State briefs for September 9

Oahu jail switching to no-contact visits

HONOLULU (AP) — People visiting inmates at Hawaii’s most crowded jail no longer will be able to touch them.

There will be no contact during visits at Oahu Community Correctional Center starting Oct. 10.

A major reason for the security change is to prevent contraband items such as drugs being passed to inmates.

Public Safety Director Nolan Espinda says the change will reduce the strain on staff during visits.

Visits will take place in glassed-off interview rooms that already are in the existing visitation room.

There also will be a new schedule that allows visits seven days a week. Currently, visitation is only on weekends.

Families will be allowed to schedule one, 30-minute visit per week, with up to two people visiting an inmate at a time.

Oahu food pantry at risk of closure

HONOLULU (AP) — One of Oahu’s largest pantries could soon cease operations in Kakaako if it doesn’t find somewhere more affordable to provide homeless and low-income residents with free meals.

Gill Berge, who sits on Feeding Hawaii Together’s board of directors, said the nonprofit no longer can afford the rent at its 19,000-square-foot Kakaako location. The landlord wants the organization out of the building by Dec. 1.

The nonprofit is now looking for a smaller space.

“We need an angel landlord of some type,” Berger said. “We can’t afford market-rate rent.”

Feeding Hawaii Together has served those in need in Kakaako for nearly two decades. It’s different from other food pantries, in that it allows clients to fill shopping carts with items they want instead of supplying them with prepackaged bags of food.

The Hawaii Foodbank supplies the organization with the proteins, canned goods and fresh produce it distributes.

Charlie Lorenz, who founded Feeding Hawaii Together with his wife, Diana, said the Kakaako location sees anywhere from 300 to 400 clients on a typical day.

Woman apparently bitten by shark

WAIANAE, Oahu (AP) — Lifeguards say they rescued a woman after what appeared to be a shark bit her arm and shoulder at a popular surfing beach.

An expert will examine the woman’s wounds to determine if they were made by a shark bite.

The Honolulu Emergency Services Department says lifeguards on Wednesday paddled out on rescue boards and brought the woman to shore. Surfers in the water helped. The woman was about 300 yards from shore at Makaha Beach.

The woman was taken in serious condition to a trauma center.

Group debates urging ban on ivory trade

HONOLULU (AP) — Members of an international environmental group are debating a proposal to urge leaders in every country to ban trading ivory.

A recent study says the number of savanna elephants in Africa is rapidly declining and the animals are in danger of being wiped out because of the ivory trade.

A panel of members of The International Union for Conservation of Nature debated the proposal Wednesday at the World Conservation Congress in Honolulu. But some members of the global group of representatives from governments and nonprofit organizations are pushing back on proposing a ban.

If negotiators agree on the language it will be up for a vote today.

If the group passes the proposal, it won’t have power to enforce it. But it could help countries craft policies.

Hepatitis A cases now at 252 total

HONOLULU (AP) — The state Department of Health says it recorded 11 new cases of hepatitis A during the past week.

This brings the total number of cases from the current outbreak to 252.

The department said Wednesday all of those sickened are adults. Sixty-six have been hospitalized.

Health officials traced the outbreak to frozen scallops served raw by Genki Sushi locations on Oahu and Kauai. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration later determined the scallops were imported from the Philippines.

Genki Sushi closed 10 restaurants on Oahu and one on Kauai and began disinfecting them after the discovery.