Hawaii Family Advocates Releases 2014 General Election Endorsements
Ige Ignored Efforts For Tax Relief On Groceries
ALEC Ranks Hawaii as Worst State in Three Economic Categories
Hawaii Named a ‘Top 10 State for Afterschool’
Budget: Does Hawaii Have a Boom, or a Bust?
VIDEO: Cam Cavasso in his own Words
Corporations Must Re-Register as Non-Candidate Committees
UPDATE: Tropical Storm Ana Projected to Skirt South Shores of Islands
GMO Moratorium Shuts Down Farms for Over 2 Years
Walk-In Early Voting Begins October 21
After Spending Billions, Alt Energy Produces Almost Nothing in Hawaii
PBN: Ted Peck, former administrator for the Hawaii Energy Office, who is now a consultant, told PBN that even in the most aggressive renewable energy plan, the state's energy portfolio will still include up to 25 percent of fossil fuels.
"Transportation, especially air transportation, is a long way from having a viable petroleum replacement," he said. "We are at least a generation away from petroleum not being a major player in the Hawaii energy market."
Hawaiian Electric Co., the state's largest utility still gets the majority of its energy from non-renewable sources such as oil and coal — about 86 percent, according to 2013 figures released by the Honolulu-based company.
On Oahu, the largest consumer of energy in the state, about 92 percent of electricity comes from non-renewables such as oil and coal, with about 7.7 percent coming from renewables, including solar and wind.
read ... Alt Energy is an Expensive Zero
Cost of Living Drags Hawaii's Happiness Down
CB: We can comfort ourselves when we look at those happier states. After all, their skies might be big in Montana, the mountains loom large in Colorado, and liquid cash in North Dakota is being fracked right out of the ground (in the form of oil), but none of those states have sunsets, waterfalls or rainbows like ours. And when residents of those states mull their dream vacation, we know they imagine wiggling their toes in Hawaii’s silky sands.
And yet they’re happier.
The reason is, I suspect, relatively simple.
The increasing well-being in those other states — as well as our own decline — has to do with the fact that their mortgages and rents, electric bills and groceries cost less, and their incomes go further. The economics of their lives don’t require them to work as much. Yes, some of them will because they want to earn more money or they just like their work, but that’s a choice.
What really dragged the state down was “work environment.” On that, between 2012 and 2013, we fell from tops in the nation down to number 42.
A whole lot of us have to hustle hard to make ends meet. It is why we work overtime — whether paid or unpaid — and lead the nation in the percentage of the population with more than one job.
As I recently wrote, the national household income that is believed to give people a good chance at happiness — by allowing people to avoid core stresses about not having enough money — is, when adjusted for Hawaii’s cost of living, $122,175. That’s more than $55,000 above the state’s median household income.
read ... Dragging Hawaii Down
UH Must Clean Up its Act, Stabilize Tuition
SA: Manoa's chancellor has put together a new panel comprised of vice chancellors, deans, faculty members and graduate students to review and improve the university's budget-allocation process, an endeavor that will be successful only if it focuses relentlessly on meeting the needs of the students whose tuition payments fund a growing share of the university's operations. How many are graduating from individual departments, how long they take to graduate and whether they attain jobs afterward should be among the guiding questions.
Students understandably are demanding a bigger seat at the table in these discussions, given that tuition now accounts for roughly 30 percent of the operation budget, up from 19 percent five years ago. The state's percentage has declined from 35 percent in 2009 to 25 percent now.
This trend has its limits. Ultimately, there is no greater public funding purpose than education. The lifetime value of a college degree remains unquestioned. UH-Manoa must clean up its act and credibly make that case.
read ... Tuition Hikes
HPD ramps up domestic violence training
SA: The HPD briefing Tuesday to the City Council Public Safety and Economic Development Committee offered the first public interaction between Council members and Kealoha since the public uproar in the wake of the high-profile case involving an HPD sergeant who is seen on surveillance video punching his girlfriend at a Waipahu restaurant last month....
Lt. Brian Look, head of the HPD Criminal Investigations Division's child abuse and domestic violence detail, said officers are trained to gently coax potential victims to come forward but cannot press them. Look said that in response to a flurry of recent changes to laws and policies regarding domestic violence, the annual recall training required for officers holding the rank of lieutenant and lower has been upped to two hours from one hour.
Training on domestic violence cases for recruits is going up to "four hours, possibly more," from two hours, Look said. "That's just classroom ... in-class training," he said.
read ... HPD ramps up domestic violence training
Homeless Would Rather Risk Hurricane Than Accept Shelter
KITV: State and local officials said they plan to open shelters for them, but that's only half of the battle. The other half is convincing the homeless to leave.
"I don't even think about moving or running anywhere, I mean, for what?" homeless resident Loveleen Mori said.
Some said they'll evacuate, and others said they've ridden out storms in the past, and they'll ride Ana out, too....
read ... Anything to Avoid Shelter
KaLoko: Pflueger Blames His Victims
HR: Public records show Kauai County received an anonymous complaint that Pflueger was grading without permits in 1997, the year he allegedly covered the spillway.
A county engineering inspector checked the site from afar and told Pflueger to "stop work immediately." But Pflueger didn't stop. Instead, the inspector was called in by then Mayor Maryanne Kusaka and told to stay away from Pflueger.
Pflueger told Hawaii Reporter in an exclusive interview he gave a large contribution to the mayor. He said that he handed Kusaka $9,000 in cash hoping he would get the harassing inspectors off his back.
After some prodding, Pflueger confirmed the contribution in a follow up interview with "ABC 20/20"’s Jim Avila saying he hid it in the names of eight of his employees, but he claimed there was no deal.
According to state campaign law, Pflueger cannot donate more than $4,000 to Kusaka in an election cycle. Kusaka did not report the contribution, and denies she received it: "Absolutely not, not that I'm aware of."
Remarkably, Pflueger and his attorneys also blamed Bruce Fehring for the seven deaths, alleging he built unpermitted structures in a flood zone.
However, public records show the county had permitted the Fehrings’ house and cleared them of any unpermitted activity.
There were some small structures in the flood zone but they were under 100 square feet and not required to be permitted. There is no evidence any one of the people who died stayed in those units.
read ... Debunking Pflueger
Anti-GMO 'Fightland' Ties Leaders to Surf Nazis
KE: ...Which brings me to mayoral candidate Dustin Barca. It's apparent from this new“Fightland” video, which was also posted on the Surfer magazine site, that his candidacy isn't about serving Kauai, but getting exposure for himself and his anti-GMO message.
The video is filled with Dustin's bullshit — “Waimea Middle School, 50 kids falling down having seizures and bloody noses from pesticide exposure”; “We have the sickness, the cancers, the birth defects, but we can't prove the link because we don't know what they're spraying” — but fails to mention Bill 2491 was overturned by a federal judge. Instead, it claims “local politics have left it at a standstill.”
Most telling, however, was the revelation that as a “grom,” Dustin was taken in by the Northshore Oahu Wolfpack, a “notorious group that enforces the line up at Pipeline and other surf spots, sometimes through violence and intimidation.” Yeah, despite all of Dustin's rhetoric about love and respect, he just can't escape his thuggish roots. Dustin's the fist behind the “fistees,” folks.
The video, which curiously focuses on North Shore Kauai landscapes rather than the westside, features footage from the Haleiwa evict Monsanto march, where pro-surfer Kelly Slater weighs in with the comment, “Humans are kind of messing with science.”
It closes with a tagline that shows the wrong date for the general election, and then a shot of Dustin, front tooth missing, sitting on his board, wiping his nose. Classic....
As Explained:
read ... Just Thugs
Testifiers: Planned rules for cesspools Should Apply only Along Shoreline
MN: "We understand that untreated wastewater from cesspools can contaminate groundwater, drinking water sources, streams and near shore waters," Mayor Alan Arakawa said in testimony submitted to the Health Department. "However, the proposed changes will cause unnecessary financial and practical burdens to many of our residents."
Arakawa, Maui County Council Chairwoman Gladys Baisa and others who testified Wednesday requested that the time frame of 180 days be extended to a full year to allow property owners to coordinate the planning, financing and construction of a new wastewater system. They also requested that existing cesspools located in low-risk areas - especially Upcountry - be exempt from the requirement to convert cesspools to septic tanks upon sale or transfer.
"There are many cesspools in the Upcountry area of Maui that are located substantially inland from the shoreline and at an elevation where they pose a very low risk to contaminating water sources," Arakawa said.
KE: Anti-GMO Activism Facilitated by Illegal TVRs with Shoreline Cesspools
read ... Burden
The $1,000 Pill That Will Bankrupt Us All
CB: Initially the news was great: up to a 99 percent cure rate with these new drugs, compared to an approximate 10 percent cure rate with previous medications. Then the price came out....
read ... $1000 Pill
Campaign News:
QUICK HITS: