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Friday, April 15, 2016
April 15, 2016 News Read
By Andrew Walden @ 5:11 PM :: 7959 Views

IHS: City-Funded Homeless Programs Meeting Goals

Duke Aiona Legislative Update April 13, 2016

States Employ Temporary Workers, But Often Know Little About Them

Grassroot Institute Event Highlights Need to Support Maui Agriculture

Ward: Firearms Bill Violates Federal Law

IHS: City-Funded Homeless Programs Meeting Goals

Brown Hands

Ige Appoints Task Force on ‘Every Student Succeeds Act’

DBEDT Profiles Hawaii Non-English Speaking Population

Flustered Grabauskas’ Rambling Diatribe: A Ridiculous Joke – Lots of Violations

HNN: HART CEO and Executive Director Dan Grabauskas has blasted a critical city audit of Oahu's $6.5 billion rail project, calling it a "joke," "ridiculous," and "flawed."

"It's a mess," Grabauskas said at a news conference Thursday. "The so-called audit is a joke, but it hasn't been funny. Frankly, there's nothing there." ….

In a rambling news conference Thursday, after remaining quiet for days, Grabauskas appeared angry and flustered over how the audit's conclusions were being discussed publicly before being released….

Grabauskas used the news conference to accuse City Auditor Edwin Young of not being independent and of being "under tremendous pressure from members of the City Council" to wrap up the rail audit quickly.

"There's a real frustration and unfairness," he said. "That's not the way that the auditor is supposed to conduct himself. There are lot of violations of general auditing principles that this auditor has perpetrated." ….

"It kinda made me sad that they have to try to deflect from the truth," said Ann Kobayashi. "The bottom line is they are way over budget. They're not on schedule." ….

read … Head of rail project calls critical city audit a 'joke'

The Sovereignty Divide: Waihee vs Cayetano

HNN: …Will the Hawaiian Sovereignty movement bring our community together, or does it have the potential to tear it apart?  Two former Hawaii governors, John Waihee and Ben Cayetano, have conflicting views – including whether or not the current path to sovereignty is correct, or even necessary….

read … The Sovereignty Divide

After Running Hospital into Ground, HGEA Demands $40M Severance Package

SA: Hawaii’s largest public workers union is lobbying lawmakers for severance payments and special retirement bonuses for employees at the state-run Maui and Lanai hospitals that could cost the state $40 million or more if Gov. David Ige’s administration succeeds in privatizing those hospital operations.

Under Senate Bill 2077, the hospital workers would be able to choose between a severance payment or a retirement bonus to boost their state retirements. The Hawaii Government Employees Association is advocating for severance payments of up to half of the annual salaries of Maui and Lanai hospital workers whose positions are privatized.

Kaiser Permanente is scheduled to take control of Maui Memorial Medical Center, Kula Hospital and Lanai Community Hospital on July 1 in the largest privatization initiative in state history….

65% ‘NO’ -- Do you support a union push for new severance pay or retirement bonuses if public hospitals go private?

read … Union asks lawmakers to help staff at hospitals

Cool Schools Becomes Christmas Tree for Green Energy Schemers

Borreca: Air conditioning, or at least cooling, 1,000 classrooms by year’s end was the center point of Ige’s 2016 State of the State address in January. Since then he has lobbied for immediate passage of the $100 million request….

The House and Senate have batted back and forth various ways to come up with the extra $100 million and also dreamed up various random riders to hang on the bill. For instance, the latest version of the bill, Senate Bill 3126, requires the Department of Education to also include in each county at least one school that also serves as an emergency shelter to have an independent power “micro- grid” to run the school if regular power fails.

And DOE schools would be required to set a goal of being energy “net zero,” meaning that they are generating as much alternative energy as they consume by 2035. That’s far enough away that the Legislature could also mandate that the DOE shall provide each student with a free puppy by 2036….

read … Net Zero

Con-Jobs and Scams Heading for Conference Committee

SA: …lawmakers should eye skeptically the proposal to float bonds to borrow $107 million to buy about 8,000 acres of former sugar and pineapple lands between Central Oahu and the North Shore. Of those lands, 4,454 acres are farmable, an Agribusiness Development Corp. report said.

The transaction raises serious questions, including whether the state should spend that amount now to land-bank for future agriculture. The intent of the proposal is admirable — providing long-term leases to farmers for food production — but the state likely will never recover that money. Lawmakers also will need to outline the true cost of the land, including interest, that would be passed on to taxpayers….

House Bill 2501, … amended last week to exclude A&B from being covered by the measure. The legality of such an exclusion is questionable, and requires further vetting.

House Bill 1850, which allows companies to act as tax collection agents for vacation rentals, benefited from an 11th-hour amendment that prevents tax scofflaws and individual unit owners from hiding operations behind an Airbnb license. Broker tax collection agents must ensure that the transient accommodation is in compliance with all pertinent state and county land use laws, which would prevent owners of illegal vacation rentals from using agents such as Airbnb….

On a bad-government note: Legislators on the House floor Tuesday approved a blank bill with no content; its only vague reference was to geothermal power and it was advanced, over some objections, to conference committee negotiations. This short-form bill maneuver — “unusual,” conceded House Finance Chairwoman Sylvia Luke — locks out direct public input on the proposed law to be discussed, since conference committee is where language will be inserted in the blank bill but public testimony is not allowed.

Open-government advocates warn yearly about “gut and replace” tactics at this stage of the session, but it is unconscionable for legislators to forward a blank bill on the contentious issue of geothermal power with no hint of content or prior public input. This one bears particular scrutiny….

SB2535: Text, Status

read … Key bills still need deeper scrutiny

Hawaii Is One Step Away From Taking a Close Look at Decriminalizing All Types of Drugs

VN: Fifteen years ago, Portugal effectively bowed out of the war on drugs. The small European country took the radical step of decriminalizing all drugs — including marijuana, ecstasy, cocaine, crystal meth, and heroin — for personal use. Dealers can still be locked up or slapped with a fine, but anybody caught with less than a 10-day supply faces three outcomes: treatment, a small fine, or no punishment whatsoever. Most people get referred to counseling.

Portugal's system has mostly been a success. Drug use is down overall, and the rates of drug-related deaths and sexually transmitted disease have plummeted. But despite the positive results, no US state has ever seriously considered trying to implement Portuguese-style decriminalization as a solution to the recent nationwide surge in overdose deaths and soaring incarceration rates — at least until now.

The Hawaii State Senate has until April 25 to vote on a bill that would commission a study to explore whether the state should decriminalize all drugs for personal use, including so-called "hard drugs" like meth, cocaine, and heroin. Hawaii's House of Representatives unanimously approved the measure last month, and it has the support of local groups across the political spectrum, from libertarians to immigrant rights advocates.

"As the rest of the country is taking a more constructive approach to the failed war on drugs, it's clear that Hawaii needed some fresh impetus," said Carl Bergquist, executive director of the Drug Policy Forum of Hawaii and one of the measure's key backers. "By studying lessons learned elsewhere, this study will provide just that." ….

read … Decriminalize

Ranchers have expressed interest in HC&S Land, but farmers are few

MN: …Mayor Alan Arakawa is asking Maui farmers to "step up" and grow food on Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar's 36,000 acres that could be left barren after the company ends sugar cane operations at the end of the year.

The mayor hopes to have at least two or three groups lease or purchase 500 acres or more "very quickly" from parent company Alexander & Baldwin. The county is referring interested individual farmers and groups to the company, he said.

"Very seriously, we need to have people that actually know how to grow vegetables and have the capabilities of doing it," Arakawa said Wednesday at the Maui Country Club. "We don't need people just saying, 'We think everybody should farm and everything should be green.' Everybody can say that, we need people that can say, 'I want to farm.' "….

read … Farmers

Anti-GMO Candidate Rosenstiel Against ‘Dumb Locals’

KE: … Speaking of elections, the race for the 14th District House seat vacated by Derek Kawakami continues to attract attention, with Kauai Sen. Ron Kouchi and Rep. Jimmy Tokioka reportedly urging former planning commission Jan Kimora of Kilauea to run. Guess Nadine Nakamura, who is far more qualified, doesn't meet the gender requirements for their Good Old Boys club.

And neophyte candidate Fern Rosenstiel is all upset because her strident Facebook posts, like the one I published Wednesday, are coming back to haunt her:

read … Musings: Friday Follow Ups

Zika Findings Require Immediate Federal, State Response

CB: …Federal officials typically can be counted on to voice concern over outbreaks of infectious diseases, but to fall well short of panic. Yet the comments coming from top officials this week regarding troubling new findings on the Zika virus have bordered on exactly that.

“Never in humans have we seen illness spread by mosquitoes linked to birth defect,” Tom Frieden, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, tweeted Wednesday to his nearly 95,000 Twitter followers. Added CDC Principal Deputy Director Anne Schuchat, “While we absolutely hope we don’t see widespread local transmission in the continental U.S., we need the states to be ready for that.”

The findings confirm what many have suspected for months: In newborn babies, Zika causes microcephaly — abnormally small heads — debilitating brain damage, and a range of related disabilities, CDC officials confirmed Wednesday in a special publication rushed into the New England Journal of Medicine….

read … Zika Findings Require Immediate Federal, State Response

Obama Gives Hawaii DoE, HSTA New Way to Evade Accountability

HNN: Hawaii students could see less testing and a greater emphasis on individualized learning in the coming year thanks to a new federal law aimed at giving states more control over how to assess student performance.

The Every Student Succeeds Act replaces the controversial No Child Left Behind Law, which stressed testing in math and English and sanctioned schools that didn't meet rising proficiency standards.

On Thursday, the governor announced the creation of a 17-member task force, made up of educators (union operatives) and other stakeholders (also union operatives), who will assess Hawaii's public school system, identify needs and develop a new state education plan with the new federal law in mind.  (And Ige owes them for electing him.)

The task force plans to hold public meetings (which will be stacked with whining HSTA members spouting the party line).

CB: On Cue, the HSTA Party Line Deployed

read … State prepares for new federal standards aimed at educating 'whole child'

HuHonua: High Tech Schemers Jump on Board Failed Biomass Burner

SA: …John Komeiji, general counsel and senior vice president of Hawaiian Telcom, is joining the company’s board of directors.

To its local advisory board, Hu Honua added Duane Kurisu, chairman and CEO of Aio LLC, and Dennis Teranishi, president and CEO of the Pacific International Center for High Technology Research. The center is the parent nonprofit of Energy Excelerator, an incubator for energy technology startups.

read … Guard Your Wallet  

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