Entries for April 2012

“Society should protect and strengthen marriage, not undermine it as this lawsuit seeks to do,” said ADF Litigation Counsel Holly Carmichael....

Robles, 18, was there as a condition of parole for the juvenile crimes of sex assault, theft and runaway charges, according to the complaint.  The family claims that the home failed to supervise the two boys despite house rules that required curfews and bed checks every 20 minutes on overnight shifts.

Hawaii Christian Coalition presents its annual Prayer at the Capitol May 3, Thursday 6:30-8:00pm State Capitol Auditorium....  

• Senate: 21st Century Postal Service Act of 2012
• Senate: Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of 2011
• House: Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act
• House: Interest Rate Reduction Act

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Horizon wishes to assure the Jones Act industry of its fidelity and that it will not succumb to the siren call of Jones Act reform even if that means it will never have a chance to rationally renew its fleet of dreadful old clunkers....

“Mr. Gill explained that ... Hawaii’s primary election law is out of compliance with the freedom of association provision in the U.S. Constitution. In order to rectify this error, a lawsuit must be filed and Mr. Gill asked UHPA to consider supporting this federal litigation.”

... but a bill for Hollywood Moguls' Tax Credits appears dead, and a sneaky attempt to foist another HCEI-style set of 'goals' on Hawaii has been thwarted ....

They were welcomed by our vibrant MC, Miss Hawaii Lauren Cheape....

Seven Hawaii high school teams, and one independent elementary school team, are competing in the 2012 FIRST Championship robotics competition at the Edward Jones Dome in St. Louis, MO....

...the tax incentive did nothing more than skew the economic cycle and created the feast and famine of construction activity....

Robert Thomas, a Director with Damon Key Leong Kupchak Hastert in Honolulu, concentrates his practice on property and land use issues including eminent domain, regulatory takings, water rights, and voting rights....

Soldiers from Schofield Barracks’ 225th Brigade Support Battalion, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division, and other Army units, rolled up their sleeves ....

In response to my article, a reader asks: “We get all the natural gas we need now. How does it get here? The article makes it sound impossible, but it’s here.”

"I will support Congressional investigation efforts into the TSA policies and guidelines and will advocate for practices that maintain security while not sacrificing the personal dignity of our residents and visitors." -- Gov. Lingle

...in some regions of the country, the well-to-wheel emissions level for all-electric vehicles may be higher than the best hybrid and all-gasoline competitors, says the New York Times....

Pacific Financial Corp. (NYSE: CPF), parent company of Central Pacific Bank (the "Bank"), today reported net income for the first quarter of 2012 of $13.5 million....

Savage is the creator of the two-year-old It Gets Better Project which encourages teens struggling with same-sex attractions to embrace homosexuality....

"I was paying close to $1,000 in annual dues. After I won that case, I started paying about $100. I didn't want to pay for the things that I'm not obligated to pay for like giving money to political candidates...."

To Leftists and black activists, it was an “uprising”; white liberals prefer to call it “civil unrest”; many others call them the L.A. Riots. But Koreans simply call it Sa-i-gu, or April 29....

“I’m trying to think, but nuttin’ happens!” -- Curly Howard

Ted Liu stepped-up as Chair of the Event and with single-minded determination, energy and hard work, led its success....

Will programs to help the prisoners adjust be in place the first year when most of the prisoners are let out? 410 will be released the first year, 384 in the 2nd year, 257 in the 3rd year, 111 in the 4th year, 29 in the 5th year, and 4 in the 6th year for a total release of 1,195 prisoners over 6 years....

A U.S. Coast Guard temporary security zone to protect protesters from Hawaii's Safari Explorer yacht cruise is ending, and the USCG seeks input on how the rule may be improved....

You know a politician is looking for applause when he speaks in front of a crowd of college students and says he's there to help them pay back their student loans.... 

Abercrombie jumps the gun to claim credit for something that wasn't his doing ....

Now Carlisle will be able to 'ride to the rescue' of the Windward Shore as well as 'saving' Kailua and Kaneohe when he renews Waimanalo Gulch. What a charade!

The top five states ranked by per capita in 2011 were: California, Hawaii, Florida, Nevada, and the District of Columbia ....

VIDEO: Kanohowailuku Helm - Pane From Molokai

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Private clinics and pharmacies have whispered among themselves for months about suspending services due to non-payment of millions....

The University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo has appointed Daniel E. Brown, Ph.D., as principal investigator (P.I.) for the Hawai‘i Island Beacon Community (HIBC), a federally funded health care transformation project administered through the UH Hilo College of Pharmacy....

... imminent storm that is about to occur due to simultaneous implementation of multiple programs that will create extraordinary financial and administrative burden ....

...today Congress has the opportunity to do something about it....

April 29 marks the third year in which the U.S. Senate has not passed a budget -- a staggering dereliction of duty, particularly given the country's near-$16 trillion debt. But that's not the Senate's only blockbuster failure ....

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... the Planning Commission will render a decision on May 25, at 9:00 a.m. at the Mission Memorial Auditorium to either approve or deny the 15-year extension ....

Professor Stiglitz explained that the first time the Jones Act came to his attention is when he worked on the President’s Council of Economic Advisors and it was identified as a major impediment to the national U.S. economy....

Hawaii’s 2012 Plan is not just “substantially” different from population, it is grossly deviant.

They died April 19, in southwestern Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when the UH-60 Black Hawk they were in crashed.

One person saw an opportunity with the demise of the German tax shelter: Relativity Media founder Ryan Kavanaugh....

Assess2Know will allow Hawaii to evaluate students' performance using thousands of measures in alignment with instructional objectives and Common Core State Standards, which were implemented in 2011....

The proposal, which is known as the "People's Rights Amendment," would amend the Constitution and hold that constitutional rights are only for "natural persons," meaning that corporations and legal entities would no longer enjoy the freedoms the Constitution guarantees....

• Senate: Cloture Motion; Paying a Fair Share Act of 2012
• House: Sportsmen's Heritage Act of 2012
• House: Surface Transportation Extension Act of 2012, Part II
• House: Small Business Tax Cut Act

The state Department of Human Services (DHS) has posted for public comment a draft proposal for a demonstration project that would integrate healthcare services for clients enrolled in both Medicare and Medicaid....

The Hawaii Health Connector, which was established to create and oversee the state’s health insurance exchange, will begin the first phase of the information technology (IT) system next week as the result of a contract with Public Consulting Group (PCG) of Boston....

The latest example came last week when Democratic leadership in the Senate again passed the buck on enacting a budget -- on April 29, it will have been three years since the Senate last passed a budget resolution....

To turn out their vote this fall, Hawaii Democrats are claiming that Hawaii will decide the balance of power in the US Senate. But in reality Hawaii's Senate election will determine whether the Aloha State will have a voice on the majority side of the aisle or will suffer decades of obscurity with low-seniority Senators of the minority party .... 

For 2012 HSTA has deleted several questions from 2010 including their call for legislators to de-fund services for severely disabled students in violation of the Felix Consent Decree.

The Hawaii harassment statute, which Fisher had violated ... includes not just violent touching but “any slight touching of another person in a manner which is known to be offensive to that person.”