Bill Moyers website, Moyers & Company, is well worth regular visits. Lots of good stuff here. Here’s an informative one from a couple of weeks ago: “Slideshow: Six Whistleblowers Charged Under the Espionage Act.” This adds important substance to criticisms of the Obama administration’s aggressive pursuit of “leaks,” up to and including the secret surveillance [...]
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If you’re tracking power and influence, one obvious measure is an organization’s presence at the State Capitol as it tries to shape legislation in its own interest. Eleven organizations that are represented by registered lobbyists in Hawaii consistently ranked among the top 25 in lobbying-related expenditures, according to reports filed with the State Ethics Commission. [...]
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Antique Alley, a unique resource of modern cultural history and artifacts, is being evicted. The store on the ground floor at 1347 Kapiolani is owned and operated by Pake Zane and Julie Lauster. It has been the one stable business in a building that has seen numerous others come and go over the past 25 [...]
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Altria, one of the world’s largest tobacco companies formerly known as the Philip Morris Companies, spent far more than any other interest group lobbying state lawmakers between 2006 and 2012, according to lobbyist reports filed with the State Ethics Commission. Altria Client Services, the subsidiary handling lobbying, litigation, and other aspects of the tobacco company’s [...]
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Early risers might have noticed that yesterday’s post about SB893 and the Marvin Dang saga went through a quick but substantial revision. Here’s the story of what led to up to the revision. The story started when I noticed this item at the top of the Ethics Commission website: > Commission resolves investigation re legislative [...]
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“Who Would Kill a Monk Seal?” That’s what writer Jon Mooallem asks in a long article published in today’s New York Times. The story earned a notice in Muck Rack Daily, “where you can get a snapshot of what journalists around the world are reading, thinking and commenting on right now.” Asking an important question, [...]
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[Revised 9:45 a.m.] Remember the flap during the recent legislative session over SB893? That’s the bill that would have retroactively exempted attorney/lobbyist Marvin Dang from conflict of interest provisions of the state ethics law after he lobbied on bills proposed by a mortgage foreclosure task force he had served on. There was a big ruckus [...]
Every once in a while the Legislature produces something really ugly. For example, in one of the low points of the recent legislative session, the House of Representatives passed HR196, “Commending the Church of Scientoogy for its humanitarian work and community service around the globe.” “Commending” and “Scientology” are not words that belong together, in [...]
Tags: Church of Scientology
