AARP wants us to care more about caregivers

AARP Hawaii is pointing to an estimate showing the work of family caregivers to be worth $2.1 billion in 2013. The organization is using this as a hammer to try — again — to persuade Hawaii hospital administrators that they should be required to provide caregiving training when frail seniors are released for home care.

The administrators have been fighting such a law tooth and nail, saying they can do it on their own without a state mandate. But they’re going to find it harder to make that argument, with other states racing ahead to pass their own bills. State Rep. Della Au Belatti said lawmakers will try again in January. Advocacy groups should keep up the pressure.

If feds won’t cooperate, call out the feds

Facing the July 20 deadline for commenting on the proposed consent order on the leaking Red Hill fuel tanks, lawmakers made a welcome demand last week for even more aggressive action by the Navy.

The order is for further study, more testing and an indefinite call for tank upgrades. The 19 lawmakers urged the Environmental Protection Agency to compel the Navy to bring the tanks up to its updated safety standards to prevent further leaks that could threaten the aquifer.

That stance should please their constituents — who, after all, drink the water the EPA aims to protect.