Imagine a world where the gas pump knows your credit score

Re: “Polis vetoes ‘surveillance pricing’ bill,” June 3 news story

Gov. Jared Polis’ veto of the anti-surveillance pricing bill proves once again he’s just a Republican wearing a liberal costume. His excuse? The bill, which would have banned companies from using AI and “big data” to manipulate prices and wages based on your personal circumstances, might “interfere with the free functioning of markets.”

Sure. Because nothing says “free market” like corporate algorithms tracking your every vulnerability to extract maximum blood from your stone. This isn’t capitalism; it’s corporate sharecropping scaled to the state level.

Consider this hypothetical: A software engineer gets laid off but has some savings. On the way to a job interview, he pulls up to a gas pump. Between inserting his card and pumping, the oil company runs an instant “wealth check.” Seeing his healthy savings balance, the algorithm spikes his price per gallon.

He arrives at the interview. Instead of offering a salary based on market value and experience, the employer scrapes data on his time out of work, his dwindling savings, and his chronic illness. They craft an offer just high enough to keep him from drowning, complete with a health plan that conveniently excludes his condition.

Is this the “free functioning of markets?” No. It’s an asymmetric data war where citizens are completely outgunned. But hey, as long as Gov. Polis can keep defending the “freedom” of monopolies to pickpocket your data, who cares about the actual people?

For someone who just moved from Florida in part to escape this nonsense, Polis disappoints.

Tom Gawronski, Evergreen

Climate crisis is front-page news

Re: “U.N.: Next five years could smash temperature records,” May 29 news story

Banging the climate crisis drum: Last Friday, The Denver Post relegated a major U.N. climate report to page 12. Ho-hum, the world scientific community keeps banging that old drum about the climate. No big deal. We haven’t gone off the cliff — yet.

But there is a cliff there. Scientists just don’t know when the edge — the tipping point — will be reached.

Have you noticed all the floods, droughts and temperature records we are experiencing (again) this year? Are you concerned about this being a really bad fire year? Drill, baby drill continues as President Trump says we have to produce more oil, while the report concludes that oil and gas is the major contributor to the issue. Ho-hum.

As a committed climate activist, I plan to keep banging that old drum and supporting the rapid transition away from oil and gas to renewable energy.

Marc Alston, Denver

Sarah Woodson for House District 42

Sarah Woodson is a breath of fresh air for the residents of House District 42. A new voice of reason and common sense for everyday Aurorans stressed out by politicians on the far right and left who only support special agendas, not their constituents.

It was 40 years ago that Aurorans trusted another homegrown centrist political newcomer who went door to door to listen to his neighbors and represent them, not the special interest lobbyists that swarm over our Capitol like the miller moths and locusts of summer.

The Hawaii County Council voted 7-1 Wednesday in favor of a resolution calling for the acquisition of 3.74 acres of land along Government Beach Road in Puna using eminent domain — a move that has angered the property’s owner.

Resolution 567-26 authorizes the county’s condemnation and acquisition of a long, thin strip of land running along the edge of two separate parcels located in the Keonepoko Iki subdivision just north of the Hawaiian Shores neighborhood from its owner, Lum Family Enterprises LLC.

Vice Chair Dennis Onishi cast the lone “no” vote during a meeting that saw no discussion of the resolution by council members. Puna Councilman Matt Kaneali’i-Kleinfelder was absent.

The measure had unanimous support during committee hearings on May 19, when the Committee on Legislative Approvals and Acquisitions voted 9-0 in favor.

Together, the two parcels in question add up to roughly 230 acres. The county is trying to seize a 55-foot-wide, 1.5-mile-long strip abutting the road that would allow the Department of Public Works to make improvements.

Introduced by the Office of the Corporation Counsel, the resolution is the final step in a decade-long, protracted fight over the land, which began in 2014 when the county laid asphalt outside of the road’s right of way onto private property on the western side of the winding, one-lane seaside route. Since then, negotiations with the properties’ owner have failed to reach an agreement.

“We paved onto — a little bit onto the mauka property,” Deputy Corporation Counsel Sinclair Salas-Ferguson told council members during the resolution’s committee hearing last month. “And for years, the county has been trying to negotiate with the landowner … and it’s never come to fruition, so in order to resolve the issues, we have to go through condemnation.”

At that meeting, Onishi clarified with Corporation Counsel that the issue began with the county’s error.

“The county made a mistake and paved into their property,” Onishi said.

Salas-Ferguson replied that the county has authority to take private property for a public purpose, and that seizing land for a roadway is “almost indisputable that it’s a public purpose.”

He said the case will most likely go to court, where the county will negotiate a settlement with the landowner.

In an email to the Tribune-Herald following the vote on Wednesday, Onishi said he changed his mind on the resolution since the last hearing because he felt the county hadn’t done enough to treat the owner fairly.

“Today I felt the county should do more to help with compensating the landowner since the county did pave the road into their property,” he said.

The appraised value of the land, he said, was insufficient compensation for its seizure.

“Right now the county is allowed to settle on the appraised value only,” he said. “I feel this situation is different because the county was partially to blame for what happened. I will be investigating how Corporation Counsel will have more of an authority (to) compensate depending on the situation.”

Wayland Lum is the manager of Lum Family Enterprises and travels back and forth between Oahu and his country homestead in Puna located on the properties in question. Lum is a 72-year-old organic farmer and rancher whose land originally belonged to his grandfather and has been in the family since the early 1920s.

Since the paving blunder in 2014, he said he’s been anxious about liability issues since most of the road in that section lies squarely on his property.

“If someone should get hurt … they’re going to find out it’s not county land,” he said. “It’s private land, and they’re going to be suing me because I own the road. I own the land where the road is.”

The council will vote on the resolution for the second and final time on June 17 during a meeting which Lum has said he will fly from Oahu to Kona to attend in order to testify in person.

“I need to say my piece and to look at these people face to face,” he told the Tribune-Herald after Wednesday’s vote. “It’s passion, in a sense, because we were born there … we didn’t buy it 10 years ago and go start a farm. It’s been a century.”

He said he was told by a council clerk he’d have only three minutes to testify like any other member of the public.

“How do you do that in three minutes?” he said. “It’s impossible. I think I should be receiving an adequate amount of time because we’ve been so cooperative all these years trying to resolve this matter, and at this junction, it’s really a matter of whether we lose our land or not. We should be given an adequate amount of time to state our case on all the different levels, from the history to what the county has done to the liability.”

The kupuna said he’s hopeful that by testifying in person he can convince other council members to oppose the resolution.

“There was no representation for the other side of this issue except good thing for Mr. Onishi. Thank you to him,” he said. “If I can get there and hopefully influence three people and maybe show them a little bit different side of the picture instead of just following the whole program with each other — you know one votes yes and they all vote yes — maybe it’ll create a little bit of thinking on their part so that they can kind of evaluate and see the whole picture.”

When asked if he feels the county has treated him fairly throughout this drawn-out process, he was quick to respond.

“Not at all. Not one bit,” he said. “They abused their rights as the county on a private landowner who really has no way to defend themselves in this kind of situation except for legal action, which is happening.

“When you have people taking over and coming into your land, it really feels like you’re getting violated,” he added. “You’re taking — you’re ripping out, just ripping out a part of your heart. So, it’s very difficult for me and my family to see this happen.”

Email Stefan Verbano at stefan.verbano@hawaiitribune-herald.com.

Idaho Falls, ID (KIFI) – The sale of Kratom will be banned in Idaho Falls in a new law set to take effect on July 1, after a unanimous vote was passed in the Idaho Falls City Council meeting Thursday evening.

This comes after local health officials and leaders linked the substance to multiple deaths in Bonneville County. Bonneville County Coroner Shante Sanchez released a statement in October of 2025 that her office confirmed six kratom-related deaths over the last 18 months, including four cases where the primary active compound, mitragynine, in kratom was determined to be the sole cause of death.

Those findings prompted city leaders and council members to begin discussions this week about whether kratom should continue to be sold in Idaho Falls. City Council members heard compelling testimony from the county coroner, local law enforcement, medical professionals, and members of the public who argued the product poses a growing public health risk.

The ban was passed unanimously, with all five council members approving the ordinance, following public commentary on the proposal.

Before making the motion to adopt the ordinance, Councilor Michelle Ziel-Dingman acknowledged the limits of the local ban. “I’ve recognized that kratom will continue to be sold online in other cities and counties,” she said. “But this ordinance makes it clear where our community stands on this drug, and if our ordinance saves one life, as Councilor Jim Freeman said, or serves as a tool for educating our community, I believe this ordinance is therefore appropriate.”

Mayor Lisa Burtenshaw announced that the city will begin an awareness campaign to inform the public about the new kratom ban.

“I do sympathize with parents who have no idea that these products are sitting on the shelf,” Burtenshaw said. “That is something that we will address with the Idaho Falls Police and through the mayor’s office and through the school district.”

While Idaho Falls has moved forward as one of the largest cities in Idaho with a local ban, kratom remains legal statewide for now. At the state capitol, lawmakers have been debating whether to ban the substance altogether or to regulate its sale and distribution. Several competing proposals have been considered during the 2026 legislative session.

For Idaho Falls retailers, the city’s action to ban kratom products means it will soon be removed from store shelves inside the city limits, even as statewide debates continue into the future.

To see previous stories linked to Idaho Falls’s kratom-related deaths, visit here.