Birth certificate release builds trust

The president’s decision to at last release his birth certificate is a welcome end to this long travesty.

The outcome is a victory neither for President Barack Obama nor for Donald Trump. It is a triumph of the American people. It not only reassures the electorate about the identity of the man who became their leader, but it also sends a strong message that public officials can and will be held accountable.

No matter the arguments on either side of the issue, when a large plurality of the electorate continued to have doubts, the president should long ago have produced the document. With the level of corruption in government these days, “trust me” is no longer the standard for public servants.

Mahalo to Mr. Obama for the courage to release this information and good luck with the remainder of his term of office.

Curtis Beck
Hilo

Trump advisers err

I guess Donald Trump and his advisers were totally wrong on this birther issue.

I dread to see if he became president what his consultants would have to say about the economy and world issues.

He’d be a dangerous man to trust.

Melvin Fujiyoshi
Honolulu

Public workers are hardly living it up

Regarding your editorial ("State needs to right-size ASAP," Our View, Star-Advertiser, April 27), the only common-sense response is to look at a small increase in the general excise tax.

Right-sizing sounds nice, but you offer few examples of where all these adjustments can be made. You merely bring about a tea party battle cry. Don’t you think if departments could consolidate functions, they would?

My wife has worked for the state for about 30 years. In the last two years she has been working 70-80 hour weeks, while other positions go unfilled. She hasn’t been compensated one extra dime for her tremendous overtime work.

If departments such as my wife’s have employees working these free overtime hours, tell me how to right-size. They’re understaffed and overworked as is.

Private-sector employees would never put up with this — that is, if they’re telling the truth.

Dean Reinking
Keaau

City gas tax hike will make things worse

Mayor Peter Carlisle has proposed increasing the gas tax 1 cent for 2011, 2 cents for 2012 and 3 cents for 2013 for a total of 6 cents per gallon.

This will not only increase motorists’ costs by more than $50 per year, it will cost more for everything that has to be delivered to a store.

Grocery prices will rise, plate lunches will rise, agriculture prices will rise, anything that requires gas to produce or deliver will rise.

Hawaii already has the highest gas prices in the country. Does Carlisle want to make sure we are No. 1 in gas prices for years to come?

Pam Smith
Ewa Beach

SB 106 would correct sentencing mistakes

As a leader committed to fairness and equality for all people, Gov. Neil Abercrombie should approve Senate Bill 106 correcting a new reading of sentencing terms implemented by the previous administration.

A 2005 policy change resulted in prisoners being incarcerated beyond their originally intended sentences. Without the passage of SB 106, the rights of this already marginalized and disenfranchised group of incarcerated individuals will continue to be violated.

For decades, the Department of Public Safety, the sentencing court, defense attorneys and prosecutors, all operated under the presumption that multiple prison terms imposed at different times run concurrently.

In 2005, this presumption was unilaterally reversed. Consequently, prison terms were increased beyond what the sentencing judges had intended.

Even the federal court has recognized that the wrongful over-detention under the 2005 policy change was on its face a violation of prisoners’ due-process rights.

SB 106 halts any further unintended, expensive and unconstitutional incarceration of individuals.

Trisha Y. Nakamura
President, Japanese American Citizens League
Honolulu

President, governor push failed policies

Your front page article ("Pain at the Pump," Star-Advertiser, April 23) only reinforces the failed economic and social policies of this president and this state.

Let’s hope that the near-$5-a-gallon gas and flat unemployment continue to the next tea party victory in 2012.

Daniel Spenn
Aiea