The counter on this page slipped past 1.5 million visits sometime late yesterday afternoon, an average of about 20,000 visits per month.

Members of the Century Center Condominium toured the building yesterday to inspect trouble spots and behind-the-scenes areas. The view from the roof is spectacular.

This is the view looking across Waikiki towards Diamond Head from the building, which is across the street from the convention center. That’s the Ala Wai Canal running up the center of the photo.

Time for a brief review of sunshine law issues around the country. Nothing earth shattering going on right now, but lots of interesting tidbits that resonate here as well.

The Colorado Independent, a daily online publication, has sued the state Ethics Commission over alleged violations of the sunshine law.

An investigation by The Colorado Independent found the ethics commission has spent 85 percent of its time meeting in secret this year, including self-described “deliberations” on an ethics complaint filed against U.S. Rep. Mike Coffman that alleged he had conflicts of interest when he served as Colorado secretary of state. The commission dismissed the complaint against the Aurora Republican in a lengthy ruling issued after numerous closed sessions.

Routinely, the commission has retreated behind closed doors for hours only to emerge with rulings ready to be adopted in brief public sessions with unanimous, formal public votes. State courts have ruled that voting in public on matters decided in secret amounts to “rubber-stamping” and is no defense against charges a government board violated the state’s strict Sunshine Law, according to the lawsuit.

In Florida, the state’s prison system is accused of holding secret negotiations with a favored bidder.

Attorney Chris Kise of Foley & Lardner, who served as a counselor and climate change advisor to Crist, filed the suit in state court in Tallahassee Tuesday on behalf of MHM Correctional Services, a Virginia firm that pitched a proposal to provide mental health care in the agency’s South Florida Region IV prisons. Kise’s suit alleges that he obtained public records showing that agency staffers began “secret negotiations” with a competing vendor, Correctional Medical Services (CMS), almost two weeks before competing vendors learned that their proposals were rejected. Kise also said the deal the state negotiated with CMS would cost taxpayers $5.5-million more than MHM’s proposal.

Also from Florida, a debate over a public agency Facebook page. Interesting issues.

A city in Alabama has had a flap over committee minutes initially approved via an email vote by members. To comply with the sunshine law, a special meeting had to be held to approve the minutes in public.

In Tennessee, a new law requires disclosure when state or county agencies submit bills to be introduced at the legislature, and it has already yielded results.

Pacific Daily News reports on a proposal to require all Guam agencies to require online disclosure of information from all power meters, including kilowatt hours used, etc.

And for this Feline Friday, I’ve selected more photos of Sally and Sylvester, the fine feline duo we visited while on the east coast last week. They’re just about a year old, and just about as good a pair of cats as you can find. They are indoor cats with a big house to rule. I think you’ll enjoy meeting them as much as we did.