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February 28, 2004 - Saturday
Word is that Gina Mangieri is out as editor of Pacific Business News as of several days ago. She arrived at PBN in August 1999.
The storm that passed over Oahu yesterday certainly lived up to forecasters' expectations. This morning's newspapers are full of reports of flooding, landslides, fallen trees, blocked roads, cars under water, and at least one person missing. We stayed home where a second power outage hit, leaving us without electricity for most of the afternoon. But although we had heavy rain and some broken plants and tree limbs, we had no serious damage. All the cats except Silverman stayed in as long as it was raining, and even he came in for much of the evening.
This morning it is cold. Okay, complaints about sub-70 weather probably don't get much sympathy in places with real winters, but here it feels cold.
| It's Saturday, so I feel free to digress further.
Along with the 1955 photo of Ms. Suiso's 2nd grade class at Kahala School, I unearthed what must be my first newspaper clipping. It also reads like my first brush with propaganda. Photographer Gordon Morse talked to six of us Kahala School students around that same time about our reactions to polio shots. The result was a "Kids Quiz" column. I think Morse must have put words in our mouths to get the responses that he did, but he also got some cute photos.
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Click me, please. |
The clipping got me wondering about these former classmates, so I did a quick bit of Googling and found Beverly Tharp, now a commercial photographer in San Francisco. A quick email--"Are you the Beverly Tharp from Kahala School?"--brought a quick affirmative along with a most embarrassing recollection.
"What a delightful surprise," Tharp wrote. "I recognized your name immediately. Didn't you used to scare us by walking around with your eyelids turned inside out? Maybe that was in 5th grade?"
That was certainly an opening line I never expected! But, hey, at least I made an impression. That's more than President Bush the Second can say about his National Guard tenure. Maybe he should have tried the eyelid trick. Heck, maybe I should test if it still works.
Tharp's other recollection is of interest in light of the debate over public education in Hawaii: "I loved Miss Suiso's class and often cite it as my first remembered contact with art; she let me paint a magenta fish on a mural. I had to wait a long time to get back to it."
February 27, 2004 - Friday
History buffs, take note. A correspondent recently sent me a copy of the December 1971 "special issue" of Gannett's in-house Gannetteer, which includes a history of its newly purchased newspaper, the Honolulu Star-Bulletin. The old photos are as interesting as the history.
"The sun still sets on Gannett newspapers, but not for long, a new Gannett editor observes," referring to the chain of newspapers that spanned the U.S. to Hawaii and Guam.
It's interesting to see how excited those corporate suits were to take over the Star-Bulletin in light of the casual manner in which they later attempted to destroy it.
We're waiting for the predicted storm to hit. The wind picked up just before midnight, but even the occasional gusts haven't been too strong yet. As usual, we lost power sometime before 4 a.m. but the power was back at 4:56. Good news!
The power came on, and then the rain started again. Even Silverman is inside. Only Ms. Harry is out on her nightly pilgrimage. But when I poked my head out the door to check on the weather, there was Toby up on the roof in the rain crying for me to get him down. So I had to step out into the rain, reach up to the edge of the roof and let the orange cat step off into my hands.
| I got home last night just before dark. Several of the cats were sitting out on the front deck after spending the day inside to escape the worsening weather. There was just enough light to try for a few photos. By the time I got to Harriet, it was dark enough that the camera put out a little beam of light to assist in focusing, causing Harry's eyes to widen in surprise just in time for a great expression. |
Ms. Harry (a.k.a. Harriet)
Just click for a better view.
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February 26, 2004 - Thursday
| A four year drought ended yesterday when Ms. Meda spotted a small glass fishing float on the beach during our early walk. The last time we found one was back in 1999, when they were relatively plentiful along our coast. They started turning up again several months ago, and friends have picked up several in recent weeks. But despite our daily excursions we were empty handed. Until yesterday. |
Ms. Meda with morning prize
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This morning it's raining hard again, although it's not clear whether this is a bit of regular early rain or the beginning of the storm we've been warned about. The National Weather Service has issued a flash flood watch, meaning flooding is "possible but not imminent", based on a passing storm expected to produce "intense rainfall and significant runoff that could cause localized flash flooding."
And that's not all. There's also a high wind warning issued for tomorrow. It screams:
FREQUENT WIND GUSTS NEAR 50 MPH AND HIGHER CAN BE EXPECTED ALONG THE NORMALLY WINDWARD SLOPES.
PEOPLE ...ESPECIALLY ALONG THESE WINDWARD SLOPES AND ALONG EXPOSED RIDGES AND VALLEYS...SHOULD TAKE PRECAUTIONS FOR THE POSSIBLE ONSET OF DANGEROUSLY HIGH WINDS. TIE DOWN AND SECURE LOOSE OBJECTS. MOTORISTS SHOULD BE ALERT FOR FLYING DEBRIS AND POSSIBLY DOWNED TREES AND POWER LINES.
Sitting here on an exposed Windward slope, we're staring at our calendars to see whether tomorrow's appointments can be cancelled so that we can stay off the highway and just hunker down at home.
Of course, Ms. Harry is outside somewhere facing the elements. I just finished toweling off Ms. Kili, who was pretty soaked when she came blasting through the cat door a few minutes ago. All the other cats are inside except for Leo, who I expelled after he expelled. I'll leave it at that.
For morning reading, here's a good one from the L.A. Weekly.
February 25, 2004 - Wednesday
| We attended the District 47 Democratic Party caucus last night at Kahaluu Elementary School. I didn't have my camera along, so just grabbed a quick snapshot with my Palm's trusty built-in. Kerry took the most votes, but Edwards, Kucinich and Dean also had strong backers present and speaking on their behalf. |
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And, in the campaign mode, check out the Columbia Journalism Review's "Spin Buster" blog, just part of their Campaign Desk coverage.
The recent articles on the eviction of ILWU families from homes on land that has been leased from the Galbraith Estate sent me digging once again for my file of old Hawaii Monitor newsletters for the story I wrote on the Galbraith trust, which may add some historical perspective to the current controversy. I've got a direct family tie to it--my great grandfather, Robert William Cathcart, was an Irish-born bookkeeper for Mr. Galbraith and is said to be the author of the will establishing the trust.
February 24, 2004 - Tuesday
Missed in the shuffle at the end of 2003-- the Newspaper Guild temporary agreement in Hilo to stave off the contract crisis at the Tribune Herald:
In Hawaii, meanwhile, the three unions representing employees at the Hawaii Tribune Herald accepted the recommendation of a federal mediator for a 15-month extension of the existing contract, to Dec. 31, 2004. The agreement may be seen as a setback for hired gun Michael Zinser, who as chief spokesperson for the newspaper had approached bargaining with a lengthy list of concessionary demands.
While union leaders expressed surprise that the company accepted the mediator's proposal, they noted that the Tribune Herald's publisher had recently attended his first bargaining session and suspected that his participation was crucial to the outcome.
Maintaining the status-quo means employees will not receive across-the-board wage increases during the extension-but also means health insurance cost increases will not be passed along. The employer will continue to pay 100% of the premium for the HMO and 90% of the Blue Cross premium. [Guild Reporter, 10/24/2003]
The local SPJ chapter is tracking several bills to amend the state's public records law to increase secrecy.
SB 2395 and companion HB 2781 would permit the Hawaii convention center to book secret meetings or conventions and keep records of them "confidential".
This bill would allow unlimited secret business deals that would forever hide from public view the following information: company name, address, and contact; event program contents; event schedules; exhibitor lists; confidential business information; and description of the Hawaii convention center's offer, rent, discounts, and subsidies.
Corruption breeds in secrecy, and allowing the convention center to avoid all the normal checks and balances provided by routine access to information, all for marginal economic gain.
It also threatens to make our convention center the dumping ground for meetings which cannot be held elsewhere for political or security reasons, creating a whole realm of additional and unanticipated problems and costs. This is business that we do not need.
SB 2915 and companion HB 2440 would exempt from disclosure government records or information relating to measures designed to protect the security or safety or persons or property, whether public or private, from attacks or acts of terrorism from disclosure under the Hawaii Uniform Information Practices Act.
SPJ notes that the law already exempts information that must be kept confidential to protect a legitimate government function, and so these extended provisions are unnecessary.
"What this would do is prevent disclosure if something should go wrong, thus no longer protect a legitimate government function or conceivably block information on the purchase of bad metal detecting machines," SPJ comments.
February 23, 2004 - Monday
Rep. Mark Takai presented extended comments on the House floor during debate on Gov. Lingle's education "reform" bill Friday night. He points to a laundry list of specific issues which news accounts of the "reform" proposal rarely if ever touch on. Click here to view Takai's comments in pdf format (a 188k download).
And Gov. Lingle recently submitted a list of 187 appointments to various boards and commission which the Legislature and the public will now have to review.
Editor & Publisher just had another column about the tensions caused by journalist bloggers. Check it out here.
The Star-Bulletin's Mark Coleman reports that his CD, Outside the Circle, is entered in the annual Hawaii Music Awards.
Mark writes:
The favor I wish to ask is that you please vote for my CD. It's listed in the "Country" category, which has only one other nominee.
You can click here to vote.
If you don't already have a copy of the CD, you can buy one (or two or three) through the Hawaii Music Awards site for $15 each, or you can buy it at local record stores for about $10 each (my distributor would appreciate that). It's also available from amazon.com and cdbaby.com for about $10 each plus shipping. The cdbaby site has sound samples. By the way, there are other musical styles on the CD besides country, including blues, rock and reggae.
| No, Ms. Annie isn't really bigger than Mr. Duke, although it sure looks that way in this photo. It's something about wide angle lenses and strange perspectives. And looking at Mr. Duke's rich chocolate markings, it's still hard to believe that he started out life as a pure white kitten. |
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February 22, 2004 - Sunday
Watching Gov. Lingle banging on education reform in a highly partisan manner after calling for an end to partisanship continues to be galling. It's been made worse by the rationality of key legislators such as House Education Chairman Roy Takumi. I recently had an opportunity to hear Takumi discuss his approach to legislation and to school reform in particular, and couldn't help being very impressed. Here are my notes, not quite complete but pretty thorough. Judge for yourself.
With Hawaii's Democratic Party caucuses casting ballots for the party's presidential nominee on Tuesday, there's politics in the air. Candidate Dennis Kucinich is making his second trip to Hawaii and will make two public appearances today.
Meanwhile, an email message from Nancie Caraway, wife of Congressman Neil Abercrombie, is urging Democrats to turn out in support of Howard Dean, who has already dropped out as an active candidate.
She explains:
As you know, Governor Dean officially withdrew from the race Wednesday. He is encouraging his supporters to elect progressive delegates to state and national conventions. Voting in the caucus Tuesday is more than a mere gesture. We must elect grassroots delegates who share Dean's extraordinary commitment to revitalizing the Democratic Party and empowering ordinary Americans.
In other parts of the country, the primaries and caucuses have had record turnouts. It's going to be interesting to see what happens here.
The Washington Post has updated its rules for handling of sources and quotes, according to Editor & Publisher.
| It's getting to be quite a social scene down on the beach some mornings, as several of the regulars are getting back into the sunrise routine. This is just a part of the group that ended up at the other end of the beach just a couple of days ago. With Meda and I, plus Julie and Axel, we had at least eight people watching that sunrise. |
Click for larger photo
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