Check out this blog from the Honolulu Advertiser site.  Capitol Journalist Derrick DePledge reported on some bad blood brewing in the House of Representatives amongst the staff of all people.  It’s amazing to see the response and feelings of the people there, not to mention the names being thrown around.  I won’t go into details, as you can read it for yourself.  This is my comment on it all.

In my opinion, it’s obvious that politics has itty bitty nasty bits but the way that people are talking on these blogs, it’s obvious to me why Kimo Public feels like we stay taking it in the behind from the government.  

This is my second session at the Capitol.  I’ve seen so much in such a short time and still believe there is room for change but it’s the fact that people are getting so worked up over BS that’s frustrating.  I can see both sides of the coin.  I always try to take the middle path, it just makes no sense that there’d be such a fuss over a party.

Why would someone have to be forced to do anything?  Perhaps it’s the lingering effects of Hawaii’s illegal occupation or the martial state that was here in WWII.  Perhaps, it’s the effects of having one political party that’s too big for it’s own good.  Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps…

I wanted to run for office this year.  I live in House District 24, University and Manoa area.  I was still at UH, when the current Representative, Majority Leader Kirk Caldwell was elected.  I never saw him once.  He had 3,000 potential voters there and not once did he come to us.  I heard this from the Horse’s mouth so to say, but that is beside the point.  I wanted to run because I love this area, I love the students.  

I thought, I could be young, and inject some new blood, energy into the process if you will.  As much as I believe that, the current culture there, man, ugly.  And there are some amazing people working there, on both sides of the aisle, from Representative to Senator, to Permanent and Session staff, really amazing people, but the true challenge is the culture.

How do we change the culture?  How do wash away the sand so it doesn’t get in the places it has no business in, like a party for example…

Shoots.

JMAW of Hawaii

The City and County of Honolulu City Council members will be meeting to discuss the issue of mass transit on Oahu, the most populous island in Hawaii, for the 5th time, yes that’s five times, today.  The issue has been quite the nightmare and is being explored to death, which may or may not be a good thing, depending on where you stand on the issue.

For advocates of the issue, getting it right the first time is important, so it makes sense for the Council members to be in agreement before implementing a project that could rival the Iraq War in cost (3.7 billion cost, for one county, c’mon).  It’s also important that they hammer out a few details before breaking ground because some of the areas that have been selected initially (Salt Lake) don’t make so much sense (how about linking the UH campuses, another example of students getting it in the …).  Other benefits include clearing up traffic on the congested H1, H2, and at times H3.  Eh, here’s an idea, why not not build an H4, it’d be cheaper, nah, nah, I kid.

Opponents of Mass Transit argue the pollution family (noise, physical blight, and environmental impact) as the reason for not implementing this project.  Others are supportive of the project but wish a different type of rail choice was made over the more reliable but noisy steel.  There is a push to get the Phileas rail installed.  Phileas is a bus transit system that runs on a fixed track and the biggest thing I’ve heard about it is that it makes less noise.  

All this fuss about noise.  I wonder if it really makes that much difference.  I mean a leaf blower and a lawn mower are both loud in my opinion so does it really matter if one is louder than the other?

Will this issue be resolved today or anytime soon?  Is this just a legacy project for Mayor Mufi?  Stay tuned same rail station (that’s a funny one), same rail time….

Dunna dunna dunna dunna Rail!!! (Old School Batman reference just in case you no know)

Shoots.

JMAW

According to the US News and World Report magazine, pretty much the gold standard to check out where each University is ranked among the nation, has put the University of Hawaii’s William S. Richardson School of Law #82 in the country. In fact, they were rated the highest small school is the country (Source: KITV news). How awesome is that?

I know a few people from my high school who went to the UH School of Law, and they came out great. Some even turned out to be great lawyers as well. Although I did not go to UH, they are finally getting some national recognition beyond just the football team. And to be rated on US News and World Reports, that’s big time!

So congratulations to the UH School of Law. May they continue to do well and rise up in the rankings. May they also produce great figures in law for many years to come!

I am sure a lot of our readers include UH students and employees. When you park your car at the UH Hawaiian Studies parking structure, you better double check your car alarm before you leave your car. The campus security reported a series of break-ins in four cars parked at that particular structure. Car thieves apparently punched the door locks to break in to steal anything valuable.

Since this report came out, all the car thieves probably moved on to the other secluded parking structures on the campus. Why do they pick on the poor students though? Why can’t they go and pick on more well-off poeple? It is heart-breaking to hear about students’ suffering; I once was a poor college kid too… The only way we can avoid this kind of unfortunate incidents is to watch out for each other. If you see any suspicious activities, don’t just drive away thinking “eh, that’s not my car”. It could very well be your own car someday, so contact the authority right away to protect each other’s car.

I got your back, and you got mine.

What a great idea.  I remember when I was a undergraduate student at the University of Illinois, the libraries would only be 24 hours when it was around final exam times.  Other than that, you couldn’t go to the library late at night.

Due to student responses, the University of Hawaii at Manoa’s Hamilton Library, the main library on campus, has made access to their library 24 hours from Monday to Friday.  The public will be able to go to the library betwen 7:30am-11:30pm, and anytime not on those times, patrons must show a valid UH ID card.  If you don’t have a valid UH ID card and you are still in the library past 11:30pm, if the security guard asks you for one and you don’t have one, you will be asked to leave.

I think this a great way for UH students and faculty to have access to the library in the after hours.  Some people are so consumed with stuff to do in the day and night that they aren’t able to make it to the library in time, or only have little time before the library closes.  This allows students and faculty to make full use of their time with the library now open 24 hours a day.

This also shows that the University listens to their students, which is hard to say for most Universities.  Slowly but surely, UH is becoming more aware of what the students want, and to me, that’s a sign of a growing University.  Keep it up UH!