May 11, 2010 News Read > Hawaii Free Press

Hawaii Daily News Read

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

May 11, 2010 News Read
By Andrew Walden @ 2:05 PM :: 10205 Views

Finnegan hits Abercrombie’s “empty campaign promises” on education

Djou surges in fundraising

Djou raised $525,150 in April and had $362,700 in cash at the start of May, according to federal campaign finance reports. He has raised $1.2 million overall.

Hanabusa pulled in $349,000 in April. Her cash on hand was not immediately available last night. She has collected more than $1 million in total.

Case raised $287,400 in April and had $153,500 in cash left in his account. He has raised about $680,000 overall.

28 percent of ballots in Hawaii special election returned so far

Office of Elections spokesman Rex Quidilla said Monday that an estimated 90,000 ballots have been received.

Hawaii Democratic leader happy with DCCC's leaving

A spokeswoman for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee announced Monday it is abandoning efforts to criticize the Republican candidate, Charles Djou, and aid two Democratic contenders, Ed Case and Colleen Hanabusa.

Carpenter said Monday that Hawaii Democrats share the DCCC's concerns about the election. But he said the group's negative ads aimed at Djou were unhelpful.

He says the ads conflicted with Hawaii's more gentlemanly political style.

Carpenter also says the DCCC has not directly told him it is ending its efforts.

ADV: National Democrats pull out of Hawaii special election

Ed Case's (lying) Ad Implies President Obama's Endorsement (HI 1 Special Election now a referendum on Obama?)

Case's commercial says, "Only one candidate is strong enough to stand with the president. The White House believes Ed Case has the best chance of beating Djou and moving America forward. Ed Case, President Obama putting Hawaii first."

The claim the White House thinks Case has the best chance to win is taken from a May 3 quote from an anonymous senior White House official in a column on the website Politico. In the article, the unnamed official says it is clear from a recent poll sponsored by the Democratic National Committee that Case has the best chance of keeping the seat for Democrats.

There is no official White House endorsement for Case….

Milner said Monday, "I am not making an ethical judgement here, I am just saying it isn't what it says it is."

The Case commercial also criticizes Republican front runner Djou as someone who would be used by Washington Republicans in their quest to make President Obama fail.

The ad says Djou has characterized himself as "the exact opposite of Obama."

Djou said Monday he is not the exact opposite of Obama. Djou said he agrees with Obama on many of his education initiatives and on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the "Dont Ask Don't Tell" policy but he disagrees with him on other issues.

(And now with the electorate being treated to a virtual—but bogus--Obama endorsement, this becomes a referendum on whether Obama helps even in a district where he has high personal popularity.)

ADV: Furloughs buy time, but they're not cheap

The lessons learned here should inform Honolulu officials as they boldly go where the state has gone before.

The tentative agreement struck between the Hannemann administration and public employee unions would schedule 24 furlough days for the fiscal year that starts July 1.

The detailed plan on how it would work is still being arranged, and the administration would be smart to do this carefully. Scattered shutdowns of some agencies, such as the Building Department, would add even more to the notorious delays experienced by applicants.

The city is compiling a list of exemptions from the furlough plan, meaning that public health and safety workers would take a pay cut instead of the unpaid time off. But that's not the only category in which the plan will need massaging.

Judge likely to strike down Hawaii law on lease properties

Chief Federal District Judge Susan Oki Mollway is likely to rule that a controversial state law is unconstitutional in the way it changes how rents are determined for tenants on Kalihi and Mapunpuna industrial property now owned by a Massachusetts landlord.

(Calvin Say did his best in MusubiGate and….)

The measure was passed after "a small group of influential businesses" went to the Legislature to seek protection from an "out of state" property owner, Sloan said.

Furlough Friday protesters plead not guilty to trespassing

Attorney Eric Seitz represented members of Save Our Schools Hawaii before Honolulu District Court Judge Colette Garibaldi. Two of 14 members were not present due to their work schedules.

A trial was scheduled for Aug. 3.

(Perfectly timed for the Election Season by the Neal Abercrombie campaign committee.)

PBN Polls HB 444: Should Lingle sign or veto?

72% say veto.

Celebrating first feast day for Father Damien

Third-grader Jasmine O'Brien called St. Damien de Veuster her favorite saint, her hero, on Monday as she and classmates at Christ The King School marked the feast day of Hawaii's first saint.

Mother of man shot by FBI agent says her son was off his meds

(If he had been kept in jail, he never would have been shot. Even suspects are victims of the soft on crime judiciary.)

Hawaii man who served as pimp for minor online sentenced to 5 years

"He's really a decent, decent young man," Green said.

Hawaiian Electric profits up 33% in first quarter

Hawaiian Electric Co.'s net income was $18.1 million in the first quarter, up from $14.1 million last year. The company made about $9 million after a 1 percent rate increase in February. That increase supplemented a 4.7 percent increase in place since August.

The February increase went toward paying for a recently completed $142.3 million, 110-megawatt biodiesel-fueled generating plant at Campbell Industrial Park.

The total 5.7 percent increase is expected to bring in an additional $73.8 million in annual revenue.

"Results also reflected higher electric sales due to more normal weather relative to last year's unusually cool temperatures," Lau said.

Gas Company, GM to test hydrogen fuel-cell technology on Oahu

The two companies this morning announced they will collaborate on a pilot project that takes advantage of The Gas Co.'s 1,000 miles of pipeline and its ability to produce hydrogen at its Campbell Industrial Park plant. Hydrogen fueling stations will be set up along the pipeline for fuel cell vehicles.

The companies said the hydrogen may be available at the equivalent price of gasoline or less. GM is developing a production-intent fuel cell system that could be ready for commercialization in 2015.

Hawaii public schools to get solar power

Hawaii Pacific Solar will install solar panels free of charge at Kaimuki High School, Aiea High School, Waianae High School and Kahuku High and Intermediate Schools. The agreement also allows third parties to own and operate photovoltaic systems on a building or on land owned by an independent entity.

The company will sell the solar energy at a discount to the D.O.E. and, in turn, can claim tax credits.

ADV: 'Ewa Makai Middle School to be Hawaii's first 'green' campus

Kauai Hydro plant a step toward sustainability

Jim Guerber, one of the helpers on the project, said the plant has the capacity to power 75 homes for at least 100 years, noting the Lihu‘e hydro plant is at least 100 years old.

Hokulia Bypass Bond called, but money being withheld

The mainland company that insured the bond for the Mamalahoa bypass wants more information from Hawaii County before handing over any money to county officials.

Regardless of the outcome, an Oceanside official said, the bypass highway will be completed.

(If the County gets its hands on that money you can kiss the road goodbye.)

Council members react to Kenoi's property tax proposal

"I do not support any tax rate increase at this time, period," said Ford, the South Kona councilwoman who lives on agricultural-zoned land. "I think there's fat still left in the budget that could be taken out. People are losing their jobs. They're losing their homes. This tax increase will hit West Hawaii harder than anyplace else. I believe it's going to raise the contribution from West Hawaii from 72 percent of real estate property taxes to I think 77 percent of real estate property taxes.

"(Kenoi) is raising the apartments and the residential (rate), which are the rental properties, and landlord owners will have no choice but to pass on that tax increase to their renters, and that will cause them to increase their rental rates," Ford said. "And that's going to put more people out of housing than we've got right now."

Kenoi gets $54K tinted windows, Hawaii County building costs

HILO -- First the architectural plans needed to be redrawn because the county administration omitted the County Council. Then the elevators had to be custom-made because the specs for the elevator shaft didn't fit any known elevator on the planet.

Sidewalks were put down, then taken up and trees damaged by the sidewalk work had to be replaced ($63,281). A wall was demolished and rebuilt because Mayor Billy Kenoi's conference room was too small and the mayor's windows were tinted ($54,710).

UNRELATED TO TINTED WINDOWS: Malu Motta: “I need one governor so he can pardon me.”

Foreclosure snag for housing project

WAILUKU - Sterling Kim's six-year struggle to build the Hale Mua affordable housing project has hit another barrier: a $12 million foreclosure action by a Colorado lender against the real estate and against the value of his hard-won government approvals.

In March, Kim announced he had finally gotten construction approvals for phase one from the county and would go ahead if he could obtain financing. On Monday, he said his original lender, South West 7 LLC, "wanted to be taken out," and he has been searching for substitute financing for his development costs, as well as new financing to build out the project.

He described the foreclosure action in 2nd Circuit Court as "friendly so far," in that the lender was willing to hold off for a while, but he also said he doesn't have much time to regroup.

(Why there is not enough affordable housing? Key phrase “six year struggle”)

Maui Homeless shelter could use a hand

Maybe some of the ACLU’s money being spent to keep the homeless on the streets should be redirected.

Maui Land & Pineapple loses $2.7 million in quarter

Maui Land & Pineapple Co. narrowed its loss in the first quarter from a year earlier due to a better operating performance, overhead cost reductions, the termination of its post-retirement life insurance plan and the elimination of medical benefits for non-bargaining retirees.

Aquino backed by some local Filipino leaders

"I think people are looking for a change," said Geminiano "Toy" Arre Jr., president of the Filipino Community Center in Hawaii. "I think people are sick and tired of reading in the paper about people in high government doing nothing but enriching themselves."

The son of the late democracy activist Benigno "Ninoy" Aquino Jr. and former Philippine President Corazon Aquino, who died last year, Aquino is leading in the race to become the 15th president of the Philippines.