National News

• Senate: Motion to Table; Farm Bill – Sugar Price Supports Repeal 
• Senate: Motion to Table; Farm Bill – Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) Elimination

Here's Transportation Daily's view on the last minute efforts by Congress to craft an acceptable new Transportation Bill....

During the recent economic downturn, 20 states (Hawaii is #21) increased health provider taxes to take advantage of federal matching funds....

The decision facing them is whether they will continue to attempt to create state-run exchanges (despite the financial pitfalls) or if they will run partnership exchanges with the federal government....

The President and his team have been blaming "European headwinds" for some of the U.S. economy's woes. But the truth is that the policies pursued by Washington and Athens are frighteningly similar....

For the first time in decades, Catholic education is showing signs of life....

...sustainable job growth is not going to come from a few big corporations hiring hundreds of people. Job growth is going to come from lots and lots of small businesses....

Here’s the breakdown of how well green energy is actually doing....

"I've said that this is a make-or-break moment for the middle class, and I believe it," President Obama told an Ohio crowd yesterday. Indeed it is—because in a sluggish economy, American taxpayers are about to be clobbered by the largest tax increase in history....

“Hawaii looks forward to working collaboratively with CMS in order to ultimately obtain approval for State-Based Exchange and to ensure the Connector’s operational readiness for 2014,” stated Governor Abercrombie.

The glorious Jones Act at work ....

This plan would impact more than 164,000 military service members, retirees, and family members who live on Oahu.... Commissary shoppers in Hawaii save 50.7% with annual savings for a family of four of $7,360.

Says visa process is now smoother....

... today we have voices suggesting that America's best days are behind her ....

Last week Mazie Hirono skipped a key vote on Rail funding to campaign in Rhode Island at the Netroots nation liberal bloggers conference. Now her work is beginning to bear fruit....

President Obama told the United Auto Workers (UAW) in February not to listen to critics of the auto bailout who said union members "made out like bandits—that saving the auto industry was just about paying back the unions."

...most employees will not get to vote; only shoe salesmen will cast ballots. Not all shoe salesmen, however. Only those selling women's shoes....

Recently, the FCC issued a number of major reforms to the Fund, capping the subsidies that rural service providers are eligible to receive....

...on Friday, President Barack Obama informed America that “the private sector is doing fine.” This, of course, was news to the 12.7 million people who are out of work....

...a landmark digital cable channel tomorrow dedicated solely to providing information about her U.S. Senate campaign and informing voters about the important issues facing Hawaii....

Projects will address propulsion technologies, fueling/charging infrastructure technologies, command and control systems for alternative fuel vehicle fleets as well as alternative power generation and storage technologies as they relate to transportation.

Hirono also maintained that "there really is a war on women in Congress."

...the PFA allows employees to sue businesses that pay different workers different wages—even if those differences have nothing to do with the employees’ sex. These lawsuits can be brought for unlimited damages....

Within one year of being elected, Governor Scott Walker (R) reformed the state's public sector pension system, eliminated a $3.6 billion budget deficit without raising taxes, saved taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars, and helped create the conditions that have allowed Wisconsin's economy to grow again.... 

...approximately 400 people die every day because of hospital errors...more than 2,600 U.S. hospitals will now receive an A, B, C, D or F Hospital Safety Score based on patient safety....

Purporting to be at the service of consumers and creating market-optimal airlines, these regulations have the actual effect of distorting airlines' behavior and harming customers ....

The latest study of pay-for-performance finds that doesn’t work either....

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder suggests that there is an estimated $60 to $90 billion in fraud in Medicare and a similar amount for Medicaid

Democrats now must pick up the wreckage from an election that they orchestrated and DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz called a "dry run" for November....

The state of Wisconsin has once again lived up to its billing as a Midwestern incubator of Big Ideas....

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) would have Americans believe that hundreds of thousands will die unless its new and unparalleled regulatory agenda is enacted....

There's no way to predict how the 2012 elections will turn out. But it will be a turning point in American history....

...There are several steps Congress can immediately take, and President Obama can immediately support, that will help alleviate the pain felt at the pump by American families and would create economic growth, and importantly, jobs....

if 5 percent of cars in Los Angeles County were to plug in simultaneously, they could place a 750-megawatt load on California's already strained grid, equivalent to the generating capacity of two midsize power plants....

...the city council claims it will attain a number of benefits that are direly wanted by its citizens. However, careful analysis of each supposed benefit shows that the ban is unlikely to provide any such value....

Taxmageddon is threatening the U.S. economy and holding back growth, but strangely, President Barack Obama isn't doing anything about it....

One year ago, the state of Wisconsin adopted sweeping reforms that curbed collective bargaining rights among government workers, brought the state's pension system into line, and empowered those workers to choose whether or not to pay union dues.... 

This report has state data separated into judicial vs. non-judicial foreclosure state categories....

Jay Carney yesterday lapsed into rambling rhetoric when asked to explain how President Obama can defend the failed Solyndra solar boondoggle, yet attack private sector investments that sometimes fail but oftentimes succeed....

• Senate: FDA User Fee Reauthorization
• Senate: Student Loan Interest Rates – Republican Substitute
• Senate: Student Loan Interest Rates – Democratic Version

Medicare spending is growing faster than the rest of the federal budget, and it's the main cause of America's long-term deficits....

...conservatives are against “big government,” so we must be for “small government,” right? Wrong. We’re for limited government. Here is the difference....

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As part of my teaching duties at West Point, I took cadets on a study tour of the World War II battlefields....

National Moment of Remembrance at 3:00 p.m. HST Memorial Day. 

... it’s false to say that Hawaiians support the Akaka Bill ....

...the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act directs the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to penalize hospitals with "worse than expected" 30-day readmission rates....

On Tuesday, MarketWatch's Rex Nutting wrote that claims of Obama's big spending ways are overblown and that the "Obama spending binge never happened."

The story is the stuff that blockbuster movies are made of, but many of the details are largely a closely guarded secret. That was until the Obama White House granted extraordinary access and information to Hollywood filmmakers ....

"These ministries serve inner-city children, the elderly, deaf, developmentally disabled, HIV/AIDS patients, and homeless--among many others. Catholic outreach, like many other religious groups in America, seeks to serve those most in need."