Entries for June 2020

... Oregon-based Sause Bros. Ocean Towing Inc. ended their common carrier Hawaii Barge Service after 54 years with the arrival of their final voyage in mid-April 2020 ....

...Carl Bonham told lawmakers that we’re going to lose another 30,000 people in just two years. A more pessimistic scenario assumes we are going to lose that 30,000 people in ONE year....

...two new hospitalizations, no new deaths....

...29 staff members at the Star-Advertiser, the largest newspaper in the state, are losing their jobs at the end of the month....

...The University of Hawaiʻi Board of Regents will consider the UH Hilo internal restructuring plan for management operations of Maunakea lands at the board’s upcoming June 18 monthly meeting....

... I wrote one of its 17 chapters, “Updating the Jones Act for the 21st Century,” wherein I argue that reform of the act would not be a threat to either jobs or national security ....

... American Enterprise Institute webinar streamed live on line ....

“...Access to the courthouse is limited to those with official court business to ensure social distancing and protect the health and safety of our court users and staff....”

...The last time Hawaii saw a double-digit increase in new cases was April 18 ― 55 days ago....

...public hearing to afford all interested persons an opportunity to submit oral or written testimony on the proposed repeal of HAR, Title 3, Chapters 171 through 176, and adoption of HAR Title 3, Chapter 177....

...one new hospitalization, no new deaths....

... State Has Issued $803,200,377 in Benefits Since March 1 ....

..."From day 61 on, the governor is both making laws and enforcing them, in violation of the separation of powers provisions under Hawaii’s state constitution.”....

...threw Gov. Ige’s multiyear budget off target by a total of $26 billion between fiscal years 2020 and 2025....

...by mid-April, the same Convention Center that was poised to be converted into extra hospital facilities was instead turned into a phone bank facility to handle the influx of unemployment claims....

...The emergency proclamation lifts the quarantine requirement for inter-island travelers effective 12:01 a.m. on June 16, 2020. However, it also leaves in place the quarantine requirement for out-of-state travelers. The governor has the authority to make exemptions for transit corridors/bubbles....

...one more patient hospitalized....

...“We do not have the ability to get rid of many of these officers that we know have done wrong in the past due to issues with both the contract and the arbitration associated with the union.”....

...The Legislature will take up a limited number of bills, including budget matters and COVID-19-related legislation....

...recommend that individuals who clear a temperature and symptom screening, and a COVID-19 test in their departure city will not be required to quarantine for 14 days upon arrival to Hawaiʻi....

...Alaska is 7th least restrictive, Hawaii is 48th....

... no new hospitalizations, no new deaths ....

...Dr. Robinson will oversee the delivery of health care to an estimated 129,000 Veterans, a $327.8 million annual operating budget, and over 1,400 employees....

...Protecting Yourself & Hawaii from Coronavirus --Dr. Tony Trpkovski Speaks with Keli'i Akina....

...Virtually no sealift is provided by Jones Act ships....

...to allow Hawai’i to impose a pre-board test requirement on passengers destined for Hawai’i to protect visitors and residents from COVID-19....

...no new deaths, no new hospitalizations, one patient released today....

...The program as a whole expects to train 320 contact tracers by mid-July 2020 as well as hundreds more in the next year....

"...Hundreds of the marchers today in the Black Lives Matter rally in Honolulu chose to leave their signs at the doorstep of the Hawaii Republican Party...."

...Start working now to adopt a meaningful spending cap....

... Napier has encouraged his readers to think critically about how our state and counties have responded to the public health threat ....

...one more hospitalization....

...tinkering with the tax code to raise more money has the effect of putting the brakes on what little spin we have left on our economic engine....

...Honolulu Mayoral Candidate Keith Amemiya knows a lot about the ‘affordable’ housing system and how to ‘work’ it....

...bills introduced and votes cast in Congress....

"...Current operational practices are reactive and appear to wait for park conditions to deteriorate before action is taken, rather than maintaining quality conditions...."

...caught off guard by another last-minute government switcheroo....

...use of CWAs, also known as project labor agreements, would drastically limit the use of nonunion employees on public projects, thereby reducing competition among bidding contractors and increasing costs for Honolulu taxpayers....

...Timesheets and leave requests are now transmitted electronically to payroll offices, replacing paper-based manual labor-intensive tracking methods in employee pay calculation....  

...8 cases on Oahu and 1 Oahu resident diagnosed out of state....

... Pandemic no excuse for government hostility to sunshine laws ....

... The Judicial Selection Commission is accepting applications and nominations ....

...The O‘ahu Pedestrian Plan’s draft pedestrian priority network open for public comment....

...The best gift for this 100-year-old law that harms Hawaii would be to modernize it for the 21st century....

...Mulligan says that despite Trump’s reputation as a strong supporter of protectionist tariffs, the President sees the Jones Act as a “harmful regulation” and is particularly disappointed by the lack of competitiveness of U.S. shipyards....

... he notes the complete absence of self-propelled oceangoing liquefied natural gas (LNG) carriers in the Jones Act fleet ....

...The Jones Act turns 100 years old today....

...the UPW still has not agreed to allow all guards to be searched for contraband....

... this is the largest number of new cases in quite a while ....

...Pine today addressed rumors that professional agitators have arrived in the islands to stir up trouble at peaceful protests being staged to honor George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter movement....