Update On Hawaii Reapportionment SCOTUS Appeal
UH Responds to Star-Adv: Claims Inouye Center Project 'Not Shrouded in Secrecy'
Abercrombie: Too Expensive to Put Juvenile Offenders in Custody
Lawsuit Challenges Honolulu 'Stored Property' Seizure from Private Property
VIDEO: Senate Minority Leader Sam Slom on Rating Hawaii Business Climate
VIDEO: Sam Slom and Mike Palcic Discuss Reapportionment
Pritchett: Cementing the Inouye Legacy
Health Connector Aims to Get 204,000 people to Dump their Existing Insurance, Join HMSA/Kaiser Duopoly 'Market'
SA: Hawaii Health Connector, the state’s online insurance exchange and first major piece of President Barack Obama’s signature health reform law, will start a public awareness campaign Monday with television, radio and print advertising. The ads will explain the advantages of signing up for health insurance through the Connector, which will offer subsidized plans to most Hawaii residents....
“We are running like hamsters in a wheel,” Andrews said.... (More like lemmings, but whatever.)
But reaching the uninsured, many of whom tend to be poor and less educated, or young adults indifferent to health coverage, is a daunting task.
“I think it’s really pie in the sky,” said Gary Lee, a Honolulu-based principal with Mercer, a human resources and benefit plan consultant. “I think the people who are running the exchange are very idealistic....
I don’t see these undereducated and unconnected people reaching to find out more information about the Connector.”...
Hawaii has received about $205 million from the federal government to establish the Connector, educate the public on how it works and operate it in the beginning. The federal funding is only for the startup phase. Federal law requires state exchanges find other sources of funding by 2015.
If the Hawaii exchange is successful in signing up 300,000 people, it could generate $300 million to $1 billion in revenue, some of which would be used to maintain the exchange after federal funding ends. The exchange board, which is appointed by the governor, adopted a budget this month that includes a 2 percent fee on premiums to pay for the continued operation of the exchange.
“We’re working towards sustainability as a goal,” said Connector spokesman Brian Fitzgerald. “We’d like to see 300,000 enrolled on the exchange by 2015” to help achieve that goal.
Andrews said she is not planning to go to the state Legislature for funding.
Other alternative revenue streams Connector officials are discussing include community investment via philanthropic organizations or organizations that reinvest in the community, selling other products on the exchange such as long-term care insurance, as well as leasing the Connector’s technology to other states that haven’t set up their own exchanges.
The Hawaii Medical Service Association, one of the two insurers along with Kaiser Permanente Hawaii that have agreed to offer plans via the Connector, criticized the 2 percent fee on premiums. HMSA officials said the fee will increase costs to consumers instead of making health insurance more affordable.
(Clue: 300,000 is 21% of Hawaii's 1.4M population. Hawaii has only 7.5% uninsured and 7.5% = 96,000, therefore they are projecting 204,000 people to dump their existing insurance and sign up via the connector.)
read ... Insurance exchange intends to sign up 300,000
Plan to Let Juvenile Offenders Out
CB: With technical help from the Pew Charitable Trust — Pew staff crunched the data on Hawaii's parole rates, sentencing and other statistics — the JRI working group made recommendations to the Hawaii Legislature. The result was two pieces of legislation that became law in 2012.
Act 139 requires that a pre-trial risk assessment be completed within three days of a suspect's placement in a community correctional center. It expands the membership of the Hawaii Paroling Authority to help it identify offenders most likely to benefit from programming and supervision, limits the duration of incarceration for first-time parole violators and raises the percentage deducted from an inmates' earnings for victim restitution payments.
Act 140 allows for probation for some second-time convictions involving specific drug offenses, and for four years of probation for specific class B or class C felonies. It also requires a defendant's probation officer to report to the courts on how the defendant is complying with probation.
In its statement, the administration claims that the new laws have shown "encouraging results, including a 5 percent drop in the prison population."
Asked whether JRI can be considered a success so quickly, Recktenwald cautioned that "hard numbers" are needed — something he said he expected Pew to help with. Senate President Donna Mercado Kim, who also spoke at the press conference, said Pew has seen "positive responses" in states where JRI has been implemented.
The working group on juvenile justice will make its recommendations to the Legislature for the 2014 session, and Kim and House Rep. Mele Carroll (standing in for Speaker Joe Souki at the presser) said they would look forward to what the group has to say.
read ... Neil Abercrombie, Probation Officer-in-Chief
Ninth Circuit to hear rail lawsuit today
HNN: The fate of Honolulu's $5.3 billion rail transit system is now in the hands of two Carter appointees and an Obama nominee.
A three-judge panel of Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals today will hear arguments in San Francisco on a lawsuit by Honolulutraffic.com, which argues that city and transit officials didn't adequately address alternatives to the 20-mile heavy rail system....
In today's Ninth Circuit hearing, two of the three panelists have a well known track record for requiring rigorous environmental reviews of major development projects.
One of the judge -- Stephen Reinhardt -- is often considered the most liberal in the appellate system and has ruled in favor of environmentalist challenging development projects.
Another panel member -- Senior Appellate Judge Mary Schroeder -- wrote an opinion on a 2011 Ninth Circuit ruling on an Alaska case that has some parallels to the Honolulutraffic.com case.
Her opinion barred construction of a half a billion dollar highway project in Alaska because state and federal highway officials did not adequately address alternatives to the project.
The third panelist Andrew Hurwitz was appointed to the Ninth Circuit by President Obama last year....
The Ninth Circuit has agreed to take on the appeal on an expedited basis, meaning that a ruling can happen in a matter of months.
read ... Today
Heed court ruling on Sunshine Law SA: The Hawaii Supreme Court, in a ruling that was thorough and reasoned, opted against invalidating a Maui zoning decision but ultimately sent a message that county and state officials should heed: The Sunshine Law means that the public must have access to government when key decisions are made.
According to the Office of Information Practices, the state agency that administers the Sunshine Law, the high court hadn't ruled since 1993 on the law, so this decision is being touted by some as a "watershed" ruling. At the very least, it provides some direction on how government should conduct its business openly rather than allowing for only the minimum public input.
read ... Heed court ruling on Sunshine Law
Under siege—and in bid to stay relevant—teacher unions evolve
Time: The dramatic showdown in the Aloha State demonstrates how radically the nation’s education landscape has changed in recent years. For decades, teacher unions have used their political power and bargaining to exert near-complete control over school systems in some places. Now, Democrats are embracing policies that are anathema to unions, and Republicans have successfully weakened labor laws in former bastions of union strength. And as a new generation of teachers joins the profession and questions the old way of doing things, teachers unions must deal with dissent from their own ranks.
Negotiations and political fights between teacher unions and management once centered on benefits and school funding. Now, the unions are battling to keep their ability to bargain for benefits at all and warding off education reform efforts that could undermine union power. On the surface, these arguments are about specific details and numbers. At their heart, though, the fights are about the relevance and future of teacher unions and, by extension, the labor movement itself.
CB: Making Waves: Corey Rosenlee is Shaking Up Hawaii Education
read ... HSTA New Strategy
Knee, Hip Replacement? Not in Hawaii
VB: The company has already released some fascinating data, which may prove to be useful for patients, health insurers, and those interested in preventive health. Montagne found that hip and knee replacements are the most common surgical procedure in America, which set Medicare back $6 billion last year. The survey also revealed that people in Arkansas, Hawaii and Wyoming do not have access to high-quality knee and hip hospitals.
Link: Nerd Wallet
Read ... No Knee, Not Hip
Farmer's Electric Bill: $11K / month
CB: Increasingly, Hawaii farmers are turning toward alternative sources of energy, including hydro, wind, solar and biomass. Ha is at the forefront of such efforts. His new hydroelectric plant will, he estimates, cut his electricity bill nearly in half over the next twenty years. That is the duration of the loan that he took out to pay for his own personal power plant.
Here is the math that convinced him: The monthly electric bill for his farm was between $10,000 and $11,000 per month. To pay off his loan, he will pay $6,000 per month. The $4,000 to $5,000 monthly savings would add up, over the course of the 20-year loan, to more than $1 million. (Ha notes that the savings will rise dramatically once his loan is paid off; the only cost for his electricity will be hydroelectric plant upkeep.)
read ... Hydro Solution
Hawaii Wind Energy Depends on Oil Burners and Power Outages
NPR: Wind is a particular challenge. It doesn't blow all the time, so it always needs a backup. But keeping an oil-fired power plant at the ready is expensive.
Hirahara is working on a new remedy for that problem, and it's all about customers. She has recruited big energy users, like hotels, hospitals, office buildings, schools and condos, and is tempting them with discounts.
Here's how the idea works: If, for instance, the wind was decreasing quickly right now, a grid operator would send a message to these customers.
"And the customers would reduce or shut down air conditioning, heat pumps — big energy users," Hirahara says.
This way, the grid operators wouldn't have to switch on another expensive oil plant. So far, only a few dozen companies have signed up. In another program, 36,000 customers have signed up to let grid operators switch off their water heaters ....
"It's very experimental," she admits.
read ... Wind
Oi: Council Should Let Water board off Easy
Oi: The Honolulu Board of Water Supply didn’t do itself any favors when it went from billing customers every month instead of every two months and began charging a higher fee — even though it had been delayed for a year — while using a different billing system. When a glitch in the system had some bills delivered on the dates that payments were due, the combination of seeming incompetence and higher customer costs combined to heighten discontent.
This has become an opportunity for Council members, not for wresting financial control by requiring the board to get their approval for its operational and improvement spending plans and its potential land use decisions, but by taking a larger role in oversight themselves.
Should problems continue, the Council will still have the option of revamping the board’s functions....Pushing a charter amendment at this time is an overreaction.... (Make the Peasants Pay.)
read ... Water board should explain billing problems, functions
9th Circuit Slaps Down Yet Another Shameful DoE Lawsuit Against Handicapped Child Conclusion: The district court correctly granted A.D.’s motion for stay put. A.D. was entitled to remain at Loveland Academy as his stay-put placement from the date he filed his administrative complaint, and he was entitled to remain there until his case was finally resolved.
read ... The Decision
Statehood Day: Proud to be an American
Sam Slom: Hawaii officially became a state on August 21, 1959, after 94 percent of the voting population enthusiastically supported entrance into the union. Statehood, or Admission Day, was established as a paid state holiday in Hawaii decades ago. Problem is, for nearly the last two decades, Hawaii officials have been fearful of actually openly celebrating the day or verbalizing taking any pride in being an American because of discontent among certain native Hawaiian activist groups. Several years ago, it got ugly; I know because I sponsored a statehood event when no one else would. After that, I suggested eliminating this day as a paid government holiday since the government no longer wants to acknowledge the benefits of being the 50th State. The law was changed, but only to designate the third Friday in August as another government day off to go to the beach, shopping, or have protests against the USA, etc. This Friday is Statehood Day. While some may celebrate quietly and privately, or not at all, I'm still proud to be an American.
read ... Statehood Day
Governor taps pair for seats on Hawaiian Homes panel
SA: Abercrombie appointed Wallace A. Ishibashi Jr. to represent East Hawaii County and Patricia W. Sheehan to the Kauai seat.
Ishibashi is a retired ILWU Local 142 officer and currently chairman of the Hawaii County Windward Planning Commission.
Sheehan has worked in fields ranging from education to real estate and serves on several boards, including the Kapiolani Health Foundation and the Kauai Historic Preservation Review Commission.
Though the appointments are effective immediately, the two still must be confirmed by the state Senate....
Abercrombie has yet to name a replacement for Perry Artates, the Maui commissioner who abruptly resigned last week after news surfaced of the June conviction of him and his wife for conspiracy to commit wire fraud and submitting false loan documents.
read ... Governor taps pair for seats on Hawaiian Homes panel
Eviction Looms For Sovereignty Mortgage Scammer
BIN: Kale Gumapac owns a $320,000 home in Hawaiian Paradise Park that also houses Laulima Title Search and Claims LLC, Gumapac’s company that specializes in “supporting homeowners and attorneys during the foreclosure process by providing education, counseling, attorney referrals, and paralegal research,” according to the company’s website.
But a state sheriff showed up at Gumapac’s house on Monday with an eviction notice, and Gumapac expects a swarm of armed state sheriffs with moving vans to show up on his property any day now.
“Probably on a Saturday or Sunday,” he said. “That’s when they usually do it.”...
(For a fat fee) Gumapac’s company advises clients that they can stop court-ordered evictions by researching property titles and finding “defects” in them resulting from that late 19th-century act....
The problem is that when Gumapac and his clients fail to make their mortgage payments, courts ignore their sovereignty-based legal claims and move straight toward court-ordered foreclosure and eviction.
Gumapac believes however that international law trumps US law and that he will ultimately prevail in the international court, where Honolulu attorney Dexter Kaiama, who represents Gumpapac, has filed charges of “war crimes” against judges and other officers in Hawaii who do not recognize his legal argument.
Gumapac admits that Kaiama’s legal strategies have never saved any of his clients from court-ordered foreclosures and evictions. He also acknowledges that he stopped making payments on his mortgage with Deutschebank....
A video of state sheriff Patrick Kawai serving Gumapac with the foreclosure notice at Gumapac’s property on Monday was posted on YouTube.
read ... Poetic Justice
Puna Anti-Geothermal march on HELCO (Aug. 17-19)
H247: Between 10 a.m. and noon Monday, August 19, marchers will deliver a petition to HELCO that states, “We want Hawaii Electric Light Company to stop its contract for new geothermal development on the Island of Hawaii, because the contract was excluded from the utility company’s recent public planning effort, and previous geothermal sites on this island have been notoriously unsafe, unclean, and poorly regulated.”
read ... Puna Pono march on HELCO (Aug. 17-19)
Abercrombie Claims Small Business Wants More Government Spending, Handouts
PBN: “I find it interesting that the entrepreneurial sector is interested in what government as a catalyst can do in the first place,” Abercrombie told me....“The previous rhetoric is that government is in the way.”
And many small-business owners I talk to on a daily basis still take that approach. But Abercrombie says his reality is something different. He said businesses ask him for help “everyday, all day. But that’s OK. I call it paradoxical.” (Note to Neil: Political cronies looking for special purpose revenue bonds don't count as actual businesses.)
He points to the ag sector as one example, where he says he doesn’t think most people — farmers included — want the government to step out of the way and let invasive species destroy crops. Developers in Kakaako are another group that is regularly requesting his assistance to get their projects moving forward.
I asked him what he considers to be the state’s obligation when it comes to helping entrepreneurs of all types, and here’s what he said: “To maximize the capacity for people with bright ideas that will generate value that will enable us to have a growing middle class that has sufficient income to meet the monetary needs necessary to live in the middle of the ocean.” (Translation: To pick winners and losers so I will get more campaign contributions from the 'winners.')
PBN Survey: Only 7% Agree with Abercrombie
read ... Blabbercrombie
Lawyers think defense has advantage in Deedy trial
HNN: It's all or nothing in the Christopher Deedy murder trial. Jurors will not be allowed to consider any lesser crimes like manslaughter and many in the legal community think that helps Deedy's cause.
Thursday both sides of the Christopher Deedy murder case will make their closing arguments inside the courthouse and then it will be in the hands of the jury. Deedy is the Federal Agent accused of killing Kollin Elderts in an early morning altercation. Deedy's lawyers have argued self defense. Prosecutors say Deedy was intoxicated and inexperienced when he shot Elderts.
KITV: LIVE: Closing arguments in Deedy trial
read ... Lawyers think defense has advantage in Deedy trial
Kona: Nine Years of Meetings on Aquarium Collection
SA: Meetings were always announced, and the public attended. I attended the monthly meetings for nine years. After years of honing the amendments, they were forwarded to the Division of Aquatic Resources, which eventually recommended to the BLNR that the package be passed "in its entirety" with no changes. Finally, on June 28, the board voted 4-2 in favor.
The governor should be proud that community-based management led to such an excellent package of environmental improvements for West Hawaii. He should be praising the excellence of this process, how diverse groups were able to work together and craft meaningful and workable compromises that will help ensure that West Hawaii's reefs and critters will endure, including full protection for inshore sharks and rays.
The "white list," a part of the rules package, lists the 40 species of fish that aquarium collectors may take from "open areas." This is an ingenious way of protecting hundreds of other aquarium-targeted species along the West Hawaii coastline. The list includes about 98 percent of aquarium collectors' income, an important reason why this package has successfully passed through the Small Business Review Board twice.
The proposed package also creates a new small fish replenishment area (FRA) in South Kona that would be protected from aquarium collection. Ka‘ohe Bay is one of the only easily accessible beaches and reefs along the South Kona shoreline, and public testimony over the last decade has confirmed that residents, including the vast majority of aquarium fishermen, agree the bay should be protected.
read ... Nine Years
FACE: DREAMers Celebrate First Birthday
CB: Today, August 15, marks the first anniversary of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA).
Exactly one year ago the first applications were received for the U.S. Immigration Service’s program whereby youth and young adults who were brought to the U.S. from other countries before their 16th birthday but have remained without immigrant status (also called DREAMers) could apply for a two-year temporary legal status and pay a large fee of $275.
read ... Training a Class of Voters
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