FLASHBACK March 17, 1999-2004

EIC trickles out soon[/B]

The government is close to releasing portion of the $6.2 million in Earned Income Credit to over 2,500 recipients after Gov. Pedro P. Tenorio convened his financial advisers to finalize a payment plan for the release of the long delayed EIC checks. In a meeting yesterday, the governor instructed his finance managers to begin disbursing the checks as soon as possible even on an installment basis if money is still short to pay the full amount. “A lot of people are concerned about EIC and what we are doing is drawing up recommendations so we can start distributing some money to people entitle to receive the benefit,” Tenorio told reporters.

Under pressure to fast-track construction of the new prison, the House of Representatives yesterday approved Senate amendment to a legislation appropriating close to $23 million in capital improvement project funds to set in motion a massive infrastructure plan in the CNMI. Members voted unanimously to pass House Bill 11-380 despite whining by some representatives frustrated over non-inclusion of pet projects in the list from their respective precincts. It now heads to Gov. Pedro P. Tenorio for signing into law after nearly a month since House Ways and Means Committee chair Rep. Karl T. Reyes filed the bill in efforts to steer the local economy from the worsening impact of the Asian recession.

Is it legal or not?[/B]

The Senate Executive Appointments and Governmental Investigations Committee is expected to deliberate tomorrow on the fate of Customs and Quarantine Special Assistant Frank I. Taitano’s nomination to the Civil Service Commission board, amid two conflicting legal opinions entered by the Governor’s office and the Office of the Senate Legal Counsel. Committee Chairman Joaquin G. Adriano said yesterday he will gather his members to decide on the possibility of submitting a certified question to clarify the issue, or if the committee should just ask Gov. Juan N. Babauta to recall Taitano’s nomination. Quoting the Senate legal counsel’s analysis of the nomination, Adriano said the Senate cannot move forward with Taitano’s confirmation because it would violate Commonwealth Code § 8111.

Marianas High School students joined at least 130 Japanese cultural exchange program participants in a whole day of fun Saturday to mark the 17th Annual MHS-Seisa Gakuen Cultural Exchange Program. With this year’s theme, “Let’s Build A Friendship Bridge Between Marianas and Seisa,” students from both schools rendered performances during the event, which kicked off at 9am and lasted up to 4pm yesterday. Entertainment program coordinator Roxanne Diaz said the event was held to strengthen the bond between MHS and Seisa Gakuen students, who will be paired during the three-day student cultural exchange program.

Parental choice of schools opposed[/B]

The Public School System is opposing the passage of a House bill that would allow parents to freely choose which school within the system to send their children. Associate education commissioner Rita A. Sablan, in a letter to the Legislature, said allowing parents to move their children from school to school “in search of the ‘best’ school will reduce PSS to a game of musical chairs.” “We must say no to this House bill [14-94],” she said. “I see this bill [as having] very negative [effect] on [PSS]. The bottom line [is] this bill is one more way for resources to be directed away from keeping the best public system in place to giving options for more private schools to operate without much regard to the interest of the public.”

The Western Association of Schools and Colleges has warned Northern Marianas College anew on its accreditation, in view of a pending Senate bill proposing to place the college under the Civil Service Commission. Barbara Beno, executive director of WASC’s Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges, said in a March 11, 2004 letter to NMC Board of Regents chair Kimberlyn King-Hinds that the commission has not changed its requirements on the matter of institutional autonomy. She warned that, if enacted, Senate Bill 14-22 would place NMC “significantly out of compliance with [ACCJC] standards, as well as limit or severely constrain its ability to adhere to some of the other standards that assume appropriate professional training, provide for peer review of performance, and establish some criteria for hiring for job assignment and for evaluation.”