Question: Is there a limit on the number of cats you can keep in a regular suburban household?
Answer: Not by city or state law, but there might be limits imposed by a community association, if you live in a building or neighborhood that has one.
The Honolulu city ordinance (ROH Sec. 7-2.5) that sets the number of dogs, chickens, peafowl and honeybee hives allowed per household is silent on the subject of cats.
Kokua Line checked with the Hawaiian Humane Society to see whether this question is addressed elsewhere in a city ordinance or state statute, and learned that there are rules for keeping cats but no cap on the number.
“There is no limit to the number of cats a person is allowed to have in a household,” said Allison Gammel, a spokeswoman for the animal welfare organization. “Cats must be kept in humane conditions, with adequate access to food, water and medical care. If cats are kept outdoors, by law they must have an identification tag or microchip and be sterilized.”
Question: When will we receive our absentee ballots for the November elections? I live on Oahu.
Answer: The ballots were mailed out Tuesday, said Nedielyn Bueno, a spokeswoman for the state Office of Elections. If you still have not received yours, call the county clerk’s office at 768-3800.
Q: Is there a limit on Social Security benefits?
A: Yes. The maximum Social Security benefit for a worker retiring at full retirement age is $2,639 a month, which will rise to $2,687 a month next year, according to the Social Security Administration.
Tax scam update
Tax-scam complaints in Hawaii and the rest of the United States have plummeted since police in India raided call centers near Mumbai early this month, according to the Better Business Bureau, which tracks the problem in the U.S. and Canada.
Before the raids, the BBB Scam Tracker received about 61 reports a month in Hawaii about the Internal Revenue Service impersonation scam.
Over the past few weeks, that number has dropped to zero, said Alex Fenn, a spokeswoman for the BBB in Hawaii.
Throughout North America the number of tax-scam complaints has dropped from 200 complaints a week before the raids to just 11 in the past week, according to a news release from the Council of Better Business Bureaus, which manages the BBB Scam Tracker with support from local BBBs.
By aggregating data online in a way that is open to the public, the BBB’s Scam Tracker allows users to alert others and potentially reduce the number of future victims.
Plus, BBB staff members can spot trends and share the information with a broader audience — as it did regularly in the case of the IRS impersonation scam.
To report a potential scam or to check out fraud reports percolating throughout the state, go to bbb.org/scamtracker/hawaii.
The once-pervasive IRS impersonation scam had call-center con artists posing as IRS agents, according to Indian authorities. The scammers called and texted Americans with bogus claims that they owed back taxes. The victims were threatened with financial penalties, lawsuits and arrest if they did not pay up.
A midnight raid Oct. 6 at a call center on the outskirts of Mumbai netted 70 immediate arrests among 770 call-center employees who were initially detained, according to news reports at the time.
Other sites also have been raided, and Indian police continue their investigations.
Mahalo
Please extend my thanks to the kind haole gentleman who parked his white panel truck three houses away to run over to help me, a senior citizen who was trying to clean my green trash can. Many cars passed by, and he was the only one who came running to help me as I was struggling with my car. Arigato from this Japanese obasan. — A reader
Write to Kokua Line at Honolulu Star-Advertiser, 7 Waterfront Plaza, Suite 210, 500 Ala Moana Blvd., Honolulu 96813; call 529-4773; fax 529-4750; or email kokualine@staradvertiser.com.
