National News

A Lingle-Hirono campaign would be a rematch from their 2002 gubernatorial face-off.  Lingle, who outraised Hirono in that contest, won that race by five percentage points.

United States-Korea Free Trade Agreement Implementation Act - H.R.3080

The House is scheduled to vote on implementing a trade pact with South Korea.

Abercrombie and officials from the Hawai'i Tourism Authority (HTA) ... met with representatives of various Japanese agencies that are key partners in the visitor industry.

it's vitally important to quickly enact the three pending U.S. trade agreements with Colombia, Panama, and South Korea. These FTAs have been sitting on the President's desk since 2007 for no good reason. President Obama has finally made them a priority by sending them to Congress last Monday night....

Here we go again with another round of spending in an attempt to convince voters that the national leadership knows what they are doing.

 Yesterday at the White House, President Barack Obama faced the media to once again plug the American Jobs Act--his plan for more stimulus spending, paid for with even more taxes on America's job creators. And this morning, not a day later, America received a reminder of why a continuation of the President's tried-and-failed policies is not a prescription for success....

Just substitute “Hawaiian” for “Alaskan” and you can see what CNHA is all about.)

“What I am going to do? Am I going to just sit around and do nothing? I was hurt,” he said of his reaction to Case’s challenge to Akaka.

“He hasn’t given me any explanation, and if that’s the way he’s going to deal with me, I don’t want to deal with a person like that.”  

Precluding pre-enforcement judicial review buttresses a regime where EPA has assumed the authority to enjoin development by issuing unreviewable compliance orders. Such a result is repugnant to the core principle in the Due Process Clause that "[n]o person shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law."

Steve Jobs, who died yesterday at the too-young age of 56, was a living refutation of all what liberals constantly tell us about our country ....

Neither snow, nor rain, nor heat is supposed to stop the United States Postal Service (USPS) from delivering mail, but can it be saved from mounting debt, plummeting volume, and the not-so-slow-motion postal train wreck coming quickly down the road?

In case you missed it, the campaign got some great media coverage on Sunday. Governor Lingle helped us with a successful fundraiser and Stacey shared an update on what Charles is doing in Afghanistan.

As the United States Army's mission in Iraq winds down, soldiers find themselves giving up progressively more of their creature comforts. At Contingency Operating Station Garry Owen, Iraq, Soldiers from 215th Brigade Support Battalion, 3rd Advise and Assist Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division are “getting lean” in preparation for that day.

...why has the incidence of disability diagnosis increased so drastically in 25 years? Several studies suggest that this increase has occurred because schools are incentivized to do so....

What did the President know and when did he know it, goes the old Washington adage. Thus did the American people learn yesterday in separate but equally startling revelations that the Obama Administration knew more about two scandals than it has been revealing. The first is regarding the Operation Fast and Furious gun running disaster and the second is the now-bankrupt, Obama-backed Solyndra solar power company.

U.S. intelligence officials, aware of other planned attacks, had arrested several Muslim American converts who returned here after "studying" in the Sudan....

In a cert petition filed September 15, five Hawaii taxpayers argue that they have standing to challenge the constitutionality of property tax exemptions conferred on lessees of Hawaiian Homesteads.

...a data-driven justice reinvestment strategy to bring out-of-state prisoners back to Hawaii, reduce spending on corrections, and reinvest savings generated in strategies that would reverse recent crime trends....

It appears likely that Honolulu and FTA failed to consider reasonable alternatives and accurately assess the alternatives’ environmental consequences in the Final Environmental Impact Statement, as required under NEPA.

Orsi said Sept. 20 that there were no parties in advanced talks to buy AnsaldoBreda and that the unit’s newly appointed CEO, Maurizio Manfellotto, is working on an updated business plan.

Solar Reserve lists PCG Clean Energy and Technology Fund (East) LLC as an investment partner. Ronald Pelosi, brother-in-law of the House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, is an executive with PCG. Another investment partner: Argonaut Private Equity, is the employer of Steve Mitchell, who served on the Solyndra LLC Board of Directors....

Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), has written a letter to President Barack Obama warning him that his administration will “precipitate a national conflict between church and state of enormous proportions” if it does not “end its campaign against DOMA, the institution of marriage it protects, and religious freedom.”

American-born al-Qaida cleric Anwar al-Awlaki was killed Friday by a U.S. airstrike in Yemen, administration officials say.

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“The recent inclusion of the Republic of Korea in the Visa Waiver resulted in double number of visitor arrivals from Korea,” said Councilman Tom Berg....

"The average premium for single coverage in 2011 is $452 per month or $5,429 per year ... The average premium for family coverage is $1,256 per month or $15,073 per year."

What's driving those costs? In large part, Obamacare.

"The Defendants’ effort to remove some of the Plaintiffs from this case is a waste of the court’s time and the taxpayers’ money."

While the general fund budget may be balanced, the total fund budget is often far off the mark. To make matters worse, neither the state's general fund budget or its total fund budget take into account unfunded pension liabilities....

...they claimed that “a reusable bag needs only to be used eleven times to have a lower environmental impact than using eleven disposable bags.” They were close. It was actually 393 times or roughly 7.5 years to replace reusing a plastic bag just three times....

...Mullen declared that the military intelligence service of this supposed U.S. partner is directing the Haqqani network, a militant group responsible for attacks on Americans, including the 20-hour assault on the U.S. embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan, that left 27 dead....

"Production drives the economy, not spending."

Rick Perry has tumbled by more than 20 percentage points over the past month among Republican presidential primary voters and is now second to Herman Cain, who leads the field with 28%.

"I hope everybody can come together and move forward to win elections," said Dylan Nonaka, the former GOP executive director under Kaauwai. "We've got a lot of big opportunities next year, and it's time to move on and focus."

Yesterday, with Reid on the brink of forcing a government shutdown, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) announced things aren’t so dire. The agency has $114 million on hand for the remainder of the week, enough to get through the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30.

• Senate: Trade Adjustment Assistance Extension Act of 2011
• House: Short-Term Continuing Appropriations
• House: Cumulative Regulatory Analysis

In an "urgent" call to action distributed as a bulletin insert at Catholic churches across the country on Sunday, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops said that a new federal regulation proposed under President Barack Obama's health-care law "poses an unprecedented threat to individual and institutional religious freedom."

...on Friday, Obama doubled down, and did so by circumventing Congress and rewriting the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) law unilaterally in the White House.

How many professional protesters will be flown in by the well-heeled socialists who fund this circus?

Perhaps this would be a good time for airlines to adopt strict body odor rules on Hawaii-bound flights.

Among the 20,000 Chinese with at least 100 million yuan ($15 million) in individual investment assets, 27 percent have already emigrated and 47 percent are considering it, according to a report by China Merchants Bank and U.S. consultants Bain & Co. published in April.

Disney must now submit updated consumer-disclosure materials to regulators and other states. The company will begin with Florida, California, New York and Illinois, its most-important sales markets....

“The true engine of economic growth will always be companies like Solyndra.” – Barack Obama

Hawaii's, South Dakota's and New Mexico's sales taxes have broad bases that include many services....

President Barack Obama makes it sound as if there are millionaires all over America paying taxes at lower rates than their secretaries. The data tell a different story, says the Associated Press.

...federal health experts told them via email that CLASS would result in an "insurance death spiral." Congress passed it anyway.... 

In a move highly anticipated since its initial announcement in April, public libraries and schools in the U.S. can now lend eBooks for the Amazon® Kindle.

President Obama proposes to pay for his $447 billion jobs bill mainly by limiting tax deductions for wealthy Americans. Unfortunately, if enacted, this policy will likely dampen charitable giving....

“(Under ACA) the price of individual health insurance coverage might rise about 55% to 85%, excluding the impact of medical inflation….”

The President's words yesterday come after nearly three years of being weak on Israel, failing to condemn those who threaten the country's existence, and failing to draw a distinction between a freedom-loving nation and those who seek to wipe it off the map.

More registered voters say they would definitely vote for Mitt Romney or might consider doing so (62%) than say the same about his two main rivals in the 2012 presidential election, Democrat Barack Obama (54%) and Republican Rick Perry (53%). 

See it here ....