The V.I. Source, along with offering advertising opportunities for political candidates, is making the Open Forum section available for candidates to state their positions on specific issues.
All submissions will be published exactly as they are sent to us. Letters should be written in the first person as a letter to the editor.
We welcome a lively and position-based debate on issues that are important to residents of the territory.
Only submissions sent via e-mail will be accepted. They should be e-mailed to source@viaccess.net.

Dear Source:
Through this medium and other media in the territory, I call upon Governor Charles W. Turnbull to examine the composition of the Territorial Court of the Virgin Islands to ensure that the Court's panel of judges reflects the diverse make-up of the Virgin Islands population. While the present Court reflects a degree of diversity in its composition, which includes judges who are male, female, black and Hispanic and who are native Virgin Islanders, black American and Eastern Caribbean, the current composition glaringly leaves out any judge who is neither black nor Hispanic.
In the interest of creating a sense of fairness and balance, while demonstrating mature judgment in this whispered about and delicate matter, I believe that the Governor should address this issue during his deliberations on new appointees to the territory's local Court. Such action by the Governor would reconcile differences between the complexion of today's Territorial Court and the Court of the past.
It is my belief that Governor Turnbull should appoint a qualified individual from the racial group with a significant presence in the territory, but not currently represented on the Court, to become a member of the panel of judges of that Court. I believe that this should be done in the spirit of building bridges together through inclusion of all segments of our Virgin Islands population in the territory's governance.
Gaylord A. Sprauve
Senatorial Candidate

Dear Source,
Through this medium and other media in the territory, I call upon Governor Charles W. Turnbull to examine the composition of the Territorial Court of the Virgin Islands to ensure that the Court's panel of judges reflects the diverse make-up of the Virgin Islands population. While the present Court reflects a degree of diversity in its composition, which includes judges who are male, female, black and Hispanic and who are native Virgin Islanders, black American and Eastern Caribbean, the current composition glaringly leaves out any judge who is neither black nor Hispanic.
In the interest of creating a sense of fairness and balance, while demonstrating mature judgment in this whispered about and delicate matter, I believe that the Governor should address this issue during his deliberations on new appointees to the territory's local Court. Such action by the Governor would reconcile differences between the complexion of today's Territorial Court and the Court of the past.
It is my belief that Governor Turnbull should appoint a qualified individual from the racial group with a significant presence in the territory, but not currently represented on the Court, to become a member of the panel of judges of that Court. I believe that this should be done in the spirit of building bridges together through inclusion of all segments of our Virgin Islands population in the territory's governance.
Gaylord A. Sprauve
Senatorial Candidate

Union and Turnbull administration negotiators have tentatively agreed on a new contract for the territory’s teachers, according to Karen Andrews, the government’s chief negotiator.
In a release Thursday evening, Andrews said the agreement still must be ratified by members of the St. Croix and St. Thomas/St. John chapters of the American Federation of Teachers and by Gov. Charles W. Turnbull. Andrews said she couldn’t give any details on the agreement but did say the issues of attracting new teachers and retaining experienced teachers through higher salaries were addressed "within the limited resources available."
St. Croix AFT president Cecil Benjamin couldn’t be reached for comment early Friday. He had said on Wednesday that he and other union leaders were pleased with the way negotiations had been progressing. He cautioned, though, that any agreement would have to be approved by teachers, para-professionals and support staff.
Neither Andrews nor Benjamin have said when teachers might vote on the agreement reached Thursday.
The agreement with teachers means the administration can now turn its attention to negotiations with other unions. Turnbull has maintained that education would be dealt with first, followed by health and then the police. Andrews noted that other unions have threatened job actions if teachers are given raises.
"The governor said, and he said very strongly, that he wanted to put the children first, and that is exactly what he did," Andrews said. "I implore other public employees to respect that. This does not mean we have forgotten them."
The agreement with teachers coupled with wide-scale renovations at the territory’s schools should provide for a new school year with a "minimum of obstacles," Andrews said.
"The children at most of our schools will be the school year in improved facilities and with no job actions by our teachers," she said.

Research scientist Sebastian Crane ( Kevin Bacon) works in a top secret military lab where he has made a startling discovery. He can make animals disappear, invisible to the naked eye, by injecting an irradiated serum. There's just one catch; he can't figure out how to make them come back.
His colleagues, including former lover Linda ( Elizabeth Shue) and best friend Matt ( Josh Brolin) want him to reveal his secret to the government. Crane refuses, and tries the serum on himself. Voila, it works! And, as it turns out, only too well in Crane's dangerous hands.
His behavior takes on homicidal overtones as he discovers Linda and Matt are enjoying a romance. Aha, the discoveries of an invisible man.
The movie, up to this point, is said to be a "genuinely creepy nail-biter," but it soon loses steam according to more than one reviewer. Crane can't figure out how to make himself visible again, and for the last hour of the film the audience apparently can't figure out how to leave soon enough.
Nonetheless, the stars are there, even the disembodied Bacon, acting up a storm. It's the script that begs attention. To sit for more than two hours, a movie's got to have plot, and a good one.
It is playing at Market Square East.

Research scientist Sebastian Crane ( Kevin Bacon) works in a top secret military lab where he has made a startling discovery. He can make animals disappear, invisible to the naked eye, by injecting an irradiated serum. There's just one catch; he can't figure out how to make them come back.
His colleagues, including former lover Linda ( Elizabeth Shue) and best friend Matt ( Josh Brolin) want him to reveal his secret to the government. Crane refuses, and tries the serum on himself. Voila, it works! And, as it turns out, only too well in Crane's dangerous hands.
His behavior takes on homicidal overtones as he discovers Linda and Matt are enjoying a romance. Aha, the discoveries of an invisible man.
The movie, up to this point, is said to be a "genuinely creepy nail-biter," but it soon loses steam according to more than one reviewer. Crane can't figure out how to make himself visible again, and for the last hour of the film the audience apparently can't figure out how to leave soon enough.
Nonetheless, the stars are there, even the disembodied Bacon, acting up a storm. It's the script that begs attention. To sit for more than two hours, a movie's got to have plot, and a good one.
It is playing at Market Square East.

Police arrested a St. Thomas teenager Thursday and charged him with setting his house on fire and locking his mother and two young sisters inside to die five years ago.
Alexander David, 17, a recent Charlotte Amalie High School graduate, was 12 years old on Aug. 12, 1995, when police say he committed murder and arson.
Although the police did not identify David on Thursday, his name appeared in press accounts at the time of the incident, saying he escaped from the burning house in Fredenhoj by jumping from a porch and was not found until hours after the fire was started.
Territorial Police Chief Jose Garcia said Thursday that arson and murder had been suspected from the beginning because "the doors were locked."
Garcia would not say, however, why David had been picked up now, five years later.
"There's no statute of limitations on murder," he said. "We don't close our books. As soon as you get the information you need and you have probable cause, you make the arrest."
"It may be that somebody gave you information," he added.
Kathleen Osuji, who was 44 at the time, and her two youngest children, 2-year-old Briane and 4-year-old Kaitlin, perished in the fire.
David, who was picked up Thursday at a residence in Hospital Ground, had planned to enroll in a Wisconsin university this fall where he wanted to major in drama, according to a former teacher and another friend.
He had been active in the Reichhold Repertory Youth Theater group at the University of the Virgin Islands two years ago and had been voted Mr. Charlotte Amalie High School in his junior year.
The family is well known in the community. David’s older twin brothers, Ivan and Isiah Sullivan, are now in New York City pursuing modeling careers; they were not home at the time of the fire. A sister, Rina David, was living with her father, former police officer Ivan David, from whom Osuji was divorced. Osuji's oldest child, Ruth Ann David, was a track star when she attended CAHS; she had her own apartment near her mother's home.
David is being held in lieu of $300,000 bail. He is to appear Friday at an advice-of-rights hearing in Territorial Court. It was unclear where he was being held Thursday night. Corrections Bureau officials said they do not hold minors. A woman answering the telephone at the Youth Rehabilitation Center on St. Croix late Thursday night said she was not allowed to give out information about minors being held at the center.

Words flew thick and fast in one-way communications Wednesday and Thursday between the Water and Power Authority Employee Association president and the Planning and Natural Resources Department commissioner.
In a three-quarter page paid advertisement in the V.I. Daily News on Wednesday, WAPA Employee Association head Hubert Turnbull accused PNR Commissioner Dean Plaskett of making threats and using profanities to WAPA executive director Raymond George and to Turnbull himself. Turnbull said the incidents occurred during the 23rd Legislature's marathon session into the night of Aug. 11 that ended in a vote not to approve the sale of 80 percent of WAPA to Southern Energy.
Turnbull in the ad also accused Plaskett of cursing and threatening Gail Watson Chiang, a St. Croix resident and Senate aspirant who had filed a lawsuit seeking to prevent the sale on the grounds that the government had not sought bids. The WAPA employee said this behavior occurred during a court hearing by Territorial Court Judge Alphonso Andrews on a temporary restraining order and during a recess in the proceedings.
In a one-page Government House press release Thursday, Plaskett denied threatening George during the Senate session. The release said the commissioner also "denied published reports he physically attacked anyone." The advertisement, in the form of a letter over Turnbull's signature to WAPA Board chair Carol Burke dated Aug. 17, did not mention a physical attack. Turnbull did state in the letter that Plaskett had "pointed his hand in my face."
Plaskett did not respond to the "profanities" and "cursing" allegations directly. He mainly took the offensive in the release, addressing a related issue. During the Southern Energy-related court proceedings, the release stated, he was accused of having accepted from Southern a free trip to a horse race in Florida. "I was horrified and completely shocked to hear such a totally false statement," the release quoted him. In response, he said, he "confronted" Chiang, Turnbull and an attorney for the plaintiffs, terming the allegation "an abominable lie."
Turnbull, who is also the president of the Concerned Employees of WAPA, had testified at the Senate's WAPA hearing on St. Thomas three days before the scheduled vote that he, himself, had been "wooed, wined and dined" by SEI in Atlanta but that he remained opposed to the sale.
In the letter-format ad, Turnbull accused Plaskett of having "an explosive temper" and said the commissioner had demonstrated "arrogance, rude and crude behavior." Turnbull added, "One can surmise from this kind of behavior that he handles his daily official businesses with the same attitude." And Turnbull voiced the view that Plaskett owed George and the WAPA employees "an apology for his intolerable mannerism."
The press release translated Turnbull's charges to accusations of "unbecoming conduct" at the legislative session on Plaskett's part. The commissioner then directed to Turnbull the statement that "you ought not make representations that are without merit, false, malicious and intended to defile an individual's character."

Words flew thick and fast in one-way communications Wednesday and Thursday between the Water and Power Authority Employee Association president and the Planning and Natural Resources Department commissioner.
In a three-quarter page paid advertisement in the V.I. Daily News on Wednesday, WAPA Employee Association head Hubert Turnbull accused PNR Commissioner Dean Plaskett of making threats and using profanities to WAPA executive director Raymond George and to Turnbull himself. Turnbull said the incidents occurred during the 23rd Legislature's marathon session into the night of Aug. 11 that ended in a vote not to approve the sale of 80 percent of WAPA to Southern Energy Inc.
Turnbull in the ad also accused Plaskett of cursing and threatening Gail Watson Chiang, a St. Croix resident and Senate aspirant who had filed a lawsuit seeking to prevent the sale on the grounds that the government had not sought bids. The WAPA employee said this behavior occurred during a court hearing by Territorial Court Judge Alphonso Andrews on a temporary restraining order and during a recess in the proceedings.
In a one-page Government House press release Thursday, Plaskett denied threatening George during the Senate session. The release said the commissioner also "denied published reports he physically attacked anyone." The advertisement, in the form of a letter over Turnbull's signature to WAPA Board chair Carol Burke dated Aug. 17, did not mention a physical attack. Turnbull did state in the letter that Plaskett had "pointed his hand in my face."
Plaskett did not respond to the "profanities" and "cursing" allegations directly. He mainly took the offensive in the release, addressing a related issue. During the Southern Energy-related court proceedings, the release stated, he was accused of having accepted from Southern a free trip to a horse race in Florida. "I was horrified and completely shocked to hear such a totally false statement," the release quoted him. In response, he said, he "confronted" Chiang, Turnbull and an attorney for the plaintiffs, terming the allegation "an abominable lie."
Turnbull, who is also the president of the Concerned Employees of WAPA, had testified at the Senate's WAPA hearing on St. Thomas three days before the scheduled vote that he, himself, had been "wooed, wined and dined" by SEI in Atlanta but that he remained opposed to the sale.
In the letter-format ad, Turnbull accused Plaskett of having "an explosive temper" and said the commissioner had demonstrated "arrogance, rude and crude behavior." Turnbull added, "One can surmise from this kind of behavior that he handles his daily official businesses with the same attitude." And Turnbull voiced the view that Plaskett owed George and the WAPA employees "an apology for his intolerable mannerism."
The press release translated Turnbull's charges to accusations of "unbecoming conduct" at the legislative session on Plaskett's part. The commissioner then directed to Turnbull the statement that "you ought not make representations that are without merit, false, malicious and intended to defile an individual's character."

V.I. National Park authorities gave the go-ahead Thursday for swimming to resume at beaches in the park.
A National Park Service advisory a day earlier had warned swimmers to stay out of the water until testing had been completed to determine whether it had been contaminated by Hurricane Debby-related runoff.
"The testing has been done, and everything is fine," park ranger Schuyler Browne said.
Officials announced that, overall, "the park appears to be in fine shape."
For additional information, call the visitor information number, 776-6201, ext. 238 or 252.