2008 – Page 352

The playoffs start today at the Quisqueya Ballpark, with the expected match between the Licey Tigers (Santo Domingo) and the Aguilas Cibaenas (Santiago). The two teams each have won 19 winter baseball championships. This year, because Puerto Rico did not hold a winter baseball championship, regardless of who wins, both teams will play in the …

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The Tax Department (DGII) released the updated pay scales for income taxes yesterday. The new rules will allow a tax-free income of RD$26,334.75 per month. Any earnings over this amount will be taxable. This is a RD$2,147.84 increase over 2007. The DGII also reported that the Adjustment Multiplier for Inflation for the fiscal year ending …

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Central Electoral Board (JCE) president Julio Cesar Castanos Guzman is calling on the political parties to engage in “civil and polite” campaigning in the run up to the upcoming presidential elections. Castanos Guzman made this statement to reporters as he prepared to open the “official” campaign today, 16 January. The JCE chief magistrate said that …

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The PLD now seeks to focus the public on corruption regarding the personal fortune of PRD presidential candidate Miguel Vargas Maldonado. In addition to questioning the alleged RD$800 million villa of the PRD candidate in Casa de Campo, the party is asking about the purchase by Vargas Maldonado of 577,000 square meters of protected area …

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The number of voters in the Dominican Republic has increased. The Central Electoral Board (JCE) has announced that the electoral rolls now include 5,781,169 people, but the JCE also warned that this number might decrease after all the political parties go over the voter registration lists and make their observations. On Monday the lists were …

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If the Central Electoral Board approves all the requests and accepts the appeals, 37 political parties will be clamoring for the voters’ attention this coming 16 May. In fact, 13 new requests for official recognition were received for today’s session of the JCE. The agenda for today’s meeting includes requests for consideration from ten parties …

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The Dominican Council of Bishops has addressed a letter to the faithful that will be read in most Catholic churches next weekend. The letter commemorates the Day of Our Lady of High Grace (21 January), and reaffirms the bishops’ position that corruption, political patronage and populism still persist in the Dominican Republic. The bishops deplore …

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Despite a recent uproar that led to the withdrawal of similar pay increases in San Cristobal, city councilors in Santiago have now voted for considerable increases for themselves. El Caribe reports that Mayor Enrique Sued’s pay went up from RD$75,000 to RD$180,000 a month, while deputy mayor Petroushka Munoz’ wages were increased to RD$108,000. City …

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Affiliates to the Family Health Insurance Plan (SFS), the government’s attempt at universal health insurance, are once more threatened with loss of coverage. This time it is Resolution 147-07, issued by the Superintendent of Health that stipulated that the HMOs would pay doctors and clinics at the rates that were in force before the government’s …

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Only 1% of the doctors writing prescriptions for the Family Health Insurance program (SFS) are using the Single Forms required by the system. The doctors complain that the prescription forms ask for too much information and the format is too complicated. This information was given to the press by Dr. Waldo Ariel Suero, the president …

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