Recent photos: Vieques (Puerto Rico) 1978 • Malaekahana 1959 •
Historic Kualoa sugar mill • Kaaawa in November •

April 14, 2007 - Saturday [ permalink ]

Here's an important message from former island journalist Karen Waygood, now in Atlanta:

I just gave CNN Diner’s Chef Ed a huge Sam’s Club-size bag of Noh brand haupia mix to whip up on Sunday.  I tried to find him a recipe for Huli Huli Chicken on the internet.  What I found was a metric boat-load of recipes.  So, I ask you and your readers: what is the most onolicious recipe for Huli Huli chicken?
 
Mahalo plenty

I'll share all of your suggestions and forward them to Karen (smailto:ian@ilind.net ian(at)iLind.net).

The Star-Bulletin's Burl Burlingame wrote a day or so ago:

Interesting ... I was listening to the radio this morning and the subject touched on how business at the Legislature is screwed up because the House PCs are virus-riddled. Apparently Carol Fukunaga uses a Mac with a wireless card and never has a problem!

I'm told that Rep. Herkes is the Mac guru on the House side, although several others use Macs as well. As for the virus situation with the legislative computer system, at least from a user's perspective it seems to have been under control this week.

And Doug Carlson sent along a copy of the following email to Advertiser editor Mark Platte:

I'm writing about the paper's acceptance of ads that have the appearance of a news story -- such as page A17 of today's (Thursday, April 12) Advertiser.

Doesn't this ad violate a "best practices" standard for newspaper advertising? And if the Advertiser has no such standard, shouldn't it have one?

The ad is objectionable on multiple levels; one that jumps off the page is the "free" angle. How can something be free if there's a requirement to "cover the $8 claim plus shipping for the Official Presidential Money Gallery"?

A little checking on the Internet turns up numerous hits on the World Reserve Money Exchange of Canton, OH, and the Universal Media Syndicate.
http://www.gradethenews.org/2005/microads.htmethenews.org/2005/microads.htm">According to this site, the Syndicate is an ad-placement agency. Both the Syndicate and the World Reserve are registered to the same person in the Canton area, the site says.

The same ad -- with the samhttp://www.shoplocal.com/penn+hills-pa-bap_195187_adid480306.fpls-pa-bap_195187_adid480306.fp">ran on March 26, 2007 in Penn Hills, PA, apparently an advertising supplement.

(The three-day deadline seems to be specific for each community where the ad runs.) On the positive side, Hawai`i residents get a break in having to send only $8 to cover the claim; Pennsylvania residents had to fork over $18.

CoinCollector.org has written derisivehttp://coincollector.org/archives/004324.htmlector.org/archives/004324.html"> as recently as last month - http://coincollector.org/archives/003358.htmlector.org/archives/003358.html">earlier .

The http://www.roanoke.com/business/wb/wb/xp-43742ke.com/business/wb/wb/xp-43742"> a story in December 2005 about the WRNE and its practices:

These sites and more add up to the WRNE being a shady operation. I'd be interested in reading your rationale of accepting ads that appear to be news stories, notwithstanding the small Advertisement disclaimer, especially when they're placed by notorious operations that seem to be in business to rip off the consumer, according to numerous critiques.

Ouch. Of course, the Advertiser isn't alone in selling space to questionable outfits like this one, but these seem like fair comments nonetheless. I'll share any reply that comes my way.

April 13, 2007 - Friday [ permalink ]

Another pesky Friday the 13th. I'll just hope for the best.

It's already Friday the 13th at the Capitol, it seems. When I tried to check the Legislature's web site (www.capitol.hawaii.gov), my browser returned the error message: Safari can’t open the page “http://capitol.hawaii.gov/” because it can’t find the server “capitol.hawaii.gov”.

Hopefully it's just a brief outage and not a return of the dreaded virus that hit a couple of weeks ago, but you never can tell these days.

Larry Geller responded last night to yesterday's comments, but I'm going to digest his reply for another day or so before sharing it. I'm not snubbing you, Larry, I just want to be able to respond substantively.

For now, I'll just add a personal observation. A couple of decades ago, I was deeply immersed in the legislative process while serving as executive director of Common Cause. We had an office just across the street from the capitol and I spent much or most of my time there. Later I prowled the capitol while unraveling the mysteries of campaign money, and then as a reporter. It was, and continues to be, a learning experience, and the lesson is that legislative politics--and it is quite the essence of politics--is a complex and multilevel game. There's a whole constitutional framework behind the scenes, that legal world that has to be tapped only occasionally but that defines the essential powers, and separation of powers, that makes our democratic system work. Then there are the substantive issues entailed in proposed legislation which can be complex indeed, with seemingly minor word changes sometimes carrying huge and unanticipated changes in a bill's practical impact. Interactions between laws, like interactions between drugs, can produce strange, unexpected, and dangerous results, and these are constantly being guarded against and discovered anew.

But there are additional layers of equally complex dynamics. History is at work, and if you don't know or understand the background of a law or proposed law and what's happened to it in the past, where careers may have been built or destroyed pushing or resisting particular policies, you're likely to fall into a predictable pothole. There are interpersonal dynamics, politics between parties, between the House and Senate, between parties, between the governor and the legislature, the counties, etc. There's the pressure from lobbyists and interests, and I include both "inside" lobbyists, those who walk the halls of the capitol, and "outside" lobbyists, those who rally public opinion to one side or another. Then there are matters of etiquette and decorum which are really methods for creating a space in which people who might be at war politically can work side by side while maintaining a semblence of order. There's the pressure of time, which is artificially compressed within a three and a half month period, where most legislators have calendars filled literally from dawn to bedtime. And looming behind it all is the next election, always a catalyst for ambitions, power plays, and fears.

It's reallly a remarkable setting and system, one that is always dynamic and full of drama, although sometimes it's the drama of watching a chess game rather than the action of a footbal game. I concluded that in order to play it well, and to play it successfully, requires more than casual attention, the same that can be said for most professions or sports, for that matter.

Whew. I'll have to continue this thought over the weekend as I wrap my brain around Larry's continuing comments. Hopefully it will continue to be productive.

In the meantime, I admit it. I've gotten hooked on the Rochester Falcon cam, where a Peregrine falcon is currently sitting on four eggs. It's a quiet little spectacle with multiple live views accessible 24 hours a day. There's some drama, such as the disappearance of egg #5, and occasional action. So click on Ms. Falcon, known as Mariah, and check it out. It's worth a bookmark.

Another week, another Feline Friday. I haven't managed to get a full family portrait, but I did get this shot that includes two-thirds of the crew. This was taken last night shortly after we got home and served up the canned cat food. I usually split a couple of cans among the nine cats, which isn't quite a full meal but is enough to be a treat.

April 13, 2007 - Thursday [ permalink ]

Yesterday morning I was able to help rescue a turtle that had gotten tangled in a fisherman's line. The guy was fishing alone, and I realized he was going to have a hard time dealing with the turtle without help. So I took off my shoes and waded into the water to carry the turtle up onto the beach. Luckily, it didn't appear to be injured, just badly tangled in the nylon line. Luckily, this turtle wasn't too big, maybe 12-15 inches long, and we were able to cut it loose and release it in a couple of minutes, although it seemed longer at the time. We were both relieved, and I hope the turtle was as well.

There hasn't been much attention given to the House decision to kill SB 1283, which would have given UH the ability to spend part of the tobacco settlement special fund on operating expenses for the medical school. Currently, UH is authorized to a portion of the tobacco money to pay off the construction costs that it was stuck with after former President Dobelle failed to deliver on a promised $150 million external funding. But the med schools financial problems run deeper and now entail an annual deficit currently being taken out of other program budgets. UH makes a good case that this isn't just a university problem because the medical school is really a state asset that addresses the critical shortage of physicians in many parts of the islands. Is there some other med school funding being tucked away in the university's budget to address issue now that SB1283 is dead?

This could end up having major repercussions, especially as the foolish push for a large West Oahu campus begins to suck off all extra resources in a long process that probably means starving the rest of the UH system for the next 20 years.

Speaking of the House, I have to disagree with my friend Larry Geller's criticism of the legislative process. Writing on his DisappearedNews.com blog, Larry lambasts the House for failing to make the text of floor amendments available to the public prior to those amendments being offered during session.

Larry wrote:

If you wanted to have some last words with your Senator before they went in to debate a measure, you had all the information you needed. If you wanted to communicate with your Representative, you were given nothing. Nothing. Forget about it.

And he continued:

The House did not make their amendments public. They remained secret. If you are concerned about a particular bill, I'm sure you'll appreciate what this means to you. You were left out of the legislative process for that bill. Your Representatives just did their own thing on it.

The fact of the matter is that last minute floor amendments that close off the opportunity for all comment, as Larry implies here, are not allowed. The House did not take final action on any of the bills where floor amendments were offered or adopted. Instead, bills with floor amendments first had to be "decked", or put on the table, for at least 48-hours as required by the State Constitution.

Article 3, Section 15 of the constitution provides, in part: "No bill shall pass third or final reading in either house unless printed copies of the bill in the form to be passed shall have been made available to the members of that house for at least forty-eight hours."

Two things to note here. First, that the 48 hours provides more than enough time for any of the last minute lobbying Larry refers to.

The second thing to note is that, at least in terms of constitutional structures, the 48-hour delay is to accomodate "members of that house". The public enjoys collateral benefit, but it is the members of the legislature who are the intended beneficiaries. They are the ones who have the right and responsibility to get things done.

"Your Representatives just did their own thing on it." Well, yes, Larry, that's what the Legislature is all about. Elected representatives who, ultimately, do their own thing. That's what they're supposed to do because that's the system created by the constitution.

But all that aside, whether or not floor amendments are generally available in advance, the legislature is a far more open place than 20 years ago, that's very clear. The public's ability to influence decisions is probably greater than it has ever been, although there's less public attention to the legislature via the news media than in the past.

And here's a photo taken earlier this week. It was one of those "Gawd, what a magnificent morning!" kind of days. Enjoy.

April 11, 2007 - Wednesday [ permalink ]

And the healthiest cold cereal is? My friend Chuck Smith has taken a couple of runs at this question and his answer is surprising. I went back and refreshed my memory on this before our last visit to Costco, and thought others might find Chuck's review helpful (or perhaps provocative) as well.

The Star-Bulletin's Erika Engle reports on a study that found Hawaii has the highest percentage of millionaires to total households. A closer look indicates that the definition of "millionaire" was a household with more than $1 million in "liquid or investable assets".

Are Hawaii's high real estate prices factored in? The liquid asset requirement would seem to rule that out, and that high percentage would appear to indicate a huge class divide.

The study also found the number of millionaires nationally has soared 56% since 2003, while the number of very rich households, those with $5 million or more in liquid assets is up 47% since 2003.

The Bush gush up-trickle down policies seem to have worked at growing his base of wealthy voters, even if they haven't done much for the rest of us.

Don't miss the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reporting on how the shift of FBI resources to terror investigations has left white collar crimes unprosecutred.

Just like home...the P-I also reports on arrests at a metal recycler company for purchasing items "clearly marked" as government or corporate property.

April 10, 2007 - Tuesday [ permalink ]

Happy Birthday, sister Bonnie! We're thinking of you.

If I had read my PBN over the weekend instead of dropping it on the back seat of the car with the rest of Saturday's mail, I would have seen the announcement of Chad Blair's new gig as a business reporter. Congratulations, Chad.

Yesterday was anniversary #60 of Meda's tornado, which devasted her parents' home and much of the city of Woodward, Oklahoma, where they were living at the time. A Google News search didn't turn up many stories this year. Here's a link to one from Lubbuck Online.

A couple of readers did comment on Sunday's entry concerning the financials of Star-Bulletin owner Black Press.

Here's one comment from a former Star-Bulletin staffer:

From Torstar's 2006 annual report:
"Torstar reports its financial results under Canadian generally accepted accounting principles ("GAAP") in Canadian dollars."

This is the current exchange rate:
1.00 CANADIAN DOLLAR (CAD) = 0.8686 US DOLLAR (USD)
...............
So if all my info is correct, Black earned about $6.7 million US last year. Seems rather low considering the revenues that have been reported. Gee, I wonder who's dragging the company down? ............

Another reader with a career in journalism had this comment:

If Black had revenues of $500 million and dropped only $7.7 million to the bottom line, he's doing very poorly, indeed.

That's barely 1.5%, and his friends up the street made almost $2 billion on revenues of $8 billion for a profit margin of 24.9% which, by the way, is pretty much the standard for the industry.

So it would appear the Star-Bulletin has been saved by the fact that David Black doesn't have to satisfy the insatiable expecations of stockholders in a publicly traded company. Hey, I'll drink to Black's success in keeping a lot of newspapers alive on a small profit margin. More power to him!

The Society of Professional Journalists is sponsoring a regional conference at the Ala Moana Hotel Thursday through Saturday. I think there's still time to register.

I'm scheduled for a Saturday afternoon panel on blogging, at least if the weather hasn't totallly deciminated attendance by that stage in the program.

2:00 p.m. – Blogging Panel begins. Plumeria Room.
 
Introductory remarks by moderator Colin Macdonald, assistant professor at the University of Hawaii Manoa’s School of Communications. Colin will introduce panelists then do a 25-minute presentation, taking a national and industry-wide approach to the overall issue of blogging. He will be using a computer with wireless Internet connection and a projector to do a presentation that includes showing examples of blogs.
 
The panelists will be Ian Lind, Catherine Toth and Dave Shapiro. You will each have 10-15 minutes to talk about your own blogs, in terms of history, content, etc.
How did you or your newspaper decide that you should have a blog?
How has it contributed to what you cover?
How does it fit in with your own daily assignments?
How does it enhance news coverage (or does it)?
What has been the readership reaction/response?
Suggestions to other journalists about starting a blog?
Etc …

Click here for what NASA has to say about the rings around the sun that we saw on Friday.

April 9, 2007 - Monday [ permalink ]

Thanks to Doug White for noticing Chad Blair's sudden departure from Hawaii Public Radio and move over to Pacific Business News. And it looks like Jim Manke may have moved back to public radio full time, as he's now listed as the host for All Things Considered. [Note: Manke just clarified--"It's permanent rather than full time - I just do the afternoon shift (All Things Considered) - started about three weeks ago."]

A recent column by Steve Outing in Editor & Publisher calls attention to another new web site experimenting with "hyper-local" news.

Lately, I've been watching Outside.in, a New York-based, venture capital-backed, new player in the hyper-local news and information space. Who knows whether Outside.in will turn into the Next Great Internet Thing, or eventually join the large ranks of Internet companies in the sky. But I do think they're on to something important -- and newspaper executives should be paying attention.

In a nutshell, Outside.in seeks to bring together and finely categorize news and information from all sorts of sources online, down to the neighborhood level. It's seeking to become the place you'll go to zero in on your neighborhood and find everything that's being written or produced about it -- as well as recruit original content about your neighborhood in a social networking experiment.

Here's a link to the Honolulu version of Outside.in. Browse and see what you think.

And while you're checking out local sites, stop by Alex Salkever's Hawaiirama.com again and check out how it's developing.

The business publication Barron's suggests that Gannett could dramatically raise its dividend or spin-off it's broadcast units in order to boost its return to shareholders, according to a Reuters summary of the story. What? All of Gannett's bottom-line pressure isn't enough? What a world.

You may remember Paco and Lola from the last round of our Kaaawa morning dogs. They are an unlikely duo, but they appear to be tightly bonded. Ms. Lucy, who used to run the household, doesn't quite know how to handle the new relationships.

Click for more morning dogs

April 8, 2007 - Easter Sunday [ permalink ]

I've talked to a lot of people speculating about the Star-Bulletin's future, but there's rarely much concrete financial data about David Black, the newspaper's owner, to provide perspective. So yesterday I tracked down a bit of rare hard data.

Torstar Corporation, the parent company of the Toronto Star newspaper and owner of a 19% stake in Star-Bulletin owner Black PRess, is a publicly traded company that reported its 2006 full year and 4th quarter earnings back at the end of February. These Torstar reports provide just about the only glimpses inside the private "empire" of David Black.

Both the quarter and year are reported as "strong" for Black Press.

For the 4th Quarter of 2006:

Torstar's income from Black Press was $0.9 million in the fourth quarter of 2006. Black Press had a strong quarter, with EBITDA up from acquisitions and improved operations. Black Press' results were negatively impacted during the quarter by a non-cash mark-to-market loss on foreign exchange and interest rate derivatives.

And for the full 2006 year:

Torstar's income from Black Press was $1.8 million in 2006 compared with $0.6 million in 2005. Black Press had a strong 2006, with EBITDA up from acquisitions and improved operations. Black Press' results were negatively impacted during 2006 by a non-cash mark-to-market loss on foreign exchange and interest rate derivatives.

Looking ahead, Torstar reports:

2007 OUTLOOK
The outlook for the Newspapers and Digital Segment is mixed. The community newspapers have been able to maintain linage and revenue growth over the past few years and continue to perform well. However, the daily newspaper businesses continue to face significant revenue challenges.

Projecting from the 19 percent stake owned by Torstar, Black's share of the profit in 2006 was $7.7 million. How to interpret that is the question. It's up 300 percent from last year, according to those Torstar figures. But Black Press' total revenues something reportedly approaching $500 million, so how should that figure be interpreted? And I'm not really clear if it's reported in Canadian or U.S. dollars. I would appreciate any insights from others more adept at taking such figures apart.

In the Seattle area, Black is closing three printing plants that serve its 18 community newspapers and consolidating printing in a new facility, a move that will involve an undisclosed number of layoffs.

I chased cats for a couple of days and came up with this great portrait of Harriet, a.k.a. Ms. Harry. What a beauty! So for today's cat photo fix, featuring several more of our Kaaawa cats, just click on Harry's picture.

     (1)  Every person who, directly or indirectly, personally or through another, gives, procures, or lends, or agrees or offers to give, procure, or lend, or who endeavors to procure, any money or office or place of employment or valuable consideration to or for any elector, or to or for any person for an elector, or to or for any person in order to induce any elector to vote or refrain from voting, or