Let’s call 2013 the Year of Ends. Ex-National Security Agency (NSA) contractor Edward Snowden, who is now in exile in Russia after fleeing Hawaii with millions of secret documents, ended any feeling we had that the Obama Administration cared more about civil liberties than his predecessors. South African President Nelson Mandela’s death brought an end […]
Hawaii Legislative Special Session On Same Sex Marriage Begins while More Precious Molasses Gets Spilled Into Kahului Harbor
SPECIAL SESSION BEGINS Well, this is it. At 10am on the morning of Monday, Oct. 28, the Hawaii State Legislature went into Special Session to deal with, among other things, the issue of same-sex marriage. Ironically, after all the decades of controversy and missed opportunities, the issue today seems not to be if Governor Neil […]
University of Hawaii Launches New Boat Drone To Protect Harbors From Spills, Tsunamis and Us
Hawaii stands at the forefront of a new technological revolution in the field of boat drones, states an Oct. 16 press release from the University of Hawaii. The release came emailed with plenty of full-color photos of a new experimental boat drone (sorry–”robotic platform”) that the university hopes will “support maritime missions in harbor and […]
Super Special Happy MauiTime Quiz!
1. On Oct. 14, Honolulu Civil Beat reported on its attempts to request Governor Neil Abercrombie’s travel records and expense reports dating back to Dec. 6, 2010, the day he became governor. According to the story, how much did the governor’s office say they would charge Civil Beat for the records? A. $1.01 B. $10.16 […]
Maui Molasses Makes Mess Of Matson While FBI Files On Daniel Inouye Exemplify J Edgar Hoover Era Paranoia
YOU CAN’T SPELL ‘MOLASSES’ WITHOUT ‘ASSES’ The Associated Press reported on Saturday, Sept. 21 that 233,000 gallons of molasses–“equivalent to what would fill about seven rail cars”–spilled into Honolulu Harbor from a Matson Navigation Co. pipe earlier this month. So far, 26,000 fish have died as a result of that molasses, which, of course, came […]