Kaaawa fared better in yesterday’s rain, although there are a few yards under water in low areas. And we sat without moving on Kamehameha Highway in Kahaluu last night for almost an hour as state crews apparently blocked the road while finishing up their work clearing under the bridge in Waikane and getting their equipment ready to move out. That turned the usually uneventful drive home into a two-hour marathon.

I wonder if Akaku is going to have a camera at this week’s hearing on Maui where the state is seeking to lift the Superferry injunction? I don’t see anything on their web site this morning, but we can hope….

While the screenwriters’ strike in Hollywood, journalists should be realizing that this is an issue that hits them directly, especially as print wanes and electronic delivery becomes ever more important. So far, I don’t think the Newspaper Guild hasn’t had to take this issue on directly, but you’ve got to realize that its coming.

Here’s a grim procurement issue. The State Procurement Office has disapproved a request by the state Office of Veterans Services for an emergency purchase of topsoil used to backfill graves at the Hawaii State Veterans Cemetery.

“Decomposing flesh heightens the potential for disease. Additionally, large craters in the ground resulting from excavation prior to internment may be a hazard to all. Injury would occur should anyone fall in any of the deep holes.”

The procurement office apparently blames Veterans Services for knowing about the need for extra dirt and failing to act in a timely fashion. For this and other reasons, they rejected the request and recommended that the department “submit SPO Form-16, Procurement Violation Report for the estimated amount of topsoil that will be needed until a contract can be awarded.”

Are they saying no to the emergency procurement request and then advising the department to go ahead anyone while reporting the purchase as a violation? Perhaps that makes sense in some kind of kinky bureaucratic way, but it’s kind of hard to fathom before 6 a.m.

Thanks to the Maui News for their story a week or so ago, and the headline: “Database details sizes, shapes of top bagmen’s bags”

The story actually reports on a Seattle Times project tracking Congressional earmarks, which they called “The Favor Factory“.

Interesting reading.