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September 27, 2003 - Saturday
The Maui News web site has a whole new look. It's a dramatic remake that makes the newspaper's site far more readable and competitive. I just checked it out yesterday for the first time. Good job.
A brief email to Honolulu Weekly contributing writers last night announced the immediate resignation of interim managing editor Sanford Lung.
Lung slipped this comment into the middle of the four sentence announcement: "Toward winning your trust, I encourage each of you to insist on your right to inspect any edit done to your work."
I suspect there's a tale or two behind that comment.
Chad Blair will be taking over as interim Managing Editor "for the foreseeable future", which makes it sound as if the process of recruiting a managing editor has hit another delay.
September 26, 2003 - Friday
A Native Hawaiian organization at UH has endorsed a candidate for vice chancellor, and it isn't Hamilton McCubbin. More over at HawaiiMonitor.com.
Thanks to Dan Boylan for turning to labor economist Bill Boyd for a different bit of comparative data on the wages earned by Honolulu bus drivers. Boyd cites federal Bureau of Labor Statistics 2001 data showing Honolulu bus workers with a median income of $31,420, firefighters at $35,770, police officers at $36,980, and elementary teachers at $38,920. The numbers appear in Boylan's MidWeek column this week.
| I made it back to Kaaawa yesterday afternoon just in time to get a few late photos of our portion of the community anti-drug demonstrations that again lined the highways on the windward side during the afternoon rush hour. Actually, this set of pics of Kaaawa folks turnd out pretty good. Check it out. |
Click to see more pictures
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Here's another way to put Hawaii on the map--our own souvenir SPAM label! |
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I'll betcha Oklahoma can't brag about one of these.
On a different note, I received this message yesterday concerning a photo of George Sarant that part of my series from the 1968 Bachman Hall sit-in at the University of Hawaii:
Thank you for the pleasure of running into this photograph of my dear friend George.
I wonder whether you knew him?
He died (far too soon) in New York (where he finally returned) a few years ago.
He was a compassionate physician (here in Portland) for many years and an endlessly fascinating man who left many, many friends who will never forget him.
Thanks.
September 25, 2003 - Thursday
The giant ice blitz on all Honolulu television stations last night fell far short of its advance billing. In my humble opinion, of course.
I'm sorry, Lee's film lacked a critical edge, as well as subtlety, visual or substantive, and came across as strident as the classic "Reefer Madness" genre, conveying a constant drumbeat of anxiety and fear without a corresponding amount of real information. Relying on anecdotal information, it was quite unsatisfying. Yes, our prisons are overcrowded. But they were overcrowded before ice appeared on the scene, so it can't be blamed on ice, although it may be today's drug of choice.
At least it pressed the message that we need treatment and not simply more prisons. That's an advance on the earlier era.
Olelo's public access Channel 54 had the best post-show discussion, featuring community gatherings at several locations statewide. It might not have been pretty, and they had trouble with the audio at several locations, but they presented the best community viewpoints.
All that said, we'll be joining Kaaawa folks for another roadside anti-drug demonstration late this afternoon. Community building is another indirect but effective response to drugs and other problems.
Newsday reports today that the prospects for obtaining international support in Iraq appear dim, with huge implications for the U.S.--the probable mobilization of additional reserve units.
The slow diplomatic pace has led U.S. military officials to scale back their expectations of foreign troop contributions and warn of the need to mobilize thousands more reservists for duty in Iraq - a step certain to generate political controversy.
| Offered on eBay with three days remaining to bid--a copy of the first Sunday Star, which later became the Star-Bulletin. |
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| Annie's floor show starts shortly after 4 a.m.
Usually the first responder these days is Mr. Toby, who fearlessly launches himself into a whirl of wrestling, leaping, biting, running, rolling, and occasionally squealing. There's no quarter asked or given, or so it appears, but it's really an illusion as no one is hurt despite all the crashing and fussing.
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Annie & Toby at play |
When he's exhausted and escapes to higher ground to catch his breath, then Mr. Duke will move his more substantial self into position. Duke may be a lot bigger, but he can still romp like a kitten. Then, in tag team fashion, Duke will make way for Toby again. There's an occasional cameo appearance by Leo or Wally, but the other boys are really the primary players.
With all this one-on-one training with these two big boys, that little Ms. Annie is going to be a cat to reckon with.
And in the background, that empty spot left by Lindsey's disappearance.
September 24, 2003 - Wednesday
Aha. Star-Bulletin letter writer Thomas E. Stuart, also a regular contributor on education issues to Malia Zimmerman's rightward tilting Hawaii Reporter, displayed a prodigious bit of lunacy yesterday with his pronouncement that it is the "liberation" of American women since the 1960's that is to blame for international terrorism and the 9/11 attacks.
Who is this guy? A column in Hawaii Reporter describes him as a public school teacher on the Big Island. Do these misogynistic views make it into his classroom?
A friend of Meda's had a simple reaction: "Ok, just wanted to pass along this letter to the editor published in the star bulletin today. Anyone want to help me find him and kick his ass. Then we can talk about female modesty and all that good stuff!" I'm sure she's speaking metaphorically about the ass-kicking, but the impulse is certainly understandable.
Up in Manoa, scuttlebutt has it that President Dobelle isn't the only top administrator looking at other options. Chancellor Peter Englert is also said to be interested in a mainland post, according to those gossip networks, but Englert has told others directly that the rumors are not true.
September 23, 2003 - Tuesday
I enjoyed mystery writer Sara Paretsky's op-ed about the Ashcroft follies in Sunday's Chicago Tribune.
KHON reported last night that UH Prez Evan Dobelle was a candidate for an open position in Boston and might be interested in the University of Massachusetts. Clearly, though, he is in the job market and at least considering options elsewhere. But I don't see a folo in either the S-B or Advertiser, at least not in the online editions.
The Star-Bulletin's online edition this morning includes this teaser on it's main page: "20-year term in terror hoax". What? A quick click got me to the story, which correctly reported a 2-year sentence. Still quite a bit overboard, a reflection of the prevalent anti-terrorism hysteria, but a whole different story than the 20 year version.
I'm interested in reading how the simulcast of Edgy Lee's documentary on the "ice" problem got in the position to preempt all local television tomorrow night and who is paying the associated bills. The Star-Bulletin reports it was a spontaneous decision after a private screening for VIP's and the media, but a closer look seems warranted.
| A layer of haze made for a dramatic sunrise yesterday. It was one of those with little advance color, but extended waves of changing patterns in the long minutes after the sun appeared. Click on the photo for a larger view. |
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September 22, 2003 - Monday
The Toronto Globe & Mail reported Saturday that Torstar Corp., owner of the Toronto Star and other newspapers, has an agreement to buy Star-Bulletin owner David Black's chain of newspapers whenever Black decides to retire. The eventual takeover was reportedly part of the deal last year that gave Torstar a 19 percent stake in Black Press Ltd., the umbrella under which Black operates his string of 95 newspapers.
The article also noted that Black Press has continued to expand, purchasing another group of five small newspapers and an associated printing plant in British Columbia in May.
| Okay, she's not really one of our Kaaawa morning dogs, although she is usually guarded by one. But I'm giving Ms. Maxwell a special honorary spot in the ongoing gallery of country canines. Just click on her photo to see (and read) a bit more. |
Maxwell
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September 21, 2003 - Sunday
There was a triple gaffe on the PBS News Hour with Jim Lehrer on Friday night. It happened during the segment that featured syndicated columnist Mark Shields and William Safire of The New York Times. Lehrer referred to General Erik Shinseki as "Shineko" and Safire repeated the error--all those names sound the same, I suppose. It may have started with Shields, but I missed his reference.
But when I checked the transcript, which is available online, the error had disappeared without notice or comment. Rewriting history is simpler than ever these days.
State Ethics Commission executive director Dan Mollway was not a happy camper when I spoke to him by phone yesterday afternoon. He was upset by the comments attributed to him in Jim Dooley's story on the potential ethics problems associated with football coach June Jones' contract.
Mollway points to the headlline and Dooley's lead paragraph. He said neither is true.
Ethics panel's chief questions contract
State Ethics Commission executive director Dan Mollway said that by combining money from private sources with public money, football coach June Jones' $800,016 annual salary may not meet legal restrictions of the state Ethics Code.
Mollway says this simply is not true because he did not comment on the Jones' contract. Period. Mollway also mentioned that he had been told that a correction would be issued, although I couldn't locate one in a quick check of the Advertiser web site this morning.
This is a very tricky situation because Mollway did apparently say that mixing public and private funds can raise ethics issues. Although he didn't refer specifically to Jones' contract, that wasn't an unreasonable inference to draw. But it was an inference and not a direct statement by Mollway. Easier, perhaps, to recognize in retrospect than on deadline. If Dooley had simply reported that the contract could conflict with state ethics laws based on past commission rulings and Mollway's view of specific provisions of the law, then Mollway would have no beef and the public would have gotten the same message.
| Coping with Lindsey's disappearance is finally forcing us to come to grips with the loss of Ms. Lizzie last year. Click on her photo here to read the story I'm finally able to write. |
Ms. Lizzie
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