July 13, 2010 News Read > Hawaii Free Press

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Tuesday, July 13, 2010

July 13, 2010 News Read
By Andrew Walden @ 3:35 PM :: 15650 Views

HSTA demands candidates oppose funds for disabled students

Sen Fred Hemmings endorses Lynn Finnegan for Lt Governor

Kam Schools non-Hawaiian student Kalani Rosell to be subject of book, movie

Hanalani School Team wins robotics World Championship

Star-Advertiser continues Gay Atheist war on Hawaii Family Forum finances

The Hawaii Family Forum, a group of religious conservatives that opposes civil unions, spent the most on lobbying during the second half of the 60-day legislative session, according to the state Ethics Commission.

The group spent $66,565, including $57,370 on media advertising. Gov. Linda Lingle vetoed a civil-unions bill last week….

SA running tag team with Gay/Atheist lobby: http://www.lava.net/~hcssc/

read more

CB: GOP Aims To Field Candidates in Most Local Races

With just a week to go before the election filing deadline, Hawaii Republicans unveiled their team for state House and Senate seats and other races. They're a diverse and eager lot, but the bench isn't deep and Democrats appear likely to retain control.

Hawaii Republicans bring 13 candidates to Election Office, need 8 more

VIDEO: Hawaii GOP works to challenge every race

Waihee speaks up for appointed BoE

In the wake of the furlough dilemma, the state’s three former governors — George Ariyoshi, Ben Cayetano and Waihe‘e — were approached to see if they could help improve Hawai‘i’s public school system.

The three agreed and have identified major areas of concern, including governance.

“Nobody knows who’s in charge,” Waihe‘e said in the release.

Another issue is restoring more local responsibility for education and recognizing each community has different needs, he added.

A third area of concern is making sure teachers with teaching skills would actually be recognized for their efforts.

“It doesn’t make sense that in order for our teachers to receive more pay, they are actually promoted out of the classroom into non-teaching positions,” Waihe‘e said.

Governance is the easy part of improving the system, he said. A recent poll seeking to identify weaknesses in the education system pointed to a lack of clear vision and communication between the Board of Education and the Department of Education.

“Whoever controls the dollars, controls the system,” Waihe‘e said. “If we’re not prepared to transfer the taxing powers, then the idea of an appointed BOE instead of the current elected board makes a lot of sense.”

SA: Nursing facility to kick out charter school

WHT: DOE changes course on school closing

Candidate says campaign signs stolen

Finnegan, a candidate for the Republican lieutenant governor nomination, says that a police report was filed over the incident.

Campaign manager Peter Finnegan says the signs were erected along the route for the Kailua Independence Day parade during the July 4 weekend.

He says signs for GOP gubernatorial candidate James "Duke" Aiona, the current lieutenant governor, also were taken.

Shapiro: Some candidates for governor we can like

Distance often has the advantage of perspective, and the perspective Thielen brings is that he finds a lot to like about all three candidates. We here in Hawaii who are bombarded by the daily give and take often see only things to dislike….

All in all, a good way to get an early take on the substance of these men who seek to guide our future — and to start raising the political discourse to a higher level.

(In other words, ignore the fact that Neil and Mufi are arguing over whose fundraising is more corrupt and who is making more vile insults against the other and instead focus attentively on the lies they are telling us about their glorious plans for Hawaii.)

No more excuses, Hawaii: Just do it via absentee voting

Hawaii may actually be ahead of the curve.

A new innovation to get folks to exercise their democratic rights and vote is called "permanent absentee balloting."

This is different from the attitude of Hawaii voters who are just permanently absent from elections because they don't register to vote and even if they did register, they didn't actually vote.

Every year Hawaii is either at the bottom or close to the nadir of voter turnout stats. But with permanent absentee voting, Hawaii voters can continue casting their ballots long after they have gone to a better place.

REALITY: Vote By Mail: “Tool of choice for voter fraud”

Maui groups challenging water commission in court

Hui o Na Wai Eha and the Maui Tomorrow Foundation, who are being represented by Earthjustice, filed a notice of appeal to the commission Monday. This clears the way for them to appeal their case to the Intermediate Court of Appeals or the state Supreme Court….

Hui o Na Wai Eha President John Duey said the commission based its ruling on plantation politics, not the law.

"We must turn to the courts to uphold the law that flowing rivers and streams are a public trust, not a plantation plumbing system," Duey said in a statement.

Maui News: Na Wai Eha decision appealed

CB: State Has Huge Bill Coming Due for Retiree Health Care

Concerned about how to make up the state's $6.2 billion unfunded pension liability? Well, what about the more than $10 billion the state is going to have to pay for health benefits for retirees and their dependents?

$100 million traffic center gets moving

Construction for the Joint Traffic Management Center, projected to cost more than $100 million, begins today with groundbreaking for a 418-stall, five-story parking garage on Alapai Street. The garage project costs about $20 million of city money.

After the garage, the next two phases will bring a number of traffic-related agencies under one roof. The ultimate goal is real-time traffic management. (Usually this kind of operation involves a room with a lot of computers and about 20 traffic engineers in it. But in Mufiville, it entails a $100M construction job with a 418 stall, 5-story parking garage?)

"That's where we can monitor traffic flows as it goes and intercede ourselves to help traffic improve," said Wayne Yoshioka, director for the city Department of Transportation Services.

Currently the city has traffic light timing programs for different times of the day -- morning, midday, rush hour and night traffic. By integrating city functions with the state Department of Transportation's monitoring, city officials will be able to create a wider variety of timing schemes and switch them on the fly.

($100M??? Just hire Panos.)

Mathew Higa Speaks About Death Of Cyrus Belt

Parole board members asked Higa how he felt about the incident.

“I think it's kind of sad, what happened to the baby,” Higa said.

Members of the parole board told Higa his was the most appalling, horrendous crime for which they've had to set a minimum sentence. They have set a 200 year minimum in another murder case. They will publish their ruling in two weeks.

ILWU reiterates its support for Hamas headchoppers, refuses to hear Israeli Consul

This is from CounterPunch, which swears it is not anti-Semitic:

Israel is taking this seriously. Their San Francisco based Consul for the Pacific Northwest Akiva Tor sought to meet with the ILWU Local 10 Executive Board on 6 July, hoping to persuade the union to change course. When the PGFTU (Palestinian ‘Unions’) found out, they wrote to the Executive Board on 2 July, saluting the union’s boycott, their history of international solidarity, and the risks taken by African-Americans in the civil rights movement. …

The Consul may have scented danger, and 6 July his Deputy Gideon Lustig turned up to head the delegation. Lustig spent 10 years in the Israeli Defence Force and attained the rank of Major before turning to a diplomatic career. The Consular delegation was joined by Dr Roberta Seid, an academic at University of California Irvine who believes the IDF was not responsible for the death of ISM volunteer Rachel Corrie, run over by an IDF Caterpillar bulldozer in Gaza on 16 March 2003 while trying to prevent the demolition of a Palestinian doctor’s house. Why? Because an official Israeli investigation concluded her death was an accident. In a major diplomatic rebuff for Consular staff, the Executive Board refused to allow the delegation to enter the meeting, in line with the appeal from the PGFTU.

SA: Isle fireworks ban is overdue (snobs)

Best Comment: “Prohibition is ALWAYS the answer, but we should go straight to the source of the problem and ban fire.”

Top UH administrators, Elected Officials report receipt of gifts

Rep. Roy Takumi has been a leader in reporting all gifts received by his office. In 2008, Takumi’s report consisted of six pages and a total of about 100 itemized gifts. Takumi’s 2010 report was just under 4 full pages and listed approximately 60 gifts, including official travel to meetings of the National Conference of State Legislators and the National Governor’s Association.

Reports filed by House Speaker Calvin Say show a similar decline. In 2008, Say’s report ran over 12 pages, with about 12 entries per page, for approximately 140 gifts. In 2010, the number of gifts reported by the Speaker fell to about 90….

In addition, some UH officials report expenditures from various protocol accounts (see engineering dean Peter Crouch and UH President MRC Greenwood, for example).

Stalled River Street Housing Project May Be Dead

The River River Street residences are a victim of neighborhood opposition in Chinatown. But the state sees the Housing First concept as a viable solution to reducing homelessness.

Last week, Gov. Linda Lingle allowed the state's first Housing First bill to become law without her signature. But it has no dedicated funding, no identified site for a project nor a plan to deal with the NIMBY-ism that has squelched the city's effort.

Act 212, formerly House Bill 2318, seeks to create permanent residences for the chronically homeless and help them with drug addiction and mental illness. The state's Hawaii Public Housing Authority is given the authority to implement the program.

SA: H-1 homeless camp being cleared again

HNN: Lawmakers to meet with homeless Tuesday

(But, but if all the homeless are given ‘housing first’ in a rural area, then they won’t be panhandling on downtown streets and sleeping on the sidewalks. How will the homelessness industry raise money like that?)

Ulupono Initiative Participates in ClearFuels' Bridge Financing to Accelerate Hawaii Biofuel Market

Pierre Omidyar (Civil Beat owner) deepens his involvement in the biofuels scam.

AIEA, Hawaii, Jul 13, 2010 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- ClearFuels Technology, Inc. ("ClearFuels") announced today that Ulupono Initiative has made an initial investment of both financial capital and management engagement in ClearFuels. Ulupono will support ClearFuels' Bridge financing and partner with the ClearFuels team to develop commercial biofuels projects in Hawaii.

Ulupono Initiative is a Hawaii-focused social investment organization rooted in the local wisdom that a (feeeel good pretend) healthy environment and a healthy economy go hand-in-hand (ca-ching!). The organization focuses on improving sustainability and the quality of life for island residents in three areas, renewable energy, food production and waste reduction. Ulupono is funded by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar and his wife Pam.

SA: Ulupono Initiative makes investment in ClearFuels Technology

Neil Abercrombie’s biofuel scam: Congress Spends Billions in Earmarks - CBS Evening News - CBS News

Master Navigator Mau Piailug Dies

The master navigator taught Hawaii master navigator Nainoa Thompson how to navigate by the stars and oceans in the 1970s, which led to the birth of the Polynesian Voyaging Society and the building of the Hokulea. The voyaging canoe Hokulea spurred the renaissance of the Hawaiian cultural movement.

Since that training, Piailug and Thompson have helped train dozens of navigators around the Pacific, including Hawaii, the Cook Islands and Micronesia.

Piailug was 78.

SA: Voyager guided rebirth of cultures

Census looks at Micronesians in Hawaii, Mainland

The poverty rate for Micronesians is somewhat higher than the general population. In California the difference is small, but in Hawaii it is much greater. Nearly 18% of all Micronesians in the U.S. live in poverty, compared to just over 13% of the general population. In California, the poverty rates are comparable, but in Hawaii, Micronesians have nearly three times the poverty rates of the general population across all categories except the elderly.

Most Americans own their home while most Micronesians rent. This difference is especially pronounced in Hawaii. Of those Micronesians who do own their homes, they have less valuable homes, but larger mortgages than the general population in Hawaii and California.

Except in Hawaii, most Micronesians speak English in their home.
DOWNLOAD: From American Community Survey: Micronesian alone or in any combination

Honolulu “peace activist” caught lying about Gaza Flotilla

Kapiolani Park: Homelessness industry takes Hawaii tourism hostage

Defeating the "homelessness industry" before it gets a grip on Hawaii