It was just a matter of time before calls came to increase the taxes on the garment industry yet again, and whispers to that effect are now starting to circulate. One proposal is to crank up the user tax by 35 percent, from the current 3.7 percent rate to a five percent rate.

The anticipated lawsuit against the CNMI garment industry is not so much an assault upon one narrow industry. On the contrary, it represents a far more sinister act--a dastardly attack upon a small and fragile island territory: the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands,...

Saipan Chamber of Commerce president Kerry McKinney yesterday said she is hopeful that President Bill Clinton's special representative to the 902 consultations will keep an open mind and recognize the reforms carried out by the CNMI government to eliminate labor abuses.

The Public School System defended the nearly half-a-million dollars it spent on travel last year, saying it was sharply lower than in previous years.