There’s speech, and then there’s cyberbullying

The free-speech provisions of the First Amendment are there to protect all manner of expressions, even those that aren’t particularly friendly. The recent settlement between Maui County and an employee who asserted his right to a Facebook page exemplifies this.

Neldon Mamuad sued the county in March over a dispute stemming from Mamuad’s Facebook page that tracked a Maui police officer. Mamuad claimed the county pressured him to stop posting, according to the county. Free speech is sacrosanct, but in this case he walked a fine line between that and harassment. With any luck, the cyberbullying awareness class the plaintiff took as part of the settlement clarified where that line can be found.

A computer glitch stalls aviation museum

Sometimes, the more automated a process is, the more problematic it becomes. Case in point: When it comes to online ticket reservations, the Pacific Aviation Museum suspects a faulty aspect of the website, www.recreation.gov, is causing a $150,000-monthly drop in its business.

When the daily allotment of online tickets to the nearby USS Arizona Memorial is gone, a "sold out" message emerges. But that’s not true: 2,200 more tickets daily are available in-person at the box office. But the "sold out" misdirection causes folks to skip Pearl Harbor and its other attractions, such as the aviation museum. Let’s hope the problem gets fixed soon; meanwhile, go directly to www.pacificaviationmuseum.org/.