Hawaii Obamacare: As Doctors Quit, Telemarketers paid $480K each
9th Circuit Debates Seizure of Abandoned Property from Homeless Camps
Governor Releases $41.2 Million for Various CIPs Statewide
UH Profs to Students: Leave Hawaii CB:Regent Jeffrey Acido, the board’s sole student member, also stressed that the university lacks a culture in which students feel committed to the school and its mission.
Now a Ph.D. student in his 10th year at UH, Acido said that he’s regularly had professors tell him to leave the university because of Hawaii’s dismal job prospects or because he has greater academic opportunities elsewhere.
“It kind of hurts because I believe in this institution, but (the university needs) to cultivate a culture in which you breed amazing students with faculty that encourage you to stay and not leave,” he said.
He recalled visiting campuses such as the University of California at Berkeley or Harvard, campuses at which he felt that “culture of commitment.”
reads ... Leave Wanted: University of Hawaii president who can manage Transition from Kobayashi to Mitsunaga
HR:The attorney general continues an investigation initiated in March into Brian Minaai, head of capital improvements at the University of Hawaii. Minaai was put on paid leave after a prominent private contractor alleged Minaai was playing favorites with contracts valued at hundreds of millions of dollars.
Minaai has overseen more than a billion dollars’ worth of construction projects for the University since he was hired in 2009. Some of those are still in the works, and problems continue to surface.
The new $108 million University of Hawaii West Oahu Campus is over budget because of $22 million in change orders. The University of Hawaii at Hilo’s new dorm project is in jeopardy, according to its architect and design firm, Mitsunaga and Associates. The $28 million project has been stripped down in recent weeks. Without explanation, the construction management firm, SSFM International,and construction company, AC Kobayashi, removed the majority of windows, all bathroom sinks, all appliances, security fencing, and landscaping, and used a substandard painting method that reduced the quality and quantity of paint used on the project. Mold may also become an issue after the wood building, constructed in one of the state’s rainiest spots, was doused inside and out for months with heavy rainstorms and sealed up in some sections before mold testing was completed.
The project manager for Mitsunaga and Associates said he’s been told the Hilo dorm project, which is supposed to accommodate 300 students this fall, may not pass inspection because of ventilation and window quality issues.
Legislators say Greenwood failed to resolve numerous management problems exposed during a 2012 Senate investigation into the University of Hawaii.
read ... Scandal Management
HUD Orders End to Non-Profit Contracting Kickbacks
SA: The city's failure to properly enforce compliance with requirements of an $8 million federal grant issued to a controversial nonprofit group could affect what it receives in Community Development Block Grant dollars in the future.
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development on Monday issued a report demanding that the city repay the grant given to Opportunities and Resources Inc. Anuenue Hale, citing a series of concerns of noncompliance violations and the city's failure to properly monitor the situation.
Among the concerns was a 2004 letter, released Thursday by HUD officials, that the 15-page report suggested could have been a violation of anti-kickback provisions of federal law....
HUD officials Thursday also made public a copy of the 2004 letter that ORI founder Susanna Cheung wrote to a Pearl City-based construction company, agreeing to pay the firm $5.3 million with the stipulation that $90,000 be given as a "monetary donation" to ORI at the completion of the company's portion of the Aloha Gardens Wellness Center....
people who were in a position to make decisions or influence decisions regarding ORI included former Mayor Mufi Hannemann, former community services official and now Councilman Ernie Martin, and former managing director and now Mayor Caldwell. They received $6,000, $4,200 and $500 respectively from Leung in recent years, according to Campaign Spending Commission filings....
read ... Inouye is Dead, Salad days are Over
Lower Electric Rates? LNG Is The Way
WHT: Kailua-Kona resident Ulrich Bonne noticed something missing from Hawaii Electric Light Co.’s draft integrated resources plan.
“None of your four slides on how to lower customers’ bills lowers customer bills and that’s what is really the issue,” Bonne said during a public meeting on the plan Thursday evening at King Kamehameha’s Kona Beach Hotel. HELCO needs to “commit to one or more numeric (cost) milestones. Without the data, I find the IRP unacceptable. (It has) no measurable goals.”
A plan without those measurable goals is “for the birds,” Bonne added....
Engineering Manager Kevin Waltjen outlined a number of strategies that could lower costs, including decommissioning some of the company’s more expensive power generators, including several Hilo sites; increasing the use of less expensive facilities, such as geothermal; increasing the efficiency of the Waiau hydroelectric units; evaluating waste-to-energy; and renegotiating existing independent power producer contracts, focusing on older contracts in which the cost paid to the power producer is tied to the price of oil. HELCO is also looking at how to replace oil with a biomass or liquefied natural gas, Waltjen said. “(Liquefied natural gas) is the lowest cost fossil fuel at this time,” Waltjen said. “Seems very good. You can get it very cheap. But if you have to spend more money to create the same amount of electricity, it’s not worth it. It has to be evaluated.”
WHT: County: Aina Koa Po-NO
read ... Future power plans panned
Hawaii Has Less to Gain from Obamacare
Q: How do you think Hawaii is positioned to adapt to health care reform? Or is there less room for improvement here, so we won't feel a difference?
A: I think the fact is that when it comes to cost per beneficiary served, or cost of commercial insurance premiums, in Hawaii we're in a much better place, at least from a sustainability standpoint, than other states. Does that represent the fact that our opportunity to drive economic change through the system is less? Well, I suspect it is.
And so we do have some inherent efficiencies. We know that we've got a lower number of uninsured because of the Prepaid Health Care Act. ...Yes, we are better off in that regard than other states, so it does diminish the opportunity, from that standpoint....
When we see decreases in the medical cost trend within our population of patients, we share that, and everybody benefits (except those no longer in the population)
SA: Telehealth project aims to keep patients out of Hospitals
read ... Less to Gain
Rail route is still sound, extra report says
>> July 9: The public can comment on the draft supplemental environmental impact statement on Beretania Street and Mother Waldron Park.
>> Week of Aug. 12: Rail opponents' appeal to stop the rail project is expected to be heard by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.
>> To view the draft supplemental EIS online, visit hsalinks.com/14DFzIj.
>> To view the report’s appendices, visit hsalinks.com/1bbgVT1.
read ... Rail AIS
Maui Council Approves Tax Hikes
MN: The Maui County Council gave final approval of a $559 million county budget Thursday, which includes $471 million for operating expenses and $88 million for capital improvement projects.
Attached to the budget that goes into effect July 1 is an across-the-board, 5 percent hike in water rates as well as various property tax rate increases in most categories.
Homeowners will see a 12-cent increase in property tax rates from $2.75 to $2.87 per $1,000 of net taxable assessed valuation. Hotel/resort taxpayers will see the greatest tax rate increase - 25 cents more from $9.15 to $9.40 per $1,000 of net taxable assessed value.
Other increases vary from 5 cents to 20 cents per $1,000....
The fiscal 2014 budget contains a 3-percent, across-the-board increase in funding for most nonprofit organizations.
read ... Tax Hikes
Hanabusa Backed Obama on Spying, Schatz Opposed Obama
KOS: Sen Brian Schatz was joined by other progressive Hawai'i Congressional members. Both Daniel Akaka and Mazie Hirono have voted against the reauthorization of FISA.
But one Hawai'i House member was not bothered by potential Constitutional violations and problems with Americans' civil rights.
Rep Colleen Hanabusa voted in favor of reauthorizing FISA.
read ... FISA: Hanabusa Yes - Schatz No
Kaiser, HMSA Eager for 100,000 New Customers
HB: In Hawaii, we’re getting ready for the exchange (ACA requires that each state have an online exchange by 2014, where consumers can choose from among healthcare options). It’s going to offer employees more choices.
For instance, if you’re a small employer, you typically have one insurance carrier. With the exchange, if the employer goes in, all 10 employees will be able to pick. There will be versions of the basic plan. HMSA and Kaiser have fully committed to be in the exchange. If you don’t qualify for Medicaid and have jobs that don’t offer healthcare, the federal ACA has subsidies for you when you go to the exchange. So more people will be able to afford healthcare when the exchange opens in January.
It’s estimated that about 100,000 people in Hawaii are uninsured, with a large percentage being children. With the exchange, more people will have access to insurance that’s more affordable because of federal subsidies.
read ... Taxpayer Money at Work
Kalihi Road Will not be Repaved for 50 Years
KHON: A road repaving project in Kalihi is about to become a first of its kind for the state and could change the way Hawaii’s roads are fixed.
Middle Street from Kamehameha Highway to King Street is heavily used, serving as a gateway to the City Bus yard. The state wants to repave it using concrete instead of asphalt to make it more durable.
Asphalt roads last 10 to 12 years while concrete can last up to 50 years.
Photo: Concrete road in NK
KHON: City Considers Eliminating One Lane of Traffic on King St
read ... 50 years
Sheriff Department Cruising in Hummer
KHON: Assets of the state Sheriff’s Division tend to be older vehicles, so imagine a taxpayer’s surprise when they’re driving down the road, they see an H-2 with a state license plate on it.
Before guzzling gas went out of fashion the ’04 Hummer must have been quite the status symbol for a drug dealer who had the toy taken away in a DEA raid. Sheriffs got it as a thanks for their help, and lately it’s been spotted out on the road — with a state plate that has made some drivers behind it cringe.
“I definitely think they’re going to question why a hummer is out there and what the purpose of a Hummer would be for a state employee,” said Deputy Director Shawn Tsuha of the state Department of Public Safety. “One, it’s free. Two, we wanted to utilize it correctly, and three because of the size, there’s a purpose-built radio interoperable package that’s going to go into the vehicle.”
The radio he’s talking about is a $70,000 federal grant buy they plan to stick in the Hummer to help in things like disaster response....
“When we initially had the Hummer we used it as a surveillance vehicle,” Tsuha said. “In the operation unfortunately the bad guys discerned it was a law enforcement vehicle, and that’s the reason why we parked it.”
Parked for 5 years in a warehouse, then they came up with the radio idea. (Apparently, selling the Hummer at auction was not considered.)
NK: They all told me it was a shame to see such a car in North Korea
read .. Grant Bait
City, Neighborhood Board Attack Wedding Business
KITV: Neighborhood board chair Peter Kay says they're not singling out Ireland's properties on purpose. They're well aware of over a dozen more residential beach front properties in the area involved in commercial activities. They'd like to stop them all but still have questions on how to do it.
"If there's fines if they're outstanding, if they've been collected great, if not why is it taking so long," says Kay.
Read ... Wedding Tax
Transsexual Babysitters Force their Way into Home
ITT: Labor activists rejoiced April 30 when both chambers of Hawaii’s state legislature passed the Domestic Workers' Bill of Rights. The law extends the protections of Hawaii’s wage-and-hours law to cooks, nannies and care providers, and protects them from discrimination based on race, gender and sexual orientation....
In California, Gov. Jerry Brown vetoed a Domestic Workers Bill of rights last year, casting the law as burdensome on employers....
Related:
read ... New Union Organizing Drive
Oahu child advocate charged with sexual assaulting minor
HNN: Martinez was indicted last week and arrested May 31. He's in custody at Oahu Community Correctional Center with bail set at $150,000.
He was arraigned Thursday and pleaded not guilty.
Prosecutors say Martinez also goes by the names David Barber and David Louis. They say Martinez in October 2011 gave liquor to a 16-year-old girl and assaulted her as she slept.
Martinez in 2005 using the name David Louis, opened now-defunct Heart Gallery Hawaii, an organization that encouraged people to adopt hard-to-place foster children.
SA: In 2006 Martinez released a book he authored under the name David Louis titled "Scars That Can Heal." He said the book chronicles his experiences growing up in the foster care system on the mainland, going through 30 foster placements and changing schools 19 times. He said he was badly abused in one of his foster homes.
read ... Foster Children
DoD: Homosexuals Rape Dozens of Soldiers Daily
Borreca: the Pentagon extrapolated the figures to mean 12,100 of the 203,000 women on active duty and 13,900 of the 1.2 million men on active duty had experienced some form of sexual assault....The military's own figure shows that every day, 71 military members are assaulted.
HNN: Marine suspected of killing Oregon tourist released from police custody
Background: DoD Report: 14,000 Military Personnel Victims of Homosexual Rapists
read ... Homosexual Rape Epidemic
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