Report: Hawaii Scores D- on Teacher Quality
HOPE for the Criminal Justice System
HB2288: State to Track the Websites You Visit?
HB2288: Cybercrime Bill to be Heard Jan 26
New Name: Hawaiian Mission Houses Historic Site and Archives
Investigators Claim Leftist UH Professor Runs Volcano Girls Escort Service
HR: An x-rated local escort service called “The Volcano Girls” is being operated out of the Waikiki residence of University of Hawaii Professor Lawrence W. Boyd, Jr., a Hawaii Reporter investigation shows.
An “appointment” booked by Hawaii Reporter with a Volcano Girls escort took place Friday afternoon in a bedroom inside Boyd’s apartment at 250 Ohua Street.
A Hawaii Reporter staffer posing as a customer arranged the appointment in a series of telephone calls to the website contact number that rang inside Boyd's apartment but has since been disconnected. The entire website – http://www.thevolcanogirls.com - has been shut down for “maintenance” since Friday night.
A woman first answered The Volcano Girls phone when we called Friday morning and a manager took later calls, referring to the woman as “the receptionist.”
In an interview Tuesday, Boyd denied any connection to the escort service, saying it might be operated by a woman, Lorraine Drake, who rents a room from him in his apartment.
read … About the Enlightened Conscious and Progressive elite
Lingle, Flush With Cash And On Message
CB: Lingle's campaign announced her fourth-quarter Federal Election Commission report early enough in the day to get the attention of a lot of the media. No State of the State address or State of the Union address to compete with for headlines.
Well before midday, Lingle's big haul was the top breaking news on most Hawaii news outlets, including the website of the Honolulu Star-Advertiser, where an ad for Lingle has been running in the top lefthand corner since she launched her campaign Oct. 11.
Nationally, the news made the political blogs and Capitol news sites, like this item in The Hill headlined, "Lingle posts huge fundraising quarter in Hawaii."
Here at home, Lingle delivered a speech to the Kaneohe Business Group at the Pohai Nani Retirement Community auditorium. The talk, a routine campaign appearance, had been planned weeks in advance.
But reporters drove over the Pali and Likelike highways so they could interview Lingle about her good news. That meant the story would likely continue into the evening news and Thursday morning….
What's noteworthy is this campaign's ability to gain enormous national attention and to out-position Democratic rivals.
Ed Case, for example, launched his first television advertising Monday, but it's not clear many people noticed. All the talk was about Gov. Neil Abercrombie's State of the State address that same day.
Mazie Hirono, meantime, this week did what practically every other Democrat in the U.S. House of Representatives did this past week — praise President Obama's State of the Union address Tuesday and bemoan the resignation of Rep. Gabby Giffords of Arizona.
In a single stroke, Lingle refocused attention back on the Senate race in Hawaii.
And meanwhile: Pay to Play Fines Unpaid: Hirono for Governor Campaign Closes Owing State Elections Fund Over $98,000
read … Lingle
Matayoshi: We feel there is a very small window, and it’s closing…
Taken For A Ride: Roberts Hawaii's Very Own Race to the Top of School Bus Biz
CB: Competition used to thrive, with dozens of small mom-and-pop school bus operations throughout the state. Sometime after 1970, the number began dwindling and now Hawaii has only about a dozen contractors for its roughly 800 school bus routes, which include about 300 special ed routes.
Roberts Hawaii continues to dominate the industry — and the suspicions of other contractors.
"We're so afraid, because we're small companies, and big companies like Roberts can swoop in and just take it away," said Moana Dudoit, CEO of Molokai-based Dudoit Bus Service, which employs 22 people….
"You know, Robert (Iwamoto) was a pretty strong person and had good contacts in the Legislature," said Lindy Akita, CEO of another Kauai-based school bus company, Akita Enterprises. He did not explain the significance of those legislative relationships, though.
The state's campaign finance records are difficult to search through, but a Civil Beat review of some political campaigns showed that in 2010, Chad Q. Iwamoto, a Las Vegas resident whom the records list as vice president of Roberts Hawaii, gave $6,000 to Gov. Neil Abercrombie. Tiffany Iwamoto, listed as a homemaker at the same address, gave another $6,000 to Abercrombie.
Iwamoto Jr.'s daughter, (son) Kim Coco Iwamoto, also served on the elected Hawaii State Board of Education from 2006 until a new appointed board replaced the elected one in 2011. An examination of board meeting minutes shows she (sic) recused herself (sic) from dozens of conversations and votes that would have had an impact on student transportation contracts.
Campaign finance records show that in 2010 Iwamoto contributed $300 to Senate Education Committee chair Jill Tokuda and $1,900 to House Education chair Roy Takumi.
Just Ignore This: Robert Iwamoto trust sued over Maui Ponzi scheme
You will be banished if you read this: The transsexual agenda for Hawaii schools
read … Roberts Hawaii
Your Magnificent DoE: Another Principal Put on Leave over Financial Impropriety
SA: The principal at August Ahrens Elementary School, a second school administrator and a teacher have been placed on leave while the state Department of Education investigates an allegation of financial impropriety.
The action comes three months after the state schools superintendent vowed to set up a fraud-reporting hot line and increase the department's internal auditing arm.
Florentina Smith, principal of the 1,200-student elementary school in Waipahu, is being investigated by the department's internal auditor for allegedly directing the unidentified teacher to file a per diem reimbursement claim for training that never occurred, sources told the Star-Advertiser Wednesday.
Smith could not be reached for comment Wednesday.
If the allegations prove true, it would be the fourth case of financial impropriety in the department since 2010
read … Principal
HGEA may file complaint against state over contract talks
PBN: “At this point, our expectation is they have to speed things up,” Randy Perreira, executive director of the HGEA said. “At some point they were turning their attention to the HSTA and now that the matter is in limbo, our expectation is that they will now turn their attention back [to the HGEA].
“We are keeping all of our options open and have reached the point of possibly pursuing litigation.”
Last November, the HGEA demanded that contract negotiations be reopened because the state workers union contended the United Public Workers received a better deal. As the first of three public-sector unions to reach a contract with the Abercrombie administration last year, the HGEA’s contract contained a favored nation clause that enables the union to seek the same gains won by other public-sector unions.
read … HGEA
Hawaii gaming supporter wants to place slot machines at Honolulu convention center
LVRJ: If it’s January, then it’s time for another casino gaming proposal to surface in Hawaii….
KITV: "It’s news to me," said Tanaka.
read … Slot Machines
Hawaii to Reconsider Internet Poker
Card Player: In the wake of last month’s pivotal Department of Justice reversal on its interpretation of the 1961 Interstate Wire Act, the Hawaii legislature is set to consider three bills that would establish both live and online gaming in the jurisdiction.
According to the Honolulu Civil Beat, the first bill would establish a lottery in the state. A separate measure would allow the lottery to run Internet gaming, including poker. The third proposal would establish brick-and-mortar gaming.
Background: Full Text: US DoJ Memo Suddenly Legalizes In-State Online Gaming
read … Online Poker
Rep Mele Carroll Pushes Bill would allow gambling on homestead land—DHHL Appreciates Support
MN: State Rep. Mele “IPad” Carroll has reintroduced a bill HB 2379 that would allow gaming on Hawaiian homestead lands to provide a source of funds for the Department of Hawaiian Home Land's developments and programs….
When the bill came up for a hearing last February, there was opposition from law enforcement groups that were concerned about increasing crime and religious groups worried about the social and economic costs to society.
Even the chairman of the Hawaiian Homes Commission, Alapaki Nahale-a expressed those concerns last year. This time around, Nahale-a has taken a more neutral tone.
"We appreciate members of the Legislature supporting these kinds of authorities for the Hawaiian Homes Commission to exercise in support of furthering our mission of returning Native Hawaiians to their ancestral lands," Nahale-a said in a statement released Wednesday.
read … DHHL Gambling
Inouye is Draw at Washington Lobbyist’s Dinner
Roll Call: Democratic lobbyist Heather Podesta will host an “annual intimate dinner with the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee” on Wednesday, according to an invitation obtained by Roll Call.
At least eight Democratic Senators will join donors for cocktails and a dinner catered by Tosca: Majority Leader Harry Reid (Nev.), DSCC Chairwoman Patty Murray (Wash.), Daniel Inouye (Hawaii), Jack Reed (R.I.), Debbie Stabenow (Mich.), Bob Casey (Pa.), Mark Warner (Va.) and Jeff Merkley (Ore.). Stabenow and Casey are the only two facing re-election in November.
A $30,800 individual donation or $15,000 PAC donation to the DSCC automatically qualifies the donor for membership benefits
read … Pay to Play
Truth in Accounting Explains Hawaii's Nightmarish Finances
HR: The state’s actuaries have determined for the state to pay off its unfunded retirees’ healthcare liability over 30 years and to put enough money away to pay the benefits current employees earned the right to receive in 2010, the state would have to pay into the trust fund an amount equal to 41% of the 2010 compensation costs.
How we got here: Act 100: How Hanabusa and Cayetano launched Hawaii Pension crisis
read … Truth
Slater: City is Intentionally Dragging Out Rail Case
The resolution passed despite objections from Tom Berg, who raised MagLev technology, and Ann Kobayashi, who said the spending is “out of control.”
Cliff Slater, one of the lead plaintiffs in the case, accused the city of intentionally delaying the case and characterized the defense’s efforts so far as ”time-wasting, money-wasting motions” rather than a discussion of the merits of the case.
SA: Rail's legal bills total $1.87M so far
SA: Use psychology to reduce highway traffic — with an EZ-Pass toll system (Here’s a better idea: Cut Bus Fares.)
read … Rail Suit
House Judiciary Committee Passes Bill to Force HMC to Stay Closed
AP: The bill that moved out of the House Judiciary Committee Tuesday would also require hospitals to dispense emergency contraception to sexually abused women upon request….
The Department of Health submitted testimony opposing House Bill 127 because a statewide emergency contraception program would be too expensive to implement.
This concern will likely be addressed by the House Finance Committee if a hearing on the bill is scheduled.
Related: HB127: Will Legislature Vote to Keep HMC Hospitals Closed?
read … Hospitals, who needs ‘em?
Bill before Hawaii Legislature would require drug testing for public housing tenants
AP: A proposal to drug test public housing tenants is being touted as a way to clean up Hawaii's housing projects and stem losses from unpaid rent.
According to Housing Committee Chairwoman Rep. Rida Cabanilla, the state has absorbed more than $800,000 in unpaid rent from government-subsidized housing residents, who need to be held accountable.
Her committee amended House Bill 1855 Wednesday to clarify new applicants will be warned they'll need to submit to a drug test before receiving a lease. In addition, the measure calls for testing 50 percent of current public housing tenants, with the exception of those who are elderly, disabled or younger than 15.
read … Dopers Out!
Rep Coffman Proposes Russian-Style privatization of Electric Power Plants
HTH: Hawaii Electric Co., and its subsidiaries on Maui and the Big Island, would no longer be allowed to generate electricity if they wished to sell it under a proposed bill from Rep. Denny Coffman.
House Bill 2400 would also require the Public Utilities Commission to approve a statewide electricity rate for any two or more electric utility companies owned by the same financial holding company, effectively creating a statewide electricity rate….
Coffman, D-Honokohau, Kailua-Kona, Keauhou, said at a meeting earlier this month he wanted to see Hawaii Electric Co., Hawaii Electric Light Co. and Maui Electric Co. focus on transmission and distribution of electricity.
He noted several examples on Oahu of companies generating and selling electricity to HECO, including a coal plant and H-Power burning trash to create electricity.
"If we're going to deregulate and having a market-driven electric rate, we can't have the utility generating power," Coffman told attendees at a Jan. 10 meeting in Kailua-Kona.
read … Cronies Salivate
HECO Still Trying to Soak Ratepayers for Big Wind Studies
CB: From Life of the Land: “There are wind and solar opportunities which abound other than HECO’s and the CA’s blind adherence to narrow tunnel vision that only one option exists.” Read the full text here.
From the office of the Maui County energy administrator: “Our point is that HECO continued to pour money into ever more detailed analysis of the specific routing for Big Wind without doing similar work for other options.” Read the full text here.
(This case is a proxy for the larger issue of whether ratepayers should be forced to pay for wind farm scams.)
Star-Adv: Clean energy from Obama to Hawaii (Political hot air as power source.)
read … HECO Tries to Burn Ratepayers
Honolulu Seawater A/C adds high-rise customer
PBN: The new system, which could be operational as soon as 2013, will help owners and residents reduce their air conditioning costs, which account for about a third of their electricity bills, George Bevin, president of the One Waterfront Towers board of directors, said in a statement.
“In addition to reducing our cooling costs, the seawater air conditioning cooling system will be easy to operate and maintain, and we will not have to fund money for future replacement of chillers for cooling towers,” he said.
The $150 million system designed to cool downtown Honolulu office buildings is scheduled to start construction this spring and begin providing cooling services using chilled sea water to customers in 2013. Honolulu Seawater Air Conditioning, which was formed in 2006, has about 40 customers, including First Hawaiian Bank and Hawaiian Electric Co., which signed a contract in December for its office building on Richards Street.
read … Seawater AC
Hawaii Ranks Low in ID Theft
CB: …a spokeswoman for the Honolulu Police Department provided a Federal Trade Commission report that shows Hawaii ranked No. 42 out of all of the states for the incidence of identity theft cases as of 2009.
The report shows Hawaii had 45 complaints of identity theft for every 100,000 people. In Florida, the state with the highest rate of identity theft, there were 122 complaints for every 100,000 people.
Hawaii ranks closer to South Dakota, the state with the fewest identity theft cases: 29 per 100,000 people.
Looking just at Honolulu, the same report shows Honolulu ranked No. 352 out of nearly 400 cities with populations of 100,000 or more.
Other reports yield similar results. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Hawaii had a rate of 43 identity theft victims per 100,000 people in 2010, the most recent year for which data is available. That's far below the national rate of 81 identity theft victims per 100,000 people. Washington, D.C., had an identity theft rate of 153 per 100,000 people — more than three times as high as Hawaii's in 2010.
read … Hawaii Low in ID Theft
New Hawaii homeless count underway
HNN: "The federal government says, ‘during the last ten days in January every place that wants to get federal funding has to do this count.' It gives us information that allows us to compete for federal funding for individuals and families who are homeless. It's also used by the state and city to look at what our needs are," Hein told Hawaii News Now….
Last year 3,632 people were counted in shelters. Another 2,299 were counted on the street. That is a total of 5,931 homeless….
read … Counting
A Fan Wonders If Hawaii’s Governor Lost Future Pro Bowls?
Yahoo News: The state is currently in contract negotiations for further games but last summer, the Governor of Hawaii, Neil Abercrombie, squarely put the negotiations in peril when he said: "I mean you can't do things like give four-million bucks to a nine billion dollar football industry and not give any money to children." He went on further saying: "You've got this spectacle of these multimillionaires and billionaires out there arguing about how they're going to divide it up, and then they come and ask us to bribe them with $4 million to have a scrimmage out here in paradise." Not exactly the spirit of aloha on Abercrombie's part.
read … Yes, he did.
Food Trucks Hungry For More Time
CB: Bill 59 would extend the amount of time food vendors can park on city streets, passed on first reading.
KHON: Street vendor fix passes first reading
read … Lunch Truck
Forbes: Honolulu 3rd Safest City in US
#3 Honolulu, Hawaii: Car fatality rank: 7 Violent crime rank: 4 Hawaii has some of the strictest gun control laws in the nation, the city is relatively affluent and that famous relaxed aloha spirit may play a role in keeping accident and violence rates low.
read … Forbes
Foreclosure-related home sales rise 23%
SA: Real estate research firm RealtyTrac said lenders sold 369 Hawaii homes in last year's third quarter from July to September, up 63 percent from 226 sales in the same quarter in 2010.
The 369 single-family home and condominium sales represented 6.7 percent of all home sales in the quarter, and sold for an average price of $313,229, RealtyTrac said in the report released Wednesday.
A reduction in sales of homes repossessed by lenders is expected either in the fourth-quarter report or perhaps this year's first quarter based on an average time of about six months it takes lenders to resell a home after repossession, according to Daren Blomquist, a RealtyTrac vice president.
read … More Disruption from Mortgage law
Property taxes: Who should pay?
KGI: The County of Kaua‘i recently implemented a few changes to the island’s real property tax system, more than doubling tax relief for some homeowners. A bill to be introduced today by County Councilman Tim Bynum would further expand homeowners’ exemptions.
But do real property tax exemptions have a future on Kaua‘i? A recent study commissioned by the City and County of Honolulu has advised the elimination of those tax exemptions. One of the members of the Honolulu Real Property Tax Advisory Commission that recommended eliminating the exemptions was on Kaua‘i earlier this month to explain the finding.
Tax Commission member Lowell Kalapa, who also is president of the Tax Foundation of Hawai‘i, presented a series of proposals to the Kaua‘i Cost Control Commission on Jan. 9. Kalapa said the county’s real property tax exemption program is discriminatory and should be eliminated.
“For Kaua‘i we are talking about 7,000 basic home exemptions and another 4,200 multiple home exemptions,” Kalapa said.
He suggested a tax capped at 3 percent of the homeowner’s income. Kalapa said a cap would be more fair and could provide more benefits than home exemptions.
read … Pay!
Planeload of Chinese Visitors Arrives on Kauai
KGI: Mayor Bernard Carvalho Jr. and other local leaders Wednesday greeted the first planeload of visitors from Shanghai as part of an effort to increase island visits from China.
Kaui Tanaka, an aide to the mayor, said the arrival of 143 young executives and their families represent the first of at least three more flights from China scheduled to visit Kaua‘i during the next few months
Read … Planeload
After 18 years, Hawaii County Finally Gets Around to Leasing Ag Lands
WHT: After sitting fallow for the last 18 years, 718 acres of Hawaii County's Paauilo lands are closer than ever to being returned to productive agriculture.
That's because Hawaii County is soliciting sealed bids from farmers, ranchers and others desiring to lease any of its 16 parcels for at least a decade.
Notices were mailed Monday to approximately 48 people who submitted proposals before the Nov. 14 deadline, said Ken Van Bergen, the county's property manager.
"They're going to be allowed to bid on parcels they proposed on," Van Bergen said Wednesday.
All have agreed to pay a minimum rent of $11.63 an acre to lease any of the vacant parcels the county accepted in a 1994 property tax settlement with a bankrupt sugar cane plantation.
read … Government Efficiency
Sen. Baker to Coffee Growers: Focus on Borer Beetle Not Your Brand
CB: The issue that is the subject of SB 2097 was thoroughly discussed, vetted and heard last year before my committee. The consensus reached among all parties became law as Act 49, SLH 2011. Here is the link to the law that was passed. http://www.capitol.hawaii.gov/session2011/CommReports/HB1552_SD2_SSCR1199_.PDF
The new law goes into effect July 1, 2012 and restricts the use of geographic origin on the package unless it is 100% from that region. We believe that this will help the Kona “brand” and appropriately inform consumers. With all due respect, I believe coffee growers across the state need to be spending their time and energy to defeat the coffee borer, as that is a bigger threat to the industry statewide than another labeling bill.
Therefore, I will not be hearing SB 2097 this session
read … Baker tells Coffee Growers to shove it
Papua New Guinea Rebels Order PM to Step Aside
Rebel soldiers seized the military's headquarters Thursday and replaced Papua New Guinea's top defense official with their own leader, who gave Prime Minister Peter O'Neill a week to step aside for his ousted predecessor.
The self-proclaimed new leader of the country's defense forces, retired Col. Yaura Sasa, insisted he was not mounting a coup. But he warned that the military will take unspecified action unless O'Neill stands down and former prime minister Sir Michael Somare, is reinstated, as the national Supreme Court ordered last month.
“Both Sir Michael Somare and O'Neill have seven days to implement the Supreme Court's orders to resolve the current political impasse or I will be forced to take actions to uphold the integrity of the Constitution,” Sasa told reporters in Port Moresby, the capital.
The new crisis comes during a turbulent period for the South Pacific's most populous island nation, where both O'Neill and Somare claim to be the rightful prime minister.
read … Rebellion