June 4, 2010 News Read > Hawaii Free Press

Hawaii Daily News Read

Friday, June 4, 2010

June 4, 2010 News Read
By Andrew Walden @ 12:12 PM :: 5708 Views

Sen. Dan Inouye Helps open Hannemann HQ

The senior senator was on hand for the grand opening of Mayor Mufi Hannemann's campaign headquarters at the old Acura building on Beretania Street. He wasn't there long, but it provided a photo opportunity for Hannemann, who intends to resign as mayor in July, so he can file papers to run for Governor. Later in the afternoon, Inouye stopped by to tour former congressman Neil Abercrombie's headquarters at Ward Warehouse. (Pretending to stay neutral when everybody knows Inouye and his client unions support Hannemann while Cayetano supports Abercrombie.)

Inouye said his advice to the two veteran lawmakers is to keep cool.

"I think both candidates are men of good intentions men of good sense. and I they look to the future and they know the future would not be helped if they got into a big fight," said Inouye. The senator also added that he thought the campaign would not be dull.

(This is an effort to forestall another Hannemann vs Abercrombie cage fight. Is it working? …let’s see…. Monkey Bites – State Democratic Party Conventional Wisdom)

ADV admits motive: OHA sabotaging settlement offers to push Akaka Bill (oops!)

That $200 million debt isn't going away. And for anyone who's forgotten about the state I.O.U. slip the Office of Hawaiian Affairs has been holding for years, OHA has gone to court to remind them….

The attorney general said that there's no way the court can compel lawmakers to act, so this suit technically won't have much chance of success. (Ha! This is the Hawaii State Supreme court, they will invent anything for OHA.) But it's the state that should feel ashamed that OHA was pushed to such a tactic. (After numerous previous attempts to settle have blown up in OHA’s face???)

Governors and legislators say they're willing to pay, they're just a little short. (Settlement offered in 2008 and 2007.) Lawmakers begged for the patience of ~~Hawaiians~~ (Trustees) again this session as they tried to fill a billion-dollar budget hole….

The fact that this is still unresolved gives weight to OHA's argument that the Akaka bill will have to pass and Native Hawaiians given nation-within-a-nation status to get the attention they deserve. (This is what happens when a paper is closed down. Little bits of hidden truth slip out during the chaos.)

(In other words, OHA repeatedly self-sabotages in order to maintain the crisis atmosphere needed to create an Indian Tribe.)

Let’s make OHA go away: OHA driving Hawaiians out of Hawaii, Akaka Bill: More than 73% of Hawaiians not "Qualified" for membership in Akaka Tribe, Akaka Bill Reading List

Hawaii DoE dreams improvements at schools will lure $75M in grants

Hawai'i education officials (want you to) believe (that they believe) the recent elimination of public school furloughs, revisions to the state's charter school laws and the state's participation in national common education standards have bolstered the state's chances to garner some $75 million in federal grant money.

(It won’t.)

Hawai'i may still face a challenge in proving that charter schools and regular schools are equally funded, also a requirement under Race to the Top. For years charter school officials have argued that charters are underfunded by the state, especially in the area of facilities.

This year, charters received $6,258 per student, while the per-pupil dollar amount for regular DOE schools is estimated at $6,984, if only state general fund allocations are considered.

Other factors make comparisons difficult, though.

For example, the dollar amount for regular DOE schools includes special education services provided to charter schools by the state. If federal funds and hurricane relief fund money are added in, the per-pupil allocation is about $9,522 for regular DOE schools.

Paper reforms which they think will fool the Obama Administration:

FURLOUGHS: Matayoshi said the teacher furlough blemish is removed from the state's new application just as many states have begun to consider or even implement teacher layoffs or deeper education cuts. "Because of the timing, we were able to include the fact that furlough Fridays are over for the coming school year. A lot of other states and cities are now starting to furlough their teachers," she said.
CHARTER CAP: On its initial application, the state lost a significant number of points in the area of charter schools, especially in the area of oversight and the state's cap on the number of schools that can be chartered in the state….Under the new law, the Charter School Review Panel may authorize up to three new startup charters — the previous law had said only one — for each existing charter that has received a three-year or longer accreditation from the Western Association of Schools and Colleges or a comparable accreditation authority. Charter school officials had lobbied legislators to eliminate the state's cap on charter schools entirely.
CHARTER OVERSIGHT: Federal reviewers of the state's Race to the Top application had said that the state's oversight of charter schools appeared weak. According to one federal reviewer, the state neglects to hold charter schools responsible for student achievement, particularly when determining whether a charter school should be renewed. The new law changes that by requiring that charters be reauthorized by the review panel no later than four years after the initial issue of a charter and every six years after that.
CURRICULUM: Matayoshi said the state's participation in the national Common Core Standards movement will garner the state significant points. While 48 states have committed to implementing the common standards in English and math, so far only Hawai'i and Maryland have officially adopted the standards…. Hawai'i also was among five states to receive an "A" rating in a recent Harvard study on state education standards and their alignment to national expectations and the National Assessment of Educational Progress, or NAEP, the only standardized test that is currently comparable across state lines. (These fake ‘standards’ which the idiots at Harvard love so much will not be enforced--except as a retaliatory tool for administrators. In particular, the new, higher, standards will become an excuse to yank Charters after four years as part of a rolling ‘designed to fail’ scheme.)

ADV: Support, with conditions

SB: Hawaii smart to adopt 'core' school standards

Board of Education agenda: less school, more cost

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) - The price of summer school is going up. The Board of Education has agreed to raise next year's tuition by $30, to $190.

Board members also asked the Department of Education to set a public hearing on the possible closure, of either Waialua or Haleiwa Elementary schools.

Honolulu Council Members Pave Way For Nanakuli Park

HONOLULU -- Leeward residents tired of landfills in their community are closely watching the debate over vacant land in Nanakuli.

A Honolulu City Council committee passed a resolution Thursday, that paves the way for a regional park and not a construction and demolition landfill on a vacant lot at Farrington Highway and Lualualei Homestead Road.

Landowner PVT Land Company operates the construction and demolition landfill across the street. PVT has long-term plans to use the 50 acres of vacant land for landfill expansion….

Opponents said we can’t afford it. “How can we afford to build a park? We have parks already that need to be fixed up. We got to pay for rail. We got to pay for city sewers, water, our roads got to be repaved,” said Nanakuli resident George Grace. (Closely tied to Hanabusa’s husband John Souza.)

ADV: Nānākuli park plan gets key approval

Council Narrows List To 6 For Djou's Successor: Djou's Favorite Given First Consideration

Djou left the council after winning the special election for Hawaii's 1st Congressional District.

Among those considered on the short list are Honolulu Attorney Jonathan Lai, who is Djou's first choice.

An unwritten requirement is that anyone selected promise not to run for elected office afterwards.

Honolulu's unemployment rate drops to 5.2%

The data, not seasonally adjusted, show Honolulu’s May rate of 5.2 percent is tied with Billings, Mont., as the 14th lowest, the bureau reported. Honolulu’s rate was 5.6 percent a year earlier.

Upcountry Maui residents urged to conserve water (just wait ‘til OHA gets its hands on your water)

WAILUKU -- Kula, Ulupalakua and Kanaio residents are being urged to use water for health and safety purposes only while the county Department of Water Supply works to restore water to safe levels in storage tanks, the department said Thursday afternoon.

Water levels in the Waiohuli and Kamaole tanks were at "critically low" levels Thursday, the department reported. "If consumption does not drop, the area may run out of water. It is especially critical for Ulupalakua and Kanaio customers to cut back water usage to prevent another extended water outage."

Kenoi decries council budget amendments (defends $23M tax hike)

HILO -- Mayor Billy Kenoi on Wednesday lashed out at "minority members" of the County Council for their eleventh hour budget amendments and said he'd "certainly veto" a budget containing them….

Kenoi's proposed $376 million budget is $11 million, or 2.9 percent, less than this year's. But property tax rate hikes account for $23 million of the budget -- a development that has the County Council scrambling for more cuts to make up for it….

Kenoi's proposal eliminates 70 vacant funded positions, but Yagong says there's another $2 million worth of vacant positions that can also be cut. In all, Yagong is proposing $16 million worth of cuts.

Tax increases slated to be voted on range from 1.1 percent increases for commercial and industrial classifications, 9.4 percent for hotels and resorts, 28.2 percent for nonhomeowner residential buildings and 31.5 percent hikes for agricultural buildings.

Law Enforcement Lines Up Against Human Trafficking Bill

Nonprofits working to help women escape from prostitution say the law would help shift police and prosecutors' focus to those who keep women in prostitution and to their customers. But law enforcement says the measure would lead to confusion.

"What they're basically doing is throwing up a smokescreen," Kathy Xian, director of advocacy for the nonprofit Pacific Alliance to Stop Slavery, said of prosecutors and police. "They've had five years to collaborate with us on language that would be conducive to protecting victims. Anyone can come up with critiques of problems."

If it becomes law, Senate Bill 2045 would make the trafficking of sex workers a felony offense.

"This proposal is legislative overkill...our laws are in need of a scalpel, not a sledgehammer," wrote Honolulu City Prosecutor Peter Carlisle's office. "The high risk of successful challenges to the proffered laws in this bill creates a significant disincentive for prosecutors to use this law if enacted. This, in fact, mirrors the experience of many other jurisdictions where complex human trafficking laws have been passed and state and local prosecutors have seldom used them."

Isle gun death rate lowest in U.S.

The study also listed household gun ownership by percentage, with 9.7 percent of the homes in Hawai'i having one or more guns in the household — the lowest percentage in the country.

(See where they’re going with this?)

Morioka: Hawaii Legislature Didn’t Pass Important Bills to Alleviate Traffic

Under current conditions, every 10 minutes of traffic delays on our highways costs each driver roughly $600 per year, and for commercial vehicles, these costs are magnified to $3,300 per year. But continuing to allow our roads to deteriorate will burden residents with hidden taxes in the form of inefficiencies and inconveniences.

Because we understand that this state and its residents have been greatly affected by the current economic challenges, the DOT also proposed that the increases would only take effect when Hawai’i experienced a 1% job growth over two consecutive quarters.

Obama sets dates for Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum

President Barack Obama has set the dates for his meeting with 21 heads of state at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Honolulu next year as Nov. 12 and 13, 2011, the White House announced Thursday.

Private roads subject to laws

Gov. Linda Lingle signed into law Tuesday a bill making it easier for police to enforce traffic laws on private subdivision roads that serve the public.

Another Hawaii activist tied to anti-Israel scam (Invented Human Shields movement for Saddam Hussein)

According to his website, O'Keefe was a Marine who served in the 1991 Gulf War but (after having been personally brainwashed by Noam Chomsky) in 2003 he started Human Shield, an effort to ~~stop bombings in Baghdad when the United States was about to invade Iraq~~ save murderous dictator Saddam Hussein. The effort was somewhat successful but on a much smaller scale than he had anticipated. (Actually O’Keefe was deported by Iraqi gov’t because he was annoying them.)

In fall 2008 he was a captain and first mate with the Free Gaza Movement that sailed two boats into Gaza. (Great, more terrorist murderers he can support.)

In February 2009 he founded Aloha Palestine in hopes of providing ship service between Cyprus and Gaza.

"He has a great deal of passion ... for people and animals that can't really stand up for themselves," Johnson said, adding that she's not sure what will happen now. "I know he'll stand with his principles above everything. There's no doubt."

Henry Noa, who has known O'Keefe for about seven years, said he wasn't surprised that O'Keefe would be on the ship to Gaza. (Okeefe who is 0% Hawaiian is a “citizen” of Noa’s “Hawaiian Kingdom”)

BIO: http://www.worldcitizen.uk.net/biography.htm (Be sure to read the line about his business ties to Tony Blair’s sister in law.)

WIKIPEDIA: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_shield_action_to_Iraq

REALITY: Honolulu Maoists & Holocaust Deniers protest against Israel: Star-Bulletin calls them ‘peace activists’