i L i n d . n e t

Pacific Business News quickly picked up yesterday’s post on the Hawaiian Telcom investors and turned out an online story by Randi Petrello and Nanea Kalani which cites iLind.net for first reporting on the investors list.

PBN was able to clarify the role of the local investors in the overall purchase, which reduced my estimate of the total amount lost when the company filed for bankruptcy.

Washington, D.C.-based private equity firm The Carlyle Group, which bought the assets of Verizon Hawaii in May 2005 for $1.6 billion, owns the remaining 93 percent.

Retired First Hawaiian Bank chairman Walter Dods, who is now chairman of Hawaiian Telcom’s board of directors, told PBN the local investors put up $30 million, including $2 million he and his wife, Diane, contributed.

With a sale price of $1.6 billion and debt of about $1.2 billion, the local investors bought 7 percent of the remaining $400 million in equity, which has since evaporated.

Good job.

Former Star-Bulletin photo editor responded yesterday regarding the DTV transition.

I saw the note in your blog regarding the switch to DTV.

A friend living way back in Palolo Valley said she doesn’t have cable service and has been able to watch only KITV. The surrounding valley walls have cut off the possibility of getting any other TV channel since day one.

With the switch to a digital broadcast signal, people in fringe areas will have an “either-or” experience. Either they will see something that’s a lot clearer or they won’t see anything at all. There’s no in-between with digital.

One of my former business partners, Bob Pritchard, used to work in the TV industry. He said that cable TV became rapidly popular here because of our topography. TV signals are strictly line-of-sight and the mountains block signals to most of the island. That included the Waianae Coast, much of Windward Oahu and anyone living deep in the valleys. In fact, he said that when KHON’s transmitter went down for a brief period, they got very few calls complaining about it. The rest were still watching via Oceanic’s cable system.

Hey, did you catch the Honolulu Weekly story on former Gov. Ben Cayetano’s forthcoming book?

Keoki Kerr’s lead sets the tone:

Frustrated by racism and political favoritism in his native Hawai’i, Benjamin Jerome Cayetano used proceeds from illegal gambling to move his family to California in 1963. Those are some of the revelations in his soon-to-be published biography, Ben: A Memoir, from Street Kid to Governor.

PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) issued a year-end alert about the handling of elephants at Honolulu Zoo.

PETA has sent a letter to the zoo’s director, Stephen Walker, urging him to implement a “protected contact” system of elephant management like those already in use in more than half of U.S. zoos. This system eliminates the imposition of fear, dominance, and pain as a means of forcing elephants to “cooperate.”

The Honolulu Zoo currently uses outdated circus-style training methods, including the use of steel-tipped bullhooks, which cause severe pain and trauma and result in lacerations, puncture wounds, and abscesses. Bullhooks and beatings are eliminated with protected contact. Instead, a safety barrier is kept between elephants and keepers at all times, and trainers use positive reinforcement to train elephants to respond to commands.

PETA’s alert drew a supportive email from an experienced Honolulu zookeeper, speaking as an individual. Her email, which was circulated by a local animal rights network, is worth quoting at length.

Because I have been a Zookeeper at the Honolulu Zoo since 1993, I have received numerous emails and calls from worried animal advocates about Peta’s action alert. I am responding as a private citizen, and not as an employee of the City and County. Please feel free to send this email out to the list serve if you wish.

Peta is right! Using bullhooks to manage elephants in zoos is being fazed out in favor of protected contact management. This is one of many positive changes zoos are making in response to community concerns for the treatment of captive animals.

The Honolulu Zoo’s new elephant facility will allow for protected contact management of elephants, and is scheduled to be completed in about two years. This new elephant exhibit has been in the works for over 10 years! I am asked many times a day at the zoo why the new elephant exhibit is taking so long to build. I can only suggest that the City Council supports projects with the most public support. Perhaps, somewhere along the line, the elephants got put on the back burner because there was not enough public outcry for them.

There is no question in my mind that this action alert will help the situation for the elephants at the Honolulu Zoo. Zoo animals can’t march themselves down to city hall and testify, and zookeepers have to get approval from the city before we can testify, so more often than not the animals do not have a voice.

I do want to convey that our two Asian elephants, Mari and Vaigai are not being mistreated. Both the elephant handlers are well-experienced, and have worked with Mari and Vaigai since they arrived from India almost 20 years ago. The elephants at the Honolulu Zoo, however, desperately need a new exhibit. Their exhibit is totally outdated and falling apart. The new elephant exhibit will give the Honolulu zoo the option of using protected contact to manage elephants.

Please support Peta’s efforts to help zoo elephants everywhere.

Aloha,
Linda Vannatta

Accuweather reports that it’s currently 64 degrees in Honolulu this morning but feels like 62 because of the light wind. And with the start of work at the legislature, we’re venturing out on our early morning walk almost an hour before our previous departure time. In fact, now we’re already arriving back home about the time the sun actually rises, and it will stay that way for about another month before sunrise starts getting earlier every day. This was the view yesterday morning after we reached the other end of Kaaawa and started back for home.