Monthly Archives: August 2010

Local engineering firm tops recent Abercrombie contributors

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Here’s a quick look at top contributors to Neil Abercrombie’s gubernatorial campaign during the first six months of this year. The list includes those who gave $4,000 or more during the period.

Six officers or employees of Mitsunaga & Associations, a local architecural/engineering firm, combined to contribute a total of $35,000 during the period.

Abigail Kawananakoa contributed $6,000, as did the Native Hawaiian PAC, chaired by Robin Danner. Country singer-songwriter Willie Nelson added $5,000.

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Dennis Mitsunaga, president of Mitsunaga & Associates, has previously raised funds for former governor Ben Cayetano, former mayor Jeremy Harris, and other elected officials.

He was also accused of being part of a “pay to play” scheme in which campaign contributions were solicited in exchange for government contracts. The allegations were made by deputy city prosecutor Randal Lee in 2004. Lee said they were based on testimony of another engineer charged with making an illegal contribution.

Mitsunaga strongly denied the allegations, and said that results of a private lie detector test backed him up. No charges were ever filed against Mitsunaga, as far as I can tell from checking the federal and state court records.

Many of the individuals and companies named in the earlier investigation of illegal contributions have contributed heavily to the current campaign of Abercrombie’s main opponent, Mufi Hannemann.

Top recent contributors to Hannemann’s campaign were reported earlier.

Duke gets his first insulin shot, and I get major relief

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We returned to VCA with Duke this morning, and I gave my first insulin shot, under veterinary supervision, of course.

The good news is that it was easily accomplished. The needle used for insulin is very small and ultra-thin, and it’s given subcutaneously. That means just under the skin. No need to stick the needle into muscle. It didn’t seem to phase Duke in the least.

This was a huge relief. A lot easier than giving him a pill. We can do this.

There was other good news. The insulin he is starting out on is “Lantus”. Do a Google search for “lantus” and “cats”, and there are a number of reports of cats going into remission after temporary use of Lantus. So we’re trying to maintain a very positive attitude.

The hard part, by most accounts, is getting to the correct dosage and keeping Duke stable over the course of a normal day. He’ll have to get two shots, one morning, one evening, after eating. We left him in Dr. Sakamoto’s care for overnight observation during his first 24 hours receiving insulin, just in case of a negative reaction of some kind. We’ll pick him up tomorrow and go from there. Weekly follow-ups with the vet are recommended for the first month as they seek the right dosage.

He’s starting out at a low dose, which should decrease the chances of problems. It can be increased over time, if necessary.

Even at the Costco Pharmacy, insulin is expensive, just under $100 for a small vial. Hopefully, it will last several months. Actually, the hope is that he won’t need the insulin treatments more than a few months. We can hope!

In the meantime, we’re already thinking months ahead to our next scheduled trip and arrangements that will have to be made for Duke while we’re gone.

Lender apparently takes back developer’s homes in Kaaawa

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[text]The mortgage crisis has arrived in Kaaawa in a very visible way.

A cluster of three brand new, never-occupied homes built by developer W. Michael Sessions have been empty since they were built two years ago and now appear abandoned.

Although real estate records continue to list the owners as Michael Sessions and Daniel Sessions, the homes are currently being marketed for sale as “REO”, a real estate term for homes that are held by banks as “real estate owned”.

Notices posted on two of the homes, located on Kekio Road behind the Kaaawa Post Office, says the homes were found “unsecure/or vacant” and were secured by Field Asset Services, a Texas company specializing in maintenance of bank-owned properties.

The properties were purchased in 2007, real estate records show. W. Michael Sessions held a 2/3 majority interest, with the remainder owned by Daniel Sessions. City building permits were issued for construction of the three new homes in late 2007.

Construction financing was provided by IndyMac Bank, which was reopened as OneWest Bank after being shut down by federal regulators. IndyMac/OneWest have been criticized for aggressive and, according to some, illegal foreclosures on IndyMac mortgages.

The houses are on portions of two larger lots that were registered as condominiums in order to build multiple houses on what is zoned for single family homes.

Sessions’ Kina’ole Development earlier built two homes next to the post office in 2005-2006. Although these were slow to sell, they eventually did sell. He then quickly proceeded to build on a lot on the other side of Kekio Road, but was unable to sell the homes before the market dried up.

Sessions’ problems are unlikely to get much sympathy from longtime Kaaawa residents, who regret the move by real estate speculators into the area with projects that increase the density and cut up large residential lots in the area once owned by Kualoa Ranch.

Sessions’ first two houses caused considerable local controversy because a concrete driveway was built through an existing drainage swale, and the new drainage provided was not adequate for the heavy rains that occasionally fall in the area. During discussions of local flooding, the Kaaawa Community Association has pointed to the inadequate drainage as a contributing factor.

Although never occupied, all three homes are now described as needing repairs, according to the current real estate listings.

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A note to anonymous commenters

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If you have left anonymous comments which did not appear within several hours, it usually means that I’ve decided not to post them.

Normally, I would let you know and see if the problems could be worked out. However, if you post anonymously, or leave only a fictitious email address, this obviously isn’t possible.

Why would I decide not to post a comment? If it is particularly nasty in attacking someone else personally, or with sweeping generalizations (smears?) unsupported by facts. These are the comments most of us cringe at when reading the daily newspaper, and this site is not a vehicle for such diatribes. You are free to present contrary views, but, as the other guys say, do it civilly and it’s not a problem.

You may consider this “censorship”. To me, it’s keeping some semblance of control and order on this participatory site.

And if you would like to be consulted, simply register and provide a valid email address.