ASSOCIATED PRESS / APRIL 18
Hawaii’s Democratic lawmakers are criticizing Attorney General Jeff Sessions after he expressed amazement on a radio show that a “judge sitting on an island in the Pacific” could stop the president’s travel ban.
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So, U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions probably can’t count on a whole lot of smiles from the Hawaii delegation on Capitol Hill for the time being. The issue was his dismissal of Hawaii as a mere “island in the Pacific” where a judge managed to block the president’s travel ban.
The state’s representatives in Congress took umbrage at the Beltway, East Coast attitude, and that played well on TV, a plus for a politician.
Cayetano sends message to Washington
Talk about going straight to the source. Former Gov. Ben Cayetano has shrewdly taken his anti-rail appeal right to President Donald J. Trump.
In a full-page ad in The Washington Post on Friday, the longtime rail opponent urged Trump to end the federal government’s funding of Oahu’s overbudget rail project. “The FTA should terminate its Full Funding Grant Agreement with the City, keep the $800 million, and use it for a worthy transit project,” Cayetano’s ad said in part. “This would require the City to seriously consider some of the less costly alternatives to complement the rail system.”
Already, city and rail officials are sweating an April 30 deadline to come up with financing plus an updated plan for the Federal Transit Administration. Expect next week to be action-packed.