AUGUST 20, 2010
Morton waives court hearing
A preliminary hearing for Morton Makroro lasted less than two minutes Tuesday morning as Makroro’s attorney, Assistant Public Defender Karotu Tiba, filed a written waiver from his client that allowed him not to appear at his preliminary hearing in a courtroom packed by people who turned out to show their opposition to domestic violence.
Women United Together Marshall Islands organized a rare display of public protest in Majuro, with women and men — most wearing black WUTMI logoed T-shirts — marching from the College of the Marshall Islands to the High Court. Makroro is charged with murdering his wife, Emson Makroro, who taught at CMI. Judge Plasman acknowledged that the lawyers had agreed to probable cause and he found good cause to proceed to trial on the charge of second-degree murder.
Jeban:
Kwaj, RMI buddy up
Kwajalein Atoll and the national government may not be married but presently relations have improved to the point that they can be referred to now as close buddies, Kwajalein Senator Jeban Riklon told Nitijela on Wednesday. Riklon, using the Marshallese word “ambulale” (walking along with arms around each other’s shoulder) to describe increasingly friendly relations between the national government and Kwajalein Atoll leadership, said the completion of the LUA is in sight.
Medical referral deal with Taipei
Dr. Lin Shoei-Loong, Superintendent of Taipei Hospital of the Republic of China/Taiwan’s Department of Health will lead a seven-member delegation from Taipei Hospital to Majuro, from August 28 to September 1. During Superintendent Lin and his delegation’s stay in Majuro, the delegation will meet with Ministry of Health officials on health issues, to attend the opening ceremony of the second “Collaborative Training Workshop,” and the opening ceremony for a new Hemodialysis Center.
The national women’s group WUTMI organized a march from the College of the Marshall Islands to the courthouse Tuesday to protest violence against women. The march coincided with a hearing for Morton Makroro, who is charged with murdering his wife, Emson (pictured in poster above).
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actually escaped from jail.” The police shut down the jail and, after the reinforcements arrived, took all the inmates into the police parking lot to to calm everyone down. Meanwhile, across the street, the College of the Marshall Islands went into a full lock down mode as a preventive measure. CMI security guards were out in force securing the Uliga campus and all students living in the residence hall were advised to remain indoors, CMI officials said of the incident Thursday.
“The cause of the disorder and the fact that contraband was found in the prison is being investigated and corrective procedures are being reviewed,” police said. “The outcome of that review will be advice to the Attorney General along with any recommendation for prosecution.” According to reports received by the Journal, two prisoners were taken to the hospital for treatment after the fracas. Several police also sustained injuries during the fray.
reports, the prisoners were intoxicated on vodka when the violence broke out. They reportedly used pry bars and other tools and pieces of wood to fight each other, then turned to breaking down a door securing the west wing from other sections of the jail as well as breaking apart ongoing new construction work in the jail. The fight reportedly started among a handful of inmates and then quickly spread to a riot of 10 or more that threatened the safety of other prisoners and the police, who also grabbed two-by-four lengths of lumber and rebar to ward off the attacking prisoners, the Journal learned. Several were injured in the violence. To contain the fighting, police at the Uliga police headquarters called for reinforcements. “Off duty personnel were called in to help in stabilizing the situation,” the National Police said in a statement, adding “The disorder was contained soon afterwards.” “Contraband items were found in the prison leading the officers to believe that an escape was planned.” But, said the police, “No prisoners
Six days after a melee in Majuro jail injured several prisoners and policemen, a group of prisoners who instigated the fight continued to be handcuffed on the stairway of the fire department building next to the police station.Police spokesman Capt. Eric Jorbon told the Journal Monday that this group of prisoners is being isolated from the main prison population while an investigation into Thursday’s eruption of violence is conducted. After the disturbance was contained overnight Thursday to early Friday morning, five prisoners were shackled to the stairway as punishment and to get them away from the rest of the prisoners — and have remained on display to the public, apparently only moving from this publicly visible location to use the restroom. “Prisoners locked up in the west-wing of the jail were found fighting with each other (Thursday around 10pm) and when the on duty shift tried to stop the fight the prisoners began attacking the officers,” the National Police said in a statement issued Friday. According to Journal
Jacklick plans Nitijela shake-up
By issuing the first corporate plan for the Nitijela last week, Speaker Alvin Jacklick is putting the power of his office behind the most far-reaching accountability changes proposed for government since Constitutional government was established in 1979. “A radical course change is laid out for steering the Nitijela and the Marshall Islands efficiently and effectively into a better, sustainable future for Aelin Kein Ad,” the Speaker said in his introduction to the corporate plan that was distributed to all members during the opening ceremony. Jacklick is calling for major changes to the Constitution and laws of the RMI, and to Nitijela rules to affect a range of reforms aimed at changing the composition of the Nitijela and the Council of Iroij, beefing up accountability requirements for elected and other government leaders in the RMI, and creating a legislative and regulatory environment to support business development, stimulate development opportunities for outer islands communities, and increase the number of women in local and national leadership positions. Jacklick said he knows the plan is being issued on the eve of a national election. “Unfortunately we are on the clock. The time to remedy the ailments in our nation is rapidly running out and we can no longer afford to conduct the business of the Nitijela as it has been done in the past.”
The Speaker said future leaders “must put politics aside and subscribe to and support the implementation of the priorities already established in Vision 2018 and articulated in this plan. “To do otherwise puts the future of our nation and the well being of our people in serious jeopardy.”
CMI's fast data helps improve services
One day after CMI’s student registration closed earlier this month, the college issued a detailed enrolment report. This statistics report lets administrators, planners, teachers and the public know how many students are female and male, what percentage are full or part time, how many are new, what year each of the 844 students started at the college, what their majors are, how many male and female students are taking particular courses, and much more. What’s the significance of this lightning-quick report for the College of the Marshall Islands? The government seems to struggle to produce timely reports but for the College of the Marshall Islands, which distributed its Enrollment Report on Friday August 13, one day after registration finished, producing usable statistics is a key part of the ongoing process of analyzing services and finding solutions to problems.
Men stand against spouse abuse
Senator Dennis Momotaro, third from right, with members of Youth to Youth in Health and the public at Tuesday’s Court House protest. The posters include one stating ‘Real Men don’t Hit Women.’



Photos:
Suzanne Chutaro
The US Center for Substance Abuse under the Department of Health and Human Services Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration funded a weeklong national training for substance abuse prevention specialists. The workshop was held last week at the Marshall Islands Resort’s Melele Room with about 30 participants from the Single State Agency, Marshall Islands Epidemiology Initiative Inc., Youth to Youth in Health, Ministry of Health, College of the Marshall Islands, Waan Aelon in Majel, Ministry of Education, KIJLE, and the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Photo: Douglas Henry.

Journal 8/28/1971
P1 A controversy involving the jurisdictional power of the Municipality of Laura and the Municipality of Darrit-Uliga-Delap has arisen over the licensing of the Blue Pacific 24-hour snack bar located in Delap, Laura or in between. The package sale bar controversy surfaced this week when DUD Magistrate Birash Joash sent a letter to Laura Magistrate Tony Edwards stating that the new snack bar, which opened up near the DUD end of the Laura road, is actually on DUD land and must obtain a license from the DUD Municipality. The bar in question is jointly owned by Albattar Jamore and one other partner. The two men have engaged John Heine as their counsel.
P3 A 19-year-old Marshall Islands High School student was expelled for drinking by MIHS principal John Heine. According to Heine, the boy was drunk and involved in a fight near a school dance Friday night. Heine said all students entering MIHS sign a form stating that they understand it is not permitted for students to drink. He said only 104 students out of an eighth grade graduating class of over 700 were accepted by MIHS. “Because of this,
we feel we have to be strict,” he said. Heine added that he himself stopped drinking and that one of the reasons for his stopping was his apparent conflict in telling student not to drink while he himself did. “Things are so different for me now,” he said, “that my church even asked me to give a talk on the trouble you can get into from drinking. They consider me as sort of an expert.”

Journal 8/30/1985

Journal 8/27/1993
P5 We hate to say this, but despite a great clean up we
still have a terrific problem here in Majuro — one that was highlighted when the Billfish Club held its jackpot tourney.
One outboard boat, in traversing just the area between town
dock and the near shore lagoon sucked up plastic bags and forced engine shutdown due to overheating. The lagoon used
to be full of floating plastic diapers but now for some strange reason the diapers have been converted to plain old bags. Is it maybe that there were so many bags because people filled them with trash and threw them into the lagoon for the great clean up? It’s hard to criticize someone thinking they’re cleaning up, but if they are simply moving the problem, we are not going to get a
P3 Marshall Islands government per diem payments to patients and their escorts are “completely out of control,” and Global Associates was paid more than $60,000 by the government for work it never did, reported the Auditor General in his most recent report to the Nitijela. The problems in the Marshall Islands Honolulu Liaison Office appear to stem
better island — only a differently abused one.
P12 The Marshall Islnads is now part of the non-smoking chain in Micronesia. Beginning September 1, all Continental Micronesia flights to and from the Marshall Islands — which means Majuro and Kwajalein — will be non-smoking, reports Continental Manager Betwel Lekka. RMI joins the Federated States of Micronesia in its smoking ban. FSM went cold turkey on August 1.
P16 Two brightly colored new postage stamps released by he Post Office depict two of the sea-going vessels associated with the Marshall Islands. One is a 50-cent commemorative of the “Eagle” oil super tanker, the other is the $2 stamp picturing the ‘walap’ (voyaging canoe) of Jaluit.
from a lack of written rules governing basic office procedures such as accounting for funds, and from the bureaucratic difficulties of reporting to three ministries: Foreign Affairs, Health and Finance.
P20 The Marshalls Billfish Club returned from the 27th Annual Hawaii International Billfish Tournament held in Kona, Hawaii last week. The MBC team came in number 12 out of 70 teams, and is the most productive team in recent years. Rick Bush’s 128-pound Pacific blue marlin kept the team within striking distance up to the finish of the tourney. In addition to Bush, members of the team were Ronnie Reimers, Wally Milne and Biten Lanki.