Hawaii Hi Tech Darling Mbloom Collapses After Feds Arrest ‘Porn King’ in $60M Indian Tribe Ripoff
Hawaii Homelessness Grows 4%—Mostly on Big Island, Kauai
Ige Appoints New PUC Commissioner, Secures 2-1 Majority Against NextEra
Study: Home Care Costs Increase in Hawaii
Hawaii Campaign Spending: Judge Reverses Medieval Punishment for 15th Century Campaign Contribution
Hawaii GOP Announces Delegation to Republican National Convention
Honolulu Rail Is Laughable, But Not Funny
CB: Honolulu’s rail project has become the subject of a lot of political humor….
their unreal solutions are laughable.
Mayor Kirk Caldwell brought his usual optimistic “it never rains in Honolulu” disposition into a recent meeting about rail, but once he got there, whoa Nellie.
One week after saying he was committed to building the entire 20-plus mile route, Caldwell about-faced from Pollyanna to the Angel of Death….
Humor is all about surprise, so his routine was a real knee-slapper.
Bad news, the mayor said, setting up the punch line. Somehow things have suddenly, suddenly changed. Poof, the money is gone.
Who knew? …
There is no good solution, not even a mediocre one. It’s like the Waikiki Natatorium War Memorial disaster writ large. For at least a half-century politicians have promised to do something about the Natatorium. Instead it continues to crumble.
At least that blight is more or less hidden away. But there is no way to hide rail, not with miles of brightly visible elevated tracks that abruptly end in the middle of transportation nowhere….
read … Stand up Routine
City Auditor to Reexamine Rail Project
KHON: Just months after a scathing city audit called the financial plan for Honolulu’s rail project “outdated and unreliable,” we’ve learned the city auditor plans to follow up to see what changes, if any, the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation has made….
In a statement, Martin said, “It is clear to me that an even more intensive review is in order, possibly commissioning subpoena powers if necessary. There are still many unanswered questions as to how we arrived at HART’s current funding gap and a follow-up audit must be rigorous enough to provide us with that information.” …
read … City council chairman calls for ‘intensive review’ of rail’s massive funding gap
Power Of Incumbency On Display In Honolulu City Council Races
CB: Can you say five for five? Officeholders seeking re-election all have the edge over challengers in money, name recognition….
read … Incumbency
HMSA Puts Patient Health at Risk to Save Money
HNN: Hawaii Neurological Society members are convinced that HMSA's pre-authorization requirement for all advanced x-ray procedures compromises timely patient care and should be abandoned, the president of the group said Wednesday.
The comments come amid growing frustration about the policy, which Hawaii's largest health insurer put in place in December.
Doctors say the policy puts patients' health at risk…
read … Doctors offer alternatives to HMSA pre-approval policy
Kauai Homeless Take over Historic County Building, Begin Urinating on Things
KGI: …Smith said county officials allow the group to camp at the center if they agree to clean the park and sidewalk.
“I think it’s a great thing as long as we continue to help out with the park, they’ll continue to help us out,” said Smith who has been homeless for about three months. “As long as we stay clean and not use drugs or fight or drink, (we can stay).”
However, Kauai County officials said an agreement was not made between the group and the county.
“There was a group of individuals that approached the parks director and asked for permission to care for the lawn fronting the Historic County Building,” said Paula Morikami, administrative assistant to the mayor. “This is in no way related to any agreement to stay at the facility.”
The center is in fact a public facility, Morikami said, and members of the public — including the group of nine who sets up camp there — are permitted to be on the premises.
“The police have been called to the area on several occasions regarding complaints of violence and drug use,” she said. “Employees have also complained of people urinating or defecating on the property — sometimes urinating on employees’ vehicles.”
In an effort to address the concerns of employees, the county hired private security to patrol the center.
read … The Cage
Honolulu Homeless Admit Sweeps are Working
CBS: (edited to make the story accurate) Preston said the worst best part is the regular sweeps that break down homeless camps. (Insert stereotypical sob story.)
Homeless sweeps have become a regular practice in the area, where city crews come by and force the homeless to keep moving along. Daniel Gluck, the legal director of the ACLU Hawaii says the new hard line stance punishes the poor and is homelessness industry who profit by offering only a cosmetic solution to an ugly problem….
“It’s heartbreaking and it just pushes people wanna-be poverty pimps further and further into poverty. It’s a crime to be get grants by keeping the homeless homeless in Hawaii,” said Gluck….
Gluck is doing all he can to defend Hawaii’s homeless community poverty pimps, and he wants to put an end to the countless dollars put towards moving the homeless into shelters and housing when they could be on the streets acting as Exhibit A in the case for more grant money….
She only has one question for the mayor: “Where’s the Aloha? There is no aloha only pass judgment, criticize and get them off the streets and into shelters that’s their attitude….”
read … Disruption is Compassionate
Auditor sets sights on county hiring practices
HTH: …county residents are quick to complain to government watchdogs and the media when they believe they see favoritism in the way jobs are handed out.
Last year, West Hawaii Today broke stories about Mayor Billy Kenoi’s campaign manager netting a county management position, and the mayor’s practice of using contract hires rather than going through the civil service merit procedure to hire and promote employees.
Now, government hiring practices will also undergo the scrutiny of the county legislative auditor.
Auditor Bonnie Nims, in her annual audit plan submitted earlier this month to the County Council, said she’ll be looking at Human Resources Department policies. She said her office chose this area of scrutiny based on risk analysis and public complaints.
“We will assess controls in place intended to ensure the fair, uniform and transparent selection of the best employee for the position and identify opportunities for business process improvements based on industry best practices,” Nims said in her summary.
Other areas to be audited during the fiscal year that begins Friday are county overtime practices and the collection of delinquent property taxes. There are also financial and cash-handling audits and follow-up audits to a 2011 Parks and Recreation Department facilities management audit and a 2015 county purchasing card audit….
read … Nepotism
Ing: Immature, Corrupt, Disrespectful
MN: …Rep. Kaniela Ing, vying for the South Maui state House seat, District 11, was caught using my Facebook picture without my permission. My picture is seen first on the lineup on social media as a support to his candidacy and campaign and a ploy for votes.
Kaniela Ing is not my Facebook friend nor do I support his candidacy and campaign. This deceptive tactic supports the many negative comments that have been circulating about this young, immature, energetic, good-looking man; but without true values, one cannot assume to be a true leader….
A true leader is not about gender or age, but about respecting your constituents to work hard on their behalf! Corruption needs to be stopped!
2012: Legislative Candidate Mark Ing: Bin Laden Was “Leading a Movement Against the American Crusade”
read … Johanna Amorin
Nobel Laureates Point out that Anti-GMO Activism is ‘Crime Against Humanity’
KE: …A group of Nobel laureates is the latest to call out Greenpeace, the Consumers Union and others for their fear-mongering and falsehoods around GMOs.
So far, 107 of the world's top scientists have signed a letter calling on Greenpeace to abandon its campaign against the crop technology:
“WE CALL UPON GOVERNMENTS OF THE WORLD to reject Greenpeace's campaign against Golden Rice specifically, and crops and foods improved through biotechnology in general; and to do everything in their power to oppose Greenpeace's actions and accelerate the access of farmers to all the tools of modern biology, especially seeds improved through biotechnology. Opposition based on emotion and dogma contradicted by data must be stopped.
“How many poor people in the world must die before we consider this a ‘crime against humanity’"?
As Richard Roberts, chief scientific officer of New England Biolab, told The Washington Post: “It's easy to see what Greenpeace is doing is damaging and is anti-science. Greenpeace initially, and then some of their allies, deliberately went out of their way to scare people. It was a way for them to raise money for their cause.”
In other words, it's exactly what we've seen playing out in Hawaii for the past few years, when the Center for Food Safety joined Earthjustice in spreading lies about the seed crops grown in the Islands, with ignorant, opportunistic politicians like Gary Hooser and Margaret Wille piling on….
read … Musings: Trending...GMOs and TVRs
Retaliation Redundancy: Kauai Suit Claims Retaliation over Retaliation Complaint
SA: …Begley maintains that he told Perry that Assistant Chief Roy Asher had made an inappropriate gesture and comment to Sgt. Darla Abbatiello, according to the lawsuit. He says he later told Perry that the officer reported to him that Asher created a hostile work environment and discriminated against her because she had filed a previous complaint against the department.
(Yes. This is another story about Kauai County government.)
Begley says Perry ignored his recommendations to investigate the allegations against Asher and that Asher and Perry retaliated against him for reporting the officer’s claims.
The county agreed to pay Abbatiello $100,000 last July as part of a conciliation agreement to settle a sexual harassment and retaliation case brought by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Abbatiello said in her EEOC complaint that another officer, not named in Begley’s lawsuit, had sexually harassed her for years.
The county had previously paid $980,000 to settle a federal whistle-blower lawsuit Abbatiello filed against the county, KPD, a previous police chief and four other officers.
Begley says after he reported the discrimination and retaliation allegations against Asher to Perry, Asher circulated false and disparaging statements about him, which Perry later acknowledged in an email to KPD staff were false. He said Perry initiated an investigation into Abbatiello’s claims only after Perry was unsuccessful in discouraging her from filing a formal complaint.
From then on, Begley says, Perry excluded him from meetings, stopped appointing him as acting deputy chief and acting chief of police, and directed the department’s Criminal Investigation Unit to stop using Begley’s property to store its surveillance vehicle….
read … Kauai Retaliation Redundancy
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