The next step in the process is to begin contract negotiations with Ormat, with an agreement to be submitted to the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) for approval....

Marijuana advocates are hard at work trying to game the system....

Italy’s largest union, Cgil, called for “a meeting with the government to discuss the possibility of blocking the sale to protect jobs and one of the country’s strategic industries.”

...a short documentary film to educate the public about the Jones Act, which will be shown this Friday, February 27, 2015 at 12pm in the Capitol Auditorium....

Also in the H&R Block report is the news that the individual mandate penalty is averaging $172. This is likely to rise in future years....

...While the FCC is inserting government bureaucracy into all aspects of Internet access, the FEC is debating whether to regulate Internet content, specifically political speech posted for free online....

"We want to encourage parents to always be the ones that are responsible for what their kids are learning in the public school system," Hawaii Family Forum's Eva Andrade said....

Neighborhood Board elections will be held in April and May of this year. At stake are 437 seats on Oahu’s 33 Neighborhood Boards....

...a surprise announcement to over 450 guests at the annual Lincoln Dinner....

"That you're not only outlining the timeline — which is troubling, but you're also talking about specifically how many troops, how many brigades, where they're coming from, and what they're going to be doing...."

The state House investigation of a challenge to former speaker Calvin Say’s right to hold his seat in Hawaii’s House of Representatives has taken a new twist....

...Thursday, March 5, 2015, from 6:00 - 7:15 p.m. at the Farrington High School Cafeteria....

Under SB358, gas will be taxed more heavily than oil....

If approved, Hawaii taxpayers could find themselves providing $44M in loan guarantees to an Indian company's jet fuel deal in England....

...we are exporting around 15%-20% of our general excise tax....

SB 473, SD1, proposing carry permit issue rules under the Federal retired Law Enforcement Officers Safety Act (LEOSA), has a hearing, Tuesday, 02-24 at 9:15AM....

The Hawaii State Legislature opened on January 21, 2015 and today, February 20, 2015, is DECKING.  What that means is that all bills that have been assigned to multiple committees, must have moved to their final committees....

Incorporating the precautionary principle into public policy is itself “an activity [that] raises threats of harm to human health or the environment.”....

In the past nine years, Utah has decreased the number of homeless by 72 percent—largely by finding and building apartments where they can live, permanently, with no strings attached....

The 2015 Neighborhood Board elections will be held in April and May of this year. At stake are 437 seats on Oahu’s 33 Neighborhood Boards....

... According to ITEP, payment of sales and excise taxes takes up an average of 11% of family income for the poorest 20% of earners ....

The fasted growing type of pass-through business is the S corporation....

We have good news to share about our fights against unfair taxes and regulation....

The best part of the hearing was hearing Dustin Barca go on about toxins and the horrible corporations. He even talked about how the cigarette companies and their evils. It’s weird because I just saw him smoking some corporate grown tobacco and inhaling toxins....

...the effect of this bill is to burden the compliant small businesses and owner/operator establishments by creating a system that favors larger rental companies and hotels....

The Hawaii state legislature committed three more waivers of notice....

...bills that might have negative impacts on families or communities....

The deadline to submit completed candidate and voter registration forms for Neighborhood Board elections is this Friday, February 20, 2015....

Church attendance provides ties that bind members to their communities, and research shows that at the individual level, those who are most religious have higher well-being than those who are less religious....

House Republicans speak out on the floor of the legislature....

“With Hawaii’s all-Democrat Congressional delegation taking a back seat in the Republican controlled congress, we’re honored to give the people of Hawaii a chance to hear from a sitting United States Senator in the majority Party."

Honolulu Ranks 42nd Overall (tied with Irving, TX): 77th for 'Income Diversity' and 101st for 'Educational Diversity'....

Senator Slom said, "I am very pleased to see that Rep. Fukumoto Chang has taken a more proactive, pragmatic approach as House Minority leader than her predecessor...."

...anti-gun Senate Bills 783 and 462 were deferred indefinitely....

Babes Against Biotech opposed DeCoite....

Hawaii and Colorado are the only states to finish in the top 10 every year since 2008....

Read their testimony below....

Wednesday March 11th at 10 AM in room 229....

Refineries would have access to cheaper domestically-produced crude oil, which would lower the cost of gasoline, diesel and fuel oil. And there would be less need for imported oil....

...Judicial Watch and former Hawaii Attorney General Michael Lilly are filing suit to compel the Native Hawaiian Roll Commission to release the list to the public....

Local, democratic control over the island’s energy infrastructure....

The deadline to submit completed candidate and voter registration forms for Neighborhood Board elections is this Friday, February 20, 2015....

Requires PUC to establish community-based renewable energy tariff or tariffs by no later than January 1, 2016....

...Healthcare.gov failed customers on the last hours of open enrollment this past weekend and now anyone who had problems signing up is getting an extension....