaii Political Leaders Haven’t Learned a Thing Since 1999
Mana: No federal agency should cooperate with state initiatives, like Kanaʻioluwalu, that would limit the Hawaiian nation's efforts to restore its government.
read ... Fear the Lawsuits (even though they are all gone.)
Land is power — especially for Fake Indian Tribe
Borreca: ...it is not about whether the monarchy is making a comeback or whether it is all a plot to bring in casinos.
The question, as it always is in Hawaii, is about the land. An estimated 1.8 million acres were seized by the federal government in 1898 when the U.S. annexed Hawaii. That seized land became ceded land and it is what's at stake in any new Native Hawaiian government.
Best advice: Keep your eye on the prize....
read ... Land is power
100 Tent Homeless Camp 'Quite Comfortable' in Kakaako
SA: At times the discovery center and other buildings in Kakaako on the ocean side of Ala Moana Boulevard appear to be under siege from a homeless population that has steadily grown over the years and sustains itself despite periodic police sweeps....
On a recent weekday, nearly 100 tents crowded the sidewalks and open spaces around the discovery center, the University of Hawaii John A. Burns School of Medicine, the UH Cancer Center and other buildings and parks in the area.
"It's definitely an ongoing thing we're dealing with," said Lindsey Doi, community outreach officer for the Hawaii Community Development Authority, which controls the area's parkland.
An April HCDA report on the parks of Kakaako Makai described them as "havens for the homeless," with access diminished by those who avoid the area due to safety concerns.
Officials said there have been complaints about disorderly conduct, public urination and defecation as well as fighting among the homeless, prompting stepped-up security and twice-monthly police sweeps in which officers clear the sidewalks and confiscate belongings....
"Some of them are quite comfortable," he said, pointing to one encampment with a diesel generator.
read ... Comfortable
Hawaii's Highest-In-The-Nation Energy Costs Stay Intact By Politics, Monopoly
HR: If residents of Hawaii are going to have affordable electricity, the state needs to break up Hawaiian Electric Industries Inc., the parent of the Hawaiian Electric Co., a former lawmaker contends.
A study of electric rates produced by WalletHub, Most & Least Energy Expensive States, puts the unit price of electricity in Hawaii at 38.5 cents per kilowatt-hour, or 4.5 times more than the cheapest state. Natural gas in Hawaii is six times more expensive than other places in the country.
Former state Sen. Fred Hemmings puts the blame squarely on politics.
“Hawaii's most egregious for-profit monopoly is Hawaiian Electric Industries Inc. Even during the last fuel crisis, Hawaiian Electric posted robust profits,” Hemmings said.
“Hawaiian Electric has been able to get away with these prices for most of the 20th century and into the 21st century because of politics. One of their biggest expenditures is their government relations division. They have friends in the Legislature.
read ... Hawaii's Highest-In-The-Nation Energy Costs Stay Intact
Kauai GMO petition decision due this week
SA: Absent from the meeting was Councilman Mel Rapozo, who was attending the National Association of Counties' annual conference in New Orleans. Rapozo's vote in the upcoming meeting could mean the end of the petition process.
"If it's up to my vote, it's going to be rejected," he said last week.
At issue is whether the petition seeks a charter amendment or a new law by initiative, which would require four times as many signatures.
"It's clear to me that it's an initiative," Rapozo said. "It doesn't address the structure of government."
In a written legal opinion, Deputy County Attorney Mona Clark called the petition "primarily local legislation as it pertains to the county's relationship with third parties and not the form and structure of county government."
County spokeswoman Sarah Blane said if the Council votes against receiving the revised petition and no action is taken by Kauai Rising, then the petition process dies.
read ... Anti-GMO activists can't figure out difference between law and charter amendment
Photos: People Who Will Lose Their Jobs if Anti-GMO Hypesters Win
CB: Our photographer turned his lens on employees, farmers and their families on the island where Big Biotech is the largest employer.
read ... The Faces of Molokai’s GMO Economy
Study: AIDS Infections Declining for Everybody Except Homosexual Males
SA: The study is based on HIV diagnoses from all 50 states' health departments, which get test results from doctors' office, clinics, hospitals and laboratories. The data span a decade, making this a larger and longer look at these trends than any previous study, said another study author, Amy Lansky of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The findings: 16 out of every 100,000 people ages 13 and older were newly diagnosed with HIV in 2011, a steady decline from 24 out of 100,000 people in 2002.
Declines were seen in the rates for men, women, whites, blacks, Hispanics, heterosexuals, injection drug users and most age groups. The only group in which diagnoses increased was gay and bisexual men, the study found.
read ... AIDS Study
Tsutsui too Busy to Be Bothered with a Loser Like Clayton Hee
SA: Lt. Gov. Shan Tsutsui is unlikely to appear at any public forums or debates with his top Democratic challenger, state Sen. Clayton Hee, before the Aug. 9 primary election due to scheduling conflicts.
At least three joint appearances were in the works this month — on Hawaii Public Radio, PBS Hawaii's "Insights" and a candidate forum with the Kona Chamber of Commerce — but Tsutsui said last week his work, campaign and travel schedules would not accommodate any of the meetings.
"I guess it's just one of those running-out-of-time kind of matters," Tsutsui said, noting he already had planned to spend the final week leading up to the election on a campaign tour of the neighbor islands. "I think, at this point, it might be pretty hard. In terms of scheduling, it seems like every day there's something."
read ... Nobody Wants Hee
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