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September 20, 2003 - Saturday
The Advertiser's reporting on University of Hawaii football coach June Jones' latest contract pressed hard on the issue of the source of the $400,000 per year promised by private donors, including comments by Dan Mollway, executive director of the State Ethics Commission.
Mollway was leaving last night to attend the annual conference of the Council on Governmental Ethics Laws (COGEL), but there were rumblings from Manoa yesterday that Mollway was less than pleased with the interpretation of his remarks.
Jim Dooley follows today with more on the UH defense of the private funding practice. There's an obvious interest in whether these secret donors include any that would raise red flags--beer companies, gambling related firms, etc. The Advertiser is doing a good job of keeping the heat on the athletic department despite the newspaper's role as a key sponsor of the football program. That can probably create some sticky situations for their writers, and you've got to wonder whether its a good idea overall.
Folks at the National Writers Union aren't much impressed by Time Warner's dumping of the AOL name. Instead, NWU's focus has been on the treatment of freelance writers by Time Warner's many publications.
I certainly appreciated this message from the Big Island yesterday:
It also dawns on me that you must spend quite a bit of time working on this website and yet I have never let you know how much I enjoy it. Shame on me! As you sit there tapping away at the keys, know that there's a freelance writer outside of Hilo who looks at your site every day and appreciates it. I started reading it for the "news" news, and now am completely enjoying the escapades and photos of your animals.
So sorry to hear about Mr. Lindsey, by the way.
My grandmother here on the Big Island once had a beloved cat that disappeared. She was a beautiful white cat with one blue eye and one green one, named D.C. (for "Deaf Cat"--and yes, when we were looking for her we kept calling her name even though she couldn't hear. It's just what you do.). Finally my grandmother admitted to herself that D.C. wasn't coming back. But about a month later D.C. returned--thin and bedraggled but fine. My grandmother told me, "I'd already grieved for her and everything, and then there she was!" We think the cat had been ill and crawled off somewhere to be left alone.
I know it's a longshot, but I'll cross my fingers that Mr. Lindsey also returns.
Thanks so much for the thought!
September 19, 2003 - Friday
Columnist Eric Alterman has a good piece in The Nation compiling President Bush's various explanations of when and how he learned of the 9-11 attacks and questioning why the glaring contradictions have not been reported further. It's fascinating.
And the Los Angeles Times has a good addition to the rapidly growing library of stories assessing the misleading administration statements that appear to explain the finding that most Americans have come to believe Iraq was linked to the 9-11 attacks. An interview with two former CIA analysts by Democracy Now! provides an additional layer of perspective.
The Star-Bulletin's recent "ice" series was noted in Investigative Reporters & Editors' listing of recent investigative work. It's an interesting list that's worth adding to your bookmarks.
TGIF. I'll have to escape from my office early today because there's a traffic warning about some kind of Waikiki block party starting late this afternoon that is going to paralyze traffic going in to Waikiki, so it will be gridlock outside our building. So I'll just to have to start the weekend a little early.
It's been two weeks since we last saw Mr. Lindsey, and we're starting to reconcile with the probability that he won't be returning.
September 18, 2003 - Thursday
Here's an interesting site from the National Priorities Project--a quick calculator of federal budget trade-offs.
For example, here's their calculation of one trade-off:
Taxpayers in Hawaii will pay $ 230.3 million for $87 billion additional war spending . For the same amount of money, the following could have been provided : 4,765 Elementary School Teachers
There are several other cost categories and types of trade-offs, and they say more are being added. As far as food for thought goes, this is a large meal.
| The beach kitten, rescued some three weeks ago now, is firmly named "Annie" after our late cat loving friend, Anne Keppel. She has about doubled in size, and has been accepted as a playmate. The most frequent participant is Mr. Toby, who joins the kitten insanity until he has to stop and pant. That's when we often intervene to get them to take a break. |
Annie and Toby
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September 17, 2003 - Wednesday
I was working at home yesterday and so managed to turn on the evening news while worrying about what to pull out of the freezer for dinner.
ABC's World News Tonight displayed an interesting bit of skewed reporting, a segment on a U.S. military field hospital in Iraq. They did sort of a tour of the kind of injuries being treated, including a child supposedly injured by an Iraqi land mine. Not that land mines aren't a problem, but the far larger dangers and source of injuries appear to be American anti-personnel or cluster munitions now spread across Iraq as well as Afghanistan. Even a modestly critical perspective should have led to additional questions, but its absence left this as more of a propaganda piece than news.
Then I flipped over to the PBS News Hour which featured the controversy over a huge payout to the New York Stock Exchange's chairman. One guest, the editorial page editor of Barron's, didn't hold back in unself-consciously characterizing the exchange as no more or less than a "private club".
We have an assertion that the New York Stock Exchange is primarily a public utility. In fact, for more than 200 years it's been a private club. It's first and foremost a private club with directors appointed by the members, elected by the members, selected by the members, and they are the ones who should decide how much Mr. Grasso is paid.
Mr. Angelides may say it's excessive but it's none of his business. He doesn't own stock in the New York Stock Exchange. He doesn't own a seat on the New York Stock Exchange. The members are the ones who should decide what's excessive and what's appropriate. They made a decision to pay Mr. Grasso an amount roughly in accordance with the leaders of financial institutions in this country. That is a policy decision that was theirs to make. It's not for the SEC, and it's not for Mr. Angelides to second guess it.
Amazing.
Over at www.hawaiimonitor.com, I've posted the first batch of copies of the original newsletter in an archive which will grow as I scan additional issues. It's amazing to see how little enforcement of campaign spending laws there was back then, in stark contrast to today's criminal prosecutions and hefty administrative fines.
We still have no information on Lindsey--no miraculous reappearance, no sightings, no explanation. But Harriet slept in the house through the whole day while I was home yesterday, a very positive development. Her sister, Ms. Lizzie, disappeared last year and we've had to worry that Harry might follow. I've been paying special attention to her, making sure that she comes in regularly and is rewarded with treats as a result. This seems to be working.
September 16, 2003 - Tuesday
Time flies, doesn't it? It's been four years since the announcement that the Star-Bulletin was set to be shut down. I have to thank Burl Burlingame for reminding me of the occasion, which otherwise would have slipped by without my even noticing. Looking back at those photos can still evoke a bit of the shock, although I'm unfortunately feeling pretty distant from the newsroom these days.
The Advertiser reports that the Hawaii Tourism Authority has dropped its claim to the domain name www.hawaiiconventioncenter.com after paying some $45,000 in legal fees. It's good to get this update.
But the 'Tiser was a day late and a buck short in reporting on the fire that destroyed the Waianae home of activist Hawaiian minister Kaleo Patterson, who made headlines when he was nominated to take the helm at Kawaihao Church but failed to survive a vote by parishioners.
Yesterday the Advertiser ran a two paragraph "brief" about the fire was buried on page B-3 and failed to identify the people involved. The Star-Bulletin, on the other hand, caught the significance of this fire and ran the story across the top of A-3. Today the Advertiser responded with another story, but it's a pretty pale space filler with nothing new to add.
The Toronto Star has an interesting story on media failures in reporting on Iraq. Hmmm, perhaps the Star-Bulletin needs a closer relationship with the Star, given that the Canadian newspaper's parent company already made a significant investment last year in Black Press, which owns the Star-Bulletin and MidWeek.
| Here's another sign of the times--offering a free Saturday shuttle to Windward Mall from Kaaawa and elsewhere along the coast, just one small sign of the impact of the ongoing bus strike. |
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September 15, 2003 - Monday
| It was one of those days that editors probably dread--the rival Honolulu dailies both featured the same analysis of the current wave of warfare by AP's Brian Murphy to lead their opinion sections. The only difference was that the Star-Bulletin headline had it as WWIII, while the Advertiser trumped that with WWIV. The joys of competition. |
Sunday editions
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One reader commented on weekend news in local prep football:
In prep football, St. Louis blows a big lead and loses to Kamehameha and Damien ends a losing streak dating back to 2000 and routs Pac-Five! My goodness. Is this planet Earth?
Another ponders an obvious question: Who paid for the full page pre- ice summit ads in the Sunday papers and how much did they cost?
| If you've always longed to tool around town in your own Rolls- Royce, and you've got a spare $10K sitting around, this was the garage sale for you! And in Kaaawa, no less.
If you're interested, let me know and I'll get you in touch with the car's current owner.
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Not your everyday garage sale |
He's also got some kind of vintage Harley, red and white, original paint, for about the same price.
And, if you're interested in more info on Hamilton McCubbin's bid for power at UH, check out the "soft" launch of Hawaii Monitor. I gave up trying to plan this out carefully and decided to just begin and see where it leads. No promises, no apologies.
September 14, 2003 - Sunday
| I definitely need some cosmic dog energy to deal with retelling of Friday morning's trauma, so I'm introducing two new additions to the Kaaawa morning dogs. With that done, here's the story. |
 click here
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Meda and I left Kaaawa as usual Friday morning and headed for our first stop in Kaneohe. That's where we check in at the 7-11 on Kam Highway just across from the Windward City Shopping Center and refill our vats of evil diet coke. These are vintage 1999 UH football season super big gulp cups, now transitioning from old junk into collectible.
It's a quick stop, then we were on our way again. This time we only made it a short distance before we saw two dogs bounding towards us, crossing the divided highway along Hawaiian Memorial Park and heading for the sidewalk on our side. Traffic slowed, and they reached the sidewalk, but with our loss of Lindsey I felt I should go back and make sure these dogs were okay. So I pulled over onto the sidewalk about a block farther along, left Meda in the car, and went back to see what I could do.
As I crossed over the top of the rise and started heading down, I could see the dogs ahead of me on the sidewalk. There was a good distance separating us at that point. One dog looked like a black lab, the other a smaller, part-shepard mix. The lab stayed safely on the sidewalk, but the shepard kept darting out and apparently trying to get to the medial strip. Again, cars were stopping, traffic getting clogged, and I lost sight of the dog. When next seen, she was down on the road. Someone had hit her and then just drove away, and now the cars behind were just trying to change lanes and keep going.
I ran into the middle of the road, waving cars off as I approached the dog. It was a female, a nice looking dog, playing just a few moments before but now mortally injured. No help in sight. I'm kneeling in the road, worried that I'm now a target for these impatient drivers, so I got my arms under her and, as gently as I could, moved her over a few feet out of traffic and onto the grass. She was breathing and barely conscious, and I was frantic. At that point two young local men in a pickup did a quick U-turn and came back to help, offering to take her immediately down to the VCA animal hospital, just a block away. Off they went. I wanted to hug them both, but they were gone, leaving me there feeling the dampness of the grass on my pants where I knelt with this unknown dog, suddenly aware of tears that came from nowhere, a strange old guy now standing alone in the middle of a busy highway.
After making my way back to the car, we drove back to VCA. The guys were leaving, going back out to look for that black lab. A couple of folks were mopping blood off the front steps. Inside, they told us the obviously--she was unlikely to live much longer.
I left, anger, regret and depression in a stormy mix. Angry at myself for failing to just stop in the middle of Kamehameha Highway to grab those dogs when we first saw them. Angry at the driver who hit her. Angry at those who followed and only thought of the inconvenience of slowing down, much less offering to stop and help. Depressed at our sorry state.
So that's the tale. I don't know who the dogs belonged to, or if that black dog was found and rescued. I wonder if their people know what has happened, or if the dog's loss will seem as mysterious to them as Mr. Lindsey's disappearance has been to us.
Then, on top of all this, Harry didn't show up at all yesterday. We're already coping with Lindsey's prolonged absence, and now Harriet. She was in on Friday night, and shared a good bit of my reheated turkey drumstick stew, but then wasn't around Saturday morning and, worse, couldn't be found last night in any of her regular spots. And I looked. Several times town the hill and through the bushes. I even did an abbreviated round last night before going to bed, with no results, despite Meda's warnings about the dangers of searching in the dark after a bottle of wine. And there was no sign of her when I went out a few minutes ago, again stumbling through the patch of beef steak plants in the dark. But as I slowly walked back to the house, there was a small cry, and up the hill below the mango tree came Ms. Harry.
So here we are at 5 a.m., I've closed the cat portals, Harriet's finishing a bowl of cat food, and I'm sitting here hoping that Oceanic will restore our Roadrunner connection some time soon. Otherwise none of this story will be read after all, at least not until later.
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