Thanks to Bill Fuller for this note:
Someone with NINE cats and a blog surely needs to include a link to
these commentaries on felinity — for pleasure, if not for new information …
He’s correct in the extreme. This is a wonderful series!
The Legislature is poised to take away the public’s right to know about the record of complaints against licensed professionals, including contractors, realtors, and others. The Senate adopted only minor changes to HB1212, leaving few differences to resolve in conference. Unless there’s a dramatic turnaround in sentiment, the House and Senate are going to take away a consumers ability to assess the records of these professionals and steer away from those with questionable records.
And it may be worse than it looks. The Office of Information Practices testified that the bill could prevent information about complaints from being shared with investigators and expert witnesses who are part of pending investigations, the Office of Administrative Hearings, and even with the licensing boards themselves. OIP described public information about complaint histories as an important resource for consumers.
Unfortunately, its testimony apparently fell on deaf ears.
Thanks to Senator Les Ihara, who did speak against the bill when it came to the Senate floor.
Think we’re unique in struggling to get doctors to serve rural areas? Think again, according to this story from the Seattle Times.
![[text]](/images_2009/kindle.jpg)
Late Sunday afternoon, we walked over to a friend’s house just a block away for an introduction to her Amazon.com Kindle reader.
She swears by it, especially for travel, where it becomes the equivalent of a stack of books that you might otherwise want to lug around. Getting bored with the book you’re reading? Browse the Kindle store and immediately buy whatever catches your fancy. No more waiting for the next visit to the bookstore. And there are significant savings, especially if you’re addicted to the latest offerings of favorite authors that appear first in hardcover.
It’s a nice size, about the same size as a paperback book. Light weight. Our friend says the battery has lasted her through flights to the mainland without problems. The interface might take a little getting used to and it isn’t the sturdiest construction, although quite well made. A touch screen would be a major improvement. But the so-called “electronic paper” used to display text is easy on the eyes, text size is easily adjusted, turning pages was simple and quick, and the ability to leave electronic bookmarks through a book is a plus.
Will we rush out and buy a Kindle? Probably not. One problem is that Meda and I would then argue over who gets to use it, and two Kindles would make a substantial dent in the bank account. So we’ll probably watch with interest as this platform matures.
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The bill to deny access to complaints against licensed professionals continues a disturbing trend that began under the Cayetano administration and has only accelerated since then. Whatever else one may have thought of him as Governor, the UIPA was passed during John Waihee’s tenure and he made a meaningful commitment to its enforcement by creating and supporting a vital Office of Information Practices.
It is more than passing ironic that the UIPA was used “against” him during the procurement “scandal” fomented by the late Sen. Richard Matsuura in the early 1990’s. But it was Cayetano, who first began to starve OIP on the vine and now Lingle has reduced it to a vestigial organ, paper lion, a toothless tiger.
On the legislative side, the political move to limit public access began with Cayetano’s political protege, Rey Graulty (who was later rewarded with, and has now retired from, a Circuit Court judgeship). After the Hawaii Supreme Court ruled that the police officer’s collective bargaining agreement did not trump State law granting public access to disciplinary complaint information, he engineered the passage of legislation that conformed State law to the collective bargaining agreement.
So, for example, when a citizen attempted to intervene in a domestic dispute near the NBC between an off-duty police officer and his wife and the officer brandished a firearm, it was almost impossible yto find out what action was taken (a problem exacerbated by the fact that Keith Kaneshiro refused to file charges against the officer). That is the direction in which HB 1212 is set to take us.
If nothing else, it will be sad to watch businesses continue to assail the State as “business unfriendly” while quietly ignoring this shady little favor the Legislature plans to do them. Ian, maybe you should track campaign contributions from those who would benefit from this gift (contractors, etc.) to legislators who made it possible.
Bye the bye, isn’t it curious that this bill did not get a Consumer Protection committee referral in either house? I don’t suppose the proponents had anything to fear from the compliant Rep. Herkes but would Sen. Baker have been a little more diligent on our behalf? I guess we’ll never know. Shall we hope for a veto? It would be nice to have something good to say about our Governor . . . .
“No more waiting for the next visit to the bookstore. ”
But that’s one of the pleases of living ‘old school’. Reminds me of the hula chair: “No more expensive hula lessons! All the benefits of hula and none of the many negatives! No more waiting to go to hula class. No more annoying having to deal with the other persons in the halau!
http://tinyurl.com/c4efvh
“Bye the bye, isn’t it curious that this bill did not get a Consumer …” very clever wordplay. Intentional or not.
Why stop at denying access to unsubstantiated business complaints? Next year, someone will propose denying access to all Court records in Hoohiki where the defendant was found innocent. As BIA claims in its testimony for the bill, people who search and find a record won’t want to do business or hire the defendant, even though he was found innocent…