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Monday, September 16, 2013
September 16, 2013 News Read
By Andrew Walden @ 4:52 PM :: 3317 Views

Hawaii Congressional Delegation How They Voted September 16, 2013

Hilo: Akina, Hansen to Discuss Jones Act With Portuguese Chamber, ConFor

Big Money Players Grabbing for Big Cable Contract

Sally Kaye:  it’s clear from recent filings that a number of really big players have already spent a pile of money over the past several years on preparing to bid on a Maui cable, while flying pretty much under the radar:

1) Boston-based First Wind, dba “FWH” (total assets in 2010: $1,712,269,000)....In its Initial Public Statement FWH told the PUC that due to significant “curtailment” of its existing power plants on Maui (due to MECO’s inability to take all the wind) it’s been monitoring a solar resource somewhere on Maui, and “to unlock Maui's full potential for new renewable resources, an Oahu-Maui cable will be necessary.”

2) San Francisco-Based Pattern Energy, dba “HIC” (access to $25 billion in equity capital through Riverstone Holdings)....Pattern Energy is the same company, dba “Molokai Renewables,” whose lease to develop an industrial scale wind power plant on Molokai was cancelled early this year. Pattern is again partnering with Biological-Capital (who recently attempted to buy out Hana Ranch) apparently to protect the money it has already spent in Hawaii. Pattern says it has “invested significant resources and finances in developing” information, studies, and “other analyses” as well as to secure “site control” for converter stations. Pattern says it wants to protect “the value of investors' investment in HIC.”

3) NextEra Energy, formerly known as Florida Power, dba “NEEH” ($64 billion in total assets).  NEEH told the PUC that it has “now spent approximately two years developing a grid-tie undersea cable system to interconnect Oahu and Maui, and ultimately potentially Hawaii Island,” which it refers to as “NextGrid Hawaii.” NEEH claims that it has already “invested more than $10 million to assemble a strong local team, acquire site control, develop viable cable routes, undertake preliminary engineering, prepare for the environmental review process, and advance other critical path work-streams."

read ... Dear Maui: It’s Your Turn!

HART Aims to Give Impression of Done Deal

HNN: ...critics say the move is premature since a legal challenge to the rail system has yet to be decided by a federal appellate court.

"All they want to do is give the impression that this is a done deal and say to the public shut up and take your medicine and this is going to go forward," said Cliff Slater of Honolulutraffic.com, which has sued the city to stop the rail project.

Slater said he expects the Ninth Circuit to rule in his group's favor because the city didn't adequately address alternatives to the current heavy rail plan.

"It's absurd to be talking about something that's going to deal with the traffic situation when it's only going to Ala Moana Center, which doesn't even open until 9:30 in the morning," he said....

read ... Rail construction to resume Monday

Ruptured Molasses Pipe is State property

HP: While the piers are owned by the state, officials say the sugar pipelines that run underneath belong to the company through a lease agreement.

AP: Schatz Wants Review or Something

read ... Blame Anybody but the State

Mililani, Mormons, and Filipinos: Mainland Homosexuals Deploy Salami Tactics

Predictably, they tell us that we all want them.  Notice that the same tactic is deployed on the same day in three different media outlets:

Legal Options to Defend Against Censorship of Mural

SA: The mural was completed in 1997, the year before the center opened, and was blessed by the late John Keola Lake, a respected Hawaiian scholar and chanter.

Ladislaus, reached at his gallery in Palm Desert, Calif., said he was shocked to learn that his artwork had been covered up. He has been consulting with attorneys to determine what recourse he might have.

The federal Visual Artists’ Rights Act prevents alteration, modification or mutilation of a work of visual art under certain circumstances.

“No one asked me for permission to cover the mural,” he said. “That’s the first thing that needs to be addressed. It’s very important, I think, for all artists and all people concerned to resolve it.”

He added, “It comes as a real surprise to me that something that goes through the State Foundation on Culture and the Arts can get distorted like this by some people.”....

Danielle Conway, a professor at the University of Hawaii law school who specializes in intellectual property, said the tussle is an intriguing case involving the rights of the artist as spelled out in law and the rights of Native Hawaiians to maintain control of their identity.

“The work has been altered or modified because it’s been covered up, and that’s what the Visual Artists Rights Act protects against,” she said. “It protects against the alteration, modification or mutilation of a work of visual art. It is a very narrow right but an important one that Congress has decided to protect.”

read ... Censorship

Hawaii 2nd Best for Solar Scammers

DF: 2. Hawaii. Hawaii almost has it all. As one would expect, the sun shines brightly over the islands. It also has the most expensive electricity costs (36 cents per kilowatt hour). The combination of these factors suggests Hawaiians could save a great deal by switching to solar. Currently, Hawaiians installing PV solar panels can receive a 35% state tax credit (35% of the installation costs or a $5,000 credit) in addition to the national 30% personal tax credit, but no rebates or grants are in place to offset immediate installation costs. Solar leasing is available in Hawaii.

read ... Tax payer Giveaway

How Much Does an HPD Motorcade Cost?

CB: HPD has to pay dozens of officers overtime to make sure Obama is safe and can get to Sandy's without fearing for his life.

This year the cost to HPD was $224,033. The prior two years HPD paid $377,689, bringing the three-year total to more than $600,000.

But Obama isn’t the only dignitary who gets special treatment when he comes to Honolulu. HPD provides protection to all sorts of high-ranking officials.

For instance, when the Sultan of Brunei came to the Aloha State in March, HPD provided a motorcade escort and overtime expenses for 14 of its officers.

The cost? $23,778.79.

And when Attorney General Eric Holder visited Honolulu in July 2012 and May 2013 HPD footed $26,872.36 in overtime pay....

This year’s total for dignitary protection and escorts is $318,693.94. That’s nearly $100,000 more than last year's total of $219,374.19.

read ... Escorts

UH-Manoa slips in top-colleges list

SA: The University of Hawaii’s flagship Manoa campus dropped two spots on this year’s U.S. News & World Report list of best colleges published last week.

UH-Manoa ranks as the 158th-best school in the nation out of 201 rated public and private universities....

Among public universities, UH-Manoa ranked 85th best in the nation out of 117 schools, down from the No. 83 spot last year....

Manoa’s business college ranked 14th out of 28 programs on the list of best undergraduate international business rankings.....

The business college also landed in the No. 119 spot for undergraduate business programs in the nation (tied with Michigan State University), up from No. 141 last year.

Related: HPU Rises in U.S. News & World Report rankings

read ... Top Colleges?

No half-measures for UH athletics

SA: The University of Hawaii-Manoa athletics department finds itself at a crossroads.

UH must decide whether it wants a competitive program at the NCAA Division I level, which will require a much larger commitment of money and other resources than the program currently receives.

To his credit, the new athletic director, Ben Jay, doesn't pretend that UH will remain competitive by behaving as it usually does — timidly, with piecemeal, halfhearted responses that may keep the program limping along but avoid addressing the big issues.

Instead, Jay proposed outsized goals in a news conference on Thursday. He wants to increase the annual athletics budget to $40 million in five years; initiate a $60 million fundraising campaign; launch $40 million in capital improvements; become a top-50 NCAA program; and as if that were not enough, reach the 90th percentile in NCAA academic progress rate and graduation success rate.

The last goal is the most important one. But Jay argues that all of the above, incorporated in an effective strategic plan, will be required to correct what he bluntly called "a program in decline."

read ... No half-measures for UH athletics

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