Disciplining doctors likely to get easier

So far this legislative session, seven bills have passed muster and have been signed into law by Gov. David Ige. The so-called “doctor discipline bill,” Senate Bill 2675, now awaits Ige’s signature and seems well on track to joining those ranks.

The bill would essentially allow the state to summarily suspend the licenses of doctors, dentists, nurses and pharmacists who have been disciplined and lost their practicing privileges elsewhere. The idea of immediate protection for Hawaii’s consumers from unscrupulous, incoming health professionals makes sense; currently, some who lost their licenses elsewhere have been practicing here for months, even years, due to Hawaii’s slow disciplinary process. Should the bill become law, the summary suspension could be challenged — but at least the burden would be on the disciplined licensee, not the unsuspecting public.

IRS take note: There’s a lot of money in basil

The most surprising thing about the Xiang Ping Song case wasn’t the fact that the Waipahu farmer admitted to underreporting his income to the tax collector. It was the source of that income: $957,382 from the sale of his basil crop in 2010, rather than the $310,559 he reported to the Internal Revenue Service. The farmer pleaded guilty Friday in U.S. District Court to making a false statement on his federal tax return.

Who knew there was so much money in growing herbs? Well, we all knew about one lucrative example, but that one’s headed for the medical marijuana dispensaries for sale, not the local supermarket.