NOW YOU SEE IT, NOW YOU STILL SEE IT

NOW YOU SEE IT, NOW YOU STILL SEE IT: There's an "Island Voices" commentary in today's Star-Advertiser (don't bother- it's paywalled) by Big Island GMO papaya grower Ken Kamiya headlined "GMO Ban would cripple Hawai`i farming."

His case would seem to be Roseann-Barr-related, basing his commentary on the proposition that her testimony on their GMO-related Bill 79 (which exempts papayas) speaks for the whole anti-GMO movement.

He spends half the article talking about her but he does of course make the familiar claim that GMO papayas "saved the papaya industry" after the "ring spot virus" nearly wiped out papayas in the 90's, a familiar refrain that is presumed to be factual by most.

But riddle us this. If the only way to save the papaya from the dreaded bug was to use genetic modification, where exactly did the "organic" and non-GMO papayas you see on the produce shelves come from? Did they somehow "un-GMO" them? Because presumably if the GMO papayas prevented the regular papayas from being wiped out by the ring spot virus there shouldn't be any organic papayas left.

Well the answer is obviously that it didn't wipe out the rest of the papayas, which were saved by either natural section or traditional breeding techniques.

For thousands of years, as Darwin's "Theory of Natural Selection explains," organisms survived blights or epidemics because the ones that survived had some kind of natural immunity to the bug. When they bred, the result was a species that was no longer threatened because all members had natural immunity.

The fittest survived. And therefore, so did the species.

This was sped up over the past few centuries by humans cross-breeding domesticated species where the resistant plants were bred together. But basically it was the same process as nature had used.

And that's where the organic papayas and non-GMO papayas came from- they either naturally survived the "ring spot plague" or, more likely in modern times, people bred the ones which were not killed off by the virus- the ones with natural immunity.

Were there no "industry" to demanded a salable product for harvest year after year after year, within a few years the "survival of the fittest" would have naturally occurred and we would now, 15 years later, have only non-GMO papayas being grown... the need for any GMO papaya having disappeared.

We don't expect this argument to change Mr Kamiya's mind. As Kenny Loggins and Michael McDonald wrote: "what a fool believes he sees no wise man has the power to reason away."

But a miracle is just the science we don't understand yet. Understand?

A SMELL BY ANY OTHER NAME WOULD STINK TO HIGH HEAVEN

A SMELL BY ANY OTHER NAME WOULD STINK TO HIGH HEAVEN: Talk about your love-hate affair. Tourism, the numero uno cash cow in Hawai`i and Kaua`i, gets the love but it's also the industry we all love to hate. That's evidenced by our preoccupation with "diversifying"- maybe even finding something to supplant it- that has gone on ever since King Sugar, having slipped to #2, finally went belly up.

But now, in a "the kind is dead; long live the king" twist worthy of a Shakespearean tragedy, the current #2 has been slowly poisoning King Tourism and everyone seems to know it but the King and the minions of the King's biggest rival: the innocuous sounding "seed corn industry."

"Aw shucks folks- we're just farmers," the rival says. And who could be against agricultural diversification?

Well, just maybe the peasants, who are finally figuring out that they're getting poisoned too because the strategy to take over the throne is to simply poison the town's well.

The townsfolk have discovered that the kindly corn-farmers like Pioneer are actually part and parcel of legacy chemical companies like Dow and BASF.

They've started to notice how uncle, who works for these companies, is coughing up pieces of lung and they've seen those nightly helicopter-generated, bubble-gum-smelling showers that have turned out to actually be highly toxic pesticides with an illegal bubble-gum masking agent.

Now, despite millions spent by chemical giants like Monsanto to spread disinformation using fact-masking-agents so we won't smell the lies, 64 people have, shockingly enough, filed suit against Pioneer.

Not only that but the townspeople of Kaua`i have introduced a bill (#2491) before the county council and will be descending on the second largest auditorium on the island (the KCC Performing Arts Center) for a public hearing on July 31 (at 1:30 p.m.) just to obtain the right to know just what the heck kind of poisons they're spraying on us.

So how did we get here- where it's up to Kaua`i to protect itself from outsiders coming in and spraying toxic chemicals and refusing to say exactly what they are spraying?

The fact is that the feds and the state, bought and paid for by the chemical giants, have failed to protect the people. That's practically irrefutable making the politicians' cries of "regulation is the realm of the feds and the state" sound like the complete lunatic fantasy that it is.

One courageous Kaua`i County Councilmember, Gary Hooser, first spent a year or so trying to get information from the "biotech" industry- all to no avail- then introduced the bill to force kindly Farmer "Pioneer" Brown and his brother Syngenta Jones to tell us what kind of "restricted use" and "experimental" pesticides are being atomized and nebulized, often in the middle of residential neighborhoods.

The bill would create 500 foot buffer zones especially around schools- because the use of these poisons is banned by law from anywhere it's likely to be in contact with children- and other places where people generally congregate as well as institute a temporary moratorium on the propagation of all new outdoor experimental genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and the associated experimental restricted-use pesticides until an environmental impact statement is completed.

But you'd think that the bill, focused on disclosure, was somehow a death knell for the "seed farmers" to hear what they are telling their employees, in a disinformation campaign that would make the NSA blush.

And speaking of politicians, believe it or not, despite the overwhelming outcry from parents, teachers, and just about everyone who doesn't depend on the biotech industry for their daily contaminated bread, there is doubt as to whether the bill will pass.

So far Hooser has only one declared ally- Councilmember Tim Bynum who co-introduced the bill- and one opponent, a long-time member-in-good-standing of what's know locally as the GOBAGs (good old boys and girls) Club, Ross Kagawa.

The rest are waiting to see which way the toxic wind is blowing and whether the biotexters smelly breeze is stronger than the oratorical winds of practically the entire electorate.

And why might that be?

While the money from the biotech industry dribbles pretty regularly into many of their campaign coffers the main players here are those who control those visitor industry bucks. And thus far people in the Kaua`i and Hawai`i visitors' industry are tightly balanced on the fence putting passage of the bill seriously in question, coming up on that public hearing.

The tenuousness of passage has of late become glaringly obvious to many vote-counting, long-time government observers. As local news-blogger, journalist and pundit Joan Conrow wrote recently

I'm hearing Councilman Gary Hooser currently does not have the votes to pass Bill 2491, the ordinance that deals with restricted pesticide use disclosure, buffer zones and an EIS for the GMO crops. Only Councilman Bynum is solidly on board. So no doubt the rhetoric will ramp up as both sides seek to convince the other five.

Well she isn't the only one. As if it weren’t obvious from watching the first meeting- where the bill unanimously passed the first of two required "readings" (as bills usually do no matter what the final vote turns out to be)- the word around town is that the third and fourth votes may well come down to the leanings of Council Chair Jay Furfaro whose life-long career in the visitor industry makes his nod dependent on how people like Sue Kanoho, head of the Kaua`i Visitors' Bureau (KVB), sees it.

And she ain't sayin' nuttin'.

The remaining three- JoAnn Yukimura, Nadine Nakamura and Mel Rapozo are eyeballing the 2014 election where the first two will no doubt be vying for council chair when Furfaro retires (as he has announced he will do) with Rapozo ogling the mayor's seat. They need, if not an endorsement from Furfaro, at least his good will.

Well that all got us to thinking- always a dangerous proposition.

The bio-tech industry has been calling everyone on the island this week as part of their mis-disinformation campaign, conducting "push polls," setting up secret, supporters-only, town hall meetings and taking fast talking no-means-yes-and-yes-means-no "surveys"

The rest of the time they spend threatening their workers with losing their jobs if forced to answer the question "what in the the heck are you spraying anyway."

They even have their own social media campaign- where asking the wrong question will quickly lose you your posting privileges- telling us how some of them are ready to drink a teaspoon of glycophosate- the active chemical in the household herbicide "Round-up" which will probably not kill you the same way prolonged daily exposure will.

It kind of reminds you of one of those NY City advertising campaigns where the guy says "if you ain't satisfied, I'll eat a bug."

They don't say how diluted that teaspoon of poison might be (we've got dollars for donuts it isn't undiluted, full strength) nor do they offer to drink any of the really toxic "restricted" pesticides they are spraying 80% of the time according to the attorneys who are suing Pioneer at the behest of those 64 members of the Waimea community where Pioneer's local headquarters is located.

Those attorneys have obtained information that many- including Hooser who unsuccessfully tried to use his elected position to pry it loose- have failed to get, by using "discovery" in federal court where depositions are being conducted as we write.

The video of their July presentation at Waimea Canyon School- where some of those restricted-use pesticides that are illegal to use around children were discovered- is a real eye-opener even for those of us who thought we knew how dangerous the situation is.

It's apparent we need help. So it's heartening to many that recently an article in the Huffington Post by Marin County environmental writer Maggie Sergio went viral across the mainland after she heard about the bill and visited Kaua`i to find out more. Another piece by local PhD candidate in politics and economics in food and agriculture Andrea Brower has been gaining publication in journals across the island and country.

So we though that what what's sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander and what we need is a good advertising campaign to reach the tourists that are flocking to Kaua`i with the truth about what those red dust clouds that they drive though on the west side contain.

We wrote up our idea for such an "ad." And since our graphics skills are non-existent we posted a solicitation on the GMO Free-Kauai Facebook page looking for someone with artistic skills who might be able to work with the idea.

We described out concept this way:

It would say "Planning a trip to Kaua`i?" across the top of two frames, the first frame with a person in a bathing suit with the words "Don't Forget your Bathing Suit" across the bottom and the second frame with someone in a Haz-Mat suit saying "Or your Haz-Mat Suit." The second one also has a sign in the background behind the person in the Haz-Mat suit saying something like "Experimental GMO Pesticide Fields; Breath at your own Risk"... you get the idea.

And, bless their hearts two graphic artists took the concept and created "posters" that have been approaching the almighty "viral" status in the last day or so.

First artist Dom Acain took the ball and ran with it coming up with this:

Then artist Rob Cruz took the concept even further in trying to assure tourists understand what you need to pack for a trip to "paradise":

Feel free to share them on social media or email them to your mainland friends... as a matter of fact, "collect-'em-all." Or do your own... the more the merrier.

Although many among the local "leadership" of the anti-GMO movement on Kaua`i have been reluctant to move off their kid-glove treatment of the visitor industry in the past, it seems they too are beginning to see that we need the KVB and corporate tourism honchos as allies in the efforts to pass bill 2491.

We've tried honey but all the bees died anyway. So they might just need a tart little nudge to get them moving in the right direction.

It isn't as if those who work in tourism aren't behind the bill en masse. Union support has been strong and indeed many if not most of those fathers and mothers who testified at the introduction of the bill- and who will be showing up on the 31st- work in a visitor-industry related job.

That's why many people are up in arms at reports in social media that the "Hawai`i Crop Improvement Association" and other industry groups are pouring buckets of cash into those various disinformation and dirty tricks telephone campaigns on Kaua`i as almost anyone living on Kaua`i with a land line can attest.

It important to understand that unless the tourism industry puts pressure on the council- which will take pressure from tourists themselves- the bill could could be in big trouble.

It stands to reason that people are not going to vacation in a place where they will be driving through toxic clouds of dust and where it rains restricted experimental pesticides.

And they are bound to find out sooner or later. Even if it weren't just the right thing to do, informing visitors of the dangers while the bill is on the table is simply good customer research, showing everyone what is bound to happen when tourists do find out.

Imagine how they will react if they find out about the situation along with the information that we defeated a bill to protect them.

There are some who are naive and fail to grasp what we're up against. Many have never experienced a Kaua`i-style movement. They think that they can control activism when the fact is that on Kaua`i the successful campaigns are not "run" but accomplished through a "do your own thing," leaderless effort, built on the natural outrage... as the Superferry battle can attested to.

KVB is not going to support the bill unless they themselves feel the pressure. They are corporate people whose instinct is to support other corporate people. We're working against that instinct and the only thing that will reverse that attitude is cash- the cold hard cash that they will be losing if occupancy drops when people learn the truth about the so-called"seed industry."

The most important thing any of us can do at this point is to get the word out to the mainland that we are ground-zero for outdoor testing of horrific experiments that are sickening our children and threatening the health of those who visit our fair island.

True leadership knows when to lead and more importantly when to get the heck out of the way and let the people do their thing. Leadership is not what the infamous leader in the French Revolution had in mind when he said "you must tell me which way my people have gone so I can go lead them."

What's your thing? Don't wait for permission- just grab a peaceful pitchfork, go out and do it. Every bit helps.

For more information on a variety of GMO-Free matters, check out thee Stop Poisoning Paradise's web site at http://www.stoppoisoningparadise.org/

(PNN) HOOSER BILL PROPOSES GMO MORETORIUM AND PROHIBIT OPEN AIR TESTING OF EXPERIMENTAL PESTICIDES.

HOOSER BILL PROPOSES GMO MORETORIUM AND PROHIBIT OPEN AIR TESTING OF EXPERIMENTAL PESTICIDES.

(PNN) Kaua`i County Councilmembers Gary Hooser and Tim Bynum will introduce a bill next Wednesday calling for a temporary moratorium on the experimental use and commercial production of genetically modified organisms until such time as the County of Kaua‘i has conducted a complete Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) on the health, environmental, and other effects of the production, propagation, or development of genetically modified organisms within the County.

In addition Bill 2491 would prohibit the open air testing of experimental GMOs during the moratorium, calls for mandatory disclosure of pesticide and genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and sets up pesticide buffer zones.

The bill will introduced at the Kaua`i County Council meeting next Wednesday June 26 sometime after 9 a.m. Public Testimony will be taken and may be presented at the beginning of the meeting and also when it comes up on the agenda later in the day. Those who testify at 9 a.m. will not be permitted to testify again later according to council rules.

The following are some excerpts from proposed Draft Bill (No. 2491), a bill for an ordinance to amend the Kaua'i county code 1987, as amended, by adding a new Article 22 to chapter 22, relating to pesticides and Genetically modified organisms. Further restrictions and definitions apply.

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The purpose of this Article is to establish provisions to inform the public, and protect the public from any direct, indirect, or cumulative negative impacts on the health and the natural environment of the people and place of the County of Kaua‘i, by governing the use of pesticides and genetically modified organisms, and the penalties associated with any violation of this Article, or the laws, rules, or any other requirement that may be authorized by this Article...

Sec. 22-22.4 Mandatory Disclosure of Pesticides, and Genetically Modified Organisms.

(a) It shall be mandatory for all commercial agricultural entities that annually purchase or use in excess of five (5) pounds or fifteen (15) gallons of restricted use pesticides, any amount of any experimental pesticides, or both, during any calendar year to disclose the use of all pesticides (restricted use, general use, and experimental) during that same calendar year....

Sec. 22-22.5 Pesticide Buffer Zones.

(a) Effective January 1, 2014 it shall be mandatory for all commercial agricultural entities that annually purchase or use in excess of five (5) pounds or fifteen (15) gallons of restricted use pesticides, any amount of any experimental pesticides, or both, during any calendar year to restrict the application of all pesticides (restricted use, general use, and experimental) in the (certain defined) areas...

Sec. 22-22.6 Prohibition of Open Air Testing of Experimental Pesticides.

(a) Effective January 1, 2014, it shall be unlawful to test or use any experimental pesticide, except for those fully contained within a laboratory, contained greenhouse, fermenter, or other contained structure...

Sec. 22-22.7 Moratorium.

(a) There shall be a temporary moratorium on the experimental use and commercial production of genetically modified organisms until such time as the County of Kaua‘i has conducted a complete Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) on the health, environmental, and other effects of the production, propagation, or development of genetically modified organisms within the County. The moratorium will further continue until the County has developed and put into place a permitting process sufficient to protect the residents and environment of the County of Kaua‘i from any significant effects that may be identified in the Environmental Impact Statement...

Sec. 22-22.8 Environmental Impact Statement; Administration.

(a) The County of Kaua‘i shall complete an Environmental Impact Statement in order to determine and evaluate significant effects of the production, propagation, or development of genetically modified organisms within the County of Kaua‘i, and the use of all pesticides (restricted use, general use, and experimental) associated with the production, propagation, or development of genetically modified organisms within the County of Kaua‘i...

Sec. 22-22.9 Permitting.

(a) The Department shall develop and implement a permitting process that shall apply to all commercial agricultural entities that intentionally or knowingly possess genetically modified organisms. The permitting process shall include, but not be limited to, provisions that facilitate the elimination or mitigation of significant effects identified in the Environmental Impact Statement referred to in Section 22-22.8 of this Article...

Sec. 22-22.10 Prohibition of Open Air Testing of Experimental Genetically Modified Organisms.

(a) Effective January 1, 2014 and continuing during the moratorium period, it shall be unlawful to test or use any experimental genetically modified organism, except for those fully contained within a laboratory, contained greenhouse, fermenter, or other contained structure...

Sec. 22-22.11 Penalties.

(a) Any person, firm, or corporation, whether as principal, agent, employee, or otherwise, violating or causing or permitting the violation of any of the provisions of this Article, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction thereof shall be punished by a fine of not more than one-thousand dollars ($1,000.00), or imprisoned not more than one (1) year, or both, for each offense. The continuance of any violation after conviction shall be deemed a new criminal offense for each day that the violation or violations continue.

(b) In addition to any penalty described in Subsection 22-22.11(a), any person, firm, or corporation, whether as principal, agent, employee, or otherwise, violating, causing, or permitting the violation of any of the provisions of this Article, shall be assessed a civil fine of $10,000-$25,000 per day, per violation.

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REPEATING LIKE A ROTTEN EGG SALAD SANDWICH

REPEATING LIKE A ROTTEN EGG SALAD SANDWICH: Though we've been slack in discussing Transient Vacation Rentals (TVRs) in non Visitor Destination Areas (VDAs) of late, reportage has, to understate it, been more than adequately handled by award-winning reporter Joan Conrow whose "blog" posts called "The Abuse Chronicales, have busted through the wall to not just penetrate the pages of the local newspaper (Motto: Who needs news? We've got you tutu's picture on page 1) but land on the floor of the county council.

It would take more concentration than we can muster to review the events leading up to this past Wednesday's appearance before the council by Planning Director Mike Dahilig but fortunately Conrow presented the essentails yesterday. You can check out our past coverage of TVRs here.

Apparently Dahilig is planning to come up with a plan to put together a plan to deal with the mess that he's spent three years (since he took office) planning to remedy... or at least, he has said he was planning to do so.

At one point yesterday he promised to do something about something (it wasn't clear exactly what) within 90 days but upon questioning he couldn't exactly say when he would start that clock. First he has plans to assemble his team to go through all the fake paperwork (he has said he is planning on first finding it in "all those boxes in the hall") and then "galvanizing the team" so they can plan to draw up a plan to start that 90-day clock they're planning... which could take up to six months although there was some talk of 120 days of "galvanizing" to get to the 90 days, by the end of which they should have a plan to tackle at least one- count 'em one- blatantly illegal TVR.

But will his metal plated menagerie answer the question everyone is asking- is how the bleep did all this happen? After all, hundreds of "permits" have been issued without much thought to the contents of three different TVR ordinances passed since 2007.

Forgive us for our skepticism.

Presently the county could be looking at perhaps 644 individual potential lawsuits by permit holders who now, according to Dahilig, can ignore any violations related to building permits and the like and only have to fight violations cause by actual "use." That's due to a complicated bit of property law that, he says, makes sun-setting these TVRs all the more difficult than previous planning department leaders made them already by approving them willy-nilly with little or no deference to the law at the time.

Our point- and, with apologies to Ellen DeGeneres, we do have one- is that all this would have been unnecessary if the county had had the gumption to fight one- count 'em one-single case way back in the 90's... or any time up until the first ordinance was passed

Yesterday, in trying to review the "how the heck did we get here" question Councilmember Tim Bynum- the primary mover behind the TVR ordinances that "grandfathered" existing TVRs in non-VDA areas and eventually even included ones on agriculturally zones land- started his explanation by saying that these TVRs were "always legal" and pointed to the 2000 General Plan (GP) intimating that it demanded- or at least encouraged- the county to do something about it.

A misrepresentation if we ever heard one.

Here's the real true life Hollywood story of how the county could have gotten the courts to rule on one single case saving years of hassle in passing multiple ordinances and now going through potentially dozens of "contested case hearings" before either the planning commission or hired hearings officers, to be followed by lawsuits in state courts by the permit holders don't like the results of those average-$20,000 a pop hearings.

According to those who would have you think that TVRs in non-VDA areas were "always illegal" our Comprehensive Zoning Ordinance failed to make them illegal- even though state law already said the counties were not to permit them.

State law says, in effect, that the county's are instructed to restrict TVRs to VDAs- those Visitor Destination Areas where tourist accommodations are permitted. But our CZO, while saying that TVRs were permitted in VDAs, "is silent" as to banning them in residential and other non-VDAs.

(Parenthetically, specific VDAs are defined in the general plan via maps that show them. On Kaua`i at least, they are in places like Kapa`a town, Po`ipu, parts of Lihu`e and even a small spot in Waimea.)

Now anyone with a brain and a little guts would have selected one- count 'em one- TVR in a non-VDA and taken it to court saying that the "silence" is bull-dinky because the state law had already designated where TVRs were permitted and not permitted.

But the county brain-trust feared lawsuits even though many- us included- had their hair on fire pushing them to take that one- count 'em one- case all the way to the state Supreme Court to get a definitive ruling on what many though was obvious- that it didn't matter what our CZO said- or more precisely didn't say- about TVRs in non VDAs because 1) It stated where they were in fact permitted and 2) state law, which "trumps" the county CZO, clearly says they are not to be permitted in non-VDAs. More on that in a little.

Enter the General Plan Citizens' Advisory Committee (CAC) which, as required by the county charter, met for years in the 90's drawing up a new general plan which was passed, with amendments, in November of 2000... passed by a 4-3 vote at the last meeting of the "old" council where majority support for passage was there- something that, with new members, couldn't be said about the council coming in on Dec 1.

One of the most contentious issues for the CAB was this very issue. And after wrangling for months and months one of the members that had always supported the "take them to court" faction, was finally convinced by the business and tourism members to allow for "grandfathering" of existing TVRs and advising the council to quickly- remember that, quickly- pass an ordinance fixing the "omission" in the CZO.

That member said he was convinced that this would save the county from a long protracted lawsuit- one that might have cost $50,000 or more (remember that number) at the time in outside attorney fees. And besides, there weren't that many as far as anyone knew and the ordinance would make sure that non-use of any use permit would end the use entirely... and so, through attrition, they would eventually all disappear.

The TVR portion of the GP passed, as is, although enough incoming members of the new council had committed to changing that part of the GP "ordinance" and going to court rather than allow grandfathering.

So guess what- it's Kaua`i and with out "bum-bye" attitude, of course nothing happened.

Or at least nothing that anyone knew about.

Meanwhile, back at the Round Building, a deputy county attorney by the name of Kobayashi was working on an opinion, "requested"- alright they actually threatened to sue- by an attorney representing a couple of TVR owners who were friends of- and campaign contributors to- TVR supporter, then-Mayor Maryanne Kusaka.

That opinion ignores the state law calling for permitting of TVRs only in VDA areas and said that TVRs in non-VDA areas were indeed legal because the CZO didn't specifically make them illegal. He ignored the fact that land use laws generally list permitted uses, requiring all other uses to have a "special use permit." For example, just because the CZO is silent on building a rocket launching pad in your back yard that doesn't make it legal to do, at least without a special use permit with public hearings and a ruling by the planning commission.

In fact, that is the way it worked at the time for Bed and Breakfast operations- a use considered less disruptive to residential neighborhoods.

Interestingly Kobayashi has gone on to become a judge and so this opinion from a deputy county attorney- one which no one ever saw because county attorney opinions are considered attorney-client privilege- is now referred to in TVR-owner circles as "The Judge Kobayashi Ruling."

Suddenly- if that's the appropriate word for seven years later- when the county council was considering passing some kind of TVR ordinance, the whole argument that had taken place before the GP CAB almost 10 years earlier resurfaced. People asked "should the county just go to court or should they grandfather the existing TVRs in non-VDA areas and put in measures to assure attrition?".

It was then that the attorney representing TVR owners whipped out the Kobayashi opinion that had been secret all those years saying the owners "depended on it" to presume their TVRs were indeed legal.. due to the "Judge Kobayashi Ruling."

The rest of course is that the counsel knuckled under, unwilling to spend what by then might have by then been maybe $100,000 to follow that "one case" to the state Supreme Court.

But it was during a time when. although briefly. there was actually a functioning press on Kaua`i and they were making hay out of the stack of cash we were spending on fighting lawsuits using "outside counsel."

And so all three ordinances were passed, with some final watering-down of the attrition measures as well as the removal of many of the items that provided expanded access to information for the public as to the permit contents and the like.

Currently there have been 16 contested case hearings costing between $15,000 and $35,000 according to Dahilig. There are 644 "files" and no one knows how many of those will be, at least, taken to contested case hearings. Plus, if the permit holder doesn't like the outcome of the contested case hearing they can go to circuit court where if they lose they can go to the intermediate court of appeals (ICA) and again if they don't like the ICA ruling can go to the state supreme court.

And they can't really be consolidated because each has different circumstances.

We're talking potential millions if not tens of millions in attorney fees on top of the $120,000 it has cost so far if you use the $20,000 average for each contested case hearing that Dahilig referred to Wed. And of course many of those were defended internally meaning the real money hasn't even started to flow from our of county coffers to big-shot Honolulu land-use attorneys.

Watching the council in action for well over 30 years is kind of like watching a Hollywood movie. Whether you liked the first one or not, there's gonna be a plethora of sequels. But often if you want to comprehend "It Came from the CZO- VIII" it helps to watch the first seven.

NO RUNS, NO HITS, JUST ERRORS

NO RUNS, NO HITS, JUST ERRORS: It used to be that when some big corporation or government agency had some hair-brained scheme that was universally opposed on Kaua`i the "pusher" would just push harder.

But many times that's blown up in their faces and in some cases they've eventually had to back down on a project leaving them with no project plus millions of dollars in free publicity... the kind they didn't want.

One recent archetypical example of this was a project to plant trees to burn for electricity and do it on Hawaiian Homes land in Anahola- land that the Hawaiian community there had always thought would eventually be developed for homes for those Hawaiians who qualify.

The company, which had plans and an agreement to lease the land really cheaply, took a slew of body blows at various meetings and now the projects seems to be on its way to the scrap heap.

But after that ignominious instance the latest corporate-governmental "partnership" ploys seems to be, "if they push back hard, get out quickly... and cleanly- a la the PLDC.

But it's being done in a uniquely Hawai`i way.

The next instance was the plan by the semi-autonomous Kaua`i Water Department (KWD) to drill a horizontal potable water well into the "wettest spot in the world"- the sacred "Mount Wai`ale`ale."

Community groups- both environmental and cultural- essentially said "are you nuts?" and geared up for a long drawn out battle.

But instead the KWD announced that, despite all the professionally made charts and graphs they drew up and lugged to the first of many planned community meetings showing the project to be on Wai`ale`ale, in fact some lower level bureaucrat had simply "made a mistake" and instead they really had planned all along to drill into Mount Kahili.

Of course no one explained how it could have been a simple mistake. Nor did they mention that, although you'd need to drive half way across the island to get from the base of one to the base of the other, Mount Kahili is simply the back face of Mount Wai`ale`ale.

And now they've announced that they're canceling the meeting about the "new" Mt Kahili project entirely.

Many think that the whole project is suspicious, saying it's not being done to provide water to current customers but to essentially support massive planned future tourism development... and do it on the backs of the current water-users/rate-payers.

Other say it's because they need all that water for all that North Shore Ag land so that the "seed farmers" can grow more biotech (GMO) corn, soybean, cotton and other "seed." Right now there isn't enough water in the Moloa`a-Kilauea area even for the current small, organic "truck farmers."

But this $50 million drilling project- whether Kahili or Wai`ale`ale- will supply all the water the north shore could use for any kind of agriculture in an area where the irrigation ditch system left over from sugar cane days is now dilapidated to the point where it would be prohibitively costly to repair. Plus, if it could be repaired, there's no easy way to pay for it since it's not the kind of potable county water KWD controls- as was discussed recently by the county council.

It's not that surprising this announcement comes on the heels of that council discussion.

Back to our PR lesson- one that was not lost on the the Coast Guard whose recent announcement that they were going to extend the ocean "danger zone" for the Kekaha shooting range (which sits next door to the Pacific Missile Range Facility [PMRF] Naval Base) was met with a slew of negative comments from fishers, swimmers, surfers and other beach and ocean users.

But today an article in the local newspaper says that they have withdrawn the plans for expansion.

So what happened? The newspaper says:

“I think we could chalk it up to a mistake,” (Lt. Col. Charles) Anthony said by phone Monday. “A project manager had increased the size beyond what we had seen in the earlier drafts. We will be making up a proposal with a much smaller footprint.”

Just a mistake, that's all. Not a blunder by the military where an attempt to control more land and ocean has spurred some opponents to suddenly start talking about it being time to get rid of the shooting range, if not the Navy's next-door missile range, entirely.

Is this the wave of the future? Will Monsanto suddenly announce tomorrow that it had been a mistake to oppose the labeling of GMO products saying it was a decision made by some low level technocrat in Sector "R?"

Dream on.

But locally apparently it's "any port in a storm," the belief being that they can save face with the "I no like say nahting" locals by saying it was all a simple mistake.

But a word to the wise- the natives are becoming restless.

SUBTRACTION BY ADDITION

SUBTRACTION BY ADDITION: As much as our secret life is one of a devoted sports fanatic, this space has had a decided dearth of athletics-related material over the years. And today is really no different.

Yes, our subject de jour is this week's 180 performed by new University of Hawai`i Athletic Directer Ben Jay who, after banning the use of the name "Rainbows" by UH men's teams shortly after his arrival earlier this year, decided this week to once again allow UH teams to use the beloved moniker.

But while it's a sports story everywhere else in the Hawai`i media, let us be the first to remind readers that is actually a long-sought repudiation of former football coach June Jones' bigoted and homophobic striking of the name Rainbow in 2000 because we don't want no sissies or fairies (or any other six-letter "f" word) amongst the macho men of our football team.

Lest we forget that's what Jones said it was all about at the time. He essentially announced that he was worried that his big, bad football heroes were afraid of being teased by other teams over the name "Rainbows" and that it was projecting an image he didn’t want for his team... wink, wink, elbow elbow.

To put it in historical context it was a time shortly after the voters of Hawai`i took away the historic, court-granted right to marry any person one damn well pleases.

And Jones used his position as football coach to project and impose his own intolerance, jumping on the anti-gay bandwagon in no uncertain terms.

It was the first and only time our constitution was changed to actually remove rights rather than protect them and it persists on the books today as a shameful reminder of how lacking in political spines our state legislators remains to this day- unable to even pass the legislation that the constitution allows to fully extend marriage rights to everyone, much less put the repeal of the constitutional amendment on the ballot.

But while the rest of the country moves into the 21st century (the 12th state, Minnesota, just okayed universal marriage rights yesterday) to seemingly compound the problem, Jay's original decision not only confirmed his own homophobia, he did it by exercising the same kind of arrogant decision-making that has brought down many a UH leader... "outgoing" UH President MRC Greenwood coming to mind after a similarly tone deaf performance, hers before a senate committee last fall.

Apparently Jay's reversal has pulled his own fat out of the fire for now. But memories are long and tenures at UH tend to be sort for those who come over to the islands and tell us what we need to do because we're apparently too dumb to manage our own affairs and we've been doing it wrong all along.

The circumstances surrounding Jones 2000 team renaming have been ignored by the Hawai`i press, especially in failing to compare and contrast the attitudes of a mere 13 years ago and this year- a year when news of the first "coming out" by a member of a major US team sport has been greeted with a hearty "ho-hum" in some quarters, many being something less than shocked to find out that some players are gay.

Is 13 years so long ago that no one remembers the bad old days when a football coach could get away with such appallingly bigoted behavior? Or is it just more of the Hawai`i presses "never was heard a discouraging word" attitude toward UH sports which has helped smooth Jay's short stint in charge of UH athletics?

The re-institution of the name "Rainbows" - albeit as part of the name "Rainbow Warriors," lest anyone feel like they're having their manhood challenged- has been said to be due to "tradition." But the end of a tradition of a**hole behavior should be receiving a lot more attention.

Because only if attention is paid to the more shameful parts of the history of the name "Rainbows," can there be a true end of the June Jones era of fear and loathing in the UH locker room.

For my Mommy on Mothers' Day 2013

For my Mommy Amy Dunis Parks nee Maime Dunefsky (1917-1970) on Mothers' Day 2013

I remember how I sat on the floor at my Mommy's feet because I couldn't stand yet. And I remember how much I loved my Mommy.

I remember feeling wobbly just sitting up but my Mommy was right there, sitting at the sewing machine and wearing a long dress and I felt adventurous and brave. And I remember I loved my Mommy.

I sat in a conical beam of light that came through the same window where I sometimes watched the boats go by and I was mesmerized by all those sparkly specks of dust dancing in the light and I looked up when my Mommy said "Andrew?" And I loved my Mommy.

In her hand she held a slice of a tangerine with all the little strings carefully removed and she dangled it just out of my reach and I wanted "up" so I grabbed her dress in my little baby hands and with all my little baby strength I pulled myself up, climbing, climbing, one hand over the other, finally "standing" as it were, on my feet while leaning on her legs and holding on tight with both of my little baby arms. And I loved my Mommy.

And then she put the tangerine in my mouth and I toothlessly "bit" down and the juice filled my mouth and dribbled down my cheeks and all over my chest but I didn't care because I had barely tasted anything but my Mommy's milk before much less anything sooo sweet and it was sooo goood and I wanted sooo much more, more, more. And I loved my Mommy sooo much and wanted her more, more, more.

We did that over and over for what seemed like all day, one tangerine slice after another, while she worked the sewing machine with her feet on the treadle, one hand on the wheel and the other holding tangerine slices for me. Only for me. And I loved my Mommy.

And I would have loved my Mommy even if she didn't take care of me and hold me tightly when I cried and feed me from her breast when I was hungry and clean me up when I made a mess in my pants and keep me safe from all the scarey stuff and read to me and talk to me and coo to me and make funny sounds by blowing on my belly, both of us laughing, laughing, laughing...

The sweet juice kept coming and the light streamed through the window until she wiped my face and hands and belly with a damp washcloth. And even though I didn't like that washcloth I knew she wiped me clean because she loved me.

And I loved my Mommy. MY Mommy.

And my Mommy loved me.