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10 Must-Read Stories From the Week of May 20 - 24

2013-05-25T00:01:00-10:00

If you live on Oahu, chances are you cringe when you hear about someone swimming in the Ala Wai Canal.

But it wasn't always the stagnant murky waterway that it is now. We devoted a lot of our efforts this week to telling the canal's story.

Our four-part series, The Ala Wai Canal — Hawaii's Biggest Mistake?, looks at the canal's storied past and its troubled future. It was built in the 1920s to drain the wetlands and allow for real estate development in Waikiki and areas mauka of the canal. But a fatal design flaw has turned into a major liability for the state.

Federal, state and city officials worry that a major rainstorm could cause catastrophic flooding that could drown Waikiki under five feet of water.

Ironically, despite data showing pollution levels off the charts and complaints of bacterial infections from canoe paddlers who use the canal, there's been no effort to cut off public access to the waterway. Instead, worried parents endure and hope their child's canoe won't overturn, spilling kids into the murky dirty water.

But when people get sick, taxpayers will likely be on the hook as happened in 2006.

Federal, state and city officials acknowledge the problem and have been working on it for years. Critics are concerned it's taking too long. Granted, at $100 million, it's an expensive fix. But the cost and consequences of Waikiki flooding could be even greater.

We hope that you read the project — and please let us know what you think.

In the meantime, here are 10 more stories you shouldn't miss:

'Little Voice' Overcomes Lobbying To Limit Access To Care Home Records

2013-05-24T00:01:00-10:00

Pressing yellow Post-it notes on their shirts, roughly a dozen middle-aged women found seats in a conference room at the state Capitol Building just a few days before the legislative session ended.

Handwritten on the little pieces of paper was a simple, direct message to the lawmakers sitting at a table across from them: “Kill HB120!”

It was an 11th-hour rally among adult care home operators to defeat legislation that will require the Department of Health starting Jan. 1, 2015, to post online the annual inspection reports of the state-licensed facilities they run.

Schatz Carries On Inouye Dream For Native American Memorial

2013-05-24T00:01:00-10:00

WASHINGTON, D.C. — As memorials for veterans of the Vietnam and other wars have gone up around the National Mall over the years, Native American veterans say they have felt excluded.

None of the figures of service members have looked like them. Robert Holden, deputy director of the National Congress of Native Americans, said the group was told a Hispanic figure in the Vietnam Veterans Memorial was supposed to represent not only Hispanics but Native Americans.

But that wasn’t satisfying, he said.

Should Honolulu Council Restore TheBus Or Spend More Money On Charities?

2013-05-24T00:01:00-10:00

One of the biggest gripes the Honolulu City Council has about Mayor Kirk Caldwell’s operating budget was that it didn’t do enough to restore bus service.

While he included an extra $3.5 million in his budget for this endeavor, some council members thought that was short of the full restoration he promised during his 2012 campaign.

Now Honolulu City Councilman Breene Harimoto is picking up where Caldwell left off with a new proposal that he says will virtually eliminate the bus service cuts that were made in the twilight of the Carlisle administration.

But as with any budgetary maneuver there’s a tradeoff.

Harimoto’s proposal snips most of the $10 million in earmarks his colleagues have inserted into the budget for nonprofits and other groups, something that could make it a tough sell for his colleagues on June 5 when they’re expected to pass a final spending plan that will then go to the mayor for approval.

DC808: On the Wire — Sailing On Without Inouye

2013-05-24T00:01:00-10:00

The U.S. Navy names a destroyer for the late Sen. Daniel K. Inouye and the delegation begins to make its own mark, scoring some legislative successes in Congress this week.

Civil Beat's Chad Blair talks with our D.C. correspondent Kery Murakami to get the latest on the delegation, the Washington scandals and the peculiar habit of referring to elected officials by their title but not by name.

Additional photos courtesy of the Department of Defense, Tulsi Gabbard, TEA Party Maui.

DISCUSSION: Will the naming of a ship for the late Sen. Inouye help America finally learn how to pronounce his name properly?

DC808: On the Wire — Sailing On Without Inouye

2013-05-24T00:01:00-10:00

The U.S. Navy names a destroyer for the late Sen. Daniel K. Inouye and the delegation begins to make its own mark, scoring some legislative successes in Congress this week.

Additional photos courtesy of the Department of Defense, Tulsi Gabbard, TEA Party Maui.

DISCUSSION: Will the naming of a ship for the late Sen. Inouye help America finally learn how to pronounce his name properly?

DC808: On the Wire — Sailing On Without Inouye

2013-05-24T00:01:00-10:00

The U.S. Navy names a destroyer for the late Sen. Daniel K. Inouye and the delegation begins to make its own mark, scoring some legislative successes in Congress this week.

Additional photos courtesy of the Department of Defense, Tulsi Gabbard, TEA Party Maui.

DISCUSSION: Will the naming of a ship for the late Sen. Inouye help America finally learn how to pronounce his name properly?

Did Hawaii's Senate President Violate The State Ethics Code?

2013-05-23T00:01:00-10:00

Barring fresh revelations, a phone call between Senate President Donna Mercado Kim and University of Hawaii President M.R.C. Greenwood last spring appears to be a she-said, she-said dispute.

As reported by local news outlets this week, Kim called Greenwood to find out about the status of the law school application of Kim's son.

Greenwood alleged that Kim threatened to hold hearings on the law school, according to Hawaii News Now: "And I think her exact words were; 'If I don't get the exact answers I'm expecting, you can expect to be answering these questions in front of the legislature next year. And I said whoa, whoa, whoa, let's just find out what's going on here."

Kim denied that she placed any pressure on Greenwood and said her inquiry was that of a concerned mother.

The news of the phone call itself came in an unusual commercial-free, half-hour special on HNN Monday, in which Greenwood participated in "an exclusive one-on-one interview that Dr. Greenwood says will be her first and last."

Even if the Senate president did not exert pressure on the university president, Kim may have violated the State Ethics Code and the Senate's own rules with just the phone call itself.

VIDEO: Ala Wai Canal — Hawaii's Biggest Mistake?

2013-05-23T00:01:00-10:00

The designers and engineers who built the Ala Wai Canal nearly 100 years ago had little concept of the kind of pollution and flooding risks that are realities today.

Bishop Museum historian DeSoto Brown narrates this look at the history of the canal, the problems it's created and the community discussion about its future.

Hire Local? Why Mainland Hires Dominate UH Executives

2013-05-23T00:01:00-10:00

As the University of Hawaii searches for a new president, critics are revisiting concerns about the relatively few local hires in top positions at the university.

A Civil Beat analysis shows that just over half of UH’s highest-paid executives, including outgoing president M.R.C. Greenwood, were recruited from the mainland.

Greenwood's surprise announcement that she’ll be retiring two years before her contract expires has reignited conversation about the university's hiring practices. There's already been intense speculation about possible prospects to succeed her.

Meanwhile, the UH Board of Regents is holding a second closed-door session on Friday to discuss the presidency.

It remains to be seen how much the new president’s salary will be and whether UH will pay a mainland headhunting firm.

Why UH Can’t Get Good Presidents

2013-05-23T00:01:00-10:00

The University of Hawaii is going to have a terrible time finding its next president because so few good candidates want to work there. The problem is not lack of transparency or where the candidates are from. No matter how open the selection process is, you can’t get a good president unless you have a decent pool to draw from.

Time and again past choices have been bad because the candidate pool was so bad. The Dobelle and Greenwood presidential searches were crippled by these limits. (David McClain’s presidency was essentially an extended interim appointment.) Evan Dobelle was hired in secret. Many blame that secrecy for his disastrous few years. But according to our sources on that search committee, Dobelle was the best of the bunch.

Why UH Can’t Get Good Presidents

2013-05-23T00:01:00-10:00

Hanabusa And Schatz Differ Over Making Drug Companies Pay

2013-05-23T00:01:00-10:00

In a move that highlights a key policy difference with Sen. Brian Schatz, Colleen Hanabusa is scheduled to be a guest speaker on a telephone “Town Hall” meeting sponsored by an organization opposing a bill co-sponsored by Schatz.

The measure, sponsored by Sen. John Rockefeller, D-W.Va., would try to reduce federal Medicare spending and cut the overall federal debt by making drug companies pay a rebate to the federal government. Among its supporters is the AARP, which argues the rebates are preferable to other Medicare cost-cutting measures like raising the co-pays or increasing age requirements for Medicare recipients.

However, Hanabusa, who is running against Schatz for his Senate seat, has opposed the idea, signing a letter last year saying drug companies would pass on the cost of the rebate to consumers.

Ala Wai Canal: A $100 Million Problem

2013-05-23T00:01:00-10:00

What if it rained so hard that the normally gentle streams flowing down the mountain valleys above Waikiki swelled to an angry swirling roar?

Frothy brown water filled with the sediment and trash from hundreds of homes and businesses would surge into the Ala Wai Canal. The canal would soon top its banks and a flood of major proportion would bury Waikiki in a wall of water that could reach five feet high.

The water would move so quickly that people would be knocked off their feet. Basements, parking garages and the lower floors of homes, hotels and high-rises would be deep in water and muck. Power lines, sewers and water service would be out of commission, likely for days if not longer.

Floodwaters would cover the 1.5 square miles that make up Waikiki, from Diamond Head to Ala Moana and from the shoreline up to Moiliili.

It's a tourist mecca that brings in $10.6 billion annually for the state, often described as Hawaii's economic engine.

So it’s hard to imagine the destruction a flood like that would cause and the economic devastation to a state that depends on the tourism industry, especially in Waikiki, for its very life.

Maui Tea Partier In D.C.: IRS Scrutiny 'Chilling'

2013-05-22T12:19:17-10:00

WASHINGTON, D.C. — It’s been a whirlwind few weeks for former Maui tea party president Bill Doyle since news broke that his group was one of several conservative groups targeted for special scrutiny by the Internal Revenue Service. And it’s been a crazy few days, he said after flying here for a House Oversight and Government Reform hearing on the scandal.

Doyle said a staff member for committee chairman Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Ca., contacted him on Monday while he was vacationing in Arizona and asked him to jump on a plane.

He did on Tuesday, got stuck in Memphis because of the Oklahoma tornado, and finally arrived late Tuesday night. “I didn’t get to bed until after midnight,” he said. “And then I was up at 4 a.m. So I’m pretty much spent.”

Big Wind Coming Soon To An Electric Bill Near You!

2013-05-22T00:01:00-10:00

Last week, your electric bill went up approximately thirteen cents per month. On May 15th the Hawaii Public Utilities Commission (PUC) quietly gave a green light to the recovery of over $4,000,000 in Big Wind “study” costs from HECO ratepayers through the Renewable Energy Infrastructure Program (“REIP”).

To be exact, the amount is $4,405,142, (slightly less than HECO’s CEO Connie Lau’s annual salary in 2012) since, in addition to $3.9 million in study costs, the utility will pay itself $101,873 in “carrying charges” and $391,345 in “revenue taxes.” This means that each of you will pay HECO back to the tune of an additional 13 cents per month on your bill for the next three years, assuming you use the average of 600 kWh per month.

How did this happen?

Hawaii Monitor: Why Are So Many Inmates Committing Suicide?

2013-05-22T00:01:00-10:00

The string of five inmate deaths — including four suicides — in Hawaii correctional facilities in just over two months is indeed a crisis, as Ted Sakai, the state’s director of public safety said recently.

And it should be seen as a crisis for the community as a whole, not just for the prison system.

“It’s so heartbreaking and shocking,” said Kat Brady of the Community Alliance on Prisons. “I can only imagine what families of anyone in the correctional system are thinking right now.”

Ala Wai Canal: If It Makes You Sick Why Not Shut Down Public Access?

2013-05-22T00:01:00-10:00

Twain Newhart is about to take off in a one-man kayak on the Ala Wai Canal. He lifts up his leg and points to a black scab.

“It happens all the time,” he says. “It can be bad. It can be really bad. The staph, if it is staph, is the one problem that all paddlers in the Ala Wai face.”

Another paddler displays a deep scar on his hip where an infection had to be drained.

It’s an all too common problem.

Every year, hundreds of canoe racers, from children to adults, paddle out into the murky waters of the Ala Wai Canal even though the water — by the state’s own standards — isn’t safe for recreation.

VIDEO: Is The Ala Wai An Asset Or A Liability?

2013-05-22T00:01:00-10:00

The Ala Wai Canal is at the center of one of Hawaii's most congested and most developed regions. Pollution and other problems abound, but it remains a Honolulu landmark.

The question now: what to do about it?

DATA: Ala Wai Bacteria Levels Off The Charts

2013-05-22T00:01:00-10:00

The Ala Wai Canal far exceeds the state's safe standard for bacteria levels associated with skin, nose, air and eye infections, as well as well as painful gastrointestinal illnesses.

The charts below show the levels of enterococci bacteria detected in the canal since 2006. Tests for enterococci suggest whether there's fecal matter in the water, whether from human or animal sources. The test also indicates whether there are high levels of other pathogens that can make people sick.

The data, provided by the city of Honolulu, shows that enterococci levels far exceed the state's standard for recreational bodies of water, which is 33 CFU per 100 milliliters. The numbers spike into the tens of thousands, as shown in the charts on the left. The charts on the right have been cropped and show that the levels of enterococci rarely even come close to falling below the safe limit. Results are in CFU per 100 milliliters.