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Have you noticed that KGMB has abandoned it's local web site. Head for kgmb.com and you're simply transported to the CBS site with a kgmb logo at the top. That's pretty sad for a company in the news business.
My recent cover story on the Weinberg Foundation has appeared on the Honolulu Weekly's web site on schedule.
I've gotten a lot of positive reaction to this piece. See what you think.
We'll be rushing around after the morning walk to get the house cleaned up a bit and ready for the first kitten visit by a friend interested in adopting one of the little cuties. They're not old enough to be adopted yet, but it's time to let them show their stuff.
The word started spreading after noon yesterday that Honolulu Mayor Jeremy Harris would announce his withdrawal from the race for governor. I received an email at 2:22 p.m. with a "heads up" on the situation. It was interesting to watch the political reporters later in the day acknowledging that they didn't see this coming. What does that say about the depth and quality of coverage on the political beats?KGMB-TV (Channel 9) carried a report about the "new" Hawaii.com on its early news. Jim Mendoza reported authoritatively that the State of Hawaii had relaunched its Hawaii.com Internet site. Hello? There's a bit of planned confusion that works in Gannett's favor.
Another reader provided this observation on the strange Hawaii.com "partnership" between Gannett and the Stephens Media Group:
The Hawaii.com home page links to numerous obviously co-branded Honolulu Advertiser/USA Today products such as classified, etc. Conversely I could find no links or paths to ANY Stephens/Donrey-owned media properties such as West Hawaii Today or the Hawaii Tribune-Herald.What're they, chopped liver?
Good question. At least the previous incarnation of the site included links to local newspapers (except the Star-Bulletin). Now it's all Gannett in camouflage.
And from a former islander, now in the big TX:
Thank you for posting the latest kitten photos, they are seriously cute. I'll confess, I started out as one of the grinches who didn't see why you had to stick cat info on your journalism site, but I've been converted.
Gannett introduced its revamped Hawaii.com site with major fanfare, complete with a proclamation of "Hawaii.com Day" by Gov. Cayetano. It is essentially another travel site which offers Gannett and partner Stephens Media opportunities to sell online advertising. They'll push people to Hawaii.com from other Gannett sites, or so they are saying. I'm interested in how Gannett has buried its identity as controlling owner of the site. In fact, its very difficult to find any identifying information about the site's owners. A lot of people now shopping online want to know who they're doing business with and expect such disclosures.Advertiser writer Dan Nakaso did a good review. Nakaso identifies Rhett Long as president and CEO of Hawaii.com. I'm guessing that's probably the same Rhett Long who formerly managed the Reno Hilton and other casino properties, although that needs to be confirmed. Do you suppose the Advertiser is going to find itself supporting casino gambling here?
I was forced to stay home yesterday and have several long sessions interacting with the kittens, who seemed to be having a great time tearing around their room.
Cybelle got to have some time outside the room, doing a bit of exploration through the rest of the house. It was so hot that all the other cats were heavily into nap mode, so she could explore without any confrontations. She is a remarkably adaptable cat.
click on the photo for the latest kitten update
Cynics are probably relishing the appearance of various political campaign headquarters along the stretch of Kapiolani with the heaviest concentration of hostess bars and strip clubs. It makes for some strange pairings. Across from the convention center, it's Mazie Hirono and Club Rock-Za, which at one point had hundreds of strippers registered with the Liquor Commission. Down the street a ways, Ed Case and Dalton Tanonaka bask in the light of the huge Club Memories sign.The state judiciary has a dramatically improved online records search system up and running. Go to www.state.hi.us/jud/ and follow the prompts for "Public Records", if I recall correctly. Of course, the judiciary server is not responding this morning, so I can't double check this information.
The prior system for searching court records relied on a downloaded Java program which took forever to load and, when it eventually did function, was too slow to rely on for any real research. The new system appears to be browser-based and is quite fast. Whoever did that programming needs to be signed up for future state contracts.
On the kitten front, it appears that four weeks is a magic number. We hit that milestone yesterday, and suddenly the kittens expanded their world, climbing out of the box that's been their life and discovering a whole room. I just uploaded a new kitten update. Cat people, check it out.
I received this comment from Scott Foster regarding complaints about email SPAM, apparently on behalf of the Ed Case for Governor campaign:We indeed originally had numerous address in our dbases that we realized should have not been there in the first place due to an accidental commingling of dbases and we have gone to great trouble to purge it. FYI we are not intentionally spaming anyone and understand the consequences of spam. Most folks are understanding and only very few are hateful.Scott was responding to an ongoing complaint, which was attached. Here's an excerpt:
You guys are behaving EXTREMELY IRRESPONSIBLY - did I say that loudly enough for you to understand?. You are painting the Ed Case campaign as being unscrupulous and willing to abuse the same people he wants to vote for him. In other words, you are stealing resources from the people you can least afford to annoy - the constituency.But Scott apparently makes the mistake of attributing the anti-spam backlash to this one person, which certainly isn't true. And which misses the point.
Memorial Day, Kaaawa style.
An unopened can of Bud Light, a few heliconia flowers.
A bit of coral and some memories to hold it all in place in the sand, where others will pass by and wonder.
Kaaawa beach memorial
It's a holiday Monday with more hot, clear weather expected in Kaaawa.No media news.
But if it's not one thing, it's another.
Cybelle and her kittens are occupying one room down the hall. And now were wondering what to do about an orange & white stray, the first wanderer in several years to finesse his way past all our cats and reach the house. Neighbors reported seeing this cat hanging around before we spotted him. He may have been dumped and abandoned in the neighborhood. Or maybe his family moved and left him. People sometimes do terrible things to their pets.
Then one night we were surprised to see him slink right through the cat door and into our living room. That changes all the normal ways of coping with strays.
The good thing is that he doesn't seem interested in fighting. The bad thing is that we don't need another cat.
Yesterday I spotted him on the deck and set a bowl of food outside. He ate. Had seconds. And then he left.
The orange stray
We watched each other carefully. Either his right ear was torn in a fight, or else the ear is notched, indicating he's been neutered by the Humane Society, but most references say the notch is placed in the left ear. But he looks like he's ready for some human interaction, so maybe we'll have a chance to check him out further sometime soon.
A story in yesterday's Star-Bulletin by Rick Daysog explains why officials of Kamehameha Schools were seen in Raleigh, North Carolina, at the Velvet Cloak Inn. They were apparently closing a deal to sell a parcel of land in nearby Durham, just a 25-minute drive away. What a small world.A reader passed along this comment on an Advertiser story yesterday concerning the fate of the Native Hawaiian bill, which has stalled in Congress:
You look at the Advertiser story about the native bill being held up for a year and you see there's not a single quote from the ones who seem to be holding it up. Story says the local Dem delegation is confounded and it leaves us confounded as well. Can't be that hard to talk to Gramm or Kyl.But at least they've got a Washington writer. That's more than most other local media can boast these days.
No wonder it feels like the sun's coming up very early these days. I checked the sunrise/sunset table for the year, and the sun will rise this morning at 5:49 a.m.
It moves another minute on the first of June, and that's as early as it gets. After a couple of weeks, and just before the Summer Solstice, it reverses again and begins the crawl back towards winter.
The early morning experience is very different during this part of the year, when the sun is already above the horizon as we leave the house for our daily walk. So I updated the photo gallery to provide a glimpse of what it's like. Click on the gallery banner at the top, or on the photo to the right.
It looks like summer.
And if you're so inclined, don't miss the new kitten photos posted yesterday. Just click on the "Cybelle & kittens" banner at the top of the page.
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