Schatz: Believe in Global Warming or "Be Run Out of Town"
Limbaugh: Hirono Creates Pathway to Welfare for Illegals
Molokai’s Larry Helm dies
Was Honolulu Rail Designed by Global Warming Deniers?
Caldwell Takes a Stand for Vacant Positions, Double Dipping
Abercrombie Signs SB1025 Loosening Home Loan Qualifications
Low Unemployment in Hawaii, But We’re Still Broke
BIN: While 7.3% of America’s working population is currently jobless, only 4.7% of Hawaiians are currently without a gig.
With residents here enjoying an average jobless rate less than half of Nevada’s 9.5%, it’s easy to understand how we could end up on an NBC News list of “10 States With Ridiculously Low Unemployment.”
Of course, those numbers are statewide averages, failing to reflect unemployment rates of 6.5% on the Big Island and 8.5% on Molokai....
On average, Hawaiians earned around $44,000 per year in 2012, ranking them ahead of 33 other states by income. Not surprisingly, that figure fails to take into account the cost of living....
Factoring in the cost of living, residents average around $33,000 annually (statewide), compared to the typical income nationally of approximately $37,000. As for the neighbor islands? We’re even worse-off, with residents bringing in just over $29,000 per year, more than 21% below the national average....
Related: UHERO: Hawaii Costs 16% More than US Average
read ... Low Unemployment in Hawaii, But We’re Still Broke
Jobless rate lowest in five years, but many construction workers still benched
KITV: Of Meatoga's 3,500 members ,28 percent are still out of work ...By next year, economists actually expect a labor shortage and they singled out his union which also provides backhoe and forklift drivers....
Rendon Quintua is one of the hundreds of unemployed carpenters who is getting tired of waiting. He says he showed up at the union hall Friday with about two dozen others for-- a single job opening.
He didn't get it.
"I started 400 on the list. That was four years ago. Now, I am number four, so hopefully, cross my fingers, they will call me soon,” Quintua said.
He says he keeps hearing, "hang in there."
But it’s getting old year after year.
“I guess the guys at the union are trying their best, but hey, try tell that to the bill collectors," Quintua said.
read ... Unemployment 28%
Caldwell to let city budget take effect without his signature
SA: By neither signing nor vetoing Bill 11 (2013) or Bill 12 (2013), the $2.16 billion operating budget and $635 million capital improvements package become law and will take effect when the 2014 fiscal year begins on July 1.
Key among Caldwell’s concerns is a proviso restricting how the administration can use about $65 million in a so-called vacant and funded positions account. Caldwell said the administration needs to have the ability to maneuver money quickly in order to hire temporary workers through what are known as personal services contracts.
Clauses in the budget bar the administration from using the vacant-funded position account for that purpose, administration officials noted.
read ... Caldwell
Maui News: Council Knew Post Office Was Going to be Demolished
Maui News: The council was well aware that the building was not going to be rehabilitated, as called for in the budget it passed....
read ... Fake Scandal
Energy cost negates electric car savings for isle residents
SA: According to a new federal government website, driving an electric car in Hawaii costs the equivalent of $3.69 per gallon.
Yes, that's a 51 cents-per-gallon savings over a gasoline-powered car in Honolulu. But it's only 51 cents. Not the $2.51 savings drivers get on average across the country.
Hawaii's $3.69-per-gallon equivalent for electric cars is the highest price in the country, by far. No. 2 is New York with $1.80, and the national average is just $1.14.
It kind of saps the motivation for driving an electric car.
The culprit, of course, is Hawaii's high electrical rates.
The cost of electricity in Hawaii averaged 37 cents a kilowatt-hour in April, according to the latest data available from the U.S. Energy Information Administration. The national average was 12 cents a kilowatt-hour.
read ... Driving locally costs the equivalent of $3.69 a gallon
Solar Scammers Get 90% Curtailment Protection in Latest Deal
KGI: The commission’s approval also includes a curtailment clause, which stipulates that the cooperative will not be allowed to dump solar energy generated from the Koloa plant for more than 90 hours per calendar year.
This clause, Kelly said, addresses concerns raised earlier this year by commission officials against Maui Electric Company, a Hawaiian Electric Company-subsidiary, for curtailing energy from its wind plants for those generated by oil plants.
read ... Un-curtailed Profits
Trash chute boy fell down was cited for violation
HNN: the trash chute where a Kalihi boy fell 12 stories Wednesday appears to be in violation of the city code. The city signed off on the building's safety inspection last month, only because it was told all the chute doors would be locked until contractors could bring them up to code.
City officials say all trash chute doors are supposed to be self-closing with a latch. Pictures provided to Hawaii News Now by a resident living in Tower A of the Towers at Kuhio Park, where the boy tumbled at least 120 feet down a trash chute Wednesday night, indicate the door can remain open on its own, which violates city code.
According to Honolulu Fire Department officials, in September 2012, fire code violations were issued at Tower A because the trash chute doors did not meet regulations.
SA: Police get video of trash chute incident
read ... 12 Stories Down
Supreme Court To Hear Oral Arguments In Pflueger Pila`A 400 Runoff Case
On Wednesday, June 26, at 9 a.m., the Hawai`i Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in Pila`a 400 LLC’s appeal of the state Board of Land and Natural Resources' decision to fine the company some $4 million for damages caused to the reef at Pila`a Bay, Kaua`i, by a massive runoff event in 2001.
The Land Board imposed the fine in 2005 following a contested case hearing. Both the 5th Circuit Court and the Intermediate Court of Appeals have sided with the state in this case.
Still, attorneys for Pila`a 400, a company of James Pfleuger, continue to argue that the Land Board failed to properly notify the company of the hearing’s scope. They also argue that the board needed to base damages on a methodology spelled out in administrative rules. Finally, they argue that because the mud that smothered the reef came from Pila`a 400‘s land in the Agriculture District and not the Conservation District, the Land Board lacked jurisdiction to pursue a violation case against the company.
read ... Pflueger
Nurse files racial discrimination lawsuit against Queen's Medical Center
HNN: The lawsuit said that in November 2011, Harris found a note in her work mailbox that used the "N" word against her. Two co-workers were with her when she found the note....
Then on Christmas Eve, 2011, someone taped a photo of a hangman's noose on Harris' work locker....
read ... Lawsuit
Drug Dealer 100 lbs gets 2 years
HTH: Espiritu and his longtime girlfriend, Phyllis Morby, were arrested Oct. 18 after police served a search warrant on three Tiki Lane properties. Officers confiscated 321 marijuana plants, 96 clones, 98.8 pounds of dried marijuana, 2.5 grams of heroin, 125 grams of hashish and 232 hydrocodone pills — which are marketed as Vicodin — at two of the properties.
The 57-year-old Morby was sentenced earlier this month to five years probation after pleading guilty to first-degree promotion of a detrimental drug.
read ... Soft on Crime
Kona Overrun with Homeless Panhandlers
Kona is not just a haven for Hawaii vacationers.
It’s also becoming a top destination for international backpackers who add their ranks to the homeless, straining social services and generating complaints from residents and area businesses.
An increase in homeless, especially along Alii Drive in Kailua-Kona, has captured the attention of both the County Council and the Police Commission.
While the area still has the traditional resident homeless who have become familiar faces to the police, the new influx is a different category, Assistant Chief Paul Kealoha told the Police Commission on Friday.
“They’re done with college, and they’re in transition,” Kealoha said.”They’re living out of a backpack. … They move on. They’re just doing their world tour.”
read ... The young and the penniless
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