10 Must Read Stories From The Week Of April 1 – 5

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This week began with April Fool’s Day but there has been very little fooling around as the Legislature rushes to wrap up the people’s business in less than a month.

Lawmakers worked to resolve a number of issues important to the community. A Senate committee approved a measure that will likely repeal the controversial Public Land Development Corporation once it gets to the full Senate and on to Gov. Neil Abercrombie.

And the Senate passed a new state budget of $24 billion over the next two years. That measure now goes to conference committee so differences between the House and Senate can be ironed out. Some of those differences include funding for preschool and a better state computer system.

But the House also killed a bill that would have decriminalized small amounts of marijuana.

Meanwhile, local reporters were abuzz — and aghast — about setbacks in the Hawaii Shield Law legislation pushed through by Sen. Clayton Hee. The bill, which goes to the full Senate for a vote next week, turned one of the best shield laws in the country into the worst, according to First Amendment advocates.

At the urging of the Attorney General’s office, Hee reduced journalists’ protections against having to reveal confidential sources or turn over notes. The bill also seeks to define journalists as people who work for a traditional media service like a newspaper, magazine, broadcast outlet or a wire service.

It’s unclear whether online-only newspapers like Civil Beat or Hawaii Reporter are covered (Hee says they are if they have paid subscribers). But it is clear that bloggers, like veteran journalist Ian Lind, are not.

Next week is the deadline for bills to again cross out of House and Senate chambers. So it will be more apparent what issues are dead for the year.

After that, conference committees will spend two weeks ironing out differences in bills and budgets. And the 2013 session is set to wrap up May 3.

Here at Civil Beat, former city emergency medical services director Jim Ireland has started writing a public health column for us. Ireland is a nephrologist (a.k.a. kidney specialist) whose interest in health policy and emerging diseases has already led to Civil Beat readers being the first to learn that there’s been a new E. coli outbreak on Oahu and that a weird bird flu that’s killing people in China is causing concern for public health officials in Honolulu, a crossroads for international travelers particularly from Asia.

Bird flu and food poisoning weren’t the only diseases in the news this week. Chlamydia and gonorrhea were the talk of at least one legislative committee. In case you missed that story, here it is along with nine others you’ll want to catch up on:

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