Online readers are able to respond immediately to Star-Bulletin stories through our Web forum, which can be accessed at the end of stories, editorials and columns at starbulletin.com. Below is a selection of forum comments that appeared last week. Most forum contributors use pseudonyms; their “;names”; have been omitted here.

  ”;Shinseki vows he will restore VA benefits to thousands,”; Star-Bulletin, Jan. 7: Awesome! Choosing Eric Shinseki to be our next secretary of Veterans Affairs has been the only thing, so far, I have agreed with Barack Obama on. Shinseki is a wounded war veteran and knows what our brothers and sisters in uniform go through with the VA bureaucracy. How shameful that the Bush administration shut down many benefits to our armed forces' warriors.

  President Bush was quick to send low-income men and women to die for nothing in Iraq, but slow to give them benefits. The Bush administration's treatment of GIs and their families is a real nightmare and scandal.

  ”;No progress seen for 40% of ESL students,”; Star-Bulletin, Jan. 7: The way I read it, that means that (40 percent) didn't learn a thing. That can only mean that the teachers are ineffective, the students don't care or both. Why are we wasting our tax dollars on this program? Why do we have licensing, voting, etc., in so many different languages? Isn't a proficiency in English a requirement for citizenship? As I recall, there was a time before ESL when after six months in a regular classroom foreign students spoke English like all the others.

  Absolutely horrible! There is no excuse for that whatsoever, no matter how the Department of Education and the Board of Education gloss over it. I give them an F!

  Learning needs to continue at home, not just while at school. Micronesian culture does not share this trait. (That isn't meant as racist, ask any social worker.) Parents do not enforce discipline and do not realize the value of a good education. Until that changes, you will never see a significant change in these rates.

  ”;Rockfall leaves neighbors wary of project,”; Star-Bulletin, Jan. 8: This development should not have been allowed to proceed. The entitlements for the property were decades old, given before all of the recent, tragic experiences with rock falls and slides in the area. Existing houses are one thing but adding a whole new subdivision on a steep slope above them is just crazy. I hope the taxpayers of Honolulu have deep pockets; more lawsuits are coming.

  This is just another case of greed trumping the community's desires and safety concerns. Cash hungry local government will allow just about anything as long as there are fees to be paid.

  It was insensitive for the workers to make offhanded comments like “;accidents happen”; and “;people die every day.”;

If they were given a drug test there would probably be evidence of past drug use, part of the “;ainokea attitude.”;

Someone could have been killed or pinned under a rock and they would not have been found until someone got home.

  ”;Akaka Bill's critics say it would be costly to state,”; Star-Bulletin, Jan. 9: Of course, giving land to an OHA-successor government will cause loss of land and revenue. I know they think we can be manipulated by sympathy for long-ago native Hawaiians, but I believe there is a silent majority who do not want this. It should come to a vote of the people, not the Senate. The Apology Bill did not go so far as they claim.

  (The recognition act) is undoing the big wrong to the Hawaiians in the past and making it right today! Let the Akaka Bill prevail!

  ”;A bike-safe Hawaii will keep kids' bodies and brains fit,”; Star-Bulletin, Jan. 7: Exercise has many well documented benefits to the body: lowered cholesterol, lower blood pressure, reduced risk of many diseases including diabetes, heart disease, and even cancer.

There are far too many sedentary children in today's society, and society will be paying huge medical costs in the future because of it.

  I watched a person this morning bump into the car ahead of her at a stop light because she was texting on her phone and playing with the radio. I'm not riding a bike until there is some way that cell phones, electric razors, makeup kits, video screens etc., are inactivated in all moving vehicles.

  When I was a kid we rode everywhere on buses and bikes. Nowadays a parent would be considered almost neglectful to let their child ride a bike or bus alone. They chauffeur kids to school, and buy them cars when they're in their teens. Sad. Other countries have wide bike and walk lanes separate from the street, and cars respect these lanes.

No safe bikeways for locals or tourists on Oahu. Overweight children and adults who don't get enough exercise. One of the most beautiful and welcoming environments in the world, and a small land area, but people have to drive everywhere. Crazy.

Can't we get ANYTHING right?