Former VP in the Islands
Former Vice President Dan Quayle is visiting the Big Island of Hawaii this week, staying with his family at the Mauna Kea Beach Hotel.
Best known for serving as the 44th Vice President of the United States at age 41, he also served in the United States Congress in 1976 at age 29 and in the United States Senate at age 33. On January 20, 1989 he took the oath of office as the 44th Vice President of the United States at age 41.
Since leaving public office, Quayle has written three books including Standing Firm, A Vice-Presidential Memoir, (which was ranked on the New York Times bestseller list for 15 weeks); The American Family: Discovering the Values that Make Us Strong; and Worth Fighting For.
Now in the private sector, Quayle is Chairman of one of the world’s leading private investment firms, Cerberus Global Investments, LLC (Cerberus) and President of Quayle & Associates.
In addition to authoring a nationally syndicated column, he makes frequent speeches around the world.
Crude Oil Prices Continue to Rise – and that Means Gas Prices Will Too
On Thursday, crude oil prices continued to rise 77 cents and closed at $112.22 a barrel.
That means the retail price of gasoline will continue to rise.
Hawaii gasoline prices are the highest in the nation and have broken their all time previous record set in 2008. According to HawaiiGasolinePrices.com, Hawaii’s average cost per gallon is $4.52. The average price in Honolulu per gallon is $4.413.
Part of the reason gasoline prices are so high in Hawaii is that the gasoline taxes – federal state and local – total 63 cents per gallon, also the highest in the nation.
The Honolulu City Council yesterday passed a measure that would increase the county’s share of the gasoline tax by 6 cents over three years. The bill passed the second of three readings and was only opposed by two of nine council members, including Tom Berg and Ikaika Anderson.
Budget chair Ernie Martin asked fellow council members to keep the bill alive until the city council knows if the Hawaii State Legislature will dip into city revenues to balance the state’s $1.3 billion budget shortfall for fiscal years 2012 and 2013.
In other economic news from a VOA News report, coffee prices fell three cents to end the day’s trading at $2.91 per pound; Copper prices rose four cents to finish at $4.38 a pound; Cocoa futures fell $18 to $3,088 per ton; the price of wheat rose 14 cents to $8.35 a bushel and rice prices rose nine cents to close at $14 a hundredweight.
Journalism Shield Bill Passes Legislative Conference Committees, But Judiciary Gets Its Version of the Measure
The State Judiciary evidence committee successfully stopped Hawaii’s journalism shield law from being renewed permanently as local journalists and government accountability groups had hoped.
The committee, headed by Judge Glenn Kim, a former prosecutor, requested a chance to study the law over the next two years.
The bill was enacted in 2008, but scheduled to sunset on June 30, 2011, with the idea that the law’s impact would be reviewed.
Media attorney Jeff Portnoy, who represents several media organizations in the state including Hawaii Reporter, said “One hand, I am pleased that the journalism shield bill will be extended for a minimum of two more years, but surprised by the last minute request that the sunset provision in the bill is not be eliminated so the bill will be made permanent. If they judiciary had interest in evaluating the law, they did not appear to do so over the last three years,” Portnoy said.
Hawaii Reporter has benefited from the law. In fact, the legislation was inspired in part by a 2007 subpoena of editor Malia Zimmerman by retired auto dealer James Pflueger, who sought her notes and unpublished content for use in his civil lawsuit related to the 2006 breach of his Ka Loko Dam that killed 7 people and an unborn child.
A native Hawaiian filmmaker also successfully used the law in a civil case on Kauai.
Voting for the HB 1376, SD1, relating to evidence, in the conference committee were Senate Judiciary Chair Clayton Hee, Sen. Maile Shimabukuro and Sen. Sam Slom and House Judiciary Chair Gilbert S.C. Keith-Agaran, House Majority Leader Blake Oshiro, and Rep. Cynthia Thielen.
The bill now goes to the floor in both the House and Senate for a vote, where it is expected to pass with little controversy, and be sent to Gov. Neil Abercrombie for his consideration.
Should Abercrombie pass the bill, the journalism shield bill will remain in place for two more years, at which time it will be up for renewal again.
Hawaii’s shield law is considered one of the best in the country in journalism circles because it protects on line journalists as well as traditional media and keeps private notes and unpublished materials unless subpoenaed in a criminal case.