Columnists

IN 2019, prior to the pandemic, 487,008 tourists visited the CNMI. The average HANMI hotel occupancy rate was 80.43%. Of these tourists, 249,211 were Koreans, 185,526 were Chinese and 17,121 were Japanese. (Japan ceased to be the CNMI’s primary tourism market in 2014. China was the top market in 20…

Ambrose M. Bennett THE TRUTH of the matter is each time WE (opponents of the GOP) try to take one step forward there are those who try to make us take two steps backwards. My online critics (elkapitan, JusticeFighter7, and Saipan Man) who think they know-it-all are clearly “backward thinkers” focus…

Ambrose M. Bennett THE TRUTH of the matter is the perception of the Governor’s statement to “pivot away from China” seems to have been totally misinterpreted, as it’s just a poli-trick! The assertion that the Governor and those who appreciate his pivot of dedicating our resources away from China ar…

Glen Hunter I HAVE seen a few reactions to my previous opinion piece. I must address the misinformation in some of them and clarify my stance on tourism and economic diversification in the CNMI. Since the Governor took office in 2023, he has not enacted any laws or regulations that prevent tourists…

GOVERNOR Palacios and his advisors are currently conducting a fire sale of the CNMI Commonwealth to the United States military. His policies and actions depend on a strategy that relies on growing Chinese-American conflict. With no short-term economic plan, this Administration’s bet is to reduce th…

BC Cook FOUR score years ago, our forefathers stormed the beaches of a continent in a great invasion of a not-so-distant war and rescued an idea, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all mankind is created equal. Now the world is engaged in a great time of troubles, stained w…

Ambrose M. Bennett THE TRUTH of the matter is Rep. Ed Propst is SOOOO RIGHT, “what took so long for the Casino Commission (CC) to act.”  Thanks & KUDOS Rep. Props on behalf of the many People who truly “appreciate ALL you’re doing and what you have done,” as WE say in Mass. I have been yelling …

I WAS shocked to see in a recent poll here that some people think Trump did not get a fair trial in the New York prosecution for felony falsification of documents. Either the persons responding to the poll don’t have any idea of what constitutes a fair trial, don’t know the panoply of rights and pr…

THIS week let’s talk about a subject that is not as seemingly hopeless as the CNMI government’s financial condition. I’m referring to the education of our children in this era of smartphones — and earbuds. Recently, The Wall Street Journal featured Mitchell Rutherford, a high school biology teacher…

Jim Rayphand IT frustrates me, at my age and for someone who often acts like he knows it all, to consider just how much more I have yet to learn and how little time (relatively speaking) I have left to figure things out… about a lot of things, but certainly about human nature and the complexities o…