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Monday, January 12, 2015
January 12, 2015 News Read
By Andrew Walden @ 1:04 PM :: 5270 Views

IHS: New Laws Pushing Homeless to Accept Shelter

Which States Receive the Most Federal Aid? -- Hawaii is 47th

NextEra Merger Timeline: Interest in Hawaiian Electric Began in 2011 With Big Cable

Danner Sisters Upset Because Ige Won't Let Them Take over Hawaiian Homelands and Turn it into Indian Tribe

SA: ...Two weeks after Ige's inauguration, the Hawaiian Homes Commission, which oversees DHHL, approved a framework for revising the way the state agency deals with trust land not in the homesteading pipeline, including those properties originally leased under its controversial revocable permit program....

A working group consisting largely of (cronies of Robin and Jade Danner) members from four Hawaiian organizations — the Sovereign Councils of the Hawaiian Homelands Assembly, Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement, Association of Hawaiians for Homestead Lands and Homestead Community Development Corp. — is developing an alternative land-use policy to pre­sent to Ige....  (These groups of Danner cronies still think they can turn DHHL into an Indian tribe.)

The approval of the land-use framework and the reappointment of Masa­ga­tani, whom Abercrombie hired for the top DHHL job in 2012, has dismayed some Native Hawaiians the Danner sisters, who said they had high hopes that Ige would bring change to the way the state deals with the trust hand over control of DHHL to them....

"It's like another nail in the coffin," said Blossom Fei­teira, president of the Homestead Lands association. "We're not getting the change he promised." (Waaaaa....)

"It seems like he's working hard to get change — except at Hawaiian Home Lands," added Michele Kau­hane, chief executive of the Native Hawaiian Advancement group. "I'm disappointed."  (Don't you just wanna cry?)

Puni Chee, a DHHL spokes­man, said proposed amendments to the new program will be presented to the commission once the beneficiary consultation process is completed. If beneficiaries call for a preference, the commission would make that decision, he said.

"While a few individuals may believe that the revised RP program is anti-beneficiary, we remind everyone that the framework approved by the commission is simply the start of the beneficiary consultation process, which will be undertaken soon," Chee wrote in an email to the Star-Advertiser. "We look forward to the discussion and deliberation with all of our beneficiaries and will do everything possible to make sure that every voice is heard in this process."  (DHHL communicates with the Star-Adv by email because the Star-Adv has been flacking for the Danner sisters for over a year now....)

read ... Governor feels heat for retaining leader

Oahu Begins Idiotic Plastic Bag ban July 1

SA: The ubiquitous plastic bag lines our garbage pails, holds our lunches, carries wet swimming suits from the beach and shoes for packing in luggage. It works for picking up after Fido or cleaning out the litter box.

It does a pretty good job of carrying groceries, too.

But (hypesters suckered elected officials into believing) it's also an environmental albatross, a major source of litter that is (not) filling up landfills (because we have H-Power, hello?) and threatening wildlife and marine species (or at least that was the hype).

Starting July 1, Oahu will join the growing list of places that have banned the plastic checkout bag. Businesses will be prohibited from giving out plastic bags and nonrecyclable paper bags (note: all paper bags are recyclable) to their customers at the point of sale for carrying groceries or other merchandise. (Translation: We will be murdering lots of trees now.)

The city Department of Environmental Services has posted the rules on its website and is preparing to notify about 15,000 retailers, asking them how they plan to comply....

Reality: Save the Plastic Bag

2012: 10-cents-per-bag Tax: Greens, Big Business, Big Government team up to Rip Off Consumers

read ... Tree Huggers become tree choppers

HART Shouldn't Suck Blood Bank Dry

SA: HART maintains that it need take only a sliver of the Blood Bank's land for its Dillingham Boulevard widening project, and gain a temporary construction easement. It aims to mitigate any site-access problems, as well as construction noise, dust and vibration, for work that is slated to begin later this year and last no more than a month.

The Blood Bank, however, insists that the rail project will permanently disrupt its delicate operations so fully that it has no choice but to relocate altogether, in order to ensure a safe and reliable blood supply for Hawaii. BBH, a nonprofit that operates within a tightly regulated industry subject to Food and Drug Administration rules and other licensing and accrediting criteria, is the sole primary source of blood and blood products for all civilian hospitals in Hawaii, and a supplementary source for Tripler Army Medical Center. It is moving forward with its relocation plan, and wants HART to pay for it, at an as-of-yet unspecified cost....

All property owners affected along the coming rail line must be treated fairly, but they are not all created equal. HART must recognize the Blood Bank's overarching role and exercise every tool at its disposal to expedite an acceptable settlement....

This is only one of many property disputes that will arise as rail transit makes its way through Honolulu. But it's an exceptionally high-stakes one, and deserves swift, special handling.

read ... HART Deserves Wooden Stake

Hawaii Reporter’s Malia Zimmerman Bids Aloha

CB: The loss of the longtime local investigative reporter is another a blow for independent media — and the citizens of Hawaii....

read ... Hawaii Reporter’s Malia Zimmerman Bids Aloha

State exchanges: Process smoother second time around, but problems persist

FH: ...officials report that most state insurance exchanges work better the second time around, too, though technical problems persist on several sites.

With that, FierceHealthPayer offers an enrollment update for the 13 states, plus the District of Columbia, which operate their own health insurance exchanges. These totals include only qualified health plan (QHP) figures and do not include new Medicaid enrollments. (All figures come from the state exchange entities themselves unless otherwise noted.)...

Hawaii saw about 15,500 enrollees, KITV reported. A further breakdown wasn't available. The good news is that that number already exceeds last year's total. The bad news, according to the article, is that it will take Hawaii Health Connector another seven years to turn a profit....

read ... Fierce Health

Trask: HECO Strung My Geothermal Scheme Along While Pursuing Merger

CB: ...the timing of the proposed NextEra/HECO deal speaks volumes about the lack of good faith in how HECO has behaved even while professing to want to “strengthen Hawaii’s energy infrastructure, meet our clean energy goals, lower customer bills and continue our active support of our local communities.”....

read ... Mililani Trask

A key driver of our cost of living is the high price of land

CB: A key driver of our cost of living is the high price of land. A collision of interests and actions push its value upward...

...When it comes to renting and buying homes, the link to land values is fairly direct. The relationship of land to the cost of goods in our stores and services around the islands requires a little explaining.

Longtime real estate analyst Charles Wathen highlighted some ways that land boosts prices on products and materials that arrive via cargo ships in our ports. “A truck parked on expensive land takes it to a warehouse on expensive land. Then it is moved to a store on expensive land,” he said, only half-chuckling.

All of that expensiveness is passed on to us....

CB: Urban Hawaii: Who Is Remaking Kakaako?

read ... Expensiveness

Soft on Crime: Murderer Gets Parole, Allegedly Molests Girl

HTH: Jury selection in the retrial of a convicted murderer accused of sexually assaulting a 12-year-old girl in a Papaikou church in 2007 is set to start today.

Peter Kalani Bailey appeared Friday in Hilo Circuit Court as Judge Glenn Hara — who’ll preside over the retrial as he did in the original trial — heard a flurry of pretrial motions, including one to determine whether a statement reportedly made to police by Bailey on the night of the alleged incident was made voluntarily.

The 57-year-old Bailey was convicted in 2009 and sentenced to 20 years in prison on four counts of attempted first-degree sexual assault, but the conviction and sentence were overturned by the state Supreme Court in 2012. The high court ruled Bailey should have been granted a mistrial after a juror told others during deliberations about Bailey’s prior murder conviction.

Bailey, who had been sentenced to life imprisonment for the 1979 shooting death of 17-year-old Carol Olandy on Oahu, was released on parole in 2003. He moved to the Big Island sometime afterward and became the church’s choir director. The girl was a choir member.

The girl’s brother reportedly went to the church and saw Bailey assaulting his sister. He then ran for help and summoned an uncle, who lived nearby. The uncle testified in the first trial that when he arrived at the church, he found Bailey and the girl naked on the copy room floor, with Bailey performing a sex act on the girl.

read ... Soft on Crime

Inside Higher Ed: UHWO Prof Sues for Tenure Track

IHE: A regular complaint of many adjuncts is that they perform their jobs well year after year, only to lose them when positions are converted to the tenure track. When that happens, they report, colleges order national searches and typically reject the person who has been working hard on their behalf for years.

Last week, however, the University of Hawaii Professional Assembly, the faculty union for the university system, released an arbitrator's decision ordering the University of Hawaii-West Oahu to rehire a longtime adjunct into a tenure-track position....

read ... Inside Higher Ed

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