Home sweet home, or not

Kind of hard to imagine, in a city where people still scour the ads for rentals they can afford, why anyone would turn down free housing in a Manoa mansion. But University of Hawaii President M.R.C. Greenwood has decided, after a year of living elsewhere on a $5,000 monthly housing allowance, that College Hill, as the official residence is called, might be better used as a site for special UH functions.

Originally the relocation was to have been temporary, while the house was renovated due to termite damage.

The UH regents will decide whether Greenwood should still get the 5K each month. Really? If it means saving $60,000 a year, she could still live in College Hill and host parties downstairs.

It was an arrangement that governors in this state found acceptable for years at Washington Place — and for a salary much lower than the $427,507 the UH president gets.

Clinton eyes Hawaii visit

We expect both President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to be among the dignitaries at next year’s Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation gathering in Honolulu — but Clinton may be backing out of this year’s APEC meeting in Japan.

Clinton is planning to be at an international gathering in Hanoi next week, and The Wall Street Journal reports that the Obama administration is trying to organize a meeting in Hawaii sometime next month between Clinton and Japan Foreign Minister Seiji Maehara. Clinton may be ducking reaction to her remark in a speech in September that she named South Korea ahead of Japan in a list of Asian allies.