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| Saturday, November 19, 2016 |
| November 19, 2016 News Read
By Andrew Walden @ 3:53 PM :: 1744 Views |  |
What the Trump presidency might mean to Hawaii’s economy
Honolulu City Lights to celebrate 32 years of bringing holiday joy
Supreme Court: Challenge to Hawaii Council Candidate’s Eligibility Must be Heard
No Indian Tribe: Repeal Act 195
FH: …Keli`i Akina has hired an accountant and economist for his OHA Staff hell bent on cleaning up OHA and stopping any more wasteful spending on federal recognition.
Mililani Trask is in the process of filing a lawsuit against Bob Lindsey, his campaign manager Kuhio Lewis, and John Aeto for the libelous ad which costs her the election.
As we come to terms with the fact federal recognition via the Department of Interior Rule is dead in the water and that the Rule may very well be repealed or deemed unconstitutional by the new Right Wing US leadership - we need to ask ourselves who do we hold accountable for the damage done to the Hawaiian community for these failed federal recognition campaigns?
Who will step up and take responsibility for millions of Hawaiian Trust dollars wasted, for the bitter divisions created in Hawaiian communities and families, the passing out of stolen Hawaiian names and information, and the overall misinformation provided to the Hawaiian people?
How can we trust the leaders we have who supported this fiasco - some of whom got paid for their silence and/or cooperation?
As the reckoning unfolds post elections we still need to be vigilant as ever Lāhui or the Democratic Party version of federal recognition may rear its ugly head again.
This legislative session we will be calling for the repeal of Act 195 giving legislators and leaders a chance to right the wrongs they did to the Hawaiian people.
read … Who will be held accountable?
After Car Wreck HPD Officer Comes up with Novel Way of Avoiding Breathalyzer Test
KHON: Sources tell us that when officers arrived to investigate, the off-duty officer told them he was a passenger and had fallen asleep, and that the driver had left the scene. Sources also say that he could not identify who was driving…. (uh-huh.)
The spokeswoman later told us that is under investigation. We also asked if the officer was given a sobriety test on the scene and if anybody else was found that could have been the driver, but got no response.
HPD did tell us that the officer in the car is with the Criminal Investigation Division and has been with the department for 20 years.
KHON2 asked former Honolulu prosecutor Peter Carlisle if investigating officers should have tested the officer in the car.
“Those seem to be very reasonable steps to take, and you would wonder if those steps weren’t taken by all of the officers who were there, what they were thinking,” said Carlisle.
Carlisle adds that officers had the duty to further investigate considering what they were told.
“If somebody else was driving the subsidized vehicle, he would know who it was,” he said. “I have never in my life put a perfect stranger in my car at that hour of the morning.”
HPD says the officer remains on full-duty at this time…. (uh-huh.)
read … Totally Normal Happens all the Time
Officer Testified Against Chief Kealoha on Day of Crash
HNN: …the officer is a witness in the federal grand jury case against the Honolulu police chief and his wife, a deputy city prosecutor.
Chief Louis Kealoha and his wife, Katherine, are being investigated by the FBI for alleged public corruption.
The officer went to testify against the chief on the day of the crash, sources said.
That fact has many saying that the HPD should appoint an outside agency to take over the crash investigation....
(Handy Idea: After you sign federal immunity deal to tell what you know about the Chief, arrange an accident and a bs story so the reliability of your testimony can be discredited by the Chief's attorneys. That way you can uphold the letter of your agreement with the Feds while avoiding infliction of any real damage on the Chief. It's a win-win! Of course were not suggesting that is what happened in this case....)
read … The Plot Thickens
MADD gives Hawaii 3.5 stars out of 5 for drunk driving reform
HNN: Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) released its 2016 Report to the Nation Friday, an overview of legislative accomplishments that includes a rating for every state’s drunk driving reform efforts.
Out of a 5-star rating, Hawaii was given 3.5….
Hawaii received full-star ratings for sobriety checkpoints and administrative license revocation, and half-stars for all-offender interlock law, child endangerment and “no refusal.”
read … Drunk
Progress in ending homelessness cited as conference begins
SA: “By the numbers you have some work to do,” said Jennifer Leimaile Ho, the Washington, D.C.-based senior adviser on housing and services for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and niece of the late entertainer Don Ho.
But Ho quickly pointed out the 44 percent drop in homeless veterans on Oahu between January and August….
Ho, who authored the first federal strategic plan to prevent and end homelessness, said everyone across the country focused on homelessness is waiting to see who President-elect Donald Trump appoints as HUD secretary.
But she expressed doubt that the Trump administration will want to roll back the Obama administration’s progress on homelessness, especially veterans’ homelessness.
“The bar has been set so high and the data is so good that any administration would be foolish not — to steal a Hawaiian metaphor — to ride the wave. Why would you want to be the administration that went backward on veterans’ homelessness?”
HTH: Interfaith celebration to benefit homeless
read … Progress in ending homelessness cited as conference begins
HELCO Rate Hike Hearings Set
IM: The Public Utilities Commission will hold public hearings on the Big Island regarding the proposal by Hawai`i Electric Light Company (HELCO) to raise electricity rates.
Tuesday, December 13, 2016, 5:30 p.m.
Hilo High School Cafeteria, 556 Waianuenue Avenue, Hilo, Hawaii 96720
Wednesday, December 14, 2016, 5:30 p.m.
West Hawaii Civic Center County Council Chambers, 74-5044 Ane Keohokalole Hwy, Kailua-Kona, Hawaii 96740
The Commission will accept testimony in-person, or written testimony by snail mail, or by electronic mail. Written comments should reference Docket No. 2015-0170, and include the author's name and the entity or organization that the author represents.
Postal (Snail) Mail
Public Utilities Commission
465 South King Street #103, Honolulu, HI 96813
Electronic Mail
puc.commentsOhawaii.gov
read … HELCO Rate Hike Hearings Set
DHS Has Big Plans for KOLEA
GCN: Like many states, Hawaii had to revamp its Medicaid eligibility system to handle the influx of applicants from the Affordable Care Act. To get the most out of its investment, Hawaii plans to expand the Kauhale On-Line Eligibility Application (KOLEA) platform to agencies and departments statewide.
Hawaii’s Department of Human Services began working with IT integrator KPMG in January 2013. When the project started, there were roughly 275,000 people receiving Medicaid assistance in Hawaii. DHS knew its existing system, a more-than-20-year-old legacy mainframe, would not be able to handle the reprogramming and staff support needed for the new enrollments, Craig Grivette, principal at KPMG and KOLEA project lead, told GCN.
Rather than writing proprietary software, KPMG built a modular system entirely based on commercial products and enterprise-grade software from Oracle and IBM. According to Grivette, this gave DHS a system it could expand and manage on its own.
Automation tools cut processing time from 45 to three days….
The Medicaid solution, however, was just the first installment on Hawaii DHS’ overall goal….
Eventually, this level of interoperability will allow Hawaii to have multiple department programs, benefit levels and services available to the public and give departments the tools to build their own applications.
KOLEA is not there yet, however. The platform still needs better integration with other programs, automated data matching and fewer errors.
In December 2015, the state auditor found that KOLEA did not integrate with DHS’ other human services programs, such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, or interface with the Internal Revenue Service for other income data. That integration will take place in Phase Two, which will open the system to other state programs within the DHS’ Benefit, Employment and Support Services Division.
Phase two work will include building a consent management program so DHS can move from data matching to obtaining consent around data sharing, especially for the data it receives from federal agencies.
In phase three, Hawaii DHS wants to move Child Welfare and Adult Protective Services to the enterprise system and, afterwards, open the platform up to agencies and departments across the state. It hopes to finalize a system by Dec. 31, 2018, that will include application integration, interdepartmental data sharing and portals and tools for clients, providers and employees….
read … Hawaii’s Medicaid platform powers broader transformation
Mass Coral Die Off Caused by El Nino, Now Over
AP: In excursions a year ago and then last April, scientists examined the normally stunning coral reefs around the island of Kiritimati and pronounced it mostly a boneyard of dead coral. About 85 percent of the coral was dead, 10 percent was sick and bleached but still technically alive, and only 5 percent was doing OK.
The same scientists returned this month and found that 6-7 percent of the coral is alive and not bleached, said University of Victoria coral reef scientist Julia Baum, speaking by Skype from the island.
“We left with a sense of dread and came back with a renewed purpose because there are some corals that literally came back from the brink,” said Georgia Tech climate scientist Kim Cobb, who returned from the expedition earlier. “It’s the best we could have hoped for.”
Many of the fish that rely on the reef and had been absent seem to be back, Cobb said.
Hot water — mostly from El Nino, the natural occasional warming of the Pacific that changes weather worldwide, and man-made global warming — had made the area one of the worst hit coral spots in the world….
Eakin points to Scott reef off western Australia where 12 years after the damaging 1998 El Nino coral die-off, nearly half the original reef revived. But it was damaged again by the recent El Nino….
read … Hype
Plan to Annoy Legislators with more Anti-Ag Hysteria After 9th Circuit Court Ruling
SA: …Achitoff said the court ruling clarified the state does have the power to regulate commercial GMO crops and pesticides, or afford such power to the counties if it so chooses.
“The takeaway for me is that all along the argument from the industry is that this is squarely and solely in the bailiwick of the (state) Department of Agriculture, and that is what the court decided,” said Achitoff. “So my position at this point is, OK, that is the decision whether we like it or not, so DOA, so Gov. (David) Ige, what are you going to do?”
Achitoff said that supporters of the county ordinances will likely pressure the state Legislature in the coming year to increase regulations of GMO crops and pesticides….
AP: Hawaii Counties Can't Regulate GMOs and Pesticides According to New Ruling
EcoWatch: Local Governments Can Prohibit GE Crops, Says U.S. Court of Appeals
read … Anti-Agriculture Hysteria
Hawaii County: “Where’s the evidence” that papaya is harmful?”
WHT: …“The local farmers got caught up in all the furor against the big companies,” said Dennis Gonzales, a Hawaii Island scientist who developed the virus-resistant Rainbow papaya in the 1990s. That crop has been credited with saving the industry.
He said he felt the council listened more to emotional testimony than scientists in the field, who were provided little time to speak in comparison.
“Where’s the evidence” that papaya is harmful? Gonzales asked. “There’s no evidence. What makes me sad is people listen to these supposed experts.”
The World Health Organization says “no effects on human health have been shown as a result of the consumption of (GMO) foods by the general population.”
Wille said organic farmers are still concerned their crops could be cross-pollinated by GMO varieties.
She said she will continue to pursue more regulations through her position as the co-chair of the state Democratic Party’s legislative committee.
AP: Circuit court nixes Hawaiian counties' GE bans
read … GMO ban rejected again
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People feel justified in attacking others when they feel attacked.
And then it can go on and on.
It affects whole ʻohana, whole communities, easily. It is like the whirlpool in a blender that sucks in everyone at the edges.
And it leaves everybody resentful that their valuable energy was spent on something they did not want to spend it on, thus in turn laying the ground for greater hurt and future conflicts. This can be exploited by abusive outside powers. Easily.
If you want to stop the blender, stop the accusations on all sides. It doesn't matter who is right. The important stuff can and should be figured out, usually through simple means, once the escalation stops.
Ok, so here are the basic steps to turning the conflict whirlpool:
1. Stop the attacks. Immediately. On all sides.
2. Assess the situation - fact-finding, assessment of needs, etc. If there is any threat to physical safety, deal with it first.
3. Make a plan, prioritizing relationships. Sometimes talking is good. Sometimes it is not. Sometimes time is needed for cooling off and healing - in which case, this should be stated so no one feels blown off. Sometimes the right kupuna can help. Sometimes not. Sometimes (often) multiple prongs are needed, to address both the conflict and the situation that caused it. Basic wellness of those involved is a must before anything else.
4. Rebuild relationships. In a functional ohana or community, this often happens naturally, out of the necessity of working together. Or sometimes it requires a process, like hoʻoponopono. It should be encouraged, but never pressured or forced.
5. Address the conditions that gave rise to the conflict in the first place, in as cooperative a manner as possible. Chances are that it will come up again - and if not that, something similar. Strengthen the ohana so that you are prepared to deal with whatever it is effectively. Do not treat this as though it is a waste of time. It is not.
6. Empower peacemakers. They are everywhere, in most families and communities. Most are untrained, so they might make errors. That is okay - their value probably outweighs this. If they are sincere and humble, they can be called out on these errors and will learn from them. If they are not sincere and humble, they are probably not qualified to advance as a peacemaker. If they are liked by some but not by others, just let them work where they are wanted, and add more peacemakers.
7. Holomua. Keep going. Donʻt let good work go bad because of conflict. Conflict is a friend -- that difficult friend you donʻt want to be friends with, but who helps you and teaches you a lot. Embrace her. Let her make you stronger. You will be better for her, as individuals and as ʻohana.
#peacecookie
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