Feds Bust Sandwich Isles Com: $25M/year Funneled to Hee Company
Sick Organic: Frozen Organic Berries Linked to Hepatitis Outbreak
UH Study: 92% of Global Warming Climate Models Fail
KSBE Trustees Tied to Sandwich Isles Scam
ILind: For example, Sandwich paid $15 million in 2010 to Paniolo Cable, a closely-held company ultimately owned by trusts benefiting Al Hee’s children, according to the FCC. Prior to the build-out of Paniolo’s cable system, Sandwich paid just $1.9 million to Hawaiian Telcom for similar services.
Then there are political relations. Janeen-Ann Olds, now a Kamehameha Schools trustee, previously served as general counsel for Waimana Enterprises. She is also listed on state business registration records as the agent for Blue Ivory Hawaii Corp., which controls Paniolo Cable and, in turn, is owned by the Hee children’s’ trusts, at least according to the FCC.
Former Kamehameha trustee Robert Kihune became an officer of Sandwich Isles after stepping down as a trustee, and there are other former Kamehameha Schools officials serving in other positions with the several related companies.
“Another issue of concern is insurance costs,” the FCC found, although further details are redacted. This is one of those things that could potentially be very interesting.
Related: Feds Bust Sandwich Isles Com: $25M/year Funneled to Hee Company
read ... Rich Vein for Reporters to Mine
Sandwich Isles Spent $480K in Lobbying and Political Contributions
SA Editorial: A Hawaii company that provides telephone and high-speed Internet services to Hawaiian Home Lands residents has been receiving exorbitant amounts of federal funds for years and the Federal Communication Commission at last has decided to put an end to what it describes as "wasteful expenses."
Further investigation is needed to determine how Sandwich Isles Communications Inc. pulled off such extravagance.... (LOL! Where has the Star-Adv been all these years?)
OpenSecrets.org, which tracks money in politics, reports that Waimana Enterprises spent $360,000 in lobbying and more than $120,000 to the political campaigns of Hawaii's congressional delegation in the past decade....
With millions of federal dollars involved, more investigation needs to be done on Sandwich Isles Communications. If, indeed, millions of dollars were diverted elsewhere instead of going into the contracted broadband-capable network, there should be consequences or penalties. Hawaii's elected officials and state offices, including the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands, which is already troubled on so many other fronts, should not be a part of any such impropriety, as described by the FCC.
(Translation: Danner and the Star-Adv challenge Abercrombie and Masagtani to cut off the DHHL contract with Sandwich Isles.)
2005: Sandwich Isles Communications: Political Connections Pay Off
read ... Star-Adv Editorial
Want To Run For Congress? Political Insiders Only, Please
CB: Of Hawaii's 13 U.S. representatives, all but one had previously served in elective office.
In addition to Inouye, Matsunaga, Akaka and Hirono, they include Tom Gill (territorial Legislature), Patsy Mink (territorial and state Legislature), Pat Saiki (state Legislature), Neil Abercrombie (state Legislature and Honolulu City Council), Ed Case (state Legislature), Charles Djou (state Legislature and Honolulu City Council) Colleen Hanabusa (state Legislature) and Tulsi Gabbard (state Legislature and Honolulu City Council).
The lone exception: Cec Heftel, a broadcasting executive. Before his election to Congress in 1976, though, Heftel was a delegate to the 1972 state Democratic Convention and a delegate to the Democratic National Convention....
read ... Want To Run For Congress? Political Insiders Only, Please
House Finance Committee to Study Special Funds
AP: Finance Committee Chairwoman Sylvia Luke says Hawaii's state departments have hundreds of separate accounts dedicated to specific initiatives. The Democrat says the funds need more oversight.
Critics of special funds have been calling for more scrutiny for decades.
Lowell Kalapa from the Tax Foundation of Hawaii says lawmakers use the accounts to circumvent the state's constitutional limit to general fund spending, allowing the government to grow faster than it should. He says the funds lack accountability because no one knows exactly how much money is in them.
The conservative think tank Grassroot Institute of Hawaii estimated special funds contained $1.4 billion in unspent revenue in 2010
read ... $1.4B
Should The City Earmark Millions For Favored Nonprofit Groups?
CB: One of Caldwell’s main concerns about the earmarks is that the money is going to special interest groups that aren’t being vetted through the city’s newly created grants-in-aid program. The program requires nonprofits to submit applications and get approval from a commission before they get city funding.
He also is worried that the way the city council balanced the budget could impact the city’s bond rating.
It appears some council members have heard the mayor’s plea, or at least had enough of their own concerns to submit new operating budget drafts that are slated to be voted on Wednesday....
- Read Harimoto’s budget proposal here....
- Here’s Menor’s proposal....
- Check out Anderson’s proposal here....
- You can see her floor draft here.
2012: On the Honolulu Ballot: $5M Ward Heelers' Slush Fund
2011: Resignation call after Audit reveals “ward heeler’s slush fund” overseen by Honolulu Councilman
read ... Slush Fund
Obama Launches 'Furlough Fridays' for 15,000 Fed Workers in Hawaii
PBN: Nearly 15,000 civilian Department of Defense employees in Hawaii are expected to receive furlough notices by Wednesday, while employees of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration won't face any furloughs at all....
the DOD has 19,000 civilian employees in Hawaii. But some employees are being exempted from being furloughed for 11 days this summer...
“Every federal employee at the [Navy’s] shipyards are exempt from the furloughs, so for the Pearl Harbor shipyard, that means 4,500 employees are exempt,”...
read ... Furloughs
Cultural differences aside, standards are a must
SA: Let's hear it for those raising the bar for charter schools. After years of reports that shook general confidence in this public-education option — accusations of nepotism and uneven achievement records come to mind — it's good to see some of them get a thumbs-up from accreditors.
Granted, there are more in the pipeline than have cleared it, but this is a start. Four of the state's 17 Hawaiian-focused charter schools gained full accreditation from the Western Association of Schools and Colleges.
There are complaints that standard accreditation schemes can't properly assess Hawaiian charters' programs because of cultural differences.
Our position: Any nonprofit is free to run a private school as its leaders see fit, but where public funds are being tapped, maintaining some uniform standards is a must....
May 31: 4 Hawaiian charters get accredited
read ... Standards
State Claims Reduction in youth suicide rate
HTH: Less than five years ago, Hawaii ranked number one in the nation for the rates that youth considered suicide, planned a suicide, and actually attempted suicide.
But no more, said Elaine de Mello, who helped develop a program that’s increased awareness of the crisis and lowered the rate of suicide among Hawaii’s youth. “We have now reduced that in 2011,” she said of the latest numbers available.
“We’re no longer number one,” she said, yet, “we’re still in the top 10.”
De Mello is supervisor of Training & Prevention Services for the National Alliance on Mental Illness in New Hampshire. She develops curriculum and travels the country training communities in suicide prevention and response.
Hawaii is in the middle of a three-year, $1.4 million federal grant to reach school officials, substance abuse counselors, community leaders and local police to help communities cope with youth suicide. “It’s allowing us to work on every island,” she said. An earlier grant focused on youth suicide prevention techniques.
2010: Highest suicide rate in US: Hawaii DoE highschoolers
2012: Hawaii Youth Suicide Rate Doubles in 5 Years
read ... Youth Suicide
City kills attempt to reduce habitual 911 calls
SA: A "community paramedic" program intended to reduce overuse of ambulances by chronic 911 callers has been dropped by the new city administration, but the state hopes to start a similar effort.
The Honolulu Emergency Services Department, led at the time by Dr. James Ireland, created a community paramedic team in November after research revealed that the top 10 callers to 911 had taken an average of 52 ambulance rides per year. One logged 142 trips in the year before he died.
The plan was for two community paramedics to visit the top 50 callers, who were on track to make 1,600 emergency calls that year, and try to determine the underlying causes of their problems and steer them to more appropriate care.
Seventy percent of those patients had chronic medical problems, which left untended can lead to emergency situations. About a third were homeless and a third were mentally ill....
He added, "I think the state is going to be able to put together the program the way it should be run. It's a very worthwhile program. Statistics have shown nationally that it decreased the number of times these callers call 911."
Dr. Linda Rosen, chief of the Emergency Medical Services and Injury Prevention branch of the state Department of Health, said the state is eager to pursue the idea but does not have a timetable for it.
"We're very interested in it," Rosen said Friday. "It has been done in other areas of the country and Canada. We think it has a lot of potential in Hawaii, but we're still in the early stages. We don't have a specific project in mind right now." (Translation: Nothing is going to be done by the State.)
read ... B-Bye
HECO: One Plan for Entire State
HTH: “This time around, the Public Utilities Commission asked us to look at all of the islands in one plan, instead of separate plans for separate islands,” Pai said.
Because the energy industry is “dynamic” with often changing situations, Pai said HEI chose to consider four scenarios that anticipate everything from oil prices skyrocketing to decreasing dramatically, and varying levels of renewable energy technology adoption.
The draft plan offers potential actions, such as procuring more low-cost renewable energy, modernizing the grid and implementing smart grid technologies, and the related possible impacts.
SA: Tesoro Hawaii begins layoffs as sale talks continue
read ... Public Meetings
After A123 Bankruptcy, Maui Windfarm Finally Gets Battery
BB: The batteries installed at a Maui Electric Co. substation can store electricity for one hour, A123 said today in a statement. The system regulates voltage on the grid, shifts peak loads and retains excess power generated by wind turbines.
The company installed in December another battery system at a Maui wind farm that has 11 megawatts of storage capacity and holds power for about 25 minutes, Roger Lin, A123’s director of product marketing, said today in an e-mail. Power storage is becoming a more important part of renewable-energy projects because they produce electricity intermittently, depending on the weather.
Wanxiang received court approval to acquire the assets ofA123 Systems Inc. (AONEQ) in December, almost two months after the Waltham, Massachusetts-based company filed for bankruptcy. China’s biggest auto-parts maker formed the A123 Energy Solutions unit last month.
PBN: A123 Energy Solutions starts work on Maui Electric Co. battery storage system
read ... Another Bankrupt Alt Energy Co
Star-Advertiser editorial opposes city budget item to fund public toilets in Chinatown
DN: The Star-Advertiser editorial today opposes a City Council budget item for public toilets in Chinatown. In a list of appropriations from Bill 11, the proposed budget, the editors singled out three items, including this: $100,000 for the “maintenance and security of public restrooms in Chinatown.”
CB: City Ahead of Schedule in Fixing Sewer System
DN: City clueless on Chinatown
read ... Keep Chinatown Dirty
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