Despite the campaign rhetoric lawmakers chant over and over during the campaign season that Hawaii voters can trust them as representatives of their constituents, it seems that there is a growing cynicism that lawmakers cannot be trusted.... 

"... S1409, the Improper Payments Elimination and Recovery Improvement Act, would create greater oversight and accountability in federal spending .... "

A zero score would indicate that the Member of Congress approved every spending proposal and opposed every pro-taxpayer reform....

Profitable non-profit boss Alex Santiago of PHOCUSED pulled papers on April 1. The negative against Santiago was a softball compared to the others, so draw your own conclusions....

We are left to guess the initial refining partner – though it is not difficult to surmise that Tesoro has been the test partner to date, and presumably would be the first to license and deploy the process....

The State of Hawaii has a long history of refusing to count military personnel and their families for purposes of reapportioning the state legislature. A lawsuit filed today asks a three-judge federal court to enforce the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution and require the State to count all residents of Hawaii.

Under the accounting rules mandated in the Federal Credit Reform Act of 1990 (FCRA), the Bank is allowed to treat its loan guarantees as risk-free in consideration of potential losses.  

"...legislators passed out a teacher evaluation bill that would effectively strip teachers of the collective bargaining rights ..." -- Okabe

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The Hawaii State House, with 17 ‘no’ votes has transmitted to the Senate a resolution calling for convening of a US Constitutional Convention....

Today's jobs report shows that two years into recovery the U.S. economy is still woefully underperforming, adding only 120,000 new jobs in March, about half the rate of job growth of the previous three months which were, themselves, somewhat disappointing for this stage of recovery.

The combined effect of these regulations and grant requirements are that a state would have to agree to surrender any last vestiges of meaningful control over how Obamacare is implemented. Thus, a state would now have no more real control over an exchange it set up than over one HHS established....

Brace yourself. In a mere 271 days, you and your fellow Americans will be hit with a tax hike the likes of which this country has never seen....

Hawaii State Representative Kymberly Pine today announced her candidacy for the Honolulu City Council District 1 (Leeward Coast) ....

Senator Blas introduced a resolution that requests Guam’s Delegate to the U.S. House of Representatives to introduce legislation to exempt Guam, Puerto Rico, Hawaii, and Alaska from the U.S. Build provision of the Jones Act....

Former Governor Linda Lingle, candidate for Hawaii's open U.S. Senate seat, will host U.S. Senator Susan Collins at a special luncheon at the Sheraton Waikiki on Wednesday, April 11 from 12:00 - 1:30 p.m....

If you're looking for an iron-clad indictment of Barack Obama's failed fiscal policies, you don't have to look much farther than the President's own words in a speech he delivered yesterday at the Associated Press luncheon in Washington, D.C....

The Mormon vote in Laie is reminiscent of the margins that Democrats often pull in inner-cities. It’s pretty stunning.

• Rafe Trickey
• Edward T. Knudson
• Erika L. Lacro

...even the most basic attempts at experimentation have to wait endlessly for federal approval and many are rejected....

Last year, as the government of Bahrain violently suppressed an Arab Spring protest movement, an unlikely champion of the small Gulf nation emerged on Capitol Hill in Washington: Democratic Rep. Eni Faleomavaega, the delegate from American Samoa....

...politicians of all colors and persuasions have used these one time or another....

Members of PACAID with current licenses and prescribing privileges for controlled substances can serve a consulting role to patients and their doctors, and write a prescription for life-ending medication if the primary physician declines to do so ....

During the Committee meeting, the DOE noted that annual savings of $12 million to $15 million may be achieved as current contracts expire and are replaced with contracts that offer contractors the opportunity to lease buses from the DOE....

Private health insurers generally don’t limit hospital coverage ....

Three interceptor ships near Japan and the Philippines, as well as U.S.-based interceptors, are ready to shoot down the North Korean missile if space-, land-, and sea-based sensors determine its flight path is targeted at the United States or U.S. allies....

While the President is throwing stones at the court, he's living in a glass house ....

Governor Neil Abercrombie today made more nominations to several boards and commissions including the Hawai'i Tourism Authority and the Land Use Commission....

Only six agencies responded that in order to track cell phones, they must first get a warrant or have probable cause: County of Hawaii, Hawaii; Honolulu, Hawaii; Wichita, Kan.; Lexington, Ky.; Lincoln, Neb.; and North Las Vegas, Nev....

Recent Congressional Votes

• Senate: 21st Century Postal Service Act of 2011
• Senate: Repeal Big Oil Tax Subsidies Act
• House: Federal Communications Commission Process Reform Act of 2011
• House: Surface Transportation Extension Act
• House: Democratic Alternative Budget
• House: Fiscal 2013 House Budget Resolution

As of yesterday, the U.S. corporate tax rate of 39.2 percent claimed the world's top spot, edging out Japan which recently lowered its rate from 39.5 percent to 36.8 percent. (The U.S. rate includes the 35 percent federal rate plus the average rate the states add on.)

Will House Republicans save Hawaii's Prepaid Health insurance law from Abercrombie's effort to destroy it? 

The Hawaii state legislature has taken dead aim at NAFTA and the provisions it requires of the state, and the protections it affords Canadians who make cross-border investments in vacation rental properties….

More than a thousand ships and barges will reach the end of their useful lives in the next few years. More may be forced out of service as environmental standards tighten....

Hawaii banks and Hawaii’s housing sector largely avoided subprime lending....  But Hawaii’s political leaders are working to change all of that. 

For more than a dozen years now, lawmakers have been touting the tax credit bandwagon....

“In my interview, they actually suggested I run for office as a Republican and then convert to the Democratic Party,” Thielen said.... “One person on the committee asked, ‘Would you bring your mother into the Democratic Party?’”

"The Ex-Im Bank is critical to help U.S. companies to access financing to support the exports of their goods and services abroad. In fact, 85% of Ex-Im Bank's transactions directly supported small businesses last year."

...he did not want to leave his medical colleagues at the hospital short-handed.  "He didn't eat (on shift), he didn't pee, he wasn't going to say 'I need to take an hour off to go to therapy,'" said Mrs. McCaddon....

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Honolulu Tea Party Rally Event, April 16, 2012, Monday from 4:00pm to 7:00pm ....

Chief Justice Mark E. Recktenwald has selected a site across the street from the West Hawai`i Civic Center for the new judiciary complex in Kona....

Hawai`i Supreme Court Chief Justice Mark E. Recktenwald is seeking applicants for Chair of the Hawai`i State Elections Commission.

NRA instructor liability protection legislation has been scheduled for a hearing in the state Senate Committee on Judiciary and Labor this Monday, April 2, at 10:00 a.m., in conference room 16 of the State Capitol....

Liberals put on an election-year show, with the personal encouragement of President Barack Obama, in which they attempted to impose higher taxes on the oil industry as punishment for their profits while gas prices are at an all-time high....

TARP, provided Central Pacific with a $135 million financial lifeline in the midst of the recession but will be collecting only about $74 million from selling its Central Pacific stock .... 

...actual growth was up 2.5 percent over a year ago (207,298 visitors per day in February 2012); and an adjusted total visitor spending of $1.061† billion would still be 4.7 percent above February 2011 levels....

Less than one year ago, Congress formally recognized that "the failures of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac helped precipitate the deepest economic decline since World War II."

House Bill 679, important NRA instructor liability protection legislation, MUST be heard in the state Senate Judiciary Committee next week or it will die....

When the wheels start coming off this project, as they undoubtedly will, we predict that many fingers will be pointing at your agency....