First Night Honolulu will be without its leading lady, but the show will go on. Board says Ryan's exit
won't halt First Night"We're not backing off this at all, not at all," Dian Cleve, president of First Night Honolulu's board of directors, said in the aftermath of executive director Linda Ryan's abrupt resignation.
Ryan, who has run the alcohol-free New Year's Eve festival for the past six years, quit Tuesday night in a dispute over fund-raising. She alleges that the board has virtually bankrupted the nonprofit organization.
"They would have been better off doing car washes than what they've done this year," Ryan said. "For some time now, I have repeatedly warned the board of First Night's pressing fiscal problems and how frustrated I was with their inactivity.
The board's fund-raising plan is to target more people for smaller amounts instead of going after big corporate donations, Cleve said.
"Hawaii's poor economy precludes donations from big corporations," Cleve said. "With the First Night 2000 campaign, we're looking for 2,000 people in the community to give us $25. That's the $50,000 seed money we need for this year.
"Because of bad weather, the past event drew only half of what we expected and it has been a struggle to make up the difference," Cleve added.
Public librarians could be out purchasing books at Borders, Barnes and Noble or from any vendor as early as Aug. 20. Plan would let librarians
buy books from any vendorThe proposal that would bring new materials onto library shelves this month and over the next five years was the result of input contributed by nearly 70 library employees at meetings held in each county last week.
"It's a very workable plan," said state Librarian Bart Kane. "It's a compliment to state library employees" and represented the best of what they offered at the meetings, he said.
Libraries have not been accepting new book shipments from Baker & Taylor since Kane terminated its contract July 22.
The proposed plan covers immediate, short-term and long-term goals for the library system to select and acquire materials for its 49 libraries this month and over the next two to five years.
The proposed plan -- as requested by library employees and mandated by a new state law that went into effect last month -- gives public service librarians and technicians "complete and full authority" to select library materials for their libraries.
See expanded coverage in today's Honolulu Star-Bulletin.
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Police/Fire
By Star-Bulletin staffPolice arrested a woman this morning after a 45-year-old man was stabbed to death on a Chinatown sidewalk. Chinatown murder: Woman arrested
Witnesses said the woman and the man were arguing at Hotel and Smith streets at 7 a.m., and the woman stabbed the man. The man pulled a bottle from his back pocket and raised it as if to strike her, but then he collapsed, witnesses said. A bloody towel and an upright glass bottle were left at the scene this morning.
Witnesses told police they saw the woman drop an ice pick down a manhole on Smith Street.
Maui police are on Oahu today to find suspects involved in a million-dollar jewelry heist from a Kaanapali store. Police track suspects
in Maui heist to OahuPolice said Maui police tracked one of the suspects to Oahu and arrived yesterday to arrest a 48-year-old Honolulu man.
Police searched the man's Kekaulike Street home and recovered some of the $1.6 million in jewelry and watches that were stolen in a Maui robbery on June 12.
Police said are least two other people are suspected of being involved in the robbery.
Police yesterday charged a 48-year-old man with murder after a pedestrian was run over in a parking lot Wednesday. Driver who struck man
at Kunia store chargedPolice said Mariano Espiritu Abad, 48, waited for police after striking Rudy Saladino, 58, with his car in the parking lot of Kunia Road Store.
Saladino was flown to Queen's Hospital shortly after being hit at 6 a.m. He later died.
Police said Abad is charged with second-degree murder and is being held on $100,000 bail.
A 96-year-old Salt Lake man who suffered third-degree burns over 97 percent of his body from a fire in his home died yesterday at Straub Hospital. Salt Lake man burned
in apartment fire diesA resident manager went to investigate complaints of smoke coming from the man's Ala Ilima apartment at about 10:15 a.m. and found the man seated on the floor and on fire.
The victim was pronounced dead at 1:30 p.m.
The cause of the fire appears to be accidental, police said.
In other police/fire news:
One hurt in shooting; Pahala man in custody
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