The state Department of Education is preparing for an on-site visit March 27-30 from the U.S. Department of Education.  During the visit, federal officials will examine the State’s Race to the Top progress ....

“Rep. Colleen Hanabusa (D-Hawaii) collected more than $31,000 in interest on a $125,000 loan….”

land devoted to organic farming produces 50 percent less wheat, 55 percent less asparagus and lettuce, and 23 percent less corn than conventionally farmed land....

Medicaid beneficiaries have more difficulty getting primary care and they visit hospital emergency departments more often than those with private insurance....

A heavily subsidized solar company received a U.S. taxpayer loan guarantee to sell solar panels to itself....

Mazie has accepted none because she fears any public exchange of views or comparison of our candidacies and has been instructed to remain behind a carefully scripted campaign front. That is conduct unbecoming a U. S. Senator."

SB2492 regulating ownership of intact dogs is set to go before a Hawaii House committee today.

Disgraced former Obama “green jobs czar” Van Jones made an appearance in Hawaii last night in which he ripped on the “American fantasy” and called for socialistic approaches to wealth redistribution, while castigating Obama opponents as America-haters ....

The U.S. Department of Commerce today released tourism data revealing that international and domestic tourism spending increased 8.1 percent in 2011....

Schoenwetter was sentenced to eight years in a federal prison—a term longer than what some violent criminals could spend in lockup—for domestic regulatory offenses that did not even violate foreign law.

...gas prices keep going up, with no end in sight. But instead of taking action to bring relief to the American people, the Obama Administration is patting itself on the back for a job well done ....

More than 1,000 high-school students from around the world will have the opportunity to showcase their hard work after an intense six weeks of designing and building an original robot....

"A potential new champion of progressivism is Mazie Hirono...." -- In These Times 

We were contacted in early March by the parents of a fourth grade student in Hawaii regarding a local school’s policy that discriminated against religious speech....

Abercrombie in 2009 asked Hawaii to gamble its entire public-sector and private-sector economy on a promise of “Green Jobs” from a "former" communist Czar whose nervous breakdown was healed by a tree-sitter named “Butterfly.” Now they're teaming up to launch a State-owned Bank backed by your tax dollars.

Union Bank served as Administrative Agent and Joint Lead Arranger. Other Joint Lead Arrangers include Bayern LB, Rabobank and Siemens Financial Services. CIBC and CoBank also participated in the financing.

The once proud and comparatively wealthy Cubans are now among the poorest in the hemisphere, definitely the least informed and, consequently, the least free. 

SB755 SD2 HD1 exempts all state projects from Chapter 343 requirements and environmental oversight ....

Olympia Snowe showed her importance to the Senate's pro-choice firewall when she voted against the Blunt Amendment. After she retires her most likely GOP successor on this issue is Hawaii's former governor, Linda Lingle.

Numerous evolving bills, including SB 2927 SD 2, SB2873, SB2012 and HB2154 HD2, will exempt state and county government actions and development from Hawaii’s laws ....

The HSTA and the Abercrombie administration have fallen into name calling and finger pointing....This is a sure sign that a deal is in the works and they are both in on it.

Paul Ryan (R-WI), Chairman of the House Budget Committee, will release his budget blueprint today .... 

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The Nationwide Rally for Religious Freedom is being held Friday, March 23 at noon, outside the Prince Kuhio Federal Building 300 Ala Moana Bl, Honolulu.

The UK Daily Mail asks: Does Kamaoa point to the future of Britain's Wind Farms?

In the Aloha State, when big feeds and free drinks are involved, controversy is close behind....

Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century (MAP-21) Act - Vote Passed (74-22, 4 Not Voting)

The Senate passed this $109 billion bill that would fund transportation programs and projects for the next two years. It is unclear at this time whether the House will pass a two or five year bill.

Next week, the Supreme Court will hear arguments on its constitutionality, bringing this intolerable act to the forefront of the American mind once again and reminding the country that the issue of Obamacare is by no means settled....

The Holy Grail for many cargo interests shipping by ocean in the domestic Hawaii and Guam trades is an unrequited generational quest to find a way to take advantage of the existing mainline Trans-Pacific container carriers passing regularly Westbound by the islands ....

Another 600 construction jobs were lost in the Honolulu area between January 2011 and January 2012, a 3 percent decline, according to an analysis released by the Associated General Contractors of America ....

Yoshioka’s statement in the Final EIS, “… traffic congestion will be worse in the future with rail than what it is today without rail …”

...

 Thus, even purportedly green activity could be "development" after all, even if it involves a native Hawaiian fishpond....

SB2123, SB2576, SB2579 are before the Senate Judiciary Committee ....

Shown on Molokai March 14 and 15--will this must-see film come to your local theater?

Only one firearms bill remains alive, HB679 HD1, providing limited immunity from the state "absolute liability" statute to NRA Instructors....

Many of Faleomavaega’s antics are recounted elsewhere in this blog but just to give an example, after the killing of Osama Bin Laden Faleomavaega rose up on the House floor to demand that President Obama and then-CIA Director Leon Panetta apologize to native Americans for using “Geronimo” as a code word in the operation. Needless to say, he was ignored. Many think he is nuts. 

At 7:22 p.m. ET, with about 18% of total ballots accounted for, the former Massachusetts governor had a substantial lead with more than nearly 20,000 votes -- or 83% of the votes....

The obvious purpose, they say, is for North Korea to test the latest version of a missile with a range that could deliver a small nuclear warhead as far as Hawaii, Alaska – or even the US west coast.

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In some cases, constituents have come to believe that they are entitled to many of these programs and services, that is until they realized how much they are paying for these services.  Such is the case in public housing ....

Total Delegates: Romney 9, Santorum 5, Paul 3

The award recognizes the year’s most notable offense for keeping the public in the dark....

The beginnings of a construction recovery that we had anticipated failed to materialize last year.... the much ballyhooed plans for large, ongoing public sector spending fizzled.

Republican presidential front-runner Mitt Romney is sparing no effort to win votes in the U.S. territories and commonwealths ....

"Governor Romney's wins over the same period in Wyoming, the Northern Marianas, Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Hawaii, and American Samoa have helped expand his delegate lead, pushing closer to the nomination."

After having served in Afghanistan, after serving with real American heroes, I know that the problems and issues facing our community and our country can be fixed through solid leadership and by each and every one of us coming together to do our small part. 

• Romney: 4548
• Santorum: 2589
• Paul: 1975
• Gingrich: 1116

• Michelle L. Drewyer
• Kirstin Hamman
• Adrianne N. Heely
• Adriel C.S. Menor
• Lloyd A. Poelman
• Douglas J. Sameshima

Chief Justice Mark E. Recktenwald today appointed Shirley M. Kawamura and Paul B.K. Wong to the District Court of the First Circuit (Oahu).