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Even before Super Typhoon Sinlaku battered the Northern Mariana Islands and disrupted fragile supply chains, businesses across the islands were already struggling with rising costs of doing business, especially with surging fuel and utility charges, worker shortages, and the general difficulty of obtaining imported products, not to mention shipping delays due to competition with the enormous tonnage of disaster aid coming to the islands.

MAJURO, Marshall Islands — The third quarterly distribution of universal basic income to every citizen in the Marshall Islands happened May 28, as tens of thousands received a US $200 payment.

In September 2025, the Navy issued a Request for Proposals to acquire up to 2,400 housing units on Guam over the next seven years — roughly 1,300 units by June 2028 and another 1,100 by June 2032, structured as leases, lease-to-purchase arrangements, outright purchases, or “other transaction structures.” The headline numbers are large enough that the procurement has been read across the island as a generalized opportunity: a rising tide that will lift hotels, condominiums, dormant subdivisions, and raw land alike.

There’s a reason Benjamin “BJ” Cruz is the Guam public auditor and has been running the Guam Office of Public Accountability since 2018.

As I write this column, a number of things come to mind.

One month after Super Typhoon Sinlaku passed through the region, Guam’s commercial supply chain has rebounded to full operational capacity, though local distributors continue to navigate lingering logistics challenges.

There can be no worse situation than the need to medically evacuate a seriously ill family member from the islands in a hurry. For those who can or must utilize an urgent air ambulance flight there are options.

In Koror alone, there are about a dozen laundromats — a few within a five-minute walk of each other — driven by the country's tourism boom, an expanding hospitality sector, and a pandemic-era pivot toward residential customers.