Ige Nominates Developer Carlton Ching to Chair DLNR--Petition Calls for Senate to Reject
CNHA Hijacks Civic Clubs to Push for Fake Indian Tribe
Indian Eco-Goddess Vandana Shiva, charging $40,000 a speech, takes anti-GMO crusade to Hawaii
VIDEO: House Resolution Opposes Army Force Reduction
Rep Thielen: HB1, 2, 3 Take Aim at NextEra Merger
DLNR Imposes 3% Gross Receipts Fee on Ocean Recreation Vendors
Bridge Aina Lea: 9th Circuit Affirms State Supreme Court Ruling (sort of)
Hawaii Union Membership Slips to 21.8% -- 3rd in USA
UHM Chancellor: We Administrators Have Got it Tough, Just like Teddy Roosevelt's Rough Riders
$40M Japanese Wedding Chapel to be Built in Ala Moana Park
PBN: Kewalo Waterfront Partners Inc., which was formed by Japan-based Good Luck International Corp., and fellow Japan firm Hinamari Hawaii Inc., said in a draft environmental assessment that the project is anticipated to be completed by December 2016. The entity also said that it will provide the primary financing for the project, which includes four buildings totaling 45,000 square feet.
The developers are still negotiating lease terms with the Hawaii Community Development Authority, according to Kevin Cockett, a Honolulu public relations executive working with Kewalo Waterfront Partners. If a lease is secured, the developers also still need to secure a development permit.
"We're hoping to give a presentation regarding the project to the HCDA in February at a regularly scheduled meeting," Cockett told PBN, noting that the construction timeline will likely change.
Located on about two acres between Kewalo Basin Harbor and Ala Moana Beach Park on what is now a surface parking lot, the buildings would be built no more than 45 feet near the waterfront....
read ... $40M waterfront restaurant, retail venue at Kewalo Basin to start construction in September
Lingle Heads to Illinois for 4 Years to Fix Democrat mess even Worse than Hawaii
SA: Former Hawaii Gov. Linda Lingle says taking a high-level job with the new governor of Illinois does not mean she intends to revive her political career on the mainland.
In fact, Lingle said not only is she not planning to run for office again, but her position as senior adviser to Gov. Bruce Rauner is only temporary. Her commitment is for one term only, she said, and after that she's planning to return to Hawaii.
"I will not run for office in Hawaii or anywhere else," she declared Friday.
Lingle will be part of Rauner's "Turnaround Team," a trio of outsiders with experience in budgeting and management who are expected to help the political novice and first Republican governor in Illinois in a dozen years to improve the state's dismal economic outlook. Also on the team is a state budget expert who has worked with Republican governors in four states and a former chief operating officer under two Georgia governors.
Lingle, who is in California teaching a semester-long political science seminar at California State University, Northridge, said she wasn't looking to take on a new job until a friend sent her a text two weeks ago asking whether she might consider an opportunity in Rauner's administration....
While the 61-year-old Lingle said she's not interested in running for office again, she said she still wants to "make a difference" in Hawaii. She helped with Republican Charles Djou's unsuccessful campaign for Congress last year, and she's offered support to Hawaii Republican Party Chairwoman Pat Saiki. She said she's still hopeful Hawaii will see a stronger two-party system.
read ... Cleaning up after Democrats
Keep the Voters Doped Up: Nearly Half of Hawaii House Backs Medical Marijuana Dispensaries
CB: ...House Speaker Joseph Souki is sponsoring House Bill 321 to establish a system of medical marijuana dispensaries. Twenty of his 50 colleagues have signed onto it, including House Majority Leader Scott Saiki and Health Committee Chairwoman Della Au Belatti....
Other marijuana-related bills that have been proposed include a Senate bill to legalize the drug; a House proposal to decriminalize the possession of one ounce or less; and a bill to ban housing discrimination against medical marijuana patients.
Sen. Will Espero, who chairs the public safety committee, is also sponsoring a bill to remove marijuana as a Schedule I drug....
AP: Pot-related calls to poison-control centers grow in Wash., Colo.
read ... Drugged
Real Estate Tax Hike to be Passed on to Renters, Consumers
CB: Hawaii Senate President Donna Kim and House Finance Committee Chairwoman Sylvia Luke have separately introduced bills to remove a long-standing tax break for real estate companies that own lucrative properties in Hawaii.
The measures, S.B. 118 and H.B. 82, would get rid of the dividends paid deduction for real estate investment trusts (REITs) in Hawaii. Currently REITs, which own 291 properties in Hawaii worth more than $13 billion, don’t have to pay state corporate income taxes as long as they pass on their earnings to shareholders.
The tax break exists at both the state and federal level to encourage average people to invest in income-producing real estate.
read ... Tax Hike
Chun Oakland: $15M for Micro-Units, Shipping Containers
CB: State Sen. Suzanne Chun Oakland has introduced an omnibus bill that seeks tens of millions of dollars to develop low-income housing in Hawaii, including tiny apartments.
Meanwhile, Honolulu City Councilman Ron Menor has sponsored a resolution to spur the city to create affordable housing using shipping containers.
Meanwhile: Pierre Omidyar: The Secret Empire of a Resort Developer
read ... Their Plan for Your Life
House Majority Leader Looks to Revive Shield Law in Hawaii
CB: House Majority Leader Scott Saiki has introduced a measure to bring back certain protections for journalists in Hawaii.
The Legislature couldn’t agree in 2013 on what to do with the state’s Shield Law so it expired that summer.
House Bill 17, which passed first reading Thursday, would create a permanent news media privilege protecting journalists from having to disclose their sources or unpublished information to anyone who can compel testimony — legislative, executive, judicial or otherwise....
(Now that Clayton Hee is unemployed and his brother is facing felony charges,) there’s a new Senate Judiciary chair, Gil Keith-Agaran, and Doug Chin is the new AG, appointed last week by Gov. David Ige.
Keith-Agaran has introduced a bill, along with Sens. Kalani English, Maile Shimabukuro and Glenn Wakai, that would require agencies to exercise reasonable care in the maintenance of all government records under its control that are required to be made available for public inspection.
Senate Bill 140, which is set to be heard Tuesday, is in response to a Hawaii Supreme Court decision in November that said a government agency doesn’t have to maintain public records in any certain way because there’s no law that says they have to.
read ... Shield Law
Bill would give mayors power to fire police chief
KHON: A bill introduced at the State Capitol Friday would give a mayor the right to fire the county’s police chief.
Sen. Will Espero (D-Ewa Beach, Ewa by Gentry, Iroquois Point) introduced the bill. He says it isn’t meant to slam anyone.
“Part of it is the mayor is the chief executive officer of the counties and the mayor works closely with the police chief on some matters,” he said.
Espero said if passed, the bill would give the mayor the authority to remove, suspend or place the chief of police on leave for good and just cause.
Right now, the police commission has the authority to hire and fire the chief, which would not change.
“The police commissions, if you read the charters, they’re not as strong as many of us want them to be and they’re not involved in the day-to-day operations,” Espero said.
If the bill is approved, it would apply to all of the chiefs across the state, including Honolulu’s chief of police Louis Kealoha.
The bill comes two weeks after some state senators, including Espero, asked the commission to add a co-chief to the department to help Kealoha amid personal legal troubles.
Espero also recalls a situation that happened in 2012 dealing with Kauai’s police chief.
Kauai County Mayor Bernard Carvalho ordered Chief Darryl Perry to take a leave of absence. The Kauai Police Commission took the mayor to court and asked the judge to determine who had that authority. The court ruled in favor of the mayor.
Espero also said if lawmakers don’t want to give the power of firing the chief to the mayor, then they could consider amending the bill to give the city or county council that authority.
CB: How Can Police Regain the Public’s Trust?
read ... Make Caldwell Responsible
Slot machines proposed at Honolulu International Airport
HNN: The Hawaii Tourism Authority's CEO Ronald Williams said the HTA does not support any form of legalized gambling in Hawaii.
“Legalized gambling would not enhance our destination brand, but rather dilute it and distract from what makes our Hawaiian Islands unlike anywhere else in the world," Williams said in a statement.
But John Radcliffe, who's been lobbying in Hawaii on behalf of casinos for 15 years, said the proposal "takes away all the arguments that people have about gaming in Hawaii. And it establishes a way for us to get more money in state coffers, what's wrong with that?"
Since the bill was just introduced this week, the state Transportation Department and Attorney General's office say they haven't had time to study the bill and develop a position yet.
Evans, who's the House majority leader, admitted she didn't run the proposal by her colleagues before introducing it....
read ... Slot machines proposed at Honolulu International Airport
Birth Certificates: Rep Chris Lee, Tranny Teacher Push for Gender to be Matter of Opinion
AP: Ramos is happily living his life as a teacher after undergoing gender reassignment surgery and having his gender changed on his birth certificate.
He volunteers with transgender youth and wants to make it easier for young people who, like him, struggled with a gender label that didn't feel right.
Ramos is one of a group pushing Hawaii to change a law that requires people to have gender reassignment surgery before they're able to have their gender switched on a birth certificate. Democratic Rep. Chris Lee said he plans to introduce the bill sought by Equality Hawaii in the legislative session that began Wednesday.... (IQ Test: Is gender an opinion?)
A similar bill was introduced in the Hawaii Legislature in 2013, and it died in committee. Walter Yoshimitsu, executive director of Hawaii Catholic Conference, testified against the proposal.
"From my perspective, you were born male or female. It's just the facts," Yoshimitsu said. (But, but, but what about guys who want to hang out in the ladies' room and powder themselves? Don't worry. You can trust them not to abuse this, they're trannies. Nothing says trust like tranny. And once they have a new barf certificate, they can't be arrested.)
If the new bill passes, those who perform traditional marriages could wind up inadvertently performing a same-sex marriage if either the bride or groom was previously a different gender, he said. (This is probably going to be used as an argument in favor of the bill.)
Rep. Beth Fukumoto Chang, who leads the Republican House minority, said, "I think various members of the community have raised concerns about this effort when it was discussed so I'm sure it will bring a lot of debate in committee."
read ... Tranny Inanity
Seeking Bogus Rape Complaints, UH Administrators to Regulate Student Sex
HNN: Officials say these changes aren't in response to the Department of Education Title IX audit that took place on campus last April, instead they say the proposed policies administration is considering have been in the works since early 2013 when the Violence Against Women Act was signed by President Obama.
Under the law, colleges and universities are now required to report all domestic and dating violence incidents along with stalking. It also affords additional rights to campus victims and mandates school policies to address and prevent campus sexual violence....
New preliminary numbers for 2014 show 7 reported sexual assaults at UH Manoa. There were 8 in 2013, 11 in 2012 and 12 in 2011.
Among new policy considerations awaiting administrators approval is a plan to include "affirmative consent" language in the student code of conduct handbook. The national trend defines consent not as waiting for a person to say "no," but rather seeking an explicit "yes" before engaging in any sexual activity.
"It's not just no means no, it means -- did you get a yes?" explained Meisenzahl. (An administrator will be there with a tape recorder, just to ... uh ... watch.)
It's not clear how the policy will be enforced here in Hawai'i if it goes into effect, but a similar bill in California now requires universities to adopt an "affirmative consent" standard to be used when investigating sexual assault complaints on campus. Officials say alleged attackers can no longer claim reported victims "didn't say no"....
(Administrators 'didn't say no' to Stevie Wonder, and the University got screwed. But did they say yes?)
read ... Thanks, Obama
UH Admits Sex Rules Designed to Make University Look Good to Feds
SA: After federal Department of Education investigators showed up at the University of Hawaii-Manoa last spring, UH officials have been working to dampen any criticisms that might appear in an upcoming report about how the university responds to complaints of sexual harassment and sexual assault.
Jennifer Rose, UH-Manoa's gender equity specialist, said she regularly provides investigators from the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights with updates on what UH has done since investigators came to campus in April, such as increased training for students, faculty, staff and administrators.
Rose candidly said she hopes UH's progress mitigates any criticisms that might come out in the DOE report, which would begin the process for UH to negotiate what's called a "Voluntary Resolution Agreement" with the Office for Civil Rights to address any shortcomings.
"When other universities have taken steps to make changes to their policies and procedures and the extent that they do training or provide victim services, we've seen a number of universities get credit, which we believe mitigates the outcome of the accompanying Voluntary Resolution Agreement," Rose said.
The DOE's investigation of UH-Manoa is one of 55 that were launched at universities and colleges around the country and helped prompt a request of more than $1 million for additional personnel and training from the Legislature this session.
read ... Thanks, Obama
DLNR Commercial Activity Regs Already Failing
SA: Carol Naish, owner of Naish Hawaii in Kailua, which rents windsurfing equipment, said DLNR's effort will have little effect in controlling outlaw commercial recreational businesses in Kailua.
One of her competitors calls itself a nonprofit to get around the city's ban on commercial activities at Kailua Beach Park.
Since the ban went into effect three years ago, Naish stopped providing lessons, which cost her 90 percent of the rental/lesson side of her business.
"Since we can no longer offer instructions, now we can only rent to the experienced windsurfers," she said. "The rest of the guys are thumbing their noses at any regulations. One guy is on the beach every day teaching kiteboarding, windsurfing and surfing. It's just crazy. They don't have enough manpower to police it. Just enforce the rules as they exist." ...
"One company says it's a nonprofit and has its customers sign a form saying they're donating their money," Prentiss said. "Everyone's finding a loophole."
read ... Already Failing
Hawaii Court Forces HHSC to Hire Meth Dealer
ED: ...In Shimose v. Hawaii Health Systems Corporation, the court recently refused to dismiss a claim of discrimination brought by a radiology technician who was denied employment by a hospital based on his felony conviction for possession with intent to distribute meth amphetamine.
Hawaii, like 4 other states (Kansas, New York, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin), has a law that makes it illegal for an employer to discriminate on the basis of a prior conviction. Under Hawaii’s law, employers may only use a criminal conviction to disqualify an applicant if it “bears a rational relationship to the duties and responsibilities of the position.”
Now, I know you are probably thinking this would be easy for the hospital to prove. I mean, the guy is going to be working in a hospital with lots of access to serious drugs. Not so, says the Court.
read ... Tweeker Hired
Soft on Crime: Murder suspect found unfit
HNN: A former OCCC prisoner accused of killing his cell mate has been found unfit to stand trial. Circuit
Judge Richard Perkins placed 34-year-old Joseph Tui Jr. in the custody of the Hawaii State Hospital in Kaneohe last week and ordered him to undergo more tests in three months.
"Two of his doctors agreed that he was not fit to proceed and that he did not have the mental capacity at this point to go through a trial," said attorney Kory Young.
Tui is accused of killing 76-year-old Cyril Chung, a longtime criminal whose list of charges include robbery and sex assault....
Myles Breiner is Tui's former attorney. He represented Tui back in 2011 when they sued Halawa Prison officials after Tui was severely beaten by prison guards in his cell.
Breiner says Tui has a history of mental problems but after the beating, his behavior became even more bizarre.
"Possibly because of the beating he might have what's called a frontal lobe disorder, brain damage to his frontal lobe that affects his behavior," Breiner said.
For example, a year after the beating Tui was arrested trying to disrupt the shooting of a Hawaii Five-0 episode. (Translation: Somehow this guy was out of prison in 2012.)
read ... Murder suspect found unfit
Kenoi pulls plug on incinerator plan
HTH: Citing uncertainty about oil prices and instability in the ownership of the state’s electric utility, Mayor Billy Kenoi on Friday yanked the plug on a proposed waste-to-energy incinerator.
The project that sparked intense community debate and colored an election season will not be picked up again during the remaining two years of Kenoi’s term. If it had gone forward, the more than $100 million project would have been the county’s most expensive public works project in history.
Instead, the mayor said, he will focus on diverting more waste from the county’s two landfills, in particular organic and green waste. He will also work to get a state permit to steepen the slope of the existing Hilo landfill, a process he said would add eight to 10 years to its lifespan.
The dramatic decrease of oil prices from $100 a barrel to less than $50 drove down the price Hawaii Electric Light Co. would pay the county for electricity, making it less feasible that the facility would pay for itself, he said.
read ... Incinerated
Omidyar Network Pairs Grants With Investments To Make Money
F: Omidyar Network, founded by Pierre Omidyar, founder of eBay, and his wife Pam, is a driving force in the movement toward impact investing, using investments to drive social impact profit.
Amy Klement, a partner at Omidyar Network or ON, explains the way she thinks about driving change, “Many ultra-high net worth individuals want to use the wealth they’ve acquired to make a social impact. Yet when creating a legacy, the power of markets often gets left out of their philanthropy.”
She continues, “Our perspective at Omidyar Network is that wealth holders can and should bring their full range of experience and assets to address problems too big to be solved by grants alone. We are ultimately focused on the betterment of humankind (LOL!). That’s why we focus on impact investing and grants.”
Explaining the way in which ON brings either grants or investments or a combination, Klement says, “A hybrid entity like ours provides the flexibility to do whatever fits the bill....
Reality: “If you’re answering to Omidyar you’re really not independent.”
read ... Omidyar
Obama Busted Selling Health Info to Spammers
AP: Bowing to privacy concerns, the Obama administration reversed itself Friday, scaling back the release of consumers' personal information from the government's health insurance website to private companies with a commercial interest in the data.
The administration made the changes to HealthCare.gov after The Associated Press reported earlier this week that the website was quietly sending consumers' personal data to companies that specialize in advertising and analyzing Internet data for performance and marketing.
The personal details included age, income, ZIP code, tobacco use and whether a woman is pregnant....
read ... President is an Identity Thief
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