No Dr. Pepper for Matt Holly

Journal 8/27/1982

P3 Discover the Pacific with Air Nauru (ad) Nobody flies to more of it than we do. And, with our all-Boeing fleet, we can move you in the kind of comfort and superb style that you have come to expect from the largest of the world airlines: Melbourne, Auckland, Noumea, Port Vila, Tonga, Pago Pago, Apia, Nadi, Suva, Honiara, Nauru, Tarawa, Majuro, Ponape, Guam, Manila, Kagoshima, Okinawa, Hong Kong, Taipei, and Singapore.

P5 Traditional housing common in Kiribati Some of the houses in Kiribati have thatch roofs covered with black pastil. Betio is much hotter than Majuro and the traditional houses are better designed to keep cool, and are rather less expensive than importing most of the materials needed for building a ripalle-style house.

Journal 9/2/1994

P1 Cleaning up Majuro Robert Kendall pumped contaminated PCB fluid from old transformers into drums for off-island disposal. Jim Emerson checked the drums. Both work for CET Environmental, a Seattle company that the US EPA contracted to assist with the Majuro, Ebeye and Jaluit PCB clean up.

P10 Tug runs aground trying to save fishing boat What was expected to be a straightforward salvage operation tuned into a minor disaster for the Ministry of Transportation, when its tug ran aground last Wednesday while trying to pull a Chinese fishing vessel off the reef on the ocean side of Rongrong Island. The tug, Wan Bwiltak, remains grounded nearby the Ting Hong longline fishing boat. “We were three minutes to Dr. Pepper time,” said local dive pro Matt Holly, who was hired to lead the salvage operation of getting the fishing boat off the reef. Holly had just connected his 100-meter, two-inch tow line to the bow of the fishing boat. Two divers who work with Holly were in an outboard boat and handed the tow line over to the tug boat operators. Within moments, the tug had backed over the tow line, wrapping it tightly around the propeller. The tug began drifting into the island with no engine power. Waves pushed it firmly aground.

P11 Senate backs $5m for Rongelap The US Senate on Thursday approved $5 million for the Rongelap Resettlement Fund, according to Senator Daniel Inouye.

P14 Major revamp changing Foreign Ministry A major reorganization at Foreign Affairs is reshaping the ministry. An indication of the change can be seen in the FY1995 budget for Foreign Affairs, scheduled to increase 19 percent over 1994, at a time when many other ministries are having their budgets trimmed. The ministry has reorganized to establish five departments: US/Inter-American Affairs, Tommy Kijiner, Russell Edwards; Asia and Pacific Affairs, Damian Ishoda, Timius Anien; United Nations, Raynard Gideon, Edinal Jorkan, Jakeo Relang; Canadian and European and African and Middle Eastern Affairs are vacant. In addition: Labor is supervised by Len Lenja, Immigration run by Una Watak, Drug Enforcement is run by Claude Nathan, Protocol is handled by Evangeline Enos, the administrative officer for the minister and secretary is John P. Jones, while Tibrikrik Samuel and Kalemen Jinuna are undersecretaries for administration. Phillip Muller is Minister and Jiba Kabua is Secretary.

Journal 9/2/2005

P2 RMI buys RRE store The RMI government has bought RRE’s former Long Island grocery store and subleased the property to develop a new Rairok public elementary school. RRE Chief Executive Officer Ramsey Reimers and Education Minister Wilfred Kendall signed an agreement for the plan this week.

P3 Budget balloons to record $146m Minister of Finance Brenson Wase submitted a $146.3 million national budget for fiscal year 2006 to Nitijela Wednesday this week, the largest ever considered by Nitijela. It dwarfs last year’s $116 million budget. The increase is almost all related to the US Federal Aviation Administration funding of $26 million for airport improvements.