Here are some great photos of the weekend flood in Hilo, courtesy of a Big Island blog called “Ha Ha Ha!”.

Here’s some brief background on this nice looking blog:

This blog is one farmer’s tractor ride into the computer world. One could think of it as “The Farmer and the Dell.”

We call it “Ha Ha Ha!” because the farmer’s name is Richard Ha, and his Hamakua Springs Country Farms is a family business. Three generations of the Ha family work on the farm (get it?) and they all have a pretty good-natured approach to things.

Campaign junkies may want to bookmark this page of the latest news from polling outfit Zogby International. It provides a quick look at current polling results.

And check out this video, a hiphop version of the Obama “Yes We Can” speech, in which the Obama campaign seems to open up a whole new genre of campaign advertising.

Congratulations to Larry Geller (www.disappearednews.com), whose description of the home-grown Barf-o-Meter Index was featured by Improbable Research, the home of the Ig Noble Prizes. The Index, developed by Brad Parsons and Dick Mayer over on Maui, predicts the probability of barfing during a ride on a “Large Capacity Ferry Vessel” like the Superferry based on a combination of wind speed and wave heights. With color coded warning categories from white (lowest) to black (highest), predictions range from possible to scattered, then on through probable, definite, widespread, and guaranteed.

Christie Wilson’s story in Sunday’s Advertiser about the Superferry’s latest woes have drawn a bit of reaction from critical blotters. While reading Wilson’s piece, I noted that you had to wade through lots of column inches before getting down to a single description of what happened to a family stranded by a cancelled ferry trip.

There we learn: “…the Gruidls were advised to park their car at the Kahului ferry pier, take a taxi to the airport, fly back to O’ahu and take a taxi home, then fly back to Maui on another day to bring their car back on the ferry.”

That sounds simple, doesn’t it?

In any case, read this longer assessment by Maui Brad (yes, of Barf-o-Meter fame) which raises a number of very provocative issues concerning the long-term viability of the Superferry.

Ben Lowenthal (Hawaii Legal News) points out that one element of the recent Hawaii Supreme Court decision in the case of a woman attorney who sued her former law firm is the court’s affirmation that complaints filed against a lawyer with the Office of the Disciplinary Counsel are “absolutely privileged” and can’t trigger future suits by the person targeted by the complaint.

It’s interesting to see how secrecy battles are never finally won. Last year, the Tax Review Commission recommended taking a much more critical look at the state’s high tech tax credits.

Among the commission’s recommendations:

If the credit is kept, this Commission recommends the following changes be adopted, at a minimum:

• Increase transparency and timely disclosure so that the credit can be evaluated effectively. Towards this end, we believe the data reporting should be mandatory and expanded to include sales; employment by compensation ranges and status, including full-time, part-time, and seasonal; and number of trademarks, patents, and copyrights obtained during the year.

• The data should be collected by NAICS codes and distributed to the public periodically, but not less frequently than annually.

• To gather the data, a tax confidentiality waiver should be required so
that pertinent data can be released to the public.

The Legislature responded by passing HB 1631, which provides in part:

By accepting an investment for which the credit allowed under this section may be claimed, a qualified high technology business consents to the public disclosure of the qualified high technology business’ name and status as a beneficiary of the credit under this section.”

But HB 2961, scheduled for a hearing this morning, seeks to quietly roll back those provisions for public disclosure and accountability. The bill would delete all of the public reporting requirements, including the required reports to the legislature.

Secrecy is a hard addiction to kick, I guess. Hopefully the majority won’t want to go down this path during an election year.