Journal 5/22/1987
P2 Kwaj power plant destroyed by warhead
The US Army Kwajalein Atoll command has confirmed that a warhead from an MX missile launched from California heavily damaged the power plant on the island of Illeginni in the western portion of Kwajalein Atoll’s mid-corridor. The unarmed warhead, known as a reentry vehicle, was targeted on Illeginni which has been used as a target for incoming RVs in recent MX tests. The Army said the power plant was within the target zone and the mission was considered normal.
P3 Public Defender wants to know who’s in jail
Public Defender David Strauss and the Attorney General’s office will be getting satisfaction in the form of regular jail lists, according to Minister of Justice Kunio Lemari. For five months Strauss has been asking for a jail list so his office knows who is in jail and what they are there for. “We have no idea who is in the prison,” said Strauss. Prisoners are brought in from the outer islands and placed in jail for weeks before anyone (besides the police) knows they are there, he said.
P3 Big job demand
Over a thousand young people are applying for 400 summer jobs at the MCAA administration office in Majuro. The three-month summer employment program funded by the Private Industry Council and administrated by MCAA will last until the end of August.
Journal 5/21/1999
P7 Let us pray
He used to be Ji the developer. Then he became Ji the restauranteur. Then it was Ji the gambler, and almost, Ji the hotelier. Then, finally, it looked like there was a new personality: Ji the scooterer, but even this personality was smothered under the recent evocation of Ji the columnist. Still, don’t start ending paragraphs in an anticipated biography of Ji, for the latest phoenix-like rise of Mr. Ji might cause all of you to bow your heads when he speaks. You see, Mr. Ji heads for San Francisco this week to become an ordained minister of a church there.
Journal 5/24/2010
P11 Deaf student earns a BA
Mela Langinbelang will be the first deaf Marshallese students in the Micronesia region to graduate with a bachelor of arts degree from one of the oldest and well recognized universities in the United States for disabilities. She is graduating from Gallaudet University.
P14 The move to Mejatto
This week marks the 25th anniversary of the Rongelap people’s move to Mejatto Island in Kwajalein. The relocation was led by Rongelap Senator Jeton Anjain, who was responding to fears of ongoing radiation exposure at Rongelap from Bravo hydrogen bomb fallout in 1954. His and the Rongelap people’s fears were subsequently confirmed by scientific studies, which led to the US Congress approving a $45 million Rongelap Resettlement Trust Fund to support clean up and resettlement efforts. The Rongelap community is now considering a return to Rongelap next year. If people return to Rongelap, their safety hinges largely on one issue: whether they eat local food from land that has been treated with potassium fertilizer or not. Scientists agree on two things: the land food chain is the main way that people get radiation exposure at Rongelap, and putting potassium fertilizer on the land greatly reduces the dose of radiation received from eating food crops. The issue now: only a portion of Rongelap Island has been treated with potassium fertilizer, but homes for a future resettlement have been built on both Rongelap and Jabwan islands.