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.

  ”;Mayor seeks new water standard,”; Star-Bulletin, Jan. 19: Quit messing around and build the secondary treatment plant already. What the mayor wants is for the state to say you can dump anything you want in the ocean as long as it doesn't cost me any money to fix. Seems he can find the billions for a worthless choo choo but can't figure out how to fund the sewage plant.Your priorities are mixed up, Mr. Mayor. Another delay is just going to cost even more, for the appeal and then to build the plants once you lose that.

  Mufi Hannemann knows that sewer rates won't have to be increased to fund these upgrades. The EPA has already said they are willing to work out a timetable that takes into consideration the financial constraints facing the city. Mufi is raising the threat of sewage rate increases in order to garner public support for his appeal. It's a tried and true tactic. Scare the public into siding with you.

  Please read the reports from all the experts. The secondary treatment does more environmental harm than good. And you folks all know that the rail funds cannot be raided for sewer upgrades. So stop trying to tie the two together, please, and deal in reality.

  ”;Legislature battles to avert $1.8B deficit,”; Star-Bulletin, Jan. 22: The state we are in is a consequence of the Legislature's and governor's inability to diversify the economy. We remain solely dependent on tourism and military.

  Man, for a bunch of people looking hard to save money they sure didn't hold back with the party! Whatever happened to those $4,000 koa benches? Why don't we pawn them? Better yet, why don't we pawn our legislators?

  Sen. Colleen Hanabusa is proposing to raid the transit tax money and our state unemployment insurance fund to balance the bloated state budget. This is the kind of reckless and irresponsible behavior we have come to expect from these people, yet, they are re-elected to public office, over and over and over again.

  ”;Legislators consider budget options,”; Star-Bulletin, Jan. 22: State House Rep. Marcus Oshiro stated, “;salary cuts or furloughs, though unfavorable, would be better than laying off employees.”; Will our state senators and representatives lead by example and take a pay cut as well?

  I'm sure we all know where this is going. In the end our legislators will increase all form of taxes and fees. They will rob Peter to pay Paul by raiding those special funds. They might well take away Mufi's rail money, although as reported, they will extend the tax for an additional year. You know what that means? Yes, you will again be paying.

  ”;Dog owner faces charges in alleged attack on detective,”; Star-Bulletin, Jan. 22: He should be charged with attempted murder. Quit letting these jerks off the hook.

  Looking at today's headlines alone ... woman who killed two in negligent homicide gets no jail time, child abuser case where the prosecutor's office and judge are bumping heads ... doesn't give you a lot of faith in the judicial system here. This perpetrator I will guess will have minimal punishment that will have little impact on his ability to continue to carry on with his behavior.

  ”;Sunbather run over by truck excuses it as a 'freak accident,'”; Star-Bulletin, Jan. 23: It wouldn't have happened if they weren't there illegally in the first place. Why wasn't the law enforced, if the police knew this was happening for a long time? It was an accident waiting to happen and it did. Now they can sue the county for not enforcing the law! And the people will be paying for this accident! Idiots.

  Keep your big ego trucks off the beach. It's not a freak accident, it's complete negligence of the driver.