(Media release) — Noho ana `o `āhinahina kūpaianaha i ke po`o o ka `ohu! Wreathed in mist, the extraordinary Silverswords dwell with the summit clouds!

Ka Lei `Ahinahina — The Silversword chooses to live in the Wao Akua. This region is where the gods dwell and is near the summit of our tallest mountains. On Hawai`i island, the `ahinahina is a close relative to its cousin on Maui isle. “Lei `ahinahina” is a metaphor that there is nothing greater, as no other plants grow closer to the heavens. This is compliment given often to a wise person who has accomplished much in their lives.

This special version of the esteemed Silversword is dedicated to Allan Ikawa and Lance Duyao. Both have been inspirational creating anew for every season and for their unique products. Read the rest of this entry »

Can someone tell me why we need SIX…..yes…..SIX….“Black Hawk” helicopters on our Island??

http://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/articles/2010/03/31/local_news/local01.txt

Mark Hinshaw

(Media release) — Kilauea Drama & Entertainment Network (KDEN) has rescheduled their  Rummage Sale which was postponed due to the Tsunami scare. The sale willl be on Saturday, April 3, from 8 a.m. to noon at the Hilo High School Cafeteria. Donations can be dropped off on Friday April 2 from 5 – 7pm at the Hilo High School Cafeteria. Call (808) 982-7344 for more information or to donate items. Proceeds go to fund KDEN’s Community Theater Arts Programs.

Mahalo!

Suzi Bond

P.S. We need volunteers on Friday and Saturday. Call me for details

Image courtesy of Ukulele Revolution

Aloha,

For the very first time, I am offering a once a month novice ‘ukulele club class for those who are just too busy to make it weekly and for those who want to get back into the groove of playing the instrument.  The intent of the class is to keep you strumming the uke and to enjoy the camaraderie of others on a very low-key (pardon the pun) level.   Read the rest of this entry »

(Editor’s Note: The following letter from a Council District 5 candidate is being published only for the fact that it offers insight into comprehensive public funding. Generally, only introductory letters from candidates will be published.  Beyond that, candidates for public office are encouraged to pay for advertising during the 2010 campaign season. An ad on this blog can be linked to one’s personal or campaign website.  For information on how to set up a website or design a website for this blog, email bruce@perceptions-unlimited.com.)

Thanks to you folks (and several more I do not — yet — have email addresses for) I was notified today by the Hawaii State Campaign Spending Commission that I have been certified for Comprehensive Public Funding. This was the culmination of the application process that required me to collect, from 200 registered voters, a signature and $5 contribution payable to the Hawaii Campaign Election Fund.

The application, along with the $5-checks and $5-money orders, and my nomination papers were filed with the County Elections Office on March 17.

The James Weatherford for County Council campaign will be receiving (probably early next week) $9,826 to conduct operations for the Primary Election, September 18. Read the rest of this entry »

Patricia Scarborough art

(Media release) — Due to strong winds, the Waimea Transfer Station will be closed today  to ensure public and employee safety. Weather conditions at other transfer stations are currently being assessed to determine whether more closings will occur. The Waimea Transfer Station is scheduled to reopen on Thursday if weather conditions improve. For more information, please contact the Solid Waste Division at (808) 961-8515.

Honolulu Weekly photo

(Media release) — Fish farming is an important cultural tradition and key to ensuring future food security in Hawai`i.  But it must be done in a pono way to ensure the health of our community’s pristine ocean and wild fisheries for future generations.

Unfortunately, there is a big push going on to increase unsustainable factory fish farms in Hawai’i’s pristine ocean waters – an industry which is set to increase production by 780% in the next five years.

Join members of the newly-formed state-wide Pono Aquaculture Alliance on Saturday, April 10, 2010 to discuss the meaning of pono aquaculture, to learn how to protect our pristine waters and wild fisheries from the expansion of industrial fish farms and how you can help shape the future of fish farming in Hawai`i. The discussion between 4 p.m. and 6 p.m. will take place in the Ohana Room in Kona Stories Bookstore (next to the Island Naturals health food store in mauka Kona).

Speakers include Charles Flaherty, of `Apono Hawai`i, Issac Harp, of Northwestern Hawai`i Islands Alliance, and Christina Lizzi and Rob Parsons, of Food & Water Watch. Call (808)324-0200 for more information, or go to http://ponoaqua.org.

Just read West Hawaii Today reporter Nancy Cook Lauer’s story published in the Honolulu Advertiser regarding the County of Hawaii spending $400K on office furniture and dividers.
That news has me feeling really queasy, it is so gross.
Here we are in a supposed budget “crisis,” with the suggestion of axeing the 127-year-old Hawaii County band, and county workers are replacing four-year-old office furniture.
How often are school desks replaced?
I was a county worker for a stint, and I also have been a substitute teacher. The equipment in the county offices is generally in far better shape than that can be found in most public schools.
I can’t even believe what I read, that county workers are overly concerned about passersby in the window that some of that expense went toward concealing them from the outside world.
I am outraged that the County Council felt the need to replace office furniture that was bought a few years back for the move into the Ben Franklin building. Who do these people think they are?
How on earth can you possibly rationalize office equipment and furniture and room dividers totalling $400,000, when it takes $327,000 to find the County Band for one year.
It’s like County of Hawaii administrators and council members don’t get that $365 million that comprises the budget constitutes REAL money taken from taxpayers, whether they are property owners or tourists. They act like it’s monopoly money.
How many of you county workers reading this blog are sitting in a new office chair? And you would rather sit in that new chair behind those new office curtains than have a county band?
It’s so disgusting, the priorities are way off.
Imagine new office equipment and furniture and room dividers, a 22 percent wage increase for our council members, and junkets to the mainland.
These are the people who are going to want to raise the property taxes for them to have more monopoly money.
I feel so ill thinking about county government’s priorities being so upside-down-turned-around.

Pelekane Bay (photo courtesy of The Kohala Center)

(Media release) — When it rains, tons of harmful sediment pour into the nearby ocean destroying the reef and damaging the entire marine environment.   This is not surprising to those familiar with watershed management, but during a recent very localized rain storm upslope of Pelekane Bay near Kawaihae, “an amazing amount of silt was retained by the newly created dams,” says Pelekane Bay Watershed Restoration Project coordinator Melora Purell.

At the 5:15 p.m., Thursday, April 1, 2010 Waimea Community Association monthly Town Meeting in Waimea School Cafeteria, Purell will share the scope of her team of 15 and how the community can support them in the next 18 months of their Recovery funded project. Read the rest of this entry »

Read the rest of this entry »

Frank Morton

(Media release) — The story of seed—from the wild to the engineered—is the focus of a free public lecture from 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m., Friday, April 16, at the Outrigger Keauhou Beach Resort preceding the Hua Ka Hua—Restore Our Seed Symposium.

Matthew Dillon

Speakers Matthew Dillon of Organic Seed Alliance (OSA) and Frank Morton of Wild Garden Seeds in Philomath, Oregon, will present “The Story of Seed: Wild, Domesticated, Bred, and Engineered—Where Did We Begin and Where Might We Go?”

They will describe the early epic of crop domestication from hunter-gatherers to the scientific revolution, pre-modern breeding prior to study of genetics, the rediscovery of Mendelian genetics and first wave of classical breeding, the biotech boom, and the agro-ecological approach to seeds that they and others are developing. Read the rest of this entry »

Mayor Billy Kenoi delivers a hot lunch to Mrs. Toshie Shimose on Thursday with Carla Carpenter-Kabalis, Meals on Wheels Supervisor for Hawai‘i County (Photo Courtesy of the Hawaii County Mayor's Office).

(Media release) — Hawai‘i County Mayor Billy Kenoi joined mayors across the country Thursday when he delivered a hot lunch to Mrs. Toshie Shimose in Hilo, as part of the national Mayors for Meals campaign during the month of March.

The program is sponsored by the Meals on Wheels Association of America to raise public awareness of the Meals on Wheels program.

Carla Carpenter-Kabalis, Meals on Wheels supervisor for the county’s Nutrition Program, said the program delivers an average of 255 meals a day to Big Island seniors who are 60 years of age and older and homebound due to illness or disability.

Call the Nutrition Program for more information, (808) 961-8726.