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WASHINGTON (AP) -- Eventually, the economic recovery will pick up steam - whether Barack Obama or Mitt Romney is in the White House.

That's what many economic outlooks project. And the president - and the party occupying the Oval Office - will reap some of the benefits.

But first, Obama or Romney, together with Congress, will have to pull back from the widely deplored "fiscal cliff," the politically created budget abyss facing the nation at year's end.

The issue:

Whether women have access to abortion services and birth control is a long-standing and divisive issue in politics, and it has flared up from time to time in this campaign despite the candidates' reticence to dwell on such hot-button topics.

Where they stand:

President Barack Obama supports access to abortion. His health care law requires contraceptives to be available for free for women enrolled in workplace health plans.

The American Samoa Power Authority has moved to install debit meters at homes in Aunu’u and the Manu’a Islands group.

Debit meters have been available to many on the main island of Tutuila and there have been calls from some lawmakers and others to have this service available for the Manu’a islands to help residents there monitor electric usage.

In Samoa, former ruling HRPP party MP, Moefaauo Lufilufi and his wife have been found guilty of two charges of bribery after a trial in the district court.

The couple escaped a jail sentence and were instead ordered to pay a fine 1,250 US dollars with the possibility of sending them to jail for three months if they do not pay it by the deadline issued by the court.

Moefaauo and his wife Pereise were charged by the police with bribery following a meeting of voters two days before the polling day in March last year.

Since the middle of the 20th century, American Samoans have made lives for themselves far from the shores of Tutuila and Manu’a. The proud, strong descendants of ocean navigators now live in every state of the United States, and countries around the world.

(The "Samoan diaspora" has seen the families of both Samoas flung far and wide, and knowing that, a photographer named Frederic Koehler Sutter several years ago found and photographed the Samoan people on every continent except Antarctica.)

The family violence forum held last week for the gubernatorial candidates by the Multi-Disciplinary Team (MDT) against family violence was history in the making for American Samoa, said Ipu Avegalio-Lefiti Vice Chairperson of the MDT.

“I was emotionally moved to watch and listen to history in the making... the American Samoa MDT has broken the silence and brought down the final remaining walls on all the family violence issues, including elder abuse,” she said.

Three cruise ship are scheduled to call into the Port of Pago Pago for October with the first set to sail into port, Tuesday, Oct. 2. The ‘Rhapsody of the Seas’ arrives around 8 a.m. from Lahaina, Hawai’i and departs around 5 p.m. for Apia, Samoa, according to the American Samoa Visitor’s Bureau schedule.

The cruise ship, which made its maiden voyage to American Samoa in April this year will spend the Southern Hemisphere summer based out of Sydney, said Visitor’s Bureau executive director David Vaeafe.

The issue:

Unless Congress acts, the trust funds that support Social Security will run out of money in 2033, according to the trustees who oversee the retirement and disability program. At that point, Social Security would collect only enough tax revenue each year to pay about 75 percent of benefits. That benefit cut wouldn't sit well with the millions of older Americans who rely on Social Security for most of their income.

Hey, wait a minute, how come Samoa is not playing in the Rugby Championship?

In what is claimed to be a first, a Samoan community volunteer in the United States of Americahas had a public school in Sacramento City renamed in her honour.

The former Jedidiah Smith Elementary School has been renamedin a unanimous decision by the Sacramento City Unified School District (SCUSD) as the Leata’ata Floyd Elementary School.