Wondering what to give someone for the holidays? This year, I’m able to offer three different calendars, featuring Kaaawa dogs, our wonderful cats, and Kaaawa at dawn. Ordering is simple via Lulu.com. A very small amount ($2) from each calendar sale goes to support this site. Thanks for your support.
Entries from November 30th, 2009
Flu vaccine issues raised here first
November 30th, 2009 · 8 Comments · Media, Politics
The Honolulu Advertiser reports today that the state has had to change its method of allocating H1N1 flu vaccine after many doctors, and large providers like Kaiser, were given only minimal supplies. But the first-come, first-served distribution method has forced many pediatricians to set up waiting lists for swine flu vaccinations, even as many pharmacies [...]
Tags:
Minutes silent on whether EUTF trustees were told of Summerlin’s mainland troubles before approving “default” health plan
November 30th, 2009 · 1 Comment · Politics
At the same time that Summerlin Life and Health Insurance Company, a small Nevada-based insurer, announced its 2004 entry into Hawaii’s tight insurance market, the company was struggling to provide acceptable levels of service in its home state, where it was contracted to offer an HMO plan for Medicaid recipients as well as selling coverage [...]
Supporting prisoners’ rights back in 1982
November 29th, 2009 · 1 Comment · History, Photographs, Politics
On June 28, 1982, a small group from the Honolulu Friends Meeting (Quakers), the local American Friends Service Committee (the Quaker-based social service organization), and catholic Action of Hawaii, an indpendent peace group, peacefully picketed outside the Oahu Community Correctional Center in support of prisoner rights. Prisoners were locked down, all privileges revoked, and had [...]
Tags: AFSC·American Friends Service Committee·Oahu Community Correctional Center
Priorities, Pearl Harbor questions, and thoughts on corruption and war
November 28th, 2009 · 3 Comments · General, Media
A reader shared this observation: There I was, headed to work at the Capitol, seeing the DOH parking lot mostly empty for Furlough Friday, wondering how we could help our petite, elderly custodian — who is now left to look after our entire floor, three other custodians having been laid off — cope with the [...]
Tags:
Chinese food for Thanksgiving
November 27th, 2009 · 7 Comments · Aging & dementia
The good news was that we arrived well before lunch and found my dad sitting at a table with three other men in the third-floor common room of his nursing home. Small paper turkeys decorated the walls, signaling that Thanksgiving had arrived. There was a little sign on the table in front of him, a [...]
Tags: John Lind
Feline Friday: Post-Thanksgiving Cats
November 27th, 2009 · 5 Comments · Cats, Photographs
[note: for those who got an error message earlier, the link to today's felines has been fixed!] Here we are, the day after Thanksgiving, and our cats still haven’t had a taste of turkey. We’re not going to cook a turkey until Sunday, when my mother and sister will be joining us in Kaaawa. So [...]
Tags:
HMA/Summerlin to be EUTF “default” plan despite failure in two key mainland markets
November 27th, 2009 · 14 Comments · Politics
Nevadacare, a sister company of Summerlin Life & Health Insurance Co., the firm recently named to provide the “default” health plan to state-county workers in a controversial decision by the Hawaii Employer-Union Health Benefits Trust Fund, agreed late last year to stop doing business in Iowa based on allegations made by the Iowa Insurance Commissioner. [...]
Tags: Hawaii Employer-Union Health Benefits Trust Fund·HMSA·Summerllin
