Family visits with prisoners are canceled
Visits were canceled Sunday at the Oahu Community Correctional Center because of staffing shortages, the state Department of Public Safety said.
Guards calling in sick on weekends have been a chronic problem for the prison system. Weekends are the only time families can visit prisoners.
Visitation at OCCC was canceled twice in September, twice in August and four times in July.
The department posts visitation cancellation notices on its website, dps.hawaii.gov, from 6:30 to 7:30 a.m. the day of the intended visit.
Civil Defense siren screams false alarm
Maintenance crews will investigate Monday the cause of a malfunctioning Civil Defense siren that sounded erroneously two times Sunday in Hawaii Kai.
Honolulu Department of Emergency Management spokesman John Cummings said the siren at Kamiloiki Elementary School began making noise at about 4 a.m. and again at about 9:30 a.m. He said police initially shut off the alarm through a remote console, but when it sounded again the Fire Department had to manually disable the siren to silence it.
Cummings said the sirens are exposed to the elements and that a malfunction occurs about once a month or every other month.
"It’s kind of common with them," he said Sunday. "We may know by tomorrow afternoon or the next day what the cause was."
He said if residents hear a siren and there is no emergency alert broadcast, then it is probably a false alarm and residents can call police to report it.
Duo wants to rename Sandy’s for Obama
Two Honolulu city councilmen are proposing to name a popular beach park after President Barack Obama.
Hawaii News Now reported that Councilmen Stanley Chang and Ernest Martin introduced a resolution Thursday to change the name of Sandy Beach Park.
The beach is a popular bodysurfing spot on Oahu’s east side. It was one of Obama’s favorite spots growing up. He body-surfed there while on vacation during his 2008 campaign for president.
If the name is changed, it would be the first time something has been named after Obama in Hawaii.
