Life After Latest News

That’s good news for the majority of Americans who are not clamouring for – indeed, would be wary of – a hasty withdrawal designed to carry out an election pledge made under vastly different circumstances. The story will be told by CNN news correspondent Kyung Lah. The CNN story turned to NOAA fisheries biologist Lesley Jantz, who studies lancet fish, a major component of the diet of tuna. While CNN was setting up shop, Hawai`i Wildlife Fund and volunteers quickly removed over 200 pounds of marine debris from the coastline with an hour’s effort. A follow-up story on CNN in April will include NOAA’s Nets-to-Energy Program and recycled “ocean plastic” bottled cleaning products by the San Francisco-based company, Method. The story concludes by saying there is something consumers can do to help environmentalists. In turn, we can each be part of the solution and choose to re-use, reduce, recycle, and refuse (excess packaging, single-use items, etc.) and participate in local cleanup events. Volunteers can join Hawai`i Wildlife Fund’s Ka`u Coast Cleanup this Saturday. Can you stream online music to your car? The deaths that occur daily in car crashes don’t get similar attention.

What if you actually need to get some work done? Gregory asked Gabbard: In this “slightly cooler atmosphere where we’re not in the middle of fiscal crisis, do you sense more inclination to get something done? During the debate, Biden was asked directly about it and he claimed he does not support it. She said the hike in the minimum wage “will ensure that Hawai`i’s lowest paid workers will earn wages that will at least support their basic needs.… RAISING THE MINIMUM WAGE from $7.75 to $9.25, and tagging the minimum to the cost of living each year, passed the state House of Representatives and Senate during the past week. About a half dozen whales have washed up onto the shores of the Big Island in the last year, including the one seen yesterday by hikers along the Ka`u Coast and another last summer at Ninole. HMSA received permission for an increase of 3.7 percent last year, after asking for a hike of 4.2 percent. U.S. REP. TULSI GABBARD, who represents Ka`u, joined Meet the Press host David Gregory in a panel discussion with former Republican Congressman Joe Scarborough from Florida who hosts MSNBC’s Morning Joe; former governor and now Democratic senator from Virginia, Tim Kaine; Republican senator from Oklahoma, Tom Coburn, who he was one of the 11 Republican senators who dined with President Barack Obama last week; and freshman Republican Congressman Cory Gardner of Colorado.

Hawai`i’s U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard appeared on Meet the Press yesterday. The decaying remains of the unidentified species seen Monday may have come from a whale that could have been more than 30 feet long, as judged from the bones of possibly its cranium, which appeared to be about five feet wide, hikers said. Hikers came across remains of a decaying whale south of Honu`apo yesterday. He said he also hopes to reach the site of a decaying beached whale south of Honu`apo. HAWAIIAN ISLANDS HUMPBACK WHALE National Marine Sanctuary representatives came to Ka`u today to look for a possibly pregnant monk seal who has been coming ashore at Punalu`u and Green Sands Beaches. NATIONAL MARINE SANCTUARY FOUNDATION’S Hawai`i Chapter was announced yesterday. While we are thankful for the amount of attention this event has caused for marine debris awareness around the globe, we want all of our volunteers to recognize that marine debris has been a serious problem for decades (basically since the invention of plastic).

Hawai`i Wildlife Fund has picked up international debris from shorelines throughout the Hawaiian Archipelago since 1998 and realizes that marine debris is a people problem, not solely the result of a single tsunami event or country of origin. HAWAI`I WILDLIFE FUND ISSUED A STATEMENT regarding today’s second anniversary of the Japan tsunami, saying the organization “would again like to express our deepest sympathy to the victims and victims’ families of this natural disaster. Hawai`i Wildlife Fund holds a Ka`u Coast Cleaup this Saturday. Hawai`i will also join the 10 other states across the nation that adjust their minimum wages annually to keep pace with the rising cost of living – a policy known as indexing. Indexing to inflation ensures that real wages for our lowest paid workers do not fall even further behind. Patricia McManaman, director of the state Department of Human Services, offered the following testimony: “According to the United States Department of Labor, Bureau for Labor Statistics, of the 321,000 hourly workers in Hawai`i, 8,000 were paid the minimum wage of $7.25 in 2011 while an additional 7,000 residents were paid below the minimum wage.