Marianas Variety Sept. 4 edition

Vol. 40 No. 123 © 2012 Marianas Variety

Tuesday • September 4, 2012

www.mvariety.com Serving the CNMI for 40 Years

LOCAL

PHILIPPINES/ASIA

NATION

ENTERTAINMENT

Doctor says rising number of new dialysis patients alarming

Expect long family planning bill debate in Senate

White House releases beer recipes after calls from public

Malick’s ‘To The Wonder’ premieres in Venice

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Page 13

Freedom Air resolving mechanical problems

By Alexie Villegas Zotomayor avz@mvariety.com Variety News Staff

SIX months after resuming its flight service to Rota, Freedom Air is again resolving aircraft issues.

“We had some mechanical problems and we are dealing with these issues,” Freedom Air station manager Dennis Cruz said yesterday.

Their mechanics are on Rota fixing the problems, he added, saying he will disclose more details as soon as he receives an update.

Passengers called Variety to re-

port that a Freedom Air aircraft has been stranded on Rota since Saturday due to engine problems.

“The airplane has been sitting there since Saturday,” the passengers said.

Back in March, the airline managed to obtain a $900,000 loan from the Commonwealth Development Authority that allowed it to have its 30-seat aircraft’s engine repaired, overhauled and retrofitted in Wisconsin for approximately Continued on page 2

Page 14

75¢

Page 18

Garapan store burglarized 4 times, still no arrest

By Andrew O. De Guzman andrew.deguzman@mvariety.com Variety News Staff

THE owner of Garapan Happy Market that was burglarized four times this year says she no longer wants to call the Department of Public Safety because police might get angry at her for following up on her unresolved complaints.

Over $15,000 cash, and merchandise, including phone cards amounting to $2,000, as well as liquors and cigarettes, have been stolen during the four unsolved burglary and theft incidents be-

tween March and August.

The owner, Ms. Wang, said: “Saipan is now scary. Nobody cares.”

The last breakin at her store happened on Aug. 7, 2012.

A fifth attempt was foiled on Aug. 17, 2012 when the store’s alarm was triggered after the burglar or burglars tried to enter the establishment’s warehouse.

Ms. Wang said she provided DPS with information about the suspects, their photos from video footage, names and where they live.

“But nothing happened,” Ms. Wang said, adding that she was told by an officer over the phone that police have “more important things to do.”

Continued on page 2

Inos: Consult people on tax hike proposals

By Emmanuel T. Erediano emmanuel.erediano@mvariety.com Variety News Staff

THE administration will not raise taxes without hearing from the public first, acting Gov. Eloy S. Inos said on Friday.

In an interview, Inos said the administration is considering tax hikes to raise funds for the hospital, but they will have to consult the people first.

He said public comments will be taken into consideration, and “we will make whatever appropriate adjustments are needed” for certain tax hike proposals which will be sin taxes, including a “sweet tax.”

The funds generated will help the Commonwealth Healthcare Corp. pay its debts, especially to the Marianas Public Land Trust which has provided CHC with an $11.58 million line of credit.

The proposed tax hikes, Inos added, will help make the hospital’s repayment ability “less controversial.”

He said the taxes will be imposed on commodities that affect DISASTER PREPAREDNESS MONTH. Acting Gov. Eloy S. Inos center, is joined by staffers of government agencies and members of community groups involved in the CNMI’s disaster preparedness program during last Friday’s proclamation signing on Capital Hill. Photo by Emmanuel T. Erediano MV 9-4-12.indd 1

Continued on page 2 9/3/12 10:45:02 PM

Local

TUESDAY - SEPTEMBER 4, 2012 - MARIANAS VARIETY NEWS AND VIEWS

Doctor says rising number of new dialysis patients alarming

By Raquel C. Bagnol raquel.bagnol@mvariety.com Variety News Staff

THE number of dialysis patients at the Commonwealth Health Center is increasing each year, and they are getting younger according to Division of Public Health medical director Dan Lamar.

In his presentation to the Rotary Club last week, the doctor said the situation presents a crisis — a state of emergency that people don’t appreciate.

“Our children are going to die before we die because of their lifestyle,” Lamar said.

In 2009, there were 18 new dialysis patients . The number increased to 23 in 2010 and 27 in 2011.

Lamar said while the people in the CNMI are falling over a huge waterfall while healthcare providers try their best to save them from drowning with the limited resources they have.

“This has been happening for

Inos...

Continued from page 1 the people’s health such as candy, soda and alcoholic beverages, The assumption is that such taxes, even though they will result in higher prices, will not mean decreased sales.

Right now, Inos said the administration is working on the rate of

quite a while. We need to address preventive measures to prevent falling in the first place,” he added.

He said Public Health needs the community members’ help in making changes in their lifestyles.

Lamar said food abuse is one of the biggest factors of noncommunicable diseases in the CNMI. “Food should be taken not merely for pleasure but for health and nutrition,” he added.

“But the way we use food is in an abusive manner. Food abuse is the biggest cause of NCD’s like cancer, stroke, heart diseases and diabetes, and most people don’t recognize that or are still grappling with it,” he said.

Lamar said according to the New England Journal of Medicine, good abuse and lack of physical activity as well as inappropriate use of tobacco and alcohol are the basic risk factors

that cause NCD’s.

These will result in high blood pressure, high blood sugar, abnormal lipids and obesity.

Seven of every 10 deaths in the CNMI are caused by NCD’s and associated risk factors.

“NCDs are diseases that affect most of us as we get older,” Lamar said. “These are not communicable or infections like pneumonia or flu, but these are largely the results of our lifestyles.”

He added, “Food environment, the way you eat, and physical activity will influence how the genetic inheritance you got from your parents is going to be expressed.”

He said there may be hindrances in engaging in physical activities such as sidewalks that make walking difficult or stray dogs. But these can be addressed in many ways, he added.

Lamar said changing and improving one’s lifestyle is the key to a healthy future.

the tax increases.

He said they are trying to determine the amount of revenue the government can expect and how much of the tax increase can go to CHC to pay its immediate debts.

Inos said this is just one of the things the administration is doing to help the commonwealth’s only hospital.

He said the administration is also helping CHC with its dealings with U.S. Health and Human Services’ Center of Medicare and Medicaid Service on local Medicaid funding.

The government, he added, is likewise doing everything to help CHC with the “benchmarking study” by Health Tech, a

Dan Lamar

firm selected by the healthcare corporation to conduct a federally funded $170,000 assessment of the hospital.

Inos said they expect the assessment report to be out by the end of this month.

“We are going to wait for that,” he said.

In a separate interview, Sen-

Freedom...

Continued from page 1 $300,000.

The CDA loan, a demand note for one year at 7 percent interest, also “released” the local airline from banks that held first lien or mortgage on its properties.

But the airline may still be hurting financially, like most businesses in the CNMI, Variety was told.

In July, Freedom Air representatives asked CDA if it could assist the airline by providing $600,000 in additional financing, but this was turned down by the agency because of the existing moratorium

ate President Paul A. Manglona, Ind.-Rota, noted that in the past, revenue from sin taxes was used for programs not related to health care.

He said such tax revenue should be for the hospital only.

It was the administration and the Legislature that passed a $5 million budget for the hospital, which used to get $38 million a month.

on loans and the limited funds it had — about $300,000.

Early this year, Freedom Air asked CDA for a $2.9 million loan, but CDA could only lend $900,000.

CDA Executive Director Manuel A. Sablan told Variety in an earlier interview that they were working with Freedom Air to review its financial position.

He said the $13.1 million federal loan program, the State Small Business Credit Initiative program would be able to help the airline once it’s launched.

The local airline employs about 50 people in the CNMI, not counting its employees on Guam.

Garapan...

Continued from page 1 “Nobody pays attention. No one is calling me. I don’t know what to do,” Ms. Wang said.

The items stolen from her store, she added, are being sold to smaller stores on island.

“They should not buy those stolen items,” said Ms. Wang, adding that one of the store owners even told her to sue them. She said another store owner made up a story, claiming that the phone cards stolen from Garapan Happy MV 9-4-12.indd 2

Market were found by children scattered on the street.

Ms. Wang earlier told her story to KSPN and since then, she said, her store staffers are receiving phone calls in the morning.

“No one is talking on the other line, but the person is breathing heavily. I think they want to scare us,” Ms. Wang said.

“It’s very easy to catch them, if police will only act,” she added.

DPS did not respond to the inquiries of this reporter yesterday.

9/3/12 10:45:02 PM

MARIANAS VARIETY NEWS AND VIEWS - TUESDAY - SEPTEMBER 4, 2012

Pair gets seven years, $17K fine for part in Marshalls fraud

By Giff Johnson For Variety

MAJURO — Seven years of jail time and a $17,000 fine is the sentence issued to two former Marshall Islands government workers who stole money from the Ministry of Health.

Chief Justice Carl Ingram approved identical plea bargain agreements between the Attorney General’s office and Nella Nashion and Steve Samuel earlier this week. Both worked at the Ministry of Finance and were charged in 2011. In a separate case tried earlier this year, they were found guilty by a four-person jury of multiple counts of defrauding the government of U.S. federal grant funding. They agreed to a plea bargain in this additional case that relates to money stolen from the Ministry of Health that was laundered through the local auto company MGAS. Marshall Islands prosecutors had originally charged both Nashion and Samuel with 25 counts of theft relating to 20 checks from the government valued at $344,580.50.

In the plea bargain deal, Nashion, represented by Tiantaake Beero of Micronesian Legal Services, and Samuel, represented by private attorney Witten Philippo, pled guilty to nine of 20 counts of cheating. The additional 11 cheating charges and five more charges — ranging from conspiracy to private financial gain by a public official — were dismissed by government prosecutors Natan Brechtefeld and Jack Jorbon.

The nine charges they pled guilty to involved theft of $120,048.

The sentence is broken into two parts. For four of the cheating charges, Ingram sentenced them to five years’ imprisonment that ends in June 2017. For the remaining five charges, he sentenced them to serve an additional two years in jail, with three years of probation. The jail terms will end in 2019 and the probation period ends in 2022.

For Nashion, Ingram’s order notes that if Majuro jail is not suitable for female prisoners, she can be incarcerated in another location designated by the Marshall Islands government.

The jail does not have facilities for women and historically all women who have been convicted of crimes in the Marshall Islands have been placed under house arrest.

Both were also ordered to pay restitution to the Marshall Islands government of $17,000.

MV 9-4-12.indd 3

Local / Pacific Islands

Joseph Crisostimo wants court to suppress evidence against him

By Andrew O. De Guzman andrew.deguzman@mvariety.com Variety News Staff

SUPERIOR Court Judge David A. Wiseman placed under advisement the motion to suppress evidence submitted by the Public Defender’s Office on behalf of Joseph Crisostimo, who is now serving the remaining five-year imprisonment of his 10-year theft conviction in 2008.

The arrest of Crisostimo on “ice” charges last January resulted in the revocation of his probation. He was released from prison in Dec. 2011 for his 2008 theft conviction.

Last week, Wiseman heard the oral arguments of Assistant Attorney General Nicole Driscoll and Assistant Public Defender Douglas Hartig.

In his written motion to suppress evidence, Hartig said the police stopped the vehicle of his client, Crisostimo, who was the passenger, on Jan. 11, 2012, at about 3:17 a.m. in a beach area, west of Shell gas station in Susupe.

John Namauleg was driving the car, a white Toyota Tercel.

Crisostimo was “stopped [by police] without reasonable suspicion or probable cause” in violation of the United States and common-

wealth constitutions, Hartig said. the point when police officers Arresting officers T.J. Yangetmai stopped and approached the vehicle and Tyrone Teregeyo were making he was in.” a routine patrol in a police vehicle Hartig said his client was “dein the area when the Tercel “was tained without reasonable susattempting to leave the area but picion or probable cause. The could not as the narrow one-way police officers who stopped and dirt road was blocked.” searched [Crisostimo] were on a Police then approached the driver routine patrol. [The] defendant has and saw a glass pipe with residue in done nothing suspicious or illegal. the back seat of the driver seat.

[He] was in a car in a public area Namauleg and Crisostimo were attempting to leave.” ordered to get out of the vehicle.

Based on the “totality of cirThey were arrested and cumstances, including during a search the officers [Crisostimo’s] conduct,” found baggies and a cut Hartig said “the respondstraw, according to court ing officers could not have documents. had a reasonable suspicion Hartig said police “conthat [the] defendant was ducted a search without engaged or might have any reasonable suspicion been engaged in wrongJoseph that [Crisostimo] may have doing.”

Crisostimo committed or intended He added, “The mere to commit a felony; he was not fact that [Crisostimo] was in a car searched for any legitimate legal attempting to leave a public area purpose.” was not enough to provide the ofHartig added, “There was not a ficers with a reasonable suspicion to warrant for the detention, search, detain [him] or to stop or search the or arrest of [Crisostimo]. Any vehicle. Thus, the police conducted perceived consent to search the a warrantless search in violation defendant’s person was vitiated of the defendant’s constitutional by the unlawful detention. [The] rights under the U.S. and comdefendant seeks to suppress any monwealth constitutions.” statements, observations, or eviHartig said “all evidence of any dence obtained by the police from wrongdoing by [Crisostimo] must

Judge wants to know why Roe/Doe action should proceed

By Alexie Villegas Zotomayor avz@mvariety.com Variety News Staff

WITH the Retirement Fund board incapacitated due to a lack of quorum, designated federal Judge Frances Tydingco Gatewood has ordered parties to explain if the Roe/Doe litigation could still proceed.

In her Aug. 30 order, Gatewood said all parties to provide briefing on whether Civil Case No. 0900023 can move forward if one of the defendants, the Fund, does not have the ability to defend and represent itself.

The Fund board ceased to have a quorum in the first week of May 2012.

Last month, Fund counsel Braddock J. Huesman opposed the emergency motions filed by plaintiffs Jane Roe and John Doe in the District Court for the NMI, stating that “whether intentional or otherwise, the emergency motions place his clients at a disadvantage due to the lack of quorum.”

Huesman also told the court that the plaintiffs have failed to avail themselves of remedies in the Superior Court as previously ordered by the federal court.

Gatewood in her Aug. 30 order asked the plaintiffs to file a response on Sept. 1 while the defendants were required to file a response on Sept. 2.

Roe and Doe, who are anonymous retirees, were asked to respond to the defendants’ response by Sept. 3.

The plaintiffs want the Fund

placed under federal receivership. defend the Fund’s interests either.

With the Fund’s bankruptcy The settlement negotiations petition dismissed, Roe and Doe would not be meaningful without through their counsels filed for all affected parties present and able emergency motions on Aug. 16 to discuss the issues, she said. that seek a temporary restraining But the plaintiffs said the lack of order and preliminary injunction to quorum exists regardless of which the governor’s executive order that court the lawsuit is heard. intends to abolish the Fund board They said Huesman wants the and place it under the Department plaintiffs to seek relief from Superior of Finance.

Court, “but this makes no sense beThey also filed a motion for cause the Fund will not have quorum leave to file a seconded amended in the Superior Court either.” complaint that would drop one Given the lack of quorum, the plaintiff, John Doe, and plaintiffs said the court retain Roe. should appoint a “trustee The third emergency ad litem” to represent the motion seeks to lift the Fund’s interests pending stay on the federal court restoration of quorum. proceedings to the case Wikipedia defines ad as ordered by then-Chief litem, Latin for “for the Judge Alex R. Munson on Frances Tydingco suit,” as a legal term for Jan. 25, 2010. the appointment by the Gatewood In its Sept. 2 response court of one party to act to the order, the Office of the Attor- in a lawsuit in behalf of another ney General asked the court not to party who is deemed incapable of proceed with the motions because it representing himself. would unfairly harm the Fund.

The plaintiffs reiterated that if the “Should the court grant plaintiffs’ court does not enjoin the governor, motion to lift the stay, the current he will seize the Fund and dissolve litigation would proceed and leave its board. the Fund defenseless,” Assistant They said their emergency Attorney General Reena J. Patel motions will not harm the Fund, said. adding that the defendants failed She pointed out that the court to establish how the motions could has set Sept. 10 for a settlement harm the pension agency. discussion, but without a proper They also reminded the court board, the Fund would not be able of “its unflagging obligation to to contribute to any settlement exercise its federal jurisdiction to negotiations. allow the question of constitutionShe added that without the execu- ality of the executive order to be tive order, the government could not reviewed.”

be suppressed.”

In her opposition, Driscoll said the road behind the car was open and space was available for the Tercel to reverse and allow the police vehicle to pass.

“The Tercel did not do this, however. Instead, the Tercel stayed where it was blocking the road to the beach,” Driscoll said.

She said the officers made a brief investigatory stop “with the intent to inquire if there was anything wrong with the Tercel or if its occupants were in need of assistance, or to determine if criminal activity could be afoot.”

Namauleg and Crisostimo were asked by police if they were okay.

When the officers subsequently saw a small, clear glass pipe in the back seat behind Namauleg’s car, he “became defensive at this time.”

The search on Crisostimo’s person was done subsequent to his arrest, Driscoll said, adding that the residue in the recovered glass pipe later tested presumptive positive for crystal methamphetamine.

Driscoll said the “officers had reasonable suspicion to conduct an investigatory stop,” as Crisostimo “could be armed and/or dangerous.”

Wiseman allows Atalig to post $2,500 bail

SUPERIOR Court Judge David A. Wiseman has allowed suspended lawyer Antonio Manglona Atalig to post $2,500, or 10 percent of the $25,000 bail order, and be released to his sister and brother-in-law who are Rota residents.

Wiseman said Atalig will stay with Annette and David Calvo, and will not leave Rota, except for scheduled court appearances, and meetings with his attorney that have to be approved by the court in advance.

Wiseman instructed Assistant Attorney General Nicole Driscoll, the prosecutor, to prepare a notice for airlines on Rota that Atalig, by the order of Antonio Atalig the court, “is not allowed to board any of their aircraft without the court approval.”

Atalig was ordered by the court to not consume or possess alcoholic beverages nor frequent any place whose primary business is selling alcohol.

The third party custodians were also ordered to not have any alcohol in their residence while Atalig is staying with them.

Police arrested Atalig for threatening to kill and assaulting his wife and their children on July 29, 2012.

At the time of the incident, Atalig was drunk, police said.

(Andrew O. De Guzman) 9/3/12 10:45:03 PM

Local

TUESDAY - SEPTEMBER 4, 2012 - MARIANAS VARIETY NEWS AND VIEWS

MPLT consultant: US Wiseman finds probable cause economic growth ‘modest’ in attempted murder case with Greece, Italy and other countries continue.

Asked if the China-Japan tenWITH weak job growth and low sion has any significant impact confidence weighing heavily on the global economy and the on the U.S. economy, Marianas emerging markets, Roland said Public Land Trust investment there’s none so far. consultant sees a modest growth However, he said the Chinese in the nation’s gross domestic economic slowdown may have an product rate. impact “on people’s investment Morgan Stanley Smith Barney psychology.” senior vice president and MPLT He said the Chinese economic investment consultant Daniel growth used to be in double digits Roland at the same time said the but not anymore.

U.S. economy “is not going into Asked which pays more ina recession and will continue to come, Roland said, “Bonds alplod along.” ways pay more than stocks.”

He said the Federal Reserve As for total return, he said “it may “do another quantiwouldn’t be surprising to tative easing to make sure see equities providing a we don’t go into another little better return but not recession.” appreciably greater.”

Quantitative easing is a Fisher Investments monetary policy involvsees the election year as a ing massive bond buying good year for stocks. in order to stimulate the A report by Fisher economy.

Daniel Roland Investments states that The U.S. was in recesstocks have averaged sion for a year and six months, 14.5 percent historically in elecfrom 2007 to 2009, when the tion years a Democrat is reelected mortgage crisis led to the collapse and 18.8 percent when a Repubof the housing market resulting lican is newly elected. in the collapse also of financial Another research by Ned institutions such as Fannie Mae, Davis Research states that the Freddie Mac, Lehman Brothers, 2012 election year will be good AIG and Bear Stearns. for stocks: “The correction has The U.S. government re- tended to be concentrated in the sponded with a $700 billion second quarter, setting the stage bank bailout and a $787 billion for a summer rally.” stimulus package.

In July, MPLT investments “We are in an election year. reported an uptick due to the Growth slowing down is not equity market’s rally. Its investgood for the sitting president,” ments’ total return for both the said Roland. general fund and the American He said Europe is also on the Memorial Park trust fund beat verge of a recession as problems the benchmarks.

By Alexie Villegas Zotomayor avz@mvariety.com Variety News Staff

By Andrew O. De Guzman andrew.deguzman@mvariety.com Variety News Staff

SUPERIOR Court Judge David A. Wiseman has found probable cause to believe that Alfonso Ramon, 31, may have committed attempted first degree murder by setting another man on fire in Garapan.

Wiseman ordered Ramon to answer the charges of attempted first degree murder, assault with a dangerous weapon, aggravated assault and battery, reckless burning, assault and battery, and disturbing the peace.

Assistant Attorney General Nicole Driscoll represented the government while Assistant Public Defender Douglas Hartig served as Ramon’s counsel.

Ramon’s arraignment is set for Sept. 10, 2012, and he is being held on $50,000 cash bail.

According to the prosecution, Ramon set on fire a man who tipped off the defendant to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration for selling marijuana.

The victim suffered second degree burns on his right arm, shoulder, back, and back side of the neck.

His right leg was burned, including a portion of his right foot.

Prior to the incident, the victim met his male friend, Ramon and another unidentified man who were then drinking east of Martha’s Store in Garapan on Aug. 18, 2012, at past 2 a.m.

While the victim was talking to his male friend, Ramon interrupted and asked the victim why he, the victim, pretended to be a friend when the victim was working for the DEA. Ramon said he was arrested for selling marijuana because of the

victim.

2012 in Koblerville.

Ramon then told the victim to Judge Kenneth L. Govendo borrow money from the victim’s didn’t find probable cause for the Chukeese friend and “to stop charges of assault and disturbing bothering Palauans just to borrow the peace. money.”

Amandus is accused of injuring a Ramon told the victim that he, man with a spear gun in Koblerville the defendant, would get gasoline last June. and burn the victim.

The court reduced to $5,250 Ramon then walked away and to- the original $10,000 bail order on ward a black pick-up truck parked Amandus, who remained under across from Martha’s Store. He the custody of Department of returned holding a tea bottle and Corrections. a rolled napkin that was burning, Assistant Attorney General police said.

Darren Robinson represented the While the victim was plead- government, while Assistant Public ing with the defendant, Ramon Defender Douglas Hartig served as splashed the tea bottle’s content Amandus’ counsel. at the victim’s feet which Prior to the incident, caught fire, police said.

Amandus was seen at Ramon tried to splash around midnight walking the burning content at in the area and carrying a the victim’s face, but the spear gun. victim blocked it with a Afterward, the victim saddle bag that belonged said he heard a woman, to Ramon, police said. who was carrying a baby, The victim, whose right David Wiseman screaming and running into shoulder and arm caught fire, threw her house. himself to the ground and managed The victim told the other people in to put out the fire. the area to get inside their houses bePolice said Ramon tried to ap- cause Amandus might use the spear proach the victim who then stood gun on them, too, police said. up and called 911.

The victim then walked to the The victim was later brought to back of K25 unit where he saw the Commonwealth Health Center Amandus holding a spear gun. The where he was treated for burns. victim started running away from In 2004, Ramon pleaded guilty to Amandus who yelled at him, saying a misdemeanor theft as a lesser in- he would shoot the victim. cluded offense, and was sentenced The victim said after he was hit to six months’ suspended sentence in the right leg, he saw Amandus and six months’ probation. running toward the K27 unit.

In other news A responding officer later spoke Kay K. Amandus, 24, is expected with Amandus who told police to appear for his arraignment in that he used a small knife to stab Superior Court today to answer the victim. charges of assault with a dangerous Amandus claimed that the victim weapon, assault and battery, and and two others were going to beat disturbing the peace on June 20, him up.

Tinian, Rota lawmakers oppose bid Manglona to sentence woman to change dental care rules who admitted drinking beer while appealing conviction, sentence

By Emmanuel T. Erediano emmanuel.erediano@mvariety.com Variety News Staff

MEMBERS of the Tinian and Rota legislative delegations oppose the proposal to change the rules and regulations for dental care professionals.

The new rules and regulations proposed by the CNMI Health Care Professionals Licensing Board allow dentists from a foreign country to work here only as dental therapist but not as a dental hygienist.

According to the Tinian and Rota lawmakers, the new rules “will disallow Philippine-trained dentists and dental hygienists to clean teeth and administer non-life threatening procedures even if they MV 9-4-12.indd 4

have trained here.”

The joint letter was signed by Senate President Paul A. Manglona, Ind.-Rota; Senate Vice President Jude U. Hofschneider, R-Tinian; Sens. Jovita M. Taimanao, Ind.Rota; Juan M. Ayuyu, Ind.-Rota; Frank Q. Cruz, R-Tinian; and Rep. Trenton B. Conner, R-Tinian.

They told CNMI Health Care Professionals Licensing Board that the proposed restrictions will greatly affect the people of Tinian and Rota and other lowincome residents of the CNMI who have no access to U.S.-certified dental clinics.

The lawmakers said the intent of the proposed amendments to the rules is commendable because it establishes clear and comprehensive

guidelines for licensing dental care professionals.

However, they said the hospital has terminated its dental program for which foreign hygienists who are non-U.S. certified have been working for years.

The proposed rules, they said, will allow “uncertified” hygienists to work in the private sector. This also means that Filipino dentists on Tinian and Rota will be unable to provide services there, they added.

This, they said, will also “create a monopoly for the few dental clinics who have already established U.S. training connections.”

“As compared to these scenarios, the CNMI currently allows nurses who are not educated and trained in the U.S. to deal with life-threatening medical situations, work in the ER and give injections,” the Tinian and Rota lawmakers said.

tion document fraud.

The court allowed Urumelog to remain at liberty pending notificaU.S. District Court for the NMI tion by the U.S. Marshals Service Chief Judge Ramona V. Manglona of the federal detention facility said Agnes Urumelog’s sentencing where she will be imprisoned. hearing will be held on Sept. 28, Urumelog, through her court2012. appointed defense attorney Urumelog has admitted Mark Hanson, has filed an consuming alcohol while appeal in the U.S. Court on supervised release. of Appeals for the Ninth The federal court alCircuit. lowed Urumelog to reIn Urumelog’s immigramain at liberty on June tion petition for her sec28, 2012, pending the ond husband, a BanglaRamona outcome of her appeal deshi national, she falsely Manglona of her conviction and declared that she had sentencing. never before petitioned for him Manglona sentenced Urumelog or another alien. But Urumelog to four months imprisonment after previously filed an immigration she was convicted on Dec. 7, 2011 petition — for her first husband, by jurors of one count of immigra- also a Bangladeshi national.

By Andrew O. De Guzman andrew.deguzman@mvariety.com Variety News Staff

9/3/12 10:45:04 PM

MARIANAS VARIETY NEWS AND VIEWS - TUESDAY - SEPTEMBER 4, 2012

MV 9-4-12.indd 5

Local / Pacific Islands

9/3/12 10:45:05 PM

Local

Philippine consulate holds last free medical services

By Junhan B. Todeno junhan.todeno@mvariety.com Variety News Staff

LAST Sunday marked the third and final health screening provided by the Philippine Consulate General which will shut down in October.

But medical and clerical volunteers will continue the program, which serves the Filipino community on Saipan, according to Julie Fabian, acting Philippine labor attaché and welfare officer.

“We are very thankful to our volunteers who are committed to serve,” she said.

The Bayani group headed by its president Lolita Velasco has been consistently supporting the quarterly health screening program.

Velasco said she has already talked with Ernie Molina, a Commonwealth Health Center nurse and one of the original medical volunteers, where to hold the event in the future.

She said they may offer free medical services in December.

Fabian said 74 Filipinos availed themselves of the vision checkup while 252 had their blood pressure and blood sugar checked last Sunday.

There were 33 volunteers from Hardt Eye Clinic, CHC, PHI Pharmacy, Association of Filipino Pharmacists and Bayani, Fabian said.

Ten Filipino workers also renewed their Overseas Workers WelfareAdministration membership.

TUESDAY - SEPTEMBER 4, 2012 - MARIANAS VARIETY NEWS AND VIEWS

Santos donates musical instruments to Rota school

By Junhan B. Todeno junhan.todeno@mvariety.com Variety News Staff

HIGH school students on Rota will have musical instruments this school year, courtesy of Rep. Teresita A. Santos.

She said during the previous promotion ceremony at Dr. Rita H. Inos Junior/Senior High School, she “was touched by a group of students who expressed interest in forming a ukulele club.”

According to the lawmaker, “I will be the first one to admit that our students are naturally talented and gifted in all aspects and when given the opportunity to nurture and support their talents, I am extremely confident that they will excel.”

Santos, Ind.-Rota, said she saw the need to provide the necessary support and assistance to the students so they can apply and display their talents.

Considering the Public School System’s budget constraints and knowing that the school year will start this week, she donated six ukuleles to Dr. Rita H. Inos Jr./Sr. High School.

Rep. Teresita A. Santos, second left, poses with the PTA officers at Dr. Rita H. Inos Junior/Senior High School and with Board of Education Vice Chairwoman Tanya King, left.

Contributed photo

“I am hoping that one day, our students will be able to appreciate and excel in their talents and share their talents during school activities, outside school curricular activities, visiting,

serenading and lifting the spirits of our elders at the Manamko’ Center, at home and/or the sick in the hospital,” she said.

Santos said she has always been eager to see students ex-

cel in their abilities and natural talents.

“I pledge to continue supporting the need of our students and to help them achieve their goals,” she added.

7 complete computer technician course

By Junhan B. Todeno junhan.todeno@mvariety.com Variety News Staff

SEVEN Filipino workers on Saipan are now certified computer service technicians after completing the technical examination and requirements of the Electronic Technician Association.

On Sunday, Robinson Lim, Rjay Luha, Victor R. Formales, Ron Poly H. Chan, Marylou L. Española, Jose L. Rosal and Christopher S. San Gabriel received their certification during an appreciation ceremony at the Carolinian Utt in Garapan.

Except for Española, the six belong to batch 10 of the building and fixing short-term course conducted by volunteer-instructor Mar Masilungan.

Sunday’s event was attended by Philippine Consulate General officials led by Julie Fabian, the acting labor attaché and welfare officer.

Building and fixing is one of the skills and training courses offered by the consulate through its overseas labor office.

The classes are held at the Filipino Workers Resource Center at the Marianas Business Plaza.

According to Teresa Maher, ETA International president, only welltrained and skilled computer service professionals are certified.

“The Electronics Technicians Association takes great pride in

The newly certified computer technicians show their certificates from the Electronics Technicians Association International during a recognition program at the Carolinian Utt in Garapan.

presenting this official recognition to the expert technicians. His/her name has been published in the High-Tech News journal, imbedded in the ETA International permanent global data base, and is available for recognition by officials of the industry,” she stated in the certification distributed to the

new technicians.

Masilungan recognized the 40 students of fixing and building batch 10 class led by their president Robinson Lim for completing the course.

Masilungan said six members of batch 10 took the certification examination while some are still

undergoing review class.

Last month, 42 students led by their president Norman Millan of fixing and building batch 11 completed the course.

“We learned many things about computers. It’s a good experience for those who want to become computer

technicians,” Millan said.

Millan appreciated the patience of Masilungan and his willingness to share his skills and talent.

Jun D. Banadera Jr., one of the volunteer instructors at the Filipino Continued on page 7

Marianas Variety News & Views is circulated by home and office delivery throughout Saipan, Rota, Tinian, Guam and Palau as well as mail delivery to the Federated States of Micronesia, the Marshall Islands, South Pacific, Hawaii, Japan and the U.S. Daily coverage also can be read from our Web site via www.mvariety.com.

MV 9-4-12.indd 6

9/3/12 10:45:06 PM

Local

MARIANAS VARIETY NEWS AND VIEWS - TUESDAY - SEPTEMBER 4, 2012

DPL allows mayor’s office to quarry aggregates in Marpi where they are allowed to quarry.

In the temporary authorization issued by Rachel M. Roque, DPL real THE Department of Public Lands estate division director, the mayor’s has approved the Saipan mayor’s officer is allowed to extract coral application for temporary use of aggregates only and not to conduct public land, Henry Hofschneider, commercial activities. the Saipan mayor’s adThe temporary authoriviser, said. zation started on July 25, DPL provided the may2012 and will expire upon or’s office temporary the approval and execution authorization to enter of a temporary permit by and use portions of public DPL. land in Marpi in conductHofschneider said they ing quarry operations, he will identify an area in Henry added.

Marpi accessible to their The mayor ’s office Hofschneider trucks. wanted to continue its operations He noted, however, that the in Kannat Tabla, but Hofschneider quarry site there is too deep which said DPL is still conducting an may make it impossible for their inspection to determine whether equipment to operate. quarrying in the area can be reIn order to operate at the quarry sumed. site, the mayor’s office must also In Marpi, Hofschneider said they acquire permits from the Division have already inspected the area of Environmental Quality and the

By Junhan B. Todeno junhan.todeno@mvariety.com Variety News Staff

Computer basics training begins on Sept. 20 FREE lessons on basic computer operations will be offered on Sept. 10-14, and on Sept. 17-21 at the Marianas Business Plaza in Susupe.

The classes will be conducted by the Marianas Resource Conservation and Development Council, a sub-recipient of the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Forum on Economic and Labor Development grant.

The course includes basic computer lessons in word processing, internet basics/search tools and e-mail basics, as well as advanced classes on spreadsheets and PowerPoint presentations.

The basic portion of the course will be taught from 8 a.m. to 12 noon and while the “advanced” portion will be taught from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.

The Marianas Resource Conservation said it is offering the free training to allow members of the CNMI community to learn a new skill or update the ones that they currently have.

Participants are not required to take the entire training. They can choose to participate in either section of the course to minimize time away from work for those participants whole are employed.

The classes will be held in Room 315 on the third floor of the Marianas Business Plaza in Susupe. Fifteen slots are available for each course and will be filled on a first come, first served basis.

For more information call 2343015 or email basic_computer@ pinnaclestaffing.co.

(Raquel C. Bagnol) MV 9-4-12.indd 7

7 complete...

Continued from page 6

Coastal Resources Management Office.

DPL’s temporary authorization likewise stipulated that the mayor’s office will adhere to proper quarrying methods to avoid severe impact

on the environment and property.

“Permittee must practice proper storage methods of fuel and all other environmentally hazardous substances as required by DEQ to avoid accidental spilling or expo-

sure,” DPL said.

Hofschneider said they will identify a buffer zone from the adjacent property so their operation will not affect the other undesignated areas.

JOB VACANCY ANNOUNCEMENT OPEN DATE: CLOSE DATE:

August 27, 2012 September 6, 2012

SALARY:

POSITION: Guest Relations Officer Minimum Wage/Negotiable

Qualifications: High school graduate or equivalent. Proficiency in Japanese Language highly preferred. Minimum two (2) years in hotel front desk or concierge services strongly preferred. Must have excellent people skills, willingness to provide service, friendly attitude and ready smile.

OPEN DATE: August 27, 2012 POSITION: Front Desk Clerk CLOSE DATE: September 6, 2012 SALARY: Minimum Wage Qualifications: High school graduate or equivalent. Minimum two (2) years in hotel front desk and / or concierge position strongly preferred.

Applicants must have excellent people skills, willingness to provide service, friendly attitude and ready to smile.

OPEN DATE: August 27, 2012 POSITION: Server CLOSE DATE: September 6, 2012 SALARY: Minimum Wage Qualifications: High school graduate or equivalent. Minimum two (2) years experience in food service preferred. Must have excellent people skills, willingness to provide service, and friendly attitude. Position may require employee to receive food handler related health examinations and clearances as condition to their continued employment.

OPEN DATE: August 27, 2012 POSITION: Lifeguard CLOSE DATE: September 6, 2012 SALARY: Minimum Wage Qualifications: High school graduate or equivalent. Obtaining a lifeguard certification may be required for continued employment. Must have friendly and outgoing personality.

OPEN DATE: August 27, 2012 POSITION: Housekeeping Attendant CLOSE DATE: September 6, 2012 SALARY: Minimum Wage Qualifications: High school graduate or equivalent. Minimum two (2) years in housekeeping or commercial cleaning preferred. Must have a friendly and outgoing personality.

OPEN DATE: August 27, 2012 POSITION: Laundry Attendant CLOSE DATE: September 6, 2012 SALARY: Minimum Wage Qualifications: High school graduate or equivalent. Minimum two (2) years in housekeeping or laundry services preferred.

Must have a friendly and outgoing personality.

OPEN DATE: August 27, 2012 POSITION: Cook (Chinese/Western/Korean) CLOSE DATE: September 6, 2012 SALARY: Minimum Wage/Negotiable

Mar Masilungan, volunteer-instructor, delivers his message to the students of the computer class.

Qualifications: High school graduate or equivalent. Minimum two (2) year experience in culinary experience. Applicants with formal training / education in culinary arts strongly preferred. Position may require employee to receive food handler related health examinations and clearances as condition to their continued employment.

OPEN DATE: August 27, 2012 POSITION: Maintenance Repairer/Electrician CLOSE DATE: September 6, 2012 SALARY: Minimum Wage/Negotiable Qualifications: High school graduate or equivalent. Formal electrician education or training highly preferred. Must have friendly and outgoing personality.

For more information, please contact Human Resources Office at (670) 234-5900 ext. 576/266.

Employment application forms are available at the Saipan World Resort, Security Office, located next to the Wave Jungle Water Park.

Applicants must submit the completed form and all the necessary requirements to the Security Office. Incomplete application will not be received by the Security Office.

Julia Julie Fabian, acting Philippine labor attaché and welfare officer expresses, her appreciation to the new computer technicians and batch 11 of the fixing and building course who completed the training.

Contributed photos

Workers Resource Center, said he will continue helping Filipino workers even after the consulate’s closure in October.

Banadera, who teaches business entrepreneurship and marketing, said he will coordinate with other volunteer instructors to continue the program.

Masilungan said he and Zaldy Quibral will continue to conduct computer classes. Masilungan recently acquired his certification as a senior certified electronic technician in wireless communication and electronic network security.

Fabian thanked the instructorvolunteers for their continuous support, commitment and dedication to the program.

She also appreciated the eagerness and willingness of Filipino workers to learn new skills.

9/3/12 10:45:07 PM

Local

TUESDAY - SEPTEMBER 4, 2012 - MARIANAS VARIETY NEWS AND VIEWS

Region-wide campaign for One Micronesia

By Raquel C. Bagnol raquel.bagnol@mvariety.com Variety News Staff

GLOBAL partners of the Micronesia Challenge have rolled out a customized “One Micronesia” Facebook page and donation box program as part of the launching of its “One Micronesia” region-wide campaign.

In her presentation at the recently held U.S. Coral Reef Task Force in Pago Pago, American Samoa last month, committee chairwoman for U.S. All Islands and CNMI point of contact Fran Castro said the One Micronesia Campaign is a region-wide awareness and fundraising effort for the Micronesia Challenge.

“It represents a creative milestone in the life of the challenge and foray into branding the message for a larger audience,” Castro said.

The donation box program has now 40 boxes located throughout the islands.

In the upcoming weeks, the One Micronesia campaign will be featured in regional airports, and this will be followed by plans for retail products and community sponsorship programs.

Castro said the Micronesian leaders adopted two resolutions to boost the efforts of the Micronesian ChalFran Castro lenge during the 17th Micronesian Chief Executives Summit on Guam last March.

She said the nine chief executives formally endorsed a total of nine resolutions, including two which were very relevant to the Micronesia Challenge. These are Resolution 17-2, which urges Micronesian islands to endorse and support the implementation of the sustainable finance plan for the Micronesia Challenge in each jurisdiction to ensure long-term sustainable funding for environmental conservation in the Micronesia region; and Resolution 17-3, which urges member jurisdictions to collaborate with local scientists, community members, educators, leaders and decision-makers to place climate change issues at the forefront of coral reef management through efforts to decrease global contributions to emissions, and other ways.

The Micronesia Challenge is a shared commitment to conserve at least 30 percent of the near-shore marine resources and 20 percent of the terrestrial resources across Micronesia by 2020.

The Micronesia Challenge communications team has managed to build an online audience of nearly 400,000.

Global partners include the Federated States of Micronesia, the Marshall Islands, Palau, Guam, the Northern Marianas as well as several agencies and organizations.

For more information, go to www.micronesiachallenge.org.

MV 9-4-12.indd 8

Elisa Lazaro and Nyla Sablan at Fuji Susono with the Tokyo Tensuiren members.

Elisa Lazaro and Nyla Sablan at Ontakesan with the Tokyo Tensuiren members.

Nyla Sablan dances on the streets of Koenji.

Elisa Lazaro performs on the streets of Koenji with the Tokyo Tensuiren group.

Contributed Photos

Saipan Awaodori kids back from Japan trip

By Raquel C. Bagnol raquel.bagnol@mvariety.com Variety News Staff

THE two members of the Saipan Awaodori Team are back after a two-week study trip in Japan.

Eliza Lazaro and Nyla Sablan arrived on Sunday night after participating in one the famous Awaodori festivals in Tokyo.

Sonia Siwa of PDM Promoters Inc., the non-profit organization that handles the Saipan team, said the girls were very happy with what they have experienced and learned

from the trip about the Awaodori festival as well as Japanese culture and traditions.

Siwa said the girls got the chance to polish their skills while dancing with the Tokyo Tensuiren group.

Lazaro and Sablan left Saipan on Aug. 13 accompanied by PDM Promoters Inc. president Misako Kamata. They performed with the Tokyo Tensuiren group at Fuji Susono for the Awadori performance on Aug. 18 and at Ontakesan on Aug. 19.

They joined the final Awaodori

festival in Koenji on Aug. 25 and 26 along with thousands of dancers from all over Japan.

The Saipan team could only send two of its members to Japan due to lack of funding.

“There were so many schools doing fundraising efforts for their off-island activities this year, but next year we are planning to send a bigger group to Japan,” Siwa said.

Kinpachi Restaurant paid for the travel expenses of Sablan and Lazaro to Japan.

In 2010, eight members of the Saipan team joined the Awaodori festival in Koenji. Last year, Saipan did not send any representatives because of the tsunami that hit Japan in March.

The Saipan Awaodori Team has over 50 active members from six to 17 years old, and they are from Tanapag, Gualo Rai and Koblerville. The group performs in annual activities like the Flame Tree Festival, the Liberation Day Parade, the Saipan Awaodori aestival and other community events.

The Tokyo Tensuiren dancers pose for a group photo before their performance at the Awaodori festival in Koenji.

Contributed Photo 9/3/12 10:45:09 PM

Local / Guam

MARIANAS VARIETY NEWS AND VIEWS - TUESDAY - SEPTEMBER 4, 2012

‘Hungry’ man ordered to appear in court for arraignment

By Andrew O. De Guzman andrew.deguzman@mvariety.com Variety News Staff

JOSHUA James Torres Cruz, 21, who surrendered after breaking into a snack bar at Northern Marianas College, has been ordered by the Superior Court to answer the charges of burglary and theft filed against him.

Cruz will return to court for his Sept. 17, 2012 arraignment.

Detective Jeffrey I. Norita recommended a $10,000 bail, but Judge David A. Wiseman imposed a $100 bail order instead.

When brought before Judge Joseph N. Camacho for his initial appearance and bail hearing last Friday, Cruz was allowed to issue a $5,000 appearance bond.

Assistant Attorney General Brian Flaherty represented the government during Cruz’s initial appearance and bail hearing, while the court appointed Assistant Public Defender Douglas Hartig as defense counsel.

Cruz, a Dandan resident, told authorities he was hungry and that was why he broke into the Galaxy Bar at NMC, and ate hamburger buns and chicken kelaguen that was in a bowl.

Detective Norita said on Aug. 30, 2012, at about 1:27 a.m., police responded to a call from the NMC security office which reported that a man, later identified as Cruz, wanted to surrender.

Responding officers then went to the Galaxy Bar and confirmed Cruz’s story.

During the interview of the defendant at the Department of Corrections later that day, Cruz told Norita that he, the defendant, arrived at the Galaxy Bar at about 12 midnight.

Cruz said he first tore the screen of the front window, removed the louvers and steel bars, and then entered the establishment.

In the kitchen area, Cruz took a bowl of chicken kelaguen out of the refrigerator and consumed it.

Cruz said he went to another refrigerator, took hamburger buns, and ate them.

Afterward, Cruz went out of the snack bar and proceeded to the NMC security office where he asked the security personnel on duty “if they could call police because he [Cruz] wanted to surrender — he felt bad for what he had done.”

An inventory showed that only the food items Cruz said he ate were missing, police said.

MV 9-4-12.indd 9

Guam candidates look forward to November

By Joy White joy@mvguam.com Variety News Staff

HAGÅTÑA — With the unofficial results available, several candidates have already expressed their excitement for the Nov. 6 general election.

“Now it’s time to gear up. I know who my opponent is. The work begins and continues,” stated Sen. Frank Blas Jr., who is running for the congressional delegate seat as a Republican against incumbent Democratic Guam Delegate Madeleine Z. Bordallo.

Leah Beth Naholowaa, a Democratic candidate for senator, is very surprised and pleased that she garnered so many votes.

Naholowaa had not run any ads; instead she had gone door-to-door speaking with Guam’s citizens.

In addition, incumbent Sen. Tom Ada reports he is pleased with the support for new can-

Republican congressional candidate Sen. Frank Blas Jr. reflects on the primary election during the 2012 Government of Guam Labor Day Picnic at the Gov. Joseph Flores Memorial Beach Park in Tumon on Sunday afternoon.

Photo by Zita Y. Taitano

didates and feels the younger generation of elected officials should be cultivated because they are the future.

Incumbent Sen. Christopher Duenas is also optimistic and feels good about the finish.

“I did enjoy visiting the Demo-

cratic camps who expressed their confidence and support. I want to work to reach out to Democrats,” Duenas stated.

delta

9/3/12 10:45:10 PM

10

TUESDAY - SEPTEMBER 4, 2012 - MARIANAS VARIETY NEWS AND VIEWS

FORUM A Meeting Place For Our Opinions. . .And Yours. . .

• Elizabeth Hamilton

Helping your child succeed Good attendance is key to success in school HAGÅTÑA — Today, it is more important than ever to have a good education, and one of the key aspects to obtaining it is having good attendance in school. Research has shown there is a strong correlation between a strong attendance record and a higher grade point average.

In fact, students who attend school on a regular basis not only have higher levels of academic achievement than students who are frequently absent, they have stronger bonds to the school and community, lower rates of delinquent and high-risk behavior, and increased participation in higher education.

Research has also shown that students who have high rates of absenteeism usually do not fare well in school primarily because they are not able to keep up with their school work. The U.S. Department of Education reports that for every missed day of school, it takes students two days to catch up since they must make up missed learning and catch up with new learning at the same time. Additionally, since school is not only about academic work, being absent means children miss out on the social side of school life which can affect their ability to make and keep friends, and work alongside people later in life. Below are some suggestions parents can use to encourage, promote, and ensure regular school attendance: • Make attendance and academics a priority. Let children know that school attendance and homework come before time with friends, extracurricular activities or the computer. Also, help them understand the consequences of missing school in terms that will hit home for them (e.g., missing out on after-school sports and clubs or time with friends).

• Get organized. Create a space in your home for children to store backpacks and other supplies. Develop a routine where children have their homework done, classroom material together, have their clothes laid out, and their bags packed the night before. This will make mornings less hectic and help them arrive at school on time each day.

• Set reasonable bedtimes. On average, school-aged children need about nine hours of sleep to be healthy and alert. As they move into the teen years, children’s brains begin to signal them to stay up later – and to sleep in later the next day. Despite what nature is telling them, reinforce reasonable bedtimes for your children, and encourage them to get up and get ready on their own.

• Make medical and other appointments during non-school hours whenever possible. Schedule family vacations during school holidays or the summer recess so students aren’t missing important lessons and struggling to make up for lost time.

• Stay home only when really sick. Most children will have occasional sick days, but healthy children rarely need to miss more than a few days each year. Children need to know that unless they are truly sick, you expect them to go to school every day and do their best while there.

• Communicate with school staff. Let the school know in advance if your child is going to be absent or if you have concerns about your child’s attendance or school performance.

Making school attendance a priority helps children learn good work and study habits that will serve them well now and throughout their lives. Regular school attendance also teaches children the ethics of responsibility and dedication — qualities they will need as they tackle increasingly more demanding Continued on page 11

Serving the Northern Marianas for 40 years Published Monday to Friday by Younis Art Studio, Inc. Publishers : Abed and Paz Younis Editor: Zaldy Dandan P.O. Box 500231, Saipan MP 96950-0231 Tel. (670) 234-9797/9272 Fax: (670) 234-9271 E-mail: mvariety@pticom.com URL: www.mvariety.com © 2012, Marianas Variety All Rights Reserved

MV 9-4-12.indd 10

Member of The Associated Press (AP) member Since 1985

National NewSpaper Association

OPINION

Cruel conservatives throw a masquerade ball

By Maureen Dowd

TAMPA, Fla. — Message: They care.

Republicans care deeply. They really do.

They care deeply about making us think that they care deeply.

That’s why they knocked themselves out producing a convention that was a colossal hoax.

They did that for us. Because they care. With exquisite timing, they started caring last Tuesday at 7 p.m., when suddenly the party was chockablock with tender souls in rainbow colors, with strong-minded women and softhearted men, with sentimental ragsto-riches immigrant sagas.

We all know Republicans prefer riches-to-riches sagas and rounding up immigrants, if the parasitic scofflaws aren’t sensitive enough to self-deport.

That’s why my heart swells to think of the herculean effort the GOP put into pretending its heart bleeds.

Even if it’s been bleeding for only five days. Better never than late.

It was remarkable to watch Mitt Romney ignore the empty seats and airless mood and reach deep inside himself to give a speech in which he appeared genuine. It was also remarkable to see that even when he looks genuine, he still seems fake. And despite the soft quiver in his voice, and Ann’s nonstop transfusions of emotion and wrenching testimonials from Mormons forced to publicly relive family tragedies simply to give Mitt a personality, the terribly erect candidate still seemed as remote as Jupiter.

It was truly thrilling to watch the blindingly white older male delegates greet their young, blue-eyed future: Paul Ryan, the 42-year-old Wisconsin congressman who turns out to be more talented than anyone had anticipated — a prodigy of prestidigitation.

In his speech Wednesday night, the altar boy altered reality, conjuring up a world so compassionate, so full of love-thy-neighbor kindness and small-town goodness, that you had to pinch yourself to remember it was a shimmering mirage, a beckoning pool of big, juicy lies. (The fitness freak may have also fibbed about running a sub-three-hour marathon in 1991; Runner’s World reports that his time was 4 hours and 1 minute.)

As the writer Dermot McEvoy notes, Ryan has “the so sincere, so phony air of a gloomy Irish undertaker

standing outside the funeral parlor where you’ve come to plant your mother, shaking his head consolingly and giving you that firm two-handed Irish handshake.”

Except with Ryan, it’s the safety net in the coffin.

The convention was an unparalleled triumph of mythmaking, or Mittmaking. Romney was so eager to woo Hispanic votes and join the cascade of speakers sharing immigrant family tales, from Rick Santorum to Ann Romney to Marco Rubio, that he made his father, George Romney, sound Hispanic.

“My dad had been born in Mexico,” he said, “and his family had to leave during the Mexican revolution.”

It was fitting that David Koch was the beaming financial god presiding over this Orwellian makeover of Republicans as generous communitarians who care about grandmas, cherish immigrants and defend Medicare, so movingly described by the vice presidential nominee who tried to turn Medicare into a voucher system as “an obligation we have to our parents and grandparents.”

Koch leads the Orwellian movement of oil billionaires playing grass-roots activists. The industrialist ideologue wants to use his money to shrink government the way those vacuum sealers on infomercials suck the air out of plastic bags stuffed with clothes until they’re a mere sliver — shriveling all the social services, environmental regulations and taxes on the wealthy.

Koch, who infuses gazillions to build up the Tea Party and tear down the president, was a member of the New York delegation. On Tuesday, he was in the hall, sitting in what had to be one of the most expensive single seats that anyone ever bought.

The stage show looked like America, but the convention hall did not. The crowd seemed like the sanctuary of a minority — economically wounded capitalists in shades from eggshell to ecru, cheering the man from Bain and trying to fathom why they’re not running the country anymore. The speakers ranted about an America in decline, but the audience reflected a party in decline.

We may not have learned who Mitt really is; just that he doesn’t like AC/DC and Led Zeppelin and that he Continued on page 11 9/3/12 10:45:13 PM

Forum

MARIANAS VARIETY NEWS AND VIEWS - TUESDAY - SEPTEMBER 4, 2012

OPINION

Liberalism, as we know it

By George F. Will

WITH Americans, on average, worth less and earning less than when he was inaugurated, Barack Obama is requesting a second term by promising, or perhaps threatening, that prosperity is just around the corner if he can practice four more years of trickle-down government.

This is dubious policy, scattering borrowed money in the hope that this will fill consumers and investors with confidence. But recently Obama revealed remarkable ambitions for it when speaking in Pueblo, Colo., a pleasant place Democratic presidents should avoid.

After delivering in Pueblo what would be his last extended speech, Woodrow Wilson suffered a collapse that prefaced his disabling stroke.

And in Pueblo this summer, Obama announced what should be a disqualifying aspiration.

After a delusional proclamation — General Motors “has come roaring back” — Obama said: “Now I want to do the same thing with manufacturing jobs, not just in the auto industry, but in every industry.” We have been warned.

Obama’s supposed rescue of “the auto industry” — note the definite article, “the” — is a pedal on the political organ he pumps energetically in Ohio, Wisconsin, Michigan and elsewhere. Concerning which: He intervened to succor one of two of the U.S. auto industries. One, located in the South and elsewhere, does not have a long history of subservience to the United Auto Workers and for that reason has not needed Obama’s ministrations. He showered public money on two of three parts of the mostly Northern auto industry, the one long entangled with the UAW. He socialized the losses of GM and Chrysler. Ford was not a mendicant because it was not mismanaged.

Today, “I am GM, hear me roar” is again losing market share, and its stock, of which taxpayers own 26 percent, was trading Thursday morning at $21, below the $33 price our investor in chief paid for it and below the $53 price it would have to reach to enable taxpayers to recover the entire $49.5 billion bailout. Roaring GM’s growth is in China.

But let’s not call that outsourcing of manufacturing jobs, lest we aggravate liberalism’s current bewilderment, which is revealed in two words it dare not speak, and in a four-word phrase it will not stop speaking. The two words are both verbal flinches. One is “liberal,” the other “spend.”

The phrase is “as we know it.”

Jettisoning the label “liberal” was an act not just of self-preservation, considering the damage liberals had done to the word, but also of semantic candor: The noble liberal tradition was about liberty — from oppressive kings, established churches and aristocracies. For progressives, as liberals now call themselves, liberty has value, when it has value, only instrumentally — only to the extent that it serves progress, as they restlessly redefine this over time.

The substitution of “invest” for “spend” (e.g., “We must invest more in food stamps,” and in this and that) is prudent but risky. People think there has been quite enough of (in Mitt Romney’s words) “throwing more borrowed money at bad ideas.” But should progressives call attention to their record as investors of other people’s money (GM, Solyndra, etc.)?

In 1992, candidate Bill Clinton’s campaign ran an ad that began: “For so long government has failed us, and one of its worst features has been welfare. I have a plan to end welfare as we know it.” This was before progressives defined progress as preventing changes even to rickety, half-century-old programs: Republicans “would end Medicare as we know it.”

When did peculiarly named progressives decide they must hunker down in a defensive crouch to fend off an unfamiliar future? Hoover Dam ended the lower Colorado River as we knew it. Rockefeller Center ended midtown Manhattan as we knew it. Desegregation ended the South as we knew it. The Internet ended...you get the point. In their baleful resistance to any policy not “as we know it,” progressives resemble a crotchety 19th-century vicar in a remote English village banging his cane on the floor to express irritation about rumors of a newfangled, noisy and smoky something called a railroad.

Given Democrats’ current peevishness, it is fitting that Sandra Fluke will address their convention. In February she, you might not remember, became for progressives the victim du jour of America’s insufficient progress. She was a 30-year-old-student — almost half way to 62, when elderly Americans can begin collecting Social Security — unhappy about being unable to get someone else (Georgetown University, a Catholic institution) to pay for her contraceptives.

Say this for Democrats: They recognize a symbol of their sensibility when they see one. (The Washington Post)

Good...

Continued from page 10 schoolwork in the upper grades and face personal difficulties and challenges. Furthermore, these character traits, along with strong academic and technical knowledge, are also what today’s employers say they value most in those they hire.

Elizabeth Hamilton, M.Ed, MA, is a teacher with 23 years of professional experience. You can write to her at successfullearner@yahoo. com with your questions or comments.

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✑ Letter to the editor

E-mail your letters to editor@mvariety.com. Letters must carry the full name of the writer, with a telephone number for verification. Letters addressed to other publications or to third parties and those endorsing particular political candidates are discouraged. All letters are subject to editing. The Variety reserves the right to reject any letters. Name withheld and unsigned letters will not be printed.

Earhart disappearance: Wrong conclusions, right reasons IT appears Ric Gillespie of The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery is becoming a master at sleight of hand. I admire his ability to pull reasons to go back to Nikumaroro Island out of his…. hat. The search for the “any idiot artifact” goes on and on and on. Jeff Glickman, a forensic photo analyst with a very impressive resume, has surfaced several times in the past few months with astounding “findings” that have aided TIGHAR’s cause greatly. The first was back in March 2012 when he declared an item in the picture from the Maude-Bevington expedition in October of 1937 could be a landing gear from a Lockheed Electra like Amelia Earhart’s. That little bit of news started the fire at the State Department level with visions of “finding Amelia Earhart’s plane just before the election” dancing in the administration’s head.

A freckle cream jar was the next offering which was the talk of the major news networks and just about every blog in the world for weeks. That came on the scene in June 2012 when the furor of the “landing gear” was just beginning to subside. Is anyone starting to detect a pattern here?

Next, in July 2012, TIGHAR’s expedition departed riding the giant publicity wave that should have been named Typhoon Amelia.

However, just as the aviation gods deserted Amelia in 1937, Neptune deserted Ric 75 years later. He thought he was going to find the intact plane at the bottom of the reef, but father Neptune or maybe Davy Jones refused to cooperate.

He publicly admitted they had found nothing, but still had hours of video tape to go through.

Just days before the airing of the August 2012 Discovery Channel’s

Cruel...

Continued from page 10 does like peanut butter on his pancakes. But it’s clear that he is unlike the vast majority of Americans in every respect. Romney is counting on the fact that he’s a native alien, rather than a non-American alien, as he tried to paint the president with his recent birther crack.

But so far it isn’t working. It’s a strange moment when Americans relate less to the tall, handsome, rich prince of a famous political family than to a skinny black dude of mixed parentage who spent a lot of time in Indonesia.

Given the president’s lackluster performance and the listless economy, Romney should be killing it.

But he’s an odd duck running with a dissimulating striver. Ryan’s harsh stances toward women, the old and the poor are on record, so he set a new standard for gall when he intoned,

documentary of the boondoggle (Oops did I say that out loud?); Jeff Glickman made a startling discovery. He Id’ed the “landing gear” with a wheel fender on the expedition’s videotape. He actually located the landing gear from Amelia Earhart’s Electra among the 4000 TONS of debris from the SS Norwich City which loses a couple of tons of man-made iron and steel every year onto the reef.

I am very surprised that Jeff hasn’t found Jimmy Hoffa!

The infamous 1937 picture by Eric Bevington was touted as “having all the components of the landing gear of a Lockheed Electra” according to Ric Gillespie. Mr. Glickman’s photo enhancement dated May 2012 looks less like a landing gear than the original photo. Bevington was a very meticulous record keeper. He wrote in his journal at great length about everything he saw on the island.

He even described the mullet and octopi in the hold of the SS Norwich City. His writings abound in detail. He described the landing

on the island, “After breakfast I made an easy landing across the reef and walked across the shallow inner reef lagoon.” They arrived on the island at dawn on Oct. 13, 1937 and left at 4:45 p.m. on Oct. 15: a three-day stay on the island exploring and digging water wells.

It would seem logical that the three-foot high landing gear of an Electra standing up in the surf, or on the dry reef, would have been seen and noted by Mr. Bevington.

One can safely assume that the “landing gear” was either a piece of the SS Norwich City or something natural. The original photograph does somewhat resemble a native dressed in a long skirt walking bent over in the shallow surf or a cable reel with a boom from the rusting ship.

The freckle cream jar was discovered during Expedition Niku VI in May and June of 2010 along with a bottle believed to be hand lotion.

TIGHAR has identified even the manufacturer of the hand lotion and

“The truest measure of any society is how it treats those who cannot defend or care for themselves.”

The convention rebranding as compassionate conservatives is encouraging in that it shows that Republicans feel they are at a disadvantage with their Ayn Rand disdain for altruism, their Kempian trickle-down economics stripped of the humanity of Jack Kemp, their worship of the wealthy as the engine of economic prosperity.

Expected to draw Catholic votes, Ryan has been forced to renounce the atheist, Russian-born Rand, but he channeled her when he talked about wanting to define his own happiness, adding, “That’s freedom, and I’ll take it any day over the supervision and sanctimony of the central planners.”

Ryan’s lies and Romney’s shapeshifting are so easy to refute that they must have decided a Hail Mary

pass of artifice was better than their authentic ruthless worldview.

The Grand Old Party illusion is Romney’s latest attempt to figure out how to pull ahead in a race where the rivals are mired in one tiny little margin.

“A masquerade party,” scoffed David Axelrod, the president’s strategist, “to cover up the final takeover of the Republican Party by the right. It was like Barry Goldwater in ’64.”

As I wandered the hall Tuesday night, past cowboy hats and cheeseheads, I ran into Christopher Shays, a delegate and former congressman. I asked the Connecticut moderate if he felt lonely at the conservative masquerade ball.

He laughed and then said wistfully, “Our biggest crime was trying to impeach the one president who was working with us.”

(The New York Times)

Continued on page 12

9/3/12 10:45:14 PM

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Pacific / Asia

TUESDAY - SEPTEMBER 4, 2012 - MARIANAS VARIETY NEWS AND VIEWS

‘Power struggle’ may make Pacific more independent WELLINGTON (Pacnews) — A “looming power struggle” between the United States and China will prove beneficial for the Pacific Islands, a political expert says.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was looking to counter growing Chinese influence in the Pacific Islands during her time in Rarotonga.

However, her pledge last week that the U.S. is in the Pacific Islands for the “long haul” may have come too little too late, Dr. Bryce Edwards of Otago University says.

“The U.S. is really entering in following China so we do have a looming power struggle here.

“I think it’s good that we’re having a bit of a power struggle here because these Pacific Islands really do need resources and money quickly and it gives them some independence from Australia and New Zealand,” Edwards said.

New Zealand Herald columnist Fran O’Sullivan said China has “filled the vacuum” that the U.S. “basically left in the last 10 years.”

Clinton said the U.S. would like to follow New Zealand’s lead and work in partnership with China over aid projects in the Pacific.

And while O’Sullivan said “it is big enough for both,” she says “China seems to have the edge.”

Foreign Affairs Minister Murray McCully said China’s growing reach into the Pacific is inevitable.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, right, poses with gifts presented to her by Cook Island Prime Minister Henry Puna during an event on sustainable development and conservation, in Rarotonga, Cook Islands, Friday.

AP

“China is a big global player so it is no surprise they are a significant player in the Pacific,” McCully

said.

He claims that their influence in the region is not of concern.

“We need to regard it as a fact that China’s a growing power worldwide, they’ve got interests they want to

convey, they’ve got resources they need and it’s natural they should be players here in the Pacific.”

Defectors say Coca-Cola available but expensive in North Korea SEOUL (AFP) — Coca-Cola has been available at private markets in North Korea for more than a decade even if the U.S. soft drink maker has not opened business in the communist state, defectors from the North said Saturday.

A clip featuring Coke being served in what is said to be a pizza restaurant in Pyongyang recently attracted attention on video sharing site YouTube.

Customers were told what they were drinking was “Italian” Coke

Earhart...

Continued from page 11 a picture of their very impressive art deco headquarters building can be seen on their website. I guess the hand lotion couldn’t be connected to Amelia, but a freckle cream jar could. Every news article contained pictures of Amelia’s freckled face next to enlarged photos of the jar.

Now we get to the last film of Amelia taking off from Lae, New Guinea. This also was heavily stressed in the Discovery Channel airing. Mr. Glickman feels that something ripped the lower receiving antenna from the aircraft and bent the pitot tubes down by what looks to be a 10 degree angle.

Again, logic wasn’t the order of the day. TIGHAR concludes that the loss of the antenna is responsible for her not receiving radio calls from the Coast Guard Cutter Itasca. A misstatement on Ric’s part since she did receive one transmission MV 9-4-12.indd 12

despite the unmistakable red and white brand, according to the video posted to YouTube last October.

Lee Suk-Yong, who defected to the South in 2006, said distributors in China began shipping Coke across the North Korean border in 2002 when the North dallied with partial capitalist-style market reform.

“You can buy Coke at every private market in large cities whenever

you’re ready to pay up, although it is highly expensive, compared to other countries,” he told AFP. Coca-Cola however first arrived in North Korea “in 1989 when the country hosted the 13th World Festival of Youth and Students in Pyongyang”, Kim Sung-Min, a renowned defector from the North, told AFP. “Foreign cigarettes such as Marlboro and Dunhill were also available

at such shops,” he said.

The carbonated soft drink at that time appeared only at special shops in Pyongyang where foreign goods are available to those who have access to foreign exchanges — ruling elites and foreigners.

It was simply too expensive for ordinary people to taste it, he said.

A Coca-Cola spokesman told The Telegraph that it “does not currently do business in North Korea.”

“Any products sold in the market

have been purchased by unauthorized third parties and imported into the country from other markets where they were sold,” he said.

“No representative of The CocaCola Company has been in discussions or explored opening up business in North Korea. CocaCola could only consider entering the market in accordance with the relevant laws and regulations governing U.S. relations with North Korea,” he added. “We cannot enter the market at this time.”

at 8 a.m. from the Itasca: “We received your signals but unable to get a minimum. Please take a bearing on us and answer on 3105 with voice.” And according to their own website, the post loss signals made it quite apparent that she received and answered their calls (something she couldn’t have done, according to TIGHAR, without a receiving antenna). Mr. Glickman claims that the dust clouds (that are visible in the film) show where the antenna separated from the aircraft.

But, it was most likely a dirt road across the runway or a pile of ashes that was left over from the brush being burned along the side of the runway. Logic dictates that the group of pilots watching the takeoff would check what caused the puff if this was an unusual occurrence. One would think that they would have gone to the spot and recovered the antenna wire for no other reason than they wouldn’t

want it to get tangled up in their own gear or props. If they had found the antenna wire isn’t it also safe to assume that they would have tried to contact Amelia? Also, Mr. Chater would have noted it in his report. Think about it.

Finally, we get down to the Discovery Channel’s program.

They, of course, made several mistakes. The statement that she went missing 12 hours after she left Lea is incorrect; in fact it was 20 hours and 16 minutes later when her last transmission was received by the Itasca. They also explained why Bevington’s expedition (3 1/2 months after Earhart’s disappearance) didn’t find their bodies: the crabs ate them! TIGHAR demonstrated this by putting a pig on the beach and with time lapse photography; they showed how quickly they would have been devoured. The experiment was good except

they forgot to put clothes on the pig! What difference would that make, you say? The crabs would eat the body, but not the clothes.

The clothes should have been left after the crab feast and found later by the expedition. Presenting “evidence” like this is one of the reasons a lot of people are in prison who shouldn’t be. Now we come to the latest “find” by Mr. Glickman. His last contribution about a possible landing gear and wheel fender has a tendency to strain the imagination. Especially after how it was done, just in time to tout the Discovery Channel program. I’m afraid this is a stretch for the logical mind since Mr. Glickman hasn’t got the best track record on this case.

I realize that he always states that “it is possible; it is consistent with, etc.” But, let’s face facts, he gives Ric Gillespie possibilities; which Ric parlays into publicity; which keeps the money flowing. Has it

occurred to anyone that if Ric finds evidence that Amelia and Fred landed on Gardner Island, which I think he eventually will, he still must convince a lot of people that they died there. Just because they landed there doesn’t mean they died there.

Ric, more power to you and Mr. Glickman both. You are keeping the memory of Amelia Earhart alive and in the public eye. Many people are not convinced. If you aren’t, give www.ameliaearhartcontroversy.com a shot and talk to Fred who has some well thought out ideas and conclusions that don’t suffer from a preconceived imagined outcome that must be proved at all costs. He lets the evidence lead him, not the other way around.

Sincerely, BOB WHEELER Co-author, “Amelia Earhart Betrayed’ 9/3/12 10:45:15 PM

Pacific / Asia

MARIANAS VARIETY NEWS AND VIEWS - TUESDAY - SEPTEMBER 4, 2012

Pacific Digest US Pacific islands form ocean partnership HONOLULU (AP) — The governors of Hawaii, American Samoa, Guam and the Northern Marianas have formed a regional ocean partnership.

Hawaii Gov. Neil Abercrombie said last week they agree to assist the region in identifying coastal and ocean management priorities that require coordination and collaboration among the governments.

He said although separated by thousands of miles, the islands are tied together by one ocean, along with a shared sense of value for the environment and natural resources.

Some of the partnership objectives include preservation of historical, cultural and social heritage and promoting regional sustainability. The agreement also seeks to foster cooperation and collaboration on ocean research.

Marshalls hopes for movement on radioactive waste issue

MAJURO (Pacnews) —Marshall Islands President Christopher Loeak says the country is looking forward to some movement on the issue of radioactive waste still here.

The Pacific Islands Forum leaders have called for the U.S. to live up to its full obligations on the provision of adequate compensation and commitment to its responsibility for the safe resettlement of displaced populations of all affected areas.

They say the U.S. has a special responsibility to the people of the Marshall Islands, who have been and continue to be, adversely affected as a direct result of nuclear weapons tests.

60 candidates in American Samoa House race

PAGO PAGO (Pacnews) — Sixty candidates including several women are vying in this year’s general election for the 20 elected seats of the American Samoa House of Representatives.

According to the list of candidates, only one incumbent, Faimealelei Anthony Allen of District 11 is running unopposed.

Faimealelei is serving his first two-year term in office.

Veteran lawmaker Agaoleatu Charlie Tautolo, who is retiring from public office at the end of his current term, has five candidates hoping to claim his seat.

Among the candidates is a current sitting senator, Fuata Dr Iatala, whose term ends this year.

Speaker Savali Talavou Ale is being challenged by only one opponent.

There are about 11 female candidates in the election and among them is former lawmaker Fiasili Haleck, veteran educator Dr. Trudie Iuli Sala and well-known business woman, Florence Saulo.

Political observers in the territory say 2012 has the highest number of female candidates in the territorial House race.

Unimpeded boats could swamp migrants, says Australian official CANBERRA (Pacnews) — Australia’s migrant intake could be overtaken by boat arrivals unless deterrents such as offshore processing are in place, Foreign Minister Bob Carr says.

He said the government’s reopening of offshore processing on the Pacific island of Nauru and Papua New Guinea’s Manus Island sends a message to those who cynically run businesses smuggling people to Australia.

He said it was conceivable that without deterrents, the number of people arriving by boat could eventually hit Australia’s current immigration intake of 180,000 a year.

488,734 registered for 2014 Fiji elections SUVA (Pacnews) — Fiji’s Elections Office managed to register a total of 488,734 voters through Electronic Voter Registration, or EVR, in the last eight weeks With the EVR ending last Saturday, a total of 2,824 voters were registered on the final day. 1,837 people registered in the Western Division, 1,299 in the Central, 749 in the North and 6 in the Eastern Division.

A total of 197,167 voters are now registered in the Central Division, 187,767 in the Western Division, 81,415 in the Northern and 22,385 in the Eastern Division.

Registration has now closed across all centers for at least two and a half months to allow the Elections Office to carry out data verification and analysis.

MV 9-4-12.indd 13

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Sun Myung Moon: Messianic leader and business mogul SEOUL (AFP) — Unification Church founder Sun Myung Moon built his first place of worship from scrap materials some 60 years ago and went on to establish a controversial religious and business empire spanning the globe.

His church’s business empire now spans dozens of firms involved in construction, heavy machinery, food, education, the media and even a professional football club.

It owns the Washington Times newspaper and the United Press International news agency.

Moon, a South Korean who died Monday aged 92, was born to a farming family in what is now North Korea. He said he was inspired by a vision of Jesus at age 15 to complete the messianic mission interrupted by the crucifixion.

Rejected by Korean Protestant churches, he founded his own church which now claims some three million members worldwide.

Moon was tortured and sent to a labor camp while preaching in communist North Korea after World War II, according to his website biography. He was freed when guards fled before advancing U.S. forces during the Korean War. After trekking to the South’s southern city of Busan as a war refugee, he reportedly built his first church there from discarded army ration boxes.

In Seoul in 1954 he founded the Unification Church, terming it “The Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity.”

It sent missionaries to Japan and the United States in the late 1950s

Rev. Sun Myung Moon, left, and his wife Hak Ja Han, are shown during the traditional invocation of a blessing at a mass wedding in Seoul’s Chamsil gymnasium where 6,000 couples from about 80 countries were married on Oct. 14, 1982.

AP

and Moon made his first world tour in 1965. In the early 1970s he moved to the United States.

In 1974 he met President Richard Nixon at the White House and controversially urged Americans to forgive their leader for the Watergate scandal.

The following year Moon sent missionaries to 120 countries.

In 1981 he was indicted for tax evasion in the United States, in what his church claims was a move to make him quit the country, and served over a year in prison.

The church, whose devotees are often dubbed “Moonies,” has been portrayed by critics as a cult which brainwashes followers — charges it denies.

Its teachings are based on the Bible but with new interpretations, and have been condemned as heretical by some Christian organizations.

“Moon’s view of God is quint-

essentially Korean, combining Shamanist passion and Confucian family patterns in Christian form,” wrote Seoul-based author Michael Breen in his book “The Koreans.”

“His God is the miserable parent who suffers in lonely agony in a world of unfilial and evil children.”

The church is best known for conducting mass weddings among followers involving thousands of couples.

Moon regularly presided over such ceremonies and would personally pair up the couples who were often of different nationalities, sharing no common language or culture.

In recent years the church has given couples a chance to get to know each other before they marry, according to South Korea’s Segye Times newspaper which is financed by the church.

Expect long family planning bill debate in Philippine Senate MANILA (Philippine Daily Inquirer) — Proponents of the reproductive health bill in the Senate should brace themselves for a lengthy debate on every amendment that some opposing senators may want to introduce into the controversial measure.

Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile gave the warning Sunday, and followers of the debate took it as a hint that the Senate would finally be moving forward and open the bill up to amendments once Senate Majority Leader Vicente Sotto is through with his series of speeches against the proposal.

Enrile said the period of amendments “would last depending on the number of amendments that senators want to introduce on the floor.”

Enrile himself is readying an amendment that would delete a provision that classifies contraceptives as “essential medicine.”

He has argued consistently that artificial methods of pregnancy prevention such as condoms and IUDs do not deal with any lifethreatening diseases and should not be listed as essential medicine in the government formulary.

Sotto has said that the current form of the RH bill, to be approved, must withstand changes in provisions relating to abortion, the definition of population control, and government involvement in the distribution of contraceptives.

“If we cannot agree on a single amendment, we will put to a vote the move whether to accept it or not,” Enrile said. “The length of debate would [depend] on the number of amendments. If an amendment is debatable, expect [a debate].”

“We have to prepare for this reality. [It’s really like that] since this is the most [sensitive] bill that has entered the life of this nation,” Enrile said.

He said the debate could stretch until after next year’s election.

Under Congress’ schedule, the current session will end in February to give way to the 2013 campaign period that would culminate in the elections in May. Enrile said Congress would return in June.

“When we come back in June, we will try [to finish this],” he added.

“We are not going to delay but we also have the right to present our amendments unless they want to, if they can, vote us out and cut short the period [of amendments] and go to voting immediately,” Enrile said.

The RH bill appears to be the most divisive measure among senators in the 15th Congress.

Disagreements center on whether the government should officially support artificial methods of contraception.

The Catholic Church, which espouses conservative values and endorses natural methods of avoiding pregnancy, is leading the opposition to the bill.

9/3/12 10:45:16 PM

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Nation

TUESDAY - SEPTEMBER 4, 2012 - MARIANAS VARIETY NEWS AND VIEWS

Are Americans better off? Obama aides won’t say

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Flinching in the face of economic weakness, President Obama’s top aides refused to say Sunday in the run-up to the Democratic National Convention if Americans are better off than they were four years ago.

Obama campaigned in Colorado and Vice President Joe Biden in Pennsylvania as their senior surrogates sought to deflect discomforting questions and turn them into criticism of Republican challenger Mitt Romney.

“The Romney path would be the wrong path for the middle class, the wrong path for this country,” said David Plouffe, one of Obama’s top White House aides.

But responding to the question that has become a staple of presidential campaigns, he sidestepped when asked if Americans are better off than when Obama took office.

“We’ve clearly improved... from the depths of the recession,” he said.

Another aide, David Axelrod, said, “I think the average American recognizes that it took years to create the crisis that erupted in 2008 and peaked in January of 2009. And it’s going to take some time to work through it.”

Not only the economy, but the weather was also a concern for the Democrats with Obama planning to deliver his prime-time acceptance speech on Thursday night before a crowd of tens of thousands at a football stadium.

An enormous sand sculpture made in Obama’s likeness served as a reminder, as if any were needed, that the Democrats were in town. A drenching rain caused damage on Saturday just as work was finishing on the project, but the five-member crew said they

Supporters cheer for President Obama after his speech during campaign stop on the campus of the University of Colorado in Boulder, Colo. on Sunday.

AP

had been able to make repairs.

Planeloads of delegates flew into their convention city for two days of receptions before their first meeting in the Time Warner Cable Arena on Tuesday. Hundreds of demonstrators marched through the streets around the hall, protesting what they call corporate greed as well as U.S. drone strikes overseas said to kill children as well as terrorists.

No arrests were reported as dozens of police officers walked along with the parade, carrying gas masks, wooden batons and plastic hand ties.

Biden, campaigning in York, Pa., took a swipe at Romney on foreign policy.

“He said it was a mistake to end the war in Iraq and bring all of our warriors home,” the vice

president said. “He said it was a mistake to set an end date for our warriors in Afghanistan and bring them home. He implies by the speech that he’s ready to go to war in Syria and Iran. “ Democrats have been critical of Romney for making no mention of the war in Afghanistan when he accepted the Republican nomination in Tampa, Fla., last week.

He previously criticized Obama for setting a public date for the withdrawal of U.S. combat troops from the war.

Romney also has faulted Obama for allowing the government of Syrian President Bashar Assad to remain in power. Yet his aides have refused to say for a week if he agrees with French President Hollande’s promise to extend diplomatic recognition to a pro-

visional government if Syrian rebels form one.

Romney spent Sunday at his Wolfeboro, N.H., vacation home, leaving only to attend church services with his wife, Ann. Aides said he would spend much of the Democrats’ convention week preparing for three fall debates with Obama, beginning on Oct. 3.

Running mate Paul Ryan was booked into North Carolina, counterprogramming the Democratic convention rhetoric.

San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro delivers the keynote speech on Tuesday, followed by first lady Michelle Obama’s remarks.

Obama and Biden will be nominated for second terms on Wednesday night, when former President Bill Clinton has the role

of star speaker.

Biden and Obama, deliver their nomination acceptance speeches on Thursday, the convention’s final night.

The economy has recovered fitfully at best from the worst recession in decades, and national unemployment is 8.3 percent.

Joblessness was spiking when Obama took office and peaked at over 10 percent before it began receding during his term.

While Republicans want the election to be a simple referendum on Obama’s handling of the economy, he and the Democrats are determined to make Election Day a choice between him and his rival.

That strategy was on display in the Sunday interview programs.

Plouffe, asked on ABC to answer the better-off question with a yes or no, replied: “I think everybody understands we were this close to a Great Depression. We staved that off. We’re beginning to recover. We have a lot more work to do. We need to grow jobs more quickly, we need to grow middle-class incomes more quickly.”

Axelrod, on Fox, said, “I can say that we’re in a better position than we were four years ago in our economy in the sense that when this president took office, we were losing 800,000 jobs a month. The quarter before he took office was the worst quarter that this country has had economically since the Great Depression, and we are in a different place, 29 straight months of job growth, 4.5 million private sector jobs.”

“Are we where we need to be? No. But the problem with what Governor Romney said is for three days they never offered anybody a plausible alternative.”

White House releases beer recipes after calls from public WA S H I N G TO N ( R e u t e r s ) — Bowing to growing pressure from thirsty and curious Americans in both parties, the White House on Saturday released the recipes for President Obama’s homemade beers, revealing the executive branch’s penchant for honey-flavored brews.

In a blog post entitled “Ale to the Chief,” White House Assistant Chef and Senior Policy Advisor for Healthy Food Initiatives Sam Kass said that “with public excitement about White House beer fermenting such a buzz, we decided we better hop right to it.”

“To be honest, we were surprised that the beer turned out so well since none of us had brewed beer before,” Kass wrote.

The key ingredient for the White House Honey Brown Ale and the White House Honey Porter, though, may be tough to come by — the honey is straight from the White House’s first-ever MV 9-4-12.indd 14

President Obama enjoys a beer with Jennifer Klanac, left, and Suzanne Woods at Ziggy’s Pub in Amherst, Ohio on July 5, 2012.

REUTERS

beehive.

Kass wrote that the “honey gives the beer a rich aroma and a nice finish but it doesn’t sweeten it.”

However, Brandon Skall, the chief executive of local brewery DC Brau, said it would “pump

up the alcohol and give it some sweetness.”

The ale would likely pair well with a spicy and savory dish such as pork tenderloin or roast duck, said Skall, who added he would like to make the beers in his District of Columbia brewery.

The porter would work well with a dessert or even floated with ice cream, he added.

The audacity of hops The recipes were released as Obama headed to campaign in Colorado, a swing state that is embracing small, independent beer producers. The birthplace of Coors beer currently has the third highest number of craft breweries in the country, behind only California and Washington, according to the web magazine Atlantic Cities.

T h e c o m m a n d e r- i n - c h i e f bought a home brewing kit last year and, according to media reports, has served the beer at St. Patrick’s Day and Super Bowl celebrations. Obama is now part of a growing movement — 28,835 people currently belong to the American Homebrewers Association.

Although George Washington brewed beer at his Mount Vernon

home, there’s “no evidence that any beer has been brewed in the White House,” Kass wrote.

Last month, Obama told a man in Iowa that his campaign bus was stocked with White House beers, and even shared a sample.

Curiosity came to a head in the last few weeks as recipe requests poured onto the White House’s online petition site known as “We the People.”

Obama’s opponent in the November election, Mitt Romney, belongs to the Mormon faith, which shuns alcohol. But the Republican Party could still tap voter interest — its vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan hails from Wisconsin, a major beermaking state, and he has professed affection for micro-brews.

The White House website’s link to the recipe is: http://www.whitehouse.gov/ blog/2012/09/01/ale-chiefwhite-house-beer-recipe 9/3/12 10:45:17 PM

Nation / World

MARIANAS VARIETY NEWS AND VIEWS - TUESDAY - SEPTEMBER 4, 2012

Poll: Obama, Romney tied as Democrats go into convention WASHINGTON (Reuters) — President Obama enters an important campaign week tied with Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney, a Reuters/Ipsos poll found on Sunday, leaving the incumbent an opportunity to edge ahead of his opponent at the Democratic National Convention.

With the Democrats set to nominate Obama for a second term this week in Charlotte, North Carolina, the race to the presidential election on November 6 is tight with 45 percent for Obama and 45 percent for Romney among likely voters, the survey found.

The findings were from the seventh day of a rolling online poll conducted for Reuters by Ipsos to judge voters’ attitudes around the political conventions.

Obama campaigned in Boulder, Colorado, the state where he accepted the Democratic presidential nomination four years ago, while Romney was off the campaign trail in New Hampshire, about to begin preparations for three debates with Obama in October.

The Democrat is seeking to generate the same kind of enthusiasm that propelled him to the White House in 2008, a task that is much more difficult this time with Americans struggling under 8.3 percent unemployment.

While White House aides said on Sunday television talk shows that Obama would offer an economic path forward when he gives his acceptance speech this week, in Boulder he was still on the attack against Romney, criticizing the Republican National Convention in Tampa last week.

“Everything you heard from them...you have heard before,” the president told a large and supportive crowd at the University of Colorado.

“They have tried to sell us this tired trickle-down, you’re-on-your-own snake oil before,” Obama said.

Obama’s challenge is to show why four more years of his presidency would be better for the U.S. economy than his first term has been.

His aides struggled to answer the question on Sunday, as to whether Americans are better off now than they were four years ago.

“We’ve made a lot of progress

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney shakes hands during a campaign rally, Saturday, Cincinnati, Ohio.

AP

from the depths of recession. We have a lot more work to do,” said White House adviser David Plouffe on ABC’s “This Week.”

Democrats argued that Obama inherited a bad economy from Republican President George W. Bush.

“What’s happened since an election in 2008 and right now, again, is this huge economic calamity caused by a series of bad decisions that were made before the president ever got there,” Obama campaign senior adviser Robert Gibbs said on CNN’s “State of the Union. “This election was always going to be close because we live in a closely divided country.”

A week ago, a Reuters/Ipsos poll said Obama led Romney 46 percent to 42 percent. The Republican’s own convention gave him a small boost, vaulting him into an even position with Obama but no further.

Now Obama, who is to accept the nomination on Thursday, could get his own convention bounce. Ipsos pollster Julia Clark said Obama’s numbers would likely improve during his convention.

Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., claps at a campaign event, Saturday, in Jacksonville, Fla. AP MV 9-4-12.indd 15

“The fact that Obama and Romney are still tied signals to me that we’re not going to see any sort of sustained bump for Romney,” Clark said. “As we go into next week’s convention, Romney will struggle to maintain even footing with the president - we’ll likely see a shift back towards Obama.”

While each candidate won overwhelming support from voters in his own political party, Romney was leading Obama among all-important independent voters by 33 percent to 28 percent, the poll found.

Romney’s improvement on key attributes continued on an upward trajectory in the poll. On such issues as he “represents America,” “is a good person,” and “is eloquent,” Romney was essentially tied with Obama. On who is more likable, Romney had improved but still trailed Obama 32 percent to 48 percent, the poll found.

Republicans used their convention to play up the former private equity executive’s family and personal life.

In Wolfeboro, New Hampshire, Mormon churchgoers at a service attended by Romney on Sunday thanked the former Massachusetts governor for raising the church’s profile in his race for the White House and praised his nomination acceptance speech.

Romney, who would be the first Mormon president if he wins the election, sat smiling with his wife, Ann, as members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints lauded his performance at the convention.

“To be honest the convention was pretty good for Romney,” said Clark. “I think one of the big tests of the Republican convention was to make him more of a human, make him a little more personable, make him more likable. I think they succeeded there.”

There has been no real movement in terms of candidate perceptions on any substantive policy areas such as healthcare, or even on which candidate is better in protecting American jobs. This underlines the notion that conventions are about style rather than substance, Clark said.

The poll suggested voters are waiting to hear what Obama has to say about the most pressing issue of the campaign, the U.S. economy.

Seventy-six percent of Americans believe the country is on the wrong track and 73 percent have a similar belief about jobs, the survey showed.

On the president’s signature issue of his first term, healthcare, 62 percent believe the healthcare system is on the wrong track. Obama led an overhaul in 2010 of the U.S. healthcare system that Republicans deeply opposed.

Interest in the political conventions is high. The poll found 82 percent of registered voters have seen, heard or read at least something about the Republican convention.

But this dropped to 73 percent among independents and 66 percent among non-aligned registered voters, those who are undecided about how to vote or who say they will not vote.

This suggests that the groups candidates most need to target are not yet engaging with the electoral process, Clark said.

The rolling poll measures sentiment during the two-week convention season by polling over the previous four days.

For the survey, a sample of 1,441 American registered voters was interviewed online. The precision of the Reuters/Ipsos online polls is measured using a credibility interval. In this case, the poll has a credibility interval of plus or minus 2.9 percentage points for all respondents.

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Navy SEAL book excerpts claim bin Laden was unarmed NEW YORK (The Lookout) — The controversial book written by a member of the U.S. Navy SEAL Team 6 who took part in the raid that killed Osama bin Laden doesn’t come out until Tuesday, but excerpts from the story have now been published.

The U.K.’s Sun printed the prologue of the book, “No Easy Day,” along with several excerpts in the newspaper’s Sunday edition. In them, the SEAL — who used the pen name Mark Owen — recounts the harrowing Black Hawk helicopter crash that preceded the May 2, 2011 raid on the terror leader’s hideout: “We were now less than a minute from the compound. Intelligence said our target was there, but it didn’t matter —whoever was in there was about to have a bad night.... As the helicopter attempted to climb it took a violent right turn, spinning 90 degrees. I could feel the tail kick to the left.

It caught me by surprise and I struggled to find a handhold inside the cabin to keep from sliding out the door.”

In excerpts published by the New York Post, Owen recalls hearing the shots that killed bin Laden and the graphic scene that followed: “We were less than five steps from getting to the top when I heard shots.... In his death throes, he was still twitching and convulsing. Another assaulter and I trained our lasers on his chest and fired several rounds. The bullets tore into him, slamming his body into the floor until he was motionless.... Lying in front of me was the reason we had been fighting for the last decade. It was surreal trying to clean the blood off the most wanted man in the world so that I could shoot his photo.”

The Post’s excerpts included more details from inside the compound: “Through the sweat running down my face and the grit in my eyes from the rotor wash, I could just make out the figure of a woman in the green glow of my night-vision goggles,” Owen writes.

They had been warned to expect suicide vests, even on women.

“She had something in her arms, and my finger slowly started applying pressure to my trigger.

I could see our lasers dancing around her head. It would only take a split second to end her life if she was holding a bomb.”

The Post also printed the part that’s drawn the most pre-publication attention — that bin Laden was unarmed when he was shot.

9/3/12 10:45:18 PM

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World

TUESDAY - SEPTEMBER 4, 2012 - MARIANAS VARIETY NEWS AND VIEWS

Netanyahu urges international ‘red lines’ to stop Iran JERUSALEM (Reuters) — Is- so far have not curbed Tehran’s raeli Prime Minister Benjamin atomic ambitions.

Netanyahu urged world powers Although Netanyahu did not on Sunday to set a “clear red line” single out Obama in his criticism, for Tehran’s atomic program that Israeli officials have said they would convince Iran they were hope for stronger language from determined to prevent it from the president about possible U.S. obtaining nuclear arms. military action.

Netanyahu’s remarks suggested Obama, who has had a frosty a growing impatience with Israel’s relationship with Netanyahu, has main ally, the United States, and insisted he will not allow Iran to other countries that have been build atomic weapons and that all pressing him to give diplomacy and options are on the table. sanctions more time to work and Israel’s popular YNet news webhold off on any go-it-alone strike site described the prime minister’s on Iran. latest comments R e c e n t as a stinging reheightened Isbuke of Obama. raeli rhetoric has In a U.S. election stoked specuyear, Republican lation that Iscandidate Mitt rael might attack Romney has also Iran before the sharply critiU.S. elections cized Obama’s in November, handling of Iran Benjamin Netanyahu believing that as not being President Obama would give it tough enough. military help and not risk alienating And in another sign of a rift pro-Israeli voters. with Washington, Israeli officials “I believe the truth must be voiced disappointment over recent stated: The international com- remarks by the United States’s munity is not placing a clear red top general signaling reluctance line for Iran and Iran does not see to intervene on Israel’s behalf if international resolve to stop its it attacked Iran. nuclear program,” Netanyahu told Tehran says it is refining urahis cabinet. nium to fuel a planned network “Unless Iran sees this clear red of nuclear power plants so that line and this clear resolve it will it can export more of its oil and not stop moving forward with its gas. The United States and its nuclear program, and Iran must not allies accuse Iran of a covert bid have nuclear weapons,” he said, to develop the capability to make repeating his view that sanctions nuclear bombs.

Greek PM sings in tune, now must hit the hard notes ATHENS (Reuters) — When Deftly sidestepping pre-elecJean-Claude Juncker, head of the tion rhetoric of an overhaul to euro zone’s finance ministers, ar- the bailout and pledges to avoid rived in Athens last week, Greek across-the-board wage cuts, SaPrime Minister Antonis Samaras maras meekly promised to restore ran down red-carpeted steps to en- Greek credibility and promptly set velope him in a warm embrace. to work on new austerity cuts that In front of the man represent- include plans for controversial ing Greece’s biggest creditor, the labor reductions. governments of the Much of that apeuro zone, Samaras pears tied to his dewas understandably termination to seeager to make an cure Greece’s next impression, and duly tranche of aid of pledged to do his about 31 billion euutmost to win back ros that is on hold, in Europe’s trust. the hope it will end The conservative constant speculation leader was not always of a Greek exit from so keen. the euro zone and Barely nine months shore up its banks, ago he infuriated ultimately setting European officials the wheels of the by refusing to give depressed economy his written backing in motion again.

Antonis Samaras to austerity policies “He is determined demanded in return for the rescue to adapt because he doesn’t want funds that spared Greece from the grenade to explode in his financial collapse. hands. And at the moment there Given his history of dubious is a risk that the grenade, in other political choices that included words bankruptcy, will explode in voting against Greece’s first bail- his hands,” said political analyst out, Samaras has surprised many John Loulis.

— including some officials among “He doesn’t have a choice, beskeptical EU and IMF lenders cause if that were to happen, apart — by trumpeting his resolve to from the disastrous effects on the push through cuts and reforms that country, his political career would have tripped up previous leaders. be finished as well.”

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Rebel fighters raise their weapons during fighting with the Syrian army in Aleppo.

AP

Syrian rebels hit army headquarters in Damascus AMMAN (Reuters) — Syrian rebels said they planted bombs inside the Syrian army’s General Staff headquarters in central Damascus on Sunday as President Bashar alAssad’s forces bulldozed buildings to the ground in parts of the capital that have backed the uprising.

Syrian state television said four people were wounded in what it called a terrorist attack on the General Staff compound in the highly guarded Abu Rummaneh district, where another bomb attack killed four of Assad’s top lieutenants two months ago.

“The operation targeted officers in the Assad army who have been planning and giving the go ahead for the massacres against the Syrian people,” said a video statement by the Grandsons of the Prophet brigade, a division of the Free Syrian Army.

“Bombs were planted inside the army headquarters,” said the video statement, which was broadcast on Arab satellite channels.

But as the rebels demonstrated they could strike at the heart of the security apparatus, residents

said army bulldozers moved on al-Zayat and Farouk neighborhoods to the west, and destroyed at least 20 buildings in the Sunni Muslim areas that have sheltered the insurgents.

In the eastern Damascus neighborhood of Hazza, footage taken by activists on Sunday showed several buildings on fire. Opposition sources said the army had earlier stormed the area and executed 27 young men.

“Any youth of fighting age seems to have been captured and killed,” said activist Obadah al-Haj, who had fled the area.

Activist video footage from the area showed a young man lying dead beside a yellow taxi, shot in the face. Another dead youth was in the driver seat, blood covering his head and chest.

Assad belongs to the minority Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shi’ite Islam that has dominated power since members of the sect led a military coup in 1963. Assad’s father took power in 1970.

Loyalist forces killed at least 25 men on Sunday when they shelled

A rebel fighter fires his weapon at a Syrian army position through a hole in an empty and destroyed home during fighting in Aleppo.

AP

and stormed al-Fan, a Sunni village in the province of Hama, opposition campaigners said.

The Syrian Network for Human Rights said most of the men appear to have been killed by shelling, but an unspecified number were executed when troops stormed the village later. The official state news agency said a military operation on Fan targeted “terrorists who were scaring citizens.”

Video footage from Fan taken by activists showed women and family members crying over bodies wrapped in white sheets and placed in a row on the floor of a mosque.

As the uprising in Syria has spread, it has taken on a more sectarian bent, with activists saying Assad’s best trained forces from the mostly Alawite Fourth Division and the Republican Guards are spearheading the fight in the capital.

Assad, who is backed by Shi’ite Iran and its Hezbollah Lebanese proxy, has lost control of rural areas in northern, eastern and southern regions and has used helicopter gunships and fighter jets to try to subdue the opposition.

But the aerial bombardment has driven fresh waves of refugees into neighboring countries, reviving Turkish calls for “safe zones” to be set up on Syrian territory.

With Russia and China blocking action by the U.N. Security Council however and little appetite among Western states, or Turkey itself, for committing troops to secure such zones, there is scant chance they will be set up any time soon.

Rebels said they seized an air defense facility and attacked a military airport in the eastern province of Deir al Zor on Saturday. Video footage showed a walled army command centre in the province coming under attack.

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Business & Trade

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China manufacturing survey signals growth to stay soft BEIJING (Reuters) — China’s vast manufacturing sector has been badly hit by slowing new orders, a weekend survey showed, a sign that the pace of growth in the world’s second-largest economy will weaken well into the third quarter.

China’s official factory purchasing managers’ index — one of the early indicators of the state of the economy — fell to a lowerthan-expected 49.2 in August, the National Bureau of Statistics said on Saturday.

It was the first time since November 2011 that the number had fallen below 50, which separates expansion from contraction. Economists polled by Reuters last week had expected it to slip to 50 from 50.1 in July A separate survey of the services sector strengthened in August, as firms were able to pass through higher input prices, the statistics bureau said. But it added that a new orders sub-index had dropped, to 52.7 from 53.2 in July, and that business activity expectations had also worsened.

The government data is in line with a plunge in an advance, or flash, PMI published last month

by HSBC. That index dropped to a nine-month low of 47.8 in August, as new export orders slumped and inventories rose. The final results of the HSBC survey, which better reflects smaller and privately owned producers, will be released at 10.30 p.m. EDT on Sunday.

Together, the results of the two manufacturing surveys could strengthen the case for further policy steps to bolster growth, but analysts are starting to doubt that dramatic action is forthcoming.

“We think there are four things going on here. First, the government has underestimated the pace of the slowdown and is behind the curve. Second, there is an element of caution still at higher levels,

A model applies makeup before the opening of an auto show in Nanjing in east China’s Jiangsu province. The government of Chongqing, a major industrial center in China’s southwest, said in an announcement that it will invest 1.5 trillion yuan, or $240 billion, in seven areas including autos, electronics and petrochemicals over the next three years.

AP

with a quite reasonable fear over reliving the excesses of 2009-10,” wrote Xianfeng Ren and Alistair Thornton of IHS Global in Beijing, referring to the legacy of debt after China’s massive stimulus during the global financial crisis.

In addition, policy tools are losing effectiveness as capital flows out of China and the demand for loans remains weak, they wrote.

“Lastly, as if it had escaped anyone’s attention, there is a

once-a-decade wholesale leadership swap happening in the next couple of months — minds are not solely focused on the economy,” they added.

A raft of weaker-than-expected data in July had already cooled market expectations for any quick economic recovery in China.

The central bank emphasizes a “prudent” policy stance for fear of re-igniting property and inflation risks, but analysts believe it

may still take incremental steps to loosen.

China cut interest rates in June and July and has been injecting cash into money markets to ease credit conditions to support the economy after it notched a sixth straight quarter of slower growth in the April-June period.

But, given the latest data, it seems doubtful whether that will be enough to stop the slowdown in the pace of growth from extending

to a seventh quarter.

New orders fell for the fourth month in a row, to 48.7, while export orders stabilized at 46.6, the official PMI results showed.

Thus far, and in contrast to heavy job cuts during the 2008 global economic crisis, employment has held up reasonably well, assuaging fears of social unrest in a politically sensitive year and allowing planners to hold off on aggressive stimulus measures.

Questioning Rio’s boom — a contrarian in Brazil RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) — To many in this coastal metropolis, Rio de Janeiro has never had it so good.

After decades of decay, crippling crime rates, and a loss of big business to rival São Paulo, Rio is on the rise. A recent boom in Brazil’s economy, the discovery of massive offshore oilfields nearby, and Rio’s planned hosting of the World Cup and Olympics in the next four years have restored some of the splendor to the tropical city of 6.5 million people.

But one local official is tired of the exuberance.

Marcelo Freixo, a 45-year-old state assemblyman, thinks Rio needs a reminder of all that is wrong — from uneven development to deep inequality to corruption and organized crime.

Now, the schoolteacher turned human-rights activist turned politician hopes his call for a reality check can help him, in October elections, MV 9-4-12.indd 17

Marcelo Freixo, a 45-year-old state assemblyman and mayoral candidate, speaks during a rally campaign in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

REUTERS

topple the popular mayor who presides over all the preening.

“What good is all this progress if it’s not addressing our core problems?” asks Freixo in his cluttered office behind the state assembly house. “We need better schools, better hospitals, safer neighborhoods, not just spectacle.”

It’s tempting to dismiss Freixo as a spoilsport. His slight build, heavy brow, and modest wardrobe give him a scholarly, almost clerical, air that runs counter to Rio’s colorful cockiness. Were it not for the presence of bodyguards needed after a crackdown he waged on crooked cops, he would still pass for an

academic.

But Freixo’s arguments matter to many in a city that symbolizes the frustrations of Brazil itself, a country that has long struggled to fulfill its enormous potential.

After past glory as a colonial stronghold, the seat of the Portuguese crown and the capital of an independent Brazil, Rio went into decline when Brasilia became the capital in 1960. As industry grew in São Paulo, Rio lost its standing as Brazil’s financial center.

Like the rest of the country, it succumbed to economic volatility for most of the past half-century and suffered poverty, ramshackle development, and crime.

But as Brazil entered a period of sustained growth over the last decade, though, Rio’s fortunes reversed.

Billions of dollars worth of investments poured in after new oil was discovered south of its famous beaches. Rio is one of 12 venues for

the 2014 World Cup and it alone will host the 2016 Olympics, requiring investments of at least $14 billion.

The changing tide has spawned a property boom. Drug lords have been chased out of some of Rio’s notorious favelas, or slums. Its decrepit old port is being made over so cruise and luxury vessels can berth at docks until recently lined by crack dens.

Still, the progress lacks balance, Freixo argues.

It’s all happening along a narrow strip of coastline that is home to the elite, beaches and tourist attractions, and the corridor where World Cup and Olympic activities will take place.

The rest of the city, Freixo says, remains neglected — giving Rio some of the worst health, educational, and social statistics in Brazil. Murder rates in poor neighborhoods are as much as 20 times higher than those of rich areas, approaching levels of countries at civil war.

9/3/12 10:45:21 PM

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TUESDAY - SEPTEMBER 4, 2012 - MARIANAS VARIETY NEWS AND VIEWS

Malick’s ‘To The Wonder’ premiers in Venice VENICE, Italy (AP) — Terrence Malick asked his actors to do some pretty hefty reading and provided them with meticulously detailed character sketches before filming “To The Wonder.”

Actress Olga Kurylenko, who plays the film’s central role, said Malick asked her to read three novels from the Russian canon, “The Brothers Karamazov,” ‘’The Idiot,” and “Anna Karenina.”

“I had a couple of months for that,” Kurylenko told a news conference Saturday before the film’s world premiere in competition at the Venice Film Festival. “It was great to go back and read those books that I read as a child, but probably didn’t understand.”

But while the preparation was in-depth, what actually appears on the screen in terms of narrative detail and dialogue is very spare.

The viewer sees Marina, a Parisian single mother played by Kurylenko, as she and Neil, an American abroad portrayed by Ben Affleck, fall passionately in love against the backdrop of monumental Paris and among the muddy tidal banks of Mont Saint Michel.

Like Malick’s “Tree of Life,” which precedes it, much of the emotional narrative is contained in images: a red rose blooming in a snow-covered church garden, booted feet sinking into the muddy tidal pools.

“He would tell me, throw away the words, don’t speak, move them,” Kurylenko said. “Sometimes silence is stronger than words. I think that is what is remarkable about him.

He is able to tell you the story, to give you the emotions, through the body, through the silence. ... You don’t need the words. The message is still perceived, you still feel it in your gut.”

Known as elusive and press-shy, Malick skipped the premiere in Venice. His producers said is working on new projects that will continue to push boundaries.

“People are hungry for new ideas,” said producer Nicholas Gonda. “I think it is clear the appetite is there. We were fortunate to see with ‘Tree of Life’ that people embraced so many aspects of this

By Dr. Joyce Brothers

Husband reads wife’s old diaries

Actress Olga Kurylenko poses at the photo call of the film “To The Wonder” in Venice, Italy, Sunday.

AP

story, especially that it was a new form.”

From Europe, “To The Wonder” moves to the vast expanses of Oklahoma, where Neil takes Marina and her 10-year-old daughter Tatiana.

Mother and daughter swirl with excitement through the vast and clean American supermarket.

But the relationship falters and Tatiana’s daughter tires of a town where she has no friends. They go back to Paris, and Neil gets involved with an old flame, Jane, played by Rachel McAdams.

The two love stories are interspersed with that of Padre Quintana, a priest played by Javier Bardem struggling with his faith as he tends to the Oklahoma town’s impoverished.

Much of the backstory to the characters remains unspecified to the viewer, but was laid out in great detail to the actors.

Italian actress Romina Mondello plays an Italian woman who regrets moving to the small town and urges Marina to get out while she is still young and beautiful. The scene is a brief burst of energy as the two walk through the empty streets of Bartlesville and ends with Mondello’s char-

acter Anna screaming, in Italian: “I want someone to surprise me.”

Though the part was small, Mondello said she received from Malick a detailed description of her character, including background of her relationship with her husband and children.

Malick, she said, even asked if she was OK with the nameAnna, though it is never spoken in the film.

“The surprising thing was that I found some deep aspects of my personality in the character I had to perform, and he had just met me once. It was incredible for someone to know me so well after just one meeting. I was astonished,” she said.

Affleck and McAdams, like Malick, are working on other projects and did not come to Venice.

While there was a 20-year interval between Malick’s 1978 film “Days of Heaven’and “The Thin Red Line” in 1998, the director’s production is speeding up. “To The Wonder” is being premiered just a year after “Tree of Life” won the top prize at Cannes, and Malick has finished shooting one film and is about to shoot another.

“He is on a creative roll,” said producer Sarah Green.

Obama remains a ‘huge Clint Eastwood fan’

Actor Clint Eastwood speaks to an empty chair while addressing delegates during the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Fla., on Thursday.

AP MV 9-4-12.indd 18

• Ask Dr. Brothers

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Obama says he’s a “huge Clint Eastwood fan,” even in the aftermath of the actor’s rambling “invisible Obama” monologue at the GOP convention.

Obama says in an interview with USA Today released Sunday the Academy Award-winning Eastwood is “a great actor, and an even better director.” But Obama was coy when asked if he was offended by the performance.

Eastwood talked with an imaginary Obama in an empty chair before Mitt Romney’s speech at the GOP convention, saying the president has failed to deliver on his promises.

Obama says, quote, “if you’re Continued on page 19

Dear Dr. Brothers: My husband and I have always had a trusting relationship during our 32-year marriage. You can imagine how shocked I was to find him up in the attic, digging through the box of diaries I kept between the ages of 14 and 22, the age at which we met. He seemed very embarrassed and said he was sorry, but since then he has brought up a number of names of boys I used to date, asking me about them. The whole thing has me rattled. How should I react now? — J.A. Dear J.A.: It would be disconcerting to find anyone reading words that were written for your eyes only, even if you are talking about a bunch of dusty memories stored in the attic. Usually, diary-snooping is confined to nosy little brothers or parents checking on teen daughters.

But finding your husband poking his nose into your journals must have felt like just as much of an invasion of privacy, and the fact that he was embarrassed shows that he felt that way, too. I’m sure he wasn’t looking for them, and the diaries were stumbled upon and read before he could really think about it. Now, he clearly wishes he hadn’t.

Although you’ve been married for a long time, it’s not too late for the green-eyed monster to rear its ugly head. By bringing up the names of old boyfriends now, I think he’s trying to see where he fit in during those years, and whether you are still carrying the torch for any old flames. He’s at an age where he feels his masculinity suffering and probably could use some reassurance about the obvious: He’s the one you married after meeting and dating a number of others.

I’m more concerned that he apologizes for snooping and begins to win back your trust. If he brings up the past again this way, explain how hurt you are that he violated your privacy and that you don’t want to talk about your old flames. Then see what he has to say for himself.

***

Virginity pact raises alarm Dear Dr. Brothers: My daughter and her three friends (they all call themselves nerds) came bursting in and announced that they have made a virginity pact among themselves, to last until marriage.

They are only 14, and I don’t think any of them has ever had a date.

I would like to encourage my daughter to be prudent, but I can see this driving away any possible chance she has for a social life with male classmates. I don’t know whether to talk to her about it, or let it be. — W.G. Dear W.G.: It sounds as though your daughter has a solid group of like-minded friends, and they’ve probably spent some time analyzing the statistics — or seeing some examples at school — of teen pregnancy, skyrocketing STD rates and other alarming indications that they should just avoid the whole issue of sex for as long as possible.

On the other hand, one or more of them may have a strong religious background whose tenets have been shared with your daughter. In any case, you certainly have a right to know how this pact came about, and it sounds as though you daughter might be perfectly willing to discuss it with you.

This can be a great opportunity to talk to her about your values and concepts about sexuality, as well as discover what her dreams and plans are for the future. Sometimes in a close-knit clique, “groupthink” takes over, and you want to make sure your daughter has had a chance to think things through on her own. Virginity pledges have varying rates of success, and some girls can get in way over their heads trying to comply with the “letter of the law” when they do start dating and having strong feelings for their partner.

Your goal is to make sure she is strong and healthy, both physically and emotionally, and now’s the time to begin that dialogue. You have a golden opportunity to keep your daughter on the high path she has set for herself.

(c) 2012 by King Features Syndicate

9/3/12 10:45:23 PM

MARIANAS VARIETY NEWS AND VIEWS - TUESDAY - SEPTEMBER 4, 2012

Lifestyle & Entertainment

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‘Little Birds’ review: Innocence lost, yada, yada LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) — You know those creative-writing exercises where students are given three random items — say, a bugle, a beaded dress and the word “avoirdupois” — and then assigned to work them all into a short story?

“Little Birds” gives the impression that someone told writer-director Elgin James, “Okay, you’ve got the crumbling neighborhoods by the Salton Sea and a burned-out East L.A. motel. Go!” Those sets ring truer than any of the characters who inhabit them, since James has turned out a listlessly trite tale of two small-town girls from broken homes whose friendship is tested when they venture out into the big, bad world on their own. The result feels like one of those afterschool specials of yore, only with an R rating.

Kay Panabaker and Juno Temple in a scene from the movie “Little Birds.”

AP

Fifteen-year-olds Lily (Juno Temple, apparently going for a trailer-park trifecta on the heels

of “Dirty Girl” and “Killer Joe”) and Alison (Kay Panabaker) are best pals stuck in a town that’s

literally rotting away. (The Salton Sea was designed to be a retreat for the rich, but environmental conditions have rendered it nearly uninhabitable.) We know Lily is dying to get out by the way she screams at the top of her lungs while riding on the back of Alison’s bike.

Local adults like Lily’s mom (Leslie Mann) and aunt (Kate Bosworth) seem like they too have been devoured by their town’s famously over-salinated body of water, so when skateboarder Jesse (Kyle Gallner) — in town from L.A. for the day to take advantage of the empty pools behind so many abandoned houses — gives Lily his number, it’s only a matter of time before she sees him as her ticket out of town.

When a reluctant Alison drives

Lily to Los Angeles, they discover that Jesse and his friends are actually homeless, holing up in an abandoned motel, and soon the girls get drawn into the boys’ world of petty crime. Will Lily’s desperate need for love and affirmation lead her to turn her back on the devoted Alison?

First-timer James has somehow put together a first-rate cast (which also includes Neal McDonough, Chris Coy and Joel McKinnon Miller), but so much of what he’s written for them is nothing you haven’t seen in dozens of other “I-gotta-get-out-of-this-town” movies. For every moment that feels fresh (Jesse shows Lily the house where his family used to live before it was foreclosed), far too much of “Little Birds” feels like the same-old, same-old.

Puzo family wants Paramount out of ‘The Godfather’ NEW YORK (Reuters) — The He told reporters that if the Puzo family of “The Godfather” author estate won the case, he expected Mario Puzo wants a federal judge various studios to take an interest to stop Paramount Pictures Corp in the rights to future “Godfather” from making movies based on movies. sequels to the best-selling, Oscar“I’m sure they would,” Fields winning story of the Mafia. said.

A lawyer for Puzo’s heirs, BerA spokesman for Paramount tram Fields, said in Manhattan Pictures said in a statement that federal court on Thursday that the studio had “tremendous respect Viacom Inc’s Paramount breached and admiration for Mario Puzo” a decades-old contract with Puzo and “as we have said before, we by trying to stop publication last have an obligation to and will proMay of a new book, “The Family tect our copyright and trademark Corleone.” interests.”

In February, Paramount sued The family said in court papers Anthony Puzo, Mario’s son and that Paramount did not autoexecutor, accusing the heirs of matically have film rights to the approving sequels to the books that followed the 1969 best-seller without original. the studio’s permission Paramount’s lawyer, and in violation of earlier Richard Kendall, argued agreements. Paramount, that the Puzos’ claim to the studio behind the rescind the original 1969 Oscar-winning movie veragreement between Masion of Puzo’s story of a rio Puzo and Paramount Mario Puzo New York Mafia family, could not be granted under said the new book infringed its the law. In 1969, Paramount bought copyright. from Puzo all rights and copyright The Puzo family fired back with interests in “The Godfather.” a counterclaim a month later that “I believe the court is in a posiParamount had been given ample tion to say that based on this claim, notice and asked for $10 million and the passage of 40 years...the in damages. omelet cannot be unscrambled at U.S. District Judge Alison this point,” Kendall said.

Nathan did not make a ruling on Mario Puzo died in 1999. The the counterclaim following oral two sequels to the Godfather saga arguments on Thursday. She did published since his death were not indicate when she would issue written by Mark Winegardner. The a decision. third novel published in May was Fields said after the hearing that written by Ed Falco. since it was Paramount that had The case is Paramount Pictures sued the Puzo estate, the family Corporation v Puzo in U.S. District was disinclined to deal with the Court for the Southern District of studio again.

New York, No. 12-01268

Obama...

Continued from page 18 easily offended, you should probably choose another profession.”

The president joked on TwitMV 9-4-12.indd 19

ter after Eastwood’s appearance, tweeting that “this seat’s taken,” along with a photo of him in his chair at a Cabinet meeting.

IN FRANCE. British actress Rachel Weisz and American actor Jeremy Renner arrive for the premiere of the film “The Bourne Legacy” at the 38th American Film Festival in Deauville, Normandy, France, Saturday.

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TUESDAY - SEPTEMBER 4, 2012 - MARIANAS VARIETY NEWS AND VIEWS

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MARIANAS VARIETY NEWS AND VIEWS - TUESDAY - SEPTEMBER 4, 2012

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TUESDAY - SEPTEMBER 4, 2012 - MARIANAS VARIETY NEWS AND VIEWS

Roddick beats Fognini to postpone retirement NEW YORK (AP) — Knowing full well each match could be his last, Andy Roddick is putting on a show while soaking up every moment along the way.

So when he pounded a forehand passing shot to seize a 20-stroke point Sunday, Roddick thrust both arms overhead, motioning to the full house of U.S. Open spectators to make even more noise. Moments later, after hitting a winning volley, Roddick wagged his right index finger while chugging back to the baseline.

Channeling his inner Jimmy Connors, Roddick is having a grand ol’ time at his retirement party — and he’s not done yet.

Winning a second consecutive match since announcing the U.S. Open will be the last tournament of his career, 2003 champion Roddick stuck around at least a little longer by getting past 59th-ranked Fabio Fognini of Italy 7-5, 7-6 (1), 4-6, 6-4 in the third round Sunday.

“I’d be an idiot not to use the crowd right now. It’s a huge advantage,” Roddick said. “Each match is almost like it’s another memory.”

What comes next could really be memorable. In the fourth round Tuesday, the last American man to win a Grand Slam title will face 2009 U.S. Open champion Juan Martin del Potro, who defeated Leonardo Mayer 6-3, 7-5, 7-6 (9) in an all-Argentine match that featured one particularly noteworthy point. In the tiebreaker, Mayer smacked a backhand that somehow ricocheted off the top of a net post and landed in the court — but del Potro was unfazed, got the ball back and wound up winning the point.

“I’m going to have to serve well, kind of try to rush him a little bit,” Roddick said about del Potro. “When he gets into a groove and has time, he’ll put a

Andy Roddick celebrates after beating Fabio Fognini in the third round of play at the 2012 U.S. Open tennis tournament, Sunday, in New York.

AP

hurt on the ball.”

Looking ahead himself, del Potro wasn’t about to get too sentimental about Roddick’s impending departure from tennis.

“I know this is special, this day, for him, but I’m doing my job,” said the seventh-seeded del Potro,

whose major trophy is the only of the past 30 that wasn’t won by Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal or Novak Djokovic.

“The crowd loves Andy here,” del Potro said, “and they have respect (for) me.”

Djokovic, the defending cham-

pion, beat No. 31 Julien Benneteau in straight sets and will meet No. 18 Stanislas Wawrinka for a quarterfinal berth. Also advancing: No. 4 David Ferrer, who got past two-time major champion Lleyton Hewitt 7-6 (9), 4-6, 6-3, 6-0 and now meets No. 13 Richard Gas-

quet, who eliminated two-time NCAA champion Steve Johnson 7-6 (4), 6-2, 6-3; and No. 8 Janko Tipsarevic, who will face the winner of Sunday night’s last match between No. 9 John Isner of the United States and No. 19 Philipp Kohlschreiber of Germany.

Sharapova survives upset bid by Petrova

Maria Sharapova hits a ball into the crowd after defeating Nadia Petrova 6-1, 4-6, 6-4 in the fourth round of play at the U.S. Open tennis tournament, Sunday, in New York.

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NEW YORK (Reuters, AP) — Maria Sharapova survived a major scare before beating Nadia Petrova 6-1 4-6 6-4 in the fourth round of the U.S. Open on Sunday.

The 19th-seeded Petrova led 2-0 in the third set when play was delayed because of rain in Arthur Ashe Stadium.

Sharapova, the Russian number three seed, has played 11 threeset matches this year and won them all.

She will next play France’s 11th seed Marion Bartoli, who upset fifth-seeded Czech Petra Kvitova 1-6 6-2 6-0, in the quarter-finals.

Top-seeded Victoria Azarenka beat 73rd-ranked Anna Tatishvili

6-2, 6-2 to reach the quarterfinals at Flushing Meadows for the first time. Azarenka has dropped only 10 games through four matches heading into a showdown against defending champion Sam Stosur, a 6-4, 6-4 winner over 18-year-old Laura Robson of Britain, whose breakthrough run included wins against past major champions Kim Clijsters and Li Na. Robson beat Clijsters in the second round Wednesday, sending the 29-year-old Belgian into retirement. It was the next day, Roddick’s 30th birthday, that he surprisingly let the world know he had decided to walk away from the sport whenever this visit to Flushing Meadows ends.

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Simply the best: Saban has Tide rolling

MONTGOMERY (AP) — Plenty of other coaches do what Nick Saban does. They preach about the process, focus on getting better every day instead of the trophies and championships that await, and want their players to be accountable.

Thing is, Saban does it all better.

He’s the best in the business, and just in case anybody had forgotten that fact after a long offseason, the Crimson Tide’s 41-14 throttling of Michigan on Saturday night was a less-than-gentle reminder.

It would be easy to say the Tide was stunningly good, but there is simply no reason to be surprised at this point.

“His plan, his philosophy, offseason conditioning, attention to detail,” said former Arkansas and Mississippi coach Houston Nutt, who matched up against Saban for years in the Southeastern Conference and is now working as an analyst for the CBS Sports Network. “Right now there’s not a better team, that’s coached as well fundamentally, that’s as tough, as Alabama. All the ingredients, I don’t know there is anyone better.

“It’s the same recipe and it’s been proven year after year after year after year after year of having really good success.”

No need to worry about the Tide’s rebuilt defense. Cornerback Dee Milliner, safety Vinnie Sunseri and linebacker Trey DePriest are new starters, but have plenty of experience and all showed up at Alabama with at least three recruiting stars.

Michigan head coach Brady Hoke, left, and Alabama head coach Nick Saban shake hands after their NCAA college football game at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas, Saturday. Alabama won 41-14.

AP

They have spent the last year or two being molded into disciplined playmakers by Saban and defensive coordinator Kirby Smart, running a 3-4 defense that is no more exotic than it needs to be.

On offense, it is power running, balanced with efficient passing.

And if the Tide needs to pass more than it runs, that’s just fine.

Alabama came out throwing on first down against LSU in the BCS championship game because Saban felt his offense was too predictable

in the first meeting — a 9-6 loss.

And there’s nothing wrong with predictable when Mark Ingram is carrying the ball. Or Trent Richardson. Or Eddie Lacy (35 yards and a touchdown against Michigan).

Or, now, freshman T.J. Yeldon (111 yards and a TD on 11 carries). The machine keeps on humming.

No coach and coaching staff is better at identifying talented players, and convincing them to attend their school. Since 2008, the first year Saban had time to fully recruit

a class, the Tide’s recruiting classes have been ranked No. 1 in the country by Rivals.com four times.

The other class ranked fifth.

When he gets them to Tuscaloosa, they almost inevitably reach their potential.

Again, there’s no magic. No secret formula.

Walk into any powerhouse program and you will find state-ofthe-art facilities, academic centers and weight rooms. You’ll find a strength-and-conditioning coach

who is part physiologist and part drill sergeant. A nutritionist working on training table menus.

Saban is not the only coach who brings in motivational speakers, who might call in a sports psychologist to help a player tap into the confidence necessary to play college football at the highest level.

All coaches insist that their players worry only about doing their job — on the field and off.

The difference is, Saban’s players listen. They trust the process, because they trust Saban.

“From the outside, Nick comes across as gruff, tough, don’t talk to me,” Nutt said. “He’s really not like that. He’s actually a players’ coach.

Talk to guys like Trent Richardson.

They believe in this guy and know he looks out for his players.”

Saban will be paid about $5.3 million by Alabama this year. His contract runs through the 2019 season. He is 56-12 since arriving in Tuscaloosa and six of those loses came in Year 1. The Tide has won two of the last three national championships and will contend for another this season at the very least.

Saban wants no part of his team being called defending champions.

Each team starts from scratch.

“This team had a challenge of trying to create an identity for itself,” Saban said after the demolition of Michigan. “That happens over time and happens with consistency in performance.”

Every coach preaches against complacency. Saban has effectively eliminated it from Alabama football.

Paralympic icon Pistorius dethroned, Brazil, China triumph

Silver medalist South Africa’s Oscar Pistorius walks away after the men’s 200m T44 category final during the athletics competition at the 2012 Paralympics, Sunday, in London.

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LONDON (AFP) — Oscar Pistorius was dethroned as young Brazilian Alan Oliveira stole his Paralympic T44 200m crown with a powerful run, topping a successful night on the track for the South American nation.

But the 25-year-old Pistorius hit out after his shock silver that silenced the 80,000-strong crowd at the Olympic Stadium, complaining he was at a disadvantage because of the length of some of his rivals’ artificial running blades.

“The IPC (International Paralympic Committee) don’t want to listen,” the South African “Blade Runner” told Britain’s Channel 4 television.

“The guys’ legs are unbelievably long. Not taking away from Alan’s performance, he’s a great athlete.

“But these guys are a lot taller and you can’t compete with the stride length.

“You saw how far he (Oliveira) came back. We aren’t racing a fair race. I gave it my best.

“The IPC have their regulations.

The regulations allow that athletes can make themselves unbelievably high. We’ve tried to address the issue with them in the weeks up to this and it’s just been falling on deaf ears.”

Pistorius, who had been seeking to defend all three of the T44 sprint titles he won in Beijing four years ago, said US bronze medalist Blake Leeper’s knee height, for example, was “like four inches (10cm) higher than it should be”.

“The guys are just running ridiculous times and they’re able to do so.

I think Alan’s a great athlete but...I run just over 10 meters per second,” he added.

“I don’t know how you can come back, watching the replay, from eight meters behind on the 100 to win. It’s absolutely ridiculous.”

Twenty-year-old Oliveira’s unexpected victory was greeted with wild cheering from his compatriots and was the highlight of three golds among five medals for Brazil on the night.

Earlier, Terezinha Guilhermina retained her T11 200m title in a clean sweep of medals that saw Jerusa Geber Santos take silver and Jhulia Santos bronze.

Compatriot Yohansson Nascimento then triumped in the men’s T46 equivalent over the same distance in a new world record.

China also had a successful day, with rower Huang Cheng providing a major upset by inflicting the

first defeat in British favourite Tom Aggar’s five-year international career in the men’s arms-only single sculls.

Huang, 30, said he was “very excited” by his win and after lowering Aggar’s world record in qualifying but the British rower, who came fourth, said he was “devastated” to have lost his unbeaten record and Paralympic title.

Elsewhere, in the women’s armsonly single sculls, two-time world champion Alla Lysenko of Ukraine took gold, while Britain gave the home crowd some cheer by taking the legs, trunks and arms mixed coxed four.

Huang’s victory was one of two rowing golds for China, with world champions Fei Tianming and Lou Xiaoxian winning the trunk and arms mixed double sculls.

In athletics, Zhou Guohua won the women’s T12 100m for visually impaired athletes in 12.05sec, wheelchair racer Li Huzhao won the men’s T53 400m and Gao Mingjie retained his F44 javelin title.

British wheelchair racer David Weir was later roared to victory in the T54 5,000m race and now looks to defend his Beijing 800m and 1,500m titles.

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TUESDAY- -SEPTEMBER SEPTEMBER4,4,2012 2012 - MARIANAS MARIANASVARIETY VARIETYNEWS NEWS&AND VIEWS TUESDAY VIEWS P.O. Box 500231 Saipan, MP 96950 • Tel. (670) 234-9272 • 9797 • Fax: (670) 234-9271 E-mail: younis@pticom.com • mvariety@pticom.com www.mvariety.com

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Wushin, Anjie’s Boys, Freestyle win in DLX league

By Demalynn F. Sablan demalynn.sablan@mvariety.com For Variety

Ivan Devero goes for the layup in last Friday’s game at Gualo Rai court for the Domino Lux Intercolor Basketball League. Photo by Demalynn F. Sablan

Wushin Express turned the tables on Mawati last Saturday as they finally grabbed a win, 88-70, at Gualo Rai court for the Domino Lux Intercolor Basketball League.

Mawati was on a roll stepping into first quarter as they were ahead by four, 14-18. Harris Enriquez scored back-to-back shots opening the quarter with six points. Along side Enriquez were Arjay Nonato and Francis Serrano, who together contributed eight points.

Nonato and Serrano kept their teamwork in the second quarter and added 13 to the scoreboard, to widen the lead by six points, 39-33.

Halftime was exactly what Wushin needed to regroup.

Pete Lizama released a three pointer to catch up with Mawati.

Ivan Devero then took control of the ball in the final quarter and was able to sink in 12 points. He earned a game-high 22 points. As Devero handled the perimeter shots, Rocyl Ritual handled the inside the key plays well throughout the game and earned himself 21 points, seven in the fourth quarter, that got Wushin the win.

Anjie’s Boys 67, Yuichiro Printing 63 The energetic players of Anjie’s Boys prevailed once again, winning this time against Yuichiro Printing, 67-63.

The game started off intense.

Only one point behind, Anjie’s Boys were put on their toes still ahead, 17-16. It was a battle between Erza Cano of Anjie’s Boys and Jun Abedes of Yuichiro as they were going head to head down the court. Cano managed to put in seven points, while Abedes sunk in 6. But it was the ways of Anjie’s Boys and kept the ball moving that got to Yuichiro. Their offensive play was on point.

In the second quarter, Yuichiro stepped it up to steal the lead, 31-30. Both teams went at it with strong defense, but Jack Palacios of Yuichiro was able to penetrate through Anjie’s Boys’ defense to lift his team ahead.

They then lost it after halftime. Though tired, Anjie’s Boys went for the fast-break plays.

It was the foul calls on Yuichiro that helped Anjie’s Boys widen up the lead. Hitting foul trouble early on in the quarter, Yuichiro lost their lead.

Yuichiro was showing effort to catch up in the final quarter, but failed to keep up with Anjie’s Boys’ speed. Genesis Mamaril threw in nine more points. Anjie’s Boys remain in the winners circle.

Freestyle 67, Looban 59 Last Friday, Freestyle won over Looban, 67-59.

George Cruz and Dennis Morales were doing it for Freestyle.

Together they scored 28 points for the game. Morales was on fire right off in the first quarter, making eight shots to help take

the first lead. Cruz took control of the inside play.

Freestyle managed to keep the lead throughout the game by a long shot. By end of first half, the breach was at 14 points. Despite Looban’s Deleon making 16 points, Freestyle had the win in their hands still ahead 49-44 end of third.

George De Guzman also put in a lot of sweat trying to steal the win, contributing 15 points, but still was short behind Freestyle’s Yalong, who took off in the fourth quarter to stretch the gap even more.

Scores: Wushin 88 – I. Devero 22, R. Ritual 21, P. Lizama 13, F. Tobias 10, R. Castro 10, G. Villasan 5, D. Tobayan 4, R. Herrera 3 Mawati 70 – A.Nonato 19, F. Serrano 16, H. Enriquez 10, M. Ibanes 9, D. Dela Cruz 8, J. Reyes 4, R. Tenepere 4 Quarterscores: 18-14, 39-33, 59-56, 88-70 Anjie’s Boys 67 – J. Javier 17, G. Mamaril 17, E. Cano 12, J. Tadifa 8, F. Mettao 5, E. Manglona 2 Yrichiro 63 – Camacho 17, J. Abedes 15, J. Palacios 11, E. Gomez 8, M. Lizardo 6, R. Juson 2, R. Sunciongco 2, O. Quenco 2 Quarterscores: 17-16, 30-31, 48-44, 67-63 Freestyle 67 – Qufunty 15, G. Cruz 14, D. Morales 14, D. Morales 14, Yalong 8, J. Detera 6, D. Brennan 5, T. Alams 3, R. Alejandro 2 Looban 59 – Deleon 16, G. DeGuzman 15, B. Montano 9, J. Tobias 8, J. Dayrit 5, J. Loste 4, N. Mateo 2 Quarterscores: 18-8, 38-24, 49-44, 67-59

Tan Holdings celebrates 40th Anniversary with basketball tournament

By Demalynn F. Sablan demalynn.sablan@mvariety.com For Variety

TAN Holdings is celebrating their 40th Anniversary this year.

By doing so, they are holding a Sports Festival for various sports on island. Along with that, a collaboration of Unified Basketball Association and Tan Holdings will be the 40th Anniversary Tan Holdings Sports Fest Basketball Tournament.

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Tournament begins on Thursday, Sept. 27. All games will be held at Gillete Multipurpose Gymnasium located at Gualo Rai, Middle Road.

It will be a full court, 5 on 5 tournament with an eightman roster. There are only 16 slots available (first come, first served basis) to make the Pool Play of four teams in Pool A, B, C, and D. Tournament will run in a 40-point or 15-minute per

half format. Team that reaches 40 points wins or the team leading after 30 minutes wins. 40-point win must be by two points. Finals will be played a full game of 20 minutes per half.

No 40 points, FIBA rules.

The Pool Play Round will kick off on Sept.

27 starting at 5:30 p.m. for the

first four games. Game dates to follow are Friday, Sept. 28 at 5:30 p.m. with four games, Saturday, Sept. 29 at 9:30 a.m. with eight games, and Sunday, Sept. 30 at 9:30 a.m. with eight games.

The Pool Advance Round will be set for October.

Rosters and waiver forms must

be submitted by Monday, Sept.

17, no later than 4:00 p.m. Team meeting is scheduled for Sept. 19 at Gillette Multipurpose Gym at 6 p.m. Meeting is mandatory to have the coach or a team representative to be present as it will be a technical meeting and the drawing for the pools.

For more information, contact James Lee at 483-0290 or email at unifiedbasketballassociation@gmail.com.

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