Education K-12

We'd have to check the archives to see if the Honolulu City Council ever did issue a condemnation of Mao Tse-tung for the genocide of Chinese people back when the cultural revolution, the great leap forward and all that stuff took place. 

 The word change can simply mean, “something becomes different.”  Like a car tire that runs over a large pothole, and becomes flat.  But change can also mean “something is transformed.”  Transformation is an evolutionary process.  Like a caterpillar becomes a butterfly.  “Transformation” is a concept that will be discussed several times today as we review the challenges facing our city.

"That’s why it is egregious for you to indicate that what I’m saying is that somebody with a sole total income of $37,500—that that is their sole income—that they would be asked under those circumstances to pay that.  But if anybody wants to try and manipulate the numbers for a personal political agenda in order to  try and score political points, let me tell you—this is one Governor that’s not going to put up with it." -- Abercrombie

Hawaii’s elected officials are ready to tackle every issue - except job creation and the deficit.  The first major action taken by the Hawaii State Senate was to become the only legislative chamber in the United States to eliminate the invocation.  The legislature has confronted issues ranging from decriminalization of marijuana, civil unions, bingo on Hawaiian Homelands and banning the sale of toy guns. 

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich will be headlining the Hawaii GOP’s annual Lincoln Day Dinner.  The Party fundraising event will be held tonight at the Hilton Hawaiian Village.

Judge Browning’s assignment is effective March 4, 2011. He will succeed Judge Sabrina McKenna, who will be sworn in as an Associate Justice of the Hawaii Supreme Court on March 3 at 4:15 p.m. in the Supreme Court Courtroom.

Just two months into his term, Neil Abercrombie has led Hawaii politics into chaos.  From the White House to Honolulu Hale, progressive Democrats are duking it out with the old boys. 

Hundreds of community activists and aspiring political leaders across Oahu are preparing for Neighborhood Board Elections in April and May to fill 439 seats on 33 Neighborhood Boards.  February 18 is the last day to register to vote in the election and the last day for candidates to file nomination papers.  But NCO Executive Assistant Bryan Mick and the Neighborhood Commission (NCO) have a surprise in store.  On February 17, 2011 the Commission will be holding a “Special Meeting” to vote on a motion to cancel the election ....

The committee(s) on Public Safety, Government Operations, and Military Affairs has rescheduled its public hearing to Saturday, 2-12-2011 at 10 a.m. in conference room 229.

• WHAT: Legislative Townhall Meeting 
• WHERE: Haha‘ione Elementary School Cafeteria
• WHEN: Tuesday, February 15, 2011 from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.  

HONOLULU – The Regents Candidate Advisory Council (RCAC) has presented a list of candidates to Gov. Neil Abercrombie to fill four seats on the University of Hawai’i Board of Regents, including two City and County of Honolulu seats, a Hawai’i County seat and a Maui County seat.

According to Senate Bill 1425, relating to banning the acceptance of solid waste in landfills, no landfill in a county with a population greater than or less than 500,000 residents, will be allowed to accept deliveries of municipal solid waste - beginning  July 1, 2012, for Honolulu, and for the smaller counties, a date to be determined by their councils.

In November 2010, Hawai‘i voters approved a Constitutional Amendment that gives the Governor the authority to appoint members of the BOE. Governor Abercrombie is encouraged that the State Legislature has been moving expeditiously to establish the appointment process for BOE members. When that legislative process is complete, Governor Abercrombie intends to name Horner among his first appointments.

• Bills to Decongest Traffic
• Bills to Cut Taxes & Make Government More Responsive to the People
• Bills to Solve Problems within Homeowner Associations
• Bills to Stop Elder Abuse
• Bills to Solve Problems for Our Schools

Here's the long history behind the new anti-bullying policy being proposed for Hawaii schools. 

Former Rep. Charles Djou (R-Hawaii) all but swore off elective politics in his recent farewell address, but the former congressman recently penned an article that is sure to ignite speculation among the state's political observers over whether a 2012 bid against Sen. Daniel Akaka (D-Hawaii) is in the offing.

Candidates have until Friday February 18 to file nomination papers for Oahu’s upcoming Neighborhood Board elections.  Up for grabs, all 439 seats on 33 Neighborhood Boards.

The Obama-style politics and the youthful 2010 class of freshmen Republicans in the U.S. House might be a passing fad or it might become a lasting trend.  Hawaii has sent a congressional delegation that is betting the modern movement toward a much quicker internet dominated system of governing, based on transparency rather than pork, is temporary and our nation will eventually return to the 20th Century seniority centric system of quiet machine based power-dealing.  The American people will render the verdict on Hawaii’s bet in the next couple of years.

Amends chapter 37, Hawaii Revised Statutes, to include agency-wide technology and computer systems with an estimated useful life of greater than seven years as capital investments to allow all costs to be financed with bond funds and depreciated as capital investments.

Fontaine: “We heard from a Maui roofing contractor who said that if he received a $70K fine … he would have to earn $7M in additional business in order to make up the fine because his profit margin is so slim.”

Although the Flag Bill (HB1468) must eventually be heard – the Flag Bill will NOT be heard tomorrow.  This delay however gives all us who are passionate about displaying our flag on our own property more time to contact and urge Representative Cabanilla, Chairman of the House Committee on Housing, to put the flag bill – HB 1468—on the schedule for a hearing.

However, the bill that will be heard tomorrow, HB 1464, also deals with homeowner community associations and the lack of transparency by some homeowner community association boards in their decisions and actions and the lack of fairness by some of these boards in their treatment of their association members. 

In detective novels and television crime dramas like "CSI," the nation's morgues are staffed by highly trained medical professionals equipped with the most sophisticated tools of 21st-century science. Operating at the nexus of medicine and criminal justice, these death detectives thoroughly investigate each and every suspicious fatality.

The reality, though, is far different. In a joint reporting effort, ProPublica, PBS "Frontline" and NPR spent a year looking at the nation's 2,300 coroner and medical examiner offices and found a deeply dysfunctional system that quite literally buries its mistakes.

The bill says that every qualified applicant “is required to authorize the attorney general to collect and transmit the necessary personal information required for registering the qualified applicant with the county clerk.”

This bill, HB 1468, brings Hawaii into compliance with the federal law as well as ensuring that these home owners may display their American Flag continuously 365 days a year despite any association board's regulation, covenant, or similar binding agreement to the contrary.  It also removes any fee you would have to pay to display our Flag.  HB1468 IS BEING HEARD WED FEB 2, 8:30AM IN CONFERENCE ROOM 325 AT THE CAPITOL.

Oahu:  Wednesday, Feb. 2nd, 11:30 am to 1 pm

Maui: Wednesday, February 2nd, 5:30 to 8pm

"The State House of Representatives needs to address the lack of transparency and public participation in the legislative process by using the technology we have at our disposal today by immediately communicating to the public through video, webcasting and audio transmission," said Representative Thielen.

Introduced by Sen. Wil Espero (D) on January 21, 2011, to require the Department of Public Safety to establish a pilot program on Oahu that electronically monitors committed persons who are permitted to live and work in the community, in lieu of continued incarceration; and to appropriate funds.

Hawaii scores high in categories which measure money spent and low in categories showing the results of those expenditures.  Notably Hawaii scores 6th in “Net Formation of High-Tech Establishments per 10,000 Business Establishments 2002”—this reflects the large number of fake “hi-tech” companies being formed to sop up ACT 215/221 tax credits.

Justice Alito's most "Hawaii-centric" opinion was in Hawaii v. Office of Hawaiian Affairs, 129 S. Ct. 1436 (2009), where he authored the opinion for a unanimous Court. In that case, the Court held that the United States held "absolute fee simple" title to Hawaii's ceded lands, and that Congress' 1992 Apology Resolution had no legal effect.

Dr. Ahu Isa, an assistant professor at Hawaii Pacific University and former state representative, decided to resign to allow Governor Neil Abercrombie to fill her vacancy by making his first Board appointment. Last year, voters approved a constitutional amendment that ended Board elections and gave the governor the authority to appoint members. The state Legislature is crafting a new law specifying the appointment process.

Rep. Marumoto wants to keep passengers of all ages from riding in pickup truck beds (HB 15).  Several years ago she was successful in restricting those under 13 from riding in truck beds.  This year she will once again attempt to extend that ban to Oahu riders (counties over 300,000 population). 

Rep Rida Cabanilla last October told the audience at a candidates’ forum: “You ride the rail so I can drive my car.”  

In DC, 106 miles of subways have been built--how do the regal V-8 carriages of Cabanilla's DC bretheren fare now that the the peasants have been removed from underfoot? 

Today marks a very critical juncture in our state’s history.  We have a $800 million state deficit to fill, jobs to create, and an economy to turn around and a new system of educational governance to establish.   It is going to be a busy and intense session, but I am confident, optimistic and quite positive – if we work together, it will be a very good session.

“Now that the House has organized and the official start of the legislative session has begun it is imperative that District 45 have representation,” said Governor Abercrombie. 

Hawaii GOP Chair Jonah Kaauwai release a statement on Rep. Colleen Hanabusa's announcement that she was unable to secure the Hawaii seat on the House Appropriations Committee that her campaign had promised.

Some people have referred to me as "The Lone Ranger" because throughout the entire United States I am the only single party Senator in a State Legislature.

Abercrombie and potential House Finance Chair Marcus Oshiro have come up with--a $100M per year scheme to divert bond funds into the General Fund disguised as a repeal of the subcontractor exemption from the General Excise Tax.

Hiding behind the benign sounding label, “Mokapu STEM School”, a religious cult with billions of dollars in assets is secretly trying use the charter school conversion process to take over Mokapu Elementary School located in Kaneohe on Marine Corps Base Hawaii. 

The museum will reveal the techniques it uses to preserve and protect objects in the 1821 Mission House, the oldest documented house in Hawai‘i.

If the officers had done nothing and Arekat had proceeded to shoot someone, defendants undoubtedly would have been sued for failing to detain Arekat. One of the officers explained in her deposition that this case reminded her of a prior case in which the police had not removed a firearm from a person who exhibited signs of paranoia, and that person had used it to kill a person, resulting in a huge civil liability for the police department and the city. In this case, the defendants made a courageous decision to detain Arekat.

Honolulu, Hawaii – John R. Lott, Jr., author, activist, speaker and professor at the University of Maryland, College Park, will be in town speaking on the topics of gun control, public policy and other points of interest at a dinner hosted at The Plaza Club Tuesday, February 15th, 2011 starting at from 6:30 p.m.

Former Rep. Djou served on the House Armed Services Committee with Rep. Gifford.  The two of them co-sponsored the Truth-in-Spending bill in the 111th Congress and co-authored editorials together advocating for restraint in Federal government spending.  Djou and Gifford’s bipartisan cooperative relationship was a subject on televised debates in Hawaii and Arizona.

Honolulu – Representative Barbara Marumoto submitted the following bills for inclusion in the Women’s Caucus Legislative Package.

Rep. Hanabusa and Senator Inouye assured voters last October that she would get a seat on the powerful Appropriation Committee if elected and that has turned out to be nothing more than an empty campaign promise.

I believe that a vibrant two-party democracy is better at preserving liberty than monolithic one-party rule.

I believe that open and responsive elected officials are better at ensuring an accountable government than an old-boy network.

"The Congress is the most futile place in the world, and the most discouraging, and the most depressing" for people in this position....