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Sunday, December 5, 2010
December 5, 2010 News Read
By Andrew Walden @ 2:41 PM :: 9600 Views

Lingle: “I look forward to staying Involved”

Abercrombie appoints five more directors

Six Hawaii Robotics teams advance to World Championship

Kaauwai On Lingle's Legacy

Within one year of her historic election, she had the state's economy up and running, creating a $750 million surplus in 2006. The Lingle administration transformed state procurement procedures to ensure openness and accountability, with important changes like developing an online system in which interested bidders can become part of the state procurement process. The administration also eliminated the "pay to play" arrangements that allowed contractors who made political contribution to bid on state jobs.

SA Editor’s note: The Hawaii Democratic Party was also given the opportunity to reflect on the Lingle administration but did not meet our print deadline.  (So they had Derrick “I am not a Democrat” DePledge write it up for them…see next article.)

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SA: The Lingle Years

She vowed to end what she described as a culture of cronyism and mediocrity in state government.

Outnumbered by majority Democrats at the Legislature, and with few genuine allies among the business, institutional and nonprofit interests that are wired into the state Capitol (aka “the cronies”), Lingle often tried to use the power and prestige of her office alone to make and influence public policy.

(In other words, the cronies didn’t like her and the SA is a crony newspaper.  The rest of the article is a long list of Democrat whines, most of which boil down to “she isn’t one of us.”)

Democrat Borreca: Lingle rode in on high horse and right past opportunities (Democrat Borreca writes the entire column using Republican quotes.  How trite.)

SA Editorial: Aloha, Gov. Linda Lingle (The valleys were whatever the Dems didn’t go along with.)

SA: Letters on Lingle

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Efforts have failed to outlaw employing close relatives

The State Ethics Commission has been pushing for passage of a nepotism law to prevent state employees from appointing or hiring close relatives to public jobs, but the most recent bill went nowhere at the Legislature.

"The reason we introduced it is because the Hawaii state ethics code doesn't contain a nepotism law," said Susan Yoza, interim executive director of the commission. "That generally is a standard provision you would find in an ethics code. We feel that is a provision that should be in the law to promote public confidence in government."

Charter school stands accused of nepotism: Myron B. Thompson Academy's principal has four relatives on staff despite questions about their productivity and qualifications

SA: Charter schools set their own hiring rules

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After 40 years of trying, Progressives take the helm of Hawaii's ship

Hawaii has never had a governor like Neil Abercrombie.

Democrats, yes -- the state has seen four Democrats before Abercrombie take the oath of office. Starting with John A. Burns, Hawaii's governors have all come from one wing of the Democratic party: the Burns wing.

In 40 years the lines have blurred since Burns faced off against his lieutenant governor, Tom Gill, but in the ensuing years, it was always the Burns man who won Washington Place.

When the decidedly liberal Mazie Hirono represented the Democrats in the 2002 general election against Linda Lingle, the former lieutenant governor lost….

he has picked up a lot of Waihee stalwarts who assisted in Abercrombie's campaign and are now defining the new administration by helping to pick the new Cabinet.

The team includes (GAMBLING LOBBYIST) John Radcliffe, lobbyist and former labor leader, who served briefly in the Waihee administration; Lloyd Nekoba, a longtime Waihee aide; and also former state Rep. Kate Stanley, who served in the Waihee administration. Charles Toguchi, the former superintendent of education and state senator, is keeping a lower profile now, but he also is in the Abercrombie kitchen Cabinet, along with former Maui Rep. Tony Takitani.

Gaming Industry Lobbyist, Progressive activist screen Abercrombie cabinet picks

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Coronation of King Abercrombie

The setting will be the palace's coronation pavilion, constructed for the coronation of King David Kalakaua and Queen Kapiolani in 1883. It served as the inauguration site for each of Hawaii's governors until outgoing Gov. Linda Lingle broke with tradition in 2002 and was sworn in to office in the state Capitol rotunda.

More than 5,000 people are expected to be on hand to see the 72-year-old Abercrombie take the oath of office as Hawaii's seventh elected governor, reclaiming Washington Place after eight years of Republican control.

"Having this inauguration at Iolani Palace will be a historic return to tradition

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Asselbaye moved to Hawaii in 2003 and immediately began working for Akaka Tribe

Asselbaye's ability to "channel" Abercrombie derives from working for him the last 17 years, first as a legislative aide and then up the ranks until she became chief of staff in 2005. She, her husband and three children moved to Hawaii from Washington two years before.

Since then, she has spent countless hours on the native Hawaiian governance legislation, known as the Akaka Bill after its chief sponsor, U.S. Sen. Daniel Akaka.

RELATED: How Inouye sabotaged Akaka Bill

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Inouye, Nakashima want Takamine's Senate seat

"I'm going to be submitting my name as soon as an announcement is made by the party," Inouye said.

Choosing Nakashima to fill Takamine's post would create an open House seat that Abercrombie would have to fill. If that happens, Nakashima said he'd want a replacement who's been active in the community and shares his goals for the district.

"I think there are already a number of names floating out there in speculation that I might be appointed," he said Friday.

"I've had people call me and ask me if that is something I would consider," Yagong said of vying to become a senator.

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Farmers Beware: Kokubun nominated to lead ag 'renaissance'

Kokubun was elected to the Hawaii County Council in 1984 and served until 1992, including the last four years as chairman. He resigned to run for mayor but lost to Stephen Yamashiro in the primary election. Gov. Ben Cayetano appointed him in 1998 to the Board of Land and Natural Resources. Two years later, when state Sen. Andy Levin resigned the South Hawaii seat to serve in the Harry Kim administration, Cayetano tapped Kokubun for the seat. 

The Senate will need to choose a new Chair for the Water and Land Ctte.

The more they talk about saving agriculture, the less agriculture we have.

KITV: Gov.-elect Abercrombie Names More Cabinet Members

SA: 5 more Cabinet members named

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After being cancelled and then rescheduled, the Mayor's Craft Fair is held

Last month, the popular fair was cancelled (by a Mufi operative without telling Carlisle) after the City's Parks department became concerned vendors would be targeted by the State Tax Department's special enforcement unit. (The Parks Director has since been forced out.)

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Hawaii's nursing shortage turns to surplus - but not for long

The "surge" was caused by a perfect storm of events. Students started applying to school several years ago when nursing shortfalls were first predicted. Then, came the economic downturn, and experienced nurses who were nearing retirement decided to stay on.

"So, we see people who are working longer than they expected to work and henceforth, those jobs haven't opened up yet," says Dr. Stephanie Genz, Dean of Chaminade's nursing school.

But medical experts predict the surge will be short-lived.

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Hilo hospital rated poorly by patients

According to survey results made available on the website hospitalcompare.hhs.gov, Hilo Medical Center almost uniformly scored worst among three Big Island hospitals. The survey consisted of 10 questions posed to a random sampling of patients who stayed in the hospital at least one night in 2009.

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Kauai Co Clerk pay may be illegal

LIHU‘E — County Clerk Peter Nakamura makes more annually than Mayor Bernard P. Carvalho Jr., Nakamura’s latest pay raise may be illegal, and his apparent acceptance of around $50,000 for unused vacation time is against county policy, two county council members said.

Nakamura’s annual salary is $114,848, and Carvalho’s is $114,490.

“I believe Mr. Nakamura must be held accountable for accepting what appears to be an illegal raise,” said (ant-Superferry protester) Councilwoman JoAnn Yukimura….

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Prefect Title scammer in court again

My head spins, but Sai is serious, and has spent a lot of time peddling this theory of royal metamorphosis. Just search YouTube and you’ll see a lot of his self-promotion.

Of course, it’s all more than a little self-serving since one primary and continuing goal of his efforts has been to nullify his own criminal conviction on that felony theft charge. I might take a more generous view if he had worked as hard to pay back the people who lost their homes or incurred large legal bills after they relied on Perfect Title’s smoke-and-mirrors advice and stopped paying their mortgages because the demise of the kingdom had supposedly broken the chain of land titles.

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Cancun Climate Change: Turn out the lights, the party's over

Everybody who imagined himself anybody raced to Copenhagen last year for the global-warming summit, renamed "climate change" when the globe began to cool, as it does from time to time. Some 45,000 delegates, "activists," business representatives and the usual retinue of journalists registered for the party in Copenhagen. This year, only 1,234 journalists registered for the Cancun beach party. The only story there is that there's no story there. The U.N. organizers glumly concede that Cancun won't amount to anything, even by U.N. standards.

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Reports: Russian satellites fall into Pacific

Russian news reports say a rocket and its payload of three communications satellites has fallen into the Pacific Ocean after failing to reach orbit.

The state news agency RIA Novosti cited an unidentified aerospace industry source as saying the rocket and satellites went into the sea Sunday about 1,500 kilometers (900 miles) northwest of Honolulu.

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