Archive - Apr 3, 2012

There are 10 fautasi in the 2012 Flag Day tu’uga va’a. They are: Le Fetu Ao, from Faga’alu, Matasaua from the District of Manu’a, Nu’uuli from Nu’uuli, The Sharks from Samoana High School, Ise’ula from Fagatogo, Aeto from Pago Pago, Fealofani Samoa lll from Fagasa, Fua’o from Vatia, Paepae O Ulupo’o from Aua, and the Tolotolo O Tama Uli from Salelologa Savai’i.

We begin our GHC Reid and Coors Light Coverage with Fagasa’s Fealofani Samoa lll.

Fealofani Samoa lll

Not unexpected, in a unified front, members of the private sector testified yesterday before the joint hearing by the House Budget and Appropriations and House Health/LBJ Hospital committee opposing the administration’s proposed tax hikes to fund the $10 million appropriation bill for the off island medical referral program.They referred to the sources of funding of the bill as ill advised and ill conceived ideas.

The American Samoa Government is projecting to collect more than $10 million under the proposed hikes in excise tax on beer, alcohol and tobacco; a hike in business license fees; a new $2,000 corporate franchise tax and a new wage tax of 4% to fund the $10 million appropriation bill for LBJ Medical Center’s off-island medical referral program.

For many years, the Phi Theta Kappa (PTK) Honor Society has held a special place in campus life at the American Samoa Community College (ASCC). However, few may realize that the PTK is in fact part of a nationwide organization, a fact that will come into sharp focus when the Society holds its 2012 Annual Convention on April 12-14 in Nashville, Tennessee.

With water at Utulei Beach Park in the ‘Red,’ which means — the American Samoa Environmental Protection Agency (AS-EPA) has deemed the water in that area not safe for swimming — the Samoana High School Ocean Swimming/Ocean Science Physical Education class has been forced out of the water, forcing the head instructor of the American Samoa Aquatics Agency (ASAA) Zero Iaulualo, to teach the class on land.

Claims by Public Safety Officer Motu Tafaovale that Assistant Attorney General Camille Philippe allegedly interfered while police were carrying out their duties in an incident two weekends ago did not sit well with the Department of Public Safety’s Deputy Commissioner Leiseau Laumoli.

Another increase in all petroleum products sold in American Samoa went into effect Sunday, Apr. 1, when the new maximum allowable price (MAP), or wholesale price was released over the weekend by the ASG Office of Petroleum Management (OPM).

OPM’s petroleum officer Sione Kava said the new MAP for gasoline stands at $4.19 per gallon — an increase of 7 cents per gallon.

The new MAP now places retail price at gas stations at just below $4.60 per gallon, while one gas station on the Western district was yesterday selling at $4.61.

LOMITUSI FILIGA

Chief Justice Michael Kruse in handing down sentencing on Friday for Lomitusi Filiga, who had been found guilty of being armed with an unlicensed firearm, noted the government should enforce the gun law that is already in place.

“I’ve seen funerals parade right in front of the court house, (Kruse did a demonstration, holding his fingers like a gun) boom boom boom and nothing is done about it,” said the CJ.

Former acting executive director of the U’unai Legal Service Corporation was sentenced yesterday at the federal court in St. Louis, Missouri to five (5) months in prison for his role in the theft of nearly $160,000 in federal grant funds from the now-defunct non-profit American Samoa legal services corporation, U’una’i.

David Wagner, 49, was also ordered by U.S. District Court Judge Carol E. Jackson to serve five months of home detention and three years of supervised release, according to the Justice Department and court records.

Last year, as the government of Bahrain violently suppressed an Arab Spring protest movement, an unlikely champion of the small Gulf nation emerged on Capitol Hill in Washington: Democratic Rep. Eni Faleomavaega, the delegate from American Samoa.