Bike lanes on McCully are a great idea

I applaud the city for its move to remove parking from the bridge at McCully Street and Kapiolani Boulevard, and establish spacious bike lanes! This is definitely a move in the right direction.

Improvements like this make it easier for me to change my commuting vehicle from a car to a bicycle. I hope others are similarly inspired. Thanks!

Julia Sable
Honolulu

Residents go 'round as money goes down

Blaine Fergerstrom's recounting of his community's experience trying to get the City and County of Honolulu to install a three-way stop sounded very familiar to me (Letters, Star-Bulletin, June 4).

Our community also went to the city with a request for a three-way stop. We also were refused, but were later given the choice of a roundabout, at the cost of hundreds of thousands of dollars, or not getting anything. Even our association's offer to install the stop signs at our cost, to the city and county specs, on a trial basis was turned down.

Interestingly, I read Fergerstrom's letter just minutes after reading of the no-contest pleas by two executives of the R.M Towill company to charges of illegal campaign contributions. Guess what company was hired by the city to draw up the plans for the roundabout?

Nobu Nakamoto
Aiea

Senators understand value of stem cells

In behalf of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, Hawaii chapter, I would like to thank Sen. Daniel K. Inouye and Sen. Daniel K. Akaka for joining 57 of their colleagues in urging President Bush to expand the federal stem cell policy.

Embryonic stem cells are special cells that can develop into every type of cell in the human body, and may prove useful in developing cures for a wide range of diseases. The stem cells are created from frozen embryos in fertility clinics, donated by couples that no longer want or need the embryos because they have finished with their fertility treatments. If not donated for research, the frozen embryos would be discarded.

In August of 2001, the Bush administration announced that federal funding would be available for limited embryonic stem cell research on just a few stem cell lines that were developed before that date. Researchers are now saying that this policy is insufficient to advance this research to find possible cures and that Bush should expand it to allow access to additional stem cell lines.

A recent national poll showed that two-thirds of voters support an expansion of this policy. The support of Inouye and Akaka for this position means the world to the more than 100 million Americans who suffer from diseases that might one day be helped by expanded embryonic stem cell research.

Manya N. Levin
Executive director
Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation International
Hawaii chapter

Bushies don't deserve another four years

The Sept. 11 commission's report is out and it unequivocally states there was no connection between Iraq, Saddam Hussein, al-Qaida and 9/11.

Clear enough? Not exactly.

President Bush says he disagrees with the commission's finding and states there was a connection to justify his war. All the conservative talk show hosts read between the lines to justify Bush & Co's. Iraq war.

It reminds me of the Warren Commission's report of the Kennedy assassination: There was a lone gunman, Lee Harvey Oswald, whose bullet did 90-degree and 180-degree turns in the president's body.

Bush himself was reading "My Pet Goat" to kindergarten students for a full seven minutes AFTER he was told of the first tower being struck. Oh, yeah, let's give this team another four years!

Paul D'Argent
Kihei, Maui

Energy bill feels good but lacks validity

Gov. Lingle recently signed a bill (SB 2474) that requires renewable sources of energy be used by Hawaii electric utilities to generate 20 percent of their electricity by the year 2020. Renewable energy sources are such non-fossil fuel sources as wind, solar, biomass and geothermal.

The worthy objective of this bill is to reduce the state's dependence on expensive imported oil and thereby keep our cost of living under better control. Unfortunately, this is one of those feel-good laws like the gas cap bill that have no sound economic basis.

Electric utility use of renewable energy sources in Hawaii is now about 7-8 percent. This level is possibly because these sources can generate electricity at or below the utility's costs which are based on oil. Under current economic conditions a higher level is not possible without driving up the cost of electricity to consumers. This then would be the cost of "feeling good."

The preamble to this bill contains the wildly inaccurate statement that dependence on oil imports "allows electric utility companies to enjoy a financial windfall when they sell electricity to Hawaii consumers" which in turn leads to continued importation and dependence on oil. This, of course, is nonsense since the utilities recover the cost of fuel, but no more, in the electric rates set by the state Public Utilities Commission.

With this kind of flawed economic underpinning, it should be no surprise that the subject bill is equally flawed.

Dick O'Connell
Honolulu

Postal customers made record donations

The National Association of Letter Carriers, in conjunction with the United States Postal Service, would like to extend a sincere mahalo to our Hawaii postal patrons for their support of our Food Drive held on May 8. This food drive has come to be recognized as the largest single-day food drive in the nation, with more 240,000 carriers in more than 10,000 cities and towns participating.

Plenty of aloha was shared with us and a state record was set in the amount of 336,704 pounds of nonperishable goods collected while we delivered the mail on that Saturday. A national record of 70.9 million pounds collected was recently released in coordination with National Hunger Awareness Day.

A major effort to fill the islands' food banks was made by so many labor unions, postal unions and community volunteers. This food will provide Hawaii's needy with some core nutrition throughout the summer and fall months. Again, thank you to all the local folks who participated by putting food out by their mailboxes to help those in need. Our "Stamp Out Hunger" drive could not be so successful without your support.

Rudy R. Salazar Bruce McDowell Wade Teraoka
Hawaii state co-chairmen
NALC Food Drive 2004