The territory’s 2007 Constitution provided for the creation of a commission charged with helping protect human rights in the Virgin Islands. It was never formed. But now, after 18 years of promises and false starts, the government has been pushing ahead with the plan once...
March 24, 2025
March 24, 2025
Science fair tackles local problems
When Amanda Penn was asked to use science to address a problem facing the Virgin Islands, her mind turned to farming. For her science fair project this year, the Elmore Stoutt High School senior built a model of a mill designed to accelerate the process...
March 24, 2025
New minister role could be first for OTs
Premier Natalio “Sowande” Wheatley’s bid to create a new “minister of state” role in his government could be an attempt to expand the Cabinet “through the back door,” according to an expert on the United Kingdom overseas territories. “I don’t believe such a position exists...
March 21, 2025
Water outages plague residents
Across the territory in recent weeks, many residents and businesses have gone without public water for days at a time as complaints have reached a fever pitch. The government has been tight-lipped about the problem, but yesterday Communications and Works Minister Kye Rymer blamed the...
March 21, 2025
Rotary club launches memorial scholarship
On Tuesday afternoon in the library at H. Lavity Stoutt Community College, more than 40 people gathered to witness the official launch of the James Harris Scholarship Programme. The initiative, which will start by supporting one student each year in the college’s Business and Computer...
March 21, 2025
VI braces after US stocks plunge
The Virgin Islands will likely feel blowback from recent turmoil on Wall Street sparked by United States President Donald Trump’s trade wars, experts have warned. Ahead of a threatened wave of new levies to be imposed on a range of US imports from April 2,...
March 21, 2025
USVI charterers told to prep for rising fees
Leaders appear to be nearing a compromise in a bitter dispute over a planned fee increase for foreign-based charter boats using Virgin Islands waters. United States VI Lieutenant Governor Tregenza Roach suggested this week that his territory would accept increases, but not the “phenomenal” ones...
March 20, 2025
Despite criticism, Kartel show draws a crowd
Beneath a bright moon, an ocean of cell phone cameras pointed upwards as Jamaican dancehall artist Vybez Kartel took the stage just minutes after midnight. The crowd erupted, and photographers climbed atop speaker stacks for better vantage points. After his first song, the artist addressed...
March 20, 2025
Maynards to be free years early
The mother and son serving prison time for conspiring with then-premier Andrew Fahie to import cocaine into the United States in 2022 are now set to be released several years early. Former BVI Ports Authority Managing Director Oleanvine Maynard, who was sentenced to nine years...
March 20, 2025
Four charged as two guns seized
Early on the morning of March 11, police carried out an operation that led to the arrest of two men and two women and the seizure of illegal guns, ammunition and drugs, they said the next day. Following “targeted searches” at two residences, officers recovered...
March 18, 2025
Opportunity seen in Trump turmoil
United States President Donald Trump’s erratic handling of the US economy has drawn concern here and abroad, but some business leaders believe it could mean opportunity for the Virgin Islands’ financial sector. Since taking office in January, Mr. Trump has unleashed a whirlwind of uncertainty...
