October 9, 2010 News Read > Hawaii Free Press

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Saturday, October 9, 2010

October 9, 2010 News Read
By Andrew Walden @ 2:32 PM :: 12377 Views

Aiona: US unemployment numbers undermine availability of federal dollars

VIDEO: Gov Palin jumps into Hawaii races, endorses Henderson, Willoughby

VIDEO: Djou releases new advert, hits Hanabusa over residency

Djou: Adopt a School Mililani Waena Oct 10th

Manoa Liberals block Eagle Scout from Neighborhood Board

GOP movers insulted: Hanabusa rejects “gesture of goodwill”

Maui Chamber of Commerce Endorses Alan Arakawa for Mayor

Lingle honors top State employees

WaPo: Djou moves up 15 places

Desperate Abercrombie to HGEA: “You don’t have to like me” primary campaign "wasn't some sort of triumph over you.”

Aiona reports that his campaign was "flooded with Hannemann supporters saying they would support our campaign."

Aiona gives two reasons for Hannemann voters ready to switch: first, "the heat of the battle" argument that they would support anyone but Abercrombie and second, "I am more compatible with Mufi than with Neil."

Those 90,000 Hannemann Democrats will be key. If you figure the total registered vote at 685,000 and estimate the turnout to be around 57 percent, the same as it was in the heated 2002 race for governor, then you need more than 195,000 votes to win.

If Abercrombie holds all his voters and takes all of Hannemann's supporters, he gets 232,000 votes and would win with 57 percent of the vote. But if the Hannemann vote splits then Abercrombie needs to hustle….

"I met with the entire political state action committee of the HGEA. We had an extraordinarily candid and productive meeting," Abercrombie says, adding that he also went to talk to the other union leaders that endorsed Hannemann.

"I told them, hell, I'm already married, you don't have to love me, you don't even have to like me.

"What you have to think about is what is good for your membership, what is good for your family and what is good for your constituencies," Abercrombie said.

Calling himself an "adult politician," (he finally thinks he has grown up) Abercrombie says he recognizes that voters vote for their own reasons, and today he has to show that Hannemann's defeat "wasn't some sort of triumph over you (the voters) and now you have to get in line."

Absentee ballots mailed out

Of those Hawaii citizens eligible to vote in the primary, 64 percent registered to vote but only 34 percent -- one out of every three eligible voters -- actually voted, Aiona said. That's significant because candidates need only half of that vote, plus one, to win an election.

The number of voters registered in the general election for Hawaii County is up slightly from the primary election at 101,051, Nakamoto said. The first 8,618 mail-in absentee ballots have already been sent out, and voters will have until Oct. 26 to request them.

Walk-in absentee voting runs from Oct. 19 through Oct. 30 at the Hawaii County Building in Hilo, the Pahala Community Center, the Kona Elections Division satellite office, the Waimea Community Center and the North Kohala Courthouse, Nakamoto said.

The General Election is Nov. 2

Aiona: Gov. Lingle and her committee gave too much

Travis Taylor said in a statement Friday the Hawaii Campaign Spending Commission informed Aiona's campaign of a $6,000 "over-donation" by the Linda Lingle Campaign Committee.

He says the commission appears to view the committee's contribution and a $6,000 personal donation from Lingle as one contribution.

Taylor says the commission took no formal action against Aiona's campaign.

Oops! Willoughby forgets meeting with PBN

Basking in the glow of an endorsement Thursday by former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, Hawaii Republican congressional candidate John Willoughby was busy Friday morning fielding calls.

Willoughby got so caught up in the flurry of activity that he forgot he was scheduled to meet with the PBN editorial staff this morning. The date was set more than a week ago, but Willoughby admitted that he plum forgot.

HNN: Sarah Palin endorses 2 Hawaii candidates

Judge allows contribution to issue-based campaign

U.S. District Judge J. Michael Seabright issued a written order Thursday directing the state to allow Yamada and Stewart to contribute $2,500 to AFA for the general election as long as AFA gives money only in support of issue-based activities and does not give money to individual candidates.

Seabright's order does not allow others to exceed the contribution limit, nor does it address Yamada's and Stewart's challenges of other state campaign finance laws.

However, Bennett said, "The order has much broader implications."

The order comes in the wake of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in January that said government may not ban political spending by corporations in candidate elections because such a ban violates constitutional free speech guarantees.

Yamada, Stewart and their lawyer could not be reached for comment yesterday.

Liberal hypocrites angered by prison being converted to school

For decades they have been chanting “education not incarceration” yet, when it actually happens….

Rape Victim Plans To Sue State Hospital: Suspect Was Discharged Despite Psychotic Symptoms

HONOLULU -- A woman who police said was raped in a Mililani restaurant plans to sue the state for releasing the suspect from the state mental hospital.

Joseph Navas, 45, was committed to the hospital in 2008 after being unfit for trial on a burglary charge. His criminal record included dozens of arrests and convictions, including assault and terroristic threatening. Experts who examined Navas after his arrest on the rape charge said he had been released even though no medication had ever worked to reduce his psychotic symptoms.

Naeole-Beason faces ethics charges: Puna councilwoman accused of using county staff to work on campaign

HILO -- A former campaign volunteer has filed an ethics complaint against Emily Naeole-Beason, alleging the Puna councilwoman used her County Council office, equipment and staff to work on her campaign.

The county Board of Ethics is scheduled Wednesday to review the complaint, filed by Pahoa resident Toni Robert. The meeting, which is open to the public, begins at 10 a.m. in the County Council Chambers in Hilo.

Acting mayor Caldwell leaves city hall

Caldwell is an attorney by trade. He spent most of his adult life in private practice before serving in the state House of Representatives from 2002 until 2008. He then moved across the street to city hall.

"For me it was so fulfilling. And seeing that I was making a difference, I want to do it again. Now where and how, I'm not sure," he said.

Caldwell's old law firm has offered him a job and he may take it. But it sounds like we have not seen the last of Kirk Caldwell the politician and public servant.

"I think there will be an opportunity somewhere for me to serve," he concluded.

Bill to get homeless off sidewalks looms

Sidewalks blocked by the homeless are particularly prevalent in the McCully area, where Councilwoman Ann Kobayashi said constituents asked for help with the problem and prompted her in part to write the proposed bill. She also believes it would help to remove squatters who block business entrances in Waikiki.

The bill would only apply in Honolulu's urban zones, which include Ala Moana, Kakaako, Downtown, Kalihi, McCully, Moiliili, Makiki and Waikiki.

Residents of the McCully area have been concerned for months about the 20 to 30 people camping on the sidewalk surrounding the McCully Public Library, McCully/Moiliili Neighborhood Board Chairman Ron Lockwood told a reporter Thursday. Children have been approached with drugs, and parents are afraid to take their children there, he said.

But the (guilt-ridden morons on the) neighborhood board (who are the type of persons central to plans by the homelessness industry) on Thursday voted 7-2 (with four abstentions) to not support the bill, concluding that in its current form it fails to address the problem of homelessness. (Wrong. Using FORCE to push homeless off the sidewalks encourages them to accept shelter spaces now going unused. This is EXACTLY what is needed to “address the problem of homelessness.”)

REALITY: Kapiolani Park: Homelessness industry takes Hawaii tourism hostage, Defeating the "homelessness industry" before it gets a grip on Hawaii

KITV: Two More HPD Officers Arrested For Domestic Abuse

The most recent arrest of a Honolulu police officer happened about 3:45 a.m. Thursday on West Elua Way in Ewa Beach. Police records show officer Ikaika Silva, 27, was arrested and booked for abuse of a family member.

The complaint involved his wife, who had filed for a temporary restraining order against him, a complaint that a judge dismissed when his wife failed to show up for a court hearing, sources said….

A second incident happened in the last week or so with a Waikiki patrol officer arrested in a domestic abuse case, according to police sources. He has been on the police force for more than ten years. The case involved the officer's girlfriend, who is also on the police force, sources said.

Sources told KITV 4 News prosecutors declined to go forward with the case, but the officer will still face an internal investigation.

Alan Pflueger pleads not guilty to tax fraud Friday

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) - Three people from Pflueger Incorporated charged with tax evasion are due in court Friday morning.

One of them is Alan Pflueger. He's the son of the founder of one of Hawaii's biggest auto dealers, James Pflueger.

US nuclear weapons have kept S Korea free for 60 years

NEW YORK — From the 1950s' Pentagon to today's Obama administration, the United States has repeatedly pondered, planned and threatened use of nuclear weapons against North Korea, according to declassified and other U.S. government documents released in this 60th-anniversary year of the Korean War.

Air Force bombers flew nuclear rehearsal runs over North Korea's capital during the war. The U.S. military services later vied for the lead role in any "atomic delivery" over North Korea. In the late 1960s, nuclear-armed U.S. warplanes stood by in South Korea on 15-minute alert to strike the north.

Just this past April, issuing a U.S. Nuclear Posture Review, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said "all options are on the table" for dealing with Pyongyang — meaning U.S. nuclear strikes were not ruled out.