Two recommended pieces were published over at Civil Beat today.

Nick Grube, “New Kealoha Defense Tactic: Going After ‘Mainland Prosecutors’”. Grube reports that Katherine Kealoha’s new defense attorney, Cynthia Kagiwada, is positioning her defense strategy to question the lack of understanding of local ways by the mainland attorneys directing the prosecution.

“I’m just pointing that out because this is somebody other than our local attorneys (who) are prosecuting this case,” Kagiwada said.

Is that supposed to imply that local residents are more accepting of alleged corruption and fraud, and Hawaii courts should follow?

I don’t see this as a winning strategy when the government has almost a quarter-million pages of evidence, with more likely to be added through superseding indictments once they process the results of the search of the Kealoha residence last month.

The second recommended reading is Denby Fawcett’s column, “Denby Fawcett: Would Dan Inouye Have Survived 1992 Sex Allegations Today?”

Twenty-five years ago, public allegations of sexual abuse against Hawaii’s senior senator went nowhere, and the power structure closed ranks to protect their political pork producer.

Would it be different today?

Fawcett found people on both sides of that question.

Anyway, it’s a provocative read.