LICENSE TO DRILL

LICENSE TO DRILL: Atrocious English notwithstanding, today's local newspaper report of the state's latest desecration of kanaka `iwi along the beach in Wailua gave us that old familiar feeling that you know so well.

The article says that apparently, that old black magic was being performed by "(c)ontracted archaeologist Jim Powell, of Scientific Cultural Surveys, (who) also found artifacts associated with ancient Hawaiian burials" according to cultural activist Ka`iulani Edens Huff.

“These guys are all over the place,” Edens said of Powell’s company, which also surveyed Joe Brescia’s property in Naue, on Kaua‘i’s (sic) North Shore. “They are dirty and they are everywhere bones are desecrated.”

Edens of course has been put through hell for daring to try to defend the `iwi against Brescia's graveyard mansion in Wainiha.

But what caught our eye was this citation in the article:

Title 13, Chapter 300 of the Hawai‘i Administrative Rules states that it is “unlawful for any person to remove from the jurisdiction of the state, any human skeletal remains over 50 years old, or any associated burial goods, without prior written authorization” from DLNR.

That's a long way to go to say today's post is a Best of Parx (okay it's a re-run) from July 1, 2008 when we first discovered that there was such a thing as "prior written authorization from DLNR" to desecrate Hawaiian graves.

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HEY- THAT’S MY SACRED DOG DISH: After falling out of our chair this morning we got to thinking about the latest statement from developer Joe Brescia who still wants to put his house atop a kanaka graveyard despite a police warning that to do so would violate state anti-desecration laws.

The local paper reports that he told them:

“The law was obviously designed to punish those persons who desecrate burials without authorization.”

Sometimes there are so many different government departments, divisions and offices we can’t keep track of them all. And obviously we missed the one Brescia must be referring to.

We’re pretty sure never-say-die Brescia’s telephone call went something like this:

Hello, Office of Desecration Authorization and Permitting.

Yes I’d like to perform some desecration. Have I reached the right person?

You sure have. What can I help you defile today?

Well it seems like I have these old bones on my property and those jerks put them right where I want to put my obscenely obtrusive illegal vacation rental....

Are they Hawaiian bones?

Yes – they aren’t even white people!

Well nonetheless you have to have a permit to commit sacrilege in this state even against those godless Hawaiians. Now how many are buried there?

There’s at least 30 sets of them.

Oh. my- 30, eh. Well that means you will need a Comprehensive Desecration Permit and don’t qualify for the two-graves-or-less provisions where I could just issue you a Minor Insult Permit today. Now exactly how many people have had their sensibilities outraged?

Well, I’m not sure- there were at least a hundred protesters out there when I....

Hold it right there sir- do you have the names and contact information for those you want to offend?

Well, no but...

Well you must document the names of the persons you’d like to disrespect and provide us with the specific ways each would be likely to observe or discover your actions in order to get authorization to perform your sullying. That involves notifying the specific persons affronted and calculating the level of offensiveness each experienced so you can file your form FU-13 Defilement Filing.

File my defilement filing?...

Yes. Then of course you’ll be publishing your Public Notice of Intent to Desecrate and hold a public hearing....

Public hearing?...

Yes how else can the Desecration Commission tell whether it’s a true sacrilege or just an imposition upon the culture. Now how exactly do you plan to despoil these bones?

I just want to put a house on top of them.

Oh- a house, eh. Then you’ll need to fill out a special GH-100 Spiritual Retaliation Waiver form releasing the Commission of all future liability for ghostly events and apparitions - you know, night marching warriors, fireballs, crying aumakua- you probably know them better as specters, phantoms, poltergeists and the like. It’s all quite common....

Well it’s all quite daunting if you ask me but I suppose I’ve manipulated and paid off so many offices and officials that, well, what’s one more?

Fine sir- we’ll send you our 150 page pamphlet, “So you want to Desecrate Our Host Culture”. Where shall we send it?

Just address it to the biggest jerk in Wainiha. I’ll get it.

Are you sure? I hear there’s a lot of them lately?

Hey- I’ve fought hard for that title. If I know anything it’s how big an a-hole I am..

Very well sir- Is there anything else we can help you thumb your nose at today?

No, I’ve done enough damage for now.

Thank you sir and have a very blasphemous day.

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UPDATE: Although our investigative report about abuses in the ofhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.giffhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifice of Prosecutor Shaylene Iseri Carvalho was greeted with a collective shrug, to our amazement Councilperson Dickie Chang's lack of recusal in the matter of the obscene $150,000 grant for the Kaua`i Marathon yielded this from the council's May 4 agenda

C 2011-135 Communication (04/28/2011) from Councilmember Chang, providing written disclosure on the record of a possible conflict of interest and recusal on Bill No. 2404 (An Ordinance to Appropriate $150,000 to the Kaua'i Marathon Grant), because he is the Owner of Wala'au Productions which tapes and aires (sic) footage of the Kaua'i Marathon and also he serves as an emcee for the Kaua'i Marathon at several pre and post events.

FEED YOUR HEAD

FEED YOUR HEAD: It never fails to amaze how may ways the Hawai`i state legislative system stinks.

It's bad enough when a great bill gets to a conference committee and collapses because no one can agree on a version. But it happens. And it's worse when the rules allow one graft-addled schmuck to kill it.

But of course the ultimate stomach-churner is the poison pill that comes out of nowhere to take a fine piece of legislation that has waited years for its day in the sun and turns it into a revolting piece of crap.

This years toxin-toting villainous vexation comes courteshttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gify of Senator "Dr." Josh Green who has stolen the pilot program to establish medical marijuana distribution centers and is using it to kill virtually the whole medical marijuana program.

According to yesterday's Honolulu Star-Advertiser when Green got done with the bill:


(u)nder the pilot program proposed in Senate Bill 1458, medical marijuana prescriptions would be limited to patients suffering from multiple sclerosis, cancer, HIV, AIDS and/or glaucoma. It would establish a “compassion center” for distribution on an island where the Department of Health determines there is the greatest need, based on the number of prescriptions.

This bonehead Green thinks because he is an emergency room physician he can say who does and who doesn't need the medicine provided through marijuana despite the fact that he doesn't see chronic patients and has no idea what the medical value of marijuana is.

Admittedly there are only volumes of anecdotal evidence that marijuana treats pain better than opiates- which recently have been called out as the most abused drug in the country- and have allowed many to actually throw away their pills.

That's because research has been squelched by anachronistic, reefer-madness, anti-drug zealots who are way too afraid of allowing marijuana's medical value to be proven.

Green has taken it upon himself to alter the bill at this stage of the game after actually passing it out of his own committee without any restrictions on conditions for which a patient can receive a doctor's recommendation.

It would make Hawai`i the first state to restrict doctors from using their own medical judgment in cases of recommendations for medical marijuana.

We'd gotten spoiled the last few years with former Kaua`i Senator Gary Hooser serving as the Senate Majority Leader where he could make sure these types of bills got a fair shot. Same with former Kaua`i North Shore and Kapa`a Rep. Mina Morita in the house where energy and environmental bills were her kuleana.

If indeed the bill does get to the floor in its current form, the only thing left for proponents is to ask senators and representatives to kill the bill or attempt a rare almost unheard of amendment removing Green's amendment from the bill.

You can write all senators at sens@capitol.hawaii.gov and reps at reps@capitol.hawaii.gov and ask them to maintain the pilot program without stripping the medical marijuana program and restricting physicians' ability to make medical decisions for their patients.

PLUMBERS HELPER

PLUMBERS HELPER: Perhaps the most unpleasant experience in the world is that certain kind of indigestion that you get when a meal makes putrid oral reappearances over and over with each re-tasting more revolting than the next.

It's similar to the experience you get when watching our county council do "the old gush and flush" every time Kaua`i Visitor's Bureau chief Sue Kanoho and county’s Director of Economic Development George Costa make an appearance in the council chamber.

Last Wednesday was yet another re-re-regurgitation as the council gushed over how well the duo flushed the latest appropriations for tourism promotion down the proverbial crapper.

Apparently the council is still skittish at re-revealing the latest $200,000, with furious glances exchanged at Kanoho's cryptic "oh I shouldn't have mentioned that" reference to the latest flush before Chair Jay Furfaro finally made reference to it.

As we reported in January regarding the meeting on the 19th:

Things were off to a bad start when it was revealed that the way this worked was not with Kanoho coming to Mayor Bernard Carvalho- who proposed the bill- and asking for certain amounts for certain “programs” but rather the mayor telling her we had $200,000 to spend and asking her to come up with ways to spend it, according to Costa.

And astonishingly enough expenditures for the six “programs” added up to $200,000.

Previous gushing had them all taking credit for the lack of any increase in tourism numbers- after spending $2 million- with truly preposterous axiom that "even is the new increase." So of course this time, even though tourism has rebounded slightly across the state, Kanoho and Costa were equally ready to take credit for the Kaua`i increase.

Then it was the council's turn to perform what's called "Lihu`e Yoga"- contortionist back patting in taking credit for spending our money on it.

As usual there was no evidence whatsoever of any cause and effect- especially the "kama`aina campaign" to promote interisland travel- although a picture of a few hundred people gathered in Alberta Canada at a trade show for a "must be present to win" drawing for a free trip to Kaua`i was presented as evidence of effect.

And once again Kanoho had to mention the "American Girl Kanani doll" promotion we mentioned in January claiming proof that it worked because she saw someone get off a plane with the doll- a doll which we have since learned is made in China.

How much is going straight down the cesspool next fiscal year? Well, miracles of miracles the usual county appropriation to KVB of around $150,000 has been cut to $75,000 in the current budget but that decrease may well be made up for with another round "emergency" spending to promote the airlines and resorts.. with zero monies coming from those industry biggies.

Just another day in the glad-handing "nothing to see here- go back to your homes" latest version of our county council.

Makes you proud to be voter, don' it?

PROSECUTE THIS

PROSECUTE THIS: When county furloughs were ended earlier this year in conjunction with their end, the office of Prosecutor Shaylene Iseri Carvalho lobbied the county council to include some money for them to "catch up" on what they called a furlough-caused backlog of cases.

As we wrote on February 8:

For those who missed the circus, when furloughs were first discussed Mayor Bernard Carvalho assured the council the “public safety employees” would not be furloughed.

But, long story short, they were- including non-sworn officers in the Kaua`i Police Department (KPD), which caused all kinds of constipation as the prosecutor’s office, already backed up by the furloughs in the state courts, had to begin letting people loose- people KPD had arrested- because they couldn’t process them as fast as the law required.

After a huge fight over whether money for the prosecutor’s office to “catch up” on the backlog- supposedly created by furloughs- was truly “related to furloughs” (as the bill’s “purpose” stated) the money was included in the bill.

Well although, as we wrote, the lifeguards were denied back pay in the money bill- even though "public safety" related jobs were supposed to be exempt- Iseri got her money.

But we failed to report a little wrinkle in the proceedings.

When the original request was made it was claimed that while the attorneys in the office were working during the furlough period they were unable to get the needed support to be able to go through the cases and now would have to work overtime to clear the backlog.

That, the council was told, was what the money was for.

But after that claim had rolled around in the minds of councilmembers through the public hearing and a couple of committee meetings a light bulb seemed to go off in the mind of Councilmember Tim Bynum who asked a very basic question.

"Wait- aren't the prosecutors on salary?"

This set off some verbal scrambling because salaried people don't get paid for overtime. After some hemming and hawing the council was told that the extra money would be going for overtime pay for the support staff in the prosecutor's office to get the paperwork done and enable the individual prosecutors to catch up.

But even though Iseri had essentially misrepresented the need for the "catch-up" money, the new explanation seemed to hold water and of course it was a matter of the public's safety so the money for the staff overtime was appropriated.

So why do we bring this up now?

Because, after a three month investigation, PNN has learned that shortly after the bill passed Iseri instituted a new cost cutting policy, telling the support staff that the doors to the office would be locked promptly at 5 p.m. every day and no overtime would be paid.

Many sources describe the Kaua`i prosecutor's office as "a mess". They say that virtually all the long-time prosecutors have either been fired or were "quitted"- as in "you can't fire me, I quit"- along with career support staff. The newbies are all inexperienced attorneys, fresh out of law school, imported from the mainland, with no knowledge of the local community much less courtroom experience. There is only one attorney that is a long time Kaua`i resident left in the office.

The same goes for staff where employees with decades of experience have quit in disgust. One precipitating episode was that when Iseri took over in 2008, in order to "keep and eye on" everything, she took the offices of many staff members away and put them all in partitioned cubicles in a main area, and then used the vacated offices for "storage."

Also, according to multiple sources, Iseri fired one attorney when the attorney announced she was pregnant and needed legally mandated maternity leave. That cost the county a cool $30,000 after County Attorney Al Castillo quickly settled the resulting EEOC complaint after the council's equally prompt approval since the unlawful termination case was so outrageously obvious.

But those matters pale in comparison to something we've heard about from multiple sources who are in positions to know.

Apparently Iseri recently sat her "team" down and issued orders that certain local attorney's clients are not to be offered plea bargains.

If this is true- and we have no reason to believe it is not- it would be an outrageous violation of not just the code of professional conduct for attorneys but a severe violation of the public's trust that our prosecutor runs her office in the name of justice, not the petty vendettas and personal power grabs that appear to be Iseri's hallmark.

But all is not lost. We've been hearing all over town that Deputy County Attorney Justin Kohler who works with the Kaua`i Police Department (KPD) is telling anyone who will listen that he is going to oppose Iseri in 2012 and, as a result, people say that Iseri will try to return to the county council in next year's election.

Those are just the things we can verify to our satisfaction from sources close to the prosecutor's office who fear retribution if we were to use their names. There are other stories that are single sourced- even though the sources are reliable- and we've been unable to confirm them. Others that would burn your ears off cannot be told due to the privacy concerns of the principles.

We have urged all our sources to come forward and file complaints with the Hawai`i State Bar and/or the Office of the Attorney General, as appropriate.

This reign of terror must end.

INCOMING

INCOMING: It's that's time of year when all the hard work at the legislature pays off like a Vegas slot with three lemons.

But as the members of the firing squad within the conference committee system load their Uzis for next week's inevitable blood bath somehow some bills manage to hide under the sanguine slaughtered and make it to a vote in both chambers.

Of course those measure are usually half of what could have been done with some kind of red tape thrown in just to make sure nothing in done in perpetuity.

And so it goes with this year's reporters' shield legislation which, instead of making it permanent. "extends the limited news media privilege against the compelled disclosure of sources and unpublished information to 6/30/2013." for some idiotic judiciary study that was already done the first time the law passed with a 2011 sunset date.

The Hawai`i law also covers bloggers making a nasty battle over who is a journalist moot for those of us who do reporting along with commentary and analysis.

But it's real import has been in getting people to talk and being able to offer them the added protection of a law that protects us.

For decades we've given assurances to certain sources that we would never reveal their identities, especially when their safety or job security are involved. But that meant convincing them that we would go to jail to protect their identities.

After a few notable cases across the mainland in the last decade where a handful of reporters either cracked or put pressure on their sources to reveal themselves it made people think twice and forced us to abandon some investigative pieces for lack of corroborating or even primary information, despite the fact that we could sit in Kapa`a and smell a story from Kekaha.

With the shield law we have been able to tell those who would expose corruption and wrong doing that our freedom is no longer an issue.

The problem is that it only applies tothe state court system since there is no federal shield law which would have to make its way through congress where it has stalled year after year.

If you have a story to tell us give us a call (we're listed) or drop us an email (gotwindmills(at)gmail.com) and join us in giving thanks for another two years of peace of mind for whistleblowers around the state.

EVEN REPORTERS GET THE BLUES

EVEN REPORTERS GET THE BLUES: Mesmer never had TV but if he had he would have done well to use the county council's budget hearings to lull his patients into the half-sleep of passive compliance he sought.

So we'll excuse ourself for having such heavy eyelids after attempting to view the un-viewable and relying on- god help us- Leo Azumbuja's account of the council services budget requests session.

Of course he starts off his article with a total fabrication from who knows what recess of his imagination in referring to "County Clerk Peter Nakamura’s mayoral re-appointment and subsequent Kaua`i County Council confirmation in December."

The obviously click-challenged Azumbuja might have at least checked the county charter to find out that the mayor has nothing whatsoever to do with the appointment of the clerk.

But we'll have to rely on his account of a much more important matter- one so important he saved it for paragraph 18 (of 21) in noting that:

(Nakamura) also asked for a new position in Council Services for secretarial support. This new hire would provide support to increase web postings of council documents.

“As part of our goal of increasingthe presence of the council and council documents on the Web, the primary objective that we were given by the council chair was to obtain and upgrade our copier systems to multi-function systems,” said Nakamura, adding that the system would allow the office to begin such process at Nawiliwili and be able to transition directly to the network systems in the renovated Historic County Building.

Nakamura said the office should obtain the second multi-function copier within one month.

“Our hope is that it would be able to decrease the amount of steps that we currently have to do to convert paper documents into readable, searchable documents,” he said.

As we've noted over and over, the posting of the supporting documents for council agenda items that are given out routinely at the council services office has been ourand others' source of choice for uncovering corruption and malfeasance by both the administration and council and therefore the council has had to be dragged kicking and screaming into the information age although they've been successful with foot dragging for years now.

As we revealed long ago, council services already has a fancy-schmancy super-duper "copy machine" right now that scans and then actually posts documents on their website- one they've used on things like minutes, agendas and summaries.

But while ignoring that- until now with their questionable claim that they need another one- their main claim has been that somehow they need a new "secretary" whose job we suppose will be to push the second button when they make hard copies of those supporting documents for the members of the council.

Now they need a second machine for the button pusher.

Of course now that they've told the lie about needing a new position for so long they are trapped into including it in the budget.

We can just imagine Nakamura calling up Personnel Director Malcolm Fernandez and asking for the civil service personnel code number for a button pusher. We're pretty sure civil service must have a special class of people with huge index fingers at the ready.

UP ON THE ROOF

UP ON THE ROOF: They say that with age comes wisdom but the real trick may be in getting to be old enough so that others see that what appeared to be a good idea 10 or 15 years ago actually was.

When solar hot water heaters were becoming ubiquitous- back before passage of the Gary Hooser legacy bill requiring new homes to be built with them- we had wondered why utilities shouldn't make it easy to help people finance not just rooftop solar hot water but solar electricity units with zero percent loans that are collected each month to be paid off with the savings the customer was realizing in the billing period.

We assumed that it was opposition from the utilities that was blocking it because, despite lip service to conservation and alternative energy, each was stuck in "we sell electricity to you" paradigm where the more electricity they sold the bigger the profit.

So we went to the State House Energy Committee Chair Mina Morita and asked what it would take would move the legislature off the dime and get them to pass enabling legislation despite the opposition from electric companies.

We assumed that the handful of providers of solar systems would be a good place to start since they could provide the resources to begin the fight.

But shockingly we found out that the main stumbling block was those self-same companies.

Seems that there were only a couple of them at the time and they had all the business they could handle, thank you very much, and they worried that if the government provided for a massive program it would bring oodles of competition into the market, cutting their monopoly into a million little pieces.

Cut to today and amazingly enough, there are plenty solar companies and so House Bill 1520 SD2 has reached a conference committee and appears to be poised for passage despite opposition from- you guessed it- the utility companies.

The bill, introduced by Morita before she left to head the Public Utilities Commission,

Directs the public utilities commission to consider implementing an on-bill financing program for residential electric utility customers to finance purchases of energy efficient or renewable energy devices and systems through their regular electric utility bills.

According to a Sierra Club's Capitol Watch email "Blue Planet Foundation is holding a rally to promote House Bill 1520 SD2 today at the capitol from 12:30-1 p.m."

Although testimony is no longer being taken at this point in the legislative session it couldn't hurt to drop an email of support to representatives (reps@capitol.hawaii.gov) and senators sens@capitol.hawaii.gov) urging their support for this long overdue measure that would start the ball rolling to decentralize carbon-free electricity distribution.