Hawaii may keep track of all Web sites visited

Declan McCullagh
January 26, 2012
http://news.cnet.com/8301-31921_3-57366443-281/hawaii-may-keep-track-of-all-web-sites-visited

Hawaii's legislature is weighing an unprecedented proposal to curb the privacy of Aloha State residents: requiring Internet providers to keep track of every Web site their customers visit.

Its House of Representatives has scheduled a hearing this morning on a new bill requiring the creation of virtual dossiers on state residents. The measure, H.B. 2288, says "Internet destination history information" and "subscriber's information" such as name and address must be saved for two years.

H.B. 2288, which was introduced Friday, says the dossiers must include a list of Internet Protocol addresses and domain names visited. Democratic Rep. John Mizuno of Oahu is the lead sponsor; Mizuno also introduced H.B. 2287, a computer crime bill, at the same time last week.

Last summer, U.S. Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas) managed to persuade a divided committee in the U.S. House of Representatives to approve his data retention proposal, which doesn't go nearly as far as Hawaii's. (Smith, currently Hollywood's favorite Republican, has become better known as the author of the controversial Stop Online Piracy Act, or SOPA.)

Democrat Jill Tokuda, the Hawaii Senate's majority whip, who introduced a companion bill, S.B. 2530, in the Senate, told CNET that her legislation was intended to address concerns raised by Rep. Kymberly Pine, the first Republican elected to her Oahu district since statehood and the House minority floor leader.

"I was asked to introduce the Senate companions on these Internet security related bills by Representative Kymberly Marcos Pine after her own personal experience in this area," Tokuda said. "I would defer to her on the origins of these bills as she has done the research and outreach, and been the main champion of this effort."

Pine, who did not immediately respond to queries, has been targeted by a disgruntled Web designer, Eric Ryan, who launched KymPineIsACrook.com and claims she owes him money, according to an article last summer in the Hawaii Reporter. Her e-mail account was also reportedly hacked around the same time. The article said Pine would advocate for "tougher cyber laws at the Hawaii State Capitol" as a result.

"We must do everything we can to protect the people of Hawaii from these attacks and give prosecutors the tools to ensure justice is served for victims," Pine said at the time.

Whatever its sponsors' motivations, the bill isn't exactly being welcomed by Hawaiian Internet companies.

"This bill represents a radical violation of privacy and opens the door to rampant Fourth Amendment violations," says Daniel Leuck, chief executive of Honolulu-based software design boutique Ikayzo, who submitted testimony opposing the bill. He adds: "Even forcing telephone companies to record everyone's conversations, which is unthinkable, would be less of an intrusion."

Mizuno's proposal currently specifies no privacy protections, such as placing restrictions on what Internet providers can do with this information (like selling user profiles to advertisers) or requiring that police obtain a court order before perusing the virtual dossiers of Hawaiian citizens. Also absent are security requirements such as mandating the use of encryption.

Because the wording is so broad and applies to any company that "provides access to the Internet," Mizuno's legislation could sweep in far more than AT&T, Verizon, and Hawaii's local Internet providers. It could also impose sweeping new requirements on coffee shops, bookstores, and hotels frequented by the over 6 million tourists who visit the islands each year.

"H.B. 2288 raises all of the traditional concerns associated with data retention, and then some," Kate Dean, head of the U.S. Internet Service Provider Association in Washington, D.C., which counts Verizon and AT&T as members, told CNET. "And this may be the broadest mandate we've seen."

Even the Justice Department has only lobbied the U.S. Congress to record Internet Protocol addresses assigned to individuals--users' origin IP address, in other words. It hasn't publicly demanded that companies record the destination IP addresses as well.

In Washington, D.C., the fight over data retention requirements has been simmering since the Justice Department pushed the topic in 2005, a development that was first reported by CNET. Proposals publicly surfaced in the U.S. Congress the following year, and President Bush's attorney general, Alberto Gonzales said it's an issue that "must be addressed." So, eventually, did FBI director Robert Mueller.

Andy Irons dies en route to Hawaii

http://sports.espn.go.com/los-angeles/news/story?id=5757369

November 3, 2010
Andy Irons dies en route to Hawaii

Three-time world surfing champion Andy Irons died Tuesday. He was 32.

Irons contracted an illness in Portugal in October and missed his Round 1 and 2 heats at the Rip Curl Search Puerto Rico stop on the ASP Men's World Tour on Saturday. He was traveling back home to Hawaii when, on an overnight layover in Dallas, was found by staff at the Grand Hyatt Hotel at the Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport after he failed to respond to a wakeup call.

An official statement by Billabong, one of Irons' sponsors, said he was suffering from Dengue Fever. "He fell ill in Puerto Rico and went to see the contest doctor," said Stephane Tenailleau, European spokesman for Billabong. "The doctor told him to withdraw from the contest and go back home to fix the disease."

On Wednesday, Tarrant County Medical Examiner Nizam Peerwani ruled out trauma and foul play in Irons' death, but said the cause and manner of death are pending due to completion of lab tests, which could take several weeks.

A report in the Honolulu Star Advertiser, citing the same medical examiner, said that Irons' death is being investigated as a possible methadone overdose and reported the drug was found along with other prescription drugs at the scene.

Irons was arguably the most dominant surfer of the early to mid 2000s. In addition to his three consecutive world titles from 2002 to 2004, Irons had 20 World Tour victories and four Triple Crown Of Surfing titles. But more significant than the statistics was his reputation as perhaps the only true rival nine-time World Champion Kelly Slater has ever known, and the two engaged in some of the most memorable title races in history.

Irons returned to the World Tour this year after a one-year hiatus. While his results had been inconsistent, a win at the Billabong Pro Tahiti in August signified a return to form in the kind of powerful, barreling surf in which he made his reputation.

Fellow surfer Reef McIntosh, who grew up with Irons on Kauai, said Wednesday from Hawaii: "I talked to Phil [Irons], I talked to Bruce [Irons] -- everyone's just crying. I was surfing Mavericks with Shane [Dorian] and everyone else and saw all these missed calls. My girlfriend called and said Andy had died. I didn't return these calls because I didn't want to drive and cry at the same time. Everyone on Kauai is crying right now."

Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.

NFL to play 2011 Pro Bowl in Hawaii on Sunday before Super Bowl XLV

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/thehuddle/post/2010/03/nfl-to-play-2011-pro-bowl-in-hawaii-on-sunday-before-super-bowl-xlv/1

Mar 02, 2010
NFL to play 2011 Pro Bowl in Hawaii on Sunday before Super Bowl XLV

The Pro Bowl will be back in Hawaii next year, but the NFL announced Tuesday it will play the all-star game before the Super Bowl for the second consecutive year.

"Playing the Pro Bowl before the Super Bowl generated more excitement and interest in the event and also kicked off Super Bowl week in an innovative new way," said NFL senior vice president of events Frank Supovitz in a statement released by the league.

"We are pleased to return to the state of Hawaii, which has embraced the Pro Bowl for 30 years."

The Pro Bowl will also be played at Aloha Stadium in 2012, but the game's future after that is unclear.

It was staged at Miami's Sun Life Stadium the Sunday before Super Bowl XLIV, the first time the game had been a precursor to the Super Bowl and the first time since 1979 it had not been played in Hawaii.

-- Nate Davis

AP source: 2010 Pro Bowl will be in Miami

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gEsdEncVZxw_oMfgldlFTStJfnvAD95COD8G1

AP source: 2010 Pro Bowl will be in Miami
By TIM REYNOLDS
12-30-8

MIAMI (AP) — The Pro Bowl will be played one week before the Super Bowl in 2010 and both games will be staged in Dolphin Stadium, a person directly involved in the decision told The Associated Press on Monday.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the NFL has not announced the move, but Hawaii's governor and Honolulu's mayor both confirmed the situation later Monday.

"While I am disappointed the Pro Bowl likely will not be played in Hawaii in 2010, I respect the NFL's decision to play the post season all-star game in the same city as the Super Bowl, one week before the Super Bowl, on a one-year test basis," Hawaii Gov. Linda Lingle said in a statement.

It's not a new notion to have the game moved up to take place between the conference championship games and the Super Bowl. The NFL has discussed it multiple times in recent years, and commissioner Roger Goodell told the AP last month that having the game precede the Super Bowl would avoid a "somewhat anticlimactic" ending to the season.

"Plans for future Pro Bowls are not final, but we have stated publicly several times that we are giving strong consideration to moving the Pro Bowl to the week before the Super Bowl," NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy said. "We also have been exploring playing future Pro Bowls at the site of the Super Bowl as well as in Honolulu."

The Pro Bowl has been held in Honolulu since 1980, and it's probable that the game will return to Hawaii after 2010, although not on the permanent basis as has been the case over the past three decades. Lingle said she was hopeful a deal could be struck in time for the 2011 game to return to Honolulu, and the city's mayor, Mufi Hannemann, told The AP that he also is optimistic for eventual Pro Bowls.

"It's not that this comes as a surprise," Hannemann said. "The NFL has made it known for some time now that they were looking for some sort of rotational basis. We just need to get a new agreement with the NFL, whether it's every year or every two years or every three years. The ball's in our court to get that done."

It won't be South Florida's first Pro Bowl: the 1975 game took place in Miami's Orange Bowl, during a period when the site rotated annually.

Barring a schedule change, next season's Pro Bowl will take place Jan. 31, 2010, with the Super Bowl that year on Feb. 7. The league's plan is for players on the AFC and NFC championship squads not to take part in the Pro Bowl.

Miami was awarded the 2010 Super Bowl three years ago, a record 10th time the game will come to the Dolphins' home city. The notion of adding the Pro Bowl to the lineup in South Florida was first discussed several months ago. It's not clear when the final decision was made to move the game.

Hawaii tourism officials have lobbied in recent months to extend the game's current contract, which expires after this season's Pro Bowl, pointing to the fact that it's been sold out every year since moving to Honolulu and generates about $30.5 million in visitor spending and tax revenues.

Lloyd I. Unebasami, the interim CEO of the Hawaii Tourism Authority, told The AP that his organization — which has been involved in negotiations to extend the contract — had not yet received anything official from the NFL about the switch.

"We're working toward assuring ourselves that we'll be one of the Pro Bowl stops of the NFL," said Unebasami, adding that his organization is also working on luring international soccer matches to Hawaii in 2010 — just in case the Pro Bowl isn't there and creates a void in the state's sport-tourism landscape.

Earlier this year, Hawaii's state government released $11 million for lighting and roofing improvements at Aloha Stadium, part of ongoing upgrades designed to refurbish and modernize the aging stadium. State officials have also considered demolishing the facility and building a new stadium.

Losing the Pro Bowl, combined with slowdowns in tourism because of the sluggish economy, is a double-dose of bad news for Honolulu, which estimates that 25,000 people came from out-of-state for Pro Bowls.

"It's not a shock because in talking with the NFL last year and this year, you realize the potential was there that it wouldn't stay in Honolulu forever and ever," said the mayor, Hannemann.

Russian Professor Predicts End of U.S.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123051100709638419.html

DECEMBER 29, 2008
As if Things Weren't Bad Enough, Russian Professor Predicts End of U.S.
In Moscow, Igor Panarin's Forecasts Are All the Rage; America 'Disintegrates' in 2010
By ANDREW OSBORN

MOSCOW -- For a decade, Russian academic Igor Panarin has been predicting the U.S. will fall apart in 2010. For most of that time, he admits, few took his argument -- that an economic and moral collapse will trigger a civil war and the eventual breakup of the U.S. -- very seriously. Now he's found an eager audience: Russian state media.

In recent weeks, he's been interviewed as much as twice a day about his predictions. "It's a record," says Prof. Panarin. "But I think the attention is going to grow even stronger."

Prof. Panarin, 50 years old, is not a fringe figure. A former KGB analyst, he is dean of the Russian Foreign Ministry's academy for future diplomats. He is invited to Kremlin receptions, lectures students, publishes books, and appears in the media as an expert on U.S.-Russia relations.

But it's his bleak forecast for the U.S. that is music to the ears of the Kremlin, which in recent years has blamed Washington for everything from instability in the Middle East to the global financial crisis. Mr. Panarin's views also fit neatly with the Kremlin's narrative that Russia is returning to its rightful place on the world stage after the weakness of the 1990s, when many feared that the country would go economically and politically bankrupt and break into separate territories.

A polite and cheerful man with a buzz cut, Mr. Panarin insists he does not dislike Americans. But he warns that the outlook for them is dire.

"There's a 55-45% chance right now that disintegration will occur," he says. "One could rejoice in that process," he adds, poker-faced. "But if we're talking reasonably, it's not the best scenario -- for Russia." Though Russia would become more powerful on the global stage, he says, its economy would suffer because it currently depends heavily on the dollar and on trade with the U.S.

Mr. Panarin posits, in brief, that mass immigration, economic decline, and moral degradation will trigger a civil war next fall and the collapse of the dollar. Around the end of June 2010, or early July, he says, the U.S. will break into six pieces -- with Alaska reverting to Russian control.

In addition to increasing coverage in state media, which are tightly controlled by the Kremlin, Mr. Panarin's ideas are now being widely discussed among local experts. He presented his theory at a recent roundtable discussion at the Foreign Ministry. The country's top international relations school has hosted him as a keynote speaker. During an appearance on the state TV channel Rossiya, the station cut between his comments and TV footage of lines at soup kitchens and crowds of homeless people in the U.S. The professor has also been featured on the Kremlin's English-language propaganda channel, Russia Today.

Mr. Panarin's apocalyptic vision "reflects a very pronounced degree of anti-Americanism in Russia today," says Vladimir Pozner, a prominent TV journalist in Russia. "It's much stronger than it was in the Soviet Union."
Mr. Pozner and other Russian commentators and experts on the U.S. dismiss Mr. Panarin's predictions. "Crazy ideas are not usually discussed by serious people," says Sergei Rogov, director of the government-run Institute for U.S. and Canadian Studies, who thinks Mr. Panarin's theories don't hold water.

Mr. Panarin's résumé includes many years in the Soviet KGB, an experience shared by other top Russian officials. His office, in downtown Moscow, shows his national pride, with pennants on the wall bearing the emblem of the FSB, the KGB's successor agency. It is also full of statuettes of eagles; a double-headed eagle was the symbol of czarist Russia.

The professor says he began his career in the KGB in 1976. In post-Soviet Russia, he got a doctorate in political science, studied U.S. economics, and worked for FAPSI, then the Russian equivalent of the U.S. National Security Agency. He says he did strategy forecasts for then-President Boris Yeltsin, adding that the details are "classified."

In September 1998, he attended a conference in Linz, Austria, devoted to information warfare, the use of data to get an edge over a rival. It was there, in front of 400 fellow delegates, that he first presented his theory about the collapse of the U.S. in 2010.

"When I pushed the button on my computer and the map of the United States disintegrated, hundreds of people cried out in surprise," he remembers. He says most in the audience were skeptical. "They didn't believe me."

At the end of the presentation, he says many delegates asked him to autograph copies of the map showing a dismembered U.S.

He based the forecast on classified data supplied to him by FAPSI analysts, he says. He predicts that economic, financial and demographic trends will provoke a political and social crisis in the U.S. When the going gets tough, he says, wealthier states will withhold funds from the federal government and effectively secede from the union. Social unrest up to and including a civil war will follow. The U.S. will then split along ethnic lines, and foreign powers will move in.

California will form the nucleus of what he calls "The Californian Republic," and will be part of China or under Chinese influence. Texas will be the heart of "The Texas Republic," a cluster of states that will go to Mexico or fall under Mexican influence. Washington, D.C., and New York will be part of an "Atlantic America" that may join the European Union. Canada will grab a group of Northern states Prof. Panarin calls "The Central North American Republic." Hawaii, he suggests, will be a protectorate of Japan or China, and Alaska will be subsumed into Russia.

"It would be reasonable for Russia to lay claim to Alaska; it was part of the Russian Empire for a long time." A framed satellite image of the Bering Strait that separates Alaska from Russia like a thread hangs from his office wall. "It's not there for no reason," he says with a sly grin.

Interest in his forecast revived this fall when he published an article in Izvestia, one of Russia's biggest national dailies. In it, he reiterated his theory, called U.S. foreign debt "a pyramid scheme," and predicted China and Russia would usurp Washington's role as a global financial regulator.

Americans hope President-elect Barack Obama "can work miracles," he wrote. "But when spring comes, it will be clear that there are no miracles."

The article prompted a question about the White House's reaction to Prof. Panarin's forecast at a December news conference. "I'll have to decline to comment," spokeswoman Dana Perino said amid much laughter.

For Prof. Panarin, Ms. Perino's response was significant. "The way the answer was phrased was an indication that my views are being listened to very carefully," he says.

The professor says he's convinced that people are taking his theory more seriously. People like him have forecast similar cataclysms before, he says, and been right. He cites French political scientist Emmanuel Todd. Mr. Todd is famous for having rightly forecast the demise of the Soviet Union -- 15 years beforehand. "When he forecast the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1976, people laughed at him," says Prof. Panarin.

Hawaii Makes Big Bet on Electric Cars

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122826300426773887.html

U.S. NEWS DECEMBER 2, 2008
Hawaii Makes Big Bet on Electric Cars
By REBECCA SMITH

Hawaii's governor unveiled a plan to create an electric-car network for the islands by 2012, part of an ambitious effort to wean the state from near-complete dependence on oil for its energy needs.

The plan, put forth by Republican Gov. Linda Lingle, calls for creating a public-private partnership with closely held Better Place to create 70,000 to 100,000 recharging points that would support plug-in electric cars expected to be available after 2011. Hawaii's biggest utility, Hawaiian Electric Co., also will aid in the rollout, and may offer special recharging rates, but doesn't intend to be an investor.

Better Place, a Palo Alto, Calif., company founded in 2007 by former SAP AG executive Shai Agassi, is pursuing similar arrangements in Israel, Australia, Denmark and the San Francisco area. The challenge of building a huge number of recharging points is daunting, and Better Place has yet to line up financing, estimated at $75 million to $100 million, for the Hawaii venture.

Under the plan, consumers would buy or lease electric cars, and Better Place would supply recharging services and batteries. Consumers would have a choice of buying mileage plans -- which would include recharging services and battery swaps -- or being guests on the network and paying for each battery charge. Mr. Agassi said his firm will buy renewable electricity to cover his network's needs.

Gov. Lingle said Tuesday the arrangement with Better Place will "help Hawaii get off its extreme oil addiction," which costs the state $7 billion a year.

Under the Hawaii Clean Energy Initiative, created in January, the state intends to cut its dependence on oil to 30% from 90% by 2030. To do so, it must ramp up electricity production from renewable resources, like the wind and sun, and use electricity to displace gasoline in some portion of its 1.1 million vehicles. The state also sees a big role for biodiesel to fuel cars and power plants, especially if made by returning fallow land to agricultural use.

Hawaiians pay high electricity prices because costly oil is burned to produce power. The price of electricity ranges from 24.9 cents per kilowatt hour on Oahu to 38.5 cents on Hawaii, the big island, compared with an average of 8.9 cents in the continental U.S. Such high prices should encourage the development of renewable energy. But there has been a big impediment: Electricity can't be moved among the six major islands, because there aren't adequate transmission lines.

That could be changing. There are now proposals to build large wind farms on Molokai and Lanai, and to turn those two islands, along with Maui, into a single grid, with the help of undersea cables. Surplus energy would be sent to Oahu, which consumes 80% of the state's electricity, on another undersea transmission line. These transmission upgrades could cost $750 million to $1 billion.

Other structural impediments could be removed. In late October, the Hawaii Public Utilities Commission opened proceedings that will change the way utilities are compensated for electricity sales, in an attempt to sweep away financial rewards for selling more kilowatt hours. The regulatory body is considering creating wholesale prices for power purchased by utilities from green sources.

Write to Rebecca Smith at rebecca.smith@wsj.com

Hawaii ending universal child health care

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D93SBEUG0

Hawaii ending universal child health care
Oct 17, 2008
By MARK NIESSE
Associated Press Writer

HONOLULU (AP) - Hawaii is dropping the only state universal child health care program in the country just seven months after it launched.

Gov. Linda Lingle's administration cited budget shortfalls and other available health care options for eliminating funding for the program. A state official said families were dropping private coverage so their children would be eligible for the subsidized plan.

"People who were already able to afford health care began to stop paying for it so they could get it for free," said Dr. Kenny Fink, the administrator for Med-QUEST at the Department of Human Services. "I don't believe that was the intent of the program."

State officials said Thursday they will stop giving health coverage to the 2,000 children enrolled by Nov. 1, but private partner Hawaii Medical Service Association will pay to extend their coverage through the end of the year without government support.

"We're very disappointed in the state's decision, and it came as a complete surprise to us," said Jennifer Diesman, a spokeswoman for HMSA, the state's largest health care provider. "We believe the program is working, and given Hawaii's economic uncertainty, we don't think now is the time to cut all funding for this kind of program."

Hawaii lawmakers approved the health plan in 2007 as a way to ensure every child can get basic medical help. The Keiki (child) Care program aimed to cover every child from birth to 18 years old who didn't already have health insurance—mostly immigrants and members of lower-income families.

It costs the state about $50,000 per month, or $25.50 per child—an amount that was more than matched by HMSA.

State health officials argued that most of the children enrolled in the universal child care program previously had private health insurance, indicating that it was helping those who didn't need it.

The Republican governor signed Keiki Care into law in 2007, but it and many other government services are facing cuts as the state deals with a projected $900 million general fund shortfall by 2011.

While it's difficult to determine how many children lack health coverage in the islands, estimates range from 3,500 to 16,000 in a state of about 1.3 million people. All were eligible for the program.

"Children are a lot more vulnerable in terms of needing care," said Democratic Sen. Suzanne Chun Oakland. "It's not very good to try to be a leader and then renege on that commitment."

The universal health care system was free except for copays of $7 per office visit.

Families with children currently enrolled in the universal system are being encouraged to seek more comprehensive Medicaid coverage, which may be available to children in a family of four earning up to $73,000 annually.

These children also could sign up for the HMSA Children's Plan, which costs about $55 a month.

"Most of them won't be eligible for Medicaid, and that's why they were enrolled in Keiki Care," Diesman said. "It's the gap group that we're trying to ensure has coverage."
___
On the Net:

Hawaii Medical Service Association: http://www.hmsa.com/

Maui drivers watch gas prices reach $4

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080314/ap_on_bi_ge/four_dollar_gas

Maui drivers watch gas prices reach $4
By JAYMES SONG, Associated Press Writer
3-14-8

"Maui No Kai Oi" is a popular Hawaiian saying that means Maui is the best. Mike Sweeney recently moved to this idyllic island from Denver and was hit with the other side of living in paradise with his first visit to the gas pump: Maui is also No. 1 in gas prices.

"After seeing the total, I won't be smiling," Sweeney said as he watched the numbers on the Chevron pump spin faster than a slot machine.

The pump finally stopped at $97.20, which put 24.5 gallons in his Chevrolet Avalanche.

He was elated about living on Maui and being reunited with his black, super-size pickup truck, which just arrived from Colorado, but he wasn't so thrilled about paying nearly $4 for a gallon of regular.

While the price of oil climbs above $110 a barrel, most Americans dread the day they will have to pay $4. On this tropical island and a few stations in California, $4 gas has already arrived, straining the pocketbooks of residents and businesses.

Maui is on the verge of becoming first area in the nation to average $4 for a gallon of regular. The average price in Wailuku reached $3.934 on Thursday, the highest price in AAA's Daily Fuel Gauge Report. At several stations, it was a penny shy of $4. In the remote coastal town of Hana, it was around $4.40 a gallon.

"Outrageous. Completely outrageous," said Janet Carone, of Wailuku.

The high price to get around has hurt many families, like the Carones. They're coping by driving less, carpooling or working more.

"It has a big effect because our housing is high, our food is high, and the gas prices just make it worse," she said.

Other than AAA, perhaps no one on Maui tracks local gas prices better than Deok Lee, owner of Airport Taxi. He maintains a detailed record of gas expenses using Excel spreadsheets on his laptop.

In just nine days, Lee had spent $300 to fuel his Toyota Sienna van. Like his drivers, the more Lee pays for gas, the less money he brings home. His pay shrinks by the day — and by the gallon.

"Crazy," he said about the prices. "Ridiculous."

Fuel cost has more than tripled since he took over the business in 1999, and it's forcing him to consider trading his van, which costs $80 to fill, for a smaller four-cylinder car.

"Unfortunately, it's going to take away some comfort for the customers. But you gotta do what you gotta do," he said.

Lee expects many cabbies will be forced out of business if fuel prices keep rising.

Chuck Gamarata, who operates the only limousine taxi on the island, is forced to work longer hours to compensate for the gas prices. He's still taking home about $10 less each day.

"You add that up over a year's period, that's thousands of dollars," he said. "It hurts. It hurts bad."

Other businesses are also feeling pinched.

Todd Winn, co-owner of North Shore Explorers, has been hit hard since launching the tour company in September. It takes 150 gallons of diesel, at $4.20 a gallon, to fill up his 30-foot rigid hull inflatable boat, which gets about a mile per gallon. It also costs more than $100 to fill up the Ford F-350 to tow it.

While the new company is trying to build up clientele, it may be forced to raise rates or add a fuel surcharge.

"It's been dramatic enough that we've actually seen our original business model blown out the window," Winn said. "It's been quite costly and we've had to cut costs in other areas to make it work."

He shakes his head when hearing about people in other states complaining about gas prices. Maui residents remember the good ol' days of $3 gas.

"It's just the price of living here," Winn said. "I'm not sure it's fair. But at the same time, it's not going to get me to move back to the mainland to pay a buck less for a gallon of gasoline."

Hawaii is the most oil-dependent state in the nation, with more than 90 percent of its energy coming from imported oil. The state's economy is also extremely sensitive to oil prices globally because it depends on airplanes and ships to bring in tourists and all of its goods.

Marie Montgomery, spokeswoman for AAA Hawaii, said it's a little comfort for islanders that gas prices haven't risen as fast as in other states, such as California.

On Thursday, California hit another record with an average of $3.609, overtaking Hawaii ($3.587) for the nation's highest gas prices. Meanwhile, the national average has risen to a record $3.267, according to the auto club.

But Maui, which doesn't have a major public transportation system, now has all the California cities beat by at least a quarter a gallon.

Residents here have long wondered why gas prices on the island are so much higher than on neighboring Oahu, where Honolulu gas is about 50 cents less.

"It's like we work just to pay gas," resident Yolanda Ellis said. "Funny how our gas goes up but our pay stays the same."

Hawaii, which imports most of its crude oil from Alaska and Indonesia, has two refineries on Oahu operated by Chevron Corp. and Tesoro Hawaii Corp.

Both companies blame the Maui price on higher transportation costs, even though islands further away, such as the Big Island, have lower prices. They also cite several other factors, such as volume, competition and higher local taxes on Maui.

Chevron spokesman Albert Chee said the price, in most cases, is set by the station operators and owners. The company sets the retail prices for only six stations it owns out of the 63 Chevron-branded outlets in Hawaii.

The company wouldn't disclose the difference in wholesale price between Maui and Oahu. However, Chee said: "It's not 50 cents. It's not even half."

"The difference between Oahu and Maui of 50 cents is not flowing into my pocket," he said.

Chevron noted that the cost of crude oil has spiked 20 percent in the past 30 days, while gasoline has increased 9 percent nationwide and only 5 percent in Hawaii.

Not everyone seemed upset with the pump prices on Maui. Tourists, who pay an average close to $300 a night for a hotel room, don't seem to mind.

"If the gas would've been higher, we still would've gone," said Jack Glisson, of Jacksonville, Ill. "It didn't make any difference."

Ohio State vs. LSU

Below is a great article by King Kaufman of Salon that pretty much says it all about this season's travesty ending...

http://www.salon.com/sports/col/kaufman/2007/12/03/monday/

King Kaufman's Sports Daily
Ohio State vs. LSU: The BCS's answer to a wild, unpredictable year is a couple of usual suspects. Sorry, Hawaii.

Dec. 03, 2007 After all those crazy upsets and all that churn in the rankings, after a year when anything could happen and most of it did, the Bowl Championship Series has rounded up a couple of usual suspects for the Championship Game.

With almost a dozen teams able to make a claim for a shot at the title without laughing into their sleeve, the title game will be Ohio State vs. LSU. Oh, the topsy. The turvy. It has been months -- months, I tell you! -- since we've seen the likes of these two in the big one.

Ohio State earned its spot with a brilliantly played bye. The BCS voters and computers really admired the way the Buckeyes did nothing this week. These guys make Maynard G. Krebs look like Thomas Edison.

LSU played its way in by losing to an unranked team at home last week instead of this week. Losing to an unranked team this week would have been bad, not a championship-caliber move. Just ask West Virginia, which lost at home this week to Pitt. Losing to an unranked team last week? Not so bad.

Hawaii didn't lose to anybody, ever. The Warriors started the season ranked No. 23 in the Associated Press poll, No. 24 in the USA Today poll, went 12-0, and finished the season No. 10. They'll play Georgia in the Sugar Exhibition Game on New Year's Night in New Orleans.

Here's a list of the teams that passed Hawaii at some point this year in the three polls -- AP, USA Today and Harris Interactive -- and the BCS standings, all without the Warriors ever losing a game: Georgia Tech, Tennessee, Boston College, Clemson, Oregon, South Carolina and Texas A&M.

Hang on. Just catching my breath. That was all in the first two weeks of the season.

Here's the rest of the list: Alabama, South Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Cincinnati, Arizona State, Missouri, Kansas, Kentucky (again), Virginia, Georgia (again), Connecticut, Michigan, USC, Virginia Tech, Florida, Texas, Clemson (again), Virginia (again) and Boston College (again).

Hawaii was passed 20 times in the AP poll and 19 times in the USA Today poll without ever losing a game. The Warriors were passed 10 times in 10 weeks in the Harris Interactive poll while going undefeated. They were leapfrogged 10 times in eight weeks in the BCS standings, winning all the while.

Last week, the 14th week of the season, was the first time all year that undefeated Hawaii was not jumped by at least one team in the USA Today poll. It was also the first time the Rainbows weren't jumped in any of the four rankings.

I could go into some eye-glazing detail about things like the three-week stretch at midseason during which Hawaii went 3-0 and didn't gain an inch in the polls, then had a bye week and moved up a little, pounded mediocre New Mexico State and moved up a lot, then had another bye week and dropped down.

I'll spare you. The point, though, is that a lot of what goes on in the polls is pretty random, but one thing's sure: There was a glass ceiling for Hawaii somewhere around No. 10. No matter how much everybody else lost and no matter how long Hawaii kept on winning, the Warriors weren't going any higher.

There were always teams that could be vaulted ahead of them. Kentucky lost five games but still found time to jump Hawaii in the polls on two separate occasions.

If there were ever a year when a team like Hawaii, a team from a smaller conference, would get a shot at the title game, this was that year, with not even one squad from a big conference having an unchallenged claim to a berth.

If Hawaii had no shot at the Championship Game this year, then no team from a smaller conference will ever have a shot at it unless it can muscle up its schedule with nonconference wins against BCS powers, who would sooner encourage their players to major in astrophysics and never miss a lab session just because of a silly old thing like practice than schedule teams like Hawaii or last year's model, Boise State.

The five smaller conferences in what's now known as the Bowl Subdivision -- it used to be Division I-A -- got together a few years ago and forced the six BCS conferences to toss a little more dough their way and give them a slightly better shot at big bowl berths, but what they ought to do now is form their own subdivision, or subsubdivision.

They're suckers in the meantime. They're the only teams in the NCAA that literally have no chance at a championship. Teams in the lower divisions play a tournament. Even traditional big-conference doormats like Vanderbilt, Northwestern and Baylor would get a crack at the title if they managed to put together a good enough team some year and didn't lose any games.

But teams from the WAC and the MAC, Conference USA, the Mountain West and the Sun Belt, they should have gotten the message loud and clear this year when it was delivered to Hawaii: You need not apply.

What a numbskull of a system. On ESPN's bowl selection show Sunday, host Rece Davis debriefed a guy named Brad Edwards, whose bio on ESPN.com describes him as a "college football researcher." Davis called him "our BCS guru."

BCS guru? That poor man! What a pathetic thing to be an expert on. It's like being the world's foremost authority on "Charles in Charge."

I used to know every ZIP Code in Oakland, Calif. It was the byproduct of a job I'd had. Tell me an address in Oakland, I could tell you the ZIP Code. I never got it wrong. It was a not-very-impressive parlor trick, occasionally good for 30 seconds of moderate amusement for someone who had moved around a bit in Oaktown, but otherwise useless.

It dwarfed encyclopedic knowledge of the BCS for usefulness and significance.

Well, let's let the guy speak. He has evidently devoted way too much of his life -- anything north of 10 minutes -- to the study of something so asinine it's scarcely worth learning what order the three letters go in. Why let that go to waste?

Davis asked him for his gut feeling on what would happen with the BCS after this absurd year. "Is the formula where they want it or do you expect more changes?"

This is kind of like asking if you expect daylight in future days. Of course the BCS formula is going to change. It changes every three weeks or so, every time someone notices how ridiculously stupid some aspect of it is.

"In reality, this is what the BCS was set up to do," Edwards said. "There's a season when you have a bunch of teams that all have similar records and similar résumés, and the formula was put together in order to take two teams out of that bunch and say, 'These are the best two.' Now, you can debate all day whether it got the right two, but the point of the BCS is to take two out of that group and say, 'These are the two that are going to play.' And they did that."

What's funny about that is that you can replace "the BCS" and "the formula" in that paragraph with something like "the system of having monkeys fling their poo at pictures of NCAA logos" without changing the meaning. That system would also be able to identify two teams to play in the Championship Game. And we would be able to debate whether the system got the right two, as if that were some kind of side consideration, beside the real point of the thing.

Shall we try?

In reality, this is what the system of having monkeys fling their poo at pictures of NCAA logos was set up to do. There's a season when you have a bunch of teams that all have similar records and similar résumés, and the monkey-poo-fling system was put together in order to take two teams out of that bunch and say, "These are the best two." Now, you can debate all day whether it got the right two, but the point of the monkeys flinging their poo is to take two out of that group and say, "These are the two that are going to play." And they did that.

Good going, monkeys!

Robalini's College Bowl Plan

Robalini's College Bowl Plan
Robert Sterling

If the 2007 college football didn't settle that the current NCAA Bowl Championship Series is a joke, it's because it pretty much had already been settled long ago. Until now, the most egregious foul occurred in 2003, when USC, the best team in football, was left out of the championship game due to a dubious computer ranking of #3. (Did Diebold make the computers?) But this season, the general conceit of the BCS championship, that at the end of the year two teams would clearly set themselves apart from the rest of the pack, has been proven a fraud. Indeed, the only team to even indicate it could theoretically be unbeatable was Hawaii, and they still were snubbed from the championship due to the inferior conference they play in.

The biggest change in recent years was to increase the BCS to five games rather than four, giving viewers the four traditional major Bowl games (the Rose, Fiesta, Orange & Sugar) near New Years and a championship game a week later. Though it certainly increased college football television revenues (at least in the short term) by adding the game, rather than improving the system, it made it worse, making the big four bowl games nothing more than glorified exhibitions.

Out of this chaos comes my modest proposal, which is (among millions of others) a plan to create a true playoff system for an NCAA college football championship. Like every other one out there, it has one decided virtue: it is better than the system currently in place.

With this plan, I had a few goals:

1. Respect the traditions of the big four bowl games as much as possible, even more so than the current system does;
2. Make sure that the big four bowls actually were a central part of crowning the championship;
3. Allow bowl games with notable histories of their own to be included in the mix; and, perhaps most important:
4. Create a playoff system that produces an actual season championship.

Taken this together, here are the basics of the plans...

Sixteen teams make the playoffs, consisting of the following:

Automatic bids:

* The top two teams from the ACC, Big 12, Big Ten, Pac-10 and SEC;
* The top team from the Big East;
* Notre Dame if it is in the top 16 of the AP poll;

The other four or five spaces will be filled by the following:

* Any of the other five conference champions who are in the top 25 of the AP poll;
* Any other team that is in the top eight of the AP poll;

The priority of the above will be according to their AP ranking. If this total does not equal sixteen teams, then the rest of the spots will be filled according to AP ranking.

(Granted, the AP has refused to be included in the current system, but in this theoretical example, the AP would agree simply because it would be less controversial.)

With this system in place, there wouldn't have been much controversy over the sixteen teams picked this season. In fact, the only team that would have qualified before this last Saturday that wasn't in the AP top sixteen would be number 21 BYU, who would've replaced number sixteen Clemson. (I think teams should be rewarded for being conference champions.)

Why did I say "before" this last Saturday rather than after? Because many of last weekend's games would be redundant under my plan, as five conference championships would be part of the playoffs.

That's correct: instead of being played the first Saturday in December with the Army-Navy game, The ACC, Big 12 and the SEC championships would instead be played the second Saturday of December, as part of the opening round of playoff bowl games. Under new banners as the Peach Bowl (ACC), the Cotton Bowl (Big 12) and the Liberty Bowl (SEC), these games would be joined by two new conference championship games: the Gator Bowl (Big Ten) and the Holiday Bowl (Pac-10.) A sixth bowl game, the Florida Citrus Bowl, would be hosted by the Big East champion. Two more bowl games, the Independence Bowl and the Sun Bowl, would round out the "Super Saturday" of eight bowl games that would knock off eight teams.

Under this scenario, here's how the matchup would've looked this coming weekend, trying to respect rankings where possible and historical traditions in which team goes to the Independence Bowl and Sun Bowl:

Cotton Bowl (Dallas) Big 12 - Missouri (1) - Oklahoma (9)
Florida Citrus Bowl (Orlando) Big East Host - West Virginia (2) - Brigham Young (21)
Gator Bowl (Jacksonville) Big Ten - Ohio State (3) - Illinois (15)
Holiday Bowl (San Diego) Pac-10 - USC (8) - Arizona State (13)
Independence Bowl (Shreveport) - Georgia (4) - Hawaii (11)
Liberty Bowl (Memphis) SEC - LSU (5) - Tennessee (14)
Peach Bowl (Atlanta) ACC - Virginia Tech (6) - Boston College (12)
Sun Bowl (El Paso) - Kansas (7) - Florida (10)

Let's pretend the only upsets this coming weekend are Oklahoma beating Missouri (which they did last weekend) and Hawaii upsetting Georgia (which may not really be an upset, since Hawaii is undefeated.) That would lead to the four traditional big bowl games on January 1st and 2nd, with the traditional teams tied to them:

Rose Bowl - Ohio State (3, Big Ten Champion) - USC (8, Pac-10 Champion)
Fiesta Bowl Oklahoma (9, Big 12 Champion) - Hawaii (11)
Orange Bowl Virginia Tech (6, ACC Champion) - West Virginia (2, Big East Champion)
Sugar Bowl LSU (5, SEC Champion) - Kansas (7)

On the Thursday and Friday before the NFL divisional playoff weekend (January 8-9 to January 14-15), two semifinal game would be played between the four big bowl champs, with the top seeding facing the bottom on Thursday night and the other two on Friday night.

This would lead to the college football championship game, which would happen a week later on the Saturday before the two NFL conference championships. Imagine what a weekend of football that would be: the college football title game followed by the two matchups leading to the Super Bowl. Be sure to stock up on beer!

The only possible glitch in the system is continued snubbing of the five minor football conference teams. Hawaii and BYU would make it in my system, but it would be good to include a clause that any undefeated team gets an automatic bid so a team like Hawaii this year wouldn't be snubbed.

But otherwise, this system really works well. It strengthens the value of the traditional big four bowls. It strengthens the value of eight traditionally noted bowl games. It ensures the five major conferences have a place on the New Years Day bowl games. And it ultimately creates a playoff system that would likely boost college football television revenues substantially. That's probably the biggest key of all, and why I think my proposed system would be a smashing success.

California cities fill top 10 foreclosure list

http://money.cnn.com/2007/08/14/real_estate/California_cities_lead_foreclosure/index.htm

California cities fill top 10 foreclosure list
Stockton, Calif. records highest foreclosure rate among nation's metro areas according to a new survey.
By Les Christie, CNNMoney.com staff writer
August 14 2007

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The binge that many housing markets went on in the early- to mid-2000s is over, and some of the hottest markets like California are now experiencing the worst hangovers.

But other areas, especially many that recorded slower home price growth earlier this decade, have seen little increase in foreclosure rates, according to the latest data released Tuesday from RealtyTrac, the online marketer of foreclosure properties.

"While foreclosure activity has skyrocketed over the past year in many cities, particularly in California, Ohio and the Northeast," James Saccaccio, RealtyTrac's chief executive, said in a statement, "foreclosure activity seems to be subsiding in parts of Texas, South Carolina and other states."

"Still," he said, "the overall trend is toward escalating foreclosure rates, with 82 of the top 100 metro areas reporting year-over-year increases in the number of homes affected by foreclosure."

Stockton, California now leads the nation in foreclosures. Of RealtyTrac's top 10 metro areas for foreclosures, four are in Central California.

Coastal California cities are doing relatively well, although foreclosures are up there too. San Francisco had one foreclosure for every 263 households, a fairly low rate, but up 83 percent from the first six months of 2006.

Stockton city drew thousands of home buyers to the Central Valley area from the prohibitively expensive Bay-area markets during the housing boom and saw home prices nearly double in the four years ended December 31, 2005, according to the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight.

Because of California's outsized home prices, option and hybrid adjustable-rate mortgages (ARMs) interest-only loans became widespread. They enabled home buyers to get into properties they could not otherwise afford.

But often these loans were time bombs; hybrid ARMs, for example, reset to much higher rates - and payments - after the first two or three years of low fixed rates.

Many buyers were also approved for expensive mortgages based on applications in which income or assets went unproven, the so-called no- or low-doc loans, AKA "liar loans."

Lenders underwrote mortgages for these borrowers based on their income or asset claims without proof and many times the claims were exaggerated. When hard times hit, these borrowers had fewer resources to fall back on than the lenders anticipated and foreclosures followed.

Mortgage meltdown contagion

Seven of the nation's top 10 metro areas are in the Sun Belt. Only three are in economically hard-hit areas, historically the kinds of places that once produced the highest rates of foreclosure filings.

Stockton recorded one foreclosure filing for every 27 households during the six months ended June 30, a 256 percent increase compared with the first six months of 2006.

Number two in the nation was Detroit, where job losses in the auto industry drove foreclosures higher. One of every 29 households recorded a foreclosure filing there, almost double the rate of a year ago. Las Vegas (one of 31, up 142 percent) was third.

The other California cities in the top 10 were Riverside/San Bernardino (one in 33, up 198 percent), Sacramento (one in 36, up 231 percent) and Bakersfield (one in 47, up 222 percent).

The lowest foreclosure rate recorded by RealtyTrac among the 100 metro areas surveyed was in Richmond, Virginia. It had just one for every 2,319 households, about the same as a year ago and a rate barely more than 1 percent of Stockton's.

Other low foreclosure metro areas included Greenville, South Carolina (one in 1,721, down 66 percent), McAllen, Texas (one in 1,494, down 35 percent) and Honolulu (one in 1,151, up 68 percent).

Burger King ignites Spam war with rival

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070611/ap_on_bi_ge/burger_king_spam

Burger King ignites Spam war with rival
By JAYMES SONG, Associated Press Writer
Mon Jun 11, 2007

For many Americans, spam is a four-letter word for unwanted e-mail. In Hawaii, Spam is a beloved comfort food, with cans of the gelatinous pork bricks found in virtually every cupboard.

Hoping to cash in on Hawaii's love affair with the pinkish meat product, Burger King Corp. last month began offering Spam for breakfast — going head-to-head with rival McDonald's Corp., which has been featuring Spam in the islands for years.

Burger King is offering the Spam Platter — two slices of Spam nestled between white rice and scrambled eggs. The fast-food giant also offers the Croissanwich or Biscuit Sandwich with Spam.

Denise Yamauchi, Burger King managing director in Hawaii, said sales have been "very good and very promising."

"It's so popular with the locals, we wanted to cater to them," she said.

Putting Spam on the menu, alongside more traditional items such as the Whopper, has been in the works for about a year, and Burger King's corporate headquarters finally signed off on the idea.

"It's something that was a little unique and a little different for them, so it was a bit of a hard sell to bring to Hawaii," Yamauchi said. "But they finally realized it is a unique flavor and something the locals really like."

At a Burger King near downtown Honolulu, where a poster in the window proudly advertises "Spam in the A.M.," the Spam Platter was selling for $3.49. The nearly identical Spam, Eggs and Rice plate across the street at McDonald's was $3.39.

Melanie Okazaki, marketing manager for McDonald's Restaurants of Hawaii, said Spam has been offered at the chain's 75 island restaurants since 2002.

"In Hawaii, it is a very popular menu item and we will continue to offer it to our customers," she said.

Burger King's latest offering is counter to the chain's push to offer healthier fare, including salads and the meatless BK Veggie Burger. But no one can deny Hawaii's appetite for Spam.

Despite being one of the least-populated states, Hawaii leads the nation in consumption of the Hormel Foods Corp. product. It's been a hit ever since World War II. Isle residents consume more than 5 million pounds of Spam a year, an average of about six cans for every man, woman and child.

Spam "musubi" — a slice of Spam atop a block of rice and wrapped in seaweed — is an island favorite sold at nearly every convenience store, including 7-Eleven. Spam fried rice is a local classic.

There are also more varieties of Spam sold in Hawaii than anywhere else. There's Spam Garlic, Spam Bacon, Spam with Cheese, Spam with Tabasco, Spam Turkey and Spam Lite, which featured less sodium and less fat.

"We're pleased to see more and more restaurants adding it to their menu, providing Hawaiians additional opportunities to experience the savory, salty-sweet taste they love," said Dan Goldman, Spam's product manager.
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On the Net:

Spam: http://www.spam.com/