Everyone wants to rein in Facebook, TikTok and other social media. This is one obvious solution
Powerful technology has perhaps never presented a bigger set of regulatory challenges for the U.S. government. Before the state primary in January, Democrats in New Hampshire received robocalls playing AI-generated deepfake audio recordings of President Joe Biden encouraging them not to vote. Imagine political deepfakes that, say, incite Americans to violence. This scenario isn’t too hard to conjure given new research from NYU that describes the distribution of false, hateful or violent content on social media as the greatest digital risk to the 2024 elections.
As I See It: Borders
The southern border is a challenge. It always has been. Many borders are. Inevitably there is something on one side of any border that attracts people, and by the way animals from the other side. An international border’s objectives are many and often conflicting.
Why is Haiti’s economy so much worse than its neighbor’s?
As Haiti continues its descent into chaos, the Dominican Republic continues to prosper. The two countries share the island of Hispaniola and a lot of history, and yet the Dominican Republic now stands as one of the wealthiest nations in Latin America.
Were we really ‘better off’ under the viral vitriol of Trump’s presidency?
It was Ronald Reagan who first posed the quintessential campaign question, during the sole 1980 presidential debate, “Are you better off today than you were four years ago?” America’s answer would soon expel Jimmy Carter from the White House in a historic landslide.
Letters to the editor for Thursday, March 21, 2024
Privatizing Medicare would hurt millions
Marry rich. That’s the Republican plan for moms
The Republican Party is making yet another appeal to mothers, hoping to get them in Donald Trump’s camp ahead of this year’s presidential election. As Alabama Senator Katie Britt put it in her State of the Union rebuttal, “we are the party of hardworking parents and families. We want to give you and your children the opportunities to thrive — and we want families to grow.”
The US is at its best when it learns from its mistakes
Learning from your mistakes isn’t just something that applies to your personal life – it’s a core lesson of political science. Ten years before the Framers of our Constitution gathered in Philadelphia to draft a new governing document, they adopted the Articles of Confederation. Our Founding Fathers were so assured of its success that they intended it to last in perpetuity. Forever, in this case, was a decade.
Getting guns away from abusers will save lives
“273.D.” The dispatch code for domestic violence sends chills down the spines of law enforcement officers, who know these calls to be among the most dangerous. Early on the morning of Feb. 18, police and first responders in Burnsville, Minnesota, saw just how deadly domestic abuse incidents can be. Although they saved seven children and the killer’s girlfriend from harm, two officers and a firefighter were killed.
Aging comes with stigma. Let’s admire the defiant
Who do you want to be when you grow old?
Letters to the editor for Wednesday, March 20, 2024
Grats to the Kohala Cowboys for victory
The test Biden can’t pass
President Joe Biden recently gave a rough, tough, eyes-ablaze, here-I-come State of the Union speech that some saw as a definitive disposal of his democratically diagnosed mental vacuity. But not too many days after that, TV sets were once again spreading news about Biden’s brain gone blank in a different situation, one that had included an impeachment possibility.
Grade inflation is making learning loss worse
Recent test results confirm a dispiriting reality: America’s students continue to lag far behind their peers around the world, and millions are running out of time to catch up. Yet many families remain unaware of the true deficits their children face — in no small part because teachers are often giving students higher grades than they actually deserve.
Don’t fear AI in war, fear autonomous weapons
There’s no question that artificial intelligence will transform warfare, along with pretty much everything else. But will the change be apocalyptic or evolutionary? For the sake of humanity, let’s hope it’s the latter.
Rethinking Hawaii’s conveyance tax
Hawaii grapples with a daunting challenge: the urgent need for 4,000 to 5,000 affordable rental units annually over the next five years to tackle our lack of affordable housing. This acute shortage of housing drives both the houselessness and outmigration crises. The state Legislature has a pivotal opportunity to address this situation by reevaluating conveyance tax rates on the sale of multimillion dollar investment properties.
Westside Stories: What’s wrong with this?
What’s wrong with this picture?
No waiting line for vets’ care
Plastics. Paint. Petroleum. Metals. Munitions. Medical waste.
Letters to the Editor for March 16
Support needed for SB 3126
Katie Britt’s speech does a terrible disservice to sex trafficking victims
Scarlett Johansson’s “Saturday Night Live” open was hilarious, and there have been so many more great jokes about the oddly amateur theatrics of U.S. Sen. Katie Britt in her response to President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address. But we can’t let the humor mask a patently cruel lie that was one of the cornerstones of her speech.
Letters to the Editor for Friday, March 15, 2024
Pele cleansed Puna of ‘wrongdoing’
Making smart budget choices: Biden plan is rooted in common sense
With a $7.3 trillion budget plan for fiscal year 2025, President Joe Biden laid out priorities that include a heavy emphasis on anti-poverty and quality of life while taking aim at Donald Trump’s efforts to roll back taxes on the rich.