Need to Make Everyone Pay Their Fair Share for Roads
SA: Various laws and budgets take effect on Monday
Buying Second Term: Lobbyist Leads 500 at Million Dollar Abercrombie Fundraiser
Borreca: "I am just really infused with a lot of 'energy'," Abercrombie said. (Translation: Green energy scammers are giving me money.)
As is the way of politicians, Abercrombie celebrated his birthday with an estimated 500 supporters who paid $2,000 a head to toast him at a fundraiser at the Hilton Hawaiian Village Wednesday night. The really nice gift the money will help buy is a second four-year term in Washington Place. ($2000 x 500 = $1M)
During his introduction, lobbyist and political confidant John Radcliffe recalled how "in the early days of his current administration, Abercrombie's ratings were pretty low."... (Question: Where is the poll showing this has changed?)
For his re-election campaign, Abercrombie is in somewhat of the same position as his Republican predecessor, Linda Lingle.
The economy is either strong or getting that way; the political opposition is mostly muted and there is no real challenger approaching.
Lingle raised and spent more than $5 million in a campaign over only token Democratic opposition.
With no GOP or Democratic opposition on the horizon, Abercrombie appears today set to celebrate his 76th birthday settling into a comfortable glide path to a second term.
2010: Gaming Industry Lobbyist, Progressive activist screen Abercrombie cabinet picks
read ... Buying The Second Term
Abercrombie Poops on Everything
Shapiro: Legislative leaders said they won't call a special override session to deal with nine bills Gov. Neil Abercrombie says he may veto. None of the measures is important enough to interrupt lawmakers' off-session junkets.
One bill on the veto list would make it a public nuisance to feed feral birds because of their propensity to poop on everything. The governor is inclined to give the pigeons a break out of professional courtesy.
read ... Shapiro
Protesters rally for religious freedom at State Capitol
KHON: Religious freedom supporters gathered at the State Capitol on Saturday to protest what they say are threats to their religious liberty.
The event is part of the nationwide Fortnight for Freedom movement by U.S. bishops that calls for a two-week period of prayer and action.
The demonstrators are concerned about federal mandates on birth control and the supreme court ruling that struck down the Defense of Marriage Act.
LINK: United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB)
read ... Religious Freedom
Bond Financing to Reduce Housing Cost
SA: The most startling change is in the count of children living in households with a high housing cost burden. That was 37 percent in 2005, and 46 percent in 2011.
This last point is why, Chun Oakland said, lawmakers will refocus efforts to encourage affordable housing in the coming session, making bond financing more available to private development. She referenced a recent state study by the Hawaii Housing Finance and Development Corp. indicating that 50,000 new units are needed in the next four years, more than half in the affordable range.
This push will be critical, she rightly said, because once a family topples into homelessness, the outcomes for children become dire.
Some advances in children's welfare have been made in the last session, including voluntary foster-home support for youth up to age 21. Chun Oakland said lawmakers have protected state matching funds to draw down federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families regardless of the budgetary woes. The Hawaii Public Housing Authority also deserves credit for radically reducing the waiting time for public housing units to turn over.
Related: Kids Count: Hawaii Ranks 25th in Children's Well-Being
read ... Housing
Obamacare: Rich Get Private Doctors, Everybody Else Gets Socialized Medicine
MN: Physicians establishing boutiques or joining a national one will limit their practice in most cases to several hundred patients. The fees, of course, will serve as a deterrent for many patients seeing a doctor in a boutique practice.
One of the immediate consequences here in Hawaii will be the exacerbation of our already existing severe doctor shortage. As the boutiques see fewer patients, the load will fall on those who still only require insurance payments and co-pays.
Another unintended consequence probably will be the speed-up of socializing medicine in the country. Citizens who have lost their doctors because of boutique pricing will undoubtedly pressure government to find a solution. Generally, government solutions are simply more government.
In such a scenario, we can envision the boutiques being the equivalent of private practitioners in England with other physicians falling into a British-style National Health Service. Where that would leave private insurance companies is anybody's guess. Probably much smaller at least....
read ... Obamacare Future
Slater: Give Incentives to Medical Consumers
Cliff Slater: Various companies on the mainland are reducing costs by giving medical plan discounts to their employees who can show they are living healthy lives.
Aon Hewitt, a human resources consultant, says that 480 of 800 large mainland companies plan to do this in the next few years. Towers Watson, another consulting firm, found that the number doing so is likely to double by 2014.
Safeway's mainland supermarkets have managed to keep health care costs down for some years by discounting premiums for those employees who live healthy lives.
The Hawaii Prepaid Health Care Act does not allow the use of such incentives to reduce the medical care premiums for those who live healthy lives. Instead, medical plan premiums are averaged and there are no financial incentives for those who live unhealthy lives to change their habits.
If we want people to live healthy, we might reconsider just imploring them to do so since it seems to have no major effect, and instead, use financial incentives. As the old adage has it, "When all else fails, try money."...
Financial incentive for people to work at living healthy has such enormous potential that we should look to modifying the Hawaii Prepaid Health Care Act to allow incentives to do so.
read ... We can improve health care ourselves
Prisoners do not receive timely medical treatment, lawsuits say
SA: An inmate who developed a life-threatening abdominal condition while incarcerated in 2011 and required emergency surgery to remove his colon says the prison's negligence led to the crisis.
And the then-medical director at Halawa Correctional Facility, where Thomas Lauro still is serving time for shoplifting about $300 in merchandise, told the Hawaii Paroling Authority that the crisis never should have happened....
In his letter and federal lawsuit, Lauro, also known as Thomas Reyes, said he has been subjected to abuse and torture, being left in unsanitary conditions because of frequent leakage of his colostomy bag. For three weeks following his surgery, for instance, Lauro was left in solitary confinement, wallowing in a feces-stained cell, according to the lawsuit.
In addition to the negligence-related allegations, Lauro is accusing the state of cruel and unusual punishment and is seeking unspecified damages in the court case. Lauro is represented by Kaneohe attorneys Joseph Ahuna Jr. and Ahuna's son, David Ahuna....
Lauro, who has multiple misdemeanor and petty misdemeanor convictions, was released from prison in December 2011 to a clean-and-sober house. But he was reimprisoned a few weeks later after missing an appointment with his parole officer.
On the outside, Lauro had difficulty dealing with his condition, which was exacerbated by the state's negligence, the lawsuit alleges.
In July 2012, Lauro had a second emergency surgery and almost died, according to the lawsuit.
Since the first surgery two years ago, three hospitals where Lauro was treated have told prison officials that he needed to be seen by a colorectal surgeon, according to the lawsuit.
To this day, he has not been seen by one, his attorneys say.
read ... Insufficient specialized care harms isle inmates
Hospital infections 'considerably' low for local patients
SA: Hawaii residents have one less thing to worry about on their next hospital visit. Local medical centers have some of the lowest instances of health-care-associated infections in the country, according to state Department of Health data collected from 14 Hawaii hospitals.
read ... Hospital infections 'considerably' low for local patients
Waikiki Residents Organize to Drive out Criminals
SA: On almost any day or night in Waikiki, it's possible to see violent crime, street fights, drug deals, prostitutes, theft, graffiti, litter, runaway kids, loud drunks, or people using the streets as their personal toilet, says resident John Dew.
"We're fed up with it," said Dew, a Waikiki Neighborhood Board member who recently joined a Honolulu Police Department security watch to help protect the district where he has lived for decades. "In the 1960s and 1970s, Waikiki was warm and fuzzy. Realistically, now I'd say that there are areas that are very dangerous. The crime is the worst that it's been … violent, too."....
Waikiki now has five neighborhood security watches and one neighborhood patrol, and the district soon will add a business security watch, said HPD Officer John DeMello, who met with Dew and other Waikiki residents recently to promote community involvement in policing.
"We've got about 100 residents who are willing to serve as eyes and ears and sometimes the nose for the police," he said.
Thomas Foti, general manager of Hilton Waikiki Beach, pledged his staff of roughly 300 employees to join a newly organized business security watch.
read ... Sick of Homelessness Industry
VIDEO: Pro-GMO rally encircles Hilo government buildings
BIVN: A group comprised of a number of agricultural businesses, united in their opposition to a bill that would prohibit genetically modified organisms on the Big Island, made their presence known in Hilo on Friday afternoon.
Numerous papaya farmers, holding signs that framed GMOs as “Great Miracle Opportunities” and depicted the transgenic Rainbow Papaya as a friendly cartoon character, cheered along Aupuni Street outside of the county building.
At the same time, several trucks with signs that read “Save Our Farmer and Ranchers” and “Science Helps Farmers” drove in circles around the Aupuni-Kilauea-Pauahi loop that surrounds the state judiciary building and other county facilities.
watch ... Something Beautiful
Disgusting Organic Berries Sicken 127 and Counting
SA: As of Thursday, 127 people in eight states — Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, and Wisconsin — were reported to have been exposed to Townsend Farms Organic Antioxidant Blend, the FDA said. Those reported ill in Wisconsin were exposed to the product in California.
(NOTE: 'Organic' is the sacred food of the eco-religion. It also costs more.)
The illnesses date back to mid-March, the CDC has reported. In early June, Townsend Farms recalled its frozen Organic Antioxidant Blend, packaged under the Townsend Farms label at Costco and under the Harris Teeter brand at those stores.
The outbreak strain of hepatitis A virus, belonging to genotype 1B, was found in clinical specimens of 56 people in seven states, according to a CDC report. That strain is rarely seen in the Americas but circulates in North Africa and the Middle East.
read ... Sick Sick Sick
Sailors Win, Matson Forced to Pay for Its Own Overpriced Jones Act Ships
KHON: Matson has reached an agreement with three seagoing unions, Sailors’ Union of the Pacific, Seafarers International Union and Marine Fireman’s Union, for a new four-year contract.
“We successfully reached an agreement with Matson about an hour ago, no kickbacks, no concessions to the company on the proposed new ships that they’re going to build for the Hawaii trade. Everything went well, looking forward to our membership ratifying it. so the threat of any kind of action against the company is off,” Sailors’ Union of the Pacific President Gunnar Lundeberg said.
read ... Strike averted, Matson deal reached
More Kakaako Schemes
New School for Kapolei
SA: The state plans to build a new elementary school in Kapolei and expand a school in Ewa to keep pace with demand as young families continue to move into new homes sprouting on the West Oahu plain.
Such is the region's student population boom that more than a third of the $134.7 million in school construction money released June 20 by Gov. Neil Abercrombie is for those two projects.
read ... Kapolei
Anahola DHHL Blocks BioMess Tree-Burning Scheme
KGI: The 20-year lease would have allowed Green Energy to clear existing Albizia trees from the land and establish a eucalyptus tree plantation to fuel its $90 million biomass-to-energy facility near Koloa. In return, DHHL would have received annual rent and 2 percent of the gross revenue generated by the harvested wood, as well as improvements to the land.
In the first five years, Green Energy would have cleared and returned 267 acres to DHHL for homesteading. An additional 819 acres would have been cleared and replanted with eucalyptus trees over the 20-year period. At the end of the lease, all the land would have been returned to DHHL.
The incentives were not enough for the local community....
read ... Community opposition to Anahola project heard loud and clear
Progressives Angered Because Hanaubsa Hasn't Voted to Destroy Hawaii's Last Cane Plantation
KOS: Asked to recall a notable moment after her first year in Congress, “she said she was proud of a vote she made that teamed her up with Republicans and upset environmentalists”.
Many residents of Maui are extremely upset about her vote which enabled the Hawaiian Cane and Sugar (HC&S) mill to continue burning dirty Australian coal in their plant. The emissions (which are not even stack monitored because supposedly this coal-fired plant is "cogen" with sugarcane bagass) affect the health of the poorest of local kids in Kahului and Wailuku on Maui.
By the way - all of you using "Sugar in the Raw" - that sugar is produced by HC&S burning their fields, choking the residents of Maui with smoke and damaging their health. The EPA estimates that "Tens of thousands of premature deaths are caused by soot". Thousands have petitioned the Sugar in the Raw company to demand HC&S harvest via no-burn but the company (based in New Jersey) refused.
Not only that, one of the three HC&S plants is grandfathered in and uses 1952 pollution control technology. Until recently, the EPA was unaware that HC&S was burning nothing but dirty coal for 3 months of the year and did not require adequate pollution control on their plants. We'll see if that changes, now that the EPA has been made aware of HC&S little deception.
read ... Please Kill the ILWU, Signed 'The Progressives'
Wailuku Post Office: Mayor Attempts to Head Off Phony Scandal
MN: As we have stated before, we absolutely believe the administration thought the council was on the same page and had been consulted and advised of the plans for the site. There is no evidence there was any deliberate attempt to usurp the council's budget oversight function.
But the administration didn't get a reference in the budget to using the funds for "rehabilitation" of the post office changed before proceeding with the demolition. As the mayor himself put it:
"When our discussions with the council changed the intent of the project, we should have followed up with the paperwork to reflect those changes."
The mayor pledged that he and his staff are taking steps to make sure that the mistake is not repeated.
read ... Now What?
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