Question: I got a notice about a campaign to get a stamp for the 442nd veterans. They mentioned a website, niseistamp.org, where you can sign a petition. Is this a legitimate project? I hope so, but I worry about identity theft and other scams that ask for your name, so I wanted to check it out first.
Answer: This is a legitimate project, intended to honor the 442nd Regimental Combat Team as well as nisei soldiers who served in other segregated U.S. military units during World War II — and the 120,000 Japanese-American civilians who were interned in the United States during the war. With the slogan “Stamp our story. Remember our internment, our veterans, our legacy,” the project aims to highlight the heroism, sacrifice, patriotism and resilience of all those whose loyalty was wrongly questioned because of their race.
The website you cite is one of a couple affiliated sites that steer people to a White House petition that needs 100,000 signatures by Sunday. As of Monday about 9,900 people had signed. You can find the petition directly here: 808ne.ws/1porKQ5.
Signers must provide their first and last names and an email address. ZIP code is optional.
The petition asks the Obama administration to approve “a commemorative postage stamp honoring the Japanese-American World War II soldiers, known as ‘the nisei soldiers.’ … This heroic group suffered great loss fighting for freedom abroad while the U.S. government denied their families freedom at home in the internment camps. When the U.S. went to war with Japan, people doubted them only because their parents came from Japan. Their valor would prove their loyalty and earn them the distinction of one of the most decorated groups in our history. … This small stamp will be large in its reach as an iconic image to help define what it means to be an American.”
All the affiliated websites detail the valiant service of nisei soldiers in the 442nd, the 100th Infantry Battalion, the Military Intelligence Service and other units throughout the war. You can read more at the website you mentioned or at theydeserveastamp.org.
Q: Some years ago a woman was murdered at her apartment on Punahou Street. A man allegedly tried to use her stolen ATM card and was arrested. … I was out of town at the time, and now I am interested to know the outcome of that case.
A: Vernon J. Baker was indicted in the death of Mary Beth San Juan, whose body was found rolled up in a carpet in the driveway of her home at 1224 Punahou St. on July 23, 2013, according to news reports at the time.
Baker is being held at the Oahu Community Correctional Center while he awaits trial, according to the state Judiciary’s public-access information system and the inmate locator accessed through the state Department of Public Safety’s website.
His trial date is set for the week of Sept. 26, after his lawyer sought a continuance late last year.
Baker is charged with second-degree murder and three drug-related counts.
Q: So the state finally bans cesspool construction, but what about the thousands that are already out there? Are they grandfathered in?
A: Yes, the new Department of Health rules Gov. David Ige signed Friday ban the construction of new small-capacity cesspools but do not require the dismantling of existing ones (larger so-called “gang cesspools” were banned years ago).
The rules do provide a financial incentive for property owners to switch to cleaner wastewater systems, though. Those with cesspools within 200 feet of a shoreline, stream or wetland, or near sources of drinking water, can qualify for $10,000 in tax credits if they switch to a septic system or connect to a county sewage system.
The Health Department describes cesspools as “little more than holes in the ground that discharge raw, untreated human waste” and can contaminate groundwater, drinking water sources, streams and the ocean. There are about 90,000 in Hawaii, including about 50,000 on the Big Island and 11,000 on Oahu, according to the department. They release about 55 million gallons of untreated sewage into the ground each day.
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