Streaming Video: Djou v Hanabusa Debate 8pm Tonight
Feds Reveal Dozens of New Violations at Hawaii Nursing Homes
Duke Aiona Backs Candidates in Council, Legislative Races
Humane Society Sues DLNR Over Aquarium Collectors
VIDEO: Five Targets Hit Over Pacific in Largest Anti-Missile Defense Test
Alaskans Push Back Against 200 mile 'Emissions Control Area' for Ships
PDF: Hawaii GOP Releases Voter Guide
Did sickout by election staff violate Voting Rights Act?
ILind: The concerted sickout by the county election workers are probably a violation of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Is the US Attorney or FBI even going to look into this?
…could it be considered some sort of coordinated activity intended to disrupt voting? Would that be potentially illegal under any provision of the Voting Rights Act?
read … Voting Rights Act Violations
With Akaka Gone, His Cronies Wander Aimlessly
CB: "It's a very sad day for Native Hawaiians to not have that type of leader at the national level," Esther Kiaaina said this week. "Not only to fight for Native Hawaiian issues but also being present in a policy-making role clearly is the underlying objective of our collective community, because you have to be part of the system to be able to effect change."
She and other leaders have formed a hui to make sure this doesn't happen again.
"I think this is a big lesson learned for the Native Hawaiian community, that we did not adequately prepare our leadership to ascend when called upon," said State Senate Majority Leader Brickwood Galuteria, another member of the new group. …
Those bills gave Galuteria an excuse to invite people like OHA Trustee Peter Apo and John Waihee, the state's first and only Native Hawaiian governor who now serves as chair of the roll commission, to his office. They've been talking about the future of the Hawaiian community, and strategizing about how to cultivate young leaders.
Kawika Riley is OHA's young new Washington bureau director,,,,Riley's new boss, OHA CEO Kamanaopono Crabbe, has a similar view of how Hawaiian leadership works.
… the hui has approached Akaka's family about him playing an active role in the foundation-building and the development of future leaders.
"Senator Galuteria proposed this idea directly to several of Senator Akaka's children to create a hui inspired by Senator Akaka's philosophy of incorporating Native Hawaiian values in leadership," Akaka spokesman Jesse Broder Van Dyke said in an email this week. "His daughter Millannie says they like the idea and would like the hui to be able to inspire and help people who are Hawaiian and Hawaiian at heart get involved in public service. The children are hoping their father will want to contribute after he retires, but nothing has actually been created yet and no commitments have been made."
It already has a tentative name: the Ohia Group, or Ohia Foundation.
read … About the Coming Infighting
Djou Supports Free Trade in Pacific
PBN: Djou, who is running against Hanabusa in the 1st Congressional District in the Nov. 6 election, agreed that our state’s military is increasingly important, and said he openly supports more free-trade opportunities in the region.
“Hawaii can place itself as a crossroad of the Pacific,” he said during a separate interview with PBN. “When you encourage and expand commerce, when businesses are created and grow from the exchange of goods and services, the focal point of that benefit will be Hawaii.”….
“I took the position that it’s irresponsible for the federal government to not pass a budget and continue spending without planning,” he said. “Reducing government spending doesn’t equate to eliminating that line of funding.”
Djou, an Army reservist who served in Afghanistan, said being a veteran gives him an advantage.
“It’s important for someone to have that personal understanding rather than theoretical,” he said. “It makes me a better legislator when it comes to national security and military family issues.”
read … Hanabusa, Djou agree on military’s importance to Hawaii
Djou Backs Balanced Budget Amendment
SA: Djou, Hanabusa's Republican opponent in urban Honolulu's 1st Congressional District, wants a balanced-budget amendment to the U.S. Constitution, line-item veto authority for the president, and an extension of a moratorium on earmarks.
"We can't afford this," he said of the deficit and debt. "I think the American economy can sustain a trillion-dollar budget deficit for a year. But we can't do it year after year after year and not expect it to ruin the future of our country."
A majority in the Republican-controlled House voted for a balanced-budget amendment in November 2011, but fell short of the two-thirds' vote necessary for a constitutional amendment. Hanabusa voted against the amendment.
"I believe a balanced-budget amendment is important to bring that level of fiscal discipline that is absolutely needed in our country," Djou said. "Because without it Democrats and Republicans, conservatives and liberals are always going to continue to bicker, and the easiest thing to do is just run up the charge card and send the bill to the next generation."
Djou said that while a line-item veto and an earmark moratorium would not balance the budget, he thinks they are steps in the right direction. "Too much of our federal budget gets stuffed with these pork projects all around the country," he said. "And while I recognize that a number of these projects benefit Hawaii, when we're running a $16 trillion national debt, a trillion dollars a year plus on our budget deficit, we're mortgaging off our children's future."
Earmarks are a tool that members of Congress have used to obtain federal money for home-state projects. U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, has agreed to a moratorium through the session of Congress that ends in January. But Inouye has been a national advocate for earmarks, arguing that lawmakers, and not the president or federal agencies, best know the needs of their home states.
Djou said he does not believe Congress would be yielding too much power to the president and executive branch through a line-item veto or by extending the earmark moratorium. "I think I wouldn't have as much of a problem with earmarks and political pork-barrel projects if we were running a balanced budget," he said. "But it's because we're not running a balanced budget that I support these measures."
Hanabusa would let the earmark moratorium expire. "I don't know how you can represent
Hawaii (my cronies) and support an earmark moratorium," she said. " For a state like Hawaii, earmarks have kept us (cronies) alive."
read … About the Solution
Inouye And Hirono Skip Planned Media Interviews
CB: Hawaii's press corps waited patiently outside Honolulu Hale midday Wednesday for U.S. Sen. Daniel K. Inouye and U.S. Rep. Mazie Hirono to arrive for scheduled interviews.
Both politicians had just cast their respective ballots in the 2012 elections and were expected to talk with reporters. Indeed, Hirono's campaign had invited the press for exactly that reason.
Instead, after talking quietly with aides, Inouye and Hirono got into sedans and sped off, leaving baffled aides and irked reporters in the lurch.
By contrast, Linda Lingle, Hirono's opponent in the U.S. Senate race, made herself available to reporters after she voted at Honolulu Hale just minutes before Hirono's entourage arrived….
In her remarks to reporters, Lingle said she believed her campaign had benefitted from the recently completed televised debates with Hirono. She said she was pleased with endorsements from daily newspapers in Hilo and in Maui, given that Hirono represents those communities in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Lingle also criticized Richard Mourdock, the Republican Senate nominee from Indiana, who said this week that "cases of pregnancy due to rape are God's will," something Hirono also criticized in a press release Wednesday morning.
Asked who she voted for Honolulu mayor, Lingle smiled and said that she would only acknowledge that she voted for herself in the Senate race.
HNN: Hirono declined to speak with the media after casting her vote.
CB: Hey, Dan! Hey, Ben! Can't We All Just Get Along?
read … Hirono Ducks Media
Star-Adv Endorses Aaron Johanson for HD31
District 31 (Fort Shafter, Moanalua Gardens, Aliamanu): A promising Republican in the House is Minority Leader Aaron Johanson, 32, who was elected two years ago to the seat vacated by Republican Lynn Finnegan, who ran for lieutenant governor. A former analyst for Finnegan, his experience includes being deputy chief staff to then-Lt. Gov. James "Duke" Aiona, deputy chief of the U.S. Mint and a personnel director in the George W. Bush White House. Johanson is GOP minority whip and receives our endorsement over Democrat Lei Sharsh, 52, a behavior health specialist with the state Department of Education who was defeated by Johanson in 2010.
read … Johanson
Pro-Rail Group Spending Money for Hirono
PR: Pacific Resource Partnership has reported spending another $29,500 on mailers on behalf of U.S. Rep. Mazie Hirono’s
read … Birds of a Feather
Pro-Rail Doorknockers include Murderer, Drug Addicts
HW: Each day, Hahn oversaw between 25–40 canvassers making door-to-door rounds for I Mua Rail, whose mission, stated on its website, is “to reinvigorate support” for the controversial rail project. The canvassers, Hahn says, included union members paid $20/hr., and others, like himself, who earned $12/hr.
A graduate of UH Manoa, Hahn found himself supervising a motley and, at times, intimidating crew. Canvassers included an ex-con (“a nice guy, who told us he had served his time for murder, but I didn’t feel comfortable doing anything that he wouldn’t approve of”) and another individual who, “in front of the crew, threatened to assault me.” Like many of the canvassers, Hahn recalls, this individual came to work late and hung-over or on drugs, carried drug paraphernalia, and was unreliable. For union members, “that job wasn’t about working. It seemed more like it was the dole,” Hahn says. “We’d find them sometimes hanging around under a tree. I think that’s why they have [PRP-distributed] smart phones now, to track them,” he says.
While many canvassers turned in a desultory performance, dumping I Mua literature in the trash or leaving up to 20 circulars at one address, others were overzealous. Hahn, whose company cell phone number was listed in a folder carried by all canvassers, says he received calls from police, private security/neighborhood watch staff and residents themselves, who were distressed about canvassers’ appearance and behavior.
With regard to possible coordination in violation of CSC rules, “What I found interesting was that canvassers were also paid to hold signs or plant questions at rallies for a pro-rail candidate, such as Peter Carlisle or Kymberly Pine, or in support of the Hoopili development,” Hahn recalls. “They were also paid to shout down opposing views. At these events, they would not be wearing their I Mua Rail or Hoopili shirts, or showing any other identification to connote a separation from the ‘normal’ supporters.”….
Although he had originally asked for anonymity, Hahn told the Weekly to use his name, “because this is how democracy dies–if money and power can steal our elections. People should assert our rights and say no.”
Irony: Off the Beat: New Low In Political Ads
Predictably, Oi Demands Censorship: Under the Sun: Vicious slurs hit Cayetano, thanks to Citizens United
Meanwhile: Gomer Pyle Endorses Cayetano and Carlisle for Caldwell? No Surprise There and Save Oahu Farmlands Alliance endorses Cayetano
read … Votes Lies and Videotape
Nimitz Flyover Cost Estimate Suggests that Rail Will Cost $7 Billion
Panos: The Nimitz flyover cost estimate provides an opportunity to assess rail costs. The Nimitz flyover is a 2.2 mile and 40 ft. wide simple viaduct. Like rail, the viaduct will have 150 ft. spans and will carry a live load (vehicles, people and cargo) of approximately 160,000 lbs per 150 ft. span. It will cost approximately $270 million per mile based on the 2008 state DOT estimate.
read … Nimitz Flyover Cost Estimate Suggests that Rail Will Cost $7 Billion
Gender wage gap narrower in Hawaii than nationally
SA: Women in Hawaii on average are paid 81.9 cents for every dollar paid to a man, the 11th highest rate nationally, the group reported.
The average earnings for men in Hawaii is $45,494 compared with $37,242 for women, according to an analysis of Census Bureau data done by the National Women’s Law Center….
The gap was the narrowest in the District of Columbia where women are paid 90.4 cents for every dollar paid to a man. It is the widest in Wyoming where women earn 66.6 cents for every dollar earned by a man.
read … Gender wage gap narrower in Hawaii than nationally
Soft on Crime: Suspected of Murder in California, Felon Seeks Deferred Acceptance in Hawaii
SA: Anthony Simoneau, 44, is on probation after pleading guilty in August 2011 to felony theft for stealing a $395 piece of luggage from Nordstrom.
Circuit Judge Michael Wilson denied Simoneau's request Tuesday to grant him a deferral of his guilty plea, which would remove the charge from his record if he stays out of trouble for a specified period. Wilson told him to return in six months for another probation review hearing.
It was the fourth time Wilson denied the request from Simoneau. Wilson sentenced Simoneau in October 2011 to five years' probation.
Simoneau told Wilson he doesn't want to return to court because every time he does, the news media, including reporters from Japan, hound him.
"I just feel if we keep doing hearings and hearings and hearings, I'm going to have to go through this same scrutiny that I feel is unjustified," Simoneau said Tuesday. "So please, your honor, I just don't want to go through this anymore."
On Tuesday at least two news teams representing Japanese media waited outside the courtroom along with local reporters, but Simoneau avoided them by leaving through a different exit.
Simoneau drew the interest of Japanese media in 2010 after authorities in California, using DNA evidence, identified the decomposed body of a woman found in a shallow grave in a desert outside San Diego in 2007 as that of Simoneau's Japanese-born wife, Fumiko.
Simoneau had never reported his wife missing.
read … About Someone Who We Could Put in Prison but Don’t
Chinatown Police ‘Tolerant’ of Drug Dealing
SA: Serena Hashimoto, co-owner of Downbeat, said police need to do more to tackle "low-level" crime in Chinatown — like sidewalk drug deals — or criminals will continue to feel emboldened and business owners will continue to feel unsafe.
"Over the last few years, every single business that I know down here has been robbed," she said, adding that police appear "tolerant" of drug deals in the neighborhood.
"It's been completely frustrating," she said.
read … No kidding
Hawaii details $600M plan for upgrades at Honolulu International Airport
PBN: …According to the document filed with the Hawaii Office of Environmental Quality Control, the work includes building a mauka concourse, demolishing the existing commuter terminal that houses the smaller interisland airlines, widening a few taxiways, relocating cargo and maintenance facilities and building a replacement cargo facility. A new commuter terminal will also be built east of the Diamond Head concourse and a car rental facility to house all the rental companies is also part of the project.
“Changes in the commercial aviation industry have led to a need for modern facilities to enhance safety and efficiency for passengers and employees and to accommodate aviation activity from both interisland commercial service as well as flights to and from the U.S. Mainland and other Pacific Rim destinations,” the state noted in a statement. “The proposed action is to construct improvements consistent with the master plan for HNL [Honolulu International Airport] and the Airport Modernization Program at HNL as directed by the governor.”
The work could go out to bid around Jan. 13…
read … Airport Money