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Tuesday, August 8, 2017
August 8, 2017 News Read
By Andrew Walden @ 8:02 PM :: 4591 Views

Full Text: Lawmaker Leaks Plan to Make Sister Isles Pay for Rail -- Public Hearing Set

Full Text: Summary of Secret UPW Contract

Trump Admin Funds Micronesia One Stop Centers

Turn Your Child into a Tranny--Star-Adv Runs How-to Guide

SA: “What we know is, you have a son…. I would say get him the dresses. Maybe they’ll grow up to be gay.” …

“Do it somewhere where you’re not going to see people you know…. “Do a weekend as a different gender, and see what you learn…..”

Ehrensaft says some early signals can provide information about whether a child is transgender. They include...  Certain actions at a very young age, such as toddlers pulling barrettes from their hair, grabbing for their sister’s dress and dolls, or throwing away their trucks….  (Parental Fitness Test: Do you believe this?)

read … Not Born This Way

New DOE: Teacher Shortages, Hot Classrooms, and Low Test Scores

HNN: Shortages with teachers and school bus drivers, cooling down sweltering classrooms, and raising test scores are just a few of the challenges that the new DOE Superintendent, Christina Kishimoto, faces in her new position.

(DoE plan to deal with low test scores:  Get rid of the tests!)

read … No Plan

HMSA Losing $48M on Obamacare Plans

SR: …Preliminary rate filings for 2018 show an average increase of over 15 percent for Hawaii plans.

Kaiser Foundation Health Plan has requested an average rate increase of 19.9 percent, including rate requests for 19.52 and 20.19 percent increases for its HMO individual plans.

Kaiser explains in its filing that in 2016 claims costs exceeded premiums by over 40 percent. Administrative expenses and a $16 million risk transfer payment in 2016 added to company losses….

HMSA lost $48 million in 2015 and 2016 in individual ACA plans, and expects continued losses in 2017….

read … State of Reform

The Daniel K. Inouye Center has quietly disappeared

ILind: May 7, 2014 The University of Hawaii issued a press release distributed through its normal channels: “The University of Hawai‘i (UH) today unveiled preliminary design concepts for the future Daniel K. Inouye Center for Democratic Leadership (DKI Center), which will be located at the current Henke Hall site on the University of Hawai‘i at Manoa (UH Manoa) campus.” …

June 20, 2017. Another press release from the University of Hawaii: “Henke Hall demolition clears way for state-of-the-art science building.”…

Out with the Daniel K. Inouye Center, pushed by the dean of the College of Social Science, and in with a new interdisciplinary science building promoted by the dean of the College of Natural Sciences….

This was dutifully reported several days ago by the Star-Advertiser (“UH razing Henke Hall to build new science facility“).

And the news scribes apparently have no institutional memory, and so this latest announcement didn’t trigger any questions about the fate of the prior plan to build at that site in honor of the late Senator Dan Inouye….

read … Disappeared

Mental Health Care at Center of Homeless Plan

HTH: …Since mental health issues often are associated with homelessness, Chung wants the state Legislature to fund a new state mental health hospital.

“It’s vitally important that we get a better mental health system here on the Big Island,” he said. “That would make huge inroads into this homeless issue.”

But Kim said he wants Hilo Medical Center’s mental health services boosted financially instead….

mental health, family problems, lack of available apartments, addiction, job loss, criminal history, domestic violence, physical health, post traumatic stress disorder, traumatic brain injury and, in some cases, a preference to live an unencumbered life.

Chung, whose district includes downtown Hilo, thinks “a big percentage of these people who are homeless right now are doing so willingly.”….

A homelessness plan for East Hawaii and the Big Island, Chung said, must include housing options, enforcement and “wrap-around” services, which typically include assessments for physical and mental health and case management….

Related: Mental Health: Can Reform Solve Hawaii’s Homeless, Prison and Unfunded Liability Problems?

read … Kim preps plan for homeless

Hawaii County Transit Administrator Disqualified Because he Tells Employees What to do

HTH: Mayor Harry Kim renewed his transit consultant’s $9,584-a-month contract after the county Human Resources Department deemed Kim’s pick ineligible for the permanent civil service position of Mass Transit administrator.

Kim brought in former U.S. Marine Corps officer Curt Sharp on May 1 to troubleshoot an agency plagued with bus breakdowns, late arrivals and passenger and driver discontent. Former administrator Tiffany Kai stepped down to another position.

Sharp has spent months trying to clean up the baseyard and maintain and add buses to the fleet. He’s also tried to motivate personnel to work harder. But his blunt, no-nonsense style hasn’t sat well with some employees, with several telling West Hawaii Today that morale is at an all-time low.

“He’s a tough administrator,” Kim said.

A committee from the Department of Human Resources disqualified Sharp before sending three finalists to Kim. Sharp unsuccessfully appealed to the department, which ruled that he didn’t have the requisite experience in a mass transit agency….

Sharp, 72, claims 45 years experience in transportation networks and logistics, including overseeing more than 500 vehicles and 1,000 staff. But Human Resources disagreed that was “substantially equivalent” to mass transit.

“This thing is becoming more political than I anticipated,” Sharp said Monday….

Meanwhile: Bus Stolen, Nobody Notices for Hours

read … Consultant disqualified as candidate for Mass Transit administrator post

Hawaii Ranks 46th for Gun Ownership

CBS: For every 1,000 residents in Hawaii, there are 5.1 guns. That's 7,105 registered firearms dispersed among 1,404,054 people.

read … CBS News

BioMess: Hu Honua Loophole Allows Importation of Wood to Burn

CB: …Another critic is Henry Curtis of the environmental nonprofit, Life of the Land, which filed a motion to intervene in Hu Honua’s PUC hearing.

Of all the many PUC dockets he’s studied, he contends Hu Honua’s is the least fact-based. With the other cases, he maintains, “It’s always, ‘Here are the facts. This is why you should make decision this way,’”

“Whereas Hu Honua went out and hired a PR firm that went out and got a batch of letters of support, and then Hu Honua said, ‘look at these letters of support. We should win.’”

He notes that the plan contains a lot of speculation without commitments.

The company says it will get most of its wood from the Hamakua Coast, for instance. But it also reserves the option of bringing wood in from plantations around Pahala on the Kau coast—raising the specter of logging trucks snaking along narrow, winding roads and driving through downtown Hilo—or even importing wood.

Company spokespeople, including Robertson, have also talked about burning invasive trees such as albizia, but haven’t yet confirmed they will do so.

Curtis also wonders if the power is a good deal for consumers.

“Right now, we’re in a period of declining solar costs,” he said.  On the same day that PUC approved Hu Honua’s proposal to sell its power at an average of 21 cents per Kilowatt hour, it approved a Kauai solar project that would charge only 11 cents per kilowatt hour, Curtis noted.

Hu Honua’s average price over 30 years looks less than that of oil, though rate payers though the contract is actually expected to raise customer’s power bills for the first 11 years of the company’s HELCO contract….

read … Coal Would be Cleaner

State’s Ruling Party Gears up for ‘Day of Resistance’

KGI: …“The Democratic Party of Hawaii is gearing up for the statewide Day of Resistance. The month of August will center around canvassing precincts,” she said.

The Democratic Party of Hawaii launched its nationwide “Summer of Resistance and Renewal” program this summer, which aims to engage and motivate party members and activists.

Day of Resistance is scheduled Aug. 19

Leaders of the resistance program hope to recruit new members, train leaders, and increase voter turnout in Hawaii by 10 percent in the 2018 elections.

Organizers recruit and train volunteers to hit the streets, protest Republican agendas, talk to neighbors about health care and economic issues and register voters….

Meanwhile: Turn Your Child into a Tranny--Star-Adv Runs How-to Guide

And: First marijuana dispensary opening in Hawaii

read … Resist Yourself

State’s First Weed Store to Open Aug 15

WHT: …Maui Grown Therapies received approval from the Department of Health to begin selling medical cannabis Tuesday.

The dispensary plans to start selling medical marijuana to patients Tuesday, said Teri Freitas Gorman, director of community relations and patient affairs.

“Clearly this is a historic day not just for Maui but for the state of Hawaii,” Freitas Gorman said. “This is the first time in Hawaii that patients will be able to buy lab-tested, quality-assured medical cannabis from a state-licensed dispensary. We’re so excited.”

The Maui dispensary has been pre-registering patients and will begin selling medical cannabis to patients by appointment only, Freitas Gorman said. Walk-in sales will start in about a week….

read … Feel medicated

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