FLASHBACK – Feb. 11, 2012

Feb. 11, 1999

Tenorio backs CPA pay cut, rules out bailout

Gov. Pedro P. Tenorio yesterday said the Commonwealth Ports Authority would have to solve its own financial troubles because the CNMI government and the Legislature will not be able to bail out the cash-strapped agency. According to Tenorio, he will support the planned 15 reduction in salaries of CPA employees for one or two years if it is the only way the ports authority can survive and avoid the massive retrenchment in the agency. The CNMI government has been having difficulty raising $5 million to $6 million to pay for salaries of more than 4,000 employees under government payroll.

Hofschneider defends NMC probe

The ongoing oversight hearing of the House Committee on Health, Education and Welfare opens debate on whether the Northern Marianas College is on trial with its president, Agnes McPhetres, taking the heat. “It will be irresponsible for me as the head of the committee to use this for publicity. I don’t need that and this is a serious investigation,” said Rep. Heinz Hofschneider, the chairman of the committee. To prove his point, he said he would henceforth decline interviews about the oversight hearing. He said this would keep the integrity of the entire process.

Feb. 11, 2000

PSS asks $40 million for FY 2001

Citing the need to fill up vacancies needed to efficiently run learning institutions in the CNMI, the Public School System is asking $40 million in budget allocation for the fiscal year 2001. Members of the Seventh CNMI State Board of Education approved the budget proposal in its second meeting yesterday. The proposal will be submitted to the Office of the Governor. PSS was originally planning to ask for $44 million for the next fiscal year but decided not to seek funding for 114 full-time employees positions that may have cost the System close to $4 million, according to Education Commissioner Dr. Rita H. Inos.

US asked to increase annual aid to $100M

Retired Supreme Court Justice Ramon G. Villagomez yesterday asked Edward B. Cohen, President Clinton’s special representative to the 902 Consultations, to recommend an increase in the annual financial assistance to the Northern Marianas from $11 million to $100 million as well as the removal of the matching requirement. Saying the United States has received a lot of benefits when the CNMI signed the Covenant, Mr. Villagomez said Mr. Cohen should recommend to the President to stop the bombing exercises on Farallon de Mendinilla, return all leased lands and rescind the U.S. power of eminent domain. In his letter to Mr. Cohen, the former justice emphasized that the people of the CNMI gave up their sovereignty to the United States-complete control over a vast area of lands, sea and air which strengthens the U.S. strategic positioning in Asia and the Pacific.

Feb. 11, 2002

CUC bats for better power services

Reeling from a budget deficit, the Commonwealth Utilities Corp. needs to cough up millions of dollars more for the major overhaul works being done at its main power plant on Saipan. The overhaul of just one engine would cost up to $2 million or higher, according to CUC corporate communications special advisor Pamela Mathis. Saipan’s biggest power plant needs at least three of its engines overhauled. Two of those engines each supply 13 megawatts of electricity, while the third engine has 7.5 megawatts of power.

Mobile X-ray zaps smuggled medicines

The CNMI Division of Customs intercepted last week an unspecified number of smuggled medicines and medical supplies-the first interception of the division using its newly-acquired X-ray mobile van. Customs Officer Anthony B. Blas said they intercepted the smuggled items-medicines, vials, syringes, intravenous lines, catheters, among others-last Tuesday during a random inspection of a container van that had just arrived from Hong Kong. “We were conducting a 100-percent inspection of two container vessels at the Saipan port. We just selected one container. About a fourth into the container, they brought some boxes in for the X-ray machine. My guys who were sitting inside monitoring the screen saw a suspicious object in one of the box. When it came through, they opened the box and found these items inside a bag under another bag of foodstuff,” Blas told reporters Friday.