i L i n d . n e t

Advertiser business writer Rick Daysog has joined the ranks of bloggers with his new “Biz Bites” blog. Shouldn’t that be Biz Bytes? His entry on Hawaiian Tel was pretty ambitious and sets a high standard for regular blogging. Good luck, Rick!

The Star-Bulletin reported the sudden closing of Holokai Grill on the new Waikiki Beach Walk this week on the same day Honolulu Weekly’s new issue hit the street giving the restaurant top billing in its “new or noteworthy” restaurant listings.

Speaking of the Weekly, the newspaper’s web site melted down months ago and has still not been fixed. Most items displayed have not been updated in months. It’s list of “recent cover stories” hit the wall in mid-March and hasn’t moved since. I don’t have any insider information, but the failure to get this done has me worried about the Weekly’s current finances.

What’s even worse, from a writer’s perspective, those cover stories featured on the web site are reprinted online without bylines or attribution, leaving contributing writers out in the cold. It’s not like Weekly contributors are getting lavishly paid for their contributions, so stripping off bylines, even if in error, is really inexcusable.

The Advertiser today has a brief AP story on a Hawaii union pension fund that has sued Alcoa over alleged business bribery. But if you would like to read the complaint filed in federal court in Pennsylvania, the Advertiser doesn’t offer that opportunity. Why not? It’s an interesting story, so I downloaded the file and you can read the complaint here.

It’s another Feline Friday, and time for more of my favorite cats. This week, along with cats that share our home, there’s also one photo of Nemo, who lives a couple of blocks away with three of our regular morning dogs. In any case, just click on Mr. Duke’s photo for this week’s collection.

There’s disturbing news from Kauai regarding major police over reaction to Superferry opponents who are also sovereignty advocates, apparently in official circles now considered a dangerous mix. What in the world is going on over there?

News of the video strike by Advertiser reporters brought this reply from a reader:

What’s the other side of the story, I wonder? What are the ramifications to the company if the union gets what they are asking for? Are they being unreasonable or fair, given the conditions of the newspaper industry as a whole and our economic environment? If I were in the union, I’d be concerned they were going to negotiate me out of a job — unless these questions were addressed.

And that drew a quick response from another reader:

No union would negotiate a company out of business. Bad for them since it would mean they would have no members.

There is a mutual self-interest in keeping a business open. That’s why unions in the airline industry give concession after concession.

Let’s see. I noticed this story from the Kansas City Star concerning a request for e-mails of Missouri Governor Matt Blunt. It’s interesting in light of my request for Gov. Lingle’s e-mail earlier this year, which had a very different outcome.

And the Sunlight Foundation is providing new tools for tracking federal campaign dollars, according to the Online Journalism Review.

Orbis Books, a religious publisher, has just published the latest book by Jim Douglass, a professor of religion and leading peace activist at the University of Hawaii for several years during the late 1960s and early 1970s. JFK and the Unspeakable: Why He Died and Why It Matters is a dense 400 heavily footnoted pages of history of the Kennedy assassination with a twist.

According to the publisher, “Douglass traces a sequence of steps by JFK–from the Bay of Pigs Invasion and the Cuban Missile Crisis, right up to the week of his death–that transformed him from a conventonal Cold Warrior to someone determiend to pull the world back from the edge of apolcalypse. These actions, including his secret back-channel dialgoue with Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev, caused members of his own U.S. Military-intelligence establishment to regard him as a dangerous traitor who had to be eliminated.”

When a review copy arrived in the mail a couple of days ago, I was a little skeptical, but my initial impression is that this is a book well worth reading. Douglass argues that by averting our eyes from the reality of the Kennedy assassination, we became complicit in the act and delivered a victory to those who plotted to pull it off.

Knowing Jim, this is a book with meticulous attention to detail and a compelling moral perspective. I’m looking forward to diving in.

We were on the return leg of our morning walk when this clump of Kaaawa kids were heading to school. They stopped for a photo. University classes are ending, but there’s almost a month still to go at Kaaawa School before school’s out.

First there was the byline strike. Now it’s the video strike, according to a Hawaii Newspaper Guild member at the Honolulu Advertiser.

…the Newspaper Guild is undertaking a video strike against the Advertiser until May 19 (the next negotiation session).

Basically all newsroom staffers are exercising their right to refuse the optional task of shooting, editing or otherwise producing videos for use on Honoluluadvertiser.com. This task was taken on voluntarily by newsroom staffers as part of the advertiser’s ‘digital transformation,’ but given the complete lack of respect for that effort on the part of the company (as evidenced by their lousy contract offers and unwillingness to bargain seriously), the environment of cooperation is taking a turn for the worse.

Management has made a couple of interesting adjustments, including making videos themselves (e.g. the new Headlines video), asking for video from sources (I do not know if they are having reporters do this) and, most interestingly, making a deal with KGMB 9 to supply what amounts to scab video.

Needless to say, that’s not appreciated, although the Guild did not apparently do a media release regarding this action. Word is the video strike upset publisher Lee Webber greatly and he’s been trying to take his ‘message’ directly to the workers via direct email and, get this, an offer to have breakfast or lunch with all staffers personally, ostensibly to ‘sell’ the company’s crap offer. I don’t think many will be sympathetic, given the soaring workloads and dwindling staff levels. But I would bet more than a few will take him up on the offer and give him a piece of their minds.

Gannett has been emphasizing video and interactivity on its newspaper web sites throughout the chain.

Back in January, Advertiser editor Mark Platte wrote: “We owe our success in the field of video to the many reporters and photographers who have learned a new skill set and have made The Advertiser one of the top sites in our company when it comes to video streams.”

Platte’s column went on to laud Seth Jones, the Advertiser’s multimedia editor, who received a Gannett award last year for his role in pushing video production by photographers and reporters here in Hawaii. So I’m sure this video strike is getting attention within the company.

Our course, all this is playing out against the backdrop of continuing dismal news in the industry. Forbes reported last week on the latest circulation figures across the country, and most news is bad. Here’s another report (with comments) on Gannett’s papers, and another blog post (with comments) concerning Gannett’s Cincinnati Enquirer.

So what’s the future of newspapers? Perhaps Gannett Co., owner of what I think is still the largest newspaper chain in the country, was dropping a big hint when it cut the word “newspaper” from the name of its former Newspaper Division? It has been renamed “U.S. Community Publishing”.

U.S. Community Publishing includes Gannett’s daily community newspapers, more than 100 Web sites and hundreds of non-daily publications. The new name better reflects the division’s responsibilities, the company said.

A reader raised another question about the Superferry’s lobbyist reports.

Wasn’t the law firm that Superferry hired also utilized as lobbyists? Gary Slovin was all over the Capitol. I remember at least one or two of their attorneys testified on behalf of the Superferry.

Were part of the bills paid to Goodsill accounted as part of the overall lobbyists expenses?

The answer is, Yes. Attorney Gary Slovin is listed on the company’s disclosure reports for 2007, which show the following amounts paid.

January-Feb - $ 167.54
March-April - $3719.30
May-Dec 2007 - $1507.82

2007 total: $5,394.66

Whether that sounds like it covers all of the time Slovin spent lobbying on the Superferry’s behalf is something I have no information on, although I have no reason to believe that it doesn’t.

Yesterday’s post about Kitty Lagareta prompted another reader to ask:

Your post this morning about Kitty did not go into the obvious, that her close ties with the Governor made her a target and the “this and that” about the university operations, and especially sports, is just so much cover. Of course, Kitty has her own history of claiming persecution by “the machine” for her allegiance and work for Linda.

And your post raises an interesting question. Are legislator’s disallowed from making recommendations and even lobbying on their behalf, a right that the rest of us citizens have. I am sure there is the possibility of overzealous lobbying and suggests of tit for tat and reprisals, but I have to assume there were people (whether leggos or not) sending messages of support for Donovan.

“Deep political roots and past associations with key figures in and out of government” has a nefarious ring, but you could say the same about Mother Theresa or the Dalai Lama.”

I guess the simple question is, what is appropriate support for a candidate by an elected official (who we put in office to spend their time and energy in ways that would give them an opinion about who should hold a job) and what is not.

I think the recommendations of elected officials, as all others, would be appropriately submitted to a selection committee as part of the screening process. Sometimes friends in high places can be a legitimate job-related plus.

I find those phone calls less legitimate when elected officials bypass the normal screening committee process and go directly to higher-placed decision makers with what amount to requests to overturn official selection committee rankings or recommendations.

The provision of the state ethics law is somewhat vague, but certainly suggests that there are limits to such support.

§84-13 Fair treatment. No legislator or employee shall use or attempt to use the legislator’s or employee’s official position to secure or grant unwarranted privileges, exemptions, advantages, contracts, or treatment, for oneself or others…

Very interesting…it seems Sen. Inouye hosted a fundraiser for Republican Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska, who faces a tough race with a Democratic challenger.

But to Senate old-timers like Inouye, 83, and Stevens, 84 — each of whom has served in the chamber since the 1960s — friendship comes before party. In the increasingly bitter world of Washington, the friendship of Inouye and Stevens stands out. They call each other “brother.” Both served with honor in World War II.

The two have traveled the world together are the top two senators on the panel controlling the Pentagon budget. For years, they’ve used the post to deliver federal money to their states. They are also the chairman and top Republican on the powerful Commerce Committee.

However, when Inouye’s wife passed away two years ago, Stevens traveled to Hawaii for the funeral. With that perspective, fellow Democrats are unlikely to take too much umbrage at Inouye’s gesture toward his GOP friend.

“It says that friendships and relationships are more important than political parties,” said Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas.

In the arts–I’m humbled. Check out these photos taken with…an iPhone.

It’s not Friday, but it’s time for a cat note nonetheless.

I took Annie & Kili to the vet on Sunday afternoon for regular annual checkups.

Annie was fine. No ill effects of her ratting.

But it’s been almost a year and a half since Ms. Kili’s been to VCA. At that time, we had been treating a liver ailment until her last blood test found everything okay again. Apparently she’s been doing better since we discovered that she’s gained over two pounds. She now weighs just over 14 pounds, putting her up in the Big Boy category. So now I have to worry that we’ve got to add her to the “don’t feed more than necessary” category.

Please count me among those who think that the Senate made a mistake when it turned down the reappointment of Kitty Lagareta to the UH Board of Regents.

Unfortunately, it’s a little hard to tell exactly why Lagareta got the boot from reporting on the issue. Here are two excerpts from stories in the Honolulu dailies following the Senate vote.
Derrick DePledge in the Advertiser:

Senators also cited the selection process of new president David McClain, management shortcomings identified by the state auditor, and the deteriorating conditions at many of the university’s campuses.

Craig Gima in the Star-Bulletin:

Sakamoto (D, Moanalua) said the regents were ultimately responsible for those problems, including the handling of the dismissal of former UH President Evan Dobelle and the hiring of current President David McClain; lack of openess at meetings; Lagareta’s crticisms of the Legislature during board meetings; the loss of football coach June Jones; the salary paid to new football coach Greg McMackin; and the state of UH athletic facilities and classrooms.

Counting down these issues doesn’t really identify what Lagareta did in relation to these issues that Senators took issue with. Perhaps she didn’t really do anything except be the person on the spot to take the generalized blame.

In my view, the vote does appear to result from more of that impulse to micromanage that the legislature has rather consistently exhibited.

I spoke to Lagareta after the vote. She said during her tenure, the Board of Regents generally stayed out of micromanaging administrative affairs or imposing specific decisions on the administration.

She called it “a noses in, fingers out approach”. She explained: “We don’t tell the chancellor or the president to hire or fire specific people. We ask questions, express concerns, but I’m not going to order a personnel change, for example.”

Lagareta said Senators cited several situations in which regents followed a process and legislators didn’t like the outcome.

“I’m all for process,” Lagareta told me. “I was trying to keep the regents out of micromanaging the university.”

She described several incidents of legislators or other elected officials trying to intervene on behalf of candidates for UH positions, including the recent appointment of Donovan as athletic director.

“We had a search committee that made a strong recommendation,” Lagareta said. “The search committee did their thing. We don’t normally get involved in a search committee.”

Lagareta said the search committee identified three top candidates and recommended Donovan for the job, but regents “were beseiged by people backing Rockne (Hawaii Community College Chancellor Rockne Freitas).”

Freitas, of course, has deep political roots and past associations with key figures in and out of government. I’ll try to find some of those clips later this a.m.

“Five of us took the search committee recommendation and said, fine. But four came out of nowhere and said, ‘We’ve been talking to some people.’ That usually means they’ve been talking to legislators,” Lagareta said. “One of them pulled out this article about Jim Donovan spending $50,000 on something, but I looked at the article and it doesn’t find anything illegal or any ethics violation.”

The article in question was apparently part of my 1997 series on UH athletics, “The Money Game”. This particular story examined financial records of expenditures for gifts and entertainment from a fund controlled by Donovan.

Lagareta was correct in her interpretation of the story, which was critical of the way big time collegiate athletics is played rather than of Donovan personally.

Lagareta said eventually all but two regents voted to approve Donovan.

“I thought if we did otherwise, given the search committee’s recommendation, it would be micromanaging of the worst kind,” Lagareta said.

I can’t say that I agree with all the decisions Lagareta made as a regent. Heck, I don’t even agree with all of my own decisions. But in my personal dealings with her, I’ve found Lagareta to be professional and straight forward, and acting in the best interests of the university as she saw them. And her account of warding off outside political pressures certainly ring true.

Had I been asked, I would have recommended a vote in her favor. I’m sorry no one asked.

It’s just 5:35 a.m. and the eastern sky is already lighting up. That’s a big change from the mornings of mid-January, at the start of Hawaii’s legislative session, when walking at 6 a.m. required flashlights. Very soon, the sun will be up before we even leave the house. That makes for a very different morning experience, and for us it passes as “seasons”.

Kauai reporter and blogger commented on the Advertiser’s front page story yesterday about the Superferry’s lobbying tab.

This has got to be a first, a blogger breaking the news, the daily chasing it and actually quoting you about whether you’re satisfied with Mollway’s response. Journalism is really changing.

College students and very recent grads have time to apply for the White House Internship Program’s Fall 2008 positions. Application deadline is June 3.

The Los Angeles Times Daily Travel Blog commented on the escalating air fares between Hawaii and the west coast, now over $800. So we’ve got the double whammy of limited seats and soaring prices. What’s next?

The confusion over just which of the competing Hawaiian Kingdom Governments had taken over Iolani Palace last week, and the reaction I got when probing the quesiton, reminded me of that Monty Python riff in their movie, Life of Brian, where they discuss the sectarian politics of the day.

And I forgot to mention this University of Hawaii story about the UH cat care policy that includes litter boxes on campus and the group set up to do the work. There’s even a contact for anyone who would like to help with one of the campus cat colonies.

Now it’s time to whip up my weekly egg white omelet.

Remember my prediction made here on Wednesday that the State Ethics Commission would likely take no action against Hawaii Superferry, Inc. for its blatant failure to fully disclose the cost of its lobbying efforts?

I wrote that the commission:

…concentrates on obtaining voluntary compliance, even if after the fact. This means that there will likely be no consequences, apart from being mentioned here and on other blogs, even as a result of this glaring example of failing to report.

This has proved to be quite accurate.

Christie Wilson, writing in today’s Honolulu Advertiser, quotes commission Executive Director Dan Mollway:

“They (Superferry officials) were totally willing to comply, and I didn’t get any sense it was done intentionally or that they were trying to hide anything,” he said.

Mollway went on:

“Concerns have been raised whether we should take further enforcement action, but so far I don’t think we’re going to do that because they were very cooperative in talking to us and very quick in amending their reports, which they should get points for and is kind of rare,” Mollway said.

So the ethics commission, which is supposed to enforce full reporting requirements, not only isn’t going to impose any sanctions for the Superferry’s gross under-reporting, Mollway wants to give them points for quickly apologizing when caught.

I have known Dan for as long as he has been director of the commission, which is a long time, and we’ve argued about lots of issues over the years. I can understand his reluctance to use scarce commission resources in largely symbolic enforcement actions, but I can’t understand the “oh, we should just give them Brownie points for being so nice when they were busted” attitude.

Imagine reporting the same thing with a different underlying offense.

Police said they went to a Kaaawa home after receiving a tip from a concerned citizen.

“We were welcomed at the front door by the suspect, who invited us inside the house. We found several rooms filled with electronic equipment, computers, jewelry, and other items taken in a string of recent burglaries,” a police department spokesman said.

However, no charges are being considered because the suspect was so cooperative when police arrived.

“He was totally willing to help and wasn’t trying to hide anything, and immediately took responsibility for the thefts, which he should get points for and is kind of rare,” the police spokesman said.

The ethics commission logic just doesn’t work for me on this.

But it is, I suppose, another lesson in white collar crime, although violations of the lobbyist law are not considered criminal. Only administrative sanctions are available. Perhaps that is something that needs to change. In any case, white collar criminals often get away with their offenses because their appearance and demeanor does not fit our stereotypes of “real” criminals.

And friendly executives who quickly correct the paperwork when gross deficiencies are pointed out are apparently just as easily forgiven.

Mollway told Derrick DePledge a couple of days ago that he didn’t know how the reporting requirements were missed by Superferry officials.

That’s a very good question, and I think Dan should have given it a bit more thought before doling out those Brownie points to Superferry officials.

This isn’t rocket science. The categories are plainly set out on the reporting form and clearly include far more than fees paid to lobbyists.

Line #1: Preparation and distribution of lobbying materials
Line #2: Media advertising
Line #3: Telegraph, telephone and other forms of telecommunication
Line #4: Postage
Line #5: Compensation paid to lobbyists
Line #6: Fees (other than to lobbyists)
and so on.

So how did then Superferry CEO John Garibaldi fail to notice all the blank categories when he signed off on the obviously incomplete reports to the commission?

As I said to Wilson yesterday, if the information wasn’t intentionally withheld, then the company was clearly negligent. And in most types of civil or administrative liability, you can’t escape penalties if you were negligent in your performance of your legal responsibilities.

Okay, that’s enough for one morning.

Here’s the scene on the beach in Kaaawa yesterday morning at 6:47 a.m.

Although the sun had already been up for more than half an hour, it was a very gray morning. Just click for a better view.

By popular request–at least two people have asked–here is an update on yesterday’s early morning rat.

A photo can say a lot. So check out this photo, then scroll down for information on the important things to notice.

Notice:

1) Gray cat waiting patiently. That’s Ms. Wally. Not exactly a portrait of the hunter at high alert. But looks can be deceiving.

2) Object on far right swathed in plastic. That’s our television protected by its manufacturer’s original issue plastic packing bag, now doing duty as official cat pee protector while said television is not in use.

We have lost several televisions to the infamous “piss of death”. Now vulnerable electronics sport defensive covers.

3) On upper left, notice that the heavy sliding glass door to the deck is in an open position. Unfortunately, it was closed about an hour ago when large rat made a break from behind or under the television stand. Rats are apparently not innately aware of glass doors, as this rat made a direct run for the door and then jumped for freedom. Unfortunately, the glass door was closed, rat fell with a thud, and barely made it back under the television stand ahead of Ms. Wallly, who was startled from a light sleep and still made it across the room in near record time.

Wally vigiled there for quite a while before finally getting bored and climbing into my lap as I write. I am leaving the door open for the rest of the day, hoping that rat makes another run for it while other cats are absent or loafing.

Update: 3:05 p.m. Friday. After several hours, the rat emerged out from under the television, climbed up the plastic cover to the top, then jumped and took cover behind stacks of CDs on a shelf behind the television. I trapped it with a few additional CDs stacked on top, then tried to figure out how to get it out. I finally got a big towel and slowly removed  CDs one at a time until I could get a grip on its tail, then its body. Once I had a good hold, I pulled it out, took it down the stairs into the yard, and let it go. Last seen, it was running towards the big four acres next door that’s just wild territory.

Whew. At least it’s not going to be in an unknown location in the house for another night.

Saga over.

This is Ms. Wally with her mysterious/menacing look.

Just click on her picture for a more of our Friday cats.