LINK>>>Child Molester’s friend, Rep. Cabanilla blocks flagpole bill
LINK>>>Senate bill would force Governor to spend money State does not have
Dems’ Exec Director Hartmann: HB444 will be back (confirms gay ‘marriage’ is all about taking children)
Q: Do you think the issue is dead for this year?
A: No, I do not believe that it's dead. I think if you look back at what happened in the Senate last year (when the bill was stuck in committee), ... at the very last couple of days it was pulled, it was voted on, it was amended, it was voted out. So it may have taken all session but it moved.
Q: Your support—is that your personal position or are you representing the party's position?
A: Both. I have a very strong support, very specifically, because of the children. If you are a child of a gay or lesbian couple, you are denied certain legal rights that any child of a heterosexual couple automatically has. No child should be denied legal claim to their parents, and this bill would have rectified that. And every legislator knows that. We've talked to them. The current RB law does not give children absolute legal claim on their parents.
(What happened to the biological parents and what happened to their rights?????????????)
Oh, yes. Here’s the story of a key Hawaii Democrat and gay rights pioneer: Child molester back at work at Hawaii Legislature
Here’s another story about the ‘parental’ claim on adopted children: Duke's homosexual rape case elicits silence The alleged rapist is a prominent gay health researcher at Duke University. The victim is his own adopted, five-year-old son, whom he offered up on the Internet to other molesters.
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Superferry may come back to Hawaii—AS STATE-RUN SYSTEM
State lawmakers advanced a bill to consider restoring ferry service between the islands. COULD’VE HAD IT FREE BUT NOW IT IS TO BE PAID FOR BY TAXPAYERS. Typical socialists.
VIDEO: http://www.kitv.com/video/22506120/index.html
UNRELATED: Military version of Superferry may come to Hawaii
Socialist scheme to chase out private company: Why Hawaii Lost the Superferry
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Senate ED Ctte. to consider GET 25% increase: Concerns over feeding HSTA while not helping HGEA
After some committee members expressed concerns about the bill yesterday, Sen. Norman Sakamoto, chairman of the Senate Education and Housing Committee, deferred decision-making until tomorrow to give lawmakers time to discuss how to improve the measure. (Sakamoto’s brother is a DoE maintenance contractor. No conflict there, eh?)
Senate Bill 2437 calls for use of the state's emergency and budget reserve and federal Troubled Asset Relief Program funds to restore as many instructional days as possible until Jan. 1, 2011.
Beginning Jan. 1, 2011, the bill would then use a 1 percentage point increase in the general excise tax to pay for the remainder of the furlough days.
The general excise tax on O'ahu would increase from a nominal rate of 4.5 percent to 5.5 percent, although the amount businesses would legally be allowed to charge would actually increase from 4.712 percent to 5.820 percent, to account for the "tax on tax" effect.
On the Neighbor Islands, the excise tax would increase from 4 percent to 5 percent (4.166 percent to 5.263 percent).
Sen. Shan Tsutsui, D-4th (Kahului), also said he planned to vote no, noting that the bill contained earmarks (it helps HSTA, not HGEA).
"As a member of the Ways and Means Committee, I would support a measure that would not tie our hands to certain programs and services (HSTA) but would give us the flexibility to deal with the current budget shortfall in its entirety (HGEA, UPW, UHPA)," Tsutsui said.
PRECISELY AS PREDICTED: HGEA vs HSTA: The coming legislative budget crisis
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HB2486 mandates minimum instruction hours passes House Ctte
House Bill 2486, seeking to establish a minimum standard of instructional hours, passed out of the Education Committee yesterday and was sent to the House Finance Committee.
Education Chairman Roy Takumi said that if the bill had been a law, the state would have addressed the budget crunch differently and not reduced the school year by 17 days.
A similar measure, Senate Bill 2336, was deferred in the Senate Education Committee until amendments could be made to it by tomorrow. Senate Education Chairman Norman Sakamoto said committee members want to look at how other states are adjusting with their educational budget. (see above story)
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Zealous lawmakers just may raise your taxes, expand government in recession
For some legislative observers, the very idea that lawmakers will raise your taxes had become more of a “fait accompli” even before the starting gun had been shot.
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Hawaii DHS restructuring may cut 200 jobs, close 50 offices
The state Department of Human Services said the planned reorganization is aimed at improving efficiency and lowering costs, but also stressed that the changes are still in the planning stages and no decisions have yet been made.
Under the proposal, eligibility offices statewide that accept walk-ins would be replaced with processing centers in Honolulu and Hilo, where workers would have no in-person contact with clients. Instead, they would touch base with clients by phone, fax, mail or e-mail.
(And already the HGEA agit-prop machine is sputtering into life via its organ, the Advertiser.)
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Hawaii will delay sending out tax refunds to balance budget
The state Department of Taxation yesterday said it will begin issuing the checks in July, but it could be that some refunds won't get sent out until late summer.
"It probably won't happen, but it is possible," said Stan Shiraki, the department's deputy director. "We are going to process as quickly as possible."
The delaying of refund checks is allowed by state law and is being used this year as Gov. Linda Lingle looks for ways to ease an expected $721 million revenue shortfall in the year that ends June 30
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State pension fund at $10B
In regaining the $10 billion asset level, the portfolio posted a 15.3 percent return at the Dec. 31 halfway point, its best performance since rising 18.2 percent in a similar period in 1982….The pension fund provides retirement, disability and survivor benefits to about 108,000 active and retired state employees. In the fiscal year that ended June 30, the portfolio finished with its worst-ever loss of 18.7 percent.
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KHON plays catch up with Hawai`i Free Press-claims to have broken Special Ed story
Akaka bill to be debated Wednesday at UH law school
Something Hawaii’s Congressional delegation fears to do—give the Akaka bill a public hearing.
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Democrats respond to Djou campaign
“Given how closely Charles Djou’s anti-middle class agenda mirrors that of national Republicans, it’s no surprise that the NRCC has Djou on their Young Guns list,” Andy Stone, the western regional press secretary with Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, said in a statement.
(How’s Obama's agenda doing for middle-class Americans these days? I get it. Obama is ‘broadening experiences’ by mandating trips to the unemployment office.)
RELATED VIDEO: Djou on ‘Red Eye’
MORE: NRCC: Djou “building a winning campaign”
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