Goliath is Desperate
Governor Requests Disaster Declaration of Pahoa Lava Flow
Voters want to expel former Hawaii House speaker
Ige on Defense as Campaign Enters Final 10 Days
Hawaii Federation of Independent Businesses Endorses Aiona for Governor
UH Law School again tops nation as 'Best Environment for Minority Students'
Hawaii Medical Association Endorses Djou
What Will It Take to Grow GDP? (Part 3)
UHERO State Forecast Update: Hawaii's Economy In Need of An Engine
Borreca: Takai is candidate of the Rich
Borreca: Takai, running in his first congressional race, shows strength within the demographic "holy trinity" of AJA voters, voters 55 and older, and union households. Those groups are important as they are reliable, regular voters -- so winning their support means a lot in Hawaii where few people vote.
Takai has 66 percent of the AJA vote, 49 percent of those 55 and older, and 57 percent of the union vote.
But, Djou wins over Takai among Caucasians, Filipino-Americans and Native Hawaiians. The Republican also leads by a few percentage points among poor and middle-income voters.
SA: Endorses Takai specifically because Djou is a Republican (surprised?)
read ... Time to break Djou-Takai tie
Takai Refuses to Sign Clean Elections Pledge
SA: As more outside third-party money enters the race for Hawaii's 1st Congressional District, Republican Charles Djou has renewed his call for his opponent, Democrat Mark Takai, to sign a clean-elections pledge that would seek to have each side donate matching funds to charity....
Independent expenditures exploded in 2010 following the landmark Supreme Court decision known as Citizens United, which said super PACs can accept unlimited contributions from corporate and union treasuries as well as from individuals.
That prompted the use of the Common Cause People's Pledge. In the 2012 U.S. Senate race between Scott Brown and Elizabeth Warren in Massachusetts, both candidates signed an agreement that bound them to make a contribution to a charity equal to 50 percent of the amount of outside advertising that came in on their behalf.
Since then, Common Cause has attempted to duplicate the pledge in other states. In 2014, only the candidates in the Rhode Island gubernatorial race have agreed.
Djou has said he supports the pledge and called on Takai to do the same. The Takai campaign has not responded.
"I'm willing to go forward with it. Mark Takai is not," Djou said, adding that the state Democratic Party has supported similar positions in the past. "I am hopeful that the Democratic Party of Hawaii will join my campaign to put pressure on Mark Takai for clean elections."
Lim said Common Cause has received no word that the Takai camp is willing to negotiate a pledge agreement.
read ... Dirty Money
Ige: I will Keep HGEA in Control of HHSC, Here's How
Ige: The hospitals and long-term care facilities of the Hawaii Health System Corp. (HHSC) provide critical and essential health care services that form the "safety net" for many of our neighbor island and rural communities. This year, HHSC requested a general fund subsidy of $150 million, a significant increase from previous years. We must make changes to the system to ensure that it is financially sustainable, and this effort must be led by the governor's office to be successful.
The effort will require participation by all stakeholders, including the public employee unions, legislators, community members, private hospitals and service providers and employees. If I am elected governor, I would convene a task team made up of all stakeholders. We would begin deliberative fact-finding work to identify cost drivers in HHSC that increase the general fund subsidy, and gather essential data on utilization and services needed by neighbor island residents. (The fact-finding has already been done. Its results are contained in the Stroudwater Report. What Ige is saying here is 1) He will not let HGEA/UPW lose control of 5000 workers and 2) He has no interest in the Stroudwater Report's conclusions.)
Reality: Legislative Report: Convert HHSC to non-profit, dump civil service (full text)
read ... Ige Will Let HHSC Fail
Aiona: Union Scare Tactics Hold HHSC Hostage
Aiona: The critical state of the public hospitals system is a problem that our Legislature has refused to address for many years, putting public health care employees and the people they care for at risk of losing it all. Our hospital system is broken and broke, and our aging facilities are rundown. How can we as a community continue down this path? We can't. At the risk of oversimplifying it, all it really requires is bold leadership and courage, which our state has clearly been lacking.
First and foremost, we must accept that the health care environment and technology are changing so rapidly and becoming so expensive, that our state cannot keep up. Government is plodding and slow, quality health care requires innovation and efficiency. The two systems are incompatible as evidenced by the current state of affairs.
Second, as a community, we must agree that providing health care to the poor and indigent and neighbor island communities takes priority. A sustainable hospital system can no longer be held hostage by unions who use scare tactics....
Frankly, the state has no business being in the health care business. The administration of the hospital system cannot and should not be left to politicians or elected officials....
if our state hospital system was competitive in pay, which the state cannot afford to do, perhaps we could also attract more much-needed doctors to the state as well. Using scare tactics that suggest that local jobs will go away if partnerships are formed is a fallacy. (Yes. Key fact: HGEA is keeping hospital workers underpaid. HGEA members make less, but thanks to the HGEA's work rules, they cost more.)
Mufi: Proven way is public-private partnerships
read ... About Your Only Chance to Save Sister Isle Hospitals
HGEA Gets Failed CEO Bruce Anderson to Peddle its Line on HHSC
SA: HHSC's dedicated staff and healthcare providers -- primarily civil service employees -- deliver remarkable care, despite aging facilities. They are not the problem; the problem is HHSC's dysfunctional governance structure. (Translation HGEA/UPW is not the problem. LOL!)
Hawaii's Legislature created HHSC in 1996, in an attempt to make our public hospital system operate more like a private hospital system. That was a good first step. While successful hospital systems across the country were consolidating operations, however, Hawaii derailed in the opposite direction: In 2007, Act 290 substantially changed HHSC, creating five regional health systems -- Kauai, Oahu, East Hawaii, West Hawaii and Maui -- each managing operations independently. Every region has a separate, independent board of directors, vested with equal authority as the corporate board. Act 290 essentially assured that Maui Region, with the largest budget, for example, could operate independently, unconcerned -- and often uncommunicative -- with the other island systems. (Translation: Perriera said this so I am repeating it.)
Led by Maui Region, HHSC's latest solution to fiscal crisis was to lease or sell its hospitals to Banner Health, a huge private hospital system based in Phoenix, Ariz. Ironically, this would have resulted in a near-total loss of service control, (Translation: A near-total loss of HGEA control.) but that did not deter Maui Region and its board affiliates.... (Translation: HGEA focuses its attack on MMMC management because they are leading the way to privatization.)
Since 2007, only one small step has improved HHSC governance. In 2013, Act 278 was signed into law, after a threatened veto by Gov. Neil Abercrombie -- changing the five regional CEOs on the corporate board into ex-officio nonvoting members, and calling on the governor to appoint five replacement board members. On any corporate board, management should never have a vote, given conflicts of interest.... (An HGEA controlled governor and his 5 appointees have no conflict of interest as far as HGEA is concerned.)
The nation's fourth-largest public hospital system, HHSC operates as five separate systems. Duplicating efforts, HHSC fails to fully engage economies of scale, which could leverage resources with considerable bargaining power. Millions of dollars could be saved every year, by centralizing: billing, supply and equipment procurement, office administration, human resource management, and IT support. Such efficiency is vital for hospitals to remain solvent in today's costly and changing health-care environs. (Just ignore the fact that centralized or not, HHSC has no money to do anything other than meet payroll and it may not even have that.)
...we must aggressively pursue partnerships with local health-care systems, whom we know and trust to remain accountable. Queen's and Hawaii Pacific Health rank among such potential partners. Their partnerships would not require the sale or leasing of our public hospitals, nor the termination of hundreds of health-care workers. (Translation: HGEA/UPW wants to keep control of these workers.) By sharing knowledge, physicians, nurses, technical staff, even facilities with local partners, Hawaii can better leverage its precious health-care resources.
Best Comment: "This is the guy who was CEO as the system collapsed. Why would we listen to him? Why didn't he do something from 2011 - 2013?"
The Real Line: Hospital Reform? Randy Perriera Says "F*** You"
read ... A bunch of double talk
Hawaii GMO Ban Would Drive Up World Food Prices
AP: Experts say the ban's effects could ripple across the nation because some of the world's largest corn-seed producers research and develop new varieties of genetically engineered seeds at their farms in the county.
Kendall Lamkey, chairman of the agronomy department at Iowa State University, said the initiative — if passed — could potentially make seed development more expensive for Monsanto Co. and a Dow Chemical Co. subsidiary, Dow AgroSciences.
"It's not going to stop it, but it will slow it down," Lamkey said. The companies will "adapt. I mean, there will probably be workarounds for this that may or may not cost more money and may or may not raise the cost of goods to our farmers."
About 90 percent of all corn grown in the U.S. is genetically engineered and has been developed partially at farms in Hawaii.
There has been little no scientific evidence showing foods grown from GMO seeds are less safe than their conventional counterparts....
read ... Maui voters to decide whether to ban GMO crops
40 Stitches After Anti-GMO Mayoral Candidate Slices Guys Face Open With Broken Glass
IM: Gosh, The Garden Island actually did some investigating and came up with a scoop:mayoral candidate Dustin Barca declared bankruptcy to avoid a $2 million judgment for cutting a guy's face in a bar brawl.
Unfortunately, Dustin confirms his immaturity and low morals by refusing to take any responsibility for the attack. He's chock full of excuses: he was never charged, it was an “unfortunate incident,” people are trying to make him “look bad,” everybody wants to focus on his thuggish past “when there is so much to work for in our future.”
And then he tells a giant, crybaby whopper: his bankruptcy was due to “a 22-year-old kid with $70,000 in hospital bills for appendicitis and dehydration” — not a judgment won by Patrick Gray, the guy who required 40 sutures after Dustin beaned him with a cocktail glass.
Mmmm, then how come Dustin's bankruptcy papers claim $2,023,034 in liabilities, including just $23,000 for medical bills and $2 million in an unsecured claim to Gray?
read ... Musings: Dustin's Dirty Deeds
Victims of Solar Contractors: Customers with 'rogue' PV links to pay even if cut off
SA: HECO has begun sending notices to Oahu customers with active rooftop photovoltaic systems who have not gone through the NEM application process, warning that the utility will lock their systems if customers don't elect to disconnect on their own.
The utility began sending out letters in late September to customers who are believed to be connected to the grid without prior approval requesting that those residents submit an application for interconnection review.
"We continue mailing letters to customers we believe have unapproved solar systems interconnected, asking that they disconnect. We're asking in the interest of safety, reliability and fairness to those doing the right thing by waiting for approval before interconnecting," said Peter Rosegg, HECO spokesman. "We have people telling us they have disconnected and are following up with others."
There are more than 1,000 unapproved systems connected to the grid, according to Leslie Cole-Brooks, executive director of the Hawaii Solar Energy Association. HECO said it wasn't able to supply its own estimate of unapproved systems.
read ... Huge Ripoff of Homeowners
Solar Contractor Admits Installing Systems HECO Cannot Connect, Calls Himself Victim
SA: ...when potential customers contact us to help them decrease their electricity use, we have been saying that "we don't know" when their new systems might be turned on. We accept a down payment and submit an application, and hope, along with so many others, that HECO will approve their application....
read ... Propaganda
Rate Hike Coming: HEI wants a stranded cost recovery mechanism
IM: The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has policies in place that will require old generators to be modernized to decrease their emissions.
Therefore one solution is to rip out the old generators and replace them with low-emission, high-efficiency modern generators that can more effectively work with increasing levels of solar and wind.
Some of the old generators are still being paid off by ratepayers. Ripping them out would mean the loss of revenue for the utility.
Should Hawaiian Electric Industries (HEI) shareholders or HECO, MECO and HELCO ratepayers cover the loss?
The Legislature passed Senate Bill (SB) 120 in 2013 which was signed into law as Act 37 and codified as HRS § 269-6(d)(3).
“The public utilities commission ... shall consider …the establishment of a stranded cost recovery mechanism to encourage the accelerated retirement of an electric utility fossil fuel electric generation plant by allowing an electric utility to recover the stranded costs created by early retirement of a fossil generation plant.”
read ... More Rate Hikes
Puna Lava Elections: Will Nago Screw it up Again?
SA: Creeping toward Pahoa at about 10 yards an hour, the lava from Kilauea Volcano could potentially reach Highway 130 by Election Day on Nov. 4, possibly cutting off 7,500 voters and forcing county and state elections officials to consolidate polling places like they did when Iselle struck just before the primary.
This time, elections officials have had two months, instead of days, to prepare. After the confusion in the primary, when election results were delayed by a week until Puna voters could cast ballots and many claimed they were denied the right to vote, there is pressure to execute.
State Sen. Russell Ruderman (D, Puna) said if the lava hits Highway 130 by Election Day, voters may still be able to get to their precincts -- or to consolidated precincts -- from emergency access roads.
read ... Little Faith
‘Packed up and ready to go’: Evacuations coming soon in Pahoa
HTH: Hawaii County Civil Defense officials are asking Pahoa residents to get ready to evacuate as a 96-foot-wide stream of lava prepares to enter the small historical town.
After months of anxiety and anticipation, the flow arrived at Pahoa’s doorstep before dawn Saturday, burning pavement as it crossed Cemetery Road, one of the last landmarks separating the town from 2,000-degree molten rock.
Smoke from the lava was hardly visible in the town itself about a half mile away Saturday afternoon and residents either continued last-minute preparations or tried to enjoy what was otherwise a sunny day.
read ... Lava Flow
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