Sequester Sequester ADVERTISING Selective impacts when cuts decided Sure as death and taxes: When any government is in financial trouble the first things they threaten to cut is whatever the public will notice. Close the parks, increase school class sizes,
Sequester
Selective impacts when cuts decided
Sure as death and taxes: When any government is in financial trouble the first things they threaten to cut is whatever the public will notice. Close the parks, increase school class sizes, furlough the civil servants that interact with the public.
Do they ever cut the tax breaks to their buddies, reduce their internal staff, (servants), eliminate junkets or defer remodeling their offices?
Part of the reason things governments do are so expensive is that any bureaucrat can add a line to project specifications that becomes a standard and increases costs forever.
It is like the wheel stops that clutter new parking lots yet often serve no purpose — except to trip the unwary and generate lawsuits.
Ken Obenski
Kaohe
Marijuana
Change the law now
I am writing in regards to SB472, which deals with decriminalization of possession of less than an ounce of cannabis or marijuana.
As a known offender for the heinous victimless crime of growing cannabis I was excited to see this bill coming forward. (Of course, I would have preferred legalization across the board. When the Judiciary Committee killed that bill, I was wishing I had free time on my hands, so I could have polled all the legislators to see their true intentions.)
There is a glaring “mistake” in this bill, however, if you look at Section 8, (HRS § 712-1247(1)(e) dealing with a first degree crime, they are reducing the amount of cannabis possession from “a pound or more” to “more than an ounce.”
This means if they pass this bill as written it will be making it a first-degree offense out of something that was already a second degree offense — possession of one ounce to one pound.
Please write to your legislators today. I don’t know if this was a mistake or intentional, but we need to really change our cannabis laws now.
Sara Steiner
Pahoa
County police
Shameful response
Last night we had, yet again, another display of HPD’s finests’ failure to do their job. Unfortunately, it was in our neighborhood and it turned into a really bad scene. The officers never even took a report.
They should be ashamed and we, as a community, should be appalled.
Earlier in the week, the police were called regarding a group on Alii Drive openly smoking pot and drinking.
I watched as police responded, 22 minutes after being called — and they just shuffled these offenders on their way with open containers in hand. No arrests were made.
These offenders will be the ones who jump you and steal your wallet or handbag next week — because they know that they can get away with it. Again, shame on you, Hawaii Police Department.
Jennifer Carlton
Kailua-Kona
