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Monday, July 9, 2012
July 9, 2012 News Read
By Andrew Walden @ 4:55 PM :: 5328 Views

Lingle Cable TV Channel Adds Interactive Photo Scrapbook

Rail: Transportation Secretary Wants Us to Be Like Communist China

Audio: Obama’s U.S. Commerce Secretary John Bryson -- The Hit-and-Run 911

School Bus Cuts Show DoE/BoE/Legislature/Governor Still Pointing Fingers

SA: Last week the state Board of Education owned up to its failure to stay on top of the problem and keep parents in the loop. It just won't do to alert parents a few weeks or even a few days in advance of a new school year that their family's transportation logistics have been entirely upheaved. The Department of Education should have long ago gotten a grip on its skyrocketing bus contractual costs, and lawmakers punted on their oversight responsibilities, too….

Raiding the state's emergency funds can't be tolerated; the DOE should be given time to comb through its own budget to maintain basic services needed, especially for younger children who have few safe options to get to school otherwise.

Presumably that will happen with the participation of bus company executives, who have been awfully quiet on this mess. Perhaps their low public profile in the discussions is not surprising, given that this is a sensitive issue. Last fall several acknowledged they'd been questioned by the FBI about the bidding process for school bus contracts. Was there, or wasn't there a probe into potential collusion to push up the contract bids? It's hard to know, since the FBI has declined to confirm that investigation and no official resolution has emerged….

Gov. Neil Abercrombie last week sent a stinging letter to state Rep. K. Mark Takai, a member of the House Education Committee, who had asked the governor to "invoke emergency powers" to address a $5.5 million shortfall. The governor came down too hard — slapping Takai for a "lack of knowledge regarding executive power" and for being "disingenuous" because he was one of 32 to vote against a bill to reform school bell schedules.

read … Abercrombie “Finger-pointer-in-chief”

DoE Cuts Back on Adult Schools, 9,000 Students Affected

SA: The DOE announced in May its plan to retain two community schools with the highest enrollments — McKinley and Wai­pahu — and convert the remaining eight to satellite campuses. The satellite campuses will not have principals, but will be led by vice principals or site coordinators.

The consolidation plan is designed to significantly cut community school costs without slashing course offerings.

"We want to be able to offer the same types of services," Asami said. But he added, "There's no guarantee that every single course will be offered five times a year as it had been."

Lawmakers set aside $2.5 million for adult community schools in the coming school year — half of what they had been getting from the DOE.

While there has been little opposition overall to the consolidation, the Kaimuki School for Adults has explored the possibility of becoming independent and self-sufficient.

The suggestion has gotten little response from the department, which is moving forward with its plan to convert Kaimuki into a satellite without a principal.

Kaimuki School for Adults attendees are worried a consolidation would mean a reduction in the school's wide variety of classes, from iPad tutorials to yoga.

In the spring, the school had 1,400 "special interest" students and 400 students attending academic courses, such as English as a second language and GED diploma prep.

read … DoE Plan to Save Money: Eliminate Education

HART Propaganda Wins ‘Platinum Hermes’

SA: The Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation is the only Hawaii winner of two Platinum Hermes Awards from the Association of Marketing and Communication Professionals.

HART's interactive route map and its outreach project won in the Website Element/Interactive Capabilities and Community Relations categories, respectively.

HART also won two Gold Hermes Awards for its Rail Facts on the Honolulu Rail Transit Project in the Website Element/Web Copy category, and for its website in the Website Overall/Government category.

read … Hermes

State Green Police Spur Neighbors to Spy on each other, Find Energy Wasting Apostates

SA: While rebates will continue to be a mainstay for Hawaii Energy, it has begun to push consumers harder to cut energy waste. The centerpiece of the new initiative is a product called a Home Energy Report, which allows electric utility customers to anonymously compare their energy use with that of their neighbors. The reports are mailed to residents and also made available online.

Since its launch on Oahu in May 2011, the "peer comparison" program has resulted in a 1.5 percent reduction in energy use, or about $500,000 off the energy bills of the 15,000 Hawaiian Electric Co. residential customers who participated, according to officials from Virginia-based Opower, which was hired by Hawaii Energy to conduct the Home Energy Reports.

The program was recently expanded to 62,000 residential utility customers on Hawaii island, Maui, Lanai and Molokai.

"Hawaii is a place where energy prices are high enough that people have already done the things that are the easiest to cut their bills," said Emily Bailard, a San Francisco-based Opower manager who oversees the company's work in Hawaii. "It will be harder to get them to hang their laundry out to dry or unplug their electronics," she said. The bulk of the conservation recommendations made by Opower, such as using air conditioning more sparingly, properly setting water heater timers and using advanced power strips, can be done for free or at a low cost, Bailard said.

The Home Energy Report is part of Hawaii Energy's broader effort to "educate and motivate ratepayers" to implement more aggressive energy conservation measures, according to its latest annual report. Hawaii Energy is playing a leading role in helping the state achieve the Hawaii Clean Energy Initiative goal of reducing total electric energy usage by 4.3 billion kilowatt-hours by 2030.

"The program will do this in part by introducing a broad transformational education effort aimed at teaching conservation and efficiency practices and instilling a sense of personal awareness and responsibility for individual energy behavior," according to the annual report.

Totally Related: EU: Smart Meters Allow 'Massive Collection of Personal Data'

read … Green Police

2nd Congressional District debate Thursday on HNN

HNN: News Now and the Honolulu Star Advertiser will host a debate featuring 2nd District Congressional candidates from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. on Thursday, July 12.

Four Democratic candidates Tulsi Gabbard, Esther Kia'aina , Mufi Hannemann and Bob Marx are expected to attend.

read … Debate

Abercrombie Signs Two Senior Service Bills

SA: Gov. Neil Abercrombie signed bills into law Friday that will strengthen services for seniors.

Senate Bill 2779 will establish aging and disability resource centers in each county to streamline access to services for seniors, people with disabilities and family caregivers. About $1.4 mil­lion was appropriated for the centers.

The state Executive Office on Aging will collaborate with the counties to implement the centers under a five-year plan, agency director Wesley Lum said.

Abercrombie also signed Senate Bill 2320, which authorizes Kupuna Care programs to support community services and help seniors stay at home and with family. The Legislature provided $4.2 million.

read … Voters

Hawaii Election Rolls ‘12% Deadwood’

ILind: Scott Nago, the state’s chief election officer, says the apparent ongoing decline in voter turnout is, in part, an artifact of a 1993 change in federal law.

The National Voter Registration Act of 1993, also known as the Motor Voter Act, stopped state and local governments from dropping registered voters from the rolls just because they don’t vote.

Previously, Hawaii residents were automatically deleted from voter lists if they failed to show up during two consecutive election cycles.

“At that time, we were very strict,” said Honolulu election administrator Glen Takahashi. “If you missed two elections, you were kicked off.”

For example, if a registered voter failed to vote in either the primary or general election over successive two-year election cycles, under the old procedures they would have been “scrubbed” from the list of registered voters. In order to vote in any future election, they would have had to re-register.

“Now it’s harder for the clerks to remove anyone from the voter rolls,” Nago said. “It’s a much longer process.”

Hawaii election statistics seem to support the notion of a direct link between the change in the law and lower official voter turnout numbers.

Between passage of the federal law in 1993, and the 2010 election, the number of registered voters in Hawaii jumped much faster than the number of votes cast.

The number of registered voters in the state climbed nearly 49 percent between 1992, just before passage of Motor Voter, and 2010, while the number of votes cast rose less than 1 percent. Voter turnout dropped from 82.4 percent to 55.8 percent during the period, according to the Office of Elections.

Election officials say inactive voters — those who register but don’t vote — can’t be dropped unless and until officials go through a long, multi-step process to show they have moved from the address where they were registered and did not leave a new forwarding address. Otherwise, they remain on the list of registered voters until they die or ask to be removed.

The process goes something like this: Election officials regularly search the U.S. Postal Service’s national change-of-address database for voters who have moved as well as lists of reported deaths. This is done at the beginning of each election year, Takahashi said.

Later in the year, election officials send out yellow voter information postcards which are returned by the postal service if they can’t be delivered. Then a follow-up mailing is sent to missing voters with instructions to forward, if possible.

If the voters still can’t be located, they are flagged as “inactive” and slated for removal. But federal law requires a grace period covering two full federal election cycles, or four years. Only after the two full elections have passed can inactive voters, and those voters who can’t be located, be purged from the list.

The whole process takes a minimum of four years, and usually longer. The result, officials say, is a voter list which includes “deadwood” — voters who don’t vote, can’t be located, but can’t be dropped until the mandatory grace period is over.

Takahashi estimated Honolulu’s voter list includes 8 percent to 12 percent “deadwood” at any one time.

read … 12% Deadwood

Abercrombie Closure of Haleiwa Farmers Market bodes ill for Oahu's agricultural future

SA: the closing of the Haleiwa Farmers Market was a bad idea. We have tried to sell our produce at that same market and for us it was not economically viable, so we have gone to other methods to get our produce out to the public. But for other farmers it was a lifeline to sustainability and a great community gathering place.

You cannot pick up the newspaper without reading about buying and eating locally produced products. Gov. Neil Abercrombie should have found a way to keep the market in its present location, charged the owners rent and made use of a piece of land that was sitting there doing nothing.

If our governor does not support local agriculture in all its various ways, how are we as a state ever to keep our farming industry viable?

read … Abercrombie Does it Again

 

 

Family vows to fight for land as City Threatens Leasehold

SA: The unusual situation began when the administration of Mayor Jeremy Harris used city and federal money in 1996 to buy more than 40 acres along Kamehameha Highway "to preserve and protect the existing scenic qualities and the natural resources and rural character of these coastal lands," said Michael Hansen, current director of the city Department of Budget and Fiscal Services.

John and Jean Tangaro had been paying $800 per month to David Chinen, whom they mistakenly thought was legally able to sublease the land, along with a three-bedroom, two-bath home that the Tangaros renovated to accommodate five bedrooms.

After Chinen died in October, city officials in April granted the Tangaro family a rent-free extension through the end of this month.

The city obtained the land the Tangaros are living on from Elizabeth Marks on May 10, 1996, and Chinen later had an agreement to lease the land effective July 1997, Fulton said.

The city took over the old lease agreements that Marks had with her tenants, which ranged from $45 per month to $300 per month, depending on the various properties, Hansen said.

Chinen paid Marks — and later the city — $85 per month, Hansen said.

"He was paying rent to the city, but he was not legally entitled to sublet or profit from the rental agreement," Fulton said.

read … Housing Plan: Throw the Tenants

Bill 5 Throws Small Businesses off Beach

KHON: Bill 5 has been in effect for just over a week now- banning all commercial activities at Kailua and Kalama beach parks from Saturday through Monday.

Another bill before the council this week - would ban all commercial activities 24/7.

If you've visited Kailua Beach Park this weekend or last, you may have noticed a significant decrease in the amount of kayaks, tour buses, and vendors operating out of the beach park.

read … Economic Plan, Throw out all the Small Businesses

Carlisle, Kaneshiro Boost Prostitution Enforcement as Election Approaches

CB: "The police are very active in investigating these cases," said Honolulu Prosecutor Keith Kaneshiro. "Now they do arrests on Friday and Saturday nights."

The issue came up during a recent mayoral debate. Mayor Peter Carlisle insisted that the city was "vigorously" prosecuting men who solicit sex from prostitutes.

Civil Beat has been tracking how Honolulu police handle prostitution offenses because concern about sex trafficking in Hawaii has run high in recent years.

Earlier this year, our Cops, Prostitutes and Pimps series investigating the Honolulu Police Department's handling of Hawaii prostitution laws showed that enforcement of prostitution had been falling off in recent years. Police made fewer than half as many arrests in 2011 as they did five years ago. The series also revealed that there was virtually no enforcement on weekends; fewer than 1 percent of arrests in 2011 were made on weekends.

But HPD's arrest log for June indicates an uptick in prostitution-related arrests, at least for that month. The log shows that 30 people were arrested for prostitution-related crimes in June, more than any single month in 2011. None of the June arrests were recorded on a Saturday, but three arrests took place between 12 a.m. and 12:30 a.m. on Sundays. Last year, cops made no prostitution arrests on Saturdays and just two arrests on a Sunday, and both of those were on the same day at 10:40 p.m.

read … Election Year

142 People Contribute to Harry Kim Campaign

HTH: Former Mayor Harry Kim has raised $1,420 in campaign contributions since announcing his intention to run for his former office in early June. The reporting period ended June 30.

His opponents, including Mayor Billy Kenoi, who is running for re-election, and Council Chairman Dominic Yagong have until July 12 to file their campaign reports. They are expected to have raised many times Kim’s amount, because the former mayor prefers an unconventional campaign that is not accepting any donations in excess of $10.

Kim made a $5,000 loan to himself to cover the initial cost of starting the campaign, which has a little more than a month to go before the Aug. 11 primary election. He has $4,965.79 cash on hand, but after accounting for the loan and unpaid expenditures the campaign is running a debt of $2,829.48.

read … Harry Kim is Baaack

Parents: Eco-Tour Group Did not Search for Son Swept out to Sea

SA: The parents of a New York teen swept out to sea in Hawaii are criticizing a tour company's handling of the search.

Fifteen-year-old Tyler Madoff's parents say Bold Earth Teen Adventures showed poor judgment and no staff members stayed at the site to search for their son.

Bold Earth Founder Abbott Wallis said Monday he understands the Madoffs' pain but says staff did everything they could.

Tyler was hiking on the west coast of the Big Island with the tour group Wednesday when waves swept him away.

read … No Search

Star-Adv Gives Column Space to Occupy Morons Again

SA: I want to argue that DeOccupy Honolulu, the encampment that continues at the corner of Ward Avenue and Beretania Street, is the most persistent and pointed challenge to the political status quo in many a year.

It has been the target of more than 20 raids by the police and the city Department of Facilities Maintenance (DFM), and a like number of arrests, including the first eight on Nov. 5, 2011, when the encampment began.

The raids have come at 3 a.m.; they have come in broad daylight. Armed personnel and heavy equipment and accompany the raids.

Reality: Occupy Honolulu: Waikiki Shooting was “Round One”

More Reality: KOS: The perception of Occupy Honolulu is Universally Negative

read … No it isn’t

Emilia now a hurricane as Daniel weakens and nears Hawaii

SA: Two storms in the Eastern Pacific could bring rain to Hawaii starting Wednesday night, National Weather Service forecasters say.

Hurricane Daniel, which had reached category 3 strength overnight, is weakening as it moves west into cooler waters.

The storm is now a category 2 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 105 mph.

Hawaii island could feel the effects of Daniel, which is expected to weaken to a tropical depression or a less organized tropical remnant, as early as Wednesday night.

read … Hurricane Season


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