Energy

Without re-opening the HSTA-DoE Master Agreement, teacher planning days cannot be eliminated.  So it would appear that the HSTA and DOE have simply agreed to grab the $50M--or more--and use it to cut out some of the furlough days without any sacrifice on the HSTA's part.  The hostage-takers have gotten together and are presenting a new ransom demand. 

The first special U.S. House election of 2010 will be held in the 1st District (Honolulu) of the state that claims Barack Obama as a native son. And this is what makes the upcoming contest most interesting: It could well be won by a Republican.

Interviewed by The Hill, December 18 Case says: "I’ve never ruled out the Senate.  If there is that opportunity, I’m not going to sit here at the end of 2009 and say I’m not going to be a candidate.”

In a bizarre email message to her supporters December 18, Senate President Colleen Hanabusa (D-Koolina) says there is "real concern" about ... "bankrolling a special election we cannot afford...."  She suggests the other option would be "doing without representation in Congress for a year." 

Cost saving measures totaling $452.3 million for FY 2010 that have already been implemented include reducing specific appropriations, eliminating cash funding of capital improvements, debt restructuring and a comprehensive 13.85 percent restriction on operating budget appropriations.  In addition, because 60 percent of the State budget pays for salaries and benefits of State employees, the Administration instituted payroll savings through furloughs and reductions in force.

However, these steps alone are not sufficient to close the expanding budget gap for FY 2010, which now totals $721 million.

Senator Ben Nelson got an unprecedented deal to force federal taxpayers to pick up 100% of the cost of Nebraska's Medicaid expansion--forever.

(Medicaid expansion in Hawaii?  Here's the cost >>> Obamacare punches $41M hole in Hawaii State Budget.  Looks like Inouye and Akaka don't have the clout that Ben Nelson has.  Too bad they're so liberal.)

While there are now clearer signs of an imminent recovery, risks abound, including possible additional fallout from state and local government fiscal crises and a possible stall in the global upturn. The beginning of local recovery will not quickly yield tangible benefits for many local households. Jobs will still be hard to find for several years, social welfare needs will abate only slowly, and income losses for public and private sector workers will persist for some time.

With President Bush no longer wielding a veto and a Hawaiian in the White House, Democrats would need to stumble badly to botch the passage of the Native Hawaiian Government Reorganization Act. Fortunately for conservatives, that's exactly what's happening.

Like the failed House amendments, the new version of S1011 creates a previously unknown category of "Qualified Native Hawaiian Constituents" which will exclude tens of thousands of Native Hawaiians from membership in the Akaka Tribe while at the same time opening the doors to people who are not ethnically Hawaiian.  It is likely that the vast majority of Hawaiians living outside of Hawaii will be excluded from becoming the Akaka Tribe under the rules laid down in Section 12 of the S1011.

This 10 minute video lays out the primary themes of Duke Aiona's campaign for Governor. See it here...

Will Dan Akaka introduce the existing version of S1011 or will he introduce a new version of S1011 modeled on the version of HR2314 which blew up in Neil Abercrombie's face yesterday?    

HSTA has side-stepped the primary issue by proposing to reopen portions of the original contract unrelated to the furlough issue and is seeking changes that would compromise the safety of the children and limit their after-school programs.  The HSTA is now saying they do not want teachers to participate in campus and playground supervision responsibilities during lunch hours.  And they no longer want teachers to voluntarily participate in school-related activities after the regular school day – such as glee club, debate team, robotics, or prom night.

At the outset of the hearing, Republicans expressed their fundamental constitutional concerns with this effort to create a separate governing entity for Native Hawaiians, and served full notice to Committee Democrats that we intended to use every House rule and parliamentary tool available to us to insist our concerns be heard.  Until Representative Abercrombie stated his intentions to not push forward the proposed changes, Republicans demonstrated their dedication to using all tools available to them.

Over the years, they’ve both traveled here to Washington, D.C. and testified to Congress in favor of the original text of the bill.  Now that the bill has been substantially rewritten behind closed doors, they’ve been compelled to send a five-page letter expressing opposition to the proposed changes the Committee is scheduled to consider today.  The Attorney General and Governor have only had the full text of the proposed changes for a matter of, literally, hours. Postponing until February 24^th will allow them time to fully review the changes and have their concerns understood and considered by this Committee.

The live webcasts will begin approximately 10 minutes prior to the start of the hearing.  Hearing begins at 5AM HST (10AM EST) Weds December 16.

A new poll of registered Hawaii voters, conducted by Zogby International, has found that a majority of those surveyed oppose the Akaka Bill. The poll was conducted from November 18 to 23, 2009.  Zogby International surveyed more than 500 registered voters in Hawaii.

For years (since 1999), Daniel Akaka has been trying to make the Native Hawaiian Government Reorganization Act law. On Friday afternoon, the minority on the House Natural Resources Committee got word that there will be a mark-up on it on Wednesday. Apparently there's an agreement on the bill, but Republicans on the committee haven't seen it.  The Hill rumor is that Democrats plan to attach Akaka to the Department of Defense funding bill before this session ends — basically, sneaking it in at a busy, contentious time of year to avoid full debate.

Early last week, an agreement was reached with the Democrat Majority that Wednesday’s markup would consist of non-controversial bills that could be considered quickly.  Democrats issued notice on Friday that the Native Hawaiian bill would be added.  The Majority has had no communication with Republicans regarding this legislation since they canceled a markup on this bill without explanation in early July....

The magnitude of the changes being proposed deserve careful consideration and an opportunity for all those who may be impacted, especially the people and elected leaders of the State of Hawaii, to properly review the rewritten text.  The proposed changes have only been available to the Republican side of the Committee for a matter of days, and the State of Hawaii has had the full text of the proposed changes for only a matter of hours.

New York’s stubborn resistance to the data revolution not only harms the education our children receive; it leaves hundreds of millions of federal dollars on the table during a massive budget crunch. The Obama administration’s Race to the Top grant competition will distribute $4.35 billion to states that pursue modern education reforms. According to the competition’s rules, however, any state with a law that prohibits the use of test-score data to evaluate teachers is immediately disqualified from consideration. A state’s application also becomes more attractive under the guidelines if its data set matches students to teachers. Currently, New York fails on both counts.

And so does Hawaii....

Dozens of protesters gathered this morning on one day's notice in downtown Honolulu to denounce what they termed an "Akaka Bill Sneak Attack"--purported efforts to insert the Akaka Bill into unrelated "must pass" legislation.  In a statement released today Senator Dan Inouye (D-HI) denied the protesters specific claim that he had planned to attach the Akaka Bill to a Defense Appropriations measure and called the Akaka Bill process "fully transparent". 

Governor Linda Lingle today released two lists of judicial nominees that were provided to her by the Judicial Selection Commission to fill one vacancy each on the Intermediate Court of Appeals and the First Circuit Court (O‘ahu).  Governor Lingle is making the lists available to the public to encourage public comment on the nominees. ... The Governor has 30 days from receipt of the lists (December 11, 2009) to submit her selections to the Hawai‘i State Senate, which would need to confirm the nominees.

SHOW YOUR OUTRAGE & PROTEST TOMORROW!

• WHAT – AKAKA BILL SNEAK ATTACK PUBLIC PROTEST
• WHEN – MONDAY, DECEMBER 14th @ 7 AM to 9 AM
• WHERE – CORNERS OF BERETANIA STREET & PUNCHBOWL, Downtown Honolulu. 
• WHY – DEMAND A FAIR & OPEN PROCESS

The people of Hawai'i are tired of tax and spend policies that leave future generations with a huge financial burden.  Republican Charles Djou is the only candidate in this race who can bring the kind of fiscal accountability to Washington that the people of Hawai'i and the nation deserve.

Has Mufi’s strong fundraising lead and widespread appeal threatened Abercrombie’s run for governor, so much that he has to bail from one office to run fulltime for another?  Is he so afraid of his vote record and the tough votes that are pending in Congress?  Perhaps he’s embarrassed by the $3.5 million earmark he proposed for a company whose president co-chairs his gubernatorial campaign. 

On Wednesday December 16 Abercrombie's House Natural Resources subcommittee will vote on HR 2314, the "Native Hawaiian Government Reorganization Act of 2009" better known as the Akaka Bill.  The committee will meet at 10AM EST (5AM HST) in room 1324 Longworth.

The following day at 2:15PM EST (9:15AM HST) the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, meeting in Dirksen room 628, is scheduled to vote on the companion bill--S1011.  The vote had been originally scheduled for December 9 but has been rescheduled to the 17th. 

HEALTH DEAL UNRAVELING:  This fight isn't over yet, no matter how many times the media tries to declare the death of the public option. It'd only take one or two senators to unravel this deal, and progressive senators Russ Feingold and Bernie Sanders both indicated last night that their support can't be taken for granted.   (...so sad...)

Our priorities include:

• stimulating the economy and creating jobs,
• reforming our public education system,
• developing clean energy sources while achieving energy security,
• modernizing our transportation infrastructure,
• protecting the environment, and
• creating brighter futures for our students through scholastic robotics and other STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) education programs.

The HSTA has conspired with the DoE and BoE to make the furloughs as damaging as possible in order to put Hawaii schools so far out of the competition that the Hawaii Legislature will see no point in trying to enact the education reforms which could help win “Race to the Top” funding.

Four Hawai’i schools who competed at the Pan Pacific Championship qualified to advance to the VEX Robotics World Championship that will take place at the Dallas Convention Center and Arena April 22 - 24, 2010, including: Honokaa High School, Waiakea High School, McKinley High School, Pearl Highlands Intermediate.  At the World Championship, these winning teams will have the opportunity to challenge their top-ranked peers from other countries around the world, including teams from the Asian Robotics League, South America and Europe.

With discussions stalled until mid-December, public unions bosses are showing their priorities do not lie with Hawai'i’s children.  They simply ignore the financial reality the rest of Hawai'i has already begun to face.  Instead of reallocating from the DOE/BOE bureaucracy, these uncaring public union leaders are mercilessly pulling more money from teachers’ pockets and valuable class time from students.

Almost three weeks since the plan was announced, we are still in lengthy and unproductive discussions with the State Teachers union.  It is disappointing that the next discussions aren’t scheduled again until December 15th and 16th. This delay will seriously impact the possibility of teachers voting on the contract changes and the convening of a special session to enact the necessary legislation to use the State’s Rainy Day Fund.  This will result in further loss of classroom time in the month of January.

Dr. Frank Sayre and Laura Mallery-Sayre experienced first-hand the heroism of the Hawai‘i Fire Department when they lost their son in a hiking accident in Polulu Valley.  The Hawai‘i Fire Department did not have rappelling ropes long enough to reach the bottom of the valley, so firefighters flew a helicopter into the narrow terrain at great personal risk.

Since then, Frank and Laura, motivated by the bravery and heroism of the firefighters, began the Daniel Sayre Foundation to raise money to buy equipment for the Hawai‘i Fire Department. Their efforts have been met with resounding success in the community, as they have raised more than $400,000 to provide essential life-saving equipment and training for our firefighters.

Cadets await speech at West Point

"After vacillating for months, I am happy the President has finally made up his mind to confront the Taliban and defeat Islamic radicals.  This is the right decision and deserves our nation's full support," stated Djou.  "The war in Afghanistan is a fight we must win."

The ‘Small Business Survival Index' helps business owners and investors understand the public policy burdens placed on entrepreneurship and small business, with the states ranked accordingly.

While Obama has been at great pains to make a show of avoiding taxes on the middle class to pay for his health care changes, his proposed increase in Medicaid eligibility will have a huge impact on the 39 states whose income cutoffs for the program are below those required in the new federal legislation.  States....will have to raise their eligibility for Medicaid under the Senate health care bill. And they will have to pay for part of the cost.

Councilmember Djou introduced legislation to extend the ban on sleeping to City sidewalks, but a majority of council members blocked advancement of Djou’s measure. Djou is now seeking to apply an existing ordinance that bans structures on municipal sidewalks to the tents surrounding Kapiolani Park.

Djou fully supports giving free taxpayer financed mental health, drug counseling and shelter to those in need, but does not support converting City parks into private property.

When you read some of those files – including 1079 emails and 72 documents – you realise just why the boffins at Hadley CRU might have preferred to keep them confidential. As Andrew Bolt puts it, this scandal could well be “the greatest in modern science”. These alleged emails – supposedly exchanged by some of the most prominent scientists pushing AGW theory – suggest:

Conspiracy, collusion in exaggerating warming data, possibly illegal destruction of embarrassing information, organised resistance to disclosure, manipulation of data, private admissions of flaws in their public claims and much more.

“The legislative auditor’s report of DBEDT offers erroneous findings and demonstrates a lack of understanding and appreciation of the critical role Hawai‘i’s overseas offices in Beijing and Taipei play in the economic future of our state.

“Hawai‘i is one of only two states in the United States that has been granted the opportunity to have an ongoing presence in China—the world’s fastest growing economy.  The Beijing office, under the leadership of Bo Wu and the Taiwan Office under Alex Lei have both been instrumental in developing solid working relationships with Chinese business, government, academic, and cultural leaders.

Our study found that the Hawai‘i Teacher Standards Board is in a state of confusion, unable to develop, administer, and deliver an effective teacher licensing program.  The board’s failure jeopardizes federal funding for the Department of Education (DOE), which is struggling to meet the requirements of the federal No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB). The board has not applied new standards to teachers seeking an initial license. Moreover, the executive director assumed the board’s authority to approve new or initial licenses, which clouds the validity of approximately 3,800 licenses issued since 2003. Further, the board has no rules and procedures for appeals.

Hawaii Department of Education Hawaiian Studies instruction statewide has suffered a "decade of decline" as funding for the salaries of "kupuna program" instructors and teaching assistants are diverted to other uses.  The diversion of resources out of the classroom stems from "vague guidelines" and "weak oversight" according to a January, 2008 Audit report prepared by Hawaii State Auditor Marion M. Higa.

The Audit cites the Hawaii Board of Education and the top leadership of the Department of Education for "leaving the program without direction and in decline for more than a decade."

Confronted this spring with a $468M DoE two-year budget cut, the HSTA, DoE, and BoE went straight to the "Washington Monument Gambit"--cutting the most sensitive and prominent services.  Hawaiian style, this means the HSTA, DoE, and BoE conspired together to make furloughs as inconvenient as possible in order to pressure the Legislature for tax increases.  Also targeted, high school athletics.  Will they now settle for a one-time shot of $50 million?

The Honolulu City Council has won release of a previously unpublished Qmark Research poll cited as showing support for rail by Honolulu Mayor Mufi Hannemann.

Today, unions are dependent on government, not the private sector, for their livelihood. Therefore, unions like the SEIU have little interest in private sector job growth. Private sector jobs don’t help fund $60.7 million political campaigns. But government jobs do.

By now everybody who is paying attention knows that "furlough Fridays" were made as inconvenient as possible by the Hawaii Department of Education (DoE) and the Hawaii State Teachers Association (HSTA) in order to pressure the Legislature for tax increases.  Governor Lingle has proposed giving the DoE a $50M ransom payment from the "Rainy Day" fund if the HSTA and DoE agree to transfer furlough Fridays to non-instructional days.  But even without the extra $50M--and after the budget cuts made necessary by the decline of tourism--the DoE has plenty of money to keep schools open without cutting any class time. 

So what is the DoE wasting taxpayer money on?

"This is potentially very big news for the future of tourism in Hawai‘i. It will bring back a lot of jobs if we’re successful at bringing it about." -- Gov Lingle 

How this would be accomplished:

1.        Use 15 non-classroom days (between Jan. 1, 2010 and June 30, 2011) when teachers are paid but do not teach classes to restore all teaching days lost on Furlough Fridays beginning Jan. 1, 2010.  (For those teachers who work on a 12-month schedule, a comparable adjustment would be made.)

2.        The cost of restoring the remaining 12 days would be achieved by using money out of the Emergency Budget Reserve Fund (Rainy Day Fund).  Estimated cost to Rainy Day Fund would be $50 million.

HONOLULU – Governor Linda Lingle today said the selection of Hawai‘i to host the 2011 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Leaders Meeting is an affirmation of Hawai‘i’s strategic role as a leader in the Asia-Pacific region, and will help build a stronger economic foundation for Hawai‘i’s future.  President Barack Obama, who will host the Hawai‘i meeting, announced Hawai‘i’s winning bid today during the APEC Leaders Meeting being held in Singapore.

Under the Military and Overseas Voter Empowerment (MOVE) Act, signed into law as part of the Defense Authorization Act October 28 by President Barack Obama, ballots must be mailed to overseas voters--including deployed US military personnel-- at least 45 days before an election.

In reaction to MOVE becoming law, State election officials nationwide are scrambling.  Minnesota Secretary of State Marc Ritchie is asking legislators to move Minnesota's September 14 primary up by at least one month.  Colorado officials are working to move their 2012 primary to the first Tuesday in August...

Photo taken from mauka area of Hilo as clouds clear from summit just at sunset.  Snow is barely visible on Mauna Kea left of palm trees.  Check out time lapse video from summit...