Disappeared News

Hunter Bishop writes in What disaster planning? about this and more. Or less, maybe I should say. The Big Island may be as unprepared as we are here in Oahu. Which is odd, given that there's a live volcano right in the middle of the place and they have recently had a damaging earthquake. You'd think they'd wake up.

Hunter is concerned about ash in catchment tanks and the effects of acid rain. He complains that even in Harry Kim land, there seems to be a lack of disaster preparedness and planning (this is a short snippet, please read the whole article):

Holy Katrina! Now they are planning?

Evacuation notification plans could have been written already, the protocols shared with communities and perhaps even tested. But no, somebody will be going "door-to-door, if necessary." Why are we still figuring this out?

And about that evacuation. Would it be mandatory? Where would people go? How would they get there? How long would they stay? At what cost? Who pays? What about the infirm? People's pets? Livestock?

What about the security of people’s homes from the threat of looting in an evacuated area? Are there plans to call in the National Guard? Is the guard in fact available? Or is it too busy with Iraq?

Maybe you think I’m being alarmist but shouldn’t someone start thinking aloud about the answers to these questions before they are raised in the heat of a dire emergency? Or will everybody be on their own?

It’s time Mayor Kim leveled with residents about disaster emergency plans, whether we have them or not. And it’s time to stop the paternalistic patter and to partner with communities in developing these plans and making them public before they are needed in order to avoid unnecessary panic, anxiety and confusion in the event of a real disaster.

I've written about the lack of disaster planning including the troubling weakness in our system of medical care. With doctors in short supply in many specialties in rural areas, a disaster could be, well, a disaster. Doug Carlson holds forth on disaster planning and related topics at Citizens Helping Officials Respond to Emergencies.

I'll close by asking if you know where your designated shelter is, and who has the keys to let you in? Does your condo have a plan for elderly residents and others with mobility problems? Have you ever been handed an evacuation plan?

Why is it that mostly bloggers are asking these questions? And of course, when do we get answers? Nah, they don't care about us.

But more important, they don't care about you either.

This just posted on the Advertiser's website:

Governor tries to intervene in Aloha bankruptcy case

However, in case the petition fails, the governor said the state has also activated a rapid response team to help the 3,500 Aloha employees and their families, who will face the most immediate effects of the airline closure

Bankruptcy judge will not stop Aloha shutdown

and that "gut and replace" corporate welfare bill has passed the Senate:

State Senate passes tax relief for interisland airlines

Over at the Star-Bulletin, an AP story:

State leaders scramble in attempt to save Aloha

About 1,900 employees may be affected by a shutdown, Lingle said. A government labor team has been formed to evaluate their job skills and determine what type of job placement assistance might be needed.

And by Star-Bulletin staff:

Court rejects state bid to save Aloha Airlines

Maybe we'll learn soon how many employees Aloha actually has (had).

Just a closing thought: the same number of passengers need to fly without Aloha as when it was flying. Surely there will be jobs for some Aloha employees. It still takes pilots, mechanics, etc., to get all of those people back and forth.

Sorry, no news here. Check the commercial media. I tried. I really wanted to know if the judge would even give Lingle's representative standing to make any kind of motion or even speak. We'll find out later.

I went down to Bankruptcy Court hoping to get in. I figured the courtroom might be small, so I got there early, about 1:20. There was a huge crowd outside—Aloha Airlines employees and their families as well as folks from related unions, and of course, the TV cameras. There were signs and plastic megaphones and some good t-shirts. Some t-shirts blasted Mesa, but most were pro-Aloha.

So I went into the building and got on line. Surprisingly, there were only about a dozen people altogether waiting, so I was feeling like I would get a seat, the courtroom couldn't be too tiny.

Then WHAM! In piled Aloha employees mostly in their work uniforms, and they pushed ahead of all of us line-waiters right to the front, where they stayed laughing and chatting. In fact, there wasn't a long face anywhere. The only serious looks were owned by the many attorneys in their strange black outfits who of course went in freely ahead of us.

Now, I know I would never get away with pushing ahead like that at the airport! No way! But what to do? I was probably the only one there not an employee or mechanic. Actually, I began to feel guilty, thinking I might take up a seat instead of an Aloha employee. After all, they are about to lose their jobs and I'm just there, well, to write something in a blog.

The bailiff then went to the back of the line, now probably 60-80 people long, and told them that they wouldn't get in, better to go upstairs to room 606, where there is a TV set up.

So I was third in line, still waiting, still hoping. But the bailiff got a radio message, no more room. The judge was not allowing anyone standing in the courtroom. And up to 606 we all went. It was like rush hour in Tokyo. Everyone was still strangely in good spirits, making jokes about squeezing into elevators and not weighing too much.

Up on the sixth floor the room with the TV was already packed full.

Oh, well.

Downstairs again I thought I'd grab a late lunch at Govindaji. Oops, they closed at 2 p.m. But with the only good luck I've had today (I'm not even going to tell you what Windows Vista did to me before I left), they let some of us in, and I had a great vegetarian Thai red curry.

So I've wasted your time reading this, I have nothing to tell you except how good the curry was and that usually, if you want to eat at Govindaji (1118 Fort St. Mall, 585-0960), it's best to get there between 10 a.m. and  2 p.m.

In quick succession today came the news that Aloha airlines will be shutting down passenger service Monday and that the governor will ask the judge to delay the shutdown at a scheduled hearing Monday afternoon:

Lingle questions Aloha shutdown, will ask bankruptcy court for delay

Gov. Linda Lingle said she will ask a bankruptcy judge not to allow Aloha Airlines to shut down until she is satisfied the airline "exhausted all possible avenues for continuing its operations."

If you would like to attend the hearing, here is the posted calendar for the case. Monday, 2 p.m., 3rd Floor of the Federal Courthouse.

Correct location of Bankruptcy Court (thanks, anonymous commenter!) from their website:

The court is located in downtown Honolulu, on Bishop Street between Beretania and Hotel Streets, with entrances at both Union and Fort Street Malls. We are on the Lobby Level of 1132 Bishop, towards the glass doors in the north corner. You will be required to show a picture I.D. and pass through a metal detector. No electronic devices (cell phones, pagers, PDA's, etc.) are allowed on the premises. You may leave these items at the security desk and reclaim them when you leave.

Mailing Address
United States Bankruptcy Court
District of Hawaii
1132 Bishop Street, Suite 250-L
Honolulu, HI 96813

You'll have to leave cellphones in their little filing cabinet before going in (or better, leave it in your car since no one supervises the file cabinet). The calendar below will be at this link only for a few days.

The court maintains a web page for the case here. Aloha Airlines has a press release and FAQ here.

I am wondering if even a governor can compel an airline that has run out of money to continue operating. It should be an interesting, and very sad, hearing tomorrow. The articles note that over 1,900 employees and their families will be affected. They would normally be due 60 days notice if their jobs are to end. Update: this evening's news articles mention 3,500-3,550 full- and part-time employees.

In addition to the direct job loss, the ripple effect of this shutdown through Hawaii's economy will probably be hard to predict.

HB509, the poor bill that has been gutted to save Aloha Airlines, is pretty explicit about its intent:

The purpose of this Act is to assist Hawaii inter-island air carriers whose operations and revenues have been adversely affected by the recent inter-island travel fare wars by authorizing the department of business, economic development, and tourism, through its director, to guarantee loans from private lending institutions.

In other words, three businesses (Hawaiian, Aloha, and Mesa) have freely chosen, as a business practice, to engage in a perpetual fare war, and now one is paying the consequences. So we, the people, are supposed to bail them out? And does this bill do that? Won't the fare war continue? Won't it destroy Aloha in the end even with a loan?

There is a legitimate argument for maintaining availability of interisland air travel. The economy of the state would be in a shambles if all we had were the Superferry. The Legislature should look at all the available options, including (if it's possible) fare regulation.

The bill provides that the loan may be used for working capital. What's to prevent Aloha from simply spending it down to nothing?

Loan guarantees are also a gift to companies that might extend them. They are eligible to keep the profits, but protected against the loss. This is the same thinking that saves Bear Stearns but lets homeowners swing in the wind.

What about a small business that makes a bad decision? Will the State of Hawaii be there with legislation to keep them afloat? No way. The state would have plenty of reasons why bad choices shouldn't be rewarded at public expense. Those same reasons should apply to Aloha.

I was curious about the headline All sides of rail debate presented that editor Mark Platte chose for his commentary in the Focus section of today's paper. I'm guessing that the editor, unlike most writers, gets to choose his own headline.

Why, thought I, would an article defending the paper against bias on the choice of a transit technology use the word "rail," instead of "transit?" It reinforces a "frame" for discussion which excludes other transit modalities.

In this commentary, the word "rail" appears exactly 20 times. The word "transit" appears twice, as headlines of other stories referenced. But in the on-line version, there were no jumps to those stories, which would have been nice had readers wanted to check out the other points of view.

Elsewhere in the paper, the report Council to revisit type of transit demonstrates that the choice of technology for Honolulu's proposed transit system is still being debated. There is a chance, however large or small, that there may be no rails ("rail: one of a pair of steel bars that provide the running surfaces for the wheels of locomotives and railroad cars" or "the railroad as a means of transportation: to travel by rail.").

In New York, the rich folks who run Bear Stearns and JP Morgan are being bailed out. They need the help of our federal government, or they might lose their yachts and country club memberships.

Nevermind all the homeowners who lost their homes, the rich folks are being taken care of. The sale took place and then the Fed put extra gravy on their potatoes.

In Hawaii, we are, or maybe we are not, bailing out Aloha Airlines. It's hard to tell what is going on here.  Isn't Aloha doomed already, whether or not the Legislature gives them a loan guarantee?

Do you remember when Interisland fares started from $144 for the lowest-priced round-trip tickets, if you could get them? Without planning ahead, you could get stuck paying $208 for that same trip.

Then the airlines took away the price advantage for early reservations and charged according to the flight, so the convenient morning flights, for example, cost more. In 2003, weekly rates for commuters jumped to $599 and monthly passes to $1999 (note the dumb supermarket prices). As a last straw, the airlines cut discounts to tour operators and others.

Ok, so fast-forward to the recent fare wars. $19, $9, even free, for a one-way ticket. $39 not unusual. Were we being gouged when the airlines charged peak fares, or was there some fare needed to keep them profitable? Probably, both are true.

And so Aloha goes bankrupt (again) and the Legislature panics and rapes a perfectly innocent bill moving through the Senate (HB509) to "save" Aloha. We'll get back to this at the very end of this article.

I'm skeptical that it can work. Why? Aloha has started selling off bits of itself. Guess what will happen. The profitable parts might find a buyer, the unprofitable parts may not. Without the profitable parts, there is no gold in the goose. In other words, no profit, no airline.

A Seattle cargo company, Saltchuk Resources Inc., has bid for Aloha's profitable cargo assets, equipment and service lines. If the bankruptcy court permits the sale, then what's left of Aloha will be less viable than before. Keep in mind that Hawaiian has profitable Mainland routes and Mesa seems determined to keep go! going at any cost. This does not bode well for Aloha even with loan guarantees and tax breaks. Why does anyone think that loan guarantees will provide a long-term solution for what's left of Aloha?

Aloha may be just the first of many bankruptcies now on the horizon. As the recession deepens we may see more businesses fail. It comes with the territory. Which should they be bailed out? Shouldn't a failing business just fail, speaking generally?

It used to be that businesses took a risk in order to make a profit. If they lost, so be it. Now, our government eliminates the risk but lets them keep the profit. Note that Bear Stearns/JP Morgan is still keeping their fees. Socialism has arrived in the USA for corporations.

The Fed bailout was extra-legal according to some analysts:

In effect, the Federal Reserve decided last week to overstep its legal boundaries – going beyond providing liquidity to the banking system and attempting to ensure the solvency of a non-bank entity. Specifically, the Fed agreed to provide a $30 billion “non-recourse loan” to J.P. Morgan, secured only by the worst tranche of Bear Stearns' mortgage debt. But the bank – J.P. Morgan – was in no financial trouble. Instead, it was effectively offered a subsidy by the Fed at public expense. Rick Santelli of CNBC is exactly right. If this is how the U.S. government is going to operate in a democratic, free-market society, “we might as well put a hammer and sickle on the flag.” [Hussman Funds Weekly Market Comment, March 24, 2008]

Back in Hawaii, the Legislature's loan guarantee appears to be a Band-Aid measure. It does nothing to resolve the fare wars. If Aloha is losing $5 million a month, the Legislature needs to have a business plan in hand from the airline showing that these guarantees will make a difference.

If Aloha is losing money today and sheds its profitable cargo business, why would anyone expect it to be more profitable tomorrow?

Just to wrap up, let's look at what happened to that poor bill. It suffered what is called a "gut and replace" operation.

"Gut and replace" is by its nature antidemocratic. The bill that was passed was not the bill that was heard earlier by each committee.

Chairs get away with it because the public generally doesn't know what has happened. Also, no one in the Legislature seems to bear any consequences if rules are broken. The rule in this case is Senate Rule 54. Bills: Amendments:

Rule 54, line 2:
(2) The fundamental purpose of any amendment to a bill shall be germane to the fundamental purpose of the bill.

But the important thing, one might say, is to preserve competition in interisland air services. If so, then the status quo is unsatisfactory. Aloha can't survive cutthroat, routine fare wars.

It would be better for the Legislature to contemplate sensible regulation of the industry.

I love when the opposition gives me a line I can pick up and run with. A deputy Attorney General did that today.

I went to the Legislature to testify on HB7, a bill that would join Hawaii with five other states (Illinois, Kansas, Wisconsin, Missouri and Vermont) in a purchasing program that imports prescription medications from overseas. Snippet from the Illinois web page:

This would be an option, not a mandate. It would be one way that seniors, persons with disabilities, or those on fixed or low incomes could lower their costs for medicine. Many insurance plans don't include a drug benefit. Costs for these medicines are soaring, along, of course, with drug company profits.

Testimony has been overwhelmingly in support of this bill, which has passed both houses of the Legislature without a single No vote.

The only testimony against has come from the pharmaceutical industry (predictably), from the Attorney General's office and also from a representative of Lillian Koller, Department of Human Services, saying it would interfere with their priorities (pity that saving seniors money has not been their priority).

The deputy AG has testified that it is illegal, but under questioning, admitted that no one has been arrested for participating.

Millions of Americans are purchasing drugs from Canada or other countries. It turns out that these are the same drugs purchased here at grossly inflated prices. Our drugs, like almost everything else, it seems, are made in factories overseas.

Well, today there was a different deputy AG. He did say that the program was illegal under federal law, but indicated that the AG's office did not oppose the bill.

After extensive questioning, he said, and you gotta love this: "Nobody in their right mind would oppose lower drug costs." I wrote this down as fast as I could scrawl on the screen of my tablet PC. And I'm going to send it to Lillian Koller.

You may recall that the Administration is refusing to implement Rx Plus, the program that would negotiate discounts for prescription drugs. Yes, it's the law, and last session the Legislature changed "may" to "shall" so that there would be no excuse. There is no excuse, but DHS continues to ignore the law. Seniors should have had  the benefit of lower prices since 2004.

Of course, the governor wants to remain friends with her rich buddies in the drug industry. Campaigns depend on these folks with deep pockets, and they do get returns on their investments, it seems.

Let's see if the governor vetoes this bill (See: cheating seniors out of their prescription benefits).

If she does, we can remind her that "Nobody in their right mind would oppose lower drug costs."

I hope the deputy AG doesn't get fired for this.

  This isn't "disappeared news," it's spreading like wildfire all over the web, thanks to the efforts of Keith Olbermann on MSNBC and bloggers who are carrying stories and videos. It was the most emailed story on CNN.com.

In a nutshell, Debbie Shank, a 52-year-old mother of three, suffered severe brain damage in a traffic accident. She won a $417,000 settlement, which the family set aside in a trust for her future medical expenses. Wal-Mart sued the family for $470,000 to reimburse the company for every cent it had paid for Debbie's medical bills because of a clause in her medical insurance contract, and they won.

Wal-Mart, with billions in profits, did not need to sue the Shank family, but they did. The family doesn't know how they can ever pay Wal-Mart and provide for Debbie's needs. To top it off, Debbie's son was killed in Iraq. Although she attended his funeral, she asks about him every day, weeps when she hears the news.

There must be a special place in hell for company executives who would do this.

For the complete, ugly story, check out this article on Huffington Post by David Nassar, Will Wal-Mart Do the Right Thing for Brain-Damaged Ex-Employee Debbie Shank's Family?

More is at Wal-Mart Watch. If you click the top image in this article it will take you to a Wal-Mart Watch article which has information on a petition, a Shank family donation page, and other articles (including Big Box, Small Heart, a great title).

Keith Olbermann takes on Wal-Mart 

Keith Olbermann says he going to feature Wal-Mart's CEO on his World's Worst segment every night until Wal-Mart caves.

It's a new kind of activism. In addition to supporting Deborah Shank, we should also express our thanks to Olbermann for his unique approach to pounding some humanity through the thick, greedy skulls of Wal-Mart's management. Here are some emails that may work (if they haven't been turned off by the time you try them):

viewerservices@msnbc.com
letters@msnbc.com
countdown@msnbc.com
KOlbermann@msnbc.com

And the first two Worst segments:

If you have a blog, please consider posting something to keep the pressure on Wal-Mart.

And of course, if you still shop there, why not consider whether you still want to support a company that would do this.

An op-ed in today's Advertiser, Modern steel wheel not your father's technology, proposes that the noise of an overhead transit system can be abated by use of short sound walls, and features an illustration of San Francisco's BART system.

Trouble is, this solution requires that the sound walls be built, and in a town which has done nothing to install sound abatement measures on its noisy highway system, what is the likelihood that Honolulu will have a sudden change of heart? I can hear Mufi saying "we can't afford it" and poof! no sound walls.

It's going to be bad enough for anyone who lives or operates a business near the Honolulu transit elevated right of way. Sound barriers wont help if your condo is above the tracks or if you are very close or underneath. Sound barriers also do not reduce the vibration of rail transit passing by. More discussion is clearly needed.

At base, Honolulu has not developed the standards necessary to reduce noise. Contrast this with Tokyo, which decades ago realized that the most effective method of reducing its pollution problem (including noise) was by regulation of the pollutant source. That is, Tokyo set standards for emissions, noise, and other urban pollutants and then enforced them.

Since Honolulu has not set standards to reduce transit noise (from cars or trains) there is nothing saying that noise will ever be reduced here. Reducing noise has not even been on our radar screen. The police seem never to enforce laws that would quiet motorcycle or other noise pollution. Maybe we care about noise, but our city government clearly doesn't.

One thing the Honolulu City Council could do, if it is concerned about noise, is get busy setting some standards. This could influence a decision on mass transit. That is, the choice of technology.

Japan regulates noise levels with monitoring stations located around the country. Standards are of little use unless they are enforced. Japan does that, Honolulu does not. As a result of enforced standards, transit in Japan has become quieter.

Tokyo's elevated highway system (a blight, but at least a mitigated one) uses sound walls combined with high sound-absorbent barriers extensively. Special low-noise paving (porous asphalt) is used (and unrelated to noise, white paint for pavement marking that reflects headlights back to the driver).

Honolulu uses none of this. In fact, the design of sloping embankments reflects sound and makes living near the H-1 a constant ordeal of noise.

Where the Shuto Expressway passes through certain areas of suburban Tokyo, barriers rise higher than the picture, and even arch over the roadway for further absorption. It's like driving in a sound-absorbing tunnel on some sections west of Tokyo.

Given the standards, transit in Japan has had to reduce noise through the extensive use of noise barriers, construction of underground rail and road sections in built-up areas, and the use of low-noise pavement for vehicular traffic.

Transit noise not just from wheels

It's not just an issue of steel wheels, by the way. Stations are noisy places by design—they are places where passengers are given information and warnings.When a train pulls into a station, there will typically be announcements and warning bells, tones, or buzzers. Then there is a voice announcement of the station, and finally warnings (possibly multi-lingual for tourists) or bells about the doors closing.

I've written previously on how happy we were when the old Myrtle Avenue El was torn down in Brooklyn. A good part of our joy was the silence that replaced the cacophony of constant loudspeaker announcements and clanging bells. At last, no more interference with lessons in our classroom nearby the station.

With regard to trains and subways in Japan, I understand that some changes have been made to reduce the noise level around stations, but they are starting with a huge established system they have to tame. Here's Tokyo's transit system map (click for a larger image):

Honolulu is struggling to avoid becoming like Tokyo (I hope). We have an advantage: we can make choices on what we would like for ourselves, including choosing to maintain a high quality of life.

Finally, one thought about the rubber-wheel solution: if emergency vehicles are also allowed to use the elevated roadway, then there is no need for them to use sirens, for example. That current source of noise pollution can actually be reduced if a Phileas-type system, with on- and off-ramps to connect to UH and Waikiki, is selected, and if emergency vehicles can share the roadway with transit.

For train or urban design freaks, here's a book that treats the design of transit facilities seriously.

Building Type Basics for Transit Facilities (Building Type Basics) by Kenneth W. Griffin Read more about this title...

Bottom line on transit noise in Honolulu: it hasn't been a priority until now, so why do we think, when the $billions in construction costs come up for approval, that anyone will spend money to reduce noise?

Maybe people are reading newspapers less because of the increasingly obvious bias in the commercial media.

Maybe people are reading newspapers less because there's too much disappeared news. Things we actually know a little about that don't get printed, like who is responsible for atrocities in Palestine, what happened to the Superferry in drydock, what the Winter Soldiers said last weekend that we all need to hear. What is the civilian death toll in Iraq, why no presidential candidate is asking for single payer national health care, what have their voting records been?

Maybe people are reading newspapers less because all they talk about is how much money politicians rake in for campaigns without discussing the paybacks that are expected for those bribes.

Maybe we don't want so many "info-mercials," maybe we don't look upon ourselves as commodities to be served up to advertisers. Maybe the pizza ads are making us fat.

Maybe, as per the comment (thank you) added to a previous article, we now have alternatives:

circulation could be dropping because no one wants to buy that stuff anymore. it's not convenient (folding a paper the right way is an art generation Xers never learned) and it's just crap anyway. it always was crap, but now we've got an alternative.

Maybe newspapers that use a single typeface for almost everything are just plain boring. I just discovered that there are several typographical videos on YouTube. What a gas for typography freaks like me.

Funny, kind of:

Artistic:

(if you go to any of these on YouTube, the "related videos" have some powerful works including some that don't fit on a family blog like this....)

There's still a lot to be said for the static page—for books that last for years, for comics that teach kids to read,  and even for newsprint destined for the landfill next week. But on the Internet, words can inform, challenge, and yes, even dance. To compete, newspapers might think about how they can do their important job better (hint).

'Cause the Internet not only informs us, but it listens to us and it's often a lot more fun.

I read the September 2007 Mother Jones article, Hillary's Prayer: Hillary Clinton's Religion and Politics, and became very concerned. It wasn't just the terrible caricature of her which headed the article:

What I found scary is the thought that if she should become president, and if the story is accurate, we could find our country led by another strong religious conservative who cannot isolate her beliefs from from her political actions. And I don't think it would be a good thing to do that again.

Now that the press is working Obama's religious beliefs and affiliations over the coals, I thought I would discuss the above article a bit here. And I could, but I would be doing you a disservice. A far better discussion appeared Thursday in the Progressive Review Undernews:

WHY IS THE MEDIA PAYING SO MUCH ATTENTION TO OBAMA'S PREACHER?

AND NONE AT ALL TO MCCAIN'S RIGHTWING MINISTER PAL AND CLINTON'S MEMBERSHIP IN A GROUP OF RELIGIOUS EXTREMISTS?

THE CORPORATE media is doing a major hit job on Barack Obama's ties to a minister given to hyperbole, but is nearly completely ignoring John McCain's extremist religious backer, Rev John Hagee, or Hillary Clinton's involvement with a group of religious fanatics known as the Fellowship. Both these stories have been reported here before, but to make it easier for the corporate media to introduce a touch of fairness into its coverage, here's a reprise plus a clip from a new Nation article. [Undernews, 3/20/08]

Please check this out if you are curious about the candidate's religious affiliations and how they might influence decisionmaking in the White House. If only we could ignore a person's private beliefs. Ideally we should, but if our leaders keep injecting their beliefs into their leadership then their beliefs become fair game. In fact, with the clash of religious extremists currently driving world politics, an understanding of the interaction of religion and politics is essential.

I'm indebted to peace researcher and visiting UH professor Johan Galtung for his emphasis on cosmology (broader than just religion) as a driving force of world history. In other words, to ignore how a person's background influences them as a leader would be foolish.

Thank goodness for Democracy Now! and other alternative media which have been covering the Winter Soldier hearings held this past weekend near Washington, DC. If not for the alternative media, there would be no notice in this country of the moving testimony given by our veterans who chose to speak publicly about their experiences in the Iraq war.

The rest of the world, of course, is tuned in. But our commercial media (including PBS) are doing their best to keep this news away from the American people. Make no mistake, the decision to keep Winter Soldier off the air and out of the newspapers was deliberate. They are suppressing the news they don't want you to have.

Here is a snippet from an article posted today by Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting:

Why Are Winter Soldiers Not News?

3/19/08

Dozens of veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars gathered in Silver Spring, Maryland last weekend for the Winter Soldier: Iraq and Afghanistan hearings (3/13/08-3/16/08), where they offered harrowing testimony about atrocities they had witnessed or participated in directly. The BBC predicted that the event, organized by Iraq Veterans Against the War, "could be dominating the headlines around the world this week" (3/7/08). The hearings were covered as far afield as the U.K. (Guardian, 3/17/08), Australia (Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 3/14/08), Croatia (Javno, 3/16/08), and Iran (Press TV, 3/14/08). Yet there has been an almost complete media blackout on this historic news event in the U.S. corporate media.

Despite being noted in the New York Times' Paris-based International Herald Tribune (3/13/08), Winter Soldier has yet to be mentioned in the New York Times itself. No major U.S. newspaper has covered the hearings except as a story of local interest; the few stories major U.S. newspapers have published on the event have focused on the participation of local vets (Boston Globe, 3/16/08; Boston Herald, 3/16/08; Newsday, 3/16/08, Buffalo News, 3/16/08).

The Washington Post, too, published their account in the metro section (3/15/08). In contrast, the paper published an article about pro-war demonstrators protesting the Winter Soldier hearings in the A section (3/16/08), despite the fact that they were, according to the Post, "small in number."

None of the major broadcast TV networks (ABC, NBC, CBS) have mentioned the hearings in their newscasts. PBS has been silent as well. [FAIR: Why Are Winter Soldiers Not News? ]

On the other hand, pro-war coverage continues, as the same FAIR article mentions:

While the testimony of soldiers who had served multiple tours of duty was broadcast on Pacifica Radio's Democracy Now!, Free Speech TV, and the Real News network, the major broadcast networks and PBS instead devoted airtime to the pro-war assessments of Vice President Dick Cheney and Sen. John McCain, both of whom have only made brief visits to Iraq (NBC Nightly News, ABC World News, CBS Evening News, PBS NewsHour, all 3/17/08).

Tune in to Democracy Now on radio, TV or via the web to catch up with the testimony, or go to one of the websites linked above. Don't be left out. Go for the information if the commercial media won't bring it to you.

The full FAIR article includes email addresses and phone numbers you can use to chastise the major networks for not carrying this crucial story. [I wonder why newspaper circulation is decreasing? Could it be that they don't bring us the news we need? Could it be that we're tired of the war and the war drums that they are still beating?]

Also see Joan Conrow's article today for her own reaction to listening to the Winter Soldier testimony.

Several people have pointed out to me that in my article on fundraisers during session I left out a very simple truth.

Most $25 fundraisers are in the community the lawmaker represents. There is often lots of food, entertainment and fun for the entire family. The example I gave was not in the representative's community, this $100 affair was held in the heart of corporate Honolulu and was priced out of the reach of many individuals.

 I didn't mention that Bob Herkes represents part of the Big Island, yet this fundraiser was held in downtown Honolulu. So no fun for families, in fact, very little chance that many of his constituents could make the trip to be there.

Let's keep pushing for a ban on corporate contributions this session. We can also take note of these out-of-district fundraisers held during session. It's all part of the same fabric.

If you see any ads like the above, please let me know.

Bills crossed over last week at the Hawaii State Legislature. What didn't cross over is (usually, but not necessarily) dead. What did cross over, for better or for worse, is still alive.

Maybe you know of a bill that should pass, or one that should die. Why not spread the word? Are you concerned with the environment or some other topic? You can ask about it.

Town Square, hosted by Beth-Ann Kozlovich, will be live tonight (Thursday) 5-6 p.m. on Hawaii Public Radio, 89.3 FM on Oahu, or streaming from hawaiipublicradio.org if you're elsewhere.

Guests will be Sen. Norman Sakamoto, Rep. Lynn Finnegan, and Prof. Ira Rohter.

The call-in number is 941-3689 or 1 877 941-3689 toll-free. If you plan to call, try early so you get your chance.

Push your bills, give a stab at the one's you don't like. Ask questions of the guests.

Admiral William Fallon's resignation as head of the US Central Command overseeing Middle East operations is a powerful statement by a military leader. Not that he had a choice, after opposing US policy with regard to Iran. He also was the messenger who said that Afghanistan is not doing well and that the soldiers necessary to bring that operation under control are tied down in Iraq.

Of course, we always shoot the messenger, but Fallon's message has been heard. Shinseki was heard before him, and so on.

When the military itself begins to object to a war, the light goes on at the end of the tunnel.

In 1971, at an event called Winter Soldier, a group of Vietnam War veterans exposed the corruption, the abuses, and the human rights violations of that war.

Starting tomorrow, Thursday, another group of courageous soldiers will do the same for the Iraq war. On Maui, the event will be recorded and broadcast by Akaku, but so far the best bet for everyone else will be to use your computer to catch the streaming program or to view the on-demand video afterwards. In either case, a good starting point is here, How to watch and listen to Winter Soldier.

According to their web page:

Winter Soldier: Iraq and Afghanistan will give veterans and service members the chance to speak out and share their experiences about what is really happening, day in and day out in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The four-day event in Washington, D.C. will bring together veterans and service members from across the country to testify about their experiences in Iraq and Afghanistan - and present video and photographic evidence. There also will be panels of scholars, veterans, journalists, and others to give context to the testimony.

As the event is taking place in Washington, groups all over the country will be gathering to watch the testimony live via audio and video feed.

The event runs from Thursday March 13 to Sunday March 16.

Here's a "trailer" snipped from their web page:

 
Winter Soldier: Iraq & Afghanistan

And 5 minutes of Pete Seeger on Winter Soldier:

I just came back from an errand. Entering the H-1 Westbound at the University onramp, I was amazed to see all the grass straw piled up alongside the roadway. Brown and drying, I was afraid that the first cigarette butt tossed out of a car window could set the entire area on fire.

A couple of months ago the grass was so high at this already short and hazardous onramp that drivers wanting to merge into traffic could not see the traffic lanes through their left-side or rear-view mirrors. I and no doubt others complained about this, and there was at least one letter to the editor published, I recall. After a while, the grass was cut. It seems that the contract to cut maintain the roadway had expired and was not replaced.

Now there are piles of straw, probably killing the grass that had been planted there. It looks like a fire hazard, although I admit that I can't tell if it is wet brown or dry brown. No one has taken it away, and that can't be good.

It seems we can't even do simple, routine maintenance on our infrastructure (don't forget neglected dams that burst, etc., etc.).

So we're going to build and operate a train?

If you believe that free speech on public access TV (`Olelo, Akaku, etc.) is important, please take the time for one quick phone call.

SB1789 is being held up. This is the bill that would clarify the law and exempt public access television from going out to bid.

Please call Rep. Kyle Yamashita at 586-6330 or email him at repyamashita@capitol.hawaii.gov and ask him to pass SB1789 out of his EDB committee today so it can move forward and become law.

Remember, if public access television goes out to bid, it could end up run by a subsidiary of Fox News or even a religious broadcasting group. Anything could happen if an organization wants to put enough money into creating a bid that wins them access to Hawaii's public access channels. That would not be good.

Please call right away. It's quick. Thanks for your help.

In an article today, Musings: Comedy of Errors, Joan Conrow observes that no report on yesterday's task force meeting has appeared in the daily papers, perhaps the meetings weren't covered.

According to a report Joan was able to obtain, the Superferry damages did come up ("Oh, what a comedy of errors"). Also, there may be litigation around the problems.

For details on this and Superferry fuel usage estimates, plus speculation on the viability of this venture, click on over to Joan's article above.

There's nothing on his blog yet but Hunter Bishop and another Hawaii Tribune-Herald reporter have won their jobs back in court. The order also prevents the newspaper from interfering with  protected union activities.

The Advertiser has a breaking news item, Hilo reporters fired illegally, judge rules, with details of the decision. It looks like complete vindication for the reporters, who will also be given their back pay.

HILO, Hawai'i — A judge for the National Labor Relations Board has found the Hawaii Tribune-Herald newspaper guilty of violations of federal labor law in the firing of a longtime reporter in 2005, and another in 2006.

The 41-page ruling by administrative Judge John J. McCarrick found the Tribune-Herald management illegally suspended and fired reporters Dave Smith and Hunter Bishop, and illegally suspended reporter Peter Sur for engaging in union activism protected under federal law.

Until there's something on the blog, check out the story above for details.

Today's story in the Honolulu Advertiser, Kaloko breach brought action, omits some critical facts that readers would need to put what was written in context.

"Since Kaloko, all of us in the business of providing for public safety are certainly more acutely aware," said Maj. Gen. Robert Lee, the state's adjutant general and head of Hawai'i's Civil Defense program.

Since the Kaloko tragedy, the state government has spent more than $7 million inspecting and reinspecting its 136 largest dams for signs of similar trouble.

Sounds good, but it took the deaths of seven people to get the state to be "more acutely aware." The lesson learned was very costly, but it's omitted in the story.

Dam inspections had been neglected at least for 11 years. According to a report on the Kaloko dam failure, despite clear law and knowledge that inspections were required, this dam was never inspected:

The State of Hawai‘i failed to conduct required dam safety inspections of Ka Loko Dam. The State is required by its own statutes to inspect all dams at least every five years. Ka Loko Dam was never inspected. [Report of the Independent Civil Investigation of the March 14, 2006, Breach of Ka Loko Dam]

The state knew that dam inspections were being neglected. Here's an alarming story from the October 23, 2005 issue of the Advertiser, 22 structures in dire need of repairs. Note that this was before the March 14, 2006 disaster. Yet there was no "catch up" on inspections.

So before readers get that warm fuzzy feeling about the current state of inspections, they need to know that, like traffic lights installed only after several pedestrians are killed, the inspection program is in place because a deadly disaster resulted in part from the state's inaction.

The state put money and personnel into the Dam Safety Program that had been understaffed and hadn't inspected a dam in more than a year when the Kaloko Dam broke.

You might think that "hadn't inspected a dam in more than a year" was the problem. No, that sentence should be entered into the newspaper understatement of the year contest, if there is one. It's true, but why not say that the dam had never been inspected, then it broke?

The writer goes on to omit:

The odd thing about Kaloko that became apparent soon after its dam broke was that it didn't appear to have a spillway — the safety overflow system that takes away excess water in case of overfilling, and keeps the dam from breaking.

"Odd thing?" It's been well documented since the disaster that the spillway was likely filled in, and how this happened is the subject of legal action involving the owner of the property, James Pflueger. According to the report,

One member of the community sent Mr. Pflueger a facsimile in June 1998 expressing his concern:

It looks to me as if the Kaloko spillway is covered with 8 to 10 feet of new fill.
The reservoir is about 1 to 2 feet above the old fill level. It would probably take at
least several months for Kaloko to fill to the new level. Then I think water will
flow over a broad area in the middle of your earth dam . . . just an eye ball guess.
I suggest you consider digging back down to the old concrete spillway, setting a
small culvert on the spillway and then backfilling it to your current level. You
would probably also need to cut a new overflow ditch to the valley below your
dam. Your building sites are beautiful. Thanks for letting [my wife] and me hike
up there.

Mr. Pflueger did not respond to the facsimile.

This question also raised issues of the County's responsibility. Again, snipping from the report:

The Role and Possible Culpability of the County of Kaua‘i

The 1997 Notice of Violation at Ka Loko Reservoir was not enforced. The County sent a notice to stop all work at Ka Loko Dam when it found unlawful grading occurring. This was before the spillway had been filled in. Had this notice to stop work been enforced, the spillway might never have been filled in. But the engineer involved was called into the office of the Mayor, questioned, and told to “stop all actions involving Mr. Pflueger.” This should not have happened. No further enforcement action was taken for the next five years.

This cannot be dismissed as an "odd thing." It may turn out to be a crime.

This assurance in today's article may give false comfort, it sounds so warm and fuzzy:

But the larger dams, with thousands of people in potential harm's way, have traditionally gotten a good look by civil defense folks.

Don't get too comfortable, though, if you live below any of these larger dams. We are located below the Nuuanu Dam. From that 2005 article:

The Army Corps of Engineers, in the Nu'uanu Dam's first formal inspection report in 1978, directed the owners to remove the vegetation.

"Until the downstream area is clear ... the seepage or leakage deficiency will remain a real safety concern," civil engineer Robert J. Yunker wrote in April of that year.

But the dam was even more overgrown when Nicholson inspected it in 1993. In 1999, another inspector estimated it would cost about $400,000 to clear the crest and upstream and downstream slopes.

So from 1978 to 1999, 21 years, the vegetation problem grew worse, not better. I wonder if the dam is still leaking now, and if the vegetation issue has been adequately addressed.

From the story, it sounds like a lot of money, attention and work are being put into dam inspection and maintenance at present. But I don't know if the writer has done enough research to give us that assurance. The significant omissions from her story make me want a second opinion.

Some bloggers get up early. Ian Lind posts while I'm still eating breakfast. It looks like Hunter Bishop, the Big Island journalist-blogger who holds forth at hunterbishop.com may be another early riser.

He recently posted pictures of the new lava flow into the ocean taken at dawn. Some of his pictures are here, or click the image. Push the "all sizes" button after choosing an image to enlarge them for a front-row view.

A snippet from a short Garden Island newspaper story:

Superferry protest case dismissed

Charges against one of the last defendants to be arrested during the Aug. 26 and 27 protests of the Superferry at Nawiliwili Harbor has been dismissed, his attorney yesterday said.

Glad to hear that. I haven't followed this, and wonder if the other cases were similarly dismissed.
 

Maybe it isn't very important. I can't help wondering, though, why newspaper readers must be the last to know about this.

Finally, in today's Advertiser, is a hint that something happened in the drydock (it's possible I missed something earlier, but I don't think so) (I'm sure someone will correct me if I have).

The hint comes in the front-page story, Superferry in drydock till April 22, by Christie Wilson:

Hawaii Superferry originally announced it would be in drydock until March 3 to strengthen the metal surrounding the auxiliary rudders after cracks were found. When the aluminum hull sustained damage during the drydocking process, the company delayed the restart of service until March 25.

Later in the same story:

The company announced yesterday the Alakai would be spending additional time in drydock. [Superferry director of business development Terry] O'Halloran said extra time is needed to finish repairs and the extension is not because of any new problems discovered while the ferry has been in drydock. He did not have an estimate of the cost of repairs.

Since there isn't any detail, readers who have not seen the coverage on KGMB or read about it on the blogs will not have much background on what the article is talking about here.

Again, this is in contrast to the article on Hawaii Reporter yesterday, credited to Lori Abe, "a spokesperson for the Hawaii Superferry."

HONOLULU - Hawaii Superferry announced today that it is extending the amount of time the Alakai will be in drydock because work to repair damage to the ship that occurred during the drydocking process is going to take longer than was previously projected.

Over at the Star-Bulletin, a short breaking news article yesterday put it this way:

The company is working to repair damage to the 350-foot catamaran that occurred during the routine dry-dock process.

The KGMB/blog reports, if they were accurate, might make suggest that the word "routine" is not quite right to describe what befell the ship.

I don't take the Sunday Star-Bulletin, but didn't find anything at all on their website other than yesterday's breaking news.

So again, this is not the most important concern as far as ferry operations go. What's busted should be fixed. Still, it's strange that there hasn't been more detail in the papers on this. Why? Because the clock is ticking on reports, and passengers are probably curious about anything that could affect safety.