Entries for October 2011

A Lingle-Hirono campaign would be a rematch from their 2002 gubernatorial face-off.  Lingle, who outraised Hirono in that contest, won that race by five percentage points.

United States-Korea Free Trade Agreement Implementation Act - H.R.3080

The House is scheduled to vote on implementing a trade pact with South Korea.

Today, as America continues its worldwide fight against terrorist forces, it is vital to remember who is ultimately responsible for America's security, what the Constitution provides, and what the Founders intended. 

Abercrombie and officials from the Hawai'i Tourism Authority (HTA) ... met with representatives of various Japanese agencies that are key partners in the visitor industry.

it's vitally important to quickly enact the three pending U.S. trade agreements with Colombia, Panama, and South Korea. These FTAs have been sitting on the President's desk since 2007 for no good reason. President Obama has finally made them a priority by sending them to Congress last Monday night....

The Hawaii Christian Coalition would like to thank Jonah Kaauwai for his dedicated service to the Hawaii Republican Party. Although we accept the party's change of leadership, we hope that their platform of honoring life and families will continue....

“Free Solar” may sound like music to the ears of low-income Hawaii homeowners and non-profits, but to the General Fund it sounds more like a vacuum cleaner....

Here we go again with another round of spending in an attempt to convince voters that the national leadership knows what they are doing.

The Center for Island Climate Adaptation and Policy (“ICAP”) at the UH Sea Grant College Program has prepared this paper to examine the interactions among climate change, the regulation of shoreline development in Hawai‘i, and Constitutional law regarding unpermitted takings of private property for public benefit

According to senior Democrats, Abercrombie has been getting almost every single thing wrong—”batting 1.000”—but can get his act together by firing his staff and placing the Fifth Floor under the control of old-boy political operator Bruce Coppa.

Pilot climbs onto wing after ditching 13 miles off Hilo.

 ... The news is all the more shocking because Levinson is the son of ex-Justice Stephen “Broken Trust” Levinson, the inventor of gay “marriage”. Sporting a newly-trimmed Mohawk, Rep Blake Oshiro remains in denial ....

Abercrombie will travel to Asia from October 9 – 21, 2011 ....

 Yesterday at the White House, President Barack Obama faced the media to once again plug the American Jobs Act--his plan for more stimulus spending, paid for with even more taxes on America's job creators. And this morning, not a day later, America received a reminder of why a continuation of the President's tried-and-failed policies is not a prescription for success....

Just substitute “Hawaiian” for “Alaskan” and you can see what CNHA is all about.)

Suicide law proponents are using a 1909 Hawaii law as a basis for their assertions, claiming the law allows doctors to administer lethal drugs upon patient request. In fact, this law was written to allow doctors to administer non-traditional/herbal drugs in battling such illnesses as Hansen's Disease (leprosy), tuberculosis, and asthma.

“What I am going to do? Am I going to just sit around and do nothing? I was hurt,” he said of his reaction to Case’s challenge to Akaka.

“He hasn’t given me any explanation, and if that’s the way he’s going to deal with me, I don’t want to deal with a person like that.”  

Precluding pre-enforcement judicial review buttresses a regime where EPA has assumed the authority to enjoin development by issuing unreviewable compliance orders. Such a result is repugnant to the core principle in the Due Process Clause that "[n]o person shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law."

... Coppa was chief operations officer of Communications Pacific and executive director of Pacific Resource Partnership, an organization representing contractors and the carpenters union. Unlike Asselbaye, he's well connected in the local community, especially with labor ....

A Request for Proposal to contractors to build the PV facility was released this week. “We are on a very short timeline to qualify for the federal incentives,” said Brad Rockwell, KIUC manager of production.

...among adults aged 18 or older, the rate of serious mental illness in the past year ranged from 3.5 percent in Hawaii and South Dakota to 7.2 percent in Rhode Island....

Steve Jobs, who died yesterday at the too-young age of 56, was a living refutation of all what liberals constantly tell us about our country ....

Rep. Pine introduced HB 1465, relating to powers of attorney, which is still alive in the legislature. HB 1465 requires that anyone seeking power of attorney for an elderly person must have at least two signatures.

Each of the two high-rise towers at the Kuhio Park property, which together include 555 units, is expected to be renovated in 12 months. During renovations, residents moved into an “on-site hotel” at Tower B.

Former Governor John Waihee will serve as "Goodwill Ambassador" at the event. He was invited to represent the original Hawaiian people, and all Hawaii's diverse communities, for the cause of peace and aloha. He said, "Zhou Enlai is a hero of mine. I did a lot of studying about China, and he was the person that I admired. He was the kind, progressive face of China. I was always interested in his life."

Neither snow, nor rain, nor heat is supposed to stop the United States Postal Service (USPS) from delivering mail, but can it be saved from mounting debt, plummeting volume, and the not-so-slow-motion postal train wreck coming quickly down the road?

In case you missed it, the campaign got some great media coverage on Sunday. Governor Lingle helped us with a successful fundraiser and Stacey shared an update on what Charles is doing in Afghanistan.

As the United States Army's mission in Iraq winds down, soldiers find themselves giving up progressively more of their creature comforts. At Contingency Operating Station Garry Owen, Iraq, Soldiers from 215th Brigade Support Battalion, 3rd Advise and Assist Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division are “getting lean” in preparation for that day.

...why has the incidence of disability diagnosis increased so drastically in 25 years? Several studies suggest that this increase has occurred because schools are incentivized to do so....

What did the President know and when did he know it, goes the old Washington adage. Thus did the American people learn yesterday in separate but equally startling revelations that the Obama Administration knew more about two scandals than it has been revealing. The first is regarding the Operation Fast and Furious gun running disaster and the second is the now-bankrupt, Obama-backed Solyndra solar power company.

A series of student-produced public service announcements promoting safe schools will be hitting the airwaves in a statewide video campaign announced today ....

Hawaii public high school students will for the first time be able to compete in school sanctioned surf competitions as early as the spring of 2013....

Bank of America is imposing the new fee in anticipation of a $2 billion annual loss brought about by the "Durbin Amendment" -- a provision of last year's Dodd-Frank Wall Street financial reform bill.

Hawaii has the most regressive taxation structure in the nation. When the Legislature returns, they will find a big fat hole in the budget because once again the tax system is being used to redistribute wealth from the poorest to the richest.

...for the national Tax Foundation study to proclaim that Hawaii’s general excise tax rate is the lowest of all the retail sales tax rates is misleading and uninformed....

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U.S. intelligence officials, aware of other planned attacks, had arrested several Muslim American converts who returned here after "studying" in the Sudan....

In a cert petition filed September 15, five Hawaii taxpayers argue that they have standing to challenge the constitutionality of property tax exemptions conferred on lessees of Hawaiian Homesteads.

“At the end of our investigation, we identified eleven potential causes for the explosion, each of which carries a penalty for violating health and safety laws.”

Mayor Alan Arakawa is pleased to announce that the County of Maui has reached a resolution regarding the purchase of $32 million in student loan auction rate securities from Merrill Lynch.

...a data-driven justice reinvestment strategy to bring out-of-state prisoners back to Hawaii, reduce spending on corrections, and reinvest savings generated in strategies that would reverse recent crime trends....

So while Hawaii's combined rate is a low-sounding 4.35%, the sales tax burden on residents is the third highest in the country ($2,043 per person per year, as against an average of $1,005).

It appears likely that Honolulu and FTA failed to consider reasonable alternatives and accurately assess the alternatives’ environmental consequences in the Final Environmental Impact Statement, as required under NEPA.