Columnists

WHEN we started the Northern Marianas Football Association’s soccer program in 2005, we never expected to see the number of youth players develop and increase significantly in the last 17 years. We started with only 100 youth players from ages 4 to 15, and today, our total soccer membership, includ…

I WONDER what Juan & Marie Q. Public are thinking when they read “Rebuilding-Trust, Resilience, and Vision” that is not coming from me but from Governor Torres & Lt. Governor Palacios, as these are the words on the bottom of their signs in small print. The fact that the most important thing…

IT is no secret that “LOYALTY” is the glue binding the Republicans together, not Truth & Justice FOR the People. Their loyalty has even gotten to the point of them figuratively leaping-off a political cliff with no parachute given their deviation from what is “Right & Just” FOR the People b…

“IN war, truth is the first casualty.” So observed the ancient Greek Aeschylus, and his words have been repeated throughout time, referring to a hundred different conflicts.  Even with global news coverage, events in Ukraine are murky.  The Russian government has imposed a news blackout both in its…

AFTER reading the Editor’s “Dramatis personae (Actors in a play)” I will be the first to say the events in the Senate could be viewed as “fictional theater among political actors” but the REALITY is our Senate has literally gone-off-the-rails!  I do agree with a lot of what the editor said, but I d…

THERE is a “direct correlation between the Senate and the Welfare of the CNMI,” as the Senate is the People’s last “check & balance” on the Executive Office, like we are now seeing with the Impeachment Trial — a Trial the Senate is clearly trying to FIX for the Governor to be acquitted. What’s …

I WAS no longer covering Capital (not Capitol) Hill when a group of four senators “took over” the Senate leadership in 2003. This was during the 13th Legislature. The Senate majority had three members left after two of their colleagues (one Democrat and one former Democrat turned Republican)  were …

THE Public School System continues to wade through the impact and challenges brought by the pandemic. This never-before crisis took a toll in our ability to provide our constitutional mandate of providing quality free educational opportunities to the nearly 10,000 elementary, middle and high school…

THE ink is not even dry from my previous Op-ed warning that the way the Senate tried to help the Governor get “Full Reprograming Authority of OUR Budget by using Retirees in the same Bill” was a prelude to what might come. Well, it didn’t take long for us-folks-in-the-cheap-seats to see I was telli…

THE outbreak of war in Europe has raised anxiety around the world, even in the Pacific.  Unfortunately, social media is full of false reports, pictures and videos, so it has become difficult to separate fact from fiction.  The difference between professional journalism on the one hand and bloggers …