October 15, 2005 - Saturday

I always enjoy Howard Dicus and his PBN Friday program on PBS Hawaii, and last night's show was no exception, but the interview with two McDonalds reps was very disappointing. The topic should have been interesting. How does a large employer like McDonalds deal with Hawaii's low unemployment environment? But Howard stayed with happy platitudes and never asked a single real question. What benefits do they offer? Do they offer full time jobs? How about training? Has McDonalds boosted wages to attract job seekers? If so, how much, and how do they compare to other local employers? How do wages and benefits compare to the chain's stores on the mainland? The interview should have yielded some interesting data. Instead, we now know that you don't have to be a teenager to work at the fast food chain. Oh, Howard, don't let us down like that! Even one of your crappy little charts would have perked up the segment. Anyway, I'll be looking forward to next Friday's offerings.

We should all be taking lessons from Helen Thomas. Thanks to Editor & Publisher for flagging this exchange between Thomas and White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan.

Sign of the times: Knight Ridder, publisher of more than 30 daily newspapers including the San Jose Mercury News, has purchased a string of free weekly newspapers serving communities in the famed "Silicon Valley" of California. It's a continuation of the consolidation in the publishing industry, with free newspapers being gobbled up by the corporate dailies rather than offering an alternative.

I suppose it's good news that a Hawaii company, Cellular Bioengineering, is being recognized by R&D Magazine for development of its neural matrix chip, but the idea of nerve cells growing on computer chips is a bit unsettling. Or am I the only one to find it a bit creepy?

No, I wasn't channeling a Harry Potter refugee. Just modeling some of 7-11's finer Halloween merchandise. There were mixed images on the shelf. This fine hat, vampire teeth, face paint, and more. The hat, though, seemed to fit.

October 14, 2005 - Friday

Here we are on another feline Friday, and time for a nice cat moment. When we get back from our early morning walk, Toby usually greets us at the top of the driveway and escorts us down to the house, and we in turn escort Toby past Romeo, who is waiting to pick on him if possible. But on this particular morning Toby wanted a bit more in the love department, and of course got what he wanted.

Please click for larger photo

Former journalist and congressional candidate Dalton Tanonaka, who pleaded guilty in federal court earlier this year to campaign-related violations, has sent out a mass email soliciting letters from supporters which he hopes will keep him out of prison.

Crucial in the plea agreement reached with the government was their position of not recommending prison time. To further support that position, I need your help. I need as many letters of support as possible to be sent in to the sentencing judge. They should not refer to anything legal, but something that conveys the kind of person I am and the things I wanted to do (and have done) for the community.

Tanonaka also asks supporters to pack Judge Helen Gillmor's courtroom when he appears for sentencing on November 3.

"My attorney says that will make a strong visual impression on the judge," the former Republican candidate says in his email.

And I see that the Honolulu City Council is considering a bill to transfer the tasks of administering registration and reporting by lobbyists over to the city Ethics Commission.

Bill 52 (2005) appears to have a comprehensive definition of lobbyist and broad registration requirements. It exempts individuals who serve as volunteer lobbyists without salary from registration, but does require the groups they lobby for to register and report. The lobbyist reports would be available for public inspection at the commission office rather than at the office of the city clerk.

It seems like a long overdue step. The same thing should be with financial disclosures of city officials so that they are handled by the ethics commission as well.

October 13, 2005 - Thursday

"I think the Hawaii lawmakers are spending a little too much time on the beach drinking their coconut milk, eating their pineapple, and listening to their album of that Hawaiian girl from American Idol."

That's the assessment of a column in BG News, an independent student news site from Bowling Green, Ohio, regarding Hawaii's law that assesses traffic fines and tickets accumulated by former owners to a used car buyer.

It would be like going to a restaurant and trying to get a table, and having the host say, “We’re sorry, we can’t let you sit there because there’s still food on the table. You either have to eat the food, or find the people who were sitting there and have them finish it. We can’t have any outstanding food.”

You’re like, “It’s Denny’s. You ain’t gotta worry about having outstanding food.” This all just seems so medieval. Someone is being brought before the king: “Your grandfather betrayed me … now I must flog you.”

There's more, but this gives you the flavor. I guess the new intepretation of this law looks as bad from a distance as it does up close.

Inside Higher Ed has updated its "Expense Account Hall of Shame" in order to account for American University's Ben Ladner. I was suprised by Evan Dobelle's absence from the list of featured examples. Perhaps its time to add a few Dobelle highlights to their list.

Meanwhile, a column at SFist complains about the high price of Kona coffee.

Just where the hell do you get Kona beans around here? We remember seeing them at Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf for some outrageous amount, like $45 a pound or something. For that price, you may as well give that monkey-sh*t coffee a try, if you can find it.

And a man in Lincoln, Nebraska, has been charged with "owning more than five adult cats". Memo to file: don't even think about moving to Lincoln. At this point we're probably considered Lincoln fugitives with our nine cats hiding out in Kaaawa. Actually, the guy had 150 cats and couldn't care for them properly. We've got nine cats and, just yesterday, made another $99.46 offering to the veterinary industry to treat what was indeed an abcess on the side of poor Ms. Kili's face. My solution, after one particular bad year when vet bills spiraled, was to buy some stock in the VCA chain, which trades under the WOOF symbol. At least this way we share in the profits. Perhaps if they traded as MEOW I would have added a few extra shares, but that's just personal preference. It makes for mixed feelings every time I have to empty the wallet to bail another cat out of the medical lockup.

October 12, 2005 - Wednesday

It was cool over night, another indication that we're getting beyond the Kona weather that marks the end of the traditional dry season and heading into the wet and cooler months ahead. And today I finally got around to changing the photo at the top of this page to one that better reflects the season.

My morning is a bit disrupted by a cat lockdown. Well, it's actually only Ms. Kili who is restricted as a result of some sort of as yet undiagnosed injury. She finally showed up last night after being outside all day, climbed in bed, and even in the dark I could see what one side of her face was swollen. So I dug into our dwindling stash of antibiotics and popped one down her, with another to follow this morning. When it gets light, I'll examine her more closely and see what we're dealing with. It might mean a run to the vet today. Meanwhile, I've got the doors closed and the other cats have to signal their desire to go in or out. Kili, of course, is the one most interested in being out. It's definitely not the most relaxed way to start the day.

Abercrombie for Governor? That's Richard Borreca's contribution to the morning's political discourse. I just don't know. Neil's been in Washington for a while, and while that's good for some parts of the political image, it also means that both he and his campaign organization haven't focused on local issues for a while. Could he spark a Democratic fundraising effort sufficient to seriously challenge Lingle? That's a tough challenge for anyone at this point in the election cycle. But it does make for interesting speculation about the musical chairs that would be set in motion by an unexpected open congressional seat.

By the way, I like the Star-Bulletin's new web design with its full listing of stories accessible from any point. It makes getting around much simpler, unlike the other newspaper's "guess what's behind these headlines" structure.

I noted a couple of stories today about Hawaii's extended reach, one on Hawaiians in the Pacific Northwest and another about teaching hula in the Appalachians.

"Black and white and read by fewer." That's the headline on a Los Angeles Times story on the state of the newspaper business published a couple of days ago. And Grade the News, the site which sets out to evaluate news sources in the San Francisco Bay area, also currently features a series of comments on the future of the newspaper business. Most interesting. Adding to the disquieting news comes a Washington Post story reporting that newsprint prices are at a historical high of $625 a ton.

October 11, 2005 - Tuesday

KITV and KHON reported over the weekend that a campus meeting of the Oahu Democratic Party had been declared a violation of University of Hawaii rules. UH officials cited a rule barring political fundraisers in campus facilities "where such use is in competition with other privately-owned facilities."

But the issue was first reported by Hawaii Reporter several days earlier. A quick Google search didn't turn up any mention of the flap in either of the dailies.

It's hard to imagine UH administrators interpreting their rule to prohibit political meetings and discussions on campus. So inquiring minds would be interested both in the origin of this particular rule and the origin of the complaints about this meeting to air issues seen as important by Democrats.

The general rule for political use of public facilities is set out by the State Ethics Commission: "State premises or facilities that are available to the public for use (e.g. for holding meetings or conducting business) may also be used for campaign activities on the same basis as the facilities are available to the public."

Other UH facilities are certainly available for use by the general public. There are regular church services down in the arena, for example. This meeting of Democrats wouldn't appear to raise any particular concerns in light of the ethics standard.

To the extent that the UH administration's latest interpretation of its own rule conflicts with this general rule, it becomes a matter of particular interest. How and why would such a restrictive interpretation arise? In any case, a ruling like this certainly shouldn't be ignored as we head into an important election year. I hope we'll be reading or hearing more about it.

According to today's Washington Post, trustees of American University have finally voted to permanently remove President Ben Ladner, whose free spending ways drew the attention of auditors and opposition on campus. Lots of parallels here to Hawaii's experience with Evan Dobelle.

There's a lot of excitement in the air out here in Kaaawa as we await a birth. No, this time it's not a kitten, but a fern. Two large ferns were added just outside our front deck when we replanted the yard following last year's construction-related devastation. One has been doing quite well, the other appeared to be struggling. It's single frond has been slowly turning brown and looking grim.

But a couple of weeks ago I notice a small reddish circle about the size of a half-dollar. This circle ever so slowly began to swell, and by the time these photos were taken on Sunday, it was a couple of inches high and clearly recognized as a new frond ready to emerge. We'll be ready to celebrate when it finally opens.

October 10, 2005 - Monday

According to a Hoover's fact sheet on USA Today, about one-third of the newspaper's circulaton is via hotel deals like the one we had at a Marriott in Chicago recently. But even discounting the involuntary paid circulation, USA Today is probably still the largest circulation US newspaper, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations (the Honolulu Advertiser ranks #77 on their list).

Editor & Publisher has an interesting column on the newly "discovered" notes by NYT reporter Judith Miller which apparently recorded details of another conversation regarding Joe Wilson and his CIA spouse. The existance of the notes was first reported by Newsweek. The underlying mystery continues to unfold, as does the mystery of the failure of the New York Times own reporting on the matter.

Thanks to Chuck Frankel for calling my attention to two fine Jim Dooley stories which appeared in the Advertiser while we were in Chicago. Dooley explains that the city somehow failed to assess property taxes on a new house built by former union leader Tony Rutledge for at least five years. Then he reports that a beach services company owned by the Rutledge family is in line for a new concession contract despite its principals awaiting sentencing as a result of illegally skimming cash from the till during an earlier period. Both good reads.

An Associated Press story by Tara Godvin on Hawaii's lack of regulation of the trade in tropical fish is getting wide play on the mainland today.

October 9, 2005 - Sunday

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