i L i n d . n e t

I understand my entry yesterday caused a bit of confusion.

I’m told that I misinterpreted the reference to Superferry-related funding by Senator Inouye, which it turns out was for infrastructure development rather than the loan guarantee. A PBN story at the time noted: “U.S. Sen. Dan Inouye secured more than $25 million in funding for the ferry terminal and related infrastructure development.”

So apparently statements by the senator’s staff that he did not take a position on the loan guarantee could be correct even though he was backing the project in other ways. Could be true, but would you press for millions in funding but not support the loan guarantee that would make it all possible? I dunno.

A reader took issue with a Star-Bulletin headline on the arrest of House Vice-Speaker Jon Riki Karamatsu. The headline read: “Legislator goes to jail on DUI rap”.

But the reader comments: “ain’t this a bit over the top? he was only in a police station detention cell until he could get a friend to come down and post $500 cash bail. that’s not going to jail as most of us think of going to jail.”

The S-B article actually reported: “After being arrested, Karamatsu spent the night in custody and a friend posted his $500 bail later in the morning.”

Let’s see how others reported. The Advertiser story didn’t mention that Karamatsu had been detained. KHON and KITV reported his arrest but didn’t mention where Karamatsu spent the night.

Looking at these reports, I would say the S-B headline may have been slightly misleading, as Karamatsu was apparently not transported to OCCC but remained in a police detention cell awaiting bail, but the S-B story’s mention of the overnight detention was more accurate than the other reports. So on this one I think I’ll side with the S-B.

The news about the current trial in California of one of the men charged with bribing former Congressman Randy Cunningham is raising issues for us here, according to reports from the San Diego courtroom.

An AP story cited by the Advertiser today reports that two prostitutes were hired through an escort service and driven to meet with Cunningham and the defendant, Brent Wilkes, at the Hapuna Beach Prince Hotel in 2003.

The escort service isn’t named, although the two woman’s names are used.

Perhaps a bit of digging will turn up the name of the escort service. Are they still doing business? Is this an accepted part of doing business on the Kona side? Or do we worry at all about prostitutes with chauffeurs servicing guests in $6,000 per night hotel suites?

By the way, here’s a much better report on the case from the North County Times, which explains that a disagreement over which man would claim which of the women caused their relationship to crumble. Hey, if you’re spending $20,000 to bribe a congressman, wouldn’t you let him make the pick? Apparently Wilkes didn’t figure that out and Cunningham didn’t stay bought. Bidness is bidness, as Molly Ivans would have said.

I noted this review in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer about a book recounting a 1978 Hawaii murder case. The book is called a “disappointment”, but it might be of particular interest to islanders. And the Seattle Times, not to be outdone in things Hawaiian, provided this profile of islanders living in that fair city.

If you’ve wondering how in the heck Google Earth does its magic, here’s the 60-second tour of the technology involved.