Poll: Lingle Takes Lead in Senate Race
Hawaii, Exercise Your Right to Vote!
Hawaii NRA Instructor Liability Bill Signed into Law
Rep Pine Cheers Cyber Crime Bills Signed Into Law
Hawaii Dems and Mr Jones
Harris: Sierra Club Has Decided to be Pro-Rail
CB: Harris said the Sierra Club has no intention of changing its position (in favor of) rail transit. He reiterated that the debate is over whether the nonprofit will actively campaign for it. ….
"We're in the process of developing a statement which we hope to release shortly that should address what our position is and what we intend on doing in the upcoming election," he said, adding that this should happen within a week.
While the Sierra Club's executive committee has met, any official statement has been embargoed until it is vetted, Harris said.
The Sierra Club's Oahu Group in 2008 endorsed Honolulu's fixed guideway rail proposal, but three months ago Harris said the island's 4,000 members were being surveyed to gauge whether the position should be reconsidered….
The nonprofit's stance on rail transit would also impact its members. The Sierra Club risks losing critical donations if it alienates members divided on the issue.
read … Already Decided
Voters Give Lingle $1M for Campaign
"People from across the state have put their faith and trust in me because they know I will bring executive and common-sense leadership to our nation's capital to make the difficult decisions Congress has delayed for too long," Lingle said in a statement. "The easy decisions have already been made; it's the tough ones that must be made beginning in January when the new 113th Congress convenes. And, as I continue to say, 'these are not Democrat or Republican problems we must overcome; they are American problems.'"
read … And Hirono is silent
Carlisle: Unions No Longer Able to Control Elections
CB: “Kirk has been endorsed by the unions because they know that he will go along with what they want,” Cayetano said, pointing to civil service reforms implemented during his time as governor. “They will not come without hard bargaining, and so far I haven’t seen that in Kirk. He basically goes along to get along.”
Carlisle agreed. “The previous wisdom had it so that you’d always cave in to the public workers and the police and the fire and then ultimately you would automatically get elected because of their power,” Carlisle said. “That no longer exists as a paradigm, and as a matter of fact it’s better for the taxpayers in general that city employees are not getting unreasonable benefits.”
SA: Stopping rail now not likely, rivals tell Cayetano in debate
read … New Paradigm?
New PRP Commercial Hits Cayetano Over Teachers’ Strike
CB: This one’s about Cayetano’s “war on teachers” and focuses on the 2001 strike. Though the Department of Education is a state agency and Cayetano wouldn’t have any control over it as mayor, Read Ben’s Record (part of the pro-rail Pacific Resource Partnership) says it doesn’t want to see his style of leadership at Honolulu Hale.
Read more about the spot here and watch it here….
read … Cayetano vs HSTA
$1.5 Million Funneled Through Pro-Rail PACs
HR: Together, PRP and the Carpenters have spent an estimated $1.5 million since 2008 promoting rail and attacking opponents of the planned $5.2 billion rapid transit project, according to financial reports filed with state and federal agencies.
In 2008, PRP spent more than $250,000 on pro-rail promotions and the Carpenters Union Local 745 separately spent $500,000 or $700,000 for the same purpose, according to reports filed with the state Campaign Spending Commission and with the Labor Management Services Administration of the U.S. Labor Department.
So far this year a new PRP political action committee (PAC) has already spent more than $500,000 on television ads attacking anti-rail mayoral candidate Ben Cayetano, according to Cayetano and television station public disclosures.
Details of PRP’s 2012 spending won’t be revealed until August 1, the Campaign Spending Commission’s deadline for submission of 2012 PAC financial reports.
A review of past PRP PAC reports indicates that while spending details will be disclosed, the precise source of the money will not.
In 2008, PRP formed a PAC called the Pacific Resource Partnership Smart Growth Hui, financed entirely with $262,849 from PRP, that promoted the rail project. Where PRP got the money that it gave to the PAC isn’t known.
read … Two Groups Spent $1.5 Million Since 2008 Through Pro-Rail PACs
Mufi’s HTLA Endorses Lingle
SA: Both Democrats U.S. Rep. Mazie Hirono and former U.S. Rep. Ed Case, and former Republican Gov. Linda Lingle, have received the endorsement of the Hawai‘i Lodging & Tourism Association in its respective primaries for the state's open U.S. Senate seat.
The trade organization also endorsed its former president and chief executive officer, former Mayor Mufi Hannemann, in the Democratic primary for the 2nd Congressional District….
The HLTA also announced endorsements in several local races, including incumbent Mayor Peter Carlisle or former city Managing Director Kirk Caldwell in the mayoral race over former Gov. Ben Cayetano. The group also backs incumbent Big Island Mayor Billy Kenoi in his bid for re-election.
In the Legislature, the HLTA endorsed incumbents that it said have been supportive of the visitor industry. They include Senate President Shan S. Tsutsui and Sens. Ronald Kouchi, Donna Mercado Kim and David Ige, along with House Speaker Calvin Say and Reps. James Tokioka, Tom Brower and Marcus Oshiro.
read … Safety Endorsements
Another Day Another Lie: Civil Beat Tries to Smear Lingle Pollster
CB: “A quick search for the firm shows that (Lingle pollster) VCR conducted polls in South Carolina for then-Republican presidential hopeful George W. Bush in his 2000 primary fight with John McCain. Those calls were decried as a push-poll and purportedly included a question about McCain fathering an illegitimate black child. Testimonials on VCR’s website include Karl Rove and Mitch McConnell, but they also include Stuart Rothenberg and Charlie Cook.”
Note to Civil Beat: "...purportedly included a question about McCain fathering an illegitimate black child....." ??? We can always count on Civil Beat to throw in some irrelevant agenda-driven distractions aimed at shinyobjectophiles. And, once again your claim is false.
The Vanity Fair article to which you link as a source shows NO MENTION of any role played by VCR in the "illegitimate black child" smear of McCain during the 2000 SC GOP Primary. Instead Vanity Fair clearly points to activists at Bob Jones University as the source of the smear. VCR is not mentioned even once in the VF article. The NYT article to which you link describes VCR's work in SC, but does not mention the "illegitimate black child" smear.
Obviously what you are doing here is attempting to link two unconnected facts in order to interject a falsehood into the Hawaii election. Ironically you are smearing Lingle in much the same way that BJU activists smeared McCain--differing only in that you appeal to ignorances inverted from those of SC.
As CB has done before, you will now retract your falsehood and apologize. You are familiar with the procedure. How long will it take this time?
read … Lingle Poll Says She’s Up On Hirono, Tied With Case
Council tells HART to put reins on PR Handouts to Mufi Cronies
SA: According to the city, the subcontracts that will be canceled next month include a 24-month agreement with Lychee Productions Inc. for $1.169 million.
The president of Lychee is Laura Pennington, a friend and supporter of former Mayor Mufi Hannemann.
Other contracts to be canceled next month include agreements with former City Councilman John F. DeSoto for $57,057; Carlson Communications for $351,538; Global Teach Inc. for $78,584; MM Pictures LLC for $220,704; Red Monarch Strategies Inc. for $168,559; and Community Outreach Associates LLC for $375,469.
HART will also cancel a contract with John Williamson LLC for $50,000 at the end of the year, and will scale back on contracts with Gary K. Omori LLC and Pat Lee & Associates LLC.
The Council also approved a resolution asking that HART review the terms of its contracts to curb costs and limit change orders on the $5.26 billion project.
The resolution also urges HART to hold off on authorizing any new construction work until after the city has secured $1.55 billion in federal funding for the rail project.
read … HART
Abercrombie’s DoE Cuts Autistic School
DN: KITV has been blacked out from the cable system, but you can still see this video on the web: Parents on difficulty of finding good schools. It reports that the DOE has withheld at least $700,000 in payments to Loveland Academy, so the school announced it is closing its doors on July 27.
Watch the video. According to one of the parents interviewed, he was told by a teacher that his son had a “broken brain.”
It takes time for lawsuits against the DOE to work their way through the courts. In the meantime, Loveland can’t pay its bills and is going belly up. I guess they’re celebrating somewhere inside the DOE.
read … A New Day in the DoE
Fashion: State Gets its Paws on Another Entrepreneurial Industry
SA: There are plans to revive the Governor's Fashion Industry Awards and, with a grant from the U.S. Small Business Administration, the state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism will be presenting a Hawaii Pavilion at the JFW International Fashion Fair, Japan's largest fashion trade show, July 18 to 20.
DBEDT submitted its application in May 2011 and was granted $485,000 by the Small Business Administration in September. The money will fund several projects, starting with the pavilion that will host 10 of Hawaii's largest fashion companies, as well as a booth for Hawaii Fashion Incubator, known as Hifi, which will house seven emerging designers: Organik Clothing, Salty Girl Jewelry, Allison Izu, Machine Machine, Honey Girl Waterwear, Day & Nite Hawaii and Jen Stone Jewelry.
The large companies represented are The Custom Co., Jams World/Surfline, Tori Richard, Avanti Fashion, Hilo Hattie, Paradise Found, Kai, Two Palms, Wings Sportswear, and Iolani….
Although the group could have promoted any industry that exports from Hawaii, Ling said a lot of thought went into the idea of rebuilding the fashion industry to the peak reached in the 1960s and '70s.
Hawaii's youth-oriented fashion culture coincided with the rise of surf, leisure and hippie culture. But it didn't take long for Hawaii style to find imitators overseas. By the mid-1990s, the once-strong Hawaii Fashion Guild, comprising local clothing manufacturers, had dissolved.
read … The Death of Fashion, Like Tech
Office of Hawaiian Affairs to buy Gentry Pacific Design Center
PBN: The Gentry Pacific Design Center is being sold to the Office of Hawaiian Affairs , according to a letter to a tenant obtained by PBN that explains the sale.
The sale of the 185,787-square-foot center at 560 N. Nimitz Highway in Honolulu has not been finalized, but is scheduled to close in August.
The sale price was not disclosed, but the building and its three parcels were assessed for about $28.8 million.
The letter said that although Gentry Pacific was not actively marketing the center, OHA approached the real estate development firm in late 2011 with an offer….
read … And this Benefits Hawaiians How?
Concert Fallout: Donovan removed as UH athletics director
HNN: Just a day after the embarrassing announcement that a University of Hawaii athletics fundraising concert featuring Stevie Wonder was canceled, the UH placed Athletics Director Jim Donovan on paid leave and began an investigation into the botched event.
UH officials said they've gone to the FBI for help in getting back a $200,000 deposit of UH funds wired to an agent in Miami.
UH Manoa Chancellor Tom Apple put Donovan and the manager of the Stan Sheriff Center, Rich Sheriff, on paid leave Wednesday. The two men were escorted to their offices and allowed to pack one box of their belongings before turning in their keys and leaving, a source said.
Donovan approved the concert deal without the knowledge of UH President MRC Greenwood and Sheriff was the contact with the promoter who did the deal, sources said.
"I am angered and appalled and this is not going to happen at the University of Hawaii again," Greenwood said during a 4:30 p.m. news conference in front of Hawaii Hall at UH Manoa on Wednesday.
UH Vice President for Student Affairs Rockne Freitas will serve as acting athletics director. Freitas said his priorities include "cleaning up the policies and procedures" in the department while "looking for any smoking guns."
ILind: More background on how $200K of UH money could have gone walkabout
SA: Cash went to an agent not representing the talent
read … Scammed
Prosecutors Desperately Grasp at Technicality to Keep Deedy in Hawaii’s Corrupt State Courts
SA: State Department Special Agent Christopher Deedy waited too late to file a request to move his murder case to federal court from state court and has not provided any good reason why he should be given an exception, the city prosecutor handling the case said in papers filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court.
Deedy, 28, is charged with murder in connection with the shooting death of Kollin Elderts, 23, in a Waikiki McDonald's on Nov. 5. Deedy was in Hawaii to provide security for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation conference later that month.
Under federal law, when a federal employee is prosecuted for acts committed while performing official duties, the case can be moved from a state court to federal court.
HR: Prosecutors Oppose Transfer Of Deedy Murder Trial
read … Lynch Mob
Hawaii has second-highest credit card debt
PBN: The average consumer credit card debt in Hawaii was $7,032 in June, which represented a 3 percent decrease from the previous month but was the second-highest amount in the nation, according to a report from CreditKarma.com.
Nationally, the average consumer credit card debt in June was $5,576. Only Alaska, with an average credit card debt of $7,076, was higher than Hawaii's average credit card debt, according to CreditKarma.com
read … Debt
Sheriffs Using Jaywalking Enforcement As Excuse to Abandon Baliff Duties?
SA: Schwartz said Public Safety Director Ted Sakai was concerned about deputies leaving their posts in courthouses to monitor for jaywalkers and wanted them to focus on their core assignments.
The memo continued to say deputies may still pursue traffic enforcement action in extreme emergencies, but only after receiving a supervisor’s authorization.
Schwartz said the department decided to issue a clarification after news organizations called to question the stand-down.
read … Get Back to Work, Whatever that means
Laboratory plan leads residents to fear the worst
SA: Without a local testing lab capable of positively identifying such diseases, Hawaii residents could lose valuable time in responding to an outbreak, he said. Most of the other Level 3 labs are in the eastern and Midwestern United States. The nearest to Hawaii is in Colorado.
Yanagihara said having a local facility would mean being able to identify a deadly disease in a matter of hours rather than days or weeks.
Project manager Keith Mattson further assured audience members that multiple redundancies built into the facility's accessibility, air filtration and sterilization processes virtually eliminate the possibility of dangerous material being accidentally released.
While some in attendance asked why the facility could not be constructed in a remote, unpopulated site, perhaps off island, Mattson said the value of the facility would be in having it close to the population it would most immediately serve.
"You want this where it can do the most good," Mattson said. "It's just like how you would want a hospital where you live, not somewhere else."
According to Mattson, those measures, coupled with a minimum of seven levels of authorization for each project, would make the facility "the most heavily regulated and safety-conscious" in the national network of labs.
read … Level 3
Council outlaws businesses at Kailua Beach
SA: Bob Twogood, owner of Twogood Kayaks, said his and other businesses will likely go under because most visitors will consider it inconvenient to pick up a kayak from his shop in Kailua town and find a way to get it to the beach.
read … Outlawed
Judge ends TRO, says he lacks jurisdiction over MMMC
MN: Three RadCare radiologists were performing procedures at Maui Memorial Medical Center on Wednesday afternoon, hours after a judge dissolved a temporary restraining order that had prevented the Dallas-based company from taking over exclusive radiology services at the hospital last week.
The transition from Maui Radiology Associates, which had the contract to provide the services since 2004, occurred at 2:30 p.m., said Wesley Lo, the hospital's chief executive officer and Maui region chief procurement officer for Hawaii Health Systems Corp.
read … Radiology
Aloha Petroleum fined $33K for Paperwork violations
MN: c Failure to monitor five underground storage tanks that routinely contained product at least every 30 days between June 2010 and August 2010.
c Failure to notify the DOH that the underground storage tanks were temporarily out of use within 30 days after the change in status.
The underground storage tanks were reportedly placed on temporary out-of-use status between May 17 and Aug. 18, 2010.
c Failure to notify the DOH that the underground storage tanks were put back into service. DOH said it received notification only on June 23, 2011.
(Meanwhile Al Hee gets $100M and Dante Carpenter gets $140M)
read … Harassment
Aerial hunting ban approved, DLNR Plans to Ignore
HTH: Shooting animals by helicopter on Hawaii Island is now illegal.
Mayor Billy Kenoi on Wednesday signed into law a largely symbolic bill that prohibits “any person to engage in the eradication of any animal for any reason while being transported by helicopter, airplane, or any similar means.”
The bill was aimed at the Department of Land and Natural Resources’ Division of Forestry and Wildlife, which practices the shooting of feral ungulates by helicopter on state lands as a form of population control.
County Council members unanimously approved the bill in June, declaring DLNR’s practice to be barbaric and wasteful.
But DLNR is likely to continue the practice anyway, as it is not bound by county law.
read … Eradication