LC Profanity TEA PARTY MAUI MOLASSES PI'ILANI PROMENADE
FAILED CANNABIS LEGALIZATION
DANIEL INOUYE
SPILL
LIPOA POINT
FBI FILES 2013
RECYCLING
STEVEN TYLER ACT
CENTER Old Wailuku CLOSURE Post Office SUNSHINE FAKEOUT SAME SEX MARRIAGE LAWS The year began by returning to the past– to the days when Wailuku’s favorite state Representative/chemical industry lobbyist Joe Souki ruled the House of Representatives. Well, he’s Speaker again, and didn’t disappoint by saying one of his first goals is to introduce a bill or two that would legalize marijuana. Over in the U.S. Senate, Hawaii Lt. Gov. Brian Schatz officially succeeds Senator Daniel Inouye, whose family and aides (and apparently the late senator himself) had hoped Governor Neil Abercrombie would appoint Representative Colleen January 3, 2013 ✚ Volume 16 ✚ Issue 29 ✚ FREE
WASHINGTON TURNS 50
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UNCHAINED
DJANGO
MAUI
PG.5
SHERATON
10 DECEMBER 26, 2013
PG.19
REVIEW
ISLAND
PLAN
PLUS
AN OPEN LETTER TO HAWAII’S NEW SENIOR SENATOR
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By Anthony Pignataro
FEBRUARY Inspectors from the Maui County Department of Liquor Control write up Haui’s Lifes A Beach in Kihei for the alleged speaking of profanity during a show with the Portland Reggae band Monk. What does the LC have to do with March 21, 2013 ✚ Volume 16 ✚ Issue 40 ✚ FREE
WHERE THE WIND
BLOWS
Sempra just completed eight wind turbines in Kahikinui. Now they’re talking about adding 39 more, to help power Oahu.
labeling bill. GMO-supporters take heart, but in fact that the bill’s chance of passage is nil. In other news, Monsanto lobbyist Alan Takemoto gets quickly appointed to state Water Commission. The Mainland energy company Sempra proposes building a bunch more wind turbines out by Kanaio, but only if the state approves an exceedingly unpopular undersea power cable stretching between Maui and Oahu. The state Land Use Commission hands down an usually harsh ruling on the proposed Pi‘ilani Promenade–the so-called “Kihei Mega Malls”–saying that when they ruled back in 1995 that all that North Kihei land was zoned “light industrial,” they meant it. Developer Goodfellow Brothers immediately lays off a hundred construction workers.
PG.10
MARCH SMOKING ON SUNSHINE
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LOVING OUR
BABYCAKES
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ADMISSION
FILM
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REVIEW
URBAN WINGSUIT
MR. SCHATZ GOES TO
Hanabusa to the seat. Schatz’s appointment means a whole bunch of people across the state get to move up: Maui Senator Shan Tsutsui gets the Lt. Governor slot, and then Representative Gil Keith-Agaran gets Tsutsui’s Senate seat. To replace Keith-Agaran in the House’s Kahului seat, Abercrombie then appoints political newcomer Justin Woodson. As the Sheraton Maui Resort celebrates 50 years at Black Rock in Ka‘anapali, Maui Police announce that it’s still illegal for people to carry signs during the annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day Parade. A few marchers carry signs anyway, but police ignore them. Meanwhile, researchers from the US Geological Survey and University of Hawaii announce that climate change will probably doom the Haleakala silversword. MauiTime Publisher Tommy Russo pleads not guilty to “obstructing a govt. operation” when he was arrested photographing Maui police officers during the department’s Nov. 20, 2012 “Operation Recon.” Speaking of violating civil liberties, state Senator J. Kalani English introduces the “Steven Tyler Act,” which criminalizes the unauthorized taking of photos of celebrities, even in public places. Supporters include Tyler, Tommy Lee, Britney Spears, Neil Diamond, Kat von D, Mick Fleetwood and The Osbourne family (except for Aimee Osbourne, who had previously declined to participate in her family’s infamous reality TV show because she said it violated her privacy).
PLUS
JANUARY
et’s call 2013 the Year of Ends. Ex-National Security Agency (NSA) contractor Edward Snowden, who is now in exile in Russia after fleeing Hawaii with millions of secret documents, ended any feeling we had that the Obama Administration cared more about civil liberties than his predecessors. South African President Nelson Mandela’s death brought an end to a time when people actually seemed to like a world leader. The dark but popular television shows Breaking Bad and Dexter came to an end, giving vast numbers of Americans new reasons to turn off the tube. This was the year all of America got to argue if Paula Deen’s tongue brought down her culinary empire, and whether some putz in Florida named George Zimmerman was right to kill another young man named Trayvon Martin. This was the year two brothers packed explosives into pressure cookers and went on a rampage at the Boston Marathon, eventually killing four and injuring hundreds of others while turning that city upside down. All of that seems far removed from Maui’s shores, but that doesn’t mean nothing happened here. We had plenty of strange, unsettling events as well–too many, really, to recall in a space like this. But here are some of the highlights, and lowlights, that marked the year 2013.
policing words spoken during live entertainment, you ask? Easy–it’s the county’s liquor rules. The state Legislature kills the hated Public Lands Development Corporation, which quietly passed in 2011, then flirts with the notion of passing a GMO
Senator English’s so-called Steven Tyler Act sails through the Senate with virtually no opposition. Senators and their staffers even mug for memento photos with celeb supporters like Tyler and Fleetwood, who promise that if the bill passes, the rich and famous people will move to Hawaii and buy expensive mansions. The state House of Representatives, which is a slightly different legislative body than the Senate, is unimpressed, and kills the anti-paparazzi bill in committee. In response to the Maui County