Don’t miss the further adventures of Ryan Ozawa ongoing quest for open and accessible government data. You’ll find his latest update, including links to salary data for the legislature and University of Hawaii, and a growing collection of public data sources, at his Hawaii Blog.

Good work, Ryan!

And the headline from an article in yesterday’s New York Times carried the message: “The 3,000-Mile Oil Change Is Pretty Much History”

This issue has bothered me for over a decade. Back when we drove a Toyota, the factory recommendation was to change the oil every 5,000 miles. But Servco, the monopoly local dealer, insisted on its recommendation of a 3,000 oil change and servicing, which almost doubled the costs of routine service.

I considered it one of those hidden and widely accepted consumer rip-off, and at one point sent letters around and made several phone calls to Servco officials, thinking it would be a good story. I don’t think it went anywhere because there were lots of excuses for ignoring the manufacturer’s recommendation.

So I’m glad to see this latest story. It’s about time.

And I’ll backtrack a bit to give the UH Manoa student newspaper, Ka Leo, a plug for its story last month which found the UH head football coach to be the highest paid in the WAC, earning “more last year than Boise State head coach Chris Petersen ($995,000), who led the school to its second BCS bowl game win last season.”

Only two other WAC coaches were paid more than $400,000 last year, according to Ka Leo.