AS YOU watch today’s parade and enjoy the barbecue and cold beverages, we want to wish you all a very happy Liberation Day. This is one of the rare times during the year when families from all over our island gather to picnic and party, celebrating the July 1944 United States invasion and re-capture of Guam from Japanese occupation during World War II.

Marianas Variety is Guam’s locally owned regional newspaper, bringing readers – as the name promises – a variety of news and views from Guam, our region, the nation and the world. We decided to put out a special parade version today to give you a sample of what we regularly offer.

You’ll find some of the news stories of the day, with local and regional news in the front section followed by international and national news, business, lifestyle and entertainment. And sports! We are really proud of our coverage of local sports which anchors the back page of the paper every day. We know a lot of people who read Variety from back to front just because they are sports fans who want to get the sports news first.

Every edition of the Variety is compiled by a dedicated team of reporters and photographers, backed up by a talented staff of graphic and layout artists, copy readers, marketing specialists and a professional staff of press operators and circulation people who produce and deliver each paper.

Many of you may not know that the Guam Variety is completely put together and printed here on Guam. We have a sister paper, the Marianas Variety News and Views, which is published on Saipan, where our company got its start in 1972. This is our 40th anniversary year!

In addition to our news coverage, we provide various points of view in the Forum section, where you can also find the editorial view of the paper. Some of our regular weekly columnists include Pam Eastlick, the Star Lady who runs the Planetarium at the University of Guam; Dr. Vincent Akimoto, a local family physician who occasionally shares his column, Doctor's Notes, with other healthcare professionals; Dave Davis, who has been writing his Outsider Perspective for many years and never fails to stir things up; Elizabeth Hamilton, an educator whose weekly column offers tips on raising your children well; the whimsical Flights by Mar-Vic Cagurangan; and Dr. Michael Bevacqua from UOG, who writes of the Chamorro people and their history on Guam.

Of course we also feature columns from some of our political leaders which, while on hiatus during the current election campaign, will return to our pages in November. We will sometimes run guest opinions such as the one today by Don Farrell, and we welcome submissions by anyone who would like to express some thoughts.