Hawaii Health Insurance Rates to Rise 12% to 21% Next Year
USPIRG Flunks Hawaii on Tax Credit Secrecy
Scientology: Hawaii House Resolution Honors Group Tied to 'Torture', 'Concentration Camps'
19 families to receive Hawaii Medal of Honor Today
Budget: Is Neil Abercrombie Four Times the Man Jack Burns Was?
Big Media Splash for Launch of Hawaii House Jones Act Resolutions
NRA: Background Check Bill Makes Final Committee Stop
Honolulu Tops Nation for 'Emotional Health'
Organic Spinach Recall Precedes Hawaii E-Coli Outbreak
NFIB to Lobby Against Minimum Wage Hike Today
Reason: America's Loneliest Senator: Hawaii's Lone Ranger Sam Slom
Hanabusa More Interested in Taking on Abercrombie
TH: Rep. Colleen Hanabusa (D-Hawaii) split with Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) on a key government funding vote and is highlighting her "no" vote in the state as she mulls a possible primary bid against him.
Hanabusa hasn't ruled out a bid against either Schatz or Hawaii Gov. Neil Abercrombie (D), who picked Schatz instead of her to fill the seat of former Sen. Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii) after he died.
She's expected to make a decision on the race in the coming weeks, and the vote could be a way to set her apart from Schatz, though sources say she's more interested in taking on Abercrombie. Inouye had personally requested that Hanabusa fill his seat, and shortly afterwards sources close to Hanabusa made it clear she was furious about the snub.
The vote on which Hanabusa and Schatz differed was on whether to continue government funding for the next six months at current levels, which included recent sequestration cuts. Schatz backed the bill, which the White House signed, while Hanabusa bucked many in her party and voted against it. Hawaii, with its high number of military bases, will likely feel the impact of sequestration more severely than other states.
"My opposition to the measure was simple, we kept spending at 2011 levels through the end of the fiscal year, but we failed to address sequestration. We left in place a series of indiscriminate budget cuts totaling $85 billion over the next six months," she wrote in an op-ed ….
Read … Will She or Won't She
League of Conservation Voters Endorses Schatz
CB: It’s still early. And in fact Rep. Colleen Hanabusa still hasn’t decided whether to run for Sen. Brian Schatz’s seat in next year’s special election. But the national League of Conservation Voters announced this morning it is endorsing and helping raise money for Schatz’s re-election effort.
League of Conservation Voters spokesman Jeff Gohringer acknowledged in an interview that it’s the environmental organization’s first election of the campaign cycle, and the earliest the LCV has ever given an endorsement.
He said it’s a reflection of “how confident we are in his continued leadership on climate change.”
Indeed, Schatz, who was appointed by Gov. Neil Abercrombie last year to fill the late Sen. Daniel Inouye’s seat, has made climate change and environmental issues key during his time in Congress.
However, Hanabusa has gotten high scores from the group, scoring 94 percent last year on the League of Conservation Voters scorecard of environmental votes. Over the course of her career, including her time in the House, she has scored 96 percent.
Asked if the group is risking alienating Hanabusa, Gohringer said only the endorsement is a reflection of the group’s strong support for Schatz, who is a member of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, as well as Chair of the Subcommittee on Water and Power. It was immediately unclear whether the campaign pushed for an early endorsement in the hopes of discouraging Hanabusa from running against him.
read … He Looks Like Us
“What Happens in Caucus Stays in Caucus” – Mazie Hirono Joins ‘Silent Senators’
POLITICO: There’s a new bipartisan group in the Senate. Call it the Talk To My Press Secretary Caucus.
For a growing group of Republicans and Democrats — some of them veterans, others newer to Washington — questions are not welcome from the national press who patrol the hallways of the Capitol….
These senators’ silence extends to even pet issues — like Obamacare for Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) or banking policy for Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.). When confronted with a national reporter in the Capitol hallways, these normally voluble senators suddenly clam up.
The silent treatment is a stark departure from past practices when reporters and senators enjoyed more personal relationships and extended conversations…..
Among the silent senators are Republicans Cruz and David Vitter (La.) and Democrats Warren, Heidi Heitkamp (N.D.), Tammy Baldwin (Wis.), Mazie Hirono (Hawaii), and Al Franken (Minn.).
Part of this strategy has to do with a new climate on the Hill. In the last decade the number of Hill reporters has only increased, fueled by the growing number of blogs and websites, even as many newspapers have shuttered or down-sized their Washington bureaus….
Part of the nervousness about talking to the press can come from knowing closed-door meetings are supposed to remain confidential, said Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.).
“It’s like they what they say about Las Vegas, what happens in Vegas stays there and the same is supposed to be true of our caucuses. Otherwise people won’t feel free to say what’s on their hearts and minds,” he said….
Read … The Silent Senators
HR169: Cabanilla, Souki Retaliate on Arts Commission for Ratting Out Hanohano
Shapiro: …Since (the incident) Hanohano renewed her request that the SFCA remove its art from her office, and it was taken down last week. State Rep. Rida Cabanilla also had art removed from her office, apparently in solidarity with Hanohano.
House Communications Director Carolyn Tanaka said the art was removed because "Reps. Hanohano and Cabanilla wanted to have their own personal art pieces and photographs displayed in their offices."
Also since the apology, House Speaker Joe Souki introduced House Resolution 169, pressing the SFCA to dedicate a set proportion of its budget for works by Native Hawaiian artists.
Souki denied any reprisal, saying, "I have strongly and publicly reprimanded Rep. Hanohano for her offensive language and behavior, and have made it clear that I will not tolerate similar outbursts by any member of the House of Representatives."
He added, "The incident also brought to my attention that we should expand our efforts to showcase the artwork of Native Hawaiian artists. I introduced HR 169 as a means to have that discussion."
So, in effect, Souki rewarded behavior he called offensive and unacceptable by championing the grievance Hanohano so crudely voiced.
Laird Smith said the SFCA doesn't view HR 169 as reprisal, but doesn't think it's needed because the agency's strategic plan since 2009 has made a major goal of boosting Native Hawaiian art.
Funding has been committed to commissioning and displaying more Native Hawaiian art and supporting Hawaiian dance, music, drama and art education, she said.
HR 169 was referred to Hanohano's Hawaiian Affairs Committee, state Rep. K. Mark Takai's Culture and the Arts Committee, and the Finance Committee, but none has yet scheduled hearings….
read … Resolution might codify Hanohano's racist message
Defending Molester Lobby, Clayton Hee Screams ‘Racism’
SA: Slom cited kumu hula Chinky Mahoe as the only example of his "cultural" condemnation. (Sensing opportunity) We (are pretending to) wonder if Slom's statement is aimed at kumu hula specifically or the Hawaiian culture generally. (Because we think that screaming racism is a great diversion.)
Best Comment: "’Why did Slom point his finger only at part-Hawaiian kumu hula Mahoe?’ My guess is because he was guilty of sexually molesting young boys entrusted to him, and when caught dead to rights didn't even get a slap on the wrist.”
SB 1998: No jail, no apology upsets parents of Mahoe victims
A Legislative Culture which coddles Molesters: Child molester back at work at Hawaii Legislature
read … Anti-Racism: The Last Refuge of a Scoundrel
HRC, Lambda Were Legal Against Gay Marriage in 1990s Hawaii
GM: In Hawaii, after we came so close in the early 90's, there was a reaction - not helped by the fact HRC and Lambda Legal had opposed the efforts early on. In 1998 we ended up with a Hawaii constitutional amendment that allowed the legislature to define marriage - it didn't preclude the fact the legislature could allow full equality….
Hawaii seems to be ready to accept full marriage equality now – but we still have many legislators afraid to take a stand, putting off making any decision until the Supreme Court makes their decision – figuring they won't have to take the political risk here of a decision.
Bill and I were on and even officers on the Neighborhood Board for our valley – I've been on the State Central Committee for the Hawaii Democratic Party and co-chair for the state convention – and have seen the party go from a hesitancy in 2001 to allow us to form the GLBT Caucus to a full level of support, including a strong plank in the state party platform for full marriage equality.
Also Against Gay Marriage: Beyond Marriage The Confession: Hawaii Gay marriage advocates let the polyamorous cat out of the bag
read … Against Gay Marriage
Slom: HSTA Wins, Taxpayers Lose
SBN: The contract settlement reached between the Governor and HSTA teachers union on Sunday, is a win-win for the union and a lose-lose for taxpayers. The 4-year pact calls for $100 million in new raises for the union through 2017 (four years), PLUS a 60%-40% medical premium split, PLUS, $1,500 bonuses for the highest paid teachers, PLUS a 5% retroactive pay boost because of the 5% previously cut for all (except UPW) workers. But wait, there's more: next comes demands from the HGEA and UPW unions. The Legislature spends most of its time-and your money-paying off the unions who return the favor with votes and campaign workers. And since the Salary Commission just granted lawmakers (and the Executive and the Judiciary) plump raises of their own, who will complain? Ugly system.
read … Sen Sam Slom
Disney, Abercrombie, Caldwell Team up with media for Film Tax Credit Agit-Prop Show
ILind: …check out the “news” coverage at Hawaii News Now story and KITV, both following the script by highlighting the economic benefits to the state….
It seems Disney’s approach is to dazzle the locals with lots of shiny things and free food. Unfortunately, it seems to have worked.
Attention was successfully focused on the economic “benefits.”
Gov. Abercrombie: “The expectation is there will be tens of millions of dollars of economical benefit to the state as well.”
Mayor Caldwell bubbled enthusiastically about the millions the production will supposedly bring into the local economy, “helping us crawl out of this recession.”
Caldwell put the figure at $30 million “with the multiplier.”
KITV anchors giggled with glee over all the money to be “pumped into our economy.”
CB: Hakuna Matata: Hawaii Redux
read … Unbiased Media at Work
Star-Adv: UH efficiency study a good sign
SA Editorial: Such improvement is clearly the aim underscored in "Cost of Education and Proposed Metrics," a study recently released (Really? Try to find a copy on line.) by the UH administration. However, the initial findings — including the fact that the UH-Manoa flagship has a student-faculty ratio that's lower than other universities in its peer group — must be plumbed further to discover what changes need to be made in campus operations.
And digging deeper is the intention of Linda Johnsrud, UH provost and executive vice president for academic affairs. State officials and the general public should support the university in this effort, with the expectation that the administration and Board of Regents will implement the fixes identified in further study.
Here are a few of the numbers unearthed so far:
» The ratio of full-time students to full-time faculty at Manoa stands at 11.9 students per teacher, well below the 17.5-to-1 average of the peer institutions. UHM peers were listed as state universities in Colorado, Mississippi and Oregon, and the universities of Kentucky, South Florida, Utah, Illinois (Chicago campus) and New Mexico (Albuquerque campus).
» The percentage of undergraduate classes with low enrollment (fewer than 10 students) was especially high at Manoa, at 19.1 percent, and it has remained roughly at that level for the eight years studied.
» Graduation rates "within 150 percent of normal time" — six years for a four-year degree program — have been relatively steady at all the campuses but still below national averages of 57.4 percent. At Manoa, 54.8 percent of students graduate within six years.
Changing these metrics has long been a goal at UH, where there is an initiative to increase graduation rates overall by 25 percent, by 2015.
read … Metrics
Lawmakers Say School Bus Fiasco Finally Shaping Up
CB: Two bills that would give the DOE more control and flexibility over school bus contracts — Senate Bills 1082 and 1083 — are sailing through the Legislature. Meantime, the department is currently testing out a new school bus contracting system on the Big Island, a pilot that lawmakers say seems to be working well.
But Senate Education Chair Jill Tokuda says time will tell whether the department can successfully roll that pilot out to all islands.
“The real work lies ahead in terms of how you really take it to scale,” she said. “It’s that multi-million dollar question of how do you make the changes system-wide.”
read … Fiasco
SB1340: Extend care for foster children up to age 21
SA: The state House and Senate are considering legislation that would allow youth to voluntarily remain in care to the age of 21. Senate Bill 1340 represents an investment to minimize the homelessness, premature parenthood, poor educational outcomes and criminal justice involvement that we know this population experiences without support.
It makes economic sense for Hawaii to support these young people as they transition to adulthood. If we are able to help just one year's worth of young people "aging out" achieve the same results as their peers in the areas of employment, health, education and avoiding criminal behavior, Hawaii would save an estimated $29.5 million.
read … Extend care for foster children up to age 21
Hawaii Co Councilman Cancels Shady $1000/plate Fundraiser
WHT: After West Hawaii Today questioned him about it Monday, Puna Councilman Zendo Kern said he is canceling a $500- to $1,000-per-person fundraiser planned for today in Kailua-Kona.
Kern, just three months into his first elective office, on Thursday filed a “notice of intent to hold a fundraiser” with the state Campaign Spending Commission, as required by law. The notice said he would hold a fundraiser from 5 to 8 p.m. at a “home in Kailua-Kona (exact address being finalized).” The office sought, the form said, is his current County Council District 5, which is about 100 miles from Kailua-Kona.
In a telephone interview Monday afternoon, Kern said he planned to cancel the fundraiser because his busy council schedule doesn’t leave him enough time.
He said he’d made the decision over the weekend, but he hadn’t canceled it before his phone interview shortly before 5 p.m. Monday.
The council is meeting in Kona today and Thursday for its regular committee and council sessions.
Asked if holding a fundraiser so early, for so much, so far from his district signaled an intent to run for mayor or other higher office, Kern did not answer directly….
Kern said he filed the notice after a group of friends said they’d like to hold a fundraiser for him.
He declined to identify them, and said he’d left the address off the state form because he wasn’t sure at whose house the fundraiser was to have been held.
Gary Kam, general counsel for the Campaign Spending Commission, said an address or name of a business location, such as a restaurant or hotel, is a required part of the form.
“That line is to tell us the location of the fundraiser,” Kam said. “The town is not good enough.”….
Kern’s campaign war chest for the 2012 election was on the high end of the range for winning County Council candidates in contested races, which ran from about $15,000 to about $50,000 in campaigns that also included some publicly funded candidates.
Kern collected $40,366 during his campaign, of which $37,502 came from donors giving more than $100, according to reports filed with the Campaign Spending Commission.
read … Intent to Hold
Time To Ban Campaign Donations During Session?
ILind: Civil Beat reports scheduled fundraisers under the subtle but critical heading, “Cash Call,” and has noted the potential conflict between the public interest and contributors’ narrow interests when campaign contributions are solicited and accepted while legislation is pending.
Blogger Larry Geller at disappearednews.com has been less circumspect, calling out the practice as essentially corrupt, creating at least the appearance of quid pro quo, pay-to-play corruption, and accusing legislators of checking their ethics at the door when holding session fundraisers.
Nearly one-third of Hawaii legislators have already held or announced plans for fundraisers costing more than $25 per person to attend, according to notices required to be filed with the Campaign Spending Commission, and there’s still more than a month to go before the session ends. Suggested contributions range from $50 up to $500 or $1,000 per person.
During the 2012 session, legislators raised nearly $800,000, according to data compiled by the Hawaii Campaign Spending Commission. Then-Speaker Calvin Say led the list with $116,429 in session contributions, followed by five senators who each raised more than $35,000 between mid-January and early May (Michelle Kidani, Donna Mercado Kim, Donovan Dela Cruz, Clayton Hee, and Josh Green). In all, 22 legislators brought in more than $10,000 during the 2012 session.
read … Ban?
Twice-fired TSA manager gets his job back AGAIN after judge rules he was unfairly sacked in Hawaii baggage-checking scandal
HNN: A Transportation Security Administration manager fired from Honolulu International Airport has been reinstated, the fourth TSA manager to win a settlement or successfully challenge his firing after a baggage-checking scandal that resulted in the termination of 36 TSA employees.
"I was charged with being negligent and careless and the judge found that I was neither," said Raymond Ware, who was let go along with 35 other TSA employees in 2011 after an investigation revealed that for several months, some officers failed to hand-screen checked baggage for explosives at Honolulu International Airport.
As a manager, Ware was in charge of nine separate areas on two levels of HNL's international terminal, including the lobby where the improper screening happened.
He said he never saw any of his subordinates failing to screen checked bags for explosives. …
TSA screeners said in 2011, because HNL's lobby 4 lacked the proper screening equipment for explosives, TSA workers had to ferry checked luggage more than 500 feet way – in heavy passenger traffic – to screen them for explosives. They were supposed to hand-check bags that did not go through screening equipment, something some workers failed to do, resulting in the investigation and firings.
But screeners described an almost-impossible task during high-traffic check-in periods at the airport, with luggage piling up and pressure to allow planes to depart on time.
Screeners said that lobby contained many international departures on which passengers carried large amounts of checked bas since they tended to travel for longer trips overseas. The lobby houses international airlines including Philippine Air, Korean Air, Qantas, Air Canada, China Airlines and Air New Zealand.
read … Third Time's the Charm
‘Naturopathic’ Midwife Sued for Malpractice
HNN: The suit names local naturopath Lori Kimata, who heads a company called Sacred Healing Arts Center LLC. It alleges that Kimata failed to show up at Drake's home until two days after her contractions began.
The suit also claims that Kimata was unaware that the baby was in respiratory distress because she failed to use a fetal heart monitor.
"When you deliver a baby, the supervisor doctor or naturopath cannot be 80 percent right or 90 percent right, they need to be 100 percent correct," said Richard Turbin, the Drake's attorney….
According to Turbin, Kimata told his client that she handled about 600 natural child births in Hawaii. She also said she was a licensed midwife, even though no such license exists in Hawaii, Turbin said….
(More like a priestess of the eco-religion than a MD, eh?)
read … Suit alleges midwife malpractice
Claim: Pot Hole Does $2000 Damage to Car
HNN: "The police indicated that I would be able to personally file a claim against the City and County and the fact they already knew about this pothole meant that they weren't acting appropriately to take care of the problem," said Price.
She contacted Geico, her insurance company, which told her it would be filing a claim with the City. The tire and rim damage is estimated around $2,000, not to mention the frustration of not having a car.
"The kids and I are bussing it and we're just trying to look at it as an adventure. The difficult thing is that my daughter has medical tests at the hospital so we've had to go back and forth on the bus to take care of those things," said Price, who has seven children including four biological children and three adopted children.
Drivers can fill out a pothole damage claim. The City of Honolulu says in 2012 there were 59 people who filed claims. Of them 17 were settled with $5,542 paid. That's an average of $326 average per claim.
SA: 27% of roads in Council District 2 are 'poor' or worse
read … Pot Hole Claims
Kuhio Day: How The Royal Hawaiian Band Ended Up in the County of Honolulu
HR: The people around Governor Dole, the new masters of Hawai’i, who had mutated from the ‘Ao’ao Ho’oma’ema’e, the Reform Party, into the Republican Party, were keenly aware of their small numbers and thus looked for a prominent personage as a candidate for this post.
Kūhiō on his part knew that the game of cards was stacked against the Hawaiians, in spite of the fact that they held a majority of the vote. Delegate to Congress was the highest elective office and while its possibilities were limited since the delegate had no voting power, it was at least something. Kūhiō thus met with his brother, Prince David Kawānanakoa, and their reasoning ran approximately like this: The governorship is in the hands of our opponents, the Calvinist annexationists who overthrew our Queen.
The governor, none other than Sanford B. Dole, who had officially headed the Overthrow, was appointed by President William McKinley. The Legislature, dominated by Hawaiians, is constantly stymied by the governor’s veto power. We are the ranking ali'i, and if we run for different parties, they will elect one of us.
The Homerule Party is little known in Washington, D.C., and a delegate from such an obscure entity could not achieve very much. We thus have to become candidates for the mainstream parties, i.e. the Democrats and the Republicans.
Kawānanakoa accordingly ran for the first and Kūhiō for the latter. Since Kūhiō won the race, the Republican Party now became a double-headed creature, with one wing represented by annexationists and the other by Hawaiian royalists. The Democrats on the other hand, would gain power only in 1954, primarily on the basis of a coalition between John Burns and the veterans of the 442nd Regimental Combat Group.
How now does the Royal Hawaiian Band fit into these complexities? Kūhiō, while working together with the new establishment on the surface at least, did everything in his power to perpetuate important aspects of the monarchy. In 1903, at midnight and at the statue of the founder king, he reactivated the Royal Order of Kamehameha, founded by Kamehameha V in 1865, and forbidden as a seditious organization by the Republic of Hawaiʻi. And 15 years later, in 1918, he created the Honolulu Hawaiian Civic Club as an organization for the maka’ainana, the Hawaiian people.
Most importantly, he helped establish the City and County of Honolulu as a counterforce to the Territory dominated by his old opponents. The idea was simple. The position of the governor was not elective, but a mayor, the head of a county, would have to be elected by the people, and the people were dominated by Hawaiians. Sure enough, the first two mayors, Joseph J. Fern (1909-1915, 1917-1920) and John C. Lane (1915-1917), were Hawaiian royalists. And Mayor John H. Wilson (1920-1927, and serving two additional terms later) was the son of Lili’uokalani’s marshal, i.e. chief of police. And this is how the Royal Hawaiian Band, abandoned by the Territory, was saved, and thus became a municipal band. Municipal it was officially, but in reality it continued the traditions of the monarchy, and essentially has been doing so until today.
read … Royal Hawaiian Band
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