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Coconut%20Wireless

by Jacob Shafer

October 22, 2009

HYPER LOCAL

Two weeks ago, I wrote a story about cell phones and driving and posed the question: do we need to be protected from ourselves? The answer, according to Councilman Joe Pontanilla, is yes. Last week, Pontanilla introduced a bill similar to the one recently enacted on Oahu that prohibits the use of hand-held electronic devices, with exemptions for emergency responders, workers using two-way radios and people calling 911. Pontanilla told me he was moved to action by constituents who've experienced “near misses” and have “children and grandchildren who have been in accidents because of cell phones.” Here's an interesting wrinkle: there is already a law on the books that, by all appearances, gives police the ability to cite people for talking on phones or text messaging while behind the wheel. Section 291-12 of the Hawaii Revised Statutes concerning “inattention to driving” states: “Whoever operates any vehicle without due care or in a manner as to cause a collision with, or injury or damage to, as the case may be, any person, vehicle or other property shall be fined not more than $500 [amended in 2008 to raise the fee to $1,000] or imprisoned not more than thirty days, or both….” That language seems broad enough to include drivers distracted by electronic devices. One of the main—and most persuasive—arguments against a cell phone ban is that it addresses only one of the many distractions that cause unsafe driving. What about eating in the car, reading a magazine, fiddling with the radio, turning around to scold your rambunctious keiki? Should we pass individual laws concerning each of those things? I brought this up to Pontanilla, who said I was “the first to tell [him]” about 291-12. He said his conversations with prosecutors and law enforcement officials convinced him that a cell phone-specific ban was the right way to go. “It’s about public safety,” he said. That may be true, but whether this bill and others like it are the right approach is another matter…. Back in the ’70s, Barry Obama was a high schooler on Oahu, giving a shout-out to his choom gang in the yearbook. Flash forward a few decades, and President Obama’s Justice Department is telling its attorneys to honor state medical marijuana laws. That’s been the Administration’s consistent position, but it was solidified in a memo sent this week to the 13 states with medical pot laws on the books, including the President’s birth state. It’s pretty funny (in the least “ha ha” sense possible) that we’ve got a liberal Democrat in the White House advocating for states’ rights and a Republican Governor hiding behind federal prohibition. Of course, the memo doesn’t magically resolve all the issues surrounding Hawaii’s convoluted medical marijuana policy. I asked Mark Sheehan, who chairs the community committee of Democracy In Action (the group’s director, Brian Murphy, was arrested last year for dispensing marijuana through Paia-based Patients Without Time), for his take. In an e-mail, Sheehan called the memo “a ray of sanity amidst a cloud of misguided thinking,” but added that the onus is still on local officials to rework the system so patients can get medicine safely and enforcement efforts can be shifted to “drugs like ice that are the real blight in our communities.”… Though approval from the County Council is pending, it’s likely that Maui will have a professional baseball team next year, for the first time since the Stingrays folded more than a decade ago. As I noted last week, the independent Golden Baseball League wants to launch a Valley Isle squad, which will be run by California-based XnE Inc. I spoke with XnE CEO Rick Berry (no relation to the basketball legend), who said he’s excited to “get the community involved” in everything from naming the team and choosing its mascot to actually playing in the games. Berry said his “inbox is full of e-mails from local kids” who want to try out, and though he can’t give details until the process is finalized, he did say he has a “former big leaguer” lined up to manage the team. Berry said they’ll play 40-44 home games (at Wailuku’s War Memorial Complex), depending on how many new teams are added to the league. Spring training would start in mid-May and games would get underway a few weeks later. Asked if he plans to reach out to homegrown Major Leaguers Shane Victorino and Kurt Suzuki, Berry said he’d welcome “help from any local people with experience.”…

LOCAL

News stories always contain superfluous quotes, stuck in to give editors something to trim is space in tight. But every once in a while, you come across an indispensable remark that perfectly sums up an issue. Like this one, from Kehau Abad, a member of the Oahu Island Burial Council, addressing concerns that a portion of Honolulu’s rail line will disturb burial sites in the Honolulu Advertiser: “Something’s got to give. What we all know is…our values [and] what we hold dear—that’s what everybody asks us to give.” Reminds me of another line, repeated by numerous testifiers at a meeting about the proposed ATST telescope on Haleakala earlier this year: “You can’t mitigate spirituality.”

NOT LOCAL

The number 350 probably doesn’t strike fear in your heart—but it should. That’s the message of 350.org, an organization named after a dangerous global warming tipping point: an amount of CO2 in the atmosphere greater than 350 parts per million, which NASA scientist James Hansen says is “not compatible with the planet on which civilization developed.” Want even more bad news? We’re already at 390 parts per million. So is there hope? Bill McKibben, co-founder of 350.org, thinks so. In an article distributed through Blue Ridge Press, McKibben touted an effort set for October 24, when millions of people around the world will join in symbolic demonstrations. (Check out 350.org for info on Hawaii- and Maui-based actions.) “Nobody thinks this will be easy—fossil fuel lies at the heart of our economy, and replacing it with renewable power will be expensive. But it needs to be done,” wrote McKibben. “It’s not political—it’s educational…If you’ve ever despaired about the future, here’s a chance to try and shape it instead.” Maui Time Weekly, Jacob Shafer