It’s Labor Day.

Nothing major today.

Star-Bulletin reporter Cindy Luis writes that a volleyball program published by the Honolulu Advertiser as part of their relationship with the UH Athletic Department contained an advertisement that violated NCAA rules, and that it has been voluntarily reported to the NCAA by UH officials.

Hawaii athletic director Jim Donovan confirmed yesterday that he was aware of the improper use of the likeness of two student-athletes in an ad for a car dealership in the volleyball program published by the Advertiser distributed at the Stan Sheriff Center. The ad also ran in the Advertiser on Aug. 29, although Donovan said he did not see it.

Perhaps the Advertiser already reported on this and I didn’t see it.

It seems to me that the new Department of Education policy shielding student test scores and other student data from military recruiters, reported by the Star-Bulletin, is really quite significant.

Kyle Kajehiro of the Quaker-based American Friends Service Committee is exactly right when he describes the new policy as “probably one of the most far-reaching policies of its kind in the U.S.”

Starting this year, however, no student information should go to recruiters through the ASVAB test because schools will no longer release it. In addition, students will no longer have to sign the Privacy Act statement on the test that is normally required by the military before tests are scored, Uyehara said. Now students will have to go to a recruiting office and sign a form if they wish to have their scores and contact information released to recruiters.

“It puts the parents and student in the driver’s seat,” said Kyle Kajihiro, area program director of the American Friends Service Committee, which had lobbied the school board to respect student privacy. “This will benefit all the students in public education in the state of Hawaii.”

This policy has been long overdue. Schools shouldn’t be part of the military recruiting system, in my view. This at least makes it an arms length relationship. But I’m sure there are lots of folks who disagree on that and I’m surprised this matter has drawn so little attention.

I really appreciated Seattle Times columnist Danny Westneat’s answer to the question, “can you name for us a single government program that has worked?”

His answer, loud and clear: The national parks system.

His review of the history of the national parks implies a criticism of current politics.

“A hundred years ago, they got it — that as much as America is about freedom, there are also obligations to the society and to future generations,” Runte says. “Now it’s all, ‘What are you going to do for me? Right now?’ “

It’s a column well worth reading.

Bravo to The Consumerist (Consumerist.com) for pursuing a story critical of Cash4Gold, despite lawsuits by the deep-pocketed company trying to squash critical reporting.

Although The Consumerist is answering the company’s pressure with further reporting, it isn’t a pretty picture for independent bloggers to contemplate.

Just to be clear about the Consumerist’s position, we consider this a legitimate and even important news story. One core mission of a consumer-oriented news site is to alert its readers to bad deals. Everything we’ve learned about Cash4Gold’s offer so far places it in that category, in our view. That’s why we have resisted the legal efforts to silence our reporting, and why we’ve continued to dig into the story, despite the company’s lack of cooperation.

As part of that effort, we reached Aronson on Aug. 12. In a brief phone conversation, Ben asked the Cash4Gold CEO if he’d be willing to talk to us about “some of the questions people are raising, to clear things up.” Aronson said, “Sure,” and told us to contact his office for an interview. The public relations contact instead referred us to the company’s general counsel. A couple of hours later, Cash4Gold’s law firm told our attorney that we were being sued, and that all further discussion should be lawyer-to-lawyer.

In any case, an important story on several levels.