The RMIS Jelmae, Sea Patrol’s new patrol vessel, arrived to a big welcome ceremony at Delap Dock Wednesday afternoon this week. Captain Dennis Jibas and his crew sailed the vessel from Australia over the past 10 days. The vessel was funded by the Australian government as part of its Pacific Patrol Boat program.
The US-Israel assaults on Iran and Iran’s response have set world fuel prices skyrocketing. Fuel stations in Majuro — both the Mobil-supplies stations and Pacific International Inc. — raised their prices two times in the past three weeks. The Mobil stations went from under seven dollars per gallon for both gas and diesel to $7.65 […]
Friday March 13 was a big day for the Utrok community: It marked the first distribution of food purchased through the Compact of Free Association’s Extraordinary Needs Distribution program. Known as “END,” the Compact Trust Fund-funded program is injecting $20 million to 11 atolls and single islands, including Utrok. Utrok Nitijela Member Hiroshi Yamamura and […]
GIFF JOHNSON There is often a disconnect between international donors and the potential recipients who need development aid which makes it impossible for funding to be delivered. This can be for a variety of reasons, but often — particularly for small island nations such as RMI — the donors may have one set of priorities, […]
Power consumers money will now buy less each time they purchase cash power, following MEC’s third tariff increase over the past 18 months. The latest rate hike went into effect on February 9. It was not announced in a public way other than a post on the MEC website. While the company puts out media […]
GIFF JOHNSON A modest new photograph book featuring images of the Marshall Islands, Micronesia and Palau has been published by the prolific photojournalist Floyd K. Takeuchi of Honolulu. The book, “7 Degrees North,” is the author’s “love letter to…a time when nature’s beauty defined the day, and to a proud people, who lived pretty much […]
GIFF JOHNSON The multiple drug busts and discovery of “narco boats” washed into Pacific Islands demonstrates that the Pacific — and in particular the South Pacific — is a highway for drug distribution to Australia and New Zealand. From the beginning of January through February 12, law enforcement officials have confiscated over 14 tons of […]
A dispute involving land at Laura High School is moving toward a possible trial later this year. At a hearing Monday this week in the High Court, Judge Anne Bodley set out a schedule for preparations for a trial over the next two months with a hearing to address motions filed by either or both […]
GIFF JOHNSON Where to start a conversation about Professor Andrew Garrod, who died at age 87 last week in New Hampshire after an extended illness? Andrew touched quite literally thousands of people in the Marshall Islands over the nearly 30 years that his presence was felt here. And hundreds of those were the young people […]
GIFF JOIHNSON Two new Japan International Cooperation Agency volunteers who arrived earlier this month in Majuro bring to 17 the total number of Japanese volunteers working on Majuro and Ebeye. Sachiko Kutsuma, a Japanese language teacher, and Yasuhiro Fukuda, a food processing and manufacturing specialist, are mid-way through their orientation program before heading to their […]
