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Saturday, April 6, 2013
April 6, 2013 News Read
By Andrew Walden @ 4:21 PM :: 4275 Views

Tax Myths Debunked

North Korea tells Russian Diplomats to get out — sets April 10 deadline

Investigations, staff conflict Keep Staff on Years-Long Paid Leaves from youth jail

KHON:  How long should it take to investigate state worker allegations of wrongdoing while they’re out on (PAID) administrative leave at taxpayer’s expense? How about eight or nine years?

Problems at the windward Oahu boy’s correctional facility allegedly have pitted many of the adults against one another. Add in a former ward who is retracting one allegation while levying new charges, and it’s all piling up investigations, which in the past have led to costly leaves of absence and legal challenges.

Former Hawaii Youth Correctional Facility ward Kevin Gouveia, now a 19-year-old adult, is speaking out alleging he was made a pawn behind bars. He says he was told by a supervisor to set up a fellow guard.

“He wanted me to write that he bought me cigarettes on my pass, he bought me weed, and crack cocaine on my pass and let me smoke it,” Gouveia said. “That didn’t happen.”

But Gouveia wrote it anyway, saying the supervisor threatened to send him to OCCC — the adult jail — if he didn’t. (KHON2 is excluding all staff names cited in the varying allegations.) That letter, among other accusations, landed one youth corrections officer under investigation and on paid leave, while another allegedly faced physical danger from a separate purported bribe.

“He told me you want $25? I’ll give you $25 you go outside right now and whack (a YCO),” Gouveia said.

A former corrections officer says he witnessed the bribe for the punch – a punch that didn’t end up getting swung. Some other guards say they back Gouveia. One even filed a police report alleging criminal solicitation….

KHON2 learned past disputes between staff have led to administrative absences of as long as 8 and 9 years there.

“That is a concern,” Hipp said. “When I came on board in January 2010 there were already four staff out on extensive leave, several years, several years.”

Of those four, Hipp says two 2 have since been dismissed, one has returned to work, and another is still pending a court case. He said everything from union procedures, to finding witnesses, to changing stories stretch out the process.

read … Youth Jail

SB310 Relating to Mental Health Treatment—A Real Homeless Solution

HNN: “It didn’t hit me until I watched the video when the TSA worker was getting attacked because that’s kind of how she attacked me,” Sado said. “So it brought back a lot of feelings of what I went through.”

Sado says in 2009, she was jogging near the State Capitol when she was blindsided by a punch to the face by Haiola.

“And I fell to the ground and she started grabbing my hair and pounding my head on the ground,” Sado said. “And I was screaming for help and she kept saying ‘You’re gonna die today. I’m gonna kill you.’”

Sado pressed charges, but says that the 90 days Haiola spent in jail was just a slap on the wrist.

“She has a lot of charges against her. What is the state waiting for? For her to kill someone?,” Sado said.

According to court documents, Haiola was found guilty on two other assault charges and numerous violations of TROs.

In some cases, she was unfit to proceed to trial because of mental illness, including schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.

Testimony by her family members also claim that she was often high on crystal meth.

“When people have both mental illness and substance abuse and they’re both untreated, then that does raise the likelihood of violence,” said Marya Grambs of Mental Health American of Hawaii.

Grambs says Haiola is a prime example of why Senate Bill 310 is necessary.

“This bill would address this kind of person that cycles in and out of hospitals and jails and the streets and they never get adequate treatment for long enough,” Grambs said. “But if they were dangerous, if they were out of control, then the psychiatrist could get them hospitalized.”

The measure is awaiting a full hearing at the Senate.

Precisely As Explained: Connecticut Shooting: Failure of Mental Health System

read … Putting the Lunatics back in the Asylum

81% of Former Foster Care Males Arrested

SA: The state estimates that the expansion of eligibility until age 21 initially would cost taxpayers $1 million a year. Costs could rise in future years, but it would be well worth the move.

Nearly 2,800 of Hawaii's children are in foster care, with foster parents eligible to receive $529 a month for housing, food or other basic necessities.

Between 100 to 120 foster care children in Hawaii age out of the system every year. Without extending eligibility, that could reach as high as 175 a year in 2018.

Nearly half of 349 "out of care" youth who were helped last year by the Hawaii Youth Opportunities Initiative, an EPIC ‘Ohana program, did not have safe, stable housing.

Worachit told the House Finance Committee that she received foster care beyond her 18th birthday, without government assistance, and is now near a college associate's degree.

Others are not so blessed. A national study shows that without the added years of qualification, 77 percent of the young women become pregnant, 81 percent of young men are arrested and only 3 percent obtain a four-year college degree. Nearly one in four experience homelessness.

read … Age Out?

UPDATE:  Cesspool tax flushed (for now)

WHT: A state Senate panel on Friday April 5 killed a proposed fee on cesspool and septic tank owners after Hawaii Island residents raised a stink about it.

The Senate Ways and Means Committee had decided Wednesday to reconsider House Bill 903 the day after a West Hawaii Today article described the impact the bill would have on island residents. The committee had passed the measure 9-1 on March 27….

State Sen. Gil Kahele, D-Hilo, who had originally voted for the bill, said he asked committee leadership to reconsider after he learned there was more to the bill than first thought. He said he received a couple of emails about the bill….

Sen. Russell Ruderman, D-Puna, said he also received emails. An environmentalist, Ruderman had voted for the bill, and he said he still thinks it’s a good idea “in my heart.”

“Ninety-nine percent of the emails I received were in opposition. It would have been a dilemma for me, but I would have had to vote with my constituents,” Ruderman said. “I hope it comes back up next year in a way that soothes people’s fears.”

Ruderman and Kahele said the bill wasn’t specific enough about what the fees might be….

All Hawaii Island House members voted for the bill before it was sent to the Senate. In addition to Ruderman and Kahele, Sen. Josh Green, D-Kona, voted in favor of the bill in committees….

read … Be Back Next Year

Mitsunaga: A focused approach to campaign contributions

ILind: Today’s slide of Hawaii contribution data includes those contributions made by Mitsunaga & Associates and its officers, employees, and family members during 2011 and 2012.

The total amount given to candidates was $193,200, which is in the same ball park as the $172,800 contributed by lobbyists John Radcliffe and “Red” Morris (see “Following the money–Where did it go?“).

But the Mitsunaga pattern of contributions was very different and far more narrowly focused.

While Radcliffe and Morris spread their money across state and county 75 candidates, the Mitsunaga money went to only 25, and was heavy concentrated on the “top of the ticket”.

Just three candidates accounted for two-thirds of the total contributed by the Mitsunaga group–Gov. Abercrombie, then-Lt. Gov. Brian Schatz, and mayoral candidate Ben Cayetano

read … Mitsunaga: A focused approach to campaign contributions

HB634: Sale of Business With Over 100 Employees, New Owner Cannot Fire Any of Them

The Chamber of Commerce of Hawaii is calling for the defeat of a bill scheduled for a vote on the floor of the state Senate next week that would require the buyer of any business with 100 or more employees to retain all non-management staff.  (This is an illegal ‘taking’.)

The Chamber urged its members to ask their state senators to vote against HB634. The measure has already cleared the House and is scheduled Tuesday for a Senate vote….

Those testifying in support of the bill at recent committee hearings included the state Department of Labor and Industrial Relations, the International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 142, the Hawaii Government Employees Association Local 152 and the AFL-CIO.

Among those testifying against the bill were the Chamber of Commerce of Hawaii, the Retail Merchants of Hawaii, the Maui Chamber of Commerce, Tesoro Hawaii LLC, the National Federation of Independent Businesses, the General Contractors Association of Hawaii, the Hawaii Automobile Dealers Association and the Island Princess candy company.  (This bill would effectively prevent Tesoro from selling its assets in Hawaii.)

read … No Sale

The GOP’s Local Youth Movement

Boylan: Republican numbers are near record lows. They own but one seat in the 25-member state Senate, seven in the 51-member House of Representatives – and the latter number has changed little in recent years. The promise of Republican Linda Lingle’s eight years as governor did not translate to legislative victories.

Yet there’s hope. It’s to be found in four young Republicans, three of whom are freshmen and the fourth in his second term in the state House. Aaron Ling Johanson, the Republican minority leader and vice chairman of the House Finance Committee, is 33 years old. First-year members Richard Fale, Beth Fukumoto and Lauren Cheape are 31, 28 and 25, respectively.  All claim Democrats in their closet ….

they also seek, as Johanson puts it, “to be strategically relevant.”

Thus the Republicans’ coalition with Democrats supporting Joe Souki for the speakership.

Has the coalition with Democrats worked?

All smile.

“None of us were overly idealistic about what it would bring,” says Fukumoto.

Adds Johanson: “But is there progress? Yes. This is the most efficacy we’ve had in the House in a long time.”

read … Youth

Racist Anti-GMO Activists -- Pariah

MW: I won’t let environmental activist Jessica Mitchell’s offensive phone call to a lawmaker go by, albeit two weeks late. You’re hereby nailed, Jessica!

She’s mad at state Sen. Clarence Nishihara over that food/GMO matter. So she left a voice message at his office that said, “Mr. Nishihara, go back to Japan and mess up their aina.”

Go back to Japan? Nishihara was born and raised in Makawao, Maui, and did his undergraduate and graduate degrees at the University of Hawaii.

That “go back to Japan” or “go back to the Mainland” stuff is so offensive that it almost constitutes a hate crime.

Especially the “back to Japan” kind in light of what we went through after the Pearl Harbor attack when we packed innocents off to incarceration camps.

Mitchell hasn’t just damaged the environmental movement, she’s made herself a pariah.

read … Pariah Activists

UH Scientist Debunks Anti-GMOs Junk Science

HNN: "I compare GMOs in a way to steroids because steroids are the easy way to go. It makes it easier for people in sports to enjoy but there's side effects," said University of Hawaii agriculture professor Hector Valenzuela, who backs labeling.

Valenzuela also cited secondary impacts, which include the contamination of non-GMO farms with GMO seeds and increased pollution brought on by the farming of pesticide-resistant GMOs, which require more spraying.

"So in terms of what adverse effects, you have to ask questions also of the potential side affects of consuming all of those pesticides," Valenzuela said.

Valenzuela's colleague Robert Paull calls that junk science.

Paull says the studies cited by the anti-GMO crowd ignore the fact that lab animals that were given non-genetically modified foods suffered the same diseases as those that were fed GMOs.

"They are in fact misusing and abusing science," Paull said.

"As far as we know, genetically engineered food is as safe as any food generated from any other breeding method."

Many of Hawaii's most popular crops rely on genetic engineering. In fact, farmers say that up to 90 percent of all papaya grown and sold here are genetically modified.

Longtime grower Ken Kamiya says genetic engineering saved his industry by developing a papaya that is resistant to viruses.

"I wiped out once in the 70s, then I moved up the coast to Laie to plant another field and another five years of good harvest. Virus comes in again and the 80s we were almost out of business," Kamiya said.

"The transgenic papaya is something that saved our industry."

read … Junk Science

Hawaii PV contractor disputes solar tax credit survey

PBN: …at least one local solar PV contractor is calling the methodology of the poll “sloppy to say the least.”

“The notion that the PV industry would collapse if the state tax credit were reduced or eliminated is an example of scare tactics, pure and simple,” Hilo-based ProVision Solar Inc. President Marco Mangelsdorf told PBN in an email. “Ain’t gonna happen.”…

Mangelsdorf says that the way a question was posed implies that the respondent was not informed that only the fate state tax credit is at stake.

“There’s no indication that the poll respondent was advised that the 30 percent federal tax credit is good at least through 2016,” he said. “The respondent was not properly informed and the question was too vague.”

A new renewable energy tax credit is expected to show up on Gov. Neil Abercrombie’s desk with a scheduled reduced percentage of the tax credit with an eventual sunset date still to be determined.

read … Tax Credits

HB668 Medicated Marijuana to be Regulated by Dep’t of Health

From Medical Cannabis Coalition: HB 668 HD 2 SD 1, the measure to transfer the Medical Cannabis Program to the Department of Health, has passed out of the joint Senate Judiciary and Labor/Ways and Means Committee.  All Senators voted "Yes" with Senator Slom voting Yes with Reservations.

It now heads to the floor for a vote, where if successful, it will head to Conference Committee.

The bill still has the amendments from the previous Committees and we will be working with elected officials on how to strip those amendments from the bill in Conference and get a clean version of the bill out.

Routine: Voting on Amendments that are not Written

DN: “Hee, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary and Labor Committee, pushed through amendments to House Bill 622, the vehicle that would make the shield law permanent. …. As sometimes happens in legislative committees, Hee described the changes but did not provide advance copies of the amended bill. Members voted for the amendments without reading them.”

Contrary to the pull quote above, in our state legislature, committee chairs, whom I liken to feudal lords under the Japanese Shogunate system, routinely direct their committee members to vote on amendments that don’t exist.

DN: Media might look beyond Sen. Hee’s actions to see that Hee did nothing unusual

read … Shogunate?

What’s Next For The State, Teachers

MW: According to the Council of Revenues, the state’s fiscal condition has improved to the point where it can afford the multimillion-dollar settlement. It’s easy to be a little skeptical about projections from the Council on Revenues – after all, it has been wrong on several occasions in the past.

Still a big question mark is how the teacher-evaluation process will work when tied to pay raises. That all will be worked out, because it is something all taxpayers have a right to expect. The latest mantra regarding government employees is: “You get what you pay for.” If that is true, then the taxpayers will want to know what they’re paying for.

There are a couple of things to expect. First, you can bet your Democratic Party primary ballot that the HSTA contract will be a hot political issue. Second, you also can bet that the other public unions are working their numbers right now. If what the Council of Revenues says is right, there must be additional funds for other public unions, too….

April 17 can’t come soon enough for all the politicians in town waiting to file their election papers.

read … What’s Next For The State, Teachers

UH drops plans for controversial lab, returns federal funding

KITV: The University of Hawaii returned $32 million to the National Institutes of Health Tuesday. It was money that was to help build a state-of- the-art biohazard laboratory in Kalaeloa.

Failure to reach a lease agreement with the military is one of the reasons for pulling the plug on the plan.

Another is the business plan that would have put the University on the hook for more than $2 million in operating costs.

With the project on hold, there is also $15 million in state funding that could be used elsewhere.

One of the projects under consideration is considered by some to be in the worst condition of any building on campus.

The sorry state of Snyder Hall isn’t something a university can be proud of.

Read … Bio-Lab

Benghazi Injured Being Silenced?

MW: …the 30 or so survivors of the attack – seven of whom were seriously wounded – have been held incommunicado at Walter Reed Army Hospital in Washington for the past six months, for the most part unavailable to any media or congressional inquiry….

read … Benghazi Injured Being Silenced?

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