Entries for January 2013

Tesoro announced they were shutting down their refinery .... The question on everyone’s mind—what does this mean for Hawai‘i?

Among the major challenges identified by the USDOE was the delayed principal evaluation implementation.

Global Metro Monitor update of the Brookings Institution. Yet another non-flattering economic statistic....

Last week the State Department of Education finally released the criteria for principal evaluations....

Instead of cutting taxes on the poor, Abercrombie proposes to extract more taxes from them by hiking the minimum wage.

“Our unilateral president must take his unilateral medicine.” 

NRA-ILA is pleased to report that an attempt to repeal newly-enacted protections for National Rifle Association instructors has failed....

The type of ship needed to transport LNG is a highly-specialized kind of tanker ship known as an LNG Carrier, none of which have been built in the U.S. since the mid-1970’s....

• Saturday, February 2 at 9:30 a.m. Hawaii Time
• Wednesday, February 6 at 7 p.m. Hawaii Time

The Heritage Foundation has released the following statement....

...liberals are increasingly shedding their humanist pretentions and showing (their true) misanthropic nature....

The average person who voluntarily surrenders a firearm to police is not a criminal and the firearms surrendered are not those misused by criminals....

"I apologise for having spent several years ripping up GM crops. I am also sorry that I helped to start the anti-GM movement back in the mid 1990s, and that I thereby assisted in demonising an important technological option which can be used to benefit the environment."

"Hilo Medical Center, the other thirteen HHSC facilities, and hospitals nationwide are being pushed to the brink of collapse, given the new health reform law changes."

In October 2012, HECO again raised the limit to 75 percent of minimum load (which roughly translates to 23 percent of peak....HECO's proactive approach, fundamentally, aims to move beyond arbitrary limits....

Senator John Kerry (D-MA) is likely to be confirmed today as the next Secretary of State after sailing through a Senate hearing last week. What does this mean for America and its foreign policy?

Comparison: Highest RETAIL electric rate on Mainland -- Connecticut at 19.5 cents per kwh

...the good professor labeled the record of the 1993-2010 Hawaii Supreme Court on property issues "appalling," so it should come as no surprise that two of the beneficiaries of those rulings have now rallied to that court's defense....

As part of the settlement, HELCO will withdraw its request for a 4.2 percent or $19.8 million rate increase in 2013. HECO and its subsidiaries will also reduce by $40 million the amount being sought for improvements to two major projects....

• Senate: Temporary Rules Changes
• Senate: Permanent Rules Changes
• House: Short-Term Suspension of Debt Limit – Final Passage

Even in Honolulu, housing affordability has deteriorated markedly, with the Median Multiple rising 0.6 points in just the last year. Honolulu was less affordable than all but Hong Kong and Vancouver...

Residents of Hawaii, along with those living in the District of Columbia, were most likely to approve of President Barack Obama in 2012, according to an analysis of Gallup Daily tracking for the year....

...school choice advocates—including parents, teachers, schoolchildren and administrators, and many others—will come together to promote educational choice, with more than 3,600 events taking place nationwide....

...

...see the list of 1,000 well-known prison reform activists, elected Democrats, Hawaii County Prosecutor, sovereignty activists, religious leftists, green mailers, and current inmates who have signed on to this effort....

"This guy's been operating (as a commercial enterprise) for two or three decades." .... In other words, he's a drug dealer.

...elected officials desperate to make-up the budget shortfall selectively raised taxes, resorting to increases that weren’t visible to the general public in order to avoid mass resentment ....

Auto commutes will be made more cumbersome to promote public transportation....

Census data strongly suggests that Hawaii, and Oahu in particular, are stable communities with very mild growth....

...a "zoning verification" by the Director of the City and County's Department of Planning and Permitting is not a "decision of the Director"....

Candidate filing is open through February 15, 2013 (date corrected) for Honolulu Neighborhood Board elections. Candidates may register online at the NB election webpage.

...continued attempts to legalize same-sex marriage, gambling and physician-assisted suicide....

State ranks third lowest in the country for adult smoking and second lowest for youth tobacco use....

Let me warn you in advance that I plan to talk big picture here tonight, and I plan to say some things that may challenge your assumptions....

Request for Proposals (RFP) for 50 MW of Dispatchable Renewable Geothermal Firm Capacity Generation on the Island of Hawaii....

The NRA will be actively fighting proposed anti-gun measures while keeping you updated on scheduled hearings and any action taken. While each bill has been assigned to a committee, most have not yet been scheduled for hearings.

In its proposal, HSTA seeks to:

• Increase teachers’ base pay by 48.1 percent over the next four years,
• Delay implementation of the new Educator Effectiveness System,
• Gain veto power over development of each step of the system.

...

Later today, hundreds of thousands of people will descend on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., for the annual March for Life.

...there is much more that can be done to help ensure that new teachers are “classroom ready.” ...

Given the nature of negotiations, the proposal HSTA took to the table is a starting point and is subject to change....

...

Growth in total visitor expenditures and arrivals in every month of the year elevated annual 2012 total visitor expenditures to a record $14.3 billion....

All Hawaii public school principals will receive enhanced supports and evaluations beginning in the 2013-14 school year under an agreement between the Hawaii State Department of Education (DOE) and the Hawaii Government Employees Association (HGEA)....

Hawaii Renewable Energy Projects Directory....

“So that there is no mistake, or confusion, and our position is clear and apart from both the Executive and Majority Legislative branches...."

Hundreds of thousands of consumers have their health insurance applications declined each year according to a 2010 congressional study....

• Queens: 54 patients waiting
• Maui Memorial: 41 patients waiting
• Kuakini Hospital: 20 patients waiting

Think your state has equal representation in the Senate? Well, that could be eliminated soon.

Abercrombie was right about one thing in his 2013 State of the State speech, there are too many answers in the form of solutions being proposed before sufficient questions are asked and researched....