State-backed Loans: $89M to Companies Tied to OHA Chair Robert Lindsey
Rep Karl Rhoads Feeding Info to Calvin Say's Attorney while Chairing 'Special Committee'?
SB358: Green Energy Scammers Push Legislators to Tax Natural Gas
Seminar: Your Rights When HART Comes to Take Your Property
Gabbard 'Mind-Boggled' at Obama's Two-Month Advance Notice of Plan of Attack on ISIS
Legislation Plans for Federal Take-Over of Hawaii Health Exchange
SA: With the long-term sustainability of the Hawaii Health Connector in question, lawmakers are taking proactive steps to address what would happen if the federal government took over the state-run health insurance exchange. One bill would require that all plans sold on the exchange meet the standards of the Affordable Care Act's silver-, gold- or platinum-level plans.
The aim is to protect Hawaii's Prepaid Health Care Act, which requires employers to subsidize generous health insurance plans for most employees. That bill will be heard in the House Committee on Consumer Protection and Commerce on Monday....
HB727 Text, Status
read ... 3 proposals to watch at state Legislature
Pension Promises Are Getting Harder for Hawaii Lawmakers To Keep
CB: Legislative efforts to make public workers pay more or sacrifice benefits face strong union opposition....
One measure, Senate Bill 1088, would cut in half the amount of retirement credit for accumulated sick leave for public employees who join the ERS after June 30.
It would trim the amortization period by up to 18 months, saving an estimated $581 million. But unions are fighting it because it would create a tiered system of employees, presenting a fairness issue....
Senate Bill 1089 could help ERS make more money off its investments by requiring employees to pay more to acquire membership service credit for previous service, military service and unpaid leave. The cost is currently based on their salary, instead of an actuarially neutral calculation.
As an example, Machida pointed to an employee who purchased two years of service for less than $2,000. This increased their pension by $500 a month, costing the state an extra $150,000 if they live to life expectancy....
Senate Bill 133 would let the ERS suspend payments to people convicted of felonies during the course of their employment. For instance, someone caught embezzling money from a state agency would no longer get their pension check.
These are among the few bills concerning the unfunded liabilities that are moving forward. The vast majority have not had so much as a hearing, including House Bill 669, which would end retirement health benefits for employees hired after June 30.
The fact that bill was even drafted, let alone sponsored by five high-ranking Democratic reps — Mark Nakashima, Della Au Belatti, Sylvia Luke, Scott Nishimoto and Scott Saiki — is an indication of how serious the issue is.
read ... Harder to Keep
Revolving Door: Former TV anchor to direct communications at Senate
SA: She covered the Legislature as a reporter, but now former TV news reporter and anchor Jill Kuramoto will be on the other side of the phone calls, cameras and microphones in her new role as Senate communications director.
Kuramoto's last day as information officer for the Honolulu Board of Water Supply was Friday, and this is her first day in the new job, jumping straight from occasionally ruptured water lines into the frying pan that is the Hawaii Legislature.
She was approached for the job, she said, and has been succeeded at BWS by longtime public relations practitioner Shawn Nakamoto, formerly of Hawaii Pacific Health, Kamehameha Schools and the University of Hawaii.
Nakamoto started at BWS on Dec. 1....
Best Comment: "The way it works is our so called TV journalists soft pedal their investigations and reports in the dream of landing a lucrative talking head PR job in private industry or government."
read ... Revolving Door
The Future for NextEra and HECO: More Windfarms
IM: "A subsidiary of NextEra Energy ...has plans to build the largest wind energy farm in Hawaii. ...The more than 120-megawatt project, which would be located on Department of Hawaiian Home Lands at the Kahikinui homestead on the southern slopes of Haleakala ...on about 500 acres." NextEra would "lease the land from DHHL for a term of 35 years. ...NextEra also is one of the companies looking to build an undersea cable that would connect the electric grids on Oahu and Maui."
read ... The Future for NextEra and HECO: More Wind
Constitutional amendment Would Transfer Control of UH Back to Legislature
SA: Senate Bill 637 proposes amending the state Constitution to remove the exclusive jurisdiction the Board of Regents has over the internal structure, management and operations of UH....
The move would essentially reverse a constitutional amendment voters approved in 2000 that gave the regents the power of self-governance.
That amendment has allowed the regents over the last 15 years to set policy freely and flexibly as the need arises, rather than having to wait for the Legislature to be in session and give permission. But at the same time, the Legislature has "exclusive jurisdiction" to decide when a university issue is of such statewide concern that it can override the board....
"Everyone's concerned. The general feeling is that there needs to be more budget discipline and accountability," Taniguchi said, noting that the bill was introduced with the backing of the Senate majority caucus. "We're not making a law. It would be on the ballot and put to the voters." ...
David Hafner, a former executive at UH-Manoa, says the proposed amendment is sorely needed "to break the cycle of lack of accountability" at UH.
Hafner, who previously worked as assistant vice chancellor for facilities and grounds and as director of administrative services for the Institute for Astronomy, said UH's "dysfunctional" governance system requires more legislative oversight.
"There will be many who will argue that for reasons of ‘academic integrity' and for reasons of accreditation that this amendment is counter-productive," he said in written testimony. "Let me respond by saying that the experiment in university autonomy has demonstrably failed and now is the appropriate time to re-establish public supervision."....
read ... Autonomy
Abortion mongers panic over Born Alive Bills, Say Lege Should go Easy on Killers of Pregnant Women
RC: One bill, HB 1444, introduced at the end of January, would give full legal protection to so-called “born alive” infants....
A second bill, HB 1234, though not explicitly anti-choice, poses potential risks for abortion rights in the state....
(It would make it an additional crime to kill the unborn child of a pregnant woman, and the abortion mongers are really, really upset that the Lege might be so hard on people who murder pregnant women.)
The bill, backed by 15 state representatives, would include in the definition of feticide anyone who causes the death of a fetus. Feticide laws, often called fetal homicide laws, have spread across the country in recent years, with proponents calling them necessary to protect the safety of both a woman and her fetus.
Under these laws, courts can convict a person not only for the death of another person, but also for the death of that person’s fetus, increasing the punishment for harming a pregnant person.
Fetal homicide laws might seem intuitive and reasonable, but (insert long-winded series of excuses here)....
As of February 2013, 28 states had enacted fetal homicide laws, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
Unlike some states’ fetal harm laws, the bill being considered in Hawaii explicitly says that feticide charges would not be applied when someone gets an abortion or to “any woman with respect to her unborn child.”
Given these exceptions, the Hawaii bill appears to provide reasonable protections for the pregnant person while protecting her fetus.
Still, the legislation still (insert even more convoluted excuses here) ....
read ... Baby Killers
Sheriff Beats DUI Rap after Cops, Prosecutors Fail to Show Up
KHON: A lucky break. That’s how a judge described the dismissal of a drunk driving charge against a state sheriff.
But Always Investigating found out the sheriff wasn’t the only one who got lucky. Hundreds of suspected drunk drivers are walking away with no punishment. It takes up a lot of court time, while often getting nowhere.
The sheriff’s dismissed case illustrates what’s happening. Back in 2008, Patrick Lewis was honored for stopping millions in dollars in drug trafficking.
But a police report from the night of Oct. 2, 2013, described how Lewis found himself on the other side of the law–and the wrong side of the road–just after 2 a.m. in Pearl City.
Police documented that Lewis slammed his state K-9 truck through a center median along Kamehameha Highway, knocked down 40 feet of fence, spun around in the opposite direction, struck the curb then finally stopped. No animal was on board at the time.
Police found Lewis in the driver’s seat. A policeman wrote that Lewis smelled alcohol and told police he “had two glasses of wine” and “fell asleep.” A field sobriety test gave clues of impairment and Lewis was placed under arrest and charged with OVUII, or drunk driving. He pleaded not guilty.
His day in court came in December 2013 at the Ewa District courthouse. The case was continued because the officer was out sick.
In February 2014, the officer was sworn in, but the hearing was rescheduled again. In April, the deputy prosecutor was out injured, prompted yet another continuance. In June, the same deputy prosecutor was out again, and this time, both HPD officers were not present....
So Always Investigating checked out more than 3,500 drunk driving cases and found, out of that number, more than 400 people just last year who, like the sheriff, got their cases dismissed for good.
Hundreds more were dismissed without prejudice, meaning the prosecutors could re-file. In all, more than one in four DUI charges ended in dismissals for one reason or another.
“In this particular jurisdiction, we have a very frustrating pattern of catch-and-release of DUI offenders,” Koehl said.
read ... Honolulu DUI cases prone to ‘catch and release’
Some schools struggle to provide adequate food, water
KHON: “There are children who are five- and six-year-olds who are going without lunch,” said Wanda Stagg, a concerned grandparent on Kauai. Stagg is referring to Kapaa Elementary School, one of several schools we’ve been told about where running out of food, or time to eat, happens.
Sometimes the shortage is just one of the several items on the menu, but still that can cause a kid to end up skipping lunch.
“If a lunch tray is not complete with everything that needs to be on the lunch tray for that day, it doesn’t go out to the kids,” Stagg said.
In Kapaa Elementary's case, cafeteria staff will dash over to the nearby high school hoping that more of what’s missing is available.
“By the time they get their lunch tray,” Stagg said, “they’ve got five minutes to eat and then the bell rings and they’re done. They’ve got to go toss the rest of their food out and leave. To me, the priority isn’t the food waste, it’s the fact these children are not eating. You’re compromising their education by not feeding them because they can’t think or work.”
Always Investigating has heard from some schools where the lines are too long to give everyone time to receive and eat food. Some cafeterias find a shortage of an order on the delivery truck or an inaccurate headcount for who’s eating that day. Some older students have even been encouraged to eat off campus instead.
Kapaa families say the food shortage has happened to the kindergartners–who are last on the lunch schedule–once or twice a week so far this school year. The administration says it knows of four times this school year that it’s had to scramble to replace a menu item. Officials say it used to happen more often.
Always Investigating asked the Department of Education why students can’t be served a partial plate and could they stay longer after the bell rings?
read ... Some schools struggle to provide adequate food, water
Chinatown: Urine Smell Receding
KHON: Chu Lan Shubert-Kwock, president of Chinatown Business and Community Association, would tell you Chinatown’s notorious “perfume” is part of why visitors shy away from visiting the historic neighborhood.
But now she says it’s gotten much better. “We have seen great improvements,” she said. “The smell isn’t so prevalent.”
Just last month, Chinatown businesses told KHON2 about the struggles of paying rent. Kwock says obstacles stood in Chinatown’s way: the large homeless population, lack of public restrooms and the lack of marketing.
But change is happening. In just a month, shop and restaurant owners are reporting improved business, and officials say it’s due to a host of factors: The city passing the “sit-lie” ban in Chinatown, as well as the new hygiene facility on North Pauahi Street helped clean up the streets.
“It’s a lot cleaner. Shopkeepers are happier. We’re seeing more people coming into Chinatown,” Shubert-Kwock said.
And the start of Chinese New Year have also helped foot traffic — wealthy Chinese visitors are making Chinatown one of their vacation stops. “They’re curious, because our Chinatown is the oldest in the United States.”
read ... Business owners pleased with improvements in Chinatown
Honolulu zoning chair comes out against Malaekahana development
ILind: The Star-Advertiser reports today that Honolulu City Council member Ikaika Anderson has come out squarely opposed to urban development of Malaekahana, and his assessment is spot on (“Councilman challenges large-scale Laie project“).
As chairman of the council’s zoning committee, Anderson’s views carry significant weight.
His comments come as the council grapples with Bill 47 (2013) to revise the Koolau Loa sustainable communities plan.
read ... Keep the Country
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