House Bill 2746 needs to be amended to clearly define “normal speed of traffic” as the posted speed limit for the left lane on the freeway (“Bill would tweak law on slow left-lane drivers,” Star-Advertiser, Feb. 18).

HB 2746 in its current form would allow drivers to ignore the speed limit and define “the normal speed of traffic” for themselves, thereby allowing drivers to speed in the left lane.

If the Legislature wants drivers to be allowed to go faster in the left lane, it needs to raise the speed limit.

Without clearly stating that the left lane is for drivers traveling at the speed limit, HB 2746 would also encourage “road rage,” because drivers get upset when they tailgate a driver who is following the speed limit.

Greg and Pat Farstrup

Pauoa

TNR efforts have public support

It was disappointing to see members of the scientific community misrepresenting the implications of Senate Bill 2450, the impact of free-roaming cats, and public opinion on the issue (“Ban on feeding feral cats would be good for the cats, residents, Hawaii,” Star-Advertiser, Island Voices, Feb. 21).

It’s not difficult to believe, just as the authors claim, that 85 percent of Hawaii’s residents don’t enjoy seeing feral cats on the landscape and want their numbers reduced.

Indeed, those involved with trap-neuter-return (TNR) efforts would like to work themselves right out of a job. Although Christopher Lepczyk and Daniel Rubinoff suggest otherwise, there’s ample evidence of TNR’s efficacy and its broad public support in Hawaii and nationwide.

Passage of SB 2450 would hamper TNR efforts, resulting in more cats, paving the way for even more killing at taxpayer expense.

Peter J. Wolf

Cat initiatives analyst, Best Friends Animal Society

Kanab, Utah

Guest column on HMSA hilarious

Your recent article, “Is HMSA showing lack of trust?” and the response by Edward Gutteling, M.D., has got to be one of the funniest responses ever published (Island Voices, Feb. 22).

Dr. Gutteling has obviously missed his calling; does he do stand-up comedy anywhere?

In the future, should I require the services of an orthopedic surgeon, I will be sure to look up Dr. Gutteling, not only for his medical expertise, but for his funny acerbic sense of humor.

Stephen Duncan

Waikiki

Time for Obama vacation again?

They are hell-bent on making President Barack Obama a lame-duck president a bit ahead of schedule, with 11 months still remaining in his presidency.

Maybe they don’t want him working while they lollygag and do nothing but block many of his initiatives, as well as appointing a replacement to the Supreme Court as constitutionally required. They won’t let him close Guantanamo Bay, and won’t approve many of his nominees.

So what’s for him to do? He might just as well come back to Hawaii for another vacation. After all, congressional Republicans just returned from their own 10-day vacation, seeking other ways to remain the greatest obstacle to government efficiency.

And all this time I thought we had smart politicians. It has become a contradiction in terms.

Steve Vidinha

Kaneohe

Apple is right on privacy issue

As an Apple user, I am most concerned about the pressure that our government is putting upon Apple to give it a key to get into our phones.

It was revealed that our government has five more phones it wants to unlock. Where will this end? Some information may not be accessible to our government, and maybe it should stay that way.

Remember Edward Snowden?

I for one stand in support of Apple on this very sensitive matter.

Kathryn Kane

Kaimuki

Air conditioners are hardly green

Borrowing money from the Green Energy Market Securitization program to pay for school air conditioners would be analogous to combating global warming by burning more coal (and never mind that they’d be ready by next December, just when it gets nice and cool and we’ll likely be rid of El Niño).

When we want to control electricity consumption and its contribution to global warming, what do we do? We turn off our air conditioners.

The governor should use some of his training as an engineer in making some of his decisions.

Gerrit Osborne

Waialae Iki