The state is contributing $1.5 million for the project, and Kyoya and HTA will provide $500,000 each.

Big news release which can be condensed into one word: RATIONING.

Honolulu City Council has got to have more important things to focus on than regulating and restricting yet another aspect of our lives.

Plaintiffs seek declaratory and injunctive relief to ensure that Defendants do not implement the Honolulu High-Capacity Transit Corridor Project...before complying fully with federal environmental laws.

In a speech in Boston, Mr. Tutu directly attacked the Jewish supporters of Israel as being in effect traitors to America, controlling U.S. foreign policy for the benefit of Israel and to the detriment of America. In that speech he compared American Jewish supporters of Israel to Hitler, Mussolini, Idi Amin, Milosevich, Stalin, and Pinochet.

Transit coverage is highest in Western metro areas such as Honolulu and Los Angeles, and lowest in Southern metro areas such as Chattanooga and Greenville....

School districts very often define spending categories in unexpected ways, making it difficult to distinguish classroom spending from operational costs....

Prominent journalists like ABC's Christiane Amanpour and former Washington Post editor and now Vice President Len Downie serve on boards of operations that take Soros cash. This despite the Society of Professional Journalist's ethical code stating: "avoid all conflicts real or perceived."

Ms. Takaki is active in the Hawaii Chapter of The ESOP Association has served on the Executive Committee's State & Regional Chapter Council. From 2007 – 2009, Ms. Takaki served as Chair of The ESOP Association.

In an effort to raise awareness about pornography Craig Gross founded XXXchurch.com, the website mixes the seedy with the sacred in an effort to raise the often taboo subject of pornography as a problem that needs to be dealt with. The website has had over 70 million visitors....

"I'm Newt Gingrich, and I'm announcing my candidacy for President of the United States because I believe we can return America to hope and opportunity, to full employment, to real security, to an American energy program, to a balanced budget."

The median annual rate in Hawaii for a private nursing home room is $122,640 per year, greater than the national rate of $77,745 per year.

Nationally, the median annual cost of long term care in an assisted living facility is $39,135, an increase of 6.0 percent annually over the past six years. In Hawaii, the annual cost of assisted living care is $45,900 ....

Representative Gene Ward, Minority Leader, Sine Die Announcement May 2011, Hawaii State House of Representatives ....

With the nation’s spending and debt problems on the verge of destroying the American dream for future generations, the Heritage Foundation today released a comprehensive plan to balance the federal budget, reform entitlement programs and recast the tax code to promote long-term economic growth. 

…a decade’s worth of reform and rhetoric that hasn’t made much of a dent. 

Janet Grace, Executive Director of Hawaii Right to Life, states, "We believe the Neighborhood Board election is as important as any other state electoral contest because it gives voters the opportunity to choose lawmakers who are uncompromisingly committed to pursuing life-affirming policies in our local statutes. Each vote for candidates who value life will help bring the urgent change Honolulu needs to thrive and prosper."

Recent Congressional Votes

• Senate: Confirmation John J. McConnell, Jr. of Rhode Island, to be U.S. District Judge
• House: To repeal mandatory funding provided to establish American Health Benefit Exchanges
• House: To repeal mandatory funding for school-based health center construction
• House: No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act
• House: Restarting American Offshore Leasing Now Act

You might think that a U.S. company's decision to expand its manufacturing facilities and create 1,000 new jobs here at home -- rather than overseas -- would be hailed by the Obama Administration as a step in the right direction, especially with nine percent unemployment. You'd be wrong....

The real savings Medical Homes could give to HHSC do not come in the emergency room but in elder care and neo-natal care....

...unnoticed in the public summary of the report are a couple of paragraphs which point out some serious risks to the corporatist State of Hawaii. The cut-off of Earmarks and other Federal pork is having an impact and the full effect is only just beginning to be felt....

Says Washington’s Gregoire: “(Change in marijuana laws) must first come at the federal level."

...a shift towards whole-person health rather than focusing primarily on the treatment of illness....

S. 52 would make it a criminal offense to..."import, export, transport, sell, receive, acquire, or purchase in interstate or foreign commerce" any fish or fish product taken in violation of any treaty or agreement to which the United States is a party; or make or submit a false record, account, label for, or identification of any fish that passes in interstate or foreign commerce. 

In Senate Bill 120, it states that there are many special funds “in excess of the requirements” of those funds. The director of finance has up until June 30, 2011, to raid all of that “excess” money, amounting to more than $17 million, and put it into the general fund. 

Despite the good news this week about Osama bin Laden's demise, all is not rosy for President Barack Obama -- at least in the eyes of the American people. The approval of his handling of the economy hit an all-time low with only 34 percent of Americans giving him a thumbs up, according to a CBS/New York Times poll.

We have found that support for the political status quo, abetted by private interests, remains strongly in place. It will take time and action by the executive to change this culture.

the Mortgage Foreclosure Dispute Resolution Program, seeks to provide the owner-occupants of residential property in Hawai'i who are facing foreclosure the opportunity to meet face-to-face with the mortgagees to possibly resolve their differences....

The 2011 New Starts funds for the whole nation is $1.59 Billion and Honolulu is asking for $1.55 Billion.

Even when wind is present, the turbines are doing nothing.

Appropriates funds for the operating and capital improvement budget of the Executive Branch for fiscal years 2011-2012 and 2012-2013.

This fee increase will only help perpetuate the program. If there’s one thing we’ve all learned this year, it’s that once you put money into a program and personnel, it’s very hard to get it back out. It’s harder still to shut down the program entirely. In a word, if we provide more money, the program will become dependent - even addicted - upon that money.

Apparently, neither the mayor nor my council leadership want transportation experts overseeing a transportation project. Clearly, they want inexperienced 'yes men' to do the bidding of the rail consortium and developers rather than truly qualified experts who'll keep an eye on how taxpayer funds are expended with Hawaii's largest and most expensive public works project ever.

I have initiated establishment of a 501(c)4 nonprofit educational organization called "Foundation 1776,"the mission of which will be advocate for the application of the foundational principles on which our nation and our families were built....  We will also build a separate Political Action Committee designed to help recruit, train and fund the campaigns of like-minded candidates seeking to serve in the 76 legislative seats in the Hawaii House of Representatives and Senate.  

As Honolulu County voters begin casting their ballots in Neighborhood Board elections, Hawaii Right to Life reveals its list of endorsed candidates ....

Several businesses have already announced hiring freezes, and possible layoffs because of the legislative action. Several local non-profits are even harder hit and several may cease operations.

The best that can be said about this session is what bills did NOT survive, such as: a 1 percent increase in the general excise tax; a 10-cent fee for a plastic or paper bag to carry consumer purchases; tax-free pensions that will now remain untaxed; Lanai and Molokai will not be covered with windmills to produce power for Oahu, saving Hawaii taxpayers an estimated $3 billion on an intra-island, under-water cable; and competition for shipping services that did not get eliminated as was included in a Public Utilities Commission clarification bill.

President George W. Bush put the correct policies in place, including the PATRIOT Act, Gitmo and increased intelligence gathering. President Barack Obama was wise to continue executing many of the same strategies.

“All during this session I received a steady stream of letters, phone calls and e mails. I was stopped several times in neighborhood markets and shopping centers. None of the communications were form letters, but individual pleas reminding me that retirees could not afford to lose more income to taxes."

For five and a half years, the US has hunted for Ahmed Hashim Abed--code-named "Objective Amber." Abed is the alleged ring-leader of an Islamist mob which murdered four US military contractors--including Pa`auilo resident Wesley Batalona--in Fallujah, Iraq on March 31, 2004.

'I used to go to their house. He had two wives, one spoke Arabic, and the other one spoke Urdu. They had three children, a girl and two boys. They gave me two rabbits. They had installed a camera at the outer gate so they could see people before they entered the house,' Zarar Ahmed said....

Khalid Shaikh Mohammed spent most of 1994 plotting to blow up or hijack 12 airplanes carrying about 4,000 passengers bound for Honolulu and 11 other locations as part of Operation Bojinka, based in Manila, Philippines.  He would later use operational experienced gained from his Bojinka failure to mastermind 9-11.

Now Hawaii's two Senators have voted to help spring Mohammed from detention at Guantanamo Bay Naval Station in Cuba. 

...NLIHC calculates Hawaii’s "housing wage" at $31.08 per hour. The “housing wage” which is the full-time hourly wage a household would need to earn in order to afford the fair market rent for an apartment....

The JABSOM measure appeared to have support in both houses, but the conference committees deadlocked over a different bill-one the House of Representatives supported to tax pension income over $200,000. The Senate firmly opposed any pension tax.

Zawahiri...has a record "of alienating his colleagues, fighting over dogma, even within the Islamist movement," said journalist Steve Coll. "And as a communicator, he is less effective. His books are turgid and dogmatic." During a recent online chat with fellow jihadists, Zawahiri sounded "defensive and argumentative. He sounded unappealing as a leader."

...the 2011 Legislative Session ends on Thursday. Tomorrow, for the last time, your House of Representatives will vote on the entirety of bills still alive this session....

Please join us for a Spirit filled night of prayer on Thursday, May 5, 6:30-8:00pm in the State Capitol Auditorium....

The Jones Act has singularly failed to deliver on its declared objectives of "supporting foreign and domestic commerce and creating a merchant marine of the best equipped and most suitable types of vessels." The "must build in America" clause is the biggest problem. Today the U.S. builds 1 percent of the world’s commercial ships — with 95 percent being built in Asia....

Separately from the Army’s license application, a resident of Hawaii filed a petition on March 4, 2010, requesting the NRC take enforcement action against the Army if it found the Army possessed or released depleted uranium to the environment without a license in violation of NRC requirements. 

House Bill 546 ... prohibits discrimination on the basis of gender identity or expression as a public policy matter and specifically with regard to employment....