Historic House
reunion will air
again on ‘Olelo

A televised House reunion that brought 100 former state legislators back to the chamber they once served will be rebroadcast on 'Olelo community television on Thursday at 3:01 a.m. on Channel 54.

The April 16 ceremony honored lawmakers straight out of Hawaii's history books, the likes of which included 94-year-old former U.S. Sen. Hiram Fong, who first served in the Territorial House in 1939 and today still works downtown at Finance Factors, the bank he helped found.

To Better Things: On two separate fronts, congratulations are in order for state Reps. Roy Takumi (D, Pearl City) and Bud Stonebraker (R, Hawaii Kai).

Takumi was chosen as a fellow for the 2001 Eleanor Roosevelt Global Leadership Institute from a field of 7,000 legislators. The network of state-based leaders works on understanding local issues from a global perspective.

Stonebraker's wife, Keren, gave birth to their second child, Yael. The healthy girl was born shortly after midnight Thursday, weighing 7 pounds and 10 ounces.

A Team For Children: How do Hawaii's congressional delegates rate on children's issues? The Children's Defense Fund Action Council ranked the nation's delegates based on their voting records on programs such as Head Start and increasing the minimum wage.

As a whole, Hawaii's delegation ranked 10th, tied with Nebraska, with a score of 85 percent. Not bad, considering the council found that "47 senators and 108 House members failed children and scored below 50 percent."

Sen. Daniel Akaka made the council's "best senators for children" list, scoring 100 percent two years running.

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[Winners & Losers]

WINNERS

<< Steven Alm: Hawaii's U.S. attorney becomes a state judge amid praise from confirming state senators, who call him the "drug dealers' worst nightmare."

Russell Okata: The HGEA executive director finally wins agreement from Gov. Ben Cayetano not to veto the HGEA 14.5 percent pay raise, but as a trade-off HGEA has to agree to lowered benefits for new state workers.

Neil Abercrombie: The U.S. representative helps broker a deal between the state and striking University of Hawaii professors.

LOSERS

>> Richard Wong: The former Bishop Estate trustee finds himself indicted for the third time on charges of perjury. The former legislator already has seen the charges dismissed twice before because of improper actions by the state.

Legislators on conference committees: Committee chairmen are trumping legislators' votes by rejecting a conference committee bill.

Hotel operators: They are continuing to worry that a $7.50 tax on wholesale hotel rooms will hurt business, and plan to set up lobbying at today's conference committee meeting.

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