Columnists

IN an age gone by, President’s Day was a patriotic event celebrating President Washington’s birthday (February 22), the creation of the United States of America and the birth of democracy. However, many Americans wanted it to be President Lincoln’s birthday, February 12, in honor of the president t…

FROM the Maritime Executive comes this disturbing news: “The New Zealand Defense Force working in conjunction with law enforcement and customs has retrieved more than three tons of cocaine floating in the Pacific Ocean at what they believe was a “transit point,” for international drug smugglers. Ne…

“POOR Ike,” President Harry Truman supposedly once said, referring to his successor, a former five-star general. “It won’t be a bit like the Army,” Truman added. “He’ll sit here and he’ll say, ‘Do this, do that,’ and nothing will happen.” Throughout known human history, however, m…

THE TRUTH of the matter is WE need real REFORMS, as all of the Boards and Commissions are OVERPAID for the work they do. This is a great opportunity to begin REFORMING (overhauling) our government but I do want to commend the effort to try and create some kind of “pay-scheme” for the Casino Commiss…

MY brother, Jim, and I were cruising through the Federated States of Micronesia in Adaline a few years back when I decided to stop in and see Bob, an old friend who ran a scuba shop.  I won’t mention the island in order to protect the innocent, but it should be enough to know that it was near Chuuk…

IN a recent National Review cover story, Mario Loyola, who is Puerto Rican, noted that the once-bustling neighborhood where his grandparents lived now “sits eerily abandoned, a common sight in Puerto Rico.” According to Loyola, “The island has lost more than 15 percent of its population since the s…

THERE is an inescapable fact affecting communities in the Pacific, and until now we have not spent much time talking about it.  Soon will come a time, however, when we have no choice but to face it.  The population is getting older. Around 70 years ago, the largest group of children ever born came …

WITHOUT ARPA funds, the CNMI is back to where it was in March 2020, when the tourism-based economy had to shut down because of global pandemic restrictions. In April of that year, the CNMI government, with the assistance of Graduate School USA, held a virtual Fiscal Response Summit. The participant…

WHEN still a boy, William Mariner left England in 1804 on the ship Port-au-Prince for a whaling expedition to the Pacific.  After two years on the high seas, the ship anchored at Lifuka, one of the islands of Tonga, to rest and refit.  By that time, the crew was as ragged as the sails. Possibly bec…

THE truth of the matter is WE are facing the biggest financial challenge since the creation of the Commonwealth.  The deficit is a paradigm created by Ralph & David, who is on the run, that must be broken if WE are to overcome this challenge that can only happen by “thinking-outside-the-box” (b…