Recent photos: Vieques (Puerto Rico) 1978 • Malaekahana 1959 •
Historic Kualoa sugar mill • Kaaawa in November •

April 7, 2007 - Saturday [ permalink ]

I had to drag myself up early because I forgot to put the trash can out for collection last night, and our guys show up close to 5:30 a.m.

So what to write about today? How about some raw numbers.

A little digging at the Federal Election Commission shows the Hawaii Republican Party took in $195,000 in the first two months of this year, compared to a big Zero collected by the Democratic Party.

Top GOP donors giving $10,000 each were Maui developer Everett Dowling, real estate investor Jay Shidler, dentist Lawrence Tseu, and Virginia Weinman, chairman of Dragon Bridge. At $5,000 each were John Bucksbaum, CEO of General Growth Properties, owner of Ala Moana Center and much more; Russell Figueiroa, president of RM Towill, one of the companies caught up in the campaign contribution scandals here; Gavin Hubbard of Okada Trucking; Peter Koziol, a non-executive director of Lend Lease Communities; Terry Metcalf of Metcalf Construction; and Sheryl Vuillemot, whose husband is president of American Marine Services Group.

Yesterday started with a very beautiful sunrise, and in less than half an hour it produced an even more unusual sight--what appeared to be a huge rainbow circling the rising sun. Just click on this photo to see it all.

April 6, 2007 - Friday [ permalink ]

Salon.com has an interesting story by Walter Shapiro about presidential candidate John Edwards, along with a transcript of Shapiro's interview.

I always enjoy reading good accounts of other people's scandals, and this one from Haverford, PA is no exception.

Indian Country Today reports on how the subprime mortgage crisis is impacting American Indians and Hawaiians.

Just about all of the top 10 lenders to American Indians in 2005 were subprime specialists or a mainstream bank or mortgage bank with a big subprime unit.

The largest lender to American Indians and Alaska Natives in 2005 was Countrywide Home Loans of Pasadena, Calif. Countrywide made $4.5 billion in home loans to American Indians and $3.2 billion to Native Hawaiians. That was a jump of 10 percent for American Indian mortgages and an increase of more than 70 percent to Native Hawaiians.

Countrywide is also one of the largest subprime lenders in the country and made news recently by announcing that a shocking 19 percent of its $100 billion or so in subprime mortgages is delinquent.

These numbers are from crunching data reported under the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act.

Having procrastinated just about as long as possible, my Good Friday is now shaping up as tax day. I'll just have to start on the process of making sense of the drawer full of tax-related stuff that has been accumulating. Come on, TurboTax, do your thing!

And it may be Good Friday, but I'm afraid there won't be any miracles for the mouse left next to my chair at the dining table. But thank you anyway, Ms. Kili.

Speaking of Kili, she acted promptly to claim a box that I left on the kitchen counter after opening. Within minutes, she was firmly ensconced and settling in for a long nap. And for the last two days there's been keen competition for time in the box.

April 5, 2007 - Thursday [ permalink ]

This Craigslist ad, which appeared briefly before being "flagged" and removed, was probably intended as a joke:

Kailua Neighborhood Vote for Sale

Now that we can vote via the internet for neighborhood boards, I figure this is a good time to sell my vote. For a small fee, you can buy my vote and have 100% certainty that I voted as directed, as I will do it right in front of you using my laptop and an available internet connection.

This vote is for the Kailua neighborhood board.

Please let me know.

But under state law, the anyone responding to the ad and offering to pay for a vote would be commiting election fraud, and even offering your own vote for sale could be a violation as well.

The relevant statute is Section 19-3 Hawaii Revised Statutes. Here are the relevant provisions (emphasis added):

§19-3  Election frauds.  The following persons shall be deemed guilty of an election fraud:

     (1)  Every person who, directly or indirectly, personally or through another, gives, procures, or lends, or agrees or offers to give, procure, or lend, or who endeavors to procure, any money or office or place of employment or valuable consideration to or for any elector, or to or for any person for an elector, or to or for any person in order to induce any elector to vote or refrain from voting, or to vote or refrain from voting for any particular person or party, or who does any such act on account of any person having voted or refrained from voting for any particular person at any election;

And...

     (3)  Every elector who, before, during or after any election, directly or indirectly, personally or through another, receives, agrees, or contracts for any money, gift, loan, or valuable consideration, office, place, or employment for oneself or any other person for voting or agreeing to vote, or for refraining to vote or agreeing to refrain from voting, or for voting or refraining to vote for any particular person or party.

Penalties range up to $1,000 fine, two years in prison, and loss of the right to vote. Not so funny after all.

Interesting story here that reflects a broader debate over privatization of roads and highways, a position being pushed locally by oppenents of the city's proposed rail system. Local advocates of privatization have been allowed to go pretty much unchallenged on the idea of turning over basic infrastructure to private owners. Perhaps that ought to change.

On the issue of legislative salaries, I ran across this article from Stateline.org which reports on a study by the Council of State Governments.

"The Offician Brian Schatz Blog" has gone silent and been removed from the web.

Sunrise today in Kaaawa is at 6:21, just an hour from now. That's already too early to regularly get to the beach in time to see the main event, and by the end of the month the sun will rise at 6 a.m. So until September or so, we'll be enjoying the colors and views after the sun makes it appearance.

Kaaawa dawn

April 4, 2007 - Wednesday [ permalink ]

The legislature hits another big deadline tomorrow known as "second decking". All bills that passed from either chamber earlier in the session have to be decked by the other side--that is, approved by committee and filed with any amendments--by the end of tomorrow to have the required 48-hours before they can be voted on. So surviving Senate bills have to be decked in the House, and House bills have to be decked in the Senate. Any bills missing tomorrow's deadline are dead. Resolutions run on their own slightly delayed timetable. Second crossover--the deadline for any surviving bills to be finally approved by the second side--is April 12, following Friday's holiday and a couple of recess days. Then it's a mad sprint through conference committees to final decking on April 26. You can check out the full legislative calendar here.

Fresh heart of palm drew several suggestions from you folks out there.

Cut a pound or so into bite-size chunks, cut a pound of Kamuela cocktail tomatoes into wedges and mix with a white wine vinegar and olive oil dressing to which you have added a half cup or so of fresh basil and a generous helping of crushed garlic. Salt and pepper to taste. Let stand for a couple of hours. Add a cup or two of arugula just before serving.

• • • 

I had a bunch from our retired-pilot-palm-grower from Hamakua........served it on my crudite plate with my favorite dip.....worked fine........ great taste of palm...nobody knew what it was....sweet, exotic, crunchy, delicious. can be cooked like bamboo shoots, but such a waste.....

• • •

I've used the canned ones cut up in tossed salads......raw sounds even better.

• • •

Although they say it can be stir fried or sauteed, we can't bring ourselves to do anything but eat it raw. I find it to be crisp, something like a water chestnut. It's nothing even remotely like canned heart of palm. Just slice it and serve with salad if you like. Dress it simply if at all.

So the informed consensus seems to be to eat it fresh, raw and crispy.

And another reader passed on this seasonal warning for pet owners:

With Easter almost here, and the popularity of potted Easter lilies and lily bouquets, I am concerned that people may not be aware that all parts of the plant are toxic to pets, especially cats, who are prone to suffer renal failure. With the public focused on the cat food recall, they may be more attentive to this danger too.

I have contacted the TV stations and am about to send letters to the SB and Advertiser, but wonder, at the suggestion of Bob Jones, whether you might also alert readers of your blog.

Thank you for whatever you can do to help to get the word out.

Showing up at the capitol daily has put a crimp in my photo time, so I've been falling behind on my "picture a week" effort. I did manage to try something different with a couple of candid portraits. Just click for more.

April 3, 2007 - Tuesday [ permalink ]

The Star-Bulletin's new format, which requires a front page mini-version of each story in addition to the "full" inside version, obviously also involves repeated edits which don't necessarily produce the best results.

I noted Gene Park's story on Sunday about the quiet family life of the man arrested in 1999 "cold case" investigation. The teaser version of the story on the front page hinted at details that could have turned an average crime report into a very good read.

Since his arrest, no one has been seen at the Griffin home in a quiet Ewa Beach suburb. Children's toys were stewn in the back yard, where many family barbecues had been held. The newspaper hadn't been picked up.

Outside the front door, the names of family members were scrawled into the concrete.

Aha! I was hooked. What toys were seen in the back yard. Were they stuffed animals? Dolls? Plastic knives? Racing cars? New? Well worn? Forgotten? And those names in the concrete? Whose names? Written in a child's hand? I turned to the inside page.with anticipation, expecting these details to be expanded. And, nothing. The inside story, and the one that remains on the Star-Bulletin web site, not only failed to expand on those wonderful hints, it deleted them, turning what could have been a fine piece into a flat nothing. Definitely a disappointment. Perhaps part of the learning curve with the new format, I don't know. And I still wonder about those toys.

Thanks to Brian Dohe at Whitman College (where Meda and I both graduated) for the link to Crosscut.com, an online Northwest newspaper, and its fine reporting on what is shaping up to be the definitive battle for the future of Seattle's two newspapers. Here's how Crosscut's editor describes the project:

We've been working on this project for the past two years. It began with a few simple realizations. One was that readers and advertisers were flowing to Web products, so let's stop lamenting about declines in certain kinds of journalism and get with the sunrise part of the news industry. Second, we found that most readers report that they are getting good coverage of national and international news, thanks largely to the Web, home delivery of national papers, and National Public Radio. The gap was in quality local news. We felt we could remagnetize local news by extending the scope to the full region, the "nation" of Cascadia, population 10 million, and also by inviting to the table new sources for news — blogs, citizen journalists, think tanks, advocacy research, specialists with deep knowledge in their area. Broader, richer, more diverse in viewpoints — "News of the Great Nearby."

Attention, cat people--A reader needs your advice on the condition of his 14-year old cat, which is quite ill. "Can some of your readers comment on what their experience in treating this ailment?"

Symtoms: Loss of weight from Dec. 2005 22+lbs to 10.5lbs in Nov. 2006. Down to 9.5lbs in Dec. 2006 . Loss of appetite, frequent vomiting, diarrhea. No food from the list of recalled Menu Foods items. Blood test show elevated levels in the liver, but not acute. Vet put on predisone with the diagnois that he had either cancer in his kidneys or liver, or inflamatory bowel disease. Surgery to find out declined.

Still has diarrhea every two or three days, but half a tablet of imodium seems to keep it under control, but I don't think it is a good long term solution. Doesn't seem that the predisone does any thing at this point.

Constantly hungry, so experimented over the last two months. Favorite baby food, veal, turkey or chicken gave him instant diarrhea. Same with popcorn and food containing any substantial corn products. Gerbers has cornstarch as a the second listed ingredient on the baby food.

Tried the stuff from Gift and Gourmet, but the cats all want to do is "bury" it.

So it is not wheat gluten, though as a precaution all food given no longer contain it. But corn? Research on previous recall by Diamond Pet Brands in 2005-2006 period noted that corn products used in the production of some products resulted in aflatoxin poisoning. I can't find much on the treatment of this ailment.

It's tough to nurse an older cat through something like this. All suggestions would be apppreciated. Email me--ian(at)ilind.net.

April 2, 2007 - Monday [ permalink ]

If you're feeling especially voyeuristic this morning, you can check out a few more photos of those weekend parties we attended. Two longtime friends, two different worlds.

No further news published about the state salary commission recommendations. I suppose it will still be news when the a press conference is finally held

One reader asks:

Does the Commission recommend a salary hike for the executive director of the Hawaii Tourism Authority? Understand the post carries a higher price tag than the Governor's. Incumbent formerly headed State Transportation Dept. for a lot less pay. Yet most of the heavy lifting involved is contracted out to HCVB.

What can I say? No, the tourism authority is not one of those specified executive appointees included in the salary commission recommendations.

I've only gotten one response to yesterday's question about fashions that would have been common in 1907. A reader writes:

I have photos of my paternal grandmother from the period around 1912, and she did wear long dresses (in the Midwest), but no hoop skirts!  I also have photos of her mother, my great-grandmother, from around that time and she dressed severely, in black, as an older widow.  Her dresses were long, too, but no hoop skirts.  She was from Virginia and I imagine the last time she wore anything like a hoop skirt was before the Civil War--if then.

Friday was Agriculture Awareness Day at the Capitol, and I was surprised to learn that the Island of Hawaii boasts the largest American producer of fresh heart of palm. I emailed the company and received this info:

Our Fresh Hawaiian Heart of Palm sells wholesale for $7.00 per pound and the Fed Ex overnite delivery charge is $11.00. So the total cost for a ten pound box would be $81.00 to Oahu and will weigh about 12-13 pounds as we put in a bit extra to make up for the outside sheath.

Our daughter also sells it in 1/2# and 1# bags at the KCC farmers market every other weekend. ( She is there today 3/31)

Aloha,
Lesley Hill
Wailea Agricultural Group, Inc.

Does anybody out there have experience cooking with fresh heart of palm?

As to the state's administrative director, Jim Manke reminds that Josh Agsalud was Waihe`e's Admin Director, Charlie Toguchi was Ben's.

And so it goes on the Monday morning.

April 1, 2007 - Sunday [ permalink ]

I guess it's no coincidence that a lot of our good friends are turning the big 6-0 during this year of the golden boar.

Yesterday was back to back boomer birthday parties. It started before noon at the Empress Restaurant in the Chinatown Cultural Plaza, where Pat Weeks had carefully plotted a huge back for his wife, Marnie. She's coordinated the hula performances on Kuhio Beach for about a decade and her friends all turned out for this one.	Marnie Weeks
We dragged ourselves out of there only after a lot of great Hawaiian music and dance, took a nap, and then started the celebration thing again with Wilma Sur, another child of the previous of the Golden Boar. After an eight course dinner and a few libations we managed to get ourselves home before midnight to check on the household of hungry cats. Watch for more photos late today or tomorrow.	Wilma Sur
One of the familiar faces at Wilma's party was former Star-Bulletin sports reporter Bill Kwon. Bill was reporting on high school sports back when I played basketball for University High School, and he continues to write the Advertiser's golf report.

Conference travel to Hawaii took another hit recently in a Boston Globe story about Massachusetts retirement fund boards sending members to a conference in Waikiki. The first reaction, and sometimes the lasting reaction, to professional travel to Hawaii is to write it off as pure junketeering.

Laurie Lizak , the Wellesley Retirement Board administrator, said when her office receives notices of far-away conferences, "generally, they go in the trash."

"Boondoggle" was the word used in a subsequent Globe letter to the editor.

Not all news coverage is good news coverage from the perspective of our visitor industry.

Did you notice the photo of UH Manoa Interim Chancelor Denise Konan dressed in period garb for an event that's part of the university's 100th birthday? But was the selection of clothing accurate for the 1907 date? This set of images appears to show much slimmer styles during the post-1900 period. Anybody know the definitive answer? The closest photo I could find was this 1912 photo when they were putting down the cornerstone for Hawaii Hall.

And from the Baltimore Sun comes this story about "a bit of Hawaii in Howard County."

March 31, 2007 - Saturday [ permalink ]

The Commission on Salaries, which was approved by voters last year, has submitted its report recommending pay increases for the governor and top executive branch administrators, judges, and legislators. As I understand it, unless rejected by legislators before the end of the session, the recommendations in the March 14, 2007 report will automatically go into effect.

While the full proceedings of the Tax Review Commission are publicly accessible online, including minutes of all meetings and all consultant reports, I couldn't find any information about the salary commission in a quick online search this morning, although the reports of prior commissions are available. I don't know whether full records will be available for public inspection at the Department of Human Resource Development.

The basic commssion recommendations are as follows:

• Salaries of the governor, lt. governor, department heads and deputies would increase by 5 perent on July 1. After a series of annual steps, the governor's salary in 2012 would reach $143,748, while most department heads would be getting $133,536. The lt. gov and attorney general would both be paid $140,220 by 2012, while most deputy directors would receive between $116,172 and $122,844.

• The commission recommends judges receive a 10 percent boost on July 1, followed by annual increments alternating between 3.5% and 10%. By 2012, family court judges would receive $175,032 in annual salary, circuit court judges would be paid $185,736, and associate justices on the Supreme Court would receive $206,184. The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and Chief Judge of the intermediate court would each receive slightly more than their colleagues on those courts.

• At the legislature, where salaries were unchanged from 1993-2005, it is recommended that salaries increase by $12,808 on January 1, 2009, jumping from $35,900 to $48,708. This would be followed by annual 3.5 percent increases so that salaries would reach $57,852 by 2012. The House Speaker and Senate President would maintain their additional $7,500 differential.

I had questions about one recommendation. The commission recommended that the Administrative Director of the State eventually be paid the same as the Attorney General and Lt. Governor. Who is the administrative director? Do we have one? That's certainly one position we simply don't hear about.

I had to turn to the LRB's Guide to Government in Hawaii for the answer. It reports:

In addition, the Governor, as required by the State Constitution, Article V, section 5, appoints an Administrative Director who functions as the Governor's chief of staff and assists in the supervision of the executive departments and major state initiatives.

Aha. So the Administrative Direcgtor of the State is none other than Bob Awana, the governor's chief of staff. That is not a name that would have occurred to me.

Meanwhile, Molokai's Walter Ritte led a group pressing the House to schedule a hearing on a bill that would impose a moratorium on genetic modification of taro. The bill has been bottled up in the House Agriculture Committee, which has refused to hear it. The group rallied downstairs and then gathered outside the office of Rep. Clift Tsuji, ag chairman. It was an interesting scene.

Here's another of those "shipping to Hawaii" mysteries.
M&Ms has a promotion going for personalized candies (Happy Birthday so-and-so, etcetera.)

I ordered the minimal order, couple of bags of them packed in a plain black box with red ribbon.

Star-Bulletin writer Allison Schaefers