The Wall Street Journal sent out a “news alert” this morning reporting that the U.S. gross domestic product grew during the July-September period.

The economy’s growth was the first since the second quarter of 2008 and serves as an unofficial confirmation that the longest and deepest recession since the Great Depression has ended.

Yippee!

But the unofficial end of the recession comes too late to stem what is looking like the beginning of a stampede out of state government. According to a memo circulated yesterday at UH, the Employees Retirement System counseling sessions on Oahu for those planning to retire at the end of 2009 are “sold out”. Full. Those who procrastinated will have to walk themselves through the paperwork and get it done by December 1.

UHPA, the faculty union, is highlighting a story from the Chronicle of Higher Education, “Why Faculties Shouldn’t ‘Give Back’ During Negotiations“.

And that led to another interesting story, “Bureaucrat U“, which appeared in Forbes back in June, based on a report by the Center for College Affordability and Productivity.

Both report that the growth in administrative ranks (referred to as “bureaucratic bloat”) at the University of Hawaii is far from unique.

According to a recent report from the Delta Cost Project that uses U.S. Department of Education data, between 1995 and 2006 spending growth on student services and administration outpaced growth in expenditure on instruction by a multiple of 2 at the private research colleges, 1.75 at public research colleges and 3.2 at public master’s degree granting colleges.

Did you happen to catch Neil Abercrombie featured prominently in a photo during a signing ceremony with President Obama? The photo appeared on the front page of the Huffington Post yesterday.

Admittedly, I haven’t watched enough of the newly consolidated news on KGHB-KHNL-KVFE (K5) to evaluate it, but…last night we turned on the 9 p.m. news on K5. By 9:03, the “news” was already to the “Cheap Eats” feature with Lyle Galdeira and Russell Yamanoha consuming far too many calories. That was 9:03 p.m. on the 9 p.m. “news”. I’ve got the feeling that Hawaii “News” Now has earned permanent quotation marks signaling that we understand that their news isn’t what it used to be.

And there must have been some unhappy news editors here when CNN came out with its investigation of federal funds going to American Samoa for emergency preparedness. There were a lot of local resources that went into covering the recent tsunami, but CNN seems to have had this issue to themselves.