GOP: LoPresti 'admitted criminal acts'--Should drop out of Race
Hawaii--Highest Employment Rate in USA
Next Green Energy Fail: Wind Energy to be Generated from Flying Kite over Kamuela
WHT: …It was the first day of constrained hover testing by Makani — a project of X, a division of Alphabet, Inc. — after almost four years of preparation on the company’s nearly 650-acre site 5 miles outside Waimea town center.
(Translation: This is part of a tax avoidance strategy by Google/Alphabet. Taxes are for little people to pay.)
Last week, Makani staff started with the hover kite on the ground, turning the motors on and off. (Woo-woo.) They then made sure all the communication systems (Uh-huh.) were working and placed it on the perch. The constrained ground testing for the hover kite will continue for several more weeks before crosswind testing will begin for the ultimate prototype: an 85-foot M600 power-generating kite.
(Soon a viral Youtube video will show this thing hovering then rolling over and crashing into the ground just outside the Kamuela McDonalds.)
“The crosswind kite — our power-generating kite — will fly loops in the sky and generate power,” Stirr, Makani’s flight testing program manager, said Tuesday with excitement in her voice.
(See? Told you.)
If all goes as planned, later this year the M600 will be their first power-generating kite to fly on Hawaii Island as part of their research project.
(All won’t go as planned. – Except the tax credits. They have already gone to Google—as planned.)
In between testing, staff review hover kite video (Just wait for the video.) and audio data (the audio attracts bats), as well as sensor data, for ideas to make any possible tweaks or modifications. The prototype has already been tested in California for hundreds of hours…. (And it proved to generate tax credits exactly as planned.)
read … Your Tax Dollars at Work
Congress Shouldn't Fund Hanabusa’s Outdated Defense Technology for Hawaii
NI: …In such a high-stakes environment, it is no surprise that the U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA) recently requested about $9.9 billion—$2 billion more than last year—to address potential threats from North Korea. But while protecting the nation is Congress’s first constitutional duty, it’s also important to ensure that any dollars spent on missile defense, or any defense program, are spent efficiently and effectively.
A significant component of the requested increase comes from a new MDA initiative known as the Homeland Defense Radar-Hawaii (HDR-H) that would place a massive new radar in Hawaii, similar to the Long-Range Discrimination Radar (LRDR) that will soon be deployed in Alaska. MDA also expects to acquire a series of similar, follow-on radars in a number of locations in the Pacific and Atlantic. Assuming these programs were an effective deterrent to the North Korean threat, few fiscal conservatives would quibble with the price tags. But as is too often the case, there are deeper problems that could make these programs wasteful and lead to a less secure nation….
read … Congress Shouldn't Fund Outdated Defense Technology
DoE Can’t Explain Away Failure to Apply for Federal Medicaid Funds—But They Want to Raise Your Taxes
SA: …There are more than 21,000 special education students; that includes some who are enrolled in Medicaid, although the DOE could not say how many. Of all Hawaii children, 41 percent are covered by Medicaid.
So plainly it’s a significant number of students who have learning- related medical conditions and are eligible for Medicaid services; the state could collect reimbursements for all of them.
And yet, according to a recent report by Honolulu Star-Advertiser writer Rob Perez, the DOE gets a paltry 1 percent of the annual Medicaid reimbursements that, on average, other states have claimed and received.
The hopeful news is that DOE officials now have affirmed their intent to bring in the assistance Hawaii is due for its eligible students. Better news would be seeing a bottom-line indication that the agency has cleared the hurdles.
In 2016, the state was reimbursed nearly $500,000 for Medicaid health services delivered during school hours. Setting aside that there were three states that received nothing at all, it’s hard to ignore the average receipt by states: $48 million.
Four states comparable in student population — Rhode Island, Montana, Maine and New Hampshire — collected in the $26 million to $38 million range.
Even given that socioeconomic conditions vary from state, that is simply too great a differential to explain away….
Related: DoE Fails to Claim $100M/year from Medicaid – But they want to Raise your Taxes
read … Students need Medicaid funds
FEMA Faces Another Hurricane Challenge Amid Lawmaker Scrutiny
B: …In the briefing, Long pointed to FEMA’s improvements in its island response strategies since last year’s storms in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. FEMA is now collaborating more with private grocers in Hawaii to take stock of food supplies available, leverage their ability to prepare food, and stock stores with emergency supplies.
Long also said the agency will prioritize repairing the island’s power grid and phone and internet systems immediately after the storm to aid other response efforts.
FEMA has also increased its pre-stocked supply of food, water and other necessities, especially in remote areas like Hawaii, Alaska and Puerto Rico, an agency spokesperson told Bloomberg Government. In Puerto Rico alone, the agency upped its stockpiles of commodities 20-fold since last year, the agency said in an email. More than 300 new generators have been added to FEMA’s inventories since the 2017 season, the agency said in a July report….
read … FEMA
Charles Djou: The Courage And Resolve Of John McCain
CB: …I will miss the senator’s raw bluntness to speak his mind without a politically correct, TV-tested, filter.
In his recent autobiography, he aptly described the right-wing internet trolls peddling conspiracy theories as “crazy town” folks who are “impervious to reason, facts, and common sense.” Sen. McCain appropriately hit the right wing House Freedom Caucus as the “say-no-to-everything crowd,” and accurately pointed out that the alt-right political operatives like Steve Bannon and the America First crowd “misunderstand American culture and exceptionalism.”
Sen. McCain, in his own words, described himself as “a Reagan Republican … Not a Tea Party Republican. Not a Breitbart Republican. Not a talk show or Fox News Republican. Not an isolationist, protectionist, immigrant-bashing, scapegoating, get-nothing-useful-done Republican.”
“Not, as I am often dismissed by self-declared ‘real’ conservatives, a RINO, Republican in Name Only,” declared McCain. “I am a Reagan Republican, a proponent of lower taxes, less government, free markets, free trade, defense readiness, and democratic internationalism.”
…I am saddened that our nation has lost a true American hero in the passing of John McCain; saddened that the Trump-controlled Republican Party has lost its way and no longer has a place for leaders like John McCain; saddened that Hawaii’s government lacks inspirational leaders and heroes like John McCain and Daniel Inouye before him…..
read … Djou
‘Progressives’ Win 5 of 14 races
CB …Hooser is president of the Hawaii Alliance for Progressive Action and the executive director of the Pono Hawaii Initiative, a group that aggressively supports new candidates who champion social, economic and environmental justice.
The initiative endorsed 14 Democratic candidates for seats in the Legislature, six in the Senate and eight in the House.
Five won their respective primaries, including House candidates Amy Perruso and Tina Wildberger, both of whom are graduates of HAPA’s Kuleana Academy, a training program that teaches community activists and politicians to be more effective leaders and better candidates.
Perruso beat state Rep. Lea Learmont, who was appointed in December to fill a vacancy, while Wildberger won an open seat on Maui that was vacated by Ing.
“Republicans would be doing backflips if they picked up two seats in the House,” Hooser said.
In the Senate, Hooser pointed to the primary victories of Sharon Moriwaki, Matt LoPresti and Jarrett Keohokalole, all of whom were endorsed by the Pono Hawaii Initiative….
Among those who lost close races are Ernesto “Sonny” Ganaden, who was defeated by state Rep. Romy Cachola and 51 votes and Terez Amato, who lost to state Sen. Roz Baker by 106 votes….
read … ‘Progressives’
Saving Hawaii’s Pig Farms
CB: …The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Census of Agriculture, taken every five years, shows the number of pig farms dropped 70 percent over the last four decades. In 1978, Hawaii had 399 pig farms compared to just 131 in 2012…..
read … Saving Hawaii’s Pig Farms
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