Kupu‘āina Live! Webcast #15

Webisode #15 2003-03-23 Kupu‘āina Live!

In today's Kupu‘āina Live! We explain why the recent SuperFerry ruling isn't something to necessarily worry about in drafting "ceded" lands legislation. We also talk about what we consider to be a "sneaky" change in the language of SB 1677, that most people don't know about.




Mahalo for your support.

SENATE BILL 1085 passes

Senator Sam Slom was the only state lawmaker in the Judiciary and Government Operations (JGO) committee to vote NO on Senate Bill 1085 yesterday morning shortly before 10 am. The Committee chair, Brian Taniguchi and Vice-Chair, Dwight Takamine in addition to committee members Robert Bunda and Clarence Nishihara voted to pass SB 1085. Senator Mike Gabbard was not present for the vote.

When the vote was made, Senator Taniguchi noted that the bill would be passed with only technical amendments. We assume this means that non-substantive changes will be made.

The next step for Senate Bill 1085 is to be heard by the full senate. In a previous phone conversation with Senate President Colleen Hanabusa, it was suggested that SB 1085 will pass the Senate and be sent to the state House of Representatives.

Moments after the senate committee passed SB 1085, Kupu‘āina organizers met with the Speaker of the House of Representatives Calvin Say. Calvin Say suggested that SB 1085 will be scheduled for hearings with different committees. He did express concern however about the senate passing two different bills addressing the same issue. The House can not do likewise. The other bill being SB 1677. The House will need to pass just one of those bills.

Speaker Say said that he would like to see both SB 1677 and SB 1085 heard together in committee so that the House can determine which of those two bills it will support and proceed forward with.

Between the two bills, coalition organizers prefer to see SB 1085 pass out of the legislature. SB 1085, in the coalition's opinion, is more of a re-affirmation of the Hawai‘i Supreme Court's January 31, 2008 landmark decision in OHA v. HCDCH.

Coalition organizers hope SB 1085 will be heard on the Senate floor by Tuesday, March 10. We will keep you updated. PAU.

SB 1085 is FINALLY scheduled for a hearing!!!

We have two different testimony/commentary templates for you to use by cutting and pasting. It is important that you submit this testimony/commentary no later than 9:30am March 4, 2009.

You can submit this by sending it via e-mail to JGOTestimony@capitol.hawaii.gov

It is also very important that you “cc” (carbon copy) this e-mail to the following e-mail addresses: sentaniguchi@capitol.hawaii.gov, sentakamine@capitol.hawaii.gov, senbunda@capitol.hawaii.gov, sengabbard@capitol.hawaii.gov, sennishihara@capitol.hawaii.gov, and senslom@capitol.hawaii.gov

We also encourage you to “cc” us on the e-mail by sending it to kupuaina@gmail.com

Please choose ONLY ONE of these templates only, copy and past the text in an e-mail and send it to the e-mail addresses listed above. You can choose a template by clicking on one below.

TEMPLATE 1 or TEMPLATE 2

---

Senate Bill 1085 has finally been scheduled for hearing.

WHEN: March 5, 2009 at 9:45am
WHERE: State Capitol in Room 211
WHO: Senate Committee on Judiciary and Government Operations (JGO) and YOU!
WHY: To protect the so-called "ceded" lands from being sold.

SB 1085 is the only surviving piece of legislation that provides a moratorium on the sale of ceded lands. If the bill is going to move forward, it needs to be out of the JGO committee by 3/5/09.

For more information on the status of SB 1085 go to tinyurl.com/SB1085update3-3

Press conference on ceded lands moratorium, and we're presenting to the legislative Native Hawaiian Caucus

PRESS CONFERENCE!
Tomorrow (Wednesday) there will be a press conference at 10:00 am. Originally the idea was to have the press conference by the Queen Lili'uokalani statue. The meeting has now been changed to room 423 in the capitol. If you're planning on coming to the press conference, I recommend checking our twitter updates to the left side of our blog or by going to our twitter page to see if there are any last minute room changes. If there are any room changes we'll be sure to post those changes immediately through twitter. We're going to try and live-stream it on our website.

LEGISLATIVE HAWAIIAN CAUCUS


Representative Mele Carroll, the legislator credited with reactivating the legislative Hawaiian caucus, has asked Kupu‘āina Coalition organizers to speak with the members of the Hawaiian caucus. This discussion is currently scheduled to take place this Thursday, January 29, 2009 at 1pm. We've been told that this will take place in room 423 as well. We'll be sure to update twitter if there are any room chages. We will try to live-stream this on our website also.

We encourage supporters to come to both events on Wednesday and Thursday. Visit us here for updates.