March 28, 2010 News Read > Hawaii Free Press

Hawaii Daily News Read

Sunday, March 28, 2010

March 28, 2010 News Read
By Andrew Walden @ 1:48 PM :: 6343 Views

LINK>>>Full Text: Rasmussen polls Hawaii Governor’s race

LINK>>>Drunks, tax cheats, and other wannabees: Scary Democrat Lieutenant governor candidates air ideas

SB: Restore Akaka Bill's original language

When Congress convened after the Democratic success in the 2008 elections, passage of Sen. Daniel Akaka's Hawaiian sovereignty bill seemed assured. A rewriting of the bill since then has cost Gov. Linda Lingle's past support and failure to adequately explain the changes threatens to sink the bill in today's sharply partisan Senate. The authors have only themselves to blame for the predicament and should take corrective action. (But after three months of warnings, they haven’t.)

when it reached the House floor last month, Abercrombie injected the new language, and it won House approval on roughly party lines. Abercrombie is running for governor. (And that is all you need to know about Neil Abercrombie.)

The significant change in the Akaka Bill would recognize the Hawaiian governing council as equivalent to "an Indian tribe," with nearly all that comes with that status. The original bill would have directed the state and the governing council to enter into negotiations about their relationship.

Exactly as predicted: Reservation for a Broken Trust

Hawaii's shortage of doctors may double or triple over next decade (Obamacare preview)

(After decades of socialized medicine, with mandatory employer insurance and HHSC…here’s what we get. Exactly as predicted: Long on Coverage, Short on Medicine.)

FULL TEXT: http://www.ahec.hawaii.edu/workforce.html

The 2010 Hawai'i Health Workforce Assessment study done by John A. Burns School of Medicine researchers said the state has roughly 20 percent fewer doctors than it should when compared to physician-to-population ratios nationally.

"If you're on a Neighbor Island right now it's severe, particularly the Big Island," said Dr. Kelley Withy, a researcher and practicing family physician.

"If you're on O'ahu and you need a cardiologist or a primary care doctor you've got to wait a long time."

Previously it was thought that as many as 8,000 physicians might be practicing here, but through the study it was determined that half of the licenses were held by people with Mainland addresses. Further research determined that about 2,900 doctors were practicing here, with some of those working less than part time.

SB pitches the change: Health Care Reform and Small Business: What A Break!

SB chronicles the management: Plan consolidates QUEST services

REALITY: Hawaii Hospitals: Not Quite Catching Up To Africa

Stakes high as testing begins

Educators fearing impact of furloughs on students' scores (but not enough to eliminate waste, fraud, or corruption and fund their own jobs. And certainly not enough to agree to have the next Sup’t appointed by the next Gov.)

More of the same: Ex-principal named to key HSTA post

Useless Democrat rhetoric: Leadership vacuum suffocates students

ADV: Audit raises legitimate management issues

If it sounds like someone wasn't minding the store, Lingle and Kawamura offer this feeble defense: It was legal.

But was it prudent?

Arguably, no. Even Kawamura acknowledges that a large investment stuck in a frozen market is a bad idea. What can be argued is whether this and other examples cited in the audit are evidence that the department is an informal, casual operation, lacking proper leadership and accountability….

But the administration's public comments are another matter. They vilify the messenger, claiming, with breathtaking hypocrisy, that the audit was a political hatchet job — ignoring the fact that their own hyperbole amounts to precisely the same thing. Higa, who should know better, took the bait, holding a press conference and calling for lie detector tests.

(Speaking of breathtaking hypocrisy. This editor is still waiting for the day the Advertiser gets this interested in Hawaii Democrat wrongdoing… for instance, see next article.)

The state's probation program cuts new crime and drug use by offenders, a study finds

HOPE probationers (who, unlike other probationers, are actually having their terms of probation enforced) were 72 percent less likely to use drugs and 55 percent less likely to be arrested for a new crime than the control group, according to results of the trial posted recently on the NIJ Web site. They were also half as likely to have their probation revoked.

(Its amazing what happens when the State actually does its job and enforces the terms of probation.)

Reform groups want changes in campaign spending laws

The law was set for an overhaul last year, but Gov. Linda Lingle vetoed the bill and the Legislature failed to override.

Now Sen. Brian Taniguchi, Judiciary Committee chairman, says he wants to move a similar bill back for a vote this week.

"We will work over the weekend on this one," Taniguchi (D, Manoa) said last week. "I don't expect it to diverge much from what we passed last time."

Citizens groups, however, say the existing bill doesn't go far enough to regulate money given to politicians from corporations.

(War of position—battle not joined by opposing side--anticipating the 2011 session.)

6,000 compete for 175 jobs

Up to 6,000 job seekers crowded onto the Honolulu Community College campus yesterday morning for a chance at 175 apprentice and engineering positions available at the Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard.

State 5 cent plastic bag fee advances in Senate

LIHU‘E — The latest incarnation of a proposal under discussion at the state Legislature--Senate Bill 2559--would enact a five-cent fee for all single-use checkout bags — both paper and plastic — statewide in an attempt to discourage their use and promote reusable bags and environmental stewardship.

Not all environmentalists are happy with recent changes to the bill, which turned it from the outright ban on single-use bags that had been passed by the state Senate earlier this month into a fee structure in the state House of Representatives.

Zero Waste Kaua‘i Chairman John Harder said Friday said the “gutted” version that replaced the ban with a 15-cent fee and then reduced that to a 5-cent fee is insufficient to change behavior, saying, “We don’t think a nickel is enough.”

REALITY: Hint to Hawaii: Plastic Bag Ban overturned by Calif. court -- no EIS

SPJ: Vexatious Requestor Legislation Does Not Facilitate a Transparent Government and Sets a Bad Precedent in Hawaii

1) The bill lacks definitions and gives OIP and agencies license to interpret legislative intent without guidelines. In fact, a citizen who acts in completely good faith could be considered a vexatious requestor, and thus punished with a minimum of due process.

2) There is no judicial or legislative recourse available. Two administrative agencies decide who is a vexatious requestor. Where are the checks and balances?

Property taxes to increase: Finance committee to mull over Kenoi's budget proposal

The budget news is grim, and Kenoi's $375.4 million operating budget includes a number of unpopular measures. Property taxes would go up, county employees would be furloughed and a number of programs, including the county bands, would be cut under Kenoi's plan.

After a rash of public testimony, several County Council members say they want to find a way to restore the $381,602 for the Hilo and Kona members of the Hawaii County Band. They'll have to find the money elsewhere, though, to balance the budget.

Ca-Ching! Big Isle turbines to tower 156 feet

Your tax dollars at work subsidizing private businesses.

REALITY: Wind Energy's Ghosts

Big Island, small population growth

Hawaii Island's gained just 1,436 people in the 12 months ending July 1, 2009, for a total population of 177,835, according to recent estimates by the U.S. Census Bureau. The 0.8 percent growth rate was the lowest since 1999.

N. Korea faces likelihood of widespread upheaval

The surging speculation about the fall of the Kim dynasty grows out of repeated reports that Kim Jong Il is in failing health and may have only three years to live. Rising crime rates, spurred by spreading starvation, add to the speculation. The execution of Pak Nam Il, a finance official, as an apparent scapegoat for a ruinous reform of the currency, provides still another clue.

A study of resistance found North Koreans becoming defiant with "everyday forms of resistance," such as engaging in forbidden marketing. A South Korean newspaper, Chosun Ilbo, reported repression has become so harsh North Koreans are nostalgic for Kim Il Sung.

If North Koreans long for the dictator who led them into the Korean War in which 1 million North Korean civilians and 520,000 soldiers were killed, things today must really be horrendous.