Columnists

Arnold I. Palacios IT’S rather disingenuous for GOP President Diego Benavente to be lecturing about tourism, as he did in a press release this week — especially when the biggest exodus of Japanese hotels, airlines, and other investments happened on his watch, when he was Lt. Governor (2002 &#…

Christopher A. Concepcion THE attention of the world has been on Saipan and the Marianas in the last week with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange’s whirlwind stop in Saipan to plead guilty in U.S. District Court to a felony charge of violating the Espionage Act.  Sentenced to time served in a British…

THE TRUTH of the matter is the Casino Commission MUST-GO, as there is nothing for them to do and now they are even trying to get an additional member. They are trying everything from “threats of accepting bribes to now it’s being impotent needing another member,” just anything to keep them on the j…

Ambrose M. Bennett THE TRUTH of the matter is the fact that WE (the CNMI) have done all we can now do about China and it’s time to “pivot” away our focus to things that NEED to be FIXED!  I do want to commend what I see as a real partnership between MVA Managing Director Mr. Conception and the Gove…

BC Cook IF you steal something that was stolen, have you committed a crime?  I suppose it depends on your motive and what you do with it.  Imagine a mutiny on board a ship, the criminals sail away, then several of the crew mutiny a second time and return the ship to its rightful owner.  In the proc…

ON Feb. 22, 2024, the governor sat down for an interview with the Foundation for Defense of Democracies in Washington, D.C. FDD describes itself as “a nonpartisan 501(c)(3) research institute focusing on national security and foreign policy.” FDD said it does not accept donations from any foreign g…

THE TRUTH of the matter is the Commonwealth Economic Development Authority or CEDA is accountable to OUR Government & the People like every other agency, including CEDA & PSS, as autonomous does not grant “unlimited un-accountability,” which is why there are House Committees assigned to the…

BC Cook “NOW anyone can be a Jacques-Cousteau, exploring the world’s oceans.  Only now they can do it from the deck of a ship of even the couch in their living room.” A revolution is brewing that may mark a new era in our understanding of the sea.  For centuries exploration was done by a few people…

Afioga Uifa’atali Amata Radewagen performs a siva siva after being made a high chief during a saofa’i ceremony in Pago Pago, American Samoa. Floyd K. Takeuchi This commentary first ran in the Honolulu Star-Advertiser’s Views & Voices section on June 11, 2024. HONOLULU — The sound of conch shell…