 To Think Tech on OC16, Hawaii's weekly newscast on things that matter to tech, and to Hawaii, I'm Kaui Lucas and I'm Raya Salter. Our show this week is about LiveU, the remarkable wireless transmission technology that changes the world of remote live video. Think Tech is fortunate enough to have been able to acquire one of these units, and we want to show you what we've been doing with it. The unit itself is the size of a cigar box, outfitted with special bonding technology that combines multiple cell phone modem signals into one fast broadband connection. This technology is driving a video revolution, providing live feed for television, mobile, online and social media, transmitting high quality live video content from anywhere in the world. Remote live video offers promising possibilities for online news, events, sports, education and more. The in-the-moment effect is a big boost for delivery of content to audiences everywhere. With help from the Cook Foundation, for which we are very grateful, we were able to acquire a LiveU transmitter, server and the related operating software, and we brought them online a few weeks ago. First, we started with doing walkabouts in the downtown area, including locations on the Fort Street Mall and Tamarin Park at Bishop Square. Here are some of the interviews we had there. We are here, outside Fort Street Mall, talking to folks about fake news. I mainly get my news out of real news sources, so I don't spend a lot of time getting fake news off of social media. Fair enough. Maybe that's a safe way. What are the sources that you prefer? Well, I've got to watch four different TV channels to get any real news anymore. The real news used to be when Jay Fidel and I were around, he listened to Uncle Walter Crunk. I tell you the news, and that was the damn news. Are you familiar with fake news? I've heard of this, yes. I don't know too much about it, but I've seen it on the news, and then they kind of retract themselves, New York Times and some of the other folks. Yeah, so apparently there are stories that go out that are jokes or complete fabrications and people pass them along and then start believing it. They have a saying here in Hawaii, if it's said three times, it's no longer a rumor, it's a truth. Are you familiar with fake news? Sadly, yes. I know I've heard about it, but yeah. Well, what have you heard about it? Go ahead and tell us. Well, the thing is that it's just, it's more of a, I guess you can say like a popular thing between trends of the younger generation, in my opinion. Honestly, I don't believe it to be like real news, if anything, but I've seen people always posting stuff on Instagram, like how would they would request it through a text message. This is something that's relatively new to me. Is this something you've heard of before? Well, you see it a lot, especially via social media, with a lot of different things, because a lot of people, they'll go ahead and post stuff, like even in terms of like the elections, they were saying, okay, well, there was a big turnout, there's, oh, well, you know, CNN said it wrong, or New York Times printed the wrong numbers, or the picture was fake or falsified. And I think the issue is that people don't really do, you know, their research. So he's only 11 days into his administration. How's he doing? I don't think he's doing very good, but everyone's different. Yeah. I think there's like a lot of changes suddenly, I think. Yeah. Yeah. I guess we just have to wait to like see how it plays out. Like tomorrow. Yeah. Yeah. See what happens, it's four years, it's not even 11 days, you know? Yeah, right. We wait for four years. Yeah. I hope we don't have to wait that long to see a better result. Yeah. So what about all those people in those seven countries that he banned? He banned. What about them? How do you feel about them? It's not fair, like, especially if they are American citizens too, just because they, like if they're dual citizenship, just because of the other country they come from, then all out in, you know? Yeah. I think it's unfair too. Yeah. You guys, are you from the US? No. Where are you from? The UK. Have you been banned yet? No. Not yet. So let's talk about Europe for a minute, you know, there are a lot of issues in Europe. Yeah. And for that matter, Belgium and so on, but they're not, it's not in Scandinavia. Scandinavia doesn't have issues like that? Yeah, no. I think it's because of the strict politics, you know, when the Syria crisis, we didn't take that many people in in our country. Personally, I don't think that was a good way to handle it. I think they should have taken more migrants. Yeah, I think Germany took so many and we didn't take any compared to those. So. What are you studying? Environmental studies. What are you going to do with that? I have no idea. I wanted to work in the federal government, but... I mean, that'd be so easy. Yeah. I mean, in terms of energy use alone, because I'm an environmental student, I would say we definitely are putting ourselves on a path of losing out in terms of a global scale, denying a lot of science that has to do with green technology. I mean, even if we lived in an area that relies heavily on like the coal industry, there's no denying that the industry itself is dying. If your doctor is telling you, like, you are going to get diabetes with the next donut that you eat, that's what all the scientists are telling us about the climate. Like, the next barrel of gasoline is going to tank us, so maybe we should stop. You would listen to your doctor, so it's kind of ridiculous that we're just ignoring all the scientists. I think that a lot of people will tell you that they personally don't want an abortion or anything, but it still is not consistent with American values to deny other people a choice to be able to do that. Well, it's an open market. You come out here, you get local produce, you got local fruits. We pick it up, we bag it, and we bring it out here, and we distribute it to the people of the island. I feel that everything local is a lot better than buying stuff from the mainland and other stuff. Yeah, it's very healthy. As you can see, we've got a lot of stuff that people come and they want mango, avocado, you know, fresh fruits, fresh vegetables. My top four flavors, I do a classic popcorn, which is cooked in sugar and then lightly salted. A caramel, where it's cooked the same exact way, and then salted a rainbow, so five different colors, five different fruit flavors. And I do, because I'm from Chicago, I do a Chicago mix, so I call it Chicago. Okay, what's that about? Well, that is a smoky cheddar with my own concoction the rest of seasonings. It's got some smoky flavor in there, so it's got a little bit of heat, and then it's coupled with a sweet caramel, so that right there is the Chicago. Bikeshare will have public bikes, there's gonna be a thousand bikes in urban Honolulu, spread out across a hundred stations between basically here in Chinatown, downtown, to Waikiki. And so you'll be able to pick up a bike at any one of those stations and ride it to any other station for a low, very affordable fee, something you can purchase monthly access or you can purchase like a one-time use or some discounted rides. So what do you think about Bikeshare? Oh, it's gonna be awesome, hopefully we'll get even more bikes out on the street to use all these new facilities that are coming in, and when you're riding your bike around it's always good to see other people on bikes, and to have a thousand more bikes on the street is gonna be great. We're here talking to folks in the park about their plans for Valentine's Day. First lady's baby, you can tell me, are you single? I'm single. Oh, okay, fellow, she's single, just married. Off the market. Okay, so that's great. We've got two situations. So do you have anything in particular planned for Valentine's Day? I'm probably celebrating more of a Gallentine's Day or a Palantine's Day. Now tell us, what is that? This is sounding excellent. What is that? What is celebrating with your girlfriends or guy friends rather than if you don't have a significant other? I think he's, I don't think he's doing a very good job. I think he's making a lot of big decisions that are influencing this country negatively. Do you think those decisions are based on the advice he's getting from his newly hired staff, or do you think he's directing the whole agenda? I think it's a combination of both, definitely. I think he's definitely got some specific ideological views, but I think he's being heavily influenced by those in the White House. I think he was definitely very influenced by Flynn, who's just resigned. And it's probably a good thing that Flynn's gone, to be honest. My personal perspective growing up in Europe, we always looked at the United States as the land of freedom, the land where no matter what your background is, or where you were from, or the color of your skin, you could actually be someone if you worked hard. And I guess past couple of weeks has have challenged that idea. Then we expanded our walkabouts to the state capital. And here are some of the interviews we have there. And I'm Marcia Joyner, and today we are at the Hawaii state capital. And we were here to hear the decision making about the bill, medical aid and dying. And with me is Scott Foster, who has been with this issue for how long? 28 years. Brittany Ross. Hi, yes. Yes. And Brittany, tell us all about Brittany. Hi. I am currently living in Hawaii. I've been here the last year. I've lived in Hawaii often on the last 10 years. I just started working with the Death with Dignity National Center in Oregon. So I've teamed up with Mr. Scott Foster and Marcia, working hard to get this legislation through the Senate and the House this year. Doctors deal with this issue all the time in hospitals. They're controlling people's pain, but that control of pain often results in them dying. And they call that a dual effect. But I mean, you know, you don't do this to patients without their consent, but they say, you tell them, look, we're going to help your pain. But if we control your pain, if we give you enough medication to control your pain, you're likely to stop breathing. And all of this, like a volcano, is open to the sky. And the legislators' offices are all the way around, all through here. And then the governor is up on the top floor and the lieutenant governor's on the top floor. And here is my dear friend. Hi. How are you doing? This is Blake Oshiro. Yeah, I was in the state legislature from 2000 to 2011. So what do you expect on the floor? Well, we're hoping that the vote for the Senate will be favorable. It will pass by a strong majority vote. And then at that point it crosses over to the House, and the House will get their opportunity to hear the bill and really see the amount and support that there is for medical aid in dying and ultimately pass it. Like right now, we have a five-day recess. But as you can see, this is when all the hearings are going on because there's no session. So it's actually very busy during the recess time. And the terms like decking and crossover, all these technical terms that is basically used within the House that give deadlines for when bills need to move or a process. So many times we will say a bill is dead. That means it didn't reach a certain milestone by a certain day. Ends up in the governor's desk. But before it gets there, that bill has to go through a rigorous departmental review. So the attorney general's office has to look at it and make sure that it complies with all legal issues. Then the department has to look at it to make sure that it complies with all of the directives that the department is working on and that there's no conflicts, right? So once it passes legal review, department review, then it comes to the governor's desk. And the governor then has to decide whether he's going to sign it, whether he's going to veto it, or whether he'll let it become law without his signature. Well of course I'm going to ask you about Bill 201, Medical Aid and Dying. Since you made that a priority at the opening of the legislature, you said that was one of your priorities. How is it doing? Well, it hasn't been heard yet, but I believe it will because we have a lot of time yet. The bill has been referred to judiciary and finance, and as I said, we're only going into second reading now, and you need four readings on the line. So it's very early. But at this point I can say that the majority of the House, I believe, feels favorably for the passage of that bill. And I wonder how you feel about the engagement of the public and the legislature this season, maybe based on what happened in November. Well, I think most people are focused on national politics. People are out, you know, really making their voices known on national politics, national issues. It's been kind of quiet over here. We hope that they, we're starting to see a pickup in activity, but hopefully they'll come out to their legislature and make their voices known. There's a lot of things we can do to add to their voice to the legislative process, even though it has to do with the federal government or the new president. You know, some people say, Angus, that what's happening in Washington may have implications for Hawaii, social safety net and other issues, and they worry about it. And therefore the legislature might be concerned about trying to make Hawaii more resilient against changes in Washington. Do you see that kind of thinking? That is absolutely correct. We've had joint hearings already with health and human services on those issues. We could stand to lose $230 million of federal Medicaid money for Hawaii each year. My name is Virginia Beck, and I work here in the public access room at the state capital, and we are here to help citizens interact with the legislature. So however we can help, we're non-partisan, we're non-issue oriented, so we keep our opinions to ourselves, but we want you to add your voice to the process. I'm one of the co-conveners for the Women's Legislative Caucus, which was started by some predecessors to my mother even years ago. I think we are the second oldest women's legislative caucus in the nation. So we focus on issues of domestic violence, women and children's health care, and other issues equal pay, gender rights. I also work a lot on land use and environmental areas, because that was my focus prior to coming to the legislature, again both in private practice as well as when I was working for the state government at the Department of Land and Natural Resources. The legislature in Hawaii at least is condensed in 60 legislative days, and so every day is going to be busy. We have sometimes 12, 14, 16 hour days. As voice speaker, I basically am the speaker's wingman. Now today's speaker's not here, so I'm signing off on a lot of documents that he would normally sign on. If there are people that are coming from other countries to meet with the speaker, and he's not here, I will be there. Second and one is here. I'm part of the leadership team. I'll be here. So I'm basically his second in command, and I do my best to try to keep everyone together. On Kauai, we are very rural. We have the seed industry there. We are where they're proposing a new type of dairy, which is an issue right now. As to fishing areas in the ocean is also concerned, and of course, protecting our drinking water, because Kauai is, as you know, a small island that flows from Wai'alei really close to the shore. How do you feel about Sam being gone? I miss Sam. You know, Sam has a self-deprecating humor. He has a oratory voice, and he is kind of the bellwether of all the conservative issues in the state of Hawaii. So he's dearly missed, but we had him at the beer summit last week, and he was jovial and giving his sense of what the world should be like according to the Lone Ranger, and he's going to do well. We're trying to get him a Trump administration appointment. Learning every day, we went to City Hall and talked with some of the council members and staff. In order to complete the construction of rail, clearly what's going to have to happen is that the legislature is going to have to authorize the counties to be able to extend that surcharge. So that issue is presently before the state legislature, and ultimately the determination as to how much of the rail project we'll be able to construct will rest with the legislature in terms of whether or not they want to allow the city and county of Honolulu to extend the surcharge. What about the property tax, and how does that fit into all of this? We have an ordinance in place that was adopted by the City Council a number of years ago, which prohibits the use of real property tax revenues to cover the construction cost for rail. So that prohibition is still in place. I have made clear, as the council chaired to my former colleagues at the state legislature, that we do not want to tap into real property tax revenues to finance the construction cost for rail. The concern of council members is the fact that residents and businesses are having a tough enough time as it is. There's an ordinance existing now, ordinance 0701, and that means it's the first ordinance that became an ordinance in the year 2007, specifically states that there are only two mechanisms of funding for rail construction. That money is derived from the state general excise tax surcharge, and money is derived from the federal government. So that means that there are no other funding sources that can be used for rail construction. That's rail construction. Well, what about operation? Operation and maintenance, we will need to utilize real property tax revenues, as we do now for the operation of our existing city public transportation system. So if you look at our city public transportation system today, we have the bus and we have the handy van. The city subsidizes that. No public transit system in America, as far as I'm aware, operates at a profit. They're all subsidized by the taxpayer, and they are all governmental services, core government services I may add. So once rail comes online, it's going to join the handy van and the bus as part of Honolulu's public transportation system, and we will subsidize it, and we plan to subsidize it. Most recently, we took our unit to Kakaako to find out what's new in the pow wow art scene, and in the new shops and restaurants. Here's some of the footage we got there. Our store has been open for about a month, and so far it has been very popular with the customers in the neighborhood. People actually like the lehuah honey, the black sesame, the rum raisin that actually has alcohol in it. We wanted creative arts, so we decided to open one. Oh wow, that's fantastic! So it's just been two weeks that you've been here. So what has been the response so far? So far, great. We have our first fully booked class this Saturday, which is tomorrow, the cartooning for kids, so we're excited about that. And just getting the community more involved and talking today, we're going to be at Eat the Street Chocolate, which is across the street, handing out flyers, talking about our opening, and letting people know we're here. Okay, hi, here we are at Lana Lane Studios, which was really ground zero for the pow wow that happened. So this is where all the artists come together to put these murals together. We are here at Heavy Metal, Inc., in Kakaako. Started my jewelry line in 2013, and I do a lot of sterling silver metal work, and I moved into this space last year in August. And so, you know, it's been really great meeting different artists and like-minded creatives in this whole area, really. You just hang out and you see a bunch of people in the industry, so it's really great. This is all giving us a great opportunity to learn how to best use this technology and stream this content to our Think Tech viewers. For now, we are streaming these walkabouts and the breaks between our afternoon talk shows on Tuesdays and Fridays, so stay tuned for more. Not only in our studio talk shows and in our OC16 feature shows, but also in our live, high-tech remote walkabouts. As they say, Think Tech, better every day. And now, let's take a look at our Think Tech calendar of events going forward. There's so much happening in Hawaii. Sometimes things happen under the radar, and we don't hear much about them. But Think Tech will take you there. Remember, you can watch Think Tech on OC16 several times every week to stay current on what's happening in government, industry, academia, and communities around the islands and the world. Think Tech broadcasts its daily talk shows live on the Internet from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays. Then, we broadcast our earlier shows all night long and on the weekends. If you missed a show or if you want to replay or share any of our shows, they're all archived on demand on ThinkTechHawaii.com and YouTube. Our audio stream is on ThinkTechHawaii.com slash radio. And we are also posting podcasts of all our shows on iTunes. See our website for links. Visit ThinkTechHawaii.com for our weekly calendar and live stream and YouTube links, or sign up on our email list and get the daily docket of our upcoming shows. Think Tech has a high-tech green screen First Amendment studio at Pioneer Plaza. If you want to join our live audience or participate in our shows, write to Think at ThinkTechHawaii.com. Give us a thumbs up on YouTube or send us a tweet at ThinkTechHawaii. We'd like to know how you feel about the issues and events that affect our lives together in these islands. We want to stay in touch with you and we'd like you to stay in touch with us. Let's think together. You can call into our talk shows live. While you're watching any of our shows, you can call into 415-871-2474 and pose a question or participate in the discussion. We'll be right back to wrap up this week's edition of ThinkTech. But first, we want to thank our underwriters. What's up this week's edition of ThinkTech? Remember, you can watch ThinkTech on OC16 several times every week. Can't get enough of it? Just like Raya does. For additional times, check out OC16.tv. For lots more ThinkTech videos and for underwriting and sponsorship opportunities on ThinkTech, visit ThinkTechHawaii.com. Be a guest or a host, a producer or an intern. And help us reach and have an impact on Hawaii. Thanks so much for being part of our ThinkTech family and for supporting our open discussion of tech, energy, diversification and global awareness in Hawaii. And new video transmission equipment, of course. You can watch this show throughout the week and tune in next Sunday evening for our next important weekly episode. I'm Kawi Lucas. And I'm Raya Salter. Aloha everyone.