FCC: Hawaii false missile alert sent by worker believing attack was real
Tsutsui Resigns--Will Rod Becker be Hawaii's Next Lt Governor?
Rep Cynthia Thielen for House Speaker
$1M Per Bed -- State Contract to Design, Build New State Hospital Building
Olelo TV Moving to Siberia?
UH to target former students for degree completion?
HB1970: Support Apprentice Hunting in the Aloha State
Wage floor great for robots
Captive Insurance Puts $1B into Hawaii Banks
DLNR Website Promotes Legal Hiking Trails
Hawaii: Economic Impact of Immigration
HSTA Pushing Massive Property Tax Hike
Crooks and Cronies Pony up: Hanabusa raises $731K
SA: … Hanabusa’s campaign pulled in $731,945 in contributions for the reporting period covering July 1 to Dec. 31, according to filings with the state Campaign Spending Commission.
Donations began flowing into Hanabusa’s war chest in September when she announced she was considering running against Gov. David Ige in the Democratic primary. Hanabusa, who has said she will not step down from her congressional seat to campaign, formally launched her campaign for governor this month.
Donors contributing the maximum $6,000 allowed for the election cycle include (the usual suspects) retired banker Walter Dods; Arthur Ushijima, president and CEO of The Queen’s Health System; NextEra Energy President Eric Gleason and NextEra CEO James Robo; and developers Jeffrey Stone, Christine Camp, Everett Dowling and BJ Kobayashi.
The campaign, which reported having no cash on hand at the start of the reporting period, logged roughly $81,000 in expenses…..
Ige, as of late Monday, had not filed a report, which is due Wednesday. Ige said in August he would raise $1 million by the end of 2017 and planned to raise $2.5 million to $3 million total to secure another four-year term.
Republican candidates in the race, state Rep. Andria Tupola and retired (disbarred) attorney John Carroll, also have not yet filed campaign finance reports….
Reality: www.TheRealHanabusa.com
read … Hanabusa raises over $700,000 for campaign
HI-EMA’s Miyagi resigns, ‘button pusher’ fired—Employee had been ‘problem’ for 10 Years
SA: “Gen. Miyagi, a respected military leader and honorable man, has taken full responsibility and submitted letter of resignation today,” state Adjutant General Maj. Gen. Joe Logan, who ordered the investigation, said today at a news conference inside Diamond Head, HI-EMA’s headquarters.
As a result of the findings, Logan said, the worker who set off the alert was fired on Friday, a HI-EMA deputy resigned after Jan. 13, and a third employee is being suspended without pay. The fired worker had been on paid leave after the false alarm.
Retired Brig. Gen. Bruce Oliveira, who headed the internal investigation into HI-EMA, said the button pusher failed to hear “Exercise, Exercise, Exercise” although five others got it right.
According to Oliveira’s report, the employee has been a source of concern for over 10 years because of poor performance and had been counseled.
Oliveira said the fired employee had confused drills for real events at least twice before, once for a fire and once for a tsunami and had been “counseled.”…
Video: Ige announces results of internal investigation into false alert of missile attack
PDF: False Ballistic Missile Alert Internal Investigation
CB: Hawaii Fires Man Who Sent Out False Missile Alert, Top Administrator Resigns
Related: FCC: Hawaii false missile alert sent by worker believing attack was real
read … HI-EMA’s Miyagi resigns, ‘button pusher’ fired
No More Tent Cities: Bold plan before lawmakers would create scores of 'villages' to house homeless in individual solid-wall structures
HNN: …A bill under consideration would establish scores of the so-called Puuhonua sites, in which tenants would live in cheap, dome-shaped permanent housing.
There are five locations being considered as part of a first phase, and each community would be made up of up to 100 tiny homes. (NO TENTS!)
Among the proposed locations: Sand Island Recreation Area, Barber's Point Beach Park, Kahuku Point Beach Park and the abandoned Job Corp Center across from the rifle range in Hawaii Kai.
The measure is getting early backing, though legislators stress there's more work to be done to make it a reality.
"I read through it and I was like this is great," said Republican state Rep. Andria Tupola, whose district includes Nanakuli and Ewa Villages….
The proposal envisions people in existing homeless camps transitioning together into a village. But a spokesman for the state's largest homeless service provider says that's often a bad idea, especially if drugs and mental illness are involved.
"You really need to design facilities that are tailored to individual sub-populations," Institute for Human Services spokesman Kimo Carvalho said. "If you mix it all together you're actually going to have an unsustainable community that's not really going to lead to any type of success."
The bill has been referred jointly to the House Housing and Human Services committees. If it survives it goes to the Finance Committee….
Related: Mental Health: Can Reform Solve Hawaii’s Homeless, Prison and Unfunded Liability Problems?
read … A good idea (as long as they don't slip tents in at the end)
Construction costs decline in Honolulu as activity plateaus
PBN: … What will HART’s next excuse be? ….
read … Decline
Momilani ES: HSTA Member Put on Leave after Child Sex Abuse Charges
SA: Momilani Elementary School has put one of its teachers on leave after learning that two former Punahou students, who are now adults, have accused him of sexually abusing them between 2005 to 2006.
“The Hawaii State Department of Education has recently learned of allegations against a former Punahou basketball coach (2001-2004) for incidents that allegedly occurred in School Year 2005-2006,” Momilani Principal Doreen Higa wrote in a letter sent to parents Monday.
“This individual is currently a teacher employed at Momilani Elementary School,” Higa wrote. “The employee has been placed on leave and an investigation is underway.”….
read … HSTA Member
HSTA Bills—All About Mo’ Money for HSTA
CB: The Hawaii teachers union is pushing lawmakers to place a tax increase proposal on the ballot this year to pay for mo’ money for HSTA….
HB 2508 reintroduces the idea of creating a separate facilities funding stream for start-up charter schools, which must locate and pay for their building leases from their operating budgets without additional assistance from the state….
SB 2383 and HB 2162, would provide charter schools money to award teacher bonuses without having to dip into the school’s per-pupil funding, which is roughly $7,343 per student. The $5,000 year-end bonuses awarded to traditional public schools teachers historically come from a separate line item in the Department of Education budget….
The slate of other education proposals includes capping the number of standardized tests given to students each year, media literacy instruction, commercialization of items produced by schools’ career academies and providing housing vouchers for teachers in the costliest state in the country.
On Friday, the Hawaii State Teachers Association unveiled its top legislative priorities this year….
A pair of House bills proposing a similar tax died in conference last year….
Another bill would give teachers a cost-of-living break — and perhaps convince them to stay in their jobs here longer — by offering a $500 monthly housing subsidy….
The HSTA, for instance, is pushing for a legislative-backed study to more closely examine whether Hawaii’s smaller rural schools are funded equitably in the DOE….HB 2260 defines such schools as located at least an hour’s drive away from the nearest public high school; those schools on Lanai, Molokai or Niihau; or an elementary school that enrolls less than 200 students or a secondary school that enrolls less than 400 students….
SB 2083 proposes to establish after-school program funding at Kalanianaole Elementary and Intermediate School in Waimanalo on Oahu, Kapaa Middle School on Kauai, Konawaena Middle School on Big Island and Waimea Canyon Middle School on Kauai.
As for boosting the quality of special education services in Hawaii, HSTA is pushing for a bill, SB 2521, that would give $1,690 to special education teachers for classroom support and instruction materials….
Related: HSTA Pushing Massive Property Tax Hike
read … Charter Schools And Special Ed
Progressives: Keep Everybody Doped up while we Raise Taxes and Kill off Expensive Oldsters
SA: Pass a $15 minimum wage. Pass family-leave insurance to help young families and family members caring for kupuna. Pass a medical aid-in-dying bill. Ask voters to add a real estate surcharge to fund our vastly underfunded education system. Reform our criminal justice system by legalizing marijuana. Protect our environment and ban oxybenzone.
read … ‘Progress’
Bill Could End Academic Freedom In Hawaii
CB: …The Senate Higher Education chair will be hearing Senate Bill 2328 this Tuesday at 1:15 pm. The bill states:
Beginning with the 2020-2021 school year, all courses at all campuses within the University of Hawai’i system that require the use of instructional materials, including textbooks, shall use instructional materials from the open educational resources at the University of Hawaii;provided that the use of instructional materials, including textbooks, that requires a student to purchase or pay a subscription for the materials shall be prohibited; provided further that if open educational resources does not have relevant instructional materials available for a course, the faculty member or lecturer responsible with providing instruction for the course shall create the instructional materials and offer those materials free of charge to students through open educational resources….
read … Bill Could End Academic Freedom In Hawaii
Priorities: State lawmakers consider ban on plastic straws
SA: Senate Bill 2285 would make selling and distributing plastic straws illegal, and violators could be punished by fines and required to perform community service…..
Under the proposed ban, the fine for violators would be between $100 and $500 for each offense, and the measure also would require violators to pick up litter or do community service for four hours. Any additional offenses would be punishable by eight hours of community service for each offense.
“We put that in so that people who might violate the new law can get a firsthand look at the damage straws do,”…. (LOL!)
The city of Seattle already has approved a ban on plastic straws known as “Strawless in Seattle” that will take effect in July, and County Councils in Hawaii have shown a willingness to ban other plastic products to protect the environment.
Hawaii was the first state to officially ban plastic bags in grocery stores. The Big Island banned plastic bags in 2013, followed by Kauai and Maui counties, and then Oahu in 2015.
A ban on polystyrene foam food containers will take effect on Maui in December and on the Big Island in July 2019.
SB 2285, which bans plastic straws, will have a public hearing Wednesday at 1:15 p.m. in Room 224 at the state Capitol….
read … State lawmakers consider ban on plastic straws
Here’s How The State Could End Up Owning Your Oceanfront Property
CB: When sea level rises, a new legal opinion says, public land follows the shoreline and the state can charge property owners to access their own places….
Related: AG Chin: Every time your oceanfront property erodes, the State seizes more of your land
read … Here’s How The State Could End Up Owning Your Oceanfront Property
Legislators Conspire to Hide Public Employees Salaries
CB: …House Speaker Scott Saiki finds Civil Beat’s salary database too specific when it comes to “legislative employees.”…
read … Telling The Public A Little Less About What It Pays Its Workers
Pandering Senators To Stores: Don’t Kick People Out In Emergencies
CB:People would have the legal right to shelter in “buildings open to the public” during emergencies if some Hawaii state senators have their way.
They introduced Senate Bill 2534 two weeks after a false missile alert was texted to cellphones across the state. Soon after, reports surfaced of businesses kicking out people who were shopping or seeking shelter due to liability concerns…..
(So fallout shelters are determined by ‘rights’ rather than by functionality. You ‘win’ the right to ‘shelter’ directly behind 20 foot tall glass windows..)
read … Relentless Pandering
FBI agent seen examining Maui liquor control documents
MN: …The FBI’s visit to the offices of the Department of Liquor Control in the Trask Building follows a violence in the workplace complaint filed against Mukai, which was heard by the Liquor Control Commission on Jan. 19. The complaint was filed by Bill Pacheco, head of the enforcement division. He has said that several grievances also have been filed by the Hawaii Government Employees Association against the liquor director’s office since Mukai took over in June 2016.
(…None of which are issues the FBI would be involved in…so something else may be going on….)
Pacheco’s complaint appears to be scheduled for the liquor commission’s next meeting Feb. 14, according to he commission’s website.
Across the street in the county building, the council’s Policy, Economic Development and Agriculture Committee on Monday voted 6-0 in favor of recommending that the full council approve a resolution to conduct an audit of the liquor department. The committee hopes the audit will be completed by June 30 or earlier.
The resolution is slated to be heard at the Feb. 16 council meeting….
MN: A “routine audit” of the department’s fingerprinting operations.
read … FBI agent seen examining liquor control documents
After Solar Boom, Customers Left in Lurch by Solar Contractors
KHON: Over the past few months, our Action Line volunteers have fielded more than half a dozen complaints about solar companies either going out of business or not living up to customers’ expectations….
In several other cases, homeowners claim they’re paying electric bills higher than what they expected, and are having problems getting the company to respond to their concerns….
Also, customers are reporting having problems getting their panels serviced or repaired….
Flashback: No Blackout: RevoluSun Exposed
read … What you can do if a solar company leaves you hanging
Destroying Forests to Produce Renewable Energy
IM: …The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) published its initial climate science assessment in 1990. Wood and energy were each placed in separate chapters.
“Whenever forest products were harvested for energy, the IPCC scientists noted the climate impact in the land-use chapter. To avoid duplication, they did not count it in the energy chapter. Their decision to note the climate impacts under land use instead of energy was a seemingly arbitrary decision that’s being seized upon by the growing wood energy industry.”
The investigation noted that treating wood-to-electricity facilities as “carbon neutral” or “zero emissions” energy source is a convenient but erroneous assumption.
“The accounting trick allows the energy industry to pump tens of millions of tons of carbon dioxide into the air every year and pretend it doesn’t exist.”
Biomass companies are receiving tax subsidies to heat up the Planet. Wood is the largest renewable energy in the European Union. The European appetite for wood is being fed by forests in the U.S. Southeast which are razed, pelletized and exported.
The wood potential loophole was included in the 1998 Kyoto Protocol. “The blanket definition of biomass as carbon neutral is scientifically flawed, but it’s been left unchallenged by international law. The U.N. climate agreements that came after Kyoto have all been silent on wood energy’s impacts on the planet.”
The European Union (EU), Korea, Japan, U.S. Northeast’s Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), California, and Oregon all treat wood as either a loophole or as carbon neutral. Many subsidize the industry….
Hawai`i is no exception. To lure ethanol companies to build facilities in Hawai`i, the State redefined all biomass to always be renewable energy, regardless of its climate impact or its environmental footprint. The definition of renewable energy in Hawai`i has no reference to climate change.
A 2011 law introduced by Senator Mike Gabbard requires the Public Utilities Commission to analyze greenhouse gas emissions. They have never done so. This resulted in the Sierra Club`s successful appeal to the Hawai`i Supreme Court regarding the HC&S coal plant, and the pending Life of the Land appeal of the Hu Honua decision….
read … Destroying Forests to Produce Renewable Energy
Anti-GMO Hucksters Push Usual Agenda in Legislature
KGI: …Pesticide-free buffer zones around schools, comprehensive testing of water, soil and air in impacted communities, a fully updated Birth Defect Registry and a statewide ban of the insecticide chlorpyrifos are all targets for HAPA in the upcoming session….
read … Lack of Imagination
'Startling': Bone cancer strikes 3 kids whose fathers work at the same fire house
HNN: …In the wake of the cancer cluster, Honolulu's fire chief and the firefighters union are calling for an investigation.
"It's startling," said Capt. Andrew Fukuda, who's assigned to the Waipahu fire house.
"This is not really a coincidence. When it happens three times at the same station to our firefighters' children, everybody's concerned. Everybody's concerned about it."
The first diagnosis came in June 2013….
read … 'Startling': Bone cancer strikes 3 kids whose fathers work at the same fire house
Hawaii Illegal Gambling Defendants Sue Kaneshiro, Kealoha Over ‘Vindictive’ Charges
CO: In Hawaii, a sweepstakes machine supplier and a group of arcade owners, who were on the wrong end of the islands’ biggest ever gambling bust, are turning the tables on their accusers.
The eight individuals are suing Honolulu Prosecuting Attorney Keith Kaneshiro and the City Council of Honolulu on the grounds that they were made the victims of “malicious and retaliatory prosecution,” partly, they claim, because one of the group compared Kaneshiro to Mob kingpin John Gotti shaking down their businesses in a TV interview.
The group was tried twice on gambling charges and twice cleared because the Honolulu Prosecuting Attorney’s Office botched the cases….
read … Sue
Can Anyone Resuscitate The Hawaii GOP?
CB: State GOP Chairwoman Shirlene Dela Cruz Ostrov is launching a campaign to do what some might call the impossible: stop the Hawaii Republican Party from rushing headlong into oblivion.
Ostrov is a self-proclaimed “local girl” who says she can break into pidgin English any time she wants. Her parents were Filipino immigrants from Batangan. Ostrov graduated from Mililani High School, got her degree in political science from the University of Florida and went on to serve 24 years in the U.S. Air Force, retiring as a colonel.
She’s been in combat zones in Afghanistan and Sudan and was awarded the Bronze Star.
“It’s going to be difficult, but there is nowhere for the party to go but up,” Ostrov says….
The NRC will pay the salary of Aaron Wilson III, whom Ostrov recruited as the new executive director of the Hawaii GOP. He will move to Honolulu to set up residence Feb. 6, she says. Wilson is a 34-year-old from Philadelphia. He is considered one of the key strategists for turning Pennsylvania into a red state in the 2016 presidential election….
Jane Tatibouet is in charge of recruiting and training candidates. She says her initial focus will be on nine open legislative seats whose incumbents have either retired or are seeking other offices….
Gallup: Trump Approval 29% in Hawaii
read … Can Anyone Resuscitate The Hawaii GOP?
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