I noticed there are three flag poles in front of the Hawai'i Convention Center and three in front of the Hard Rock Cafe, across the street. At the Hard Rock, the American flag occupies the middle pole, between the Hawaii and restaurant flags. At the convention center, the Hawaii flag is in the middle, between the American and convention center flags. Why the difference? Flying U.S flag properly
is a key to ‘Americanism’According to the Americanism Manual, which is distributed by the American Legion's National Americanism Commission, "When a number of flags of states or cities or pennants of societies are grouped and displayed from staffs with the flag of the United States of America, the latter should be at the center and at the highest point of the group."
That is the case at the Hard Rock property. Regarding the convention center, we were referred by its officials to Francis Lum, state protocol officer, who had advised them on flag-flying procedure.
"The problem is that the poles that they built were of equal height," Lum said, adding, "There's nothing wrong with having the poles on the same level."
But when that's the situation, "The U.S. flag has to be at the place of honor, to the extreme right," as you look out, Lum said.
He said he based his interpretation on publications from the American Legion, military veteran's organizations, etc.
He also said this flag placement can be found at many other facilities, including Aloha Stadium.
A batch of my checks were stolen and someone wrote checks off my account. Fortunately, a couple of sharp bank operations managers spotted it and put a hold on those funds. I closed the account and my bank notified Uni-Check and Telecheck. I also reported the theft to HPD. Is there anything else I should do? Am I liable to any merchants who received a stolen check? Will my credit be adversely affected? Since you didn't name your bank, we asked Lisa Halvorson, spokeswoman for First Hawaiian Bank, for a general comment.
The good news is that you did all the right things, the most important of which was to report the theft immediately to all pertinent authorities, Halvorson said.
Because of that, you should not be held liable for the fraudulent checks cashed, she said.
To protect your credit history, call the major credit bureaus and ask for fraud-victim forms to fill out. The forms will be placed in your files and will flag out the problem with your stolen checks.
Call Credit Bureau of the Pacific, 537-9401; Experian (formerly TRW), 1-800-422-4879; Equifax, 1-800-685-1111; and Trans Union, 1-800-916-8800.
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To the Circuit Court. I was summoned to jury duty and was instructed to call the night before to find out what to do. I did, but the recording did not mention my group. I called at 8 a.m. the next day and was told to report by 9:45 a.m. I live in Waianae. I drove all the way to town, only to find a note on a door saying that my group's case was postponed until the next day! I called the supervisor and was told that the clerk "forgot" to mention my group. I am a substitute teacher who did not get paid that day because I did not go to work. They should not be that careless. -- F.M.
(Nathaniel Kim, chief administrator for the Circuit Court, apologized. If you write to him -- First Circuit Court/777 Punchbowl St./Honolulu 96813 -- he will track down what happened and "try to ensure it doesn't happen again."("Why a group letter was left out, I can only say it was probably oversight, because they do the recordings in the afternoon," he said. By morning, it generally is known what trials are set to go.
(If jurors are told to report but their case is unexpectedly settled, "we try to assign them to another case for that day," Kim said.)
