Email
Password
(Forgot Password?)
A man whose flicked cigarette started a fire that burned the roof of a Pukalani restaurant was ordered not to use tobacco for the next year as part of his sentence Friday.
"That means no cigarettes," 2nd Circuit Judge Joel August told 19-year-old Makaio Bachman-Majamay. "That certainly is related to the incident. Perhaps it will add about 10 or 15 years to his life if he stops smoking permanently."
The Makawao resident had pleaded no contest to third-degree criminal property damage, reduced from the original charge of third-degree arson, for the fire July 26, 2008, at Pukalani Terrace Center.
The fire was reported at 8:45 p.m. after Bachman-Majamay shared a cigarette with another man while sitting outside the Wei Wei Bar-B-Q Restaurant at Pukalani Terrace Center, officials reported. Bachman-Majamay reportedly flicked the cigarette onto the shake roof of the restaurant before walking into the Subway restaurant next door, where he was working.
Jump to full article »
This year, however, the Legislature simultaneously raided the tobacco settlement fund and gutted the Hawai'i Tobacco Prevention and Control Trust Fund, which uses money from the tobacco settlement fund to run those anti-smoking programs. Senate Bill 292 diverts 25.5 percent of the settlement fund's money to the General Fund and shrinks the Prevention and Control Trust Fund's share of the settlement fund's money from 12.5 percent to 6.5 percent. SB 884, which raids various special funds to bolster the General Fund, finds that the Tobacco settlement fund has an "excess" of $20 million and appropriates it to the General Fund.
According to Evans, the tobacco settlement fund had already taken a beating from the bad economy: "The trust fund corpus was about 55 million last year, and it's been losing money ever since due to the market. The current balance is about 33 million." Subtract $20 million from that, and then cut 12.5 percent of that to 6.5 percent, and there's not a lot left for anti-smoking programs. . . .
Tracking tobacco money isn't always easy. Reynolds American, formerly RJ Reynolds, usually donates in its own name -- but the world's biggest tobacco peddler, Altria, donates under a host of names, including Altria, Altria Client Services, Altria Corporate Services, Philip Morris USA and UST Public Affairs. At least one company executive has donated in his own name. And the company also hires a whole network of lobbying firms. In Hawai'i, it uses the services of three lobbyists: Celeste Y.K. Nip, Dan Smith, and George A. "Red" Morris. Reynolds uses John Radcliffe to lobby in Hawai'i. Smith made a $2,000 donation to Honolulu councilmember Romy Cachola's unsuccessful bid for the Senate; Cachola's campaign spending report lists Smith as a District Director for Altria in Richmond, Virginia. Morris, Radcliffe and Nip distributed tens of thousands in campaign donations to dozens of candidates during the 2008 election season -- but since they represent multiple clients, it's difficult to say whether the money they pass out is tobacco money or not.
But even without counting Morris's, Radcliffe's and Nip's contributions, Altria, its subsidiaries and officers passed out at least $51,309 to Hawai'i politicians during the 2008 elections, while Reynolds chipped in at least $19,500. . . .
Cigarette paper
Who got how much and from whom
Rep. Henry Aquino
Altria Client Services $1,000
Reynolds American $1,000
Pipe and cigar smokers along with those who buy snuff and chewing tobacco in Hawaii are getting a four-month, $400,000 state tobacco tax holiday because of an error in a tax law written by the state Legislature.
House Bill 895 was vetoed by Gov. Linda Lingle, who said it was filled with technical mistakes. The Legislature overrode the veto, and now some of those mistakes are becoming apparent.
"It contains major technical flaws that defeat the purpose of the legislation and will make it virtually impossible to implement," Lingle wrote in her veto message.
The inadvertent tax holiday was caused by a mistake in the bill that did not specify the tax on tobacco products other than cigarettes during the period from enactment until Sept. 30.
That error, according to legislative researchers, will result in a $400,000 loss in revenue.
But it might not be the only flaw.
The dramatic final week of the state legislative session wound down yesterday with Democratic lawmakers following through on a promise to override Gov. Linda Lingle's vetoes of four measures that will increase taxes to balance the state budget.
Hawai'i now has the highest income tax rate for top bracket earners in the country, and visitors paying $200 a night for a hotel room will pay an additional $4 in taxes by 2011.
Leveraging their overwhelming majority in the state Senate and House of Representatives, Democratic legislators increased state income taxes on the wealthy, the hotel-room tax, the conveyance tax on the sale of luxury and second homes, and a tax on tobacco products, such as chewing tobacco, pipe tobacco and cigars. . . .
* The tax on the wholesale price of tobacco products, such as chewing tobacco or pipe tobacco, will rise from 40 percent to 70 percent starting at the end of September. The state's tax on the wholesale price of cigars would increase from 40 percent to 50 percent, and smaller cigars that resemble cigarettes would be taxed like cigarettes.
* The state's 10-cent-per-cigarette tax will rise by 2 cents in July, in addition to the 1-cent increase already scheduled, bringing the tax to 13 cents.
Two years after it took effect, Hawaii's anti-smoking law is going unenforced.
While most business owners, employers and smokers voluntarily comply with the law, which banned smoking in nearly every workplace, business and building, the state is still writing the administrative rules that would give the state Department of Health the authority to cite and fine offenders.
To date, only one Honolulu woman has been cited by police for smoking in a bar and was fined $25.
A small contingent of bar and lounge owners have remained defiant by continuing to allow smoking, establishing safe havens where smokers can light up in peace.
Smokers' advocates say there are about 100 Hawaii bars continue to allow smoking to some degree within their establishments while at least a dozen bars defy the law outright.
"I am complying with the law if we post signs and we inform our customers of what the law is, which is exactly what we do," said Bill Comerford, co-owner of E&J Lounge Operating Co., which runs O'Toole's Irish Pub, Kelley O'Neil's and the Irish Rose Saloon in Honolulu. "If they smoke in our bars, they made that choice and it's not for me as a business owner to cite them."
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has fined a North Carolina company for violations at a Kauai facility.
Vector Tobacco, a subsidiary of Vector Tobacco Group of Durham, N.C., was fined $65,040 for allegedly misusing pesticides during application at its agricultural research facility in Kekaha on Kauai in 2005 and 2006, according to the EPA. On 93 occasions, the company failed to follow label directions intended to protect workers from exposure to pesticides.
"Employers of agricultural workers must ensure their employees are provided with information and protections that minimize the risk of potential exposure to pesticides . . .
The company also failed to prevent workers from entering areas where pesticides had recently been applied and then denied them prompt transportation to a medical facility after the workers reported adverse health effects due to the pesticide exposure, the EPA said.
The Hawaii Department of Agriculture discovered the violations during inspections in 2006 and began an investigation. The EPA said Vector Tobacco has shut down the Kekaha facility since the inspections.
Smokers who light up in a non-smoking hotel room in Hawai'i may may find themselves paying several hundred dollars more for the room cleanup.
Travel Hawaii, a Hawai'i-based Internet retailer, has set up a database -- www.travel-Hawaii.com/smoking.html -- that details the smoking policies of hotels throughout the state.
Travel Hawaii owner John Lindelow said his company updates the information as policies shift. "This is a rapidly changing area of hotel policy, so we make a lot of phone calls to stay on top of what the hotels are doing," he said.
So far, the top charge goes to Aqua Palms & Spa in Waikiki, with a $500 fee to clean a smoke-free room there.
Native residents of Hawaii and New Zealand have much higher mortality rates for many cancers than the European peoples who live there. Education on screening programmes, diet, and smoking could help tackle this. The issues are discussed in the first of a series of Reviews on worldwide cancer disparities in the May issue of The Lancet Oncology. . . .
In terms of risk factors, MÄori people are more than twice as likely to be smokers than European New Zealanders, 50% more likely to be obese, and almost three-times as likely to be obese smokers. Native Hawaiians have only a slightly higher smoking incidence than European Hawaiians, but a significantly higher risk of cancer for the same smoking history, suggesting they are more susceptible to the carcinogenic properties of cigarette smoke. Limited tobacco legislation in developing countries means that many Pacific islands are among tobacco companies’ new targets . . .
The authors conclude: "The extent of the differences in outcome due to different extrinsic risk factors, biological factors, or health behaviours is unclear….Advances such as adjuvant chemotherapy for breast, bowel, and lung cancer have improved survival, but data on treatment by ethnicity are lacking, and such treatment might be unequally applied between ethnicities. Evidence exists for a benefit of culturally appropriate education on screening programmes, diet, and smoking, all of which could lower the cancer burden in Polynesian communities."
It's now against the law to smoke in all county parks and beaches on the Big Island.
The smoking ban is also in effect at other outdoor recreation areas, such as the municipal golf course, rodeo arenas and Hilo Afook-Chinen Civic Auditorium.
A measure banning smoking was vetoed by Mayor Harry Kim earlier this month.
But the Hawaii County Council voted 7-2 last night to override the veto.
A controversial law that placed restrictions on smoking did not hurt Hawaii's economy in the first year, according to a report commissioned by the state Department of Health.
Critics of the law were not convinced.
The report, released yesterday, was prepared by Andrew Hyland and Cheryl Higbee of the Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo, N.Y.
"We anticipated that, like other states where similar laws have been enacted, there would be no negative economic impact," said Hawaii Health Director Chiyome L. Fukino. "These findings have helped to confirm our original assumptions. Moving forward, the Department of Health will continue to assess visitor industry data to track changes."
Hawaii's visitor industry gained 212 more employees and 1,591 more jobs in the food and beverage sector since the law went into effect, the report said. Also, overall monthly visitor spending in Hawaii and monthly visitor spending by visitors from Japan has been comparable, the report said.
The Hawaii Smokers Alliance and other similar interest groups criticized the findings
Gov. Benigno R. Fitial said he will not support legislation recently introduced at the House of Representatives that seeks to ban smoking in restaurants, bars, and workplaces in the Northern Marianas.
House Bill 16-47, sponsored by Rep. Justo S. Quitugua, proposes to make public places smoke-free. Exemptions include open-air bars, hotel rooms, and outdoor jobsites.
"I'm against that because you know I just came back from Honolulu last year and I noticed that the occupancy at the hotel I usually stay in has gone down dramatically because the Japanese will never stay there anymore; they don't allow people to smoke anymore at that hotel," the CNMI's chief executive said in an interview Friday.
It's been more than a year since Hawaii outlawed smoking in bars and restaurants.
But this year, some lawmakers plan to introduce a new bill that would make exceptions.
It will allow bar owners to pay a fee of one to three thousand dollars for a license allowing smoking.
The beauty of this bill is that those fees every year will go toward a public awareness campaign to increase organ donations in Hawaii.
Those in favor of the bill believe that, unless lawmakers push it through, Hawaii's bar and restaurant industry will suffer.
"There have been millions of dollars lost since the smoking ban we're shooting ourselves in the foot, it's despicable," said Kawika Crowley of the Hawaii Smokers Alliance.
The days of lighting up at Hawaii County beach parks may soon be pau.
A County Council committee on Tuesday endorsed banning the smoking of cigarettes and other tobacco products at all county parks and recreational facilities.
"Making smoking illegal in public places is very important, and we all support that," North Kona Councilman Angel Pilago said.
Not all lawmakers, however, favor extending a ban that now applies to indoor areas and Kahaluu Beach Park in Kailua-Kona.
A year after a tough new law regulating smoking in public places went into effect, anti-tobacco advocates are saying it's working, while operators of some licensed bars in Honolulu still complain that they're losing business.
Proponents of the ban, which applies to all enclosed public places, say complaints about violations have decreased substantially over the past nine months.
And in general, smokers interviewed seem to have accepted the new rules, which require them to move to 20 feet from any public building before they light their cigarettes.
Nona Kerisiano, 32, a full-time student studying to be a clinical medical assistant, said Remington College has a smoking area around the corner where she goes between classes.