Workshops Maui, Big Isle: 'We the Powerful'
New Aquarium Fish Rules to Maintain Sustainability
Hawaii Humane Society: Our Opponent is Evil, We are Good
ACLU: Proposed Changes to Hawaii Law Unfair to Young Rapists and Sex Tourist Pedophiles
Hawaii's sex offender registry does not fully comply with federal law. And unless the state brings the tracking system for nearly 3,000 offenders into compliance, it could lose more than $50,000 annually in federal justice funding.
But some who have analyzed the changes Hawaii must make to become compliant say the state should forgo the money, mainly because they disagree with the federal law's requirement that certain juvenile sex offenders be compelled to register.
ALSO: "Convictions for sex offenses in foreign or tribal jurisdictions shall be covered by Hawaii's registry." -- Meaning if Hawaii complies with federal law, convicted (in the Philippines) child molester Leon Rouse will have to register. These clowns have gone all-out for Rouse before, now they are going all out for him again.
The 2006 Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act mandates, among other things, that juveniles 14 and older who commit serious sex crimes must register as an offender, without regard to individual circumstances or whether the juvenile is deemed a significant risk to the community. The crimes must be comparable to aggravated sexual assault or worse.
Hawaii currently does not require juvenile sex offenders -- except those tried as adults -- to register..
read … “Give a Rapist a Second Chance” -- ACLU
Hawaii ACLU Whines Because Pedophiles are Ostracized
SA: A 2008 study by several researchers from the University of Arkansas and elsewhere concluded that Hawaii was one of three states in which the introduction of sex offender notification laws contributed to statistically significant decreases in the monthly incidence of rapes.
Local experts, including Plummer, were skeptical of the Hawaii finding…."I've now come to despise (the registry)," said Plummer, who used to counsel sex offenders and victims. "It does more harm than good."
In May, for instance, authorities on Kauai arrested 23 sex offenders who weren't complying with registry requirements, and asked for the public's help to find two more.
"We want to send a very clear message that if you do not comply with laws in place, we will find you and hold you accountable," Police Chief Darryl Perry said in a statement.
Experts like Petersen, the UH professor, and Lois Perrin, legal director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Hawaii, say the state's registry casts such a wide net that law enforcement resources are diluted and officers have a more difficult time focusing on truly dangerous offenders.
Perrin also said people convicted of sex crimes decades ago or of relatively insignificant offenses can have a difficult time re-integrating into society because of how they're treated for being on the registry.
She recalled the case of an Oahu man being threatened with eviction from his apartment complex after a neighbor alerted others in the building that the man was on the registry. His conviction for sexually assaulting a minor was from the 1960s -- more than 30 years before Hawaii even established a registry.
"The stories you hear about ostracization are very real," Perrin said. (So sad, not!)
Ostracized? Child molester back at work at Hawaii Legislature
SA: Requiring convicted offenders to put their name and crime in public lifts the veil of secrecy they forced upon their targets, say an official and a former child victim
Molester Count: Neighbor Islands census zip codes
read … Another ACLU Cause
Akaka Retiring: Plenty Aloha, But What About Accomplishments?
CB: "He did utter the word 'Aloha' a bit more often than any other person I’ve known," Inouye said.
The committee now hangs Native Hawaiian art on the wall ….
"Major figures like that, like the majority leader or a chairman of a major committee, you're always a bit in their shadow," Senate Historian Donald Ritchie pointed out in an interview. "So then the question becomes: How do you carve out a career elsewhere?"
Akaka's been a leader on the issues nearest and dearest to him, even when they're relatively low-profile.
As the only Native Hawaiian ever in the U.S. Senate, he's taken on Native American issues and pushed for recognition and self-determination for his own people.
As a World War II veteran, he's taken on veterans issues during wartime.
And as a longtime government employee, he's taken on federal workforce issues that affect millions of those who work for the United States.
Here's how Ritchie puts it: "He gravitated where he wanted to be."
… Akaka pales next to Inouye in terms of stature and seniority….
Akaka's 36 consecutive years make him one of perhaps 100 to serve that long of about 12,000 individuals who have been in either chamber of Congress since 1789, according to the Library of Congress. That's the top 1 percent….
Case's criticism, whether right or wrong, was eventually seen as disrespectful of his elder, a big no-no in Asian and Hawaii culture. Akaka held his seat, and Case has failed in multiple attempts to get back to Congress since.
read … None, thank God!
Unions Don’t Trust State Push for IT
SA: 220 kinds of government work — "business functions," as he calls them — are largely services for which people have wait in line. He wants them online, not in line.
"What we're trying to do is make them available digitally, so that you can deal with your government online," he said. "We think less than 5 percent of our services are online right now.
"We want to leapfrog Hawaii to be in the front, to get to a digital government, mobile government — information anywhere, just the right information you're authorized to see," Bhagowalia added….
Kali's job is primarily concerned with the systems and hardware, he's also working on a human problem: getting the state's unionized shops engaged in the whole transformation process. He's taken the opportunities presented by incidents such as the DMV shutdown or the tsunami preparations to work closely with teams that manage the existing systems.
That level of human networking will be essential to the integration of people with the hardware, he said.
"You just keep building that trust, little by little, and work through the departments in terms of their staff issues with IT," he said.
"All transformation is difficult," Bhagowalia added. "There is no question that this is the right strategy, in terms of what industry and government have done before and been successful. But at the end of the day, someone's got to want to do it."
SA: Tech summit aims to create environment to share ideas
read … Hawaii plugs into digital age
Star-Adv: Lets Burn $5M on Rail Station ‘Art’
SA: Hawaii state law now provides for works of art to be purchased for 1 percent of all construction costs of any state facility, selected by the state Foundation on Culture and the Arts. The result has been statues, paintings and fine-art prints that adorn grounds and buildings. The artworks to be selected for rail stations could range from free-standing sculpture and wall pieces to functional elements like lighting, seating or railings, according to federal guidelines. (OK I propose a marble statue of Ben Cayetano going “Nooooooo!” at the entrance to the Kalihi Station.)
The city has no such program, but the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation has smartly budgeted for fiscal year 2014 to include $1.975 million for the local Art in Transit program to cover the cost of contracts with about 10 artists. The city already has set aside $694,000 for artworks in the Farrington Station group, which includes the West Loch, Leeward Community College and Waipahu Transit Center stations, the first to be completed.
Giving resident rail commuters — many of whom are expected to be daily or regular riders — a positive or uplifting experience should not be casually dismissed on purely fiscal arguments. Art has the real ability to transform a drab, humdrum environment into one that is dimensional and inspiring.
(Translation: We know the architecture will be bad, so we need to pay more to cover it up.)
Public art has become a significant aspect of the world's airports and has been encouraged federally because it can contribute to a neighborhood's pride near rail stations. Indeed, Yoshihara foresees a "sense of place" recognizing "Hawaii's multicultural landscape and reflects the community, or ahupuaa in which the station resides." The absence of such atmosphere in the stations would be a boring mistake.
(Translation: We Gramscians demand you taxpayers give us money so we can peddle our ‘Multicultural’ propaganda and thus further solidify our dominion over you.)
read … Let art flourish in rail stations
Maui Fresh Fish files for bankruptcy after building a hatchery but hitting opposition
SA: However, starting a mariculture farm can be daunting. Hawaii Oceanic Technology Inc. was founded in 2006 to raise bigeye and yellowfin tuna off Hawaii island. The Honolulu-based company has published an environmental impact statement, patented its own cages and received approval for a state ocean lease but is still working toward starting commercial production.
Maui Fresh was formed in 2006, and appears to have encountered difficulties on different fronts including financing, rearing fish and opposition from fisherman.
read … How The State is Used as a Competitive Tool
A ban on smoking at beaches would enhance Hawaii's reputation
"Waikiki Beach is a giant ashtray!" So observed a Canadian visitor, whom I met on the beach at Kapiolani Park….
At the initial Council hearing, the measure was called "hateful" and "harmful," and supporters were accused of being "bigoted health Nazis" in their "control-freak little world."
As for Chang, "Shame on him. Why does he attack his constituents who smoke?"
And, of course, there were the usual predictions that smokers would lose their civil rights, and Asian smokers would avoid Hawaii in vast numbers.
We've heard these arguments for many years, and they were compelling enough to prevent smoking bans, whether in beaches or bars.
read … Smoke Nazis
Big Island: Feds Aim to Grab 29,573 Acres
SA: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officials have developed a plan that would allow expansion of the Hakalau Forest National Wildlife Refuge and its Kona Forest on Hawaii island by about 76 percent, or 29,973 acres.
The refuge encompasses 33,946 acres on the windward slope of Mauna Kea, with an additional 5,300 acres in the Kona forest on the leeward slope of Mauna Loa.
Refuge Manager Jim Kraus said the plan lays the groundwork for future acquisitions from "willing sellers."
"It does not imply we will get the lands," Kraus said.
The plan identifies land that would help to improve wildlife habitat for native plants and animals.
Kraus said the McCandless Ranch has indicated a willingness to sell some of its land, which could provide more habitat for the ‘alala, the endangered Hawaiian crow, or Corvus hawaiiensis.
read … Land Grab
Turtle Bay Resort developers deserve some credit but still coming up short
SA: While resort representatives have repeatedly acknowledged overwhelming resident and visitor opposition to development at Turtle Bay, and have (to their credit) proposed options that would "scale down" resort expansion, the fact remains that the resort owners' current "preferred" plans still take the scope of the project well outside the footprint of existing development at the resort.
According to this draft, a sprawling mega-resort encompassing the entire property from Kawela Bay to Kahuku Point is still a very real possibility. This is unacceptable given the history of the resort and numerous other development pressures affecting rural Oahu. Though the plan's impacts on the property have been "mitigated" by the developer, this process should not be conducted in a vacuum.
The new "preferred plan" heralded by the resort claims it would reduce density by 60 percent from what was proposed in 1985. It is important to remember, however, that the plan in 1985 called for five additional hotels and 1,000 condominiums, something considered laughable today (yet not so laughable that current resort owners would remove the outdated option from this plan and therefore from consideration by willing developers of the future).
read … Coming up Short
Council empowers commission to pursue Papa‘a Bay access
KGI: Since the 1920s, Kaua‘i residents were able to access Papa‘a Bay in Aliomanu through a 19-acre property fronting the beach. But in 1958, the property owner closed the gate, blocking the access, according to Resolution 2012-59.
“The only current access to Papa‘a Bay is along a steep and hard to traverse trail, located along the southern edge of the bay,” the resolution states.
The county in recent years engaged in two lawsuits against Mandalay Properties Hawai‘i, trying to secure a safer access to Papa‘a Bay, and lost in both cases, according to the resolution.
On Wednesday, the council took action, through the resolution, to encourage the commission to pursue obtaining a safe and adequate access route to Papa‘a Bay, and requests that the commission look into all venues to make it possible, including the use of eminent domain.
read … Papaa Bay
‘Change’ to be Focus of Pearl Harbor Commemoration
SA: Friday's annual memorial rite will focus on the transformation of civilians as well as sailors….
read … Attack surprised America and changed every American
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