Natural Resources (Oh, yeah, the CNMI too)

S.2739 was signed, by Pres. George Bush. Hello U.S. immigration control. No time to check for his comments yet. Later

It's later

I should have left it at that. The White House press release:

On Thursday, May 8, 2008, the President signed into law:

S. 2739, the "Consolidated Natural Resources Act of 2008," which designates the 106,000-acre Wild Sky Wilderness in Washington State; designates three new National Heritage Areas; expands several national parks; authorizes funding for specified water projects; modifies two existing energy programs; applies U.S. immigration law to the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands; and grants the Commonwealth a non-voting delegate to the U.S. House of Representatives.

That's it. No additional comment. The only news report seemed to come from the Associated Press. The same story or an abbreviated version was in a dozen papers or television stations I checked. That includes papers who have done investigative pieces on Saipan and the Marianas like the New York Times and the Washington Post. The Wall Street Journal had nothing.

Chinese investors

But the search wasn't a total loss. I ran across this story from Radio Australia. Amazing, some Chinese investors are looking for business-as-usual at this late date:

Luo Xiadong, director of the Chinese Economic Development Association, says some investors from mainland China want to do business in the Northern Marianas.

But he says they are holding off their plans pending the move to federalise the islands' immigration system.....

He says the investors want to bring in more Chinese workers to the islands.