Police Raid Offices of Honolulu Rail Car Supplier
Organic Farmers Thwart Tropical Disease Eradication Efforts
Duke Aiona Legislative Update March 17, 2016
Hawaii: Assault on your Second Amendment Rights Continues
Beer Taxes: Hawaii Ranks #5 in USA
Lava Tube: DLNR’s Case ‘setting up roadblocks to the media on matters large and small’
March 18, 1959: Eisenhower Signs Hawaii Statehood Bill
Alii Place: $50M State Giveaway to Owner?
Borreca: The appraisal is completed. And how much will the deal cost? Owners of the building have, according to media reports, offered to sell it to the state for $90 million, but DLNR refuses to say what the appraisal says….
Pointing to a state law, DLNR clammed up.
“After the private property has been acquired or the state abandons the acquisition, these appraisal reports shall be available for inspection and copying by the public,” the law says.
There is nothing in the law that says the state can’t actually tell the public up front, just that it doesn’t have to.
Remember, this is the same department that just this week won the “Lava Tube Award,” presented to Suzanne Case, DLNR chairwoman, by the Big Island Press Club for blocking media access, refusing to answer media questions and denying the media’s ability to question members of the DLNR staff.
The feisty Big Island Press Club noted that a memo from DLNR says, “DLNR staff and management are instructed not to respond to direct new media calls. Contacting staff directly will likely delay a response to your request.”
With an attitude like that, it is easy to see why Case’s outfit would not see a way to let the public know the value of Alii Place, which would be bought with your tax money.
Sources at the Legislature, which has already received a copy of the appraisal, say unofficially that the appraisal came in much lower than the stated $90 million value. One source said it was $40 million and another said it was so low that it is likely that the state would be unable to get the property owners to accept the appraised price.
read … Alii Place looks like a deal — for seller, not the state
Hollywood Giveaway: Hawaii Offers up to $15M Taxpayer Money per Movie
V: INCENTIVES
20% Refundable tax credit for total qualified spending on film, TV, digital media and commercials on Oahu
25% Refundable tax credit for total qualified spending on neighbor islands (Big Island, Kauai, Lanai, Maui, Molokai)
$200k Minimum spend in Hawaii
$15m Credit cap per production
read … Hollywood Megabucks Giveaway
Office of Hawaiian Affairs Has 10 Employees In The Six-Figure Range
CB: The Office of Hawaiian Affairs employs 164 people to help it achieve its mission of improving the conditions of Native Hawaiians.
Ten of those employees earn salaries in the six-figure range. Another four earn from $91,000 to $99,000.
At the top of the list is Kamana’opono Crabbe, OHA’s chief executive officer, who makes $150,000 annually — nearly three times the salary of eight of OHA’s nine trustees, who each earn about $56,000. Trustee Robert Lindsey, chair of the Board of Trustees, makes $64,000….
At the low end of the OHA pay scale, community outreach coordinators and intake and referral specialists make from $30,000 to $40,000.
read … Not Worth It
Chang Aims for Total One Party Control of State Senate
SA: Lets just skip to the comments: “Seriously? Add YET another do nothing Dem to the legislature? Well I guess it would finally do away with the façade of a two party state.
“We need to take action on some of the persistent issues facing our state — improving our schools, building more affordable housing, creating good jobs for young people — and I want to fight for the priorities of the people of East Honolulu,” Chang said.
I laughed my A S S off reading the above statement. How’s he gonna add to the quality of the state? His law practice must not be doing so great…probably wills, trusts and notarizing things…”
Flashback: Stanley Chang Suspended by Bar Association
read … One Party State
Kauai Mayor Carvalho calls for $20M increase in general excise tax
HNN: For the second year in a row, Kauai County has produced a balanced budget without increasing property taxes.
But the mayor is pushing for an increase in the general excise tax to generate more revenue.
In his State of the County address Thursday morning, Mayor Bernard Carvalho Jr. revealed his $200 million spending plan for 2017.
To make up for a drop in hotel taxes, he's urging the council to approve a half-percent GET surcharge to raise $20 million per year.
KGI: The county has budgeted an additional $5.2 million in the upcoming fiscal year for higher salaries
read … Tax Hike
Charter: Police Commission to get Teeth?
SA: …A Honolulu Charter Commission subcommittee wants Oahu voters to decide whether the Police Commission should be given more authority over the Honolulu Police Department and its chief.
The proposed amendment would change the Charter to give the Police Commission:
>> The power to fire or suspend the chief “for cause.” It lists four specific criteria for doing so.
>> The authority to subpoena evidence and witnesses when it investigates public charges of misconduct against HPD or its officers.
The commission heard testimony on the proposal Thursday and will decide at its meeting Wednesday whether to advance it and send it to its Style Committee. If the commission approves the proposal, it would go before voters on the Nov. 8 general election ballot along with other proposed amendments….
read … Teeth
Ferry Bill Clears First House Committee
CB: Senate Bill 2618, which would require the Department of Transportation to look into the feasibility of bringing back a ferry, cleared the House Transportation Committee on Wednesday.
Although the bill was passed unanimously, amendments were added ….
Earlier this month, the Senate approved SB 2618. Next, the bill will face a hearing at the House Finance Committee.
read … Ferry Bill
Water a Money Spinner for A&B
SA: Properly negotiated leases also raise more money for DLNR. Marti Townsend, director of Sierra Club of Hawai‘i, noted in her testimony that A&B pays the state $160,000 annually to use 33,000 acres of public land and tap 164 million gallons daily. By way of context, Townsend said, A&B charges Maui County $2 million annually for 9 million gallons per day for residential-use water from its privately owned supply.
read … OHA Wants this Money
Lawmakers ask HMSA, doctors to compromise on imaging pre-authorization
SA: …Dr. Mark Mugiishi, HMSA’s chief medical officer, said that the policy is necessary as Hawaii’s imaging utilization costs are about 9 percent higher than the national average in the commercial market for people who have insurance through their employers.
Other research shows that the state’s imaging rate for Medicare, the government health insurance program for seniors, was 33 percent lower than the national rate in 2014 — the second lowest in the nation, according to the Hawaii Health Information Corp., a nonprofit that analyzes local health care data….
read … HMSA Image
Hawaii medical school drops off U.S. News list of top programs, law school drops 10 places
PBN: The University of Hawaii John A. Burns School of Medicine dropped off U.S. News & World Report’s 2017 list of the top medical schools in the nation after moving up last year, while the William S. Richardson School of Law dropped 10 places from last year’s list.
The Hawaii law school was tied with four other schools at the No. 92 spot, 10 places lower than the No. 82 spot it held on the 2016 list. The medical school was unranked after moving up on last year’s list of the top schools for primary care to tie at the No. 19 spot after being ranked 57th on the 2015 list….
read … Dropped
FBI: Hawaii Overwhelmed with Perverts
HNN: The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Honolulu office says its agents have been busier than ever fighting crimes against children.
On Wednesday, federal authorities arrested Kailua resident Mark Heyd, 60, for distributing child porn to a boy in Ohio.
According to special agent Tom Simon, 12 Hawaii men have been busted for crimes against children since 2014, and that doesn’t include cases of Hawaii residents getting caught in other states.
Simon says they’ve had to revamp their programs to protect keiki from sexual predators. “We are going to use everything in our legal power to stop them and put them behind bars,” he said.
Agents and analysts are split into two teams: those targeting Hawaii residents who produce and distribute child pornography, and agents focusing on adults enticing minors online.
“Unfortunately, they’re very busy. These teams are absolutely overwhelmed with perverts, for lack of better terms, here in Hawaii,” Simon said….
read … Perverts
Civil Beat's Errors and Conflict of Interest
KE: A Civil Beat editorial calling for heightened agricultural pesticide controls is based on faulty assumptions and made without disclosing its own conflict of interest on this topic.
First, the conflict: Civil Beat founder, funder and editorial board member Pierre Omidyar has donated money to the pesticide advocacy group Center for Food Safety.
What a "coincidence" that its editorial coincides with today's press conference at the Capitol, where several groups — including CFS and Gary Hooser's HAPA — will demand that Gov. Ige adopt the very same controls that Civil Beat endorses.
When I brought this conflict to the attention of Civil Beat Editor Patti Epler last week, she initially denied it:
Your comment was a surprise to me and so I double-checked and am told by both Ashley [Lukens, director of CFS] and the Omidyar people that they in fact give no money -- and never have -- to this organization.
When I provided documentation — a PDF showing that CFS received a FLEX grant from Hawaii Community Foundation and a link showing that Omidyar funds the FLEX grant — Patti dismissed it:
As you well know, the FLEX grant is funded by 20 different HCF funds, the Omidyar Ohana fund being one of them. There are hundreds of recipients, many of which we write about frequently. It's HCF, not Omidyar, that control [sic] who gets that mnoney [sic] (I wrote about this in my piece on the Omidyars in Hawaii, linked above). So I could put a disclaimer on every story that says "The Omidyars give millions of dollars in grants and one of the hundreds of recipients may be mentioned in this story." So it is truly disingenous [sic] of you to assert that CFS is funded by the Omidyar family.
Patti absolves from Omidyar from responsibility by claiming that HCF decides where the money goes, not Omidyar, and asserts we should take it on faith that it's not a "donor-advised" grant. Nonetheless, Omidyar money is going to CFS — the most outspoken group on pesticides in Hawaii and a frequent source for Civil Beat articles (including one press release reprint).
Under Patti's reasoning, if money is laundered through a foundation, the donor need not disclose any conflicts and can disavow any connection to the recipients. Ironically, the very same day that Patti issued her disavowal, Civil Beat published an article that criticized the billionaire Koch Brothers for doing exactly that. It's also a reviled tactic of the oil and coal industries. But it's apparently OK when it's her boss….
read … Civil Beat's Errors and Conflict of Interest
Dolphins to Be Protected from Eco-Religionists after Decade of Harassment
CB: …Spinner dolphins are nocturnal. After feeding in deep water at night, the animals return to sheltered, shallow bays to rest during the day. The potential problem arises when swimmers draw them out of their resting state, a change in behavior that NOAA points out “may constitute harassment,” which is illegal under the federal Marine Mammal Protection Act.
A study published last year in the Journal of Applied Ecology, for example, found that over a three-year period, spinner dolphins off Hawaii’s Big Island were “chronically and repeatedly exposed to human activities“ more than 82 percent of the time.
Ultimately, NOAA says disturbing the animals in their nearshore habitat could force them to retreat to less favorable locations, putting them at risk of attack by sharks and other predators.
“Disturbing their resting behaviors can actually affect their long-term health and the health of the population,” Garrett told The Associated Press.
This summer, more than 10 years after filing an initial notice of its intent to consider regulations, NOAA is set to propose its new rules….
read … Worship=Harassment
Ethnic bloc endorsements seem odd and out of date
SA: …identifying political groups by race or ethnicity, even self-identifying, seems odd and out of date in our modern times, not to mention potentially thorny, depending on who is doing the identifying, for what purpose and with what assumptions about the group.
Yes, this is very much a part of both American politics and Hawaii politics. Political reporters discuss “how the Japanese voted” and “the Filipino vote” during Hawaii election coverage without any worry that what they’re saying somehow carries bias or insult.
But it’s beginning to wear thin, especially because within those groups there is so much diversity.
In the past, when people of a certain racial or ethnic group truly did share common concerns because of socioeconomic status, it made more descriptive sense to discuss that shared voter profile.
But in 2016 shouldn’t we be past that? Or at least a little farther down the road?
How about the other groups in Hawaii? Who are Caucasians voting for? How about the Chinese? Which candidates are Native Hawaiians supporting in the election?
It sounds simplistic and reductive to speak that way, right? …
read … Ethnic bloc endorsements help sustain racist notions
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