Dozens of schools still without electricity months after Hurricane Melissa are now being targeted for emergency support as the National Education Trust (NET) moves to plug critical gaps with the distribution of generators. The agency is compiling a...
WESTERN BUREAU: Dr Kevin Brown, president of The University of Technology, Jamaica (UTech), has joined calls for an end to the stigma that currently exists against technical and vocational education and training (TVET) subjects in Jamaica’s...
WESTERN BUREAU: Veteran deejay Roger Walker, popularly known as ‘Jaggy D’, was murdered shortly after midday on Monday in Hopewell, Hanover, when an unknown assailant opened fire, killing him on the spot. Reports are that Walker was speaking to...
Five people died on Jamaica’s roadways over the five-day Easter holiday weekend, raising concerns for the main road safety advocacy group even as road fatalities continue to trend downwards. “Inattention/diverted attention” was listed as the...
WESTERN BUREAU: The Hanover Kitchen of Love has received a $2.4-million boost from GV Service Station, which is spearheading an initiative to provide 400 hot meals per month to needy persons in the parish. The latest donation brings to $9.2 million...
Just a week after opening its doors, the Pure Chocolate factory in Ocho Rios, St Ann, was battered by Hurricane Melissa. A massive guango tree lodged in its roof, leaving production at a standstill and causing millions in losses. But since last...
Auditor General Pamela Monroe Ellis has warned that some procurement heads are improperly splitting government contracts to avoid rules designed to prevent that practice. In a January performance audit of the University Hospital of the West Indies...
What should have been one of the happiest moments of Shandale Ballentine’s life ended in heartbreak on Good Friday. Instead of leaving the Cornwall Regional Hospital cradling the baby boy she had spent months preparing for, the 33-year-old first-...
The University Hospital of the West Indies (UHWI) paid Strategic Alignment Limited US$92,000 (J$14.5 million) to create a strategic transformation plan, but rejected the draft without explaining why the board did not approve it. At the same time...
A former attorney has lost his bid to pursue a conflict-of-interest complaint against a member of the disciplinary panel that ruled over 20 years ago that he should be struck off the list of lawyers authorised to practise in Jamaica. Disbarred...
WESTERN BUREAU: The Government of Jamaica has pushed back against claims that St Kitts and Nevis is the first Caribbean nation to recognise Rastafarianism in law, insisting that Jamaica has long acknowledged the faith within its constitutional and...
Ariel Bowen, the officer in charge of the Jamaican Consulate in New York, has emphasised that even as media attention surrounding the impact of Hurricane Melissa fades, the push towards full recovery continues – driven in large part by the Jamaican...
WESTERN BUREAU: For 32 years, Shernette Crichton walked the corridors of Half Moon not as a spectator of its legacy, but as a student of it; quietly studying, steadily rising, and preparing for a moment she always believed would come. On April 2,...
WESTERN BUREAU: Jamaica is facing a bitter truth about its sweetest habit. From vending machines on university campuses to roadside coolers and taxi stands, sugary drinks have become the nation’s go-to refreshment. But behind every bottle of soda...
WESTERN BUREAU: Fourteen primary school students from St James East Central are now more empowered to further their education after being gifted with computer tablets by their member of parliament, Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett, last Friday. The...
WESTERN BUREAU: Following a situation last year, which saw several doctors who were trained in China finding it difficult to get accepted into local hospitals to do their internships, a push is now on to ensure that medical students from St James...
WESTERN BUREAU: Delano Seiveright, state minister in the Ministry of Industry, Investment and Commerce, has called on Jamaican students to embrace financial readiness as a fundamental life skill, stressing that it is essential for independence,...
On the most important weekend in Christianity, which should have been filled with polished pews, floral arrangements, and the echo of choirs beneath sturdy rooftops, many Jamaicans are instead gathering under tarpaulins, in classrooms, or beneath...
Five months after Hurricane Melissa ripped apart homes and displaced families in St Ann, many are struggling to piece together their lives, clinging to the hope that long-promised government aid will arrive soon. But for some of the frustrated and...
There were tears on both sides of the aisle as Jamaica College ended a 39-year drought to lift the Television Jamaica (TVJ) Schools’ Challenge Quiz (SCQ) defeating Westwood High School 30 – 28 in a fiercely contested final at the TVJ studios on...
From age 15, Jamaican-American student Jadyn Sinclair has distinguished herself among her peers, being the youngest ever vice-president of the student government at the Bronx High School of Science in New York City – a predominantly Caucasian/Asian...
WESTERN BUREAU: Jamaica’s tourism sector has rebounded to more than 80 per cent of pre-hurricane levels, with the reopening of Half Moon signalling renewed confidence in the island’s post-Melissa recovery. Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett said the...
A new initiative aimed at tackling market-access challenges facing small farmers in Jamaica is set to roll out through a 90-day corporate farmers’ market pilot programme spearheaded by Reality Focus Limited. The programme was developed in response...
WESTERN BUREAU: Warning that insurance alone is not enough to safeguard businesses from disaster, Montego Bay Chamber of Commerce and Industry President Jason Russell is urging entrepreneurs to strengthen their financial preparedness and build...
Senior trade unionist Senator Lambert Brown this week cautioned that the Government’s move to scrap incentive and emergency duty allowances for doctors who are mandated to work overtime could have a detrimental impact on the health sector should...
