As to yesterday’s morning walk–we beat the weather after all. It required umbrellas much of the way, but we managed, much to the delight of our regular morning dogs.
Kudos to Leslie Wilcox for the second part of her interview with former Honolulu news anchor Bob Sevey, broadcast Tuesday night. If you missed it, here’s the transcript.
When asked what he would want his obituary to say, Sevey replied:
I don’t know; I haven’t even thought about it. ‘He did the best he could.’ I guess that kinda sums it up. Um, ‘He won some, he lost some, and a few ended in ties.’
Thanks for the insights.
Sevey bemoans the intrusion of fluff and glitter that has come to dominate the news, and I noted this story from the Sacramento Bee on the same theme earlier this week.
The Associated Press won court approval to intervene in the extortion case involving former Lingle campaign manager and chief of staff, Bob Awana. Here’s a link to the Star-Bulletin story. The Advertiser ran a breaking news item yesterday from AP, and I don’t see any folo in today’s online edition.
It’s interesting–and perhaps revealing–that the attempt to obtain more of the documents in this case is being pressed by AP’s regional office and not any of our local media, despite the high profile of Awana and the case.
What war? A request for exemption filed with the State Procurement Office by the state Office of Public Safety contains this interesting tidbit: “Also, because of the war, delivery of all types of ammunition is delayed by approximately six months.”
What’s going on with the housing crisis? The Los Angeles times ran several stories this week on the subprime mortgage crisis and falling housing prices in Southern California, most predicting falling prices for at least another year.
No one knows how severe the slump will be, but economists and real estate experts interviewed by The Times, and who were willing to make predictions, said prices could fall 15% to 25% before turning back up.
Most said values would continue falling through at least next year, and some thought the market wouldn’t reverse course until 2010.
Here in Honolulu, we have two newspapers to explain the situation.
According to the Advertiser: “Isle foreclosures continue rise”
But the Star-Bulletin says: “Foreclosure rates level off”
What in the world was conservative columnist George Will smoking when he wrote yesterday’s column equating Native Hawaiian rights with Nazi racism? Do you think he really believes that stuff? What an ass.
Snow was predicted overnight on the Big Island’s mountains, so I’ve been trolling for webcams that might provide a view. Snow’s already visible up on the Mauna Kea summit in the early light from a Canada-France-Hawaii webcam. Enjoy the view.
Regarding the release of the Awana emails: Face it, the emails will never be released. Why? Because US Attorney Ed Kubo promised RA they the public would never find out details regarding this case from his office. Despite the his identity is known, the US Attorney’s office has never confirmed that he was the complainant. The release of the emails would violate this underlying understanding. Their resistance to the release of the evidence is therefore understandable. On the otherhand the public should feel a sense of outrage at the thought that the government and the US Attorney’s office might actually be protecting a criminal. While some would maintain that he was a victim, the sentence imposed on the criminal seems to indicate that the crime was of a relatively petty nature. Compare the sentence given to Paktar vs. the sentence given to men recently convicted of electronic enticement of minor child for sexual purposes in our state courts recently. The US Attorney’s office has a real problem. If the federal court releases the emails, they may provide evidence of a more serious crime committed by the “victim” in this case.