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October 4, 2003 - Saturday
Dennis Kucinich, the Ohio congressman and progressive candidate for president, is planning a quick trip to Hawaii in two weeks. He'll be flying to Maui for Willie Nelson's concert on the 18th, followed by a day or two in Honolulu. Nelson has become a major backer of the Kucinich campaign, as is evident on the candidate's web site. There should be opportunities to hear Kucinich on the issues on both islands. Watch for a schedule.
Here's an interesting one--it seems that National Public Radio has deleted a section of an Oct. 2 transcript in which correspondent Nina Totenberg refers to the White House requesting a 24-hour delay in a Justice Dept. request to preserve internal communications dealing with a possible leak of a CIA agent's identity. The delay was granted, according to Totenberg, but the paragraph was later dropped from the transcript. How interesting.
| This is Mr. Leo, hard at play on the cat tree with Annie, who remained out of the photo. Actually, Toby, Duke, and Leo were tearing up the house pursuing Annie or being pursued in turn. It was quite a show. You can click on the photo for a larger version. |
Mr. Leo at play |
Lindsey came to visit me in a dream last night, briefly interacting and then casually trotting off, keeping just a couple of feet ahead of me as I tried to scoop him up from the ground, as he was always so fond of doing. Unfortunately, we still have had no news of him and it has now been a month since he went off. I hope you're alive somewhere, Mr. Lindsey.
October 3, 2003 - Friday
Gerry Keir came through again with these specifics on that con-con photo (this link will open in a new window so that you can place the names that Gerry provides):
a little complicated because the photo's at an angle, but here's my best guess front row -- nelson doi
2nd row -- not sure. i think the guy in the tie may have been a legislator, but can't recall the name.
3rd row left to right -- ralph ajifu, clarence akizaki, emilio alcon
4th -- donald ching, dorothy devereux, bob dodge (local attorney, as i recall) further back -- barney menor (toward left), duke kawasaki (middle).
that's about all i think i can recognize.
sign of changing times -- note that each desk had an ash tray.
aloha, gerry
John Radcliffe, associate executive director of the UH Professional Assembly, the faculty union, had to mail an unusual personal apology to all of the union's members at personal expense last month to make up for a prior blunder.
Radclife lobbies for the union and also serves as a paid lobbyist for an assortment of private interests, which last year included the Hawaii Accountants Coalition, Hawaii Insurers Council, Marketing Resource Group Inc (a pro-gambling outfit), Motion Picture Association of American, Inc., R.J. Reynolds, and Sprint Communications.
In an August 28 mailing, Radcliffe informed members that the union had settled a lawsuit brought by the National Right to Work Foundation on behalf of a Maui Community College instructor. The union will have to pay $55,000 in legal fees incurred by the Foundation, and change the manner in which it collects the portion of monthly dues or fees that is attributed to political activity outside the scope of collective bargaining.
In the cover letter, Radcliffe stated that the plaintiff had benefited from pay raises won by the union but crossed the picket line during the strike.
That latter claim apparently was not true, and Radcliffe was forced to send a follow-up apology to all members. "I was wrong to characterize your activity as being that of a strikebreaker," Radcliffe wrote in the one-page personal apology addressed to the plaintiff. He says that the error was entirely his own responsibility and that he therefore paid the entire cost of the apology mailing.
October 2, 2003 - Thursday
| Dawn yesterday was one of those extended affairs that passes through a series of extraordinary stages, each with its own colors and character. I couldn't resist posting a series of photos--just click on this picture for the full set. |
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Former Honolulu Advertiser political reporter and editor Gerry Keir, now executive-vp for corporate communications at First Hawaiian Bank, offered up the most substantive assessment of this week's con-con photo:
yes nelson doi was in the 1968 concon, which i covered. i don't recognize the room pictured, though. the concon floor sessions were held in the gym at mckinley and that isn't the mckinley gym in the picture. it may be in the palace, where they held one final session in the throne room to sign the final product.
also visible in the picture are a lot of legislators, who dominated that con con, including duke kawasaki, ralph ajifu, donald ching, dorothy devereux, barney menor, emilio alcon, clarence akizaki. is that enough trivia for you?
Many thanks, Gerry. You can't get enough of this kind of trivia.
Former islander and retired professor Ed Beechert pointed me to a good description of the economics of the U.S.-led reconstruction of Iraq, in which a $300,000 job is bloated into a $50 million corporate boondoggle. The story appears on the Iraq Occupation Watch web site, which will make it onto my bookmark list.
October 1, 2003 - Wednesday
I spent the morning in U.S. District Court yesterday watching the sentencing proceedings of former UPW director Gary Rodrigues. A few reporters, a few lawyers, a handful of the defendant's family and friends, and lots of empty seats. Judge David Ezra, still not fully recovered from throat surgery, could barely be heard at times, but forcefully rejected most of the objections to the pre-sentence report. He ended up imposing a substantial sentence--64 months in prison without the possibility of parole, restitution of more than $378,000, and a hefty fine.
There was silence in the court as the sentence was announced. Rodrigues and his supporters remained absolutely silent. Rodrigues, as he has for the years since the investigation started, said not a word.
It struck me as odd that Rodrigues relied on his San Francisco lawyer to recite some of his accomplishments and contributions to the labor movement and the broader community, but declined the opportunity to speak for himself. Perhaps he is delusional enough to really believe that he's done nothing wrong. In any case, it was a sad and strange morning.
My reporting played a role in all this, and I'm still proud of that, although such rewards are pretty fleeting and not long remembered in most quarters. Ironically, I started really digging into the UPW situation because I was trying to avoid getting dragged into the middle of a major Star-Bulletin project that I perceived to have an anti-labor bias from its inception, and I just followed one lead after another until there was a good story, and then a good series, and, finally, indictments.
A worrying crime alert was circulating on the UH-Manoa campus yesterday. It notes a rash of burglaries in recent months, then warns:
Previously, the most sought out items were computers - mainly laptops.
More recently, it appears as though they are looking for items that contain personal information for the purpose of "ID" theft.
Items taken in the most recent incidents have been check books, credit cards and bank statements, etc. In one instance, a purse was taken, credit cards from the purse were used illegally, and the thieves used house keys to burgle the victim's home
Also noted: "The most common method of entry is through doors with the so-called "Americans With Disabilities Act" (ADA) door handles. Thieves have devised a method using pipes and pipe wrenches to break pins inside the locking mechanism."
September 30, 2003 - Tuesday
Mystery over? The following correction now appears online at the Honolulu Advertiser:
• A photo with a story in Sunday's Focus section showed delegates to the 1968 constitutional convention. The photo caption incorrectly said the delegates were part of the 1978 convention.
Was Nelson Doi a delegate in 1968? He was a delegate in the original Con-Con in 1959.
A few interesting items--The New York Times reports that some controversial provisions of the USA Patriot Act, defended as necessary in the fight against terrorism, have been used in hundreds of routine criminal investigations. It's precisely the scenario that has civil libertarians and many conservatives worried. One of the cases cited is the cruise ship threat case here in Honolulu, in which prosecutors drew on harsher anti-terrorism penalties included in the law.
The American Prospect reviews censorship by the American administration in Iraq. Building democracy? And here's a point by point analysis of President Bush's 9/23 UN speech courtesy of the Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL).
September 29, 2003 - Monday
The Seattle joint operating agreement between the Times and the Post-Intelligencer will remain in force, at least for now, following a judge's ruling last week. The P-I's "JOA Watch" lists all its recent stories on the battle over the future of the two newspapers.
| The Advertiser ran this photo yesterday on the front of its Focus section, describing it as Hawaii's 1978 Constitutional Convention, but it sure doesn't look like 1978 to me.
That's former Lt. Gov. Nelson Doi in front, and I don't think he was a delegate in 1978. If it's '78, where's Waihee and that whole crowd? And those skinny ties--weren't they long gone by 1978? The ashtrays at every seat?
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Click on the photo for a slightly larger version, and let me know if you recognize others in the room or see other clues.
The Garden Island newspaper has also revamped its web site since I last spent any time there, including a searchable news archive.
| It was like this all weekend. That's Ms. Wally, hanging on the screen door from the outside, and Ms. Annie--the kitten--digging from the inside. She really wants to get out into the world, and it takes real concentration to remember to pick her up while trying to enter or exit. Soon we'll have to break and teach her what's out there. |
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September 28, 2003 - Sunday
| It's Sunday, and time to share a few more Kaaawa photos. I've gone back through our September mornings and pulled out my favorites. Just click on this photo for this latest gallery. |
September mornings
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| And if you haven't stopped by here for a few days and missed this slice of Kaaawa life, check out these photos of last week's anti-drug roadside demonstration, one of many in communities across the state. |
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Several people pointed me to this story about the runaway cat who turned up after going missing a decade ago.
If you're killing time this morning, browse through Cursor.org's Media Patrol column, a quick overview of what's being said in different parts of the news media.
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