Senator Sam Slom Opening Day Speech
Senate President Shan Tsutsui: 2012 Opening Day Remarks
Full Text: HSTA Synopsis of Contract
Gay Lawsuits Target Bed and Breakfasts, Churches Nationwide
Prudential Locations Kickbacks: Hawaii Lawsuit Seeks to Expose Whistleblowers
Governor Seeking Applicants for Boards and Commissions
Federal Officials Demand Honolulu Rail Tax Hike to Cover Upcoming Cost Overruns
CB: Honolulu rail planners are unlikely to request an extension to the general excise tax surcharge that's paying for the bulk of the project.
That was the message that emerged after a lengthy private meeting between Honolulu officials and Federal Transit Administration Administrator Peter Rogoff in Washington on Wednesday.
In an interview before the meeting, Rogoff told Civil Beat that it's just a matter of "paperwork," when asked about what the city needed to do to strengthen its financial plan enough to get federal funding. He said he thinks Honolulu is "going to get there."
Honolulu Mayor Peter Carlisle arranged the meeting. He told Civil Beat it lasted an hour and a half, and focused on ways that Honolulu can shore up the $5.2 billion rail project's financial plan. Also present, at the mayor's request, was Don Horner, chairman of the Finance Committee of the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation.
Last month, federal officials told Honolulu that in order to receive $1.55 billion in federal funds for the project it needed to "demonstrate the availability of additional revenue sources" in case of unexpected cost overruns and revenue shortfalls.
read … Rail Tax
Voting Today, Teachers Threaten to Reject Contract over Evaluations
CB: “I believe the recent HSTA tentative agreement is actually worse than the state's LastBestFinalOffer (LBFO) we had implemented on us unilaterally. Here is why:
“First, it locks every single teacher in the state into ANNUAL teacher evaluations based (at least in part) on student test scores all the way through 2017. It was unconscionable of our board members to do...There is no way NEA approves of using tests designed to measure student achievement to also measure teacher performance. Wrong, wrong, wrong! Members have to get the word that NEA would not recommend this contract solely based on that one very troubling aspect….”
Teacher: Proposed contract is poor deal for teachers but apparently that's too bad
SA: If members reject a proposed contract today, HSTA could strike or continue legal action
read … Voting Today
Slom: Citizens Not Told the Truth about Real Cost of Wind, Solar, OTEC
A few weeks ago, our largest petroleum refiner announced it would shut down and sell its refining capacity, distribution and retail outlets. It is hoped that a new buyer will be found without major labor lost. But is this unexpected? For more than a decade, this state has made big oil, a public enemy. We added taxes, more regulations, investigations and bans on new facilities. In our love affair with "clean" energy alternatives, we have not told our citizens the truth about the real cost of transitioning to wind, solar, OTEC, Geothermal and biomass. We led the community to believe these sources are "free." We need a new, deregulated, voluntary energy policy.
read … SBH News
Gambling at top of opening legislative session issues
Among the key pledges on this first day of the legislative session are: no new taxes on residents and businesses; maintaining economic recovery and promoting job growth; and supporting a $500 million capital improvement package that would help in those efforts.
Gambling is likely to be among the most controversial bills but no chamber is rushing to be first off the starting line, and serious pension reform is needed due to billions-and-growing in unfunded obligations.
read … Gambling
Opening Day Coverage
Atheists on the Prod Opening Day
Legislators to Push to Legalize Small Bribes Again?
The Money Grab Begins: Children Will Die if our Budget is Cut
Hawaii teacher union to vote on proposed contract
AP: Members of the Hawaii State Teachers Association will vote Thursday on a proposal that includes moving to a performance-based compensation system next year. Under the proposed contract teachers, along with other public workers, will continue to see a 5 percent pay cut.
After June 30, 2013, teachers would move to a new salary schedule that recognizes their years of service with the Department of Education and move to a revised teacher evaluation system. Teachers rated "effective" or "highly effective" (it’s rigged, they will all be ‘effective’)would be eligible for 1 percent "step" increases annually.
SA: Teachers worry about how they will be judged
Update: Full Text: HSTA Synopsis of Contract
read … Teachers
Progressives Challenge Reapportionment Commission Lawsuit Over Sunshine Law
ILind: The reapportionment commission has not met since the Supreme Court’s decision was handed down on January 6. So how/when did the commissioners authorize the filing of this appeal on their behalf?
(Progressive) Bart Dame, who was an active observer and participant in the commission’s public process, sees it this way….
read … Reapportionment
Guard Your Wallet: Enviros Push for State Wide Plastic Bag Tax
Single Use Bag Fees — Senate Bill 1363 and House Bill 1828: A fee on plastic bags never made it through the Legislature last session, but its supporters are gearing up for a renewed fight.
A new bill will likely be proposed that’s tied to funding for watershed protection, according to Robert Harris, director of the Hawaii Sierra Club. And the bill is expected to include a fee on paper bags as well. Retailers have complained about the added cost of switching to paper.
“It’s such a common sense thing,” said Sen. Mike Gabbard, chair of the Senate Committee on Energy and Environment, who sponsored the plastic bag legislation last session. He called it “one of those feel good kind of bills.”
read … Tree Huggers become tree choppers
Hexavalent Chromium Chemophobia Scam: Josh Green pushes to Create Cause for Action by Trial Lawyers
SA: Enforcing limits on chromium-6, a naturally occurring toxic chemical found in Oahu's drinking water, is a priority on the environmental health agenda for the state Legislature this session.
Senate Health Committee Chairman Josh Green is pushing to establish a 0.06 parts per billion limit of the chemical in tap water. Chromium-6 was highlighted in the 2000 film "Erin Brockovich" that led to a $333 million legal settlement in Hinkley, Calif. (A gift to the trial lawyers.)
The latest Honolulu Board of Water Supply sampling between January and July 2011 found chromium-6, a known carcinogen in animals, ranging from 0.2 parts per billion in Mililani to 9.8 parts per billion in Kunia.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has not yet set a legal limit for the toxic chemical, also known as hexavalent chromium, and water utilities aren't required to test for it.
"The fact that we don't have a standard on chromium-6 is a problem," Green said.
Complete Debunk: Honolulu is #2 on Erin Brockovich hexavalent chromium hit list Key phrase: “It would require action by the Legislature for trial lawyers to make any money out of it”
Another Complete Debunk: Hawaii DoH Scientist: Shame on the EWG for panic about Hexavalent Chromium in Honolulu Tapwater
read … Chemophobia
Public Land Development Corp Rules Open for Discussion
CB: The Public Land Development Corporation may have gotten off to a slow start, but with a director now at its helm it appears to be picking up steam….
The corporation is opening the rules up for public comment for 30 days. They’re dense, but I’m sure there will be people parsing through them, including Civil Beat.
The rules will be available on DLNR’s website by the end of the week. Or if you just can’t wait to see what they’ve come up with, you can view the rules below….
read … Public Land Development
Mufi Hannemann/Ernie Martin Operative Stays on Nanakuli NB after 2600 Ethics Violations
SA: Patty Teruya, a former city employee who quit her job rather than dispute a Hono-lulu Ethics Commission complaint alleging more than 2,600 ethics violations, resigned Tuesday night as chairwoman of the Nanakuli-Maili Neighborhood Board.
Teruya remains a member of the board, and it wasn’t immediately clear who will succeed her, said Tom Heinrich, executive secretary of the Neighborhood Commission Office, which administers the city’s 33 neighborhood boards. He said the board decides who serves as chairperson and could put the issue on next month’s agenda for a vote.
Bryan Mick, Neighborhood Commission spokesman, said Teruya could have been removed as chairwoman after the release of the ethics complaint if someone on the board had raised a concern or if a resident had made a complaint about her. No one did, Mick said Tuesday.
read … How-to guide for Political Operatives
Farm Land Flip Flop? Hawaii Ag Officials Change Position on Hoopili
CB: Three years ago, state agriculture officials insisted that losing hundreds of acres of Oahu farm land to development would be a serious setback for local food production in Hawaii.
Earlier this month, state agriculture officials said losing the same Oahu farm land was not a problem.
Hawaii's agriculture department has reversed its position on one of the largest master-planned communities to be proposed in the state. And that's prompting people to ask: what happened?
(Uhhhh… Abercrombie won the election.)
read … Hoopili
Glut of photovoltaic panels helps shave 20 percent off cost of installing system
SA: A decline in the price of photovoltaic panels combined with an increase in competition among installers has cut the cost of installing a solar power system significantly in Hawaii over the past year.
A global oversupply of PV panels drove prices to record lows in 2011, according to a report from Boston-based GTM Research released today. And 2012 could bring even lower panel prices if the cost of polysilicon, the main component of a PV panel, continues to soften at the current rate, the report said.
The average price of PV panels globally, which fell to 90 cents per watt from $1.80 per watt over the course of last year, is on track to hit 70 cents per watt by the end of this year, according to GTM Research.
read … PV Cheaper
Sex offender will serve 10 years for child molestation
HNN: The Hawaii Paroling Authority Wednesday determined that a convicted sex offender should serve 10 years for the repeated molestation of an eight-year old girl.
Prosecutors say for two years, Eaton Rivera, Jr. repeatedly sexually assaulted the young girl.
On March 17, 2011, Rivera was convicted of 11 counts of Second Degree Sexual Assault, class B felonies, and sentenced to 10 years imprisonment.
read … Eight years old
Dopers Panic as Legislature threatens to Cut off Welfare Bennies
HN: We are only a few weeks into the new year, but statehouse politicians across the country are already racing to see who can be next to introduce a bill that would require drug testing of people receiving public benefits. Within the last month, measures that would impose drug testing requirements have been introduced or are being contemplated in at least twelve states (including Hawaii)…
"I don't think any taxpayer in our state would say they're okay with funding a person's illegal drug use," Rep. John Mizuno (D-Kalihi Valley), who chairs the Human Services Committee, told KHON2-TV in Honolulu. Mizuno has introduced a pair of bills to drug test welfare recipients. "As taxpayers we need to save all we can, we don't need to raise people's taxes."
Such tropes (fancy doper word meaning “effective measure”) have drug reformers (addicts), civil libertarians, and advocates for the poor (staying high) crying foul. They accuse those pushing for drug testing of engaging in stereotyping and scapegoating (yeah, it’s a stereotype to say that anyone who tests dirty is on drugs, yeah).
"We feel like there's (are) an ideology at work here, a sort of anti-welfare (freeloader) mentality intersecting with the drug war (user) mentality," said Jill Harris of the Drug Policy Alliance. "They're using a budget crisis saying they want to reduce benefits for drug users as a way of pushing the drug war agenda."
read … Dopers in Frenzy
3,500 turn out for Hire Our Heroes job fair
HNN: Tanioka's Seafood and Catering says veterans make great employees.
"They've just been wonderful because they've been on time. They work hard. They come with a lot of experience. They're just so respectful," says Jasmine Tanioka. The business has eight job openings, and by lunchtime, Tanioka's had a stack of 500 applicants. In fact, job fair organizers tallied the numbers, and 3,500 job seekers turned out over the course of the five-hour fair.
It'd be easy if workers were all like Roger Montero - a 67 year old Vietnam veteran who's just not ready to retire. "No, I think it's easy to get a job. You just gotta be yourself, and you gotta think positive."
read … About some people who want a job, not a handout