June 11, 2010 News Read > Hawaii Free Press

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Friday, June 11, 2010

June 11, 2010 News Read
By Andrew Walden @ 1:48 PM :: 18439 Views

Full Text: Hawaii Business Roundtable calls for veto of HB444 Gay Civil Unions

Bloomberg: Hawaii will run out of pension funds in 2020

Study: Hawaii ERS to go broke in 2020

Hawaii Democratic Convention renews call for closed primary

Aiona: AECOM selected to conduct EIS for undersea cables

VIDEO: Djou floor speech “We need to put our fiscal house in order”

Lingle: Strengthening Partnerships in Guangdong Province

Gov. Lingle to host 7th Annual International Women’s Conference

Fed Chair Calls Dems’ Spending ‘Unsustainable’ As Hanabusa's Party Refuses to Budget

Abercrombie surrogates question Hanneman's Pittsburgh fundraiser

KHON: Honolulu Mayor Mufi Hannemann was the guest of honor at a fundraising event Wednesday night in Pittsburgh, an event organized by a major rail consultant.

The campaign stop for Hannemann's gubernatorial bid came in the middle of a city trip to Washington, D.C. to discuss rail.

According to Hannemann's office, Hannemann was to meet with the Chairman of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure on Wednesday, June 9, in Washington, D.C.

Hannemann even sent a message on Twitter about his meeting with Rep. James Oberstar (coverup). But Oberstar's office told KHON2 News the meeting was scheduled for Thursday, June 10. (oops!)

The Pittsburgh event was also organized by Paul Overby.

Overby is a leading transit consultant and the former spokesperson and top official with Bombardier, a contender to supply the trains for Honolulu's $5.3 billion rail transit project (no pay for play here, eh?).

(This news came from the Abercrombie camp.)

"I'm concerned with the co-mingling and that's what I would describe it as mixing a campaign with city business," said (Abercrombie supporter) Carroll Cox with Envirowatch.

(Cox claims he does not support Abercrombie, so just for fun, go to his websites and see if you can find even one word of criticism of Abercrombie in the midst of the attacks on Hannemann, Djou, and Aiona: http://carrollcox.com/, http://www.envirowatch.org/.)

Poison: Good News: A small elite no longer runs Hawaii -- Bad News: Mufi thinks he can

Poison too: Neil Abercrombie 2009: A year of corruption

Lee Donohue: Mufi’s Pick

Question: During the Council meeting, Ann Kobayashi said the rumor was that you were the mayor's pick. What do you say to that?

Answer: It's well known that I have supported the mayor in the past. In his campaign as mayor, when I just retired as chief, I supported him. But I can be independent, too. The mayor and I have had differences, let me tell you.

Q: For example?

A: Soon after I retired, some people said I should run for governor. One told me, "You're the guy we need - a nontraditional politician, with name recognition and public trust. You're the guy." I said, "No, I'm not."

But I thought about it, and when I was doing my due diligence, I asked the mayor if he'd support me. And he said no.

Q: Why not?

A: Because of his nonpartisan stance, he couldn't afford to. A few months later, maybe May, he came to me and said, "Would you consider running for Council?" And I said no. I was just building my business, and other things, and that was enough hot water.

Q: Tell us about your decision to seek this appointment.

A: I had some friends who were police officers, with friends on the City Council. I got an e-mail: "You should consider this. You could really help the city."

PangInTheHale: Why the Donohue pick makes sense

Shapiro: Principals are going to have to put their money where their mouths are on accountability

A couple of telling results from a survey of Hawai’i principals:

On the question of what’s needed most to improve schools, more funding finished only third behind leadership and communications.

The principals expressed only lukewarm support for performance contracts that were included in the 2004 reforms, but never implemented.

If the principals want more authority, they’re going to have to put their money where their mouths are on accountability.

PBS Hawaii: "Voice of Public School Principals"

CB: A Union President Says Tax Hikes Could Save Teacher Jobs

REALITY: Hawaii DoE: Cost of waste, fraud, and corruption between $191M and $431M per year

Boylan: Dem Convention “like college faculty meeting run amok”

…at this 2010 convention white Abercrombie shirts adorned the elected delegates by a good 2-1 margin over those of Mayor Mufi Hannemann.

In truth, Case had no other choice. He lacked party support, money, endorsements and grass-roots workers. Without them, his chances of winning both primary and general elections looked slim indeed.

On Saturday, delegates worked their way through the mind-numbing process of approving the party’s platform. They argued endlessly and passionately over policy and grammar. The same tiresome people, it seemed, rose to speak on every point. It looked and sounded distressingly like a college faculty meeting run amok.

But Abercrombie’s speech disappointed. It was short and uncharacteristically solemn. Even his condemnation of the “collapse of leadership by Republican Gov. Linda Lingle” seemed muted….

Hannemann promised “to build upon the legacy of these Democratic elected officials” by adding his “business background” and listening to any good idea from any source so long as it “helps us to do what we need to do as a community.”

With that, the delegates - new and old - went back to arguing policy and grammar.

Hero's welcome: 150 Kaneohe Marines return after seven months spent in Afghanistan

The Lava Dogs, as the battalion is known, were part of a similar offensive in Iraq during the house-to-house battle for Fallujah in 2004.

In Marjah they were the first coalition forces to enter the area, clearing a 30-square-mile area of the Taliban and preparing for the larger operation. They spent 30 days in the Marjah offensive, eventually establishing a patrol base at Five Points, a major intersection in eastern Marjah, Martinez said.

Martinez, who has been on seven deployments, including two in Iraq, said by the time the battalion was preparing to leave, locals were pointing out homemade bombs to Americans with signals such as piled-up rocks.

Hawaii's state tax collections up 1.8% year to date

Hawaii’s state tax collections continued to improve in May, showing an increase of 1.8 percent through the first 11 months of the fiscal year compared to a year earlier.

That’s better than the state Council on Revenues forecast, which had predicted a 0.5 percent increase for the entire 12 months.

PBN: Law links liability to Hawaii excise tax

read more

CB: Controversial Landfill Expansion To Receive Trash Soon

(This is the Mr Rogers’ Neighborhood version.)

The partnership between H-POWER and Waimanalo Gulch is based on the many materials that currently cannot be processed for energy. Carpets and mattresses that do not shred, as well as animals and waste treatment sludge, can't be burned easily at this point. So they end up in the landfill. But that could change soon.

The plan is that by 2012, H-POWER will have increased its capacity and will be able to handle the island's entire solid waste stream. At that point, Waimanalo Gulch would take just ash and residue from H-POWER and serve as an emergency backup.

A survey to identify a site for the island's next landfill is already under way. But that process could take 15 or 20 years, Steinberger said.

REALITY: Nanakuli Park: Hannemann pounds Hanabusa in proxy fight between Waimanalo Gulch and PVT landfill

HNN: State moves ahead with undersea interisland cable for energy

Lt. Gov. Duke Aiona announced that the state has picked AECOM to prepare an environmental impact statement on a project to lay an undersea cable that would connect Molokai and Lanai to Oahu. The cable would be used to bring energy to Oahu, generated by wind farms that would be built on Molokai and Lanai….

Peck added that the state spends $6 billion a year on oil, which supplies 75 percent of Hawaii's electricity.

"We estimate we're going to get about 1.4 million megawatt hours per year out of this project," said state Energy Facilitator Joshua Strickler. "That equates to roughly 12% of Oahu's needs."

The state is using $2.9 million dollars in Federal stimulus money to pay for the environmental impact statement, which is scheduled to be ready in April 2012. If approved, the entire project would cost anywhere from $800 million to $1 billion, with construction beginning in 2014 or 2015.

KITV: Team To Study Interisland Power Cable

AP: Hawaii begins study of undersea power cable plan

REALITY: Wind Energy's Ghosts

Panel: Restore some water to Central Maui streams

But Earthjustice attorney Isaac Moriwake says the decision only restores "a minimum trickle" of water for downstream residents and is a "miscarriage of justice."

Maui News: Na Wai Eha decision released by state water panel

Kalapa: Hawaii Voters Need to Encourage Change for a Better Government

So today it is not uncommon to hear stories of how there may be at least five generations of the same family who have lived in public housing. With few, if any, support services available to these families on many of the public housing campuses, there is little hope that the families will ever move out of public housing. With fewer and fewer vacancies in public housing and no more resources to build more public housing units, the waiting lists grows longer with many on the list having to resort to living on the beach.

This is where the philosophy and approach to public housing must change. The number one goal of the public housing agency should be to move those who are currently in public housing out of the public housing projects. And the only way that can be done is to empower those families with the skills and information that will allow them to become self-sufficient.

High court lets stand shoreline land ruling (Could cost State millions)

The public owns lands formed along the Hawaii's shoreline decades ago that are now above the beaches, according to a Hawaii Supreme Court ruling this week that left intact a lower court's decision.

But because those lands were once considered private property, the state must pay the owners what could be amounts ranging in the tens of millions of dollars, said their lawyer, Paul Alston….

Chief Justice Ronald Moon and Associate Justices Paula Nakayama and Mark Recktenwald issued a one-paragraph order that said the court will not hear challenges from the state and the property owners to the appeals court's decision.

Associate Justice Simeon Acoba wrote a 31-page dissent. Associate Justice James Duffy agreed with him.

Census: Hawaii population changing

Hawaii continues to be No. 1 in the nation for Asian population, but the state’s percentage of Asian residents dropped from 58.2 percent in April 2000 to 53.3 percent.

The percentage of Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders also dropped, from 23.4 percent to 21.6 percent.

Hawaii makes change to appeals process permanent

Instead of moving directly to the high court, appeals from trial courts and state agencies must be filed first with the Intermediate Court of Appeals. That procedure was implemented on a trial basis in July 2006, resulting in quicker decisions and a reduced backlog.

Kamehameha Day: OHA continues delusions about Akaka Bill

In 2010, we anticipate passage of the long-sought Native Hawaiian Government Reorganization Act, or NHGRA. Upon its passage, native Hawaiians will reorganize a native Hawaiian governing entity that will foster peace and advance Hawaiian self-determination. Seeing federal recognition coming to fruition has required extreme patience and perseverance over the past decade.

However, the challenging work begins after the bill passes out of Congress and is signed into law by President Barack Obama. The reorganization of our governing entity will require extraordinary resolve and patience, as well as inclusive and informed participation by native Hawaiians. It will also require hard work, commitment, unity of spirit and encouragement by all of the people of Hawaii.

REALITY: OHA driving Hawaiians out of Hawaii

Letter to Senate: Usual gaggle of Hawaii activists demand carbon tax, claim to represent 100,000

HONOLULU, Hawaii, June 10, 2010 (ENS) - Hawaii elected officials as well as community leaders representing over 100,000 residents of the state have formed a coalition that is urging the U.S. Senate to pass a comprehensive climate and clean energy bill this year.

On World Oceans Day, June 8, the coalition met to declare their call to action and explain why federal climate and clean energy is so important to the island state….

The call to action was organized by the Conservation Council for Hawaii, the Hawaii affiliate of the National Wildlife Federation.

IGNORE: Scientists seek data as corals get frisky (The corals all supposed to be dying, remember?)

IGNORE THIS, TOO: No sea level rise: Pacific islands growing not shrinking, says study

REALITY: EPA targets Waikiki? Large hotels, hospitals to fall under EPA carbon rules

Fake Farmers Markets: “No local produce at all”

…next time you walk into a tented parking lot to meander the aisles of “fresh” squash, beans and tomatoes, you might want to double check whether the produce came from Kahuku ... or California.

“There are a lot of bogus farmers markets out there,” says Hawaii Farm Bureau president and Waimanalo farmer Dean Okimoto. “And people need to know that it’s not always local produce at these markets. In fact, sometimes there’s no local produce at all.”

Brush Fire Destroys Big Island Homes

Hawaii County fire officials confirmed that one home was destroyed and up to three might have been. Residents in the area said the fire has destroyed four or five homes.

The problem in the area is that there are no fire hydrants. Resident use catchments systems for their water.

The fire department has to send in tankers to supply firefighters.

Man asks to build barn instead of mansion in Kilauea

Hurt, who still lives in Atlanta, apparently had grand plans of retiring on Kaua‘i, spending the rest of his life enjoying the serenity of the Garden Island.

But Whale said when Hurt found out about a year ago that his next-door neighbor had been approved to build a mansion, he offered to buy the property.

So instead of building yet another large house, Hurt decided to drop the permit and ask the commission to build a barn.

Whale said Hurt bought the property for his wife, who has been involved with the humane society, and likes to rescue animals.

Isle inmate's death sparks investigation

The second death this year of a Hawaii inmate in an Arizona prison is setting off ~~alarm~~ opportunity bells with the state Department of Public Safety and lawmakers who want to scrutinize the arrangement of outsourcing local felons to privately operated mainland lockups (in order to line pockets of UPW).

(If the death had occurred at Halawa, it would be covered up already.)

SA: Meth project hits hard, true

The project drew skepticism last fall by the Drug Policy Forum of Hawaii, which asserted that "abstinence-based and fear-based programs are not effective in reducing the use of drugs by teens." That may be true in trying to discourage youngsters from trying alcohol, marijuana and other substances, but meth has risen to a category of its own.

(It’s not fear, it’s revulsion. There’s a difference.)

www.HawaiiMethProject.org