December, 1999 Home   Newsletters

January 2000

February 2000

League at Opening Day of the Legislature
President's Message
Education Committee Report (Mary Anne Raywid)
Welcome New Members
Videos
Honolulu LWV Budget for FY 2000-2001 (Arlene Ellis)
Galleria Threatens our Historic Downtown (Astrid Monson)
Clean Elections Legislation - Campaign Finance Reform (Laure Dillon)
New HEP Executive Director Appointed
Environmental Committee Report (Karen Ah Mai)
LWV Legislative Priorities 2000
Notice for LWV National Training Program

President's Message

I wish you all a very Happy New Year. Fortunately here in Hawaii all went smoothly and I'm sure you all have heard enough of millenium predictions and Y2K hype.

My message is short – a brief report about the Membership Planning Meeting, which had an attendance of about 40 people. We enjoyed Earl Anzai's discussion about the political scene - surprisingly he had some very complementary things to say about our much maligned public bureaucrats. He explained the problems of predicting the budget and how it can be misunderstood. His most harsh criticism was about the often incorrect reporting of the written and TV press, and he gave examples of the lack of even cursory inquiry about reports or the lack of any research at all! He felt it was unfortunate because most people believe what is written in the newspapers. He was kind enough to field all the questions we had to ask.

As you know the Honolulu Board did not have any new studies to recommend and none were suggested from the floor. We now face a busy legislative time with the bills on gun control, campaign finance reform as priorities and we will be keeping a watchful eve on any gambling legislation. Please expect to receive alerts by phone or e-mail to help in these areas. It is important when you receive a call that all try to call your legislators. You cannot imagine how helpful that will be.

We were happy to see our new State President, Virginia Isbell, at our Honolulu December meeting. She came in from Kona just for this event.

Grace Furukawa

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