August 24, 2010 News Read > Hawaii Free Press

Hawaii Daily News Read

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

August 24, 2010 News Read
By Andrew Walden @ 11:52 AM :: 9227 Views

Ed Case: “Prevedouros and Carlisle are the change candidates against status quo Caldwell”

Terrorism? Sovereignty activists prove UHH Professor’s unspoken point

Democrats Want to Slam Small Businesses with Massive Tax Hike: Where’s Hanabusa?

Polling: Aiona’s favorability equal to Democrats’

The Republican Governors Association has financed television advertisements to keep Aiona's name in the mix, while Aiona is waiting to launch his own aggressive ads. The winner of the Democratic primary will likely deplete much of his campaign money in September and will have to reload to take on Aiona.

The Hawaii Poll found several positives for Aiona. He leads Abercrombie and Hannemann among independents, as he did in the last poll in April. He also is doing well among Hawaiians.

Aiona's favorability rating is also equal to that of both Democrats. Fifty-seven percent said they have a favorable opinion of Aiona, while 31 percent have an unfavorable opinion. Independents rated Aiona higher than Aber-crombie and Hannemann….

The Aiona campaign has private polling that shows hypothetical matchups against Abercrombie and Hannemann are much closer than the Hawaii Poll.

"This poll is geared toward an electorate preparing for a contentious Democratic primary election, and does not accurately reflect the coalition of Republicans, independents and moderate Democrats we're cultivating to achieve victory in November," Travis Taylor, a spokesman for the Aiona campaign, said in a statement.

"Without putting up any ads, Duke Aiona already leads among independents and attracts the best favorability numbers among his potential opponents."

HFP: Hannemann Campaign: Abercrombie is 2 points ahead

RTTT: Hawaii gets $75 million

In a statement, Hawaii schools superintendent said, "Race to the Top has served as a rallying call to boldly transform public education and schools across our nation. Today, the federal government invested $75 million in Hawaii over the next four years and secured its investment with the unwavering commitment of our educators and stakeholders to execute Hawaii's blueprint for education reform."

Hawaii's Race to the Top application includes plans to turn around poor-performing schools, improve teacher effectiveness, better prepare high school graduates for colleges or careers and make other sweeping reforms.

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Board designates judge qualified

The Hawaii State Bar Association board of directors voted yesterday to find Associate Justice Mark Recktenwald qualified to be the next state chief justice.

(No surprise here. Recktenwald has been certified by The Hanabusa as someone who will not stop the Judiciary from making up laws as it goes along.)

Hannemann defends against attacks from Case

Case's remarks generated a stern response from Hannemann spokeswoman Carolyn Tanaka.

"This is negative campaigning at its worst," she said. "Case's hateful e-mail assassinates the character of Mufi Hannemann with accusations that are completely devoid of any facts."

Abercrombie, she added, "has consistently accused us of negative campaigning, yet he accepts the endorsement and apparently condones the negative messages being sent out by Ed Case."

Asked for a response, Case said in a statement, "Hannemann's character to lead is a central issue because we want leaders we can trust; that's fair game in any campaign."

Abercrombie has lauded Case's endorsement. Yesterday he dismissed Hannemann's complaints, saying in a statement, "Ed Case is an independent person and free to speak his mind."

Ed Case’s Hate machine?

Statement from Carolyn Tanaka, Hannemann campaign spokesperson, in response to Ed Case’s email message: "This is negative campaigning at its worst. Ed Case’s hateful email assassinates the character of Mufi Hannemann with accusations that are completely devoid of any facts. Our opponent has consistently accused us of negative campaigning yet he accepts the endorsement and apparently condones the negative messages being sent out by Ed Case."

HNN: Case stands behind comments against Hannemann

SA: Case re-enters politics with both barrels blazing

Unity: Dan Inouye forces Democrat candidates to join saimin eating contest

Carlisle holds strong lead

Overall, respondents gave Carlisle a 67 percent favorability rating, compared with 46 percent for his closest challenger, acting Mayor Kirk Caldwell.

The other two major candidates, University of Hawaii engineering professor Panos Prevedouros and City Councilman Rod Tam, were viewed as favorable by 26 percent and 9 percent of poll respondents, respectively.

The telephone poll of 430 likely voters on Oahu was conducted Aug. 10 to last Tuesday by Ward Research Inc. of Honolulu. It has a margin of error of 4.7 percentage points.

HNN: Candidate profile: Kirk Caldwell

SA: Candidates latch onto property tax explosion

Pacific Islanders suing state over health plan

New cuts to medical benefits for low-income residents based on nationality amount to discrimination, according to a federal class action lawsuit filed Monday against the state of Hawaii on behalf of disabled Micronesians.

Roughly 7,500 Micronesians live in Hawaii as legal residents and depend on the Hawaii Department of Human Services for medical benefits. Significant changes to their health-care plan went into effect in July — including limiting coverage to 12 doctors' visits per year and four prescription medications.

CB: Lawsuit: State Discriminates in Care for Micronesians

State Report: Abolish Hawaii Teacher Standards Board

Citing problems with the Hawaii Teacher Standards Board, such as the expenditure of over $1 million for an online licensing system that is still not operational after 7 years, the 2010 Hawaii Library Reference Bureau’s report and a 2009 State Audit on the Hawaii Teacher Standards Board concurred with the recommendation of several teachers: Abolish the Board.

Hawaii State Financial Report 14 Months Late

…He said the accounting statement – known as the Comprehensive Annual Financial Report or CAFR – will likely be published by the end of the month.

That’s more than 400 days after the fiscal year ended on June 30, 2009.

By comparison, a government accounting group recommends such reports be produced within six months while the largest U.S. publicly traded companies must have theirs done within 60 days.

“This is the latest it’s ever been,” said Saito, explaining there haven’t been problems caused by the tardy filing.

Honolulu agrees to accept tons of trash

HONOLULU — Honolulu on Monday agreed to dispose of 20,000 tons worth of gigantic piles of shrink-wrapped garbage that have been moldering in the heat of a Hawaii industrial park where it had been waiting for more than five months for a possible shipment to Washington state.

Acting Mayor Kirk Caldwell said the on-again, off-again trash shipping plan to a dump near a Washington state Indian reservation no longer appears viable.

Omidyar’s Civil Beat joins anti-Depleted Uranium scam

Failed former journalist cum anti-Superferry protester Joan Conrow pens cookie-cutter anti-military propaganda for Omidyar’s Civil Beat.

REALITY:

Maui Could Be First County To Protect Aquarium Fish

Quick somebody call thge NHLC/OHA. Traditional Hawaiian fishing rights are being violated….Oh, what’s that? They’re busy shaking down developers…. Oh well.