Albert Ferguson/Gleaner Writer

The Black River Fire Station in St Elizabeth.
January 14, 2026 by Albert Ferguson

Black River Fire Station relocation suggested after Melissa crippled operations

WESTERN BUREAU: Mark Edwards, the assistant superintendent at the St Elizabeth branch of the Jamaica Fire Brigade (JFB), is raising concerns about the location of the Black River Fire Station after it…
Christopher Williams, councillor for the Santa Cruz Division in St Elizabeth.
January 12, 2026 by Albert Ferguson

Hurricane relief alarm

WESTERN BUREAU: Councillors at the St Elizabeth Municipal Corporation are raising a growing concern that the government’s move away from traditional care packages, towards a voucher-based assistance…
Independence Park in Black River, St Elizabeth, covered with debris cleared from the township of Black River during the emergency response phase following Hurricane Melissa.
January 12, 2026 by Albert Ferguson

UPDATE: Black River councillor wants to see end to dumping of debris at Independence Park

WESTERN BUREAU: Black River’s Councillor Dwight Salmon has condemned the continued use of the town’s Independence Park for the dumping of debris in the ongoing clean-up in the aftermath of Hurricane…
Prime Minister Dr Andrew Holness (left) and Chief of Accompong Richard Currie in conversation at the 288 Maroon Treaty celebration in Accompong Town, St Elizabeth, on Tuesday.
January 8, 2026 by Albert Ferguson

From resistance to republic: Holness, Currie talk sovereignty

WESTERN BUREAU: Prime Minister Dr Andrew Holness has delivered one of his most pointed declarations on sovereignty and democratic accountability, telling Maroons that his authority flows directly from…
Dr Mark Nicely, secretary general of the Jamaica Teachers’ Association.
January 6, 2026 by Albert Ferguson

From financial turmoil to ownership

WESTERN BUREAU: Dr Mark Nicely, secretary general and a former president of the Jamaica Teachers’ Association (JTA), says the purchase and opening of the organisation’s Western Regional Offices came…
From left: Mark Smith, immediate past president of the Jamaica Teachers’ Association (JTA); Mark Malabver, president of the JTA; and Evelyn Tugwell, retired JTA western regional officer, cut the ribbon to reopen the JTA’s Western Regional Office in Mon
January 5, 2026 by Albert Ferguson

‘If not now, when?’

WESTERN BUREAU: President of the Jamaica Teachers’ Association (JTA) Mark Malabver says the long-running dispute over teachers’ salaries and conditions of service is not simply an industrial issue but…
Prime Minister Dr. Terrance Drew, CARICOM chair.
January 3, 2026 by Albert Ferguson

As geopolitical fault lines test CARICOM unity, new chairman urges one voice

WESTERN BUREAU: Incoming Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Chairman Dr Terrance Drew is warning that rising geopolitical pressures and external policy shifts affecting Caribbean nationals are testing the…
JTA president, Mark Malabver. - File photo.
January 3, 2026 by Albert Ferguson

Malabver urges nation to rethink use of technology in classrooms

WESTERN BUREAU: Mark Malabver, president of the Jamaica Teachers’ Association (JTA), is urging the Ministry of Education, Skills, Youth and Information to pause and reassess the country’s heavy…
From left: Tishauna Mullings, mental health and psychosocial support (MHSS) coordinator with Project HOPE; Gloria Reid, an 86-year-old resident of Catherine Hall; Bishop Conrad H. Pitkin, Custos of St James; Bishop Wellesley Plummer, pastor of the Word of
December 31, 2025 by Albert Ferguson

Mental health advocate says trauma from Melissa only now surfacing

WESTERN BUREAU: Mental health advocate Tishauna Mullings is warning that the psychological toll of Hurricane Melissa is only now beginning to surface, two months after the storm left widespread…