Entries for December 2011

Ready to trade in your car for a bike, or maybe a subway instead? Interested in fewer choices for your home, paying more for housing, and being crammed into a denser neighborhood? You can have all this and more ....

Canada’s emissions represent only 2% of the world’s total and 80% of the world’s population live in nations that have no protocol emission limits whatsoever. China’s economy is expanding so rapidly that between 2009 and 2010 its carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions increased by more that twice the entire Canadian 2010 output....

On November 28, 2011, CAlifornians for Renewable Energy (CARE) and Michael Boyd filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to challenge more than two dozen federal loan guarantees illegally issued by the U.S. Department of Energy....

Coming under fire in the City & County of Honolulu is the plethora of real property tax exemptions from those granted to charitable organizations to those offered to homeowners who promise to preserve their historical residences to credit unions and to churches....

... Hawaii Republican Party is organizing March 13 Presidential voting sites for all 51 State House Districts as well as Molokai, Lanai, Niihau, and Hana ....

“Lee is genuinely interested in the well being of our community,” says Carol Massey, “he keeps informed of the issues facing us, and will work hard for District 6....

Cain said he would endorse a Republican candidate soon, and announced his own “plan B” for public service, a policy web site called “The Cain Solutions.”

“Most worrisome has been the steady decline in visitors from the US mainland.”

Representative George Fontaine (R-Kihei) speaks with Kim Gennaula of Aloha United Way and Major Edward Hill of the Salvation Army about opportunities for Volunteering and Giving during the Holiday Season....

 The Star-Advertiser calls this 'progress'....

NOAA's extensive and overly aggressive rulemaking effort will effectively kill ocean-based clean energy initiatives in Hawaii....

...no public events are scheduled during the trip.... (But will AG Holder survive to the New Year?)

...Democratic establishment is coalescing around Rep. Mazie Hirono in her primary against ex-Rep. Ed Case....

...today's jobs report from the Department of Labor. The report suggests the month of November saw 120,000 net new jobs created and the unemployment rate drop to 8.6 percent--driven in part by the 315,000 people who have given up looking for work and were no longer counted as unemployed....

MISSION MEMORIAL AUDITORIUM
6:00-8:30 P.M.
DECEMBER 6, 2011

The $1.28 billion in bonds included $800 million in new debt.... The Bond transaction now allows the State to recapitalize the Hurricane Relief and Rainy Day Funds ....

“Governor Neil Abercrombie’s willingness to implement aggressive solutions, totaling $1.32 billion, to balance the fiscal 2011-2013 biennial budget .... "

It is unfortunate that Governor Abercrombie finds it more expedient to cast blame for his failures, missteps and inability to effectively manage the state's fiscal situation in his first year in office than accept responsibility or accountability for his own failings....

Full analysis from Shared Hope International....

Marugame claims a TSA investigator (TSI) "sexually assaulted her" on Aug. 26, 2009....

We calculated suicide rates and unemployment rates. Then we tapped SimplyMap for the percentage of households that use antidepressants....

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...the mandate requires religious employers to provide coverage for birth control methods that could result in abortion....

OHA will be holding a series of public meetings to hear from the public about Abercrombie’s proposed Kakaako land deal ....

The project, called SolarStrong, aims to install these projects over five years. SolarCity has already begun installations at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii....

Honolulu (29) and San Francisco (30) are the highest-ranking US cities....  

Hawaii ranks 3rd in the nation in funding programs to prevent kids from smoking and help smokers quit, spending $10.7 million a year on tobacco prevention and cessation programs, which is 70 percent of the $15.2 million recommended by CDC ....