iLind.net

May 14, 2005 - Saturday

Thanks to KITV for posting a copy of former UH president Evan Dobelle's outline of his supposedly ongoing research. It looks an awful like an initial proposal rather than a report on research in progress. [Oops--I've been launching folks into cyberspace with this link, but it should be fixed now.]

Much to my surprise, yesterday's mention of the Spam Museum up in Minnesota brought a quick reply from friends back in Honolulu:

You and Meda SHOULD NOT MISS the Spam Museum. We went there last year and it is a real hoot! They make much of Hawaii being the nation's largest spam eating state. There is even a video of Sam Choy preparing spam musubi. This is definitely a highlight of any visit to the upper midwest. We also had a great lunch at Piggy Blues BarBQue in downtown Austin.

Thanks to Democracy Now! for this update on the political upheaval within the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the backbone of public television and radio.

The Justice Department has dropped its antitrust investigation of the Seattle newspaper Joint Operating Agreement, according to published reports. The Seattle Times story focuses on the DOJ's failure to find evidence of wrongdoing, while the rival Post-Intelligencer stresses DOJ's statement that the investigation would be renewed if either newspaper is shut down.

The terrible thing is that this bit of Americana doesn't appear to be a joke. Woe is us.

May 13, 2005 - Friday

Friday the 13th.

A "T-Storm Warning" was running across the television screen as we watched the early evening news last night, just a short while after Meda returned from the day's conference with the bit of movie trivia that the film "Twister" was partly filmed in Iowa. Luckily, although there was lots of thunder and lightning, we were assured that it was too cool for tornadoes, although Iowa does have its share.

We actually haven't seen much of Iowa yet, apart from the hour or so driving north to Ames from the Des Moines airport. We got downtown for a short while after arriving at our hotel, but Meda's been conferencing since. Later today we return to Des Moines for a short visit before flying home. That said, click on the photo for my initial impressions.

Iowa: first impressions

There are, of course, lots of things to do here. The Ames Area Visitors Guide, in its "Entertainment" section, suggests such visitor-friendly sites as the Resource Recovery Plant on Center Street, where burnable refuse is separated from recycling, and the Watter Pollution Control Facility on rural route 2, deemed "innovative" by the EPA. Not too far away we can visit the house where Mamie Eisenhower was born in 1896. They've also got brochures here for the Spam Museum located up in Austin, Minnesota, (featuring "Theater! Game show! Restrooms! It's All Here!"), and on the way home we can stop at the National Balloon Museum (the kind you ride in, not the kind you buy for birthday parties) somewhere just outside of Des Moines.

So I spent some time selecting another set of Kaaawa dogs, including Ms. Lucy, shown here. Just click on her photo for today's full batch.

May 12, 2005 - Thursday

We arrived safely in Iowa after a brief delay in Denver due to fog, but it would be unfair to comment since we suffered yesterday from sleep deprivation and, following dinner, wine infusion. More on Iowa on Friday.

Star-Bulletin reporter Craig Gima has been asking about former UH President Evan Dobelle's parting "research" project for months, and finally pushed ahead with a records request that forced disclosure, resulting in a good story yesterday on Dobelle's lack of apparent progress. By early today the AP rewrite appears to be making the rounds.

An article in the Seattle Times today notes the implicit conflict between Hawaii and Everett, Washington, over basing of a Navy carrier.

Here's the lead sentence from a story found on KITV's web list of leading local headlines: " A man who says his former roommate secretly recorded him having sex with a tiny camera found hidden inside his radio alarm clock took the witness stand Wednesday."

I'm still wondering how one has sex with a tiny hidden camera? Does it have to be removed from the alarm clock first?

It's worth taking the time to look over the latest survey data on the political alignment of American voters by the Pew Research Center.

The bottom line:

Republicans have neither gained nor lost in party identification in 2005. Moreover, divisions within the Republican coalition over economic and domestic issues may loom larger in the future, given the increasing salience of these matters. The Democratic party faces its own formidable challenges, despite the fact that the public sides with them on many key values and policy questions. Their constituencies are more diverse and, while united in opposition to President Bush, the Democrats are fractured by differences over social and personal values.

From the Valley Isle comes this summary of the frontal assault on Maui's community television provider, Akaku. The threatened legislation to strip a large share of Akaku's budget ultimately stalled, but only after a "voluntary" agreement to similar terms. But the political battle continues.

Since January 2005, an assault on Maui County's PEG access provider, Akaku: Maui Community TV is being led by land speculator Everett Dowling (with other ultra-high end luxury developers), attempting to silence community opposition for private "gated community" developments and other projects worth over a Billion dollars that are pending local government land use approvals in Maui County - and facing stiff community opposition.

See Maui Time article tying Everett Dowling's interests to controversial Makena developments on Maui.
Maui Time weekly "Everett's Bills"

Akaku provides non-discriminatory media access for all and equal opportunity for local voices without regard to content - this has never been questioned. But apparently Akaku was too successful at the mission: "Empowering our community's voice through access to media."

Unfortunately, Dowling and other land developers generally declined to present their programs on Akaku's local access TV channels, instead buying their media campaigns and asking (sometimes with legal threats) that Akaku restrict airing the programs of their opponents - which Akaku was unwilling to do.

See Honolulu Weekly articles:
"Our Cable Company: How the state's secret deal with AOL/Time Warner and Oceanic imperils the future of public access TV in Hawai‘i," Ian Lind, April 16, 2003 (See excerpt from this article below, which tells the story of Dowling's initial threat to Akaku in 2003.)

and
"Turf War: Are bills to divert two-thirds of Maui’s public-access station to Maui Community College and the county a money squabble or a muzzle?" by Kawehi Haug, April 06, 2005

In 2005, Everett Dowling is funding a well organized lobbying and public relations campaign to assert disputed claims that State education institutions are entitled to cable franchise resources managed by Akaku. State education bureaucrats, pursuing money and power, joined the fray by alarming their staff, students and supporters with undocumented claims that Akaku was withholding funds due to them.

State education interests actively lobbied to support "Everett's Bills" (SB959 & HB784) at the State legislature. State resources leveraged with private developer money and influence proved too much for Akaku and their unfunded public interest supporters - "Everett's Bills" advanced very quickly with inside support of legislative leadership.
[Note: Politics of the Democratic State legislature engaging the Republican State administration, which oversees Akaku, will be another story for another day.]

"Everett's Bills" were targeted to "force" Akaku to settle the false State education claims, and also threatened to divert another third of PEG funds to County government. [There's a subtext in the background of local Mayoral politics, but that will be reported another day.]

During the legislative assault, Akaku happened to be at a vulnerable time with negotiations ongoing to close the purchase of commercial property in Kahului, Maui. Everett Dowling testified (through his attorney Sandra Wong) at the State legislature that "Akaku should not purchase that building until this [State education money] issue is resolved." Dowling and friends went on to exploit Akaku's building purchase to leverage additional funding, along with control over one third of Maui's access channel/bandwidth, and four Board seats to block further independent actions of Akaku. [Story of a mysterious, last minute condition on Akaku's bank loan for the building purchase is another story to be reported later.]

With all of this outside political and economic pressure including highly funded lobbying, legal threats and PR spin, the diversion of funding and media control from community-based Akaku to State agencies is still reverberating.

Here's the latest from Maui News.

And that's the current situation for PEG access serving islands of Maui, Moloka'i, Lana'i and Kaho'olawe.

Thanks to Akaku's Sean McLaughlin for forwarding that update.

May 11, 2005 - Wednesday

Now that Emmis has announced its intention to sell its television stations, including Honolulu's KHON and KGMB, a certain question immediately arises: Will they be allowed to sell their illegal Honolulu duopoly, allowed only by a "temporary" FCC waiver based on the company's promise to sell one of the two properties in this market?

The Emmis announcement also elicited an unusually direct on-the-air criticism from KHON anchor Joe Moore during Monday night's 6 p.m. news. After reporting on the Emmis announcement, Moore commented that the buyer would be the sixth company he has worked for at KHON since the late 1970's. Each time the station has been sold, Moore said, the owners made a bunch of money on the sale.

Then he added something approximately like this: "And I don't recall any of the owners offering to share profits from the sale with their employees."

May 8, 2005 - Sunday

Gannett's top execs were the highest paid in the newspaper business last year. According to an Editor & Publisher report, Gannett CEO Douglas McCorkindale was also the highest paid individual in the newspaper business, with $4.1 million in salary and bonuses.

Is it true that former Star-Bulletin reporter Rob Perez was greeted at the Advertiser by a couple of full-size Star Wars figures? Making light at the Dark Side?

As one Advertiser staffer commented privately: "With Rob on board, it's starting to feel less like the Dark Side. It's one of those rare situations where everyone from management on down seems thrilled with the hire."

A Star-Bulletin editorial on Friday in favor of the proposed Navy research center at UH displayed both the newspapers rightward drift as well as a lack of appreciation for the complexity of university issues.

The editorial hangs on a single broad statement by the newly arrived vice-chancellor for research and graduate education, who is quoted as saying, "This is not significantly different from what the university has been doing for decades."

Well, I beg your pardon. There is a world of difference between research funded by a Pentagon-related source and research that is classified. Classified research has been barred by UH policy since another round of controversy several decades ago.

The editorial gives no insight into the sensitive educational issues surrounding classified research, including its potentially serious impact on students and young faculty who could suffer long-term damage if prevented form publishing the results of their research efforts.

Vanderbilt University has been struggling with the same issue, as have other campuses across the country, and a Vanderbilt task force report provides a good overview of the range of issues that should be considered. Even a far less comprehensive UH faculty senate review identifies many of hte same issues. It's clear that the S-B's "take the money and run" approach doesn't do justice to the underlying concerns.

Okay, it's not summer yet but it's starting to feel that way. The sun is up at 5:56 a.m., the tide has been very low, and the cool mornings of the last several months have yielded to summer-like heat. Of course today is different, cloudy and damp, probably just because I selected this photo from yesterday. So it goes.