Flashback — Feb. 2006-Feb. 2008

‘Not ready yet to lift surcharge’[/B]

The Fitial administration is not ready yet to remove the 3.5-cent fuel surcharge being imposed by the Commonwealth Utilities Corp. on its customers. Acting Gov. Timothy P. Villagomez said Friday that the leadership remains committed to lifting the surcharge but this may take some time. “We’re still [committed] to get rid of the fuel surcharge. We’ll update you on that in the next month or so,” he said. At this time, he said, “I’m more concerned about the CUC engines.” Villagomez said repairs must be done on all engines to ensure that they work and generate power efficiently.

Here’s a piece of good news for the Northern Marianas College: The Pell Grant Program has reverted the college’s status to “advance status,” which means all is well again, at least in the administration of this grant program. The status, said NMC president Tony V. Deleon Guerrero on Friday, means that NMC-screened student grant applications would be presumed to be correct before federal review and that relevant funds would be advanced to NMC students on a more timely basis. “After many months of hard work, revamping our own internal systems, and negotiating with federal Department of Education officials, Northern Marianas College’s administration of federal Pell Grants has returned to normal,” Guerrero said.
[B] February 5, 2007

NMC on probation
[/B] The Northern Marianas College is under probation from the Western Association of Schools and Colleges Accreditation, but NMC acting president Danny Wyatt said its accreditation is not threatened as long as the college complies with the recommendations within a two-year period. Wyatt said the college was informed it has been placed under probation by WASC and given two years to comply with certain recommendations through a letter he received late last week. The letter stated that the accredited status of NMC continues during the probation period and its accreditation is not threatened as long as it satisfactorily addresses the recommendations.

Although the federal wage hike bill covering the CNMI has passed the U.S. Senate, there remains a hope that it will be further amended to consider the plight of the CNMI community, said CNMI House speaker Oscar M. Babauta. Babauta, who will join the CNMI delegation in Washington, D.C. next week to speak on local immigration issues, said Saturday that the U.S. House may agree to the creation of a federal wage review board in the CNMI, which would give the island economy some consideration in setting its own wage rate.

NMI spending less on education
[/B] With a budget that has not significantly changed since 1998, the Commonwealth is spending less and less on each child that goes to a public school on the islands. According to the Public School System, the general cost of sending a child to a public school has shrunk by over 6 percent versus the amount it used to spend to subsidize a student’s education in Fiscal Year 2001. With a student population of 10,742 currently enrolled in CNMI public schools from Kindergarten to grade 12, the Public School System can only ante up some $3,333 per student, which is $262 less than the $3,602 spent on each child in 2001.

Until now, not a single worker has inquired with the Department of Labor about the expired 200 checks and 150 plane tickets owed to nonresident workers that remain uncollected at Labor. Labor Administrative Division director Rose Ada-Hocog told Saipan Tribune yesterday that, based on her verification with the Division of Immigration’s Border Management System, some of these workers are still here in the CNMI. Ada-Hocog said that since Saipan Tribune published the news about the unclaimed checks and tickets on Jan. 18, 2008, no one has come to her office to follow up on the checks or the plane tickets.