UH gets some love in national magazine

The University of Hawaii got some welcome affirmation from U.S. News & World Report this week, both for its attorneys-in-training and the docs of tomorrow.

The publication’s annual rankings bumped up the William S. Richardson School of Law by 26 notches over last year’s listing to place the institution No. 80 among the nation’s 144 best law schools.

U.S. News judges also looked more kindly upon the John A. Burns School of Medicine, at least in its primary-care training category. JABSOM now places 66th (up from 83rd) in primary care. In research, the school dipped slightly in the rankings, from 80th to 82nd.

This has been a tough year up at UH-Manoa, so the praise for making strides is welcome. Kudos to those who made that happen.

Counting only those who answer

The Legislature is considering a bill that would lower the bar a bit for constitutional amendments that lawmakers propose. Of course, in order to lower it, the change will have to get over the higher bar first.

Currently, when lawmakers propose a constitutional amendment that goes on the general election ballot, a majority of all the ballots cast have to be "yes" votes, with spoiled ballots and those with the question left blank effectively counted among the "no" votes.

Senate Bill 982 would fix it so that only ballots marked either yes or no would count. Some say this wouldn’t matter that much: When lawmakers proposed amendments in past elections, they got a clear vote 91 percent of the time, anyway.