December 19, 2008 > Hawaii Free Press

Hawaii Daily News Read

Friday, December 19, 2008

December 19, 2008
By Andrew Walden @ 7:07 PM :: 9992 Views

A partner for MMMC is ‘urgent’

...the hospital's facilities could be sold or leased to a partner with expertise in health care finances and services. (Now that they've chased away Malulani, the old boys want to privatize on their terms.)

Enriques Dividend: Ka`u begins freeing itself after decades of Green Party rule

Presently, water is hauled from Waiohinu and Na'alehu at a typical rate of 6,000 gallons a trip. The hauling trucks go through a hazardous narrow highway with right angle turns (following property lines) and on undulating angles.
It truly is amazing that there are not more accidents. The "Hawaiian Ocean View Estates Well Development-Phase I" is located on Paradise Circle adjacent to Kahuku Park and St. Jude's Church. Phase II will bring the pumped water to a public spigot and a 100,000 gallon tank on the corner of Lehua Lane and Mamalahoa Highway. The three-acre parcel has three driveways off the highway and will be ready for a public fill station at the beginning of January 2010.

Ewa Beach 96706: Ground zero for Hawaii foreclosures

At noon on Tuesday, a man began taping pieces of paper to one of the concrete columns outside the courthouse on Punchbowl Street as some 20 people crowded around.

Obama due back in isles for 10-day trip

Although there has been no official word from the Obama camp about his upcoming visit, a source with knowledge of the preparations confirmed Obama's arrival tomorrow for a 10-day stay in the islands.... Obama has spent this week announcing various appointment to his Cabinet. He also has been dogged by questions about what contact may have occurred between members of his team and the Illinois governor.

Advertiser: Senate scandal figure Valerie Jarrett will be with Obama in Hawaii

Kuhio housing residents sue

On top of being in a wheelchair and having respiratory problems, Lewers Faletogo has had to deal with sewage leaking into his apartment from the upstairs toilet, frequent garbage chute fires that char the already-corroded metal, and no hot water for 18 hours a day.

Hamakua biofuel leases eyed

(Old boys snag federal subsidy. Cronies in Legislature give them special privileges. Subsidy runs out. Business collapses, Trees clog ag land unharvested. Wash, rinse, repeat.)

Councilors question county project costs

...an audit released earlier this year ... showed change orders causing significant price increases -- some from 50 percent to 106 percent more than the original bid -- in county projects.

(Now that they are finished legalizing marijuana, banning tobacco, plastic bags and GMOs--maybe they could take a minute to examine County Government?)

Federal reviewers give 6 nursing homes in Hawaii poor scores

Six of Hawai'i's nearly 50 nursing homes received the lowest possible ranking in a new five-star rating system ....

One expert, however, suggested that the new system won't do a lot to prod Hawai'i nursing-home operators to improve their care. "It may not be that relevant," said Cullen Hayashida, a gerontology professor at Kapiolani Community College. Because bed space is so scarce here, families can't be too picky about where they place their loved ones and often take the first empty bed they find, according to Hayashida....

Hawai'i has one of the most under served markets in the country in terms of nursing-home bed space for the elderly. It has about 24 beds per 1,000 elderly residents, compared with a national average of roughly 55, according to KCC's Hayashida.

Waste water discharged into Wahiawa Reservoir

The state Health Department's Clean Water Branch has posted warning signs at Wahiawa Reservoir due to the discharge of 14,126 gallons of treated but partially disinfected waste water from the Wahiawa Waste Water Treatment Plant...The public is also reminded that a "brown water advisory"'' is still in effect for coastal waters of the islands of O'ahu and Kaua'i. (And where are the eco-activists protesting these government-caused water pollution problems?)