Rare plants thrive in Big Island Forest preserve

The Nature Conservancy says rare native plants are once again thriving in a Big Island forest preserve now that a fence is keeping out pigs and mouflon sheep.

The animals, which are not native to Hawaii, destroy native plants and habitats by trampling on vegetation. The animals accelerate erosion and pollute the water supply with feces and diseases.

The nonprofit organization installed an animal-proof fence around its Kaiholena Preserve in Kau in late 2007. It took the conservancy and local hunters another year to remove all the pigs from the 1,200-acre lowland forest preserve.

The Nature Conservancy said Tuesday the nuku iiwi, a native vine traditionally found in Kaiholena, is among the plants that has returned. The vine’s reddish-orange flower resembles the curved bill of the iiwi honeycreeper.

Rare plants thrive in Big Island Forest preserve – Hawaii News – Staradvertiser.com

Land officials vote to revert Aina Lea land

The state Land Use Commission on Thursday affirmed its decision to revert land owned by Bridge Aina Lea and DW Aina Lea to agriculture.

The commission voted 6 to 2 in favor of adopting its proposed decision and order, Commission Executive Director Dan Davidson said. The order was slightly amended from the proposed form; the amendments will not be available until Monday, Davidson said.

Hawaii County officials may allow the construction to continue, despite the commission’s ruling, a spokeswoman for DW Aina Lea said. Planning Director Bobby Jean Leithead-Todd did not respond to a message left on her cell phone seeking clarification late Thursday. The spokeswoman said the building permits for the project were issued by the county, in accordance with county zoning, and the state commissioners did not intend to issue any ruling on existing structures.

Infrastructure for the project has not been completed; as of the last report to the commission, the existing structures did not have electricty or running water.

Big Island groundwater tested for radiation

Hawaii state health officials have sent samples of Big Island groundwater for testing after the release of radiation from Japanese nuclear power plants last month.

West Hawaii today reported Friday health officials took samples from Waimea’s groundwater supplies to be sent to the mainland for testing.

Results are expected next week or early next month.

County officials are to ask the Board of Water Supply to approve a contract change that would allow for in-house lab tests for radiation or to request tests from the lab contractor.

Big Island groundwater tested for radiation – Hawaii News – Staradvertiser.com

Pennsylvania: the ‘ground zero’ of the US shale gas drilling boom

The Guardian

Last June, Tony Zaffuto arrived at his fieldstone cabin in the forested hills of Pennsylvania’s SB Elliott state park to find a notice pinned on the front door: “Danger. Do not occupy dwelling”.

A blowout at a gas well in another popular camping spot, in the woods of the Punxsutawney hunt club, also in Clearfield County, had shot a 23-metre (75ft) combustible gusher of gas and toxic waste water into the air. It took the gas company, EOG Resources, 16 hours to control the well and the authorities had to carry out an evacuation.

It was not Zaffuto’s first encounter with the dangers of natural gas drilling. In 2009 the spring that was the cabin’s only source of water was contaminated by toxic waste from a pond serving the gas wells. Five other nearby water wells were also contaminated.

And yet Zaffuto is right behind Pennsylvania’s natural gas boom. He supports the idea of US energy security and he wants his country to reduce oil imports.

“Throughout all this, I am pro-drilling, but I want to see it done correctly,” Zaffuto, a businessman whose family have owned the cabin since 1921, said. “Having it done correctly will not cripple the industry. If there is money to be made they will comply. If there is enough natural resource of gas in the ground, they will drill and they will abide by the regulations. It’s simple.”

6 isle farms sued for labor practices

Federal authorities have filed a civil lawsuit accusing six Hawaii farms of “unlawful employment practices” in association with federally indicted farm labor contractor Global Horizons Manpower Inc.

Global Horizons’ owner and employees are already facing several forced labor criminal charges in what’s been called the most sweeping labor prosecution in U.S. history, but no farms were implicated in the crimes.

However, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission alleges that supervisors from the six island farms and two others in Washington state were “engaged in, and more importantly knew of, or should have known that this was going on, and took no action to remedy it.”

The Hawaii farms are Captain Cook Coffee Co., Del Monte Fresh Produce, Kauai Coffee Co. Inc., Kelena Farms Inc., Mac Farms of Hawaii LLC and Maui Pineapple Co. The lawsuits were filed Tuesday in Hawaii and Washington.

Global Horizons is also named in the lawsuit. In Washington state, the two farms charged are Green Acre Farms and Valley Fruit Orchards.

Aloun Farms, named in the federal indictment against Global Horizons, was not implicated in the EEOC lawsuit. Aloun Farms owners Alec and Mike Sou still face separate federal forced labor charges in a case unrelated to Global Horizons.

Sharing Mana’o

I’ve been thinking about job satisfaction and general happiness. It’s like the chicken and the egg. Which comes first? Seems logical that a satisfying career would be a major factor in one’s overall contentment. But some experts say it’s the other way around – that the key to job happiness is being happy in general, and that you don’t have to find fulfillment at work in order to be content in life.

It’s a moot point for me, because I’ve always had jobs I enjoy. And I’ve always enjoyed life in general. I’m one of those rose-colored-glasses-wearing, sunny-side-of-the-street kind of folks who annoy the heck out of other folks like my late husband, Barry. He used to joke that my eternal optimism was a mental illness, that normal people just aren’t that happy all the time, especially while on the job.

But then, as I used to tell Barry, my work life is far from normal. I’m fortunate to be able to do what I love and love what I do. Besides radio broadcasting, storytelling, acting and writing, I have a wonderful day job. For 15 years, I’ve worked for Kaunoa Senior Services, a division of the County of Maui’s Department of Housing and Human Concerns. Far from being a stereotypical cog in the grinding wheels of bureaucracy, Kaunoa is an efficient, enlightened agency with an admirable mission: to continuously create special and exceptional experiences and opportunities to make the retirement years of Maui’s seniors feel like the best years of their lives.

Feds say firm abused Thai farm workers in Hawaii, Washington

The U.S. Employment Opportunity Commission announced today that it filed lawsuits in Hawaii and Washington state against Global Horizons Inc., a Beverly Hills-based farm labor contractor, and eight farms, including six in Hawaii.

The agency said Global Horizons brought more than 200 men from Thailand to work on farms in Hawaii and Washington, where they were subjected to severe abuse.

The EEOC contends that Global Horizons engaged in a pattern or practice of national origin and race discrimination, harassment and retaliation. Hundreds of additional potential claimants and witnesses are expected, the EEOC said.

The agency said the Thai workers were assigned to work at these farms in Hawaii: Captain Cook Coffee Company, Del Monte Fresh Produce, Kauai Coffee Company, Kelena Farms, MacFarms of Hawaii and Maui Pineapple Farms.

The Washington state farms named in the lawsuits are Green Acre Farms and Valley Fruit Orchards.

The lawsuit follows criminal charges brought against Global Horizons last year. The U.S. government in September indicted Global Horizons owner Mordechai Yosef Orian and others with exploiting about 400 Thai workers in forced-labor conditions from May 2004 to September 2005.

Dengue fever fight comes home

Nelsa Sadaya used a simple mixture of tap water and dishwashing soap to spray dozens of potted plants surrounding her Kalihi Valley home yesterday to try to stop the spread of dengue fever.

Sadaya also learned yesterday that a similar solution of water and vegetable oil also helps kill mosquitoes — while sparing her plants.

“Mosquitoes everywhere,” Sadaya said. “This is simple.”

With the state’s mosquito-killing efforts nearly wiped out from budget cuts, state Rep. John Mizuno (D, Kalihi) and City Councilwoman Tulsi Gabbard Tamayo, whose district includes Kalihi Valley, encouraged Sadaya and her husband, Zaldy, to fill the gap in Hawaii’s mosquito eradication efforts themselves yesterday by pouring out standing water and by spraying plants with diluted vegetable oil or dishwashing soap.

“Everyone can take their own preventative measures,” Gabbard Tamayo said. “Each and every one of us has to do our part. … This is not isolated to Kalihi Valley. This is a statewide issue.”

Water wars? Thirsty, energy-short China stirs fear

AHIR JONAI, India >> The wall of water raced through narrow Himalayan gorges in northeast India, gathering speed as it raked the banks of towering trees and boulders. When the torrent struck their island in the Brahmaputra river, the villagers remember, it took only moments to obliterate their houses, possessions and livestock.

No one knows exactly how the disaster happened, but everyone knows whom to blame: neighboring China.

“We don’t trust the Chinese,” says fisherman Akshay Sarkar at the resettlement site where he has lived since the 2000 flood. “They gave us no warning. They may do it again.”

About 500 miles east, in northern Thailand, Chamlong Saengphet stands in the Mekong river, in water that comes only up to her shins. She is collecting edible river weeds from dwindling beds. A neighbor has hung up his fishing nets, his catches now too meager.

Using words bordering on curses, they point upstream, toward China.

The blame game, voiced in vulnerable river towns and Asian capitals from Pakistan to Vietnam, is rooted in fear that China’s accelerating program of damming every major river flowing from the Tibetan plateau will trigger natural disasters, degrade fragile ecologies, divert vital water supplies.