FLASHBACK – August 3, 2011

Fewer patrol cars for fiscal 2000[/B]

Patrol car operations for fiscal year 2000 may be affected after the budget for car lease has been cut from $1.1 million to just over $800,000, according to the Department of Public Safety. The Office of Budget and Management has also drastically reduced the department’s budget for fuel to $18,000 for FY 2000 from the current appropriation of $147,000. DPS burns approximately $13,000 worth of fuel every month. Maintenance of patrol cars alone costs $50,000 a year. The leases for patrol cars will expire in December 1999.

Despite a slight improvement in tourist arrivals, most of the businesses on the island could still barely survive the effects of Asia’s financial crisis, with earnings just enough to maintain the day-to-day operation. “It is still a roller coaster ride for most of us,” said acting Saipan Chamber of Commerce president Gregg Kresge. The assessment on how business on the island are coping with the prolonged economic slowdown was conducted through a telephone survey among Chamber members last month. The survey was conducted to help the business sector in presenting a position paper in Washington D.C. for the scheduled U.S. Congress oversight hearing in September.

SGMA to take action against erring members[/B]

In response to report of alleged work and entry violations by one of its members, the Saipan Garment Manufacturers Association, through acting chair Richard A. Pierce, said the group is continuously monitoring member-factories on the island. He also assured that actions will be taken against members who are found to be violating CNMI and federal laws. “First SGMA and the committees that operate within the oversight of its Code of Conduct are always active. Currently, we have three factories that are being investigated for possible violations of the Code, as a part of our normal work,” he said in a statement yesterday

The Northern Marianas College became a land grant institution in November 1986. In April 1999, the former NMC Agriculture and Life Sciences (ALS) Unit was reorganized and renamed the CNMI Cooperative Research, Extension, and Education Service (CNMI-CREES). The newly reorganized components of the division are agricultural research and extension, family and consumer sciences, and classroom teaching. By combining the agricultural research and extension, NMC will: 1) promote multidisciplinary teams to overcome important problems faced by CNMI farmers; 2) improve the level of technical competence of the extension staff, and 3) better focus the efforts of the scientists on high priority research problems.

‘Prioritize teaching materials'[/B]

House Speaker Heinz S. Hofschneider said a cursory examination of the actual needs of the Public School System would immediately make apparent what it sorely needs at the moment: Textbooks, teaching materials, and school equipment. Hence, he said it would make more sense for any additional funding for PSS to go toward the purchase of these materials, rather than salary hikes for teachers-at least for the moment. “I think that one needs to go down to the schools and see what the inadequacies of those classrooms are and, based on that, we can all agree that priorities are in the classroom materials and the teaching tools, way above the need to really push for a salary increase at this time,” Hofschneider said.

All Filipino citizens-overseas contract workers and U.S. permanent residents-in the Northern Marianas are reminded that the Philippine Consulate General has started the registration of eligible voters for the upcoming 2004 national elections in the country. The Philippine Consulate General in the CNMI, however, explained that Filipino immigrants-green card holders-who would register under the country’s Republic Act 9189, or the Absentee Voting Act of 2003, are required to resume actual physical permanent residence in the Philippines within three years after they have voted. This means that Filipino immigrants who would vote in absentia in the May 10, 2204 elections have three years-or approximately until the year 2007-to resume permanent residence in the Philippines.