Rep McDermott: Dep't of Health Obstructing VA Loans
HI unfunded liabilities: Unpredictable tsunami or government-made disaster?
Schatz Immigration Bill Amendment: Embrace Global Warming Hype to Enter USA
Narcissism as a Marketing Strategy: PepsiCo Says Honolulu 9th Most Susceptible
Town Hall Meeting on the ‘Ewa Development Plan
Feds Release Economic Report on U.S. Shipyards
Governor Releases $134.7 Million for Hawaii Schools
1978: Waihee, Souki, Ihara, Fukunaga Endorse Closed Primary
Borreca: Within minutes of party Chairman Dante Carpenter announcing the suit, Democratic leaders across the state, ranging from the governor to the House Democratic leader, questioned the idea and said they like the primary elections as they are....
Gill and other Democrats have long pushed to close the primary, but the late U.S. Sen. Daniel K. Inouye counseled that closing the primary would needlessly reduce the number of people voting Democratic.... (Which is exactly why this suit is the right thing to do.)
Voting for the old closed system (at the 1978 Con-Con) were delegates Joe Souki, now speaker of the House; Les Ihara, now a Democratic state senator; Carol Fukunaga, now a member of the City Council, and John Waihee, who became lieutenant governor then governor.... (Oooops!)
Waihee argued that "the primary should be the time when party candidates are selected, and that is what I believe the American system of government is based on.".... (What a great quote for Democrats to meditate upon!)
Best Comment: "The bottom line is that all political parties are private organizations that have a right to their own self determination. Any political party should have the absolute right to be able to set their own rules for membership and voting without direction from either the state or federal government."
read ... Borreca Trying to Write a Column Against Closed Primaries
Matson Strike Looms: July 1 Deadline
KHON: No deal, no work. That’s the ultimatum from hundreds of works in charge of sailing Matson ships to the state.
The clock is ticking for the company and crewmembers to reach a new contract. But with 10 days left, the union says talks are severely stalled.
Sailors and Marine firemen are putting the pressure on Matson Navigation Company to negotiate a deal now.
“We are reluctantly informing the public about this because there are only 10 days left before the contracts expire,” attorney Charles Khim said.
On July 1, 1,600 workers could hit the picket lines. About half of them Hawaii are crewmembers. If they do, Matson says it would shut down shipping to Hawaii.
read ... Strike Deadline
TRICARE: Lack of Telemarketers Behind Failure to Approve Medical Care for Thousands
AP: The Pentagon is allowing UnitedHealthcare more time to fix chronic delays in the insurer's handling of referrals and authorizations for medical treatment of active-duty and retired military families in the western U.S.
The problems stem from a huge volume of requests to UnitedHealthcare's call centers in Colorado Springs, Colo., and Phoenix, Ariz., since the health insurer took on a massive new contract in April.
As a result of the delays, the Department of Defense is waiving a requirement that patients affected in the western region need authorization before getting specialty care. Ordinarily, a referral from a primary care provider would have to be approved by the insurer before a patient could get specialty care.
The initial waiver for specialty-care authorizations started in April, has been extended twice, and currently lasts through July 2, according to the Department of Defense TRICARE....
The problem is a call center capacity issue, though UnitedHealthcare hasn't been penalized by the defense department yet, and it is too soon to know if it will have an affect on second quarter earnings, said Ana Gupte, an analyst with Dowling & Partners Research in Farmington who researches health insurers.
UnitedHealthcare has not said if it will hire more people at its call centers in Colorado and Arizona to handle the surplus of work that came with the new contract.
Related: Hawaii Obamacare: As Doctors Quit, Telemarketers paid $480K each
read ... UnitedHealthcare Struggles To Fix Delays In Managing Military Health Care
43 Positions Created for Hawaii Health Exchange
AP: To succeed, Obamacare must reduce the number of uninsured Americans and make affordable policies available to them, neither of which will happen unless millions of people buy coverage on the exchanges. Experts say at least 2.7 million younger, healthier people need to sign up to make the exchanges work financially. The trick is reaching and persuading them.
One group that hopes to do so is Enroll America, a non-profit with close ties to the White House. It had eight staffers last year, 50 now, and is aiming for 200 this summer. It will deploy thousands of volunteers to states such as Ohio, Florida and New Jersey, where Republican leaders rejected Obamacare.
For states running their own exchanges, the numbers vary dramatically.
Rhode Island has nine staffers, Nevada will have 12 next month, Hawaii has 43 and Oregon has 141. But Covered California, that state's new insurance marketplace, expects to have 398, from Executive Director Peter Lee to a chief actuary and director of marketing.
The big numbers are not in the central office, however, but in the field.
Covered California will have 20,000 people helping the nearly 10 million uninsured sign up for coverage, said spokeswoman Anne Gonzales. It also expects to hire 500 agents for a call center in Rancho Cordova, several hundred in Fresno and up to 200 in Contra Costa, people from many walks of life, including some who have been jobless for months and who will receive intense training.
Figuring out how many people are needed to enroll, say, 1,000 of the uninsured and field calls from those who are flummoxed by the online marketplaces is as much art as science, said Bruce Caswell, president of Maximus Health Services, a government contractor that handles Medicaid enrollment in 18 states and will run Obamacare call centers for Vermont, Hawaii and Maryland.
Maximus starts with estimates of the percentage of a state's uninsured who are expected to buy coverage through its exchange. It then estimates how many will call for enrollment help and calculates the percentage likely to be "deflected" with a robo-answering program ("press 3 if your address has changed"), which is often about 20 percent, said Caswell. It then plugs in the expected length of a call (four and a half minutes for Medicaid enrollees) and out comes an answer: Maximus will need 25 staffers for Hawaii, where about 153,000 adults are uninsured.
read ... Obamacare Rollout Requiring Tens Of Thousands Of Workers
Civil Beat: Mazie Hirono is a Rockstar
CB: In a church auditorium here this week, Senator Mazie Hirono enjoyed something of a rock-star welcome.
At a female-rich rally on immigration, Hirono was introduced to more than a hundred women from across the country, including the president of the National Organization for Women, as a “champion” of women’s issues. The crowd cheered wildly and began chanting: “Ma-zie! Ma-zie!”
read ... Your 'Objective' Media
Kakaako: More Development News
Local Enough To Be UH Prez? Take Our Quiz!
CB: Who is the most important person in the Hawaii Legislature?
a. Donna Mercado Kim
b. Mark Takai
c. Isaac Choy
d. all of the above
read ... Local Enough To Be UH Prez? Take Our Quiz!
Former police officer faces drug charges after raids on his house
SA: Federal agents arrested Christoper R. Carlson, 44, at his Hoola Place residence Saturday. He is accused of possessing property stolen from a DEA agent’s official government vehicle.
The agent said in documents he submitted in court that as he was preparing to leave his Hawaii Kai residence June 13, he noticed that his vehicle had been burglarized. Items stolen included a ballistic vest with DEA insignia, a police emergency visor light, a global positioning device, binoculars and a DEA dashboard placard.
On Saturday the agent said he spoke to an informant who told him of being contacted by someone looking for anyone wanting a “bulletproof vest with DEA patches, a police light and some other stuff.” The informant said the people who stole the items gave them to a female who left them at Carlson’s home.
The DEA obtained a search warrant and raided Carlson’s home. Officers seized a bag containing suspected methamphetamine and suspected cocaine, a bottle of miscellaneous pills, two black bulletproof vests, three DEA/police insignia patches, a DEA placard, a police visor light, nine U.S savings bonds and a backpack containing flares and a first-aid kit
read ... Just Another Day in the HPD
FBI looking into Dinnan case
HNN: Hawaii News Now has learned that the FBI is looking into the case of a 35-year-old Kaneohe man who died after he was arrested by police.
Initial medical exams show that Stephen Dinnan suffered a broken neck bone and severe injuries to his chest that caused him to stop breathing.
The FBI probe is preliminary but legal experts say the federal government's involvement is rare in Hawaii.
"They only typically would exercise it if they have doubts and well-supported doubts that the local authorities will handle the case properly," said Eric Seitz, an attorney who has handled a number of police misconduct lawsuits but is not involved in this case.
HPD is conducting its own internal investigation and the Honolulu Medical Examiner's office is likely to rule that the death was a homicide....
The arresting officer -- a 26-year veteran -- was initially placed on administrative leave but Hawaii News Now has learned that the officer recently returned to duty....
"The fact that they are expressing an interest is important in the sense that maybe it will drive the state to do a competent job," he said.
The HPD internal investigation is not expected to be completed until the autopsy is done. That's expected to happen in four to six weeks.
read ... FBI looking into Dinnan case
Hooser introduces GMO Moratorium bill
KGI: The 10-page ordinance, co-sponsored by Councilman Tim Bynum, would require commercial agricultural entities to disclose the use of restricted use pesticides and the presence of genetically modified crops.
“The people of the County of Kauai have the right to know the potential impacts that these substances and the related agricultural practices are likely to have on their human health, and the health of their environment,” states the bill.
It also calls for a 500-foot pesticide-free buffer zone around public areas and bodies of water, a temporary moratorium on the experimental use and commercial production of GMOs until the county has conducted an Environmental Impact Statement on the industry’s health and environmental effects, and prohibits open-air testing of experimental pesticides and GM crops.
Reality: Sen. Gary Hooser campaign website linked to Holocaust deniers
CB: Friday Factoid: How Many Pesticides Are Licensed for Sale in Hawaii?
read ... Luddite Harassment
Island Air to Buy Go!
HNN: A year after buying the island of Lanai and four months after purchasing Island Air, software billionaire Larry Ellison is in talks to purchase another interisland air carrier, go! Airlines.
"We are committed to building a strong regional airline and part of that process is exploring all options including discussions with Mesa Air," Paul Casey, the CEO of Island Air said in a statement. The Phoenix, AZ, based Mesa is the current owner of go!
PBN: Larry Ellison buying Hawaii interisland airline go! from Mesa Air Group
read ... Larry Ellison in talks to buy inter-island airline go!
New Kapolei Refinery Owner Also Owns H-Power
SA: The sale prevented the loss of up to 165 jobs that would have been eliminated had the refinery been closed permanently.
Par Petroleum, an energy company based in Houston, also disclosed that it replaced its chief executive officer on the day it announced the Tesoro acquisition.
William Monteleone, who has been a director for Par Petroleum since August, was named to replace John T. Young, who had served as CEO since September.
Par Petroleum will finance the acquisition through issuing $200 million of common stock and more than $125 million in loans.
One of the private equity firms that has agreed to buy the new shares is controlled by Chicago-based real estate tycoon Sam Zell. Zell also is chairman of the board of New Jersey-based Covanta Energy Corp., which operates the city-owned HPOWER waste-to-energy plant in Campbell Industrial Park
read ... Zell
Bakken Boom Cutting West Coast Imports of Crude
B: The West Coast is bringing in record amounts of crude from the interior of the U.S., cutting the price of foreign supplies and heralding the end of some overseas imports by next year.
California, the world’s ninth-largest economy, shipped via rail more oil than ever in February from North Dakota’s Bakken formation, while Russian imports to the region slid to 713,000 barrels from a June 2012 record of 6.53 million. The premium for Russia’s East Siberia-Pacific Ocean oil has retreated 60 percent against U.S. benchmark West Texas Intermediate since Feb. 20....
California, PADD 5’s largest refiner, received an unprecedented 206,172 barrels of Bakken crude by rail in February, eight times the volume from a year ago. The state took in 94,695 barrels of Bakken crude in March, up from 70,706 a year earlier, according to the latest data available from the California Energy Commission.
Last year, Bakken oil began arriving in California on marine vessels for the first time, totaling 89,462 barrels, according to the commission’s data....
A complex along the Columbia River in Oregon, owned by Waltham, Massachusetts-based Global Partners LP (GLP), began in November off-loading trains of oil to send it by water to markets along the Pacific Ocean.
Related: Tesoro Finds Buyer to Own, Operate Kapolei Refinery
Epic Fail: EPA fails to link fracking to water contamination for the third time
read ... Bakken Boom Cutting West Coast Imports of Crude: Energy Markets
US Trafficking in Persons Reports omit notable failures of prosecution in Hawaii
DN: The massive Trafficking in Persons Report 2013 was released yesterday by Secretary of State John Kerry (see link).
This year’s report, along with prior reports, fails to note prosecutorial failures in Hawaii cases that had involved potentially hundreds of predominantly Thai and Laotian workers. Had the cases resulted in convictions, there would likely have been restitution sought from alleged traffickers.
Hmmmm: Human Trafficking: Did the US DoJ Purposefully lose the Aloun Farms Case?
read ... US Trafficking in Persons Reports omit notable failures of prosecution in Hawaii
Hawaii County increases park fees
HTH: Those graduation and birthday picnics at a park pavilion will soon cost you more — more than twice as much, in fact.
The county Department of Parks and Recreation has approved fee increases proposed by the administration in a series of rule changes slated to take effect Aug. 1. The increases, along with hikes in property taxes, vehicle registration and weight fees and bus fares, all go toward balancing the county’s $394.3 million 2013-14 budget.
The rule changes were adopted by the department and forwarded to Mayor Billy Kenoi ....
The increases are expected to add, conservatively, $110,500 to the department’s roughly $7 million maintenance budget....
The fees at most county picnic pavilions for the public or groups not seeking to make money, so-called “non-benefit” functions, would increase from $10 to $25 under the proposal. Use of kitchens at the facilities would add $25 per day.
Those conducting an activity for a benefit, such as a fundraiser, would continue to be charged $50 a day, plus $25 for the kitchen, and professional promoters would be charged $300, up from $200.
read ... County increases park fees
Bridges: Maui Leads State in Structural Deficiency
MN: Nearly one in four bridges in Maui County is structurally deficient and in need of significant repairs or replacement, according to a recent study by Transportation for America.
The national study released Wednesday found that 38 of Maui's 163 bridges are structurally deficient according to Federal Highway Administration standards. Most of the deficient bridges were in East Maui along the Hana and Piilani highways.
Maui County has the highest percentage of deficient bridges in the state - 23.3 percent. Kauai County was second worst with 23.1 percent, followed by Hawaii County with 18.1 percent and Honolulu County with only 7.8 percent.
read ... Deficient
Councilmember Pine Launches New District One Website
In addition to my weekly e-blasts, I have launched a new and improved website www.councilmemberpine.com to stay in touch with you.
My website is a resource for you and your family to learn about what is happening in Honolulu Hale including legislative updates, news, and community events.
I would also like to highlight the 'Hire Leeward' section that contains job postings and job training/seminar announcements in our District.
I encourage you to browse around the website and let me know if you have any suggestions to make this resource work better for you.
Please visit www.councilmemberpine.com for more information.
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