...the incentive structure suggests that banks would prefer to write down more than double the amount of investor principal for the same credits while strengthening their own balance sheets and avoiding increased losses....

I would like to introduce you to the newest member of the HRP ohana, Nacia Lee Blom....

The labor dispute is not to blame for all delays, however. The state has the ability to connect student achievement data to graduates of teacher-preparation programs, but it has not....

• Senate: Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act
• House: Help Efficient, Accessible, Low-cost, Timely Healthcare (HEALTH) Act of 2011

Rare is the occasion when the nine justices of the U.S. Supreme Court gather to hear three days of arguments.... 

...

Kahuku is 3rd on this list of junk-grade US DoE loans and loan guarantees.

Ormat is Hawaii’s leading geothermal developer.... But a US House committee report shows that Ormat benefitted from its close ties to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) and profited from a potentially illegal $98.5M bailout of an Ormat geothermal project in Nevada.

...no Hawaii governor can unilaterally furlough teachers or any Department of Education (DOE) employee since they are under the Board of Education’s (BOE) jurisdiction....

Determined to provide Hawaii residents and businesses with an alternative means of travel between the islands, Governor Lingle worked with Democrat House Speaker Calvin Say and then-Senate President Colleen Hanabusa, to convene a special session of the Legislature....

A funny thing happened on the way to doing state income taxes this year....

...$20,291 to husband's lawfirm, and an additional $10,310 paid to Hirono: Grand Total: $30,601....

"These teams were tough, but we came together and pulled through," Jandie Sabo, a member of Waialua's Robotics team. 

...a total of seven employment-based lawsuits against HDOT presently filed in state or federal court, at various stages of litigation, some involving workplace violence in one form or another. Also, there are Workers’ Compensation claims filed as a result of workplace violence at different stages of that process....

$8.5 billion for military construction, down 29 percent ...

After an intense day of qualifying rounds, the pits are closed and teams are preparing themselves for the final day of competition tomorrow....

in 2009, UHERO provided some rail jobs estimates that said employment will start with 300 jobs, and at the peak of construction, there may be 2,000 jobs, but at that time UHERO did not know that a $1.4 billion contract to build the rail cars would go to Ansaldo Breda in Italy....

On March 6, House Bill 679, an NRA instructor liability protection bill, was amended and passed in the state House by a 47 to 4 vote. This bill is now pending in the state Senate Judiciary Committee.

Fact v. Myth articulates the facts, with sources and references available through the campaign website, putting to rest six misconceptions and politically-crafted falsehoods about Governor Lingle

Two years ago today, President Barack Obama signed into law Obamacare, a 2,700-page bill that will radically alter America's health care system and wreak havoc on medical costs, quality of care, and fundamental rights ....

The state Department of Education is preparing for an on-site visit March 27-30 from the U.S. Department of Education.  During the visit, federal officials will examine the State’s Race to the Top progress ....

“Rep. Colleen Hanabusa (D-Hawaii) collected more than $31,000 in interest on a $125,000 loan….”

land devoted to organic farming produces 50 percent less wheat, 55 percent less asparagus and lettuce, and 23 percent less corn than conventionally farmed land....

Medicaid beneficiaries have more difficulty getting primary care and they visit hospital emergency departments more often than those with private insurance....

A heavily subsidized solar company received a U.S. taxpayer loan guarantee to sell solar panels to itself....

Mazie has accepted none because she fears any public exchange of views or comparison of our candidacies and has been instructed to remain behind a carefully scripted campaign front. That is conduct unbecoming a U. S. Senator."

SB2492 regulating ownership of intact dogs is set to go before a Hawaii House committee today.

Disgraced former Obama “green jobs czar” Van Jones made an appearance in Hawaii last night in which he ripped on the “American fantasy” and called for socialistic approaches to wealth redistribution, while castigating Obama opponents as America-haters ....

The U.S. Department of Commerce today released tourism data revealing that international and domestic tourism spending increased 8.1 percent in 2011....

Schoenwetter was sentenced to eight years in a federal prison—a term longer than what some violent criminals could spend in lockup—for domestic regulatory offenses that did not even violate foreign law.

...gas prices keep going up, with no end in sight. But instead of taking action to bring relief to the American people, the Obama Administration is patting itself on the back for a job well done ....

More than 1,000 high-school students from around the world will have the opportunity to showcase their hard work after an intense six weeks of designing and building an original robot....

"A potential new champion of progressivism is Mazie Hirono...." -- In These Times 

We were contacted in early March by the parents of a fourth grade student in Hawaii regarding a local school’s policy that discriminated against religious speech....

Abercrombie in 2009 asked Hawaii to gamble its entire public-sector and private-sector economy on a promise of “Green Jobs” from a "former" communist Czar whose nervous breakdown was healed by a tree-sitter named “Butterfly.” Now they're teaming up to launch a State-owned Bank backed by your tax dollars.

Union Bank served as Administrative Agent and Joint Lead Arranger. Other Joint Lead Arrangers include Bayern LB, Rabobank and Siemens Financial Services. CIBC and CoBank also participated in the financing.

The once proud and comparatively wealthy Cubans are now among the poorest in the hemisphere, definitely the least informed and, consequently, the least free. 

SB755 SD2 HD1 exempts all state projects from Chapter 343 requirements and environmental oversight ....

Olympia Snowe showed her importance to the Senate's pro-choice firewall when she voted against the Blunt Amendment. After she retires her most likely GOP successor on this issue is Hawaii's former governor, Linda Lingle.

Numerous evolving bills, including SB 2927 SD 2, SB2873, SB2012 and HB2154 HD2, will exempt state and county government actions and development from Hawaii’s laws ....

The HSTA and the Abercrombie administration have fallen into name calling and finger pointing....This is a sure sign that a deal is in the works and they are both in on it.

Paul Ryan (R-WI), Chairman of the House Budget Committee, will release his budget blueprint today .... 

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The Nationwide Rally for Religious Freedom is being held Friday, March 23 at noon, outside the Prince Kuhio Federal Building 300 Ala Moana Bl, Honolulu.

The UK Daily Mail asks: Does Kamaoa point to the future of Britain's Wind Farms?

In the Aloha State, when big feeds and free drinks are involved, controversy is close behind....

Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century (MAP-21) Act - Vote Passed (74-22, 4 Not Voting)

The Senate passed this $109 billion bill that would fund transportation programs and projects for the next two years. It is unclear at this time whether the House will pass a two or five year bill.

Next week, the Supreme Court will hear arguments on its constitutionality, bringing this intolerable act to the forefront of the American mind once again and reminding the country that the issue of Obamacare is by no means settled....

The Holy Grail for many cargo interests shipping by ocean in the domestic Hawaii and Guam trades is an unrequited generational quest to find a way to take advantage of the existing mainline Trans-Pacific container carriers passing regularly Westbound by the islands ....

Another 600 construction jobs were lost in the Honolulu area between January 2011 and January 2012, a 3 percent decline, according to an analysis released by the Associated General Contractors of America ....