January 21, 2006 - Saturday

The Advertiser's Derrick DePledge caught what I thought was the best quote about Ed Case's entry into the Senate race in a story yesterday. Quoting Congressman Neil Abercrombie:

"Ed is his own man. He always has been," said Abercrombie, who plans to campaign for Akaka. "Everybody's virtue is their vice."

Everybody's virtue is their vice. I'll just have to chew on that for a while.

Here's an interesting story published last June in The Hill, a Washington newspaper, on Dan Akaka's preparations for this year's campaign.

Have you checked the Star-Bulletin's web site this week? I'm not sure what's changed, and I didn't pick up on it right away, but it's cleaner, easier to read and more accessible, the result of a few subtle design tweaks, added shading to set off individual items, and some typographical shifts perhaps. It's subtle enough to be hard to identify individual changes, but I like the overall effect. Good job.

Meanwhile, the financial toll of the Plan Compliance Group meltdown continues to rise. The Contra Costa Times reported yesterday that at least two dozen employees of the West Contra Costa school district had investment accounts with the company and are now unable to determine what has happened to their retirement funds.

Tomorrow: A summary of responses to the question posed earlier this week of why (some) cats seem to suddenly go ballistic while being petted.

January 20, 2006 - Friday

Did you hear it yesterday? The news report that had everyone buzzing? No, I'm not talking about the announcement by Ed Case that he'll break party ranks and run against Sen. Dan Akaka. I'm talking about the shock and awe that followed John Veneri's reference to the NBA "Pissers" on KHON's 6 p.m. newscast. It almost floored a tongue-tied Veneri and had Joe Moore ad libbing at the end of the newscast about the Detroit Piston's "name change". After the embarrassing fumble, Veneri said he had been thinking Pacers and Pistons and the combo word just flowed forth.

We were driving, so missed seeing the expression on his face as he realized what had been said on the air. It was, though, actually a funny interlude in a serious afternoon.

Case's announcement, of course, set off tremors throughout the state capitol yesterday on just the second day of the 2006 legislative session. The impact was immediate as other office holders of both parties were being forced to quickly assess the openings and their own odds in this complex election year exercise in "musical chairs". Who will jump to try to fill the 2nd District seat? What open seats will that leave? Who will move up? Who will try to move in to take advantage of the moment and who will be trampled in the process?

Rep. Ed Case at the opening of the 2006 Legislature

What will those competing ambitions impact the legislature's business this session? And, you've got to wonder, where will the money come from to fuel all of these unexpected and newly competitive races?

And this morning there's another decision to make about which story to believe?

Star-Bulletin: "New UH dorms carry $61M price tag"

Advertiser: "A project to increase dormitory space by 814 new beds on the University of Hawai'i-Manoa campus could cost as much as $43.5 million...."

Take your pick.

So it goes on a wet and windy Friday morning in Kaaawa.

January 19, 2006 - Thursday

There's a new name in the newsroom down in the basement of the state capitol this year: Stephens Media Group.

Stephens, owner of the Hawaii Tribune Herald and West Hawaii Today newspapers, formerly relied on reporting by Associated Press. But apparently Stephens hasn't been satisfied with AP's offerings after the retirement of longtime AP capitol bureau reporter Bruce Dunford, and so they've moved their own writer whose byline reads, "Nancy Cook Lauer, Stephens Honolulu Bureau."

Meantime, here's a cat question from a reader. I've sent off a tentative answer, but it seems like time to probe the knowledge of other cat people out there.

I have a cat question that I thought you might be able to answer since you've had a lot of experience with cats. My Mom has a cat. He's neutered and at least 3 years old. My Mom keeps him outside all the time.

He's usually very mellow and extremely sociable and vocal. When he hears someone moving around in my Mom's house, he'll start meowing... standing on my Mom's car or van or boxes so he can look in the windows of my Mom's house to see what's going on. He loves to go into people's cars to explore.

When he's in the mood, he loves to be petted, scratched, massaged, etc., and will purr to let us know it.

The one thing I DON'T understand is this... sometimes, when we're petting him and he's really happy and purring, he'll suddenly lash out and scratch or bite us... there are a lot of times when he'll just be standing or lying down and we'll be petting and he'll seem very happy, then all of a sudden.... *shick-ah* (the sound of a samurai sword swishing through the air in a death stroke)!!!

Of course, we immediately stop, jump back, and scold him for biting/scratching. And he goes away, sometimes looking very self satisfied as if to say, "Well, I sure got them good that time!" Or sometimes, he'll look at us all guilty-like, as if to say, "I'm sorry! I know I'm not supposed to do that kind of thing! That was really bad of me! I'm sorrry!"

Question: have the cats you've known behaved like this--suddenly lashed out when a moment earlier they seemed very happy? If yes, why do you suppose they do this? They know that the petting/scratching stops as soon as they bite/scratch...

If you can help us understand this strange bit of my Mom's cat's behavior, we'd really appreciate it.

Okay, cat people, what's the answer? Email your replies to ian@ilind.net.

In a few days, the rhythm of the days will start to change as the sun begins its daily journey a bit earlier every day. In order to get to town at a reasonable hour these days, we're walking in the dark and getting home before dawn. We don't get our habitual sunrise "fix" except on weekends. That will change over the next six weeks, but for now...well, just click on this photo to enjoy a bit of Sunday's dawn in Kaaawa.

January 18, 2006 - Wednesday

Contra Costa Times reports today that Bill Reimers, president of Plan Compliance Group, has been located in a psychiatric hospital while an FBI probe into the missing funds continues.

From Bryant in Tokyo comes this reaction to the question of "advertorials":

Making my living on the dark side (advertising) for all these years, I had to express my always humble opinion on “advertorials”. In the interest of disclosure, I probably use them more than most advertising managers. I believe they are a good idea and don’t confuse the readers – any more than readers get confused telling the difference between editorial cartoons and the Sunday comics.

That remains true so long as you disclose, disclose, and disclose.

In the end, the interest of advertisers and reporters are very similar – both want to deliver their message to as many folks as possible. Both readership and revenue suffer when we “play cute” with disclosures (as described by your reader).

It doesn’t need to be that way. Readers read good advertising copy as well as good stories. Every study ever done shows this. Readership also grows with trust.

Label advertorial clearly. I don’t use the word. Readers don’t know what it means.  Instead I say “This (magazine, newspaper, etc) is a product of the Advertising Department.” I put that in 12-point serif type on every page. Additionally, I use a different font than the newsroom – although I question whether the reader knows Garamond from Times-Roman. I don’t imitate their style or layout either – more important than font selection.

Most newsroom folks have been very happy with this arrangement and advertising’s made a lot of money.

If you see things differently, let me know.

Here they are, my favorite photographs from among the thousands of images I took during 2005. I can't say the selection process was rigorous, but I spent several hours over the long weekend culling out the ones that really caught my eye, eliminating those of lesser quality, and repeating until the collection was down to a manageable number.

I never quite finished this process last year, so there's a gap in my "Best of" series. You can always check the earlier ones (2001-2003) by clicking the appropriate button down towards the bottom on the left of this page.

January 17, 2006 - Tuesday

I stared this set of photos of our Kaaawa dogs at the end of December, but ran into a technical glitch and then totally forgot about them until yesterday. So, belatedly, here are some year-end Kaaawa dogs from 2005. Just click on Ms. Hapa's picture for more. She's one of the Pit-sky puppies (Husky mother, pit bull father), daughter of Girlie. Now living just a couple of houses from her birth place.

Ms. Hapa (a.k.a. Gigia

The Contra Costa Times reported yesterday that the Department of Education is asking legislators to cover the more than $2.2 million that disappeared after being turned over to Plan Compliance Group in September. This means there should be plenty of opportunity for lawmakers to figure out why key warning signs went unnoticed.

According to the state's lawsuit, the Hawaii Department of Education entered into its contract with the Plan Compliance Group in March 2002. But at that time there were already signs of financial problems.

A quick check of public documents in the on-line index for Contra Costa County show Plan Compliance owner and president, Bill Reimers, or the company had recently been hit with several tax liens.

• March 14, 2000: Notice of Lien, California State Franchise Tax Board

• March 14, 2001: Notice of Lien, California State Franchise Tax Board

• June 19, 2001: Notice of Lien, Contra Costa County Tax Collector.

Then in December 2002, just months after signing the contract in Hawaii, more tax liens, this time by the California State Employment Development Department (December 9, 2002 and December 26, 2002). And beginning in November 2003, the Internal Revenue Service also filed a lien against Plan Compliance Group, the first of several times the company would cycle in and out of debt to the IRS.

The online index does not indicate the amounts involved in these liens, but it is clear the company was having some kind of financial problems that predated their selection to service the DOE.

Why the series of tax liens was not noticed or failed to raise warning flags for Hawaii officials, or those in other states where the company did business, remains one of the questions that needs to be resolved.

There's no evidence that Reimers either had or sought any kind of political clout here or in California. A search of federal and state campaign sites fails to turn up any political contributions by Reimers or his company.

While looking for any campaign contributions by Reimers, I noted that the Hawaii State Teachers Association reported a $13,928 nonmonetary contribution to the Alliance for a Better California on October 5, 2005. The Alliance is a union coalition credited with defeated California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's ballot initiatives in November.

January 16, 2006 - Monday

Martin Luther King Day, and I'm reminded of the connections in this world. Some of the famous images of the Selma to Montgomery march in 1965 include Jim Letherer (top photo), the one-legged man who marched the whole way, often in the front lines. And in 1974, when a small group of Hawaiians supported a Waimea ranchers protest against the lease policies of the Hawaiian Homes Commission, Jim Letherer somehow was there as well (bottom photo).

Selma to Montgomery 1965

Waimea, HI 1974

Same struggle for rights. Small world.

A reader with a lot of experience in the newspaper business offered this observation:

I am concerned that the Star-Bulletin is running ads that look like news story. See Page C7 on Sunday, January 15, 2006. There is full page ad on workers' compensation; it includes a headline and body type similar to what the paper uses for its news. A person familiar with typography can note the lower case i and t are not the same, but the average reader would not recognize this.

There is a small "advertisement" slug in the upper lefthand corner of the page, but this is not sufficient. The Star-Bulletin management should question its ethics in this matter.

There were a couple of smaller examples that appeared in Saturday's edition, so the example cited above wasn't unique.

These "advertorials" have long been controversial because the confusion between advertising and editorial content further undermines the credibility of newspapers among readers.

Contra Costa Times business writer George Avalos has a long story today on the fall of Plan Compliance Group which adds still more details about company president Bill Reimers. He reports FBI agents are interviewing investors in Reimers' other company, Univest.

January 15, 2005 - Sunday

An island retirement planner sent a note regarding Plan Compliance Group, including this observation:

PCG’s  failure, and ever deepening problems, are a real shock to the retirement planning industry. Bill Reimers  was well know, well liked, and well thought of. No one I know had anything bad or negative to say about him. This thing has sent shock waves of disappointment thru the industry. 

I'm sure that it has, and I'm sure it's also far from over.

But why is this kind of story apparently so difficult for local reporters to develop?

Here's a small book recommendation: 24 Days. It's a very good inside view of the process of unraveling the Enron story, a case of white collar crime on a much grander scale. It was a long way from reporting on Enron's energy business to understanding the shape of the real story, and this tale by two Wall Street Journal reporters is a good one. Lead author Rebecca Smith is a two-time winner of the Gerald Loeb Award for business writing.

In any case, the book provides a good example of the investigative process, and a good read along the way.

Noted: The State's Chief Procurement Officer last week rejected an application from the High Technology Innovation Corporation for a blanket exemption from the procurement laws, which I had questioned earlier. The accompanying comments by the Chief Procurement Officer begin with this statement:

The State Procurement Office does not believe any agency should have a "blanket" procurement exemption from Chapter 103D, HRS. The procurement code was established to ensure the fair and equitable treatment of vendors, foster competition, and increase public confidence in the government procurement system, to name a few of its edicts.

The High Tech folks were advised that there is a procedure set out in the statute for exemptions for specific situations which they can always utilize. Here's a link to the application and the procurement officer's comments.

I was waiting in front of the capitol for Meda to pick me up on her way from the UH Manoa campus when, to combat the boredom of the wait, I shifted attention to the Damien statue that stands in the shadow of the building and the huge state seal overhead. The result was a series of interesting photos.

Click for more