House votes tax-breaks, child adoption rights for gay couples
Hawaii law (already) allows domestic partnerships for gay couples with rights such as family and bereavement leave, probate rights and hospital visitation. Civil unions would offer other rights similar to marriage, such as being able to file joint state taxes and adopt children. It was opposed by 13 Democrats and four Republicans (of six).
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Soft on crime, hard on Doctors: Tort-reform opponent Tommy Waters considered as Obama's US Atty for Hawaii
...One source said Waters' name has already been sent by Inouye's office to the White House. Another source, a Democrat, said Waters' name was one of two that were sent, but the source did not know the other candidate's name. Kubo was appointed U.S. attorney by President Bush in 2001, and had expressed interest in staying on the job after Barack Obama won the election. But Inouye's office said they expected that the White House would "like to see a new face" as the top federal attorney in Hawaii.
Yes, after all that key early-money support, Obama is expected to put a Democrat machine politician in the position so that all the corrupt Democrat politicans can rest easy for 4 years.
RELATED SB 4-10-08: Judiciary Chairman Tommy Waters, a lawyer, denied a hearing on the malpractice bill in the Legislature's current session, asking House members to observe a moment of silence "for the death of tort reform"....
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OHA-caused affordable housing shortage: Bill seeks housing stipends to ease DoE's teacher shortage
"Somehow, we need to address this issue. How do we keep the ones that we hire? Because of the cost of housing, some of the teachers are pressured economically and they leave," said Sakamoto, chairman of the Senate Education Committee.
Meanwhile at the US Supreme Court OHA prepares its last ditch effort to block affordable housing....
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Waikoloa Workforce housing: "In Default"
Ashida said he is not now comfortable discussing publicly the county's options because the county last week gave WWH, the Hawaii Island Housing Trust and developer UniDev 60 days to correct the default or the county would continue the project without them.....Arnett said the county has had difficulties receiving an accounting of some funds. For instance, he said engineering was supposed to cost $80,000, but to date has exceeded $2 million....Ashida said there is "room for improvement" with the way contracts are written, but the bigger problem is how they are administered.
Phase 1A of the project, which calls for building 125 affordable homes, is supposed to be completed over the next year. All of the homes built for the project would be available first to resort employees. Arnett, however, said a July 2008 contract between the county and WWH LLC includes no performance clauses or penalty clauses, and the company was not required to get bonding for the work.
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