Jay Hartwell responded regarding Melanie Sill’s UH appearances, which were noted here yesterday.
Yes, the public is welcome to sit in on classes where she will be speaking. The dates, time, and locations are on the flyer (posted here yesterday).
When SPJ-Hawai`i decides the location for its Thursday, Sept. 4, evening gathering, we will let you know.
A couple of items of local interest. Joan Conrow, over at her KauaiEclectic blog, had a good entry yesterday describing efforts by the Native Hawaiian Legal Corporation to block construction of a luxury home over a Hawaiian burial site at Naue. And Ben Lowenthal follows some of the last legal fallout of the Bishop Estate scandal, an opinion of the Intermediate Court of Appeals in a lawsuit by former estate trustee and one-time House Speaker Henry Peters against former Bishop Estate attorney Nathan Aipa.
The National Conference of State Legislatures has a blog worth checking from time to time. TheThicket is pretty eclectic, but with lots of interesting bits and pieces.
Falling gasoline consumption triggered by higher fuel prices have the feds and states worried about their declining gasoline tax take. I haven’t looked at Hawaii’s budget to see how we might be impacted, but there’s sure to be a compounding of financial woes here. Higher fuel costs lower the gas tax revenue, forcing officials to look to other sources to cover budgeted costs. Double ouch!
A series by the Rocky Mountain News looks at the situation of former workers at the Colorado factories where nuclear warheads were assembled. Back in the 1970′s, when activists were pressing for information about the dangers of nuclear weapon production, there were years of denials of any problems. Now we know differently. I can’t help wondering whether we’ll look back in another thirty years and see the deadly impact of depleted uranium in the same way?
And don’t miss Bryan Burrough writing in Vanity Fair on the collapse of Bear Stearns.
If that makes you worry about the health of your local bank, check out BankRate.com’s Safe & Sound Ratings, which use publicly available financial data to rate the strength of banks. Nine Hawaii institutions are rated.
This seems like a good time for a few more of Kaaawa’s morning dogs.
Most of these are familiar to regular readers. This happens to be one of our favorite trios, with Ms. Julia closest to the camera, Ms. Lehua in the middle, and part of Ms. Maka visible in the background. I’m sure they’ve been depressed by our absence this past week. But we’re flying home today and will get back to the morning routine tomorrow.
Po is adorable, and thanks for the BankRate link … I have been worried about our local banks, but didn’t know where to turn. Everyone I talked to told me just not to worry. Interesting to discover that my “smaller” bank where I have a savings account appears to be doing better than my “big” bank where I have my checking account.