U.S. Supreme Court rules same-sex marriage legal

The Supreme Court ruled on Friday that the U.S. Constitution provides same-sex couples the right to marry, handing a historic triumph to the American gay rights movement.

The court ruled 5-4 that the Constitution's guarantees of due process and equal protection under the law mean that states cannot ban same-sex marriages. With the landmark ruling, gay marriage becomes legal in all 50 states.

Immediately after the decision, same-sex couples in many of the states where gay marriage had been banned headed to county clerks' offices for marriage licenses as officials in several states said they would respect the ruling.

President Barack Obama, appearing in the White House Rose Garden, hailed the ruling as a milestone in American justice that arrived "like a thunderbolt."

"This ruling is a victory for America," said Obama, the first sitting president to support gay marriage. "This decision affirms what millions of Americans already believe in their hearts. When all Americans are treated as equal, we are all more free."

As night fell, the White House was lit in rainbow colors - a symbol of gay pride - to mark the high court's decision.

Obamacare nationwide subsidies upheld

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Thursday upheld the nationwide tax subsidies underpinning President Barack Obama's health care overhaul, rejecting a major challenge to the landmark law in a ruling that preserves health insurance for millions of Americans.

The justices said in a 6-3 ruling that the subsidies that 8.7 million people currently receive to make insurance affordable do not depend on where they live, as opponents contended.

The outcome was the second major victory for Obama in politically charged Supreme Court tests of his most significant domestic achievement. And it came the same day the court gave him an unexpected victory by preserving a key tool the administration uses to fight housing bias.

Obama greeted news of the decision by declaring the health care law "is here to stay." He said the law is no longer about politics, but the benefits millions of people are receiving.

Declining to concede, House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio said Republicans, who have voted more than 50 times to undo the law, will "continue our efforts to repeal the law and replace it with patient-centered solutions that meet the needs of seniors, small business owners, and middle-class families."

At the court, Chief Justice John Roberts again voted with his liberal colleagues in support of the law. Roberts also was the key vote to uphold it in 2012. Justice Anthony Kennedy, a dissenter in 2012, was part of the majority on Thursday.

"Congress passed the Affordable Care Act to improve health insurance markets, not to destroy them," Roberts declared in the majority opinion.

Limiting the subsidies only to individuals in states with their own exchanges could well push insurance markets in the other states "into a death spiral," Roberts wrote.

Justice Antonin Scalia, in a dissent he summarized from the bench, strongly disagreed. "We should start calling this law SCOTUScare," he said, using an acronym for the Supreme Court and suggesting his colleagues' ownership by virtue of their twice stepping in to save the law from what he considered worthy challenges.

His comment drew a smile from Roberts, his seatmate and the object of Scala's ire.

Scalia said that Roberts' 2012 decision that upheld the law and his opinion on Thursday "will publish forever the discouraging truth that the Supreme Court of the United States favors some laws over others, and is prepared to do whatever it takes to uphold and assist its favorites."

Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas joined the dissent, as they did in 2012.

Nationally, 10.2 million people have signed up for health insurance under the Obama health overhaul. That includes the 8.7 million people who are receiving an average subsidy of $272 a month to help pay their insurance premiums.

Of those receiving subsidies, 6.4 million were at risk of losing that aid because they live in states that did not set up their own health insurance exchanges.

The health insurance industry breathed a big sigh of relief, and a national organization representing state regulators from both political parties said the court's decision will mean stable markets for consumers.

Shares of publicly traded hospital operators including HCA Holdings Inc. and Tenet Healthcare Corp. soared after the ruling relieved those companies of the prospect of having to deal with an influx of uninsured people. Investors had worried that many patients would drop their coverage if they no longer had tax credits to help pay.

The challenge devised by die-hard opponents of the law relied on four words — "established by the state" — in the more than 900-page law.

The law's opponents argued that the vast majority of people who now get help paying for their insurance premiums are ineligible for their federal tax credits. That is because roughly three dozen states opted against creating their own health insurance marketplaces, or exchanges, and instead rely on the federal healthcare.gov to help people find coverage if they don't get insurance through their jobs or the government.

In the challengers' view, the phrase "established by the state" demonstrated that subsidies were to be available only to people in states that set up their own exchanges.

The administration, congressional Democrats and 22 states responded that it would make no sense to construct the law the way its opponents suggested. The idea behind the law's structure was to decrease the number of uninsured. The law prevents insurers from denying coverage because of "pre-existing" health conditions. It requires almost everyone to be insured and provides financial help to consumers who otherwise would spend too much of their paycheck on their premiums.

Kenny's Restaurant closing

Kenny's Restaurant, an institution in Kalihi for some 49 years, will serve its last meal July 5.

Second-generation owner and operator John Fuji­eki, 66, said "the Lord is telling me to ‘take care of your health,'" he told the Hono­lulu Star-Advertiser, after suffering health problems earlier this year.

The family's third generation is involved in the business but not ready to take over.

The family remains part of a hui of entities that owns the shopping center on land leased from Kame­ha­meha Schools.

In recent years Fuji­eki's family sold its interests in Star Markets, another business his father and uncles started in 1954. His grandparents were the first Hawaii merchants in the family, starting the business with Kaka­ako Meat Market in 1929.

Generations of kama­aina fondly recall the old Kenny's television commercial, which started with a warbly piano instrumental and ended with vocalists singing "Kenny's, at the Kam Shopping Center in Kalihi."

A later commercial starred local celebrity fisherman and "Fishing Tales" host Mike Saka­moto touting Kenny's fresh-catch selections.

The restaurant is known for its traditional chop suey mix of local favorites from teri burgers and traditional burgers to oxtail soup and prime rib, and so much more, for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

"They have the best mahimahi ever," said public relations practitioner Mona Wood-Sword, principal of Ikaika Communications LLC. "They use egg batter. It's not like one of those deep-fried things," she said.

Wood-Sword has been going to Kenny's since she was "a little girl," she said.

"Every Sunday after church, that's where we would go for breakfast. … Mrs. Takai was our waitress for 30 years. I literally grew up with it," she said.

"When Kenny's Burger House closed down, we were so sad, but we thought at least the restaurant is still here," she said.

Her childhood habit carried into her professional life as an adult, often meeting with clients at the restaurant.

"We're already in mourning now, but we're all planning to get together and eat here at least two or three more times, just to get our fill," Wood-Sword said.

The restaurant and former hamburger place, also at the shopping center, were established by Fuji­eki's father, John Sr., who was the majority owner, along with partners Herbert Souza and Kenny Kane­shiro. The restaurants were named after Kane­shiro.

The menu was adjusted over the years, keeping many of the favorites but adding lighter, more health-conscious fare. The changes had a positive effect on the restaurant's bottom line, "but I don't know, we still have to close," Fuji­eki said.

The closure decision affects both the flagship restaurant in Kame­ha­meha Shopping Center, open since 1966, and the Kenny's Express quick-service operation in the Royal Hawaiian Center food court, opened in 2008.

The closures affect some 48 employees at the Kalihi restaurant and nine in Wai­kiki.

Altres, the company that provides Kenny's with human resources services, will be helping employees find new jobs or make other transitions, he said.

Employees were told about the planned closure some three months ago, Fuji­eki said. In recent days workers began sharing the news with customers, including Wood-Sword.

"I just wish somebody else would take it over … and keep it the same, because who wants a new thing? We want Kenny's," she said with a laugh.

Shooting at Charleston church

CHARLESTON, S.C. >> A white man was arrested Thursday in the slayings of nine people, including the pastor, at a prayer meeting inside a historic black church in downtown Charleston.

Dylann Storm Roof, 21, stayed for nearly an hour inside the church Wednesday night before shooting six females and three males at a prayer meeting, Police Chief Greg Mullen said.

Roof put up no resistance after a citizen tip led police to his car Thursday morning in Shelby, North Carolina, Mullen said.

"Acts like this one have no place in our country," said Attorney General Loretta Lynch, who announced a Justice Department hate crime investigation. "They have no place in a civilized society."

The Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church's pastor, state Sen. Clementa Pinckney, was among those killed. Pinckney, 41, was a married father of two who was elected to the state House at 23, making him the youngest member of the House at the time.

"He never had anything bad to say about anybody, even when I thought he should," State House Minority leader Todd Rutherford told The Associated Press. "He was always out doing work either for his parishioners or his constituents. He touched everybody."

Roof's childhood friend, Joey Meek, alerted the FBI after recognizing him in a surveillance camera image that was widely circulated, said Meek's mother, Kimberly Kozny. Roof had worn the same sweatshirt while playing Xbox videogames in their home recently.

"I don't know what was going through his head," Kozny said. "He was a really sweet kid. He was quiet. He only had a few friends."

Roof had been to jail: State court records show a pending felony drug case against him, and a past misdemeanor trespassing charge.

Roof displayed a Confederate flag on his license plate, Kozny said, and in a photo on his Facebook page, he wears a jacket with stitched-on flag patches from two other defeated white-ruled regimes: Rhodesia and apartheid-era South Africa.

The shooting evoked painful memories of other attacks. Black churches were bombed in the 1960s when they served as organizing hubs for the Civil Rights movement, and burned by arsons across the South in the 1990s. Others survived shooting sprees.

This particular congregation, which formed in 1816, has its own grim history: A founder, Denmark Vesey, was hanged after trying to organize a slave revolt in 1822, and white landowners burned the church down in revenge. Parishioners worshipped underground until after the Civil War.

This shooting "should be a warning to us all that we do have a problem in our society," said state Rep. Wendell Gilliard, a Democrat whose district includes the church. "We need action. There's a race problem in our country. There's a gun problem in our country. We need to act on them quickly."

Mullen said names of the victims would be released once families have been notified.

Charleston Mayor Joseph P. Riley Jr. called the shooting "an unfathomable and unspeakable act by somebody filled with hate and with a deranged mind."

"Of all cities, in Charleston, to have a horrible hateful person go into the church and kill people there to pray and worship with each other is something that is beyond any comprehension and is not explained," Riley said. "We are going to put our arms around that church and that church family."

Satellite City Hall to move from Kapalama

The city will relocate its bustling Kapalama satellite city hall and driver licensing offices at City Square this fall to the former Sprint building several blocks away on Dillingham Boulevard, city administration officials confirmed Wednesday.

Those offices will also be joined by most divisions of the city Department of Community Services as well as the city Ethics Commission at the building, 925 Dillingham Blvd., in what is being renamed Kapalama Hale.

Also set to move into the two-story 61,896-square-foot space are the Neighborhood Commission, the health branch of the Department of Emergency Services, and a yet-to-be-determined section of the Honolulu Police Department, said Robert Kroning, the city director of design and construction.

The goal is to relocate the City Square offices by Sept. 30 but the timetable for moving the other agencies is fluid, Kroning said.

The city and RCK Partners, which owns City Square, agreed that the city would not stay at the former Kapalama Gem store location beyond its current lease, which ends this summer.

Glenn Kaya, RCK managing partner, said the city asked that it be allowed to stay through October until the city’s new location could be up and running.

At City Square since 1996, the driver licensing office takes up about 12,000 square feet while the satellite city hall operates out of 2,500 square feet, Kaya said.

Shari Kajiwara, who heads the Department of Customer Services, which oversees satellite city hall, driver licensing and motor vehicle registration functions, said the new location will join the two City Square offices along with a largely “back of the house” vehicle registration operation that will be relocated from the Chinatown Gateway building.

The city will be leasing the Kapalama Hale site the first two years and then has an option to purchase the site in the third, fourth or fifth year, an option the city intends to exercise, Kroning said.

While the lease for the entire Kapalama Hale site will be about $154,000 a month — about $40,000 a month more than the combined lease costs of the offices relocating there — purchasing of the property would allow the city to recoup that difference in seven years and then, in the long run, save money from no longer renting, Kroning said.

“Eventually, this should save us some money and we’re consolidating the offices to a much nicer site,” he said.

Hawaii Connector transferring to federal exchange

[6/5/15]  The state is walking away from a $130 million investment in the Hawaii Health Connector and permanently moving the insurance exchange to the federal Obamacare program.

Gov. David Ige’s administration has decided to abandon the troubled Connector, which has struggled since its launch in October 2013 to meet enrollment targets, provide satisfactory service and raise enough money to be self-sustaining.

The Connector has burned through $130 million of $204 million in federal money granted to the state to build the exchange but not to fund ongoing operations.

Ige originally thought he could temporarily move Hawaii’s online marketplace to the federal exchange for one year while the state worked on getting the Connector into compliance with the Affordable Care Act, commonly referred to as Obamacare.

In recent weeks Ige has decided the best path is to permanently move Hawaii to the federal exchange.

Ige acknowledged last month that Hawaii is out of compliance with the ACA and is at risk of losing $1 billion in Medicaid funds if Washington does not accept the state’s plan to remedy the ailing Connector.

The administration’s revised “transition plan,” obtained by the Honolulu Star-Advertiser, states the Connector will shut down its Small Business Health Options Program, or SHOP, on June 15.

On July 1 individual and family enrollments will be moved to the federal healthcare.gov, and staff reductions will begin. The exchange has 32 employees, 29 temporary staff and 12 full-time contractors.

The Connector’s board of directors is scheduled to vote Friday to approve the plan to move the technological functions to the federal marketplace, while the state will run outreach, enrollment and customer support.

Transition to the federal exchange will be completed by Oct. 15. About a dozen Connector employees will work through January, providing limited support to the state. The Connector’s workforce will be completely eliminated by May 1, the document shows.

“The Connector is, and will remain, in noncompliance with the federal requirements until it shuts down its operations,” the plan said. “The objective of the following plan is to provide for an orderly transition of the essential functions of the (state-based marketplace) to the state and to terminate other functions.”

Connector Executive Director Jeff Kissel is expected to be dismissed after the bulk of operational and administrative activities end, the plan said.

Lawmakers appropriated $2 million for exchange operations starting on July 1 but failed to grant the full $5.4 million the Connector said it needed to be financially sustainable.

“It was a failed project. It was a boondoggle from the very beginning, and our residents deserve better than that,” said Sen. Sam Slom (R, Diamond Head-Kahala-Hawaii Kai). “The changes they said they were going to make were too little and too late. I’m glad my colleagues (in the Legislature) for whatever reasons decided not to do the funding. I’m from the school that says if you cannot succeed and you can’t keep your pledges on your economic projects, then it’s better to fail now than continue to waste additional money.”

Under the plan, roughly 40,000 enrolled on the exchange will have to sign up again on healthcare.gov. The state will spend an estimated $30 million on the transition to the federal marketplace, according to the proposal.

The revised plan comes the same week Hawaii Medical Service Association is proposing an average 49.1 percent rate hike — the highest it has ever requested — for 20,935 members in Obamacare plans purchased via the exchange for 2016.

[5/23/15] Hawaii Health Connector board members answered few questions at a public meeting Friday concerning the future of the troubled health insurance exchange.

It was the first Connector board meeting since Gov. David Ige acknowledged last week Hawaii is out of compliance with the federal Affordable Care Act and is at risk of losing $1 billion in Medicaid funds if Washington does not accept the state's plan to remedy the ailing state-based exchange.

Ige's administration confirmed Thursday that Hawaii is switching its Obamacare program to the federal exchange, meaning 37,000 Connector enrollees will have to re-enroll via the federal marketplace for coverage in 2016.

Board members were scheduled Friday to "discuss and approve" the administration's plan to switch to the federal exchange for at least one year, according to the meeting agenda. The board tabled the discussion until Tuesday.

When one reporter asked what went wrong that the exchange couldn't remain in state hands, Rachael Wong, director of the Department of Human Services and a Connector board member, said: "It is in state hands. That's why I'm puzzled with your question. We're in continued conversations with the federal agencies that oversee the Connector. Nothing's a done deal."

Under the governor's plan, the federal government and state would spend a combined $30 million to switch from the Connector to the federal exchange at healthcare.gov for one year.

That would buy the state time to bring the Connector into compliance with federal law, which requires the Connector be financially sustainable, resolve ongoing technology issues and be integrated with the Medicaid system.

When asked where the state is going to get the money to make the switch to the federal exchange, Wong said, "We're in continued conversations with the federal agencies."

The state is negotiating with the federal government to release some of $70 million in grants originally targeted for use by the Connector, which was awarded $204.3 million in federal startup funds years ago. It has used about $130 million of those funds.

Jeff Kissel, the Connector's executive director, said the organization will run out of cash by June 30 if the federal funds remain frozen. Federal officials want to see that the Connector has enough money to remain viable on its own before releasing more federal funds, Kissel said.

Use of the federal money is limited to information technology and outreach, Kissel said. Other operating funds must come from within the state.

A lack of funds is the main barrier to bringing the Connector into compliance with the ACA. After its launch in October 2013, the Connector was to fund its operations with a fee collected on each health insurance policy. To sustain operations, the Connector needed to enroll 70,000 members, but it has only 37,000 members.

Kissel asked the Legislature to help make up the shortfall by appropriating $5.4 million, but lawmakers granted the exchange just $2 million.

The governor's plan to switch to the federal marketplace for one year has a high price tag.

It would require the state Department of Human Services spend $20 million to link its Medicaid eligibility system to healthcare.gov. Most of that would come from the federal dollars Medicaid receives. The state would need to put up another $10 million to $11 million to connect to the federal marketplace.

When asked how the state can justify spending an estimated $30 million of taxpayer money to connect to the federal exchange when lawmakers couldn't even appropriate the full $5.4 million requested, Connector board chairman Clifford Alakai said: "We have no response at this time."

Alakai said the board also has not determined whether it will execute a separate contingency plan to shut down operations by Sept. 30 if the federal government doesn't accept the state's temporary fix.

"We're still trying to figure it out," he said. "It's not that easy."

***

[5/22/15] Hawaii is switching its Obamacare program to the federal exchange, meaning 37,000 residents insured through the Hawaii Health Connector will have to re-enroll via the federal marketplace for coverage in 2016, Gov. David Ige's administration confirmed Thursday.

Ige acknowledged last week that Hawaii is out of compliance with the federal Affordable Care Act and is at risk of losing $1 billion in Medicaid funds if Washington does not accept the state's plan to remedy the ailing Hawaii Health Connector.

"We have agreed that we're going to proceed (to the federal marketplace)," Laurel Johnston, Ige's deputy chief of staff, said Thursday. "We've taken steps to go ahead and make plans to do that (for fall 2015 open enrollment)."

The state is negotiating with the federal government to release grant money to avoid closure of the Connector, which was awarded $204.3 million in federal startup funds over the years, but was unable to become financially sustainable by the beginning of this year, as required by the ACA. As a result, the feds restricted roughly $70 million in remaining grants, putting pressure on the state to move to the federal marketplace, healthcare.gov.

"The federal government has a huge interest in making sure this thing stays alive and so do we," Johnston said.

"They've made a huge investment in it. I don't know why they'd let it tank at this point. We're pressing the feds pretty hard to release funding because we felt we kept our end of the arrangement. We're hoping the federal government is going to pay for it."

The administration put forth a plan to spend $30 million to temporarily use healthcare.gov for one year to enroll residents in coverage under the ACA, commonly referred to as Obamacare.

That would buy the state time to bring the state-based exchange into compliance with the federal law, which requires the Connector be financially sustainable, resolve ongoing technology issues and be integrated with the Medicaid system that determines eligibility for subsidies and tax credits obtained through the online marketplace.

"We would have until fall 2016 to do the integration and fix some of these issues," she said. "That's all something they (the feds) should technically be paying for."

This "corrective action" plan would require the state Department of Human Services spend $20 million to link its Medicaid eligibility system to healthcare.gov. Most of that would come from the federal dollars Medicaid receives, Johnston said. However, the Connector estimates it would need another $10 million to $11 million to connect to the federal marketplace, but does not have the money to do so.

Under the plan, the federal government would take over the technology functions of the exchange, while the state continues outreach, enrollment and customer support. The Connector estimates the outreach, enrollment and customer support functions alone would cost between $5 million and $8 million a year. It is unclear who would pay for that, Johnston said.

A move to the federal Obamacare technology means all 37,000 members insured via the Connector will have to go through the enrollment process again using healthcare.gov.

A lack of funds is the main barrier to bringing the Connector into compliance with the ACA. After its launch in October 2013, the Connector was to fund its operations with a fee collected on each health insurance policy. To sustain operations, the Connector needed to enroll 70,000 members.

Jeff Kissel, the Connector's executive director, asked the state Legislature to help make up the shortfall by appropriating $5.4 million, but lawmakers granted the exchange just $2 million.

The Connector, a nonprofit created by the Legislature in 2011, has prepared a second option, known as its "contingency plan," to shut down operations by Sept. 30 if the federal government doesn't accept the state's temporary fix.

The ACA requires Americans to obtain coverage or face tax penalties. The theory is that if everyone has health insurance, they are more likely to get medical care and detect illness before developing high-cost chronic diseases.

The exchanges offer subsidized health plans for those with incomes too high to qualify for Medicaid, the government health insurance program for the poor.

Moving to the federal marketplace puts Hawaii residents in a precarious situation.

The U.S. Supreme Court is currently deliberating whether to invalidate insurance subsidies worth billions of dollars for people using healthcare.gov. Without financial assistance with their premiums, officials fear millions of those consumers would drop coverage.

"As long as we have the state-based marketplace, we're in full compliance," Kissel said. "I have no idea what the Supreme Court's going to decide."

[shucks]