STAR-BULLETIN / 2007 Tightly parked Stryker military vehicles prepare to disembark a supply ship at Oahu's Waipio Point after training on the Big Island.

Hawaii is ideal for Stryker unit, despite critics, according to the Army

Despite the insistence by local environmental groups that Fort Lewis is a better location than Schofield Barracks, Army planners say there is no room at the Washington state base for another 4,000-member Stryker Brigade Combat Team and their family members.

Fort Lewis was the home of the Army's first combat unit built around the 320 eight-wheeled, 19-ton vehicles. Opponents like environmental lawyer David Henkin believe the Washington facility has the necessary room and its location near an Air Force transport base makes it a better choice than Schofield Barracks.

"In 2004, we were told we can't look at Fort Lewis because Fort Lewis has two Stryker brigades and can't take a third," said Henkin, who represents Ilioulaokalani Coalition, Na Imi Pono and Kipuka in a long-running legal battle protesting the Army's plan to convert one of the 25th Infantry Division's units to a Stryker unit. "Few weeks after they said that, they moved a third Stryker brigade to Fort Lewis and to this day Fort Lewis has three Stryker brigades."

In the draft environmental impact statement that recommended Schofield Barracks as the home of the Army's fifth Stryker unit, Henkin said Army leaders again ruled out a fourth Stryker unit at Fort Lewis, which he claims is an about-face from the Army's previous position.

On Feb. 22, the Army released a supplemental environmental impact statement that recommended Schofield Barracks as the base for a Stryker team. The study rejects Fort Lewis, saying it is "at its maximum capacity" in supporting three Stryker Brigade Combat Teams. "Accommodating the full requirements of an additional SBCT (Stryker Brigade Combat Team) would require an additional 192 acres of space within the cantonment area, temporarily discounting the fact that facilities could not be constructed in time," the study says.

Fort Lewis is experiencing a family housing shortage of 1,100 units, the report says, and the surrounding Seattle-Tacoma area is "critically short on housing availability to meet these needs."

An additional Stryker brigade means the Army would need 2,000 units for married soldiers and their families, according to the 743-page study.

There also aren't enough training ranges and facilities to support an additional Stryker brigade at Fort Lewis, the report says. The Army estimates that it would need seven additional training ranges.

Army planners also reject Henkin's arguments that Fort Lewis' location next to McChord Air Force Base makes it a better location to meet the Army's rapid deployment intent to send a Stryker unit anywhere in the world in 96 hours.

"Stacking four Stryker units at one location would tie up deployment facilities allowing only SBCT to deploy at one time," the report states.

The environmental study says the Army considered more than 160 locations before limiting the selections to Schofield Barracks, Fort Richardson in Alaska and Fort Carson in Colorado.

The Army rejected:

» Exchanging a heavy brigade, equipped with tanks and armored vehicles from Forts Bliss and Hood in Texas and Fort Stewart in Georgia with 25th Division's Stryker brigade because Hawaii's training sites are not ideal for conducting maneuvers involving tanks and heavy armored vehicles.

» Exchanging the new infantry units planned for Fort Stewart and Fort Bliss with Hawaii's Stryker unit because the new infantry units won't be in place until 2011.

» Stationing the Stryker unit at an Army Reserve or Army National Guard installation because the 25th Infantry Division's 2nd Brigade Combat Team is an active duty unit which has different requirements than those in the reserves.

» Permanently stationing the Stryker unit overseas because the Army is now bringing home 44,500 soldiers from Europe and South Korea and will no longer be stationing combat brigades overseas because of a change in national security and defense policies.

» Acquiring more land to support a Stryker unit at Fort Knox in Kentucky, Fort Drum in New York, Fort Riley in Kansas or Fort Polk in Louisiana because it would take too long.

» Permanently stationing the Stryker unit at Schofield Barracks but conduct all training away from Hawaii because it would be both time-consuming, expensive and disruptive to the soldiers and their families.

» Stationing the Stryker unit at Schofield Barracks temporarily and then moving it when construction is completed at its permanent post because it would be a waste of money to build duplicate sets of training facilities.

» Dropping the Schofield Barracks Stryker brigade from the Army inventory because it "would reduce the Army's combat forces at a time when those forces are under considerable strain. It would also leave only one BCT (brigade combat team) to meet the Army's mission requirements in the Pacific."

Nearly $700 million have been set aside for 28 construction projects since the Stryker project began nearly four years ago. Many have been completed or are in the final stages of completion.

New Arizona law pressures Latinos to move

PHOENIX - Parents are pulling students out of school. Construction workers are abandoning their jobs. Families are hastily moving out of apartments.

Two months after Arizona enacted a law punishing employers who hire illegal immigrants, the law is already achieving one of its goals: Scores of immigrants are fleeing to other states or back to their Latin American homelands.

Gaby Espinoza, who has been unemployed since November, is among those affected. She gave up looking for a job because of the law and may have to return to Mexico.

Espinoza's husband works here legally, but the law means that employers must ask her for papers, and she faces the daily fear of being deported.

"There's no work over there in Mexico," said Espinoza, who has three U.S.-born children. "People there live so poorly. Here, my kids have health insurance and Medicare. Over there, there's nothing."

Jose Perez Leon, a laborer in Phoenix who wants to return to his home in Mexico City, said jobs were plentiful when he came to Arizona about 18 months ago but began to dry up in the last three months.

"I don't like it here anymore because of everything that's happening," he said. "There's no work."

Challenges to the law
The Republican-controlled Legislature and Democratic Gov. Janet Napolitano approved the law last summer out of frustration with federal efforts to curb illegal immigration. It took effect Jan. 1.

The law suspends or revokes the business licenses of violators and was intended to reduce the economic incentive for immigrants to sneak across the border. Illegal immigrants account for an estimated one in 10 workers in Arizona, which is the nation's busiest gateway for illegal immigration.

Business groups have challenged the law. While awaiting a ruling, prosecutors agreed to hold off bringing cases to court until at least March 1.

Republican state Rep. Russell Pearce designed the law to reduce spending on educating and providing health care for illegal immigrants and their families, and to encourage them to leave Arizona.

"Why in the world do (illegal immigrants) think they have a right to break the law? And we are the bad guys for insisting that the law be enforced? The public doesn't agree with that," Pearce said.

School enrollment drops
Many school officials believe the law has played a role in falling enrollment. The state's struggling economy and slumping housing market are other factors. Several districts reported losing more than 100 students at least in part because of the law.

The Isaac School District in central Phoenix, with a student body that is 96 percent Hispanic, lost 500 students, said district spokesman Abedon Fimbres.

The departure of so many students upsets people like Jackie Doerr, who is principal at Andalucia Primary School, which is in a separate district in west Phoenix. She said teachers had made progress teaching English to many of the children.

"They have to leave and start all over again. It's just so frustrating when you see how far they have come," Doerr said. "They are probably going to lose it, especially if they go back to Mexico. They are definitely going to have problems."

Driving Hispanics away
The law has also contributed to rising vacancies in Phoenix. The slow economy and a market overloaded with rental homes have exacerbated the problem, said Terry Feinberg, president of the Arizona Multihousing Association, a rental housing industry group.

Even so, property managers have reported that the law has also driven away Hispanics who are legally in the country, Feinberg said.

The construction industry says some of its workers are leaving, too, for California, Nevada, Colorado or Texas.

Veronica Avalos, an illegal immigrant who has lived in Arizona for 13 years, has been caring for her three children alone since January. Her husband's Arizona employer closed its doors. He now works in San Antonio building swimming pool decks.

Avalos and her children plan to join him in the coming months, but she worries how the move will affect her 11-year-old son, who is partially blind and has mild mental disabilities.

"We need to look for a school, services and programs for him. He has all those things right now," Avalos said. "But I don't know what will happen in Texas."

URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23411209/

New limits for Navy sonar off Hawaii

MSNBC.com

Can't be used within 12 nautical miles of coast to protect whales

By SUDHIN THANAWALA

Associated Press Writer

The Associated Press

updated 7:00 p.m. HT, Fri., Feb. 29, 2008

HONOLULU - A federal judge has ordered the Navy to take additional precautions when conducting sonar exercises off Hawaii that environmentalists say can seriously injure or kill marine mammals.

U.S. District Judge David Ezra said Friday the Navy cannot conduct exercises within 12 nautical miles, or 13.8 miles, of the shoreline, where species that are particularly sensitive to sonar, such as the beaked whale, are found.

Among other requirements, the Navy must look for marine mammals for one hour each day before using sonar, employ three lookouts exclusively to spot the animals during sonar use and stop sonar transmission altogether when one of the mammals is within 500 feet.

It must also gradually increase its sonar power before beginning any exercise to allow animals to leave the area before they can be harmed.

Similar order in California
The Navy faces a similar order in California, where a U.S. District Court judge last month issued an injunction that created a 12 nautical-mile no-sonar zone off Southern California.

The judge a few weeks later upheld the injunction, ruling against a waiver signed by President George W. Bush exempting the Navy and its anti-submarine warfare exercises from the decision.

The Navy has appealed the decision.

Although environmentalists had called for additional restrictions on the Navy, Ezra said he had to balance the need to protect the environment with the country's safety. The ruling rejects a call for the Navy to limit sonar use during humpback calving season and either stop the exercises or reduce sonar power in low visibility conditions.

National security argument
Government officials have argued the anti-submarine warfare exercises that use the sonar are essential to national security.

The Navy plans to conduct up to 12 of the exercises off Hawaii over a two-year period that began January 2007. The next exercise is expected to begin in March.

The Hawaii case was initiated by EarthJustice, which sued the Navy in May on behalf of five groups, including the Ocean Mammal Institute and the Animal Welfare Institute.

Paul Achitoff, an attorney with EarthJustice, said Friday he was happy Ezra realized the "military is not above the law."

Although the judge did not grant all of their demands, he said the training exercises will be safer for marine mammals.

An after-hours call seeking comment from a Navy spokesman wasn't immediately returned.

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23417781/

We should be looking at what benefits the customer. It seems many are coming here because they say the locals are friendly. That's a strong selling point."

Now there’s a brand new idea from Hawaii’s brain trust—suck up to foreigners and pimp the locals
Friday, February 29, 2008 Tourism execs cast about for new ideas

Pacific Business News (Honolulu) - by Chad Blair Pacific Business News
At a meeting of tourism officials and industry stakeholders this week, the elephant in the room was a cruise ship.
Make that the absence of a cruise ship -- two, actually.
"What are we going to do with a quarter of a million fewer visitors?" asked Murray Towill, president of the Hawaii Hotel & Lodging Association. "No one really knows."
While Norwegian Cruise Line's pullout of two of its three ships from Hawaii received only passing discussion at the meeting of top tourism executives, the potential loss of 230,000 cruise visitors this year, on top of a worsening slump in overall visitor numbers, is forcing state tourism officials to reassess their marketing plans for the remainder of the year and for 2009.
The loss in cruise bookings as well as slackening visitor arrivals and spending could return Hawaii to pre-2000 arrival and expenditure levels.
At an all-day Hawaii Tourism Authority meeting at Turtle Bay Resort on Tuesday executives of Hawaii hotels, resorts, time shares, airlines and attractions viewed PowerPoint slides on visitor data and pitched ideas that could influence marketing plans.
For the rest of fiscal 2008, HTA already is making a renewed focus on marketing to North America. A majority of cruise ship passengers to Hawaii over the past five years came from Canada and the U.S. East.
"We're working out the details with our industry partners to help keep activity going even with NCL leaving," David Uchiyama, HTA's marketing director, told PBN.
HTA also is trying to attract more Japanese tourists, particularly multigenerational families and honeymooners, and to open up the Korean and Chinese markets.
In the meantime, HTA is mulling over the myriad marketing suggestions that came out of the brainstorming session and a follow-up meeting Wednesday.
Among the fixes discussed:
§ Split up the East Coast market for marketing. The U.S. East trails the U.S. West but is ahead of Japan as the largest source of Hawaii visitors.
It also is vast and diverse and includes every city east of the Rocky Mountains. Should Chicago and Dallas be marketed to the same as, say, Atlanta and New York City?
As Joseph Toy, president of Hospitality Advisors, repeatedly reminded the HTA, the U.S. East has historically been underpenetrated.
§ Don't forget the U.S. West. Ed Hubennette, area vice president for Japan, Hawaii and the South Pacific for Marriott International, asked whether the marketing emphasis on the U.S East and Asia will come at the expense of what's been Hawaii's greatest market.
"You have to go where the customers are," said Hubennette, who added that hotels were "popping up" all over Asia and the Middle East. "The world is rapidly changing, and we sometimes forget that as we struggle to keep up."
§ Play up Hawaii's strengths. Ernest Nishizaki, executive vice president of hotel owner Kyo-ya USA, said: "We should be looking at what benefits the customer. It seems many are coming here because they say the locals are friendly. That's a strong selling point."
HTA board member Kyoko Kimura agreed, noting that Japanese tourists are increasingly attracted to Hawaii's cultural and outdoor activities. Kimura is president and general manager of Diamond Resort Hawaii on Maui.
§ Reconsider what the "product" is. The word "segmentation" was used frequently at the HTA meeting. Should Kauai be marketed the same as the Big Island, or Maui the same as Oahu?
John Knox of John M. Knox & Associates said that research continues to reveal the Hawaii "brand" has mostly positive associations for visitors and residents alike.
"You don't want to throw the baby out with the bath water in cycle times," he said.
But that doesn't mean you can't rethink the sales demographics.
As Mitch Imanaka, the Hawaii chairman of American Resort & Lodging Association, asked: "Who is the preferred visitor? Can Hawaii continue to be all things to all people?"
§ Redefine Hawaii's "value." Even as the local industry has consolidated room inventory and spent billions of dollars on infrastructure, many believe there has been too much focus on high-end retail.
David Carey, president and CEO of Outrigger Enterprises Group, said for Japanese tourists the better shopping is in Tokyo, Seoul, Hong Kong and Beijing. Florida and Las Vegas are cheaper draws for U.S. tourists.
There remains among potential visitors a widely shared perception that Hawaii is too expensive.
"How do we measure Hawaii's true value, close the loop and make the sale?" asked Doug Chang, HTA chairman and longtime Maui hotelier. "We know that once they get over the sticker shock and come here, they see that Hawaii is a very good value."
§ Shift resources to the Internet. Korea has been described as the most "online nation," and if Hawaii wants to get the 122,000 Koreans that came here in 1997 -- before Korea's economic collapse and the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks -- it won't reach them through conventional advertising.
"I wouldn't be passing out brochures at a trade show," Carey said.
Most HTA officials already were aware of these ideas, and some have been incorporated into marketing strategies. Other ideas, such as refining visitor survey data to identify trends and studying the impact of the cruise industry, are under way.
cblair@bizjournals.com | 955-8036
behalf of keboi@aol.comDMZ-Hawaii@yahoogroups.com