A reader reports that Honolulu Advertiser trucks have been redone with Nordstrom advertising for the Ala Moana store’s grand opening this week. I haven’t seen the trucks myself so can’t confirm the new paint jobs.

He comments:

Money money money…the Advertiser is really getting their bang for their buck. They’ve sold out all their trucks to Nordstrom for the grand opening…not one logo for the Advertiser on their own trucks.

This certainly puts the newsroom in an awkward situation, as the reading public will have legitimate cause to wonder whether the extensive coverage of the Nordstrom opening reflects actual news value or the commercial relationship between Nordstrom and Gannett.

60 Minutes, the CBS news program, broadcast a story yesterday that ranks among the best I’ve seen on the crisis of America’s health care system. It followed a medical charity, Remote Area Medical, that has gone from dropping medical supplies and services into impoverished third world nations to offering special medical clinics in places like Knoxville, Tennessee, where hundreds lined up, many overnight in cold weather, for medical, dental, or vision services otherwise unavailable to them. A devastating portrait that underscores why health care has become a key election issue. And shouldn’t at least some of the credit for moving health care up the political priority list go to Michael Moore’s movie, Sicko?

Another round of “Winter Soldier” hearings are scheduled for next week in Washington. Modeled after the Vietnam-era hearings in which U.S. veterans testified about the underside of U.S. policies, this new round of hearings will feature vets of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Opponents of the Turtle Bay Resort expansion have launched an organized effort to support media coverage of Gov. Lingle’s public meeting in Kahuku tomorrow night. The Koolauloa – North Shore Alliance Communications Committee says “there will be media areas set up both inside and outside” the meeting, and sent out an email with names and phone numbers of key community leaders.

The Sierra Club is urging its members and supporters to speak out against two Senate bills up for third reading this week.

Senate Bill 2204 would remove the current $1000 aggregate limit on corporate giving to campaigns, dramatically increase corporate influence in Hawaii politics. Please see our previous action alert or read the Star-Bulletin’s editorial on this subject for more information. Senators need to hear from you that this bill is simply not acceptable. We stopped the bill in the House, now it is critical we stop it in the Senate.

Senate Bill 2808 weakens Hawaii’s three-decade old environmental review law, not only by eliminating the environmental review of potentially damaging projects, but upsetting the current process that is in place for exemption requirements. The amendment proposed in SB 2808 is unnecessary, as a process exists to deal with minor projects. The Department of Transportation — after exempting the Superferry from environmental review — is again misinterpreting the law and now it is over zealously requiring environmental review for some manini projects. This is an administrative problem, not a legislative problem. If a triggered project is truly minor, then it would be excluded via categorical exemption. Further, we strongly believe that any changes to our environmental review law are premature before a thorough analysis of the entire law is complete — something the legislature is already committed to doing.

For the second year in a row, a duck stopped by a Honolulu condo long enough enjoy its water feature and to hatch a few eggs. This time around, seven ducklings have survived. A friend sent a couple of photos.