The Beat: Blogging Hawaii News and Opinion

Arizona Goes Birther: Awaiting Hawaii 'Verification' Before Putting Obama On Ballot

Fri, 18 May 2012 13:35:00 -1000

Yep, it’s “possible” that Obama won’t be on the ballot in Arizona.

Talking Points Memo reports that Arizona Secretary of State Ken Bennett is threatening to keep the president off the ballot in November, saying he’s not convinced Barack Obama was really born in the United States:

Bennett said he was following the lead of the state’s eccentric Sheriff Joe Arpaio, a fellow Republican who ordered an investigation into the president’s birth certificate last year and concluded the document released by the White House is a forgery.

On Thursday, Bennett said he sent his request to Hawaii officials eight weeks ago but has yet to get the proof he was hoping for. He said he didn’t want another copy of the birth certificate. He wants Hawaii to give him what he described as “a verification in lieu of a certified copy of a birth certificate.”

We’re all ears on just what that extra “verification in lieu of a certified copy a birth certificate” would be.

Meantime, the editor of conservative website WorldNetDaily sent out the following Tweet about birther Jerry Corsi:

3,000 Rainbow Trout Gone Missing on Kauai

Fri, 18 May 2012 13:11:55 -1000

Massive fish theft suspected here. If you’ve seen a few thousand rainbow trout flapping around, officials at the Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources would probably appreciate a call.

Our Landblog reports:

(Photo: NOAA)

About 3,000 trout have disappeared from pens at the Puu Lua Reservoir on Kauai, and officials think they were stolen.

As the June 16 opening of Koke‘e trout season approaches, the Department of Land and Natural Resources (DLNR) is asking for the public’s help with catching what appears to be fish thieves who left taxpayers on the hook. DLNR is seeking information that may assist an ongoing investigation into the possible theft of rainbow trout that the Division of Aquatic Resources was holding in pens at the Pu‘u Lua Reservoir at Koke‘e, Kaua‘i.

On March 28, 2012, a DLNR employee discovered trout missing; he estimated that the pen held 3,000 fewer fish than in the previous week. Subsequently, a report was made to the Kaua‘i Police Department that individuals were observed near the floating pens in the reservoir. Damage to the pens was also observed, and obstacles placed on roadways to the reservoir had been moved.

“We are very concerned about this action, which harms the opportunity for many Kaua‘i and Hawai‘i families who look forward to the opening of Koke‘e trout fishing on June 16,” said William Aila Jr., DLNR Chairperson.

Anyone who may have seen persons in or around the reservoir in March is asked to contact the Kaua‘i Police Department or the state Division of Conservation and Resource Enforcement (DOCARE) on Kaua‘i at 274-3521. Also, anyone seeing non-state employees around the reservoir before the trout season opens should also immediately call these numbers.

“The Department encourages the public to comply with state regulations and to stop from damaging valuable equipment used in the rearing of the trout,” said Aila. “We still expect a good fishing season come June 16, although not as good as if we were able to release an additional 3,000 trout for fishing.”

Dole Looking to Selling Hawaii Lands?

Fri, 18 May 2012 12:04:02 -1000

Our Landblog reports:

Dole Food Co. could be unloading land it owns in Hawaii to reduce its debt and shore up its share price, Pacific Coast Business Times reports.

The company, founded in Hawaii more than 150 years ago and now based in California, owns thousands of acres on Oahu.

One way Dole can reduce debt is to sell some of its land in Hawaii, which may be worth as much as $400 million, Carla Casella, a credit analyst for JPMorgan Chase & Co., wrote in a May 4 note. In a breakup, Dole could be valued at as much as $19.70 a share, including its property, she wrote.

David Murdock, chairman of Dole, is also chairman and CEO of Castle & Cooke, which owns 98 percent of Lanai.

Civil Beat reported in the past that Murdock has been losing millions annually on the island and is looking to sell in light of controversies swirling around the Big Wind project.

Federal Judge Says Court Won't Throw Elections into Chaos

Fri, 18 May 2012 11:56:07 -1000

The plaintiffs aren’t doing so well in their arguments before a three-judge panel that the current Hawaii redistricting plan should be tossed.

Earlier, the plaintiffs’ lawyer was confusing the judges (never a good thing).

Now, Capitol Watch reports:

Judge Seabright tells Thomas that requiring a new plan be drawn up could take months or even a year.

That kind of delay, the judge said, would “throw the (election) system into chaos — something this court won’t do,” noting it would “undermine the integrity of the process.”

Thomas says the plaintiffs aren’t trying to do that.

His motion says there are previous districting plans the commission drew up — ones that extracted less non-resident military personnel — that the plaintiffs see as a better plan than the existing one.

But, Thomas said, the judges could address the issue for future elections.

McKeown likened swapping plans versus starting over to moving people around on a chess board versus getting a whole new chess board.

— Nanea Kalani

Three-Judge Panel Takes Up Hawaii Redistricting Challenge

Fri, 18 May 2012 09:58:06 -1000

Important hearing this morning in federal court on reapportionment. We’re live blogging it.

Here’s the latest from Capitol Watch:

A three-judge panel is hearing the case by Hawaii plaintiffs this morning who argue the state’s new political boundaries are unconstitutional because they were drawn up using a base population that does not count military personnel and dependents.
Civil Beat was granted permission to live-blog the hearing, which starts at 10 a.m.

The federal lawsuit aims to halt the upcoming elections through a preliminary injunction. The Aug. 11 primary is less than three months away, and the state Office of Elections says it’s too late to start over. June 5 marks the filing deadline for candidates.

The motion is before U.S. District Judges J. Michael Seabright and Leslie Kobayashi, and U.S. Circuit Judge M. Margaret McKeown of San Diego.

“A preliminary injunction may be extraordinary relief, but here it is necessary to remedy an extraordinary wrong,” the motion says.

In the lawsuit, state Rep. Mark Takai and five other Hawaii voters argue the redistricting plan is unconstitutional and discriminatory because it removed more than 100,000 military personnel, their dependents and out-of-state university students from political district population totals. Four of the six plaintiffs are military personnel or veterans.

The Reapportionment Commission had previously come up with a plan that excluded less military members, but that plan also was challenged in court. The Hawaii Supreme Court tossed that plan, ruling that it violated the Hawaii Constitution and had to be redone.

If military personnel and their dependents are added back into the base population, it could eliminate a fourth Senate seat the Big Island gained, and add back a Senate seat Oahu lost, under the existing plan.

— Nanea Kalani

Hawaii Foreclosures Down 68% in April

Thu, 17 May 2012 11:37:00 -1000

Our moneyblog reports:

Some positive economic news — Hawaii foreclosures were down significantly in April compared to the same month a year ago.

Pacific Business News reports the number of Hawaii homes in foreclosure dropped 68 percent last month, citing data from RealtyTrac.

“There were a total of 314 foreclosure filings — notices of default, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions — on Hawaii properties received in April, or one for every 1,654 housing units, which was 68.19 percent fewer than the number received in April 2011,” PBN reported.

Read more, including county-specific numbers.

Federal Agent Charged in Shooting During APEC Claims Immunity

Thu, 17 May 2012 09:47:38 -1000

The federal agent charged in the fatal shooting of a Kailua man at a Waikiki McDonald claims he was doing his job and is immune from prosecution.

Christopher Deedy, 28, was in Honolulu working for the U.S. Diplomatic Security Services for the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation conference in November when he shot 23-year-old Kollin Elderts.

The Associated Press reports:

Christopher Deedy’s lawyer is seeking to dismiss the case or delay the murder trial, scheduled for September.

…Attorney Brook Hart filed documents detailing Deedy’s version of events. The judge is not releasing the documents.

Last November Deedy’s lawyer told Civil Beat that the agent was acting in self-defense. Deedy is home in Virginia while he awaits trial.

Coast Guard Gives Tsunami Debris Update

Thu, 17 May 2012 09:25:52 -1000

dc808:

In testimony before a Senate subcommittee Thursday, the U.S. Coast Guard offered an update on its efforts to manage marine debris from the March 2011 tsunami.

While NOAA is the lead Federal agency charged with managing the debris, the Coast Guard is also tasked with “specific roles.” Hazardous substance threats, for example, would require Coast Guard leadership.

Last month, the Coast Guard helped coordinate the sinking of a “ghost ship” — a crewless fishing vessel that floated from Japan toward Alaska in the year after the tsunami.

Read the complete written testimony.

Hawaii Man Charged in $35M International Investment Scheme

Wed, 16 May 2012 17:22:26 -1000

hawaiimoneyblog:

A Hawaii man has been charged by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for allegedly running a $35 million international stock scheme.

The SEC said Nicholas Louis Geranio “covertly set up companies and manipulated the market for their stock to profit from aggressive offshore boiler room activity.” The alleged fraudulent activity happened between April 2007 and September 2009.

Also charged in the complaint is Keith Michael Field of California.

“Geranio pulled the strings while Field scripted the show for the boiler rooms to bring a payday to everyone but the investors,” SEC official Stephen L. Cohen said in a statement.

The complaint says the boiler rooms — teams of unregistered telemarketers operating mostly from Spain — “used high-pressure sales tactics and material false statements and omissions to induce the investors (many of them elderly and located in the United Kingdom) to buy the [stock]. Based on a structure created by Geranio, the boiler rooms directed the investors to send their money to escrow agents in the U.S.”

The SEC said those agents, under Geranio’s oversight, then paid 60 perent to 75 percent of the approximately $35 million raised to the boiler rooms as their sales markups, kept 2.5 percent as their own fee, and paid the remaining proceeds back to the companies that Geranio created.

California-based Buyer Puts in Bid for Former HMC Hospitals

Wed, 16 May 2012 14:07:00 -1000

Looks like Queens will have some competition in its bid to takeover the former Hawaii Medical Center-Ewa hospital.

Hampton Health, a California-based medical group, has submitted its own letter of intent to acquire both the Ewa and Liliha hospitals from St. Francis Healthcare System of Hawaii.

The former HMC West hospital filed for bankruptcy in June 2011 and was closed by the end of the year. The Liliha complex closed shortly afterwards.

This session, lawamkers agreed on a bill that would authorize the state’s Hawaii Health Systems Corp. to acquire the Liliha hospital.

Hampton Health submitted its letter of intent along with former St. Francis Healthcare executive Eugene Tiwanak.

In a press release, Hampton Health said it “would expand medical services and programs, particularly at the Ewa hospital. Tiwanak emphasized that Hampton Health was interested in partnering with Hawaii-based medical service providers.”

Hampton Health did not disclose the price offered.

Kauai Poi Mill Gets a Reprieve

Wed, 16 May 2012 10:21:15 -1000

The Office of Hawaiian Affairs has changed course on the Makaweli Poi Mill on Kauai. Instead of shutting the mill down, OHA will transition ownership from its nonprofit subsidiary Hiipoi LLC to a community organization.

Pacific Business News reports:

“We want to ensure that people in the Kauai (taro) community would become the new owners and managers of Makaweli Poi Mill,” OHA CEO Kamanaopono Crabbe said in a statement. “We know that local decision making is important for our Hawaiian community. So our transition plan is intended to make that happen.”

Just last week, the poi factory posted on its Facebook page that Hiipoi “has suddenly and unreasonably given the poi mill 2 weeks notice with highly questionable plans for the mill’s future and no community input.”

The Office of Hawaiian Affairs bought the assets of Makaweli Poi Mill in 2008 for $185,000 from kalo farmer John Aana. OHA formed Hiipoi LLC for the purchase, and kept the Makaweli name.

VoteVets Airing Gabbard Ads in Hawaii

Wed, 16 May 2012 10:15:40 -1000

dc808:

The latest campaign ad to hit the air in Hawaii is a message of support for Tulsi Gabbard from VoteVets.org. According to Roll Call, VoteVets is “the largest progressive organization of veterans in the country,” and it shelled out $75,000 to air the ad for 10 days.

Check it out:

Voting on Hawaii Teachers Contract Starts Thursday

Wed, 16 May 2012 10:14:55 -1000

Our Educationblog reports:

Starting Thursday, Hawaii teachers will be voting again on the contract they shot down two-to-one in January.

Given that the January contract no longer has any legal standing, it’ll be interesting to see what happens if teachers pass it this time around.

The teachers union had planned to make a “no” vote mean an authorization to strike, further complicating the matter.

Check out this story today for more information on the re-vote.

Ex-LAPD Homicide Detective Arrested in Wife's 2006 Hawaii Slaying

Tue, 15 May 2012 17:28:19 -1000

A retired LAPD detective long suspected in the fatal beating of his wife in 2006 has been arrested for the killing.

The LA Times reports:

Dan DeJarnette, 59, was taken into custody without incident Monday night at his home on the Big Island in connection with the slaying of his wife, Yu Dejarnette.

He said at the time of her November 2006 death that he had awakened and found her lying on a lava embankment about 20 feet from the couple’s home in Ka’u on the southern end of island. She suffered severe head trauma and was later pronounced dead at a hospital.

DeJarnette told patrol officers his 56-year-old wife had been hurt in an accident. But an autopsy determined she died from head trauma, and the retired officer was booked on suspicion of murder — and then released because of lack of evidence.

Hawaii police looked at the case anew in January and DeJarnette was indicted by a grand jury.

Honolulu Building Permits Going Paperless in Kapolei

Tue, 15 May 2012 17:22:21 -1000

Honolulu is getting serious about going paperless.

Inside Honolulu reports:

In March it was online camping permits.

Now, the city is getting ready to close its building permit counter at Kapolei Hale and move all of its dealings online.

Hawaii News Now reports that one-fourth of all city permitting is already done online:

The Kapolei building permit counter will close later this year as the city Planning and Permitting Department expands its on-line and electronic building permit initiatives, city officials said.

“These initiatives have saved the department thousands of man-hours, as well as providing the public improved services and avoiding waits in long lines,” said Art Challacombe, chief of the Department of Planning and Permitting’s Customer Service Office.

…

“Training for staff is currently under way and we expect a late-summer public roll-out date,” Challacombe said.

Corpse Flower to Bloom — and Stink — on Thursday

Tue, 15 May 2012 15:18:00 -1000

The so-called ‘corpse’ flower, which emits a fragrance that smells of rotting flesh, will bloom this week at Honolulu’s Foster Botanical Garden.

Our Landblog reports:

Exciting news from Honolulu’s botanical garden …

The endangered Amorhophallus titanium plant, which has a “horrific odor of rotted flesh” is expected to bloom in Honolulu’s Foster Botanical Garden on Thursday, according to a press release from the Dept. of Parks and Recreation.

The plant’s name means “misshapen penis” in Greek.

The flower only blooms once every three to five years and is a native of Sumatra Indonesia.

According to Scot Mitamura, a Honolulu Botanical Garden horticulturalist, the Amorphophallus titanum is the largest unbranched inflorescence in the plant kingdom. Contributing to this plants’ exotic allure is its horrific odor of rotted flesh, which serves to attract the carrion beetles that pollinate the flower.

If you want to see, or smell, the plant, it can be found at Foster Botanical Garden: 50 North Vineyard Blvd., Honolulu.

Hawaii Public Pension Fund Value Up More than 8%

Tue, 15 May 2012 12:23:00 -1000

Good news on the pension front today.

Our Moneyblog reports:

The value of Hawaii’s public pension fund was up to $11.5 billion at the end of March — up more than 8 percent from the previous quarter, according to the latest performance report.

The Hawaii Employees’ Retirement System posted a gain of $814.4 million for the three months ending March 31, thanks to strong returns on its equity investments.

“Equity markets soared in the first quarter of 2012, turning in the strongest quarter since the initial rebound from the credit crisis in med-2009,” the report said. “The ERS portfolio produced positive absolute results in four of the last five 12-month periods ending March 31.”

The fund’s quarterly performance placed Hawaii in the 33rd percentile among comparable public funds with assets of more than $1 billion, the report said.

Here are a few pages from the report, which should be posted to the ERS website this week.

Outgoing UH Manoa Chancellor Gets $287K Sabbatical

Tue, 15 May 2012 11:41:35 -1000

News that University of Hawaii at Manoa Chancellor Virginia Hinshaw will be paid $287,400 for a 10-month sabbatical once she steps down from her position this summer has gotten UH faculty and students in an uproar.

Hawaii News Now reports:

While UH President M.R.C. Greenwood defended the move, it was criticized by UH students, the faculty union and others.

…

In a deal approved by the UH Board of Regents at their Jan. 19 meeting at Kauai Community College, once Hinshaw completes her sabbatical next year, she’ll go to work at UH’s John A. Burns School of Medicine.

The medical school will pay Hinshaw $292,188 a year to fill a tenured faculty position she was awarded by a previous Board of Regents when she was hired for the chancellor’s job in 2007.

Read the complete story.

$12,482 For a Dog Run at the Governor's Mansion

Tue, 15 May 2012 10:32:01 -1000

That’s one expensive dog run!

Our partners at KITV had a great report this morning on the more than $41,000 in taxpayer money spent on improvements to the governor’s residence in the last year:

According to records obtained by KITV4 from the Department of Accounting and General Services, part of the expenditures at Hale Kia’aina includes installing a dog run for the couple’s Shetland sheepdog at a cost of $12,482.

The dog run is simply another fenced in area where first pooch Kanoa can get her exercise unsupervised.

Abercrombie defended the dog run as part of improvements needed to make the governor’s residence livable.

Many of the expenses are par for the course for a couple renovating an older house — a new dishwasher and refrigerator for $3,050, new carpet in the master bedroom and second-floor hallway for $5,892. But the $12,482 dog run really stands out.

Read the full story at KITV. And don’t miss the PDF showing a breakdown of the renovation expenses.

Hawaii Gets $128K To Help Protect Monk Seals and Turtles

Mon, 14 May 2012 18:32:15 -1000

The recent spate of suspicious monk seal deaths has spurred the feds to give Hawaii a new grant to help with the protection of the endangered seals, as well as green sea turtles. There’s still a $40,000 reward for information leading to the conviction of those behind the seal killings.

Our Landblog reports:

Hawaii will receive a $128,585 grant to aid in the protection of the endangered Hawaiian monk seal and green sea turtle, according to a Monday press release from Sen. Daniel Inouye and Sen. Daniel Akaka.

The funding is in part spurred by the recent deaths of four monk seals, which died under suspicious circumstances. It will be used for public education efforts and documenting the disturbance of the marine animals.

From the press release:

“Protecting the monk seal, the most endangered fin-footed marine mammal in U.S. waters, the green sea turtle and the hawksbill turtle will require a concerted effort by all who use the ocean. The alleged killing of four monk seals during the last six months highlights the immediate need for a combination of intervention and culturally sensitive education and outreach. This grant will continue the process of correcting misinformation about the monk seal while also addressing the challenges facing the green sea and hawksbill turtles. We must be diligent stewards of the ocean and I am very pleased the administration recognizes the need to invest in the protection of these marine animals,” said Senator Inouye.

“The monk seal and honu are among Hawaii’s most treasured native species. We must do all we can to protect these important marine animals so that our keiki and future generations can learn from and enjoy them like we do,” said Senator Akaka.

Photo credit: NOAA