Disappeared News

3300 participants attended the seventh UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues taking place in New York at the United Nations.

Hawaii was on the agenda today:

Mr. FYFE, Kaoni Foundation, who spoke on behalf of the Hawaii Caucus, said that Hawaii rightfully belonged on the list of Non-Self-Governing Territories.  Indeed, a public law had been signed by United States President Clinton in 1993 -- the so-called “apology bill” –- that seemed to signify an acknowledgement that the indigenous peoples of Hawaii had never relinquished their sovereignty, and that the statehood plebiscite of 1959 had been fraudulent.  He noted that, in 2008, the Supreme Court of Hawaii had barred the State from obtaining lands from the public land trust until the question had been resolved.  Also, in 2008, the representative of the Russian Federation had asked the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination why Alaska and Hawaii had been excluded from the decolonization list.  The representative of Romania had asked what steps were being taken to facilitate the self-determination of the Hawaiian people. [Media Newswire]

(Thanks to attorney Lanny Sinkin for the pointer)

While writing the "Today in Hawaiian history" article below, I hadn't noticed that history is being made right now, not 108 years ago: Iolani Palace has been re-occupied. There seems to be information on the Honolulu Advertiser website, but other media are there as well.

Two laws for consideration today. The second depends on the first:

1) "Joint Resolution of Annexation of July 7, 1898, 30 Stat 750 (2 Supp. R.S. 895)."

2) "An Act to Provide a Government for the Territory of Hawaii (Act of April 30, 1900, c 339, 31 Stat 141), created the Territory of Hawaii, and took effect June 14, 1900."

Sounds so official. The first refers to a resolution used to annex Hawaii to the United States. The second is the Organic Act, that provided for governing the territory and for all the laws our Legislature is busy passing right now.

Sounds so official, but is so illegal.

Three separate Treaties of Annexation failed to pass in Congress. That should have been the end of it. Congress did not have the authority to annex by passing a resolution. But they did pass it, President McKinley signed it, and the next step was to set up a government, which was done via the Organic Act, passed on April 30, 1900.

Whereas, on April 30, 1900, President McKinley signed the Organic Act that provided a government for the territory of Hawaii and defined the political structure and powers of the newly established Territorial Government and its relationship to the United States;

What's this "Wheras?" The paragraph above is taken from US Public Law 103-150, in which the United States apologized to the Hawaiian people for the 1893 overthrow.

Although the Organic Act itself was illegal under the US Constitution, it wasn't the subject of the apology. However, Professor Francis Anthony Boyle, famed constitutional and international law scholar, said in 1993, linking it all together:

Treaties were the "supreme law of the land," and the invasion and annexation of Hawai'i in violation of those treaties not only violated international law, but the United States Constitution itself....

"From 1826 to 1893, the United States recognized the independence of the Kingdom of Hawai'i, extended full and complete diplomatic recognition to the Hawaiian Government, entered into treaties and conventions to govern commerce and navigation"

- and friendship. Now they didn't put the word "friendship" in there, they wanted to delete it, but the treaty was friendship, commerce, and navigation. So here they're admitting that the invasion, overthrow, occupation, annexation, starting in 1893, on up, violated all these treaties, violated basic norms of international law, even in existence at that time...

One has to assume that President McKinley was aware that the Organic act he signed was illegal. He just didn't care, any more than our current president cares much about the law.

Today's anniversary of the signing of the Organic Act can be a reminder to us that we have much more work to do on achieving Democracy. It's also an important milestone in Hawaiian history that the mainstream media would rather we forget.

(Many thanks to Scott Crawford over in Hana, Maui, and his Hawaiian Independence Blog, for starting a cultural and historical calendar on which this is based.)

My brief comment:

The message below is courtesy Henry Curtis. If you'd like to stay in touch with bioenergy in Hawaii, or if you're concerned, as I am, that we should have much more ag land in use for growing real food for our own people (perhaps we can do both...?), you can find out what DBEDT's plot plan is at this all-day meeting.

Tip: They're not offering lunch. You can get great food next door at Downtown, in the Hawaii Arts Museum, the old Hemmeter Building, to eat there, take out, or to eat quickly at their long counter. Food grown locally and organic where possible.

DBEDT's Hawaii's Bioenergy Master Plan Kickoff Meeting (May 21, 2008)

State Capitol Auditorium • 415 South Beretania Street • Honolulu, Hawaii

8:30 AM WELCOME; INTRODUCTION

8:40 AM TRENDS, STATUS, AND PROJECTIONS: International Energy Supply and Demand, State Energy Trends, Hawaii's Agricultural Lands - Trends, Status, and Projections, Water Resources - Trends, Status, and Projections, County Perspective (Panel)

10:15 AM Break

10:25 AM BIOENERGY UPDATE: Biofuels Assessment Project, What Can Grow in Hawaii (Panel), Conversion Technologies & By-products (Panel), Bioenergy Master Plan

12:10 PM LUNCH:

on your own

1:30 PM BIOENERGY MASTER PLAN: Issues to be considered, Federal Bioenergy Program, Research, and Resources, Land, Water, Crops, Conversion Technologies

3:05 PM Break

3:20 PM BIOENERGY MASTER PLAN: Next Steps, Tasks, Timelines, Partnerships, Funding

4:30 PM SUMMARY & CLOSE

This event is free and open to the public. No RSVP required. If special accommodations are required, please contact us in advance. Questions or comments may be directed to: mtome@dbedt.hawaii.gov, 808-587-3809.

--
Henry Curtis, Executive Director, Life of the Land, 76 N. King Street, Suite 203, Honolulu, HI 96817. phone: 808-533-3454. cell: 808-927-0709. Web Site: http://www.lifeofthelandhawaii.org/ email:henry.lifeoftheland@gmail.com

In today's Advertiser: Hawaii bakery ships interisland via L.A. Huh? How can that be?

It can. I have some personal experience of weird shipping arrangements.

It was mid-October 1988 and our household goods were all packed up and almost ready to leave Tokyo. We had been there more than 16 years, so we had lots of stuff. One whole container, exactly.

And we were on our way to Honolulu. After so long in Japan we felt it would be hard to return to the East Coast, so we told GE to save some money, drop us off in Hawaii, and that I planned to quit the company. Hey—I was convinced (or I convinced myself) that Hawaii was on the cusp of a high-tech revolution.

It would be cheaper for GE to just let me get off in Honolulu instead of hauling the stuff all the way to Washington DC. So that was the agreed plan. I hoped to learn the Hawaiian word for "sayonara" when we arrived at our hotel and email the folks back at HQ what I planned to do with the rest of my life.

Wrong.

A couple of days before we were scheduled to leave on Halloween Eve, a call came that it was much more expensive to ship a container to Hawaii than to the East Coast. Sorry, but getting my stuff here would be my responsibility. Yikes!

Well, the solution was discovered and our anguish relieved with an ingenious plan cooked up by our shipper, whom I knew from years of doing business with them when we needed to move delicate computer equipment. They suggested shipping to Long Beach, CA, and then back across a huge hunk of the Pacific to Hawaii.  That was cheaper than shipping direct. GE agreed to the idea.

So these things can happen. Ordinary mortals can't understand why it might work to ship to a Neighbor Island by way of the Mainland. It's not logical.

As the Halloween parties wound down in Roppongi and we were gathering our luggage, we got one last call from our Tokyo travel agent to say, "Have a nice fright!"

Thank goodness we still have fine investigative reporting in Hawaii.

Ian Lind has just posted an article that deserves to win an award, Superferry disclosed less than 6% of 2007 lobbying costs. Please read it.

Bottom line, they reported only $21,791.56 but spent $379,431.52 in 2007, according to the corrected report filed today that Ian mentions. And look what a reward they got for their investment! But wouldn't we think differently about this if we knew how much they were "investing" in lawmaker's decisions?

The company filed the lower report then amended it only today.

I'll have to admit that this really made me seasick. I'm a citizen and I would like there to be an investigation (I'd like all the speeders and tailgaters to be ticketed, too! What are laws for??). Ian pointed out in his article that hearings are rarely held. So I wrote an email to the Ethics Commission and dashed it off just now. Here it is, an open letter:

Ian Lind has just posted an article, Superferry disclosed less than 6% of 2007 lobbying costs , which ends with this conclusion (boldface emphasis is mine):

The state lobbyist law (Section 97-7 HRS) provides for administrative fines for any person who "Willfully files a statement or report containing false information or material omission of any fact." However, it further provides that no fines can be assessed unless the Ethic Commission convenes a formal hearing and issues a final decision. Such formal hearings are rarely held, and the commission instead concentrates on obtaining voluntary compliance, even if after the fact. This means that there will likely be no consequences, apart from being mentioned here and on other blogs, even as a result of this glaring example of failing to report. They got their special legislation and six months later got caught for failing to make the legally required disclosure. The risk/reward ration is certainly quite favorable and no deterrent to future transgressions.

I would find it disturbing if the Ethics Commission is determined to prove Ian right on this point.

Ian has performed a great service in bringing this matter to your attention with his April 10 letter, but I hope that won't be the end of it. If it is, then the law is neutered. There's no point in the public bringing apparent violations to the Commission's attention.

It would seem that in this instance an investigation would not be complicated, since the crucial facts are filed on your website. It's like having a confession in your hand.

The result of the company's activity in Hawaii has been the expenditure of vast amounts of state money, not only in preparation of a barge, but in daily costs (for example) to operate a tugboat when the ferry is in port (something around $1,000 an hour). There are plans to put in massive harbor projects basically to accommodate this commercial operation. The company is reaping its reward. Had taxpayers or legislators themselves been aware of a large and expensive lobbying investment, the outcome might well have been different.

The risk part is up to the Ethics Commission. If you do nothing, then the risk multiplies as other businesses choose to emulate this example. A wrist slap would also encourage future lawbreaking by demonstrating the economy of breaking the law that Ian remarked upon.

Public education is useful as well, which might be provided by aggressively pursuing this violation. This is not a little company that just goofed, it is a high-profile company with experienced and aggressive management. Your action in this case would be highly educational to others. Inaction would be educational as well.

Ian is correct that this incident will be mentioned on other blogs, but the Ethics Commission's decision to follow up with what I believe is a slam-dunk case (or not) is sure to be a concern as well.

If there is good reason to let them off the hook on this, please advise.

Best regards,
--Larry Geller

Ok, I got the risk part mixed up. Ian was referring to the risk/reward ratio, I meant the risk to the public, should other companies decide they could just file amended reports later and get off the hook. Before you know it, everyone will be doing it. It could become the latest fad at the Chamber of Commerce, faking out the Ethics Commission in this way.

I don't mean to try to embarrass the Commission into a report by reproducing my letter here, that wouldn't work. I am hoping that others will feel similarly and that perhaps my example might lead to more letters, faxes or emails to the Commission. I won't give their contact numbers here, if you feel strongly enough about it, Google reveals all.

Look how big this guy's tank is. Guess how much he paid to fill it.

Maybe he's willing to keep driving it for awhile, but with the price of oil and oil company profits setting new records each day, sooner or later giant SUV owners will be thinking of trading their monsters in so that they can buy food or pay the rent.

And guess what: if they wait a bit longer they may have to pay to have them towed to the junk yard.

Now owners of SUVs and other gas guzzlers who've seen the price of a fill-up climb sharply are getting a second shock when they try to trade ins their behemoths. Used car dealers don't want the big vehicles on their lots any more because hardly anyone is buying them. Some won't take them at any price. [globalinvestor.com]

Worse, these big SUVs are usually loaded with luxury items that drove up the purchase price. Sound systems, special seating, even television for the kiddies in the back seats. But no matter, these extra-luxury monsters will have to be disposed of sooner or later just the same. It just means a bigger loss for the owners as their value plummets.

And, of course, hybrids and fuel-efficient smaller cars will sell at a premium. It's predictable.

So wait for that scenario or plan ahead. It's up to you. Be the first on your block to trade in the monster, or be the last to have it towed.

Hey, we're the consumers. We sacrifice for our country. We keep GM afloat by buying giant, fuel-inefficient vehicles because they want us to. We give up our homes while the mortgage firms and Wall Street banks that funded them are saved (see below, "Nearly three percent of all owner-occupied homes in the country are now empty").  Or we pay high prices for food to keep Monsanto and big agribusiness afloat. That's our job. We're the suckers they depend upon to keep CEOs' yachts afloat. We love and protect our CEOs and so we reward them. I say this because I believe in the rationality of the free market, and the free market says we will be poor so that the CEOs will prosper. They are always telling us about the free market and I believe them.

So if we have free choice, let's exercise it, as individuals, as a state, and as a country: Plan now or pay later.

Here are four articles that appeared in this sequence in today's Democracy Now!:

OPEC: Oil Prices Could Hit $200 a Barrel

On Monday, oil prices hit a new record of nearly $120 dollars a barrel, but OPEC’s president Chakib Khelil of Algeria warns oil prices could eventually hit $200 a barrel. Khelil blamed record oil prices on the weak dollar and global political insecurity.

Shell & BP Report Record Profits

The oil giants Shell and BP reported making record profits in the first three months of the year. Shell earned $9 billion in the first quarter. BP’s income rose 63 percent to $7.6 billion.

Economists Question McCain and Clinton’s Gas Tax Proposal

On the campaign trail, Senator Hillary Clinton has joined Senator John McCain in calling for the temporary elimination of the roughly eighteen-cent-a-gallon gas tax over the summer. Senator Obama has opposed the elimination of the tax. While Clinton and McCain have framed the tax cut as a way to help working class families, many economists question who would benefit from the tax cut. According to economist Dean Baker, the tax cut would result in higher profits for the oil industry but would not change the price of gas paid by consumers.

Number of Vacant Homes in US Reach 18.6 Million

In other economic news, the number of vacant US homes has hit a record of 18.6 million. This is because more homes are in foreclosure and many homeowners are finding it increasingly difficult to find buyers. Nearly three percent of all owner-occupied homes in the country are now empty.

There are many things we can do as a state if we get together and plan ahead. One thing we can do right now: immediately quit requiring that ethanol be added to gasoline. Here's another article from today's Democracy Now!:

UN Officals: Biofuels Are a “Crime Against Humanity”

The United Nations special rapporteur on the right to food, Jean Ziegler, has called for the suspension of biofuels production. He said it is a major cause for the food crisis that has thrown millions into poverty.

Jean Ziegler: “Biofuels, with today’s current production methods, are a crime against a great part of humanity. They’re an intolerable crime, and I requested the United Nations General Assembly in New York in my last report to the Human Rights Council that a moratorium be imposed as a five-year ban against this transformation.”

According to Jean Ziegler, the United States burned 138 million tons of corn last year and transformed it into bioethanol and biodiesel. In an interview with Al Jazeera, Ziegler said, “Burning food today so as to serve the mobility of the rich countries is a crime against humanity.” Ziegler’s comments came while the UN held an emergency summit in Switzerland to tackle the global food crisis.

The governor can turn off the ethanol spigot on a dime.

Why should you call or write her and ask her to do that?

Because you believe in planning ahead. Part of that is wanting to have rice, wheat and other grains on your table in the future. Think. Call. Write. Fax.

Phone: 808 586-0034
Fax: 808 586-0006
email: governor.lingle@hawaii.gov

You read it here first.

Suppose a newly emergent Cuba earns the lifting of travel restrictions by the next US president. Suppose oil (and aviation fuel) prices continue to climb. Suppose Oahu continues to pave itself over and build until it resembles Los Angeles more than Paradise. Suppose food prices here go through the roof.

Guess what: Cuba is ready for an influx of tourists.

Guess what: Hawaii isn't ready for what it will lose.

That's just the high end from one particular reservation site on the Internet. That's right, you can reserve your luxury vacation spot in Cuba already. Beautiful, clean beaches and a reputation for fine service already await Europeans in the know.

At the low end there's competition also. So much so that Hawaii residents may be tempted to skip that trip to the Big Island in favor of exploring a reasonably priced exotic stay in Cuba.

Short travel distances, low cost, a growing reputation for service, world-class cuisine (not to mention after-dinner cigars) will surely attract the discerning Mainland vacationer. Curiosity could mean that even Japanese visitors might be tempted, which could quickly start a fad in that most faddish of countries.

Americans might want to visit Cuba for medical care. No joke.

Ian Lind cited this NPR snippet in his article yesterday:

From National Public Radio, April 24:

”If you’re dreaming of a spring vacation on the sandy beaches of Hawaii, think again. Rising fuel costs are making that sort of vacation a lot more expensive. And travel agents are seeing a slowdown in vacation bookings. Madeleine Brand speaks with Bruce Fisher, owner of the Hawaii Aloha Travel Company in Honolulu.”

That's only the beginning. Soon there will be similar articles in Japan and Europe.

We must either plan or be caught by surprise. Will we? We better. Or our kids may be looking for tourism jobs in Havana.

Update: Commenter Walter Lipmann mentioned the CubaNews list. Since not everyone may see comments, the list he mentioned (he's the moderator) can be found here.  A free Yahoo Groups membership (which many people already have) is necessary to join or to view the database. Walter's personal blog is here.

Blogging about cats is supposed to get people to visit your blog. Well, it seems to work for Ian Lind.

We have no cats in residence at the moment, but why should that matter? I can "borrow" some cats off the Internet someplace. Same thing, less investment in cat food, vet fees, etc.

My background is in engineering, so I thought I'd bring you this "engineer's guide to cats" and see if it somehow makes this blog more popular. At least among other engineers, possibly.

Almost everyone living on Oahu knows something related to Queen Emma. For most, it is Queens Hospital, founded in 1859 by Queen Emma and King Kamehameha IV. Tourists may have visited Queen Emma Summer Palace. I sit here writing this from Queen Emma Gardens.

Emma Kalanikaumakaamano Kaleleonalani Naea Rooke was known in her own time as a great humanitarian. The hospital she founded continues to be supported by a trust consisting of 13,000 acres of land on the Big Island and in Waikiki. If you need to be in a hospital, the one to choose is Queens.

There's a biography of Queen Emma on the Queens Medical Center website.

How did the hospital get started?

In his first speech as king, Kamehameha IV stated the need for a hospital to treat the native population. Due to introduced diseases, the Hawaiian population had plummeted from 350,000 at the time of Captain Cook's arrival, to 70,000, with extinction a very real possibility. The treasury was empty, so the king and his queen undertook the mission of soliciting enough funds to establish a proper hospital in Honolulu. Within a month, their personal campaign had raised $13,530, almost twice their original goal.

To recognize and honor Emma's efforts, it was decided to call the new hospital "Queen's." The original building, housing just 18 patient beds, opened its doors on August 1, 1859. Within a year, a much larger building with room for 124 beds was built on the same site where The Queen's Medical Center stands today.

She did much more. Again from the hospital website:

She also helped found two schools, St. Andrews Priory in Honolulu and St. Cross on Maui. Her work included the development of St. Andrews Cathedral. She journeyed to England where she and her friend, Queen Victoria, raised $30,000 for the construction or the cathedral.

I strongly recommend reading the biography linked above, and the additional material Google will find for you all over the web.

(Many thanks to Scott Crawford over in Hana, Maui, and his Hawaiian Independence Blog, for starting a cultural and historical calendar, on which this is based.)

For those who have been following the shooting of Sean Bell in Jamaica, N.Y., you probably know that a judge acquitted the cops today.

Bell was shot on his wedding day in  November 2006 by three cops who fired more than 50 bullets into the unarmed man. Some of the bullets even landed on a nearby train station. From the article cited below:

Two of Bell's companions gave eyewitness testimony that the officers acted like Wild West cowboys and opened up without warning. And most importantly Bell was unarmed and seemingly posed no threat to the officers.

I hope things stay quiet in New York.

For those who wonder if police are ever convicted, check out this article, Verdict in Bell Shooting Is No Big Surprise.

From an AP story:

The U.S. attorney's office said after the verdict that it had been monitoring the state's prosecution and would conduct an independent review of the case. The Rev. Al Sharpton, who represents Bell's family, called for a federal investigation.

"This verdict is one round down, but the fight is far from over," Sharpton said on his radio show. "What we saw in court today was not a miscarriage of justice. Justice didn't miscarry. This was an abortion of justice."

A friend and I were in New York when Los Angeles police were acquitted in the Rodney King beating case in 1992. Everyone was afraid that rioting would spread from LA to other cities. We did an intervention in a high school in Manhattan.

How can you explain these things to kids? You can't. No one can explain to me either how come the cops always get off scot free when an innocent black man is shot for no reason.

I can't help it. The image that came into my mind was of an old cartoon (Dennis the Menace?) of a kid playing with a plastic boat in a bathtub.

This news isn't "disappeared," it's a big breaking news item right now. John Garibaldi has been replaced by retired Admiral Thomas Fargo as president and CEO of Hawaii Superferry, according to a press release today.

Fargo, of course was the head of the U.S. Pacific Command from 2002 until 2005. Now he's admiral, well, president, of a fleet of one ship, next year to expand to two.

This appointment is sure to be cited as indicative of the ferry's potential military role, and why not. Appointments are made for a purpose, even if outsiders may not be able to discern it immediately. A fleet of one boat intended for passenger service now has the former head of the country's largest military command in charge. Your speculation is as good as mine.

John Garibaldi will remain as vice president, according to the announcement. So now the ferry has to carry enough passengers to pay Adm. Fargo's presumably significant salary, in addition to buying fuel and all its other expenses.

Let's see how he does that, if there's no military future for the ship in the business plan. This is no cartoon kid in a bathtub, this ship has some real-world purpose which sooner or later has to involve making money.

The Advertiser breaking news story is here. The Star-Bulletin used a strangely deceptive Associate Press story which includes this:

The Superferry linked Honolulu with Maui and Kauai for a brief time in August before legal troubles and protests shut down the operation.

The Honolulu-Maui service resumed in December with the 350-foot Alakai making daily roundtrips. The company has announced a second Maui roundtrip will be run four days a week commencing May 9.

The whole first paragraph cited above is a crock, and the second paragraph is false. The ferry was supposed to start service December 1 but didn't start until December 13 and then there was the long outage in drydock. "Daily roundtrips" is just plain wrong, and let's see if the Star-Bulletin runs this in its paper edition tomorrow.

I think they must be confusing me with bb 840F1757-0C22-400C-9AE6-89409EFD03B3. I'm in a different select group, according to another funny promo that came in the mail yesterday (Duke Aiona for governor supporters).

The building owned by the Weinberg Foundation at 418 Kuwili St., right between the two IHS homeless shelters, is home to several non-profit organizations. A couple of them receive their funding primarily from the federal government. The millions trickle in, something like the rain that has occasionally dripped through the ceiling of this former warehouse converted to offices.

The money has been flowing for years and years. It comes to the state as provided by different federal laws, and for more than a decade (actually 15 or more years) has simply been doled out to the same agencies. Kind of a pass-through by the Department of Human Services.

The ceiling of the Hawaii Center for Independent Living (HCIL) has more than some old water spots. The last time I was in there it sported so many CCTV cameras that it would be the envy of any FBI agent. Imagine knowing everything each employee was doing all day long, which clients they saw, what they said, how many times a day they put their fingers in their noses. All on recording, presumably.

How can anyone work under those conditions? Guess what—maybe they can't.

Following testimony at the Legislature (see this KGMB story), investigations are underway. There will be an audit. What's going on?

The testimony indicated that little in the way of customer service may be happening, but there's this (from the KGMB story):

Theft, Fraud and mismanagement - those are some of the allegations against a Hawaii non-profit organization. Now the state is getting involved in the investigation.

The Hawaii Center for Independent Living helps people with disabilities have equal pportunities in life and helps people live on their own but dozens of people say it's not living up to its mission.

An investigation appears long overdue, and I'm surprised it has taken this long. That so many people living with disabilities may have missed out on services that the federal and state money was supposed to provide is a true misfortune, should it be proven.

There's more to this than just the allegations against HCIL's executive director. Ultimately, a board of directors is responsibility for oversight of the entire operation of a non-profit. In too many organizations, however, the board is lax in its duties, or perhaps simply attends meetings and rubberstamps the actions of the ED. Often the ED exerts effective control over the board. This does not relieve the board of its responsibilities, but it happens all too frequently in the non-profit world. Sometimes board members simply enjoy the status of being on a non-profit board and having their names on the letterhead.

The investigation is not be limited to the audit that the Legislature is expected to request. According to State Senator Les Ihara, whose committee heard testimony from the public, HCIL's attorney and others, the state Attorney General is involved. After receiving the testimony, Sen. Ihara said that he has also been in contact with federal authorities, Senator Daniel Inouye and Congresswoman Mazie Hirono. Maybe the FBI will get to have a look through those cameras after all.

The shakeup will likely start with the HCIL board, which should have had knowledge of everything taking place in the organization.

An ounce of prevention would have helped, in this case, since reading the testimony indicates that problems may have been long-standing. The agencies receiving the federal money could have used some monitoring. They do file reports with the feds, but those are self-reports and you can imagine that they paint only the most glowing of pictures.

Prevention can start now. DHS has a responsibility to everyone served by the agencies whose money it distributes (and to those unable to get services they were entitled to receive) to review each and every one of the agencies, looking at their self-reports for accuracy and performing both fiscal and management audits.

Just because an agency has been receiving millions of dollars in federal funds year after year does not mean that the money is well-spent, as the audit of HCIL may demonstrate. Why wait for more trouble? DHS should step up to its responsibility in order to prevent future situations such as this.

Should they do so, I think we'll find that this shakeup, starting at the old warehouse in Iwilei, will be only the first step in a series of corrective actions, better late than never.

Front page news in today's Advertiser is Sam's Club limiting rice sales/Warehouse chain's Hawaii stores restrict purchases to 4 bags:

Sam's Club stores in Hawai'i have signs informing members of new limits on jasmine, long grain and basmati rice.

As of Tuesday, Sam's Club members in Hawai'i are restricted to four "units" of each type of rice, according to a Sam's Club official, who asked not to be identified because he is not authorized to speak to the media. Long-grain white rice comes in 25- and 50-pound bags and jasmine and basmati are each sold in 20-pound bags, the employee said.

Sam's Club followed Seattle-based Costco, which put limits in some of its stores on bulk rice purchases. Costco president and CEO Jim Sinegal declined to discuss the issue yesterday.

But Robert Loomis, manager of the Costco on Alakawa Street, said the company's Hawai'i stores have not imposed restrictions on how much rice customers can purchase.

That there is no rationing at Costcos in Hawaii seems to be contrary to the experience of commenter ku ching, who wrote in response to my article Could there be rice shortages and food rationing in Hawaii?

On Monday, April 21, at Costco in Kona - 20 pound bags of rice - white and brown - were limited to "one" per family - due to a "temporary" situation.

I thank ku ching for the report, and for this followup:

ku ching said...

In today's news - on CNN - Costco is rationing rice not because there is a shortage of rice, but because it intends to maintain current prices.

As for other retailers - because they can raise prices due to supply/demand mechanics - this isn't the game that Costco wants to play.

Costco makes its money of the sale of memberships - and very little on its markups. And - it wants to maintain its markup policy.

The report said that american farmers produce twice as much as domestic demand - and the rest goes to exports. Therefore - there is really no shortage of rice, but only the prospect of higher prices - except for sellers such as Costco.

ku

It happens before a storm with toilet paper, and perhaps the run on rice when there is no shortage is an indication of some perceived storm coming in the food supply.

The message for us might simply be, "be prepared."

And I don't mean by running out and buying rice.

Let's look at our vulnerabilities as islands in middle of the Pacific and make reasonable plans.

It's somewhat unusual that anyone takes a government body to court because of violations of the Sunshine Law. In other words, to get a court to declare that a decision is illegal because the meeting was held in secret, or because secret (and hence illegal) communications took place, etc.

Maui attorney Lance Collins emailed today that he has achieved a win for  his clients in just such a situation. Details follow.

Will this teach the errant Maui County Council a lesson? Will they resolve to follow the law in the future? Ha, ha, ha, that would be the best joke I've heard today, except they haven't said they would.

No, there's often a kind of almost childish rebellion that sets in when boards or councils are caught evading the law. You see, mostly they know they are doing it, but they think they can get away with thumbing their nose at the law because no one will take them to court, and who cares about OIP (Office of Information Practices) opinions anyway. Our Board of Education is a great example of this. They know and understand the Sunshine Law (open meetings, open records) but don't care if the violate it. But I digress.

Well, according to Collins' email, five residents of South Maui filed suit against the Maui County Council for a series of violations of Hawaii's sunshine law and won. This morning Judge Joseph Cardoza granted a motion for an injunction against the County of Maui. It seems that Council members exchanged all sorts of written memos among themselves instead of holding open meetings.

An injunction against what?  I think the injunction stops the Wailea 670 Project. There seem to be details on that here, because on April 8 Maui's mayor signed two Council bills into law on the project, which is a master-planned, water-guzzling, golf/residential community. A whole section of Maui County code is revamped specifically to make the project possible, according to this short Pacific Business News article.

Probably this is a hot topic on Maui and I apologize for not being better informed about it.

But it feels good to have a judge take action against sunshine law violators. There's no jail time for it, though, so count on more and better-planned subterfuge in the future.

Good job, Lance.

Tune in tomorrow to a Town Square program hosted by Beth-Ann Kozlovich and featuring journalist/bloggers David Schapiro and Jerry Burris.

When the three of them are in a small room equipped with microphones, anything goes. Transit, the Legislature, Super(?) ferries, anything is fair game.

That's 5-6 p.m. Thursday April 24 on KIPO, 89.3 FM or streaming from hawaiipublicradio.org.

It's a call-in program so you can have your own say on politics or whatever. Listen for the phone number and best to call early since the phone lines could be jammed.

David Shapiro, aside from writing a column in the Advertiser, blogs at Volcanic Ash.

Jerry Burris, long-time political editor and commentator, is now blogging at Akamai Politics. Both are on the Advertiser's web site.

Lots and lots of testimony in support of SB1789 just went down the drain, as reported by the Maui News in New rules governing public-access TV die at Legislature:

HONOLULU — Despite widespread statewide support, including from those associated with Akaku: Maui Community Television, legislation to clarify rules for public-access television stations has died this legislative session. ...
Senate Bill 1789 — drafted by Maui Sens. Roz Baker, Shan Tsutsui and J. Kalani English — would have required the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs to create rules for how it awards contracts to “public-access, education and government” (PEG) cable television organizations.
...
The bill was passed from the Senate to the House, and passed out of the Finance Committee in March. But the committee report apparently was never filed, and that inaction prevented the bill from being sent back to the full House for a vote.

In an e-mail to The Maui News, Baker said, “The net effect is that the bill is dead.”

(Thanks to Doug White for his article about this over at Poinongraphy.com).

It's not just the hours spent testifying (and those coming in from other islands over and over had it worse than I did). There were also hours testifying before the Procurement Policy Board and on and on and on. This bill would have fixed everything.

And it just fell into a crack someplace? Gone, just like that? What can I say?

Today's Advertiser editorial is Rail initiative offers no solution to voters. The main thrust, if I may summarize, is that the proposed ballot initiative on rail is inappropriate, we should instead wait and vote out the elected leaders we don't like. Please read it if you have not yet had a chance.

Hmmm... suppose I generally like a city council person or even the mayor, just not their position on "rail" as a technology, or instead of an alternative? Then voting them out on this single issue might not be what I want to do. Actually, that's exactly where I'm at with several city council members.

Let me revert to the ancient Internet convention of commenting paragraph by paragraph. I don't like it very much, but in this case, it's expedient. Also, I haven't included the whole editorial, just the parts I want to say something about.

Don't worry, very few people will read this (only the important ones!) in comparison to your editorial. My rant won't hurt you too much. But I hope you'll read it.

The left side is snipped from the editorial. The right side is my commentary.

End of rant.

Well, it's not in the paper yet, it's not even in breaking news, but reporter Derrick DePledge has posted an article, Guerrilla Radio on his widely read Capitol Notebook Advertiser blog.

It's a good article and brings the issue to the attention of his many readers, including other members of the mainstream press.

So although the article didn't detail the allegations of concrete poured in cracks and suspect welds, etc., perhaps more people will listen to the original interview and learn about the alleged defects (find it here).

If a paper or TV program does pick this up, perhaps the ferry company will respond so that passengers may be assured that the ship is safe (if not always pleasant) to ride.

I couldn't resist that last jab. My taxes are filed and I need even small pleasures like that.

DePledge observed at the end of his article:

The interview has caused a stir among several bloggers and activists who have picked over the Superferry project.

Yup, we're picking over what perhaps the mainstream press might pick over as well. After all, these allegations are of safety issues. Shouldn't we all be concerned?

Austal USA has apparently fired Wayne Jenkins, the welder who was  interviewed on KKCR two weeks ago.

Jenkins was the only one of the three interviewees still working for Austal at the time. The three alleged that there were cracks and other defects in the ferry. Go to the above article to hear the interview if you haven't had a chance yet. Jenkins stated that he worked on the Superferry's sister ship but related what he knew about the Superferry as well.

The first blogger to post on this was Andy Parx, who writes from Kauai at Got Windmills?

The allegations made in the interview would appear to have great public interest. Perhaps the mainstream media will pick it up so that a wider audience could be aware of the allegations, and so that the ferry company might decide to reply.

From French Health Care: C'est Magnifique, a report from ABC News:

As presidential candidates hammer out proposals to deal with the increasing millions of uninsured Americans, I know which health plan I'll choose: the French one.

The World Health Organization has named the French health care system the best in the world. (The U.S. ranked 37th). It's physician-rich, boasting one doctor for approximately every 430 people, compared with a doctor for every1,230 residents in the U.S. (and French docs tend to charge significantly less). The average life expectancy is two years longer than the U.S. And while the system is one of the most expensive in the world, costing $3,500 per person, it's far less than the $6,100 spend per capita in the U.S.

I've had a unique opportunity to see both systems up close and personal: I had breast cancer in California nine years ago and a recurrence in Paris this year. I received excellent care in both places, though looking back now my California oncologist's office was a bit of a meat market always packed with patients, from the seemingly not-so-sick to some a step from the grave a time-consuming disadvantage of living in a much larger country with a lower doctor-to-patient ratio.

My French doctors and nurses have been sensitive, skillful, caring and not so harried.

But the biggest difference has been money.

My top-level health insurance paid for most of my U.S. care, but it was often a struggle to shake loose the money. I was frequently stuck in the middle of disputes between the company and my hospital and doctors over "agreed to fees."

Continually dunned by the hospital for fees and facing multiple complaining phone calls to my insurance company, I sometimes simply caved in and wrote checks to cover bills that I knew were the insurance company's responsibility part of a wearing-down strategy I was convinced was deliberate.

Here in France I have a green carte vitale, literally a "life card" or social security card that provides entree to the system. It's funded by worker contributions and other taxes. My husband (and our family) is covered through his work with a French subsidiary of a U.S. company, and so is everyone else; coverage is universal. The French are responsible for co-pays, but some 80% of them have supplemental private insurance to cover the co-pay. People least able to pay and those with chronic or serious illnesses often have the best coverage. Because I'm being treated for cancer, I'm cent pour cent 100%covered.

The effect of a system where hospitals and doctors don't worry about getting stiffed by a patient or an insurance company seems to be a far more relaxed, generous system. When my surgeon discussed breast surgery here, he suggested that I stay in the hospital five days. "Of course I can do it the American way, kind of an outpatient situation," he told me, apparently not wanting to sound unsophisticated. "But I don't like pain."

Maternity stays for a normal delivery are a minimum of five days, not the 48 hours mandated by U.S. federal legislation in 1998 after many insurance companies insisted stays be even shorter.

The US is ranked 37th in the world (yikes!)... now take those two aspirins and read any of the current articles Google will find for you on the decrease in life expectancy in this country.  

Yet neither Obama, Clinton nor McCain is proposing single-payer health care. Their plans ensure the health of insurers, not patients.

Want to take action? Choose your methodology. Write letters to the editors, or ask newspapers and TV why their reporters are not pressing the candidates on real health care reform. Take it up with your superdelegates. Do something.