Much-needed attention is now being focused on influence peddling and corruption in our Legislature. Equally concerning is the influence-peddling that comes through campaign contributions.

State Rep. Ryan Yamane, chairman of the House health committee, has effectively destroyed a bill that was generated by young people and which had received wide support, including that of the state Department of Health. House Bill 1570 would have outlawed flavors in e-cigarettes (“Bills banning flavored vaping products are debated,” Star-Advertiser, March 15).

Although Yamane has received $17,500 dollars in campaign contributions from tobacco and vaping companies, he denied that he is influenced by those.

Yet his amendments would require testing and reporting rules that are unreasonable and largely bureaucratic, making the law impossible to implement. Strengthening campaign finance laws and making the contributions and lobbying efforts transparent are needed. For myself, I will no longer vote for any candidate without knowing exactly where their contributions are from.

Barbara Mathews

Kailua

Manoa residents not told of housing project

I recently saw the news regarding Manoa Banyan Court and the comments made about the project by Charles Wong, president of the Lin Yee Chung Association.

He used all the catch words and phrases, such as “kupuna,” “elderly,” “affordable” and “homeless” that would elicit a sympathetic reaction from the viewers. However, judging by the size and scope of the project, this development is clearly a money-making venture, not to mention that it would take away precious preservation land.

I along with many other Manoa residents were blindsided by this project and did not receive any outreach from the association prior to the association submitting the draft environmental assessment in 2021.

A project of this scope should be transparent to the community that it is directly affecting.

Christine Kaneshiro

Manoa

Putin’s quest for power has resulted in war

Vladimir Putin came to power in Russia in 1999 by waging ruthless war in rebel Chechnya, a crisis that had helped to bring down Boris Yeltsin. Today, Putin’s brutal invasion of Ukraine is militarily sloppy, using many bewildered, inexperienced recruits and randomly bombing civilian neighbor- hoods and firing tanks at apartment buildings, while his troops loot whatever they can, even from humanitarian aid givers.

As in Chechnya, it is a war of terror, supposedly against “Nazism” in Kyiv and the 73-year-old threat of NATO. Even his demand that Ukraine accept the “independence” of his puppet “republics” in eastern Ukraine, the products of aggression in 2014 by Russian “volunteers,” ignores the democratic wishes of the local inhabitants.

Putin’s quest for absolute power has stripped his government of anyone who is not a yes man, which leaves him facing what he really hates most. He can see it every day in his bathroom mirror.

David Chappell

Kaneohe

Don’t listen to Putin; establish no-fly zone

My initial reaction was that a no-fly zone over Ukraine would expand the war and draw the U.S. and European Union into conflict with Russia’s military and perhaps start World War III. We can never allow this to happen.

How do I know this? Russian President Vladimir Putin said so a thousand times.

Enough with Putin controlling the narrative. Putin is your everyday street bully. He’s hoping we get intimidated by his words as he brutally kills innocent civilians.

Let the world stand up to this tyrant and implement a no-fly zone over Ukraine. While we’re doing this with our left hand, our right hand should be supplying Ukraine with all their requested lethal weaponry.

If we don’t, Putin cheers and we become complicit with our inactions. Appeasement as a policy never works. Let’s support the people of Ukraine and be on the right side of history.

Chuck Cohen

Kalama Valley

Support for Jones Act waiver appreciated

It was great to see the Star-Advertiser endorse U.S. Rep. Ed Case’s request that Hawaii be granted a Jones Act waiver for fuel imports (“U.S. Rep. Ed Case asks for Jones Act waiver for Hawaii,” March 12; “Put a Jones Act waiver to the test,” Our View, March 15).

As you stated, the Jones Act “still may serve a larger purpose in the long term, but for the immediate future, Hawaii could use some room to move,” regarding finding alternatives to the oil Hawaii was importing from Russia.

At the same time, I was disappointed to see you cite a methodologically flawed study that claimed the Jones Act “has no significant impact on the cost of living in Hawaii” — especially since it was debunked in your own pages by the Grassroot Institute of Hawaii shortly after it was published (“Jones Act does add to isles’ high costs, so update it,” Island Voices, Aug. 10, 2020).

The main thing, however, is bravo for supporting a Hawaii Jones Act waiver for fuel imports. I hope it moves Hawaii’s other three congressional delegates to support it as well.

Joshua Mason

Director of marketing, Grassroot Institute of Hawaii

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