FLASHBACK -Mar. 31, 2012

Compensation law eases plight of Bangladeshis[/B]

Fifteen Bangladeshi nationals will be repatriated next week under a recently implemented law that allows the government to provide up to $3,000 in compensation to nonresident workers awaiting awarded monetary damages. They will be the first batch of displaced workers to receive financial assistance from the CNMI set forth in Public Law 11-66 which was signed last month in another attempt to deal with growing number of labor cases on the island and stave off federal takeover of local labor and immigration. According to Labor and Immigration Sec. Mark Zachares, the 15 Bangladeshi workers, who were employed as security guards and abandoned by their employers, would receive money equivalent to three-month salary and a one-way plane ticket back to their country.

The Department of Public Safety has added its voice to the growing support from government agencies over a proposed legislation restricting the stay of Freely Associated States citizens in the CNMI, saying it is a step to curb rising crimes involving their nationals on the island. Public Safety Commissioner Charles W. Ingram said the bill addresses important “nondiscriminatory issues” affecting citizens from FSM, Palau and Marshalls and their impact on local resources and infrastructure. The department has seen “an increasingly large percent of reported cases committed” by FAS citizens here, eating up a chunk of its operations and budget, he said in a letter to Rep. Melvin Faisao, sponsor of House Bill 11-294 or the Habitual Residency Act.

Teno’s decision on 80MW project out soon[/B]

The fate of the controversial Saipan power project will soon be known as Gov. Pedro P. Tenorio pledged yesterday to act immediately on legislation restoring the mothballed 80-megawatt proposed plant. The chief executive said his legal counsel has reviewed Senate Bill 12-19 and that he expects to decide whether to sign or veto it by today or early next week. The measure, offered by Senate Floor Leader Pete P. Reyes, will force the Commonwealth Utilities Corporation to reinstate the original proposal and scrap a plan to re-bid a new power plant with a 60-MW capacity.

Thirty-year-old Hope brags that she would not provide enumerators accurate answers when she is interviewed for the United States Constitution-mandated periodic gathering of population data. Hope, who is a mother of two U.S.-born children, is one of the group of people who does not take census seriously on belief that the government’s effort is nothing more than statistics. Like other unaware people, Hope is oblivious of the reasons why a complete accounting of every individual is conducted throughout the United States every 10 years, according to Washington Census 2000 Advisor Tasha Boone.

‘NMC administrators are underpaid’ [/B]

Northern Marianas College administrators are getting lower wages compared to the median pay that their counterparts are getting in other community colleges in the U.S. Latest statistics presented by NMC president Kenneth Wright during Friday’s Board of Regents meeting showed that some NMC administrators would need up to 72-percent increase in their salaries to meet the median. The NMC came up with its own computation based on the 2002 statistics released by the Chronicle of Higher Education, which originated from the reports of 1,444 public and private colleges and universities nationwide.

The Division of Environmental Quality disclosed Friday it issued several notices of violations to different establishments-including the Ada Gymnasium and a bottled water company-in connection with its enforcement of drinking water regulations. DEQ public information specialist Therese Hocog said Aqua Best, a bottled water company in San Antonio, violated regulations when its water system tested positive for coliform bacteria in January. The agency, however, only issued the citation early this month. The citation showed that two of five samples from Aqua Best’s public water system tested positive for the bacteria. Regulations require public water systems collecting less then 40 samples per month to have “no more than one positive total coliform bacteria sample.”