Enriques and his volunteers worked to bring new voters into the process and to mobilize discouraged voters.  They won with 52.2% of the vote defeating incumbent councilman Bob Jacobson by more than 10 percentage points 2,354 to 1,894.

According to Big Island Weekly editor Kristine Kubat's  September 3 column, “If you think the U.S. government was behind the 9-11 attack, you are not alone.”  Kubat then proceeds to promote “9-11 Truth Awareness” by inviting them to a 9-11 denier demonstration ...

Ritte’s phony “Save La`au” campaign has been falsely portrayed as an anti-development battle, but in reality it is a battle between two competing developers each tied to a different government group. 

Information is emerging that Obama acted to keep troops deployed. In a September 15 New York Post editorial, CNN and BBC contributor Amir Taheri writes that, according to Iraq’s Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari, Senator Obama in June told visiting Iraqi officials that President Bush’s government was in a ‘”state of weakness and political confusion’” so the negotiations should be postponed until after the election.

Plastic Bag Ban: Micromanaging our lives, Ban the banners, Free Speech vs. Political Correctness, DoE’s Drive for Mediocrity, SHPDA stalls W. Maui Hospital, Urgent Care in Puna  

Reporters have not noted Obama’s glaring conflict of interest—the Lehman debt owed to a bank possibly owned by the financier who loaned millions of dollars to Tony Rezko.

Your house is not the only target.  The bill also slams hospitals.   In the midst of Hawai`i’s medical crisis, a new 100,000 sq foot hospital would be required to fork out $545,100 to the county.  A 100,000 sq foot commercial center would be hit with $496,800 in new fees.  A new 100,000 sq foot school?  $108,000.  Nursing home?  $190,300.  Also targeted churches, industry, and warehouses. 

Our Primary Election endorsements:

There is nobody worthy of our endorsement running in the Hawai`i County Mayor’s race. Here are some quick points on the poor choices facing voters:

After 54 years of Yoshito Takamine and Dwight Takamine ruling HD 1 unchallenged, Takamine suddenly faces challenges both within and outside his own party. In late 2006 he attempted to “shed more blood, not less” of Ed Case supporters in the Legislature after Case’s defeat in the Democratic Senate Primary. Takamine failed and lost his powerful chairmanship of the House Finance Committee. Shunned, Takamine then racked up the worst attendance of any Legislator in the 2007 session. He then fled the House, announcing his campaign for the Senate District 1 seat being vacated by Sen. Lorraine’s decision to seek the Hawai`i County Mayor’s seat.

While activists and politicians futilely beg government to fund Urgent Care in Puna, private enterprise provides it. Thanks to what Dr Ed Gutteling calls “a very favorable deal” on rental of a Shipman-Estate-owned building near the Kea`au Police Station, Kea`au Urgent Care is up and running. Initial hours are M-F 8:30A -6P. Call 966-7942 for info.

Banning plastic bags – like banning other legal products (light bulbs, electric water heaters, etc)-- is much more than an inconvenience. Our individual-freedom-based “people first” way of life is being hijacked by a so-called environmental “earth first” dictatorship.

In Forbes magazine’s annual list of best states in which to do business, released July 31, Hawai`i jumped 10 spots to 27th place, compared to 37th in 2007 and 42nd in 2006. Of the six criteria taken into account, Hawai`i ranked fourth in the nation for economic climate and 10th for labor. This is a vast improvement from March 2002, when Forbes’ infamous article said doing business in Honolulu had “become nearly equivalent to suicide.”

In August, I helped launch a new after-school program at Hilo Intermediate School for students who are left alone and unsupervised once the school bell rings.

Usual suspects against telescope, Stop Bill 324, Fascist Takamine?, Tooo Stooopid to reelect Council, Kaua`i water victory, Marine Acquitted --- Injustice Remains, Against law to deny schooling, HSTA vs Con-Con

All the newspapers have missed the connections between convicted Pali shooter Ethan Malu Motta, his codefendants, and the incident at Shooters Bar and Grill....

Entrenched incumbents are relying on donations from corporations which do business with the state, lobbyists, political action committees (PACs) and labor unions. But unlike elections over the last few decades, these incumbents are facing well-funded challenges whose contributors include many fresh faces coming largely from within the electoral district.

Many Hawai`i County Council races will be decided in the September 20 primary election.

After years of thuggery and intimidation by Bob Jacobson’s Ka`u Preservation, Inc supporters, Council District 6 residents are fighting back....

All the peoples of Hawai’i need to awaken and realize that what the American Democratic Party was calling for – the need to have government insurance for all people – is the same thing that is happening today in Hawai’i; and it is failing!

We are at a crossroads of employment training here in our Hawai`i Public Schools. Our direction must follow more career technical training (vocational training) and secure the jobs that are coming online for our children.

Misinformation on Takamine Donors--Who is to judge?--Spaceport pipedream--Son kept out of school--Barack McGovern Obama--3rd in costs, 47th in rank--Finish the road already

Admitted Pali Golf Course shooter Ethan “Malu” Motta apparently had a lot of friends in Hilo—including politicians....

For thirteen years, Jim O’Keefe has delivered fresh-baked specialty breads to retail customers, restaurants and hotels on the Big Island. But the pressures which give Hawai`i a reputation as the nations’ worst business environment have taken their toll.

Sheep eradication has failed at affecting Palila numbers—but it sure has killed a lot of sheep.

Puna is one of the very few places in Hawai`i where young local families can afford to buy their own home and begin life as a family.  But environmentalists are working hard to put a stop to the inflow of locals and replicate the success they have had in making Maui and Kaua`i into exclusive havens for rich mainland transplants.

Our fifth annual conference is taking place Wednesday, September 24, 2008 from 8:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. at the Sheraton Waikīkī Hotel and Resort.

Since 80% of smokers start by the time they are age 18, prevention is the key.

The plastic bag ban has a certain lucrative logic to it. It turns out that plastic bags gum up plastic recycling machines and reduce the resale value of bundled used plastics. So what is the solution? Improve the recycling machines so they don’t become gummed up? No. Instead recycling companies are using their clout with City and County governments all over the world to impose plastic bag bans. They will inconvenience the public rather than improve their technology.

Puna doesn’t need CDP--Lay off the bureaucrats--Queen of the Tree People blocks WTE--Commission violates rules for HD24--The People’s Rights-- ‘Banana patch’ to be cleared for rail project?

Hawai`i state graduation rates were about 7 in 10 on O`ahu and 5 in 10 on the outer islands. Hawai`i has about 33 high school students dropping out each school day.

Bananas are more radioactive than depleted uranium. Tobacco, marijuana, chocolate, cocaine, heroin, and the human body all emit higher levels of gamma and beta radiation—the most powerful types-- than depleted uranium. Rather than being a radiation source, depleted uranium is used as a radiation shield used to block emissions from nuclear reactors.

It is unfashionable to believe these actions are the result of ideology, but the arrogant prologue to the Puna CDP should put all doubts to rest.

The same problems which are driving doctors out of Hawai`i are forcing cutbacks on services and staffing at the already under funded sister-island Hawai`i Health Services Corp hospitals and now the only privately-operated hospital in Hawai`i County—North Hawai`i Community Hospital.

Good factual information--Reading pleasure--Stopping School Closures--Political prostitutes--Where are the police when you need them?--Hele On the bus--A choice for Puna   

The June 30 deadline to implement the drug testing procedures required under the current HSTA contract has passed without action by the BoE. Recently, in a flurry of BOE meetings, it became apparent that the focus on safety of the children and adults in our school system takes a back seat.

The accountability-free DOE bureaucracy is “painfully aware” of nothing but its own perpetuation.

For two years in a row, hammered by demands for medical malpractice reform and demands to introduce more competition into the Hawaii medical insurance market, the Democratic caucus of the State legislature has delivered a flat “no!”

Now the chickens are coming home to roost.

Governor Lingle said a May 22 letter from Ted Hong, requesting her to veto HB 2972 was one of the first opposition letters to the bill she received.

An ominous countdown clock is ticking louder and louder. How long until Israel attacks Iran to destroy the Islamic Republic’s budding atomic weapons program?

I believe convening a con con would be beneficial for the entire state by allowing residents an opportunity to be more directly involved in the decisions that govern them. For neighbor island residents, the potential benefits are even greater.

Over 250 Puna residents joined Fred Blas for a Maku`u Farmers Market June 21 kickoff rally launching his campaign for Puna’s House District 4 seat as a Republican.

Kona CDP ‘Picayune’--Council gets garbage right--Throw the bums out!--Waiawi: Bananas safe--Imagine the Vog--No-Drill Network  

Instead of cutting bureaucracy, Senators Lorraine Inouye and Roz Baker have a different solution—close down rural schools and sell them to developers. 

Kohala is one of the few Big Island schools not deemed ‘failing’ under “No Child Left Behind” standards.  Under formulas used by the Board of Education under Act 51, successful schools are often punished by budget cuts. Kohala HS will be losing $500,000 in funding for the 2009-10 school year.

Hawai`i’s lack of progress is not due to a lack of planning, but rather to, more than anything else, an excess.  Block anything that’s not in the plan.  So here comes even more rigid planning to lock in an imaginary future...

The Hawai`i Island Journal is closed.  Its last edition, published June 14, carried only a short notice of regret ...

Hawai`i Free Press assists four Big Island mayoral candidates with some suggestions for new campaign slogans:

Tougher laws against people who use the Internet to commit sexual acts against minors.