You’ve got to give Mayor Hannemann very high grades for shameless “spin”.

He makes the announcement that, in essence, the city can’t proceed with contracts and groundbreaking for the rail project in December because it has not obtained necessary government approvals. Simple.

So how does he turn this around?

According to the Advertiser’s account (I admit that I couldn’t stomach the mayor’s paid infomercial so close to mealtime):

“I’m announcing today that I’m willing to push back our groundbreaking schedule for at least another month to allow the appropriate federal, state and community organizations to cross the t’s and dot the i’s.”

The Star-Bulletin’s quote: “It’s just my willingness to be flexible and compromise.”

Translated this means: “I would really like to bully ahead like I’ve always done, but I’ve been informed that doing that without approvals would mean we’ll never get any federal funds and the project would almost certainly be shot down in court anyway. So I’ll put on the brakes. But no one’s making me do it. I’m willing and flexible. Trust me on that.”

And what does the pro-rail Advertiser headline say? It dutifully reports:

Honolulu mayor willing to delay start of rail project

Then the ‘Tiser slips in, without comment:

Any substantive change to the historical impact plan will require approval by the City Council, which could cause delays.

Of course, the plan was already approved by the council because the mayor bullied it forward despite the lack of consensus from the groups that have to be consulted.

So any delays caused by changes to the plan, which should have been expected given the failure get approvals from all involved, are again the blowback from an overly aggressive strategy by the mayor to outflank all questions, legitimate or not.

Well, it looks like a pattern on the K5 news at 9.

The pattern is–not much news.

At 9:05 last night, just minutes after the broadcast started, the KFVE News at 9 adjourned to Las Vegas for more than five minutes of thinly disguised advertising, ending with a promo for even more Vegas programming on sister station KHNL.

Lots of bright chatter. Little substance.

Perhaps KGMB has retained more news integrity? We’ll have to find time to check out that part of the equation. But so far, any claim to be producing more news certainly rings false.

Recommended: Tom Friedman’s column this week in the New York Times coming out against a buildup of additional forces in Afghanistan.

And there was an unusually sharp interchange on an NPR Talk of the Nation segment this week discussing programs which claim to improve intellectual performance of young children.

Unusual because one of the guests, a specialist in child development from Tufts University, posed a direct question and challenge to the other guest, an author whose books advise parents how to teach their young children reading and math. The question: Is there any science behind the program those books are selling?

Dr. ELKIND: You’ve been doing this for 35 to 40 years. Do you have any science to support the – have you compared children who’ve been in your program with children who weren’t in your program, to see that your program has done anything better than what a normal parent is doing without these programs have done? I mean, the program has been in existence. You charge $5,000 (unintelligible)…

Ms. DOMAN: We don’t charge them $5,000.

Dr. ELKIND: What is the science…?

Ms. DOMAN: Excuse me, sir.

Dr. ELKIND: I’d like to know the science.

Ms. DOMAN: You can go to a…

CONAN: Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

Dr. ELKIND: …science to support – I’d like to know the science to support…

The question was important because generally such claims are left unexamined and unchallenged by reporters.

Unfortunately, the host cut off the heated discussion before the question could be answered or resolved.

And here we are, another Feline Friday. So if you happen to be into cats, just click on Ms. Harriet’s photo to see more of this week’s favorites. Oh, I did edit myself and leave out the big rat Ms. Annie brought home one early morning. Enough said.