School Land Pillaged By Legislature – SB 237 and HB 865
Community leaders praise new Grassroot Institute head Keli‘i Akina
Stimulus Japan Style: Cost of Hawaii Vacation Jumps 3% Today
To Encourage Hanabusa to Run Against Abercrombie, Trade Unions Endorse Schatz
Draining the General Fund: Solar Permits up 49%
Honolulu: 2nd Worst Traffic in USA
Public safety Dep’t: 85 Escapes in Five Years
KITV: OCCC was built with capacity of 600 inmates, but it averages 1,200 -- double what it should be.
And because some inmates have to be isolated, there are times when there are three to a cell….
Sakai said in the last five years there have been 11 escapes -- seven were from secured facilities with two from Hilo and two from Maui.
There were ten from Waiawa, which is a medium security facility and there were 64 walkways from work release or furlough programs.
SA: State will install cameras and change procedures following highly public errors
read … Public Safety?
$24B Senate budget vote sets up talks between state Senate, House
AP: The Senate unanimously approved a plan that would finance state operations with $11.9 billion in fiscal 2013-14 and $12.1 billion in 2014-2015. The House version of the budget is less generous at $23.3 billion.
Sen. Sam Slom, the lone Republican in the Senate, voted for the budget with reservations and presented an alternative budget that he says would put the state on better financial footing.
Sen. David Ige said his proposal is more conservative than what Gov. Neil Abercrombie wanted because the executive budget exceeded revenue projections from the Council on Revenues.
Ige told Senate President Donna Mercado Kim in a report that the Senate proposal allots about $136 million less in general funds over both fiscal years than what Abercrombie requested. The senator said the budget still provides resources for education and other priorities, including environmental protection, social programs and upgrading technology infrastructure.
The budget includes $78 million in each year to restore 5 percent pay cuts for state workers.
The main difference between the Senate and House versions of the budget is that the House version cut funding for some 900 vacant state jobs, assuring that they wouldn't be filled.
SA: None of the proposals account for the tentative agreement reached last month between the state and the Hawaii State Teachers Association
read … OK on budget sets up talks between state Senate, House
Schatz: All I Can do is Complete Projects Inouye Started
HTH: U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, said Thursday during a tour of Hilo that he and Sen. Mazie Hirono are working well together to fill the void left after the death of longtime Sen. Daniel Inouye. But, some belt-tightening is likely to be on the menu going forward, he warned.
The Saddle highway and other projects funded through Inouye’s efforts will remain priorities, he emphasized.
However, despite what he called solid support from fellow legislators — including Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., whom he said has acted as “a real friend” and taken Schatz under his wing — Hawaii is likely to see fewer federal dollars coming its way….
read … No New Pork
Don't change journalists' shield law
SA: First, HB 622, HD1, SD1 removes protections for just about any unpublished information a journalist gathers. Anyone who wants to file a civil suit can demand a journalist's work product for discovery purposes. A prosecutor investigating virtually any alleged crime can subpoena just about anything a journalist collects in reporting a story. The chilling effect is obvious: An investigative journalist could no longer guarantee confidentiality of sources, or even gather material for a sensitive story, without assuming that some or all of it could be confiscated by the government or a private party. In effect, the journalist could be forced into becoming an arm of the law — an obvious restraint of the independence of the press.
But that's not all. The amendments also would eliminate protections for journalists who don't work for traditional media such as newspapers, television or wire services.
It should be obvious to any consumer of news that the media landscape is rapidly changing. Much of the work by legitimate journalists is produced on "non-traditional" Internet platforms, including Politico, Pro-Publica, Slate, and here at home, Civil Beat and Hawaii Reporter. Independent journalists and documentary filmmakers, using standard journalistic practices, also produce important work in the public interest.
In fact, the one — and only — time Act 210 was invoked in court was on behalf of a Native Hawaiian documentary filmmaker, Keoni Alvarez. A court found that the law protected Alvarez's unpublished materials from a subpoena by a Kauai landowner, who wanted to use the materials in a lawsuit against protesters objecting to the construction of his house on land containing Native Hawaiian iwi. If Hee had his way, Alvarez would have been defenseless and his sources exposed.
Act 210 doesn't give the media a free ride. There are exceptions that apply to felonies and civil suits involving defamation. The act restricts the scope of the protection by providing a sensible way to establish if the individual seeking protection is a legitimate journalist. It does not apply to random bloggers or opportunists trying to avoid a subpoena. Not a single negative impact from the act has been documented in the five years it has been in effect.
And unlike Hee's amended version, Act 210 was not created hastily and out of public view. The act was the product of long negotiations among key stakeholders, including the media, experts in media law, the attorney general under the Lingle administration and the state Judiciary. The Supreme Court's Standing Committee on Evidence carefully reviewed the act — and in December 2011 recommended that the act, as written, be codified under Chapter 621. Industry experts consider Act 210 to be one of the best and most progressive in the country.
read … Shield Law
News Clayton Hee Wishes He Could Use
CB: Sen. Clayton He’e says online journalists will be protected from being forced to reveal their sources — but only if their publications meet the definition of a magazine….
He said House Bill 622, which seeks to make permanent the 5-year-old shield law that’s set to expire in June, would still protect reporters who work for Internet-only publications even after the amendments his Judiciary and Labor Committee approved Wednesday.
Civil Beat, for instance, would be protected under the definition of a “magazine,” He’e said.
The legislation defines the term as “a publication containing news which is published and distributed ordinarily not less frequently than four times a year, either through print or digital means, and has done so for at least one year with a paid circulation.”
(HFP has had four years of paid subscription circulation. We thus elude the slimy grasp of Clayton’s scrawny tentacles. Hee really should stick to the subjects he knows, like gambling, fake Indian tribes, fast bed changes, and transsexual horses.)
read … Clayton tries to exempt Pierre’s Greenwash Op
Hee Retaliates for Financial Disclosures
DN: Could this action be payback for bloggers’ attention to Sen. Hee’s filing of incomplete financial disclosure forms over a period of years?
It was blogger Ian Lind who uncovered and publicized the omissions in his article, Politically powerful state senator files false ethics reports (ilind.net, 3/21/2011). (Though he blogs, Ian is clearly a professional journalist.)
This blog picked up the story and I subsequently filed a complaint with the State Ethics Commission and later with the Senate President under Senate Rule 72. (See also Article XIV of the Hawaii State Constitution.)
The Ethics Commission declined to take any action against the “politically powerful state senator.” See Ian’s article and important attached comments at Senator Hee escapes ethics penalties despite commission concerns (ilind.net, 10/22/2011). Similarly, the Senate President declined to exercise the rule.
read … Payback?
Sometimes the Legislature has to be saved from itself
Borreca: Last year's election shows that while voters weren't of a mind to punish the creators of the PLDC, they were more likely to reward politicians who argued for tossing out the idea….
In the Legislature's 1975 closing late-night moves, lawmakers voted themselves a 150 percent pension increase.
As then-Star-Bulletin political reporter Doug Boswell noted: "The pension proposal had never received a public hearing and had never been considered by any of the standing committees in either house."
A furious public descended on then-Gov. George Ariyoshi's office demanding a veto. Within six days, Ariyoshi acted to save the Legislature from itself….
Perhaps the biggest legislative mistake also involving the sitting governor was back in 1969, when the Legislature again had one of its "midnight at the sausage factory" moments and slipped in something extra.
The something special was a resolution hurriedly passed as midnight approached. The resolution would have allowed the Dillingham Corp., thanks to a non-bid developer's law, the right to build a wall of condominiums on the reclaimed peninsula now called Magic Island.
Although then-Gov. John A. Burns, the politically powerful ILWU and the Republican-influenced Dillingham Corp. all had lobbied for it, the public again rose up in protest….
Burns recovered and went on to win reelection, but legislators were to learn the first of many lessons that when the public finds its voice, it can speak with great power.
read … Sometimes the Legislature has to be saved from itself
Ritte: Shaking Down Whoever is Largest Employer on Molokai
SA: QUESTION: Why are you so concerned about the GMO issue? What's the problem with that?
ANSWER: Well, the problem here on Molokai is that all of our lands that are supposedly producing food are producing seeds, and it's exporting all the seeds.
Q: They're growing the seeds on Molokai?
A: The largest employer on this island is Monsanto. That's why we're so involved. We've been watching them farm for the last seven years now.
(Translation: I destroyed Molokai’s former ‘largest employer’, Molokai Ranch and now I’m trying to destroy the NEW ‘largest employer. If they don’t pay me off.)
Q: What about the windfarm issue on Molokai?
A: The windfarm issue I stayed out of that one. It was all bogus. We knew that wasn't going to happen. (Translation: I wanted my buddies at First Wind to come back in. They offered $50M and I was going to get a cut.)
Q: You think right now that it's not going to happen?
A: Well, what they want is something huge from us. What they're willing to give us is nothing. You can't come here and take one-third of our island and the people of Molokai get nothing -- with all the negative impacts we would have to live with. And we're not quite sure if we'd be helping Oahu or just feeding a bad habit.
Q: Weren't they promising lower electrical rates or something?
A: No, they was promising us nothing. Absolutely nothing.
Q: So that's not really been a concern for you?
A: No, there's other things. GMOs are in our yard, turning us into a dust bowl and killing our ice box (the shoreline). That's at the top of my list.
Reality: Molokai Ranch: Protesters to Cash in with Takeover Plan
read … Two Shakedown Operations
Solar Scammers Release Yet Another Self-Serving Poll
CB: As the debate over the fate of Hawaii’s solar tax credits drags on in the Legislature, Blue Planet Foundation has released a new survey that says consumer adoption of solar has been boosted by solar tax incentives. The study, conducted by Q-Mark Research, shows the following, according to a Blue Planet Foundation press release….
read … Self-Serving
Abercrombie Warns Against Verbal Bombast, Offers to Host Kim Jong Un
ALF: Excerpts from my interview this afternoon with Hawaii Gov. Neil Abercrombie, who says “of course” he’d be game to host North Korea’s Kim Jong Un and U.S. officials for diplomacy talks in Hawaii.
“Hawaii sees itself as the anchor of the Asia-Pacific region. To the degree we can exemplify our facilities, to the degree we can offer what Hawaii has to offer the world — our aloha spirit, our sense that diversity should define us and not divide us — even a meeting place that would enable us to try to work through this in a peaceful way.”…
“There may be political intrigue. There may be internal forces — economic social and personal — that we’re not necessarily privy to. That has to make one very cautious in terms of what kind of reaction you’re going to have to the surface realities that appear to be out there.”
“So the fact that somebody says via a spokesperson for the government of North Korea is issuing bombastic statements and threats, accusations, even what would otherwise seem to be declarations of war… you have to be very cautious about that, cautious in this sense that you don’t want to give too much credence to verbal bombast.”
(Yes. Neil Abercrombie is warning against verbal bombast. Wow. Just … wow.)
read … Bombast
Hawaii Medical Care Endless Hold Times
MN: On Tuesday, a new Medicare participant was informed by a hospital there was a problem with coordinating benefits between his private insurance policy and Medicare. There was an 800 number in the hospital's letter to contact Medicare's coordination of benefits division.
The new participant called the 800 number and was advised to wait on the line for the next available agent. A robotic voice advised him the estimated waiting time for his call to be answered was between and hour and two minutes to an hour and 16 minutes.
The participant hung up, deciding to call back later - hoping for a shorter waiting period.
He called back a couple of hours later and was advised the waiting time was something over an hour and nine minutes. He again hung up.
He called once more a little after 3 p.m. HST, and was advised the office was closed. It was open 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., Eastern time, obviously….
So, the question becomes: Are hourlong on-hold waits about to become the new normal in resolving billing difficulties? Are other parts of the health care system about to be put on hold - waiting for the next available agent?
read … New Normal
Mental Homeless Person Released After Allegedly Assaulting TSA Officer
HNN: Security video showed TSA officer Deanna Rezentes guarding the passenger exit to make sure no one entered the secured area March 30 just before 1 p.m.
That's when the TSA said a homeless woman knocked down a sign and then began attacking and punching the TSA officer who confronted her.
Rezentes held onto the homeless woman, stopping her from entering the secured area on the way to airline gates.
Justin Rogers, an off-duty policeman from Pinole, Calif., leaped over a glass barrier and subdued the attacker, after seeing no other security personnel were coming to help. He was still wearing socks because he'd taken off his shoes in the screening line.
Rogers is a corporal with the police department in the city of Pinole. He was waiting in line with his family at the checkpoint before boarding a flight home to the San Francisco bay area from a Hawaii vacation, according to a news release from the Pinole Police Department.
On Sunday morning, Stanford Miyamoto, TSA's Federal Security Director in Honolulu, sent an email to TSA employees saying that Rezentes was "doing fine, but a little swollen and sore on the left side of her face."
State sheriff deputies arrested and booked Wailana Haiola, 43, who's homeless, with assault. She was taken to Castle Medical Center in Kailua, which has a mental unit and released on her own recognizance…. (Now you know exactly why we have a homelessness problem.)
People who work at the airport say between five and 15 homeless people sleep there every night ….
KHON: Woman who attacked TSA officer caused problems before
read … Great for Tourism, oh yeah!
Public again left to guess about arbitrators’ decisions
ILind: Hawaii’s public sector nurses, represented by the HGEA, were awarded an 8% pay raise via an arbitrators’ ruling this week after a long delay and bitter negotiations….
So how was it reported?
Leila Fujimori’s story in the Star-Advertiser on Wednesday was the best of the lot so far. Fujimori provides more background on the negotiations than other reports, and identifies one of the three arbitrators, the so-called “neutral” arbitrator….
But while the story quotes both sides talking about the arbitration award, we get nothing from the arbitrator’s decision itself. No information about the arbitrators’ findings, their decisions on issues that formed the basis for their decision on wage increases. It’s that discussion and the conclusions drawn by arbitrators that explain the ultimate award.
read … Public again left to guess about arbitrators’ decisions
Soda Tax Rhetoric: Sugar More Harmful than Marijuana?
SA: Sugar is demonstrably more harmful than cannabis, which is classified by the FDA in the same category as heroin while nicotine and alcohol are known to be both addictive and harmful but are taxed, regulated and sold over the counter.
Reality: Without sugars, all life on Earth would cease instantly. Ditto for CO2. No wonder they want to tax them.
read … Hyperventilating
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