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5:29 a.m. and the city garbage truck just backed down to this end of Haahaa Street and emptied our cans, a reminder that it's Saturday.
And, in honor of the weekend's arrival, I've posted a series of sunrise photos taken over the week. Don't miss this update to the photo gallery!
Yesterday's sunrise turned into a day-long deluge which, in tandem with the warning light that continues to plague our car, kept us confined at home yesterday. Most of the day we were joined by all the cats, although in the afternoon allowed a few selective releases to reduce the stress a bit.
Click for photo gallery
I notice that there have been very few Star-Bulletin's in the rack at the 7-11 in Kaneohe, the one between the Burger King and VCA Animal Hospital. It's possible that they've almost sold out by the time we zip through there to fill our vats of diet cola, but it looks like they're just not putting as many out in the racks. That might indicate either an effort to reduce returns through tight distribution controls, or poor sales prompting miserly distribution.Burl Burlingame reports that the Star-Bulletin has been awarded the contract for legal notices following a flap over bid specifications that had initially been written in a way that handed the contract to Gannett. He also confirms the rumored weekly aimed at Navy personnel, apparently to be called the Navy Star.
I'm puzzled how the federal raid on the Honolulu Liquor Commission offices apparently remained under the media radar for a week before being "discovered".
Oh, if you've got access to this week's Honolulu Weekly, there's a little item I wrote after discovering that some $42,000 of the money allegedly kicked back from a series of insurance contracts to the head of the United Public Workers ended up being invested as loans in a company owned by a member of the Kauai County Council. The councilman, Gary Hooser, wasn't on the council when the loans were made in 1996, although he had run for the office in 1994. He was later elected in 1998 and reelected in 2000. He says he wasn't aware of the link to Rodrigues, and sounded I couldn't find any indication in available documents that his wasn't the case.
It is cold in Kaaawa this morning. Forecasts were for low 60's and it feels like we've gotten there. The only good news is that there isn't any wind to speak of, so the "windshield factor", as our friend's daughters called it when they first got to the mainland, doesn't add its own layer of chill.All eight cats were in the house until about 4 a.m., when I opened the door and the exodus began. The boys were the first to make the break for freedom, followed by the bi's (the black & whites are known as bi-colors, so we just call them the bi's). So far, the boys have all reappeared since I got up, but Lizzy and Harry can't be bothered with checking in.
Now I'm worroed that the apostrophe police are going to swoop in on my spelling of the bi's, but I'm not sure how else to spell this reference. "Bis" doesn't seem to do the job. We'll see.
I've got the new afternoon ritual of changing shoes and heading down the hillside and across the street to retrieve Lizzie. It's getting more difficult because now I end up with an entourage. Yesterday Harry, Lindsey and Leo were all trailing through the plants to offer assistance. The problem comes when we hit the road, which I've got to cross in order to pick up the errant one, which prompts the trailing ones to trot right out onto the asphalt as well. This, of course, puts me in a total panic since these are not really road wise cats, so I'm making a spectacle of myself by trying to shoo them back onto the other side of the road while simultaneously trying to call Lizzie out of the shadows. I'm just lucky that she didn't flee after seeing my antics. If I can remember and have time, I'll make it easy and at least try to lock Harry and Leo in the house before departing on the next retrieval mission.
Moya Gray, director of the state's Office of Information Practices, sent along a listing of bills currently alive in the Legislature impacting public access to information or OIP itself. The listing contains helpful links to the bills themselves. If you're concerned about openness in government, this is an informative read.
She added this bit of news:
We have heard that OIP is on the chopping block to be eliminated completely. To the extent you believe this to be inappropriate, I ask that you let your legislators know.Thank you for your support!
Moya T. D. Gray, Director
Office of Information Practices
Tel: 808-586-1400If you would like to voice your support for OIP or openness in general, you might give Moya a call (or send her an email) and let her know.
I missed this Dave Donnelly item in Wednesday's Star-Bulletin, so thought it's worth repeating here. Does this say something about the Star-Bulletin, it's demographics, media infighting, or what?
RETIRED Hawaii Tribune-Herald editor Gene Tao has dropped his subscription to the Honolulu Advertiser in favor of a subscription to the Star-Bulletin. The 33-year veteran of the Hilo paper cited our newspaper as being "bold," "striking" and even "pretty" as reasons for his move. The bottom-line conscious Gannetoids won't be happy about this ...It was an incredible sunrise yesterday as the sun slowly made its way through a heavy layer of haze, looking like an orange moon on a fall evening. People on the beach at that hour usually take the sunrise in stride, but yesterday it elicited comments from everyone we passed.
But it was also a sad morning. When we got down to the beach, we heard the news that little Lucy's pups didn't survive. Lucy's the cute Shih Tsu who lives with her friend, George, and their people down by the beach in Kaaawa. The pups were born prematurely, and just didn't have quite enough to make it through, despite the best efforts of the whole family. Lucy's recovering quickly, and was back out with George reclaiming the yard, under close human supervision, as we arrived.
Yesterday started out with a beautiful sunrise but quickly went downhill. The turning point was the appearance of the dreaded "check engine" light on the instrument panel of our VW wagon. This is one of those things like fatigue, headache, and fever. Could be a simple flu, could be anthrax. A call to the VW dealer didn't help much. First available date there was February 19. It could be anything from a loose gas cap or worn hose to the engine eating itself alive. A service rep did offer up the opinion that it's ok to drive it. "Probably." Unless, of course, the little warning light starts blinking. Then the instructions are to immediately stop and call a tow truck. These are the moments when there's a background niggle of doubt about the wisdom of being in Kaaawa instead of on the main #1 bus line in town.
Pacific Business News appears to have scooped the big buys yesterday by breaking the story about an FBI raid of the city Liquor Commission office, part of a larger bribery investigation. PBN sent the story by Debbie Sokei to their email alert list just after noon. The Advertiser has something today, and I haven't seen the Star-Bulletin yet.
And Honolulu Mayor Jeremy Harris' campaign is under the microscope again, facing a new complaint originating with the Campaign Spending Commission. This time, the commission staff says Harris made improper expenditures for travel, for parking citations against a campaign worker, and failed to properly account for funds raised and contributed to the Democratic National Committee.
I have to wonder why the commission is pushing the DNC contribution issue, since it appears to be simply a bookkeeping dispute. The contribution itself is undoubtedly legal (the section of Hawaii law appears below, and the whole statute is available on the commission's own web site). Couldn't the bookkeeping question have been settled informally? Was there an attempt? Is the Harris campaign being obstinate, or is the commission being overly aggressive?
Campaign attorney Chris Parsons says the commission's very narrow interpretation of the law is now encroaching on First Amendment rights. I think he has a case. The key language is that the statute allows expenditures for a candidates campaign, stated broadly and generally, but the commission has gradually imposed its own view of what constitutes a proper campaign activity. It is this attempt to narrow the scope of campaigning that gives the Harris campaign's free speech complaint some traction.
Anyway, here's what the law says a campaign can do with its funds (emphasis added).
§11-200 Campaign contributions; restrictions against transfer. (a) A candidate, campaign treasurer, or candidate's committee shall not receive any contributions or receive or make any transfer of money or anything of value:(1) For any purpose other than that directly related:
(A) In the case of the candidate, to the candidate's own campaign; or
(B) In the case of a campaign treasurer or candidate's committee, to the campaign of the candidate, question, or issue with which they are directly associated; or
(2) To support the campaigns of candidates other than the candidate, for whom the funds were collected or with whom the campaign treasurer or candidate's committee is directly associated; or
(3) To campaign against any other candidate not directly opposing the candidate for whom the funds were collected or with whom the campaign treasurer or candidate's committee is directly associated.
(b) Any provision of law to the contrary notwithstanding, a candidate, campaign treasurer, or candidate's committee, as a contribution:
(1) May purchase from its campaign fund not more than two tickets for each event held by another candidate, committee, or party whether or not the event constitutes a fundraiser as defined in section 11-203;
(2) May use campaign funds for any ordinary and necessary expenses incurred in connection with the candidate's duties as a holder of an elected state or county office, as the term is used in section 11-206(c), Hawaii Revised Statutes; and
(3) May make contributions from its campaign fund to any community service, educational, youth, recreational, charitable, scientific, or literary organization, provided that in any election cycle, the total amount of all contributions from campaign funds and surplus funds shall be no more than the maximum amount that one person or other entity may contribute to that candidate pursuant to section 11-204(a), Hawaii Revised Statutes.
(c) This section shall not be construed to prohibit a party from supporting more than one candidate.
(d) This section shall not be construed to prohibit a candidate for the office of governor or lieutenant governor from supporting a cocandidate in the general election.
(e) This section shall not be construed to prohibit a candidate from making contributions to the candidate's party so long as that contribution is not earmarked for another candidate.
MidWeek Printing, the Star-Bulletin's sister company, has officially challenged the Navy's decision to give the contract to produce and distribute the Navy News to the Honolulu Advertiser, according to a story by Rick Daysog in today's S-B. It will be online later today. The bid protest was filed with the Navy and the GAO in Washington. MidWeek is represented by Honolulu attorney Robert Takamatsu of Watanabe Ing & Kawashima.The protest says the Navy officials acted improperly by amending the request for proposals after the deadline, and by touring the Advertiser's printing facility, which gave the Advertiser exclusive access to additional information about the technical specifications the Navy was seeking.
MidWeek also alleges that its former boss, Ken Berry, sabotaged the Navy bid before abruptly resigning and going over to the Advertiser just days after the bid was submitted. This claim sounds more like grounds for a civil lawsuit than a contract protest, and I'm sure Gannett lawyers are looking at it very carefully.
My sister has dubbed our wayward cat "Two-Timing Lizzie". I repeated the retrieval process yesterday at the end of our morning walk, carrying her back up to our house from the yard across the road, and would have had to do it again at the end of the day except that we forgot to open the cat door and so Ms. Lizzie was locked inside all day. After the cats' dinner, we opened the door and off she went. I suppose that I could wait and see how long it takes her to get really hungry, but I hate to encourage these jaunts to get any longer. So I'm stumped, at least for now.
And Kaaawa's canine population grew a bit early yesterday when little Lucy had three Shih Tsu puppies, who arrived weeks earlier than her people expected. We got the news as we walked by her house. George, who's the father of the bunch, came out to greet us after apparently learning that she's very defensive about those puppies.We haven't seen the pups yet, but are definitely looking forward to it.
Another bump in the road at UH. A management audit of the University of Hawaii has been a centerpiece of President Evan Dobelle's game plan since Day 1. But Dobelle is now informing campus insiders that he has terminated the contract with audit firm PricewaterhouseCoopers just as their final report was due. I'm sure we'll be hearing more about this move in the next few days.A reader commented on KHON's spot publicizing an upcoming Manoa Valley Theatre benefit event honoring Hawaii concert promoter Tom Moffatt.
No big deal, except that the "pitchman" is (news anchor) Joe Moore, apparently seated at and speaking from the NEWS desk for at least the first part of the promo. The shot of him is framed as if he were doing the news.He's to serve as M.C. for the evening, as he took time to mention at the end of a newscast the other night (probably the first of many mentions during news time).
I UNDERSTAND that the event is not a for-profit thing, but the promo still raised my eyebrows.
And Hawaii's not the only place where hotels are struggling. San Francisco's Hyatt Regency Hotel on Embarcadero just dropped its rate for the Investigative Reporters & Editors annual conference at the end of May from $189 to $99 a night, and I'm sure it wasn't done out of corporate gratitude for the fine job being done by IRE members.
It rained (again) in Kaaawa yesterday. This has been quite a string of wet weather. The cats are now hoping for a bit of sun. I agree.
So much for maintaining the boundaries between news and entertainment, fact and fiction. This is the promo on the front of the Star-Bulletin's tv section for the week. Ally McBeal and the three Dramas. Which is the news program? Does it matter? In this presentation, they're all the same. ER and Dan Rather merit the same treatment. Just "Drama". And my apologies for the less-than-perfect scan.
If you've been following the adventures of Ms. Lizzie, here's a visual of her daily destination. Our house is visible on the right of the photo. Way over on the left, down the hill, past the banyan and across the road, you can just see part of the house where she's been spending her time. When I went to pick her up yesterday afternoon, in what has become a daily ritual (if four or five days can qualify as a ritual), she didn't emerge from under the house. No. After I called a number of times, she answered, and came around the corner and down the stairs from the upstairs deck on the opposite side of the house. I don't think anyone was home to see her apparent takeover, and if they were, well, they didn't seem to mind.
Click for larger photo
Watching American foreign policy take on all the subtlety of a swaggering drunken sailor on the world stage is mightily depressing. The Bushies have set new standards for jingoism, know nothingness, and doublespeak. Whether we'll wake up and put a stop to it before irreparable damage is done to the world remains to be seen.There's a lot of interesting tidbits in the annual report put out recently by the Office of Information Practices. For example, we've all seen birthday cards sent out by politicians and employers, using birth dates culled from voter records or personnel files. Well, OIP decided that "a high-ranking government official" could not obtain employee birth dates for sending birthday cards because that use was not consistent with the purpose for which the confidential information had been collected. Instead, OIP advised the official to send cards on the employment anniversary date, which is considered public information.
I returned from the beach yesterday morning via the long route, back up the road behind the fire station to the house below and across from us where Lizzie's been hanging out. At first glance I didn't see anything, but then I noticed something black around the side of the house. A few steps and it moved--it was an unfixed black Tom cat, sort of an adolescent, but beginning to get that oversized head that signaled he's intact. He was quite wary, preparing to run. Then running past him towards me came Ms. Lizzie. So that's what she's been up to! Hanging out with a new boyfriend.
So I carried her home, again with the scruff of her neck in a firm grasp. She growled the whole way to let me know she wasn't happy, but didn't try to get away. Once home, she sat down in front of Leo's food dish and gobbled about three servings of cat food. Then she found a spot of sun in another room and curled into a hidden ball and went to sleep, where she remained for quite a few hours.She's been confined to the house now for almost 24 hours. At first she was very unhappy, looking for potential means of escape. But she's calmed down a lot, although clearly she would like to return to her spot across the road. We may relent later this morning.
I refreshed the photo gallery with a few images of January mornings in Kaaawa.
Just click on the gallery banner at the top of the page, or on the image to the right.
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