Things are a little less bright in the state administration as we "flASHback" on the week’s news that amused and confused:
» Sunshine Topping resigned as Gov. Neil Abercrombie’s human resources director less than a year into the job. Finally, this most secretive administration has a theme song: "Ain’t No Sunshine."
» Republican John Carroll, 81, will run for the U.S. Senate seat opened by the retirement of Daniel Akaka, one of our state’s two 87-year-old senators. Only in Hawaii could Carroll sell himself as a youth movement.
» An 80-year-old Honolulu man allegedly assaulted a neighbor he thought was making too much noise in an apartment renovation. Now that’s an octogenarian who could fight for us in the Senate.
» The city spent more than $10,000 on a color, hardcover book to teach school kids that Oahu’s sewage system works in much the same way as our stomachs digest Spam musubi. I didn’t know that a city truck hauled the musubi from my duodenum to my transverse colon.
» City Councilman Tom Berg said he couldn’t "in good conscience" support a Laie hotel approved by the Council because its bike paths would be only 8 feet wide instead of the 10 feet he prefers. Two feet worth of conscience is about the most we can expect from our local elected officials.
» With the Hawaii Republican Party broke and sputtering heading into next year’s election, some party leaders want to oust state Chairman Jonah Kaauwai. The local GOP appears stuck in an ideological divide between a tea party and a pity party.
» An animal rights group successfully transported 120 feral donkeys from Hawaii island to a sanctuary in California. The airlift established asses as one of Hawaii’s leading exports, along with prisoners and our brightest young people.
» Honolulu Prosecutor Keith Kaneshiro asked for a month’s delay in the case of a woman who was cited for protesting topless in Waikiki, saying he needs more time to re-examine the evidence in light of the Constitution. Any excuse to take another look at those pictures.
» Maui County plans to revive the controversial Halloween festivities in Lahaina but is asking celebrants to "leave the lewd costumes at home." Did they consider that the kind of people who favor lewd costumes might take that as an invitation to come naked?
And the quote of the week … from state Human Services Director Patricia McManaman on the official secrecy over the death of 9-month-old Jayvid Waa-Ili while in state custody: "We as a department do not know the circumstances surrounding the child’s death. At this point in time, there is no legitimate reason to release information about this child to the public." It seems the right to privacy kicks in when the state screws up.
Reach David Shapiro at volcanicash@gmail.com or blog.volcanicash.net.
