i L i n d . n e t

I managed to obtain and scan a copy of Rep. Mina Morita’s complaint asking the PUC to suspend the Superferry’s operating authority until the company complies with environmental requirements. Click here to read the complaint.

A story by Alyssa Navares, managing editor of the UH Manoa campus newspaper, Ka Leo, found that UH security officials have been routinely violating federal law by failing to make the information in campus crime logs publicly available within two days.

The federal government’s Jeanne Clery Act, which Carter helped amend, requires college security authorities to make information on a crime reported to them available to the public within two business days of its occurrence. An online version of the log at UH Mānoa is usually updated “every Thursday or Friday, depending on how busy security is,” said UH Mānoa’s security chief, Neal Sakamoto.

The most recent online update, as of yesterday, Oct. 10, included crimes reported from Sept. 20 to 26.

The story drew a quick response from the UH administration. Kathleen Cutshaw, vice-chancellor for administration, said she wasn’t aware of the problem.

“I was not aware of (the federal violation) before the story came out because I rely on my directors to run their departments,” said Cutshaw, who oversees Campus Security. “We thank Ka Leo for bringing it to our attention.”

Good job, Ka Leo!

The guilty plea by local contractor Walter Arakaki to a charge of mail fraud as the result of a longstanding bid-rigging scheme at Honolulu Airport seems like the end of an era during which a group of small and mid-sized contractors had the political process wired for off-the-books deals and political favors.

A quick look in my files turned up a 1993 Star-Bulletin story in which Arakaki and the Sand Island Business Association, which he headed, were accused of pouring big money (some $500,000) into local political campaigns and, in the process, got the state to create the Sand Island Industrial Park and turn over administrative authority to SIBA. It was being alleged that favoritism and self-dealing in the award of leases had benefited officers of SIBA, including Arakaki. As I recall, the group spread money around but was a big backer of then-Senator Milton Holt, among others.

Hmmmm…I just went to the state web site to check current officers of SIBA, and the site appears to be “down”. Searches just stall without producing any results. I wonder what other parts of the state system are also down on this Saturday morning?

In any case, the system was brought to a halt by the Campaign Spending Commission’s crackdown on illegal contributions and the associated criminal cases, and this corruption case, involving some of the usual suspects, underscores that times have changed.

Of course, political favoritism hasn’t gone away, but now it seems to be favoring the big corporate players and investors like Oaktree with its projected Turtle Bay expansion that is being allowed to run roughshod over this relatively rural part of the island, Trump with his monument to the tastes of the nouveau riche, and Mr. Lehman’s Superferry.

It almost leaves me feeling nostalgic for the old days when the clout belonged to those small time local players like Arakaki.

I’ll have to cut this a bit short this a.m., as I have to try to diagnose some computer problems. These sent me scurrying to the Apple Store yesterday for a copy of Disk Warrior, which I hope will resolve a couple of strange behaviors. The computers strange behaviors, that is, rather than mine. Those are perhaps not curable.