Hawaii’s low wages worse than reported

Your article about Hawaii incomes being less than average should have explained that our real incomes are actually in the bottom five when adjusted for cost of living, because we have the highest cost of living along with below-average wages (“Isle workers earn less than U.S. average,” Star-Advertiser, April 11).

It is misleading for you to publish a story that makes our situation sound only a little bit worse than normal.

If the public were more aware of true statistics showing how bad off we are, it might help generate some political action to correct this situation.

Solutions are obviously hard to develop, but the challenge is made even more difficult by the way our media and politicians disguise the truth. Raising the minimum wage to $20 would be a good start.

Since you are the only newspaper we’ve got, you have a responsibility to provide better information on such an important topic.

Dennis Callan

Punchbowl

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Credit cards should stay with owner

Regarding the story of 13 customers at Choi’s Garden restaurant victimized by credit-card theft (“Men accused of using card-skimming device,” Star-Advertiser, April 7): What is it going to take for the United States to catch up with the rest of the world and use wireless portable credit-card machines at table side when paying at restaurants?

In other places, the waiter brings a portable machine to the table and does not allow the customer’s credit card to ever be out of sight.

A credit card should never leave the possession of its owner at any point of sale.

In addition, many Europeans are surprised that we do not need to provide a personal identification number to purchase anything with our credit cards as they do.

Harry Ozols

Punchbowl

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Electric bus slow, underpowered

By chance, I was a passenger on the electric bus test run on Route 52 between Ala Moana and Haleiwa passing over the H-2 freeway.

It’s a 1,000 foot climb from Pearl City to Wahiawa. At times the bus struggled at about 20 mph and was running on the extreme right shoulder. We wondered if we would make it at all. It finally arrived in Wahiawa way behind schedule.

Jon Nouchi, deputy director of the city Department of Transportation Services, said, “No one really had anything negative to say” (“Electric bus tests getting a wider Hawaii rollout,” Star-Advertiser, April 12).

On the ride I was on, everybody had something negative to say. There was no one from TheBus taking a survey, so how would Nouchi even know?

It sounds like assigning these prototypes to the airport rental car shuttle is a perfect spot for them.

Robert J. Conlan

Wahiawa

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Stop fat-shaming and other bullying

It was disappointing to read that random strangers are fat-shaming young girls whom they don’t even know (“Teen buys every cupcake in shop to get revenge after woman fat-shames her,” Star-Advertiser, Top News, April 4).

Teenager Vega Blossom took a stand against a woman who made a rude comment toward her, calling her a “fat b——.”

Fat-shaming is a form of bullying that, along with all other forms of body shaming, is something that needs to be addressed and stopped.

Nearly 94 percent of teenage girls and 65 percent of teenage boys have reported being body shamed.

It is devastating to know that both genders are being body-shamed daily and in such high numbers.

Body shaming, fat shaming and all of the above need to end, now.

Kayla Arakaki

Aiea

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Senate should pass House pesticide bill

Last week, activists, community members and elected officials, several even flying in from neighbor islands, gathered at the Capitol to show strong support for Senate Bill 3095 SD1 HD1, the very important bill that would regulate pesticides.

They sent a strong message to the Senate that the people have grown sick and tired of pesticides affecting both their keiki and other vulnerable communities.

Through school buffer zones and chlorpyrifos provisions, this bill can help protect them while requiring disclosure of important data to families and our leaders, in order to plan for the future.

The Senate now disagrees with the House amendments. Unless the Senate intends to make this bill even better, the blood, sweat and tears that brought us to this point will be lost. Please contact your senators and hold them accountable. Do not lose your seat at the table.

Jun Shin

Ala Moana

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Homeowners need to use pesticides

The pesticide issue is big. As usual, there are pros and cons. But what is unusual is the attempt by farmers to steer the controversy away from them and their spraying and redirect it, saying the concern is with homeowners trying to protect what is usually their largest investment. This is a desperate sign of an attempt to shift the blame.

The real concern is spraying pesticides on the food that we eat, residue and drift. Structural pest control makes restricted-use applications under homes, sometimes even in a home, but with applications that don’t leave residue and don’t drift anywhere.

Under Senate Bill 3095, if you live near a school, you had better consider moving or selling quick. A home that cannot be protected from Hawaii’s hungry termites is a doomed structure. Home treatments are not the issue but have been caught up in this debate.

Tim Lyons

Executive director, Hawaii Pest Control Association