SB232: Senate Judiciary Committee to hear Civil Unions Tuesday
SB120 would Repeal Dozens of Special Funds
Lingle recognized with National Boating Access Award
1000 at Capitol: Anti-abortion rally appeals to younger set
Gracie Cockett, a member of the youth group Generation Joshua, spoke to the crowd about the need to try to make a difference.
"Even though we may be the minority with government officials here at the Capitol, it doesn't mean that we as Christians can't make an impact in the fight to protect life," said Cockett, 16, of Hawaii Kai, after her speech.
Generation Joshua is a national organization that encourages youths to stand up for Christian values through the political process. A local chapter was started two years ago, said Haley Hobson, 17, of Ewa Beach, the Hawaii president.
Alicia Bonifacio, a 19-year-old sophomore at the University of Hawaii-Manoa, won a poster contest sponsored by the Foundation of Hawaii. A rendering of an adult reaching out to pull the hand of an infant out of water dominates the poster along with the words "Take my hand, not my life."…
Sheriffs estimated about 1,000 people attended the event.
KITV: VIDEO
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SB8 to be heard Monday: Direct appointment of BoE
A bill providing for the appointment of Board of Education members gets its first hearing Monday afternoon in Honolulu.
The Senate's Education Committee is accepting written or in-person testimony on Senate Bill 8.
Under the provisions of the bill, the BOE would have 11 voting members -- one each from the four counties, six members chosen at-large from around the state and one public high school student. All would be appointed by Gov. Neil Abercrombie, subject to confirmation by the state Senate.
House Bill 338 would have nine voting board members -- one each from the Big Island, Maui and Kauai, and six from Oahu. The student member would not have a vote.
Kona Rep. Cindy Evans is a co-sponsor of this bill, which has not been scheduled for a hearing.
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Borreca: Abercrombie speeches “an exhibition of illusions”
Tomorrow Gov. Neil Abercrombie defines his embryonic administration.
So far, instead of building up or hyping his first State of the State speech, Abercrombie has deferred to it, saying that his plans will be encompassed in the address to a joint legislative session.
What will he say?…
If we do not know how he will address — if not solve — these dilemmas, there is time to wonder how he will say it. Abercrombie is Hawaii's pyrotechnical rhetorical master.
If Abercrombie is on, he can provide a phantasmagoric speech that leaves everyone breathless, although wondering a half-hour later exactly what was said….
Oh, did I mention that the budget still doesn't balance?
- Phantasmagoria: “an exhibition of optical effects and illusions”
- Phantasmagoric: “characterized by fantastic imagery and incongruous juxtapositions” (No wonder progressives think the idiot Babblecrombie is a genius. He defines them.)
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Espero: We need more dope
Between deep pulls on her glass smoking bong, (Hawaii Democratic Party Region 8 Chair and ACLU MCWG operative) Teri Heede, 55, said she needs about an eighth of an ounce of marijuana every day to control multiple sclerosis symptoms. But bad weather and pests make her back yard pot patch unreliable. (uh huh)
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Maui News: Global Warming Cranks at Science Magazine spread fake Nobel’s starvation story
A few days ago, a press release was put up at Science magazine's site, referencing some Argentinian group nobody had heard of but predicting mass starvation, and soon. Sort of a southern hemispherical Ehrlich pronouncement. The group claimed its science adviser was a Nobel Prize-winning scientist, which ought to have raised a caution flag, as Argentinians do not win Nobel science prizes.
Second, it estimated the globe would warm by about two and a half degrees by 2020, nine years from now. When I first glanced at this, I noticed the Nobel oddity and guessed that the date was a misprint. No doubt, I thought, the gotcha brigades would be all over it for 15 minutes, then move on.
Wrong again.
It wasn't a misprint, and the Argentinians are sticking to their story. OK, crackpot climate alarmists in Argentina, no big deal, they're everywhere. But there was an instructive element here. Any competent news editor would have spiked this story. So what does that say about the editors at Science?
Nothing good, I'm afraid.
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Malarial Mosquitoes released on Oahu
A shipment of mosquitoes bound for DNA tests in a London laboratory may never be found, so expanded trapping is needed to verify if a new type of malaria transmitting bug has established a foothold.
The Army, which regularly sets traps out in 48 different sites at its 11 military installations, initially found what it believed could be anopheles mosquitoes.
Entomologists initially collected some 50 mosquitoes suspected of being a human malaria carrier not previously established in the islands.
(DDT is the most effective means of malarial mosquito eradication and control.)
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Hawaii Co Fire Captain not fired after pleading no-contest to felony hit and run killing
More than five years after a 22-year-old pedestrian was killed in a hit-and-run, a Big Island fire captain pleaded no contest earlier this month to leaving the scene of a fatal accident.
Konrad K. Mossman, 44, now faces wrongful death lawsuits filed by Dale Tim Sing's girlfriend, who was pregnant with his child, and other family members. They allege Mossman delayed reporting the 2005 accident to cover up the fact he was driving under the influence of alcohol and lied to police, saying his wife was the driver.
Mossman, a 20-year veteran with the Hawaii County Fire Department, was promoted in 2009 to captain and is currently at the Pahala station, despite being charged in 2008.
"Presently we haven't changed his status," Hawaii County Fire Chief Darryl Oliveira said. The department chose to wait for the results of the criminal case before acting, he said.
"We have been working with corporation counsel (county attorney) on reviewing the conditions of his plea, which could affect his employment with us," Oliveira said.
Oliveira said "it is still not clear what transpired," and the fire department must base its decisions on the outcome of the case.
The civil lawsuits filed on behalf of Tim Sing's girlfriend, Kassy Astrande, their child, and his parents and siblings, alleges the police department failed to impound the Mossmans' truck until after 11 a.m. Aug. 5. They also alleged police delayed securing the accident site, failed to thoroughly secure evidence from the body, causing police to miss pieces of the vehicle that broke off during the collision, and also alleged negligence and delay in the subsequent investigation.
John Price, a private attorney who represents the county, said the civil cases had been stayed until the outcome of the criminal case.
RELATED: OHA Trustee Tells Grieving Family That Shrine to Dead Son Must Come Down
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Your Act 221 Tax Dollars at work: Hawaii 43rd in patents
The 210 patents awarded to local residents last year was the most since the U.S. Patent Office began compiling state data in 1976, and represented a 57 percent jump over the 134 patents issued in 2009.
(Total for US? 219,614 in 2010.)
Part of the reason for the big increase, however, was probably the result of a new management team at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office that has helped clear up a backlog of cases across the country, patent lawyers and agents say. Still, Hawaii's increase was the second largest of any state and helped it move up to 43rd nationally in patents awarded from 46th place in 2009.
Hawaii's most prolific patent producers were once again research and development teams at high-tech companies and the University of Hawaii. Hoana Medical Inc., a privately held medical device company, tied UH for the most patents, each receiving five. Oceanit Laboratories, an engineering, science and research company, landed four patents, while Cardax Pharmaceuticals received three.
(That’s 17 hi-tech patents.)
But many of the local patents were awarded to "garage inventors" — individuals with no corporate or investor backing. Among the devices patented were a "miniature dental flossing packet," "air conditioned helmet apparatus," "hydrofoil for a surfboard," "lounge chair cover" and a "jet lag forecaster."
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SA: Selecting BOE members should be governor's kuleana
The new constitutional amendment provides that the governor choose the board members, but it did not specify the process — and therein lies the current debate.
Gov. Linda Lingle prudently vetoed a system last year in which the governor would have appointed school board members from a list of candidates chosen by a panel of seven, only one of whom would be picked by the governor. The House speaker and Senate president each would have selected a panel member and the other four would have been chosen by an education organization.
Such a mishmash would fall short of making the school system accountable to the governor, which was the point of the constitutional amendment and the voters' will.
Some legislators say the advisory panel would provide a system of checks and balances — but we say that such a panel dilutes the intent of direct accountability and that checks will be attained via the Senate's confirmation process of BOE members
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HSTA Demands School Librarians where there are no school libraries
Many public schools in rural areas do not have a dedicated school library, relying instead on public library facilities on school campuses. In past years, these schools have funded a separate school librarian who works within the public library facility to serve their students. With cuts in funding, many of these schools have decided they can do without their dedicated school librarian, although most public librarians do not provide the full range of services that the school librarian does, and some have even closed their doors to students during the school day.
WHT: A Loss for Words
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Obamacare Bribery: Hawaii Seniors Get 'Donut Hole' Checks
HONOLULU -- Hawaii Rep. Mazie Hirono said that 20,527 seniors and other Medicare beneficiaries in the state have received checks to help cover gaps in their prescription drug coverage.
Seniors who fell into the Medicare Part D prescription drug coverage gap, also known as the "donut hole," will get a one-time $250 rebate check. As of Jan. 1, seniors who fall into this coverage gap will also get a 50 percent discount on brand-name drugs.
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OHA Inventor Frenchy Desoto Dies
A one-time janitor at the state capitol, she became one of the state's best known Native Hawaiian politicians.
Eight years before he became governor, John Waihee served as a delegate to the 1978 state constitutional convention with DeSoto. She chaired the Hawaiian Affairs Committee of the con con.
"And the work that she did really laid the foundation for most of what happened in the subsequent years regarding the Hawaiian movement and Hawaiian affairs," Waihee said.
Waihee said DeSoto pushed for progress on issues way ahead of their time, like Hawaiian sovereignty and a Hawaiian governing entity, laying the groundwork for the Office of Hawaiian Affairs.
"All of these issues came together in 1978 when the Hawaiian movement essentially was moving away from some kind of welfare program to something more in terms of political identity," Waihee said.
She went on to be elected a founding OHA trustee and served on the board for nearly 20 years, chairing OHA for part of that time before retiring in 2000.
She ousted Clayton Hee, who's now a state senator, from the chairmanship in 1997.
Her son John DeSoto remembers she had an edge to her and she "flipped the bird" or "tried to spit on people" with whom she disagreed.
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Woman charged in peacock beating death found not guilty
A victory over animal liberation cranks.
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Kauai: Confusion persists over new plastic bag ban
Vitamin World in Kukui Grove Center was still giving out plastic bags to customers on Wednesday. Store manager Aaron Johnston said he thought plastic bags were permitted under the ordinance as long as they are recyclable.
“The bags we used before weren’t recyclable,” he said, “so we ordered the plastic recyclable ones from corporate headquarters.”
(Nope. Recyclable plastic is not good enuf. The law requires that you kill trees to make paper bags. And the feeeel gooood enviros of Maui and Kauai are so stupid that they haven’t noticed that they have been converted from tree huggers to tree-choppers.)
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