Midway through Game Change, Republican strategist Steve Schmidt, played by Woody Harrelson, says, "The news is not meant to be remembered. It’s just entertainment."

The Newseum, a grandiose monument to remembering the news, hosted the premiere of the film in what was essentially a hall of mirrors: An insidery movie adapted from an insidery book was shown to an insidery audience of Obama staffers and political journalists, who chortled as they recognised themselves, their colleagues and their rivals onscreen.

"He really captured the character — although he was playing him maybe four years younger than me," joked Wolf Blitzer, referring to the stock footage of him that pads the two-hour telepic about the implosion of the 2008 John McCain-Sarah Palin campaign.

"I think it’s a cynical line that works for the movie," said Morning Joe host Joe Scarborough of Schmidt’s dismissal of political journalism. "There is an appetite for news as entertainment," added his MSNBC co-host, Mika Brzezinski, setting up a self-promotional pivot, "but our show proves that audiences also have an appetite for substance."

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Here’s how to avoid costly and exhausting mistakes during your Hawaiian vacation.

DON’T travel to Hawaii during school holidays.
Tourists crowd Hawaii’s stunning beaches in summer and winter. During school holidays, flight and hotel rates are off the charts — between Christmas and New Years, condos and vacation rentals can run three times as much as rates in early December.

DO visit Hawaii in the off-season.
Hands down the best values on visiting Hawaii can be found in May and October. With prices reasonably low and the weather at its peak — not too hot, not too rainy — take advantage of the perks of off-season travel to jet off to the islands. Current spring and fall flight deals from the West Coast are half of July rates. Additionally, hotels and condos generally slash their prices off-season, rewarding visitors with oceanfront accommodations that typically sell out in peak months.

Travel Snapshots: Hawaii

DON’T blow your whole budget on a luxury resort.
While staying in a luxurious Hawaiian resort where birds flutter through the open-air lobby and fresh papaya is served at the swim-up bar is nice, it is likely to cost between $400-$600 a night in high season. Instead, fork over the cash for a lomilomi massage and gourmet seafood dinner, and make your own poolside Mai Tai at a rental condo.

DO consider staying in a condo.
Repeat visitors know to rent a condo. Kitchens, ample square footage, washing machines and privacy afford travelers a more authentic (and often less costly) vacation experience. It’s common for numerous companies to manage individual units in the same complex, meaning one property may be decked out by a globetrotting interior decorator, while another may be awash in wicker. Be sure to see photos of the particular condo you’re interested in and get specifics on the number and configuration of beds.

DON’T try to see everything.
While each island has its own personality, it is too expensive (and exhausting) to island-hop the entire archipelago on one vacation. Inter-island flights generally run between $70-$140 each way and most travel to Oahu, so if you want to get from Kauai to the Big Island, you might have to stop in Honolulu and basically pay the equivalent of two inter-island flights each way.

DO stick to one or two islands.
Each region on each island has its own flavor. The north and east sides of the islands are more tropical, while the south and west regions offer sunnier skies and a more arid landscape. Instead of island hopping, break your trip up by staying in a plush hotel within walking distance of a sunny south shore beach and then cozy up in a rental house near the more tropical (read: rainy) north shore. If you want to island-hop on the cheap, Maui offers ferry service to Lanai and Molokai.

DON’T fall for the luau.
Most luaus are overpriced and far from the real thing (usually family events on a beach for a first birthday). While they seem like an authentic experience, you can actually piece together the highlights of a luau yourself. Grab a picnic of poke, lomi lomi, fresh pineapple, and poi from a local market. In the evenings at most malls on Kauai and Maui, and at sunset at Waikiki Beach, you can watch free hula shows featuring some of Hawaii’s best dancers.

DO splurge on an adventure.
Whether you fancy diving deep into the sea, soaring over waterfalls on a helicopter tour, or a kayak trip along the Na Pali Coast, treat yourself to at least one adventure. Be sure to book early in your trip in case of bad weather.

And lastly, DO NOT forget to relax on the beach.
No need to be on a boat, or a horse, or a helicopter, or a zip line the whole time. Save time to enjoy Hawaii’s world-class beaches. From the shore, you can walk right out into the sea and snorkel with sea turtles, angelfish and monk seals basically for free. As the sun descends over the Pacific, unwind under a coconut palm and watch the sky burst with color as surfers ride the last sunlit waves onto the white sand.

Michele Bigley is the author of “Great Destinations, Kauai” (Countryman Press) and the upcoming “Backroads and Byways of Hawaii” (Countryman Press).

Do you have tips for a great trip to Hawaii? Share them in the comments section below.

Editor’s note: Business Traveller is a monthly show about making the most of doing business on the road.

This can be a time consuming chore, but an array of high-tech devices have hit the market with the aim of simplifying the process.

According to Duncan Bell, operations editor of tech magazine T3, receipt scanners and, to a greater extent, smartphone apps, are the main drivers of these developments.

“Technology has made quite major changes in terms of how people do their expenses — particularly in larger companies,” Bell says.

“Whereas before it was inevitably hand written, and then later typed into a spreadsheet, which involved bringing expenses into the office, now it can be done on the fly on a variety of different technologies,” he adds.

Bell took a look at some of the most prominent products that are streamlining the expenses process.

Planon Slimscan

The Planon Slimscan is a pocket-sized scanner that enables users to record small receipts, business cards and all manner of other expenses-related paperwork.

It’s a device that looks “impressive” and is easy to carry around, says Bell.

Given its diminutive size, however, the Planon Slimscan is unable to scan larger items of paperwork, such as hotel or taxi receipts, he adds.

“They’re not actually physically wide enough to actually scan them (larger paperwork) in,” Bell says.

“(It’s) something that you produce with a flourish from your wallet … but is overshadowed by the usability element,” he concludes.

See also: Higher air fares, more mergers?

Epson WorkForce DS-30

A much larger device that aims to cater for receipts both large and small is the Epson WorkForce DS-30.

This portable scanner is still relatively lightweight but definitely something you would “put in your luggage rather than your wallet,” says Bell.

The extra bulk and size enables users to digitize larger pieces of paper up to A4 size. According to Bell, however, recording small receipts and most “expenses-related things” doesn’t require such high quality or precision technology.

“They are nice pieces of hardware, but maybe not the perfect solution for (recording expenses),” he says.

NeatReceipts scanner

The NeatReceipts scanner is a slim and lightweight device that its makers say can scan receipts, business cards and documents of all sizes to produce electronic files that are stored in a “digital filing cabinet.”

Despite overcoming the difficulties posed by documents of differing dimensions, Bell says NeatReceipts isn’t as efficient as it could be.

He describes the technology as similar to the prospect of flying cars — “a nice idea but (one that) never actually quite works” — because of the scanner’s propensity to misread entries on receipts.

“You have to think of it more as a means of scanning the receipt and then you changing the various mistakes,” he adds. “If you are expecting this to do your accounts for you — well it ain’t — but it will help.”

Concur

The Concur app is one of the many smartphone software programs now on the market. Bell says apps will likely be the future of expense-recording devices.

“They basically do the same job as scanner-based solutions … and (are) capable of putting (expenses) in a format that is useable by your accounts department,” he explains.

Concur itself enables users to photograph, record and collate invoices via an easy-to-use interface. According to Bell, it doesn’t try anything too clever and provides a simple system for digitally capturing and filing data that can then be passed onto accounting departments to process.

Even if accounts don’t accept digitized images of receipts, “the scans mean you’re not struggling to remember which taxi fare cost what when you come to fill in your expenses,” he adds.

ExpenseMagic

Another useful smartphone application for the tech-savvy business traveler is ExpenseMagic, says Bell.

“What ExpenseMagic does is use the hardware of your phone and an app to photograph receipts and enter various bits of information — but the main body of the work is done by an actual living person.”

“They have a team of accountants who will go though your photographed receipts and turn it into a form suitable for use by your accounts department.”

This takes away much of the stress of recording and sifting through mountains of crumpled up pieces of paper, explains Bell.

“The downside of this is obviously they are not doing this out of the good of their hearts, so there is a subscription cost that needs to be borne,” he adds.

Perhaps that’s another cost to add to your travel expenses.

Release Date: 03/27/2012Contact Information: David Deegan, (617) 918-1017

(Boston, Mass. – March 27, 2012) – CSG Holdings, Inc. of Columbia, N.H. faces a possible fine of up to $532,500 from EPA for allowing polluted stormwater and process water from its Columbia facility to flow into nearby waters, in violation of the Clean Water Act.  CSG Holdings is the former operator of Columbia Sand and Gravel, a mining facility on the banks of the Connecticut River.
According to allegations in the complaint, CSG Holdings discharged process waste waters and stormwater from the facility without proper permits and violated the federal Oil Pollution Prevention Regulations by failing to prepare and implement a Spill Prevention, Control, and Countermeasure Plan. The recent complaint against CSG Holdings states that the violations were discovered by EPA’s New England office in 2010.
Stormwater monitoring by CSG Holdings confirmed that stormwater discharges from its sand and gravel mining and aggregate processing operations contain total suspended solids at levels that exceed permit benchmarks for their industrial sector.  When a facility’s stormwater discharges exceed benchmark levels, the facility must review its stormwater control measures to determine if changes are necessary and make these changes as needed.
The Clean Water Act prohibits the discharge of process waste waters without a permit. The law also requires that industrial facilities, such as sand and gravel facilities, have controls in place to minimize pollutants from being discharged with stormwater into nearby waterways. Each site must have a stormwater pollution prevention plan that sets guidelines and best management practices that the company will follow to prevent runoff from being contaminated by pollutants. Without on-site controls, runoff from sand and gravel facilities can flow directly to the nearest waterway and can cause water quality impairments such as siltation of rivers, beach closings, fishing restrictions, and habitat degradation. As stormwater flows over these sites, it can pick up pollutants, including sediment, used oil, and other debris. Polluted process water discharges or stormwater runoff can harm or kill fish and wildlife and can affect drinking water quality.
Every year, thousands of gallons of oil are spilled from oil storage facilities, polluting New England waters. Even the effects of smaller spills add up and damage aquatic life, as well as public and private property. Spill prevention plans are critical to prevent such spills or, if they do occur, adequately address them.
In May 2011, CSG Holdings sold its Columbia, N.H. facility to another owner/operator. The new owner maintains the facility’s stormwater management system and is authorized to discharge stormwater under a general permit covering discharges from industrial facilities.
More information: Stormwater control for Industrial facilities (http://cfpub.epa.gov/npdes/stormwater/indust.cfm)
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Follow EPA New England on Twitter (http://twitter.com/epanewengland)
More info on EPA’s Environmental Results in New England (http://www.epa.gov/region1/results/index.html)

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Since most children these days are full-grown adults in their minds by the time they are 11 or 12, the old confusion surrounding the 15th birthday no longer exists. I remember when I turned 15 – half the gifts were for seven-year-olds; the other half were for young adults. Snakes and Ladders rubbed elbows with The Complete Works of Oscar Wilde. Was I young or old, fish or fowl?

I don’t see Friday magazine getting excited by gifts of either Snakes and Ladders or Oscar Wilde. Remarkably, the magazine came into the world as a full-grown adult, with pages both glossy and classy – a rare combination in those days! The gestation period was used brilliantly by the then editor of Gulf News, Francis Matthew and Malavika Kamaraju the magazine’s former editor. Many elements have endured for a decade and a half. Others have evolved since magazines are in a sense living organisms.

It was all hush-hush at first. Rumours flew, other rumours crawled. "The new magazine will be a literary one," said one. Others felt it would be interview-based or market-driven or shopping-friendly or personality-driven or opinion-based or inspirational or cookery-based.

Like the visually challenged men of the land of Indus in the poem, each one had got hold of a particular aspect of the magazine but missed out on the big picture. For, in the end, it was all of the above and then some.

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Release Date: 05/09/2012Contact Information: Dean Higuchi, 808-541-2711, higuchi.dean@epa.gov

(05/09/12) SAN FRANCISCO – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is seeking project proposals to reduce land-based trash at the source, thus preventing trash from entering coastal runoff and becoming marine debris.

The amount of funding available is approximately $280,000 and projects must occur in a coastal or estuarine watershed in U.S. EPA Region 9, which includes coastal areas of California, Hawaii, and the Pacific Territories of Guam, American Samoa and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. States, local governments, public and private nonprofit institutions/organizations, federally recognized Indian tribal governments, U.S. territories or possessions, and interstate agencies are eligible and encouraged to apply.

The aim of the grant is to reduce marine debris from coastal watersheds with true source reduction practices, not with the more commonly used capture and removal practices such as inserting catch basin screens and enhancing street sweeping. Methods that businesses can use to facilitate true source reduction include creating mechanisms for product/packaging take-back, minimizing procurement of difficult-to-recycle goods, and ‘incentivizing’ reuse.

Proposals should demonstrate and promote the economic benefits of source reduction to business and government, inspire innovative local policies promoting litter prevention, and foster creative collaborative partnerships between local government, non-profits, and business. Proposals that principally support recycling, clean-up, treatment, trash capture/removal, plastic bag and/or polystyrene bans, or disposal activities will not be considered for funding.

Marine debris degrades estuarine, near shore, and open ocean habitats. It endangers marine and coastal wildlife, causes navigation hazards, results in economic losses to industry and governments, and threatens human health and safety. With up to 80 percent of marine debris coming from land-based sources, reducing what is generated upstream will result in less trash having to be captured and removed downstream.

Submission Date:  Proposals are due on Friday, June 8, 2012, 5 pm (PDT). EPA anticipates awarding one to three grants under this solicitation with project periods of up to three years. Applicants must demonstrate how they will provide the minimum non-federal match of 25 percent of the total cost of the proposal.

For more information and the full request for proposals, please visit: http://www.epa.gov/region9/marine-debris/

This grant will support the Region 9 Strategic Plan goal of reducing the accumulation of trash that contributes to marine debris, please visit: http://www.epa.gov/region9/strategicplan/islands.html and http://www.epa.gov/region9/strategicplan/comm.html

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Readers with elephantine memories will recall that when Alex Ritman reviewed the 2010 Jetta on these pages he was surprised by the level of attention that the denizens of San Francisco lavished on the little Vee Dub. Maybe it just stands out in my memory since I was born nearby, but navigating the alternately sunny and, within minutes, foggy roads of Northern California, Ritman was greeted by glad-handing Jetta enthusiasts at every turn.

While the mighty Golf, in its various iterations, enjoys great popularity in Europe and the UK, its popularity in the US is undercut by a long love affair with the sprightly Jetta saloon, the best-selling VW in the United States. Maybe it’s that success that inspired Wolfsburg to redesign the venerable Passat for the US market. And while this supposedly Americanised car was designed in Wolfsburg, I travelled to Chattanooga, Tennessee to drive the Passat in the (oddly named) land of its birth.

For some reason the 2012 Passat didn’t quite receive the kind of notoriety along my test-drive route that Ritman experienced back in 2010. The various squirrels, deer and raccoons that populate the Tennessee countryside showed no interest in the shining car as it zipped through pastoral landscapes and down Rockwellian main streets. The birds only seemed to notice when they were forced to scatter out of my way and, whileI don’t mean to suggest that human beings weren’t interested, they were mostly driving tractors or bailing hay so it’s hard to know what, if anything, they made of the car.

I, for one, quite like it — but there’s something you should know, dear petrol-headed reader: we here in the UAE won’t be seeing anything bigger than a 2.5-litre MPI five-cylinder engine in the Passat for some time. OK, so a certain number of you just turned the page and, er, aren’t reading this. But despite my own hurt feelings, VW is certainly OK with that, as those of you who stopped listening after the 2.5-litre spec aren’t the demographic that this car is aimed at — at least not right now. VW wants to, and well could become, the biggest carmaker in the world, and that’s going to take some wily strategy.

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