Pine: Star-Advertiser Wrong on Makaha Realignment
Senate Passes more than 250 Bills on Second Crossover
House Passes More than 100 Senate Bills on Final Crossover
Hawaii Congressional Delegation How They Voted April 18, 2016
‘Rail Is The Issue’ In Mayoral Election, Says Kirk Caldwell
CB: When Kirk Caldwell first ran for mayor, in 2010, the top issue was rail.
When he ran again in 2012, the top issue was rail.
Now, as he segues into re-election mode, the top issue in the City and County of Honolulu is rail.
“And you know, rail is going to remain the issue for the remainder of the building of this system,” he said. “I want another four years, and then I’m pau. The system isn’t going to be completed by then. And whoever runs (in 2020), it will be the issue.”
Caldwell sums it up: “It’s probably natural that it should be the issue. It’s the largest construction project in the history of the whole state of Hawaii, bar none.”
read … Rail is the Issue
HNN: Rail Audit Doesn’t Connect the Dots
HNN: …I did notice a breakdown on $1.6 billion in cost-overruns attributes $190 million to lawsuits and delay claims. But those delays are the main reason for $240 million in cost escalation, listed separately. In fact, when you subtract the factors not attributable to delays by rail opponents, you find most overruns were caused by them, not rail management.
The audit also faults the repackaging of station bids. That's an attack on the only move since the project began that actually saved $31 million. It also attacks rail for real-time accounting that doesn’t match projections. It doesn’t match because it’s newer data. Frequent updates on actual numbers is a good thing.
The auditor makes an outright accusation of management knowing but not reporting true projections. But the dots are not connected. That's the kind of knee-jerk unsupported allegation more suited to Facebook than an audit. And that's a shame, because a project so complicated can use honest auditing….
read … Dishonest
Mainstreaming Creates Lots of HSTA Jobs
HTH: …“I think that presently, our special education students are struggling,” said Brian De Lima, a private practice attorney in Hilo and Vice Chairman of the Hawaii Board of Education. “I believe we are in a crisis.”
De Lima was referring to the issue of inclusion, which was a central topic at the Hawaii Board of Education meeting that convened earlier this month. Inclusion means teaching special education students the same curriculum in the same classrooms as general education students as frequently as that paradigm is tenable.
“Statistics and data suggest that it is best practice to have special education students receive their services in an inclusion setting,” De Lima said.
Inclusion is federally mandated under the Individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA) and includes a clause that mandates children with disabilities be educated “to the maximum extent appropriate” with their peers in a general education setting.
The national LRE average of special education students spending at least 80 percent of their time learning in a general education classroom is 61.5 percent.
But the percentage of special education students in Hawaii spending that much time in general education classrooms is 36.9 percent.
President of the Hawaii State Teachers Association Corey Rosenlee said the problem is both perennial and systemic, boiling down to low pay and a heavy workload.
At the beginning of the 2015-16 school year, there were approximately 500 teacher vacancies in the state. Hawaii has one of the highest teacher-turnover rates in the country, meaning that number is likely to rise heading into next year.
“There are vacancies in almost every single teaching category,” Rosenlee said…..
read … Mainstreaming
Hi Tech Scammers Want Another $6M from Taxpayers
CB: …The HI Growth Initiative, a program of the Hawaii Strategic Development Corporation, has been critical to supporting this new sector. It provides matching (taxpayer) dollars for private investments coming into the state and provides funding for programs and events that bring entrepreneurs cronies and investors con-artists together.
Blue Startups is a program that has been funded in part by this initiative (your tax dollars at work)and has achieved significant success (corporate welfare payments) since it launched just three years ago. In 2015 we were ranked in the top 20 of U.S. accelerators. To date we have invested in 47 companies, creating hundreds of jobs and (allegedly) attracting $25 million in private investment (at what cost to the taxpayer?).
The Entrepreneurs Sandbox, a program of the High Technology Development Corporation, will leverage $3 million in federal Economic Development Administration grant funding already appropriated for Hawaii ($3M taxpayer dollars). If matched by (another $3M in taxpayer dollars) state dollars, these will be used to develop an innovation hub bringing together professionals, entrepreneurs and investors (scammers, schemers, and hypesters) under one roof to further enhance communication and build critical mass (for future schemes to grab for even more of your taxpayer dollars)…..
Reality: Auditor: DoTax allows $2B in Tax Credits Without Checking
read … Hand in your pocket
Ethics director poised to take over as state auditor
ILind: The House and Senate are scheduled to meet in a joint session on Friday to consider HCR 207 which would appoint the state auditor, the ombudsman, and the director of the Legislative Reference Bureau….
If Kondo is approved, I know he will dive into his new position and do a good job.
But I have to wonder what legislators see as the most important qualifications that Kondo, an attorney and former litigator, will bring to the top job in the state auditor’s office….
Like Kondo, Marion Higa did not have a background in auditing when she joined the auditor’s office. Higa graduated from the University of Hawaii, earned a Masters Degree in Illinois, and worked briefly as a teacher before landing a job in the auditor’s office. But unlike Kondo, she had twenty years experience working on audits before being named auditor in 1992, after a short interim appointment….
read … Ethics director poised to take over as state auditor
Mediator’s Biases Behind Collapse of Pesticide Panel
KE: In the latest bizarre twist in the Kauai Joint Fact-Finding process on agricultural pesticides, facilitator Peter Adler has offered up his own highly defensive, seriously spun take on events.
This weekend, Adler issued “update #9” on the JFF, in which he abandons all pretense of being an impartial, objective facilitator. Instead, he adopts the role of cheerleader for both the dysfunctional process he created and its badly flawed draft report.
Adler begins by chastising Gerardo Rojas and Sarah Styan, calling their recent resignations from the fact-finding panel “unexpected, poorly timed, and completely unnecessary.” Yet they were preceded by the January resignation of retired UH-CHTAR administrator and extension agent Roy Yamakawa, the only Kauai-born, truly independent member.
Adler has failed to accept any responsibility for the resignations, even though all three voiced concerns about Adler's personal biases, poor management and disrespectful treatment of them.
As a facilitator heading a taxpayer-funded project, Adler owes the community an explanation as to why he was unable to create and maintain a cohesive group. He needs to clearly show us how this process can still be meaningful in the wake of resignations by the entire minority viewpoint….
KGI: Need for better sampling, improved health surveillance cited
read …Musings: Out of Control
SB2196: Independent Review Panel for Police Killings
CB: …Hawaii lawmakers are now considering a bill to create an independent review board in the Attorney General’s Office to oversee state and county investigations into all police killings and in-custody deaths to ensure the inquiries are comprehensive and fair.
The seven-member board would be made up of former prosecutors from each of Hawaii’s four counties, a deputy attorney general, a retired judge and a former police chief, all of whom must have at least five years of experience handling criminal cases involving death.
They would review each agency’s criminal investigation of its officers to determine if charges should be pursued or if more investigation is needed. Although the board’s recommendations would be forwarded to county prosecutors, they would not be required to follow the board’s wishes.
But while many look to Senate Bill 2196 as a positive step in the effort to increase police accountability in the islands, a confidentiality clause in the measure effectively neuters the intent of the legislation by keeping secret the board’s recommendations until all criminal, civil and other court proceedings are completed….
read … Review?
Police allegedly ignore rules in colleague’s DUI
SA: State law requires that law enforcement officers conduct breath, blood or urine testing on drivers involved in crashes resulting in injury or death, yet a Honolulu police officer arrested last week for alleged drunken driving was given a pass by fellow officers after he refused to submit to testing….
SA: There’s no good way to explain the Honolulu Police Department’s questionable handling of an officer’s alleged drunken driving arrest this month.
read … Police allegedly ignore rules in colleague’s DUI
Will medical marijuana be ready to sell?
HTH: …“I doubt, seriously, whether we’re going to see dispensaries this year,” Tischler said. “… Who would want to put $3 million into a building that has lights and everything when they don’t know they’re going to be selected? It’s kind of preposterous to do that … My strong belief … is the earliest we’ll see a dispensary is at the end of the year.”
The grow process, Tischler said, would be rushed, under the current time frame. Cultivating cannabis from clones — cuttings from mature “mother” plants — can take between three months to a half-year, depending on whether plants are grown under artificial lights — a shorter grow period — or natural sunlight, Tischler said. Growing from seeds would take even longer.
And there’s another problem. Current law is mum on how dispensaries can actually get those first seeds or plants. It’s illegal to transport marijuana, which is classified as a Schedule 1 drug, from the mainland. Licensees could theoretically accept donations from patients or caregivers that already have plants, but whether that will happen, remains up in the air.
“The availability of 3,000 plants is out there,” said Christopher Garth, executive director of Honolulu-based Hawaii Dispensary Alliance, adding the state seems to be “turning a blind eye” to the matter. “Are there caregivers and patients willing to donate? I don’t know.”
Securing facilities takes time, too, Garth said. For example, production centers — facilities where cannabis is grown — need to be expansive: Each must house up to 3,000 plants, the maximum current law allows.
“I agree (the end of the calendar year) is a pretty realistic time frame,” Garth said. “Anyone who wanted to get operations (going by July 15) would be up against some pretty tight deadlines to see anything signed for real estate, or to build a physical structure, let alone four structures.” ….
read … Will medical marijuana be ready to sell?
Victory for Local Food: Hawaii Longliners Buy NMI Quota – Will Keep Fishing
ST: …While Seman said he doesn’t know yet exactly how much the CNMI’s quota were sold, he said it was “a lot higher” than what was initially offered.
In February, the association wrote a letter to Gov. Ralph DLG Torres offering a three-year deal to pay $200,000 each year for 1,000 metric tons of bigeye tuna—or half of the Commonwealth’s catch limits—to allow their fishing vessels to catch “against the CNMI catch limit.”
The offer was made on the expectation that Hawaii longliners would exhaust their own catch quota. Similar agreements with the CNMI have been made in the last several years. The offered payment is not tied down to whether the longliners actually end up using the CNMI quota and payment will be made regardless of the amount of catch HLA has in any given year.
“I don’t know how much the amount is but it’s a lot higher than what was offered by Longliner Association,” Seman said….
read … Crushing Defeat for Eco-Faddists
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