Hawaiian Telcom wants to pay their employees 6 million dollars in bonuses. This is utterly ridiculous that they want to do this while they are in bankruptcy.They should be focusing on turning around the business and not lining the pockets of their employees with more money.Hawaiian Telcom must’ve had very low financial targets that triggered these bonuses. After all they had to file for bankruptcy, are losing money and bleeding land line customers.
“In a filing with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court yesterday, the state’s largest phone company said its workers are eligible for the bonuses because the company achieved performance targets for revenue, cash flow and other measures last year.”
Thus I hope the State of Hawaii can step in prevent these bonuses from being paid.
There was some additional commentary, pro and con, about Hawaiian Telcom paying these bonuses :
“Hawaiian Telcom Wants to do WHAT??”
Lingle wants to keep bonuses from Hawaiian Telecom employees—Why?”
The Hawaii Superferry continues to be the lead news story. It is official the HSF will be pulling out of the State of Hawaii. But my biggest concerns is the long term effects of the Hawaii Supreme Court ruling invalidating Act II. This ruling has put a legal cloud over other laws that benefit a certain group or issue. There has been a bunch of commentary addressing precisely this question below :
“The Hawaii Superferry and Hawaii’s Dysfunctional Supreme Court”
The impacts from this ruling also will impact Hawaii economically. In the short term, 236 employees will be out of work.However, like I said before, this debacle will cause outside investors to think twice about investing money in Hawaii.
It blows my mind that HSF opponents blame both the management and the employees for causing this mess. The employees are innocent parties in this debacle.Thus its shameful that the opponents would do this. In a nutshell, it gives more fuel to the fire that the Sierra Club should be on the hot seat for their actions which ultimately forced the HSF to leave Hawaii.
Nonetheless, I wonder if the HSF is being a bit hasty in leaving Hawaii. As far as I understand, the HDOT has ceased work on the HSF’s EIS. However it would only take an additional 4-6 months to complete it.This hasty departure adds some credence to this commentary questioning the financial viability of the Superferry playing a role in its departure from Hawaii.
Lastly, David Shapiro had a funny commentary here titled “flASHback: Ferry on the rocks.”
The Hawaii Superferry’s departure is yet another hit to Hawaii’s economy. Thus I strongly feel that Hawaii’s latest economic forecast is still too rosy. It will probably be awhile before Hawaii’s economy fully recovers.
General Growth Properties yet again at the precipitous of falling into bankruptcy hell.The dominoes have already started to fall, as Citigroup has started to foreclose on GGP’s properties
The Big Island Chronicle rightfully criticized the big spending Hawaii County Council for spending $21,500 on their trip to the National Association of Counties meeting in Washington D.C.
Andrew Cooper did a timely update in regards to the 6(5) phase of the Saddle Road improvement project (between m.m 35-41.5). Incidentally, the Saddle Road website has been updated to reflect the updates pertaining to future phases of this important roadway improvement project.
I got word that the Queen Kaahumanu highway Phase I dedication ceremony is going to happen on March 31st at 10am on the near the corner of the Queen Kaahumanu highway/Palani Road intersection. This is awfully strange turn of events. Especially since the project won’t be fully completed until mid-April 2009.
David Lassner wrote up an excellent commentary here advocating the need to improve Hawaii’s broadband connectivity. [I thought UH had a direct fiber-optic link to the rest of the nation,at least according to PLNI]
I’m happy to see that the legislature is addressing the medical tort reform issue.It will hopefully be integrated into a multipronged approach (including improving medical reimbursements,recruiting more doctors to rural areas,etc).
Leon Siu strikes again with this commentary again insinuating that the State of Hawaii’s perfect title to Hawaiian ceeded lands is the perfect crime.I’ve already expressed my thoughts about his outlandish remarks here,here,and here.
Lastly, there was yet another letter to the editor criticizing turning the management of Mauna Kea to the University of Hawaii.
March 20th, 2009 at 8:58 PM
Siu throws the “illegal overthrow” phrase around alot. But then again, is any overthrow legal anyway?
Do you want two scoops of rice, poi or sweet potatoes with your red herring meal? If anything, I will be having poi- I’m keeping it real like that. LOL…j/k
March 22nd, 2009 at 7:44 AM
Aaron, did you see in PBN that Kaiser is building a new clinic in Kona? Maybe all those doctors that are leaving the outer islands need more room to work? haha
Aaron- It is my understanding Kaiser brings specialists from Oahu to the neighbor islands. Thus all their doctors are not permanently based here.