American Samoa Delegate Left Out of Obama Tuna Monument Talks
Hawaiian Electric completes first phase of smart grid installation
UH president’s proposed budget attempts to Blame Legislators for tuition hikes
KHON: The University of Hawaii’s 10-campus system is working to hold off more tuition hikes, at least for now.
The next series of hikes is scheduled to take effect over the next two years.
For full-time resident undergraduates at the flagship Manoa campus, the cost per semester is scheduled to go up to $5,292 per semester for 2015-2016 school year and to $5,688 per semester for the 2016-2017 school year.
Each hike works out to a seven percent increase and there are planned tuition hikes for other student classifications.
On Wednesday, university president David Lassner and his team laid out the broad strokes of the budget for the next two years for the university system.
The administration is trying to comply with a request from the Board of Regents to hold off on any more tuition hikes.
Lassner told the regents Wednesday that “as the only public university in the state, we have a set of obligations that the community expects from us that we are increasingly struggling to fund.”
Lassner says the university can prevent the next two tuition hikes with a combination of belt-tightening and more help from the state legislature. (And he can blame them for the hike when it comes.)
SA: Administrators tell regents the plan would require the Legislature to pay for utilities
read ... UH president’s proposed budget attempts to hold off tuition hikes
AG Louie Provides Excuse to Hide Financial Disclosures of Board Members 'til 2016
CB: ...the five-member commission has chosen to follow the advice of the Hawaii Attorney General’s Office and only release the reports of those members who filed after July 8.
Kondo said this policy has resulted in the public disclosure of reports for only about 22 of the roughly 140 people who serve on the 15 boards that now have to file publicly. It’s also created a situation in which boards have some members who have disclosed their financial interests while others have not.
He said he is concerned that it could be 20 months before the public gets to see many of the others because next year’s report is a “short form” that lets members simply check a box that says “no change” from the previous year. The next deadline for the “long form” reports is May 31, 2016.
“From staff’s perspective, the way that the law is being applied may not be consistent with the intent of the Legislature,” Kondo said....
read ... Hawaii Ethics Commission Won’t Budge on Releasing Financial Disclosures
Waikiki sees improvement with new ‘sit-lie’ laws
KHON: “There is some progress. There are a fewer number of homeless people. They pretty much moved out,” said Walter Flood, vice chairman of the Waikiki Neighborhood Board.
According to Waikiki residents, the new “sit-lie” laws have helped, but there is still a homeless issue. Only this time, individuals aren’t sleeping on sidewalks....
read ... Progress
Chinatown building will house homeless
HNN: "There is one segment of the Chinese community that really wants to help these people. At the same time, the other half of the community says, 'Enough is enough.' To quote them, 'Why is it always Chinatown? Why don't they go elsewhere?'" he said.
Payton said Chinatown merchants have pointed out homeless they feel need immediate help.
"We already have been doing outreach with those people," Payton said. "We're looking at placing them within the next couple of weeks."
He said Pauahi Hale will have round-the-clock staffing, psychiatric and nursing services, and a public restroom for Chinatown homeless to use.
Longtime Pauahi Hale tenant James O'Connor doesn't like that idea.
"I'm fine with Safe Haven. But the homeless coming in here using our rest rooms 12 hours a day, seven days a week? No, I'm not happy with that," he said.
Payton said the 40 people now living in Pauahi Hale can stay as long as they want.
"Should anybody choose to leave, we would open it up for a Housing First kind of option. And that's good because it opens up more slots for people to move into that are very very impaired. They're on the streets right now," he said.
SA: Pets provide comfort, companionship for the homeless
read ... Chinatown building will house homeless
Dopers Tell Silly Doper Stories at Marijuana Hearings, Media Laps it Up
KITV: "Edibles should be made as ugly as possible. The most important thing this task force can do is to make sure they stay out of the hands of minors," said medical marijuana user Joseph Bobich.
Some stressed dispensaries should be set up in communities where ever they are needed, so medical marijuana users have no trouble filling their prescription.
"I see the best way to access medical marijuana is to treat it like any other business. So there wouldn't be a need to limit these businesses. Why should the state limit how much access patients can get to their medicine dope?" asked Alan Yim.
"We want safe access. We want the proper quantity, and we want sensible regulation," stated medical marijuana user Teri Heede.
There will be three more task force meetings, before the groups makes its recommendations to the legislature. That will happen before the start of next year's session so a bill can be crafted to set the standards for the state's medical marijuana dispensaries.
Read ... Medicated
Dead Senator’s Aide To Anonymous Sex Accusers: Say It In Public
DC: ...The people who anonymously accused now-dead Sen. Daniel Inouye of sexually harassing Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand should come forward and make their claims in public, says Inouye’s last chief of staff.
“I don’t think it is fair because Senator Inouye is no longer here,” said Marie Blanco, Inouye’s final chief of staff. “There’s nothing to back [the claim] up,” said Blanco, who worked for Inouye for 34 years.
“Come forward,” she said....
read ... Dead Senator’s Aide To Anonymous Sex Accusers: Say It In Public
Obama Relents, Leaves Two Areas open for Tuna Fishing
TG: Barack Obama will use his presidential powers on Thursday to create the world’s largest marine reserve in the Pacific, banning fishing and other commercial activities across vast swaths of pristine sea populated by whales, dolphins and sea turtles and dotted with coral atolls.
Thursday’s proclamation will expand the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument reserve, created by George Bush, to about six times its current size.
It will ban commercial fishing and deep sea mining in about 490,000 square miles around remote tropical atolls and islands in the south-central Pacific Ocean, a White House fact sheet said.
Other vast swathes of the Pacific will also come under protection on Thursday, with the tiny island state of Kiribati due to announce that it will ban commercial fishing in one of the last great tuna grounds left in the world.
Kiribati’s no-take zone, around the Phoenix Islands Protected Area, will cover about 158,000 square miles, about the size of California. It goes into effect in January 2015....
...after protests from Hawaii-based tuna fleets, Obama opted to leave the seas around four of those islands - Howland and Baker islands, Palmyra atoll and Kingman Reef - open to fishing....
read ... Tuna Monument
Native Hawaiians Don't Want to Divert Lava Flow from Homes
NBC: ...“We will never own our land; this is Pele’s home,” said Native Hawaiian Ihilani Niles. “And if she feels she needs to clean her house, then let her clean her house.”
In this case, the Native Hawaiian community and the scientific one are on the same page.
“We are not exploring or pursuing a diversion because of the uncertainty as to whether or not it would work or if it would actually make problems worse,” said Hawai`i County Civil Defense Director Darryl Oliveira. “It could divert a flow into another subdivision, spare one and compromise or sacrifice another. And as I’ve said before, we are very sensitive to the cultural aspects of what the volcano represents in our communities.”...
read ... Not Hitting My House
Prosecutor: Hawaii prison gang 'kings of castle'
AP: "They went from victims to victimizers," she said, describing how members carried out acts of bribery, extortion, drug-smuggling and even tax fraud, also in Hawaii prisons where they no longer needed protection from mainland prison gangs.
Former Halawa Correctional Facility guard Feso Malufau is accused of taking bribes to smuggle drugs into the Oahu prison. Tineimalo Adkins is accused of leading a brutal gang assault on a fellow Halawa inmate.
They are the last of 18 men indicted on racketeering-related charges last year who haven't pleaded guilty....
The prosecution's first witness Wednesday, state Department of Public Safety internal affairs investigator Lawrence Myers, said USO Family started with about a dozen members and has grown to at least 1,000. He described gang functions including recruits being referred to as "21s" — signifying the letter "U'' being the 21st letter of the alphabet — and membership contracts written in blood.
read ... USO Family
Life sentences overturned for Mililani Rapist
KHON: It took three trials to convict the man known as the Mililani Rapist. Fourteen years after his conviction, he could be back in court.
James Thompson is a former prison guard who was convicted of multiple counts of kidnapping and sexual assault. Prosecutors say between January and September 1997, he lured five high school girls in the Mililani area into his car and forced them to have sex with him.
Prosecutors said Thompson abducted some of the girls at knife point, drove them to a secluded area and raped them. But during the trial Thompson testified in his own defense and said prosecutors have the wrong guy.
Victims identified Thompson as their attacker. Honolulu police also seized pocket knives, handcuffs and a belt from Thompson’s car and home.
One of the victims remembered seeing the belt and handcuffs on the car seat before she was sexually assaulted.
The first two attempts ended in a mistrial. In the first attempt, the judge ruled that the prosecutor asked an improper question to Thompson during cross examination. In the second attempt, jurors could not agree on a unanimous verdict.
The third set of jurors finally agreed on a conviction in 2000.
SA: 3 attempted kidnappings made on schoolchildren
read ... Soft on Crime
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