Spotted yesterday having a quiet lunch in the Downtown restaurant at the State Art Museum? City Council member Donovan Dela Cruz and outgoing member (and unsuccessful mayoral candidate) Ann Kobayashi, sitting alone at a table for two.

Hmmmm. The Star-Bulletin web site is loading very slowly this morning, with individual pages taking forever to open.

Did you notice the news yesterday about criminals hijacking CheckFree.com, a major online bill payment web site?

A reader here noted:

When I checked the list of companies using CheckFree, I found the following of local interest that are using them for bill payments: HECO, HELCO, and MECO as well as Macy’s. Go here for a full list of companies serviced by CheckFree.

Ten employees at the Honolulu Advertiser were fired yesterday while 41 others accepted “voluntary” layoffs or buyouts, Star-Bulletin columnist Erika Engle reports today.

Meanwhile, in its latest update for Advertiser employees, the Hawaii Newspaper Guild signals it is prepared to accept concessions, at least under certain conditions.

And if we make concessions, we must be able to monitor the books until all pay and benefits are restored. Concessions should be treated as investments in the future so we can share in the good times when they return.

The union also criticized Gannett’s lack of a plan to increase revenues rather than simply continue to cut back.

And this is what the Guild had to say on the question of a possible strike:

We hope we are NOT headed for a strike, but we have to be prepared. This week the unions met and agreed to make all strike preparation committees joint committees to move the work along faster. Most people I talk to tell me that they would strike rather than take a 31.5% pay cut. The unions will not provoke a strike.

With UH Manoa facing an estimated $20 million budget cut in next year’s budget, officials are trying to determine just how and where the cuts will be implemented.

In a recent meeting of College of Social Sciences department chairs and program directors, possible ways of cutting were discussed, including but not limited to:

• Cutting sections of popular classes

• Increasing class size in remaining classes

• Increasing faculty work load

• Eliminating small or specialized classes

• Incentives for early retirement

• Consolidate or eliminate departments and programs

• Reduce number of graduate assistants

• Terminate temporary hires

• Delay/defer the new West Oahu campus

And here’s one I tidbit I hadn’t seen before: “It was noted that the governor may cut all the legislative add-ons that were given over the past 5 years.”

And so it goes in the new economy.