It’s 59 degrees in Kaaawa this morning, our version of winter weather.

KITV got the scoop Thursday on Gov. Lingle’s plan furloughs as a way to make further cuts in the state budget. The station reported the governor would be asking state workers to take a day off without pay every month.

That’s big news in a state in which public employees and their unions play such a key political role.

But neither the Advertiser or the Star-Bulletin reported on the furlough proposal yesterday, not even with the ‘Tiser’s normally voracious appetite for “Breaking News”.

And although both newspapers mention the “F” word in stories today, it’s buried. Furloughs are mentioned down in the sixth paragraph of the Advertiser story this morning, which cites KITV.

Furloughs are mentioned in the 10th paragraph in the Star-Bulletin story without attribution, only a passive “Lingle recently said” reference.

Are they treading lightly on the furlough issue for a reason?

There’s a set of proposed changes to the House rules floating around the State Capitol. Not too many changes past the new committee lineup, but one caught my eye. It deletes the provision requiring a member to disclose a potential conflict of interest and get a ruling from the Speaker before being allowed to vote on a matter in which the member has a personal interest.

Click here to review the full set of proposed rules.

Well, it happened at the Star-Bulletin in 1999, and it’s happening now at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer ten years later. The 60-day countdown to sale or closing has begun.

The federal government stepped up once before when newspapers were facing dire financial conditions. The result was the Newspaper Preservation Act, which created an exemption to anti-trust laws and allowed newspapers to enter into joint operating agreements to pool certain functions and costs.

Now those JOA’s and the underlying newspapers are failing. Did the Newspaper Preservation Act do its intended job? Is there anything a modern NPA could do today to stem the tide of newspaper closings? Are there other options for government aid? Should something be done? Tough issues.

If you liked those Roadrunner panoramas, Norm Shapiro suggests you check out The World Wide Panorama.