Letters: Foregoing student loans makes sense; COFA citizens suffer the effects of nuclear testing; How much water does Waikiki consume?

The “accumulation of charges” puts pressure on the defendant

Regarding “Bail Reform Bill Ignores Public Safety, Emboldens Criminals” (Star-Advertiser, Island Voices, June 6): We are all entitled to our opinions and have valid fears about bail reform. cash deposit.

I will share my thoughts on this issue. Often, when an individual is arrested, in an effort to bolster the prosecutor’s case, the prosecution will begin “charge stacking”, charging an accused with as many relevant charges at a time. This practice is done to secure a conviction through a plea bargain, in which the defendant pleads guilty to at least one of the charges.

After serving a long and unjust prison term because a person cannot afford to post bail, that person becomes desperate and perhaps plagued with fear of serving a long prison term for the unfair stacked charges. and accepts the plea bargain.

It has become standard practice in our legal system. The fact that only 2% of criminal cases go to trial is very alarming.

Alice Kahaleua

Hello

COFA citizens suffer the effects of nuclear testing

“City Council Votes to Offer Federal Funeral Assistance to COFA Citizens” (Star-Advertiser, June 6), is a headline I appreciate. He unearths the holocaust that befell the citizens of the Compact of Free Association, which includes the Marshall Islands.

There, on the atolls of Bikini and Enewetak, the United States from 1946 to 1958 detonated 66 nuclear weapons producing a destructive force of at least 108,491 kilotons. This tonnage is equivalent to 7,232 Hiroshima-sized bombs over 12 years, or 1.06 bombs per day.

The bombs sprinkled the islanders with radioactive debris containing plutonium, described as “diabolically toxic, even in small amounts”. It has a half-life of 24,000 years – or a radioactive existence of 500,000 years, making it dangerous to humans for near eternity and to the aquatic food chain.

These nuclear weapons tests propelled the United States to superpower status, but left the ancestral lands of some Bikinians and Enewetakese uninhabitable for millennia.

Beverly Keever

Waialae Nui

How much water does Waikiki consume?

Couldn’t Waikiki’s tourism industry (hotels, vendors, restaurants) as a whole be considered the biggest consumer of water on Oahu? Certainly, with the post-pandemic reopening of hotels, restaurants, luaus and the like, as well as the influx of tourists, how could there not be an increase in water consumption? How will water conservation work in this area?

Last week I had lunch with a visiting friend at a restaurant in Waikiki. After being seated, we were immediately poured large glasses of water which were refilled throughout the meal, even though we didn’t ask for it.

Andrea W. Bell

Kailua

It makes sense to forgo student loans

The massive cancellation of student loans at the federal level makes sense in 2022, as state governments across the country have cut investment in higher education for decades, while American society increasingly demands a workforce. work better educated to fill the jobs of the 21st century.

The letter, “Biden Should Reject Student Loan Forgiveness” (Star-Advertiser, June 9), turns the situation almost entirely upside down, promoting irresponsible, reckless, and blatantly false ideas on the subject.

For starters, loan forgiveness does not “penalize” people who have already paid off student loans. Nothing happens to them at all. There is nothing “irresponsible” in borrowing money for education when future life prospects greatly depend on getting that education.

The bogeyman of “high-income” families benefiting “only” or even disproportionately from it is a fantasy, but could also be addressed explicitly and in spirit by limiting the cancellation of loans to public institutions for people belonging to families at specific income levels.

Brett Oppegaard

Manoa

Fish aggregators contribute to ocean pollution

I am appalled that on the “celebration” of World Oceans Day, Governor David Ige signed Senate Bill 2767 into law, which provides $350,000 in funding to the Department of Oceans. State of Lands and Natural Resources for more fishing aggregating devices (FADs) to be deployed in the ocean.

The event was billed as being about “protecting the oceans”. Funding more FADs is the opposite of protecting the oceans. Hawaiian Beaches Environmental Awareness Campaign (BEACH). opposes the introduction of FADs into the ocean because they become marine debris when they disappear. The DLNR said that “around 15 personal data disappear each year”.

The composition of FADs is unclear, but various websites show that they can be made of a metal buoy, concrete blocks, metal chains, and nylon (plastic) rope. Although the metal parts may sink, the rope will break into hundreds of thousands of impossible-to-clean microplastic pieces and harm animals that ingest it.

We need to clean up the ocean and prevent marine debris, without adding to the problem with taxpayers’ money.

Suzanne Fraser

President, BEACH

Hawaii Kai

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