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November 30, 2002 - Saturday
It's election day in the 2nd Congressional District, again. This time it's even hard for us to get up any enthusiasm to make the drive to our polling place at Hauula Elementary School. It's really a pseudo election for a term which, in all practical respects, doesn't exist. And if we're wavering on voting, you can be sure the actual turnout will be miniscule.
Congratulations and thanks to the Advertiser and attorney Jeff Portnoy for challenging court secrecy in a case involving allegations of police corruption, and winning a key legal victory. Gannett is still willing to put resources in fighting for information, while others have shied away from this battle. They deserve to crow about it.
| The day after Thanksgiving is a big day for retail shopping and for newspaper advertising.
This is a photo of the Star-Bulletin (left) and Advertiser (right) as bagged and delivered yesterday morning.
The Advertiser looked twice as big, and it was delivered in a bag with Macy's advertising printed on it.
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Here's my rough count. The Star-Bulletin had 58 pages in five sections plus a 28-page weekend magazine.
The Advertiser had 84 pages in seven sections plus a 48-page weekend magazine.
I didn't count the actual advertising space, so this is just a very rough comparison. But by this count, the Star-Bulletin had approximately 40% of the total pages. It's a smaller but respectable share of the market, it seems, not taking into account the fine print of rates, etc.
November 29, 2002 - Friday
Ka Leo, the University of Hawaii at Manoa student newspaper, gets credit for the quote of the week, this one from the mouth of UH prez Evan Dobelle: "Everybody fucks up sometime."
Reporter and associate news editor Beth Fukumoto caught the quote, and made it the lead in her Nov. 21 story.
Did my eyes deceive me? Spotted on Kahekili Highway on Thanksgiving afternoon, a shiny green sporty Mercedes coupe with the license plate "IWW". Of course the IWW is the legendary Industrial Workers of the World, the anarchist-oriented radical labor union born in the class struggles of the early 20th century United States. The IWW is still around, as their web site attests, but driving a Mercedes?
The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press has developed an excellent set of resources on the upcoming national debate over electronic access to court records. It's definitely worth checking out.
November 28, 2002 - Thursday
I've got a few observations about the Rodrigues' trial in this week's Honolulu Weekly. For those of you out of town, here's a version which I downloaded from the Weekly site.
| I have to drive tonight, so I won't be imbibing enough to be as enthusiastic about our Thanksgiving meal as October's kitten is about his tucker. At least I hope I won't be standing in my gravy.
The name issue has finally been resolved. I kept coming back to October's kitten, and finally tried Octavius...and ended up with Toby. So he's now officially Mr.Toby, and seems quite pleased with it.
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 October's kitten gets a meal,
and a name |
November 27, 2002 - Wednesday
Okay--yesterday's entry did refer to "clinking the link", as one astute reader pointed out. What was I thinking? It does have a nice ring to it, though.
A reader sent this info on Gov. Cayetano's parting shot:
The media seems to have missed an executive order issued by the gov. this week allowing exempt employees (appointees) to apply for civil service jobs. The order is written in legalese and hard to decipher, but I believe its what allowed Davis Yogi to take a civil service protected job has head of the airports, something you're more qualified to do than him. Is this the state equivalent of Clinton's last minute pardons? Maybe not--perhaps the pardons are yet to come.
The order could be designed to permit as many of the democratic faithful to ensconce themselves in the civil service to conduct the political equivalent of a guerilla war during the Lingle administration.
Of course, it might also simply be designed to keep a favored few ahead of the pack of former Democratic administration job seekers who are now pouring into the marketplace.
When I tried to find mention of this executive order on the Governor's web site, it seems everything from his office, including years of press releases, has already been removed from the state's web site and replaced with Ben's official farewell letter reviewing highlights of the past eight years.
Clicking (or is it clinking?) the link for press releases from the governor's office yielded an error message:
Not Found
The requested object does not exist on this server. The link you followed is either outdated, inaccurate, or the server has been instructed not to let you have it. Please inform the site administrator of the referring page.
Inspired, I tried Lt. Gov. Mazie Hirono's web link. This time the error message was simpler: "go elsewhere".
From Senator Les Ihara comes this very useful reference: "For your information, the 2003 legislative committee memberships are available on the web at: http://www.newhawaii.org/03legcmtes.pdf
And from another old friend, a link to an Atlantic Monthly review, "The temptation of war."
November 26, 2002 - Tuesday
After being on the receiving end of Gary Rodrigues taunts for several years, including being called "pilau reporter" several times in the union's newsletter, I couldn't resist a little memento of the changed times. So I made up a simple mug with the messaage, "who's pilau now?" and added it to the iLind.net online store. Check it out by clinking the link to the right.
There may be a newspaper war here in Honolulu, but when Gannett's Cincinnati Enquirer needed a story about the brawl at Saturday's UH football game, they turned to Star-Bulletin sports reporter Dave Reardon. The story not only carried Reardon's byline, it also provided his Star-Bulletin affiliation. Go figure. Maybe folks over there still remember when the S-B was the Gannett newspaper in Honolulu.
Yesterday's Star-Bulletin police beat carried this brief item:
Police arrested a 27-year-old man for allegedly assaulting a nightclub manager in Kakaako yesterday.
Police said the manger, 35, attempted to break up an argument between two men outside a nightclub around 4 a.m. When he tried to calm them down, one of the men allegedly punched him in the mouth, knocking out a front tooth, police said.
Where did the incident occur? "Outside a nightclub" somewhere in Kakaako is all that we're told. Why isn't the reader provided specifics? What nightclub? Where is it in Kakaako?
When the news media defends its "right" to access official crime data, the responsibility to inform the public is usually cited, and this includes letting people know where crimes occur so people can evaluate the dangers and avoid certain areas if necessary. An editorial policy of sanitizing these crime reports undermines the overall argument and contradicts the presumed "need" for access to information.
| It was one of those long, lingering, and very colorful dawns in Kaaawa yesterday. Here's just a taste. |
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November 25, 2002 - Monday
From the miscellaneous correspondence:
I gave up on Advertiser and SB years ago. I occasionally check their web pages to plan movie viewing or if I hear of a news story that bothers me.
When I compare their stories on the HPD radio SNAFU, I find a serious discrepancy.
Adv 22 Nov: says we squandered $42 million
SB 21 Nov: says we squandered $60 million
Does that interest you?
Perhaps I am overly sensitive since HPR sold off their AM station (no one using it now) limiting my listening. (FM reception varies inside my house.)
A quick check of these stories shows the Star-Bulletin noted a sizeable difference between the union's estimate of the system's cost and the figure put forward by HPD. It does seem worthy of clarification.
We're in recovery mode after a very bad Sunday, when we discovered we've been victims of a burglary at some point in the last several weeks. Things kept turning up missing as we went through a mental inventory over the course of the day. Worse yet, it's apparently something of an inside job, done by someone who we've trusted to come into our home. The value of stuff taken won't kill us, although it was not insubstantial, and some were nice things that are already missed. It's the uncertainty that it introduces into our formerly very straightforward dealings with folks in the neighborhood which really hurts.
November 24, 2002 - Sunday
Funny thing about Gary Rodrigues' exit from the United Public Workers. The Advertiser said he "resigned" while the Star-Bulletin reported that he "offered his resignation and retirement".
His "retirement" could cost the union as much as $800,000, according to at least one source familiar with Friday's UPW executive board meeting.
During Rodrigues' trial, testimony indicated he never took vacation or sick leave during his long career, and that the union would pay him the value of the accumulated leave. The previous plan was to have the union give him its property in Oregon, which happens to be right next door to the log home Rodrigues owns. However, the government's attempt to seize the property, and the legal bill for Rodrigues' defense, could have made it necessary for him to seek a cash payment from the union.
And a week before being named as Rodrigues' successor, Dwight Takeno met with the union's Oahu Division board and attacked union officials who testified in the trial as "back stabbers". Subsequent board action orchestrated by Rodrigues and Takeno could be interpreted as retaliation against two of those who testified, including UPW president George Yasumoto and staffer Dayton Nakanelua, who was Yasumoto's choice to take over as state director. Yasumoto was stripped of his position, and Takeno named to take over the union instead of Nakanelua.
An announcement in Sunday's Star-Bulletin names Dan and Carol Case as the latest local investors in the Star-Bulletin.
Dan Case is chairman of the law firm of Case, Bigelow and Lombardi. They are the parents of Steve Case, chairman of AOL-Time Warner. The value and terms of their investment were not disclosed.
| This is Ms. Emily, a new addition to our list of dogs we meet on our morning walks in Kaaawa. Just click on her picture to see the latest round-up of our canine friends. |
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