Props and Slops: March 2-8

New feature!:  Listen to me read this post on Utterli.

IN MEMORIAM

• Harvey Weinstein, broadcaster and teacher (February 28, but reported March 3 by Erika Engle)
• Joao Bernardo Vieira, President of Guinea-Bissau, by assassination (March 2)

Now, here are the top and bottom performers as I saw them this week:

PROPS

• This economy (finally something good!) for leading to deep discounts for spring break travel.
• The $25 weekly stimulus payment that is added to weekly unemployment benefits, as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.
• President Obama for:
  • ordering the release of internal Bush Justice Department memos. The Bush Administration refused to make those documents public.  One memo concluded the military may conduct terrorism searches without a warrant if the president approved.
  • tentatively reversing the Bush Administration ban on stem cell research
    
  • and ending the policy making it easier to start projects without consulting scientists which could affect endangered wildlife.
• University Health Alliance (UHA) for reporting a $1.8 million quarterly profit when Hawaii’s other two largest insurers reported losses.
• Rosa Say (@rosasay) for sharing why she likes Twitter and some advice to make it useful to others.
• Young Brothers for eliminating their fuel surcharge. I guess that’s one good thing about this economy.
• U. S. Bankrupty Judge Lloyd King for invalidating the sale of the Aloha Airlines name and logo.
• New blog The State of Our Hawaiian State for their reaction to the insult of go! Airlines trying to take the Aloha name.
• State Sen. Gary Hooser for this editorial in support of HB444 and civil union benefits in Hawaii.
• Brig. Gen. Gary S. Patton and Gen. Carter Ham for publicly discussing their Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder after their deployment to Iraq.
• Governing.com for giving hope to future librarians that there are jobs in the digital age.
• Dan Zelikman (@danzelikman) for switching from PC to Mac. He switched in January, but I just found out Friday.  Did my post Macs *are* better than PCs! contribute to his decision?  Doubtful, but it does list some good reasons you might want to switch.

SLOPS

• This economy for forcing some couples to stay together when they would rather divorce and the State to cut payments in half to the poor and disabled.
• Overzealous parents for making Rhode Island consider a youth sports council to mediate disputes between parents and sports officials.
  

PROP AND SLOP OF THE WEEK

• Prop of the Week:  A tie.  First, Congressman Neil Abercrombie (@neilabercrombie) for being one of the first, if not the first, to announce his campaign on Twitter. He’s running to be the next Governor of Hawaii. Then, Ben Gutierrez (@bengutierrez) for saying he got a chuckle out of my Prop to KITV for replacing him. At least Ben waited until we were talking for an hour before he mentioned it.  Ben, if it’s any consolation, I still don’t watch KITV weather, but I enoy talking to you at the Tweetups.  Getting to know Ben better over the past few weeks, I’ve come to see he is everything great that Ryan said about him – and more!
• Slop of the Week:  The thieves who stole donations intended for a Big Island cancer patient. Something is just extra wrong about this one.

That’s it for this week.  Be sure to visit next week for another edition of Props and Slops, my favorite feature on Capsun’s Corner.

Mahalo!

Please note:  The views expressed here are mine and mine alone.  While I am employed by and affiliated with organizations and individuals, permission has neither been asked nor granted to write on the topics discussed here.

Tagged as: abercrombie, Aloha Airlines, ben gutierrez, civil unions, dan zelikman, gary hooser, harvey weinstein, joao bernardo vieira, kitv, lloyd king, neil abercrombie, obama, props, props and slops, rosa say, slops, uha, university health alliance, young brothers