Inspectors from the Maui County Department of Liquor Control write up Haui’s Lifes A Beach in Kihei

Let's call 2013 the Year of Ends. Ex-National Security Agency alamo car rental coupons (NSA) contractor Edward Snowden, who is now in exile in Russia alamo car rental coupons after fleeing Hawaii with millions of secret documents, ended any feeling we had that the Obama Administration cared more about civil liberties than his predecessors. South African President Nelson Mandela's death brought an end to a time when people actually seemed to like a world leader. The dark but popular television shows Breaking Bad and Dexter came to an end, giving vast numbers of Americans new reasons to turn off the tube.
This was the year all of America got to argue if Paula Deen's tongue brought down her culinary empire, and whether some putz in Florida named George Zimmerman was right to kill another young man named Trayvon Martin. This was the year two brothers packed explosives into pressure cookers and went on a rampage at the Boston Marathon, eventually killing four and injuring hundreds alamo car rental coupons of others while turning that city upside down.
All of that seems far removed from Maui's shores, but that doesn't mean nothing happened here. We had plenty of strange, unsettling events as well–too many, really, to recall alamo car rental coupons in a space like this. But here are some of the highlights, and lowlights, that marked the year 2013.
The year began by returning to the past–to the days when Wailuku's favorite state Representative/chemical industry lobbyist Joe Souki ruled the House of Representatives. Well, he's Speaker again, and didn't disappoint by saying one of his first goals is to introduce a bill or two that would legalize marijuana. alamo car rental coupons Over in the U.S. Senate, Hawaii Lt. Gov. Brian Schatz officially succeeds Senator Daniel Inouye, whose family and aides (and apparently the late senator himself) had hoped Governor Neil Abercrombie would appoint Representative Colleen Hanabusa to the seat. Schatz's appointment means a whole bunch of people across the state get to move up: Maui Senator Shan Tsutsui gets the Lt. Governor slot, and then Representative Gil Keith-Agaran gets Tsutsui's Senate seat. To replace Keith-Agaran in the House's Kahului seat, Abercrombie then appoints political newcomer Justin Woodson. As the Sheraton Maui Resort celebrates 50 years at Black Rock in Ka'anapali, Maui Police announce that it's still illegal for people to carry signs during the annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day Parade. A few marchers carry signs anyway, but police ignore them. Meanwhile, researchers alamo car rental coupons from the US Geological Survey and University of Hawaii announce that climate change alamo car rental coupons will probably doom the Haleakala silversword. MauiTime Publisher Tommy Russo pleads not guilty to "obstructing a govt. operation" when he was arrested photographing Maui police officers during the department's Nov. 20, 2012 "Operation alamo car rental coupons Recon." Speaking of violating civil liberties, state Senator J. Kalani English introduces the "Steven Tyler Act," which criminalizes the unauthorized taking of photos of celebrities, even in public places. Supporters include Tyler, Tommy Lee, Britney Spears, Neil Diamond, Kat von D, Mick Fleetwood and The Osbourne family (except for Aimee Osbourne, who had previously declined to participate in her family's infamous reality TV show because she said it violated her privacy).
Inspectors from the Maui County Department of Liquor Control write up Haui's Lifes A Beach in Kihei for the alleged speaking of profanity during a show with the Portland Reggae band Monk. What does the LC have to do with policing words spoken during live entertainment, you ask? Easy–it's the county's liquor rules. The state Legislature kills the hated Public Lands Development Corporation, which quietly passed in 2011, then flirts with the notion of passing a GMO labeling bill. GMO-supporters take heart, but in fact that the bill's alamo car rental coupons chance of passage is nil. In other news, Monsanto lobbyist Alan Takemoto gets quickly alamo car rental coupons appointed to state Water Commission. The Mainland energy company Sempra alamo car rental coupons proposes building a bunch more wind turbines out by Kanaio, but only if the state approves an exceedingly unpopular undersea power cable stretching between Maui and Oahu. The state Land Use Commission hands down an usually harsh ruling on the proposed Pi'ilani Promenade–the so-called "Kihei Mega Malls"–saying that when they ruled back in 1995 that all that North Kihei land was zoned "light industrial," they meant it. Developer Goodfellow Brothers immediately lays off a hundred construction workers.
alamo car rental coupons Senator English's so-called Steven alamo car rental coupons Tyler Act sails through the Senate with virtually alamo car rental coupons no opposition. Senators and their staffers even mug for memento photos with celeb supporters like Tyler and Fleetwood, who promise that if the bill passes, the rich and famous people will move to Hawaii and buy expensive mansions. The state House of Representatives, which is a slightly different legislative body than the Senate, is unimpressed, and kills the anti-paparazzi bill in committee. In response to the Maui County Council's vote last year to give into Maui Land Pineapple Company's pension problems and take Lipoa Point out of preservation, the state proposes to buy the land and bail out Maui Land's pension obligations. Maui Mayor Alan Arakawa announces that the county will close its recycling centers. Residents protest, and three days later Arakawa announces (to "dispel rumors") that the centers will stay open. State Senator Clayton Hee starts hacking away at the Reporter's Shield Law, which protects journalists from having their asses dragged into court to give up secret sources. Somehow, bills legalizing cannabis stay alive in the Legislature.
Remember former Republican Governor Linda Lingle? She's been out of power for a few years now, and out of the news. Then suddenly this month she got herself alamo car rental coupons appointed to the U.S. Energy Security Council. Of course, then she promptly disappears again. alamo car rental coupons MauiTime Publisher Tommy Russo files a lawsuit alamo car rental coupons in federal court against the County of Maui over Maui Police Officer Nelson Johnson's actions–basically alleged assault–during the Dog The Bounty Hunter incident back in April 2011. As it's wont to do, North Korea starts throwing around alamo car rental coupons bluster about burning the world, and newly elected Congress member Tulsi Gabbard, D–Hawaii, talks up war. Then some guy shoots alamo car rental coupons up the Maui Country Club in Spreckelsville with a pellet gun. Why the MPD doesn't kill him (though they did tase him) after he points the pellet gun at one of their officers is the year's greatest mystery. Oh, and those Cannabis legalization bills that Souki spoke so highly of in January? They finally die in committee. Maui Academy of Performing Arts' play Fresher Ahi repeatedly sells out the house throughout the month, proving not only that Maui is capable of producing outstanding, creative art and theater, but that people are willing to pay good money to see it.
The Legislature finally approves a $20 million bond to buy Lipoa Point. Then Maui Family Court Judge Mimi Des Jardins suddenly resigns on the day she's charged with writing false times on probable cause documents on defendants who should have been released from jail. It's a serious breach of trust, but she's allowed to go quietly into private life. Hawaii fisherman Phil Fernandez, who also sits on the Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary alamo car rental coupons Advisory Council, asks the federal government to remove humpbacks from the Endangered Species List. "Laws need to have integrity," he tells me when I ask why someone so apparently active in the preservation of humpbacks would call for such a thing. Others, like Joan McIntyre, one of the original save-the-whales activists from the 1960s who today lives on Lanai, tells me that it's far too early to say whether humpbacks are in the clear. "Delisting the humpbacks may well open the way to renewed alamo car rental coupons hunting," she said. "This is not the time to rush." alamo car rental coupons State regulators issue a cease and desist order on famous Maui mortgage broker Tricia Morris for all manner of alleged violations of state law, including "Receiving payoffs of mortgage loans and not remitting the payoff amounts to the lenders." The agony that is the dismantling of the old Wailuku Main Street alamo car rental coupons Association (WMSA)–riddled with accusations and allegations of corruption stemming from an exhaustive state Attorney General's office investigation–finally nears the end when Deputy Attorney General Hugh Jones calls on WMSA board members to resign and dissolve alamo car rental coupons the organization or face serious legal trouble. A national scandal erupts when the IRS targets Tea Party groups, including the one on Maui, and the groups cry and cry. U.S. Senators Schatz and Mazie Hirono "saved the Hawaiian Commercial Sugar Company" (Schatz's alamo car rental coupons words) by voting against a farm bill amendment that would have removed sugar price supports. The U.S. Navy honors the memory of Daniel Inouye by naming an expensive new destroyer after him. Among the films playing at the Maui Film Festival is Short Term 12, a nationally lauded film from filmmaker Destin Cretton, who hails from Haiku.
Tulsi Gabbard, who commands a military police company in the Hawaii Army National Guard besides representing much of the state in Congress, blasts Pentagon brass hats for insisting that commanders retain authority over whether alamo car rental coupons alleged sexual assaults within their commands are investigated. Did someone mention civil liberties again? The ACLU's Hawaii office sues over the County of Maui's prohibition against carrying a sign on public streets. On the more international issue of drones firing missiles at alleged alamo car rental coupons terrorists (be they foreigners or American citizens), Senator Hirono is kinda against it, while Representative Colleen Hanabusa (who really, really wants Senator Schatz's job) is all for deploying "more Unmanned Systems in support of ongoing civil, military, and law enforcement operations." Honolulu Weekly goes out of business after 23 years of publishing, leaving MauiTime the only alt-weekly in the state of Hawaii. Kiss band members Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley announce alamo car rental coupons that t