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August 31, 2002 - Saturday
Republican Linda Lingle has adopted a big-time
fundraising tactic--selling personal access.
Invitations are circulating for a $500 per person
fundraiser on September 22. The flyer notes:
"A special roundtable discussion with Linda
for just 8 of her strongest supporters will be held
from 5:00 to 6:00 before the Intimate Evening event
for an additional $1,000 per person."
I wonder if we're going to see major donors lining up
for sleep overs at Washington Place or the new governor's
home?
I've been puzzling over the $240,000 salary of the
Tourism Authority's new director, Rex Johnson. It seems
like a huge premium over his prior positions. Look at the
record. Johnson headed the Hawaii Community Development
Agency from 1983-1991, and DOT director from 1991-1994,
both public jobs paying well under $100,000. Then he went
to the local office of the Nature Conservancy from 1994 -
2001. I can't find a published account of his salary
there, but tax returns of the national organization show
that the top officials in the Nature Conservancy are paid
under $150,000, and state directors would be expected to
be at a lower scale.
Then Johnson moved to UH, where he didn't show up on
the list of top
earning administrators.
So how was the $240,000 figure arrived at? I guess
that I should put the question to the HTA's new chairman,
Mike McCartney.
And then there was this reaction from a reader to my
little comment on Tuesday morning:
there you go again, trying to write the obit
for the afternoon advertiser. at least this time you
aren't saying its demise is imminent, as on the other
two -- or is it three -- occasions when you declared
they were about to fold it. have you addressed the
issue of the star-bulletin becoming essentially an AM
paper? its big revisions happen for that edition and
they just tweak it for the afternoon editions. i guess
you aren't on death watch for the afternoon bulletin
because ... no, you're being entirely evenhanded.
never mind.
Remember that both the Star-Bulletin and Advertiser
had multiple daily editions for years, although they were
not billed as AM and PM.
It is true that the Star-Bulletin has become a morning
paper in many respects by shifting its first edition to
the AM cycle, but it makes a lot of sense. Most
subscribers still receive the afternoon paper delivered
to their homes, which they apparently prefer. This
edition is normally just an update of the morning
edition. But the A.M. Bulletin is not delivered to
subscribers, except in out of the way places like Kaaawa.
Instead, it goes for street sales and neighbor island
distribution. So instead of selling yesterday's S-B on
the other islands, they get today's paper. The AM-PM
cycles also spreads the printing, which is a positive
since MidWeek's presses are pushed to the max on the
daily newspaper. Bottom line is that, for the
Star-Bulletin, both the morning and evening editions make
financial sense.
The Advertiser, though, took its last edition, pushed
it later in the day, and added a second round of home
delivery, and delivery is a costly proposition. If the
edition were just used to refresh street sales later in
the day, without the cost of home delivery, it would be
less of a drag.
So it's no mystery why I think the Advertiser might be
expected to follow the Chronicle's lead and dump that PM
edition, especially given all the Gannett talk of belt
tightening, cutbacks, and threatened layoffs.
August 30, 2002 - Friday
4:59 AM and the city garbage truck just made its
rather loud run up the road past our house. Kaaawa is
split into two routes, one that uses the automated truck
to pick up special containers, and the old-style truck
with its human crew that comes down smaller streets like
our own Haahaa Street. Friday is the automated pickup.
Saturday is our low-tech pickup. Our guys sometimes come
early, but never this early.
I finally got around to scanning UH
President Dobelle's contract, which makes interesting
reading. His salary starts at $442,000, with a provision
in the
salary section that "the Board may increase the
President's annual base salary by such amount as the
Board deems appropriate after each annual performance
evaluation of the President or at any other time the
Board deems appropriate."
After the Board of Regents sent out a press release on
Dobelle's first annual evaluation, I asked whether he had
received an increase in pay.
This drew a quick reply from v-p Paul Costello: "The
President has not received a raise. This has not been
considered by the Board."
Since the provision is in the contract, the matter
would be expected to be discussed. Did the Regents'
Personnel Committee decline to recommend an increase? Or
will such a recommendation be on the agenda for the
Regents' September meeting? Interesting question.
Another interesting item: Pacific
Business News reports that the state's bond rating
was boosted to stable from "negative", indicating
increased confidence in the state of the economy.
August 29, 2002 - Thursday
The Council on Governmental Ethics Laws, a
national organization of agencies that administer ethics,
campaign finance, and lobbyist disclosure laws, has
redesigned its web site to include summaries of recent
news from across the country. Check it out at www.cogel.org.
Gov. Cayetano earlier this week announced
the appointment of Gregg Kinkley to the Public
Utilities Commission. Kinkley is familiar with the work
of the PUC after serving as Consumer Advocate, the
official who appears before the PUC to argue the
consumer's interest.
It sounds like a good idea, but there's a structural
problem with the appointment. If appointees to the
position of consumer advocate see it as a stepping stone
to a PUC appointment, it could undermine the independence
of the office and compromise their ability to be
aggressive advocates of consumer interests. It could also
create a public perception that the office is
compromised. After all, the appointment process is
intensely political, and cutting corners here or waffling
there by the consumer advocate could be seen as mere
political realism if advancement is the goal.
This isn't to detract from Kinkley's abilities, as he
has displayed a broad and useful perspective on matters
before the PUC. But in my mind, the problems created by
the appointment outweigh Kinkley's potential
contribution.
August 28, 2002 -
Wednesday
I would have missed it altogether except for the
e-mail from Joe P in Japan: "Congratulations on your
200,000th hit to your site! Very impressive for a web
journal."
Somehow I just haven't been paying attention.
Periodically I noticed the number slowly increasing and
thought about marking this milestone in some way, but
never got around to it. So, what can I say? Next stop
300,000.
General reporting of the president's war dance these
days is dismal. Almost all reporters--even the PBS News
Hour--report only the narrowest debate. Is it time "yet"
for this unilateral unprovoked attack? While the
administration argues we will gain an advantage by
unilateral preemptive action, what we risk losing is the
tenuous international consensus, built out of sad
experience, that war should not be the remedy for
differences between states. If the U.S. simply brushes
aside the conventions of international law, then we're
opening the door for other states to do the same. And
many of those local and regional conflicts, once
legitimized and unleashed by our "leadership", have the
potential to be far more dangerous to our interests than
Iraq could hope to be.
Richard
Falk's recent writings, among other critics, add
needed perspective.
The real pressure seems to be to get a war going
before these mid-term elections in order to bolster the
Republicans' cause and divert attention from the pesky
economy and those troubling lapses of corporate ethics
and the trail of dollars that leads over to the White
House.
August 27, 2002 - Tuesday
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It was beautiful yesterday morning, with just
about the perfect mix of clouds and colors that
appeared a half-hour before sunrise, faded, and
then reappeared with the sun.
What a way to start the day!
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In reply to my comment yesterday about "ruffled
feathers" over at the S-B, one newsroom realist
replied:
If this weren't made public it probably
wouldn't have been fixed. Issues such as this are
often raised and ignored by top management until it
becomes an embarrassment or worse. The main thing is
that it's now fixed.
Another reader noted the Star-Bulletin has finally
joined the ranks of online newspapers using those
annoying popup ads with a promo for BestPlacesHawaii.com,
part of the Kapaa-based H& S Publishing. The bad news
is that it's a popup, the good news is they apparently
paid for the ad.
In the news: The San Francisco Chronicle is dropping
its limited afternoon edition, which started as a way to
pressure the "new" Examiner following the breakup of
their Joint Operating Agreement. It raises the question
of the future of the Advertiser's PM edition, which has
already had a much longer life than most observers
thought possible.
August 26, 2002 - Monday
I forgot to include links to the two web sites
mentioned here on Saturday,
both of which led to their creators losing their jobs.
Ron Fineman's "On the
Record" bills itself as "A media critique...and then
some!" Former Houston Chronicle writer calls his site
"Brazosport
News."
The Star-Bulletin's online subscription information
has been quickly brought up to date after a mention here
last week. I'm afraid I may have ruffled feathers among
former coworkers by mentioning the problems publicly, and
I'm sorry for that. But the Star-Bulletin's management
appears to have under appreciated the newspaper's fine
web presence which is prepared with a very small staff,
and the folks up on the 5th floor need to know that the
resulting occasional shortcomings are noticed.
With yellow cat gone, the cats are actually starting
to act normally, and we're realizing just how long we've
all been stressed. It began with the roaming dogs back in
November,
which triggered Ms. Lizzie's initial disappearances.
Later, we now surmise, yellow cat followed Lizzie back to
our house, where he watched and learned to use the cat
door in order to get to the food. Beginning with the
tension of Lizzie's wandering and eventual disappearance,
followed by yellow cat's disruption of normal routines,
it's been a long time since our cats could just relax.
Ditto for us.
August 25, 2002 - Sunday
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Duke, the kitten, very much appreciates all
the headlines and publicity generated in recent
days by Duke, the stamp. Now everyone will
wrongly assume he's named after Duke Kahanamoku,
but really he carries the name of my
grandfather, Duke Yonge.
Speaking of Duke K., the Star-Bulletin caught
a late night tip and yesterday hinted at the
typical city screwup that disrupted Friday's
ceremony at Kahanamoku's statue on Waikiki
beach.
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The
S-B reported Saturday:
One hundred twelve leis were draped over the
Duke Kahanamoku statue in Waikiki yesterday, with his
niece Joanne Kahanamoku bearing the maile lei, right,
to mark Kahanamoku's 112th birthday and the release of
a U.S. postal stamp commemorating his life. All but
about a dozen leis were removed within a few hours of
the 4 p.m. ceremony and a city spokeswoman last night
was unsure who took them down.
In a follow-up today, which isn't online yet, the S-B
reports the leis were removed by a city maintenance crew
just minutes after the ceremony in which they were placed
on the statue.
I was told organizers of the event were taking a break
following the afternoon ceremony when a frantic cell
phone call reported the leis were gone. After determining
that it was no joke, they rushed back to the statue to
find a city maintenance crew had dumped all those
beautiful flowers into garbage bags to be thrown away,
including a huge 15-foot maile lei of specially picked
leaves flown in the Big Island.
Some leis had either been salvaged by passing
visitors, or given away before they reached the garbage
bags. All this probably less than an hour after the
highly publicized ceremony.
Frantic organizers started running up and down the
beach trying to retrieve the few leis still in sight,
while the husband of one staffer climbed up to drape the
few survivors back on the statue in time for live tv news
coverage at 6 p.m.
The maintenance crew told people they had a work order
to clear everything from the statue. Responsibility for
the colossal error remains unclear.
The Advertiser, a sponsor of the Kahanamoku event,
made special note of the maile lei:
But farther up the beach, not to be
overlooked, will be a 15-foot-long maile lei on Duke's
famous statue. [Pamai] Tenn said it represents
"one of the most beautiful things happening" during
the festivities honoring Duke.
Maybe so, but the Advertiser apparently missed the
"most beautiful" maile being given or thrown away.
This story also illustrates another interesting style
difference. The Star-Bulletin refers to "leis", using the
English plural, while the Advertiser adopts the Hawaiian
usage, "lei", which can be either singular or plural.
It's a tough call, but it seems to me this is a word
which has been incorporated into the English language,
much like the word "forku" has been adopted by Japanese
using the familiar implement. From then on, at least in
English usage, it becomes subject to the norms of its
adopted language, plural form and all. I know there are
lots of folks who see it differently, hence the
differences in accepted style between the two papers.
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I also added a new round of sunrise photos
yesterday showing the sun's various moods during
the last several weeks. Click on this photo, or
on the "Photo Gallery" banner to see more.
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Enough said. Cats will have to wait until tomorrow.
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