Web ilind.net

August 27, 2005 - Saturday

Desperately seeking a way to cover costs, which have a way of adding up. And, in light of that reality, I've decided to give Google's contextual advertising a try. It's supposedly one of those no risk deals. Try it, see if it gets the results you want, drop the ads later if it doesn't work out. Much will depend, I suppose, on your assessment of whether these ads are too intrusive or distracting, and my ultimate assessment of whether they are consistent with the impulse that drives these daily efforts. Those are all open questions at this point. In any case, I'll be interested in your reactions.

I've also thought about declaring this site "shareware" rather than "freeware", and soliciting funds on a "pay what you think it's worth to you" basis. But, so far, I've held off. It's one of those lessons you learn in politics: Don't call the question unless you already know how the votes will fall. I don't really know whether many readers who would decide this is worth paying for and, as a result, I've been reluctant to move in that direction. So, instead, I'll give Google a try.

One reader had this comment on the Star-Bulletin's free distribution:

Check out the free copies at McKinley Car Wash right at the point you get out of your car to go in and pay. They’ve had a stack of SBs there for at least a year.

I’m not sure of the philosophy on this distribution. Must make it hard to maneuver in the ad world without a time honored standard of distribution/sales verification.

A column in the Seattle Times this week provided a useful perspective on the "intelligent design" ploy.

Here's a fascinating little site I ran into yesterday, offering a series of "one minute vacations". These are audio postcards from places around the world. I found that listening to them can become addictive. Be forewarned.

Perhaps First Hawaiian Bank has been doing this all along and I've just "discovered" it, but their online banking system now serves up images of cancelled checks, front and back. Now that's a useful trick.

How about a few dogs to end the week? This is Ms. Lucy, the little Shih Tzu who waits impatiently every morning for me to arrive with her MilkBone dog biscuit. She starts barking excitedly as soon as she sees or hears us, then runs to the fence to wait for her treat. Enough of that--just click on her photo for this week's Kaaawa dogs.

Ms. Lucy

August 26, 2005 - Friday

Mike Sullivan, an old friend now living in Hilo, called my attention to a recent New York Times story on a web site maintained by the Dept of Health and Human Services evaluating certain hospital care. He writes:

Very interesting article in NYT about new information available at a government website that allows consumers to compare hospitals on their compliance with use of some simple treatments for heart attacks, pneumonia, and heart failure. The articles singles out Hawai`i and two other states as being particularly low in their compliance with these measures of quality.

I have done all the work for you! I ran the comparison for twelve hospitals in Hawaii--twelve being the maximum number of hospitals that could be compared at once. The five I excluded all are small hospitals on the neighbor islands.

Here are the results, in table format and in graph form. Or you can perform your own comparison by choosing from a list of Hawaii hospitals.

I was struck by the fact that the Queen's Medical Center does not lead the pack! Several other, smaller hospitals in Honolulu fare better than Queen's in the comparisons.

Mike added another observation of interest to media watchers:

We don't get a Honolulu paper anymore. First, the Honolulu Star-Bulletin stopped Neighbor Island delivery. Then, a few months ago, the Honolulu Advertiser fired us: they stopped delivery in our area because there were too few subscribers.

That's probably a lesson in the value of competition, and a signal that cutbacks will follow if the Advertiser succeeds in driving its smaller daily rival out of business.

Another media watcher reported being offered a Star-Bulletin by a newspaper hawker at a Honolulu intersection a week or so ago. When he declined, the hawker replied: "But it's free!" It's the first report I've heard of free S-B distribution of this kind, although "free with purchase" deals seem to be quite common these days. Even the Subway I rely on in town has been offering a free S-B with meals.

In other newspaper news, Newspaper Guild members are picketing outside Gannett's Rochester Democrat and Chronicle to underscore their request to involve a federal mediator in ongoing contract talks, according to the Rochester Business Journal. The picketing was reported by the Democrat and Chronicle in its business briefs.

And a CNN/Money column reports an investor's view of the newspaper industry today.

On two mornings this week, it was clear enough at dawn to see Molokai and Maui on the eastern horizon for the first time in several months. But yesterday the clouds and rained moved in, offering up a very different experience.

click for larger photo

August 25, 2005 - Thursday

There's the sound of news breaking here in Kaaawa again this morning.

Three judges considering the appeal of former union leader Gary Rodrigues sharply criticized prosecutors' handling of the case when the appeal was argued earlier this month in San Francisco, appearing to signal that the convictions of Rodrigues and his daughter, Robin Sabatini, will be overturned in whole or in part.

Rodrigues, the once politically powerful state director of the United Public Workers, and Sabatini were convicted in 2002 on multiple charges including mail fraud, money laundering, and embezzlement. Prosecutors argued that Rodrigues cut deals with insurers that included payments to Sabatini disguised as consulting fees, for which she did little or no work.

But the three judge panel of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, including Harry Pregerson, Andrew J. Kleinfeld, and William A. Fletcher, appeared to agree with defense attorneys who argued that a technical misstep by prosecutors requires all fraud charges to be thrown out.

One judge lectured Justice Department attorney Steven L. Lane during the August 9 hearing: "This was an important case for the government, so why can't you do it right the first time? Why was it all so slapdash?"

Then, continuing: "Who went through this indictment, who figured it out, who drafted it? They didn't do it right, did they?"

Rodrigues' attorney, Doron Weinberg, repeated arguments made during the trial that the union and it's members were not harmed because money involved in the case belonged to the insurers and not to the union, that UPW members paid no more for their insurance than other public employees, and that Sabatini actually did perform some consulting work to earn the fees paid.

However, most attention during the hearing focused on San Francisco attorney Dennis Riordan, representing Sabatini, who tore apart the instructions given to the jury at the end of the trial by District Court Judge David Ezra. Those instructions tell the jury what facts must be considered and what standards applied in determining whether a defendant is guilty.

Citing several key precedents, Riordan argued that a conviction on fraud charges requires a finding that there had been "a misrepresentation or concealment of material fact". Without misrepresentation or concealment, there can legally be no fraud.

But as a result of error or oversight by prosecutors, jurors were not specifically instructed to determine whether either Rodrigues or Sabatini misrepresented or concealed their actions and as a result, Riordan argued, they can't be guilty of fraud.

Lane attempted to present the prosecutors view that evidence presented in the case overwhelmingly supported an overall scheme to conceal and mislead regarding payments to Sabatini and, if an error did occur, it was harmless and did not impact the jury's conclusion. Lane also urged a non-technical standard which would view the entire scheme of payments as implying the necessary elements of concealment or misrepresentation.

Both arguments appear to have been soundly rejected by the court, based on courtroom comments by the judges.

"In my view, you lose on that point," one judge replied. "Me too," a second echoed.

At least one judge also criticized the original indictment's long list of charges which appear redundant and confusing.

"Why did you need so many counts? Why not just pick a few and go with those?", he asked Lane. "Nobody has the guts to make a decision. And that creates confusion."

One area of confusion, at least for this observer, is whether the appeal covers every one of the 101 counts on which the defendants were convicted, or whether some remain unchallenged.

One possibility discussed by the judges would be to overturn the convictions and send the case back for a new trial in which jury instructions could be corrected.

Another legal complication noted by Riordan resulted from Judge David Ezra's dismissal of a final charge that would have required Rodrigues and Sabatini to forfeit over $300,000 in consulting fees. At the time, Ezra indicated the funds could be recovered via restitution or other means.

However, Riordan argued that Ezra's basis for dismissing that single charge now creates the possibility of impermissable "double jeapardy" in the case of a new trial, at least in regards to certain of the original charges.

The 9th Circuit's final decision is pending.

And I think I can hear the news food chain working as the big guys read this and head out to cover the story.

August 24, 2005 - Wednesday

The ugly situation continues at Akaku, Maui's public access media provider. Following last week's grudge match, an Akaku officer is calling for the resignation of the board chair and a second board member, and has asked the public to turn out for this Friday's board meeting.

The Boston Globe reported yesterday on what has happened to a Boston school after a court case resulted in striking down its admission policy. In that case, there has been a dramatic drop in enrollment of the minority students it formerly served, according to this report.

I was somewhat surprised to see the Advertiser's correction to a story on a new federal probe of the Oahu Community Correctional Center appeared this week on the web site, "Regret the Error".

Hey, it turns out that if you want to get away with otherwise illegal dumping, disguise your discards as a forklift and there's nothing anyone can do. At least that's what city officials appear to have told the Star-Bulletin's Kokua Line.

Whaaaaat? You dump an old refrigerator or household items along a public road and you're a criminal, but dump a forklift and you're home free? That sounds like a bit of the bureaucratic runaround that Kokua Line is supposed to power through. I can understand that the folks who tow abandoned vehicles might have a problem because legally this apparently isn't a "vehicle". But just viewed as a heavy and potentially dangerous pile of metal, wires, and toxic items, certainly there's something to be done. I wonder whether Mayor Mufi signed off on the "sorry, nothing we can do" approach to this? Perhaps his people will take another look at this ridiculous situation.

If you've got the voyeuristic urge to check what the 40th reunion of the University High School class of 1965 was like, you can take a quick look at the photos and such that I've started to compile. Nothing raunchy, just a bunch of pre-geezers trying to bridge the decades. It isn't necessarily pretty, and is still in rough form, but hopefully I'll have a chance to pretty it up later this week.

August 23, 2005 - Tuesday

David Black, whose chain of newspapers includes the Honolulu Star-Bulletin and MidWeek, was quoted several days ago expressing interest in purchasing several Canadian newspapers now owned by David Radler, the former president of Hollinger Int'l now facing criminal charges of fleecing investors.

I see that the bad press hasn't ended for the recent convention that brought county officials to Hawaii from around the country. Many of them are now getting grilled about the trip and any expenditures they made while here. Here's just one example from Orlando, but there are lots more floating around out there.

Neil Abercrombie has been getting some national media attention this week as a co-sponsor of a House bill to require the U.S. to begin withdrawing its troops from Iraq by next year. He's not getting the headlines, but he's been mentioned in a number of stories like this one from the Los Angeles Times.

Here's an update on the battle over the Seattle newspaper joint operating agreement as reported by the Seattle Times. It sounds grim. And it reminds me that the new Star-Bulletin's first 5-year pact with the Newspaper Guild expires next March, and there have got to be a lot of folks wondering what happens next.

Things seem to have gone from bad to worse for Akaku, Maui's community television provider. The bitter internal dispute among factions of the board of directors that resulted in the recent firing of Sean McLaughlin went public at a board committee meeting last week when the chairman and another director ended up wrestling on the ground for several minutes while a video camera took in the scene. It would be entertaining if it weren't such bad news for public access to the airwaves.

August 22, 2005 - Monday

A column in the Hartford Courant by Kevin Rennie has some vivid words for ex-UH president Evan Dobelle, calling him "the biggest huckster Connecticut's seen since Bridgeport's P.T. Barnum", and a "jumped-up autocrat who gives himself a royal moniker". Whew.

Former Hawaii broadcaster Karen Waygood responded to my reunion comments with a few of her own:

Ms. Kunioka? No ways! I can picture her in the Multi Purpose Building right now... (UHS class of '78)

It's been a Hawaii kind of weekend. CNN's news staff held a "Hawaiian Shirt Challenge" Friday. (Thankfully, my day off.)

We had the first Musubi On My Mind gathering of Hawaii ex-pats last night at Roy's in Buckhead. 

In attendance: Former Unity Church at Diamond Head pastor John Strickland and his wife Brenda. He's with the Unity Church in Atlanta now; she's teaching elementary music in Decatur. Former Hawaii radio broadcaster Cheryl Castro Petti and her husband, the Hilo-born Dean. Cheryl works with CNN Radio. Dean's a high school math teacher in Marietta. Dean says with his local accent, he's been asked if he's French-Canadian. And my husband Brock Whaley and I were there. Good time had by all. Only disappointment: Roy's didn't have any haupia.

After drinks and pupus, Brock and I went to Tower Records and I found a great CD by Ledward Ka'apana, in the country section!

Hey, Karen, the reunion photos are coming soon! Really! Oh, did I mention that Karen is also the person behind the curtain at Monkeytown?

And this question from another reader about the Starbulletin.com::

When I open the online Star-Bulletin, I get one of those nasties that sucks the info/data mines -- you know what I mean.

Do you get that thing w/the S-B?

It's called zedo.

I always run my Ad-Aware SE lLavasoft program and delete it asap.

A long story in the New York Times Magazine reports on people discovering their Native American ancestry and the transformations, successful or not, that result. It's a thought provoking piece with direct parallels to the situation of Hawaiians and being Hawaiian.

August 21, 2005 - Sunday

Now I need a new T-shirt emblazoned with the message, "I survived my 40th high school reunion." And I did, last night, downtown, Plaza Club. Meda took the plunge with me. I had no idea what this was going to be like. It turned out to be an enjoyable evening despite the effort of matching faces with names and memories. Bostered, need I say, with a few glasses of wine and camera as a prop and, as required, buffer.

Class of '65 Click for larger photo

A number of our classmates flew in from the mainland for the evening, including one who unexpectedly grabbed a flight from Maryland after finding a very last minute deal while prowling the internet Wednesday night.

The highlight for many was the appearance of Ms. Kunioka, the cafeteria manager during our school years, who was not only present but put on an amazing display of memory. She's now 83 and sharp as a tack. Repeatedly she would walk up to someone and not only dredge up their name from her memory banks but also proceed to ask about their various siblings by name and, in some cases, inquire about parents. Absolutely amazing.

All present seem to have crafted interesting lives, although we weren't together long enough for the more serious life stories to bubble to the surface. In any case, the experience continues today with a mid-day potluck. I'll have a photo gallery ready at some point in the not so distant future.

From a reader in the Star-Bulletin news room comes this comment on the dueling test score stories mentioned here yesterday:

It's interesting that the writers and editors of the Advertiser story have kids in private schools, while the Star-Bulletin writers and editor have kids in public school.

I haven't confirmed it but, if true, that is quite an telling observation.

Hey, could attitude be genetic? I wondered after seeing the succinct sound bite by "cousin" Pat Cockett in a KGMB news story on Kauai traffic problems Friday night.

Some Kaua'i residents remain skeptical.

"I'll believe it when the traffic gets better," said Kaua'i resident Pat Cockett, pausing for a moment. "I don't have much faith."

"Politicians suck."

We're related via a link several generations back which I'm always vague on unless I'm looking at a chart of the family. If I recall correctly, my great-grandmother and his great-great-grandmother were half-sisters. In any case, we're "cousins" in that extended island sense.

There have been some awesome mornings this week, including this one which announced itself with a green flash just a minute or two before this photo was taken. An appropriate way to kick off this new week.

Last week's problem with broken links from this page has been mostly solved, although I learned of (and corrected) one more fractured connection last night. So if you come across broken links to photos or other items, please let me know via email.

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