Is Mayor Kenoi in Hot Water Over The Internet Scandal?

Posted on April 20, 2009 by Damon

I’ve been mentioning on a lot of different blogs about some of the ramifications that this Internet Scandal that Councilman Yagong has pretty much triggered.

I believe Mayor Kenoi himself may be in a bit of hot water.

Aaron Stene follows the Hawaii Free Press and brought my attention to the following article about his domain that he used for his political race this year against Angel Pilago.

His Domain clearly states that it’s registered under a county email address as well as the mailing address for the Hawaii County Building:

Registered through: GoDaddy.com, Inc. (http://www.godaddy.com)
Domain Name: BILLYKENOI.COM
Created on: 16-Apr-07
Expires on: 16-Apr-09
Last Updated on: 16-Apr-08

Technical Contact:
Kenoi, William wkenoi@co.hawaii.hi.us
25 Aupuni St.
Hilo, Hawaii 96720
United States
(808) 961-8211

About 3 – 4 months later, County of Hawaii Office of the Corporation Counsel sent this memo to ALL COUNTY EMPLOYEES VIA EMAIL and it clearly states:

1 Candidate walk-throughs on County premises are strictly prohibited
2 County email accounts must not be used for campaign purposes
3 The distribution of campaign literature on County premises is strictly prohibited
4 The sale or distribution of fundraiser or other tickets even
complimentary ones on County premises is strictly prohibited

So do you think Mr. Kenoi will punish himself?  Is it also considered distribution from a county building if he registered the building as well?

Hawai’i County Mayor Billy Kenoi has acknowledged that his office is investigating “very serious” and possibly illegal abuse of Internet access on county computers.

Kenoi said the investigation goes back to January 2008 and includes the potentially illegal use of county computers for political activity, as well as other serious abuses.

From what I can tell… Last Updated April 16, 2008 would fall under that time period.

Filed under: Big Island, Blogs, Comedy, County Council, Hawaii, Kenoi, Legal, Newspapers, Rumors, Technology | Tagged: , | 2 Comments »

The Bus Will Probably Start Charging Soon

Posted on April 20, 2009 by Damon

In October, I asked the transportation director how long the buses would be free:

…We had the opportunity to ask questions and I asked how long the buses would remain free.  And the Counties reply was that the free rides were funded until the end of 2009. He didn’t expand on anything past that…

Today’s Hawaii Tribune, Jason Armstrong reports:

…The Finance Committee also is scheduled to take up a proposal to charge passengers $1 apiece to ride the county’s free Hele-On buses.

Instituting the one-way fare would raise $700,000 a year, Hamakua Councilman Dominic Yagong recently told the Tribune-Herald in floating the idea…

Between the Transportation director and the County Council… to me it seems like it’s going to be a no-brainer for them.

However, I see this backfiring big time!

Many people that ride the bus, well at least in Puna, ride it as a means to get basic services that they don’t have.  Many folks simply don’t have a $1.00 at times here in this district and are riding the free bus… just to pick up free food or other basic necessities.

In case people missed it…

Emily Naeole was able to divert some of the Geothermal Funds to get another route through the areas affected by the geothermal plant.

I say we should keep the buses free! When the transportation director was initially talking about this… the cost of gas was skyrocketing. It has since stabilized.

By the way… anyone seen the Maui Buses:

maui-bus_05_45_11_080730

Also curious about how many people know about this little program the county is running:

…In addition, the Transit Agency offers a Shared Ride Taxi program which provides door to door transportation for as little as $2.00 within the urbanized area of Hilo.

And whatever happened to those cute little sampans that were running around Hilo?

sampan1

Filed under: Big Island, Community, County Council, Highway 130, Transportation | Tagged: , | 2 Comments »

Mahalo to Pahoa Community Medical Center… My Son is Better Now

Posted on April 20, 2009 by Damon

I’d like to say Mahalo to the friendly staff at the Pahoa Community Medical Center for attending to my son’s medical emergency today.  A special mahalo to “Dr.” Dan for tending to him when he was really acting fussy because of his condition.

My wife said everyone was pleasurable and the ride to the emergency room in the Ambulance was exciting.

I was able to meet them at the ER and by the time I had arrived, my son’s breathing and coughing had stabilized.  They took X-rays and blood samples and after his temperature stabilized he was less lethargic than he when he went in and they were able to release him by 3:30 today.

I wish there was something that I could do personally to make him healthy right now.

This is the second scare that I’ve had with him.  When he was first born… the doctors informed us that he might have sickle cell anemia.  It turned out that his blood cells were just deficient and within a few days after he was born the blood cells were normal.

If there is one thing that really scares the crap out of me… it’s the thought of losing my son.

Filed under: Health, Kids | 8 Comments »

Today I Found Something Interesting… Royal Order of Kamehameha I What Happened?

Posted on April 20, 2009 by Damon

I was in a certain area of town… lets just call it the vicinity a 5 mile range of Bayfront doing my rounds and I came across a house that I thought was vacant from the backside and uninhabited.

kamhouse

I came at the house from the side entrance and this is the front entrance so I really didn’t know what I had come across at first.  The house was obviously uninhabited and windows were broken out.

Then I went to the front and saw this:

royalhouse-001

So this sparked my interest even more in the house and what did I just come across.

I talked to the neighbor, and he told me that this was a Historic House and it was registered, however, no one has been taking care of the place in a very long time.

I didn’t get a chance to ask him much questions about the place because he really didn’t feel like talking to some stranger that was lurking around the neighborhood asking about vacant houses… and I don’t blame him for that.

As I was leaving… I took this final picture of the house:

royalhouse-002

I googled the Royal Order of Kamehameha and didn’t really find anything in particular about this house.

Does anyone know anything about this Historic Home that is Falling apart?

Filed under: Hawaiian, Hilo, State Affairs, Sustainable Living | Tagged: | 2 Comments »

Hawaii’s Subaru Telescope Featured on “Around the World in 80 Telescopes”

Posted on April 20, 2009 by Damon

Andrew Cooper blogged a bit about Keck being featured on the the Around the World in 80 Telescopes.

I just noticed this youtube clip that features the Subaru Telescope of the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ) that is up top of Mauna Kea was featured in this clip:


Filed under: Big Island, Technology | Tagged: , | Leave a Comment »

North Kona to Get New Fire Station

Posted on April 20, 2009 by Damon

It looks like the North Kona – Kau area will be getting a new fire station soon.  The Department of Public works recently was approved with conditions the following:

Special Permit to allow the establishment of a fire station and related uses on approximately 2.80 acres of land within the State Land Use Agricultural District. The project site is located along the east side of Mamalahoa Highway (Highway 190), immediately north of the Highway 190 – Makalei Drive junction, Kaupulehu-Kau, North Kona…

Filed under: Announcements, Big Island, Community, Kona, Something New? | Tagged: , | Leave a Comment »

My Guess at the Top 10 Internet Sites Visited by County Workers in the Year 2008

Posted on April 20, 2009 by Damon

Here is my guess at what the top 10 websites visited by Hawaii County Employees are:

  1. Google.com
  2. Yahoo.com
  3. Homepage of whatever branch of  Government they work for
  4. Honoluluadvertiser.com
  5. Hawaiitribune-Herald.com
  6. Westhawaiitoday.com
  7. www.bored.com
  8. www.fail.com
  9. hunterbishop.com
  10. Howtokilltime.com

Anyone else want to throw out a guess at what would be a popular website for county workers to visit?

Filed under: Big Island, Blogs, Comedy, County Council, Kenoi, Legal, Rumors, Technology | Tagged: | 1 Comment »

Conch Shell Blowing… Guiness Record Attempt

Posted on April 20, 2009 by Damon

More than 125 conch shell blowers gathered in Florida Friday, trying to establish a Guinness World Record for the most people to simultaneously tease sounds from the mollusk.

Filed under: Announcements, Hawaiian | Tagged: | Leave a Comment »

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