March 1, 2010 News Read > Hawaii Free Press

Hawaii Daily News Read

Monday, March 1, 2010

March 1, 2010 News Read
By Andrew Walden @ 12:29 PM :: 7448 Views

LINK>>>Pohakuloa: Double defeat for anti-DU scammers

Long nightmare ends as Abercrombie resigns post: Tsunami wipes out grand opening of campaign HQ

Three major candidates are vying for the seat: Republican City Councilman Charles Djou along with Democrats Senate President Colleen Hanabusa and former U.S. Rep. Ed Case.

A grand opening for Abercrombie's gubernatorial campaign headquarters at Ward Warehouse was canceled Saturday because of the tsunami….

Maui News Polls Akaka Bill

Now that the U.S. House has passed the Akaka Bill, should the Senate do the same?

Yes 26%
No 49%
Yes, but only if changes made in the language 6%
Don't know enough about it 19%

Hemmings: Undersea cable a multibillion boondoggle

The proposed undersea cable that is supposed to connect Lanai, Molokai, Maui, and Oahu is economic lunacy and larceny. According to the Jan. 4 edition of "Engineering News Record," a most respected publication, the cable and wind farms could eventually cost up to $6 billion and take 10 years to complete. The cable would strengthen Hawaiian Electric's monopoly grids and cost the tax- and ratepayers billions to fund this project.

DBEDT handed over management of the initial stages of the project to Hawaiian Electric, including seeking requests for qualified bidders. Hawaiian Electric will be purchasing the electricity with rate payer dollars. This is a conflict of interest….

In addition to the conflict of interest, add on to the electric bill billions to build the cable and the costs of purchasing the electricity. Due to conflicts of interest, having Hawaiian Electric handle any part of the bidding for the cable project could also lead to lawsuits.

Additionally, no one has told the people of Hawaii when the wind farms on Lanai and Molokai will be ready.

The alternative would be to give state homeowners a $7,500 tax credit to install photovoltaic on their roofs. Photovoltaic energy for 200,000 Hawaii homes statewide would result in $1.5 billion in tax credits. Photovoltaic on a grand scale would also result in a huge economic stimulus for small businesses, liberating citizens from a failing and expensive monopoly grid, and dramatically reducing our states woeful dependence on imported petroleum.

TOTALY RELATED: Wind Energy's Ghosts

Wind turbine at Punchbowl: Checking Hawaii's stimulus deals

Federal stimulus money is paying for ocean-themed nights at schools and to investigate the feasibility of installing a 150-foot tall wind turbine at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific at Punchbowl.

Nearly $18,000 in stimulus money is being spent to study the feasibility of a wind turbine at Punchbowl cemetery .

You don't need a study to know that a wind turbine isn't feasible for Punchbowl cemetery, said state Sen. Sam Slom, R-8th (Kāhala, Hawai'i Kai).

"My father, being buried up at Punchbowl, would be the first to protest building a wind turbine up there" said Slom, executive director of the business group Smart Business Hawaii. "Studies don't create anything and they don't create any jobs except for those people doing the studies."

Don Campbell, a Department of Veterans Affairs energy and environmental engineer, said the agency is exploring alternative energy solutions at numerous cemeteries nationwide.

(The turbines will function as a new religious icon at the head of every cemetery.)

Plan to move up kindergarten eligibility date would leave many kids waiting a year to start school

"The effectiveness of junior kindergarten was called into question," said state Sen. Norman Sakamoto, (D-15th, Waimalu, Airport, Salt Lake), chairman of the Senate Education and Housing Committee. "I personally would like to have a junior kindergarten. ... But if we're not going to effectively help the young ones, perhaps we should ask them to come the following year to school."

Educators respond that junior-K, first tried in 2004, was an unfunded mandate by the Legislature and that most schools could not afford to create separate junior-K classes. Acting Superintendent Kathryn Matayoshi said the state Department of Education supports the proposed change in the kindergarten eligibility date, to Aug. 1 from the current Dec. 31.

(And the one thing this circular firing squad will not do is cut back on fraud, waste, or corruption.)

AMA study of 42 states, D.C., finds HMSA, Kaiser handle 98% of Isle coverage

The report said HMSA has 77 percent of the market and Kaiser 21 percent. It defined the market as fully insured enrollments in preferred provider programs and health maintenance organizations. It did not include in its computations people who receive their health care coverage through Medicare, Medicaid or the State Children's Health Insurance Program.

The market share number cited for HMSA was higher than the Hawai'i Insurance Division's estimate of about 67 percent.

Insurance Commissioner J.P. Schmidt said HMSA and Kaiser combined have about 88 percent of the market, with UHA, the Hawaii Medical Assurance Association and Summerlin Life and Health combining for about 12 percent of the market.

Heritage: The Effect of State Regulations on Health Insurance Premiums

NYT: Let Health Insurance Cross State Lines, Some Say

Inmate, parolee tracker useful to victims

Today marks the first anniversary of a service in Hawai'i that allows anyone to locate a criminal inmate or parolee, learn the offender's status, and even register for automatic updates on any changes to the custody status of the offender. The bad guy gets loose and within 15 minutes you get a call or e-mail, or both, letting you know about it.

Operated under a federal grant by the state Department of Public Safety, the service is known as the Statewide Automated Victim Information and Notification, or SAVIN, system. Established as a way for victims to keep track of their offenders, the system is free, confidential, and offers lives operators around the clock 365 days a year. Victims remain anonymous.

Since SAVIN began on Feb. 28, 2009, its Web site received more than 65,000 hits. Today there are 1,860 subscribers registered to be notified in case their offender's status has changed.

(Question: When crooks congregate at the Legislature, Supreme Court, OHA, BoE, etc -- do the signals interfere with each other?)

Chile quake death toll hits 708 as rescue ramps up

In the hard-hit city of Concepcion, firefighters pulling survivors from a toppled apartment block were forced to pause because of tear gas fired to stop looters, who were wheeling off everything from microwave ovens to canned milk at a damaged supermarket across the street.

Efforts to determine the full scope of destruction were undermined by an endless string of terrifying aftershocks that continued to turn buildings into rubble. Officials said 500,000 houses were destroyed or badly damaged, and President Michelle Bachelet said "a growing number" of people were listed as missing.

VIDEO: Tsunami beaches boats in Calif.

http://www.kitv.com/video/22697450/index.html

see more Tsunami videos

SB: Hawaii businesses felt tsunami, Tsunami scare showed calm under pressure

Coming next: Hawaii tsunami tourism (HuffPo snob takes swipe at emergency preparedness)

Hawaii may have "dodged a bullet," Charles McCreery, as director of the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said on the television news about an hour before the warning was lifted at 1:38 p.m., but it left some of us feeling as if the government and the media had pulled a fast one….

(NOTE: “Us” would be those who designate themselves “conscious, enlightened, and progressive”. Its always about their feeeelings. And thanks to dope, their feeeelings always trend to the paranoid.)

In late afternoon, the spin job was complete, per KHNL TV's Jim Mendoza: "By all accounts, Waikiki hotels did a good job of warning guests early this morning that a tsunami might be coming." The anchor concluded the segment with a nod and a smile: "Waikiki back in business." It was a jolly good show and tourists could feel satisfied they'd played a real part.

In the end, our emergency preparedness day felt just like another one-day sale.

(Classic case of terminally advanced Randall Jarrell clone fade.)

Kapolei: City to swap land and money for power

The city would get 34 acres of prime land in Kapolei in exchange for building a key, milelong section of Kapolei Parkway that has been the responsibility of Kapolei Property Development. If it goes through, the deal would make the city a key player in the development of the core of downtown Kapolei because it would have the authority to decide who and what gets built there. (Need more campaign contributions, Mufi?)