Princess Cruises will launch a 28-day Hawaii, Tahiti & South Pacific cruise aboard Sapphire Princess next year.
The month-long excursion is in addition to the California-based company’s 43 sailings of 10 itineraries to 33 ports throughout Pacific islands.
The cruise will start in Los Angeles and call at Hilo on the Big Island, Honolulu, Kauai, Maui, Pago Pago, Apia, Bora Bora, Moorea and Papeete.
The first sailing is scheduled to depart Los Angeles Oct. 22, 2011.
The Navy has filed notice of an environmental impact statement to “adjust baseline training and testing activities from current levels to match levels required to support Navy training and testing requirements” beginning in 2014
A jump in methamphetamine-related arrests on Oahu and a significant increase in positive results in workplace drug tests statewide suggest a surge in meth use — even by people trying to find jobs in Hawaii’s struggling economy. Story »
Hooser’s Support of Working Families Earns Local 5’s Endorsement
of Bid for Lt. Governor
Former Senate Majority Leader and the only Neighbor Island candidate in the race for Lieutenant Governor, Gary Hooser, today welcomed the endorsement of his candidacy by UNITE HERE! Local 5. This is a significant vote of confidence and support from a local labor organization representing over 10,500 hotel, health care, and food service workers throughout the State.
Commenting on the endorsement, Hooser said, “I am thankful to the members of local 5 who have joined with The Hawaii Nurses Association, The Progressive Democrats of Hawaii and with many other groups and community leaders in offering me their support.
Our campaign is a grass-roots effort and Local 5 is a progressive grass-roots people- centered organization. This is very good news for our campaign as our momentum continues to build on every island statewide,” he added.
Citing his clear record in support of Hawaii’s working families, Joli Tokusato, a worker at the Ilikai Hotel for the last 20 years and chair of Local 5’s Political Action Committee said, “There’s one candidate in this race with experience we can count on, and that’s Gary Hooser. Senator Hooser is the only neighbor island candidate and the only one with
leadership experience on both the county and state levels. He knows our issues and listens to our concerns because he understands the value of hard work.”
Rod Kane, a cook at the Sheraton Princess Kaiulani hotel added, “I’m proud of our Union’s endorsement of Gary Hooser because he’s consistently stood with us on the front lines of fighting for good jobs for this community. He was there for us at Turtle Bay, in our campaign at the Royal Kona Resort on the Big Island, and our statewide hotel and Kaiser campaigns as well.”
“Working families in every community around our State are feeling the squeeze, yet more and more money is being sucked out of our State while wealthy corporations continue to use the economy as an excuse to hurt workers. In this economy and in this election, we need a real leader who will work with us to defend our community and stand up for the little guy, not another typical politician; we need real experience, and not just talk or a catchy campaign slogan; we need Gary Hooser as our next Lieutenant Governor,” added Tokusato.
Visit www.garyhooser.com for more comments from others statewide who have endorsed Gary Hooser for Lieutenant Governor 2010.
Folks like little Timmeh Geithner are what is wrong with Obama’s “gang.”
by The Daily Beast
Romeo Gacad, AFP / Getty Images More than 90,000 classified files documenting the war in Afghanistan have been published by the whistle-blower site WikiLeaks, painting a dire portrait. From hidden civilian casualties to a special unit tasked with murdering top Taliban leaders without trial, see what’s in the explosive files. Plus, Philip Shenon on whether alleged whistle-blower Bradley Manning acted alone.
The WikiLeaks Afghanistan files, one of the biggest leaks in the history of the U.S. military, cover January 2004 to December 2009, a time span the Obama administration has been quick to highlight, given that it implicates “under-resourcing” on the part of President George W. Bush. Although the White House was quick to condemn the release as “irresponsible,” The New York Times noted in its report that the paper did attempt to verify the information—withholding documents it felt would endanger national security—and that no government officials denied its authenticity.
Among the findings:
1) Pakistan’s spy service, according to revealed documents, is a major supporter of insurgents in Afghanistan, allowing its members to meet secretly with the Taliban, offering strategy advice, organizing groups to fight coalition troops, and plotting the assassinations of members of the Afghan government.
2) A top-secret group of American forces, nicknamed the “black” unit, is specially tasked with hunting down top Taliban leaders and either killing or capturing them on the spot—without a trial. The Obama administration has apparently increased the missions even though some have gone awry, killing civilians.
3) NATO troops are relying on remote-controlled Predator drones more and more heavily, controlling them from a base in Nevada and using them to kill an increasing number of Taliban targets.
4) The Taliban has access to heat-seeking missiles and has used them against American aircraft, a fact never before disclosed publicly. Many of the missiles aren’t successful. Americans have also been forced into dangerous retrieval operations when their own remote-controlled drones crash, so that Taliban do not recover them.
5) Several documents detail the frustrating disappearance of money meant for humanitarian aid, such as the case of an orphanage erected with much fanfare and donations in Gardez. A year after its opening, American visitors reported that there we no orphans at the site, and that many had been called home for the holidays. (In Afghanistan, an orphan is defined as having no father, but many still have mothers.)
6) Civilian death tolls are rising consistently, with the Taliban conducting a successfull roadside bombing campaign. As of the writing of the report, one document cited 2,000 civilian deaths from roadside car bombs alone.
7) U.S. forces covered up a 2007 helicopter attack, according to the documents, claiming that Taliban brought down a coalition helicopter with conventional weaponry—when instead they used a missile. A U.S. official at the time said the attack, which killed seven soldiers, “had probably been brought down by a rocket-propelled grenade.”
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