March 14, 2010 News Read > Hawaii Free Press

Hawaii Daily News Read

Sunday, March 14, 2010

March 14, 2010 News Read
By Andrew Walden @ 2:17 PM :: 8687 Views

LINK>>>Lingle: Legislature has done “marijuana stores, gambling, and foie gras” -- needs to focus on jobs

SB: Housing project on River Street worth pursuing (Homelessness Industry again takes aim at Chinatown)

(With Rod Tam on the ropes, the homelessness industry is turning around to push its scam to concentrate lunatics and drug addicts in Chinatown and enable them to stay addicted and untreated because it will attract attention and therefore attract donations from foundations headed by hand-wringing fools. This is exactly what happened in LA Skid Row. It took over a decade to clean up that mess once it was made. The tourism industry has worked to clean up Waikiki, will they recognize the tourism potential of Chinatown and act accordingly? Or will they arrange a truce; giving Chinatown to the homelessness industry in exchange for being allowed to clear out Waikiki?)

READ: Kapiolani Park: Homelessness industry takes Hawaii tourism hostage, Defeating the "homelessness industry" before it gets a grip on Hawaii

Aiona sees ‘need’ to run for governor

Aiona said projects like the highway widening are crucial now, and other capital improvement projects will be coming soon both on Kaua‘i and elsewhere across the state, to help prop the state’s sagging economy.

He smiled and declined to comment on the barbs being traded by Honolulu Mayor Mufi Hannemann and former U.S. Rep. Neil Abercrombie, two high-profile Democratic candidates for the governor’s office.

They will square off in what will likely be a no-holds-barred primary election in September, the winner most likely facing off against Aiona in the November general election.

Asked if the state needs a Native Hawaiian governor, Aiona said the state needs “a governor who will represent all the people of Hawai‘i.”

ADV: What if all of those visitors don't show? (Hawaii’s future= Detroit)

We now know what it feels like to have 1 million fewer visitors and about $3 billion less in spending, the biggest and fastest decline Hawai'i has ever experienced. It's pummeled the local economy, more than doubling our jobless rate and vaporizing nearly $2 billion in tax collections.

Visitor arrivals are expected to grow only slightly this year, to about 6.4 million. The state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism estimates that arrivals won't hit 7 million again until 2012 but by 2013 will hit 7.5 million, equaling the record set in 2006….

It's important to remember that the only way Hawai'i hit 7 million in the first place was because of the 2004 arrival of the first of the three Norwegian Cruise Line ships running interisland trips. At its peak in 2007, the cruise business brought in 500,000 visitors to Hawai'i, a number that fell by half the following year as NCL began retreating from the market.

Business and community leaders in Hawai'i would do well to look beyond the immediate challenges of today and consider the example of Michigan, which stands as a sobering example of shortsightedness and over-reliance on one industry to pay its bills and employ its workers.

A Detroit assembly line worker circa 1970 couldn't imagine a future with a bankrupt General Motors and a vanquished United Auto Workers union. But it happened.

Despite progress on repairs, DoE projects still await funding

Some campuses have been plagued by conditions ranging from cracked walls and leaking roofs to termite infestation, and have had to wait years for repairs.

A decade ago, the state's repair and maintenance backlog approached nearly $1 billion. The state has made progress since then, but as recently as 2008 the backlog was estimated at $412 million.

Department of Education's Factrak Web site: www.factrak.k12.hi.us/

Bulletin puts itself up for sale: Ads will begin running tomorrow and potential buyers will be notified

Oahu Publications will notify several dozen major and minor newspaper groups and media conglomerates worldwide, he said, and will contact a few dozen key people in Hawaii who have the financial ability to run a newspaper.

Pierre Omidyar, billionaire eBay founder and Hawaii resident who plans to soon begin an online-only local news service, is on the list of contacts, Francis said. (Great, Omidyar could run endless editorials on the benefits of $7 /gal gasoline) Local car dealer Mike McKenna, who has identified himself as a potential suitor, is not on the list, he said.

(Must mean that McKenna is not a Gramscian.)

"I was surprised to see him come forward as an interested buyer for the Star-Bulletin," Francis said. "We've not had much success over the years in getting McKenna to believe enough in the value of the paper to buy an ad for his car dealership." … (And then check out this line….)

"Any buyer would need really deep pockets," he said Friday, adding that even with the profitable free-distribution MidWeek, Oahu Publications has lost about $1 million a month for nine years.

(Or they could just adopt a profitable business model….)

Challenges for venture capital: Isle summit focuses on attracting investors (for first time ever)

Hawai'i's venture(sic) capital(sic) community is bracing for another tough year, weighed down by ~~continued weakness in the economy and~~ the disappearance of lucrative state tax credits for technology investment.

(And they’re still crying that the taxpayers won’t give them 2 for 1 tax credits so they can get rich by pretending to be entrepreneurs. Boo hoo.)

Here’s their next scam: Furloughs: Advertiser sides with “sustainability” billionaires, Wind Energy's Ghosts

Asking investors to leave, please

One of the measures still alive at this halfway point in the legislative session is a measure that would slap investors with a hefty capital gains tax if they hold real property only for a short period of time before selling the property again.

Under the proposal, which passed the Senate and is now in the House, a tax of 60 percent of the capital gains realized would be imposed on the seller if the real property was held for a period of less than six months; 30 percent of if the property was held for six months but less than 12 months; and 15 percent if the property is held for 12 months but less than 24 months.

(So when banks foreclose, they either have to jack up the resale price to pay the tax or wait, while the property is vandalized, in order to avoid taxes.)

According to the committee report that accompanied the bill as it left the Senate, lawmakers believe that it is in the public's interest to deter investors from selling property held for less than 24 months. The report goes on to state that this unrestricted speculation in real property drives the prices of real estate up and "causes artificial bubbles in the market place." This "limits housing to the wealthy and drives out buyers who could otherwise afford to purchase a home."

(The Senators’ socialist ignorance is dead wrong. Hawaii’s high land prices are an artificially created shortage constructed by, and for the benefit of, large landowners. The environmentalists and the union old-boys act as the agents of the land trusts. “Speculation” is merely the by-product of this artificial shortage. If “speculation” were the cause, then bubbles would never bust. Duh.)

Fighting Hawaii condo boards is costly, risky: Harassment of Lanikai resident got nasty and very expensive

At Ke Nani Kai on Moloka'i, a dispute escalated when the association in 2007 filed a defamation lawsuit against two families who had initiated a campaign to replace board members. The campaign was driven in part by the board's failure to deal with two men with criminal records who damaged property and harassed homeowners to silence and intimidate residents critical of the board, according to documents filed in connection with the court case.

"It was like living in a Nazi regime," said Bob Aldrich, one of the homeowners who was unsuccessfully sued by the association.

Land fund moves closer to ballot: At least 1% of real property taxes would buy land for access and preservation

The county Charter Commission advanced more charter amendments, including a 1 percent land fund, closer to the ballot box.

Dazzling display of deferral: State House OKs local control of fireworks

Big Island council members will get to do the heavy lifting on limiting fireworks if the state House of Representatives has its way.

Get to know KIUC board candidates

(The first question asked of nominees is predicated on a pure falsehood….)

“Current global trends in energy supply and consumption are patently unsustainable … and the future of human prosperity depends on how successfully we tackle the central energy challenges facing us today,” according to the International Energy Agency, the world’s most authoritative source on global energy. Given this, and the worldwide consequences of greenhouse gases and climate change from the uncontained use of fossil fuel, do you think Kaua‘i Island Utility Cooperative should plan to spend tens of millions on a new fossil fuel generation plant (per their Integrated Resource Plan)?”

(The global warming cult, by shaping the KIUC campaign in this manner, seeks to take control of the board of directors and enact “clean energy” policies which will enrich environmental fraudsters and destroy KIUC while driving utility rates thru the roof.)

Here are the anti-superferry protesters’ favorite candidates: VOTE FOR TENBRUGGENCATE, GEGEN AND BAIN

(So don’t vote for them, instead vote for the man the enviro-scum call “corporate shill”--Allen Smith. He has for years impeded the disastrous changes the enviros seek to bring about. Otherwise get ready for electric bills to double or worse.)

READ: Wind Energy's Ghosts

RELATED: Antonio Gramsci Reading List