November 25, 2010 News Read > Hawaii Free Press

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Thursday, November 25, 2010

November 25, 2010 News Read
By Andrew Walden @ 2:50 PM :: 15304 Views

The hidden story of the third Thanksgiving: 1623--giving thanks for freedom

Gaming Industry Lobbyist, Progressive activist screen Abercrombie cabinet picks

Thanksgiving message from Lingle and Aiona

Mother of Lt Gov. Aiona dies at 93

UH considers raising tuition 185%

Total tuition and fees for a resident undergraduate at UH-Manoa average about $7,168 a semester. If Manoa followed national average trends, that could increase to as much as $13,332 by the 2016 fall semester.

UH-West Oahu would follow averages set by the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education. Tuition would go to $7,930 a semester from $4,186 by 2016.

At UH-Hilo, it would go to $8,224 from $4,888. And at the community colleges, it would go to $4,331 from an average of $2,441.

YOU WERE WARNED:

KITV VIDEO: Lingle says Hamamoto promised to keep furloughs on non-instructional days

KITV VIDEO:

Lingle: “The then-superintendent misled me into believing they would have furloughs on non-instructional days. That was their promise to me in front of my staff. Once I had agreed they then switched and made all the furloughs on instructional days. They purposefully picked days when the children were supposed to be in school.”

HNN: Governor Lingle looks back

When asked to touch on some of her administration's proudest achievements, she quickly cites energy transformation.

"Getting us off of foreign oil. That would be very important - near the top of the list," she said. "Also the progress we made in Hawaiian homelands and getting Hawaiian families to realize home ownership in a way that hadn't been done previously."

Lingle said history will decide her legacy, but people will point to her appointment of judges, from chief justice of the State Supreme Court to appeals court judges to a dozen circuit court judges.

"I was able to have an impact. And what that meant was that there were more people that had come out of being prosecutor, who now are in the judiciary. Previously, most of the appointments to the judiciary were probably on the defense side," she said.

AFL-CIO officer, HGEA operative fight Say over Speakership

State Rep. Jessica Wooley and state Rep. Cindy Evans, two of the holdouts in the House leadership struggle, met privately with state House Speaker Calvin Say on Friday and informed him that they support state (AFL-CIO officer) Rep. Roy Takumi for speaker.

Say has 24 of the 26 votes he needs to remain as speaker, while (HGEA owned and operated) state Rep. Sylvia Luke has 16 votes in her dissident faction. Wooley, Evans and Takumi had yet to commit until Friday.

Abercrombie caught lying about federal funds

CB: At the Statewide Homeless Awareness Conference 2010 held at the Pacific Beach Hotel Nov. 16, Abercrombie was the keynote speaker.

"There's two opportunities (to assist homeless veterans): one current and one in the future. The current opportunity is the Grant and Per Diem program that funds transitional housing for homeless veterans. The program offers funding and has offered funding since 1994. There's about 16,000 transitional housing vets (units?) for veterans. We have not taken advantage of that opportunity here in Hawaii."

Is it true that Hawaii has failed to use money offered by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs' Grant and Per Diem Program?

No.

Hawaii has received money from the program since 2003, according to Andrew Dahlburg, a program manager with the Hawaii Office of Veteran's Services

"Hawaii receives approximately one million dollars a year to help run its Grant and Per Diem program," Dahlburg said in an e-mail to Civil Beat. "This funding is used to help provide housing, food, staffing, case management and other services at US Veterans Initiative (in) Kalaeloa, HI."

Progressives name three possible Hanabusa replacements

The task of selecting a replacement for Colleen Hanabusa in the State Legislature falls to Neil Abercrombie, and at least three names have surfaced as possible replacements.

Democrat Maile Shimabukuro currently occupies the House District 45 seat that covers a good chunk of Hanabusa's District 21 seat that extends from Kaena Point to Ko Olina on the Waianae Coast. William Aila, the Waianae harbor master, ran for governor in 2006 and helped Abercrombie with his campaign this year. And Cynthia Rezentes, a community activist, has previously campaigned to represent the region in office.

Councilman Rod Tam, still in office for five more weeks, Pleads Guilty To Theft Charges

Tam will be sentenced January 27. He faces up to a year in jail and $2,000 fine.

Attorney General Mark Bennett will be leaving office and says it will be up to the next attorney general to decide the sentencing recommendation. While he has his thoughts on an appropriate punishment, he will not make them public.

Tam still has five weeks left in office. An employee says he does not plan to step down early.

HNN: Honolulu Councilman pleads guilty to theft

AG Complaint: FULL TEXT

Rod Tam’s OTHER ethics problem: Ousted Zoning Chair Rod Tam is secret partner in $1 Billion North Shore development hui

Federal employee sentenced to a month in jail for steering a contract

A federal judge on Tuesday sentenced to a month in jail a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service employee who steered an earth-moving job at the Hanalei National Wildlife Refuge on Kauai to a company in which he was a partner.

"When I did this I honestly didn't see that I did anything wrong," said Kevyn Paik.

After he gets out of jail, Paik will be on federal probation for two years, including seven months of electronically monitored home detention.

Had Paik pleaded guilty or not lied when he testified in trial, he probably would have received community service, as he requested, or probation, said U.S. District Judge J. Michael Seabright.

Con man Rewald directs a Los Angeles talent agency

Rewald fancifully used kamaaina names to create his investment firm "Bishop, Baldwin, Rewald, Dillingham and Wong." Through the firm, he bilked about 400 people out of more than $22 million.

He spent much of the money to pay for a lavish East Oahu home, limos and private schooling for his children.

During his trial, the case took a bizarre turn when Rewald claimed his investment company was a CIA front….

In Rewald's case, an angry judge sentenced him to 80 years in federal prison in 1985. He was released on parole from the Federal Correctional Institution on Terminal Island in California in June 1995.

He wasn't eligible for parole until October 2015….

Rewald is currently the director of operations of a talent and literary agency, Agency for the Performing Arts, in Beverly Hills. APA also has offices in New York City and Nashville.

Star-Advertiser & Honolulu Unitarian Church claim all human progress created by liberals

The headline is “Conservatives get it right eventually; it just takes them a long time.” The column is an embarrassing display of smugness and arrogance by somebody who is apparently incapable of self-reflection. Here are some articles about Honolulu Unitarian:

Obama's Church: Millionaire neurosurgeon stops paying for elderly mom's nursing home

Obama's Other Controversial Church

The Unitarian Church and Obama's Religious Upbringing

The Frank Marshall Davis Network in Hawaii

Beyond Marriage The Confession: Hawaii Gay marriage advocates let the polyamorous cat out of the bag

Kamehameha proposes to buy Haleiwa site eyed for hotel

Kamehameha Schools has proposed buying a 3.4-acre city parcel in Haleiwa for educational and park purposes that businessman D.G. "Andy" Anderson wants to develop for a boutique hotel.

The parcel is next to the schools' Loko Ea Fishpond, where it conducts educational workshops on fishpond restoration.

Failed Delivery of overseas absentee ballots explained

On Sept. 24, general election ballots were shipped to them via FedEx to the address in China that they provided. FedEx returned their ballots to the Clerk's Office on Oct. 18. When questioned, a FedEx representative informed us that the address in China did not supply sufficient information to enable delivery. On Oct. 19, the Clerk's Office mailed them their ballots via the United States Postal Service.

Arakawa names flower farmer as economic official

WAILUKU - Flower farmer Teena Rasmussen will be the economic development coordinator in Mayor-elect Alan Arakawa's administration when he takes office in January.

In an announcement Tuesday, Arakawa said her immediate tasks will be drawing up a budget for the Office of Economic Development, working with the Technology Working Group and forming an economic revitalization task force to develop short- and long-term strategies for development.

This will be the first time that Rasmussen has drawn a government paycheck, but she said she feels like her volunteer work over decades has prepared her for the task.

A peek into the profitability of Star-Advertiser owner Black Press

Toronto Star owns 20% of privately held Black Press and is publicly traded, here is some info from their 3rdQ financials….

ILIND: TORSTAR’s share of Black Press’s net income would have been a loss of $2.3 million, including a $3.1 million impairment loss related to a customer-related intangible asset and goodwill related to a printing operation. Excluding the impairment charge, Torstar’s share of Black Press’s net income would have been $0.8 million year to date compared with $1.6 million in the same period last year. Black Press’s EBITDA has improved in 2010 but has been offset by higher interest and restructuring costs.

POYNTER: 6 Months In, Honolulu Civil Beat Still Testing the Market For Paid Conversation

Omidyar is willing to absorb generous start-up costs but wants Civil Beat, a for-profit venture, to become self-supporting. (And they are nowhere near this goal.)

Like such other online only local start-ups as Voice of San Diego and MinnPost.com, Civil Beat skips daily breaking news of crime and courts (and corruption and focuses on pumping the Progressive Democrat agenda, which can be pretty dull reading.)

I asked Larry Geller, a blogger who has been highly critical of the Civil Beat concept since before the launch, for his six-month evaluation. He replied by e-mail that the site's design and navigability have improved quickly, that the public events have been worthwhile and that many stories are solid journalistically. But Geller said that he still can't get comfortable with the elitist flavor of a pay-to-participate online conversation.

"They continue to be a gated community," he wrote. "I have no problem with that as a business model, but since their work is not available to the public, can't be found by search engines, and can't be cited, it's hard to say where they fit into a world of journalism."

Your Tax Dollars at work: Hoku Corp. amends polysilicon supply agreement

Hoku Corp. and Solarfun Power Hong Kong Limited have amended their supply agreement, extending the deadline of Hoku’s first shipment of polysilicon to Solarfun….

Schreck confirmed that the polysilicon plant is currently still under construction, and Hoku (Nasdaq: HOKU) said in its earnings report for the quarter ending Sept. 30 that construction of Phase I is expected to be finished in early 2011.

Perfect Title scammer sues Obama

In June 2010 Dr. Sai began his latest adventure by filing a lawsuit against President Obama, Governor Lingle, and numerous other government officials. The suit seeks actual and punitive damages for having prosecuted him in connection with the Perfect Title scam, and for illegally occupying Hawaii for more than a century. The suit claims that the Hawaiian revolution of 1893 and annexation of 1898 were illegal, that the U.S. lacks jurisdiction in Hawaii, that therefore the State of Hawaii as a U.S. subsidiary lacked jurisdiction to prosecute him, and that the U.S. should withdraw its allegedly illegal occupation of Hawaii. All lawsuit documents, along with Dr. Sai’s explanations, can be found on his webpage at
http://hawaiiankingdom.org/sai-obama.shtml

In November 2010 Dr. Sai filed a motion with the court to amend his complaint by adding 35 foreign nations as defendants. These are nations who “illegally” maintain consulates in Hawaii and recognize the sovereignty of the United States here.

Kauai Bureaucrats play musical chairs

LIHU‘E — Donald Fujimoto is out as county engineer and Janine Rapozo is out as transportation director, Mayor Bernard P. Carvalho Sr. announced Wednesday.

Fujimoto has accepted an appointed position as environmental services officer in charge of solid waste and wastewater, and Larry Dill, formerly an engineer with Princeville Utilities Company, will be the new county engineer effective Dec. 1.

PUC does not answer call for Pasha hearings

In support of the Young Bros monopoly, Hawaii County Council demands Pasha be subject to a show trial in the kangaroo court of public opinion.

Special session to consider $56M bond

HILO -- The Hawaii County Council has scheduled a special session for Nov. 30 to reconsider a $56 million bond issue.

The eleventh-hour session was shoehorned into the current council's schedule less than a week before a new council majority takes office Dec. 6.

The move lets an East Hawaii-led majority that includes three ousted council members safeguard the bond issue from the new majority that showed signs of holding off a vote until next year's budget was more fully defined. Six of the current council members favor the measure.

read more

Price doubles, hope fades for S. Kona police station

First expected to cost between $15 million and $17 million, the price has skyrocketed to $35 million or $40 million based upon recent estimates from engineers, Assistant Chief Marshall Kanehailua told the Police Commission on Wednesday.

It will have a 10-lane firing range, offices, holding cells and storage for evidence and other items, as well as conference rooms, a squad room, staff lounge, physical fitness room and rest rooms. The firing range will be sound-insulated with solid concrete walls and a special ventilation system.

The Police Commission has scheduled an update on the project for its January meeting, to be held in Kona. Some members were concerned about the cost of the project, which has risen because the steep topography of the building site requires substantial work to make it level enough for a structure.

read more

Ag board OKs coffee bean quarantine

The Hawaii Board of Agriculture unanimously approved the emergency measure Tuesday afternoon, in hopes of preventing the spread of the coffee berry borer from Kona farms to those on other islands, an Agriculture Department spokeswoman said.

The measure is an interim rule, which will take effect as soon as the Attorney General's office reviews the rule and the rule can be published in daily newspapers, Janelle Saneishi added. The emergency quarantine measure is for the area referred to as the "zone of infestation," she said, which is South Kona and Ka'u. The remainder of the Big Island is considered a secondary zone, she said.

Punatics protest TSA rules

"I'm all for 'em," said Tina's husband, Joel Garber. The family has walked across the country in support of Native American rights, and they're not going to take this latest insult sitting down, or fully clothed.

Tina Garber, 43, is a standup comedian and musician in the band called (really) The Touchables; the name was inspired by Mohandas Gandhi's work for lower-caste Indians. The family lives in Kurtistown.

HTH: ACLU of Hawaii urges travelers to protest

Heritage: Stop Treating Everyone As An Equal Threat

Drug Enforcement Administration to Put Temporary Ban on Synthetic Marijuana

The Drug Enforcement Administration said today that it will ban five chemicals used to produce synthetic marijuana, making the product illegal to sell or possess in the United States.