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Sunday, May 19, 2013
May 19, 2013 News Read
By Andrew Walden @ 3:40 PM :: 4694 Views

Hints from GOP: Aiona for Governor, Djou for Congress

Is Anyone On The Hook If a Volcano Gawker Ends Up In Trouble?

Stanley Chang Suspended by Bar Association

Minimum Wage Should Not Be Living Wage

Tsutsui Being Used to Keep Unstable Abercrombie Under Control

Borreca: Lt. Gov. Shan Tsutsui came to Gov. Neil Abercrombie's administration by way of the state Constitution, not a desire to join the team or the wish of the voters....

After reporting doubts about leaving the state Senate presidency to become the state's second in command, Tsutsui has been filling a critical role....

Although he declined to give specifics, Tsutsui said that he didn't blindly do Abercrombie's bidding and sometimes would politely decline to lobby some issues.

"I said, ‘You know, governor, that is something I am not comfortable with trouble-shooting,' and he understands and didn't press it," Tsutsui explained.

Kauai Democrat and Senate Vice President Ron Kouchi said Tsutsui was able to get the "legislative point across to the governor."

Kouchi said Tsutsui helped with the effort to repeal the Public Land Development Corp. law because "it was difficult to figure out what the governor was going to do."

read ... Tsutsui still working out new alliance with governor

Abercrombie: My Opponents are Depraved, My Faults are Teeny-tiny

HTH: Abercrombie, as always, fired up his fellow Democrats while lambasting the political partisanship that’s taken over Washington, D.C.

“If we think we get hit with vog here on the Big Island, the smog that’s hitting Washington right now … Never, ever, have I seen in the 10 terms I served, the depth of political depravity that’s happening now,” Abercrombie said.

Abercrombie said when President Barack Obama took office, he tried to use ho‘oponono, the traditional Hawaiian process of achieving consensus through forgiveness and reconciliation. But that went nowhere with his political foes, Abercrombie said.

“The president has been under assault from the very moment he was elected,” Abercrombie said.

In a speech punctuated with applause and a “that’s right” or two, Abercrombie urged convention-goers to be bold and take the offensive.

“I think we need to be a little more like Harry Truman in this country,” he said. “I’m telling the truth, and they think the truth is hell.”

“Forgive me my shortcomings and failings,” he said, adding that they were “teeny-tiny” ones.

read ... Ravings of a Lunatic

Kos: Anti-GMO Activists, Sovereignty Movement Part of Republican Conspiracy

KOS: Take the Hawaiian Sovereigntists. I'll get loads of email from them every week that usually lead with some disaster on the mainland which they will break land speed records in blaming on....wait for it....Obama.  Yeah, really. You could have knocked me over with a feather last week when I got one email actually blaming Obama for the Texas fertilizer explosion, and further fleshing out how it was a run through for a coming Obama-led martial law coup on the islands which will once and for all rob the "Kanaka Maoli" (Real Hawaiians) of their land. Not a word from our distressed Kanaka about how the lions share of their economic misery comes from the wealthy conservatives who make it their business to exploit and abuse labor, take jobs off the island, and keep giving themselves tax cuts while slashing valuable social programs for the island's needy. No, it's an Obama Blast nearly 24/7.

Then we have the anti-GMO health set. All I heard three weeks ago was about the "Monsanto Protection Act" which never existed, of course. But in the same breath they hissed that one came the obligatory swat at Obama and Democrats, as if they were the ones who planned at stealth midnight meetings how to own the world's food while starving most of us. When I tell them the part of the bill which was added to protect Monsanto came from a Republican, they either just blink or change the subject.  They have been utterly convinced that the side of the aisle most in their corner, is in fact the enemy.

And we have our odd smattering of what I call the pearl clutchers, the "Obama promised me candy and I'm still missing my jelly beans" group. You can get people from a swath of libertine/aboriginal rights groups who are part of this nonsense. Their ailment is that no matter what good Obama has done, no matter what the actual facts are, they are inconsolable over missing some sidebar of their demands in life and will happily shoot their own side in the foot rather than point fingers where they need be pointed.

read ... More Ravings, Different Lunatic

Aiona Lays Groundwork for Gubernatorial Campaign

SA: Aiona, the GOP's most commanding presence since former Gov. Linda Lingle faded from public view, challenged Republicans to put their differences aside and unite behind their shared values.

He told an amusing story of being approached by a Democrat — obviously not an Abercrombie supporter — to switch parties. "He said, ‘Yeah, you just come and you become a Demo­crat, and don't worry, you can believe everything you want to believe. Just don't say it,'" he said.

Aiona, a father of four children who has recently become a grandfather, said he has been working as a substitute fourth-grade teacher and lecturing a graduate class on government at Chaminade University in between legal work for Family Court....

Unity WAS also the theme for Miriam Hellreich, the Republican National Committeewoman, who offered a stinging partisan critique. She described Abercrombie as the nation's most unpopular governor and saw potential Republican opportunities in the Schatz-Hanabusa primary, the warring Democratic factions in the state House and the absence of a real titular leader among Democrats since the death of U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye.

Hellreich also referenced national controversies over the Internal Revenue Service's targeting of conservative groups, the U.S. Department of Justice's seizure of Associated Press telephone records and the Obama administration's response to the terrorist attacks last year on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya....

Republicans voted overwhelmingly to re-elect David Chang as state party chairman....

read an article unbiased-ly titled ... Party has not yet found solid options to face the dominant Democrats

Hawaii GOP: 'Republicans Will Rise Again'

CB: ...there are glimmers of unity, and resurgence.

There's younger blood, like Chang — who was re-elected Saturday to another term as chairman — and his wife Fukumoto, who is now minority leader in the Hawaii House of Representatives.

The party's finances are back in the black, too, after a rough spell of debt in which the GOP risked losing its Kapiolani Boulevard headquarters.

Perhaps most significantly, Hawaii's favorite son in the White House is beset by a series of scandals ....

Fukumoto said Republicans helped block the possibility of legalizing same-sex marriage and increasing the general excise tax. Her party, she said, also was successful in opposing a single-use bag fee and a tax on sugary drinks.

Fukumoto's goal for 2014: defeating the governor's constitutional amendment asking voters to allow use of public funds for private early education....

Chang said he was proud the party had moved from being $110,000 in debt to posting a modest surplus under his tenture....

Chang said the party had attracted 5,000 new members and 1,000 new donors. The challenge now, he said, was to grow grassroots support, something that could be helped by the Republican National Committee's plan to launch a $10 million door-to-door campaign....

read ... Glimmers

Kim: Gut and Replace Guidelines Need to be in Senate Rules

SA: One of the mechanisms that produces 11th-hour legislative surprises, known informally but widely as "gut and replace," is going to get a little poking and prodding over the interim between sessions by at least one of the houses in the Capitol that uses it.

That word comes from Senate President Donna Mercado Kim, who will convene a leadership committee in the coming months to more tightly regulate how it's done. She will join in the panel along with Sens. Ronald Kouchi, Jill Tokuda and Les Ihara, the Senate vice president, majority whip and majority policy leader, respectively....

Currently, legislative leadership issues guidelines on the practice in the form of a memorandum each session, she said, but some of them have been misunderstood or, in any case, missed. For example, she said, legislators are supposed to send in proposed drafts and the bill is supposed to get a referral to any other appropriate committees.

For clarity's sake, she said, it may be best for any guidelines to be formally enshrined in Senate rules so there is less likely to be anything falling through cracks.

read ... Lesser Machinations 

Forgiveness doesn't come cheap or easy for UH brass

SA: Retiring University of Hawaii President M.R.C. Greenwood said she doesn't get how a bungled Stevie Wonder concert grew into "a full investigation of all the things the university does." Let's just say you're not in Kansas anymore, Dorothy.

Legislators and academics said Greenwood's replacement will gain acceptance only if UH regents include lawmakers and other stakeholders in the selection process. Or regents could save themselves the drama and let Sen. Donna Mercado Kim make the pick....

And the quote of the week … from Greenwood on the lack of respect shown top UH officials in the Wonder Blunder investigation: "Folks don't get to the positions that our regents are in, or for that matter that I'm in, because we're idiots." They must get that way after accepting the positions.

read ... Not in Kansas any More

TOD Talk Just a Cover for KSBE Kakaako Profits

SA:  Perhaps a single-digit percentage of potential new Kakaako residents will want to live there while commuting to jobs and schools west of Iwilei, meaning not much of an increase in rail ridership.

What high-rise development in Kakaako really means is greater-than-planned profits for developers. (Kam Schools is the landowner.)

State and city planners want Kakaako to absorb the vast majority of resident growth in town, with some growth in Aiea-Pearl City, a more logical area for TOD. (Sure.  But all the TOD talk is just a scheme to maximize KSBE profits.  Duh.)  They seem to be satisfied with continued suburban sprawl on the Ewa Plain — as characterized by a change in the Department of Planning and Permitting (DPP) draft of the Ewa Development Plan from “high-rise residential” development near the two westernmost rail stations to “medium-rise” in the latest version. Rather than apply the TOD experts’ concept of “verticality” in an area targeted for an increase of 100,000-plus residents, they apply it where bus transit will suffice.

Even the Sierra Club’s director, Robert Harris, who stated he wants to save agricultural land, seems unaware of how high-rise residences could save many acres of arable land in the Ho‘opili and Department of Hawaiian Home Lands developments in East Kapolei.

Properly applied TOD principles make a great deal of sense for Ewa, particularly if anybody in government is interested in making rail a success.

Another Example: How A&B Wins Big From Environmental Litigation

read ... Rail transit-oriented development better for Kapolei than Kakaako

UH Athletics Shortfall Due to Aloha Stadium Deal?

SA: In UH's 12-member Mountain West Conference, athletic departments gain revenue from stadium parking fees where assessed, concession fees and merchandising.

San Diego State, the only other MWC member that doesn't own the stadium where it plays, received money in each of those categories, but Hawaii receives no such revenue. Instead, UH must put out $80,000 a game for Aloha Stadium.

Unlike other conference members, UH doesn't receive a dime from proceeds of merchandise sold at games.

UH regents need to review these sources of income that derive specifically from athletic events and teams, and give UH athletics its fair share.

The athletics department collects a $50-per-semester fee from students, totaling $1.6 million annually. At some point — the fee took effect only three years ago — an increase will need to be considered.

Fees collected from students at other MWC member schools can range up to $123 a semester.

read ... Aloha Stadium?

Forty Years Later, Hawaii Congressional Delegation Still Pretending to Pass Filipino Immigration Bill

SA: When Congress approved a sweeping welfare reform law in 1996, a small but important provision cost Hawaii millions of dollars a year. (Thanks, Neil Abercrombie and Patsy Mink)

Pacific migrants who can travel freely to the United States from Micronesia, the Marshall Islands and Palau were no longer eligible for federal benefits — such as Medicaid, the health insurance program for the poor — leaving states to pick up the cost. Hawaii spends about $40 million a year on Medicaid-related benefits for more than 13,200 Pacific migrants.

Seventeen years later, as Congress debates an extensive rewrite of immigration law, good fortune could work in Hawaii's favor.  (Yep.  We are blessed by the Mazie.)

U.S. Sen. Mazie Hirono, a Hawaii Democrat who took office in the Senate this year, was assigned to the Senate Judiciary Committee, which is vetting the immigration bill. Hirono, who immigrated to the United States from Japan as a young girl, is using her role on the committee and her unique personal background on immigration as an opportunity for Hawaii.  (No bias here, eh?)

Hirono has added amendments to the immigration bill that would restore federal Medicaid eligibility for Pacific migrants, make Hong Kong eligible for a visa waiver program that could boost Hawaii tourism, and undo a travel restriction on foreign crewmembers that has proven costly to Hawaii's longline fishing industry. The senator also hopes to add an amendment that would help reunite Fili­pino World War II veterans with their adult children.  (Hawaii Congressional delegations have been pretending to pass that bill for 50 years now.  Is anybody still fooled?)

As stand-alone legislation, the Hawaii provisions would likely struggle to become federal law. But as amendments to the immigration bill — one of the few major pieces of legislation the Senate could pass this year — they might have a chance at survival. 

(Except for one teeny little problem.  The House also has to pass the its own immigration bill and then the conference committee has to reconcile.  This is where these maneuvers always turn to nothing as they have for decades.  But not in the campaign brochure written by Star-Adv.  And Mazie isn't even up for reelection this cycle.)

read ... An Article you can read again next year

Bag Tax? Watershed gets $10.75M after all

SA: For the coming fiscal year, the initiative got just under the $11 million that officials believe is needed on an annual basis, said Esther Kia‘aina, deputy director of the state Department of Land and Natural Resources, which has custody of the project.

But the money is just part of the regular state general fund and capital improvement project (CIP) fund. Two separate bills had been floated to provide a dedicated revenue source: the proposed plastic bag fee (House Bill 357, which never even made it to the Senate) and a boost in the conveyance tax (Senate Bill 1166, passed by the Senate but shelved by the House Finance Committee).

SA: PLDC Staffers to Work for Watershed Agency?

read ... No longer needed as Excuse for Bag Tax 

Another OCCC detainee allegedly commits suicide

HNN: "This inmate was in the female module of what we call general population," said Deputy Public Safety Director for Corrections Max Otani. "She was not in special holding or in any type of suicide watch type of situation."

Officials said that Callahan was under suicide watch from May 2 to 7 before being returned to the general population.

The incident is the fifth death in Hawaii prisons since March 10th.

Inmate Mark Davis was discovered unresponsive in his cell a week and a half ago.

On April 29th, 22-year-old Ikaika Andrade hanged himself at OCCC.

Three weeks prior Darius Puni-Mau killed himself at Halawa Correctional Facility.

State Senator Will Espero is calling for a review of security procedures within the prison system....

SA: OCCC detainee dead in apparent suicide

read ... Another One

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