Did you happen to catch KITV’s Robert Kekaula last night on the Mitchell Report regarding banned substances in baseball? It was an embarassing bit of commentary and denial. He led off by saying it was like a smear of the players, “all hearsay” and “no hard evidence”, and it never got much better. I suppose that’s the same attitude that let the problem fester for so long, known but unstated, until it turned into this gigantic mess.
A reader added another comment on the Advertiser’s search engine strategy:
I have to laugh at those idiotic robotic “search engine optimization” headlines.
Do they really think “Hawaii star apologizes for racist remarks” is going to draw more google hits than “Dog Chapman apologizes … ” ????
Something tells me the national audience looking for stories about that flap wasn’t googling “Hawaii star.” Classic example of following orders without thinking. But isn’t that the Gannettoid way?
Okay, enough of that.
Remember Plan Compliance Group, the company that was supposed to collect funds set aside from the paychecks of public school teachers and UH faculty, then process and forward the money to the appropriate institutional investment funds and retirement accounts?
In the fall of 2005, Plan Compliance Group failed to transfer payments received. Millions of dollars disappeared from Hawaii teachers, and from school districts and towns across the country.
Company founder and president Bill Reimers was sentenced last month to nine years in federal prison for mail fraud and money laundering. But the real losers weren’t Hawaii teachers, as their losses have been covered by the state’s self-insured risk fund, as I understand it. The losers were personal friends of Reimers, who gave him control of retirement investments after the charming salesman promised excellent returns and personal service.
Turned out it was quite personal. Reimers stole his friends money and used it to fund a high-flying lifestyle. Then he dipped into the teachers’ money processed by Plan Compliance Group when he needed to pay “dividends” to those neighbors and clients, or to pay off nervous investors who demanded their money back. At some point the scheme imploded.
The San Francisco Chronicle had a good story on the sentencing hearing and comments by Reimers’ former friends and clients. It’s sobering reading that will make you view your financial advisor, if you have one, in a new light.
The State of Hawaii hired a California law firm and sued Reimers and PCG. I’ve lost track of that litigation, and nothing has been reported on it as far as I know. I don’t know if the state has ever disclosed exactly how much this cost them in legal fees, etc.
They say cats are place oriented, while dogs are people oriented.
I’m not totally sure of the latter, but I’ll vouch for the veracity of the former after our experience this week. I thought our cats would be nervous but comfortable moving down the street with us overnight while our house was being fumigated for termites. After all, I was around the whole time, so I assumed they would be fine. Not so. Three of the four cats with us in the little garage apartment hid under the furniture for virtually the entire period. I had to finally move the furniture and drag Ms. Kili out of her hiding place, then coax the others out one by one in order to make the return trip home.
But Ms. Harriet must have a misplaced canine chromosome, because she didn’t go into hiding. Instead, she followed us around the whole time, crying, purring, and wanting constant attention. And after I had taken all the cats home and let them get reoriented, she trotted right after me and followed all the way back to the other house when I went to pick up the last of our stuff. Go figure.
The History Channel had “1968 with Tom Brokaw“.
That inspired me to recall another 1968 moment. Oly was on tap at George & Ruby’s Tavern in Umatilla, Oregon, selling for 60 cents a pitcher. I was accompanying two fearless reporters from the Whitman College Pioneer on an investigative mission to dig into a story of censorship. Specifically, the banning of Playboy Magazine.
I recently found and scanned the photos, and a friend located the story as it appeared in the Pioneer.
4 responses so far ↓
1 LarryG // Dec 14, 2007 at 8:42 am
Quite possibly the Advertiser is playing a placement game by putting the word “Hawaii” wherever it can.
On the other hand, if someone is searching for the word “Hawaii” they won’t find it if it’s not there someplace. As an example, someone in New Jersey may not recall the funny name of that mayor who is pushing for the train that they heard about on their vacation trip. They might search for mayor,train,hawaii and will find the Advertiser story because of the inclusion of Hawaii someplace on the page.
2 rachel // Dec 14, 2007 at 10:22 am
Regarding cat behavior… your story reminds me of our now late cat Angel.
When I met my husband he had a black cat called Angel that he kept discreetly on the 7th floor of an apt building that didn’t allow pets. Angel had been a feral cat that his former girlfriend had adopted. When Angel was first in his apt, he would never see him. Angel would hide under the bed, up in the bedsprings so you couldn’t see him and would just come out at night to eat. He slowly got used to people, but was still very skittish when I first met him. When we moved to my house, Angel made it clear to us that he was not going to be kept inside by removing the louvers from a window and busting through the screen on the 2nd night there. He got used to me, but shied away from visitors. Over the next few years we moved twice (putting him in boarding for a week or so) and lost Angel once (getting him back because of his microchip). Each time he came back to us, he was more needy and loving. He would follow us around the house as to ensure that we wouldn’t leave him again. He would sleep next to me and get up with me in the morning. His behavior left me with the impression that although cats are super independent, once they get a taste of human loving they don’t want to go without it again. Angel eventually succumbed to a tumor that grew on his neck until he couldn’t eat anymore. We kept him comfortable as long as we could and then buried him under a tree when he died.
3 ongre08 // Dec 14, 2007 at 4:31 pm
Darn nice pictures there in. What kind of funny car is that at the gas pumps? We have come a long way from that simple time. I think I remember that Playboy cover. It had a good “interview”.
4 Lora // Dec 14, 2007 at 4:37 pm
Ah, the Whitman Pioneer. It always makes for a good story when I mention that my ala mater’s team name is “the Missionaries”…
Now on to cats. One of my cats would hide like most of yours did - and the other would be running around, getting into things, being nosy.
Guess there’s no way we can understand those furry ones — but isn’t that part of their joy in life?
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