Only days until the U.S. can elect a President.

Mobilizing To Save the Oceans
Two high-level commissions have issued a clear message in the past year: Americans are unintentionally destroying the oceans through pollution, over-development and over-fishing. These reports have generated a tidal wave of marine metaphors, with commentators talking about "a sea change" or efforts to "smooth troubled waters." Now ocean advocates are organizing to turn words into action.

Overconsumption threatens ecological balance
People are consuming the planet's resources at a rate that outstrips its capacity to support life.

Protect Hawaiian Lands for Our Children
Our battle to stop forced leasehold conversion and the taking of Hawaiian land is being fought on different fronts. Your support is critical toward defending our Queen and safeguarding the education and services for the children of Hawaii. If we do not win, you can be sure that the taking will not stop and our Ali’i Trusts’ commercial property will be next.

The American Empire Project
Americans have long believed that the very notion of empire is an offense against our democratic heritage, yet in recent months, these two words -- American empire -- have been on everyone's lips. At this moment of unprecedented economic and military strength, the leaders of the United States have embraced imperial ambitions openly. How did we get to this point? And what lies down the road?

rBGH to be Fed to Fish Farm Fish in Hawaii
In collaboration with Monsanto Chemical Company and California Sea Grant, bovine growth hormone is being administered to aquacultured tilapia. Bovine growth hormone has a significant growth-promoting effect in tilapia. It's safety has yet to be determined, but that doesn't slow down Monsanto.

We need your help!
The coming election will be critical toward repealing the leasehold conversion bill that threatens the Queen Lili’uokalani Trust and Kamehameha Schools’ land assets. If we do not succeed then the lessees will start eroding Ali’i Trust commercial property too. 

Global Fish Crisis Looms
The race to feed the world's growing appetite for fish has pushed many commercial stocks to the brink of extinction.

Seahorses Struggle for Survival
Seahorses may have the best love lives of any fish in the ocean. These delicate, swirled-tail members of the syngnathid family (pipefish, sea dragons) are frequently depicted in mythology, rapturously entwined. But this millennia-old dance may soon be over, as seahorses are increasingly endangered.

Sign the Emissions Petition
The McCain Lieberman Climate Stewardship Act (S.139/H.R.4067) is a bipartisan reaction to the dangers of global warming and the Bush administration's policy of indifference toward them.

Protect the Vote
For example, more than 80 percent of the population of Detroit is black. This is very well understood by John Pappageorge, who is white and a Republican state legislator in Michigan. "If we do not suppress the Detroit vote," said Mr. Pappageorge, "we're going to have a tough time in this election." Oops! Republicans aren't supposed to actually say they want to suppress black votes. That's so retro. It's so Jim Crow. It is important to keep the following phone number handy: 1-866-OUR VOTE That's a hot line set up by the Election Protection Coalition, a group that was formed to identify and stamp out attempts to disenfranchise voters, especially in predominantly [Hawaiian], black and Latino precincts around the country.

Northwest Hawaiian Islands Protection
Your support and participation is vital to maintaining critically important protections for this phenomenal world wonder. Please read more about this amazing resource and sign up with our Action Alert Network to stay abreast of this process. Learn how you can help make these kupuna islands a true Pu'uhonua (place of refuge).

Hawaii Reports Widespread Contamination of Papaya Crop by GE Varieties
Independent laboratory testing results released today reveal widespread contamination from the world's first commercially planted genetically engineered tree, the papaya, on Oahu, the Big Island, and Kauai. Contamination was also found in the stock of non-genetically engineered seeds being sold commercially by the University of Hawaii.

Officials hope the state can avert cases
Hawaii health officials want state residents and doctors to be vigilant for the West Nile virus, which has killed seven people in California this year.

Vote NO to Strykers in Hawai`i,
The Hilo Tribune-Herald is conducting a poll as to whether you support Strykers coming to Hawai`i. Please vote at www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/index.html

F.B.I. Goes Knocking for Political Troublemakers
The Federal Bureau of Investigation has been questioning political demonstrators across the country, and in rare cases even subpoenaing them, in an aggressive effort to forestall what officials say could be violent and disruptive protests at the Republican National Convention in New York.

Health event puts focus on women
The temptation to soak in the sun, a cancer risk for many women, was one of many topics addressed Sunday at one of the largest women's health symposiums. Before World War II, the rate of skin cancer was about 1 in 1,000 people. Now, nearly one in 89 people will be diagnosed with the deadly disease.

Cases of bacterial disease on the rise in Hawaii
Leptospirosis -- a bacterial disease contracted through exposure to contaminated fresh water sources -- is on the rise in Hawaii.

Trash overwhelms Pacific beach
"Our islands are being 'wasted,' " warned environmental experts from Fiji's University of the South Pacific in a report last fall.

Saving the Oceans
Over the past year and a half, two blue-ribbon panels -- the Pew Oceans Commission and the U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy -- have put together major reports on the state of America's coastal waters. The reports, broadly speaking, agree on a depressing reality: This country's oceans are in trouble and absent dramatic policy changes will be irreversibly damaged.

Reckless Abandon: How the Bush Administration is Exposing America's Waters to Harm
Every region of the country contains unique types of aquatic ecosystems — some so rare that they are found only in part of a single state. These wetlands, ponds, lakes, and streams support a wide variety of life, supply clean drinking water, sustain imperiled species, provide natural flood control, and perform a host of other functions important to both human and wildlife communities. These waters are varied in their names and descriptions — including arroyos, prairie potholes, intermittent and ephemeral streams, bogs, playa lakes, forested vernal pools, and desert springs — but all are an important part of our natural and cultural heritage.

Cruising for Trouble in our Ocean and Ports
Cruise ships - the largest of which carry more than 5,000 passengers and crew - are floating cities that produce enormous volumes of waste. A typical cruise ship on a one-week voyage generates more than 50 tons of garbage, one million gallons of graywater (waste water from sinks, showers, galleys, and laundry facilities), 210,000 gallons of sewage, and 35,000 gallons of oil-contaminated water. Most of this waste is dumped directly into the ocean. In addition, luxury liners spew a range of pollutants into the air that can lead to acid rain and contribute to global warming. They can also spread invasive species by dumping untreated ballast water in coastal zones.

Millions Against Monsanto
If you're talking about PCBs, Agent Orange, Bovine Growth Hormone, water privatization, biopiracy, untested/unlabeled genetically engineered organisms, or persecuting small family farmers, you're talking about the Monsanto Corporation. Join the campaign to end Monsanto's global corporate terrorism.

El Nino may strike us soon
A US report has predicted a 50 per cent chance of El Nino, a warm Pacific Ocean current which has been blamed for long droughts and other natural disasters along the Pacific, will occur this year. El Nino occurs about every four to seven years, lasting up to 18 months.

Urge Hawai'i to Protect Northwestern Hawaiian Islands Coral Reefs
The Northwestern Hawaiian Islands (NWHI) are home to one of the largest remaining relatively undisturbed coral reef ecosystems on earth. They support over 7,000 marine species, including endangered Hawaiian monk seals, threatened sea turtles, birds, tropical fish and more. Hawai'i has proposed a NWHI refuge designed to protect the state waters in this fragile ecosystem. Please add your own words to a message to the Hawai'i Department of Land and Natural Resources urging them to fully preserve this culturally important and unique habitat.

Take the Oceans Alive Pledge
Teddy Roosevelt left an enduring legacy in protecting the last great places and saving millions of acres of wild land. Today, our oceans are in trouble, with marine life and plants in danger of vanishing forever. We need a champion to commit that same level of action to our oceans. Send a message to U.S. President George W. Bush and Senator John Kerry urging them to become the Teddy Roosevelt of the oceans and to restore the health of our seas.

Military, Industry Sonar Harms Whales
Sonar used by the military to spot enemy submarines is to blame for increasing cases of whales being stranded on beaches and dying, the scientific committee of the International Whaling Commission said in a report this week. The IWC report adds weight to theories that sonar harms the giant sea mammals, a hypothesis that has been disputed by the military and by the oil and gas industry which uses the technology to search for energy reserves.

Massive Unregulated Biotech Harvest
There is a massive invasion taking play by biotech industries in Hawai'i: "According to data from the US Department of Agriculture, between 1987 and 2002, the island hosted 2,957 such experiments. This figure was surpassed only by Iowa (3,831), Illinois (4,104) and Hawaii (4,566)."

Global Decline of Sharks Underscores Poor Health of World’s Oceans
In yet another example of the dire state of the world’s oceans, the World Conservation Union announced last week that it will be adding 10 species of sharks and rays to its global "Red List" of endangered species. Researchers cite overfishing throughout the world’s oceans as well as soaring demand for shark fin in Asia as the primary culprits in the global decline of shark populations.

Waikiki Tops Hawaii Beaches For Drownings
Statistics released by the state show that beaches you might think are the safest have the highest number of drownings.

Hawaii: The dark side of paradise
After three decades of economic growth and prosperity, Hawaii took a downturn 15 years ago and the Aloha state has never fully recovered. In most respects things are getting worse every year.

Mysterious Comeback
After avian malaria drove the tiny Hawaiian Amakihi away from its primary habitat, the species has returned home. The Amakihi's recovery could have implications for North American bird populations, which struggle with another mosquito-transmitted disease, the West Nile virus.

More toxic chemicals released in Hawaii in 2002
The U-S Environmental Protection Agency says a slight increase has been reported in the amount of toxic chemicals released in Hawaii in 2002.

Japan, U.S. to test missile defense in '05 off Hawaii
The Japanese plan to conduct the first joint tests of a sea-based antimissile system in fiscal 2005, The Yomiuri Shimbun has learned. The tests will involve the interception of a target missile by an interceptor missile launched from an Aegis destroyer off Hawaii.

Watch Out For Predatory Lenders
Usually predatory lenders target people who are strapped for cash, but the loans they push have sky-high interest rates and fees that are illegal.

No Pacific Dolphin Recovery, Despite Protection
Marine ecologists from the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) are combing the eastern Pacific for clues to why the dolphin population there is not growing, despite more than a decade of conservation efforts.

New anti-terrorism bill makes face paint and masks criminal offenses
"It's really ironic to hear the myth of 'freedom' perpetuated in the U.S." Indigenous peoples have become prisoners of democracy. "First of all, as an Indigenous person, having been colonized and in the colonizer's minds 'conquered,' we continue to be what one of my friends calls 'prisoners of democracy.' "We cannot make our decisions towards self-determination without negotiating and getting a seal or stamp, or an okay by the great white father in Washington."

Wither the Hala
KAHULUI - Add another beloved pillar of the Maui landscape to the growing heap of species under attack by invasive pests. The hala - one of Hawaii's most culturally significant trees - could become a thing of the past if a nasty insect isn't controlled soon.

Final Environmental Impact Statement For Stryker Brigade Combat Team Transformation In Hawai'i
Physically, it is impossible to read, much less digest the data involved. Hundreds of Ph.D. holders from prestigious universities would fail to address the actualities buried therein. Within the overwhelming data are references to other data equally if not more stultifying. Each impressive graphic, map, table, and paragraph leads to more of the same buried in other numberless government documents in turn leading further into speciousness, drowning us in irrelevance and circular illogics.

"Akaka Bill: Myth or Reality?" Further Waste of Our Monies
With much aloha and all due respect to our Office of Hawaiian Affairs `ohana, we must denounce their poho, wasteful, squandering of our diminishing trust monies in futile support of the already defunct Akaka bill, aka The Native Hawaiian Reorganization Act. The drunken-sailor-spending must stop now.

Seeds of Doubt: A special series on Genetically Modified Food
Much has been written about biotechnology's hope - to feed the hungry, to limit pesticides - and much has been written about its hazards. What we found was propaganda where there should be probing; superficial talk where there should be deeper truths.

Reefs need protection
What is needed is an adequately funded program that actively protects the reefs. The coral that makes up the reefs can regenerate itself after storms and even infestations of alien algae. What it can't survive is pollution, overfishing and destructive methods such as gill nets, which can turn a reef teaming with 5,000 different species of life into a barren desert in a matter of days.

Stop US Bombing of Mauna Kea
Since the 1950s, the calm has been brutally broken by US military bombing of native Hawaiian land. From the “overthrow” of a sovereign nation to the seizing of Pearl Harbor by the US military, the Hawaiian Kingdom and the Maoli people have suffered from US territorial expansion: exploitation, cultural genocide and marginalization. Many of the bombing areas and military ranges that the US has desecrated and poisoned are located in some of the most sacred Hawaiian cultural sites.

Why Haleakala is not sacred anymore
In ancient Hawaii, Haleakala was considered a wahi pana (legendary place, sacred place) and a wau akua (place where the gods live). Today, it is abused daily with bike tours, tourists in rented cars, buses and hundreds of people viewing this magnificent place that was revered by our ancient ancestors. The question is: Why is it not sacred anymore?

Ohana Requests Contested Case Hearing on Alii Highway Work
Protect Keopuka Ohana, a coalition of Hawaiian practitioners and environmental activists has formally requested a contested case hearing before the Board of Land and Natural Resources in order to contest the adequacy of archaeological inventory survey for the Alii Highway in Kona.

Courting Disaster
The next U.S. President is likely to nominate up to three new Supreme Court justices who will have a huge and long-lasting impact on constitutional rights, liberties and laws.

Stop the Stryker Brigade
The U.S. military is planning another invasion of Hawai'i. The largest land grab since World War II, the U.S. Army is proposing to take over 23,000 additional acres on Hawai'i Island and up to 2,000 acres on Oahu. The Army wants to locate 400 19-ton Stryker armored vehicles and hundreds of additional troops on the Islands of Oahu and Hawai'i.

Why Haleakala is not sacred anymore
In ancient Hawaii, Haleakala was considered a wahi pana (legendary place, sacred place) and a wau akua (place where the gods live). Today, it is abused daily with bike tours, tourists in rented cars, buses and hundreds of people viewing this magnificent place that was revered by our ancient ancestors. The question is: Why is it not sacred anymore?

Ohana Requests Contested Case Hearing on Alii Highway Work
Protect Keopuka Ohana, a coalition of Hawaiian practitioners and environmental activists has formally requested a contested case hearing before the Board of Land and Natural Resources in order to contest the adequacy of archaeological inventory survey for the Alii Highway in Kona.

Number of Hawaii rape cases increasing
The Sex Abuse Treatment Center says the number of rape cases involving adult women is increasing in Hawaii while it is dropping nationally.

Drug Discount Card Scams
Tuesday is the first day for Medicare recipients to begin using the new prescription drug discount card. Day to Day there are already scams involving the cards, targeted at seniors.

Rising oceans threaten islands
The "greenhouse effect," climate change, has languished on the world's agenda since the 1970s, a seemingly distant threat. But year by year, inch by inch, it is rising to the top -- as ocean islets flood, glaciers retreat, Arctic permafrost melts, and leading voices raise new alarms.

How many states in U.S.?
In the early 1970s, I went to one of those huge newsstands that once characterized New York City. I was looking for a copy of the Star-Bulletin, hungry for news about Hawaii in pre-Internet days, before information about world events could be had in minute-by-minute gluts with just a few taps on a keyboard.

Leptospirosis Infections on the Rise
Leptospirosis -- a bacterial disease contracted through exposure to contaminated fresh water sources -- is on the rise in Hawaii. The state Health Department says 21 cases of the disease have been reported so far this year, compared to only four at the same time last year.

All Stings Considered
First Aid and Medical Treatment of Hawai`i's Marine Injuries

Ocean Critters That Can Hurt You
Dangerous and Venomous sea creatures that can really hurt.

Shark Safety
The State of Hawaii's Division of Aquatic Resources of the Department of Land and Natural Resources recommends...

Sharks in Hawaiian Waters
There are about forty species of sharks of the 450 species of fish that occur in (i.e., are endemic to) Hawaiian waters, ranging in size from the deep-water Pygmy Shark (Squaliolus laticaudus - about 8 inches) to the Whale Shark (Rhincodon typus - up to 50 feet or more). About eight species are commonly seen near shore. The most frequently encountered are the Sandbar, Reef Whitetip, Scalloped Hammerhead, and occasionally Tiger.

Warning: Man-of-War
Beware of Ocean Hazards- Portuguese Man -of-War Jelly Fish are common on the beaches and coastal waters of Oahu's Windward coast and Leeward (West and South) shores nine to ten days after the full moon.

Hawaiian Water Safety Tips
The waters in the tropical postcard of the Hawaiian Seashore is always picture perfect. In reality Hawaii is the most isolated land mass in the world- in the middle of the Pacific Ocean with seasonal storms and swells that bring rapidly changing ocean conditions even on sunny days. On the average, 12 people drown each year on Kauai alone.

Rising oceans threaten islands
The "greenhouse effect," climate change, has languished on the world's agenda since the 1970s, a seemingly distant threat. But year by year, inch by inch, it is rising to the top -- as ocean islets flood, glaciers retreat, Arctic permafrost melts, and leading voices raise new alarms.

The Rest of the Story (Audio: Paul Harvey)
"Now, the rest of the story. Away from the headlines and the television cameras, down in the shadowy realms where U.S. foreign policy shakes hands with the devil, there will forever be a fascination with the case that we're about to discuss, about a handful of Americans living overseas, acting independently perhaps and for their reasons, or perhaps the United States government did itself carefully, quietly engineer the overthrow of a friendly monarchy. The kingdom's queen surely suspected the latter..."

Independent & Sovereign
"The recovery of Hawaiian self-determination is not only an issue for Hawaii, but for America. ... let all of us, Hawaiian and non-Hawaiian, work toward a common goal. Let us resolve ... to advance a plan for Hawaiian sovereignty." ~Democratic Governor Ben Cayetano"

Federal Emergency Management Agency [Docket 30-7130]
[MAY 8, 2001 Federal Notices] -- The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has an environmental assessment (EA) and a finding of no-significant impact (FONSI) on the issuance of a one-time exemption, pursuant to 10 CFR 71.8, from the provisions of 10 CFR 71.73(c)(1) and (3) to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to allow FEMA to transport ten CDV-794 calibrators containing up to 85 curies of cesium-137 in packages that otherwise meet the performance requirements for a Type B transportation package pursuant to 10 CFR part 71 as exempted. Nine calibrators will be shipped to a central location so that disassembly of the calibrators and disposal of the radioactive material can be done in a controlled environment to reduce worker radiation exposures. The tenth calibrator will be shipped 25 miles within the State of Hawaii for use at a U.S. Army facility in Hawaii for use under its radiation protection program.