You think the Virgin Islands Republican leadership is in confusion? The Democrats don’t even know who all their local leaders are. As of Monday, they had yet to release the names of the members of the Territorial Committee.
National justice watchdogs are highly critical of the stateside prison system now housing most of the territory’s inmates, charging that a lack of security makes the facilities dangerous.
Lt. Gov. Osbert Potter, also commissioner of Banking and Insurance, said providing access to individual health care is at the top of his agenda but it is also proving to be a most difficult task.
More than a quarter of the prison population is classified as “mentally ill.” All of them have special needs and all, by federal mandate, must be isolated from the rest of the other inmates.
Dyslexia puts people at a distinct disadvantage in learning to read and, since our education system is primarily reading-based, at succeeding academically.
Plans for the Transfer Centennial Celebration in 2017 are off to a slow start, but promise to pick up speed once the funding is actually released – unless they get bogged down in politics.
The U.S. Interior Department’s Office of Insular Affairs recently hired John Magistro to fill the newly created position of climate change coordinator for a number of territories, including the USVI.
Although experts agree the Virgin Islands is late in taking climate change seriously, you might be surprised by how much research is happening. One project identified the USVI's high-impact areas.
If proposals pending at the V.I. Port Authority and at the Legislature are any indication, the territory is shifting toward removing controls on its taxi industry.
With the territory’s murder rate more than 10 times the national average, it’s small wonder Justice Department officials have been concerned about federal anticrime funds that seemed to go missing.
Several local charities have been cut off from federal funding and their representatives say they don’t exactly know why. Problems go back years, following reports of discrepancies with LEPC grants.
The territory has enough artwork, period furniture, silver dishes and historical artifacts squirreled away in government buildings to sponsor its own Antiques Road Show series.
The red tail boa, a subspecies of boa constrictor usually found in Central and South America, seems to be making itself very comfortable on the western end of St. Croix.
Prohibitions and restrictions on government officials are detailed in scores of ethics statutes across the nation. Former Sen. Shawn-Michael Malone says, “We’re the only place in the U.S. that doesn’t have one.”
While there have been attempts to curb government corruption, both the blatant and the subtle, the collective public will seems only half-hearted. Thirty years ago, the territory had a Commission on Ethics and Conflict of Interest.
The enforcement of strict regulations protects the territory against pollution from gas stations' underground fuel tanks. As for aesthetic pollution above ground – that’s another story.
While the national debate still rages over Obamacare, in the territory it has resulted in widening the scope of Medicaid and giving thousands of people access to basic medical care they didn’t have before.