January 13, 2007 - Saturday [ permalink ]

An Advertiser story today reports on a lawsuit challenging the "secrecy" of negotiations over $2.8 million fine against operators of the Waimanalo Gulch landfill. But the story doesn't ever say just what grounds are being asserted for a right of public access to those legal negotiations.

It wouldn't appear that the sunshine law applies to such negotiations, and the filing in federal court means the sunshine law isn't the issue. So what's the federal law at issue? We're not told. That leaves a story that raises the spector of secrecy but doesn't educate about the specifics, and there's no way for the reader to even begin to judge whether the approach is frivolous or substantive.

The real news of the week is, of course, Iraq. I'm trying hard to understand the president's approach. It seems to boil down to something like this. Take a variety of steps to provoke a wider conflict, such as stepping up provocations against Iran and Syria, and announce that we will be ignoring local political sensitivities and attacking at will in civilian neighborhoods in key areas like Baghdad, where we will also be moving troops to be housed permanently in local neighborhoods. I think that's called occupation, if I recall my dictionary. In any case, the resulting increase in violence can then be used as an excuse to extend the rules of engagement, perhaps heading towards at least the regional "unleasing" of military power, Vietnam-era free-fire zones, etc. It's hard to see a good ending out of all this unless you are really into one of those Pentagon prayer networks that really believes the end is near and are looking forward to rushing the process.

It would be a stunning historical pageant to just sit back and watch if it weren't for all the lives being put at risk daily by presidential delusions.

I finally managed to make my final selection of photos from last weekend's baby luau down around the corner from us. I'll be able to deliver a CD over to them today and, of course, they're also available for viewing online. If you haven't figured out the photo, professional body painting was one of the activities that the kids lined up for.

And, finally, an early morning photo from the beginning of the week. We've been walking early, and the sun hasn't actually been up until we're almost back home. This was the view from just a short block from our house at the end of one morning's walk.

January 12, 2007 - Friday [ permalink ]

If anyone tells you how great it would be to be able to sleep all day, they obviously haven't tried it. Stay in bed for one day, well, you're sick and don't really notice. Stay in bed for day #2 and you hurt from too much of a good thing. All those body parts in contact with the mattress start to complain. I'm sorry. Being awake and upright has quite a few advantages, which I'm slowly rediscovering.

The New York Times "Noodle Man" obit noted here on Tuesday brought a couple of emails with additional background. Ernie Murphy, famous here for his pizza essay, wrote:

You see the byline on Noodle Man's obit? Lawrence Downes is a local boy from Kailua. One of his brothers is an editor at the Advertiser, other is some kind of writer/editor/spokesman for the Diocese of Honolulu....oh yeah ...and I believe the brother who works for the Cathlicks also is ... Frank DeLima's writer. Not sure if that's up-to-date.

And Chuck Frankel, who first noted the story, added:

this is a wonderful work of writing; i formed this opinion before i realized the writer was a son of the late Corny Downes of the Star-Bulletin and brother of (1) the editor of the Hawaii Catholic Herald and (2)an editor of the Advertiser.

I'm afraid I sent readers off on a wild goose chase for yesterday's Wall Street Journal story on homelessness in Hawaii, which turns out to be available only to subscribers. I forget that I do subscribe and end up taking it for granted. But the paper says this link should work for nonsubscribers for the next seven days. My fingers are crossed.

The mention of Melissa (Vickers) Labayog's search for Vint on Monday netted her an inquiry from former Hawaii journalist Karen Waygood, and brought this report on both Waygood and Vint:

Past island resident and ka'maina Karen Waygood, former KITV reporter and radio personality in Hawaii (I believe she also wrote a few articles for the Advertiser before fleeing to the mainland for worse weather and MUCH better pay) emailed me to find out why Kathryn Bender (former SB photographer) and I were hunting down Vint after seeing your blog post. She's a big shot editor at CNN in Atlanta (I guess SOMEONE had to stay in journalism and man the sinking ship!) I have maintained our friendship over the years and talk to Karen frequently, but was laughing when I received her emailed question this morning about why Kathryn and I were tracking down Vint (no, he didn't owe us money, we just wanted to say hi to our old buddy and see what crazy scheme he was up to his eyeballs in of late) and she knew what I was up to...(you know those journalists, more curious than the cat!)

When you watch what is commonly known as the "crawl" in the industry (that's the constant feed of headlines and newsbites at the bottom of the screen) chances are it's Ms. Waygood's pithy prose that boils the story down for your viewing pleasure. Kinda exclusive little job there, considering there are only 8 or so others in the COUNTRY doing it - most at CNN Atlanta HQ or FOX news. Nice to know the local kids can make good, eh? Think she's a Farrington High Grad, but not sure - it was somewhere in Honolulu.

Well, you are quite the electronic pied piper, sir. I have already reconnected with Vint Blackburn. The former SB graphic guru is down in the Yucatan with his parents and wife. He has already left teaching (four years of teaching middle and high school science was enough fun to last a lifetime, I guess) and is now busy back at UNM, proceeding toward medical school. I believe neurology is the end goal. Well, there's always one thing you can count on from fellow friend journalists, past or present, we're always up to something interesting.

From Star-Bulletin designer to neurologist! That's not a transition you hear too often. Go, Vint!

Finally, for Feline Friday, probably everyone in the world has now heard of the Oregon cat named Hercules, briefly dubbed Goliath because he is, well, huge.

He's had a lot of attention. Here's the first day story, then a follow, and then there's the video courtesy of the Oregonian and YouTube.

Our own Friday feline is Mr. Silverman, confined in his private room downstairs for almost a week now after returning home one day almost unable to put any weight on his right front leg. A visit to the vet turned up no obvious injury, so he's getting a combination of antibiotic and rest. So far, a little improvement but still a bad limp. And so it goes in cat world.

January 11, 2007 - Thursday [ permalink ]

I will spare you the details. Suffice it to say that I hope to rejoin the living tomorrow, although perhaps still not up to full speed.

The Wall Street Journal features an A-1 story about homelessness in Hawaii, another bit of national attention state leaders probably would rather have avoided. And the Seattle Post-Intelligencer has a piece on the adventure of exploring fresh lava fields on the Big Island, another bit of adventure tourism lore that will undoubtedly lead to tragedy at some point in the future.

I also recommend the Washington Post's recent take on the unusually warm weather they're "enjoying" back east this winter.

And a report issued last month by the BC Progress Board, "The Social Condition in British Columbia", is worth checking out because the board is chaired by Star-Bulletin owner David Black, and also because it makes recommendations that might be applicable more generally. Depending on how much you want to read, there's a press release, a longer executive summary, and the full report, all available from the Progress Board's web site.

And this from a reader:

Thought you might get a chuckle about what happened to the Welcome to Pearl City sign. I think those signs were the former mayor's bright idea--one of his many expensive ones--and cost around $150,000 each. Anyway, they selected one of the many intrances to Pearl City (the one on the route off of the H-1) and installed our sign there. Within the past week, the P letter disappeared, so our sign now says "WELCOME TO EARL CITY."

January 10, 2007 - Wednesday [ permalink ]

I spent an unexpected evening on a visit to Fever Town, that somewhat strange place where hot and cold merge and spin off the weirdest dreams imaginable with aches in places where they don't belong. I'm not sure who gave me the ticket to get there. I've had an on and off background cold, very mild, since returning from the mainland. But after a contentious community association meeting last night, I came home and within an hour was hit with the chills. Downhill from there.

I did stagger outside to put the trash out for pickup, but my brain feels like it's turned into an old sponge, so I won't be continuing with the daily entry. Hopefully I'll be back tomorrow.

January 9, 2007 - Tuesday [ permalink ]

Reading about yesterday's mystery gas smell in New York City and surroundings, I couldn't help recalling the secret tests in Hawaii and several other states back in the 1960s. These used supposedly harmless substances to simulate attacks by biological and chemical weapons on American cities. According to one account:

For instance, a bacterium known as Bacillus globigii, related to anthrax but believed at the time to be harmless, was sprayed over the most populous Hawaiian island, Oahu, in a 1965 test code-named “Big Tom.” Later research found that the bacterium can cause infections in people with weakened immune systems.

Could the New York mystery smell stem from a similar test run?

Thanks to Chuck Frankel for calling my attention to the NY Times obituary of Momofuku Ando, "Mr. Noodle".

Seattle's Committee for a Two-Newspaper Town is challenging secrecy in the ongoing binding arbitration between the city's two dailies, the Seattle Times and Post-Intelligencer concerning the fate of the joint operating agreement.

There's an interesting story today in the Washington Post concerning Congressional moves to raise the minimum wage in the Northern Mariana Islands but not, apparently, in American Samoa.

January 8, 2007 - Monday [ permalink ]

I received a brief email this morning from former Star-Bulletin reporter Melissa (Vickers) Labayog, who described herself as "past Star Bulletin reporter and official thorn in former honorable Frank Fasi's side many moons ago." I suppose that's a pretty good description, come to think of it.

She adds: "I was online editor for Fresnobee.com more than 8 years ago - before I left journalism for the glamor of high school English teaching here in Southern California."

A quick Google search found her mentioned in an article from The Californian, and featured in this photo.

Melissa also mentioned former S-B photographer Kathryn Bender, "now a real estate mogul in Dallas".

The two are trying to track down another S-B former, Vint Blackburn, who I last heard from teaching in New Mexico, where he also still does photography and design and has (or had?) a small recording studio, among a long list of activities.

Regarding the Washington Post story about the volcano, one reader responded:

I read that article in the Post this past week about the travel writer dragging his pregnant wife all over the volcano. It was favorable to the Big Island, but not to him! I wanted to write to him and tell him what an idiot he is, but figured it would be a waste of time. He was practically bragging about how he kept getting her to go closer to the volcano fumes, against her better judgement. Not to mention the dangers of falling through the seemingly solid lava. 

Yup. And that story will undoubtedly encourage more visitors to put themselves in danger the same way.

David Raatz pointed me to a new web site which is tracking the "progressive" freshman elected to Congress las year, including Hawaii's Mazie Hirono.

How do you prepare a party for hundreds--maybe as many as 800--friends and relatives? Frankly, I don't know the answer. But a family just down the street from us does, and showed off their skills on Saturday night. What a show!

January 7, 2007 - Sunday [ permalink ]

We don't get to read a winter weather advisory from the National Weather Service very often! Today is one of those days.

URGENT - WINTER WEATHER MESSAGE
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE HONOLULU HI
341 AM HST SUN JAN 7 2007

...KONA LOW WILL BRING SNOW TO THE BIG ISLAND SUMMITS...A WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY MEANS THAT PERIODS OF SNOW...SLEET...OR FREEZING RAIN WILL CAUSE TRAVEL DIFFICULTIES....SNOW ACCUMULATION IS EXPECTED TO REACH 3 TO 5 INCHES OVER MOST OF THE SUMMITS...

And we've been worried about a little bit of rain and possible flooding.

I dearly love former Star-Bulletin managing editor Dave Shapiro. He's a great guy who, back when I was at the Star-Bulletin, staffers relied on to keep the enterprise on course and steady. Now a popular columnist and blogger for the Advertiser who enjoys getting a rise out of readers, he can quickly be pulled by the flimsiest of circumstances into the deep waters of cynical conspiracy, even in response to basic political events.

One recent example left me gnashing my teeth in frustration. In a December 19 blog entry, Shapiro started with what might be considered a point of fact.

Predictably, the first reaction of legislative Democrats to Gov. Linda Lingle's proposed $20.78 billion operating budget for the next two years was that she didn't anticipate pay raises for public workers, which they pegged at $350 million to $400 million.

Fair enough. That observation appears to be based on one sentence that appeared in an Advertiser story the same day.

He (House Speaker Calvin Say) pointed out that Lingle did not include money for public worker union raises, which Say anticipates could cost the state $350 million to $400 million.

From that relatively simple and straight forward statement, Shapiro then rushes into a series of incredibly broad and biased assertions that, simply put, reflect his own political viewpoint rather than the available data. By the way, the Star-Bulletin story the same day didn't even mention the collective bargaining question.

Here's what Shapiro concluded from the Speaker's simple statement:

Never mind the critical public needs cited by Lingle — improvements in education, affordable housing, transportation, health care, environmental protection and tax relief.

In the minds of Democratic legislators, the needs of the general public take a back seat to the desires of public employees.

And he concludes by further embelishing the theme:

As long as lawmakers pay off their political debts by treating pay for public workers as the state's most pressing issue, we'll never make substantial progress in addressing the unmet needs of the greater taxpaying public.

Whoa, big boy! None of that stuff is to be found anywhere in the original quote. All the Speaker said was that there's a big budget category that the governor failed to account for at all which inevitably will put a crimp in fund available for other purposes. Simple.

Nothing said about the priorities of those Democratic legislators and their views on public needs. Nothing about political debts. Not even anything about attitudes towards labor unions. Just the observation of a legislative veteran experienced in trying to hone a budget in sixty working days. Say knows what's involved and what to watch out for.

And one of those things to watch for is the old political sleight of hand trick aimed at sticking someone else with the blame for your actions. In this case, it's the governor and mayors who negotiate the collective bargaining agreements with public employee unions. After being approved by the state and counties, those contracts then are sent to the Legislature, which has to figure out a way to fund them within the overall budget, which also originates with the governor.

I'll repeat that. The governor makes up a proposed budget and sends it to the Legislature, which can fiddle with the details but usually ends up adopting the bulk of the governor's version. The governor also negotiates and approves the union contracts and their price tag before sending them to the Legislature to be incorporated into the budget.

The governor's trick is to leave the expected costs of the new contract out of the proposed budget. What does this accomplish? Well, it accomplishes nothing in financial terms and makes the budget process much more difficult, but it does have a political payoff for the governor.

When those contract costs become known mid-way through the 60-day legislative session, legislators have to find a way to make room in the budget, which usually means cutting out or cutting back other categories of spending. And, since the governor ignored the labor costs in her initial version of the budget, she can now sit back and pretend to be outraged at steps the Legislature takes to make the budget balance, and she can seize the public limelight to tut-tut about the high labor costs while pretending to forget about her primary role in negotiating and approving those contracts.

It's an awesome example of spin when the governor gets away with publicly blaming the Legislature for funding the contract she negotiated and approved.

And, in this case, Shapiro fell for the whole thing in advance, unfairly blasting Democratic legislators for properly anticipating that the governor's negotiating team will be adding a big chunk of change to the budget at the last minute. It would be fair to quibble over just what balllpark estimate of how much to set aside in anticipation of those contract costs, but that ballpark figure is typically the current cost with an inflation adjustment. Not rocket science.

So Shapiro's blog entry, like many of his more caustic diatribes, is fun to read but reflects a political bias rather than a true assessment of the political situation.

I started this just before 6 a.m. on a cool and damp Sunday morning, and just have to hope that I've made some sense even before a single cup of coffee.

And Dave, I still love ya!

January 6, 2007 - Saturday [ permalink ]

It's windy and wet in Kaaawa this morning, with the kind of cold wind that whips through the house at high enough speeds to trigger two of our smoke alarms, which forced me to climb out of bed early and check the whole house before disabling the bleeping things. Of course, it's then hard to go right back to bed out of fear of becoming one of the fools in a news story, the "man disables smoke alarms minutes before flames claim house" variety.

The weather is not good news to the family down the street and around the corner where the tents were up and preparations were well underway last night for the big baby luau scheduled to begin late this afternoon. Ice chests full of food were piling up, some with food being iced down while others filled with bags of things being slowly thawed. I plan on stopping by with my camera for the big show, rain or shine.

|The night before

Seattle Times columnist Danny Westneat says he's looking forward to seeing the local small town news in the beefed up coverage to be provided by the string of nine community newspapers in the Seattle area purchased by Star-Bulletin owner David Black a couple of months ago.

Did you read about the congressional aide who tried to hire some computer hackers to retroactively improve his college grades? The communications director for the Montana congressman can now add "former" to his list of titles.

The Washington Post ran a long Big Island travel tale about Kilauea volcano last weekend. Take a peek to see what they're reading about us on the mainland.

National Public Radio took a look yesterday at the better than feared performance of the U.S. economy, and their economist cited the drop in gasoline prices as one of the factors in good results.

"It's been a year of huge fluctuations in gas prices," he says. "We did indeed hit three bucks for a while, but of course then we fell very, very sharply for the next few months. And so now we're maybe in the $2.30 range. I think it would have been a different matter if we'd gone to $3 and stayed there."

Of course, our gas prices are back near the $3 range, and its time to assess this less as a story about strained individual budgets and more about the cost to the overall economy. How much of a drag on the state's economy do these higher fuel costs create?

Now that there's a diet drug for overweigh dogs, can the feline version be far behind? Perhaps, then we'll have to face the dilemma of whether to medicalize our overeaters....

And so it goes on this cold Saturday a.m.

January 5, 2007 - Friday [ permalink ]

There was a crowd at Sandy Beach mid-day yesterday to remember and celebrate the popular activist, David Matthews. It was quite a gathering of community activists with ties to the Save Sandy Beach and Save Ka Iwi organizing that successfully blocked development of the wind swept coast.

Here's another reader's long tale of shipping woes from an online retailer, this time involving Costco.

Thought you might be interested in another account of shipping problems, this one with Costco’s Photo Center. I apologize if this is too lengthy or convoluted but I have been following your running accounts of Amazon’s shifting policy and thought you might find this useful, considering that Costco has quite a brick-and- mortar presence in Hawai`i.

Having scanned a number of old family photos, I thought it might be an idea to create photo-calendars as several gifts this past Christmas. I created and ordered two identical calendars on December 8 which were shipped on December 11. I selected “standard shipping rate” at $5.45 each since they were said to arrive, usually, with 3-5 business days. At the charge of $5.45 I assumed (wrongly, as it turned out) that the items would be shipped at least by First Class.  I might also add that this order was placed before Costco’s recommended order deadline which, as I recall, was December 11. Upon receipt of these calendars (assuming their arrival ca December 15 – 18), I planned to include them in Christmas packages. Shortly after this, I placed two additional orders for photo-calendars, each processed and shipped on December 18; I requested standard shipping for these orders, too, since I did not yet have reason to be concerned. In this latter case, I intended for these calendars to be given in person, so the receipt date could be more flexible.

None of these orders has arrived to date. When I corresponded by email, asking explicitly what “standard” shipping meant (first class? Priority mail? Third class? Media mail) I didn’t get an answer. By December 23, when no calendars had arrived, I began to suspect the worst which was that “standard” shipping actually meant parcel post or media mail. Sure enough, that turned out to be the case, as seen in the (finally) honest email I received today (January 5):

"Thank you for your email. Standard shipping is usually by 3rd Class Mail. Per our website, if the standard shipping option was chosen for your order, we are unable to guarantee delivery by a certain date. We are only able to guarantee delivery times on 2-day or overnighted orders. Most orders shipped within the Continental US are received within 10 business days; additional time may be needed for shipments to Hawaii, especially during the holidays. We apologize for the delay and any inconvenience it may have caused."  

Of course, if you go to that link (at least as of this morning, there is nothing said about what class of postage is used. Given that I have asked repeatedly about this, I find Costco’s shipping policy to be uninformative at best, and deceptive at worst. Furthermore, when I called the PhotoCenter on or about December 29th and asked what shipping method was used, I was told that items shipped via “standard” shipping were sent via First Class mail.

To Costco’s credit, they replaced the first order (allegedly sent December 11) with two new calendars at no charge to me. These items were shipped by UPS on December 29th, and arrived January 3rd. They told me in one email that it was their policy to replace items at no cost if more than 10 business days since shipping had elapsed without delivery.

FYI, when I mailed the two calendars (received here via UPS) to their intended recipients, they each cost $2.55 to send at First Class postage, and they probably will arrive within a week at their mainland destinations, if not sooner.. So, adding insult to injury, why should Costco have charged me $5.45 for a much slower mail service?

Thanks for letting me vent, and here’s to Congressional investigation of shipping policies for Hawai`i and Alaska.

I use Costco's photo center as well, but I order online for local pickup at one of Costco's stores. Works great, photos usually done in an hour. I recommend their service when used in this way.

Animal rights activist Cathy Goeggel responded regarding the question of butchered dog ears:

it's called "cropping"- often done to Doberman Pinchers, Great Danes and Pit Bulls- It makes them look fiercer- and is, along with tail docking, barbaric. The practice is outlawed in the UK and also I believe, down under. Sadly, the AKC (American Kennel Club) requires ear cropping for certain breeds if they are to be "shown"

Another reader added:

For certain breeds of dogs the ears are clipped so there's less to grab in a fight. Otherwise, it's the same reason that certain breeds of dogs get their tails clipped. It's a "look".

In