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

March 24, 2007 - Saturday [ permalink ]

I unfortunately have to take my friend Howard Dicus to task for a segment on his PBN Friday show last night. He jumped right into a discussion about the legislature's reconsideration of high tech tax credits by asking rhetorically whether lawmakers just don't understand the issues or are philosophically (and by implication, ignorantly) opposed. Wow. That's a biased viewpoint right from the get-go, assuming that the skepticism about tax credits is obviously unjustified.

One of his guests was a former memeber of a previous state tax review commission, and the second represented a high tech company.

What Howard failed to make clear is that the latest Tax Review Commission issued quite a scathing review of the tax credit law and recommended taking a very close look at the current system, and lawmakers are following the advice of the Tax Review Commission. That's an important part of the story.

Part of the commission's argument is that claims about job creation, which Dicus uncritically repeated last night, are simply not supported by the data, which actually show declines in high tech jobs at the same time as large tax credits were being claimed.

Then there was a comment in praise of the investors, referred to last night as "people who take the risks" on fledgling high tech companies. But that's just wrong, as far as I can see. The state's extremely generous 100 percent tax credits have meant that those investors had no risk because they got their full investment back in the form of tax credits against their other income.

I like Howard's show because he's usually a very straight shooting guy. In this case he disappointed.

Richard Borreca has a story in today's Star-Bulletin about the legislature's computer problems mentioned here yesterday. It wasn't clear whether the virus had been vanquished from the system by the end of the day on Friday.

Speaking of computer issues, this site is being bombarded by hits from a handful of trash or spam sites--flowers delivery to(dot)com, my gothic clothes(dot)org, and car rental for(dot)com.

I've done what I can by blocking access from their IP addresses, but the attempts keep coming. I'm talking real numbers here, with over 80,000--eighty thousand--hits from those sites this month., listed below. I don\'t know what, if any, effect these have except that they take up bandwidth.

They also seem associated with spam send using addresses supposed from the ilind.com domain.

I asked Hostrocket's tech support about it, and here's their reply:

This activity is commonly called "referrer spam" and is used to spam a domain through blog-type statistics pages. It looks like you have already successfully added these addresses to your .htaccess file as a blocked-referrer.

This is, unfortunately, the best measure that can be utilized to stop this type of traffic. By adding the referrer addresses in this fashion, the web server will not load or transmit the specified file(s) and therefore it will not consume your account's resources or bandwidth. This activity, however, will continue to be logged by the server and you will continue to see this in your domain's statistics.

Should that make me feel better? I'm not sure.

The muckraker web site that caught my attention with its foray into distributed investigations got itself written up in the Los Angeles Times.

From a friend in Hilo:

A funny thing happened the other day. I received a summons to appear next week as a defendant in a lawsuit in Kona. Something to do with a $700,000 house that I failed to complete up in Kohala. I called the plaintiff lawyer the next day and readily convinced him that I was not the person he's looking for, so I am out of jeopardy. It turns out that the real defendent and I have the same first, middle, and last names. I just hope the dude is not into terrorism. Of course, for my part I will try not to do anything that would embarrass him.

I suppose that's not really a laughing matter, is it?

My Ka Leo-Viacom story was mentioned by the Chronicle of Higher Education yesterday, and by another side, Technology4Teachers.com.

It's been a week of umbrella weather in the mornings. I carry a somewhat broken UH umbrella with one broken wing, as I refer to it. When it rains, I have to hold my camera high up in the umbrella to protect it from blowing rain, which makes for a very tired arm after a a while. In any case, even rainy mornings can be beautiful, as this photo demonstrates.

March 23, 2007 - Friday [ permalink ]

There probably isn't any good time for a computer problem, but Wednesday afternoon was just about the worst time for the computer system in the House of Representatives to go down. With the next internal deadline 48-hours away, the main source of current info on bills was suddenly unavailable. The explanation came soon:

As many of you are by now aware, a number of computers on the Capitol network have been infected with computer viruses. We are in the process of wiping out and reinstalling Windows on all infected computers. The viruses have also infected a few of our servers. This is why Eclipse is currently down. Also, the Web site is experiencing problems because it depends on data from the same servers that Eclipse runs on.

E-mail, Internet, and printing remain unaffected.

The tech support staff in the House are very good and reacted quickly to the problems, but the situation still caused a real behind the scenes disruption. No word on the source of the virus attack.

People are now receiving checks in the mail from the settlement of a class action lawsuit against the Lex Brodie Tire Company. I've gotten two inquiries from people who say the only information available is the little story I wrote for Honolulu Weekly. It's still a mystery to me why business reporters never paid any attention to this case or the settlement.

Here's an unusual plea from a reader:

"A friend of mine (a UH prof) is looking for a 4-month foster home for her dog Leia while the owner spends this summer in the Arctic (long story.) Do you know of anyone who would be a good caretaker for 4 months starting in May? The ideal candidate would be an animal person who doesn't have their own cats or dogs (or children for that matter). I hear there are formal foster homes around the state, but I'm not sure how they work or who to contact, so let me know if that would be a good option."

Click for more info

Any Mac users out there who can help me out with a problem with the Mail application? Please let me know if you think you get me out of my current mess (well, the limited Mail mess and not the more general life mess, really).

March 22, 2007 - Thursday [ permalink ]

The Star-Bulletin scores on two points this morning, first for reporting on one of the hottest bills of the session, an attempt to roll back state fishing regulations, and secondly for identifying the bill by number so that readers know exactly what measure is involved.

I would subtract several points for the headline--Senate weakens fishermen-backed bill--as if that's a bad thing, since scientific testimony has been unanimous about the need for increased regulation in order to slow or reverse the rapid depletion of Hawaii's fishing grounds.

And thanks to Senator Russell Kokubun of the Big Island for making the move to derail the ill-considered House version of the bill. I suppose that comment will get me in trouble, since I'm on the House payroll, but hey, some things have to be said.

My story in last week's Honolulu Weekly reported on a contract dispute between Ka Leo, the UH Manoa student newspaper, mtvU, a subsidiary of media giant Viacom. The company offers campus newspapers free use of their exclusive system for creating and managing newspaper web sites and archives in exchange for control of national advertising on the site. The company says it has contracts with over 500 college and university newspapers, including those of most major campuses.

At issue was a clause in their proposed contract that required student newspapers to agree not to publish anything critical of the company or any of its many corporate affiliates and marketing partners.

I stumbled across the contract dispute while trying to find out why the Ka Leo web site has not been available for a couple of months.

Immediately after that story was published, mtvU reconsidered and agreed to delete the provision from their standard contract. My report on the victory for freedom of the press is reported in this week's Honolulu Weekly and is available online now.

USA Today has a story on the protests over proposed development at Laau Point on Molokai, authored by the reporter who recently filed the long story on hate crimes in Hawaii.

The folks at Congressional Quarterly (CQPolitics.com) reported recently that the average age in Congress is 62, a record.

Today the Capitol is populated with four of the eight longest-serving senators in American history. The oldest among them is also the longest-serving: West Virginia Democrat Robert C. Byrd, who won a record ninth six-year term last fall, two weeks before his 89th birthday. Byrd began his 49th year in office in January — meaning he has been in the Senate for 22 percent of the institution’s history. As the senior member of the majority, Byrd is also the Senate president pro tempore, putting him third in the line of presidential succession behind the vice president and House Speaker.

The others in the top four are Democrats Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts and Daniel K. Inouye of Hawaii, and Republican Ted Stevens of Alaska.

Also back for another term is Hawaii Democrat Daniel K. Akaka, who won his third full term at age 82 last year after a campaign in which his age was a major issue.

Inouye was got a mention in a recent Indian Country Today article describing the recent 12th Annual Indian Women's ''Supporting Each Other'' Lunch honoring several women, including Patricia Zell, former staff director of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs.

Zell joined in the spirit of the occasion with a story from the past about one of her mentors, Sen. Daniel K. Inouye, D-Hawaii, who had just introduced her to a standing ovation. Remembering his early years as chairman of the Senate Committee on Indian affairs, she said that he had gone to the Makah Nation to be given the Makah-language name ''Little Bird who sees the future.''

Inouye turned to Zell, his general counsel and unofficial guide to Indian country on the committee, and said, ''I'm the chairman of the committee. I thought they would name me 'Raging Bull.''' Zell explained that the name he'd been given was an important one in Makah culture.

Unconsoled, Inouye replied, ''Maybe my next name will be Raging Bull.''

It took a while for the laughter to fade on that one....

And so it goes on this Thursday a.m.

March 21, 2007 - Wednesday [ permalink ]

The Star-Bulletin's redesign made the big time yesterday with an almost glowing review in Editor & Publisher.

Honolulu's underdog PM daily mixes old ideas about no-jumps and "refers" with a big dose of the look and feel of a Web site in its redesign. It shows just how much newspaper front pages can learn from Internet home pages.

The E&P column puts the Star-Bulletin circulation at 64,305 which, if true, means the paper has been successfully treading water since the breakup of the joint operating agreement in 2001. An in-house message reported street sales up several percent in the week following the debut of the new look, and responses from readers have been very positive.

More on the Menu Foods pet food recall. A knowledgeable reader noted that Diamond Pet Foods, which makes the Chicken Soup for the Pet Lover's Soul described here earlier in the week as a haven from the storm, faced a similar recall in December 2005 for the same problem suspected in the current case, Aflatoxin in corn or other grain used as an ingredient in the canned food.

The specific Chicken Soup brand wasn't part of that recall, as it doesn't use wheat or corn and doesn't use meat by-products, although a long list of other Diamond foods labels were involved and there were a number of reported pet deaths linked to the tainted food. This reader made the point that this problem can hit almost any food manufacturer and that it's probably unfair to single out the dozens of Menu Foods brands, which include top flight brands like Iams and Science Diet, as ones to shy away from in the long term.

That said, I stopped by Celia's Gift & Gourmet store yesterday to pick up a sample of the Chicken Soup cat food. Apparently a camera crew had just left after finishing an interview which was broadcast last night. I hope that's the right link, as I haven't installed the right player in my new laptop and so haven't previewed it.

The initial review is quite positive from our cats, with the most finicky eaters very receptive to the new taste. In the long run, though, I'll have to wait and see.

Another big internal deadline comes up this week in the House. Senate bills that were referred to more than one committee after coming over to the House have to pass the initial committee or committees and get to the final committee by this Friday. It's known as second lateral, and it means headaches for busy committees, and those tracking legislation, for the next few days.

March 20, 2007 - Tuesday [ permalink ]

Star-Bulletin owner David Black has been named 2007 Distinguished Entrepreneur of the Year by the University of Victoria.

Black Press Ltd. is now Canada’s largest privately-owned newspaper company with more than 150 papers in Western Canada, the Pacific Northwest, Ohio and Hawaii, and includes 17 printing operations in North America and extensive web publishing operations. The company is headquartered in Victoria and has about 4,000 full-time equivalent employees. Annual revenues will surpass the $500 million mark this year.

Black is described the epitome of a “first-class gentleman.”

Here's a column about a wake held for the King County Journal, closed earlier this year after being purchased along with a group of other Northwest newspapers by Black Press. It includes a link to a podcast featuring voices of former staffers asked the question, "What really killed the King County Journal?"

According to the Hawaii Newspaper Guild, eight unfair labor practice charges filed against the Hawaii Tribune-Herald are expected to be issued as formal complaints by the National Labor Relations Board.

Among the company's actions cited by the Guild:

• The firing of reporters Hunter Bishop and Dave Smith and the suspension of reporter Peter Sur for concerted and protected union activity;

• Unlawfully banning union representatives from Tribune-Herald facilities through a discriminatory application of building access policy;

• Denying a member her Weingarten rights by misrepresenting the nature of a meeting and then issuing a written warning;

• Telling members they could not wear union buttons or other union insignia;

• Coercing, intimidating and interrogating union members about union activity;

• Giving members the impression they are under surveillance for union activity.

Seti at Home introduced the idea of distributed computing. Now TPMMuckraker.com introduces distributed muckraking by inviting readers to bite into one of the sets of Justice Department pdf files containing internal emails concerning the fired U.S. Attorneys. Thousands of pages of documents are being dumped into the public domain, and the muckraker site is inviting amateur sleuths to participate in the document screening. It's a great idea, and the resulting finds, reported in a long list of comments, make for great reading.

Celia at downtown's Gift & Gourmet responded briefly to yesterday's mention: Thanks for spreading the word about my store. Someone came in today and bought a bag of cat food. King Tutankhamun says "Hi."	King Tut
Hey, he looks a lot like Mr. Duke, doesn't he?

March 19, 2007 - Monday [ permalink ]

I had fun last week taking pictures...in Seattle. Now that we're back safe and on time, I can admit that we spent half the week there, where Meda made several presentations at the annual meeting of the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences. I ended up selecting several of my Seattle photos to bring my "Picture a Week" gallery up to date. This is Ivan, one of my niece's cats. Just click for a larger version, then follow the "next" links for several more.

We arrived in Seattle just as voters rejected two transit alternatives to the damaged Alaska Way Viaduct that runs along the downtown waterfront. "Voters say no and no," the Seattle Times headline put it. I really do wonder what would happen if Honolulu's transit plan were put on the ballot.

While you contemplate the morning news, check out this provocative article that posits a link between the Iran-Contra history and current policy the Middle East, and the underlying Sy Hersh story it takes off from.

Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Times reports on the pet food recall that has all of us who share homes with animals worried, as does this morning's Honolulu Advertiser.. In fact. try a Google search for "pet food recall" and you'll find a long list of localized stories.

An email from Celia at the always interesting Gift & Gourmet store downtown has an answer to the news of potentially tainted cat food. She's been bringing in what she considers the best cat food available, according to an email yesterday.

Gift & Gourmet carries only the best.

Dog & Cat food I carry doesn't even contain Wheat Gluten, which the ingredient in question in the recalled food. Chicken Soup for the pet lover's Soul is the name, it is not soup.. It comes dried and canned.

I researched all the brands available in Hawaii, and chose the best for my precious cats. I even interviewed their in house Veterinarian, got all the nutritional facts such as this food is:

1) Slow burning. Nutritional ingredients that give even energy throughout the day, as opposed to "fast burning" like corn syrup, which gives an energy spike.

2) low in ash, which causes urinary tract problems. They make an agreement with the farmers to feed good ingredients to the animals which are used in the food.

3) NO Corn, an empty filler! I mixed 1/2 of the Good food, and 1/2 of commercial food with corn, and within a week, all the cats had a pot belly. After another week of only the good food, their pot bellies went away.

I started carrying the pet food only to get it delivered, as no one in my area carries it. The profit margin is very low, but good nutrition is more important than money.

If you have any questions, please call Celia at
GIFT & GOURMET 528-5818

212 Merchant Street Ste. 7
Honolulu HI 96813

And so it goes.

March 18, 2007 - Sunday [ permalink ]

I'm posting this early on Saturday evening in order to make an early morning appointment without getting up even earlier than normal. Hopefully this won't cause any of you problems.

ABC News again displayed an amazing political bias in reporting on yesterday's demonstration in Washington, D.C.

After brief video of the marchers and a mention of the 1967 march on the Pentagon came this comment:

"The 1967 march proved to be the turning point of the anti-war movement when it moved beyond the radical minority tto represent the majority."

"No one was predicting that today."

Say what?! The latest Newsweek poll showing 59 percent of Americans support the withdrawal of U.S. troops by the fall of next year, with other polls getting similar results, the anti-war movement is the majority and has been for some time. Do the folks at ABC remember as far back as the 2006 election results?

What are they thinking!

I ran into an interesting online discussion on the Hilo CIA flap started by Star-Bulletin photo editor George Lee at SportsShooter.com, a web site geared to sports photographers.

Gannett just paid $73 million for two small Connecticut newspapers, while its report of "lackluster" earnings prospects pushed its stock down below its 200 day moving average and pulled the price of other newspaper stocks down with it.

Julia Steele's story on awa use in Hawaii ran this week in the Los Angeles Times, as did a story on the upcoming launch of the Superferry.

Speaking of the Superferry, the recent Advertiser story about Mayor Hannemann's commuter ferry plan has been bothering me. With questionable economics and a history of failed attempts at similar service, why the push and why this company?

It was an "aha!" moment. It seems that Hornblower Marine Services, the company that was given the commuter ferry contract after there were no other bidders in open competition, does offer ferry services in several locations, but also operates "the largest riverboat casino in the world and Donald Trump's Riverboat Casino in Gary, Indiana," according to a compay press release.

"HMS assists investors and municipalities in developing and operating ferries and riverboat casinos utilizing high-technology resources and sophisticated management programs."

Ah, so. Perhaps I'm being unnecessarily cynical, but could there be more to this ferry plan than meets the eye?

March 17, 2007 - Saturday [ permalink ]

I should probably celebrate St. Patrick's Day, given that my great-grandfather Robert Cathcart hailed from County Down, but it was not something we did growing up and I've never gotten in the habit as an adult. We'll see what happens later in the day.

Superferry supporters sent out an email yesterday urging people to vote NO on a Star-Bulletin poll on whether an environmental impact statement should be required.

If some politicians have their way and require an environmental impact study, Hawaii Superferry will never launch.

Let your voice be heard today! Respond to the Star Bulletin poll at http://starbulletin.com/poll and VOTE NO.

Do not let the special interest groups take away your Superferry!

I wonder what "special interest groups" they're talking about?

Interesting split in the Senate over Glenn Kim's appointment to a spot in Circuit Court. The 16-9 vote, with both the Judiciary chairman and Senate President voting in the minority, is most intriguing. Thanks to the Star-Bulletin for identifying votes for and against, a detail which apparently was considered too "insider" for the Adveriser, although those votes are what offer clues to the politics involved.

Am I suprised that Clayton Hee played the bully again in this case? Not at all. Am I surprised by the floor vote? Yes. Could Hee's colleagues be getting tired of the bully thing?

A reader commented: "One must wonder whose running the Senate these days and whether Hee’s circuses were sound and fury signifying nothing other than to garner lots of   “face time”  on televised media." 

Here's one that was making the rounds online recently among members of Investigative Reporters & Editors. It's an all too revealing listing for a panel scheduled at the upcoming conference of the Radio and Television News Directors Association in Las Vegas.

Does BIG-J Get in the Way?

Educators are often accused of pushing “Big-J” ideals that set students up to fail when they encounter the realities of the newsroom. Engage in a lively discussion over whether teachers are placing unrealistic ideas in students’ heads that are out of synch with today’s reporting. Are newsrooms straying so far from journalistic ethics that students find themselves between a rock and a hard place?

This prompted a tongue-in-cheek suggestion for the news directors in a subsequent online discussion: "The word “news” is still in the organization’s name right? – I move it be stricken in the interest of accuracy."

Say what? From yesterday's Honolulu Advertiser:

He said the boy is not disputing saying "f------ haole" but is disputing the context in which the words were used. The boy was not referring to the Dussells, Eddins said, but the remark was "more generic" and the teenager meant the two were "acting like f------ haoles."

"I think anybody who has grown up here in Hawai'i realizes when somebody says somebody is acting like a f------ haole, it's not necessarily directed specifically at that person, but more as a generic type of definition of behavior," said Eddins, who was born and raised here.

"This is too good," one reader commented yesterday in an email. "Hey brah, I neva call him 'fucking haole.' I call him da kine 'generic fucking haole.' " In all, a very sad commentary on contemporary island life and social relations.