January 14, 2005 - Saturday

From the National Weather Service: "Chance of rain 100 percent." And they've already been proved right, at least out here in Kaaawa.

The 700,000th visit to this page will be counted sometime early this morning. Congratulations and many thanks to whoever happens to be at the right place at the right time.

I was waiting to be picked up at the state capitol late Friday afternoon when a full rainbow appeared, stretching across the mauka view. All I had was the little built-in camera in my phone, but it proved just enough to capture the moment.

If you click for a larger version of the photo, you'll see that it's marked "Waiting for Meda (2)". Where's #1? I decided to hold that back until tomorrow. Anticipaaaa...tion....

A California financial planner is also tracking developments regarding Plan Compliance Group in a blog called The Teachers Advocate.

The Tim Ryan unpleasantness appeared as an entry in Jim Romenesko's widely read daily column on the Poynter Institute's web site yesterday.

The National Conference of State Legislatures has put together a listing of all the current blogs by state legislators. Happy browsing.

January 13, 2006 - Friday

Friday the 13th, but the bad news both for news junkies and staffers at KHON started yesterday with an announcement of layoffs and a move to automated news casts at the currently top-ranked news station. That doesn't really bode well for any of us, it seems.

And Star-Bulletin entertainment writer Tim Ryan was terminated after the newspaper confirmed multiple instances of plagiarism, although the word does not appear in a front page announcement addressed "To our readers" in today's S-B by editor Frank Bridgewater. I'm sure there are some out there who gloat over such things. I just find it very, very sad on many different levels.

The San Francisco Chronicle added more details today to the still unfolding story of Plan Compliance Group, which was the subject of my entry yesterday.

One of the "investors" who apparently has lost everything sent me a short email this morning:

"I have found at least 14 investors and there may be more. We are moving toward $10 mil. It is bad. I talked to at least six people yesterday whose life savings and safety net is gone.

The stories are very sad. I need a break. So long for a few days"

Very sad indeed.

January 12, 2006 - Thursday

The plot thickens:

The president of Plan Compliance Group, the California company responsible for the disappearance last year of more than $2.6 million intended for retirement investments on behalf of island teachers and university professors, attempted suicide last month as the company crumbled under the weight of spreading accusations of fraud.

Click here to read the full story.

January 11, 2006 - Wednesday

With the "official" ilind.net counter at 697,500 and counting, it will pass the 700,000 figure by week's end. This count is limited to those who visit this main page and does not include those going directly to other parts of this site.

Here's what this means. While the "official" counter recorded approximately 200,000 visits to this page over the past 12 months, the separate full site statistics recorded by HostRocket recorded slightly more that 325,000 visits in the same period.

In any case, thanks for being part of this whole affair.

Credit is due to Malia Zimmerman and Hawaii Reporter for spelling out details of the story that's been floating around town for several weeks regarding apparent instances of plagiarism by Star-Bulletin entertainment writer Tim Ryan. Zimmerman added a couple of instances to those documented earlier by editors at Wikipedia.

Zimmerman reports that Ryan was initially suspended for a month. As each new instance is documented, though, the Star-Bulletin's options are narrowed.

I got a call about the situation over the New Year weekend and started to check it out, then realized I just didn't have the stomach to deal with this very sad situation. During most of my time at the Star-Bulletin, my desk in the newsroom was just a few steps across from Tim. Calling him as his newspaper career evaporates in a series of disclosures isn't something to be relished and, in an unpaid gig like this, I simply chose to sidestep it.

Ryan's case, and Zimmerman's reporting, made the national web site, Regret the Error, in a post dated today.

The Star-Bulletin is running a story today by business writer Dan Martin catching up with the bankruptcy filing by Plan Compliance Group reported here on Sunday.

I advanced the story with a short item intended for Honolulu Weekly, but some final edits apparently missed their dealine. So I'll append my copy here later.

January 10, 2006 - Tuesday

The Star-Bulletin gets my prize for yesterday's quote of the day with this winner from Miriam Hellreich on behalf of Gov. Linda Lingle's campaign:

"Our policy is if any donors admit to a crime, we obviously don't want to accept money from them."

Good deal. If they don't admit it then all is forgiven? To be fair, probably not, but it was a very awkward response to a most awkward situation.

Over at Poinography.com, Doug White stumbled over the link to State Labor & Industrial Relations Appeals Board opinions via a private site that charges an annual subscription fee of $500, far beyond the price of access for other eHawaiigov services. Without using this online system, anyone interested in the inner workings of the labor board has to visit their offices in person and deal with a small staff almost totally unused to public requests. Not that they don't try to be helpful, but they're just not set up for it.

The private site, Appealsboardindex.com, says to contact the company on Hwy 211 in Newport, WA. Internet records show it is registered to Sharon Fernandes, 1286 Bluebird Drive, Bailey, CO 80421, although this is not necessarily current. Washington state corporation records do not show a listing for The Appeals Board Index.

I wonder what the company's contract with the Labor Department looks like, and what the state receives for providing the direct link to this pricey service.

January 9, 2006 - Monday

The big news out here is that at least one Hawaiian monk seal spent its weekend on the beach in Kaaawa. Lots of people stopped along Kamehameha Highway to watch her sunning and enjoying the winter weather. Hopefully she'll be a Kaaawa regular again this year.

Months after Larry Geller's tongue-in-cheek Harbin for Governor web site appeared, Rep. Bev Harbin now admits to gubernatorial aspirations, according to a report broadcast last night by KHON.

Harbin told KHON:

"We're gonna raise the bar of the election in District 28," she said. "Who knows, maybe raise the bar for the gubernatorial campaign. People keep asking me, have the Democrats found a candidate? And I go, whose got more name ID than Harbin? "

Isn't it wonderful when life so perfectly imitates art?

A friend forwarded this visual comparison between the work of other nations to hold back the sea and the levees protecting New Orleans.

Can anybody out there answer this reader's query?

at the sunday performance at the Blaisdell of the Rappongi Men's Chorus, one chorus member (front row, sixth from left) wore a grey felt fedora with a black band. everyone else was bare headed -- which is normal for most singing groups.

who was he and why was he?

Just email any info to me at ian@ilind.net.

Meda was putting away the cat theme Christmas ornaments by the time I got around to trying to pose a few photos. Poor Ms. Annie was just trying to nap when we started dangling small ornaments in front of her. I thought this one would get a rise out of her, but no such luck. She stared. Then she flashed us this look. Then I think she just went back to sleep. In any case, she's part of the first cat photo gallery of 2006. Just click on her photo for more.

Click for more

January 8, 2006 - Sunday

The company that disappeared after failing to make millions of dollars of scheduled retirement plan investments on behalf of island teachers and university professors filed for bankruptcy in California on December 29, citing assets of less than $500,000 and debts between $1 million and $10 million.

The Plan Compliance Group, Ltd., bankruptcy petition lists more than 50 creditors, including school districts in Hawaii, California, Texas, and Michigan.

Hawaii creditors include the Department of Education and University of Hawaii, Central Pacific Bank, Colliers Monroe Friedlander Management, Inc., HMSA and Hawaiian Telcom.

Plan Compliance Group had been contracted to process money designated by individual employees for personal retirement plans, known as 403(b) plans, and then transmit those funds to the designated investment companies. The company missed two rounds of scheduled investments for Hawaii teachers and professors in September, prompting state officials to suspend the contract and take over the investment responsibilities. State funds were used to complete the scheduled investments in place of the money taken by Plan Compliance Group.

The State of Hawaii has sued the company in a California court, but the number of creditors and estimates of outstanding debt appear to make it unlikely that the suit will be able to recover anything near the full amount of the missing island payments, pegged at over $2.6 million.

The company was established in Nevada but did business from offices in Walnut Creek, California.

Company president and sole director, Francis "Bill" Reimers, invoked the 5th Amendment right against self incrimination and refused to provide any of the financial information contained in the bankruptcy petition, citing expected criminal charges, according to a note in the bankruptcy court filing.

The information contained in the Debtor’s voluntary Chapter 7 petition, creditor list verification and the schedules and statements to be filed herein has been obtained, exclusively, from the Debtor’s business books and records. Francis W. Reimers, whose signature appears thereon, is or may soon be the subject of a criminal investigation by the Office of the District Attorney in Contra Costa County, California and/or the United States Attorney for the Northern District of California. Pending conclusion of the said criminal investigation(s) and prosecution, if any, Mr. Reimers refuses to provide any testimonial information otherwise required on the grounds of the privilege accorded him under the 5th and 14th amendments to the United States Constitution and any and all other related privileges.

Attorney Matthew Shier, who filed the bankruptcy claim, also requested additional time to complete the required schedules of assets and debts, again citing the criminal investigation of Reimers. Shier was given until January 27 to file those documents and a meeting of creditors is scheduled for January 31, according to bankruptcy court records.

The bankruptcy filing will likely temporarily halt the State of Hawaii's lawsuit against Plan Compliance Group.

A quick Google search indicates the only reporting of the bankruptcy filing has been a brief Associated Press story datelined Honolulu and picked up by KPUA-AM radio in Hilo.