Restaurant food safety is a must

Last week's (temporary) closing of a restaurant because of an E. coli outbreak comes as no surprise. Due to economic belt tightening, our state is woefully deficient in the number of food safety inspectors. It becomes the industry's responsibility to protect their investment by training their own managers and employees.

I teach food safety in the Culinary Institute of the Pacific at Kapiolani Community College, where I instruct my students that training and self-inspection are the keys to preventing this kind of outbreak. I teach that the cost of food safety is an important part of the investment in their success. When you consider the cost of closing for a day — and, worse, the long-term damage to your reputation — ongoing vigilance and training become a bargain. The Health Department does training for free. You can also watch my TV show “;Shig Happens!”; on Olelo 55 for basic food safety knowledge and tips.

Recently I gave a refresher course for Natsunoya Tea House where two KCC graduates work. It was clear to me that this owner takes food safety seriously because there wasn't much I could suggest that they weren't already doing. And yet, they took the time to require the refresher course. This is being proactive!

Rod Tam fair game as office seeker

I was reading the March 30 letter to the editor, “;Councilman Tam target of smears,”; and was baffled that this writer would call almost $14,000 in false claims a minor mistake or poor record-keeping. No one is crucifying Councilman Rod Tam, but as a candidate for Honolulu mayor, it is absolutely fair game to question him about these so-called “;minor mistakes”; that occurred.

I don't know about you, but when families in our city are struggling to pay their bills and put a hot meal on their table, it is troubling that someone in his capacity would make false statements and charge erroneous bills to the people of this city.

What would have happened had the Ethics Commission not figured it out? Councilman Tam would NOT have come forward and would still be stealing the money of the people of this city.

There was no smear campaign. It was just a thief getting caught!

When election day comes, I urge the people of this wonderful city to vote NO to Tam.

Lt. Gen. Mixon needs to order his priorities

What an outstanding example of military intelligence Lt. Gen. Benjamin Mixon has shown the nation and our troops. At a time when our focus should be on the protection of our country from terrorists, the safety of our troops in battle and the completion of the military mission, he has found time to focus on such an important matter as a soldier's sexuality and effective policy. I have a little news for the lieutenant general: Young, educated soldiers could not care less about another soldier's sexual preference, as they are actually focused on the ability of any soldier to perform his or her duties with excellence and integrity. In a war zone, sexual preference is the least of their worries. How about being worried that the soldier next to you cannot read instructions, directions or orders, since the military has lowered its entry level requirements to fulfill its quotas? Now there's a concern for the military.

Tea Party unfairly accused of bigotry

Recently, certain members of Congress have levied allegations of bigotry at Tea Party activists. There were plenty of video cameras in the area of the alleged action, but no evidence to back it up. It is unfortunate that the party of tolerance lacks it, and when confronted by people who disagree, they levy allegations of bigotry in order to neutralize opposition. What's even more suspicious is that not more than 24 hours after the allegations were made, the Democratic National Congressional Committee began using the alleged incident as a fundraising effort for its candidates. A well-known conservative blogger offered a reward of $10,000 to anyone with video evidence of the alleged offense, and when there were no takers, he upped it to $20,000. Still no takers. These events lead me to believe that the allegations made by these members of Congress are false. I am not surprised, since this is a common tactic used by liberals who talk the talk of tolerance and open-mindedness but fail to walk it.

Meth survey data has changed since 2007

In response to your March 26 editorial, “;Keep teens from drugs,”; I wanted to respond to the statement “;Amid a television campaign against methamphetamine, the Hawaii Youth Risk Behavior Survey found that 4 percent had used meth in their lifetimes, the same as in the 2007 survey.”;

The Hawaii Meth Project and its ad campaign were launched on June 5, 2009, after the survey was taken. Last spring, we implemented the 2009 Hawaii Meth Use & Attitudes Survey, which found alarming statistics among teens:

» 19 percent say meth is easy to acquire.

» 11 percent report having a close friend who uses meth.

» 30 percent say there is little or no risk to taking meth once or twice.

Meth use in Hawaii continues to be a significant problem, with devastating results to our families and at a very high cost to taxpayers due to associated incarceration and employer, foster care, treatment and health care costs. Meth use is estimated to cost our state $500 million annually.

We are in the process of conducting our 2010 survey, with results to be published this summer. We are hopeful our efforts of outreach and education, combined with those of other organizations focused on prevention and treatment, can significantly reduce meth use in our state.