The inaugural Mass will be celebrated today, Oct. 17, at 6 p.m. at the St. Jude Church in Koblerville, Saipan.
The swearing-in ceremony will be held on Saturday, Oct. 18, at 10 a.m. in the chamber of the House of Representatives on Capital Hill.
Marpi road closure on Oct. 24
(DPS) — The Marpi area will be closed on Friday, Oct. 24 from 12 noon to 2 p.m. for the detonation operation that will be jointly conducted by the Department of Public Safety, the Emergency Management Office and the U.S. Navy explosives ordnance disposal unit. For more information, call DPS at 664-9001/2 or EMO at 322-8001/2.
Public invited to Family Literacy Festival
AS a part of its efforts to celebrate CNMI Humanities Month, the CNMI Motheread/Fatheread Literacy Program is inviting the public to attend its Family Literacy Festival on Saturday, Oct. 25, from 8:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. at Dandan Elementary School.
The festival will showcase a variety of literary performances by school children and Motheread, Fatheread, and Teacheread adult participants.
The festival will also host booths for the CNMI Young Authors Book Exhibits, for local authors who will be selling signed copies of their books, and for various food vendors.
Motheread/Fatheread is a free literacy program available in the commonwealth for any individual or group that is interested in learning about reading with or to children and how to use stories as motivators for success.
This program is sponsored by the NMI Council for the Humanities in partnership with the Joeten-Kiyu Public Library and the Public School System. For more information call the CNMI coordinator at 235-7319; 285-1268 or e-mail cnmimotheread@gmail.com.
Friends of the Monument advisory
THE Friends of the Monument and local students will be turning over public comments to the staff at American Memorial Park concerning the proposed Mariana Trench Marine National Monument today, Oct. 17, at 4 p.m.
The event will be attended by public school teachers and students that wrote letters to President Bush commenting on the proposed monument.
The Friends of the Monument have collected hundreds of comments over the last several weeks.
For more information, call Ike Cabrera at 256-5648, or e-mail marianamonument@gmail.com
Labor announces completion of case backlog project
THE Department of Labor, in a media release, announced yesterday that it had completed a 24-month project to clean up all pending labor cases and agency cases from the years 1997 through 2007.
“We completed the adjudication and closure of 4,968 cases,” Deputy Secretary Jacinta M. Kaipat reported. “We started this project in Oct. 2006 and we finished at the end of Sept. 2008, just as we said we would.”
The project covered labor cases, in which individuals bring complaints to department, usually about unpaid wages or overtime, and also covered agency cases in which Labor itself brings a case against an employer, usually about company-wide practices.
Because the department has very limited manpower and was swamped with cases, it could not make much progress with the backlog in 2006.
“We recruited Deanne Siemer to help us in Oct. 2006,” Kaipat said. “Deanne contributed her time without any pay or per diem of any kind, and we paid the paralegals at the U.S. minimum wage or more, depending on their level of experience. Each of the paralegals had their own business, so they worked on a temporary basis as independent contractors. We are very grateful to Sarah Blalock, Josephine Kapileo, Khris Dela Paz, and Tara Aldan who were tremendously efficient.”
Baccarat Challenge on Tinian
(Tinian Dynasty) — Tinian Dynasty Hotel & Casino invites you to be part of its Baccarat Challenge. This two-day event will be held on Saturday and Sunday, Oct. 18-19.
On Oct. 18, registration is open all day until 6 p.m.
Seats will be allocated randomly from 6:30 p.m.
The preliminary round begins with Heat One, 7:30 p.m.; Heat Two, 9 p.m.; and Heat Three, 10:30 p.m.
Tournament play ceases at the conclusion of the preliminary rounds, and the cocktail dinner party will be held from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. in the Emperor Room
On Oct. 19, the semi-finals begin at 4 p.m.
The award presentations will start at 9 p.m. at the Dynasty Club
The entry fee is $1,000, which includes accommodation, meals, airfare reimbursement, gift, cocktail dinner and refreshments during the tournament.
Call 328-2205 or e-mail tdc.cpm@pticom.com for more information.
Red flag at 11 sites
(DEQ) — The Division of Environmental Quality has raised the red flag on 11 sites on Saipan and advises the public not to fish or swim within 300 feet of these locations for the next 48 hours or until otherwise notified.
Samples collected from Paupau Beach, Tanapag Meeting Hall, Central Repair Shop, DPW Channel Bridge, S. Puerto Rico Dump, American Memorial Park, Hafa-Adai Hotel, Hafa-Adai Drainage, Garapan Fishing Dock, Garapan Beach Drainage and CK Dist #2 Drainage contained excessive concentrations of fecal indicator bacteria — enterococci — that exceeded the CNMI’s marine water quality standards.
Guam needs welders
THE United Workers Movement, NMI says it is working with a company in need of more than 100 Tungsten Inert Gas welders for Guam.
Only workers who meet the basic, common and core competencies required for this category will be included in the pool.
For reference, the competency requirements for this category may be found at www.tesda.gov.ph.
Interested parties must indicate in their resumes the actual years of experience.
Resumes may be e-mailed to irenebdi@yahoo.com or mailed to Irene N. Tantiado, United Workers Movement, NMI, P.O. Box 504703, Saipan, MP 96950 no later than Nov. 15, 2008.
Other in-demand categories are pipe fitters, sheet fitters and carpenters.
United Workers Movement, NMI is not collecting any fee from workers who are submitting resumes.
For more information, call 285-7717 or e-mail irenebdi@yahoo.com.
