[ OUR OPINION ]
Investigation deters
political corruptionCITY Prosecutor Peter Carlisle has yet to complete his investigation into campaign-spending violations, but his probe already is having an effect on candidates' efforts to raise money for next year's mayoral race. Fund-raisers and contributors alike are pressured to take extra care in following the rules, which should have been common practice before now.
THE ISSUE
Former City Councilmen Mufi Hannemann and Duke Bainum have filed their campaign reports to the Campaign Spending Commission.
Formal charges have been filed against two executives -- Alden Kajioka of Controlpoint Surveying Inc. and Michael Matsumoto of SSFM International -- for their campaign-spending activities. Matsumoto pleaded no contest in January to charges that he laundered money in funneling $139,500 to Mayor Harris's campaign chest. Kajioka was charged last week with making excessive contributions to the Harris campaign and making donations under false names.
More is likely to come. About a dozen executives and relatives have been arrested in recent months on suspicion of illegal campaign activity but not charged, a common strategy in white-collar crime investigations to pressure people to provide information that can be used in bringing indictments.
Mayoral candidates Mufi Hannemann and Duke Bainum are feeling the reverberations in their attempts to raise money. "It's definitely a lot more difficult," Hannemann told the Star-Bulletin's Crystal Kua. "That's why I'm very grateful for every penny that we get from anyone." Even people who don't do business with the city are "concerned of making sure that everybody is in compliance," he said.
"In terms of actual fund raising, I think this is a positive that there is scrutiny like this," Bainum said.
The scrutiny will continue as long as company officials are assured they will be severely punished if they engage in illegal activity. Circuit Judge Karl Sakamoto's sentence of Matsumoto last month to 300 hours of community service and a $15,000 fine did not provide that assurance. Calling Matsumoto's conduct "common pattern and practice" over "several generations of campaigns," the judge gave Matsumoto the chance to have his criminal record expunged after five years if he abides by certain conditions.
In a letter to the Star-Bulletin last Sunday, engineering company executive Steven M. Baldridge called the sentence "a slap in the face to the many hard-working engineers in Honolulu who chose not to participate in these illegal activities." Judges should keep that in mind when sentencing others whose illegal activities have tarnished democracy.
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Screening system
shows improvementAN outpouring of public protests has prompted federal transportation officials to scale down a security system for checking personal information about airline passengers. The revised system is a considerable improvement over the initial proposal in February, but questions remain about potential invasion of privacy rights. Those should be answered when the system is in full operation sometime next year.
THE ISSUE
The federal government has reduced the scope of a system used to screen airline passengers.
The Department of Transportation in February began testing a plan, called the Computer Assisted Passenger System II, or CAPPS II. It takes information provided by the passenger in buying a ticket, such as name, date of birth, home address and phone number and itinerary. It was designed to match that information against data such as passengers' credit reports, bank account activity, housing information, medical records and family ties obtained from numerous government and commercial databases.
The revised system will not use any information about a person's credit, bank records or medical records, according to the agency, now the new Homeland Security Department's Transportation Security Administration. While the initial proposal was designed to flag any passengers who had outstanding arrest warrants, the new plan is limited to warrants for violent crimes.
Also, under the February proposal, information gathered about passengers would remain in the system for 50 years. The revision allows the government to retain the information from a few hours before the passenger's flight to a few days after the trip ends.
From that information, most passengers will be identified as "low risk" and pass through ordinary screening, while those presenting an elevated risk will undergo screening with a handheld wand. "High risks" will be brought to the attention of law enforcement.
Concerns remain about the lack of a requirement for the government to divulge the databases to be used in the system and, of course, the very nature of the system. "These are fundamental changes in the relationship of the individual and the government, to have the government assigning risk scores to all of us," says Jay Stanley of the American Civil Liberties Union.
Testing of CAPPS II will be conducted for about six months at a secure government location, according to James Loy, the TSA administrator. Loy said he hopes the system will be implemented nationwide in a year.
