BIPC Scholarships 2013

The Big Island Press Club is pleased to announce the availability of scholarships for eligible students pursuing higher education in the field of journalism.

For more information, click here.

For a scholarship application form, click here. Convert this to a word document and submit with the other required information.

The Scholarship Committee will take into account the relatively brief period that applicants have to submit scholarship information. For example, if a certified transcript is not available by the deadline, an uncertified (printed) transcript with a signed statement attesting to its veracity will be given due consideration.

Abercrombie gets Lava Tube

Judicial Selection Commission gets Torch of Light

Honolulu Star-Advertiser receives Honorable Mention in fight over naming judicial nominees

HILO — The Big Island Press Club this week gave Hawaii Gov. Neil Abercrombie the dubious honor of naming him the recipient of the club’s 15th annual Lava Tube award for a number of his actions last year. Like the lava tube itself, the award recognizes the year’s most notable offense for keeping the public in the dark.

The Press Club also honors the best efforts to promote openness in Hawaii with the Torch of Light award, which is also presented annually since 1997. The Torch of Light was awarded this year to the Judicial Selection Commission for releasing the names of Abercrombie’s judicial nominees when he refused. An Honorable Mention went to the Star-Advertiser for its efforts, including litigation, to obtain release of the names.

It takes only one “indictment” for an elected or appointed official, commission or board to be dishonored with the Lava Tube, but, in Abercrombie’s case, BIPC settled on two:

* Abercrombie refused to name his list of nominees to fill a state Supreme Court vacancy, forcing the Star-Advertiser to sue, saying the secrecy violated the state’s Uniform Information Practices Act. The state Supreme Court agreed. When the Office of Information Practices — the state’s watchdog agency charged with overseeing open records and public meeting laws — opined in the Star-Advertiser’s favor, Abercrombie replaced the agency’s acting director.

* The governor created, in secret, an emergency declaration suspending for five years dozens of regulations protecting shoreline access, historic preservation, air and water quality and other environmental and land use laws in order to begin removing military ordnance with no notice to the public.

The Lava Tube award is announced each year on March 16, Freedom of Information Day, honoring the birthday of James Madison. Born in 1751, Madison was author of the U.S. constitution and the foremost advocate for openness.

“Freedom of Information Day is a great reminder that the public’s right to know is just that, a right. It should not and will not be compromised,” said BIPC President Yisa Var. “The Big Island Press Club is happy to use these awards as a way to bring into the foreground those governing bodies that have done the best and the worst at upholding this freedom.”

Established in 1967, BIPC is Hawaii’s oldest continuously active press club.

Annual Dinner roundup

The Big Island Press Club on Saturday recognized Member of the Year Tiffany Edwards Hunt, publisher of the World Wide Web Log Big Island Chronicle, for her role in organizing a media symposium at the University of Hawaii at Hilo last year.

We also recognized Rod Thompson, treasurer and retired Star-Bulletin reporter, for organizing the Project of the Year, a Halloween get-together at his house at his own expense.

The honors were presented at the Hilo Yacht Club during the Annual Dinner, which was attended by more than 30 people. Dr. John Pezzuto, founding dean of the University of Hawaii at Hilo College of Pharmacy, gave the keynote address, which touched on the role of the pharmacy college in the community and the results of his research regarding the compound reservatrol.

The Lava Tube

Lava tubes bring bad news. Just ask the former residents of Kalapana. But from a metaphorical perspective, a lava tube isn’t just something that destroys your home, lays waste to your land and the roads around it for miles. It can be used to hide secrets. Big secrets. Secrets your government doesn’t want you to know about. Whooooooooooooooooo …..

Sorry about that. Got carried away for a second. Moving on:

A secret government lair.

Behold Kaumana Caves.

HB 2742 is dead

The fight for the people’s right to know notched another victory Tuesday when the chair of the House Judiciary Committee killed HB 2742 (see previous post) by indefinite deferral. 

Oppose House Bill 2742

Take a gander at what the state Legislature is cooking up now.

This has to be the ugliest and most outrageous attack on the people’s right to know in many years. All concerned citizens and organizations should testify against this bill in the name of open and transparent government. Any lawmaker who allows this to go forward is asking the Big Island Press Club to recognize him or her with a big ol’ Lava Tube Award.

Stay tuned for updates.

The Torch of Light

The nut of the kukui may be strung into a lei and given to a beloved one. Here is a plastic representation of a lei kukui.

Every year, on or about March 16, the Big Island Press Club honors the person, organization  or government entity that did the best job of supporting the purpose and goals of the Sunshine Law with the Torch of Light award. This honor has usually been eclipsed by its more famous antipode, the dunning Lava Tube dishonor (more on this in a later post).

We can’t reveal yet who won the Lava Tube or the Torch of Light, but I would like to enlighten you (sorry) as to why we call it the Torch of Light, and some of the symbolism behind the name.