i L i n d . n e t

I noticed a revealing item in a Star-Bulletin story this morning. The story is a straight forward account of a U.S. Department of Labor ruling disqualifying a candidate for a Laborers’ Union office because of a prior felony conviction.

Oliver Kupau III has been a business agent for the union local before running for a top union position, according to the story, but according to the feds is ineligible either to hold a union office or to be employed by the union.

At the bottom of the story, Kupau’s salary is reported, citing ” the Center for Union Facts — a nonprofit watchdog that tracks abuse by union officials at www.unionfacts.com.”

Nonprofit watchdog?

According to Source Watch: “The Center for Union Facts is a secretive front group for individuals and industries opposed to union activities.”

American Rights at Work says: “The Center for Union Facts is a front group focused on damaging the public image of unions, depressing workers’ rights, pushing legislation that would make it more difficult for workers to join unions, and furthering an anti-union business climate. ”

Wikipedia says: “The Center for Union Facts is an advocacy group critical of union officials’ activities. It is one of several advocacy and public relations groups created by Richard Berman. Berman’s Washington, D.C.-based public affairs firm, Berman and Company, specializes in research, communications and advertising.”

The depressing thing is that there was no reason to turn to a blatantly anti-labor organization for salary information when the U.S. Labor Department makes those annual union reports, known as Form LM-2, directly available on its official web site. It’s easy to search for an individual union local using the DOL search page. In the case of the Laborers’ Local 368, the Labor Department has the reports through 2007.

Unfortunately, the Star-Bulletin didn’t realize that reliance on the anti-union Center for Union Facts reveals more about the newspaper than about the union business it was reporting.

I shouldn’t admit this, but…I was sitting at our dining table in front of my computer in the semi-darkness, just finishing up this item about the Center for Union Facts, when out of the darkness came a stream of warm liquid, just missing the computer and spraying my arm and down onto the floor. If you guessed cat pee, you would be right. I had just started to sputter and curse when I heard Leo leap off the table and race off across the room. By the time I rinsed my arm and wiped up the residue, he got close enough for me to snatch him up and toss him out the door onto the front deck. Now for the last several minutes he’s been pathetically standing there scratching at the door, desperately trying to signal that he wants to reenter. I’ll probably relent. So it goes.

A sign of the times, courtesy of a friend in Honolulu:

I got in the mail today an offer of receiving an unsecured loan of $1000 or $2000 - the catch is that the interest rate is 96% - at first I thought that this was a joke - but it’s not. It’s Brookwood Loans of Sioux Falls, South Dakota. I wonder how many people in Hawaii have been mailed these ridiculous “offers”. Then again - I am thinking more deviously - since I am newly unemployed, has the DLIR record been sold to Brookwood? Lingle promised to run the government like a “business” - could this be an aspect of it? Its the timing of this ridiculous offer that causes me to think this way.

An astute question, but these solicitations have been in circulation for a while. I noted this blog entry from back in January concerning a similar solicitation, with some background on the company behind it, Meta Financial Group, Inc., a publicly owned company which trades under the stock symbol, CASH. That’s not to say there isn’t a link here to employment status, but I wouldn’t assume it.

But a 96 percent rate of interest? That sounds like the days of loan sharking. Watch your kneecaps if you fall behind in those hefty payments.

Stick this in your “how time flies” file. A classmate of mine at University High School came up with his own “remember when” list.

For more unbelievable memories – in our family’s lunch-wagon, we sold the following:

Shaved ice: 5 cents (did you know that keyboards don’t have the “cents” icon?)

Candy bars: 5 cents except Nestle Crunch which was 10 c.

Hotdogs: 20 c

Hamburgers: 25 c

Potato chips: 10 c

Saimin: 25 c.

Regular plate lunch: 50 c

Mixed plate lunch (bbq meat, fried chicken, kau yuk, mac salad, and rice): 75 c

Bottled soda: 10 c

On a very good day, we grossed $100 in sales. I have no idea what our net income was, but this supported our family of seven.

Animal lovers, take note. The Advertiser reports that Randall Lockwood, of the American Society for the Protection of Cruelty to Animals is speaking tomorrow night (Wednesday) at 6 p.m. at the Hawaiian Humane Society.

Among the topics he’ll discuss are animal fighting, animal hoarding, animal CSI, why dogs and cats do the things they do and also an update on Michael Vick’s fighting dogs.

Ah, perhaps this is an appropriate time for a bit more canine energy.

This is Ms. Hoku. She isn’t outside every morning when we walk by, but she would like to be. When she is out, she waits in the corner of the yard and barks a welcome as we approach. Then it’s over to the gate, where she stands up and waits for a dog biscuit. On this recent morning, she was true to form.

If clicking on the photo doesn’t work, try clicking here to download the movie.