Albert Ferguson/Gleaner Writer

May 8, 2026 by Albert Ferguson

OUR cops OCCUR Regulator of the Year award
The Office of Utilities Regulation (OUR) has hailed winning the coveted OCCUR’s Regulator of the Year Award for 2025 and the Winston Hay Award for Most Outstanding Consumer Protection Initiative as a…
May 5, 2026 by Albert Ferguson

Anchovy High School to immortalise Howard Ward
WESTERN BUREAU: Montego Bay businessman Howard Ward is to be immortalised by Anchovy High School after donating $14 million in cash and kind to aid in its post-Hurricane Melissa recovery, his latest…
May 2, 2026 by Albert Ferguson

Plans afoot to close RIU Palace Montego Bay for major refurbishing
Frank Sondern, the Regional Director for RIU hotels in Jamaica, says the Spanish hotel chain will temporarily close the RIU Palace Hotel, in Montego Bay, for four months to facilitate extensive…
FLOW Vice-President Stephen Price.
May 1, 2026 by Albert Ferguson

FLOW’s Price backs NaRRA push to cut telecoms rollout delays

WESTERN BUREAU: Stephen Price, vice-president and general manager of FLOW Jamaica, is endorsing the proposed establishment of the National Regulatory Reform Authority (NaRRA), arguing that Jamaica…
Hugh Grant (right), president and chief executive officer of the Jamaica Public Service, and Stephen Price, vice-president and general manager of FLOW Jamaica, speak on a panel during the Utility Service Providers round-table at the OOCUR 20th anniversary
April 30, 2026 by Albert Ferguson

Utilities warn regulatory delays are driving up costs

WESTERN BUREAU: Leaders of the country’s main utility firms are calling for a quicker turnaround on regulatory approvals and policy decisions, warning that prolonged delays are undermining investment,…
Chairman of the Organisation of Caribbean Utility Regulators, Ansford Hewitt (left), shares a light moment with Dr Andrew Wheatley, minister without portfolio in the Office of the Prime Minister, with responsibility for science, technology and special proj
April 29, 2026 by Albert Ferguson

Regional energy transition now urgent, says Wheatley

WESTERN BUREAU: Andrew Wheatley, minister without portfolio with responsibility for science, technology, and special projects, has warned that the Caribbean’s energy transition and digital…
Rolston Anglin, minister of finance and economic development and minister of education and training in the Cayman Islands.
April 29, 2026 by Albert Ferguson

Cayman minister wants stronger backing for regional regulators

WESTERN BUREAU: A Caymanian government official is urging Caribbean countries to provide stronger support to regulatory bodies, saying that underinvestment in these institutions could undermine the…
Michael Kelly shows two of the four graves that were damaged during the passage of Hurricane Melissa almost six months ago at Parottee in St Elizabeth last Wednesday.
April 28, 2026 by Albert Ferguson

SIX MONTHS IN THE DARK

WESTERN BUREAU: Six months after the devastation of Hurricane Melissa, residents of the small coastal community of Parottee in St Elizabeth say their most urgent needs are the restoration of…
Basil Bennett, a resident of Parottee, St Elizabeth.
April 28, 2026 by Albert Ferguson

No plans to relocate after sea took home

WESTERN BUREAU: Seventy-year-old Parotte fisherman Basil Bennett said he stood in stunned disbelief and watched his home collapse under the brutal force of Hurricane Melissa’s Category 5 winds as it…