Victims of DoE “embezzlement”: Substitute Teachers want their back pay
Dear Governor Lingle,
On October 30, 2009 the “Intermediate Court of Appeals upheld a 2005 Circuit Court ruling that the Department of Education withheld millions of dollars of substitute teachers pay over a 5 year period. The DOE illegally withheld portions of Government employees salaries which in the real world would be looked upon as embezzlement resulting in guilty parties being fired and likely spending time in jail.
Both parties in the suit have 90 days to appeal a court decision. 90 days ended Jan. 28, 2010. As of this writing it’s been 152 days.
Paul Alston’s office informed me that appeals can only be filed after the Court writes out the decision. That has yet to occur. How long will faithful State employees, substitute teachers, have to wait to be paid their embezzled earnings?
I supported your efforts to improve education in your attempt to bring about “satellite boards” to each island rather than relying upon Hawaii’s single, leviathan sized, failing Dept. of Education. Today I am asking you not to fail substitute teachers in the reimbursing us our earned wages which the DOE intentionally and illegally withheld from substitutes with BOE approval.
On behalf of 800 members of Substitute Teachers Professional Alliance (STPAL) and all subs I request you instruct our Attorney General’s Office to refrain from appealing the Oct. 30th, 2009 appellate court decision ruling in favor of substitute teachers of Hawaii. 5 years is long enough to wait for one’s pay!
John Hoff, President, STPAL
Lawai, Kauai
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Is this our America?
Dear Editor,
We the People of the United States, in order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic tranquility provide for the common defense promote the general welfare and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our posterity do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
We have wandered a long way from the intent of the Constitution. In order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice and insure domestic tranquility. I wonder, does the perfect Union mean run by a Union?
Establish Justice. Justice could mean fairness. Justice could mean honesty. Justice could mean integrity, or it could mean fair dealing and impartiality. Does the governance of this Country strike you as justified? Does the backroom strike you as being open to the sunlight? Words have meaning, but do they mean anything?
Domestic Tranquility. Who here feels that we are in a tranquil period in our country? Who here has the confidence that those who brought us here can lead us to prosperity? Who here wonders why we are not taking the opportunity to wean ourselves from “Foreign” oil by drilling? By allowing those many out of work miners back to work and scrub coal from our hillsides? What about our oil reserves in Alaska, the Dakota’s and offshore… Do we think we’ll have enough windmills to power the east coast? Will we have enough sun collectors to power the Midwest? Are we the subjects to a hoax that forms political reality?
Environmentalism isn’t about clean air or global warming. Environmentalism is about owning the environment. Governing to this Administration seems to have nothing to do with “Hope and Change” but more to do with a “Wealth Exchange”. America is bleeding. We are hemorrhaging in fact. The left is draining the life blood from our innovators, our producers, and our working classes and reveling in the destruction. Sheep to slaughter have more anxiety.
Blessings of Liberty! How’s that going for you today? Isn’t the promise that Healthcare will now open the floodgates of prosperity? How so when we are soon to be bound by more stifling regulation, and a more intrusive IRS, and restricted choice. The healthcare I want is going to be designed by the Government. It’s funny, almost a Trillion Dollars for Buy-Outs and Bailouts, 18 Billion for a jobs bill. A trillion dollars for Healthcare, a trillion dollars in taxes. When you add in the mandates, your premiums ARE going to go up. This is a roadmap for Single Payer and unlimited taxes with no competition and obvious rationing.
I’d love to know the math books our legislators study from. With their math calculation I should have had far better grades, scholarship maybe. But the real world rejected that. Who here who isn’t on any kind of psychotic medication actually believes that we have a trillion dollar healthcare bill before us? Who here actually believes that there is any reduction in the deficit to accompany this healthcare bill, and worse, who here has actually measured the proposed deficit reduction against its cost. It’s insulting. And then the consequences or are they the unintended consequences they are counting on to re-ignite the Obama Administration’s continued intrusion into our daily lives?
You have to ask yourself, who wants this? You come to conclusions. Some distasteful if proven true, others troubling because they point to serious challenge to what we know is right, and what is right is the Constitution, the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. The right to opportunity;, not a path to economic slavery.
The difference in philosophy is dramatic. The Administration is willing to lull the distressed working class into dependence. The Conservative on the other hand desires to empower the working class, not with stolen benefits from the working classes themselves and the successful, but by giving them jobs and making them productive stakeholders in their own success and the triumph of America.
Are we to become an economy of welfare and extended unemployment? A country on the dole? What are we to make of the restrictions on commerce and energy production that will assure our economic destruction? Seems the perfect storm, a crisis if you will… and who would want to waste a good crisis.
Posterity. John McCain says that this is generational theft. He’s wrong... It’s a much more personal abuse.
In my opinion.
Tom Lodge, Keaau, Hawaii
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Another week, another ban
Dear Editor:
How timely that we read this week, the very day after announcing the Consent of the Governed project, that Councilwoman Naeole wants to pass a law banning smoking in private vehicles if a child under 18 yrs old is present.
Of course, this would be without asking the people to vote on it, as only she and her colleagues are enlightened enough to know what's best.
Now this ban may or may not be a good idea, but it is alarming to continue to allow a mere 5 people alone (a majority of the council) to determine what is good parenting, and make laws and criminal punishments about such, and how every citizen on the island should live their lives, all without asking our permission.
I personally know only too well the perils of smoking, as every patient I see attests to after receiving my lecture.
However, this ban MUST be put before the people in a referendum.
These continued and accelerating edicts by a select few alone must be stopped, and sovereignty restored to all citizens.
Only we should decide the details of how we live our lives, not just an elitist five.
Support the Consent of the Governed Acts to amend the county charter: www.conforhawaii.com
Aloha
Edward Gutteling, M.D.
V.P., Conservative Forum for Hawaii
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Take the Money from the Rail Fund, Enough Already, People are Suffering
Dear Editor,
Hawaii's money problems may get worse when a panel of economists release their newest forecast Thursday. So far, the state is facing a $1.2 billion shortfall through June of next year, but that deficit could increase because taxes flowing to the government have fallen short of expectations. Government is already talking about more layoffs and the legislature is talking raising taxes again. Meanwhile Mufi Hannemann continues with this charade some of us call rail and others refer to as Mufi-asco.
Even though the mayor is expected to step down by the July deadline for governor, he stubbornly continues his arrogant stance of trying to jam rail down the people's throats, paying for polls and advertising for rail with anti-railers’ hard earned tax dollars. Has anyone had enough of these political games?
When you're single, have a good job, have no family and are still barely able to get by, well, this may be an indication that something is wrong with the way our government is running things.
The rail fund needs to be raided before this state gets itself into a hole it cannot get out of, a hole that is continually getting deeper with each passing month; even as the Advertiser continues to remind us the worst of the recession is over.
A fellow anti-railer compared Hannemann's behavior to that of a teenager, "Mayor Mufi Hannemann is like a kid telling his teacher (Governor Lingle) that he didn't do his homework, doesn't know when he will, but he needs an ‘A’ in the class because his parents will buy him a video game system as a reward."
I mean people are suffering, families are struggling; the legislature needs to do what they should have done long ago, when these problems first started to become serious: raid the rail fund.
Joseph DeMarco
Oahu, Hawaii
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QUICK! QUICK! QUICK! CONDEMN! CONDEMN! CONDEMN!
Dear Editor,
Land Chief Thomas Miyata, of the Department of Design and Construction (DDC) wants to relocate the $10Million Hauula Fire Station to two commercial Lots 65 and 64 next to the preschool and busy Kawaipuna Street, Hauula 96717. DDC refused to listen to the community cries to investigate the old KFC Lot 63 which will produce much less traffic impacts in the area. Lot 63 will put the proposed Hauula Fire Station away from the busy subdivision and the preschool traffic. Lots 63 and 64 owners are willing to sell and would not require eminent domain proceedings.
But DDC is saying that it is under time constraints to meet the Community Development Block Grants budget deadlines of April 30, 2010. Thus it has no time to investigate Lot 63 which is the superior lot. Budget Committee Chair Nestor Garcia stated he did not like to make decisions with a gun to his head at the Budget Committee Hearing but he was an integral force in pushing this Resolution through for adoption.
Any accident in the future in this area will inevitably expose the city to lawsuits.The city has no defense because hundreds of residents signed petition to ask the city to investigate Lot 63. But local kama'ainas who know the area best were rejected. Please view the videos to see the traffic conditions that were ignored or not understood by most city council members.
Donovan Dela Cruz, the district councilman, ignored Hauula constituents. He did not return phone calls or emails. Dela Cruz supported the Laie Community Association President Pane Meatoga and Junior Ah You in their questionable petitions made up of Laie residents who do not live or own properties in Hauula.
Public records on this Resolution superficially show support but further investigation will prove that this process was manipulated and doctored all the way from the Neighborhood Board February 11. 2010 minutes to the Budget Committee Report to the City Council hearings and Resolution 10-003 public report.
City Council adopted Resolution 10-003 on February 24, 2010. Chair Todd Apo and Vice-chair Ikaika Anderson voted NAY.
Donovan Dela Cruz, Rod Tam, Charles Djou (with reservations), Ann Kobayashi (with reservations), Romy Cachola, Gary Okino, Nestor Garcia voted YEA.
This process needs to be investigated. It was not in the best interest of the public and the community. Eminent Domain is the most powerful force that government can impose on private property owners. There is more than ample evidences of sloppy performance, dirty politics, and self-interests involved in this eminent domain process. The City Council was able to swiftly adopt this condemnation in 42 days. The Hauula community has yet to receive a formal information meeting that it has been asking of its district Concilman Donovan Dela Cruz.
Marvin Eseke, Hauula Resident
Choon James, property owner
Hauula, Oahu
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Furlough Fridays save children from killer dogs
Dear Editor:
As recently seen in the news, the American Academy of Pediatrics has a new policy stating that the hot dog is a hazard for kids, associated with more choking deaths among children than any other food.
"If you were to find the best engineers in the world and ask them to design the perfect plug for a child's airway, you couldn't do much better than the hot dog," said Dr. Gary Smith, lead author of the AAP policy statement. They also cite nuts, popcorn, grapes, seeds and raw carrots as "high-risk foods."
Each year, they estimate up to 77 young people die from hotdogs (out of our population of 310 million). All of this may be prevented, the academy says, with warning labels and the "redesign" of risky products like the hot dog.
As hot dogs are a common element of the government funded school lunch program, it is therefore clear that the furlough -Fridays, by lessening the exposure to this dangerous activity, is actually saving lives. Think how many more lives would be saved if furloughs could be extended to other days, too!
Hey, if even ONE life is saved, it would be worth it. Also, our government should insist on genetically modifying and redesigning the Macadamia nut at the same time, too.
After all, its for the children.
Aloha
Keoni Yamada, Hilo
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Election 2010: Time for an overhaul
Dear Editor, March 4, 2010
We the people of the United States of America, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice and insure a truly democratic way of life, devoid of corruption and inefficiency, must band together to rid ourselves of these non-productive career politicians, some of whom are too old to cut the mustard and yet not wise enough to step down. They frequently dabble in self-interests and agendas which goes against the concerns and aims of the people they were elected to serve.
We the voting public are chiefly to blame for placing these no-accounts back in office even after their failure to provide the kind of services promised, which we rarely receive. Our concerns parallel theirs only during election year. They make it a habit to say what we want to hear, replete with promises they never keep once they get in office. After that they will do what they want, when they want, however they want to do it and expect us to like it regardless of what we say or how we feel.
In this year of 2010 we’ll have the opportunity to vent our displeasure by getting rid of all the dead wood now in office. We deserve better service than what we’ve been getting. It’s time for an overhaul. Let us make our votes count for something or we’ll wind up with nothing more than the same old crappy crop of underachievers. God bless America and all its voters.
Publishing this letter will more than serve our cause for a better America.
Sincerely,
McWarren J Mehau
Mountain View, Hawaii
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