COMMONWEALTH Healthcare Corporation Chief Executive Officer Esther L. Muna on Wednesday clarified that the previously reported “booster shots” are in fact “third shots” for those who meet the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines.

(CPA) — The Commonwealth Ports Authority has been allocated $2,200,000 from American Rescue Plan Act funds through the CNMI central government strictly for lifting austerity measures, restoring employee hours, and bringing CPA to full operational capacity. 

“YES, I took it and I also informed the owner,” said theft defendant Jin Keun Kim when asked by the prosecutor whether he agrees that he took $19,825 in rental collection payments from RJ Apartments from July 2019 to November 2019.

GOVERNOR Ralph DLG Torres expressed support for Marianas Pacific Airlines’ plan to connect the CNMI with Australia.

HAGÅTÑA (The Guam Daily Post) — Two additional Covid-related fatalities were reported Monday, according to the Joint Information Center.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) — A one-year expansion of the U.S. child tax credit, a policy championed by President Joe Biden and his fellow Democrats over Republican opposition, has disproportionately benefited states that voted for former President Donald Trump in 2020, a Reuters review of Treasury…

MODERNIZING the business process will help the CNMI economy recover, Gov. Ralph DLG Torres said.

(SIS) — Officials of National Merit Scholarship Corporation have announced the names of approximately 16,000 semifinalists in the 66th annual National Merit Scholarship Program.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) — The top U.S. general secretly called his Chinese counterpart twice over concerns then-President Donald Trump could spark a war with China as his potential election loss loomed and in its aftermath, the Washington Post reported on Tuesday.

(NMCADSV) — The Northern Marianas Coalition Against Domestic & Sexual Violence in collaboration with the CNMI Sexual Assault Response Team will be hosting a free two-part webinar called “Improving Services & Response: Supporting People with Disabilities who Experience Sexual Violence…

(MCS) — Mount Carmel School recently announced that it will host the staff from the Commonwealth Healthcare Corp. to facilitate monthly Covid-19 testing for its students and employees.

MANILA (Reuters) — Senator and boxer Manny Pacquiao on Tuesday sued for libel an influential celebrity evangelist followed by millions of Filipinos, after he accused the eight-division world champion of embezzling funds intended for a $70 million sports complex.

HONG KONG (Reuters) —  Shares of Macau casino operators plummeted as much as a third on Wednesday, losing about $18 billion in value, as the government kicked off a regulatory overhaul that could see its officials supervising companies in the world's largest gambling hub.

(MVA) — The Marianas Visitors Authority Saipan office will be temporarily closed from 12 to 1 p.m. until Sept. 30, 2021. The office will remain open weekdays  (except  official  holidays)  from  8  a.m. to 12  p.m.  and  from  1 to 5  p.m.  For  more information, call 664-3200 or email info@…

(PSS) — The Public Schools System's Early Intervention Program's  Interagency Coordinating  Council will meet  on Tuesday, Sept. 30, 2021, from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. via teleconference. 

“THAT’S what the [American Rescue Plan Act] funds are for: to spend the money the right way and make sure that projects, infrastructure, and priorities are also met,” Gov. Ralph DLG Torres said on Friday in response to criticism from U.S. Congressman Gregorio Kilili Sablan about the CNMI’s A…

“WE will certainly be going ahead with our pending appeal to the Civil Service Commission, which the court held was the proper forum for our case at this time,” attorney Joseph Horey said.

COMMONWEALTH Healthcare Corp. Chief Executive Officer Esther L. Muna on Tuesday said Covid-19 booster shots are available to eligible individuals with chronic issues.

THE Commonwealth Casino Commission will shut down by the end of April 2022 if it does not receive funding from the CNMI government, according to its chairman Edward C. Deleon Guerrero and executive director Andrew Yeom.

DUE to a lack of quorum, the Commonwealth Election Commission board meeting did not take place as scheduled on Friday.

GOVERNOR Ralph DLG Torres on Thursday nominated former Society for Human Resource Management-NMI president Proserpina T. Magofna to serve as member of the Commonwealth Election Commission.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (Reuters) — California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Tuesday handily beat back a Republican campaign to oust him from office, sending a decisive message that voters in the deeply Democratic state supported his policies for tackling Covid-19, immigration and crime.

A DEPARTMENT of Public Safety detective, Sgt. Kevin Maratita, said Jin Keun Kim admitted that he took rental payments he collected from RJ Apartments.

(MVA) —  The Marianas will join the global travel and tourism  community in  celebrating the  United  Nations  World  Tourism Organization’s  World Tourism Day on Sept. 27, 2021.

(TSLF) — The Tan Siu Lin Foundation raised $20,894 from the Field of Heroes: We Will Never Forget, a CNMI-wide commemoration event for 9/11.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) — U.S. Senate Democrats on Tuesday unveiled a new version of an election reform bill that is a top priority of President Joe Biden, amid a wave of Republican state legislatures imposing restrictions on voting.

MANILA (Reuters) — Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has ordered members of his cabinet to get his consent before appearing at Senate investigations, fueling accusations from activists and some politicians of an attempt to stifle scrutiny.

(Commonwealth Healthcare Corp.) — Four additional individuals have been confirmed positive for Covid-19. This brings the CNMI total to 256 cases since March 28, 2020.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) — Abortion rights advocates on Monday urged the U.S. Supreme Court not to overturn the Roe v. Wade ruling that legalized abortion nationwide — a 1973 landmark imperiled in the legal fight over Mississippi's attempt to ban the procedure after 15 weeks of pregnancy.

(NMC) — 2021 Northern Marianas College nursing graduates Mariol Lopez, Francheska Fauni, Philip Alejo, and Xiao Fei Yang have passed the rigorous National Council Licensure Examination, or NCLEX, on their first attempt taking the test.

PALIKIR, Pohnpei (FSM Information Services) — On Sept. 14, 2021, Teresa Filepin, consul general of the Federated States of Micronesia based in the U.S. Territory of Guam, sent a request to the FSM Department of Foreign Affairs for the consulate to be temporarily closed, with its staff revert…

MANILA (Reuters) — The Philippines' capital region will exit wide-scale coronavirus restrictions from Thursday, as the government launches a pilot test of localized lockdowns, amid efforts to balance reopening the economy and containing the spread of the coronavirus.

(BECQ) — Each week, the Bureau of Environmental and Coastal Quality analyzes water samples collected from Saipan's west coast recreational beaches and storm drainages and the Grotto as well as samples collected from Tinian’s recreational beaches and storm water drainages.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) — Leading Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives on Monday proposed a substantial roll-back of former President Donald Trump's tax cuts, including raising the top tax rate on corporations to 26.5% from the current 21%.

TINIAN —  On Sept. 10, 2021, the Tinian Stallion Battalion paid tribute to the 13 fallen heroes in the recent attack on Kabul airport in Afghanistan. The ceremony was held during Tinian High School’s monthly flag ceremony, and was hosted by the Tinian JROTC Stallion Battalion as well as memb…

DURING the monthly meeting of the Marianas Visitors Authority board  on Friday, board member Ivan Quichocho reported that MVA anticipates over 600 South Korean tourists will visit the Commonwealth this month as part of the travel bubble program.

SUPERIOR Court Associate Judge Joseph N. Camacho on Monday denied the request of nine terminated firefighters to be reinstated.

THE Commonwealth Casino Commission is "pleading for help" and is asking Gov. Ralph DLG Torres and Saipan and Northern Islands Legislative Delegation Chairman Vinnie F. Sablan to approve an appropriation of $1 million "to keep the commission afloat."

THE bicameral conference committee that will craft the final version of the fiscal year 2022 budget bill will meet on Friday, Sept. 17, at 1:30 p.m. in the House chamber.

THE Commonwealth is now looking at the possibility of establishing travel bubble programs with other tourism markets, including Japan.

BRANDON Lizama Benavente and Vincent DLG Pua are accused of robbing two women in central Garapan on Sept. 8, 2021.

MANILA (AFP) — Classrooms in the Philippines were silent on Monday as millions of schoolchildren hunkered down at home for a second year of remote lessons that experts fear will worsen an educational “crisis.”

WASHINGTON (Reuters) — The U.S. agency in charge of the Biden administration's new rules requiring Covid-19 vaccination at many private workplaces faces internal and external challenges that put its ability to enforce the mandate effectively in question.

THE Office of the Attorney General’s criminal division will appeal the trial court’s ruling regarding suppressed DNA evidence in the case against 17-year-old Kenneth Thomas Blas Kaipat who is accused of raping a 24-year-old woman on June 2, 2019.

(NMC) — Northern Marianas College students recently elected new officers to the college’s student government body, or the Associated Students of NMC.

FLETCHER, N.C. (Reuters) — For Lauren Rash, it’s the little things that have snarled production at her tent factory here, like the many shades of black Velcro.

THE U.S. House Education and Labor Committee on Friday completed its portion of the fiscal year 2022 reconciliation plan with an estimated $77 million allocated to CNMI schools that need repairs, U.S. Congressman Gregorio Kilili Camacho Sablan said.