nativevillage.org/.../Cherokee.jpg
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/11/20/kids-reenact-the-first-th_n_365432.html
soniatasteshawaii.typepad.com/photos/uncatego.
Join us for a Talk Story session and share what you love about Hamakua, what you envision for the future of Hamakua and what your priorities are. These values and vision will become the foundation for our Community Development Plan.
We will be breaking into small groups of 15 members or less as these sessions are designed to provide a safe forum where all community members can feel comfortable expressing their viewpoints. Everyone participates and all ideas are recorded. It’s fun, It’s easy and should take less than two hours.
Come, get involved and let your voice be heard, this is what we’ve all been waiting for in Hamakua!
In this first phase we are asking two simple questions:
What do you LOVE about the Hâmâkua? What would you like to SEE in the Hâmâkua in 20 years?
If you cannot attend a Talk Story Session or host one yourself, please take the time to fill out a . These surveys feature the same questions asked at the Talk Story session.
Surveys can be downloaded online from www.hamakuacdp.info. Please fill out one survey per person!
Mahalo again for all the community support! We look forward to working with you even more closely as the Hâmâkua CDP process unfolds!
Christian Kay, Planner County of Hawaii Planning Department
Phone: (808) 961.8136
Email: ckay@co.hawaii.hi.us <mailto:ckay@co.hawaii.hi.us>
The deadline has been extended. Hāmākua CDP Steering Committee applications must be received or postmarked by Friday, December 11, 2009. To get more information or to download an application packet, please visit the “Steering Committee” section of the www.hamakuacdp.info website.
Related Video:
http://www.bigislandvideonews.com/2009/11november/20091119hamakualands.htm
By David Corrigan – Big Island Video News
After months of delay and amidst public criticism, the Hawaii County Council decided to authorize the sale of the Hamakua Lands by a 6-3 vote.
The administration is trying to sell 737 acres of land in Paauilo mauka for around $8.2 million in order to balance the county budget. The sale needed Council authorization, and the debate between opposing philosophies regarding the plan stalled the effort….
By Brian Merchant, Brooklyn, New York on 11.13.09
If ‘moral prerogative’ isn’t reason enough to invest in protecting nature, here’s another one: it’s just been found to bring up to hundredfold return on capital. Yes, that’s a potential 10000% gain–better than an investment in gold. According to a new study called The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB), putting money into protecting wetlands, coral reefs, and forests could be the best financial move one could ever make.
A Valuable Investment: Preserving ‘Ecosystem Services’
The BBC reports that this is the first such comprehensive study aimed at evaluating what they term “ecosystem services”, or the “things that parts of the natural world do for free, such as purifying drinking water or protecting coasts from storms – on a systematic and global basis.”TEEB involved rounding up over 1,100 studies done on ecosystems around the world, and analyzing the distinct ecosystem services they each offer. The conclusion? Well, as the study’s leader, Deutsche Bank economist Pavan Sukhdev says: “with protected areas, for example, no matter how you slice the figures up you come up with a ratio of benefits to costs that’s between 25-to-one and 100-to-one.”
That’s what you call a sound investment.
This is truly fascinating news. The report looks into the distinct, tangible financial gains investors stand to make–which is, as we all know, a far more compelling incentive to attract widespread interest in the causes. However, the primary aim of the study is to grab the attention of policymakers, in hopes that they may be persuaded to invest in conservation as well.
more:http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/11/investing-nature-conservation-bring-100-capital-returns.php
But she can look through the window from her kitchen table, just past her backyard with its swingset and pet llama, and see an ominous sign on a neighboring fence: “Danger: Uranium Mine.”
For almost a decade, people who make their homes in this rural community in the Mason Valley 65 miles southeast of Reno have blamed that enormous abandoned mine for the high levels of uranium in their water wells.
They say they have been met by a stone wall from state regulators, local politicians and the huge oil company that inherited the toxic site – BP PLC. Those interests have insisted uranium naturally occurs in the region’s soil and there’s no way to prove that a half-century of processing metals at the former Anaconda pit mine is responsible for the contamination.
That has changed. A new wave of testing by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has found that 79 percent of the wells tested north of the World War II-era copper mine have dangerous levels of uranium or arsenic or both that make the water unsafe to drink.
And, more importantly to the neighbors, that the source of the pollution is a groundwater plume that has slowly migrated from the 6-square-mile mine site.
The new samples likely never would have been taken if not for a whistleblower, a preacher’s wife, a tribal consultant and some stubborn government scientists who finally helped crack the toxic mystery that has plagued this rural mining and farming community for decades.
“They have completely ruined the groundwater out here,” said Pauly, the wife of a local pastor and mother of two girls who organized a community action group five years to seek the truth about the pollution….
By Abrahm Lustgarten and David Hasemyer (propublica.org) Dec. 21, 2008
U-T SPECIAL REPORT: COLORADO RIVER
The waterway starts in the snowfields of Wyoming and Colorado, then runs about 1,450 miles to Mexico. Dozens of creeks and streams feed into it.
The river provides drinking water for more than 27 million people in seven states – Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming.
The Colorado River has endured drought, large-scale climate changes, pollution, ecological damage from dams and battles by seven states to draw more water.
Now the life vein of the Southwest faces another threat: Energy companies are sucking up the Colorado’s water to support increased development of oil, natural gas and uranium deposits along the river’s basin. The mining and drilling will likely send more toxins into the waterway, which provides drinking water for one out of 12 Americans and nourishes 15 percent of the nation’s crops along its journey from Wyoming and Colorado to Mexico….
.jdcrms.com/images/rm01.jpg
A congressional watchdog agency reported Thursday that the Defense Department cannot locate post-deployment health questionnaires for more than 72,000 people — about 23 percent of service members who have returned from combat since Jan. 1, 2007, when the detailed assessments were supposed to be kept for anyone deployed for 30 days or longer.
Missing questionnaires might be the result of returning service members deciding not to complete the form, which is supposed to detail any post-deployment health problems or concerns. But it is also possible that completed forms were lost, the Government Accountability Office says in a report to Congress.
Whatever the cause, the absence of such a large percentage of records is significant because one purpose for collecting the information was to look for trends in health issues and to be able to track people with similar reports of minor problems to see if they become something larger.
Defense officials acknowledge this is a serious issue. In a written response to the report, Ellen Embrey, the acting assistant defense secretary for health affairs, said, “We must be more aggressive….”
nihilobstat.info/.../2008/10/gay_be_gone.JPG
The Catholic Church’s Program to Cure Gay People
BY MICHAEL A. JONES Nov. 17, 2009
http://gayrights.change.org/blog/view/the_catholic_churchs_program_to_cure_gay_people
earthjustice.org/assets/subject/objects/m
November 19, 2009 http://www.earthjustice.org/news/press/2009/court-rules-army-must-give-community-meaningful-information-on-training-impacts.html
Honolulu, HI – Yesterday, U.S. District Chief Judge Susan Oki Mollway ruled that the Army is obliged to give the community meaningful information on how military training at Makua Military Reservation (“MMR”) on O’ahu could damage Native Hawaiian cultural sites and contaminate marine resources on which area residents rely for subsistence.
Malama Makua, represented by Earthjustice, had asked the court in August to set aside the Army’s environmental impact statement (EIS) for proposed military training at MMR until it completes key marine contamination studies and archaeological surveys.
“For years we’ve been insisting that the Army tell the community the truth about the threats that training at Makua poses to irreplaceable subsistence and cultural resources,” said Malama Makua president Sparky Rodrigues. “Now the court has told the Army that it can’t get away with junk science.”
Under an October 2001 settlement of Malama Makua’s earlier lawsuit, which challenged the Army’s failure to prepare an EIS for training at MMR, as well as a related settlement in January 2007, the Army was required to conduct comprehensive studies to determine the potential for training activities to contaminate fish, shellfish, limu and other marine resources at Mäkua that Wai’anae Coast residents gather for subsistence purposes. The Army was also required to prepare comprehensive subsurface archaeological surveys to identify cultural sites that could be damaged or destroyed by military training.
The Army filed a motion seeking to dismiss Malama Makua’s August complaint, arguing that, regardless of the scientific adequacy of its studies, it had met all its responsibilities under the settlement agreements.
In denying the Army’s motion, Judge Mollway wrote: “The Army has not demonstrated that the settlement agreement provided it with the sole right to determine what was meant by [an archaeological] ’survey.’ Taken to its logical conclusion, the Army’s argument would allow the Army to satisfy its burden by poking a stick into the ground and calling that action a ’survey’.”….
The Charter commission has reduced it to ½%, so we now have the not less than Half % Land Fund. This will take the funding out of the yearly budget wrangling, because the funding could only be suspended with the approval of voters. Maui, Kaua’i and O’ahu have charter amendments to fund open space purchases.
We will need your help to get the 2% amount reinstated and to have it passed through the charter commission, to let the people decide one more time, because then it will be placed on the ballot for voter’s approval. Please get in touch with Debbie for more information 989-3222.
New Report: GMOs Causing Massive Pesticide Pollution
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/andrew-kimbrell/new-report-gmos-causing-m_b_362888.html
Andrew Kimbrell - Nov. 21, 2009
Executive Director of the Center for Food Safety
There is one fact about genetically engineered foods that there is no debate about: no one wakes up in the morning eager to buy gene-altered food. There’s good reason for this. Genetically modified foods do nothing for the “eating public”. They provide no extra nutrition, flavor, safety or any other trait that people actually want. Instead, these food products only offer risks, which include potential toxicity, allergenecity, and lower nutritional value.
This presents a tough problem for the Monsantos of the world, who are pushing these GM foods. How can you sell something to the public that offers no benefits to them? And, because of their lobbying power, the biotech companies have ensured that their products are not labeled. So Monsanto’s real request of the public is “be unknowing guinea pigs for foods that make us a lot of money and offer you nothing but risk.”
Obviously this message is a PR nightmare, so Monsanto has come up with a spin that is old as public relations itself: “accept and buy our products because they will help the world.” More particularly, their ads displayed in mass transit systems around the country and regularly on NPR claim that GM foods “will feed a hungry world” and “reduce the load of pesticides” used in agriculture.
Not surprisingly, both these claims turn out to be self-serving myths. Earlier this year the Union of Concerned Scientists issued a detailed report entitled “Failure to Yield”. The report’s findings were straightforward and incontrovertible. After 21 years of research, billions of dollars of investments in public and private funds, and more than 13 years of commercialization, GM crops have done nothing to significantly increase yield: so much for the “feeding the world’s hungry” spin.
Now, a new report from The Organic Center, “Impacts of Genetically Engineered Crops on Pesticide Use: The First Thirteen Years”, exposes the “less pesticide” myth. The report, which was released on Tuesday, was authored by Dr. Charles Benbrook, a leading agricultural scientist….
Related: By Rady Ananda
http://radyananda.wordpress.com/2009/06/13/poison-on-the-platter-video-link/
This full length film chronicles the disastrous consequences of GM food in India. The United States does not require GM food be labeled here. Seventy percent of US food is genetically modified.
“Sejal” posted this 30-minute video on the web a few weeks ago, writing:
“‘Poison on the Platter’ is an eye-opening film, made by Mahesh Bhatt and Ajay Kanchan, illustrating how all of our lives are gonna be (adversely) affected by genetically modified foods. It is no more a farmer’s issue alone, it’s a matter of the consumers’ right to food safety…
John Nichols 11/21/2009
Moyers, who was at the side of President Lyndon Johnson at the time when disastrous decisions were being made to escalate the U.S. presence in the quagmire that was Vietnam, used his experience to speak Friday night to President Barack Obama about what could be an equally disastrous decision to escalate the U.S. presence in the quagmire that is Afghanistan.
“Our country wonders this weekend what is on President Obama’s mind,” Moyers began, at the opening of a remarkable hour of television. “He is apparently, about to bring months of deliberation to a close and answer General Stanley McChrystal’s request for more troops in Afghanistan. When he finally announces how many, why, and at what cost, he will most likely have defined his presidency, for the consequences will be far-reaching and unpredictable. As I read and listen and wait with all of you for answers, I have been thinking about the mind of another president, Lyndon B. Johnson.”
The presidential adviser turned journalist, who will retire his “Bill Moyers Journal” television program in April, then turned to decades old tapes that were recorded as Johnson was making the decision to surge hundreds of thousands of additional soldiers into a war that would kill almost 60,000 Americans and more than a million Vietnamese.
One point of the program, he explained, was to offer viewers “an insight into the mind of one president facing the choice of whether or not to send more and more American soldiers to fight in a far-away and strange place.”….
*Bill Moyers will be sorely missed, his has been the voice of reason for many years now, and we all would be smart to listen to his words, I can think of no one currently who can take his place, and I thank him for being there when we were and still are wandering in the wilderness….
What Is the Story of Stuff?
From its extraction through sale, use and disposal, all the stuff in our lives affects communities at home and abroad, yet most of this is hidden from view. The Story of Stuff is a 20-minute, fast-paced, fact-filled look at the underside of our production and consumption patterns. The Story of Stuff exposes the connections between a huge number of environmental and social issues, and calls us together to create a more sustainable and just world. It’ll teach you something, it’ll make you laugh, and it just may change the way you look at all the stuff in your life forever.
Open-Pollinated seed is being lost at a rapid rate-95% of varieties that were grown in 1900 are no longer available today. These varieties were the backbone of the home garden and market farm for centuries. The Kohala Center has received a grant through the USDA/ OREI (Organic Research and Education Initiative) to hold a public Seed Symposium on April 17-18, 2010 at the Outrigger Keauhou Beach Resort in Kona. This assessment is being sent to potential participants in hopes of gathering basic information about interest and knowledge of seed growing and saving that will assist us in planning a meaningful program for the Symposium. If you are part of an agricultural organization or group in Hawai’i please forward this to your members.
It is our greatest hope that statewide/islandwide seed working groups will emerge from the symposium as well as further workshops to gather knowledge, conduct variety trials, and hold field days to share seed and information on-farm, leading to statewide production of high quality seed for both the home and the market.
By the end of December The Kohala Center (www.kohalacenter.org) will have a webpage up with details about the Symposium, “Hua Ka Hua – Restore Our Seed”, as well as a link to registration. Please take this Seed Assessment on Survey Monkey as soon as possible. It takes about 10 minutes or less to complete: http://www.kohalacenter.org/seedsurvey.html
If you have any comments or questions, please contact me directly.
Mahalo for your participation and we hope to see you in Kona in April 2010,
Nancy
Nancy Redfeather, Coordinator
Hua Ka Hua – Restore Our Seed, April 17-18, 2010, Outrigger Keauhou Beach Resort, Kailua-Kona, Hawai’i
.state.hi.us/psd/images/cover3_kulani.jpg
Aloha Kakou,
Word being circulated is that Gov. Lingle is going to try to have the 8,000 acres of pristine forest with lots of endangered plant and animal species around Kulani prison to be used as a military training site for the Hawaii State Department of Defense –National Guard. The way it’s being done seems to be a fast track “Superferry” model. Below is my statement issued today at a press Conference in support of Ohana Ho’opakele.
Malu ‘Aina supports Ohana Ho’opakele’s vision for a model Pu’uhonua at Kulani Prison where the traditional process of ho’oponopono (to make right) would be used along with other restorative justice methods to to help repair the damages of crime for offender, victim, and all those affected by crime.
To facilitate such a Pu’uhonua we call for 3 points of action:
l. Keep Kulani minimum security prison open and functioning. Do NOT close it.
2. Let Ohana Ho’opakele work with Department of Public Safety (DPS) and Kulani staff, and other community organizations to build a functioning Pu’uhonua at Kulani.
3. No Military traning at Kulani by the State Department of Defense or the U.S. military.
Hawaii Island already has 57 known present and former military sites, many littered with Unexploded ordnance (UXO) and Pohakuloa with Depleted Uranium (DU). The cost of cleaning up these sites (involving hundreds of thousands of acres of land and off-shore waters) will reach into the billions of dollars. The last thing we need is another site for the military (be it the state of Hawaii Dept. of Defense or the U.S. military) to make another mess. All of our mothers have taught us “Don’t even think about making a new mess until you have cleaned up your old mess.” The military needs a mother to tell them to clean up after themselves. They keep making mess after mess and don’t clean up. The military continues to ignore Mother Nature with its desecration, contamination and pollution. Malu ‘Aina says to the military — “No More Land Grabbing. No More Military Training sites. Keep your hands off Kulani and its 8,000 acres of pristine land surrounding Kulani as defined in Executive Orders l225, l5888, and 3092 involving TMK 2-4-008-009
Malu ‘Aina believes that a Pu’uhonua (a place of refuge and healing) is a constructive alternative to the western concept of prisons and punishment which has proven not to be working to reduce recidivism. Nor does prison heal the victim or offender and all those affected by crime.
Kulani is an ideal site for a Pu’uhonua in conjunction with keeping open the minimum security prison. Kulani is a place of spiritual significance. It’s peaceful forest setting is a natural place of refuge. It has existing infrastructure and trained staff that genuinely care about the welfare of the prisoners. Kulani has the real potential for economic self-sufficiency, as demonstrated through past activities which is very important in these hard economic times.
Jim Albertini President, Malu ‘Aina Malu ‘Aina Center for Non-violent Education & Action
P.O.Box AB Kurtistown, Hawai’i 96760 phone: 808-966-7622 email: JA@interpac.net
tVisit us on the web at: www.malu-aina.org
members.shaw.ca/soupkitchen/_derived/food..
At a time when rising poverty, widespread unemployment and other effects of the recession have been well documented, the report released Monday by the U.S. Department of Agriculture provides the government’s first detailed portrait of the toll that the faltering economy has taken on Americans’ access to food.
GIVE THANKS BY HELPING OTHERS: If you know of an individual or family in need this Thanksgiving, a group of volunteers — organized by the Salvation Army working in partnership with several Kohala Coast hotels, area restaurants and farms and community churches — will be packing and delivering hot meals in Waimea, Honoka’a, North Kohala and Waikoloa.
To recommend individuals or families to have food delivered to, or if you or someone you know would be willing to volunteer to help assemble complete meals between 10 a.m. and noon on Thanksgiving Day, please call Gary Todd (333-1248). Gary has been involved in the Honoka’a Salvation Army for several years — last year they delivered meals to over 900 people throughout the district.
As most of you probably know, this group used to host large community feasts but realized they were not serving many of the most needy, either because pride kept them away, or they were shut-ins or had other transportation barriers. Thus they shifted to this home delivery program and the response last year was resoundingly appreciative…
*Thanksgiving Dinner
Served at Jackie Rey’s Restaurant in Pottery Terrace from 11:00 am – 1:00 pm on Thanksgiving day. Plate lunch for elderly and shut ins to be delivered Thanksgiving day, call 326-2330 to request.
Needed: Volunteers and drivers with vehicles for deliveries
and food donations. Call 326-2330
program will celebrate Thanksgiving at its weekly dinner on Wednesday. The Thanksgiving dinner with all the trimmings will start at 5:30 p.m. at the Kealakehe Intermediate School cafeteria. The free meal is open to the public.
There will be performances by the Uncle Willy’s Lehu Lehu Ukulele Class, Milolii Serenaders and Lea Lea Na Opio Halau.
The program is a community- based volunteer organization and all funds are directed to supplies and food that make up the meals the members serve. To date, the task force has served more than 83,000 meals.
For more information, contact
Ardie Ikeda at 987-1664 or Margo Takata at 960-1392
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margaretwille
Chuck
misshawaii96743
keikiokaaina
Susan McGeachy
Onanah
Two Percent For Public Lands Still Law (*But Unfunded, While Developers Gobble)
November 26, 2009 by keikiokaaina2.bp.blogspot.com/.../big-island-vacation3.jpg
Charter Commission Members Look For Way to Honor Open Space Fund to Some Degree
By Alan D. Mcnarie, Wed. Nov. 25, 2009 – Big Island Weekly
When the commission took up the issue in October, it promptly passed an amendment to the amendment, lowering the two percent to one-half percent.
Hecht led the original referendum effort when the two percent law passed in 2006.
The law — Chapter 2, Article 42, of the Hawai’i County Code — requires that two percent of the county’s annual real property tax revenues be paid into a special fund to acquire lands for public access, open space and the preservation of natural resources.
“We collected almost 10,000 signatures to get it on the ballet,” said Hecht, adding “almost 63 percent” approved the measure.
But at the request of Mayor Billy Kenoi, who cited the current economic crisis, the county council has suspended payments to the fund for two years.
“It was the first legislation that the Kenoi administration proposed,” Hecht said. “They were after this from the get-go.”….
Read more… http://www.bigislandweekly.com/articles/2009/11/25/read/news/news07.txt
Tags: 2% Land Fund, Alan D. Mcnarie, Big Island Weekly, Debbie Hecht, Hawaii County Charter Commission, natural resources, open space, Public access
Posted in Big Island, Commentary, Community, Emergency Preparedness - Community Resilience, Politics, Questions | Leave a Comment »