Archive - Feb 24, 2012 - Article (News Story)

The foamy looking water in this photo is brine mixed with fish blood and oil that is draining from a fishing boat while it’s unloading its catch into a freezer — in this case the freezer facility is located at the StarKist Samoa cannery.

The brine (a mix of sea water & salt) is used to freeze the fish in transport. However, when the fish is unloaded, the brine has to be ‘dumped’ — right where the unloading is being done — in order for the fish to be easily transferred to the freezer(s).

 Independent Prosecutor Fa’amomoi Masaniai is defending his transferral of office equipment, including a vehicle from the Office of Independent Prosecutor (OIP) to other government agencies, saying it was done legally.

“I followed ASG guidelines when it came to Property Management, Procurement, and OMV. My office did nothing wrong and the OIP followed protocol, the statutes, and most importantly the law when it came to transferring equipment/furniture/court orders within Government Agencies.

Gov. Togiola Tulafono was informed last week by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Grants Division that removal of “all Special Conditions and Administrative Holds” for American Samoa’s fiscal year 2007 through 2009 Homeland Security Grants Program awards has been completed.

A Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps (JROTC) formal inspection is underway at this time for all of the JROTC programs at the local high schools. Conducting the inspection is a visiting team from the University of Hawaii, Manoa Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) program.

The team comprises Lieutenant Colonel Kevin McKay and Captain Jesus Cruz, along with Mr. Mark Pratt and Mr. Mark Thompson from the 8th Brigade out of Ft. Lewis Washington and Lt. Col.Mapu Jamias along with 1st Sgt. Ben Lausen from the local DAIA Office here in American Samoa.

The Senate has again rejected Gov. Togiola Tulafono’s nomination of Seiuli Elizabeth Ponausuia as director of the Health Department. The blind vote was eight in support and seven opposing the nomination — a vote of 11 out of 15 was needed for her to pass muster.

GOVERNOR APPROVES BILL AMENDING HEADLAMP REGULATIONS

Gov. Togiola Tulafono signed into law last Friday a Senate bill amending the regulations for head lamp illumination and color as well as amending the definition of “license tag” to confirm with current regulations.

The governor wrote in a letter to the Fono that the bill has been signed into law; and that it “will effectively protect the public”.

Yesterday, Thursday February 23 and today February 24, will mark the 10th year of the American Samoa National History Day’s Island-Wide History Day Competition, which is sponsored by the American Samoa Humanities Council (ASHC), that is currently taking place at Kanana Fou High School, with entries from the elementary school and high school levels that include public and private schools alike.

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Congressman Faleomavaega announced today that while on assignment in Taiwan on February 20, 2012 he met with leadership, including Grand Master Hsing Yun, at the Buddha Memorial Center in Kaohsiung City to thank the Fo Guang Shan organization for offering 2 scholarships for students from American Samoa to attend the University of the West (UWest) located in Rosemead, California, just ten minutes from Los Angeles.

Ploynesian Blue has been formally relaunched as Virgin Samoa as the airline’s 737 touched down in Apia featuring its new Virgin Australia-style livery and interior.

The airline’s 737-800, ZK-PBK Tapu’itea, flew into Samoa from Auckland yesterday, after being repainted and having its interior upgraded by Air New Zealand.

“Today we take the national airline of Samoa into the future,” CEO of Virgin Samoa Mark Pitt said.

STUDENTS and teachers at Votualevu Public School were left traumatised after they witnessed a woman die instantly from a lightning strike metres away from their classrooms yesterday afternoon.

School manager Pramendra Nath Bharos said teachers had problems containing hysterical children when they saw the woman fall after being struck by lightning.

"They were all screaming and most of them were crying and I think they will be traumatised for quite awhile because of what they saw," said Mr Bharos.