OHA Trustee, Ex-Legislator Come up with Excuses, Get Added to Aha Participant Roster
A&B to Shutter State’s Last Cane Plantation—Activists ‘Happy’
Quality Counts: Hawaii K-12 Achievement Ranks 32nd in USA
HART: Construction Costs Soaring—Another $240M Tacked on to Overruns
VIDEO: “Lessons Learned” from Turtle Bay
VIDEO: Hawaii Water Law In A Nutshell
Hana Pier to be Removed due to Public Opposition to Repairing it
Confucius on Hawaii’s New Smoking Age
VIDEO: Everything You Wanted to Know About the Jones Act with Michael Hansen
Foes of cane burning cheer sugar’s demise – Plan to Keep up Fight Against Seed Farmers
SA: “I’m ecstatic,” said Karen Chun, a lung disease sufferer and leader of Stop Cane Burning….
In a move to force an end to cane burning on Maui, Stop Cane Burning filed suit against the state Department of Health in July claiming that the regulatory system that allows open-air agricultural burning is unconstitutional. An Environmental Court hearing to consider a preliminary injunction to stop the practice is scheduled for Feb. 17.
While economics are largely to blame for the fate of the 36,000-acre plantation, Chun said the lawsuit and a growing number of (newly arrived) residents who object to the burning helped….
“It’s amazing how this community came together,” agreed Brad Edwards, a plaintiff in the lawsuit. “People from all walks of life (Californians, Oregonians, Washingtonians) were pushing for (cane burning to end). There really was an expanding web of people who were negatively affected.”
Rob Parsons, the county’s environmental coordinator, said cane burning was the No. 1 environmental issue during his nine years on the job, with more than 1,000 complaints coming to his office annually over the last three years.
There have been a number of campaigns on Maui to search for cane-burning alternatives since the 1990s, and Parsons said the drumbeat of complaints grew louder as residential development encroached on the cane fields and more people than ever moved to areas downwind of the plantation…. (Translation: Realtors want condos built on the cane fields.)
Albert Perez, executive director of the Maui Tomorrow Foundation, said he wouldn’t welcome any expansion of seed-growing companies into the former sugar fields…. (Seed crops get in the way of condos.)
Perez said he’d like to see alternative crops such as hemp…take root in Maui’s Central Valley…. (Or condos just in case ‘hemp’ doesn’t work out.)
read … Foes of cane burning cheer sugar’s demise
Smug Activists Party as Last Plantation Perishes
KE: When I chastised one armchair activist for her insensitivity, she replied:
I don't know what's happened with you. You don't seem to be the same person who did the TVR work, or the same person who came so highly regarded by a couple of progressively minded friends.
What's happened with me? This sickening, clueless, heartless reaction to HC&S's closing by so-called progressives is what's happened with me.
I've seen the environmental and progressive movement in Hawaii co-opted by people who have no compassion, no sense of history, no respect for agriculture, very little understanding of the land use process, crazy ideas about what's feasible in Island ag, no science education, a complete willingness to accept and disseminate propaganda, and a creepy propensity to turn into the kind of “get 'em” mob that's depicted in Rod Serling's “Monsters on Maple Street.”
These people are not progressives, which is why I've been so outspoken in exposing their ugly, ill-conceived movement. It's gaining some political traction in the Islands, while diverting attention and energy from real problems and meaningful solutions, and it needs to be stopped.
The choice is your's folks. Are you going to turn the Islands over to people who party while the last plantation perishes? Are you going to let their smug paid lobbyists, people like Ashley Lukens of Center for Food Safety, determine your future?
Ashley Barbara Lukens January 4 at 6:00pm · Honolulu · Hey Kiddos, Samantha Ruiz and I are gonna be on PBS's insights this THURSDAY at 8pm waxing philosophical about being so young and hip and employed and stuff... I'm also going to probably piss off PBS's core age demographic, so if you were born after 1980 - TUNE IN!
I doubt Ashley, who has been seeking a guru or mentor to help her find balance in her life, will offer any insights, save for those into her own lack of sensitivity, ethics and humility.
And that, like partying as a plantation dies, burning a farmer's tractor, holding a “shame” banner at the Legislature, spraying anti-GM graffiti in public places, or creating distasteful memes of judges whose rulings displease you, is never hip or cool.
Even if a lot of malihinis who have designated themselves "aloha aina warriors " claim that it is.
read … Musings: Sugar Blues
Criminal Hee Gets 46 Months in Federal Prison as Powerless Cronies Look on
SA: Mollway said she will recommend Hee serve his sentence at a Bureau of Prisons medical facility in Minnesota because of Hee’s severe allergies and heart condition. She ordered Hee to surrender to federal authorities to begin his term on April 4, but acknowledged Hee’s lawyers plan to appeal both the conviction and sentence.
A tearful Hee, 61, said he was humbled and embarrassed by the convictions, which he said were the culmination of 10 years of audits, investigations and prosecution. Before sentencing he turned to face about three dozen supporters in the federal courtroom, including some who were crying.
“I want to apologize to my friends and colleagues and to my employees for causing them to suffer through this ordeal,” he said. “I especially apologize to my parents and to my family for failing to meet the responsibilities and the high expectations that I expect of them, and they had every right to expect of me.”
Supporters in the gallery included two former (key word: ‘Former’) Kamehameha Schools trustees — Janeen-Ann Olds and retired Adm. Robert Kihune — and former (That’s Right: “Former”) state Supreme Court Associate Justice James Duffy Jr. Each wrote letters to the court in support of Hee….
read … Cronies Pleas Ignored
With Mehau Dead, Criminals Begin Killing Each other?
HNN: Lindsey said 31-year old Keith Gonsalves, driving a Honda SUV, drove to his home on Alaloa Road in Waiakea Uka on Monday night. The two argued over a robbery that Lindsey believes Keith committed last week.
That's when Keith's uncle, 42-year-old Valentine Gonsalves, sat up in the back seat of the SUV and allegedly pointed a gun at him.
"All I saw was one muzzle flash and 'pow,' I seen Keith's head go back," Lindsey said.
Lindsey says Valentine was aiming for him, but the nephew got in the way as the gun went off. He says Gonsalves slumped over the steering wheel and the SUV began to roll down the driveway.
Lindsey and his family ran into their home as Valentine apparently got into the driver's seat and took off, taking out the neighborhood's gate on the way out….
read … Unorganized Crime
KHON: Bill to fix ventilation fans in H-3 tunnels will reach $25 million
Medicated Marijuana: ‘If a Minor is Busted with a Baggie of Weed, I can Track Every Seed’
PBN: The Hawaii State Department of Health's Office of Health Care Assurance awarded the state tracking contract for $159,000 to BioTrackTHC on Dec. 28. The company offers a government software solution for the tracking of the production, transportation and sale of medical marijuana….
“We track every plant, flower, and product digitally from start to end,”Patrick Vo, CEO of BioTrackTHC, told PBN. “If a minor gets caught with cannabis in town on the street I can open my records and see that within my facility every fraction of a gram of [medical marijuana] is accounted for, as opposed to other businesses who are tracking things manually or pen and paper.”
The system records data from each licensed dispensary in real-time, including plant and inventory quantities, production activity, laboratory testing results, transportation activity, and dispensing activity.
Hawaii is BiotrackTHC’s fifth cannabis-related government contract — its Traceability System is in use by the Washington, New Mexico, and Illinois governments, and is ramping up to launch in New York….
read … Organized Non-Crime
Caldwell Inserts Himself in Senior Services, Makes a Total Mess of it
HNN: His daughter, Jenni Fiorini-Johnson, said her dad called the city's Aging and Disability Resource Center to connect him with respite care and other services.
"By the point that he had reached out to them, he was already in burnout phase," she said.
Fiorini-Johnson said her father called the ADRC in September. Four mother later, he still hadn't gotten directed to the respite help he needed. Meanwhile, his cancer was getting worse.
"By that point he was starting his decline and it just went downhill from there. He lost 40 pounds in three months since that phone call," she said.
The city researched its database and found no record of Ramos' inquiry. But deputy Managing Director Georgette Deemer said there have been delays in connecting seniors with services since the ADRC opened in July.
"We will be the first to admit that there are bugs in the system. But the most important thing is that we get care to these people," she said.
Seniors used to able to go directly to non-profits for help with adult day care, caregiver support, housing assistance and other needs.
Now they have to go through the ADRC for information, eligibility screening and referrals. That "one-stop shop" approach was touted as an improvement to the previous system, but advocates for seniors, service providers and clients complain the system moves too slowly. They say referrals can take weeks or months….
read … One Stop
Child Molesters’ Victims Have Until April, 2016 to Come Forward
J: …Hawaii’s survivors had another year under the 2 + 2-year window, which opened in 2012 and expires in April 2016. In both states, my concern continues to be that Catholic victims seem to have gotten the message that they need to step forward before they are shut out again, but many other victims from other arenas remain silent. That is especially true of female victims….
read … April, 2016
Who In City Government Gets A Six-Figure Paycheck?
CB: The latest edition of the Civil Beat salary database includes searchable, sortable information on the salaries of thousands of city and state employees….
read … Six Figure
NextEra Merger News
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