{"id":39938,"date":"2014-06-27T04:00:34","date_gmt":"2014-06-26T18:00:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=39938"},"modified":"2014-06-27T04:00:34","modified_gmt":"2014-06-26T18:00:34","slug":"flashback-june-2006-june-2008-8","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/flashback-june-2006-june-2008-8\/","title":{"rendered":"Flashback \u2013 June 2006 – June 2008"},"content":{"rendered":"

June 27, 2006<\/strong><\/p>\n

Fund taps $1.3M of assets<\/strong>
\nThe NMI Retirement Fund board approved Friday the release of $1.3 million in investment money for pension payments this week. Fund administrator Karl T. Reyes said yesterday that the money is part of \u201cexcess\u201d funds from the NMIRF\u2019s investment portfolio. The Fund board earlier identified $14.4 million in \u201cexcess\u201d investment monies for pension use up to September this year.<\/p>\n

\u2018We will pursue govt collections\u2019<\/strong>
\nThe NMI Retirement Fund said it would soon pursue legal action\u2014either a petition for a temporary restraining order, a lawsuit, or both\u2014against the central government following the enactment of a law suspending its employer contribution to the Fund. \u201cThe board has taken the position to contest and challenge the action of the government. We are going to push through our collections with the government,\u201d said Fund board chair Joseph Reyes in an interview yesterday. The board held a special meeting Friday last week to discuss the matter. He could not say exactly when the Fund will file the restraining order or the lawsuit, saying the agency\u2019s attorneys are still working on it.<\/p>\n

June 27, 2007<\/strong><\/p>\n

CNMI offline for hours<\/strong>
\nThe CNMI went offline for hours due to an \u201cunforeseen\u201d technical problem that beleaguered Pacific Telecom, Inc. early morning yesterday and created a communication vacuum that befuddled business establishments and offices on the three islands. At 10:30am yesterday, the islands went offline losing all Internet connection and services and some cellular communications. Internet connection and services resumed at around 8pm yesterday. PTI regional marketing manager Kathryn Barry said the company worked round the clock on the connectivity issues between the CNMI and Guam.<\/p>\n

Downed voltage line causes islandwide outages<\/strong>
\nA downed high voltage primary power line in Chalan Kiya triggered island-wide outages on Saipan yesterday. Of eight electrical grids, only one was spared by outages that happened between 12:56am to 5:34am. The areas not affected were the Commonwealth Health Center, Chinatown, Navy Hill, and parts of Garapan or the Duty Free area. Commonwealth Utilities Corp. spokesperson Pamela Mathis told Saipan Tribune that a tree caused the high voltage line in the golf area behind McDonald\u2019s to fall at 12:56am. Mathis said as a result, they lost the 13-megawatt generator at Power Plant 4 in Puerto Rico instantaneously.<\/p>\n

June 27, 2008<\/strong><\/p>\n

For some workers, wages are still at $3.05 an hour<\/strong>
\nHikes in the local minimum wage have put a strain on scores of businesses in the Commonwealth, yet labor activists report some are skirting the recent increases by secretly paying workers less than the law requires. \u201cWe wish this wasn\u2019t happening but we know for a fact that it is,\u201d said Irene Tantiado, president of the Coalition of United Workers, a local labor group. Informants have reported that at least three restaurants, a major construction company and a private security company on Saipan are paying workers less than the current minimum wage, she said, adding that it is likely many more violators of the law remain hidden.<\/p>\n

US Army, NMI to ink community covenant<\/strong>
\nThe U.S. Army and local officials will formalize their support for the Commonwealth\u2019s soldiers, other service members, and their families by signing the Army Community Covenant next week. The Covenant is \u201cdesigned to develop and foster effective government and community partnership with the Army in improving the quality of life for soldiers, other servicemembers and their families both at the current duty station and as they transfer from state to state and deployment,\u201d according to information from the Army. The Covenant is an Army initiative, and intended to be hosted and led by the community. It is a formal commitment of support by the sate and local community to the soldiers, other servicemembers in active duty, guard and reserve. The document is being signed at every installation across the country. The CNMI signing ceremony will be held on Saturday, July 5, 2008, starting at 10am, at the American Memorial Park amphitheater.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

June 27, 2006 Fund taps $1.3M of assets The NMI Retirement Fund board approved Friday…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[26,866,259,90],"class_list":["post-39938","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news","tag-cnmi","tag-irene-tantiado","tag-lawsuit","tag-puerto-rico"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39938","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\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39938"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39938\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39938"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39938"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39938"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}