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Thursday, September 9, 2010
September 9, 2010 News Read
By Andrew Walden @ 12:56 PM :: 7884 Views

Smart Business Hawaii PAC endorses Carroll for Governor, King for LG

Ka’auwai: “If Hanabusa won’t be voting for herself, why should anyone else?”

Haha’ione Elementary site of Townhall meeting on proposed appointed School Board

Need a job? 50 employers to attend Rep Djou’s job fair

Maui TEA Party releases list of approved candidates

UPDATE: Schatz, Hirono, Hannemann, others ineligible for Democratic Party support

UPDATE: Hilo, Kona, Maui events to mark September 11 attacks 

SA: Aiona sees danger if Hawaii returns to one-party rule

…The Republican lieutenant governor believes it did not work in the four decades before he was elected with Linda Lingle eight years ago and has not worked on the national stage over the past two years with President Barack Obama and Congress.

His campaign for governor is based on bedrock conservative principles of lower taxes, less government and strengthening families. But it is also about keeping some political balance in a state where Democrats hold an overwhelming majority at the Legislature.

"It just doesn't work. That's why we got elected in 2002. At that point in time, people said, 'Enough is enough, we don't want the status quo. We don't want to have one supermajority in both the executive branch and the legislative branch,' and they made the change," he said….

Aiona said he would not raise the general excise tax -- the state's largest source of revenue -- but predicted a Democratic governor would, under pressure from labor unions and social-service providers to avoid further state budget cuts, furloughs or layoffs.

"I'm convinced," Aiona said. "I don't care what Hannemann or Neil says, they're not being fair. They're not being honest with the public if they say, 'No, I'm not going to raise the GE tax.'"

Depledge also repeats his unsourced claim that Abercrombie is an Episcopal. See update here: Hawaii media suddenly converts Abercrombie to Episcopalian

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Moneyed Hippie stays broke: Abercrombie raises most money, burns it

Campaign spending reports on Wednesday showed Abercrombie raised $717,000 between July 1 and Sept. 3 compared to Hannemann's $330,400.
Abercrombie ended the period with about $250,000 in his war chest. Hannemann boasted holding nearly $792,000 in his treasury.

During the same two months, Republican Lt. Gov. James "Duke" Aiona raised about $200,600 and had more than $487,000 in the bank.

(After subtracting Abercrombie’s campaign debts he has more like $125K.)

SA: Abercrombie surges ahead in fundraising

KITV: Willie Nelson Concert Boosts Abercrombie's War Chest: University of Hawaii political science professor and political analyst Neal Milner said Wednesday that Aiona can relax now and hold back his substantial war chest. "Obviously, Aiona's campaign will not start in earnest until after he finds out which democratic party opponent he will face in the general election," said Milner.

Political Radar: Maxed out (Complete list of max donors to Hannemann and Abercrombie.)

Political Radar: The No. 2’s (Lt Governor race financials)

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Candidates submit final money tally before primary

Candidates in the special election for Honolulu Mayor also had a surge in campaign contributions.  Kirk Caldwell brought in the most over the last two months with $256,432 bringing his overall total to $837,056.  His total cash on hand is down to $12,458.

Peter Carlisle raised $210,931 the last two months for a total of $513,838 this election cycle.  He also has the most cash left with $84,303.

Panos Prevedouros was happy with his fundraising. He gained $95,535 the past two months bringing his total to $138,343.  He has a surplus of $22,300….

In the race for the second Congressional district incumbent Mazie Hirono has a commanding lead in cash on hand with nearly $733,000 compared to republican opponents Ramsay Wharton who has $5,700 and John Willoughby who has less than $2,300.

SA: Caldwell tops fundraising as mayoral election nears

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State supreme court: blocking furloughs was premature

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) - Too late to affect the current budget crisis, the Hawaii Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that (union owned) Circuit Court Judge Karl Sakamoto was wrong to block Governor. Lingle's state furloughs before a state board reviewed the move.

The state high court voted 4-1 that Judge Sakamoto should not have ruled on the unilateral furlough plan before it was reviewed by the Hawaii Labor Relations Board….

That took months, though, and in the meantime the governor undertook outright layoffs to control state spending at a time when tax revenues were far below expectations driving the government into the red.

Governor. Lingle, in a statement that did not mention Sakamoto by name, directly blamed his ruling for people being thrown out of work.

"As a result," she said, "we were forced to lay off hundreds of state employees."

SA: Ruling gives labor board first say

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Shapiro: Democrats: Rules made for ignoring?

Woerner recognizes “that my campaign might not be all that newsworthy,” but he’s perplexed that he can’t get coverage for a story about apparent rule-breaking by Democratic candidates that extends beyond his own race.

He says a majority of Democratic candidates, including many at the top of the ticket, are failing to abide by an article in the party’s constitution requiring that candidates “submit Candidate Statement Forms … indicating their agreement, disagreement, and/or reservations with the Platform and Resolutions of the State and County Party.”

According to Woerner, the rule states that a “candidate who fails to abide by these requirements shall not be eligible for endorsement.”

He said he confirmed with Debi Hartmann, the party’s executive director, that 60 percent of the candidates did not return their forms, even though the deadline was extended by a week.

RELATED: UPDATE: Schatz, Hirono, Hannemann, others ineligible for Democratic Party support

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Thai workers describe being lured into slavery in U.S.

As he took the lectern Wednesday, a 42-year-old farmworker described being recruited by Thai associates of Global Horizons to pick apples in Washington and pineapples in Hawaii. They promised him a 40-hour workweek with pay that amounted to more than 10 times his $100 monthly income as a struggling rice farmer in rural Thailand, he said….

And whose pineapple farm was that?  Green hypocrites: Case & Omidyar’s Maui Land & Pine tied to human trafficking case

KITV: Exclusive: Immigration Case May Keep Alleged Human Trafficker In Prison -- Largest U.S. Human Trafficking Case May Expand

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'Transparency' applies to rail

Kobayashi's larger point is a valid one: The public needs access to information about how its money is being spent. Some months back she submitted a request in writing to the city administration, which delivered the documents. Few outside city government, other than members of the media, have seen them.

City spokesman Bill Brennan said Kobayashi is free to post electronic versions of the contract paperwork on the Council's DocuShare system. That would be fine, but the public should be able to find information on more than whatever individual Council members dig up piecemeal.

The city administration should post information about its rail spending -- in enough detail to be meaningful -- on the Web for the public to see.

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Alternet: Mufi IS less moral

…much of the mainstream media coverage of Kaauwai’s letter missed his allegations that Mufi Hannemann, while mayor of Honolulu, has built up a corrupt political machine and abused his mayoral powers. As Jonah Kaauwai wrote,

I deal daily with local businessmen who are scared to give the Republican Party donations because of fear of retribution from the Democrats and their friends. These men and women fear that their businesses will be destroyed by crooked politicians withholding contracts and permits. Mayor Mufi Hannemann’s name and the names of his political cronies often come up when these guys are probed.

Kaauwai’s email was also striking for his claim that Mufi Hannemann was in fact a worse (less moral) candidate than his rival for the Democratic Party gubernatorial nomination, former US Hawaii Congressman Neal Abercrombie.

But a July 28th ethics violation charge filed by liberal Hawaiian environmental activist and radio show host Carroll Cox suggests Kaauwai’s accusations may have merit. Cox’s filing charged that Hannemann’s campaign was using city employees:

I have reliable and confirmed information that former Mayor Mufi Hannemann and former City Managing Director Kirk Caldwell knowingly used non-civil service secretaries (”exempt positions”) from various City and County of Honolulu Departments to work on Hannemann’s 2010 campaign at Hannemann’s Beretania Street headquarters. These City employees were routinely assigned and rotated by their Directors and Deputy Directors to conduct campaign work for the Hannemann campaign.

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Hawaii Islam Day leader speaks out against Koran burning

September 11 is coming around and look who pops his head up for the first time in months.  It is Mr Islam Day himself, Hakim Ouansafi.

He delivers one line of poison:  "It only benefits terrorists. It's the best marketing tool they can hope for to recruit misguided people," Hakim Ouansafi said.

WRONG.  The media is giving coverage to the book burning in Florida solely for the purpose of promulgating the idea that American actions are the cause of Islamist terrorism.  Secondarily, the coverage feeds the imagined superiority of arrogant liberal elites.  It is not 'provacation' but any real or imagined display of American weakness which inspires terrorists to even greater acts.  For instance, celebrating “Islam Day” on September 24, 2009/September 11, 2009 Julian.  That could be A VERY INSPIRING IMAGE. 

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Missile programme raises concern in Hawaii (Anti-Americans begin campaign)

Juan Wilson says some residents support the military, saying it brings jobs and incomes in economically tough times.

But he says others are (hoping to gin up opposition by pretending to be) concerned about the environmental damage to sea life, the atmosphere and the land.

He says while there is the US military’s push to grow its presence in the Pacific region, there’s increasing concern about people’s safety on a small remote island, like Kauai, if the military’s expansion plans continue. “For one thing (we hope to con people into opposing this by arguing) it makes us a target here….”

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Release of refunds leads to 22% drop in Hawaii's August tax collections 

Shiraki said if the total accrued refunds are factored out, general fund deposits increased by 4.7 percent in August.

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Hawaii hotel tax revenue jumps 25%

HONOLULU (AP) - Hotel tax revenues in Hawaii have jumped nearly 25% in the first two months of the fiscal year. The increase follows both a one percentage point increase in the transient accommodations tax and a rebound in the number of tourists visiting the islands.

(This will be used to justify more tax increases.)

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Bored of ed?

Lacking the space to conduct full interviews with all of them, we asked all 11 candidates for the at-large seats on the Board of Education one question: “If you could rule by fiat, what one specific change would you make to improve our schools?”

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Regulators guarantee Hawaiian utility’s ‘green’ profit

Hawaii’s electricity costs – already more than twice the national average — are about to increase again. But this time, it won’t be due to a Public Utilities Commission rate hike approval for the Hawaiian Electric Company and subsidiaries.

Instead projected increases will result from a recent Commission decision allowing the monopoly power company to profit regardless of consumer usage.

The Commission voted 2-1 on its Final Decision and Order in Docket No. 2008-0274 “decoupling” sales from the Hawaiian Electric Company's revenues.

In a dissenting opinion, Commissioner Les Kondo writes, “I disagree that it is reasonable or in the public interest to shift essentially all of the HECO Companies’ business and economic risks to the customers.”

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Coffee parasite discovered in Kona

Coffee farmers have a choice here.  they can either take action themselves, or they can rely on the State.  If they choose the latter course, they can expect results similar to the coqui frog.  Lots of expense, lots of talk, little results.

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University of Hawaii presents state's first-ever higher education summit

HONOLULU – More than 200 representatives from business, community, labor, and government will join national and local education leaders Friday at 9 a.m. at the Hilton Hawaiian Village’s Tapa Ballroom for a daylong summit presented by the University of Hawai‘i to discuss national higher education trends and to promote partnerships and a broader community dialogue on the importance of higher education to Hawai‘i’s future.

SA: UH reaches out for Inouye's help

REALITY: Greenwood Mafia grabs two power positions in UH system

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Cert Petition In Hawaii Beach Takings Case: Is The Right To Accretion A "Property" Interest?

The littoral property owners who won a partial victory in the Hawaii appellate courts have filed this cert petition asking the U.S. Supreme Court to review the decision of the Hawaii Intermediate Court of Appeals which concluded that ownership of beachfront property includes only a partial right to accreted land….

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