DoE Sidelines HSA Test, Dumps No Child Left Behind
Caldwell Pushes for Tax Hikes
SA: Mayor Kirk Caldwell has warned the City Council that it will need to cut spending or raise either property taxes or bus fares to balance the city's $2.09 billion operating budget.
The administration listed key developments that led to concern:
» The estimated cost of pay raises for the city's unionized employees is now expected to reach $37.5 million in fiscal 2014. Only three weeks ago, the administration was estimating the raises would cost $26 million.
» The Council rejected Caldwell's plan to raise $15 million by increasing the city's fuel tax by 5 cents a gallon.
» The Council added, according to the administration's figures, $10 million in so-called "grants-in-aid" money for Oahu nonprofit groups.
Shinn, in her May 13 letter, said that in addition to the estimated $37.5 million needed for pay increases, the city will need $5 million to pay for the vacation buyouts of people leaving the city's employment.
But Council Budget Chairwoman Ann Kobayashi said members of her staff and the Office of Counsel Services are working to make adjustments to balance the budget.
"We'll have it all ready on Monday," Kobayashi said Friday afternoon. "We're certainly not going to hurt anyone. We're not cutting services, and we're not going to raise property taxes or bus fares at this late stage. We wouldn't be able to do that without holding hearings."
She hinted that there is "still money left in some of the salary accounts" from the current year....
Council Chairman Ernie Martin, who led the fight to include the additional grants-in-aid funding, defended the additions. Nonprofit groups that provide vital services face reductions in federal funding and "lack of commitment" from the mayor.
"It is difficult to accept the mayor's rationale against such funding when contrasted against his support for increased salaries for staff in the managing director's office and his … acceptance of pay raises for his Cabinet when many of our private sector employees continue to struggle from day to day."
Meanwhile, there seems to be some dissension among Council members about the grants-in-aid.
Councilman Breene Harimoto has repeatedly questioned the city's ability to provide such funding when it is pressed to find dollars for its core services. Harimoto's complaints drew backing from Council Vice Chairman Ikaika Anderson, who said he would introduce a floor amendment to the budget bill at its final vote on June 5 that will eliminate the addition.
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read ... Mayor tells Council to shrink spending or raise taxes, fares
Obamacare: Kauai to Become Collectivized 'Blue Zone'
KGI: For four days, Buettner and Healthways staff toured Kaua‘i to consider including the island in the Blue Zones Project, an initiative designed to help communities switch effortlessly to healthier choices through simple changes to environment, policy and social networks.
“I’m not here to sell you a magic diet or an exercise program,” said Buettner, adding that by optimizing the environment, better health and well being will follow. He said, only 20 percent of longevity comes from our genes; the rest is related to our lifestyle.
County spokeswoman Beth Tokioka said the Hawai‘i Medical Service Association introduced the Blue Zones concept to the administration two months ago....
But Blue Zones is not for everyone — Buettner said the community and its leaders must want it. There are a number of requirements before a community is chosen to work toward a Blue Zones certification.
At least 20 percent of the population must sign a personal pledge and complete one action. It also requires completion of a community pledge that contains policies related to complete streets, active living, tobacco-free places and healthy eating.
Additionally, there needs to be commitment from at least 50 percent of the top 20 community-identified key employers; from at least 25 percent of independently or locally owned restaurants; from at least 25 percent of public schools; and from at least 25 percent of grocery stores.
In 2009, Albert Lea, Minn., a city of 18,000, became the first U.S. city chosen to receive a Blue Zones Community designation. During the next three years, Albert Lea residents increased their life expectancy by an average of 3.1 years and participants lost a combined 12,000 pounds. Absenteeism among key employers dropped an average of 21 percent, and county workers had a 40 percent decrease in health care costs.
LINK: http://www.bluezones.com/
read ... Blue Zone
Star-Adv: Obama's Worst Abuse of Power
SA: If the three controversies that beset the Obama administration last week, the most serious accusation came from the story with the least political sizzle. The fallout from the Benghazi terrorist attack derived its potency from the four deaths that resulted. And the ill-advised targeting of conservative groups by the Internal Revenue Service aroused the most visceral response, from the president on down.
But it was the secret probing of journalists' phone calls that potentially signified the worst abuse of power.
It signals the need for Congress to reconsider and pass a federal shield law that could have safeguarded the identity of the sources used by the reporters in the case. And it underscores the reason why Hawaii needs its soon-to-expire shield law reinstated, to protect whistleblowers from excessive government intrusion.
MN: The president’s worst week
read ... Shield
Affordable Housing: 100 sq Feet?
CB: Hawaii has the country’s highest rate of homelessness. If steps aren’t taken to meet the demand for affordable homes, it will only mean more residents having to live on the streets.
Rising in response to the challenge are students from the University of Hawaii’s School of Architecture, the American Institute of Architects Leadership Institute and Hawaii Appleseed Center for Law and Economic Justice. They recently held an affordable housing design competition, called re_THINK Design.
The competition unveiled innovative approaches for modular and adaptable living units of roughly 100 square feet with a cost around $80 per square foot.
Buildability Award - 4x8 (KY International, architectural firm)
Affordabilty Award - Modular Cottage (Ryan Sullivan)
Transformability - Prefab (Andreas Gaeta and Mo Tuikolongahau in collaboration with Colin Shimokawa at Shimokawa + Nakamura)
Implementation Award - 4x8
Suggestion: Skip the housing phase and just build a coffin.
SA: Schatz gets rail-funds pledge from Transportation nominee
read ... Affordable
The Geopolitics of Hawaii
TD: Hawaii is fascinating not just for the obvious reasons — the tropical setting and so forth — but because of its eventful history, which owes much to its geostrategic value. It has captured attention even in China, where some sea-power pundits portray this Eastern Pacific feature as Asia's third offshore island chain. (I guess that makes the Americas the fourth.) During the 19th century, ambitious seafaring states — the United States, Great Britain, Japan, and occasionally Germany — jockeyed for power and influence in the archipelago.
read ... The Geopolitics of Hawaii
Feds Push $100M Project, Claim Ala Wai Canal Could Overflow, Flood Waikiki
CB: A mistake made nearly 100 years ago is putting the economic heart of Hawaii in jeopardy.
Even before the canal was finished in 1927, engineers realized they’d made a serious miscalculation. The two-mile-long waterway was originally envisioned to have two outlets, one on either end, to allow runoff and sedimentation to be flushed into the ocean.
But the eastern outlet, near Kapiolani Park and Kaimana Beach, was abandoned when builders figured out the currents would sweep the contamination west — right onto the treasured Waikiki Beach....
Now, federal flood control experts are worried that a heavy rain could cause the Ala Wai to overflow its sides, creating a fast-moving flood big enough to wipe out Waikiki. They say a major rainstorm and serious flood could put the area from Diamond Head to Ala Moana all the way up to Moiliili under five feet of water. The consequences of such destruction are enormous.
For years, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers along with state and city officials have been struggling to put in place measures that would prevent disaster. Significant dredging, a deeper channel, a wider McCully bridge, even walls along the canal are being considered.
It’s a $100 million solution at a time when federal money is growing tighter and state and local budgets are paper thin....
In 2013, it's come down to a boardroom full of government officials trying to figure out what to do.....
VIDEO: Canal Builders Didn't Look To The Future
read ... Something Published by Resort Developer Pierre Omidyar
Public Asked To Help Pick Site For New Hawaii Nature Reserve
CB: ...state officials want to create a National Estuarine Research Reserve in Hawaii where scientists can study wetland ecosystems to help our coastal communities take better care of our seaside homes.
Leo Asuncion, manager of the Coastal Zone Management Program expects the research in the reserve to directly benefit the communities it is in.
“For example, how rising sea levels will affect habitats,” he said, explaining that the fieldwork would help "tie together scientific research with on the ground management to address the impact on coastal communities.”
Real time measurements of water levels and quality would also be made available online for researchers and community members alike.
There are currently 28 national reserve sites dotted across the country, but none in the Pacific. State officials are asking the community for proposals on where to put Hawaii's reserve, which they intend to establish within the next 12 to 18 months. So far, the Office of Planning has received proposals for sites on Oahu, Kauai, Maui and Hawaii Island, mostly from the science community.
Local ecologists applauded the move, saying there's real opportunity to incorporate Native Hawaiian cultural practices into the management of such a reserve.
“Estuaries are really important in Hawaiian culture,” said Dr. Samuel Ohukani ohia Gon III, senior scientist and cultural advisor at The Nature Conservancy of Hawaii.
“It was always an estuary that would be the site for a fish pond, for example.
Location Proposal:
read ... How About Hanalei River, Pierre?
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