But of course the two intersect. One good example this week came in Chad Blair’s articles on Hawaii lawmakers’ attendance records. Legislative sessions are clearly events. But how lawmakers treat their jobs is an issue worthy of our attention. As a watchdog news service, we want to make sure you know what’s really going on.

Another good example is Nanea Kalani’s report on the salaries of members of Hawaii’s judiciary department. We’re in and out of the courts to cover events, such as the redistricting hearings. But it’s also our job to cover issues, and an important one is whether we’re paying enough as a state to attract and keep the best people in government service.

Finally, I couldn’t let the week end without taking note of the Hawaii hyperbole of the week, Sen. Daniel Inouye’s statement that the only thing that could stop Honolulu’s rail project would be World War III. And to think, we’re only four months away from the mayoral election.

Here are 10 must-read stories from Civil Beat this week that you wouldn’t have found anywhere else. There were many more that I could have included.

• Council Support Wavers As Key Rail Vote Looms
• Who Should Lead Hawaii’s Teachers Union?
• It’s Your Money: Hawaii Owes $60,000 in Harassment Suit
• Paper or Plastic? Environmentalists Say Neither
• Hawaii State Salaries 2012: Hawaii Judiciary
• Who Has Worst Hawaii House Attendance?
• Who Has Worst Hawaii Senate Attendance?
• A Look Back: Queen Liliuokalani School Is Turning 100
• What Do Hawaii Lawmakers Have Against Ethics Code?
• Let Us Now Praise a Lone Hawaii Voice Fighting for Open Records

The post 10 Must Read Stories From The Week Of April 9 – 13 appeared first on 天美视频.

But his only event for the general public is already sold out. (It’s on Sunday.) There were still tickets for his Saturday talk to students available Thursday afternoon. (To learn more, .)

No reason to feel you won’t be able to experience the visit, though.

You can count on Civil Beat to be on the scene from the Dalai Lama’s arrival to his departure.

We’ll be live blogging from Friday afternoon through Monday, whenever the Dalai Lama is out and about in Honolulu.

We’ll also carry the video live stream of the Dalai Lama’s events. You’ll also find slideshows from our photographers who did the same for the APEC conference.

To learn more about the visit, check out our topic page on it.

The post Follow Dalai Lama’s Visit To Honolulu On Civil Beat appeared first on 天美视频.

Mahalo to you the readers of Civil Beat.

Mahalo to the many who have shared their thoughts on the site, either in our discussions or in our Community Voices section.

And most of all, mahalo to our subscribers for supporting what in the spring of 2010 sounded to many like a foreign concept, a local news site devoted to watchdog reporting and civil dialogue 鈥� paid for by its readers.

At that time, neither The New York Times nor The Honolulu Star-Advertiser had put up pay walls yet. And, frankly, people in Hawaii weren’t clear about what Civil Beat was, what we hoped to deliver or why Civil Beat might be valuable.

When our reporter-hosts initially called news sources, they often had to spend 10-minutes explaining where they worked and what Civil Beat was. They found that the best shorthand description was that Civil Beat was a local news service launched by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar, who lives in Honolulu.

Two years later, we almost never have to explain who we are. People know our Fact Checks and our Civil Beat polls. They’ve seen the way we publish public documents.

Now we hear lawmakers at the Hawaii Legislature regularly citing our reporting. We see Honolulu rail critics and proponents react to our work. And we know politicians will respond to our polls, especially if they don’t like the way the numbers look.

I feel fortunate to have been asked by Pierre and Civil Beat’s co-founder Randy Ching to join the news site as its first editor. It’s been a richly rewarding experience for me, largely because so many in Hawaii have been so open and welcoming. I don’t believe I have to tell you how special a place this is, how complex and fascinating, how full of life lessons.

Now I am leaving, carrying what I’ve learned here to take on a new challenge I couldn’t pass up. I will be a managing editor of , one of America’s storied journalism organizations. There I’ll oversee the departments that predominantly serve the Washington, D.C. area and act as the newsroom’s senior digital editor.

This new job is in part a commentary on what we’ve accomplished at Civil Beat. What began with just a few of us in a room with laptops and iPhones today is followed across the country by many concerned about the future of journalism.

While Civil Beat did start with just a few people backed by Pierre, today I believe the project is in the hands of many. A news organization like Civil Beat, or The Washington Post for that matter, depends on the community it serves.

Yes, the journalists led by Deputy Editor Patti Epler and Assistant Editor Sara Lin, will continue to invent how they do their jobs to best serve you. And our business team, led by Operations Director Heidi Pliszka, will continue to look for new ways to build the business.

But theirs is only part of the story of Civil Beat in coming years. The rest of the story is the community. It is you. And how you make Civil Beat your own.

I believe you are key to helping carry forward the mission of making sure people in Hawaii are informed about important issues. I believe you are key in making sure we have a place where people in Hawaii can debate important issues in a civil way.

My hope is that we have done enough to earn your trust and support, that you will help spread Civil Beat’s story, that you will find ways to back what we’ve started, because you’ve seen that Hawaii is a better place with Civil Beat than without it.

Civil Beat started with just a few of us and a vision. I know the team here will do everything in its power to continue to serve you even better. My hope is that you will do what you can to help keep the vision alive, to help it become even brighter, to help make this state an even better place.

A hui hou.

The post From a Few Hands to Many appeared first on 天美视频.

Last week the office put out an update on , which would create a path for state agencies to appeal in court decisions by the OIP.

Not surprisingly, that “the bill is a realistic and reasonable compromise.”

The problem with that view is that no matter what OIP says, the bill actually, as retired University of Hawaii Professor Beverly Ann Deepe Keever has repeatedly advised lawmakers, weakens OIP’s powers. And it undermines the intent of lawmakers who more than 20 years ago wrote the open records law.

OIP cites the support of the governor (who fired the previous OIP director after she issued an opinion he didn’t like), many departments, agencies and boards and open government groups.

But support is not uniform across government agencies. Take the City of Honolulu, for example. Managing Director Doug Chin submitted .

“Rather than legislate deference to OIP advisory opinions in an appeal to Circuit Court, we believe the proper course would be for OIP to promulgate rules for a fair and equal administrative process whereby both individuals and agencies are allowed to present information and argument to OIP.”

And therein lies the problem. OIP has never bothered to promulgate rules.

But the intent of the Legislature was clear, as Keever points out in her testimony:

鈥�…a government agency dissatisfied with an administrative ruling by the OIP does not have the right to bring an action in circuit court to contest the OIP ruling. The legislative intent for expediency and uniformity in providing access to government records would be frustrated by agencies suing each other.鈥�

So, instead of going to lawmakers and asking them to clarify its authority as being exactly what the Legislature said it intended when it came to public records, the OIP has gone to lawmakers and asked them to adopt a weaker standard for public records, the same one that currently applies to the state’s open meetings law.

I am not sure why that is worthy of congratulations.

However, I am sure the lonely fight of a retired journalism professor is worth recognition.

The post Let Us Now Praise a Lone Hawaii Voice Fighting for Open Records appeared first on 天美视频.

The reality is that all three are products of the Hawaii Legislature.

Yet you would have a hard time knowing that from the way lawmakers are acting this session.

Lawmakers seem to want to undercut the very ethics rules they or their predecessors put in place.

You’ve got to wonder why they’re moving to exempt people from the ethics code rather than making sure trust in government is strengthened by making sure people involved in public issues are governed by the ethics code.

But that’s what they’re doing.

Take a look at the major charter schools overhaul that’s headed to a final vote in the House Tuesday. would establish a new governance system for the public schools. What’s important to remember here is that charter schools in Hawaii use state tax dollars to pay for the education of their students. They’re public schools.

Yet the bill exempts the new governing board, charter schools and their governing boards from the state ethics code, as long as they develop their own policies and procedures for gifts, conflicts of interest and contracts consistent with the goals of the ethics code. Why not just make them abide by the ethics code, the way other public officials have to?

Here’s an excerpt from from the attorney general:

“These exemptions appear contrary to the mandate in article XIV of the State Constitution, which requires the Legislature to adopt a code of ethics that applies to
employees of the State, and members of state boards.”

Then take a look at , which would exempt task force members from “certain requirements, restrictions, and prohibitions of the State’s code of ethics.”

You might remember that one way Ethics Commission Executive Director Les Kondo got lawmakers riled up last year was by ruling that members of a mortgage foreclosure task force were barred from lobbying on the issue they were advising the state on.

So what do lawmakers do this year, they move to get around the new sheriff in town by, you guessed it, taking another step to limit the reach of the ethics code.

You’d think lawmakers would look at the abysmal approval ratings for Congress and figure out that stripping a sense of propriety from state government wouldn’t be a good idea.

But that doesn’t appear to be the case at the 2012 Legislature.

Here’s an about the task force changes provided by the ethics commission about the task

“The Committee should be aware that, by amending the definition of 鈥淓mployee鈥� to exclude members of 鈥渢ask forces,鈥� member of those groups will be exempt from all the provisions of the State Ethics Code, and not just the conflicts of interests provisions. Specifically, the provisions of the State Ethics Code that prohibit misuse of position or acceptance of gifts under circumstances in which it can be reasonably inferred that the gift is offered to influence or reward official action will not apply. Thus, there would be no prohibition against a member of a task force accepting lavish dinners and expensive gifts, even trips and event tickets, from those with interests in the outcome of the task force鈥檚 deliberations. And, because task force members will be exempt from the State Ethics Code, they would not be required to report or otherwise disclose the dinners and gifts that they received.”

You have to wonder why lawmakers would do that.

Could it be that if they don’t like what the ethics commission does, they might not be able to directly take it on 鈥� that might make them look bad. But they sure can take steps to gut its powers?

Because that’s what seems to be going on.

The post What Do Hawaii Lawmakers Have Against Ethics Code? appeared first on 天美视频.

But the news never let up this week.

We had everything from whether Honolulu is acting recklessly by starting to build its rail line before receiving a guarantee of federal funding to a late-breaking take on “The Descendants.”

In case you missed them, here are 10 must-read stories from this week:

• Is It ‘Reckless’ To Build Honolulu Rail Before Feds Commit Funds?
• Hannemann Courts GOP Donors On Guam
• It’s Your Money: State To Pay $210,000 For Fatal Kauai Wreck
• Is Wind Really Hawaii’s Low Cost Option?
• Taken For A Ride: Will School Bus Cuts Lead to Higher Drop-Out Rates?
• Governor’s Water Commission Choices Are Once Again Under Fire
• Federal Stimulus Still Not Stimulating Many Jobs at Local Biorefinery Plant
• Descent Into Haole: ‘The Descendants’ Dissed
• Where Did Hawaii’s Energy Stimulus Money Go?
• Party Chair Dismissed Legal Opinion on Thielen

The post 10 Must Read Stories From The Week Of April 2 – 6 appeared first on 天美视频.

The report was a new feature in our examination of state spending on salaries. Also worth noting were more stories on Honolulu’s rail project, the Hawaii Legislature and Hawaii’s governor, who gave an interview to our Chad Blair.

On a personal note, I want to thank the many readers who congratulated me on the news that I would be joining The Washington Post as a managing editor. I am grateful for the opportunity I have had to contribute to this community and found it difficult to make the decision to leave. I am confident that Civil Beat will become even more of a force in coming years.

Here are 10 must read stories from this week:

• Hawaii State Salaries 2012: Department of Education
• Hawaii State Salaries 2012: Pay Per Pupil By Complex Area
• Hawaii State Salaries 2012: Pay Per Pupil By School
• March Madness: Hawaii Legislative Resolutions
• Line of Credit ‘Big Piece’ Outstanding in Federal Rail Funding
• Is Honolulu Rail Debt Causing Budget Cuts?
• Abercrombie: Environmental Critics Are ‘Apocalyptic’ Naysayers
• Who Speaks for the Abercrombie Administration?
• Staff Turnover Doesn’t Bother Abercrombie
• Census: Honolulu and San Diego Swap Residents

The post 10 Must Read Stories From The Week Of March 26 – 30 appeared first on 天美视频.

But when it came to the 14 specific categories of “Corruption Risk Indicators,” Hawaii fared worse than most other states in at least five.

Here are the state’s three worst rankings:

• 38th – State Budget Process Hawaii’s budget process isn’t as open as in most states.
• 37th – State Insurance Commission We have an insurance commissioner appointed by the governor. Senior staff’s financial disclosures are not public.
• 31st – Judicial Accountability Hawaii’s judicial officials are not as transparent or accountable as in most other states.

To be sure, there were areas where Hawaii scored well, such as for the transparency of political financing, which earned Hawaii a 3rd place rank. But overall, Hawaii ranked 44th when it came to what’s known as the enforcement gap, the gap between what’s written in law and what happens in practice.

Read more about Hawaii’s rankings.

The post List – Top 3 Areas Where Hawaii Less Accountable Than Other States appeared first on 天美视频.

Hawaii ranked 44th when it came to the enforcement gap, which represents the difference between a state’s “in law” score and “in practice” score. This is the difference between what the law says and what is done on the ground. A higher gap score means a state is not doing as well implementing existing transparency and accountability measures.

Hawaii scored 23. The worst was Maryland, with a gap score of 29. The best was Nebraska and Vermont, tied with a score of -4.

Here’s a list of the states at the bottom of the heap:

• 50 – Maryland
• 49 – New York
• 48 – Ohio
• 47 – North Carolina
• 46 – Kentucky
• 45 – Texas
• 44 – Hawaii

Read more about the enforcement gap in Hawaii.

The post List – The 6 States Less Accountable Than Hawaii appeared first on 天美视频.

Cops, Prostitutes and Pimps, a series on sex trafficking in Honolulu, was written by Assistant Editor Sara Lin based on reporting by Sara, Nanea Kalani and former reporter R.J. Brown.

The other major effort of the week was our coverage of the Hawaii Republican presidential caucuses, Civil Beat’s first major statewide reporting effort. We had more reporters fanned out across the state than any other Hawaii news organization. We had five reporters in locations on Oahu and one each on Maui, the Big Island and Kauai.

There’s a lot of reading in just those two series. But here are 10 more must-read stories from this week:

• Hawaii Candidates Play Chicken on Disclosing Their Tax Returns
• Romney Revealed His Tax Rate, But Hawaii Can’t Do Same For Its Residents
• Digging Hawaii’s Public Pension Fund Out of $8 Billion Hole Will Hurt
• How Are ‘Good Government’ Bills Faring at the Ledge?
• It’s Your Money: Hawaii Taxpayers Bitten by Butch the Wild Boar
• Taken for a Ride: Hawaii Lawmakers Still Plan To Cut School Bus Funding
• Lead, Mold Contaminate Honolulu Hale
• State: No Data On Cost Of Solar System Tax Credits
• Hawaii AG Search Reveals No ‘Hot’ Alexander Emails
• $100K+ To Fix Lead, Mold at Honolulu Hale

The post 10 Must Read Stories From The Week Of March 12 – 16 appeared first on 天美视频.