Flashback — April 2000-2004

Hopwood woes still unresolved[/B]

The mediation board of the Public School System has failed to resolve the controversy hounding the island’s lone government-run junior high school during a meeting earlier this week with the complaining teachers and Principal Lourdes Mendiola. The failure by the mediation board to address the unrest among Hopwood Junior High School teachers and administration officials forces the need for Board of Education members to convene to discuss ways to settle the dispute. During the meeting, Ms. Mendiola merely noted that her office is open for discussion with the protesting teachers as the petitioners read their letter of protest, urging the school principal’s ouster from Hopwood Junior High School.

At least the three top bidders on Saipan’s new power plant will have the chance to bag the contract to build and operate the much delayed project under a plan to be presented to the Commonwealth Utilities Corporation board next week. Members of CUC’s policy-making body have tentatively set its meeting on April 27, the first after Gov. Pedro P. Tenorio signed Public Law 12-1 which reinstated the original plan to install a plant with a capacity of up to 80 megawatts. The discussion in the forthcoming meeting will focus on possible steps that the government-owned utility corporation will undertake to deal with the change in the plan, according to CUC Board Chair Jesus T. Guerrero.
[B] April 21, 2003

Company warned about compliance[/B]

Four pending renewal applications face a tough review at the Department of Labor and Immigration following findings that the applicants’ employer has been in violation of the local preference law. DOLI hearing officer Jerry Cody said in a recent administrative order that Widwest Trading Corp. has not been employing full-time resident workers since May 2002. “The company has been out of compliance for the past 11 months and remains out of compliance as of this date,” said Cody in his April 3 order. “The company appears to be in continuing violation with respect to these four existing nonresident employees.”

Apparently, Northern Marianas College president Dr. Kenneth E. Wright has yet to be introduced to the college’s website. Eight months after Wright assumed office as the college’s new president, the institution’s website has yet to be updated to reflect this change. In fact, it was only recently that the website removed the name of former NMC president Joaquin Sablan as president. Wright, in an interview Thursday, said he is aware of the situation.

One-two punch at the pump
[/B] Shell gas stations on Saipan increased their prices by 5 cents a gallon after midnight today, two days after their sole competitor in the CNMI—Mobil—increased pump prices at the same rate. As this developed, House Rep. Ray Yumul said he is looking at possibly introducing a measure that would cap gas prices in the CNMI. He said he would also consider reintroducing a divorcement measure that would prohibit gas suppliers from engaging in retail. Yumul said he is presently working with an economist, who would conduct a research partly to determine whether or not Shell and Mobil have engaged in price gouging Both Mobil and Shell have raised gas prices by a total of 22 cents in less then four months.

The steady increase in the price of crude oil in the world market has started to exact a toll on the operations of the region’s main air carrier and could ultimately have an impact on its fare structure. Continental Micronesia is keeping mum on whether the recent spate of fuel price increases would amount to an increase in its airfares any time soon. But Wally Dias, the airline’s vice president for sales and marketing, said this is a possibility given the direct effect oil pricing has on any airline’s operational costs. “Aviation fuel is a byproduct of crude oil and thus is impacted by the same forces increasing gasoline prices,” said Dias in an email to the Saipan Tribune.