Newspaper Guild members at the Hawaii Tribune-Herald finally have a new contract. It’s only for two years, and includes a meager 1% pay raise in the second year. Not much, but its the first increase since 2002, according to Baron Sekiya, Hawaii 24/7. Employees had been working without a contract since late last year.

With Mufi Hannemann touting his plan to bring back the Superferry, it was most interesting to see the story KITV broadcast on Saturday about the current status of the two ships.

Denby Fawcett reported the ships will be sold at auction. Just as with a home mortgage foreclosure auction, a bidder would have to bid more than the amount owed to the lender in order to walk away with the ships. The U.S. Maritime Administration guaranteed $150 in loans, and the agency’s administrator said he doesn’t expect any private bidders at that price.

As for Hannemann’s plan, Fawcett reported:

A source who knows the Hawaii investors who want to bring back the Superferry said they were counting on a fire sale, and hoped to pay no more that $40 million for each vessel.

Despite its relevance to the campaign, the Star-Advertiser apparently hasn’t followed up on Fawcett’s report.

Another reader questioned why the Star-Advertiser’s story on the elimination of 97 polling places statewide didn’t include a list of the disappeared sites.

“If they had listed the closed places it would have been a service to their readers,” he wrote.

Actually, a list of closed polling places along with the location where those voters should now go to vote is what voters could use. But I guess we can’t necessarily expect value added these days.

And, finally, does anyone else worry when the monopoly daily newspaper partners with the Hawaii News Now near-monopoly to produce news, like their current political poll? This seems to be taking the lack of diversity and competition, and turning the crank a few more revolutions. It may make financial sense for them. It doesn’t feel like a positive development out here on the receiving end.