I brought along my cell phone yesterday morning and we made calls to family on the mainland while the sun was coming up. There’s nothing like a little local color to spice up those family calls. Meda was talking to her sister in Ellicott City, Maryland, when I took this photo.

Noted: A new email newsletter from Senator Inouye, “Report to Hawaii”, identified as Volume 1, Number 1.

A reader posted a comment yesterday that I take seriously and believe deserves a clear response. Here’s the comment, in case you didn’t read it already online.

Humor me, Ian, but I just don’t understand why disclosure of details of the Bob Awana case benefit the public. Do we need all the juicy dirty details to somehow better society or is this just a devious way to stick it further to a republican official who has disgraced himself out of office and we all know why. Shall we skin him alive and pour Bacardi Anejo on the wounds? How about tying him to a post in Tamarin Park at noon and have the vengeful crowd throw rotten tomatos at him? Would that be humiliation enough for Peter Boylan? For you? I am disgusted enough with this story and to know more sordid details is something I’ll pass on. I don’t know any of these people but my sympathy goes to the family members who are hurt and have to have their pain further exposed. People that white for the media should take that into consideration when pounding away at the keys with glee that they have a juicy story.

If this is merely the story of another guy who grew up with the 60’s and 70’s “skin is made to tickle” ethic and continues to act out of that personal approach to life, then the reader’s comments would be on point.

There are several issues, though, that potentially make this a legitimate political and policy matter rather than simply prurient interest. Given Awana’s positions at the time as the state’s administrative director, chief of staff for the governor, and former campaign chair to the same governor, it is important to know whether these were simply individual actions or mixed up with his official responsibilities, either as a state employee or campaign figure.

I don’t think I’m alone in wanting to know whether “entertainment” was being offered to any of the large campaign contributors who paid to go along as members of the official state delegation, or whether state resources were devoted to providing these and other services offered to those traveling with the group.

I’m also keenly interested in how Gov. Lingle responded when she learned of the situation. So far, she has said zilch. Did people in her office know or suspect these activities were happening? Did legislators traveling with the group have knowledge? When did the governor learn about it? Did she try to cover up for her senior aide? Did she order an investigation? Did she change the rules for what is acceptable on the part of official participants in such state delegations? Do we need a conversation over whether such rules of decorum are needed? We’ve been reading about lobbyists using hookers to get on the good side of at least one member of Congress, as with Duke Cunningham. Was some variation of that theme at work here?

Those are just a few questions that immediately come to mind. And those go far beyond the “sordid details”. Heck, hold the sordid details and give us the political and policy context. That’s really what this is now about.

A reader passed a few comments on a reported drop in the Honolulu Advertiser’s circulation.

Golly, I don’t recall reading about THIS in the Advertiser. I wonder if they’ve notified their advertisers.

They’re quick to scrutinize circulation figures elsewhere, of course:

Seriously, for a paper that routinely reports the most meaningless statistics about crime, tourism and real estate on its front page (in ways that are often very misleading), it’s as if they completely lack integrity when it comes to reporting important information about themselves.

On the other hand, the Advertiser’s rank by a new measurement, “integrated audience reach” combining print and online readership, put it in the nation’s top twenty, according to a story in Editor & Publisher. But that measure is already drawing criticism.

I ran across this very stark critique of the reliance on imported biofuels, which is currently the direction Hawaii is headed towards. It makes the case that biofuels made from food crops add to the world’s already substantial problem of hunger. The U.S. reliance on corn has already caused problems for US food aid, as noted in several reports recently.

Salon.com has a good story on the failure of laws designed to protect federal whistleblowers.

Sometimes local signs really deserve a chuckle or two. This one is outside Kailua’s Goodwill Store and states their “no animals” policy. I also grabbed a photo of the sign outside the just-opened restroom at Kaaawa Beach Park. Click on this photo for links to full-size versions.