i L i n d . n e t

Services for Duke Bainum are being held today, and state flags will be at half-staff in his honor.
DUKE MARK EDMUND BAINUM
56, of Honolulu, died June 9, 2009. Born in Takoma Park, Md. A physician and Honolulu city councilman. Survived by wife, Jennifer; sons, Z and Kona; stepson, Johnny Lesseos; stepdaughter, Jennifer “Leona” Lesseos; a stepgrandchild; [...]

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Yesterday morning, Maui News reporter Ilima Loomis used the networking site, Twitter, to describe a frustrating run-in with another clogged drain in the flow of government information.
It seemed like a simple enough request.
Trying to find breakdown of unemployment numbers for Maui, Molokai, Lanai.
Call the Labor Department, right? Not so fast.
Labor PIO not in. Labor statistics [...]

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I crawled out of bed, fed the hungry but overweight cats, then sat down at the computer to check the morning headlines. This is what I’m seeing at the Star-Bulletin, scrambled headlines on individual stories.

I was ready to blame their web site, but then I tried a different browser, just in case. Sure enough, headlines [...]

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We were guided around Oklahoma last week by a pocket size Garmin GPS navigator. We bought it several months ago in anticipation of a trip that was cancelled, so hadn’t made much use of it until now. One word: Amazing. It took us through complicated freeway interchanges and found small country roads with equal ease. [...]

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We’re back from a week in Oklahoma. A snowstorm in Chicago derailed our flight plans yesterday, forcing a rebooking via Denver and Los Angeles, as well as hours of waiting. It ended up taking 18 hours from our arrival at the airport in Oklahoma City to claiming our bags in Honolulu. Whew.
We didn’t get to [...]

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Campaign spending issues have drawn lots of interest.
Thanks to Bartman for his comment here yesterday. In case you missed it, he wrote:
You made a significant error in your discussion of the Big Island public funding bill. You wrote:
“But the commission points to a U.S. Supreme Court decision last year that found this kind of equalizing [...]

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Here’s another winter-in-Kaaawa morning to start out the holiday-shortened work week.
It’s still dark when we start walking in the morning, which these days is around 6 a.m. Last month at this time, sunrise was at 7:12. Tomorrow, it will be a 7 o’clock. By late next month, it will have shifted back to 6:30, meaning [...]

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Please forgive these rambling reflections on a windy Friday morning.
I would think those seeking reforms in our campaign finance system would be happy about HB 539, introduced by House Speaker Calvin Say and Judiciary Chair Jon Riki Karamatsu.
The bill would prohibit corporations and companies from making free use of their own funds for campaign contributions [...]

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