[B]JANUARY 14, 1999<\/p>\n
Chamber hopes Cohen will acknowledge CNMI reforms[\/B]
\nSaipan Chamber of Commerce president Kerry McKinney yesterday said she is hopeful that President Bill Clinton\u2019s special representative to the 902 consultations will keep an open mind and recognize the reforms carried out by the CNMI government to eliminate labor abuses. Edward B. Cohen, the U.S. President\u2019s representative, will be arriving here on January 18 to discuss transition to federalization of local and minimum wage. The CNMI government panel, however, wants to tackle a different agenda which include immigration, minimum wage and customs associated with the local garment industry, economic assistance, waiver of matching requirement for Covenant funds, sovereignty over submerged lands, military land use, 200-mile economic zone, and non-voting delegate status in the U.S. Congress.<\/p>\n
[B]Travel expenses relatively lower, say PSS officials[\/B]
\nThe Public School System defended the nearly half-a-million dollars it spent on travel last year, saying it was sharply lower than in previous years. In 1995, PSS spent more than $1 million in federally funded trips alone. Last year\u2019s travel spending was at least 15 percent lesser than in 1997, according to acting Fiscal and Budget Officer William Matson. \u201cWe\u2019ve been frugal in our travels and very responsible. Ever since I became chairman, I was very strict with travels,\u201d said Board of Education Chairman Marja Lee Taitano. She said off-island trips are important: they bring teachers to the CNMI, send managers and principals to training and connect the islands to the outside world.<\/p>\n
[B]JANUARY 14, 2000<\/p>\n
80-MW power project junked[\/B]
\nNearly three years after spending at least half-a-million dollars, the Commonwealth Utilities Corp. yesterday abandoned the initial plan on the Saipan power project, citing continuous economic difficulties that have sent the island\u2019s electricity load growth falling. In a decision met with angry protests, CUC\u2019s board of directors voted to cancel the request for proposals for the 80-megawatt plant that was issued in 1997 to pave the way for another round of bidding\u2014this time for a 60MW generator recommended by its power consultants. The decision invalidated the offers submitted by 13 companies, including Enron which emerged on top in the last round of evaluation conducted last year by Burns & McDonnell, the private engineering firm hired by CUC amid mounting protests on its earlier choice of Marubeni-Sithe.
\n[B]
\nMore questions than answers[\/B]
\nIt was the moment of truth. And as expected, most of those in the audience did not like what they heard. But board members of the Commonwealth Utilities Corporation, while not all of them, voted on the most crucial decision on a project that has come under a storm of protests since its procurement began almost three years ago. Dozens of lawmakers, representatives of bidders and laymen attended yesterday\u2019s board meeting which decided the fate of Saipan\u2019s 80-megawatt plant, most of them leaving the conference room aghast\u2014to say the least. The discussion ended with more questions than answers on the controversial power project, which has attracted close scrutiny and aggressive lobbying by some of the bidders.<\/p>\n
[B]JANUARY 14, 2002<\/p>\n
Tic-toc, tic-toc, the timer\u2019s starting up[\/B]
\nThe clock starts ticking today as Governor-elect Juan Babauta and Lt. Governor-elect Diego Benavente take over the unenviable task of turning the moribund economy of the Commonwealth around. Both Babauta and Benavente have promised to hit the ground running. Yet even in the run-up to today\u2019s inauguration ceremony, the squeeze is already on, as the new administration will be coming into its own with a government operating on a continuing resolution. Saddled with unpaid debts and a widening deficit that threaten to hobble any attempts to get the economy off the ground, the general consensus is that it will be the economy that will make or break this incoming Republican administration.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Saipan Chamber of Commerce president Kerry McKinney yesterday said she is hopeful that President Bill Clinton\u2019s special representative to the 902 consultations will keep an open mind and recognize the reforms carried out by the CNMI government to eliminate labor abuses. Edward B. Cohen, the U.S. President\u2019s representative, will be arriving here on January 18 to discuss transition to federalization of local and minimum wage. The CNMI government panel, however, wants to tackle a different agenda which include immigration, minimum wage and customs associated with the local garment industry, economic assistance, waiver of matching requirement for Covenant funds, sovereignty over submerged lands, military land use, 200-mile economic zone, and non-voting delegate status in the U.S. Congress.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-129590","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129590","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=129590"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129590\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=129590"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=129590"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=129590"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}