July 24, 2012 News Read > Hawaii Free Press

CB: A critical aspect of the wind project is a community benefits package that was negotiated between Castle & Cooke, HECO and local residents. It has been key to attracting community support for the project, particularly among union workers.

But Ellison’s purchase could jeopardize important aspects of the package….

HECO says it's still committed to the benefits package, and that Castle & Cooke is still bound by the agreement….

“The community benefits are an integral part of the term sheet between Hawaiian Electric and Castle and Cooke,” HECO spokesman Peter Rosegg said Monday in an email. “We are committed to following through on the benefits we are to provide and Castle and Cooke is required under the term sheet to follow through on the other items. It will be up to Castle and Cooke to determine how those terms are met as the actual purchase power agreement negotiations are finalized."

But it’s unclear how Castle & Cooke could guarantee some benefits that it has committed to, unless there is some agreement with Ellison.

The company promised to maintain current employment levels on Lanai — no more lay-offs. But Ellison now owns those resorts, golf courses and utilities that employ many of the island's workers.

It also assured that there would be continued access to hunting and coastal fishing in the Kaa area that lies below the site of the proposed wind farm. And the package stipulates that residential, commercial and agricultural lessees could purchase the land or property at fair market values. The agreement also includes 5,000 acres for a biofuel project.

Gima said that the sale, and a potential reduction in benefits, could erode union support for the project.

“There are no direct benefits to the (union) should the wind farm happen,” he said. “They’re in limbo. As of today, I think they still support the wind farm, but the rationale and basis for the support doesn’t hold up any more.”

read … Pro-Wind Signs Come Down on Lanai

Hirono Misses Major Votes in U.S. House

HR: Congress.org, a vote tracking system that issues regular reports on political leaders in Hawaii and throughout the nation, said on Monday, July 23, that Hirono was one of 37 members not voting on the Foreign Relations Authorization, which required and received a two-thirds majority vote. The bill would "maintain basic funding and is silent on controversial issues that have held up previous authorizations."

Hirono was one of 15 Congress members who missed voting on the Sequestration Report, which" backed a measure that would pressure the Obama administration to detail how agencies would implement the cuts, known as a sequester, that are scheduled to hit on January 2, 2013. ...lt would require the White House to produce a report within 30 days with a detailed account of how the cuts would affect both domestic and defense programs," Congress.org said.

The web site also noted Hirono was one of 15 who missed voting on the Defense Appropriations Act, "a $606 billion Defense spending bill last week that would fund the Pentagon and national security programs in fiscal 2013."

read … Mazie too lazy

22 State Candidates Fined for Failing to File Financial Disclosures on Time

HR: A total of 163 candidates filed their financial disclosure statements by the deadline, Kondo said today.

Another 22 candidates missed the deadline and will be fined $25.

Those being fined include:

CANDIDATES FOR SENATE:

· Sen. Clayton Hee

· Sen. Gilbert Kahele

· Sen. Michelle Kidani (Financial disclosure received after statutory deadline)

· Sen. Glenn Wakai

CANDIDATES FOR THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES:

· former Rep. Joe Bertram

· Colin Hanlon (Financial disclosure received after statutory deadline)

· Kaniela Ing

read … 22 Fined

Star-Adv Looks at Contested Primaries in HD 19-29

SA: Today we look at the primary races of Districts 19 to 29 in which there are actual intra-party competitors…. District 27 (Nuuanu-Liliha-Alewa Heights): This is a rarity: A contested Republican primary, where GOP incumbent Corinne Ching has the advantage, being a reliable moderate Republican and the assistant minority floor leader. Her opponent, photographer Brian Kim, is more libertarian in his outlook, but has virtually no political experience. The winner goes up against Democrat Takashi Ohno in the general.

read … Experience rules in House races

Voter registration tally up since 2010 primary

SA: Voter registration increased statewide this year for the fourth primary election in a row.

A total of 687,500 people are registered for the Aug. 11 election, up from 684,481 in 2010, according to spokesman Rex Quidilla of the Office of Elections. Registration has steadily increased in the last four primary elections.

But voter turnout has been low. In 2010, 42.8 percent of registered voters cast ballots, a jump from a record low of 37 percent in 2008. Registration numbers broken down by county are 461,896 in Honolulu, 101,728 in Hawaii County, 84,042 in Maui County and 39,834 in Kauai County. Honolulu and Maui saw a slight drop in registered voters from the 2010 primary election at 460,244 and 84,386, respectively. Hawaii island and Kauai saw a slight increase from that same election year at 100,061 and 39,790, respectively.

A total of 375 military and overseas absentee ballots have been mailed or emailed from the City Clerk's Office. Hawaii was forced to move up the primary election from the traditional dates in late September because of a federal law that ensure overseas voters receive absentee ballots in plenty of time for the general election.

The primary will include races for U.S. senator, U.S. representatives, Honolulu mayor, state legislators, county prosecutors and County Councils.

In Honolulu the City Clerk's Office is continuing to mail out and accept daily requests for absentee ballots from registered voters. The deadline to send a request for an absentee ballot is Aug. 4.

As of Monday there were about 93,000 absentee ballot requests. Of that figure, about 82,000 were permanent absentee ballot requests, according to City Clerk Bernice Mau.

read … Tally Up

Fishy: Hawaii County Elections Office Closes for ‘Audit’

WHT: County Clerk Jamae Kawauchi closed the Hilo Elections Office on Monday for an audit of the county voter registration list, an action a state elections official called unprecedented and a county councilman called “fishy.”

…closing the office just 20 days before the Aug. 11 primary to review the list raised eyebrows in Hilo, where the Elections Office has undergone a rocky six months. Rex Quidilla, a spokesman for the state Elections Office, said his office didn’t hear about the closure and audit until late Monday.

“We’ve not had it happen in the past,” he said of the audit.

Kawauchi told West Hawaii Today she wanted to give the list a good review before sending the poll books out to the printer. She declined to say what her office is looking for. An employee from the county’s Information Technology Office was seen inside the Elections Office, hooking up computers to be tested.

“We’re looking at the list to make sure it’s clean and accurate,” Kawauchi said. “We’re trying to be as thorough as possible to run a fair and well-run election. … This is part of us making sure we’re doing everything we can to make that happen.”

The office came under fire after Kawauchi fired Elections Office Administrator Pat Nakamoto, warehouse manager Glen Shikuma and two other employees following an investigation that alleged drinking, storage of alcohol and running a private business out of the county elections warehouse on Makaala Street. Nakamoto has since been reinstated after a grievance process conducted by the administration, but she has not returned to the job.

read … Fishy

Cayetano, Grabauskas Describe Meeting

PBN: Cayetano said they talked about materials the HART PR machine was sending out, including the coloring books on the project, which have since been scratched.

“I have no idea what Grabauskas is doing. I think it was a step forward to cut some of those people,” the governor said regarding Grabauskas recently reducing the PR budget from $4 million to $1.2 million.

Cayetano added he doesn’t know why Grabauskas cut some of the people and kept others who have little to no PR experience or don’t know Honolulu.

Grabauskas may not have been able to change Cayetano’s mind during that hour-and-a-half meeting, but at least he got something out of it — an autographed copy of Cayetano’s book, “Ben: A Memoir, from Street Kid to Governor.”

The former governor said he gave Grabauskas a copy of the book to help him understand what is going on here in Honolulu….

read … Cayetano meets Grabauskas

HART Seizes Property, Evicts Pearl City Family

HR: The city's Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation, which is acquiring private property in the way of the city's 20-mile elevated steel on steel rail system, maintains its officials have treated private property owners along the route with respect and paid them the full value for the land the city has acquired.

The Farinas family, which lives in Pearl City, has a different take. They said in a recent letter to HART shared with Hawaii Reporter that their 10 family members, dogs, cats and 65 chickens are being displaced without ample time to move. The family said it is in a panic because HART officials told them they must vacate their home within the next three weeks. The adults each work 40 hours a week, and the family operates an open market vegetable business seven days a week. They have no time to prepare for such a major undertaking.

read … Eminent Domain

Federal judge hears legal arguments on same-sex marriage

SA: The case featured an unusual twist with two teams of Attorney General David Louie’s office representing opposing positions of Gov. Neil Abercrombie and his Health Director, Loretta Fuddy, respectively.

Abercrombie’s legal team agreed with the plaintiffs that the laws violate the Constitution while Fuddy’s team defended the laws.

Kay earlier permitted the Hawaii Family Forum, a Christian organization, to join in the case and defend the state’s ban on same-sex marriages.

read … Gay Game

University administrators who gave go-ahead to concert took thousands of dollars in gifts from the athletics department

ILind: Gift disclosure statements filed with the State Ethics Commission by two key administrators who were part of the review process of the failed Stevie Wonder concert show they took free tickets to athletic events worth thousands of dollars over the past several years.

The practice of letting top administrators accept gifts of event tickets has been a longstanding practice at the University of Hawaii, despite a 1996 opinion by the State Ethics Commission limiting the conditions under which they would be considered appropriate.

read … University administrators who gave go-ahead to concert took thousands of dollars in gifts from the athletics department

Bankruptcy, Bad Debts Trail University Of Hawaii Concert Promoters

HR: Among the players in the University of Hawaii’s recent fundraising fiasco are: a recently bankrupted local entertainment promoter whose home is now in foreclosure; a Florida firm that only began business in February; and a commercial painting contractor with a history of bad debts, public records show.

read … Bad Debts

Sierra Club Fights Urbanization of Hawaii

CN: …the Sierra Club claims the state approved the rezoning without two-thirds vote of the Legislature, as required by state law.

LINK: Lawsuit Text

read … Courthouse News

Sugar Subsidies: $800K per Job

BIN: In June of this year, the US Senate rejected an amendment that would have phased out the federal government’s protections for sugar producers. A few weeks later, the House of Representatives rejected a similar measure.

Unlike many crop subsidies that send farmers payments, the US government keeps prices high for domestic sugar producers mainly by limiting imports. The quotas have a direct impact on US consumers, who pay (averaged over 10 years) roughly twice the price of sugar than can be found on the open market.

The artificially elevated prices also raise the cost of doing business for food producers, pushing some to outsource their operations outside of the United States. The policy also has had a major impact on the beverage industry, where domestic soda makers have turned to high fructose corn syrup (often deemed a less healthy alternative to cane sugar) to sweeten their beverages.

With nearly all of Hawaii’s sugar plantations now closed, the Hawaiian Commercial and Sugar Company (HC&S), operating mainly on Maui, remains one of the sole local beneficiaries of the current US sugar policy, employing nearly 800 people and producing approximately 200,000 tons of cane sugar each year.

US Senator Daniel Inouye, whose grandparents emigrated from Japan to work in the Hawaiian sugar industry, came out strongly opposed to reforming US sugar policy, remarking to his fellow lawmakers “Hawaii’s existing sugar producer could potentially close, forcing my constituents to lose their livelihood,” and going on to predict that “If the US sugar policy were eliminated… the US market would collapse.”

All of this is certainly possible. But what exactly is it costing us to maintain the status quo? The United States General Accounting Office in 2000 found that in the current scheme, the estimated annual cost per job saved in the United States sugar industry is $826,000.*

read … The Sugar Industry’s Bitter Reality

ACLU Files Lawsuit Demanding Hawaii prisoners’ right to marry

RA: In the United States thousands of prisoners are married while incarcerated each year.

But in Hawaii the department of public safety has a different view on prisoners marrying.

It's been refusing to allow its prisoners to marry for years.

Now the American Civil Liberties Union has filed a lawsuit against the department on behalf of several women, who have long been denied the right to marry their incarcerated fiancés.

read … Cons latest Con

Soft on Crime: Man who stabbed hikers asks judge for permission to attend college

KHON: The man who attacked two people with a knife on a hiking trail in 2009, now wants permission to leave the Hawaii State Hospital to attend college.

The images from that day were alarming. Two men stabbed by Benjamin Davis. One of them, Nicholas Iwamoto, left in critical condition, with 18 stab wounds.

Davis was acquitted of the crime because of his mental disease and now he wants to be able to leave the State Hospital without an escort.

read … Soft on Crime

Tipsters lead Hawaii County police to three gambling parlors

SA: Police seized 33 suspected illegal gambling machines, suspected gambling records and large sums of cash.

They also arrested three employees, a 47-year-old Keaau man at Tilt Amusement, a 50-year-old Hilo man at 777 Arcade and a 39-year-old Pahoa man at Da Little Game Shack.

BIVN: Suspected illegal gambling operations in Hilo disrupted by police

read … What? Gambling? In Hilo?

Queen's Transplant Center completes 1st kidney transplant

SA: Sabrina Josue underwent roughly 1,500 dialysis treatments over the past nine years before receiving the first kidney transplant by the new Queen's Transplant Center….

read … Kidney Transplant

Hawaii Procurement Expert Speaks to GCC Students

PNC: What procurement officers do affects people. That was one of the messages Dr. Danielle Conway had for students in GCC’s Procurement Course this morning.

Conway, director of the Hawaii Procurement Institute, is on island for a three-day procurement conference sponsored by Bank of Hawaii and being hosted by the Guam Chamber of Commerce and the Guam Procurement Advisory Council.

read … Procurement

Statement from Governor Linda Lingle on the Passing of Sally Ride

News Release: "I am saddened by the news of Sally Ride's passing. One of America's great astronauts and the first American woman in space, Sally Ride was my contemporary and I remember watching with excitement as she paved the way for women in so many fields besides space exploration.

"As a celebrated female leader in the STEM fields (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math), Sally Ride was living proof for young women and little girls around the world that they could explore the universe and make it their own, defying all barriers. She is a true American hero and her legacy will live on forever."

read … www.Lingle2012.com

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