Release all news on H1N1 cases

I was shocked to see on the news that the Department of Health will no longer be letting us know where H1N1 cases are popping up in the state. This means that parents won't know if there's a ton of cases of the virus at their children's school.

I can't believe they can do this without violating our state's open-records laws.

I think state Sen. Mike Gabbard is right in putting pressure on these guys — because it's obvious that they aren't doing a good job of protecting public health.

African-Americans saluted for sacrifice

At the 65th anniversary memorial services for the West Loch tragedy, held Thursday at West Loch Pearl Harbor, local African-Americans were present to pay their respects to their fallen brothers of the 26th Chemical Contamination Unit from Schofield whose lives were lost here on May 21, 1944, along with other Americans.

Most Americans know little about African-American contributions to World War II: They supported the war efforts as ammunition loaders, stevedore workers, mess attendants, supply truckers and road builders — to name a few of the jobs assigned to them in the military forces.

The 26th Chemical Contamination Unit personnel was unloading mortar ammunition from the LCT aboard LST 353 when suddenly an explosion occurred around 3:08 p.m. on May 21, 1944, killing more than a hundred men.

It was a privilege and indeed an honor for me to witness and participate in the memorial service to celebrate the life of those young men, ages 17 and 18, who lost their lives and those who survived the disaster at West Loch.

After the service, Darrick Branch and I went to the National Memorial Cemetery at Punchbowl to put flags on 39 African-Americans' headstones marked, “;Unknown, West Loch Disaster, May 21, 1944,”; and six African-American gravesites identified through Ray Emory's 14 years of research.

These men after 65 years are getting their first recognition from Black-Americans living in Hawaii. The goal and purpose of the African American Diversity Cultural Center Hawai'i museum is to display this forgotten history, along with 200 years of contributions made by blacks to the history of Hawaii.

Ala Moana park users need to do their part

I am a daily user of Ala Moana Beach Park, as are many of my friends.

We have observed the park employees out early in the mornings cleaning, scrubbing, refilling toilet tissue and whatever is necessary to keep the restrooms up to par. Users should clean up their area of usage when done using the rest- rooms.

I have also noticed a street sweeper in the mornings trying to get into places that are not occupied by parked vehicles, cleaning up the areas.

They are doing a great job! It's some of the park users that are not reading signs posted — running, walking their pets in park and beach areas, and letting the animals urinate or leave their feces in these areas. I do see most of them clean up after their pets, but that still leaves unsanitary conditions for children who play or roll around in the grassy area or sands.

The homeless are not to be exempted; the park cleaners are always cleaning up after they leave the restroom areas.

The park cleaners are doing their best, trying to keep the areas clean for all users.

What they really need are park rangers to enforce the rules in the park area. Don't rely on the lifeguards to maintain the parks; they have enough work watching swimmers and other activities in the ocean.

Signs posted in the park areas should be not be ignored by users.

New police chief hunt will squander funds

If the Honolulu Police Commission was really concerned about the budget, why would it spend the money, which may be in the thousands, to look for a new police chief? Chief Boisse Correa was perfectly willing to stay five years more. By then the economy would presumably be much improved.