Hawaii Chief Justice nominee Katherine Leonard (L) and Gov. Linda Lingle.

By Curtis Narimatsu

Katherine Leonard will be the first female chief justice of the Hawai’i Supreme Court and the first to ascend to such position from UH Law School.   A centrist like Gov. Lingle, Katherine will steer clear of controversy.   Just the same, California will see the nation’s first Filipina/female chief justice, Tani Cantil-Sakauye, whose father toiled in the canefields of Hawai’i.  (See San Jose Mercury News report here.)

California Chief Justice nominee Tani Cantil-Sakauye

According to the news report, Cantil-Sakauye would also become the youngest member of the current court at the age of 50. She also may be the court’s first trained blackjack dealer, having worked such a job to pay for law school years back.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger chose Cantil-Sakauye to succeed Chief Justice Ronald George, who is ending his 14-year-career as California’s chief justice.  Cantil-Sakauye, a judge for 20 years, is a Sacramento appeals court justice.

(Curtis Narimatsu is a lifelong resident of Hilo who writes about the forgotten past such as the old plantation days & untold heroes.)

Image courtesy of RJ Mendoza

I envision Hugh Clark shaking his right index finger at me. “I told you so!” I can hear him saying.  Yeah, yeah, it’s true, I had hoped Gov. Linda Lingle was going to do the right thing and come out in favor of the civil unions bill. But she didn’t.  Now, fellow newspaperwoman Gov. Linda Lingle, who I’ve always liked personally in spite of her party affiliation, is, in my mind, Gov. Shinokea.  (Haole translation: Gov. She Doesn’t Care.)

The fact that Gov. Shinokea came out in favor of denying a segment of our population their Constitutional right to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness — that being the chance to enter matrimony — is shameful.  I guess, in trying to understand her reasoning, she was swayed by the religious zealots of her pathetic political party.  I’m sorry, I don’t buy the speeches that God does not approve of homosexuality.  The references to the book of Leviticus, you know what I have to say to that?  That’s the Old Testament.  That’s old school.  That is obsolete.  That is from back when it was cool to have slaves. That’s right, slaves.  We are in the 21st century now, 2010 to be exact. We are in America, the land of the free, where we all people — black, white, Muslim, Buddhist, Christian or Jewish — hello? Gov. Shinokea is Jewish, female, male, gay or straight — are ensured EQUAL rights.

When I first heard Gov. Lingle was leaning “60-40 against” the civil unions bill, I thought to myself, maybe the governor doesn’t want to come out in support of civil unions and have those in her own party questioning her own sexual orientation. Now that she has come out officially against civil unions with today’s veto, I have to tell you honestly that any respect I have held for her has fallen by the wayside.

I am a fierce supporter of civil unions legislation. Read the rest of this entry »

Image courtesy of macilious

By Brian Jordan

On the afternoon of Nov. 18, early Childhood Education Centers received a stunning message from Department of Human Services (DHS) on Oahu: “Due to budget cuts we are going to increase your co pay from $50 to $200 a student. You have 48 hrs. to send in public input.”

Parents of affected children got wind of this news about 24 to 36 hours later. In politics this is called speeding up the clock. It is a tactic LBJ used against his political enemies as leader of the House and Senate. A CLOSED meeting is slated for 2:30 p.m., tomorrow, Monday the 23rd, to push through an already-made decsion.

This is dictatorship.  Who is next the mentally ill and cripples? Read the rest of this entry »

By Hugh Clark

1. Two weeks ago, Pacific Biz News dubbed Kona the foreclosure capitol of Hawaii,. Nary a line I have seen in two miserable Stephens clones.

2. Lingle is AWOL feeding her ego at a time when Mother Nature is presumed to

Gov. Linda Lingle

be about to pound us all, happy hurricane day.

3. Hawaii’s Supreme Court cannot figure out what an attorney is or should not be. Unreported in our daily newspaper media except for PBN. I do not wish to sound like a commercial but… 

(40-year newspaper veteran Hugh Clark is a fellow Big Island Press Club member, friend and mentor to the Big Island Chronicle.)

High school junior girls are encouraged to apply to represent Hawaii Island at Gov. Linda Lingle's International Women's Leadership Conference to be held on Oahu Sept. 22.

(Media release) — The Hawaii State Commission on the Status of Women has reserved seats for two young Hawaii Island women in the 11th grade to attend Gov. Linda Lingle’s 2009 International Women’s Leadership Conference on Tuesday, Sept. 22, 2009, at the Sheraton Waikiki Hotel and Resort, the Hawaii County Committee on the Status of Women has announced.

The conference will bring together more than 1,200 of Hawai‘i’s women from the fields of business, marketing, media, health care, government, international relations, and community service to hear the inspirational stories of seven internationally-recognized women leaders representing seven nations.

Applicants should submit their name, phone number and a paragraph explaining how the all-day conference would benefit them. The registration fee will be waived for the two young women selected to attend. However, attendees must pay their own airfare.

Hawaii Island attendees will have the opportunity to be inspired by the internationally-recognized women leaders and meet other young, dynamic women like themselves from across the state. For more information about applying, call  Jean Viernes at (808) 961-8316. For more information about the conference, go to: http://hawaii.gov/gov/iwlc/2009.

Photo Courtesy of Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii Authority (NELHA)

Today I was forwarded an “Action Alert” email from Janice Palma Glennie about plans for restricted shoreline access at the Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii Authority (NELHA) beginning Saturday, Aug. 1, 2009.

The way the email was written — with underlines and capital, bold, and red lettering — a read-through felt like the sound of an alarm going off. Being a stickler about my fonts and blog layout, I had to change the look of the email a little for posting.  I’m afraid the email won’t come across as dire to you as it was to me when I first read it.  Suffice it to say, any talk of restricted shoreline access is alarming. Read the rest of this entry »

State Adjutant General Major General Robert Lee reveals the state's plan to close Kulani Correctional Facility and open there a second campus for the National Guard's Youth Challenge Academy, which the federal government will fund for the next two years. Looking on is Public Safety Director Clayton Frank. (Photo Courtesy of the Governor's Office.)

By now you’ve heard that Hawai’i Department of Public Safety has announced it will close the Kulani Correctional Facility in October and move its 123 inmates to other correctional facilities. Here is the press release posted on the governor’s website.

Department of Public Safety wants to save the state $2.8 million to close the prison, but the state Department of Defense wants to use the 20-acre Kulani Facility for a second National Guard Youth Challenge academy.  There’s already an existing campus in Kalaeloa on Oahu.The federal government will reportedly be funding the Youth Challenge Academy for the next two years.

Will this National Guard Youth Challenge Academy for at-risk youth supply the community with any jobs?  Nearly 100 jobs are going to be lost in East Hawaii with the closure of Kulani.  I really don’t understand why we are seeing such ill-fated cuts.

We’re going to close the island’s prison, governor? A few years back, you were pushing for another prison here.  What happened to trying to rehabilitate our prisoners by keeping them imprisoned close to their families?  Many of these people have been convicted of sex crimes; our island community cannot afford for these people to slip through the cracks because of senseless number crunching.  

My God, get it together State of Hawaii.  We are watching the institutions crumbling right before our very eyes.  It seems it won’t be long now before Hawaii follows California’s lead on the printing and distribution of IOUs to pay for foolish mistakes.

By Steve Offenbaker

For many weeks now, we have all watched the drama unfold as Republican Governor Linda Lingle battles Hawaii’s powerful government employees unions over how to best reduce cost to the taxpayers and close the states estimated $786 (M)illion deficit over the next two years.
    

Gov. Linda Lingle

    The Lingle administration today announced that 1,100 state workers would be facing layoffs 90 days from today, if a deal is not reached. That number could swell to 2,500 after the union-allowed “bumping” based on seniority is completed and the state is able to determine what its total cost savings were.
       The announcment of state layoffs even drew comment from U.S. Sen. Dan Inouye with the senior Senator saying, “We should not make decisions to politically punish or politically enhance a group.” Sen. Inouye is dead on, but his target is very misdirected.
       Instead of singling out Governor Lingle, he should have been commending her. She did the very thing he is asking when she proposed furloughs for state workers instead of lay offs. The furlough plan was done without politics in mind. Read the rest of this entry »

Gov. Linda Lingle

In the same week she bargained with union officials for unionized state workers to take a 5 percent pay cut, Gov. Linda Lingle announced that she, 17 Cabinet members, 42 administrators will take two days off per month to save the state $1.2 million over the next two years.  

“Today’s action reaffirms we will do what we have been asking of all state employees,” Gov. Linda Lingle said, in announcing her plan, which, combined with the 5 percent pay cut pitched for

Ian Lind Photo

 unionized workers, amounts to a 13 percent salary reduction this year and a 13.7 percent salary reduction next year. “We will continue to negotiate in good faith with the public employee unions to achieve the labor savings we need to address the current fiscal crisis.”

Meanwhile, she said of the top state officials taking a pay cut Thursday, “There is a strong sense among these leaders that this is a time for shared sacrifice.”. The furloughs for her the lieutenant governor and all department heads and deputies will take effect Aug. 1.

The state is facing a $786 million budget deficit, so it looks like there will be more sacrifices to be made.

Local chapters of the Hawaii Government Employees Association, Hawaii State Teachers Association, United Public Workers, and the University of Hawaii Professional Assembly are planning to rally against Gov. Linda Lingle’s plan for state worker furloughs to balance the budget.  The “Unity Rally” is set for 4:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m., Tuesday, June 30, 2009 on Hilo’s Bayfront fronting the Kamehameha Statue.  For more details, visit www.hgea.org.