Yesterday we were a great team. We showed the Oahu Metropolitan Planning Organization's Policy Committee how important it was to secure the $1 million in funding for a new study to advance a secondary access road to serve the Waianae Coast.

 Just in time for the opening of the Hawaii Legislature, a US DoJ memo released December 23 overturns decades of legal interpretation and effectively legalizes intra-state online gambling....

Question: Does Hawaii want to be saddled with a partisan hack like Hirono when Democrats are in the minority?

For President Barack Obama, 2011 began with a bang -- a bold pronouncement that his green dream for America would bring forth a jobs explosion and a new economy fueled by alternative energy, a vision he likened to President John F. Kennedy's "moon shot" in the 1960s....

Would you be outraged if the Department of Justice shut down The Foundry without any warning and blocked access for more than a year?  That's exactly what happened to a hip-hop blog called Dajaz1.com, which was falsely accused of criminal copyright infringement....

A terrorist wanna-be from Staten Island ratted out dozens of people he called pro-jihadists in New York and Hawaii after he was arrested by the FBI-NYPD Joint Terrorist Task Force, it was revealed Tuesday....

...the Organ Transplant Bill which could have saved HMC may now be fast-tracked by legislators now that HMC is dead. As a bonus, legislators are tacking on eight other bills ....

A public hearing to discuss the new school impact fees will be held at Waipahu High School library on Wednesday, December 28, 2011, at 3:00 p.m....

Nona’s father had installed cameras all around the home so he could watch the family’s comings and goings. Others said he nailed her bedroom window shut so she could not sneak out at night and see her boyfriend....

Medicine is undergoing industrialization where doctors who previously operated in small offices with relative autonomy are becoming owned commodities of large hospitals and health plans.... 

Instead of waging a war on the rich, a virtuous war should be waged on society's predators, pirates and parasites....

There was no lack of education news in 2011. From an explosion in school choice options to the Obama Administration's executive overreach, the top stories included the high and low lights when it came to issues affecting America's schools....

Psychology, economics and organizational science suggest that too many regulations may make society less safe .... 

Faced with mounting budget deficits, more states are expanding gambling options and loosening restrictions in a grab for revenue....

With Medicare's hospital trust fund set to be exhausted by 2024 according to the latest report from the program's trustees, federal officials are understandably looking for easy ways to cut spending ....

... we are often told that religion is divisive and ought to kept away from politics for the sake of liberty. Religion somehow is opposed to liberty, and so liberty requires a diminution of religion in the public square ....

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HECO is attempting to stampede the Legislature into forking out even more money for Big Wind and the big undersea cables that go with it.

Kohala Sugar was one of the first sugar operations that failed and state government decided it could save jobs by stepping in with all sorts of ideas to replace the agricultural activity.... millions of state dollars literally went down the drain.

The day-by-day, bank-by-bank numbers...formed the basis of a series of Bloomberg News articles this year about the largest financial bailout in history....

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If confirmed by the State Senate, DesJardins will serve in office for six years....

"Our elders are saying that these seals are not Hawaiian.  Our young people are calling these seals an invasive species brought in by government.  The seals are now the easy targets of blame for the many ills of our depleting fisheries." -- Walter Ritte

The Malulani Foundation continues to lay the groundwork for a new, people's hospital on Maui....

With this vote, the House rejected the Senate's two-month extension of the Social Security payroll tax reduction and requested a conference to consider a yearlong extension....

...this case begins with the original reclassification of 1,060 acres on the Big Island "agricultural" to "urban" use in 1989, subject to the condition that the original owner develop 60 percent of the proposed 2,760 housing units as "affordable" units....

The politics of resentment has characterized much of 2011. It's been fueled by an entitlement mentality that "threatens not only the spirit of Christmas but the very fabric of a just and prosperous society," Messmore says....

After determining that 9,000 of the eligible 24,000 school-age students in military families were not attending public schools, top military leaders commissioned Johns Hopkins University researchers to focus on attitudes and opinions about the Hawaii education system.

Never before have a team of climate ‘realists’ testified before any committee, in the Senate or the Commons. 

Where did this surplus come from? From Hawaii’s hard-working families and businesses who had to shoulder an estimated $600 million in additional taxes over these two years....

One of the most important intellectual and policy battles, which remains relevant today, is over how to defend both civil liberties and security in time of war....

Pity the much-maligned plastic bag....

Lingle's fundraising report is going to scare Democrats when it comes out in January....

... one thing here that might give Ms. Lingle hope, short of a meltdown in the Democratic primary, would be the governor. “How Abercrombie does will matter,” he said, “and affect the Senate race. And affect the future of the party.”....

"Litigation would be our next step" - IBEW

...without a revised contract, the State cannot fully implement many initiatives in its approved Race to the Top plans.... (Now you know why the HSTA has been stalling.)

SBH CPA, Natalie Iwasa, reminds us that the state legislature passed several bills earlier this year that may have an impact on you and your business. In addition, there are some changes in reporting requirements for credit cards, and the IRS mileage rate changed....

...the U.S. Senate is home for the holidays already, celebrating with family while Washington sits in a stalemate....

...most people on the left who use the word “progressive” are actually reactionaries....

Low Medicare/Medicaid reimbursements are a key cause of HMC’s financial difficulties. Now it appears that Prime’s solution to the low reimbursement problem is simple—just cheat.

"Look, the Taliban per se is not our enemy. That’s critical. There is not a single statement that the president has ever made in any of our policy assertions that the Taliban is our enemy because it threatens U.S. interests."

PolitiFact debunked the Medicare charge in nine separate fact-checks rated False or Pants on Fire, most often in attacks leveled against Republican House members.  Now, PolitiFact has chosen the Democrats’ claim as the 2011 Lie of the Year….

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The next and final council meeting on this is Wednesday, December 21....

They were issued three weeks ago with no public announcement....

Abercrombie's budget seeks to achieve a healthy surplus, incorporates savings achieved through solid fiscal management, funds high-priority programs, and does not rely upon any tax increases....

Upcoming Congressional Bills

• House: Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act of 2011

...the Hawaii Civil Rights Commission moved to intervene in the lawsuit as a plaintiff in order to protect and enforce the state antidiscrimination law, which Aloha Bed & Breakfast claims does not and cannot constrain its conduct....

...the surprise development raises concerns about its impact on Pyongyang's ongoing leadership transition, regime stability, and North Korean security and foreign policies....

It is a hopeful vision of the future of broad prosperity.’ But it's hard to see how voters are going to see any hope at all.” (John Dickerson, “Obama’s Victory Plan,” Slate, 12/13/11)