The Hawaii Medical Service Association is seeking a court injunction to stop the state from awarding QUEST contracts for managed health care of poor families. HMSA asks court
to block QUESTHMSA recently lost a bid to continue covering about 50,000 QUEST clients on Oahu, Kauai and Maui.
It protested the process used by the state Department of Human Services to award the contracts and is asking the Circuit Court to block the awards until its appeal is heard.
Fred Fortin, HMSA spokesman, said a hearing is expected to be held "very shortly" by the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs.
"We're committed to this appeal and we feel very strongly about our case," he said today. "We're going to pursue all legal options we have available to us. We feel the appeal process should continue and we're confident that it's going to be a favorable resolution."
Richard Akimoto says he might pick up a liquor license application to stave off a ban on smoking at his pool hall. Smoking ban may boost
liquor license applicationsUnder the so-called workplace smoking bill passed 9-0 by the City Council yesterday, Akimoto's Hawaiian Brian's hall would no longer allow smoking. The owner is predicting big losses.
All workplaces except restaurants, bars, nightclubs and private clubs will be smoke-free when the bill becomes law in the next six to seven weeks.
Meanwhile, anti-smoking advocates Julian Lipsher of the state Health Department and Dr. Elizabeth Tam didn't leave City Hall after the vote happy either.
They said the bill got watered down when it was amended to exempt open areas of commercial complexes -- primarily outdoor shopping malls like the Hawaii Kai Town Center -- from the smoking ban.
But bill co-authors Mufi Hannemann and John Henry Felix vowed that they aren't done with the smoking issue yet.
"I've always said, from the beginning, that this bill is part of a two-part strategy," Hannemann said.
Jeanene Rodrigues feared her 2-month-old son was starving. Supplemental food
program cutting costs"He wasn't gaining weight," she said. "At 2 months he only weighed 8 pounds."
She had to get him on formula but couldn't afford it.
Determined not to let her baby starve, Rodrigues followed her doctor's suggestion to receive federal aid from Women, Infants and Children, a supplemental food program for pregnant and nursing mothers and their children under 5. The son, now 5 years old, weighs 50 pounds thanks to the program, which is now assisting his two younger brothers.
Rodrigues, a mother of four, is one of the 30,532 Hawaii women and children who receive the monthly food allotments from Women, Infants and Children.
Congress has proposed major cuts to the $76 million supplemental budget request by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
The House has cut the funding to $38 million, while the Senate proposes $58 million.
The overall cuts would affect Hawaii by requiring a 30 percent drop in clients -- about 9,300 recipients -- according to figures from the USDA, which administers the fund.
The cuts could come as soon as the end of the federal fiscal year in September.
Employees of a local garbage hauling company have rejected the Carpenters Union as its exclusive representative, capping a contentious and unusual organizing drive. Garbage haulers reject
Carpenters UnionYesterday's 60-5 vote by employees of Honolulu Disposal Service Inc. came a year after the company disclosed a 17-year-old pact with the rival Laborers International Union. Workers say they were unaware of the contract and never got the benefits it called for.
The outcome was not unexpected, Carpenters representatives acknowledged, because of alleged intimidation and coercion by the company over the last year.
A National Labor Relations Board complaint filed in December 1996 charged that Honolulu Disposal president Clyde Kaneshiro interrogated employees about union sympathies and solicited employees to sign up with the Laborers, while a Laborers representative threatened workers by saying he would give Kaneshiro the names of anyone who failed to sign up with his union.
The Carpenters have seven days to file objections before the election can be certified by the labor board.
See expanded coverage in today's Honolulu Star-Bulletin.
See our [Info] section for subscription information.
Police/Fire
By Star-Bulletin staffA 28-year-old Kaneohe man was killed last night after the truck he was driving crossed the center line on Kahekili Highway and collided head-on with an incoming van. Kaneohe man killed
in Kahekili collisionHe was pronounced dead at the scene at 11:50 p.m., investigators said.
Two women in the van, 35 and 34, both of Hauula, were taken to Queen's Hospital, where both are in fair condition.
The man was driving toward Kahaluu when the crash occurred just before Ahuimanu Road. He apparently was not wearing a seatbelt, police said.
Speed and possibly alcohol may have contributed to the crash. His death is Oahu's 28th traffic fatality of the year, compared with 21 at the same time last year.
A 20-year-old man faces charges of attempted murder, reckless endangering and firearms violations after he allegedly shot at at a rival gang member April 26 near Aala Park. Man faces charges
in gang incidentPolice arrested him yesterday and seized his car as evidence. A handgun was recovered.
Police arrested a 33-year-old Kapahulu man at Hanauma Bay for investigation of sexual assault and kidnapping involving a female visitor. Kapahulu man held
in sex-assault caseThe suspect, of Castle Street, allegedly approached the 31-year-old woman, who remained in the water after her boyfriend swam ashore. He claimed he was a fishing teacher and offered to show her bigger fish, police said.
When she agreed, he allegedly led her to a nearby reef where he sexually assaulted her, police said.
The bay was closed for a short period after the woman reported the incident to her boyfriend and lifeguards. The man was arrested just after 2 p.m.
Other Police/Fire headlines
in today’s Star-Bulletin:
- Kalihi man linked to three robberies
- Three boys charged in 7-Eleven holdup
- Girl, 7, was injured in hit-and-run case
- Police grab 1,886 marijuana plants
See expanded coverage in today's Honolulu Star-Bulletin.
See our [Info] section for subscription information.
