Guam Testimony Favors Jones Act Reform
Hawaii Data Sharing: 2.2 Million Layers of Information on You
Class Action Lawsuit Seeks To End Hawaiian Electric Industries Monopoly
Hawaiian Electric Cuts Earnings After PUC Orders Consumer Refund
Caldwell Encourages 'Qualified' Non-Profits to Apply for Grants
Transform Hawaii Gov: Tech Mavens Point to Success in Other States
CoR Releases General Fund Forecast
OHA ramps up its online presence with new site
Abercrombie Signs Seven More Bills into Law
Local culture: Don't Piss Off Neil and Donna
Borreca: As the University of Hawaii's search for a new university president begins, there are questions and worries.
Almost every discussion starts with, "We need someone who understands local culture."
What is this "local culture"?....
Neal Milner, professor emeritus of political science at UH, warns that "statements about culture are powerful political weapons. They are used to say who is an insider and who is not."....
"Perhaps the people connection is more important than throwing around perceived power," Powers said....
James Burns, the former chief justice of the Hawaii Intermediate Court of Appeals and the son of the late Gov. John A. Burns, cut quickly to the bottom line of defining local culture.
Noting that outgoing UH President M.R.C. Greenwood had political problems with Senate President Donna Mercado Kim and Gov. Neil Abercrombie, Burns said:
"Understanding and appreciating ‘local culture' is knowing how not to ‘piss off' the wrong folks, including Neil and Donna."
read ... To work with local culture, you have to understand it
Feds Nail Ernie Martin, Demand $8M from City
CB: ...kickbacks, conflicts of interest and mismanagement of federal grant funds mean the city of Honolulu will have to pay back nearly $8 million it gave to an embattled nonprofit in Central Oahu ....
“ORI has maintained significant support over many years by the direct involvement of high ranking City and State officials regarding ORI’s projects,” the HUD report says. “The direct involvement of the officials’ appears to have placed pressure on staff resulting in the City ignoring regulatory violations in favor of completing the project and satisfying ORI’s requests.”...
The city loaned ORI nearly $1.2 million in CDBG funds between 1989 and 1995 to build facilities to help people with physical and mental disabilities. In 2010, the city Ernie Martin decided to forgive these loans. HUD found that this decision was made by city employees who were running for elected office while receiving campaign donations from ORI representatives (translation: Ernie Martin)....
City politicians who have been linked to ORI in the past include former Mayor Mufi Hannemann and Honolulu City Council Chair Ernie Martin. Both were running for office in 2010 when the $1.2 million loan was forgiven, with Hannemann aiming for the governor's office and Martin running for his current council seat. (Note: But only Martin was in a position to act on this. Hannemann had already resigned and Carlisle was mayor when the loan was forgiven.)
ORI employees, including founder Susanna Cheung, have given more than $10,000 dollars to Hannemann’s campaigns between 2007 and 2010, according to Hawaii Campaign Spending Commission data.
Martin’s campaign has received $4,200 from Cheung since 2009, with her most recent donation of $1,000 coming May 2, 2012. Prior to getting his election in 2010, Martin was the acting director of the city’s Community Services Department, which oversaw the CDBG grants.
Cheung is an active political donor. In addition to Hannemann and Martin, she has given money to Caldwell, City Councilwoman Ann Kobayashi, former Councilman Romy Cachola, Hawaii Sen. Donovan Dela Cruz, former Lt. Gov. James “Duke” Aiona, and U.S. Rep. Colleen Hanabusa.
read ... Ernie Martin
Hawaii's Obamacare Doctor Shortage: Got Cancer? Wait till you can't ignore it HM: Dr. Christine McCoy, a physician on the Big Island, was on duty in the emergency room of Hilo Medical Center when a man came in with his arms wrapped in gauze. As McCoy removed the gauze, she found several large, bleeding skin cancers, which the man had left untreated until he could no longer ignore them.
Like a lot of people on the Big Island, where waiting lists to get into a primary care practice may be 500 people long, the man did not have a doctor he could see for regular check-ups. If he had, he certainly would have been put into treatment well before the cancers had gotten so bad, McCoy says.
“People walk into the emergency room here with just crazy things that you would never see anywhere else, because they would be taken care of long before,” McCoy says.
By the same token, Big Island emergency rooms are often filled with people worried about coughs, sore throats and other minor ailments that a primary care doctor would ordinarily deal with—if one were available.
“People here basically use emergency rooms and urgent care centers as their source of primary care,” says McCoy. “That’s a problem because the ER and urgent care aren’t going to worry about the mammograms, tetanus shots and cancer screenings, and they don’t do the ongoing management of chronic diseases.”
Hawaii is in the middle of a doctor shortage, and this is where you see it most clearly: on the Neighbor Islands, in the practices of primary care physicians who aren’t accepting new patients, in the patients who aren’t getting timely care or preventative care or the follow-up care they need, and in the inefficient allocation of health care dollars (emergency rooms are an expensive place to treat coughs and sore throats).
read ... About Your Future Under Obamacare
Hawaii lawmakers to examine $5.7B special funds
AP: Nearly one-fourth of the Hawaii Legislature's $23.8 billion budget proposal is made up of special funds that lawmakers are planning to scrutinize in the coming months.
State departments have hundreds of separate accounts channeling money into specific initiatives, and they need more attention and oversight, Finance Committee Chairwoman Sylvia Luke said.
The Democrat from Honolulu said she wants the committee to perform thorough research now so it can tackle the issue when the Legislature reconvenes in January....
The state auditor said in a report last year that special funds need greater scrutiny and some should be repealed. The auditor criticized several accounts, including one that uses revenue from the conveyance tax to fund natural resource protection.
Gov. Neil Abercrombie lobbied the Legislature this year to expand that fund to provide more money for watershed protection, but his initiative failed. Lawmakers decided instead to cover the cost through the general funds and capital improvement funds, more in line with the auditor's recommendation.
Related:
Read ... $5.7B Special Funds
Teachers Lose Two Weeks of Instructional Time
CB: Classroom instructional time today often seems to be interchangeable with the completion of a gaggle of surveys and forms, random phone calls, daily interruptions, and a plethora of various standardized tests and one-off assessments.
Right now, even the way we decide when grades are due devalues instructional time.
At the end of this school year, grades were due on the very last day of school, and teachers were expected to be entirely cleared and signed out of their classrooms. This created a situation in which final exams and papers needed to be collected several days or even a week earlier, so that they could be graded in accordance with standards-based practices. This means that the whole last week of school was, in instructional terms, useless -- and this was reflected in student attitudes.
I would wager that if we subtract reported instructional time from all of the standardized testing days, time taken for non-subject matter related responsibilities, and minutes wasted on distractions from phone calls and visitors, many schools might report two weeks fewer instructional days than the DOE requires.
This problem is mostly a matter of trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. The hole was created by the Hawaii State Teachers Association, and the peg created by the DOE.
read ... DoE Reality
Shimabukuro, Oshiro: Worst legislative attendance records
HR: In the Senate, the worst attendance record goes to Senate Judiciary Vice Chair Maile Shimabukuro, a Democrat from Waianae, who missed 10 days of the 60 day session.
Senator Gilbert Keith-Agaran, a Democrat from Maui, missed five days of the session, while Senate Majority leader Brickwood Galuteria and Senators Brian Taniguchi, Malama Solomon and Ron Kouchi missed four days each.
Senators with a perfect attendance record include: Senators Roz Baker, Will Espero, Mike Gabbard, Clayton Hee, Russell Ruderman and Senate Minority Leader Sam Slom.
In the House, Rep. Marcus Ohiro had the worst attendance record, missing 10 days.
Rep. Sharon Har and Rep. Roy Takumi missed 7 days each; Rep. Roma Cachola and Rep. Angus McKelvey were absent 6 days of the session; and Reps. Bob McDermott and K. Mark Takai each were absent 5 days.
read ... Attendance
State Super-Minorities Lead to Hawaiian ‘Lone Ranger’ Movie Trip
BB: In Rhode Island, the Republican quintet matches up against 32 Democrats and 1 independent. In the Wyoming Senate, four Democrats counter 26 Republicans. And in Hawaii, state Senator Sam Slom, 71, has been nicknamed the “Lone Ranger” because he’s the only Republican in the 25-member chamber.
read ... State Super-Minorities
Kamehameha Schools to present mixed-use Salt project to HCDA
PBN: Kamehameha Schools is scheduled to formally present its Kakaako mixed-use project called Salt — which includes 80,000-square-feet of specialty retail behind Six Eighty Ala Moana, a 54 loft-style rental unit development — to the Hawaii Community Development Authority on July 3.
The project site is along Auahi Street, between Keawe and Coral streets and behind Kamehameha Schools’ Six Eighty Ala Moana project. The entire block is identified as “Block F” in the Kamehameha Schools’ Kakaako Master Plan.
The project proposes the joint development and adaptive reuse of all existing buildings with the site and also includes the construction of a 267-stall parking garage, the HCDA said.
read ... HCDA
Espero to Propose Legalizing Boot
CB: In light of what is currently occurring in the local “Booting” industry, Senator Will Espero will introduce legislation next session to regulate and allow booting. If passed, the legislation will allow booting of vehicles once strict rules are adopted by the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs following public comments. Currently, Senate Bill 1214, to ban booting, is before the Governor, and a state Office of Consumer Protection lawsuit is also being heard in the courts to stop current booting.
read ... Espero Legalize Boot
Justice Reinvestment: One Day After Release, Brutal Rape
MN: Police said a 33-year-old woman who didn't know Cowans was dragged into the store dressing room, where her clothing was forcibly removed and she was sexually assaulted at about 1 p.m. Friday. When the woman tried to escape, the man restrained her while punching and choking her, police said. She screamed, and the man ran. An off-duty police officer who was at the mall helped arrest Cowans outside the store....
Court records show that on Dec. 20, Cowans was resentenced to a one-year jail term as part of five years' probation after violating requirements of his probation in a 1991 case involving charges of kidnapping and attempted first-degree assault.
Coccaro said Cowans could have been sentenced to a 20-year prison term Dec. 20 but wasn't. Instead, court records show he was resentenced to a one-year jail term as part of five years' probation for violating requirements of his probation in the 1991 case. (Justice Reinvestment)
When he was sentenced last year, Cowans already had been jailed since at least June 1, 2012, court records show.
Cowans "got out and a day later attacked this woman in a very violent manner," Coccaro said.
She said Cowans has a prior criminal history of violent sexual offenses in Hawaii and California. "He has no ties to Maui," she said.
Police said Cowans is a registered sex offender who had been to the Wailuku Police Station to register as a sex offender on Friday before his arrest in the kidnapping and sexual assault.
read ... Justice Reinvestment
Heroin, Oxy and 98lbs of Marijuana Equals Probation
HTH: Morby was arrested on Oct. 18 with 59-year-old Gilbert Espiritu, her longtime boyfriend, after police served a search warrant on three Tiki Lane properties that included what police described as two indoor marijuana-growing sites they believe are part of a larger drug distribution operation.
Police say officers confiscated 98.8 pounds of dried marijuana, 321 marijuana plants, 96 clones, 2.5 grams of heroin, 125 grams of hashish and 232 hydrocodone pills — which are marketed as Vicodin — in indoor-growing operations at two of the properties.
Espiritu has pleaded guilty to first-degree commercial promotion of marijuana and first-degree promotion of a harmful drug. Eighteen additional charges were dropped in exchange for his plea.
SA: Star-Adv Cheers Supreme Court Legalization of Marijuana Smuggling
read ... Soft on Crime
Abercrombie to Sign Bills Making MDs into Marijuana Dealers
HTH: Gov. Neil Abercrombie is likely to sign two bills on his desk aimed at making marijuana a more mainstream medicine, according to Sen. Josh Green, D-Kona, a physician who, as chairman of the Senate Health Committee, has been working on reforming the state’s 13-year-old medical marijuana law.
“The fundamental purpose is to make medical marijuana a health issue rather than a public safety or police issue,” Green said Monday. “I just really want to put it into mainstream medicine.”
One of the bills, HB 668, transfers administration of the medical marijuana program from the Department of Public Safety to the Department of Health by Jan. 1, 2015.
The other, SB 642, increases the amount of marijuana allowed for each patient, but requires the patient’s primary care physician to certify the need for medical marijuana. Currently, any physician is allowed to certify the need for the medical marijuana “blue card.”
SB 642 was a last-minute gut-and-replace of a tobacco bill that was written by a House-Senate conference committee the week before the end of the 60-day legislative session. No public comment was taken on the measure....
read ... Bills would bring marijuana into mainstream medicine
Sheriff shortage causing courthouse concerns
WHT: A combination of vacations and sick workers left West Hawaii’s four courts with just one sheriff Monday morning.
The severity of the shortage Monday was just indicative of a broader problem, West Hawaii attorneys and court officials said. Department of Public Safety officials said they were bringing sheriffs from Hilo to Kona to fill in the gaps, but acknowledged that they have had trouble for years filling all of the West Hawaii vacancies.
“The main thing they provide is a deterrent to danger,” Deputy Public Defender Wendy DeWeese said Monday. “When there’s nobody there, you lose your deterrent.”
read ... Sheriff shortage causing courthouse concerns
Solution for State's Dirtiest Waterway? Stop Testing it
CB: This summer, if you want to know whether the Ala Wai Canal meets the state’s standards for safe recreational use, you'll probably have to test it yourself.
That is because the city plans to stop testing one of the most heavily used inland bodies of water in the state for dangerous bacteria levels even though the canal is among the most polluted.
Mayor Kirk Caldwell said that the city will soon stop testing the canal. And the state's Department of Health, which is responsible for overseeing the state’s water quality standards, said that it has no plans to take over for the city on the monitoring front.
read ... Nothing to see here
Will 33-year Old Waianae Bridge Collapse?
HNN: "This one time I was paddling under and this 18 wheeler went over and it came right over me and I actually felt the bridge vibrate all the way down to where the column is and it kind of scared me," said Paul Alferez, Waianae.
What also scares him is the crumbing concrete and rusted rebar that is sticking out of the bridge pointing toward the water.
"Somebody can get hurt," said Alferez.
Alferez really got concerned after he saw the bridge collapse in Seattle and he doesn't want to see that here, especially with only one way in and out of Waianae.
"If the bridge falls apart on us it would cut off all the emergency services. So that's my main concern," said Alferez.
Kaupuni Stream bridge is 33 years old. It is listed as structurally deficient, the worst category. It is scheduled for major repairs in the next 10 years.
Wikipedia: As rust takes up greater volume than the steel from which it was formed, it causes severe internal pressure on the surrounding concrete, leading to cracking, spalling, and ultimately, structural failure. This phenomenon is known as oxide jacking. This is a particular problem where the concrete is exposed to salt water, as in bridges built in areas where salt is applied to roadways in winter, or in marine applications. Uncoated, corrosion-resistant low carbon/chromium (microcomposite), epoxy-coated, galvanized or stainless steel rebars may be employed in these situations at greater initial expense, but significantly lower expense over the service life of the project.
Related: http://www.epoxyinterestgroup.org/
read ... Only 33 years
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