Old building permits
Thanks to a postcard from the West Hawaii Association of Realtors, I was alerted to the possibility of old, open building permits on my properties.
I discovered cancelled/expired building, plumbing and electrical permits that were never properly closed-out by the local businesses that I hired (and paid) to install solar hot water heaters years ago.
Now, the businesses are not eager to rectify this. They have taken the stance that they are retiring, retired or tired; that they are not the ones that filed the permits (hired others to), although they are listed as the applicant in cases.
This gives the industry and these businesses a bad reputation. If they care, they will fix this.
JoAnn Frances Garrigan
Hilo
Rights at risk
Abortion opponents are very happy about the U.S. Supreme Court overruling Roe v. Wade. But all of us, for or against abortion rights, should pay attention to what’s happening on the Supreme Court. Rights we thought were secure are at serious risk.
Justice Samuel Alito, in his majority opinion, said that the issue was whether the writers of the Constitution or the writers of the 14th Amendment meant for the right in question to be included. He infers that they did not include abortion in their thinking, and therefor it is not protected.
Clarence Thomas, in his opinion, specifically calls for removing the rights to contraception and gay marriage, on the same ground that Mr. Alito rejected abortion. The early writers didn’t mention gays or contraception. Therefor the government may, at will, deny protection for gays or for those using contraceptives. (Contraception became legal in 1965 only when the Supreme Court struck down a Connecticut law banning all forms of contraception.)
But what else might be removed? Now, police must get a search warrant to listen to our phone conversations. Phones aren’t mentioned in the Constitution or the 14th Amendment. Therefor, according to Alito and Thomas, cops don’t need a warrant to seize our phones.
Anti-abortionists in several states want to bar anyone from leaving their state to get an abortion. This isn’t possible if there is a right to travel, as most believe. But it isn’t mentioned in the Constitution or the 14th Amendment.
Therefore, per Alito and Thomas, it does not exist; if the government of Texas wants to require all pregnant women to remain in Texas until they give birth, they can do so.
This just scratches the surface. The six hyperconservatives on the Supreme Court have their sights set on many rights we thought were securely ours.
Beware!
Daniel Lindsay
Hilo
