61 Days Until Hawaii is Hit With Higher Taxes

As 2006 comes to a close, let me remind you that there are only 61 days in which to do business in Hawaii at the present General Excise Tax rate of 4.16%. On January 1, 2007 the Hawaii State General Excise Tax will increase to 4.5 and up to 4.712%. The massive tax increase is a result of HB 1309 passing out of the State Legislature in 2005 that allowed the counties to levy a tax increase on top of the General Excise tax to fund transit projects.

Governor Linda Lingle allowed the bill to become law on July 11, 2005 without her signature, on the promise that the Counties would administer the collection of the additional tax. That did not happen.

Instead the Hawaii State Department of Taxation was given the additional task to collect the tax, only to pass it on to the county that the tax will "benefit," namely the City & County of Honolulu.

The real tax burden of course will lie with all of the firms and individuals doing business in the City & County of Honolulu as well as those neighbor island businesses that engage in transactions with firms on Oahu. This pretty much means just about everyone. In the end, consumers are the ones who will be hit the most in the pocket with the tax increase. Neighbor islanders will pay and not get a penny of benefit from money that is taken away to fund Mayor Mufi Hannemann's train.

The Mufi train is another step closer to realization as Mayor Hannemann announced his preference for rail as the only alternative to Oahu's traffic problem. The estimated cost according to his administration lies somewhere between $3.6 and $4.6 billion. Read that folks... BILLION!

I often think of Mayor's Hannemann campaign statement: “Do we need it? Can we afford it? Can we maintain it?” The answer to all 3 questions in regards to rail is a resounding NO!

There are many reasons why a rail system should not be built for Honolulu. You can read more about this at the HonoluluTraffic.com website.

The Hawaii State Department of Taxation website has everything you need to know on the tax increase. You can read about it at this link: General Excise Tax Surcharge (a fancy name for the new tax).

If you want to lash out at the politicians who voted for the tax increase, consider voting against the following legislators who all voted YES on HB 1309 which became law as Act 247.

State Senate: Baker, Bunda, Chun-Oakland, English, Espero, Fukunaga, Hanabusa, Hee, Hooser, Ige, Ihara, Inouye, Kanno, Kim, Kokobun, Menor, Nishihara, Sakamoto, Taniguchi

State House: Abinsay, Arakaki, Cabanilla, Caldwell, Chang, Ching, Evans, Hale, Herkes, Ito, Kahikina, Kanoho, Karamatsu, Kawakami, Lee, Magaoay, Morita, Nakasone, Oshiro B., Oshiro M., Say, Schatz, Shimbukuro, Sonson, Souki, Takai, Takamine, Takumi, Tsuji, Yamane, Yamashita

Legislators whose names are listed in red are up for re-election. Some were unopposed and elected in the primary election. Kanno retired from the Senate. House members listed in black retired or ran for another office.

Think about those legislators and your wallets when you vote this year. Do they deserve to be in office again after raising your taxes and cost of living?

Finally if you are planning to buy a big ticket item such as real estate, a new vehicle, computer, HDTV or anything else, do it before January 1. After that you pay more. This is also a good time to stock up on staples such as non-perishable food and drink, toilet paper, rice, paper towels, office supplies and much more. Everything purchased on or from the island of Oahu including rentals will all be subject to the higher tax.

Halloween Joy at Next Step Shelter

I spent the early evening hours of this past Saturday (October 28) at the State's Next Step Homeless Shelter in Kakaako. HawaiiReporter.com with help from Small Business Hawaii threw a Halloween Birthday Party for the children whose families reside at the recently created facility.

It was great to see the children enjoy the activities that were provided by the volunteers of HawaiiReporter & SBH as well as a Girl Scout troop who were there at the same time. After looking at the many photos I shot that night, you can see it in their eyes, that the children are happy to have an activity provided for them despite the economic situation that they are in. It makes anyone feel good to see little children just be children and enjoy the moment of the occasion.

Among the activities held that night included face painting, pumpkin painting, crafts (put on by the Girl Scouts), costume design (masks and some costume clothing were provided) and an air jumper set up outside. The kids loved em all including the jumper and of course the always popular eating! Big Mike and his wife Julia Allen from MacMouse.com provided free popcorn. The kids enjoyed a birthday cake and various snack foods that were distributed in little goodie bags.



Homelessness is a huge and always growing problem in Hawaii. Some of the factors contributing to Hawaii's homeless problem include lack of affordable housing (rentals and home ownership), the high cost of living and high taxes, and probably for some, drug abuse and other personal problems.

The Next Step Shelter is the current home for several families trying to make ends meet. The place seems to be nicely set up and is probably filled to capacity. Fortunately there are other homeless shelters set up to help other families and single people. The State just opened a new facility at the former Barber's Point Naval Station in Kalaeloa on Leeward Oahu. Some homeless people choose to stay on the street while many others cannot help themselves due to drug abuse and mental disabilities.

Hawaii's social service organizations are always spread thin providing many services for the homeless community. Many people in Hawaii are about a paycheck away from falling into the ranks of the homeless.

The Closing of Tower Records

The entire Tower Records chain consisting of 89 stores nationwide announced bankruptcy liquidation 3 weeks ago. All stores are now in having their final liquidation sale. CDs and DVDs are 25 to 30% off their regular, high retail prices. It is quite funny that prices of previous bargain bin CDs have risen before the closeout discounts took effect. People are waiting for deeper percentage cuts, though some artists and sections are already selling out.

The old brick and mortar Tower Records stores are victims of file sharing, digital music download stores (iTunes) and big box, discount retailers such as WalMart, Best Buy and Circuit City. This series of photos were taken at Hawaii's oldest Tower Records store on the corner of Keeaumoku and Makaloa Streets in Honolulu. I've been shopping at Tower Records for more than 20 years. The closing of this venerable institution will certainly be the end of an era for every music fan in Hawaii and around the world. Aloha Tower Records.

E-Waste Day

My Macintosh Plus

It was E-Waste day at the University of Hawaii today. This day was set aside by the U.H., the State Department of Education and Apple Computer. The public had a chance to get rid of their e-waste and not worry about sending it off to the landfill. Supposedly the e-waste collected will be shipped off to the mainland or somewhere, and have their components recycled.

It was a good opportunity for me to get rid of some of my household clutter. Among the items that I finally got around to letting go were the following:

• Macintosh II computer - I got this a few years ago for free, used it very minimally. Removed the hard drive before I let it go.
• Macintosh Centris 650 - After the internal CD ROM drive died, this became a problem child and project computer that I never finished. Today I decided to let it go. Took out the hard drive before this former Quadra went. It was a good computer that ran System 7.5.3. Spent a lot of time playing Sim City II on it. The main reason why these 2 old 680x0 Macs were let go is that I have no monitors for them now. The last Apple monitor I had died last year and I let that go at the last Comp USA recycling drive.
• Sony Betmax VCR - I bought this for $300 back in 1984; used it for 10 years until a belt broke. It sat in storage ever since and today was the day for it to go. Beta you were better! Aloha.
• Yamanaha DVD player - This thing was an el cheapo that I only bought 3 years ago, and it died after 2 years. Hardly got any use from it; $70 invested and lost on this guy.
• Sony CD Player - My last single play, CD only component died last year. Had it since 1991. Today it went.
• Assorted other stuff - older syquest cartridge drives, modems, wires, a FRED unit, and other stuff also went.

Now I have more room. Next I need to get rid of some of my old books and perhaps my "newer" old computers such as my Powercenter 150 and Power Mac 9500. I also have perfectly fine Mac SE and Mac Plus computers lying around. Anyone interested in buying these? I may sell them for a song. Email me.

And now the political spin: There is talk that some people would like to see a computer recycling tax be levied upon the consumers of Hawaii for every computer or TV they purchase. This is a bad, bad idea. Hawaii already has one of the highest tax burdens in the nation. We are already being taxed for way too many consumer transactions. The general excise tax is going to rise on January 1. Do we need a computer tax or as proponents would like to refer to it, a "computer recycling fee"? No!

Volunteer and corporate efforts such as today's E-Waste day are great ideas and should be implemented more often. A mandatory new tax is not. It will only add to the cost of living and doing business in Hawaii.

HECO Hearing

A public hearing was held on Monday (Oct. 23) at the Hawaii State Capitol auditorium on the subject of the island wide power failure that hit Hawaii Electric Company (HECO) on the day of the October 15 earthquake. HECO officials talked about the power outage that resulted from the earthquake that knocked power out on three islands -- Hawaii, Maui and Oahu. They also took some questions and criticisms from members of the public who were in attendance.

A couple of things to note is that if you lived closer to the power plant, your electricity was restored sooner than if you lived farther away. This was the case on October 15 as areas such as Pearl City and Aiea were activated before places that were farther away from the power generation plants.

HECO admitted that they had problems communicating with the media and public. One of the odd statements a spokesman made was that they tried with no avail to fax information out to media outlets. Faxing information? Hello, most people did not have any power! They ended up hand carrying some of those faxes to the media and presumably government locations.

Additional Links:

• Advocate Seeks Probe to Power Failures
• Dozens Grill HECO on Power Outage

Photo caption: Composite of people attending hearing at capitol auditorium, a grabshot of the actual HECO control room on Oct. 15 and a power grid map taken from their Power Point presentation.

Earthquake Aftermath - One Week Later

It has been a complete week since we were hit by a destructive earthquake that was felt nearly statewide. Damage reports and estimates continue to sprial upward, especially for everyone on the Big Island. It is quite possible that after all the damage is tallied the total will surpass the $100 million mark.

Several significant structures and places suffered heavy damage on the Big island of Hawaii. These include the historic Hulihee Palace and the Mokuaikaua Church, both in Kailua Kona. Further north in Kohala, a historic old stone smokestack was completely destroyed by the earthquake. The more than 100 year old structure simply collapsed. Much of a 150 year old church in North Kohala also sustained heavy damage. The cost to repair it has been put at nearly $3 million on the high end.

Elsewhere on the Big Island, Kawaihae Harbor, a major freight transit port for West Hawaii sustained major damage to its piers. The state was lucky enough to repair one of the piers in an effort to get freight moving again instead of forcing ships to go into Hilo and trucking the freight around the island back to Kona. Still serious work and upgrades will have to be made to that harbor in order to bring it back to full capacity.

Two Big Island hospitals, several schools, roads and bridges were also damaged. It will cost taxpayers a lot of money to have all of these public facilities fixed. Hopefully with the President declaring Hawaii a disaster area, the funds will come in to not only fix public facilities but also many private homes and businesses that may have also suffered quake damage.

On Oahu it was reported that historic Iolani Palace in Downtown Honolulu's Capitol District sustained some damage. Otherwise the biggest concern for Oahu residents have been the lack of electricity for most of last Sunday and the flow of timely information to the public shortly after the earthquake.

The Governor will be putting together a committee to study the communications problem and report on any solutions. A public hearing will be held tomorrow at the Hawaii State Capitol with the Public Utilities Commission and Hawaiian Electric to go over the power problems. The electric company is to issue a report before the end of the year.

Photo caption: Historic Iolani Palace is lit in this file photo that I shot in 2004.

Worst Places to Be Caught in during an Earthquake

Map from the USGS which tracks recent earthquakes of the last 2 weeks.

I've been a little jittery since last Sunday's earthquake, especially in my own home which is an older, multi-story condominium located in Honolulu. Last weeks tremblor produced a violent shake which I surely thought would have brought our building down at the time.

The day after the quake I spoke to the building manager. He tried to assure me that after they inspected the building, there were no structural cracks or damage. The main thing he was looking for were breakages in the plumbing. Luckily none occurred.

He also told me that it would take a 7.0 or greater to bring this structure down. Considering we were hit with a 6.7 jolt last week, it was quite possible that we were probably near to collapse. Of course with the epicenter being 153 miles away off the coast of the Big Island, I have to assume that by the time the shaking reached us, that 6.7 was more like a 6.0. Regardless it was very un-nerving.

Today I have some uneasiness about being in my own home. Fear in your own home is not a good thing. Perhaps I should move.

Now whenever I am doing certain things in my building the thought about an earthquake frequently crosses my mind. The most vulnerable times for me to be caught in a big earthquake while inside my building are as follows:

• In the elevator: This is probably the worst place to be caught, especially if the power goes out and if the building decides to fall. I don't know if elevator shafts are stronger than the rest of the building. Just the thought of being trapped in an elevator is very disheartening.
• In the shower: Taking a shower leaves anyone in a vulnerable position. You are wet and have no clothes on. Earthquake hits, you have to get out quickly. Drying off and putting on clothes will probably eat away at valuable seconds or minutes that you need to safely get out. The thought of running out naked is not very good.
• On the toilet: Doing your business at #2. Do you wipe or run?
• Egress to and from parking garage: There are a couple of dark areas in our parking garage. The thought of the building collapsing on me while in the car is not comforting. Plus our entry gates are electric. If I were close enough and the things did not open, I think I would try to ram them down. Worst is probably getting caught behind another vehicle whose driver may freeze in panic.

One of the things I have in mind to do besides possibly thinking of a move, is to check the City & County or State building codes. I wonder how strict they were in terms of earthquake protection they are for buildings constructed in the 1960s and 70s.

Many of Honolulu's multi-story condominiums and hotels were built in the boom years of the 1960s and 70s. I learned that the earthquake codes were updated in 1988. Buildings made after that are built to a higher standard. This is something worth looking into and a possible topic for a future posting.

EARTHQUAKE! - Part 3

I arrived at Hawaii Kai around 11:45. The drive over was uneventful. Freeway traffic was light. Traffic began to tighten up after passing several inactive stop lights along Kalanianaole Highway at several intersecting streets. I arrived at Sam's. This is where I spent the rest of the powerless day.

One of the new TV shows that I started watching this season is "Jericho." The story takes place in this mid-western town shortly after a series of nuclear blasts annihilates the rest of civilization. The citizens of Jericho live in isolation, mostly with no power, outside contact and help.

The afternoon in Hawaii Kai kind of reminded me of living in Jericho. Most of the entire island if not the state felt isolated in the minutes and hours after the earthquake. We had an islandwide power outage. Nothing worked. No TV. No computers. No internet. No fast food. No movies. Nothing.

I stayed overnight in Hawaii Kai. Spent most of the day talking, wondering when the power would return and trying to get a hold of my folks on the Big Island of Hawaii. We had a barbecue, cruised around the Hawaii Kai community, even took some photos of people standing in line at the few stores that were open and still letting customers in.

The power came back at 11:30 that night. It was already bed time. Who cared? The electricity on the island of Oahu was not fully restored until Monday afternoon.

It is now four days since the earthquake.

The political fallout is beginning as various people and entities debate what was done wrong and right. One of the early complaints have been the lack of timely information. People are complaining that the media did not have any information minutes after the quake.

Since power was off, most people could not get TV. While I was not aware of it at the time, I later learned that KITV Channel 4 was on for most of the day, broadcasting information from the newsroom with back-up power over the internet through their website The HawaiiChannel.com. Great, people on the mainland and around the world were able to get the latest news and images through the webcast. With no electricity, most people on Oahu and elsewhere in the state could not get the internet.

On Sunday mornings, most radio stations run public service and pre-recorded, automated programs. KSSK AM & FM broke into their programming about 20 minutes after the quake. I remember hearing their mid-day personality, Kathy With a K broadcast the first snippets of information on KSSK before the station resumed the public affairs show. It was not until about 8 AM that Michael W. Perry and Larry Price were on the air, that KSSK started to broadcast emergency programming through the rest of the day. Once they started, they received "kudos" for the live emergency broadcast. I thought they did a good job too.

Several other stations made it back to the air including Cox Radio's KRTR which I did catch later in the day.

Some government officials are now criticizing the timely flow of information. Governor Linda Lingle will be convening a task force to look into how communications could improve for the next major emergency. There is even talk of the state setting up its own radio station for emergency broadcasting.

The current damage estimates are climbing past the $75 million mark. The Big Island of Hawaii, sustained the brunt of the damage. Several major highways have damaged bridges. Travel may be compromised.

The Kawaihae Harbor, which services the west side of the island with incoming and outgoing freight was heavily damaged as giant concrete piers cracked and shifted, hindering the safe loading of containerized cargo. The state is responding by trying to make some quick fixes to bring the facility back up to as near normal condition as it was before the earthquake.

I eventually reached my folks via telephone on the day of the quake in the late afternoon. They all had a very frightful experience with the violent shaking. I have spoken to them several times since. My mom relayed her experience of being caught in the kitchen area and watching the entire house shake, rattle and roll. She said that there were all kinds of frightening sounds as the windows rattled, cupboards opened and many items spilled out and crashed to the floor below. She mentioned that several cups, glasses and plates were broken. When I asked about heirloom china that she had from the "tutus", she stated that none had broken. I know some of these items were in a display case, but I think she had them taped or tacked somehow to the case many years ago in anticipation of preventing them from breaking during a quake.

We have a stone wall that goes around our Honokaa property on the Big Island. My mom, dad and sister told me this old wall sustained some major damage in our back yard. Sad. I remember many years ago helping my Dad build this wall. Hopefully FEMA can come through and my folks will be able to get some funds to repair the damage. My dad tells me that a wooden fence will probably be put in its place.

Despite the damage, the best news is that everyone is OK. And that is good.

News about the damage, causes and the growing cost to fix everything up will continue for the weeks to come. Hawaii has come through fairly well despite the severity of this disaster. Hopefully we will be resilient enough to fully recover in a few months.

Photo captions: Top photo, batteries and ice were sold out at the Hawaii Kai Safeway on the day of the earthquake. Below, people waiting in line to get into the Hawaii Kai Safeway store.

EARTHQUAKE! - Part 2

It rained Sunday morning. I sat in my car for a few minutes in the parking lot at Washington Intermediate School in Honolulu. The rain poured over my car as I sat watching the droplets accumulate on the windows, at the same time thinking of what I would be doing next. I had just survived a big earthquake and a severe aftershock more than 40 minutes ago. What to do next?

I reached for my Sony transistor radio and scanned the dial for any station broadcasting information. Honolulu has about 30 radio stations on the dial, and most of them were not on the air, a result of the islandwide power outage caused by the earthquake. However Clear Channel radio's KSSK was on the air playing a pre-recorded public affairs program that morning. Upon hearing only that I wondered where the emergency information was.

I flipped to the VHF dial on my set and tuned into the NOAA weather service frequency. I was quite surprised to hear some kind of 2-way exchange between emergency workers on the air instead of the normal pre-taped weather forecast. This was interesting. I listened for a few minutes and learned that the earthquake was centered offshore near the Big Island of Hawaii. At that early hour it was stated to be at 6.3 on the Richter scale.

While listening to that broadcast, I thought to myself, I need water. I have 4 gallons of distilled water and an empty 4 gallon container to store more water. Unfortunately they were back at my apartment, and I had no intention of returning. I decided water should be a top priority just in case the power would stay off for a long time. Water is a basic necessity of life. I had some empty plastic water bottles in my car that I intended to redeem and get my 5¢ deposit back. Luckily I never found time to do that, and proceeded to retrieve those bottles from the back of my car. Got them and walked to the school area and filled them up at the water fountain. The water pressure was still strong despite having no power at the school. I managed to fill the 4 small bottles that were in my car.

Next on my agenda was food. I am rudimentarily prepared for a hurricane with non-perishable canned foods stored at my apartment. There was no food in my car.

Near Washington Intermediate School is a Zippy's Restaurant. I proceeded to take a short walk there. For some reason I took my radio with me, which by this time KSSK was broadcasting emergency updates from various callers around the state with personalities Michael W. Perry and Larry Price in control. Things on that station were now going as expected. They were in emergency broadcast mode.

At Zippys', they were selling stuff from their bento stand and the bakery area. The line was short, and I ended up buying 4 glazed doughnuts. All purchases this day would be cash only. Credit cards did not work at most vendors since they need electricity to be processed through the conmputerized card readers. Fortunately I had about $60 cash in my wallet and I knew I could stretch that for a few days if necessary, assuming that vendors would not price gouge their customers.

Since I have no cell phone, I decided to use the pay phone at Zippys. A local call to my friend in Hawaii Kai did not go through. Even though the payphone had a dialtone, it would not take any coins. The coin portion is probably powered by electricity and it did not activate. Fine. Since there was a dialtone I decided to try calling my parents on the Big island of Hawaii using my WalMart calling card.

Dialing the 800 number proved to be successful. However after entering my card information, I was told by the computer voice on the other side that the minutes on my card had expired. It gave me the option of buying more minutes. This was an emergency situation and I needed to call. So I bought $11 of extra minutes on the card. I thought it was quite weird that I could carry out this automated transaction at a phone booth while most of everything else electronic in the city was non-functional. I got my minutes. Lesson learned, be sure to take a calling card and credit card plus cash while you are out there.

Calling the Big Island at 9:30 that morning proved futile. After the calling card service accepted the numbers I dialed routing the call to the destination in Honokaa yielded either a rapid busy signal or a computerized reply that service was not available. Not expected since that island took the brunt of the tremor and the electricity and phone were probably out.

Went back to the car, sat and listened to the radio until the weather cleared up. Nearly 3 hours had now passed since the earthquake started. I decided to leave Washington School and drove back to my building. I found street parking and went to the lobby. I needed to use a restroom and fortunately someone had the first floor facility open. Sitting in the empty lobby was a Korean lady and her 2 small children. I talked to them for a few minutes and learned that they were residents of the building. The children were frightened by the shaking and did not want to return to their apartment. I don't blame them. Getting stuck in a high rise during a major earthquake is very unsettling.



After a few moments of brief conversation I walked over to the Don Quijote store not very far away from the building. The place was packed with people. The outside food court area was filled with many people who were either standing in line waiting at windows of the few vendors who stayed open. Many others were seated at the tables just talking about the morning's events. I filled some of my apartment neighbors in with the information I knew after listening to the radio. No one waiting outside the store had a radio while I was briefly there.



The main store was darkened but not closed. Store management were letting customers in a few at a time and escorted them around the store to shop for non-perishables. The line was quite long outside of the store. I took a few pictures but decided not to join in the line.

After that I walked away, talking briefly to a taxi driver waiting outside the store. He told me that this was the first time he ever felt an earthquake. I briefly told him about my earthquake experiences of the past on the Big Island of Hawaii.



Afterward I took a short walk around the block, shot a few pictures before returning to the area outside my apartment building. At this point it was already 11:20. I found another telephone booth and this time making a local pay call worked. I called my friend in Hawaii Kai and he said to come over to his place. I tried calling my folks on the Big Island but still could not get through.

EARTHQUAKE!

As many know by now, Hawaii was hit by the biggest earthquake in at least 20 years.

Earthquakes are common in Hawaii, especially on or near the Big Island of Hawaii. Over the years the Big Island has been hit by several major earthquakes including the ones I felt and survived on that island in 1973 and 1975. Those two earthquakes were measured at 6.2 and 7.2 on the Richter Scale. Needless to say they were events that bring bad memories back everytime I get caught in another one.

On Sunday morning, October 15 Hawaii was victim to a strong 6.7 earthquake and 6.0 aftershock minutes later. Unlike the earthquakes I felt on the Big Island, this one occurred in my Honolulu home located in a high rise building in the Ala Moana area.

The day started normally. I woke up at 5, hopped on the computer as always... checked email, a few websites and moved on with the production of the Small Business News print edition for next month. Around 6:40 that morning I decided I was hungry and wanted to go out to get a quick bite to eat. Took a shower, got dressed and prepared to leave.

I was just about ready to go out the door when the first trembler hit. It started off as a dull roar and quickly grew in strength, shaking my little apartment back and forth, rattling stuff on the shelves, and windows. I was frightened. I live alone. I cried out to myself "No! No! No!" I had been in big ones before and this one seemed to be the worst. The violent shaking subsided, and I hurriedly tried to gather stuff up. I called my friend Sam in Hawaii Kai and asked if they felt the earthquake. Surely they did I was told. I expressed my thoughts on the possibility of leaving the premises. He told me to do just that.

Now I am not entirely clear on this since everything happened so quickly. A few minutes after the first quake hit, the second one came with a large but shorter burst. The building once again jumped up and down for a few seconds. I remember running out of my end of hall apartment and headed to the outside balcony near the stairwell. The shaking stopped.

I went back into my apartment, hastily grabbed my stuff which consisted of my Macintosh iBook laptop computer, the mouse, power supply, my Canon 300D digital camera and its bag of accessories, my iPod Shuffle, a large flashlight, Sony portable radio, and an extra set of clothes. Probably not all of the ideal things I should be taking with me in an emergency situation! I ran down the hallway and decided to use the other stairwell of our building which opens up to the outside. The one nearest my unit is enclosed and the thought of being trapped in that, in the dark on the possibility of a complete building collapse was far from comforting.

Passing by some of my neighbors in the long hallway, I quickly told them it may be a good idea to leave the premises. I scrambled down the far stairwell before reaching the parking garage level where my car is parked. I quickly opened the trunk of the car and dumped the stuff in there except for the radio and the small pouch with my iPod Shuffle and tiny Sony U30 digital camera in it. I was not sure if the electric run roll up gates at the bottom of our parking garage was in the "up" position. I yelled at some people across the street asking if roll up doors were opened. They somewhat told me "no".

I then decided to go down the last flight of stairs to the 1st floor of the parking level. Since the stairs is a fire escape, once you close the door behind yon on the ground level, it locks. I was smart enough to know this and just left the door open with my body. A few people were hanging around the door area. I saw the taxi driver guy who lives in my building and asked if he knew the roll-up was open. He said it was and pointed ar a car that was leaving. That was all I needed to know. I clumsily scrambled back up the dark 3 floor stairwell and got into my car.

Hoping that another strong aftershock would not hit as I was driving out of the parking garage, I made a hasty retreat out of the building with my car. In a moment I was on the street. This was about 20 minutes after the quake had occurred.

Once on the street and asked myself where should I go? In those early morning minutes my common sense told me to get out any area where a tall building could fall on me. I decided to make a short drive to Washington Intermediate School, a location that I know mostly as the polling place for my voting district. I was there in a very short time, pulled into the parking lot and stopped my car.

Nuclear Test from North Korea

The world just became a more dangerous place. It was reported yesterday that the rogue communist nation of North Korea has test fired an atomic bomb of some sort. The underground test of their nuclear weapon was recorded as a non-natural occurring earthquake and has chimed in at either 3.6 to 4.2 on the Richter scale.

Needless to say, the atomic blast has incurred the wrath of the civilized world. President George W. Bush said in a press conference today:

"Last night the government of North Korea proclaimed to the world that it had conducted a nuclear test. We're working to confirm North Korea's claim. Nonetheless, such a claim itself constitutes a threat to international peace and security. The United States condemns this provocative act. Once again North Korea has defied the will of the international community, and the international community will respond."

"The North Korean regime remains one of the world's leading proliferator of missile technology, including transfers to Iran and Syria. The transfer of nuclear weapons or material by North Korea to states or non-state entities would be considered a grave threat to the United States, and we would hold North Korea fully accountable of the consequences of such action."

North Korea's atomic bomb test is a major threat to the region including Hawaii. In July the North Koreans test fired a long range missile that reported had the capability to reach Hawaii, Alaska and possibly the west coast of the Continental U.S. Reports at the time stated the test did not go very well as the missile flew for only a minute before being destroyed in flight. The fact that this communist nation has the notion and the technology to test and develop such a weapon including a full fledged atomic bomb, will continue to send an uneasy chill around the world.

Certainly the neighboring countries next to North Korea are not going to take this lying down. It is highly possible that a new arms race will be started in the region as Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and other countries in the region begin or accelerate their plans to develop their own nuclear warheads. China, India, Pakistan and Russia already have nuclear arms.

The worst case scenario is the possibility that North Korea can or may have already sold nuclear arms and technology to other hostile nations such as Iran and terrorist groups such as Al Qaeda. A chilling prospect if there ever was one.

Certainly this event is a new chapter in our fragile, unstable and unpredictable world. No one is safe and some kind of action is needed.

Photo: North Korean dictator Kim Jong-il.

The Grand Re-Opening of Don Quijote

Honolulu's former Daiei Store officially reopened this past Friday as Don Quijote (DQ or "Donki") stores after an extensive remodeling and reimaging of the Kaheka Street store was completed. Thousands of shoppers as well as the curious flocked to the former Daiei store. People came to check the new layout as well as the expanded product mix over the weekend.

From everything I read, the Friday morning Grand Opening was a crowded, busy affair. The store opened in grand style with a traditional Hawaiian blessing as well as musical entertainment that reached a climax with a concert appearance by ukelele wizard musician, Jake Shimabukuro.

Due to my work schedule, I did not venture to the new Don Quijote Store until late that afternoon. Things were still very busy long after the live entertainment ended.

One thing everyone first notices upon their arrival to DQ is the "jungle" like decor consisting of plastic tropical foliage spread throughout the store. Plastic vines and flowers line the shelves, cover parts of the ceilings, adorn the signage and some of the products. Many of the shelving and display fixtures have been covered to feature "fake" wood to add to the tropical setting.

The tropical stuff is mixed with kitschy Japanese-like sign displays, products, and symbols hanging from the walls, shelves and the ceilings. This all creates a rather unique, but distinctly tropical Japanese atmosphere. I almost expect the two Peanut Sisters from the Mothra movie to pop up somewhere and start singing their famous theme song.

Don Quijote could certainly pass for a tourist attraction, which it became judging from the herds of shoppers and curious onlookers. It is too bad that they have a "no photos" inside policy. I think for newcomers and certainly for old time Holiday Mart and Daiei customers like myself, the temptation to photograph the inside of this new store was just too great to resist.

The product mix in the store has certainly expanded and grown. They now have a whole section to hawk "As Seen on TV" type of products... you know, those novel foot massagers, ginso knives and other K-Tel and Spence-Cliff types of products. The Hawaiian gifts section has expanded, along with the clothing department and the electronics department. Certainly more flatscreen TVs, digital cameras, boomboxes, telephones and cheaply made Chinese electronics are featured here. One of the hottest specials they had going in electronics was a $19 1 gigabyte SD memory card. I passed since none of my devices use the card. And they did not have any compact flash cards.

Of course the main reason why I and many other customers go to this store, is for the food. The grocery department, fresh fish, produce, deli, bakery and Asian foods are all still there with some products selling for lower than normal prices. I bought a box of cereal for $1.77. Hopefully they will offer more low price products, despite some fears that regular prices may creep up. Time will tell.

One section that is missed from the old Daiei days is the "Dollar Store" section. This is where a lot of Japanese kitchenware, office supplies and miscellaneous items were on sale for a dollar each. I used to buy a lot of plastic paper folders and CD boxes from the Dollar Store. It is sorely missed.

Other than that, the new Don Quijote Store looks like it will be a smashing success with local shoppers and perhaps even some tourists. Don Quijote's former Daiei Stores in Pearl City, Waipahu and Kailua will be getting similar makeovers in the near future. Plans are also on the books for the chain's expansion into the continental U.S.






Additional Links:

Don Quijote Website (may not be working)

Discussion Topic at HawaiiThreads.com

Mel's Don Quijote Photos on BuzzNet

Mel's Don Quijote Photos on Flickr

Ryan's Don Quijote Photos

My photos taken with Sony U30 pocket digital camera. Top photo: electronics department, crowded check-out line, and food court area.

They Built It, But No One's Riding

With the coming approval of Honolulu's $4 billion fixed rail project, the movers and shakers in this town and state ought to note the difficulties people are having with their rail system in San Jose, California. As published in HawaiiReporter.com yesterday, Hawaii residents should be leary of the mistakes made in San Jose.

Lowell Gratton of the American Dream Coalition warns:

Today, the average light-rail car carries only 15 passengers, the lowest in the U.S., and averages just over 20 miles an hour. Roads that provide 90+ percent of passenger miles receive only 15 percent of transportation funds. Eighty percent of funds go for transit, which provides only a maximum of 6 percent of trips and some estimate 1 percent.

The Metropolitan Transportation Commission reports the cost of one rider, one way, one-day, would be $100.30. Out and back, that's $200 a day, or $1,000 per week per person.

Because of the high cost of BART, Bay Area transit ridership today is significantly less than 20 years ago. And because of the high cost of light rail, Vally Transportation Authority (VTA) ridership is significantly less than 15 years ago.

The Honolulu City Council should terminate the proposed rail project for our city.

Read the entire article: Honolulu Beware: Rail Transportation, The Silicon Valley/San Jose Experience

The Governor's Race

The Governor's race heated up last night after the airing of the first and possibly only public debate between Governor Linda Lingle and Democratic challenger Randy Iwase, a former State Senator. I watched the televised debate last night on KITV 4 and nothing changed my mind about either candidate.

If Randy Iwase was running for the local Beatles Fan Club, I would vote for him in an instant. The guy is one of the biggest Beatles fans in Hawaii. He definitely is not the right person to be Governor of Hawaii.

He is a Democrat and as far as I am concerned, most Democrats can't be trusted, especially when it comes to economic issues. One of the first questions out of the box in last night's debate centered around the possible repeal of the General Excise Tax on food and non-prescription drugs. Mr. Iwase's answer was to "provide the taxpayers with a credit" for food and drug instead of an overall elimination of this tax on these items, something which the Lingle administration has championed in the past. Iwase alluded to the fact that the state relies a lot on the income generated form the GET. He also voted against tax credits in the past.

Guess what? The State should learn to live within its means and perhaps cut back on spending if taxes are cut. I certainly would support a tax cut of any type on the GET or anything else.

Governor Lingle has not been the shining example of delivering us with tax relief. In her most infamous action during her first term in office, she was the person who let HB1309 become law without her signature in 2005. This is the bill that became Act 247 which authorized the counties to increase the General Excise tax to pay for transportation projects.

The bill was written specifically for the purpose of funding Oahu's $4 billion mass transit system proposal. The Governor let this one go on the concept that this was a "home rule" issue and that once the state grants the counties the power to collect the 12.5% tax increase, that they would not only collect but administer the program.

Guess what? The City & County of Honolulu, the only county in the State to implement the tax, ended up not following up with their due diligence and left the tax collection process in the hands of the State Tax Department. I am sure the Lingle administration was burned by this outcome and I know for a fact that the tax department will be a reluctant player in the whole process as they are going to have to set up the system and implement collection of this onerous tax increase starting on January 1.

So for this taxing fiasco, I give the Lingle administration an F!

Still I have somewhat learned that you can't be myopic with the political process. For the most part the Lingle administration has done a good job of running things at the executive level. She hired some great people to work in her cabinet and manage the various state agencies. The business community has sung the praises of having Mark Recktenwald in as the Director of the Dept. of Commerce and Consumer Affairs (DCCA) as the agency has over the past 4 years streamlined several processes that makes things easier for business.

On the economic front our economy has improved over the past 4 years. Tourism hit record levels last year with more than 7 million visitors coming to Hawaii and spending their hard earned cash here. Unemployment is at an all time low in Hawaii.

Some of the other accomplishments of the Lingle administration that come to mind include getting more Hawaiian people on their Hawaiian Homes Lands, establishing some new temporary shelters for the homeless, supporting and enacting tougher laws on fighting crime, implementation of the Hawaii Sex Offender Registry, and supporting the repeal of the gas cap law. Some of the key issues of her tenure were missed, including reforming the education system to allow for local school boards and eliminating the tax on food, medicine and rent.

For most of the things that the Lingle administration did not get done, blame can be put mostly on the Democrat dominated State Legislature. While the Governor submits a hefty number of bills each year for consideration, it is the legislative leadership, held exclusively by the Democrats, who decide what bills to hear, support, modify and pass. Has been like that for many, many years. If people want to see the Governor's administration do better in the next 4 years, re-elect Governor Lingle and put in more Republican candidates as State Legislators to both the House and Senate.

Finally getting back to yesterday's debate, a lot of focus shifted to the Iraq war and the Governor's support for the war and her friendship with President George W. Bush. While the Iraq War is an important national and international issue, it pales in importance when faced with the day to day task of running our State efficiently and with fiscal responsibility. That is one of the main tasks of the Governor; run the state to the best of her ability. The war is something that is mostly beyond the control of the office.

Bob 2 Congress

I shot this pic of State Senator Bob Hogue with his supporters at the May GOP Hawaii convention. Senator Hogue is making a run for Congress this year. Hogue is running on a platform of fiscal responsibility and being positive, responsive voice for Hawaii in the nation's capitol. Hogue is being supported by the small business community and has been endorsed by PAYCHECKS HAWAII, the political affiliate of Small Business Hawaii. Vote for Bob on November 7.

As most people know, Senator Hogue is also active in the local sports community writing a column for MidWeek, doing play by play calls of various ballgames and formerly anchoring the KHON TV News sports desk. Bob has also been a coach for Academy of the Pacific.

He was elected to the Hawaii State Senate in 2000 and is part of the Senate Minority Caucus, having served as floor leader for several years. While in the Senate, Hogue has been on the Education, Commerce and Consumer Affairs and Health Committees. Senator Hogue voted against the increase to the General Excise Tax in the 2005 session.

• Bob Hogue 2 Congress Website