Entries for 'Selected News Articles'

The Star Advertiser report on jobs associated with the rail project is pure editorial posing as reportage....

The group of taxpayers now seek review in the U.S. Supreme Court. Cato, joined by the Pacific Legal Foundation, the Grassroot Institute of Hawaii, the Goldwater Institute, and Professor Paul M. Sullivan, filed a brief urging the Court to take the case ....

This is bigotry buttressed by irrelevance fortified with invincible ignorance.

Law enforcement officials have reported an influx of criminal groups and independent growers from the West Coast who are relocating to Hawaii .... they often find medical marijuana certificates while serving search and arrest warrants but seize far greater amounts of marijuana than allowed by law, in addition to other illicit drugs and weapons….

Kaiser Foundation Health Plan's former Chief Administrative Officer claims she was fired for protesting that the putative nonprofit was "funneling funds to related for-profit Kaiser entities ... (and) using its fraudulently obtained tax-exempt status to fuel its market expansion/dominance."

If rail transit becomes a reality, what will be its effect be on Hawaii real estate?

We averaged the Runway Incident Rate-the total number of runway incidents divided by the total number of runway operations (takeoffs and landings)-over the five years covered in our survey period.

Residents of Hawaii’s largest public housing facility began returning to renovated units this month. They enjoyed the fruits of a public-private partnership that supporters worry will not be replicated in the future because of threats to the status of tax-exempt bonds that underpinned the project’s financing.

...with former Gov. Linda Lingle’s announcement this week that she would run for the seat being vacated by Democratic Sen. Dan Akaka, this race moves from the Solid Democratic column to Toss Up....

Hanabusa calls Lingle an "extremely good politician" and a "formidable candidate" with an uncanny ability to connect with voters.

Lingle stressed that one of her strengths is getting people to work together regardless of party affiliation, a concept that she believes is in short supply in Washington.

A Lingle-Hirono campaign would be a rematch from their 2002 gubernatorial face-off.  Lingle, who outraised Hirono in that contest, won that race by five percentage points.

United States-Korea Free Trade Agreement Implementation Act - H.R.3080

The House is scheduled to vote on implementing a trade pact with South Korea.

Just substitute “Hawaiian” for “Alaskan” and you can see what CNHA is all about.)

“What I am going to do? Am I going to just sit around and do nothing? I was hurt,” he said of his reaction to Case’s challenge to Akaka.

“He hasn’t given me any explanation, and if that’s the way he’s going to deal with me, I don’t want to deal with a person like that.”  

So while Hawaii's combined rate is a low-sounding 4.35%, the sales tax burden on residents is the third highest in the country ($2,043 per person per year, as against an average of $1,005).

It appears likely that Honolulu and FTA failed to consider reasonable alternatives and accurately assess the alternatives’ environmental consequences in the Final Environmental Impact Statement, as required under NEPA.

Orsi said Sept. 20 that there were no parties in advanced talks to buy AnsaldoBreda and that the unit’s newly appointed CEO, Maurizio Manfellotto, is working on an updated business plan.

Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), has written a letter to President Barack Obama warning him that his administration will “precipitate a national conflict between church and state of enormous proportions” if it does not “end its campaign against DOMA, the institution of marriage it protects, and religious freedom.”

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Kaauwai restored some measure of respectability to the party by fielding candidates for nearly all legislative seats last year after the disgraceful 2008 campaign in which the GOP failed to compete in 40 percent of the contests.

...everyone else is dying off," he said, referring to several other projects in the Islands that have stalled or been halted altogether....

While the general fund budget may be balanced, the total fund budget is often far off the mark. To make matters worse, neither the state's general fund budget or its total fund budget take into account unfunded pension liabilities....

...they claimed that “a reusable bag needs only to be used eleven times to have a lower environmental impact than using eleven disposable bags.” They were close. It was actually 393 times or roughly 7.5 years to replace reusing a plastic bag just three times....

"I hope everybody can come together and move forward to win elections," said Dylan Nonaka, the former GOP executive director under Kaauwai. "We've got a lot of big opportunities next year, and it's time to move on and focus."

In an "urgent" call to action distributed as a bulletin insert at Catholic churches across the country on Sunday, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops said that a new federal regulation proposed under President Barack Obama's health-care law "poses an unprecedented threat to individual and institutional religious freedom."

Among the 20,000 Chinese with at least 100 million yuan ($15 million) in individual investment assets, 27 percent have already emigrated and 47 percent are considering it, according to a report by China Merchants Bank and U.S. consultants Bain & Co. published in April.

Disney must now submit updated consumer-disclosure materials to regulators and other states. The company will begin with Florida, California, New York and Illinois, its most-important sales markets....

More registered voters say they would definitely vote for Mitt Romney or might consider doing so (62%) than say the same about his two main rivals in the 2012 presidential election, Democrat Barack Obama (54%) and Republican Rick Perry (53%). 

“If something goes haywire, say so.” – Sen Dan Inouye, August 25, 2011

Scandals involving cheating by teachers and schools to pump up ever-more-important student test scores swept the country this summer....

This is actually the fifth time in modern history that we've seen widespread fear that the world was running out of oil.

...all 5 official data sets show global cooling since 2002 while a third of all stations sustain a long term cooling trend for their entire history....

Hawaii has one of the healthiest economies in the country, bolstered by a large number of wealthy retirees and a robust tourism industry....

Even theoretically, returning Hawaii to a prehuman existence would be impossible. Ecosystems change over time, with or without the involvement of mankind, so no one can tell what Hawaii “should” look like.

The origin of gun control laws in America had little, if anything, to do with controlling crime; the laws were intended to prevent slaves and freed blacks from defending themselves or rebelling against the state and local governments which persecuted them relentlessly....

 One teacher told investigators that the district was "run like the mob" and that she was afraid of retaliation if she didn't participate.

Seventy percent of Hawaii’s Medicaid budget is paid out to two publicly traded contractors, Unitedhealth and Wellcare. The two share a lucrative $1.2 billion a year contract to provide services to 40,000 children and adults with disabilities.

On August 22, Governor Neil Abercrombie admitted that the purpose of SB 1274 (Act 230) was to save the state’s Medicaid contractors money on legal fees. He never explained how that would benefit patients.

Strangely, she was saying things that liberals might like, if not for Ms. Palin’s having said them.

Massachusetts -- where state law requires all adult residents to have health insurance -- continues to have the lowest percentage of uninsured residents, at 4.7%. Connecticut, Minnesota, and Hawaii also have relatively low uninsured rates, with about 1 in 10 adults not carrying health insurance in each....

Among dozens of “green” schools in Washington state, only two use less energy than traditional schools built in those same districts. In more than one instance, the “green” schools use 30 percent more energy per square foot ....

Lucrative state and federal contracts funded by American taxpayer dollars should not be awarded to companies doing business with a regime that is aggressively pursuing a nuclear weapons program, training and supplying weapons to terrorists who are killing U.S. troops, and engaging in egregious human rights abuses inside its own borders.

Today’s scheduled time for the Route C Country Express service of TheBus from Kapolei Transit Center to Ala Moana Center during the rush hour varies from 44 to 58 minutes and averages 52 minutes.

While the U.S. is dumping billions of dollars into wind farms and onshore and offshore wind turbines, this energy source is being cast aside as a failure elsewhere in the world.

Nearly one of every 10 midsized or big employers expects to stop offering health coverage to workers after insurance exchanges begin operating in 2014 as part of President Barack Obama's health care overhaul....

A religious-discrimination lawsuit involving the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs is taking a giant step forward this week, with a federal judge demanding a response from the Obama administration....

Washington, D.C., led the nation in economic confidence during the first half of 2011 with the only positive Economic Confidence Index score (+11) in the U.S....

Just 25% of Hawaii employers are adding jobs, another 15% are laying off ....

Military programs...have already been targeted for a minimum of $350 billion in cuts over 10 years, with the possibility of $600 billion more if the Super Committee fails to agree on other areas to cut — a strong possibility given Washington’s well-known gridlock.