A new trial for Kealoha kin?

A state judge has raised the possibility of a new civil trial in the dispute between Katherine Kealoha and her 100-year-old grandmother and uncle. Given evidence of perjury tainting the initial trial — based on testimony presented in a separate criminal case — it appears that Florence Puana and her son Gerard are due for a do-over.

The Puanas sued Kealoha, a former Honolulu deputy prosecutor, saying she stole money from them in a reverse mortgage scheme. In 2015, a jury sided with Kealoha, awarding her $658,000 in damages. In a criminal case, though, a jury in June found Kealoha and others guilty of conspiracy in a plot to frame Gerard Puana to keep him from revealing the scheme.

No surprise: a UH regent against TMT

A University of Hawaii Board of Regents member now sides with those protesting a UH-backed project, the Thirty Meter Telescope. Some were surprised — but they shouldn’t be. Yes, UH oversees astronomy on Mauna Kea, but it’s also home to a Hawaiian Studies school and a student body that’s split between supporting and opposing TMT.

So regent Alapaki Nahale-a, former Hawaiian Homes Commission chairman, may be sticking his neck out by changing his mind, but he’s speaking for a sizable UH constituency, too.