2000 – Page 7

President Hipólito Mejía travels today to the North Carolina State University in Raleigh, where he will receive a honoris causa doctorate. He studied agriculture studies at that university. He is scheduled to travel primarily with family members.

Virgilio Bello Rosa, Attorney General of the nation, said that he is investigating complaints that there has been corruption at the National Lottery. Reportedly, several persons knew in advance the results of the lottery and alerted others to purchase the right tickets. The National Lottery has been a regular source of corruption in government.

The Oficina de Patrimonio Cultural, the government body in charge of cultural heritage, announced the start of Operation Visual Image Recovery in the Historical Center of Santo Domingo. Cesar Ivan Feris, the DR’s former ambassador to the Vatican and one of the country’s most respected restoration architects is overseeing the program. The OPC will spruce …

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El Siglo newspaper points out that the lack of a visible head of the economic team of the government is affecting the Mejía administration. The newspaper points out that the government has been prolific in announcing new taxes measures and economic reforms, but there is not apparent spokesman for these. He said that Minister of …

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El Caribe newspaper highlights today that despite the new Petroleum Law being is in effect, the government is violating the essence of the law by granting subsidies. The idea of the law was to remove government discretion in the price changes of petroleum products. But this has not been applied so far. Petroleum prices have …

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Nala and Simba were born last month at the National Zoo in Santo Domingo. Zoo veterinarians are caring for them after their mother tried to kill them. The mother had three baby cubs, but killed one of these. The veterinarians explained that the mother’s reaction was not unusual for cubs born in captivity. The surviving …

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President Mejía has pegged the presentation of his RD$65,000 million budget (RD$10,000 million more than last year) to the passing of the tax bills in Congress. The Chamber of Deputies has delayed on this, and thus President Mejía announced he would start the year using the 2000 National Budget. Actually, this works in favor of …

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The secretary general of the PLD, José Tomás Pérez denounced that "macuteo," the greasing of hands to expedite matters, is back in public institutions. The practice had been practically eradicated during the past government. Pérez urged that President Hipólito Mejía put a stop to the rebirth of the practice, to avoid the country’s institutions taking …

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Former President Joaquín Balaguer instructed the president of the Chamber of Deputies, Rafaela Alburquerque and a group of PRSC legislators to not place on the Chamber’s agenda the bill for constitutional reform that was passed last week by the Senate. In a two-hour meeting, Balaguer outlined the strategy to be followed by the party regarding …

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Viva competition! Codetel and Tricom are improving their offers to face competition for cellular market share from Orange (France Telecom) and Centennial (Centennial Corporation-USA). Orange and Centennial have set up small booths in commercial centers all around the city and are setting up small shops seemingly all over town. The technologies offered are better, the …

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