Local News
![Commerce Department director Keniseli Lafaele [SN file photo]](https://samoanews.com/sites/default/files/styles/teaser/public/field/image/Lafaele%206495_12.jpg?itok=9jOUxjQu "Commerce Department director Keniseli Lafaele [SN file photo]")
Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — The US Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is joining its local counterparts participating in the three-day 2018 Business Festival, or BizFest, which opens today at Suigaula o le Atuvasa in Utulei and the event is expected to attract many more visitors with the...
Pago Page, AMERICAN SAMOA — Local residents who were impacted by Tropical Storm Gita but have questions or are in need of help with disaster assistance can get answers or referrals at the Disaster Recovery Center (DRC), which is jointly operated by the US Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)...
![[l-r] ASG Office of Political Status, Constitutional Review and Federal Relations executive director, Tapaau Dr. Daniel Aga; Manu’a District Governor Laolagi F.S. Vaeao; and Western District Governor Fuamatu J.V. Fuamatu appeared recently during a Senate Rules Committee hearing on a House Joint Resolution seeking to increase from two to three, the number of Tualauta faipule in the House. [photo: FS]](https://samoanews.com/sites/default/files/styles/teaser/public/field/image/ASG%20leaders.jpg?itok=j4AL_WMX "[l-r] ASG Office of Political Status, Constitutional Review and Federal Relations executive director, Tapaau Dr. Daniel Aga; Manu’a District Governor Laolagi F.S. Vaeao; and Western District Governor Fuamatu J.V. Fuamatu appeared recently during a Senate Rules Committee hearing on a House Joint Resolution seeking to increase from two to three, the number of Tualauta faipule in the House. [photo: FS]")
Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — Tapaau Dr. Daniel Aga; shared with the Senate Rules Committee a “paper” on three options dealing with reapportionment of the local House of Representatives based on the “One Man One Vote” principle. (See Samoa News Apr. 4 edition for details.)
The committee was holding...
![[SN file photo]](https://samoanews.com/sites/default/files/styles/teaser/public/field/image/Pago%20Dist%20Court%20014_105.jpeg?itok=eGhLTian "[SN file photo]")
Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — A Customs agent who allegedly used his relative’s post office box to receive a shipment of marijuana has been slapped with three felony drug charges.
Lagona Tigilau is being charged with unlawful possession of marijuana, unlawful possession of methamphetamine, and...
![Chief Justice Michael Kruse [SN file photo]](https://samoanews.com/sites/default/files/styles/teaser/public/field/image/Kruse_0723_13.jpg?itok=dOeyB5b6 "Chief Justice Michael Kruse [SN file photo]")
Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — Chief Justice Michael Kruse has taken under advisement a motion by attorney William Olson, asking the court to set bail for his client, Thomas Siaumau, who is being held in custody without bail. The defense attorney argues that bail should be set while the government is...
![[SN file photo]](https://samoanews.com/sites/default/files/styles/teaser/public/field/image/EOB_1.jpeg?itok=G8AMz5NY "[SN file photo]")
Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — A security deposit of $10,000 will be required for applicants who are issued a license to operate a money transfer business in American Samoa, under new regulations proposed by the Lolo Administration through legislation introduced in the Fono last week.
The Money...
![Dozens of inquiries have poured into Samoa News about the shortage of milk around the territory. Some storeowners are limiting the purchase of milk to WIC mothers only, as newborns and infants on the program are being considered top priority. See story for details. [photo: google.com]](https://samoanews.com/sites/default/files/styles/teaser/public/field/image/milk.jpg?itok=C6dqrzov "Dozens of inquiries have poured into Samoa News about the shortage of milk around the territory. Some storeowners are limiting the purchase of milk to WIC mothers only, as newborns and infants on the program are being considered top priority. See story for details. [photo: google.com]")
Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — When Samoa News walked into a small mom-and-pop store on the east side last week to purchase some milk, we were told by the storeowners that milk purchases are now limited to only those mothers who present checks/ coupons from the Women, Infants, and Children (WIC)...
![[SN file photo]](https://samoanews.com/sites/default/files/styles/teaser/public/field/image/DPS%20office_5.jpg?itok=VpsxsIIN "[SN file photo]")
Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — “Sexual harassment is not a news issue. There are other important issues you should go investigate and write stories about.”
This was the response from Police Commissioner Le’i Sonny Thompson when Samoa News asked him about an alleged sexual harassment case involving a...
![Li’avaa Moevao, the new Chief of Customs giving brief remarks during a Mar. 29, 2018 port users meeting, where he was introduced to the private sector. [Courtesy photo]](https://samoanews.com/sites/default/files/styles/teaser/public/field/image/Liavaa%20Moevao.jpg?itok=zFKgpdPw "Li’avaa Moevao, the new Chief of Customs giving brief remarks during a Mar. 29, 2018 port users meeting, where he was introduced to the private sector. [Courtesy photo]")
Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — ASG Treasury Department has hired a new chief of Customs, someone who has more than two decades of enforcement experience and has also filled the post of deputy chief of Customs.
The move comes as the government aims to further strengthen the enforcement of Customs laws...
![In this Feb. 16, 2011 file photo then-Sen. Daniel Akaka, D-Hawaii, speaks during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington. Former U.S. Sen. Daniel Akaka, the humble and gracious statesman who served in Washington with aloha for more than three and a half decades, died Thursday, April 5, 2018, at the age of 93, sources tell the Star-Advertiser. He had been hospitalized with an illness. [AP Photo/Alex Brandon, file]](https://samoanews.com/sites/default/files/styles/teaser/public/field/image/AKAKA_0.jpeg?itok=BtyTeuwc "In this Feb. 16, 2011 file photo then-Sen. Daniel Akaka, D-Hawaii, speaks during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington. Former U.S. Sen. Daniel Akaka, the humble and gracious statesman who served in Washington with aloha for more than three and a half decades, died Thursday, April 5, 2018, at the age of 93, sources tell the Star-Advertiser. He had been hospitalized with an illness. [AP Photo/Alex Brandon, file]")
Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — Gov. Lolo Matalasi Moliga described the late former US Sen. Daniel Kahikina Akaka as “a true friend and a patriarch to American Samoa” while Congresswoman Aumua Amata said Akaka was a “gracious and a humble Statesman.”
Akaka died last Thursday, Apr. 5 in Honolulu at the...