2011 – Page 225

If the National District Municipal Council does not reconsider the new property tax ordinance, rents could increase by an amount that depends on the property value, as well as increases in condominium maintenance fees. According to Dominican Housing Builders and Promoters Association president (Acoprovi) Fermin Acosta, this situation could cause a reduction in housing demand, …

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The United States is still the Dominican Republic’s number one trading partner. Haiti is a distant second, and then come Puerto Rico, Holland, Belgium and the United Kingdom. According to El Caribe, in 2009 the United States imported products worth US$2.51billion from the Dominican Republic, and in 2010 these numbers grew to US$2.68 billion, a …

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Properties valued at more than RD$150 million confiscated from convicted drug trafficker Quirino Ernesto Paulino Castillo will be auctioned by the Oficina de Custodia y Administracion de Bienes Incautados y Decomisados (OCABID), a government office in charge of custody and management of confiscated assets. Office director Laureano Guerrero said they would be sold through the …

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The schools that provide their students with a bilingual education have announced their new rates for the 2011-2012 school year, and some have made increases of up to RD$24,000 per year. A year’s tuition at a top bilingual school or one that offers complete immersion in the second language can reach RD$560,000 if the child …

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They are known for being the best in the country, and have unexpectedly gotten a break for their multiplying. But recently, demand for the lobsters plummeted, affecting the livelihoods of many fishermen in the south western province of Pedernales after it was reported that the lobsters had the bacteria that infected hundreds of Venezuelans attending …

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El Dia newspaper is featuring a series of articles on the difficulties faced by elderly people who do not have the support of family members or their own income. The newspaper reports that 60% of these seniors are illiterate and that the Ministry of Education has plans to start a program to teach the seniors …

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Father Rogelio Cruz said mass at the Eugenio Maria de Hostos Park on the Malecon last Friday, 18 February to call the attention of the authorities to the emblematic city boulevard. Father Rogelio, known for his community activism, convened several neighborhood groups to participate in the mass. He called for other masses to take place …

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Two weeks ago, a well-known journalist and her friend returned to the Dominican Republic from an overseas trip. When Rosanna Rivera, an editor at Listin Diario and public relations businesswoman Ivelisse Jose Jorge got out of their vehicles at their home at Torre del Sol on Bolivar Avenue, they discovered that a gang of assailants …

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The District Attorney in San Juan de la Maguana has secured 78 convictions in 97 cases brought before the courts in his jurisdiction. These cases include drug busts, homicides, robberies and swindles. Pedro Antonio Mateo Ibert, the local District Attorney, said that the cases were “well prepared and based on law and objectivity”. Of the …

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The Police now say that the man who raped the maid at Judge Claribel Nivar Arias’s house in Madre Vieja, San Cristobal was a serial rapist. He is accused of more than 12 rapes and robberies in San Cristobal. At the judge’s house he stole a laptop, jewels and raped the maid. Manuel Oliver Suero …

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