Dick Rowland: 83 Years Young and Still Fighting for Liberty
House GOP: "Many Bad Bills Did Not Pass"
House approves $23.25B budget
McCain: OHA Cronies Milk Defense Budget for Millions
Republican Caucus Commends Fiscally Conservative Hawaii House Budget
Chevron Drives Kitimat LNG Export Project Forward
WAC: Legislature Endangers UH Accreditation
Report: Hawaii Beer Distributors Generate 850 Direct Jobs, $200 Million
Horizon Lines Loses $94.7M for 2012
Hawaii ranked seventh in U.S. for solar energy
Feds Investigating Hawaii Blind-Deaf School Homosexual Rape Gang
SA: The Justice Department is conducting an investigation of allegations of assaults at the Hawaii School for the Deaf and Blind, the state Attorney General says in federal court records.
The lawsuit claims that certain students, some of whom called themselves the “Ringleaders,” assaulted, bullied, raped, robbed, sodomized, and terrorized smaller and younger students on a regular basis and that a counselor had improper contact with students, letting them stay with him overnight.
The suit also contends the state failed to properly supervise students and staff and that education officials tried to cover up the allegations of sexual assault.
The settlement suggests that some students were victims as well as perpetrators of sexual assault. (Translation: Some of the victims of homosexual child molestation became the next generation of homosexual child molesters. Learn from this.)
The state says in court records that the attorney general has provided the Justice Department with certain materials federal authorities requested for their investigation after the department agreed not to disclose the material to any other parties.
The material being kept confidential includes a report prepared by an independent mental health examiner the state hired.
Robert Q. Pollard Jr., professor of psychiatry and director of the Deaf Wellness Center at the University of Rochester School of Medicine in New York, prepared the Aug. 3 report. It is not mentioned in the proposed settlement….
Eric Seitz, the lawyer for some of the estimated 35 current and former students who are believed to have been sexually assaulted on the school’s campus and buses since Aug. 10, 2001, says he has been contacted by lawyers of the Justice Department’s civil rights division. Seitz said the lawyers are not happy with how the state is dealing with what happened at the school and the steps it is taking to prevent a recurrence.
read … Homosexual Rape Gang
Council on Revenues Upgrades Hawaii Fiscal Forecast as House Passes Budget
CB: A resurgent construction industry and booming tourism market have spurred the Council on Revenues to slightly upgrade its fiscal forecast for the state despite the uncertain impacts of pending federal budget cuts.
The state can expect to haul in roughly $100 million more than it previously expected to have for the rest of the current fiscal year, which ends June 30, Council on Revenues Chair Richard Kahle Jr. says.
The council voted Wednesday to increase Hawaii’s general fund revenue forecast from 5.1 percent to 6.7 percent growth in 2013 and from 6.8 percent to 7.3 percent in 2014.
The decision didn’t surprise Rep. Sylvia Luke, who as Finance Committee chair shepherded the state budget bill to unanimous passage in the House earlier Wednesday.
While the additional revenue gives legislators more flexibility in determining the next biennium budget, Luke said it won’t change her conservative approach.
“It’s a modest increase,” she said. “Overall, this shows that we are in a good place. But as far as the state is concerned, we still have issues with sequestration and we still have a lot of unknown issues.”
SA: Council upgrades its state revenue forecast for 2013
Oi: Tourism vital economically but growth imperils appeal
read … More Money
$66M -- Legislators permit raise in jobless tax
SA: State lawmakers will not prevent an increase in the unemployment insurance tax, a choice that will cost businesses $66 million for the next year ….
The labor department is expected to send notices to businesses about the tax rates this week. The higher rate could cost businesses $150 more per employee on average, or about $66 million.
The unemployment reserve, which was insolvent in 2010, now stands at $125 million. Takamine’s … department maintains that the reserve should be $384 million….
read … Backstab
Ending state-worker over payments proving tough and costly
KHON: Despite decades of efforts to trim the tab on these costly payroll mistakes, some have still been able to walk away with a bundle.
The state is chasing more than $1.5 million from its own staff who got paid too much.
The problem has been high on managers' radars with overpayment reports due to the state's accountants every month since the mid-1990s.
Yet the mistakes still find their way from you the taxpayer to the paychecks.
Just last year a health worker took home more than $11,000 too much, a tax retiree got a $16,000 bump that was paid back fast, and a UH staffer took home $21,000 extra….
"Unfortunately we don't have an automated time attendance and payroll system, it is entirely manual," said Zielinski. (Hint: “A D P”)
Meanwhile about 40 percent of the outstanding $1.5 million balance has been referred to the Attorney General's office.
They can try to collect or choose to write off things like $41,000 overpaid to a health worker over the course of 4 years, a $16,000 balance from a public safety staffer, $7,400 from someone in their own office.
The AG's list even includes being on the lookout for 14 bucks from a Hansen's disease worker from more than a decade ago.
As for the more than $900,000 still on each department's books...
"As long as an employee is an employee they'll agree to repay it, it's just a matter of how quickly they agree to repay it," said Zielinski.
A new policy put in place just this January by the state allows for a more aggressive pace of taking back over-payments by paycheck deduction, and it has to get taken care of within 1 year.
By state law anything not caught within 2 years becomes nearly impossible to get back.
read … Can’t Stop Over-Paying
Hawaii DoE to Participate in Maine Laptop Contract?
AP: Maine has zeroed in on five different laptops and tablets as it prepares to replace more than 35,000 Apple laptops in middle schools and about the same number in high schools this fall. The state would pay between $217 and $314 annually in a four-year lease depending on which device is chosen.
Maine Learning Technology Policy Director Jeff Mao says the negotiated rates are available to other states. Vermont and Hawaii also took part in the discussions.
read … Maine?
Solar: Nine Months and Still No Inspection
SA: What is the status of the city catching up on electrical inspections for newly installed photovoltaic systems? I had mine installed last June and still no inspection….
We installed a photovoltaic system last year on my father’s house (we live with him). We were told that whoever’s name the system was under would be able to claim the tax credit — it did not have to be the homeowner. But my father’s accountant says that should we get audited, the credit may be withdrawn….
read … Kokua Line
Josh Green Calls Other Doctors Corrupt
WHT: Sen. Josh Green, an emergency room doctor at Kohala Hospital, said he has never been comfortable with drug companies buying expensive meals or rounds of golf for doctors. …
“That’s pure corruption,” Green said. “They’re buying a hired gun.”
Related: Naming Names: Big Pharma Pays $3.2M to Hawaii MDs
read … Pot, Kettle, Black
Non-Apology, Apology: Is Rep. Hanohano Really Sorry for Her Racist Rant?
HR: Michael W. Perry, a popular radio personality who co-hosts KSSK Radio’s Perry and Price Morning Show, said he didn’t see Hanohano’s one sentence statement as an apology. He received several dozen calls over the last few weeks from listeners who were offended by Hanohano’s remarks and weren’t satisfied with public statements and actions.
In explaining her actions, Hanohano called herself “an honest and straight speaking woman whom descends from long line of proud leaders and warriors from Puna of Hawaii Island.” And she pledged to “serve my people and the people of the State of Hawaii to the best of my ability, integrity and for the honor of my kupuna (elders)."
But Perry said her apology was more like a “non-apology” and he also noted that although Hanohano is the one who made the racial slurs and threats, she pledged to putt her entire office staff through training with Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
“My office has already reached out to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to assist us in obtaining additional training for all of our staff. We are committed to taking immediate steps to ensure that an incident like this never happens again," Hanohano said.
Perry joked that if he or his co-host Larry Price had said anything like she did on the air they would be working at K-Mart doing announcements for shoppers, and not on the state’s number one morning radio show. Some callers to KSSK have said they were so offended by her racist rant they want Hanohano to resign.
read … Hanohano
State prisons suspend correction officer recruitment, delay training class
HNN: State Public Safety Director Ted Sakai has suspended recruitment of new corrections officers and postponed the start of the latest recruit class to beef up testing and training of the people who work in state prisons, Hawaii News Now learned Wednesday. The situation has caused some recruits to be paid by the state without going to work.
After numerous errors by corrections officers resulted in the escape of murder suspect Teddy Munet last month, Sakai said he needed to move quickly.
"We want people who are, number one, better qualified to do this professional job as correctional officer. Number two, we're going to put them through a pretty rigorous training program," Sakai said. "Recent events have brought this whole issue into sharp focus and I felt that we simply have to make a change. We have to make the change now."
So he's suspending recruitment for up to three months, while the department creates application tests that do not exist now, for a job that does not require a high school diploma.
read … Suspended
Bills would help rein in school bus costs
SA: Since 2006, the cost of providing student transportation has nearly tripled to $72.4 million, a report by the state auditor found last year. The audit concluded the DOE had essentially lost control of its school bus program, failing to address anti-competitive behavior among contractors and allowing costs to dramatically escalate.
Senate Bill 1082 would give the DOE more flexibility in awarding, executing and managing student transportation contracts by repealing statutory rules and instead allowing the department to set its own policies….
Meanwhile, Senate Bill 1083 would exempt school bus contracts from the state's wage-certification requirements.
read … School Bus Collusion
House committee advances solar tax credit bill
AP: Committee Chairman Chris Lee amended the utility-scale tax credit section of the bill based on public feedback.
He didn't specify how much the tax credits would be, saying that's the job of the Committee on Finance.
Gov. Neil Abercrombie says existing solar tax credits are costing the state too much money and wants to decrease them.
Reps. Ty Cullen, Denny Coffman and Faye Hanohano voted with reservations for the bill.
Cullen says he can't support the bill fully without knowing its actual cost to the state.
read … Tax Credits?
Hawaii Shield Law: Journalists Struggle To Hold On To Legal Rights
CB: A housekeeping matter has turned into an exhausting effort to preserve a five-year-old law protecting journalists from being forced to reveal their sources and turn over their notes.
“The public’s right to know is at stake,” University of Hawaii journalism professor Gerald Kato told Civil Beat.
A coalition of media outlets set out in January to simply make the state’s Shield Law permanent by removing its sunset provision. But three months and a few House amendments later, the group is faced with a watered-down version of the original bill and an uncertain future in the Senate.
House Bill 622 is now in the hands of the Judiciary and Labor Committee, chaired by Sen. Clayton Hee.
read … Shield Law
Hawaii Senate Stiffens Adult Care Home Online Inspections Bill
CB: The Senate Health and Human Services committees restored key elements of a controversial House bill that had effectively gutted an effort to force adult care homes to post online the inspection reports of more than 1,600 facilities statewide serving the elderly and disabled.
Over the past three months, lawmakers mangled House Bill 120 and punched holes in the companion Senate bill, SB 358, amid a downpour of criticism from the care home industry.
Before senators got their hands on HB 120 this week, the legislation had been weakened to allow — instead of require — the DOH to post the reports online and limited those to inspections in which major patient care violations were discovered.
The Department of Health already can post the inspection reports online, but hasn't done so despite the insistence of its own ombudsman.
read ... Adult Care Homes
Hawaii House committee advances foster care bill
AP: The Hawaii House Committee on Human Services has approved a bill to create a new foster care program for young adults, extending the state's foster services to cover people up to age 21.
Testimony about the bill this week was overwhelmingly positive. Advocates say that extending foster care services decreases the risk of homelessness and substance abuse while increasing the likelihood of education and employment.
Judith Wilhoite from Family Programs Hawaii says that if the bill passes, Hawaii would be the 16th U.S. state to extend foster care to age 21.
Read … Foster Care
Hawaii House committee OKs e-cigarette youth ban
AP: The Hawaii House Committee on Health has voted to push forward a bill to stop people under the age of 18 from buying electronic cigarettes.
Hawaii currently prohibits youth from buying cigarettes. The law also requires stores to only sell tobacco products to people over the age of 18. But lawmakers want to take the ban a step further.
The bill would prohibit stores from selling electronic cigarettes to youth and expand the state's definition of tobacco products….
The Senate approved the measure last week. The bill now goes to the House committee on consumer protection.
read … E-Cigs
PGV outage triggers alarm
HTH: Two fire department crews with air monitors canvassed Pohoiki Road and Leilani Estates at about 5:15 p.m., doing air quality monitoring. A fire department spokesman said that all results weren’t in, but that readings taken at the entrance to PGV had so far found no hydrogen sulfide, a potentially deadly an irritant which is produced by volcanoes byproduct of the geothermal process.
Later in the evening, PGV Plant Manager Mike Kaleikini reported that during the (non) event, a peak reading of 19 parts per billion of hydrogen sulfide was measured at the plant. He noted that was far below the permitted hourly limit of 25 parts per billion. (And far below what Kilauea spews every day.)
“The plant tripped offline, a little bit before 4 p.m., and we do not know exactly why at this point,” he said. “We’re still investigating.”
He added that all wells were shut within about 20 minutes of the power outage, but that during that time, steam was released from the plant’s Emergency Steam Release System.
The last time the plant experienced an unscheduled venting of geothermal steam was in November 2011, Kaleikini said.
“While there is no danger to the public, some residents have reported the presence of hydrogen sulfide odor,” according to an alert issued by Hawaii County Civil Defense at 5:12 p.m. “… The Department of Parks and Recreation has opened the Pahoa Community Center for residents who prefer to remain outside the area.”
Power was briefly knocked out to Puna residents as a result, Kaleikini said. Hawaii Electric Light Co. began feeding power into the area to make up for the shutdown at PGV, which was operating on backup generators, said.
Kaleikini said the plant may begin operating again later that night.
Area resident Jeana Jones said she was driving on Pohoiki Road when she saw the steam plume, which she described as “screaming loud.” She said she knew immediately that it was coming from PGV, but wasn’t sure of the cause.
“I was absolutely concerned,” she said.
(Just for fun, Google “geothermal evacuation”. Puna is the only place on Earth where people have been con-vinced that a geothermal plant is a danger necessitating an evacuation plan. How embarrassing for them.)
read … Free-Floating Anxiety
Spaceport skepticism
WHT: Government officials have been eyeing Ka‘u for a spaceport as far back as the 1960s.
But the latest proposal — revealed by Rep. Cindy Evans, D-North Kona, Kohala, at a community meeting last week — may be a hard sell, particularly in a county where the top executive wrote the legal brief that brought down the last spaceport plan.
“I’m supportive of astronomy, the University of Hawaii, new science technology,” Mayor Billy Kenoi said Tuesday. “We’re far, far away from any approvals” to allow satellite or rocket launching here, though.
Kenoi learned of the most recent proposal when West Hawaii Today reported on it last week. No one has approached county officials with any information, he added. Evans, at the community meeting, said she couldn’t remember who had brought the idea to the state’s Office of Aerospace Development, within the Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism. A message left with the Aerospace Development office was not returned Tuesday. Evans also did not respond to a message late Tuesday.
Kenoi, in 1994 a student at the University of Hawaii’s William S. Richardson School of Law, joined in the fight against C. Brewer and Co.’s proposed satellite launching facility on 500 acres in Ka‘u. Former Gov. John Waihee, who had been a proponent of the project since C. Brewer owner J.W.A. “Doc” Buyers made the proposal in 1986, had accepted the project’s environmental impact statement in December 1993, his last month in office, Kenoi said.
“The issue was that the EIS, done by CH2M Hill, was insufficient, inadequate,” Kenoi said. It failed to consider all the potential adverse impacts.”
read … spaceport skepticism
Hawaii population up 1 percent, to 1,392,313 residents
SA: On average, Hawaii gained 39 residents per day:
>> Fifty babies were born per day, offset by 28 deaths, for a net gain of 22 natural residents.
>> Hawaii had a net gain of 25 people who moved from or to foreign countries per day, offset by a net loss of eight people moving to or from the U.S. mainland, for a net migration gain of 17 people.
Resident population by county on July 1, 2012 was 976,372 in Honolulu County, 189,191 in Hawaii County, 158,316 in Maui County and 68,434 in Kauai County.
LINK: DBEDT Population Info
read … 1%
Former Hawaii State Planned Parenthood Director: 30 days in jail
AP: Leopold resigned last month after conviction on misconduct in office charges, which included forcing members of his security detail to perform campaign work.
read… Planned Jailhood
Hui wants developer's permits to be revoked by city for good
SA: The Aina Haina Community Association wants the city to revoke — instead of temporarily suspend — permits issued to developer Jeff Stone to construct homes on land where cultural sites might have existed.
The Planning Department suspended Stone's permits on the Aina Haina project Tuesday after it received a letter from the state Department of Land and Natural Resources urging the city to halt work at the site and to require Stone to conduct an archaeological inventory.
Two single-family houses are being built at 1055 and 1057 Hao St.
The Department of Planning and Permitting met with representatives of the Historic Preservation Division and the developer Wednesday to address the suspension of the permits.
Planning Department spokesman Curtis Lum would not comment on what was discussed at the meeting. Stone could not be reached for comment.
"This is an explosive situation that should have never happened," said Wayson Chow, president of the Aina Haina Community Association.
read … Revoke
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