HOW can you as a lawmaker assure “the people” that you “work for them” when you can’t or are unable to prevent a partial government...
LAWMAKERS have seven days to pass the fiscal year 2023 budget bill. Ideally, the bill should have been on the governor’...
THERE are 14 days left in the current fiscal year. The budget bill passed by the House remains pending in the Senate...
IT seems that all elected officials and candidates for office are “pro-business,” especially small businesses. (Incidental...
THE fiscal year 2023 budget bill passed by the House includes a provision that would increase the tobacco tax to $4.75 from $3.75, a...
ACCORDING to the Office of Personnel Management’s desk audit, the Department of Corrections needs more personnel. Corrections, whi...
GOOD news for the CNMI:
• a new inter-island airline, Marianas Southern Airways, has launched its inaugural flight...
ELECTED officials have been making donations to the youth and the elderly while implementing village projects that will benefit c...
OVER two years since its outbreak, Covid-19 is still a global pandemic and a major public health concern. Government-imposed restr...
FOLLOWING a series of fuel and electricity price hikes, many of us have quickly gone through the first two stages of grief ...
A LAWMAKER says CUC should be “creative” and “avoid any utility rate increase every time fuel costs go up.”
A CNMI lawmaker said people are “suffering” from high prices, but their salaries “have not been raised.”
Let’s — to quote a former gov...
ASKED why the Saipan delegation acted on the e-gaming fee hike bill without a public hearing and without commen...
AT a recent House budget hearing, a lawmaker complained about appropriated public funds that had not been disbursed to the in...
PEOPLE can — and they usually do — complain about many things regarding life in these small remote islands scattered in the Pacific’s ...
THE 179-page House committee report on the “health network” (medical referral) bill includes the following ominous phrase:
“L...
It is so easy to be wrong – and to persist in being wrong – when the costs of being wrong are paid by others.
—Thomas ...
POLITICIANS, more often than not, say the darndest things. Recently one of them stated that the “will of the people…elected a new majorit...
PROPONENTS of the House wage-hike measure, H.B. 22-98, are concerned about the rising cost of living in the CNMI. Hence, t...
WE could be wrong but it seems that some lawmakers are unaware of — or perhaps indifferent to — how a bicameral legislature ...
HERE’S how retirees can finally receive their Christmas holiday bonuses in April: the House and the Senate should pass the r...
EARLIER this week, the House leadership shared some good and bad news with the CNMI government retirees waiting for their (Chris...
IT’S been three months since the governor announced that the retirees should receive their holiday bonus, preferably before Christmas. ...
THE Senate has approved the impeachment trial rules. What’s next? The rules say the Senate president may refer the article...
THE scene in the Senate chamber on Monday afternoon could have been a sight to behold if only the protagonists were arguin...
THE House session on Tuesday once again reminded “The People” (i.e., voters) that all lawmakers support giving retirees a bonus — that l...
LAWMAKERS opposed to the governor “investigated” his public expenditures, which the same lawmakers believe are excessive. Result? His o...
POLICE Officer Anthony Iglecias Macaranas, so the story goes, gave his own father (or mother), a ticket for a traffic violation....
ELEVEN days before Christmas, the governor asked the House and the Senate to adopt a joint resolution “that would allow the Depar...
ABOUT 10 years ago, the politicians who wanted to impeach then-Governor Fitial did it the hard way — some may say the righ...
SEVERAL House members on Wednesday spoke about the importance of fiscal responsibility and accountability. Hurrah! An...
HOUSE Local Bill 22-26, which would allow five casino licenses on Saipan, is legally problematic. Can a local bill amend a CNMI st...
THE House majority bloc is not in a hurry to act on the impeachment resolution because it’s a done deal. Signed and sealed, so to spea...
ON Tuesday, just before the House JGO voted to hold the governor in contempt, one of the committee members stated that they “are finally ...
THIS is the most important detail CNMI lawmakers should remember whenever they want to “photo-copy” wage/tax measu...
THESE are quite unprecedented times for the Commonwealth, but many of us are unfamiliar with its history...
FOR many of us, it may be hard to feel thankful on Thanksgiving. It has been a dreary week. As of Tuesday, there had been 313 new C...
SEVERAL years ago, one of the biggest — and saddest — news stories in the U.S. was about the Veterans Affairs ...
PRESIDENT Harry Truman — so the story goes — believed that his successor, Gen. Ike Eisenhower, would find the presidency “ve...
THE House leadership’s recent veto-override attempt was, among other things, a way to “test” how far the Arnold-Dave Republicans w...
AS you may have noticed, while the economy remains in a coma, the CNMI government has been passing laws that impose new or higher f...
ONE of the peculiar things about politics is that many folks who denounce it can’t seem to have enough of it — just...
(This is not a scientific poll.)
