HB444, Hawaii Votes, Alakai Leaving & Macs

It is likely that HB 444 that approves Civil Unions between gay people will be pulled out of the Senate Judiciary Committee today after being locked there for more than a month. The bill was technically killed with a 3 to 3 tie in that committee after passing out of the House. Senators who support the bill are being led by Gary Hooser who has said he wants to pull the bill. He probably has the 9+ votes needed to get the bill pulled. Opponents of HB 444 are urged to show up for the Senate floor session today which begins at 11:30 am in the State Capitol.

Grassroot Institute of Hawaii unveiled their new website HawaiiVotes.org which is a privately funded website designed to empower "citizens to track activity of state legislature and individual lawmakers". The site duplicates many of the functions as the State's official legislative site, but adds a lot of other features including blogging, comments, registration, profiles, message forum and polls. Users can register for a free account at HawaiiVotes.org.

From my Facebook account, I got a message from Anthony Arakaki of Kula Maui saying that the Hawaii Superferry's vessel Alakai will be leaving Hawaii waters on Sunday for Mobile Alabama. Arakaki is one of the many supporters of the Superferry on Facebook. Maui supporters are also holding a rally supporting the Superferry tomorrow March 26.

Somone recently asked me what kind of computer I use for this blog. All of my blog entries and updates to every single website and page I do are done on one of my two aging Apple Macintosh computers. One is a G4 Power Mac tower that I've had for nearly 8 years and another is an iBook laptop that I take with me to various places. Both computers are running versions of Apple's highly respected Mac OSX operating system. I am planning on buying a new Mac later this year.

Photo above: Opponents of HB444 continue to urge a "NO" vote.