You are visitor since November 2, 1999

August 7, 2004 - Saturday

This just in yesterday:

I figure your Web forum will be the best medium to let people know of this, considering how many other journalistic professionals read your web log every day.

Today is my last day at Pacific Business News, after five years, four of them as the Research Director. I am moving onto poliitics, having accepted a position at Councilmember's Charles K. Djou's office at City Hall. I will start there Monday, with no rest for the weary.

My successor is Rudy Navor, he will be named the Research Director here on Monday, August 9, the same day I take my legislative aide position at Djou's office.

I will continue to read with interest your findings of what is going on in journalism in Hawaii. Aloha.

Stan Fichtman

Remember compliments you receive. Forget the insults. If you succeed in doing this, tell me how.
-"Wear Sunscreen" NOT by Kurt Vonnegut

Good luck, Stan. I had a stint as a City Council staffer back in 1988-90, and it's an eye-opener.

Warning: What follows is an enthusiastic product endorsement based on direct personal experience. The products: Hot pepper jellies from Micks Peppourri of Yakima, Washington. We discovered Micks while wandering Seattle's Pike Place Market early one morning a couple of years ago. It was love at first bite.

This stuff is amazingly good. Micks offers versions ranging from mild to hot enough to deter (but not finally defeat) me. Micks' hottest offering, Beyond Buzztail, will produce instant sweat and and the feeling that your screaming tongue is swelling beyond the confines of your mouth. If you're into hot, Beyond Buzztail belongs in the World Series of Hot.

Buzztail is still screaming hot, but slightly more tolerable. The others range from Jalapeno hot to commercial mild in a variety of flavors.

If you order eight jars at a time, for yourself or to split with friends, shipping is free, even to Hawaii. Despite the free shipping, they arrive in short order.

We just received our latest order, and hot's been "in" for dinner since it arrived.

If you decide to order some Micks, tell them Ian Lind sent you. I don't get anything out of it, but I'd like them to know they're much appreciated.

August 6, 2004 - Friday

Please--a moment of silence to remember the victims of Hiroshima....Thank you.

Pacific Business News reported yesterday that Alexander & Baldwin plans to build a high rise condominium on the site of a parking lot at the corner of South & Queen streets in Kakaako. The story doesn't mention that it's apparently referring to the parking lot used by the Honolulu Advertiser, formerly the Hawaii Newspaper Agency, or anything about the controversy when the pre-Gannett Advertiser sold its section of the property and gave the go-ahead to destruction of what formerly existed on Marmion Street, which ran through the middle of what is now the large lot: a wonderful urban oasis marked by a giant banyan tree fed by underground wells and bubbling freshwater ponds. This was around 1988-89, as I recall, and there was an unsuccessful attempt to block both the sale and the destruction of the banyan. There were T-shirts sporting the name of then-Advertiser owner Thurston Twigg-Smith and the stark silhouette of a butchered banyan. I had my shirt for years until it eventually disintegrated. Perhaps someone over at the Advertiser can pull the clips from their library.

Newspaper consultant and former Advertiser Managing Editor Mike Middlesworth chimed in yesterday in response to the issue of criticism and my question on Wednesday: "I wonder if anyone is doing that for today's journalism students?"

More important, is anyone doing it for the newsroom at either daily?

One of Phil Gialanella's more endearing qualities was the almost daily zingers he sent to the newsroom at The Advertiser (and, I assume, to the newsroom at the Bulletin when he was on the other side of the hall).

And in the dim, dark days of the independent Advertiser the late Buck Buchwach and/or I would do a fairly comprehensive markup of the paper.

My reading of today's papers would lead me to believe that serious internal criticism has gone the way of institutional memory....

And in Kaaawa... When the stairs to our back deck were temporarily removed more than a week ago, I tried to offer the cats an alternative way up from the yard --a ladder. So far, Ms. Annie is one of the minority who discovered and quickly mastered the new approach.

I've seen Annie, Leo and Silverman going up and down, and I suspect that Mr. Toby also makes the climb. The rest, I'm afraid, are both clueless and stranded.

August 5, 2004 - Thursday

The bad news is that we were trapped in Kaaawa again yesterday by flooding that closed Kamehameha Highway in Waikane. The good news is that despite the storm, Kaaawa miraculously had electricity all day! Thank you, HECO! The National Weather Service rain gauges on either side of Kaaawa showed we had around 6 inches of rain Tuesday night. Frankly, it seemed like more.

We fretted all morning about the cats that were out in the weather. We also worried about the side of the house under "renovation" and resting on temporary supports. One of the contractor's crew drove out to check the situation and was forced to come the long way, through central Oahu and the North Shore and then back down the windward coast to Kaaawa. He spent some time diverting runoff from the excavated area and probably just giving us a psychological boost.

A large batch of records relating to former president Evan Dobelle were released by the University of Hawaii yesterday.

The Star-Bulletin's Rick Daysog caught an important omission, noting that survey questions regarding political figures were left out of the copy of the poll given to the regents. They were simply skipped. Regents apparently only learned about that part of the poll at a later date.

I was struck by the university's continued refusal to release Board of Regents minutes from two June meetings, which is clearly contrary to state law.

The Star-Bulletin reported:

The university did not release minutes of the June 2 and 15 regents meetings, which might shed more light on the board's reasoning. UH attorney Presley Pang said the university will release those minutes after the regents adopt them at their next meeting.

There are two things wrong with the UH position. First, state law is clear. Section 92-9(b) of the Sunshine Law provides: "The minutes shall be public records and shall be available within thirty days after the meeting...."

And an August 2002 opinion by the Office of Information Practices makes clear that a public agency cannot block the public from obtaining minutes by claiming they have not been formally adopted.

A summary of Opinion 2002-06 states:

The OIP noted that there is no requirement in the Sunshine Law that a board approve minutes, and therefore boards do not have discretion to withhold minutes from the public based on whether or not the minutes have been approved by a board. Although boards may elect to formally approve minutes, if minutes have not been approved by 30 days after the date of the meeting, minutes, in some form, must be made available to the public.

Withholding the draft minutes is another bad legal call by UH attorneys which again weakens their public position.

This was not what it looked like in Kaaawa yesterday morning. This is part of the new batch of photos taken during the month of July. Just click on the picture to see the whole July gallery.

August 4, 2004 - Wednesday

The thunder and lightening started up again around 4 a.m., teaming up with the heavy rain that's been pounding us on and off through the night (mostly on) to make for quite a stormy morning. It hasn't rained this hard for a long, long time. It's not windy, though, thank goodness. Just wet, wet, wet.

The first blast of thunder just about jolted us out of bed shortly after 11 p.m. Not too much thunder right now, but lots of lightening. And, of course, the rain.

These are the remnants of a former Pacific storm. Yesterday's heavy surf along our coast, which is usually flat and calm all summer, was a clue to what was coming.

I think we have two cats outside somewhere, Kili and Silverman. I just have to assume that they've found suitably safe spots And I've got to start praying for a short break in the rain so that I can get the garbage out for the early morning pick-up. [late note: of course, the break in the rain came just about 60 seconds after I returned from braving the storm to get the trash can out to the road...as I was changing out of my soaked t-shirt, the rain stopped. Great timing.]

Yesterday's comments about Star-Bulletin "bashing" vs. newsroom sensitivities brought this response:

Your notes are hardly considered bashing. Bashing would be more like unrelenting, unjustified criticism of every aspect of the paper. You point out the highs as well as the low.

Back when we were in college, UH Journalism professor Robert Scott used to do a post-mortem on nearly every issue of Ka Leo. Someone on staff decided they couldn't stand the red-marker comments all over the posted copies. So they burned them, put the ashes into a plastic bag, and pinned them up where you'd normally find the critiques posted.

This pissed off Scott who then stopped doing the PM's.

When we joined the UH paper we actually wanted the critiques. We had to almost beg Scott to start doing his no-holds-barred commentary on each issue we put out. The words could be harsh. But we learned a lot from it. Perhaps without the notes and corrections, some of us wouldn't be where we are today.

If one can't stand the thought of occasionally getting whacked by a rotten tomato, then it's time to stop singing and get off the stage.

I wonder if anyone is doing that for today's journalism students?

August 3, 2004 - Tuesday

I heard last week from Bryant Pierpont regarding my comments about the Democrat's convention.

Greetings (again) from Japan.

On the convention - it, like all conventions is a show. The one reality is that to be elected president, you must appear to be the most centrist. Clinton was a master at that and Shrub proved a good study. Remember "compassionate conservative" and "we won't be involved in nation-building". To judge a candidate, look at their past, not their rhetoric (PC word for lies).

Kerry would have never initiated the Iraq war. Trapped by political reality, he can't outright disavow it. However, I don't think our presence there, at least in its current form, will continue as long under Kerry.

On the environment, judicial appointments, civil rights, the economy (as experienced by average folks), and education, Kerry is far better than Bush.

The most important thing is that Kerry's electable. We all have to work for that to happen. A vote for Nader is a vote for Bush. How many folks today say Gore was no different than Bush? Yet, Ralph put Bush in office.

When Nader announced this year, I sent him a harsh email that concluded "those body bags coming back from Iraq have the Nader name on them". As cruel as that statement is, it's true. So many Iraqis, so many Americans, so many people have died for so little.

It matters Ian. It really does. Please don't be lukewarm in your support. We need everyone and you a bit more than most.

Bryant

Agreed.

I note the Star-Bulletin is very late getting online this morning. It's 4:56 a.m. Hawaiian Time and it hasn't appeared yet.

For the record--I heard from someone in the Star-Bulletin newsroom who dropped in this aside: "I normally ignore the SB bashing you post on your page..."

That comment seriously unsettled me, as I perceive myself as a supporer of the Star-bulletin, certainly do not intend to "bash" the paper and don't think that I actually do. As for bashing, well, I do acknowledge occasional Gannett bashing, but there seems to be a lot of social support for it.

But the idea that folks in the newsroom view my comments about the Star-Bulletin as "bashing" is disturbing, in part because it prompts flashes of self-doubt, but also because it suggests they reject even mildly critical observations. I honestly don't think their newsroom should be protected from fair comment.

So it goes on a wet Tuesday morning, with the sound of the surf in the background and rain forecast to continue through the week.

Yesterday's faulty link to Chuck Smith's transit story has been corrected. Click away on the link below.

August 2, 2004 - Monday

I'm surprised there hasn't been much if any media attention paid to the long series of questions posed to Mike Gabbard by Rep. Ed Case. The questions, in a July 21 letter to Gabbard, include personal, political and religious issues. The letter is posted on Case's campaign web site.

Old friend and former islander Chuck Smith's story on so-called "transit villages" graced the cover of the San Francisco Chronicle's Sunday Magazine yesterday. It's long, but a good read with lessons for our own situation.

The prestigious New England Journal of Medicine features "Doctors and Torture," an analysis of the role of medical professionals in the Iraq prison abuse scandal, by Robert J. Lifton.

Burl Burlingame must have liked that old photo which appeared here some time ago of myself in Kahala back when Kahekili was a kid. He turned it into a cute little button, which I have to admit has a certain da kine to it. Thanks, Burl.

This is one of a sequence of photos I snapped of Ms. Annie joining me for an afternoon nap using the camera in outstretched hand technique. She first sat on my chest, went through a little greeting routine, then went for this ritual nip on the nose. I'm hoping is a sign of love and intimacy, and not something weirder. She's real cute about it, but I can't let myself fall asleep while she's within range or risk those sharp little teeth.

Ms. Annie's nose nip (click for larger version)

August 1, 2004 - Sunday

I'll say one thing for ousted UH president Evan Dobelle. He's got a hell of a spin team which has successfully put the Board of Regents on the defensive.

Dobelle's spin has been aided by lots of fuzzy thinking on the part of those who should know better. Take Lee Cataluna's column in yesterday's Honolulu Advertiser, in which she blasts the regents for agreeing to a settlement that allows the former prez to "resign" rather than formally be fired "for cause".

"What happened to the cause, Kitty?" Cataluna asks rhetorically, referring to BOR member and Lingle administration insider Kitty Lagareta.

What happened, as Lee well knows, is that everybody got lawyered up and then cut a deal that avoids a drawn out court battle with the inevitable uncertainty that stems from the arcane ins-and-outs of the legal system.

Unlike Cataluna, let's suppose that the regents had what, in their own judgement and that of their legal team, constituted proper cause for terminating Dobelle's contract. No doubts, strong case, lots of documentation.

Under those circumstances, should they have just thumbed their noses at the possibility of settlement talks, sending Dobelle and his attorneys packing with a macho "see you in court"?

Obviously not. Anyone at all acquainted with the vagaries and costs of litigation knows that it's always better to cut that deal and stay out of the courtroom if at all possible.

Does dropping the "cause" claim as part of the settlement mean that the regents acknowledge it was simply "a whole bunch of nothing", as Cataluna opines? I don't have any inside info on this, but I'm positive that's not the case, not any more than Dobelle's dropping all claims against the regents as his own part of the deal means he truly believes they did no wrong.

And here's where Cataluna veers off course again. She asserts that Dobelle got "more than he would have received if the Board of Regents had just cut him loose by buying him out without all the eye rolling, head-nodding and aspersion-casting."

Not by my calculations, based on what's been reported. As I understand it, Dobelle will get just over $1 million and a dead-end job for up to two years. Payments will also be made on a $2 millon insurance policy which his family will collect if he keels over.

I'm in agreement with one reader who offered this assessment of the settlement hours after it was announced:

The morning news called the settlement "a Dobelle victory".

I don't think so.

Dobelle was forced to resign from his prestigious, highly visible and highly paid job after only 3 years of a 7-year contract. (The alternative was for the firing to stand; there was absolutely no discussion of him keeping the president's job.)

Dobelle was forced to accept less than half of the severance package ($1.05 million instead of $2.26 million).

Dobelle was forced to accept a 75% pay cut.

Dobelle was forced to give up $1.51 million of salary. (For the 4 years remaining on his contract he would've earned $1.76 million; instead, he'll get $250,000 total for 2 years as a researcher.)

Dobelle was forced to lose $496,000 in extra incentive pay.

Dobelle (or his estate) was forced to have to repay $400,000 to the university for his life insurance policy.

Dobelle was forced to lose tenure. (His 2-year research position is non-tenured.)

Dobelle was forced to give up the right to the title "President Emeritus".

Dobelle was forced to waive his right to privacy for all information regarding the dispute (except for confidential attorney documents). (Remember, it was Dobelle and not the regents who demanded that the last three meetings be closed to the public.)

So, considering all that, how can one possibly claim it as a Dobelle "victory"? And if that's a victory, what the heck would comprise a loss?!?

As for Dobelle's future, what other university will hire him now, given his track record here and before here? He's taken a major career hit. This cannot be considered a "victory" either.

The regents, on the other hand, made a smart move to settle, avoiding far far more in future legal fees than they gave up in the settlement. A good business decision.

As for the future, Dobelle says he wants to stay in Hawaii and is considering going into politics. After all that's happened, I think that raises issues of his sanity.

Good points all.

And I certainly found Rob Perez's story today on past disciplinary violations by former judge Richard Lee of great interest. Good job, Rob.

Search this site,
courtesy of the folks at