Do the right thing despite the glitch

Well, that was embarrassing: The City Council approved and Mayor Kirk Caldwell signed a law that bans smoking at seven major East Hono-lulu parks and beaches.

Trouble is, except for the beach side of Ala Moana Regional Park, the city doesn’t own the beaches in question — the state does — so it’s somewhat back to the drawing board for the Council and mayor, which means enforcement of the new law will have to wait until that glitch can be worked out.

Meanwhile, city officials, including the police, are hoping smokers will abide by the intent of the ill-fated law anyway — and we hope they will, too, no ifs, ands or butts.

Don’t schedule events in vacuum

This will teach Hawaii Public Radio to hold its pledge drive in the midst of basketball fever.

Things were going along swimmingly for the fundraiser, station staffers told their listeners, until midafternoon on Monday, when it appeared the generosity of Hawaii listeners dried up. Phones went all but silent during the "All Things Considered" segment, which usually draws a big afternoon-drive audience. After days of largely hitting all their marks, that show raised only about a sixth of its $12,000 goal.

There’s no way to prove it, of course, but the theory that public radio fans were off watching the NCAA title match between Louisville and Michigan sounds about right.

After hearing the mournful tale the next morning, though, guilt kicked in and the phones started ringing.

Today is when HPR had hoped to finish the drive after eight days, but we’ll see if the money does more than dribble in. Basketball pun intended.