Support insurance for long-term care
In Gov. David Ige’s recent State of the State address, he spoke about realigning our values and our actions, saying, “They are what define us as a community,” and mentioned “our obligation to be true to our past and cultural heritage.”
What he did not talk about was caring for our kupuna, and the growing challenge of how we do that in Hawaii, and do it in a way that aligns with our values.
State Sen. Rosalyn Baker has introduced a bill that would create the nation’s very first long-term care social insurance to build a stronger support system for family caregivers. Care for our elders is at the heart of our culture, fulfilling our obligation to our parents and our community.
As the governor said, “Pledge to it, make it real every day and lead the way.”
It’s time for Hawaii to lead the way in caring for our kupuna.
Clementina D. Ceria-Ulep
Pearl City
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Rail should feature an express option
The City Council needs to act quickly to force the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation to construct the guideway, stations and systems so that express trains can carry passengers from Kapolei to Ala Moana Center in 20 minutes or less.
Express trains would stop at only four or five major stations.
Stopping at all the planned 21 stations along the rail guideway will take 55 minutes from near Kapolei to Ala Moana Center.
The City Council should stipulate that every other train would be an express train, which would get people who live on the West Side home quickly.
Isn’t that what the project is all about anyway?
Robert Rodman
Downtown Honolulu
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IT investments will pay off in long run
The Ige administration should be applauded for its focus on improving accountability in information technology investments to ensure taxpayer dollars are spent wisely (“Upgrade required,” Star-Advertiser, Insight, Jan. 24).
It is encouraging to see the governor, chief information officer and comptroller all working together to identify challenges presented by the antiquated technology that our state government workers use to provide services to the public.
This collaborative approach should be fostered in all corners of state government to realize the changes necessary to bring our state into the 21st century.
As members of the Transform Hawaii Government coalition, we urge our state leaders to remember that a positive return on investment can come not only by saving money and becoming more efficient, but also by making government more accessible and transparent.
Ryan Field
Kaimuki
Robert Harrison
Makiki
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256 lane miles is but a pittance overall
I had a laugh reading about Mayor Kirk Caldwell paving a whopping 256 lane miles in 2015 (“City has resurfaced 256 lane miles in ’15,” Star-Advertiser, Dec. 30).
The reality of how insignificant this is requires some perspective. With more than 4,000 lane miles of road on Oahu, paving 256 miles equals roughly 6 percent of the road surfaces that rock us on a daily basis.
We all know how terrible roads are in Honolulu. We have Third World streets in a first-rate tax state. If Caldwell wants to toot his horn, try getting that number to 20 percent and in five years maybe we will see a dent in the problem.
When fixing potholes is the government’s main priority, then fixing government must be our priority. We truly deserve better.
Bryan Holt
Kakaako
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Clinton fan missed point of email issue
Jane Wylie claimed Hillary Clinton is not at fault for using her private email account to communicate on subjects which at the time were unclassified, but later deemed to be classified (“Clinton telling truth about her emails,” Star Advertiser, Letters, Feb. 2).
This is not the issue. Since 2005, State Department policy has required that “normal day-to-day operations be conducted on an authorized (automated information system), which has the proper level of security control to provide nonrepudiation, authentication and encryption, to ensure confidentiality, integrity, and availability of the resident information,” according to the department’s Foreign Affairs Manual.
If Clinton had used an official State Department e-mail account, improperly transmitted classified or sensitive but unclassified information could have been rapidly identified and “scrubbed” off the department’s servers.
Clinton’s blatant disregard of her own department’s policy has jeopardized the security of our country and makes her unfit to be president of the United States.
Alan Richards
Aiea
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Mall’s CenterStage has lost its charm
CenterStage in the Ala Moana Center has always been a special performing arts location, including its beloved daily hula show.
Alas, the Hawaiian sense of place there has been ruined by the installation of a giant electronic billboard now overlooking the stage. Its bright flashing and moving commercial images are aggressive and intrusive, especially in Hawaii, which decades ago banned all outdoor billboards. This abomination should be switched off and then dismantled.
Brian Bagnall
Waikiki
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Tenants with pets are calmer, happier
Thank you for the article, “Pet Peeves,” examining various condominiums’ pet rules (Star-Advertiser, Jan. 24). I’m glad to see that pet-friendliness has improved over the years.
Expanding the conversation to single-family landlords’ pet policies, I find the majority says, “No pets.” This is unfortunate.
I’ve welcomed pets into my rental properties for years and find that tenants with pets are calmer and happier.
If pets damage property, the tenant pays. I’ve benefited from two new screens and two new rugs — free to me.
Pets have a great humanizing effect. Let them in and be happy.
Howard C. Wiig
Manoa
35 responses to “Support insurance for long-term care”
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Adding to Alan Richard’s letter re Jane Wylie’s misguided claims, the Inspector General had to admit to the media that he found SAP material on Hillary Clinton’s private server. SAP is a higher category than Top Secret. In Hillary Clinton’s case, there were references to undercover CIA operatives. Fortunately no names were disclosed but who knows how much it helped enemies in identifying these undercover agents.
So in addition to jeopardizing national security, Hillary Clinton put lives of these undercover CIA operatives at risk.
BTW, the Inpsector General (IG) is an Obama appointee, so it’s not a Republican ploy to undermine HIllary Clinton. Also, the IG himself had to undergo special clearance before he could even review this SAP (“Special Access Program”) materials. That’s how sensitive SAP materials are.
Seems like we may have lost in the middle east wars, and someone needs to instill blame. Is it because 4 people were killed at the embassy? We gave those 4 a funeral, like every other soldier we lost overthere.. Time to move on, her home computer would have been safe with Bill at home base with his secret service posse.
??? What could Bill and the SS do to stop hacking? Not even the IRS could stop them.
JPC..you have no clue about IT (Information Technology) or the security requirements thereto.
In the first place, Benghazi is not only about four lives. It is about the character and leadership capabilities of individuals who would lie and cover up instead of taking blame and leading. Second, regarding the server, you continue to miss the point. That the server might or might not have been secure in the possession of Bill is a moot issue. What is most salient is that the action to use this server to begin with was undertaken in blatant violation of both U.S. Code and Obama administration guidelines. Damage done or no damage done, the fact remains that laws designed to protect the classified information in question to begin with were broken Ironically, it is Obama’s same DOJ that will deflect any FBI recommendation for indictment.
Her email is, was always safe. It’s now in the hands of FBI – unless the FBI leaks it as was done here.
What we have in Hillary is one who used her position as SecState to peddle influence she could use as leverage to pry out cash for her “foundation” and if national security interests had to be sacrificed in this higher cause, so be it.
The damage she has done may rival that of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg and they were executed for treason. Certainly it is far worse than anything Petreus has done.
“State Sen. Rosalyn Baker has introduced a bill that would create the nation’s very first long-term care social insurance to build a stronger support system for family caregivers. “>>> Just kinda skipped right over how that would all get paid for didn’t ya? Rail needs people like you.
“The City Council should stipulate that every other train would be an express train, which would get people who live on the West Side home quickly.
Isn’t that what the project is all about anyway?”>>> No, it’s not. Or they’d be modifying our CURRENT freeways that most EVERYONE uses and get EIGHTY percent of it funded by the feds. So, again, no. It’s not about that.
“I’ve welcomed pets into my rental properties for years and find that tenants with pets are calmer and happier.”>> And the neighbors to those tenants? Maybe not so much.
“Expanding the conversation to single-family landlords’ pet policies, I find the majority says, “No pets.” This is unfortunate.>> This isn’t something where landlords just woke up one day and decided to be mean. They WANT to rent their places. These polices have come about from LEARNED experiences.
Robert Rodman, your idea makes too much sense. But in the end, rail wasn’t built to relieve traffic or get people to work. That’s why it doesn’t serve the heavily populated areas out west and that’s why it ends at Ala Moana instead of at UH Manoa.
Rail was created to reward the folks who promoted land development and construction. Relieving traffic was the façade used to get people to back up the project.
Thank you for saving me the typing. Well said.
Ditto
And it is only a two track design. No additional track for an “express” train. Come to think of it, is there any bypass routing should there (when there will) be a stalled train? Yeah, I didn’t think so.
I’m glad someone else recognized the big flaw in the express train argument. With one lane in each direction trains are going to proceed at the speed of the slowest one, which is very slow when you have to stop 22 times over a mere 20 miles. Everyone needs to just sit back and enjoy the $10 Billion dollar fraud and the politicians that support it. Sitting back and doing nothing, while they’re being screu’d, seems to be status quo for the people of Hawaii. But yes we aren’t the mainland – we’re more like other third world countries run by thugs and crooks that the populace is afraid of.
Thank you. The two independent track failure in the design is obvious to anyone who has any experience as a commuter of urban rail, let alone to anyone who designs these systems. Look at the guideways, they aren’t even connected.
C’mon HART, Ukuleleblue, tell us how you are going to deal with stalled trains? Tell us how the passengers are going to be inside the train that loses power and the aircon quits? Tell us how you are going to evacuate passengers off the train and off the guideways in the event of a fire or otherwise immovable train? Don’t think it can happen here? Then you are a fool.
Rail will work here the same with all the pluses and minuses as on other cities. The bottom line is that the benefits of rail outweigh the costs and the negatives. Rail is proven and will improve our quality of life here.
No, the benefits of rail do not outweigh the cots and the negatives.
I don’t think any commuter rail system anywhere has a “bypass routing”. The rail systems and subways I’ve ridden on did not seem to have them. I don’t know what they do if a train stops.
Then you haven’t been on the ones I have been on in NY, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Singapore and other places.
IRT “Mall’s CenterStage has lost its charm” Ads ad nauseum have been added to sight and hearing to the point where I have almost perfected my ability to shut my receptors down. How much is too much? We passed that point a long time ago. And get ready we are about to be sold some politicians this year.
Caldwell’s road miles average out to a little over a mile a working day per year. how many “projects” did he have going on? a mile a day does not seem like very much in that perspective.
To Mr. Holt,
The City has 3,517 lane miles that it cares for, and in the past three years Mayor Caldwell has repaved nearly 1,000 lane miles that were in the worst shape. That’s 25 percent of all lanes miles under City jurisdiction, and more than any other administration. The City will complete another 300 lane miles in 2016.
It’s easy to disparage, but facts are a stubborn thing.
AP
IRT Allan Richard, it is a lot more than State Department policy that required Hillary to conduct her business on a secure government system. It is required by Title 18, U.S. Code, Section 1924 – Unauthorized removal and retention of classified documents or material. Subsection (a) reads as follows:
(a) Whoever, being an officer, employee, contractor, or consultant of the United States, and, by virtue of his office, employment, position, or contract, becomes possessed of documents or materials containing classified information of the United States, knowingly removes such documents or materials without authority and with the intent to retain such documents or materials at an unauthorized location shall be fined under this title or imprisoned for not more than one year, or both.
IRT 256 lane miles: the reL travesty of this is the shoddy way in which these projects are designed and constructed. At this rate, we will have to keep doing this every 16 years (admittedly, in a simplified analysis). The problem is that Caldwell and his engineers could not tell you what the design life of these projects are– they simply don’t know beacause they do not maintain and manage data on how projects perform. Many of these projects won’t last 5 years before they require significant maintenance and repAir beacause of poor dezign and construction. Those are our hard earned tax money, folks–so Kirk gets to brag about lane-miles repaved by his administration. Very sad and very maddening.
The City has been utilizing a pavement condition index system, or PCI, since 2012, which rates roads on a score of zero to 100. This is done by photographing all 3,517 lane miles of city roads with high-definition cameras mounted to a specially designed vehicle.
The average lifespan of a newly paved road can be as long as 15 years. However, through a program of slurry sealing, the life of those roads can be extended several more years.
It’s simply inaccurate to say the City does not know how long these repaving projects will last.
However, you are correct that Honolulu residents work very hard to provide for City infrastructure.
Aloha,
AP
Good try, but I stand by my comment. Your HD digital system is no substitute for professional human judgement and you do ot maintain or manage data. You really do not know when you repaved a road, what the deficiencies were that caused the failure and how you should prevent recurrence of the sMe failure, which in most cases are premature. Go llok at the intersection of Mokapu Blvd and K-bay Drive, completed just a few years ago, and see the separation in the pavement. You guys do the easiest/cleanest projects, Have little or no quality control in design or construction and have no accountability. When was the last time you re-examined the mix design or type of binder you use as being the best for our conditions. It’s like you build concrete pads for bus stops, regardless of the actual need, because some manual calls for them. You never question whether it would do more good to put that concrete in the intersections, which are almost always in bad shape. Go do some honest soul searching a out how much better you should/could do.
Long-term care — what is you don’t have family caregivers. It seems every effort is going to support family caregivers.
Rough/pothole roads make us drive slowly/slower thereby saving lives……..isn’t that the point Government is making?
Sec. 601.(a) Whoever, having or having had authorized access to classified information that identifies a covert agent, intentionally discloses any information identifying such covert agent to any individual not authorized to receive classified information, knowing that the information disclosed so identifies such covert agent and that the United States is taking affirmative measures to conceal such covert agent’s intelligence relationship to the United States, shall be fined not more than $50,000 or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both.
Excellent Editorial Letter. Alan Richards_
I especially like the:”Clintons'” Blatant disregard of her department policy which has jeopardized the security of our country makes her unfit to be President of the United States”.Nailed that one bro!This a well known distinction and most of us in Rio Linda get THIS!
What intrigues me most ,is how much support /”Fans” she still garners! Who btw,most of them are “Millennials”! Are they That Blind!Maybe Uninformed?
For me ,knowing what happened during president Clinton Administration. I’m like, are you kidding me? Havn’t they heard of Monica Lewinski!
Oh! I forgot! Millennials weren’t even around then! ….Shucks
The state needs to fund pre-school education for poor kids.
No, no they don’t and I’ll tell ya why. These same “poor” kids were “given” access to PBS with tv programs like Sesame Street to help “poor” kids learn. Parents don’t care enough to have them do what’s available. What you’re talking about is just more free day care.