North Korea tells Russian Diplomats to get out — sets April 10 deadline
Lessen Dependence on Government: Key to Strong Democracy
SB893, the Marvin Dang Bill: Mollway Demands Kondo’s Head
GAO: Wind Farms Double Dipping on Federal Cash Giveaways
Hirono: Families Central to Immigrants’ Success
Book Review: A Hawaii Middle School Counselor’s Diary of a Working Day
Dr. Dennis Gonsalves Day Honors Developer of Hawaii’s GM Papaya
Oxycontin Overbilling: FBI Investigating Hawaii Drug Repackagers Which Contributed to Clayton Hee, Josh Green, Karl Rhoads
SA: The repackagers' invoices have sparked allegations of price gouging and resulted in hundreds of disputes filed with the state Department of Labor and Industrial Relations over the past year.
Repackagers have denied any wrongdoing.
Agents with the FBI and the National Insurance Crime Bureau, which investigates fraud on behalf of its member companies, have met with insurers and others in recent months, according to several people familiar with the inquiry who did not want to be identified because of the sensitivity of the case.
"Right now, I'm just gathering information," confirmed Jon Dela Vega, a special agent with the insurance bureau.
He said he was getting data from member companies about the pricing practices of repackagers. Dela Vega referred questions about the FBI's role to that agency.
FBI spokesman Tom Simon, citing standard policy, said he could neither confirm nor deny the existence of an investigation.
One person familiar with the investigation said the insurance bureau initially was gathering data about prescription patterns involving physicians who were dispensing controlled substances, such as Oxycodone, directly to patients.
But more recently, the focus has broadened to include overall pricing practices, and the FBI has entered the picture, according those knowledgeable about the investigation.
One case that received investigators' attention involved an injured public employee who had incurred $353 in prescription drug bills over four years, according to Kris Kadzielawa, director of operations for Solera Integrated Medical Solutions, a company that assists clients in reviewing workers' compensation and auto injury claims. The injured worker also had about $11,000 in treatment costs for office visits, massage therapy, physical therapy and epidural injections during that period, Kadzielawa said.
When the worker switched to a physician who dispensed medications, the prescription drug tab — ultimately borne by taxpayers — swelled over the next 18 months to $115,165, he added. The treatment tab during that period totaled about $3,800.
Kadzielawa said physicians who deal with Prescription Partners, the company involved with the vast majority of disputes pending at the labor agency, generally are paid 70 percent of the billable amounts — a huge financial incentive to switch to self-dispensing.
As Explained: Oxycontin Contributions: Clayton Hee, Josh Green, Karl Rhoads and HB466
read … Oxycontin
In Inouye's absence, state loses big federal projects
Borreca: Two big federal projects for Hawaii were on Inouye's radar screen when he died in December. Since his passing, both have been canceled.
On the Big Island, Inouye was working on a $46 million second runway at Kona International Airport. A former staffer, who asked not to be identified, said Inouye was jockeying to get both the military and federal funding for most of the 3,500-foot auxiliary runway needed for Air Force C-17s training and then enlarge it to serve as a second commercial runway for the Kona airport.
But, the Air Force decided that even the new runway was "cost prohibitive" and the Air Force is not now considering paying for any new training runways in Hawaii, Senior Master Sgt. Mike Hammond, with Pacific Air Force Public Affairs at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, told West Hawaii Today in an interview last week.
"We were getting really close with the runway. If the specs couldn't be altered we told the Air Force to just do it," the Inouye senior staff member said.
At the same time a $7.5 million special government lab to test infectious agents and viruses was scrapped…. the Army changed the deal from a dollar-a-year lease to $220,000 a year and UH decided it could no longer afford the lab known as the Pacific Health Research Laboratory.
The decision was costly because already $1.7 million had been spent preparing the site, although most of the funds had come from the federal government.
"The senator was not prepared to give up on it," the former aide said…. (But the fab four are… Check out their excuses.)
- U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard's spokesperson said she was awaiting more information on federal budget cuts. Rep. Colleen Hanabusa said Hawaii's evolving strategy must recognize the federal government's new interest in Asia and the Pacific.
- "It is a matter of us pulling together and giving recognition that Hawaii is America's most western state and also home of the Pacific Command — certainly that is more significant with the threats from North Korea," Hanabusa said.
- Sen. Brian Schatz, who was appointed to take Inouye's place by Gov. Neil Abercrombie, said a "tough budget climate" meant that not all projects will come to Hawaii.
- Sen. Mazie Hirono, who has picked up several of Inouye's staffers, said he had warned the delegation that "cuts were coming and that Hawaii would not be immune."
read … In Inouye's absence, state loses big federal projects
Star-Adv: The Only People Who Are Against Abercrombie/KSBE Preschool Scheme Are Religious Fundamentalists
SA: Most agree on the benefits of preschool, (except for the US Dep’t of HHS, but who cares what they think) but opinions differ on how — and how much — state money will be channeled into initiatives…
"I think preschool children are best nurtured in the home environment," said Mather, who is part of a Christian homeschooling association. "The Lord gave the children to the parents, and the parents are the best to help the children develop."
On the other side of the debate is a broad coalition in the community KSBE that favors at least a significant expansion of access to preschool. For starters, the state must figure out what to do with the next cohort of children just shy of the right age to begin kindergarten next school year (commonly described as the "late-borns"), now that the junior kindergarten program has been dismantled…. (Create a problem in order to solve it.)
LEGISLATORS MULL EARLY-EDUCATION BILLS
- >> Senate Bill 1093, SD2, HD1: Would establish a school readiness program for 4-year-olds no longer eligible for junior kindergarten in the 2014-2015 school year
- >> Senate Bill 1095, SD2, HD1: Would establish an early childhood education program to move the state toward universal preschool
- >> Senate Bill 1084, SD1, HD1: Asks voters whether to amend the state Constitution and allow public money to be spent on private preschool
Private Preschools Self-Interested Opinion: Early education needs more public funding
Reality: Abercrombie 'School Readiness' Plan Based on Proven Failure
read … All Rational People Agree With Abercrombie LOL!
Hawaii lawmakers prepare for marathon of voting
AP: Hawaii lawmakers are gearing up for a marathon of voting this week as they figure out which of the session's remaining initiatives merit further debate.
Thursday is the deadline for House lawmakers to decide whether they disagree with the Senate's amendments to bills, and vice versa.
If they don't agree, lawmakers can send the bills conference committees. That's when lawmakers from both chambers form groups to work out details of bills.
House Chief Clerk Brian Takeshita says representatives will consider some 200 bills this week. Senate Chief Clerk Carol Taniguchi says senators will vote on about 150 proposals.
read … Danger
House coalition doing good job
LTE: Mahalo to the Star-Advertiser for recognizing the success of the Democratic-Republican coalition in the state House of Representatives ("Reduce tax burden on small businesses," Star-Advertiser, Our View, April 2).
This new bipartisan leadership coalition has warded off fears of a tax-and-spend agenda.
Your editorial correctly noted that the bipartisan coalition believes 2009's temporary increase in the state's highest income tax rate, originally slated for repeal in 2015, should be repealed a year earlier. This in turn would feed money back into the local economy. The bipartisan coalition also favors shrinking Gov. Neil Abercrombie's budget by $600 million over two years.
I also appreciate David Shapiro's acknowledgment of how well things are going in the House ("Souki-led House majority has delivered solid agenda," Volcanic Ash, March 13).
Our House bipartisan coalition, a first for the Hawaii Legislature, better reflects Hawaii's people. Instead of bickering and partisanship, we put our heads together and focus on solutions.
read … Rep. Cynthia Thielen
SugarDaddie Could Have Bought Legislature
Shapiro: Senate President Donna Mercado Kim lectured nominees for the University of Hawaii Board of Regents that excessive spending by UH administrators has senators at their wits' end. I didn't realize that their wits had begun.
A dating website offered Waianae $12 million to change its name to SugarDaddie.com. These are not very smart businessmen; for that much in campaign donations, they could have bought the state Capitol.
And the quote of the week … from Donna Mercado Kim: "It seems to be a culture and an attitude of the University of Hawaii that they are above the law, they don't have to be transparent, they don't have to give information to the public and they can just spend money any which way." That's the Legislature's prerogative.
read … SugarDaddie
Petition seeks to revive bill to allow recall of Hawaii public officials
DN: it is not strange that HB187 never got a hearing. Remember, we’re talking about a legislative body that won’t even consider ethics bills that would restrict its behavior…..
read … Petition seeks to revive bill to allow recall of Hawaii public officials
GMOs: Schatz Panders to Luddites
KGI: Schatz said Hawai‘i is one of the few states that is most passionate about labeling genetically modified foods (GMOs), but Congress is moving “very slowly” toward labeling genetically modified foods.
“It’s an issue of growing concern for citizens everywhere, but it’s not yet on the radar of the agriculture committees of the Senate and the House.”
He also said that he is opposed to the Monsanto provision that was tucked into a spending bill he voted for, which funds the federal government through Sept. 30, and support’s Sen. Jon Tester’s (D-MT) efforts to remove it. The amendment to strip the provision from the bill was not put to a vote.
“I think people ought to have choice as consumers, and understand what they are consuming and understand what is happening around them,” Schatz said. “I am hopeful that with respect with the local situation, we remember that we are all on an island together, and we are going to have to coexist and find ways to reach a new equilibrium.”
DN: Luddites Attack GM Algae Biofuel Plan
read … Pandering to Luddites
Costs put Hawaii food makers at bottom of the barrel
MN: "It can be very, very frustrating at times," said Cathy Nobriga Kim of Maui's Roselani Tropics Ice Cream, speaking on the challenges of shipping and high overhead, including the cost of utilities, in Hawaii.
During a panel discussion at the sixth annual Maui County Agricultural Festival at the Maui Tropical Plantation on Saturday, she said that by the time business owners figure out ways to minimize their costs of production, other costs may rise.
"You're back at the bottom of the barrel (again)," she said.
More Costs Coming: Water fees set to help curb usage in shortage
read … the real problem with Hawaii agriculture
Caldwell Puts FACE in Charge of Homelessness Industry, Star-Adv Pushes Tent Cities
SA: May 1 has been announced as the date for the release of a homelessness plan the mayor will prepare with his newly appointed housing director, Jun Yang, a veteran advocate for the poor after his years with Faith Action for Community Equity. That's when, in a few short weeks, some specifics will need to be laid down.
Most encouraging was to hear that Caldwell will sign a ban on sidewalk tents that the Council is poised to pass, and that he's embracing the "housing first" approach, so the homeless will have a place to go after the sidewalks are no longer available.
In order for the second part of Caldwell's plan to work, the first part — enforcement of the sidewalk tent ban — must be swift, certain and thorough. Halfhearted measures won't work, as evinced by the continued use of shopping carts and camping in parks, which also are banned.
"Housing first" is a term used by service providers to describe how the most chronically homeless should be helped. These people will never be self-sufficient, due to substance abuse or chronic mental illness or physical ailments. They need to be off the streets in permanent housing, regaining some stability, with professional caregivers on hand to oversee treatment of their health issues.
Caldwell acknowledged that the initial action will be a temporary solution: finding temporary sites for the homeless to "receive safe shelter and social services."
But even if the first place is a empty lot, (HERE IT GOES) the homeless can be given space under a pre-fabricated roof (OR NOT) with a way to lock up their belongings during the day.
These are not urban campgrounds. (JUDGE THEIR PLANS BY WHAT THEY DENY!) What's known across the mainland as "safe zones" or "tent cities" generally work best (THEY DON’T WORK ANYWHERE) when drugs and alcohol use are barred, police enforce the law and social services and security is present. (In other words, when they are just like a shelter. So why build them we already have empty shelter spaces and the bums who don’t want to go to shelters don’t want to go because they want to do drugs. These are just soothing words to lull you to sleep while they build their tent city and the money starts flowing to FACE.) Offenders should be arrested, plain and simple. (Great idea. Why not start now? Why do we have to build a tent city to start making arrests.)
In a recent meeting with the Star-Advertiser editorial board, Caldwell said he's considering ways to move the chronically homeless into subsidized rentals scattered across the island, where they also would receive services.
This could work, said Drew Astolfi, FACE executive director, but such a setup loses the efficiency of more centralized "supportive service" centers, with both residential and treatment functions managed by one private agency. Honolulu residents have resisted this notion, he said, but one is being planned in the redevelopment of Kukui Gardens.
Related: Tracing the Financial Outlines of Socialism in Hawaii
Remember, you were warned: Homeless tent cities: Seattle’s decade-long nightmare coming to Honolulu?
read … The FACE of Homelessness
Families struggle to find help for mentally ill loved ones
SA: In the past three years, 67-year-old Angeline Cordeiro has been in nine different residential care homes for seniors. None of them, according to her family, could handle the challenges of providing care to someone who is both physically frail and mentally ill.
Cordeiro's daughter, Roberta Taei, said each placement has ended the same way: The care home's operators drop her mother off at a hospital for some ailment and then won't take her back.
That happened for the ninth time in early March, she said.
Cordeiro, who uses a wheelchair and suffers from schizoaffective bipolar disorder, is now awaiting another placement. Her care is government-funded, so Taei said she has little say over where her mother ends up.
"When her psychosis acts up, when she starts to refuse to take her medicine, she ends up back in the hospital," said Taei, of Wahiawa. "It's just overwhelming."
While Cordeiro's case may be extreme, mental health advocates say the family is not alone in struggling to find proper care for an older loved one with a mental illness….
In addition to offering more help to care home operators, the state has plans to develop a long-term care facility on the Hawaii State Hospital campus.
The proposed skilled-nursing facility would have as many as 200 beds, 50 of which would be reserved for former Hawaii State Hospital patients.
But don't expect to see the facility anytime soon.
Permitting for the project, which would include no out-of-pocket building costs to the state, is going on now, and there's no start date for construction.
As Explained: Connecticut Shooting: Failure of Mental Health System
read … Mental Health
Hawaii could face criminal action over lighting suspected in seabird deaths
SA: The U.S. Department of Justice has threatened criminal action against the state Department of Transportation over Oahu's lights and the protection of seabirds.
In December, the department notified Hawaii transportation officials of a multiyear investigation of lights "that are allegedly causing unlawful take of protected bird, turtle and moth species under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act and Endangered Species Act," according to a January letter by state Deputy Attorney General Laura Kim.
Although the Justice Department inquiry is statewide, the focus is chiefly on Oahu, where a considerable number of wedge-tailed shearwaters are suspected of being injured because of DOT lighting, Kim said in the letter….
Since 2007, state crews have been replacing fixtures in streetlights with lenses that have downward lighting features. About 1,800 of 11,000 lighting fixtures were replaced in areas that include Ala Moana Boulevard, Nimitz Highway, and the H-1 and H-3 freeways. Costs for each lighting fixture range from $250 to $400.
The Justice Department's case against the Department of Transportation is similar to two separate cases in 2010 against Kauai County and the Kauai Island Utility Cooperative over lighting that affected endangered Newell's shearwaters and Laysan albatross.
Both cases resulted in plea agreements for violating the Migratory Bird Treaty Act.
Under those agreements, Kauai County paid a $15,000 fine and was required to implement corrective measures during a probation period.
The Kauai Island Utility Cooperative also paid fines totaling $40,000 for violating the Endangered Species and Migratory Bird Treaty acts.
The electric utility provider also accepted an 18-month probation period to take corrective measures that included reconfiguration of power lines and the planting of trees to shield lights from seabirds.
The lighting at stadiums on Kauai for Friday night football prompted a move to Saturday afternoon football.
read … Bird Lights
Philanthropist Pays for City Pool Repairs
SA: A $23,586 fix for the Manoa pool shower heater was completed at the end of last week and is now being enjoyed by facility regulars as well as those who may have stayed away because of the lack of warm water, said frequent user Cathy Iwami.
"Everybody is so jubilant," Iwami said.
The tab for that repair was picked up by philanthropist Abigail Kawananakoa, who said she was driven to act after reading a Kokua Line column about the plight of several city pools.
Iwami said her swim group and others have bought a bunch of thank-you cards to send to Kawananakoa.
Meanwhile, Robinson announced the city would be reopening the McCully District Park pool on April 15. The pool was closed for repairs seven years ago for various problems, largely caused by the fact that the pool is "above ground," Robinson said. "That's just a lot of problems in repairs."
The pool will be open from 2:30 to 4:30 p.m. on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays until May, when the city is expected to hire more lifeguards for the facility, she said.
Also expected to reopen by summer is the city pool at the Pearl City Recreational Center, which has been closed for renovations for about three years, Robinson said.
read … Doing the job Government Cannot
Caldwell announces budget director and deputy
SA: Mayor Kirk Caldwell announced Saturday his nomination of Nelson H. Koyanagi Jr. as budget director and Gary Kurokawa to be the deputy director.
They have served as acting director and deputy director of the Department of Budget and Fiscal Services, respectively, since January when Caldwell took office.
Background: Caldwell Secretly Appoints ‘Chief of Staff’--Convicted Criminal Harry Mattson
read … More of Harry Mattson’s picks
Condo Developer Lashes out at Medicated Marijuana Users
SA: SMOKE-FREE condominiums are a small but growing trend in Hawaii, with a handful of condo owner associations amending their rules in recent years to prohibit smoking.
Now a developer is set to build what is being described as the first new condo tower built in the state to be 100 percent smoke-free.
Lighting up at the 801 South St. project in Kakaako will be prohibited — even in your own home.
“If you’re going to smoke, you have to go off the property,” said Ryan Harada, a principal with Downtown Capital LLC, which is developing the 46-story project scheduled to break ground in June.
Harada said the restriction put off some would-be buyers, but more people regarded it as a benefit.
At the 30-story Wilder at Piikoi, a rule was adopted about a year ago to ban smoking in any units sold after the rule change. But if smoking triggers a complaint, then the ban can be applied to grandfathered units.
Karl Bast, Wilder at Piikoi’s resident manager, said he hasn’t received many complaints, but he knows of one resident who sold his unit and moved because of the rule….
…banning smoking in someone else’s home can be a divisive policy that smoking-rights groups often tout as an un-American civil liberty violation.
For rentals, such a prohibition can be made by a single landlord who amends house rules or a lease.
The change for condos is more difficult — typically requiring two-thirds approval of unit owners to modify condo association bylaws.
An effort was made to reduce the approval requirement to a simple majority this year at the Legislature through Senate Bill 945. But the House Consumer Protection and Commerce committee has not given the measure a hearing after it passed Senate committees.
Bert Blodgett, an ex-smoker living in Lahaina, called the bill a dangerous change to established condo law. “I enjoy my smoke-free environment in my own home, but I do not want the Legislature to mandate a change through a simple majority of owners voting to adopt a no-smoking policy in dwelling units,” he said in written testimony on the bill.
Michael Zehner, co-chair of the Hawaii Smokers Alliance, derided the bill as “purely an attempt at social engineering the lifestyles of others, spearheaded by a tiny ring of professional lobbyists called Tobacco Free Hawaii.”
read … Oh, were they talking about tobacco?
North Korea May be able to Nuke S Korea, Japan
AP: Experts say it's easier to design a nuclear warhead that works on a shorter-range missile than one for an intercontinental missile that could target the U.S.
The assessment of David Albright at the Institute for Science and International Security think-tank is that North Korea has the capability to mount a warhead on its Nodong missile, which has a range of 800 miles (1,280 kilometers) and could hit in South Korea and most of Japan.
He said in his analysis, published after the latest nuclear test, that it is an uncertain estimate, and the warhead's reliability remains unclear.
Albright contends that the experience of Pakistan could serve as precedent.
Pakistan bought the Nodong from North Korea after its first flight test in 1993, then adapted and produced it for its own use. Pakistan, which conducted its first nuclear test in 1998, is said to have taken less than 10 years to miniaturize a warhead before that test, Albright said.
North Korea also obtained technology from the trafficking network of A.Q. Khan, a disgraced pioneer of Pakistan's nuclear program, acquiring centrifuges for enriching uranium. According to the Congressional Research Service, Khan may also have supplied a Chinese-origin nuclear weapon design he provided to Libya and Iran, which could have helped the North in developing a warhead for a ballistic missile.
But Siegfried Hecker at Stanford University's Center for International Security and Cooperation, who has visited North Korea seven times and been granted unusual access to its nuclear facilities, is skeptical the North has advanced that far in miniaturization of a nuclear device.
"Nobody outside of a small elite in North Korea knows — and even they don't know for sure," he said in an emailed response to questions from The Associated Press. "I agree that we cannot rule it out for one of their shorter-range missiles, but we simply don't know."
"Thanks to A.Q. Khan, they almost certainly have designs for such a device that could fit on some of their short- or medium-range missiles," said Hecker, who last visited the North in November 2010. "But it is a long way from having a design and having confidence that you can put a warhead on a missile and have it survive the thermal and mechanical stresses during launch and along its entire trajectory."
read … Axis of Evil
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