State gets $3.5M for maternal home visits

The state Department of Health said Tuesday it was awarded $3.5 million in federal funding to continue its home visit program for expecting mothers and families.

The Maternal, Infant and Early Childhood Home Visiting program provides home visiting services to women during pregnancy and parents with young children up to kindergarten entry. Trained nurses, social workers and early-childhood educators meet regularly with expectant parents or families with young children, particularly those considered at risk, to guide them through pregnancy and early childhood development.

It currently serves about 850 families and conducts more than 10,000 home visits statewide annually.

“Home visiting services help to ensure our keiki and their families have a healthier start,” said Matthew Shim, the department’s Family Health Services Division chief. “This federal funding will allow the state to continue to provide this important service to expecting mothers and families during a critical time in their child’s development.”

BYUH settles student’s honor code lawsuit

An attorney representing Brigham Young University-Hawaii has told a federal judge the school will pay $5,000 to settle a former student’s lawsuit alleging her campus job supervisor sexually assaulted and harassed her.

Attorney Charles Price told U.S. Magistrate Judge Kevin Chang on Tuesday the university will pay the settlement in exchange for the lawsuit’s dismissal.

The former student’s 2016 lawsuit alleges the university’s honor code banning premarital sex prevented her from seeking help. Her attorney, Mark Gallagher, said she has agreed to the settlement.

Price said the university is paying a “nominal” amount to resolve the lawsuit. University officials didn’t immediately comment on the settlement.

The woman also named her former supervisor as a defendant in her lawsuit. The settlement dismisses any claims against him. His attorney has said he passed a polygraph test denying the allegations.

HAWAII ISLAND

Rapid ohia death is now in all districts of Big Isle

KAILUA-KONA >> Rapid ohia death has been detected in North Kohala, the Big Island Invasive Species Committee has said. The discovery means the disease has spread to every district on Hawaii island, the Hawaii Tribune-Herald reported.

“The disease now exists from north to south to east and west across the island,” said J.B. Friday, extension forester with the University of Hawaii at Manoa’s College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources. “There are still a lot of forests not infected. This is only one detection in all of Kohala. But there’s no district on the island we now don’t have positive (detection).”

Trees with the disease were found Sept. 15 on a private ranch. Researchers collected 10 samples at the site, eight of which tested positive for Ceratocystis, the more harmful of two newly identified fungal species that cause the disease in ohia.

Experts aren’t yet sure how the fungus came to the island’s northernmost district. Crews are sampling more trees in the infected area during the coming weeks to better assess its cause and how much it has spread.

Committee spokeswoman Franny Brewer said researchers hope to seek funding from the 2018 Legislature to further study the disease.

“It’s really difficult to try and get a grip on a brand-new disease,” Brewer said. “We’re starting from scratch.”

Friday called the latest discovery in Kohala “discouraging” but said “no one is throwing in the towel.”