LEASH LAW

WHY DO PEOPLE LET THEIR DOGS ROAM FREE?

I have been walking a dog as a side business for several months.

In that time, we have been attacked by three dogs. The last was a large German shepherd. It was quite scary.

Why do people let their dogs roam loose?

Before this last attack, I was already having to avoid several streets in the neighborhood as potential problem areas.

This last attack was not on one of the avoided streets, it was on my street, one I thought to be safe.

By the time the police or the Hawaiian Humane Society gets here, the loose dogs would be restrained already. Please, people, keep your dogs on a leash.

SMOKE-FREE PARKS

HAWAI'I COUNTY LEADS WAY IN CLEARING AIR

All Hawai'i County parks, beaches and recreational facilities will be smoke-free and toxic litter will be significantly reduced, thanks to the passage of Bill 224 in its original form.

This is wonderful news for the 10 percent of those in our state who have respiratory conditions who cannot go to public facilities, beaches and parks without worry that we will be forced to endure polluted air from tobacco products.

This new law is especially great news for those of us with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, which includes emphysema and chronic bronchitis. Flare-ups can easily be triggered by exposure to tobacco smoke and require hospitalization.

Thanks, Hawai'i County, for leading our state in making our parks, recreational facilities and beaches accessible to all of us with this great new law.

WAI'ANAE

LANDFILL A MONSTROSITY THAT MUST BE CLOSED

For more than 30 years, my wife and I have been paying taxes on our beautiful, albeit humble, home in the lovely Makaha Valley. We love Hawai'i!

For 30 years we have been passing the Waimanalo dump on our way to lovely Kawaiaha'o Church on Sundays.

For 30 years, we have been passing the dump on our way to beautiful Waikiki.

For the past 10 years, we have visiting the pristine beach at Ko Olina. But first we have to pass the dump.

Our much-respected senator, Colleen Hanabusa, has worked tirelessly to close this monstrosity, and for her trouble she has been insulted.

Our mayor has pontificated as follows concerning Hanabusa: "I think Sen. Hanabusa is out of her mind."

He now intends to educate the Land Use Commission on the subject. Extending the life of the dump beyond November 2009? Who is out of their mind?

EGG THROWING

COMMUNITY IN LANIKAI IS OWED AN APOLOGY

As a Lanikai resident I am compelled to respond to the March 14 article, "School disciplines students in alleged egg incident."

My family endured egg-soaked vehicles, sometimes twice a week, for almost two years.

I have to seriously question the judgment of Saint Louis School President Walter Kirimitsu, who said these "are good kids who hopefully learned a life-altering lesson."

Saint Louis must take this seriously and set an example. It can start by offering these boys and their parents a chance to publicly apologize to the Lanikai community.

SAND ISLAND OUTFALL

CITY CANNOT SHOW MARINE LIFE NOT HARMED

In his March 11 Island Voices column, Roy K. Abe stated that the sewage treatment waiver is "backed by science." Mr. Abe is not a scientist, he is an engineer working for the sewage treatment industry.

Mr. Abe states that things have been worse. He points to people gathering seaweed tainted by sewage outfall, sludge deposits, and a "thick gray surface plume." It is correct to point out that things have improved since the 1970s. That is not by coincidence. The 1970s began an era in which the federal government initiated an environmental ethic. The EPA was established, the Clean Water Act and other major protective acts were approved.

The waivers were created in narrow instances where a locality could demonstrate justification in not implementing requirements of law.

The issue at hand is that the Sand Island facility either has not or cannot demonstrate that its outfall does not harm marine life. The issue is not that the outfall is far enough out to sea that the dark-gray plume only occasionally drifts back to shore.

TOURIST DESTINATION

WAIMEA VALLEY HAS BECOME DEGRADED

Recently, my wife and I took a day off and played tourist.

Despite living in Hawai'i for more than a decade, we hadn't visited Waimea Valley before. So that's where we went.

For Japanese tourists in particular, Waimea Valley is an embarrassment when considered in the context of the beautiful and well-maintained parks and gardens throughout that country.

Waimea Valley is a remarkable setting whose natural beauty has been seriously degraded by both poorly conceived and shoddily executed efforts to "improve" it.

Nothing about the park looks exemplary (other than the waterfall itself), and only a very few sites even achieve an acceptable condition. If a garden could be called slum-like, Waimea Valley is it.

We hope that OHA's non-profit subsidiary Hi'ipaka LLC, recently made responsible for running Waimea Valley, is up to the task.

In five years or so we'll go back and see.

DOE BUDGET

DEPARTMENT CORRECTS KA'U REGISTRAR'S MATH

Ka'u High registrar Steve Stephenson's March 17 letter alleged that the math in Department of Education Assistant Superintendent James Brese's March 10 letter was incorrect.

Mr. Stephenson seems to have missed the words "excluding debt service." The DOE budget is $2.347 billion. Debt service is $226.6 million. Subtract $226.6 million from $2.347 billion and the result is $2.12 billion. The bulk of the budget, or $1.5 billion, is spent by schools and that divided by $2.12 billion is equal to 72 percent, not 62.5 percent as Mr. Stephenson miscalculated.

HEALTHCARE

TORT REFORM WOULD ENCOURAGE DOCS TO STAY

Rep. Tommy Waters, well-known doctor (of jurisprudence, not of medicine), jokingly asked if House members could observe a moment of silence "for the death of tort reform." Dr. Waters had just suffocated it to death in his Judiciary Committee.

The lawyers in our Legislature are afraid of losing money. The changes that the Hawaii Medical Association and educated legislators like Rep. Josh Green propose would not reduce quality medical care nor reduce the compensation patients receive for economic damages caused by malpractice. It would encourage doctors to stay in Hawai'i.

When you feel like you're being stalked and targeted, you leave town. A lawyer who makes a "killing" using over-the-top emotional appeals for "pain and suffering" can practically retire.

I know a young physician who saved a man's life and then was sued for something he had nothing to do with. The case was dismissed, but the doctor was frightened and spent considerable money preparing a defense.

He doesn't want to stay in Hawai'i anymore. Why should he take this abuse? Now he's frightened to see any emergency patients.

Maybe tort reform isn't dead. Maybe it is. But one thing is for sure. The lawyers aren't leaving Hawai'i.

CEDED LAND SETTLEMENT

HOMESTEADERS SHOULD TAKE BATTLE ELSEWHERE

The recent opposition to the $200 million ceded lands settlement came from some Hawaiian homesteader groups.

These 50 percenters (Hawaiians with a 50 percent or more blood quantum) object to the settlement because they believe the revenues that the Office of Hawaiian Affairs receives from the public land trust should be spent exclusively on them.

They want a commitment that 100 percent of the $200 million will be spent on them. They apparently are willing to stop the settlement to make their point.

However, this settlement is not about whether the 50 percenters are exclusively entitled to OHA's public land trust revenues. That issue is being litigated in an ongoing lawsuit, Day v. Apoliona, that I am not involved in. The settlement documents are completely neutral on this issue in the sense they do not change OHA's constitutional obligation to the 50 percenters. Therefore, if the homesteaders win the Day case, OHA may be obligated to spend the settlement proceeds on the 50 percenters.

All nine OHA trustees, the Lingle administration and all but two House members have supported this settlement.

A recent Ward Research poll shows that 68 percent of Hawai'i residents and 72 percent of Hawaiians support legislative approval of the settlement.

Moreover, until the homesteaders voiced their opposition on Monday, there was very little opposition to the settlement and that opposition came primarily from those who generally oppose all Native Hawaiian benefits and those who believe the United States is illegally occupying Hawai'i.

I urge the homesteaders to take their battle elsewhere, and I urge the Senate to reconsider the merits of the settlement.