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July 13, 2002 - Saturday
We spent yesterday afternoon and evening at Ann
Keppel's planning her funeral service. Her niece and
nephew arrived from the mainland the evening before. It
was a very emotional time for all of us there.
If you knew Ann, please consider sharing a story or
memory of her. I'm going to collect whatever people are
willing to share and compile it for her family, so just
email me any
recollections. Yesterday I found the file with her email
address book, and sent a message out to everyone on her
personal email list.
This is tough duty. It's the kind of thing that
encourages a review of personal priorities, and a renewed
sense of what's really important in the brief time that
we're around this earth.
I think we're probably going to linger a bit this
morning and let the ocean and mountains provide some
healing.
I'll try to update various photos over the
weekend.
July 12, 2002 - Friday
The Chronicle
of Higher Education has an interesting story on a
decision handed down by the Minnesota Supreme Court
interpreting libel law as it impacts Internet
discussions. It includes a link to the text of the
decision. This is a good read for online junkies.
I see in the Star-Bulletin's "Breaking News" this
morning that Royal Lamarr Hardy has been charged again
with failing to file taxes. As I recall, he beat a
similar charge a decade ago or more. I can vividly
remember the day that Jack Gonzales, then director of the
State Campaign Spending Commission, called me to talk
about taxes. He had fallen under Hardy's intellectual
spell, and wanted to let me in on the secret--federal
income taxes are voluntary. He bubbled over with
pseudo-research on the voluntary nature of the tax, and
the methodology for withdrawing from voluntary
participation in the taxation system.
It was my first convincing clue that all was not right
with Jack's view of the legal world.
Hardy's indictment comes just a couple of weeks after
the state indictment of Eric Aaron Lighter for theft.
Eric is well known in some circles for masterminding a
series of alleged scams. I
wrote about one case in which he was able to wrest a
Volcano B&B from its original owner, but there is a
large group of victims out there watching this criminal
case with great interest.
The Antitrust Papers, continued. Here's the
"investigative demand" served on Gannett by the
Department of Justice back on October 5, 1999, just three
weeks after the plan to close the Star-Bulletin first
surfaced. Virtually identical documents were served on
Hawaii Newspaper head Mike Fisch in Honolulu, and on
Liberty Newspapers. Unfortunately, documents produced in
response to this demand are exempt from the Freedom of
Information Act, so none of those juicy details are among
the documents released to me. But it's interesting to see
the focus of antitrust interest.
July 11, 2002 - Thursday
KITV (Channel 4) ran a good story last night on
problems that have prevented opening of the state's fancy
new commercial "fishing village" on the far end of
Honolulu Harbor. This was the site that was supposed to
bring together commercial fishing and related services.
The interesting piece, I thought, was an on-the-air
appeal for email tips like the one that apparently led to
this story. Unfortunately, their web site isn't updated
quickly so the story isn't yet available online.
The Star-Bulletin is in the process of hiring a new
assistant webmaster to replace Todd Sugiyama, who is
heading off to a NY design school. It's a very small
staff compared to what the Advertiser is throwing into
their online product.
The Advertiser
ran a nice obit today about our friend Ann Keppel.
Thanks to reporter Shayna Coleon for doing such a good
job.
After seeing Ann to celebrate her birthday not quite
two weeks ago, I made up a tote
bag with photos of her two cats taken that evening.
She immediately ordered two of the totes, one for a niece
and the other perhaps for her own use. But I don't think
she ever got to see them--they hadn't arrived yet.
And yesterday morning also brought the news of
Ralph
Yempuku's death. Up through high school, I was very
close friends with his oldest son, Roy, and was both a
frequent visitor in the Yempuku home and often invited
along to events he was promoting. It's another meaningful
passing.
July 10, 2002 - Wednesday
Yesterday started for us with a green flash at
sunrise, which we saw just as we were starting our
morning walk. I like to think these are positive signs.
Yesterday I was wrong.
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The unexpected and devastating phone call
came just around 9 p.m.
"I'm sorry to call. I'm afraid I have bad
news. We lost a dear friend today."
Ann Keppel, our good friend and anchor, died
at home yesterday of a massive heart attack.
We had dinner with her just over a week ago
to celebrate her 78th birthday, just as we've
gathered at her house on Wilhelmina Rise on
other nights for more than 30 years. It seems
impossible that she's gone so suddenly.
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Ann
Keppel
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Ann is--was--professor emeritus at the University of
Hawaii, former director of the Women's Studies Program, a
historian of education who had an unusual rapport with
her students and who counted many of them among her good
friends to this day. She read voraciously and shared her
knowledge generously. She was a fierce defender of
democracy and rights. She loved her cats, her friends,
several generations of family members, and the
university, the idea of the university as a free space of
ideas.
Ann was a veteran of the Bachman Hall sit-in, which
must have occurred soon after she arrived at UH.
Meda and I were--are--in shock. We went out onto the
deck and sat in the dark, allowing the rich fragrance of
stephanotis and the sound of the ocean to envelop us. We
cried. Apart from raging into the darkness, what else can
you do?
Ann, I can't tell you how much we'll miss you.
• • •
I'm told labor negotiations are set to resume next
week over at Gannett's Honolulu Advertiser, with the fate
of the contract's "no layoffs" clause the major point of
contention.
The Antitrust papers, continued. As Deputy AG Rodney
Kimura was putting finishing touches on the state's
lawsuit to block the shutdown of the Star-Bulletin, he
was forwarding the drafts to the Department of Justice in
Washington. These
memos show that two versions of the complaint were
faxed to Washington on October 4, two days before
the
lawsuit was filed in federal court. The first version
was sent midmorning, while the second followed just
minutes before midnight, showing that the state's legal
team was putting in long hours in a race against the
clock. I didn't receive the draft, or else it's buried in
the box of documents, but the cover memos tell the
story.
July 9, 2002 - Tuesday
Okay, I'm late. It's just that I've got this
routine. Evenings are for wine, food and story telling.
Mornings are for writing. And before getting to this, I
had to write up a brief item for Honolulu Weekly, which
wasn't finished until just before our walk. So here I am
after the hour walk, cup of coffee beside me, staring at
the screen and knowing I'm already two hours behind
schedule.
I made a late afternoon call yesterday to a local
attorney for comment as part of this Weekly item. After I
identified myself, he started in.
"Ian Lind? I read your web site. I've gotten hooked.
Now I waste ten minutes every morning reading about your
cats, the dogs, the walk, and all. I'm really pissed at
you for getting me addicted. "
He blamed another attorney, a mutual friend, for
getting him started.
This all took me by surprise, and getting back into an
interview mindset was a stretch.
The antitrust papers, continued. Today's document is a
one-page
memo from Deputy AG Rodney Kimura to DOJ staff
attorney on September 30, 1999, forwarding what appears
to be a quick take on "competing" media--yellow pages
listings of newspapers on each island, along with sample
copies of the Advertiser, Star-Bulletin, Downtown Planet,
and Honolulu Weekly. If nothing else, it shows the degree
of cooperation between state attorneys and the Dept of
Justice in the early stages of this investigation.
[Note: my spell checker just flagged "Rodney" and
suggested a corrected spelling of "rodent".]
Legal notice spotted in yesterday's Honolulu
Star-Bulletin:
NOTICE OF PETITION
FOR RETENTION IN JUDICIAL OFFICE
The Judicial Selection Commission, State of Hawaii,
announces that the term of The Honorable David L.
Fong , Judge, District Court of the First Circuit,
State of Hawaii, will expire on November 3, 2002.
Judge Fong, in accordance with Section 3, Article VI
of the Constitution of the State of Hawaii, has
petitioned to be retained in office and to be renewed
for an additional term. The Constitution of the State
of Hawaii empowers the Judicial Selection Commission
to determine whether Judge Fong should be retained for
a new term.
The Judicial Selection Commission invites
interested persons to submit written information and
comments on whether Judge Fong should be retained in
office for a new term. All comments will be kept
confidential by the Commission and should be delivered
by mail to the following address before August 23,
2002:
Amefil Agbayani, Chair
Judicial Selection Commission
State of Hawaii/417 South King Street
Honolulu, HI 96813
It will be interesting to see whether my
stories of a few years ago prompt any questions about
Fong's reappointment.
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Here's Mr. Duke in what has to be one of the
stranger sleeping positions, back legs splayed
out behind him.
And what's that mid-body bulge? Did he
swallow a grapefruit?
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July 8, 2002 - Monday
Erika
Engle reported yesterday that Peter Wagner, the
former Star-Bulletin writer who became editor of Island
Business magazine until it was sold and shut down, has
now signed on with a KITV's Dan Cooke and a group of
former newsies in a startup operation of a service called
"NewsFone". Apparently it hopes to get folks to call in
and, for a fee, hear a short column from the Wall Street
Journal or Dow Jones news read to them. Really. They've
apparently got money and a staff of 12 to put the concept
to the test. I'm sure we'll hear more in the months
ahead.
Antitrust papers, continued. Attorney Don Baker,
acting on behalf of the Newspaper Guild and the
Communication Workers of America, was playing a key
behind the scenes role pressing the Justice Department to
block the shutdown of the Star-Bulletin. Today's
document is a letter, believed to be from Baker,
to DOJ attorney Justin Dempsey on September 27 suggesting
specific records to be included in a subpoena to Gannett
and Liberty Newspapers. The letter mentions a voicemail
left the day before with another version of the same
list.
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I did manage to update Cybelle's Saga
yesterday with the week in kitten photos.
The good news is that Cybelle may finally
have run through this cycle in heat. She's also
had a 50% weight gain since she was rescued back
on March 1.
Both she and kitten Duke also got their first
round of shots, which slowed them down a bit
yesterday.
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Mr. Duke
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I also revamped the layout of this page. Hopefully it's
an improvement. Or at least it's different.
July 7, 2002 - Sunday
Which is the wealthier community, Kaaawa or
Kahala?
According to an analysis
published in Pacific Business News a week ago,
which ranked median income within each Hawaii zip code,
tiny Kaaawa ranked #5 among all neighborhoods. With a
median income of $59,906, Kaaawa was ranked higher than
Kahala (#7), Kailua (#8), and Makiki-Manoa (#13), all
areas which appear to be steps up the income ladder.
Here's the full
listing that appeared in PBN.
Somehow this image of Kaaawa among the wealthy
neighborhoods just doesn't sound right, so I went off in
search of the official census data,, which lists Kaaawa
as a separate place, and things look quite a bit
different. You can get to the Kaaawa data via this
census
search page.
In this official census profile, median income in
Kaaawa is only $54,500, well below that reported by PBN,
and only 12% had incomes over $100,000 compared to the
20.5% cited in PBN's list.
I'll have to pore over the numbers for a while to
figure out how to account for the differences. In the
meantime, I'll add a few grains of salt to the PBN
list.
Hey, Dog People! Here's a beautiful
Husky, just about a year old, who needs a new
home. Her owners, a young couple here in Kaaawa,
say they just can't give her the care she
deserves. She was still without a new home as of
a couple of days ago.
She's a sweet dog who needs some TLC. She
also needs some training. She tried going home
with Ms. Maile, but it didn't work out. Maile, a
very shy dog, just didn't know how to handle a
friend who wanted to be top dog, and Maile's
person didn't have the time to devote to
supervising their relations.
If you would like to know more about this
dog, email
me and I can put you in touch with
Maile's person for background, and with the
husky's current family.
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She's looking for a
new home
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