Yes, the 2 percent amount for the Land Fund will remain intact, but a seemingly innocuous amendment submitted at the last minute by the Kim administration via Charter Commissioner Kevin Hopkins would subtract salaries, wages and benefits for staff from the money available for acquisition. This would deplete the land fund, not strengthen it.

Why not halt sale of alcohol?

The Hawaii County Charter (charter) is the constitution of the county. It is the will of the people to make council terms just two years and to hold council members (CMs) accountable. The current Charter Commission is considering four-year terms for CMs. As a former CM, I continue to testify against four-year terms.

Follow Trump? No thanks

I’ve read in West Hawaii Today about the DUI-related deaths in Hawaii County that have radically increased in the past two years to 28 in 2017 and 31 in 2018. I’m saddened by this increase. Unfortunately, it appears that Aliyah’s Law co-authored by Prosecutor Mitch Roth and myself in 2011 and which became effective in 2012 is no longer being diligently applied. The fatality counts as indicated in the newspaper were:

Wasting without worry

Kirsten Gillibrand confronted a piece of fried chicken in South Carolina over the weekend. She began to eat it with a fork, realized that others around her were using their hands, asked if she should do likewise and ditched the utensils. Reading the reports of this, you got the sense that she would have grabbed that chicken with her pinkie toes if she’d been told to; she would have sucked it through a very large straw if those were the cues. Anything to conform. Anything to please.

Verdict, appeal, baffling

How many dead pedestrians and cyclists does it take to motivate immediate and permanent action by our legislators?

Immigration not apples to apples