Senate Majority Caucus

By Hawaii State Senator Colleen Hanabusa

City Environmental Services director Eric Takamura’s single-minded defense of “bury and burn” as a strategy for dealing with our community’s solid waste disposal needs may be understandable as an exercise in “staying on message,” but it also demonstrates a worrisome inability to think flexibly about a problem that is not going to go away. The most positive impact of this on-going discussion could be that it raises people’s awareness of the debate on opala.

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By Honolulu Advertiser Government Writer Treena Shapiro

A recent survey of 2,000 Hawai’i residents showed a majority care about the environment so much that they’re willing to pay more to protect it.

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The Public Policy Center of the College of Social Sciences is delighted to announce the appointment of Senator Gary Hooser (D) and Senator Jill Tokuda (D) to the 2007 Legislator in Residence Program (LIR).

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Spending restriction burden must be shared

By Hawaii State Senator Norman Sakamoto

The recent Advertiser article, “Hawaii residents say environment worth tab,” raised a vital point that rated barely a mention in the text, but was glaringly obvious in the accompanying table: Hawaii’s people place a very high premium on education. Just over 80 percent of respondents agree that we need to improve our public education system, no matter how much it costs.

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Read Senator Will Espero’s Legislative Update featuring the Ewa and Kapolei YMCA Summer Fun Programs visit to the Hawaii State Capitol. 

Click Here to Read the Legislative Update.

A number of legislators and individuals participated in the Rural Caucus held on July 30, 2007, at the Hawaii State Capitol. Photos of the meeting are posted on the lower right side of this page.

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By Honolulu Advertiser Staff Writer Dan Nakaso

Hawai’i would join other states with a registry of convicted murderers — similar to the state’s sex-offender registry — under legislation that may be introduced next year.

State Sen. Will Espero, head of the state Senate’s Public Safety Committee, plans to introduce a bill that would create a registry

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By Hawaii State Senator Rosalyn Baker 

In his commentary dated August 2, 2007 (”Public finance: Legislature afflicted by a serious lack of understanding”), Lowell Kalapa acknowledges that, “no doubt,” pedestrian safety measures called for in Senate Bill 1191, including recalibrating stop lights to allow more time for pedestrians to cross the streets and raising awareness about safety measures, are meritorious. Unfortunately, the rest of his commentary contains a number of glaring factual errors and omissions.

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