Friday, July 28, 2017

Ka`u News Briefs Thursday, July 28, 2017

Sharing coffee at the Ocean View Community Center were, from the left, Heidi Jaworski, Community 
Policing Officer Clayton Tayamen, Lono Ah Loo and Community Policing Officer Officer Dane Shibuya. 
Photo by Ann Bosted






OCEAN VIEW RESIDENTS ENJOY COFFEE WITH A COP. About 25 Ocean View residents enjoyed conversation, coffee and cakes with the police on Tuesday though the number of hosting police officers was reduced when three patrolmen had to leave to attend an auto accident on the highway.
     The National Coffee with a Cop Day was an unstructured talk story and a way for the Ka’u police officers to meet community members informally and find out what is on their mind, or, as officer Dane Shibuya put it: “We are getting to know each other, one on one.”
     “Some people came with issues to discuss, others came with thanks for police services, and many were just curious.” added Shibuya.
     “This is a great idea,” commented Ocean View resident Heidi Jaworski. “This is real community policing.”
     Asked what she thought was the biggest problem in Ocean View, Jaworski replied: “Drugs and burglaries – they go hand in hand.”
     “We need to install hope, not dope,” added Lono Ah Loo, a dream builder with ideas for helping drug addicts, that he wanted to share with the officers. Coffee with a Cop was held at Ocean View Community Center.
Sen. Brian Schatz said the health care movement is
the largest in American history.
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THE REPEAL OF OBAMACARE WAS VOTED DOWN Thursday night in the U.S. Senate. "Thanks to the millions of Americans who made their voices heard. Thank you to everyone for your courage and determination," tweeted Sen. Brian Schatz. He called the grass roots movement to improve health care and to oppose the repeal the largest in American history. Schatz said the bill to repeal Obamacare would have been devastating. Before the vote, Sen. Mazie Hirono tearfully described her health history from being born at home in rural Japan to losing her sister there to pneumonia and to her own battle with kidney cancer. She said that when she was diagnosed with kidney cancer, she was very grateful that she did not have to worry about having health insurance, "so that I could concentrate on the care that I needed rather than how in the heck was I going to afford the care that was going to probably save my life."
     Hirono said that so many of her colleagues, on the other side of the aisle, have sent her wonderful notes showing their concern about her illness. "You showed me your care, you showed me your compassion. Where is that tonight? I cannot believe that a single senator in this body has not faced an illness or whose family member or loved one has not faced an illness where they were so grateful they had health care?" She said the bill would have taken health care away from 16 million people...."We are better than that."
Sen. Mazie Hirono reviews the health history of her family and
her own battle with kidney cancer.
     The vote to repeal Obamacare failed when Republican Senators John McCain, Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski voted against it. McCain, just days after his own surgery for brain cancer talked to Vice President Mike Pence and Pres. Donald Trump before walking into the Senate Chamber and giving it a thumbs down, reported Politico. "I thought it was the right vote. I do my job as a senator," said McCain. He saved Obamacare, the legacy of Barack Obama, whom McCain opposed in the 2008 presidential campaign.

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Coffee Talk, Friday, July 28, 9:30 – 11 a.m., Kahuku Unit of Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park. An informal conversation on a wide variety of topics. Ka‘ū coffee, tea and pastries available for purchase. Free

Ocean View Community Development Corp. meeting, Friday, July 28.Kimchi Making, Sat, July 29, 10 a.m. – 2 p.m., Volcano Art Center in Volcano Village. Aaron and Soohee Martinson introduce students to techniques used to make traditional Korean kimchi. 967-8222.