Hilo, Kailua-Kona, Maui, Honolulu: Tea Party ‘Mastermind’ to Speak
Mazie Cries: “Me, Me, Me!”
Shapiro: State Democratic Chairman Dante Carpenter told Politico: "There is a concern among a certain constituency that if the newly appointed person is sworn in before Mazie, it doesn't seem fair on its face.
"Some of her campaign supporters are concerned it would give an undue advantage. It doesn't smack of fairness in an institution that is supposed to be the fairest of the land."
It's good Democrats seem to have gotten their priorities straight on whether "fairness" applies first to onepolitician's vanity or to Hawaii's compelling need to gain seniority in a powerful institution where it matters so much.
A rap on Hirono has been a perception that she sees public service as all about her.
That she cried "me, me, me" while the rest of Hawaii cried for Inouye and our state spoke toher conceit.
read … Conceited
Schatz is considered leader among 14 candidates to replace Inouye
HNN: Sources said Lt. Gov. Brian Schatz remains the candidate most likely to be chosen by Gov. Neil Abercrombie to replace Inouye, who died Dec. 17, in spite of Inouye's request for U.S. Rep. Colleen Hanabusa to replace him….
Sources said anything can happen, but they expect the final three people chosen by Democratic leaders as possible replacements for Inouye to be Schatz, Hanabusa and Oshiro, the same three sources said Abercrombie would like to see on the list he will choose from.
But sources said Schatz is considered the front-runner, the person expected to be selected by his boss, Abercrombie, to fill the next two years of Inouye's term.
Sources said the committee of Democrats narrowing the list is full of Abercrombie loyalists, who were brought together by Abercrombie and Schatz in 2008 to get behind Barack Obama's campaign for president in the islands. Inouye and Hanabusa's supporters backed Hillary Clinton for president, who lost the nomination to Obama.
read … Schatz
Obama to end Christmas vacation early
WaPo: After just four days of vacation, President Obama is leaving Hawaii early to return to Washington in a last-ditch effort to reach a deal to avoid the fiscal cliff.
A White House official said Obama would fly home Wednesday evening – giving him only five days before an automatic series of deep spending cuts and sharp tax increases on nearly all Americans begins to take effect.
SA: Isle vacation is Obama's opportunity for renewal (This is what passes for commentary in the Star-Adv.)
read more … B-bye
Sequestration threat hangs over Hawaii military base where Obama landed for vacation
DC: (Hickam) The joint naval and air force base in Hawaii where President Obama and the First Family landed to begin their Christmas vacation was also the site of a town hall meeting in March at which the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff explained to service members the “fiscal realities” facing the U.S. military and discussed the looming threat of sequestration….
Dempsey said that the military’s new “fiscal reality” forced leaders to make “hard decisions about what equipment to buy, manpower cuts to make, what construction to complete, and what family programs to continue,” militaryconnection.com reported in March.
Dempsey also discussed with service members the possibility of sequestration, which would occur as part of the fiscal cliff and would gut defense spending by $500 billion.
“What we’ve said to Congress … is in the interests of national security, they really ought to find some other way than sequestration to balance this budget, and it can’t all be balanced on our backs,” Dempsey said at the meeting.
Office of Management and Budget (OMB) controller Danny Werfel sent an email to labor leaders last week warning that unpaid “furloughs or other actions” could result from sequestration.
Obama declared in an October 23 debate with Mitt Romney that sequestration “will not happen.”
USA Today: Obama visits Marines on Christmas
Read … Threat
County Governments to Host Services for Inouye
SA: » Thursday: Hawaii County will host the memorial service from noon to 2:30 p.m. at Afook-Chinen Hilo Civic Auditorium.
» Friday: Kauai County will hold a memorial service at the Kauai War Memorial Convention Hall. Visitation is at 4 p.m., followed by a service at 5 p.m.
» Saturday: Maui County will hold a service at the Maui Arts & Cultural Center's Castle Theater. Visitation is at 9 a.m., followed by a service at 10 a.m.
(Where’s Mitch Kahle?)
MN: Service for Inouye to be at MACC on Saturday
read … Bring an offering of pork
Herculean Effort Needed to Buy out Turtle Bay Developers
SA: …there are a few possible end games here, but the one many in the community prefer — a "conservation partner alternative" — will take a nearly herculean effort to pull together enough money to achieve that kind of settlement….
the public has until Jan. 7 to comment (see box). It would be wise for supporters of the preservation plan to speak out and convey a sense of urgency to save one of the few remaining unspoiled spots along Oahu's coastline.
However, that is only a demonstration of public sentiment. The conservation alternative would be a heavy lift, said Lea Hong, director of the Trust for Public Lands in Hawaii. The trust is a national organization that has been working with Replay on the pact for the ag-lands easement and recently completed a similar settlement drawing together partners for the preservation of the Galbraith Estate agricultural park.
But coming to terms over conservation of land that has been entitled for development as a resort, she said, is a very high bar. Whatever partners can be brought to the table will need to offer money ….
Former Gov. Linda Lingle put together a working group that in 2008 contemplated ways the state could acquire and protect much of the prime shoreline. The recession and the budgetary crisis put that notion on ice.
Simple solution: Swap them the Princess Victoria Kamamalu Building downtown.)
read … Turtle Bay
Link between pot, psychosis goes both ways in kids
Reuters: Marijuana (cannabis) use may be linked to the development of psychotic symptoms in teens - but the reverse could also be true: psychosis in adolescents may be linked to later pot use, according to a new Dutch study.
"We have focused mainly on temporal order; is it the chicken or the egg? As the study shows, it is a bidirectional relationship," wrote the study's lead author Merel Griffith-Lendering, a doctoral candidate at Leiden University in The Netherlands, in an email to Reuters Health.
Previous research established links between marijuana and psychosis, but scientists questioned whether pot use increased the risk of mental illness, or whether people were using pot to ease their psychotic symptoms, such as hallucinations and delusions.
"What is interesting in this study is that both processes are going on at the same time," said Dr. Gregory Seeger, medical director for addiction services at Rochester General Hospital in upstate New York.
read … Pot Heads
After 30 years on Streets, Homeless Dude Retiring to Home For Elderly
"When I came here 30 years ago, it was only $120 for a one-way ticket from Los Angeles," he said….Berzansky became homeless. He is one of thousands in Hawaii who has lived on the streets.
After sleeping by the bus stop for many years, Berzansky, now 73, moved into Next Step Project, a shelter managed by Waikiki Health Center. He is now receiving Social Security disability insurance and hopes to enter a home for the elderly.
read … Retirement Plan for a Professional
Chicago Neighborhoods Jostle for Obama Library
HB: U.S. President Barack Obama will be in office for four more years but competition already under way to determine where his presidential library will be located.
The Bronzeville neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, where Obama cut his political teeth, the University of Hawaii, in Honolulu where he was born, the University of Chicago, where he taught for 12 years, and developers of the old U.S. Steel South Works site in Chicago are among those vying for the honor of hosting the Obama library, the Chicago Tribune reports.
Bronzeville has a 37-acre site available, that developers are considering for a possible casino or sports entertainment complex. But people who live in the historic African-American community are talking it up as a logical location for the library, the newspaper says.
"This area tells the story of Chess Records, gospel music, blues and jazz, electrified by Willie Dixon, Buddy Guy and Muddy Waters," said Harold Lucas, president of the Black Metropolis Convention & Tourism Council in Bronzeville. "When people come to Chicago, that's what they want to see. They want to see the birthplace of Mr. Obama's political career."
USA Today: Obama Library to Cost Half Billion?
read … Library
Hawaii judge Ezra coming to Alamo City
MSA: Ezra, 65, is moving here to help the San Antonio-headquartered Western District of Texas, whose current judges are swamped largely with immigration and drug cases on top of a busy civil caseload.
It's a homecoming of sorts. Ezra's wife is from Texas and he went to St. Mary's University.
“It's a combination of the need of the judiciary (in Texas) and my wife,” Ezra said. “I had indicated to the Administrative Office of the Courts that I was willing to move to the mainland and help. We have a very moderate caseload” in Hawaii.
read … Texas Welcomes Ezra Back
American Samoa officials in Hawaii to look at bank options
RNZ: The Bank of Hawai’i’s closure next March will leave ANZ as the only commercial bank operating in American Samoa.
The Lieutenant Governor-elect Lemanu Peleti Mauga and two advisors have talked with the vice president for Central Pacific Bank, Lance Mitsumoto.
First Hawaiian Bank has shown an interest in getting involved and it is expected to arrange a meeting with the Lieutenant Governor-elect soon.
read … No Banks?
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