2007 – Page 122

Truck driver Armando Concepcion Guzman survived a horrific accident yesterday after his truck flipped over and fell off the side of the Juan Pablo Duarte Bridge. There were no injuries as a result of the accident and Concepcion was only treated for minor scrapes and bruises. The accident led to traffic jams on the bridge …

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Rescue crews have recovered the missing two bodies of five men who drowned when their boat capsized after they chose to go fishing on Sunday in the lake at the Tavera Dam, despite the nationwide hurricane warning. The fishermen were from Santiago province. Three men survived the accident. Boat captain Danilo Antonio Valdez, one of …

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Dominican rappers El Lapiz and Jo-A have come out in defense of their musical genre after the National Drug Control Department (DNCD) and the Attorney General’s office announced that they have joined forces in an attempt to ban reggaeton music dealing with drug-related themes. These organizations, along with the National Drug Council and the Children …

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President Leonel Fernandez officially opened the 2007-2008 school year during a ceremony at Santo Domingo’s Cristina Billini Morales magnet school. The public school offers innovative instructional programs. According to Listin Diario, the President told his audience that the government had spent RD$842 million on 35 schools and two administrative buildings for the Ministry of Education. …

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The latest batch of Presidential decrees has prompted headlines in all today’s newspapers. Most of the articles discuss how the President has recruited members of opposition parties or nearly non-existent parties to fill a plethora of posts, some of which called for creative thinking, particularly the Presidential Gastronomic Advisor. Curiously, the two most controversial personalities, …

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Today’s Clave Digital highlights the creation of dozens of highly paid posts in the Fernandez government. The new posts coincide with the last year of President Fernandez who seeks re-election, and contrast with a proposed austerity in government law that precisely proposed to reduce government spending on wages and other non-essential chapters enacted on the …

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Diario Libre reporter Hector Marte Perez filed a report compiling reactions from the Young Entrepreneurs’ Association (ANJE) as well as pointing out some inconsistencies in past Presidential speeches. Marte Perez observed that during the 2004 campaign Leonel Fernandez insisted on a reduction in government expenditure, but more and more deputy ministers, advisors and assistants have …

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In his column today, Listin Diario political analyst Orlando Gil explains the reasoning behind chemical engineer Hector Rodriguez Pimentel’s appointment to the strategic National Hydraulic Resources Institute (INDRHI). Rodriguez aspired to the PRSC presidential nomination, does not side with either PRSC candidate Amable Aristy, or the party’s former presidential candidate Eduardo Estrella. “INDRHI is a …

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In today’s Diario Libre, editor Ines Aizpun comments on the new appointees to President Fernandez’s cabinet. She starts out by saying that the President, who manages the government budget, is immersed in an “intense, violent electoral campaign and is willing to take from up his sleeve the most improbable candidates to ensure that he does …

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63.7% of Dominicans feel that corruption has either increased (49.9%) or stayed the same (13.8%), according to a Gallup poll published by Hoy newspaper. The survey then asked whether they thought that there was more corruption than during the Mejia government in this administration, and those polled responded 29.8% more, 20.7 the same, and 46.7% …

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