Hawaii Apprentice Hunting Bill Advancing through Legislature with Bipartisan Support
Honolulu Council: We Want Homeless Tent Cites All over Island Right Now!
SA: City Council Chairman Ernie Martin and at least two other Council members want to mimic Seattle-style public showers and tent cities across Oahu. (Hello? We already have tent cities They are the problem, not the solution.)
And they want them now.
Asked last week when he expects to unveil either the first so-called “hygiene center” or tent city in his district, Martin said, “Yesterday, man. I’m impatient. Very impatient.”
The concept of hygiene centers and tent cities is being endorsed by Martin and Councilmen Trevor Ozawa and Joey Manahan….
Federal officials discourage tent cities and say they typically are promised as “temporary” only to become permanent.
They specifically cite Seattle, which this year saw its homeless population jump by 19 percent from last year.
Jennifer Leimaile Ho — the Washington, D.C.-based senior adviser on housing and services for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (and niece of the late entertainer Don Ho) — told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser in February:
“We can’t think of a single community where a tent city was a critical part of their success. It is a distraction of effort. You’re thinking you’re doing something that’s temporary, and it ends up being permanent. It’s not a solution. Band-Aids don’t work.”
Matthew Doherty, executive director of the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness, said in an email, “We don’t believe that such approaches create real progress toward ending people’s homelessness or solving the challenges communities face. Instead, these approaches can distract a disproportionate share of communities’ time, effort, and resources away from the solutions we all need to focus on: providing better and greater access to permanent housing opportunities that are matched with the right level of services to be successful. At the same time, however, efforts focused on sweeping or clearing encampments or tent cities don’t create real, lasting solutions either, and make it harder to provide people with the help they need and deserve.”
read … Tent City Nightmare
Rail 2 Years Late and 10 Miles Short
SA: …Local rail officials have decided that for the opening of the transit system, they won’t extend the route to Middle Street after all.
Instead, they’ve opted to stick with their planned, shorter opening route to Aloha Stadium — a distance of 10 miles. Last summer the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation announced it would revisit the logic of that opening route and the “limited ridership” it would attract.
But as project delays have piled up, the idea of waiting to start service until Middle Street comes online has become less practical. Opening to Aloha Stadium remains the better option, HART Executive Director Dan Grabauskas said last week.
The opening should now occur sometime in late 2018, HART projects.
Service along the entire 20-mile line, from East Kapolei to Ala Moana Center, should now start in 2022, the rail agency estimates. The project is about two years behind schedule following lengthy delays from….
read … Day Late and Dollar Short
Amid Hawaii delays, the Internet turned to a Google doc for caucus results
USAToday: …a Google document built by a handful of strangers became the go-to source for the caucus results. Its creators were the first to project Sanders' victory, as the mainstream media (but not HawaiiFreePress.com) waited on stalling, overwhelmed caucus organizers….
The Associated Press gave the first official projection by 10 p.m. HST/4 a.m. — at least three hours later than planned — and declared what people following the spreadsheets already knew. The AP's data showed Sanders crushing Clinton, 70.6% to 29.3%.
The Google document? It showed Sanders at 69.7% and Clinton at 30.3%….
The holdup drew ire from voters across the country, including many Sanders supporters who called it a "media blackout."….
UNOFFICIAL Precinct by precinct breakdown: LINK
read … Turned to Google Doc
UH Administrators Think they are the Second Coming of Act221
CB: …University of Hawaii officials recently proposed a 2 percent increase in tuition for each of the next three years.
But they’re not just talking about 2 percent. Those increases are cumulative. In other words, by the third year the increase really amounts to a 6 percent jump! Moreover, those increases will more than likely remain even after the six years are over.
Local students are being saddled with huge financial burdens and tuition has become a serious barrier to higher education in Hawaii. This is a trend that is not only unsustainable, but comes at the expense of our students and their families.
Sometimes when I talk to the UH management, I feel like we live in two different worlds. They see the university as a research-focused institution whose purpose is to create employment opportunities, drive Hawaii’s economy and make discoveries that could change the world.
I see the university a little differently. I see students, lots and lots of students. Students who grew up in Hawaii, graduated from our public schools and will lead productive lives that contribute to the fabric of our community….
Related: Tuition up 136%: UH Manoa Ranks #1 in USA—and Administration Wants More
read … The Barriers To Education That Tuition Hikes Place On Students
Caldwell Need to get Serious About Caldwell’s Zoo
SA: The Honolulu Zoo is in danger. Actually, it’s been in danger for some time, but now a real hammer could be coming down.
The city announced on Tuesday that the zoo has lost its accreditation. The Association of Zoos and Aquariums denied the request for renewal because the Waikiki facility lacked a consistent and adequate funding source.
The consequence is likely to be dire: About 10 percent of its 900 animals are on loan, and an unaccredited zoo is unlikely to be eligible for such exchanges. And that means as many as 90 exotic animals would have to be returned.
The right course of action at this point is to chart a course back to accreditation, one that’s affordable to the city for the long term.
The rejection could not have come as a surprise, and that’s its most appalling aspect. The zoo has had warning signs for years, and its staff and nonprofit backers simply have not come to grips with the problem.
This has been part of a pattern: The AZA sounds the alarm, there’s a boost in the zoo’s budget and then the institution falls back to its hand-to-mouth existence.
The pattern is repeating now: Mayor Kirk Caldwell is seeking a $6.8 million operating budget for fiscal 2017, which starts July 1, and would cover 86 employee positions. That’s up from $5.6 million in the current year and a staff of 76.
That boost is a necessary stop-gap effort but falls short as a solution, which should include a reasonable business plan — something that should have been crafted long ago….
read … Caldwell’s Zoo
HCR127: Hawaii Weighs Study on Decriminalizing All Drugs
MC: …A group of Hawaii lawmakers wants their state to consider becoming the first in the U.S. to decriminalize all drugs.
A resolution being heard Thursday by the state’s House Judiciary Committee says that “despite a longstanding policy that enforces illicit drug prohibition and imposes some of the world’s harshest penalties for drug possession and sales, illicit drug use in the United States has been increasing.”
The measure, if passed by both chambers of the legislature, would request that the state’s Legislative Reference Bureau “conduct a study on the feasibility and advisability of decriminalizing the illegal possession of drugs for personal use in Hawaii” so that such conduct “would constitute an administrative or civil violation rather than a criminal offense.”
The study, which would be due later this year in preparation for the legislature’s 2017 session, would examine Portugal’s decriminalization of drugs as a possible model for the state.
In 2001, Portugal decriminalized all drugs, including marijuana, heroin and cocaine. While use and possession remain technically illegal, people caught with small amounts of drugs are not arrested or sent to prison. Rather, they are brought before three-member commissions that can recommend treatment or assign fines and other administrative remedies. Drug trafficking and sales are still punishable as crimes.
A 2009 Cato Institute report, cited in the Hawaii House resolution, found that since decriminalization went into effect, drug use by Portuguese teenagers has dropped, as have drug-related deaths and HIV/AIDS rates among drug users. Enrollment in drug treatment is up….
read … Portugal Plan?
Soft on Rape: 18 Priors, out on Streets Does it Again
SA: …A 24-year-old Makaha man shot by a police officer near the airport last week was awaiting sentencing in felony sexual assault and robbery cases and has been charged in the latest incident.
Lopes-Salas has 18 prior arrests and was awaiting sentencing on April 8 for felony sexual assault and a robbery, police said. He pleaded guilty to both cases in January.
According to court documents, Lopes-Salas sexually assaulted a 41-year-old woman when he was 20 years old in 2011 and robbed his ex-girlfriend in May 2014.
In the robbery case, Lopes-Salas threatened to file papers to take custody of his three-year old son away from his ex-girlfriend if she refused to meet him at Ala Moana Center, according to court documents.
When the woman met him that afternoon, Lopes-Salas threatened her, then reached into her bag, stole $600 and walked away. The woman later told police Lopes-Salas forced her to withdraw $700 from a bank a month earlier.
Carlos Lopes-Salas Jr. was shot at around noon Wednesday at Pacific Marina Inn after police said he raised a stolen semi-automatic pistol while officers were trying to arrest him for investigation of a burglary….
read … Soft on Crime
Anti-GMO Activists Undue Influence on Pesticide Report
KE: …Though the Joint Fact Finding Group was supposed to be independent as it evaluated agricultural pesticide use on Kauai, its final report and recommendations were unduly influenced by anti-GMO/anti-pesticide activists.
Their influence includes reviewing scientific reports, serving as consultants to the JFFG, providing the JFFG with unpublished studies and even crafting language for the report. To wit:
Three of the four persons selected to serve as “Liaisons and Resources” to the JFFG are anti-GMO/anti-pesticide activists, yet they are never identified in the report as such.
They include: Carl Berg, who is president of Surfrider, one of the groups that is appealing the judge's decision on Bill 2491/Ordinance 960; Milt Clark, a part-time Princeville resident who penned letters to the editor opposing pesticides and supporting Ordinance 960;and Malia Nobriga-Olivera, who signed on to an anti-GMO seafood campaign run by Friends of the Earth.
Berg also provided the JFFG with Surfrider water sampling reports and data on gylphosate in honey, which the group accepted and cited, even though none of that work has been written up for the rest of us to read, much less published and peer-reviewed.
Clark, meanwhile, was asked to review the state's air sampling study, which concluded the odiferous stinkweed was to blame for sickening students at Waimea Canyon Middle School. Clark claimed the symptoms were “far more likely related to pesticide exposures than from exposure to stinkweed organics,” which is not surprising, given his anti-pesticide bias. Yet despite that bias, his review is listed in the JFFG report appendix as “Independent Commentary on Pesticide Analysis Study.” Indeed, he specifically asked that it be appended to the JFFG report, and they obliged.
Really? They couldn't find any “liaisons and resources” who didn't have dogs in the fight? Who chose these people for these roles? And what other influence did they exert that isn't specifically outlined in the report? ….
read … Musings: Improper Influence
The Death of Moral Relativism
TA: Considered by conservatives to be one of postmodern society’s greatest threats, moral relativism may now be a relic of the past….
read … Its no longer Relative
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