Tech: 'Clinically Psychotic' HGEA Signs Suicide Pact
Payday Lending: Legislature to Consider New Regulations?
State Now Accepting Grant-in-Aid Applications
UHERO: Carbon Tax Would Bring together energy and climate change policy
Kaneshiro names new First Deputy Prosecuting Attorney
Hawaii Congressional Delegation How They Voted December 11, 2017
Poll: Let’s Have A Constitutional Convention
CB: Two-thirds of Hawaii voters surveyed in our poll support the state holding a “con con,” the first in 40 years….
The ’78 Con Con, as it’s called, is perhaps best known for establishing the Office of Hawaiian Affairs…..
Related: ConCon: OHA Admin Pushing to Abolish OHA Board of Trustees?
read … Poll
Chief of Staff: Ige Dumps McCartney, Fuchigami Takes Over
SA: Mike McCartney, Gov. David Ige’s chief of staff, has been moved into a lower-level position and salary — but gets to keep his old title — under what Ige describes as a reorganization of his office.
The change was prompted in October when the governor named former state Transportation Director Ford Fuchigami as his administrative director.
Some political observers questioned the legality of having two individuals separately serving in a constitutionally mandated role with a constitutionally prescribed salary. Under past governors the titles of chief of staff and administrative director were held simultaneously by one staffer….
McCartney said the reshuffling was not prompted by concerns that as chief of staff he was earning a salary constitutionally prescribed for the administrative director position, which Fuchigami now fills. He said the salary changes were effective at the time of Fuchigami’s appointment….
read … Gov’s chief of staff shifts to deputy role
Raises for UH staffers: Many at UH-Hilo, HCC earn more than $100K per year
HTH: …UH is required by law to disclose the salary adjustments, which were posted in meeting materials provided at a Board of Regents’ committee meeting last week.
Unionized UH employees also received pay increases. Employees represented by Hawaii Government Employees Association, Unit 8, received an across-the-board increase of 3.2 percent for fiscal year 2018 and 3.45 percent for fiscal year 2019.
University of Hawaii Professional Assembly, Unit 7, employees received an across-the-board increase of 2.13 percent plus $500 to the base salary for fiscal year 2018, and 2.82 percent plus $500 to the base salary for fiscal year 2019.
Campuswide, at least 91 of 545 UH-Hilo employees earn more than $100,000 per year, though the actual number is likely higher because employees represented by HGEA are not required to report exact salaries, only earning ranges.
Of about 272 HGEA employees at UH-Hilo, at least 143 have six-figure earning potential.
At HCC, at least 14 of 229 employees earn more than $100,000 per year, and at least 52 of 115 HGEA employees at the community college have six-figure earning potential….
read … Brainwashing is Expensive
Life of the Land Promulgates 2018 Legislative Priorities
IM: The organization is proposing six bills for the 2018 State Legislature….
The Hawaii Tourism Authority shall develop a list of web-based list visitor unit addresses, which shall include housing units and rental units that are being marketed for visitors….
The State shall not discriminate against people who reduce their greenhouse gas emissions….
The Department of Education should hold two additional innovation contests. --The first innovation contest deals with electric vehicles.—The (second) innovation contest deals with space. There is the belief that O`ahu lacks space to meet a 100% renewable energy goal….
All governmental agencies shall require a Climate Vulnerability Assessment for all permit applications filed after January 1, 2020. The Department of Health should shall establish rules, which may include exemption lists for projects….
The PUC will consider whether it is reasonable and in the public interest to preclude the HECO Companies, as a matter of regulatory and public policy, from ownership of new generation….
The commission shall require shareholder-owned electric utilities to disengage from owning any generation asset….
read … Life of the Land Promulgates 2018 Legislative Priorities
Potheads at Work? Up 65%—Will Legislature Mandate Marijuana for Brain Surgeons and Heavy Equipment Operators?
CB: …Many employers have a zero-tolerance drug policy. But even for those who want to accommodate medical cannabis patients, things can get complicated because it’s difficult to tell whether someone is intoxicated by the drug at any given time.
Marijuana usage can be detected by a urine sample for up to a month. Unlike alcohol, there’s no reliable test for real-time cannabis intoxication, making it tricky for employers to tell whether a worker uses marijuana while off duty or on the job.
Now, a few months into the state’s dispensary program and a month before the 2018 legislative session, a medical cannabis working group is evaluating the dispensary program and problems encountered by patients.
Test results since dispensaries opened suggest marijuana use in the workforce may be on the rise.
The number of urine samples analyzed by Diagnostic Laboratory Services that tested positive for marijuana increased by 65 percent in the third quarter this year compared to the same period last year, said Carl Linden, the company’s scientific director of toxicology.
Dispensary sales began in early August, about a third of the way through the quarter.
The number of marijuana-positive samples increased by 36 percent from the second to the third quarter of 2017. Fourth quarter results to be released in January may give a better indication of whether increased cannabis use is a trend, he said….
In the Aloha State, cannabis advocates are hoping to amend current medical marijuana laws that do not protect patients in the workplace….
At a meeting Wednesday, the subcommittee plans to vote on its priorities for the upcoming session….
A bill introduced in 2015 aimed to prevent employers from disciplining or firing patients for medical marijuana use. It was stripped of the employee protections, but eventually became law, leaving in place protections for patients enrolling in schools or waiting for an organ transplant.
The law also protects patients who live in settings governed by condo associations….
read … Pot head priorities
How I became a medical cannabis patient here
SA: The first stop should be the state Department of Health website . This outlines what applicants need to know: qualifying conditions, directions for finding a participating health provider and other procedures.
After selecting Malie Cannabis Clinic from a list, I sent an email, proposing to apply for a “329” card:
I am a person with occasional acute pain owing to joint problems; currently my chiropractor has things handled, but as a potential patient, I’m thinking access to an alternative form of pain relief could be personally helpful. I do not smoke cannabis recreationally — I’m more your “glass of wine” type — but I acknowledge it has utility in pain relief.
The email reply from the Malie Cannabis Clinic:
When you come to the clinic you will need your photo ID and if you have medical records you can bring them, however they are not required.
So the bar is not set especially high, in that a condition that is currently acute is not a prerequisite. In this case, the 10-business-days wait time for the card to be issued was not a problem.
SA: Medical marijuana: As easy as pot
read … How I became a medical cannabis patient here
Boon to H-Power: China to Refuse ‘Dirty’ Recycling Shipments
WHT: China wants to rehabilitate its environment, but one of the country’s primary initiatives to do so could leave pollutants piling up over much of the rest of the world, including Hawaii.
The Chinese government announced earlier this year that beginning in January, it will raise its standards for contamination on recyclable materials to one-third of 1 percent — a mark experts have dubbed all but impossible to hit.
China amended that standard in mid-November to 1 percent contamination, according to Resource Recycling Inc., a multimedia publisher of industry business journals, but it remains onerously high.
A contaminant in this context is any substance present other than the target recyclable material — a piece of tape left on an envelope in a mixed paper bin, for instance.
“Essentially what China is saying is, ‘We don’t want your garbage,’” said Paul Buklarewicz, executive director of Recycle Hawaii, a nonprofit educational membership organization….
read … H-Power, Here We Come
Hawaii Fishing Fleet Liberates More Territory from Enviros
CB: …The Hawaii-based longline fleet has once again bought short-term rights to keep fishing for bigeye tuna after reaching its quota.
Even with the ability to effectively double their allowable catch by paying $250,000 for half of the unused quota from the Northern Marianas, Guam and American Samoa, Hawaii longliners — with support from the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council— are still pushing to fish for more tuna and open up protected waters inside national marine monuments….
read … Liberating
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