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Tuesday, August 3, 2010

August 3, 2010 News Read
By Andrew Walden @ 1:31 PM :: 9348 Views

Lingle: Bar Association refuses to state its reasons for ‘unqualified’ ratings

Poll: Djou leads by 8% margin

Gallup: Hawaii conservatives outnumber liberals, state tops in moderates

Caught on VIDEO: Thief steals Arakawa for Mayor signs in Wailuku

Young leaders of GOP want value-added campaigns

Two new young local guys are now running the party and are attempting to change it from personality-driven politics to a values campaign.

Dylan Nonaka, 29, a Marine combat veteran, is the executive director. He's a former University of Hawaii at Hilo student body president who was rejected by the state Senate when Lingle nominated him to the UH Board of Regents.

Jonah Kaauwai, 37, is GOP chairman, a Kamehameha Schools and Boston College graduate with strong connections to the Christian community.

Both are smart, energetic and spoiling for a fight.

"We are actually giving people a choice," says Kaauwai.

Nonaka points to the restructuring of the party in the usually conservative Kona district on the Big Island.

"It was dead, but it is coming back. A change in leadership has helped, and the whole tea party movement helped get a lot of conservatives involved," Nonaka says.

Gay Activists accuse Calvin Say of abandoning wife and kids, investigate Speaker’s water bill

(This is what gay activists do to anybody who doesn’t bend over for their agenda.)

The complaints — by Van Law and Laurie Cicotello — ask the city clerk and state election officials to review utility bills and other evidence instead of relying on declarations from Say.

The evidence, similar to the complaints in 2006, includes an account from a retired neighbor on 10th Avenue who has never seen anyone in the Say house or any lights on in the evenings. One of the activists cased the Say house and found no slippers, potted plants or garden hose outside. Utility bills for the Say house apparently show little to no water usage.

The activists say the speaker “offers no explanation why he abandons his wife and minor children to sleep across town in an otherwise empty home.”

(And Say actually supported HB444, just not enough for the activists.)

Volcanic Ash: The complaint was circulated to the media by Jo-Ann Adams, chair of the Democratic Party’s gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender caucus, which has endorsed Say’s primary opponent, Dwight Synan…. He’s also in hot water with public worker unions for refusing to support tax increases to protect their pay and benefits. Both groups have indicated they’ll support efforts to remove Say as speaker if he’s re-elected.

Billy Kenoi’s Proposed tax hike on disabled veterans withdrawn

"I don't know how such a nickel and dime idea ever got in here," said David Carlson, of the American Legion Kona Post 20, who added that veterans have already given enough. "Here we are trying to squeeze 25, 50 extra bucks out of them. I think it's just disgraceful."

Under the plan, all properties except those that have been inundated by lava will be subject to the county's $100 minimum starting with the next tax year. Owners of lava lands, or waste lands, will continue to be charged a $25 minimum.

The bill would have removed special provisions in current law applied to property owners who receive a homeowner exemption and totally disabled veterans whose improvements are valued at $75,000 or less.

Can’t Billy Kenoi raise some money for the County without going after disabled vets? He could raise money for this >>> Billy Kenoi Helped Pali Shooter, Billy Kenoi at Shooters—and the Pali shooter—the connections, Malu Motta: “I need one governor so he can pardon me”

Fund Race: Hannemann $3.1M, Aiona, $2.6M Abercrombie $2.0M

(SA’s numbers apparently include all state money raised since 2008.)

Hannemann has raised more than $3.1 million overall…

Lt. Gov. James "Duke" Aiona, the leading Republican candidate for governor, has raised $2.6 million overall and $374,130 in the past six months. Aiona had $718,991 in cash at the end of June.

Abercrombie has collected $2 million, with $711,655 over the past six months.

But Hannemann had $2 million in cash available at the end of June, compared with $468,942 for Abercrombie.

KITV: Milner said, "For now, it doesn't make any difference to Aiona because his cash is still in the bank. He is not going to have to spend much of it until later."

(Scenario: Duke raises another $300K while Mufi burns $1M or more on the primary race. Result equal funding for general. If Abercrombie wins primary he will be flat broke going into general.)

HNN (different numbers apparently calculated from the pre-announcement dates for the candidates): The new campaign spending report out Monday says the former Honolulu mayor has raised more than $2.4-million. The Republican front runner, Duke Aiona, has collected more than $2.3-million and the man who's been leading the polls, Neil Abercrombie, has raised a little more than $2-million.

SA: List of max donors for Abercrombie and Hannemann (Aiona not mentioned)

Caldwell Leads Mayoral Candidates In Fundraising: Carlisle May Win With Less Money

University of Hawaii professor and political analyst Neal Milner said Caldwell may need more than top dollar to win.

"Part of Caldwell's problem is: 'How can I use that money to create an image for myself, an awareness that I am running for office, in what five weeks?' That is what is going to be tricky," Milner said.

"(Carlisle has a) very strong image; very popular guy. He has got a respectable amount of money, but he has resources going for him that in lots of ways are even better than money," Milner said.

Anti-rail activist Panos Prevedouros has raised $36,590 so far. He spent $24,042. That has left him with $18,765.

"He is really going to have to campaign as an amateur in the best sense. That means you campaign with lack of money as a virtue," Milner said.

Bar association calls Leonard 'unqualified'

“We’re a little mystified,” said Robert Klein, who was on the Hawaii Supreme Court from 1992 to 2000.

Klein hired Leonard as his first law clerk when he was elevated to the state Supreme Court, and said the chief justice-designate is “extremely well-qualified.”

“I can’t imagine what the bar association was using as a measure of qualification if they determined that she was unqualified,” he said.

Attorney William McCorriston, former president of the Hawaii State Bar Association, also said he strongly supports Leonard and is concerned that the association waited until the day before her confirmation hearing to express concern.

“I’m upset ... at hearing this at the last minute,” he said. “I think the bar association owes an answer not only to the community but its own members.”

McCorriston added, “It’s inconceivable to me that someone would have any challenge to her character, her integrity or her legal ability and acumen as a lawyer or as a judge.”

KITV: State Bar Says Chief Justice Nominee 'Unqualified'

Hawaii State Bar: Leonard, Tootoo unqualified

Whether or not the bar's recommendation will hold any weight, Judge Leonard and Judge Tootoo, both nominated by Governor Lingle, will never get to find out the reasons behind the 'no' vote.

Surrounded by supporters, Judge Tootoo had a difficult time with the secrecy. "That is the disappointing part of this process," he said.

At his Senate confirmation hearing for Circuit Court Judge, Tootoo learned, the HSBA has voted him unqualified for the promotion, and can't reveal why.

"In my court, when I find a person guilty, they deserve an explanation and that's all anybody can ask for but I respect the Bar's decision," said Tootoo.

The HSBA did release its criteria for nominees, including integrity, legal knowledge, professional experience, and judicial temperament. Somewhere on the list, the HSBA also finds Judge Leonard lacking.

Judges' 'unqualified' rating is slammed

Peter Esser, a Honolulu attorney who specializes in appeals, raised questions yesterday by pointing out that Leonard was not Lingle's first choice for the job on the Intermediate Court of Appeals. Leonard was appointed after the Senate rejected Randal Lee for the post. Also, the governor picked Craig Nakamura rather than Leonard as chief judge of the Intermediate Court of Appeals.

But this year, Lingle picked Leonard for the chief justice post when the other candidates included Nakamura and Mark Recktenwald, her appointee last year to the Supreme Court.

Paul Alston, also a former bar president, said the key question is whether Leonard has the "experience and command and respect of judges, and perhaps, even more importantly, the Legislature and the executive branch, which are really critical to the selection of a chief justice."

He said strong arguments can be made that the chief justice must be able to draw on that reputation, and the question of whether Leonard has that kind of "gravitas" is what has generated the criticism against her.

(More of the “we don’t like you” anti-confirmation arguments.)

Honolulu Prosecutor’s Office – 2010 and Beyond

What choices do we have? It is said that “insanity” is repeatedly doing the same ineffective things and getting the same ineffective results. Thus, we can retain the present essentially reactive “lock them up and throw away the key” approach and get the same failures. Or instead, we can fully move to a proactive approach by also using problem solving innovations, community policing and community prosecutions, and evidence based prosecution practices. The underlying logic is rooted in part to the “broken windows-theory “ which essentially describes the common sense human experience that if you don’t stop the small crimes it grows and encourages the larger crimes. Thus, we must also focus on vandalism, public nuisances, prostitution and other “quality of life” prosecutions.

The reactive approach has a “career criminal offender” labeled only after being caught for committing certain heinous crimes, which by then may also often number in double digits. The proactive approach would instead also focus on early targeting of the career criminal misdemeanant/ juvenile offender before he/she develops into the hardened career criminal.

CB: Pacarro Has Fundraising Lead in Prosecutor's Race

Hawaii bankruptcy filings up 28 percent in July

The 345 filings in July was 27.8 percent higher than the same month a year ago, according to federal Bankruptcy Court statistics. The increase was the smallest since last November when bankruptcy filings rose by 1.9 percent on a year-over-year basis.

Are Hawaii exports being counted properly?

This data measures physical exports from a particular port or airport, but ignores where the products were made. That's not a problem when you look at the whole country, but it skews things when you look at a city.

If Boeing exports a 787 and Honolulu is its last stop on the way to an Asian customer, that may count as a Honolulu export.

If our anthurium exporters ship to Germany, the official port of export may be New York—and we don't get the credit.

Census export data also doesn't catch shipments valued under $2,500, which eliminates some exports by Hawaii companies. We have companies sending party supplies to Germany, aloha wear to Singapore, sauces to Hong Kong and jewelry to Romania. We also have software exporters, but if it's downloaded, it isn't counted.

Service exports are even harder to calculate. We have a good handle on Hawaii's tourism exports, and Brookings got it right that this is our biggest export (though I'm puzzled that they think Japan is only our third largest export market).

Hawaii's other service exports were probably undercounted.

Our architects do business globally, but I have not seen a good estimate of their overseas billings.

I know several accountants who have clients in Hong Kong, but they probably don't even think of this as an export.

Education (every foreign student in Hawaii is an export sale) feeds $160 million into our economy every year.

We have ocean engineering companies working for foreign clients, environmental engineering firms spreading through Asia, and hotel companies winning management contracts overseas.

All of these are exports—and all provide higher paying jobs than tourism gives us—so Brookings' estimate of our average earnings from exporting is skewed to the low side.

Hawaii State Representatives Say and Tsuji Honored as BIO Legislators of the Year

WASHINGTON, D.C. (Monday, August 02, 2010) - The Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) announced its selection today of Hawaii State Representatives Calvin Say (20th District), who serves as the Speaker of the House, and Clift Tsuji (3rd District) as BIO Co-Legislators of the Year in recognition of their leadership and support of the agricultural bioscience industry.

Two companies to release Maui stream water as ordered by the state

The state says Wailuku Water Co. and Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar Co. will begin releasing water to Waihee River and North and South Waiehu Streams in central Maui next week.

The state Department of Land and Natural Resources says the companies next Monday will act to comply with a state water commission order issued in June.

KITV VIDEO: Jeremy Harris unsold coffee table books pile up at city hall