Roy and Esmie Penn sat behind their stall and fielded questions from customers during the Farmers and Fishers Week exhibition on Saturday at Paraquita Bay. One customer inquired whether their peanuts were “parched.” “Yes, it is brown; you can buy it for only $2,” Ms....
March 23, 2023
March 17, 2023
Before review, 18 laws passed in two days
Legislators passed 18 laws on Thursday and Friday with little to no public debate, just two days before international assessors arrived as part of a key anti-money-laundering review. Most of the laws were amendments designed to help the territory avoid international censure by achieving higher...
March 16, 2023
Auditor blasts grant programmes
At elected leaders’ discretion, the government awarded nearly $23 million in assistance grants between January 2019 and May 2022 without adequate accountability or transparency, including more than $200,000 to one senior public officer and their immediate family members, according to a scathing report by Auditor...
March 17, 2023
Minister pledges to finalise land transfer to college
Twenty years after the government procured 134 acres of land on behalf of H. Lavity Stoutt Community College, only 13 acres have been transferred to the school, Natural Resources and Labour Minister Mitch Turnbull told the House of Assembly on March 9. Now, he said,...
March 16, 2023
OECD okays supplementary review
The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development’s Global Forum Peer Review Group has accepted the government’s request for a supplementary review that — if successful — could cause the European Union to remove the territory from its blacklist of noncooperative tax jurisdictions, according to Premier...
March 17, 2023
Science on display at Education Week
Several weeks ago, three eleventh graders from the Bregado Flax Educational Centre on Virgin Gorda were chatting about their lunches when their conversation turned to creating electricity from tomatoes, potatoes and other produce. The trio, who described themselves as conservationists, then brainstormed what they termed...
March 13, 2023
Religious studies library opens to public
Tucked alongside the site of the Department of Disaster Management’s new headquarters on McNamara Road is a peach-coloured office, and just to the left of the front door hangs a little sign designating the location of the Rev. Selwyn L. Vanterpool Christian Library. Mr. Vanterpool...
March 10, 2023
Governor sends audits to cops, DPP, AG
Following recent criticism from the House of Assembly, Governor John Rankin and Auditor General Sonia Webster defended two reports by Ms. Webster’s office that suggest egregious wastage of taxpayer money. Last Friday, Mr. Rankin said at a press conference that the reports — one probing...
March 10, 2023
‘Country man comes to town’
Shortly after H. Lavity Stoutt became the Virgin Islands’ first chief minister in 1967, protestors confronted him over an exclusive development planned for Road Town, according to a new play about his life. “We want back Wickhams Cay,” the protestors chanted in the theatrical presentation...
March 9, 2023
16 bills rushed ahead of international review
Eleven days before international assessors are scheduled to arrive as part of a key anti-money-laundering evaluation, Premier Dr. Natalio “Sowande” Wheatley introduced amendments to 16 financial services laws last Thursday in the House of Assembly. The HOA is scheduled to reconvene today to give second...
March 9, 2023
Premier withdraws Police Act
Premier Dr. Natalio “Sowande” Wheatley moved to withdraw the controversial Police Act 2023 last Thursday in the House of Assembly, saying that he would re-introduce a scaled-down bill today that would allow police to conduct DNA testing with warrants but would omit previously proposed amendments...
