Pentagon Prepares for Possible Shoot Down of North Korean Missile
Ko Olina, Kyo-Ya Snag HTA Board Positions
ACLU: Hawaii Counties Among Few Requiring Warrant to Track Cell Phones
Hawaii Congressional Delegation: How They Voted April 2, 2012
Feds Reject Hawaii’s 10-Day Medicaid Hospital Limit
While Cutting Services, Hawaii fails to reap up to $80M in federal Medicaid money
SA: Hawaii is among the few states to not take advantage of a federal incentive program estimated to distribute as much as $80 million to Medicaid providers for the establishment of electronic health records.
The Medicaid Electronic Health Record Incentive program offers individual medical professionals up to $63,750 over six years if they demonstrate their use of electronic medical records improves quality and reduces errors, according to the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). Community health centers and hospitals with a significant Medicaid population can receive incentives starting at $2 million.
Hawaii is one of a half-dozen states — Idaho, Illinois, Kansas, Minnesota and Colorado — that haven't launched Medicaid EHR programs, CMS said. Guam, the Marshall Islands and the District of Columbia also have yet to participate in the program. Doctors in other states began collecting the federal dollars as early as last year. The earliest Hawaii doctors could start getting money is 2013, according to the state.
"I don't know why we're not grabbing them (the federal dollars) sooner because there's a multiplier effect," said Richard Bettini, CEO of the Waianae Coast Comprehensive Health Center….
In Hawaii there are roughly 6,500 Medicaid fee-for-service providers, including physicians, community health centers and hospitals. ($63,750 x 6650 = $414M)
In addition to not getting incentive payments, Medicaid providers that haven't successfully participated in the electronic records program will see their government reimbursements reduced beginning in 2015, a CMS spokesman said.
Hawaii hasn't applied for the program nor developed a plan, which must first be approved by CMS for local providers to participate and cash in on the federal funds.
"It is true that we are (among the) last in the nation," said Beth Giesting, the state's health care transformation coordinator. "That really is too bad because health information technology is one of the fundamentals for making all of the transformation that we want." (Its her fault. She was too busy talking about how to ration medical care for the elderly. But she has lots of excuses and the rest of the article is all about her excuses….)
read … Abject Failure
As Legislators Threaten to Impose Accountability, HSTA Pretends to become interested in Negotiations
CB: The contract talks pick up at a key time in the legislative session. HSTA, which held its annual convention over the weekend, opposes several bills that it views as circumventing the collective bargaining process.
Lawmakers will be considering those bills and others this week in one of the last steps necessary before sending them to the governor for his signature.
read … Second Crossover Coming
$11B budget bill moves ahead
SA: A Senate committee Monday approved its version of a $11 billion supplemental budget that focuses on education and core services along with key provisions of Gov. Neil Abercrombie's New Day initiative.
The Senate Ways and Means Committee advanced the budget bill unanimously.
"The committee found merit in the majority of the governor's proposals and funded them as they pertain to maintaining the safety net and restoring the ability of government to perform certain necessary functions," said Sen. David Ige (D, Aiea-Pearl City), committee chairman.
The budget now goes to the Senate floor for a vote by the full chamber, and then to a joint House-Senate conference committee to negotiate differences.
One key difference is the Senate's inclusion of funds for $500 million in bond-financed construction projects at public schools, hospitals and state buildings.
The Senate passed the centerpiece legislation, but the House has yet to hold a hearing on the bill.
read … $11B
Rep Har Pushes Abercrombie’s SB755 Environmental Takeover
Political Radar: The state House Finance Committee voted early Tuesday to advance a bill that would give the governor the authority to temporarily establish lists of state construction projects that would be exempt from environmental review.
But lawmakers added language to the bill — Senate Bill 755 — that suggests the governor consult with other public officials about the exemption lists. The provision was included in response to concerns from environmentalists and others that the governor may not be qualified to determine which state projects will have minimal or no significant environmental impact.
Lawmakers also chose not to reduce the time period for legal challenges or preclude private citizens and interest groups from filing lawsuits challenging a state decision to exempt a state project from environmental review.
State Rep. Sharon Har (D, Makakilo-Kapolei) said she believes critics have mistakenly described the bill as a blanket environmental exemption for state projects. She said many state projects would still be subject to other state regulations as well as potentially tougher federal requirements.
read … So what are the Enviros going to do against Har this election?
Lanai Voter Regrets Abercrombie Vote
CB: Two summers ago Neil the candidate wooed voters on the Neighbor Islands, specifically Lana'i and Molokai with a plaintive message: "I can't win without you." So he told us on Lana'i that he was not a fan of Big Wind, and he told Moloka'i that he would restore the "breadbasket" of the state.
And we believed him.
But Neil the Governor has now turned his back on those of us who were so essential to his election by threatening Moloka`i with eminent domain; sending his minions to legislative committee hearings to spread falsehoods (specifically that there is no ratepayer risk to SB 2785, the undersea cable bill); and secretly suspending numerous environmental laws by declaring an emergency when there was and is none.
When Lanai and Molokai started gaining support in opposing the undersea cable, he testified that no community should be allowed to “opt out.” He said it was undemocratic.
But so far this is old news, and no one seems to have been unduly upset by Neil’s imperious manners.
On Thursday (March 26), however, he went too far. Speaking at a Kona-Kohala Chamber of Commerce event, Neil insulted the host culture of our islands in an unforgiveable way.
Complaining of delay in work on the Queen Kaahumanu Highway, Neil called native Hawaiians “self-designating” and accused them of using native cultural practices they “discovered six minutes ago” to achieve standing. He wants them thrown out of court.
HFP: Abercrombie: We Need to Move Past Self-Appointed Hawaiian Organizations
read … Sally Kaye
Abercrombie, Hee Team up to Push Dogs-in-Restaurants Bill—Restaurant Owner Must Clean Up Dog Poop
Political Radar: The Senate Judiciary and Labor Committee deleted the contents of a bill Monday titled “Relating to Public Order” that was shelved back in early 2011, and replaced it with the new provisions.
The governor’s office strongly supported the original “dogs in restaurants bill” earlier this session, House Bill 2749, which passed out of the House Health Committee with amendments but was collared by the House Judiciary Committee based on health concerns, and it supports this one as well.
House Bill 254, the new vehicle for allowing dogs in restaurants, “is in essence a gut and replace at the request of the governor’s office,” said Sen. Clayton Hee, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary and Labor Committee. “It does not at all look like what it was intended.”
Kate Stanley, senior advisor to the governor, was the lone testifier on behalf of the bill. Stanley said the governor and his office strongly supports the proposed draft, which lists a slew of conditions and procedures that must be followed, including that “the dog shall not relieve itself within the restaurant, bark, or otherwise disturb other patrons,” and restaurant owners must “immediately clean any animal feces, urine, waste, saliva, vomitus, or other animal fluids, and properly disinfect contaminated areas and surfaces.”
Sen. Mike Gabbard (D, Waikele-Ko Olina) voted to pass the bill with reservations because constituent concerns regarding dog dander.
Ironically, the once-deferred bill previously aimed to prohibit urination and defecation in public places in the Waikiki area.
“Urinating and defecating in public frightens and offends many people,” the bill once read. “… These concerns, and the smell associated with public urination and defecation, discourage people from patronizing establishments located in the Waikiki district….”
read … Dog
As Filipinos Move to Middle Class, they Line up with Republicans against Rail
Borreca: Today, those promised rails running from Kapolei to Ala Moana don't shine as bright. Recent polls show that like our quagmire overseas, the majority of voters here disapprove of the rail project.
Benefitting from the new view is former Democratic Gov. Ben Cayetano, whose mayoral bid appears to be growing stronger as he solidifies his opposition to the project.
Cayetano is running for Honolulu mayor as an alternative to the two other candidates, incumbent Peter Carlisle and former acting Mayor Kirk Caldwell, who both support rail.
The Cayetano candidacy draws its support from two head-scratchingly different groups: Filipino-American voters and Republicans.
Filipinos, long called the "sleeping giant" in local politics, are waking up and are the new majority in Hawaii's polyglot political world.
By almost any calculation, Filipino voters are reliable Democratic voters. The primarily blue-collar group is now the new, emerging middle-class voter in Hawaii, according to political analysts.
The Hawaii Poll, taken in February, showed that 62 percent of Filipino voters support Cayetano's campaign and want to see him as mayor. It was the highest level of support from any ethnic group.
The other part of that equation is that 58 percent of Filipino voters oppose rail. Again, no other group has a higher level of opposition.
read … Unions losing their grip
Assisted Suicide: Six Hawaii Kervorkians Announce Plan to Commit Manslaughter
CB: Dr. Charles Miller has helped form a new group called the Physician Advisory Council for Aid in Dying, or PACAID. The four-member council will help doctors "empower" their terminally ill patients, including prescribing lethal barbiturates….
Beside Miller and Nathanson, PACAID's other founding member was Dr. Max Botticelli, who passed away last month. (Easy to claim this now that he’s dead.)
Two other Hawaii MDs — Clifton S. Otto and John Samuel Spangler — are also council members. PACAID will also lead and support a larger a network of supportive physicians.
While PACAID doctors could prescribe life-ending medication, that is a decision that must go through a rigorous process. PACAID members have adopted best-practice guidelines from states like Oregon and Washington where aid-in-dying laws exist. An Aid-in-Dying Practice in Hawaii—Physician Guide and pro-bono legal counsel will also be provided.
"We see the council as an advisory and consultative source, and one of the guidelines is that we would never write any prescription without collaboration and getting all that medical information," said Miller. "We would be willing to write a prescription, but ideally it would be best if the primary doctor writes it."
Miller added, "We do understand there are physicians who are not comfortable with this for what ever reason. So we see us as helping the patient, to give support to them for their choice for end-of-life care."
Compassion & Choices Hawaii — a 501(c)(3) — will provide staffing to support administrative needs of PACAID physicians, who are volunteers and do not receive compensation.
read … Making their own laws up as they go along
Star-Adv: Police Should Get Record of Everybody’s Prescriptions
SA: Just under way is a new online prescription drug monitoring system, accessible to every pharmacy and doctor with a license to dispense drugs here, set up by the state Department of Public Safety that expands and updates an earlier, closed version.
It will give doctors the tools to work with patients who need to be weaned off drugs — medications that, in an alarming and growing trend, can start off therapeutic but turn insidiously dangerous and harmful.
Eventually, this new system — set up by private vendor RelayHealth with $170,000 in federal funds and to be maintained by $35,000 yearly in federal money — will contain data back to 2009 on all people who picked up a prescription in Hawaii….
"It's a relatively new phenomenon, so that's why we're trying to collect all this data to intervene," said Heather Lusk, with the CHOW Project, a nonprofit that exchanges sterile needles for drug users to prevent spread of diseases. "What I think is happening now, it went from only affecting the population that I work with, to now it's affecting grandma, grandpa, auntie, who's getting prescribed legitimate pain medication, but maybe not getting the understanding of how addicting it is or how easy it is to build tolerance and how it might cause overdose."
related: Police Will be Overseeing your Prescriptions
read … Star-Adv and the Police
Study: HECO Overpaying for Windfarm Electricity by 200% to 300%
CB: The study presumed the cost of wind energy to be 6 cents to 8 cents per kilowatt hour in Hawaii, based on 2007 data from the California Public Utilities Commission. Braccio said data specific to Hawaii was unavailable. (Until recently, the prices of wind farms in Hawaii have been tied to the price of oil.)
However, Hawaii residents have been paying three times that much for wind energy generated by the Kahuku wind farm on Oahu. And they'll be paying triple that once the Kaheawa II and Auwahi wind farms on Maui go online, as well as the Kawailoa wind farm planned for Oahu's North Shore. The contracts are priced between 20 cents to 23 cents per kilowatt hour. (So HECO is overpaying by 17 cents per kwh)
Braccio said that the study was not intended to evaluate the cost of the energy sources for the consumer ….
State regulators recently approved a contract between IC Sunshine and Hawaiian Electric Co. for a solar farm that will be located on a 20-acre parcel in Oahu's Campbell Industrial Park. The average rate over 20 years is 23 cents a kwh.
And HECO will be purchasing solar power from SunPower Corp. for its Kalealoa solar project at an average rate of about 22 cents a kwh. The report presumed industrial solar to range in price from 20 cents to 28 cents per kilowatt hour.
But Mark Duda, an executive at local solar company, RevoluSun, and the former head of the Hawaii Solar Energy Association, said that the cost assumptions for solar energy that the report used were way off, particularly when it came to rooftop solar. Booz Allen estimated it to be between 47 cents and 71 cents a kilowatt hour.
"These costs appear to exceed actual costs in Hawaii dramatically," said Duda. "To the extent the PV costs per kwh had an impact on the study's conclusions, then I would have significant concerns about those conclusions."
He said that costs for residential rooftop solar, not taking into account financing, averaged about 14 cents a kilowatt hour. Larger commercial systems averaged 9 cents per kwh, and utility-scale systems, 12 cents per kwh…..
(The study purports to measure producer cost--what he is saying is that wind scammers can abscond more ratepayer money than solar scammers on a per-kw basis.)
Booz Allen Hamilton Report: http://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy12osti/52442.pdf
read … Laughing all the way to the bank
New emission controls will cost shippers billions
KITV: Starting August 1 nearly all ships en route to Hawaii will be required to switch to cleaner burning fuel as part of an treaty known as the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimates the new requirement will cost the shipping industry $3.2 billion by 2020. That’s expected to raise the price of shipping a 20-foot container to Hawaii by an average of $18.
The higher cost of shipping goods to and from Hawaii will ultimately be passed onto consumers….
The ECA requires ships to switch to bunker fuel with only 1 percent sulfur content by weight once vessels come within 200 miles of a port of call. Currently, shippers use bunker fuel with 2.5 percent sulfur content.
"What these regulations do is they basically take what were very, very weak standards on the amount of sulfur emissions on ships, and basically tries to ratchet it up to a more moderate level," said Robert Harris, director of Sierra Club Hawaii.
Although consumers will likely pay more for toilet paper and groceries because of the new mandate, the health benefit of cleaner air is expected to outweigh the costs.
"They're anticipating about 5 million people suffering from asthma will no longer have the impacts, and roughly 14,000 premature deaths will be stopped as a result of these regulations," said Harris. (Yeah, right.)
read … Emission Controls
Hee Pushes Thru Bill to Block Public Housing Residents From Smoking in their Own Apartments
SA: The Senate Judiciary Committee voted Monday to advance a bill to prohibit smoking in and around Hawaii Public Housing Authority buildings.
The committee rejected an attempt to hand that decision-making power to the housing authority.
"This bill has been watered down significantly," state Sen. Clayton Hee (D, Kahuku-Kaneohe), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said before he recommended that the committee restore House Bill 46 to its original intent….
In testimony, Jessica Yamaguchi of the Coalition for a Tobacco Free Hawaii said, "The coalition … agrees with you. The bill in its current form really is unnecessary legislation."
"The public housing authority already has the ability to adopt smoke-free policies," she said.
The authority has historically opposed bills that mandate a statewide ban on smoking within public housing because they would create an influx of tenant complaints that the authority's staff would not be equipped to deal with.
read … Panel OKs smoking ban at housing
Non-Resident VR Owner feels ‘Kicked in the Face’
MN: First there was HB 1707. We petitioned. We testified. It was deferred.
We celebrated.
Then suddenly, there was SB 2089. Same bill only with even more rights taken away. Again, we mobilized. Even more energetically this time because this one would have forced us out of business for certain.
Two more versions of the same bill appeared. HB 1706 and HB 2078. This was becoming like the kid’s game Whack-A-Mole. The most recent iteration, HB 2078 was passed today with amendments. We are waiting to see what the next mole looks like and where it pops up.
It has been exhausting, demoralizing and disheartening to have spent the last month working to convince the same group of Hawaiian legislators, headed by Senator Roz Baker that we are not tax cheats, that we are law abiding, smart and professional small business owners who happen to live in another state but who love Hawaii.
What has surfaced in all of this that has been most disturbing to me has been the amount of vitriol and rage that some residents have towards non-residents, just because we are non-residents….
Today I feel like I am continuing to be kicked in the face.
read … Kick in the Face
Ethics Commission Nixes OHA’s Lawmaker Invites
CB: This one involved two complimentary tickets from the Office of Hawaiian Affairs to a Legislative Luau Luncheon, which was scheduled Friday (March 30).
The luncheon was part of a “Hawaiian Caucus Day Event” and was an opportunity for legislators to meet and discuss issues with OHA trustees and staff.
In a March 28 memo to all legislators, the Hawaii State Ethics Commission said legislators could accept one of the tickets (valued at $17) but not both:
read … Ethics Commission Nixes More Lawmaker Invites
Legislators still slow in filing financial disclosures
ILind: Back in February, Senate President Shan Tsutsui was the only member of the Senate to have filed. He’s been joined by Malama Solomon and Suzanne Chun-Oakland, but I think that’s it for now.
Over in the House, Speaker Calvin Say filed just a week after my earlier post on the subject. Also filing in the interim were Denny Coffman, Cindy Evans, Linda Ichiyama, Ken Ito, Dee Morikawa, Karl Rhoads, Cynthia Thielen, and James Tokioka.
By my count, that’s only 15 of the 51 members of the House who have stepped forward and given the public a look at their financial interests.
read … Legislators still slow in filing financial disclosures
Bankruptcy filings down 25.4 percent in March
SA: Bankruptcy filings in Hawaii fell in March for the 13th consecutive month, according to data released Monday by U.S. Bankruptcy Court.
The 267 cases filed statewide in March were 25.4 percent fewer than the 358 cases filed the same month a year earlier, the court reported. Bankruptcy filings have been trending lower since averaging a post-recession high of 330 a month in 2010.
The last time filings increased on a year-over-year-basis was in March 2011 when they rose a scant 0.3 percent.
Filings averaged 234 a month during the first three months of this year, down from an average of 277 per month in 2011.
read … Bankrupt
HLTA takes applications for Hannemann's position
SA: Hannemann, who announced his candidacy for Hawaii's 2nd Congressional District seat in August, said he is unsure about when he might vacate the position at the private trade association.
"There's no timetable," Hannemann said Monday in a telephone interview. "I'm not required to step down at all because it is not a public-sector job."
The association's search committee began taking applications for a possible successor last month and will continue to accept them through April 15, he said.
"We thought it was prudent to start the search now," Hannemann said.
read … Hannemann
Candidates for UH Manoa Chancellor set to visit the Manoa campus
SA: An effort at the state Legislature to ask UH regents to consider eliminating the UH-Manoa chancellor's job remains stalled.
Candidate Carlo Montemagno, dean of the College of Engineering and Applied Science at the University of Cincinnati, will meet with UH-Manoa students, faculty, staff and administrators Wednesday and Thursday.
The three other finalists for chancellor are expected to visit Manoa later this month. They are Robert C. Holub, chancellor at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst; Tom Apple, provost and professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of Delaware; and Kim A. Wilcox, provost and vice president for academic affairs at Michigan State University.
Montemagno said UH-Manoa needs to have a chancellor's position that is separate from the UH president, who is responsible for the entire 10-campus system.
"Every university system, as far as I'm aware of, has a chief executive officer for each of their campuses," Montemagno told the Star-Advertiser on Monday. "Having the president of the system also be the chief executive officer for the flagship campus makes it difficult for the other universities — whether in perception or in reality — to be treated fairly and equitably."
He said UH-Manoa needs its own chancellor, in part, to help drive its research potential, which will help Hawaii's overall economy…
He and his wife, Pam, have visited the islands "many, many times," Montemagno said.
They have two grandchildren living in Indianapolis — Kalani, 3, and Carlo, 2 — whose mother is half Native Hawaiian, making their grandchildren one-fourth Hawaiian, Montemagno said.
HNN: Chancellor candidates to visit UH Manoa campus
The Model: Greenwood Mafia grabs two power positions in UH system
read … 4 finalists vie to fit into UH leadership
H-Power Recycles All Metals in Waste Stream
SA: It might not appear so, but even when you toss your tin or steel cans of green beans, Campbell’s soup and Spam into the trash can, you’re recycling them.
“All of the metals from our household collections are recycled, whether you put them in the blue (recycling) cart or toss them into the gray (trash cart),” said Suzanne Jones, the city’s recycling branch chief.
She explained that mixed recyclables put in the blue carts are delivered to a “material recycling facility” where they are sorted by commodity type, compacted, baled and shipped to recycling markets.
“Aluminum has a much higher market value than steel, and we benefit more economically when the aluminum is captured in the blue cart,” she said.
Trash in the gray carts is taken to the city’s HPOWER plant, where both ferrous and nonferrous metals (steel and aluminum cans) are extracted both before and after incineration, then separately sold for recycling.
“Steel cans are most often food cans, and it seemed easier for households to toss (them) in the gray cart and avoid having to clean them for recycling,” Jones said.
read … Kokua Line
HB1947: Anti-Small Farmers Bill Backed by Agribusiness
CB: I love fresh organic food but I have no love for HB 1947. Small farmers across the state oppose HB 1947. How do I know? Because small farmers like me have been writing and calling our elected officials, testifying and begging the Legislature to revise this bill so that it does not put small farmers like me out of business. HB 1947 is an anti-small farm bill supported by big agribusiness under the guise of 'food safety'.
HB 1947 is written to codify that all sizes of agriculture, large and small, must use the same expensive and time consuming certification process. Large scale ag is generally meeting these standards and has built the cost of extra man power and reporting into their cost/price structure. Small scale growers like me do not have pathogen threats such as larger mono croppers and can not afford the time and cost to keep manini records about our day to day touching of each plant.
read … HB1947
Is The Way Hawaii Selects Judges Transparent?
CB: Hawaii got a D+ grade for Judicial Accountability in the State Integrity Investigation.
The state had an overall score of 67 percent in this category, ranking it 31st, tied with Maryland. At the top was Tennessee, with a score of 86 percent. At the bottom was Pennsylvania, with a score of 40.
When it came to the transparency and accountability of the process Hawaii uses to select judges, the score of 58 percent was even worse than the overall D+, or 67 percent, for Judicial Accountability.
read … Judicial Transparency
Drunk Driver Kills Two, Families of Victims Given $210,000 by State of Hawaii
Kuahiwinui, whose blood-alcohol-content was almost twice the legal limit, headed toward Princeville on Kuhio Highway. He missed the turn onto the Hanalei Bridge, plowed through a guardrail, and plunged into the Hanalei River.
Kuahiwinui escaped with minor injuries. His passengers, 35-year-old Christopher Ferguson and 19-year-old Kristopher Kaupu-Kuahiwinui drowned in the vehicle. Blood tests would later show Ferguson's blood-alcohol-content was 0.26 percent, while Kaupu-Kuahiwinui's was 0.16 percent. Hawaii's legal limit is 0.08.
The families of the two men killed in the accident filed separate lawsuits in 2008 against Kuahiwinui, the state, the two Hanalei bars — Tahiti Nui and the former Zelo's, now Kalypso Island Grill & Bar — and others. The lawsuits were later consolidated.
In the suit, the plaintiffs took issue with the design of the historic Hanalei Bridge as well as the lack of streetlights near the bridge at the time of the accident.
The families agreed to settle with the state last summer for general damages: $150,000 with Kaupu-Kuahiwinui's family and $60,000 with Ferguson's family, according to court records.
The state Attorney General's Office says the $210,000 will come out of the state Department of Transportation's highway fund, which is filled by vehicle registration fees, the gasoline tax, vehicle weight tax and rental car surcharges. That's money that can't be spent on road maintenance and repairs.
read … DUI Lawsuit
Hawaii Whale Population Increasing 7% Per Year
News Release: Up to 12,000 humpback whales are found in Hawaiian waters every year. They return to their birthplace every year between November and May after migrating from as far away as Alaska.
Scientific studies have shown the humpback whale population in Hawaii is increasing at an annual rate of approximately 7 percent. Over time, data from the Sanctuary Ocean Count can be used to corroborate these findings. Hawaiian waters provide critical breeding habitat for approximately two-thirds of the north Pacific stock of humpback whales.
“Today’s event capped off a successful season with over 2,000 volunteers participating and observing humpback whales displaying a variety of behaviors, as well other marine wildlife including Hawaiian monk seals, sea turtles, spinner dolphins and many sea birds” said Christine Brammer, sanctuary ocean count project manager. “High winds made viewing challenging along some coastlines around the state.”
For more information on becoming a volunteer for the 2013 Sanctuary Ocean Count call 1-888-55-WHALE ext. 253 or visit www.sanctuaryoceancount.org
read … Whales
Beck to Publish Book on Obama’s Communist Mentor
Seizing on the scandal involving President Obama’s “open mic” obsequious conversation with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, Glenn Beck has announced that Paul Kengor’s explosive new book on Frank Marshall Davis will be published this summer through Beck’s Mercury Ink outlet. Davis was a pro-Moscow communist who helped raise and mentor Obama.
Davis, Beck says, is the key to understanding Obama’s pro-Russian foreign policy.
The new Kengor book carries the title, THE COMMUNIST Frank Marshall Davis: The Untold Story of Barack Obama’s Mentor. Mercury Ink, which is publishing the book, is the publishing imprint of Mercury Radio Arts, Inc., a multimedia production company owned by Beck.
read … Frank Marshall Davis