March 19, 2011 News Read > Hawaii Free Press

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Saturday, March 19, 2011

March 19, 2011 News Read
By Andrew Walden @ 1:46 PM :: 8677 Views

Case: Inouye not in control, won’t be able to designate next Senator

Abercrombie picks Wildman for Circuit Court, refuses to name nominees

HB638--New Voting System for Hawaii: Round up as many candidates as possible, gang up on the front runners

Enviros win 90% in Hawaii Supreme Court

Defeating Assisted Suicide: Four Victories - One to go

Full Text: Pacific Commander Admiral Willard Q&A on Search and Rescue in Japan

Ghouls: Do Japan's woes make hiking GET more palatable?

The loss of life, the damaged Japanese infrastructure, the mushrooming fears of nuclear disaster all spell a crisis … Now Abercrombie is asking for a new tax-revenue estimate from the Council on Revenues.

"Having cows before earthquake victims have found refuge, I would argue, is bad form. Experience suggests that inventing a new forecast within four or five days of a major event risk on this scale is, well, silly," Brewbaker sagely noted….

That is just Brewbaker's single opinion, not that of the entire council, but it shows a reluctance to react in panic to our ally's human tragedy.

What the crisis does do is continue to drum up a politically defensible reason for Abercrombie and the Legislature's Democratic leaders to reach for a general excise tax increase as a solution to the budget problem.

(“You don’t ever want a crisis to go to waste; it’s an opportunity to do important things that you would otherwise avoid.” --Rahm Emmanuel)

KHON: Abercrombie requests new general fund forecast

Abercrombie thrilled about new Spending

…the government would be restored so it functions better, serving business expansion, than it does with currently understaffed divisions.

He also mentioned several developments in Kapolei, including University of Hawaii West Oahu, electrical upgrades in schools and roadways that will facilitate growth.

The governor also said he remains committed to bringing prisoners home from mainland prisoners, without spending heavily on new correctional facilities.

Abercrombie said new state construction projects will focus on facilities, like school improvements, that produce social and economic benefit. In that context, he said he opposed rebuilding a large jail on Maui or putting significant money into Aloha Stadium.

Abercrombie has to be living in Cave

But the Executive Director of the Hawaii Republican Party says the first 100 days have been filled with broken promises.

"The biggest one is tax increases. He said many times we have him on audio and in written statements saying that he would not increase taxes during the campaign on many different occasions under many different context and now obviously all of that has gone out the window," said Dylan Nonaka of the Hawaii Republican Party.

Dylan Nonaka says the current financial climate should not be a surprise.

"You had to be living in a cave to think that the economic climate was not bad and wouldn't get worse. I mean I think we all knew going in that things were not looking rosy coming into 2011 and 2012," Nonaka said.

Another Step Taken To State-Owned Slaughterhouse

Committee Chairman Clift Tsuji said the purchase was necessary to support Oahu's livestock industry. But critics have pointed out that despite the slaughterhouse being available, Oahu's beef and pork industries remain barely viable.

Most cattle reared on Oahu pastures are sent to the mainland for fattening and slaughter and most of the pigs slaughtered at the Campbell Industrial Park facility are shipped in from the mainland and sold on the local market.

Taxpayers will be slaughtered to the tune of $1.6M.

QUESTION: Which politically connected person is being bought out of his failed business?

Ethics: Is Rail worth $36.75 to Legislators?

Many lawmakers who received free invitations to a high-powered private reception next week at the Hilton Hawaiian Village will now have to pay $36.75 apiece to attend.

The change came after organizers of the event, which features appearances by U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and senior Hawaii U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye, checked with the state Ethics Commission on the propriety of giving free invitations to legislators….

Next week’s reception is sponsored by the Pacific Resources Partnership, a consortium of the Carpenters Union and building contractors, which checked with Kondo’s office after the free invites were distributed to officeholders at the state Capitol.

PRP is a leading supporter of the $5 billion Honolulu rapid transit project which broke ground last month and depends largely on federal transit funding.

CB: Lawmakers as Bait to Lure Lobbyists

CONFIRMED: DoE Bullying Policy Serves Transsexual Agenda for Hawaii Schools

Legislation is being introduced nationwide to protect people like Aiden Aizumi. In Nevada, lawmakers are considering a bill to expand the state’s hate crimes law. The bill, SB 180, would make stiffer penalties for crimes against transgender people.

In Hawaii legislators are considering a bill that would protect against bullying, cyber bullying and harassment within the schools because of a student’s actual or perceived sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression.

“The Hawaii Safe School Act (HB 688) would be an important piece of legislation because it would be the first time our governor, Legislature, and Board of Education united to affirm the Department of Education’s role in proactively addressing bullying and harassment of students in our public schools,” said Kim Coco Iwamoto, a Hawaii Board of Education member who is also transgender.

KHNL: Bullying Law in Hawaii Supported by Transsexual BOE member Kim Coco Iwamoto

Scientists Predict Japan's Tsunami Trash To Hit Hawaii Shores in 18 mos

And not a single word about plastic bags….

ALSO: Hawaii could see debris from Japan in 18 months.... “The “garbage patch,” as referred to in the media, is an area of marine debris concentration in the North Pacific Ocean. The name “garbage patch” has led many to believe that this area is a large and continuous patch of easily visible marine debris items such as bottles and other litter—akin to a literal blanket of trash that should be visible with satellite or aerial photographs. This is simply not true.”

Abercrombie to join wind energy scammers at Grand Opening

First Wind is an independent wind energy company exclusively focused on the development, financing, construction, ownership and operation of utility-scale wind projects in the United States. Based in Boston, First Wind has wind projects in the Northeast, the West and in Hawaii, with the capacity to generate up to 534 megawatts of power and projects under construction with the capacity to generate up to an additional 202 megawatts. For more information on First Wind, please visit www.firstwind.com or follow us on Twitter @FirstWind.

First Wind has a partnership in Hawaii with Makani Nui Associates, a Hawaii -based company. The partnership developed, constructed, financed, owns and operates Kaheawa Wind Power. Makani Nui is also a partner in the Kahuku Wind project.

MORE: Six federal grants promote electric vehicles in Hawaii ($$$$ from ratepayers and taxpayers for charging stations nobody will use)

VIDEO: Hawaii Council chair “deeply concerned” with Kenoi budget

Mayor Billy Kenoi announced he and his team had closed a $38.8 million dollar gap in the $366,128,670 budget when he submitted it to the council on March 1st. Hamakua Councilman Dominic Yagong says its technically a balanced budget, but he sees it as more of a deferred budget.

Yagong called a press conference at the Hawaii County Council chambers in Hilo on Thursday to share his scrutiny of the proposal. A public hearing on the proposed budget is scheduled for Monday at 5 pm in Hilo.

Yagong says that $3 million in payments towards debt service is being postponed to the 2012-2013, and the larger $21 million in GASB 45 payments is also being deferred to the same fiscal year. A payroll lag will also save $6 million, although once again, a later budget will have to deal with the carryover.

Yagong says the mayor’s proposal puts the 2012-2013 budget in the hole by $24 million, or $30 million if the payroll lag is also to be paid next fiscal year.

More Revisionist History hits bookstores Next Week

Among the developments in these outposts of 1898, Vowell considers the Americanization of Hawaii the most intriguing. From the arrival of New England missionaries in 1820, their goal to Christianize the local heathen, to the coup d'état of the missionaries' sons in 1893, which overthrew the Hawaiian queen, the events leading up to American annexation feature a cast of beguiling, and often appealing or tragic, characters: whalers who fired cannons at the Bible-thumpers denying them their God-given right to whores, an incestuous princess pulled between her new god and her brother-husband, sugar barons, lepers, con men, Theodore Roosevelt, and the last Hawaiian queen, a songwriter whose sentimental ode "Aloha 'Oe" serenaded the first Hawaiian president of the United States during his 2009 inaugural parade.