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Shield Law: Karl Rhoads Picks up where Clayton Hee Left Off
Video: Rail Line Property Owners Meet With Attorneys
FEC Complaint: Cayetano Names Schatz, Hirono, Winer, and PRP
SA: In his complaint to the Federal Elections Commission, Cayetano alleged that in 2012 Andrew Winer, who is now Schatz' chief of staff, had a conflict of interest because Winer simultaneously coordinated Pacific Resource Partnership's campaign to defeat Cayetano while Winer also served as senior advisor for U.S. Sen. Mazie Hirono, who received more than $60,000 from PRP for her successful campaign.
PDF: Full Text of FEC Complaint
Winer also worked for the Hawaii Democratic Party's Coordinated Campaign at the time, according to Cayetano's complaint.
Winer's work with Hirono was a "clear and real obvious violation" of election laws against coordinated communications regarding independent expenditures, Cayetano told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser Monday.
In his complaint, Cayetano also asked the FEC to investigate whether PRP spokesman and treasurer John White "violated Federal Election laws and regulations by employing Winer as its political consultant at the same time PRP spent $61,069.04 for expenditures in support of the Hirono campaign and while Winer worked simultaneously on Hirono's campaign as its 'senior adviser' and as 'strategist' for the DP Coordinated campaign. If true, it is believed PRP and White violated Federal laws and regulations and that FEC should take appropriate action." ...
In November, the state Campaign Spending Commission referred Cayetano's complaints against PRP to the city Prosecutor for possible criminal violations, but Cayetano said the case is now being considered by the state Attorney General.
Cayetano's complaint to the state Campaign Spending Commission alleged that PRP deliberately concealed Winer's role as the organization's political consultant and failed to mention Cayetano's name as the object of PRP's expenditures, which Cayetano said is required by state law.
On the same day the Campaign Spending Commission voted 3-1 to send Cayetano's complaint to the city Prosecutor for possible criminal prosecution, the commission also refered a separate complaint by the commission's director, Kristin Izumi-Nitao, against PRP to the city Prosecutor for not reporting $86,000 in expenditures in PRP's support of Caldwell....
CB: Cayetano: PRP Super PAC Broke Federal Election Law
read ... FEC Complaint
Carleton Ching’s written responses to Senate questionnaire
ILind: Senator Laura Thielen has started posting background information on DLNR nominee Carleton Ching in advance of Wednesday’s hearing, as she committed to several days ago.
You can find the materials by going to the status page for GM 514, and checking the links on the right under the “Testimony” heading.
The first two items posted as of this morning begin with a notice that they are not testimony, but information provided to the Senate in response to questions.
One is the nominee’s resume, and the second consists of a 10-page response to questions posed by Sen. Thielen.
NOTE: WTL has scheduled a public hearing on 03-11-15 10:00AM in conference room 229
read ... Carleton Ching’s written responses to Senate questionnaire
2015: Education Bills In Legislature
BH: ...3 sets of bills that could make Hawaii more affordable for teachers, 7 bills that could energize students, 4 sets of bills that have government looking over educators’ shoulders, 2 bills that are not necessarily better mouse-traps, 3 sets of bills that tinker with early education, and 7 bills about student health issues.
read ... Education
700 Waikiki Businesses Protest Caldwell's Property Tax Hike
CB: ...the Honolulu City Council to hear two bills that would levy assessments on about 6,500 Waikiki businesses that stretch from the Ala Wai Harbor to Kaimana Beach and back to the Ala Wai Canal in an effort to raise $600,000 annually to fund long-term beach management and replenishment plans.
Bill 81 and Bill 82 have passed two out of three votes by the full council and have been referred back to the Zoning and Planning Committee for review. A final vote on the bills has yet to be scheduled.
Businesses would pay about 7 cents annually for every $1,000 of their property value. For a company like Starwood Hotels, this would come out to about $81,000 a year, said Rick Egged, president of the Waikiki Improvement Association, which is backing the bills. On the other end of the spectrum, some small, non-beachfront businesses would pay less than $100 a year.
The measures have received pushback from some local businesses, however. About 700 Waikiki property owners and lessees, representing about 10 percent of the affected properties, have filed objections to the assessments with the city.
Other groups, such as Friends of the Natatorium and Surfrider Foundation, have raised concerns that the bills will give private businesses too much control over beachfront property — Kapiolani Park and the Natatorium, in particular....
read ... 700 Waikiki Businesses
Sit-Lie, Outreach Pushes 81 Waikiki Homeless off the Streets
SA: The Institute for Human Services, with support from the state’s visitor industry, has started running a shuttle between Waikiki and its Iwilei shelter to help the tourist district’s unsheltered homeless residents get on the fast track to housing.
Dubbed Food and Shelter Transport, or FAST, the 25-passenger shuttle picks up on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at three Waikiki locations, headed for IHS.
If beds are open, clients can choose to stay. Otherwise, they can spend a few hours in Iwilei eating, showering, getting medical attention or being evaluated for permanent housing or the shelter’s airline relocation assistance program, which helps out-of-state clients with half the funds to return home.
The shuttle, funded by Hawaii’s visitor industry, is part of the aggressive IHS outreach that began in November with $100,000 in kickoff contributions from the Hawai‘i Lodging & Tourism Association. At the time, IHS Executive Director Connie Mitchell said the outreach program’s goal was to serve 300 homeless people the first year.
Of that total, IHS had hoped to place 140 individuals into shelters or homes and help another 120 return to homes outside Hawaii.
Kimo Carvalho, IHS director of community relations, said the nonprofit will meet those goals and more. Since November, IHS has gotten 81 Waikiki homeless people off the streets. Fifty have been placed into long-term housing in Waikiki, 25 have accepted a bed at the shelter and six have returned to their former homes on the mainland.
read ... Ending Homelessness for 81
Caldwell Admin Screws Up Handi-Van, Complains When Union Helps Customers Voice Complaints
HNN: The union that represents HandiVan drivers believes disgruntled customers should be able to call the mayor, city manager or Transportation Service Department with their complaints.The management believes otherwise.
The disagreement centers over a small card that the Hawaii Teamsters Local 996 distributed to its drivers to give to their passengers, which includes the phone numbers for the offices of the mayor, city manager and transportation. The drivers started giving out the cards last November, a month after the city changed the HandiVan reservation system, resulting in long waits and irate customers.
"You guys are doing it to us. You're making us wait so long for you," said Kapahulu resident Rose Pou at a heated hearing last November.
"Eventually the customers, the caregivers, family members started really going after our drivers, starting going after our customer service agents," says Local 996 President Ron Kozuma. "Something had to be done."
read ... Complaints
UHWO Wins Reaccreditation
SA: In a March 6 letter to UHWO Chancellor Rockne Freitas, WASC President Mary Ellen Petrisko said the university has made strides over the past three years to address concerns, including:
> Instability in senior leadership posts: "UHWO made leadership turnover a priority and (has) established a stable senior administration," she wrote. "The evaluator team experienced enthusiasm among faculty, students and staff for your vision and direction."
> Creating a student-centered environment at the new campus: "Small class sizes and professors committed to student learning and teaching proficiency bolster student success as do increased financial aid and on-campus employment opportunities," the letter said.
> Re-focusing on a strategic plan: "The strategic plan articulates the kind of institution UHWO seeks to be in future years, describes the academic programs that align with community needs, and uses evidence to determine faculty and staff expectation," WASC said.
PDF: WASC Report
read ... UHWO
Traditional Hunting Rights on Trial Before ICA
KE: ...A landmark case involving a Kauai man's use of traditional gathering rights has been scheduled for oral arguments before the Intermediate Court of Appeals.
As I initially reported in the Honolulu Weekly, Kauai Circuit Court Judge Kathleen Watanabe dismissed charges against Kui Palama back in 2012. He'd been arrested on Jan. 17, 2011, and charged with two misdemeanor counts of trespassing and hunting on private property after a security guard found him with pig meat on Hanapepe lands held by Gay & Robinson.
But defense attorney Tim Tobin successfully proved that Palama is a descendant of the indigenous peoples who occupied the Islands prior to 1778; the G&R land where he was hunting is mostly undeveloped, and pig hunting is a traditional and customary practice.
All three criteria must be fulfilled in order to meet the standard for exercising traditional rights as protected by the state Constitution and established in the Hawaii Supreme Court’s landmark decision, Nansay Hawaii vs Public Access Shoreline Hawaii (PASH), written by Justice Robert Klein in 1995. In his motion to dismiss, Tobin argued that by charging Palama with trespassing, the state was effectively imposing a blanket prohibition on his right to engage in customary practices.
The Kauai Prosecutor's office under Shaylene Iseri appealed the ruling, and it's now before the ICA. When the charges were dismissed, I wrote a post for Kauai Eclectic in which Kui talked about the process of waging a PASH defense
read ... PASH Defense
Green Ambulance Chaser Attacks Kauai Dairy
KE: ...isn't it odd that Oregon attorney Charlie Tebbutt has come to fight the proposed Mahaulepu dairy when Kawailoa (the Hyatt) already has an excellent lawyer in Lisa Bail? Of course, Tebbutt, who doesn't have a Hawaii law license, isn't actually working with Lisa, but representing Friends of Mahaulepu. In other words, he's riding on Lisa's coattails in hopes of picking up legal fees if she wins.
He's a “green ambulance chaser,” pursuing an increasingly common practice known as the nonprofit legal fee hustle, in which you can rack up millions in legal fees if you bill high enough and drag it out long enough.
It's how Earthjustice and Center for Food Safety make much of their dough — along with begging for dollars. As I've pointed out previously, those two mainland-based organizations helped write the flawed GMO/pesticide bills in Hawaii and are now pursuing the appeals, which they're using as a fundraising tool.
Why, just last Friday CFS sent out a fundraising email, using its usual deceptive language....
read ... Protesting is Profitable
Canefire Panic: 'Choking' Patrons at Gay Resort
CB: ...It’s been one of the biggest crops on Maui since the late-1800s. However, some residents aren’t happy with the burning that Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar Co., the island’s only remaining sugar plantation, says is necessary to for an economical harvest.
If it’s unable to burn sugar cane, the jobs of its 800 employees could be jeopardized, company officials said.
With the annual burn season approaching, some residents had hoped to have a say in the matter.
...Maui Sunseeker LGBT Resort owner Chuck Spence said the cane burns damage south Maui’s tourism industry.
Spence said he employs one full-time and one-part time worker just to clean up ash that covers his pools and the rest of his property.
“By the time the smoke comes over here it’s so choking and so horrifying, the tourists come running out of their rooms … in fear of their lives thinking that there’s a brush fire heading toward us,” Spence said....
State Rep. Kaniela Ing, who represents Kihei, Wailea and Makena, has been sympathetic to burning opponents....
read ... Visualize This
SB131: GMO Labeling is Dead Due to "zero evidence that eating GE foods has any negative health effects"
KGI: Last month, in what has become an annual discussion point, state senators introduced a bill that would make it illegal, starting Jan. 1, for GE food to be sold in the state unless it bears a label that reads, “This product contains a genetically engineered material, or was produced with a genetically engineered material.”
Peter Oshiro, DOH environmental health program manager, called the proposal a “paper tiger,” one that would be unenforceable and carry no weight.
If passed, he said, DOH would have to create an entirely new branch, hire experts in biotechnology and genetics and purchase millions of dollars worth of equipment.
And even after all that, DOH would not be able to make any guarantees.
“People don’t understand DNA. It’s not a simple formula,” Oshiro said. “Unless you have the marker you’re looking for, you’re not going to find it.”
A pair of Senate committees advanced Senate Bill 131 on Feb. 19. It has been referred to the committees on Commerce and Consumer Protection and Ways and Means. A hearing date has not been set. Nearly 600 pages of testimony have been submitted so far.
While DOH is not against labeling in order to enhance public awareness, it doesn’t want to be the agency responsible for regulating such a law.
“It’s fine on the surface, but we won’t be able to test or validate any claims,” Oshiro said, adding that in the world of health, it comes down to science. “To date there still is zero evidence that eating GE foods has any negative health effects.”
That’s why the department doesn’t believe labeling is a health issue and doesn’t support any program being assigned to the department to administer it. He said labeling would “require substantial resources.”
CB: Rep Thielen pushes pesticide regs--but only for farms -- SB1037
read ... zero evidence that eating GE foods has any negative health effects
Hawaii: Can We Overcome the Problem of Low Salaries?
CB: ...how Hawaii can generate more good opportunities, including new jobs with higher salaries.
The question is pressing given that the longtime motors of Hawaii’s economy seem unlikely to bridge the divide between relatively low salaries and the very high cost of living that is squeezing much of the state’s middle class.
Tourism, the state’s main economic engine, creates many low-end jobs that, at best, allow locals to tread water, while many of the profits end up leaving the islands. The military, long a financial lifeline of sorts for Hawaii, does generate some very good salaries outside of the Armed Forces, but in these times of budgetary retraction almost no one is banking on major new funding for Hawaii.
A more promising prospect is increased spending on construction and infrastructure, given the billions of dollars being pumped into the Honolulu rail project, but that is hardly going to change the equation on salaries in the state.
So, where is substantive progress on salaries possible? After all, if people earned more money, they might spend more time enjoying the marvels of Hawaii and less time lamenting its high prices.
On a side note, it is clearly easier to increase incomes by stimulating new economic activity than it is to lower the overall cost of living in a place like Hawaii. Bringing down prices involves untying a messy knot of past decisions and out-of-date regulations while also honing efficiency, which can require individuals and companies to dramatically change their ways of doing things....
read ... Middleclassness
Report: Rural hospitals get billions in extra Medicare funds by Billing for LTC
AP: A law that allows rural hospitals to bill Medicare for rehabilitation services for seniors at higher rates than nursing homes and other facilities has led to billions of dollars in extra government spending, federal investigators say.
Most patients could have been moved to a skilled-nursing facility within 35 miles of the hospital at about one-fourth the cost, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' inspector general said in a report being released Monday. Hospitals juggling tough balance sheets have come to view such "swing-bed" patients as lucrative, fueling a steady rise in the number of people getting such care and costing Medicare an additional $4.1 billion over six years, the report said.
The authors wrote that the windfall helps to "support a hospital's fixed costs and offset losses from other lines of business."
read ... LTC Billing Pays
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