Your HECO article [March 21: “Energy Vampire”] is getting so much positive comment. It is time that we start examining the benefit of giving a company with shareholders the sole right to provide power to and to bill consumers.
I felt the article was just another standard criticism of HECO’s for-profit monopoly status and addiction to imported oil, complete with the usual suggestions for legislative and regulatory changes. I think there is another option–a customer buyout of HECO and its Maui County and Big Island subsidiaries, which could theoretically do more to change HECO behavior while also potentially saving money for customers.
[March 28: “Bag Beefs”] Oahu, take a stand! Ban the bags!
Other places have implemented these rules long ago. It makes sense to cut down on the use of plastic bags, especially when we have such a fragile island environment.
[March 21: “Energy Vampire”] Hawaii is fortunate indeed to have our environment protected by the watchful eye, analytic mind and fearless leadership of Life of the Land’s Henry Curtis. In one ingenuous remark, he not only attacks Hawaiian Electric’s leadership as venal and corrupt, he also impugns the common sense, integrity and ethical balance of Mina Morita, John Cole and Mike Chumley by suggesting [the PUC’s] rulings could be so easily swayed by being wined and dined on HECO’s thin dime.
On Oahu, everyone does not pay the same electric rate. HECO implemented a tiered rate structure last year.
Thanks Kevin. Very true, and perhaps a bit of an oversight on my part.
All these people in traffic every morning and very late afternoon have something in common: They wouldn’t be in traffic if they didn’t have parking waiting for them at their places of employment. Why would they even take a bus or rail service if they have parking waiting for them everyday?
Why is no one laughing at the idea that Mr. Obama is supposed to pull a few million jobs out of his cap?
[March 7: “Tapping the Source”] The lahui and its concerns about annexation are troublesome. Concerning annexation, the lahui need to answer clearly what exactly was to be done about the non-native population on the Islands back then.
[Feb. 8: “Game Changer”] I have always agreed and disagreed with former-Gov.
[March 7: “Rebuttal rebut”] Kyle Smith and Gerard Jervis are suing Mid-Pacific Country Club for its use of pesticides and the impacts they are having on the residential communities nearby. They have my total support in this suit.
[Feb. 15: “Big Oil, big money”] Oh, Big Oil, Cayetano’s backers!
[March 7: “Stealth GMO lobbyist”] Didn’t I read in the newspaper that Japan approved importation of GMO papayas, and they’re selling them there now? Also, I know I’ve read several other news stories in the past about how our papayas were genetically modified because of the Ringspot Virus, so it’s not like it was a big secret.
[March 14: “Déjà rail”] The Green Line crash is just some of the baggage Daniel Grabauskas brings with him as the new CEO of HART. Grabauskas was general manager of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority in 2008 when The Green Line rail transit crashed, killing one and injuring dozens.
[March 7: “PV Help or Hoax?”] My wife and I recently got [PV] bids from three installers, two of whom claimed we would be entitled to $10,000 in state tax credits because we would be installing two “systems.” The third installer told us that we would get only a $5,000 credit for his system, even though all the bids were for a similar number of photovoltaic panels generating almost the same electrical output. I find it disappointing that Robert Harris, director of the Sierra Club, objects to Rep.
[Feb. 29: “HI Fashion Evolution”] Thank you for the gorgeous cover.
[Feb. 29: “The Specter King of Chicago”] A sincere thank you for including the piece a couple weeks ago.
[Feb. 15: “Bus = Bad”] It seems as if the rail is just a debate topic and no actions are being taken to actually start, or end, it.
[Feb. 1: “Rail Rifts”] I am against rail because it will destroy the beauty of Oahu and make it look like mainland cities!
[March 7: “Not So Fine”] Bravo! RICO, the mayor and the HART board should be held responsible and repay our taxpayers the correct fine!
[March 7: “Cold HART Cash”] I think the first segment of this will use a few hundred workers. Where are the 17,000 promised jobs?
[March 7: “Tapping the Source”] Dr. Emmett Aluli is the medical director of external affairs for Molokai General Hospital.
[Feb. 22: “From Pod to Bon-bon, Island Cacao”] The article did a nice job of recognizing and promoting some of the players in the industry.
We were happy to give a profile of one of the cacao growers and chocolate producers on your estate, and we did mention that the Waialua Orchard produces roughly 20,000 pounds of beans a year. I also called the Waialua Estate, but wasn’t able to reach anyone for comment.
Given the city’s crumbling infrastructure and rail controversy, it’s hard to believe anyone would want to be the next mayor of Honolulu. But a few do want the job, including the incumbent, Mayor Peter Carlisle, the former Honolulu Prosecuting Attorney who won a 2010 special election to fill the remainder of Mufi Hannemann’s term.
I’d never been to a Honolulu City Council meeting until a few weeks ago. Features, not politics, was my beat.
Victoria Holt Takamine is a kumu hula, a cultural activist and a teacher and has an impeccable pedigree to back up all these titles. Born of an alii family whose kuleana was in Moanalua, she graduated as a hula teacher under the legendary Auntie Maiki Aiu Lake and taught hundreds of students in her own halau (Pua Alii ‘Ilima) and at the University of Hawaii.
On April 25, a state judge dismissed trespassing charges against a Kauai man after finding that he had been exercising traditional native Hawaiian rights hunting wild pigs on private land. Kui Palama, 28, was arrested on Jan.
The city plans to dish out $3.5 million from its Affordable Housing Fund and either purchase or renovate a structure to provide transitional housing for Honolulu’s special needs homeless population. “Our community has invested considerable effort and resources in addressing homelessness,” Mayor Peter Carlisle said in a statement, “but there remains a population whose disabilities or chronic conditions make it difficult for them to participate in traditional shelter programs.” Carlisle is referring to those homeless with mental illnesses, addictions and physical disabilities.
Makaweli Poi faces an uncertain future after its owner, a corporate subsidiary of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs (OHA) ordered the West Kauai mill to suspend operations May 23. Mona Bernardino, chief operating officer of the corporation, Hiipoi LLC, says the move to shut down Makaweli Poi was prompted mainly by financial concerns.
A resolution adopted by the City Council will solidify an agreement between the City and County of Honolulu and the University of Hawaii Water Resources Research Center (UH-WRRC) to conduct an analysis of impacts from ocean sewer outfalls on the marine environments off of Oahu. The city will pay UH-WRRC as much as $2.5 million for biological and sediment studies in portions between now and June 30, 2017 .
Along with the deep, verdant growth of spring sprouts an unyielding desire to spend more time in the open air. That’s why it should come as no surprise that National Bike Month falls in the sun-drenched time of May.
Of the many letters you publish against rail, how many offer an alternative that won’t send us into further economic demise? Billions of gallons of oil are imported for us from every oil-producing nation on this planet so that we can buy billions of gallons of gasoline.
TheBus is taking a back seat to rail. At the May 3 Downtown Neighborhood Board meeting, an audience member asked city Transportation Director Wayne Yoshioka when we could expect the bus route cancellations and changes to be reversed.
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