Ige, Recktenwald Announce Judicial Nominees in Three Counties
Hiding the Failure: DoE Stops Teacher Evaluations
Big Island Second Amendment Win
HECO ‘Green Energy’ Plan-- Crank up every diesel plant on this island: ‘We’re still not clear how we’re going to get through next Fall’
SA: … Less than a year from now, Hawaiian Electric is slated to retire the island’s largest and dirtiest power plant as part of a historic ongoing transition to more renewable clean energy (even dirtier energy sources)….
State Sen. Glenn Wakai, chairman of the Senate Committee on Energy, Economic Development and Tourism, held a joint information briefing with the Senate Ways and Means committee Sept. 29 to evaluate the idea of retrofitting the AES coal-fired plant to run on wood biomass.
(CLUE: Wood biomass is even dirtier than coal.)
“The two chairs,” Wakai said, referring to himself and state Sen. Donovan Dela Cruz, “have some concerns about the fact that we’re going to say goodbye to about 20% of our base load power generation next year with the closure of the AES coal plant, and aren’t really confident that we have a clear game plan as to how we are going to fill the puka (hole), so to speak, with renewable energy, with petroleum or what the future may hold.”…
Leaders of the utility are extremely confident that their transition plan — which includes changes to maintenance schedules for its old oil-burning power plants so that they aren’t out of service before enough new solar farms and batteries come online — will be carried out without any power supply shortfalls….
(Translation: To replace the coal plant, HECO will be running every backup diesel plant on the island. When the first one fails, rolling blackouts begin.)
According to the utility, its reserve power capacity next year wouldn’t drop below what it regards as a safe buffer, around 200 megawatts, if none of the renewable energy projects expected next year are delivered….
(LESSON: Green energy is 100% fake. Only the rate hikes are real.)
PBN: Lawmakers, stakeholders weigh in on future of AES coal plant
read … Views clash over Oahu’s impending shift from coal to clean energy
Redrawing Hawaii’s Election Districts: ‘People Are Going To Be Pissed’
CB: … Years ago the political lines were redrawn in ways that clobbered Republicans. Today, the question is which Democrats will take the hit….
Dylan Nonaka, a Republican who has served on the reapportionment commissions in 2011 and this year, said the process is fundamentally political. After all, eight of the nine members of the commission are appointed by the speaker of the House, the Senate president and the minority leaders in the House and Senate.
“That’s crazy to me that people think it’s going to be this non-political, objective process,” Nonaka said. “That’s impossible.”…
As just one example, Nonaka cited the way the lines were redrawn in urban Honolulu in 2011 to put Democratic Reps. Scott Saiki and Scott Nishimoto into the same district representing McCully, Moiliili and Kapahulu.
At the time, Saiki was part of a group of dissidents in the House that opposed longtime House Speaker Calvin Say….
read … Redrawing Hawaii’s Election Districts: ‘People Are Going To Be Pissed’
Ed Case Draws A Challenger From The Left
CB: … Newcomer Sergio Alcubilla hails from the liberal side of the Democratic Party. Can he upset the congressional incumbent? ….
read … Ed Case Draws A Challenger From The Left
UH Football's Safe Again? It's Time To Open Up The Capitol
CB: … If public officials think it's OK to attend large gatherings, then we should be able to meet with elected officials and go to public meetings, too….
Right now, meeting with one’s local elected officials in person is basically impossible unless one is a very connected or a powerful individual. And even among local lobbyists, it isn’t always possible to get an appointment to enter the halls of power these days. This of course is said to have nothing to do with favoritism, and everything to do with health safety requirements….
So, I have an idea. Let’s wheel out some prominent private doctors this week and hold a press conference in front of the State Capitol and give them note cards to read that say, “We are pleased to announce that due to declining ICU utilization rates, higher rates of vaccination, and monoclonal antibody treatments, it is now safe for the entire public to meet in person for office appointments with elected officials.”
Our rent-a-doctor team can then spout off ear-tingling soundbites like, “Your chances of getting or spreading Covid meeting with an elected official is extremely low because we have mitigation measures in place, and even if it breaks through, elected officials have such strong immune systems that they’re likely to have a mild case, anyway.”
These statements won’t actually be based on any peer reviewed research or CDC guidance, but we will have them say it anyway, just because we claim to be a monopoly of “science experts” – not that our own government ever does anything like that to us.
And then, when elected officials reply, “Wait a minute, I have some concerns!” we can shame them by saying, “Why are you living in fear? We just need to open everything up, this thing is here to stay, and you need to learn to deal with it.”
Sound familiar? If it’s safe for me to get potentially exposed to Covid-19 in public, then from now on, it needs to be safe for my elected officials to be exposed to the public.
read … UH Football's Safe Again? It's Time To Open Up The Capitol
Construction of Thirty Meter Telescope delayed at least 2 years
SA: … Slater said the project is now awaiting the results of the federal Decadal Survey on Astronomy and Astrophysics, which is expected to provide guidelines and recommendations to federal agencies regarding U.S. scientific funding for the next decade.
Slater said the outcome of the survey “will shape the future of astronomy for the years to come.”
The survey’s report is expected to be released in the next few months and might well recommend funding for the TMT as many of the white papers submitted as part of the once-a-decade evaluation describe the importance of next-generation telescopes, such as the TMT, to carry astronomy to the next level.
In the meantime, the Native Hawaiian opponents of the stalled project (wanna make sure they get a cut of that funding) ….
Greg Chun, executive director of the Center for Maunakea Stewardship, said that if the TMT is not built, the site will be available for another telescope, although the master plan will continue to restrict the number of telescopes on the mountain to nine by the end of 2033….
REALITY: Telescope: For OHA, it’s all About the Rent Money
read … Construction of Thirty Meter Telescope delayed at least 2 years
Sovereignty Movement Foments Anti-Vaxxerism
SFG: … The community also has one of the lowest vaccination rates in Hawaii, estimated at 40%, the Associated Press reported in August. During the recent surge of the more infectious delta variant, Native Hawaiians saw a disproportionate spike in cases and deaths from the virus….
When Charles Anderson, who is Native Hawaiian, is asked by his landscaping clients if he’s vaccinated, he answers, “F—k no, I’m sovereign!”
Anderson’s family has tended the taro fields in the sacred Waipio Valley on Hawaii Island for generations. He believes the pandemic has already unfairly threatened the livelihoods of too many of Hawaii’s residents and that the vaccination mandates from the government and private corporations infringe on people’s rights and sovereignty.
“It’s our individual responsibility, what happens,” he tells SFGATE.
Anderson goes to work daily. He runs his own business. He’s a landowner. But he chooses not to follow what he calls the “American system.”…
read … 'I'm sovereign': The complicated reasons some Native Hawaiians oppose the COVID vaccine
Star-Adv Mangles Story on Flu Deaths
SA: … As COVID-19 continues to dictate public life and government policy in Hawaii, influenza and pneumonia have quietly killed at least 859 people over the past 12 months, exceeding the coronavirus death toll for the entire pandemic.
And with the new flu season just underway, health officials are urging the public to get their annual shots, which can be administered at the same time as COVID-19 vaccinations….
REALITY: Pneumonia is a symptom, not a disease. Lumping it in with flu is useless -- except to anti-vaxxers who find this type of confusion very useful.
read … Deaths in Hawaii over the past 12 months exceed pandemic’s local COVID fatalities
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