A 12-year-old with learning disabilities is being ushered through the primary school system on the insistence of the education ministry that he should graduate to the secondary level next year because of his age, despite his struggles to attain the...
Sixteen years after hosting the opening ceremony for the 2007 ICC Cricket World Cup, the Trelawny Multipurpose Stadium in Florence Hall, Trelawny, is in ruins. Bringing in little or no revenue to the government coffers, today the facility is a...
With Jamaica ranked 13th among a field of 17 of the most popular outsourcing countries in the 2022 Offshore BPO Confidence Index, one of the nation’s leading players has mixed views about the assessment, adding that there is not much room for...
Miss St James Festival Queen 2017 Olivia Shaw-Lovell has always been proud of her place of origin and was determined that her address as a resident of the volatile inner-city community of Mount Salem in Montego Bay would not shape her journey. Like...
Although winning the battle in minimising fraud within the sector, there are concerns that in the absence of an information sharing system and proper background checks, the business process outsourcing (BPO) industry might never be purged of...
WESTERN BUREAU: Non-operational for several years, the Montego Bay Sports Complex is now bleeding the public purse, costing the St James Municipal Corporation $50 million annually while bringing in very little revenue. Sporting stakeholders in...
With preparation for the new academic year in high gear, stakeholders in the education sector are hoping that the Government will utilise the information at its disposal to improve the level of support to schools to carry out their mandate...
With its stunning hotel properties, vibrant culture, and exciting nightlife making it one of the most sought-after destinations in the world, Montego Bay’s allure continues to pull in hundreds of thousands of visitors annually. But the resort town’...
WESTERN BUREAU: It was 18 years ago but veteran medical practitioner Dr Delroy Fray will never forget the day a man was rushed to the Cornwall Regional Hospital in Montego Bay, St James, suffering from gunshot wounds all over his body, after a gun...
WESTERN BUREAU: It has been one year since Christine Gilbert watched as her 12-year-old daughter’s lifeless body was fished from the waters of Freeport in Montego Bay, St James, after the car in which she was travelling was swept away by the...
WESTERN BUREAU: With motorcyclists being the leading category of fatalities among the nearly 500 deaths on the nation’s roads last year, the police are gearing up for an islandwide clampdown on illegal motorcycles as the new Road Traffic...
With all the boxes ticked to be selected in 2018, Karen Blake* headed to a recruitment drive being held by the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) in the resort town of Negril in the western end of the island. This was her dream job. There was no plan B. But...
Just when she thought things couldn’t get any worse, Velma Campbell Robinson‘s world was suddenly turned on its head, and the independence she once took for granted became a painful memory, after she woke up one morning unable to see. It all...
With two weeks to go before Christmas Day, 256 wards in children’s homes and places of safety in western Jamaica are hoping that Jamaicans will open their hearts and extend the kindness and cheer of the festive season to them and make their wishes...
Roughly 25 mainly international firms have expressed interest in participating in the bidding process to manage the island’s solid waste under a proposed public-private partnership (PPP) programme, which will see Jamaica embracing industry best...
For more than a decade, he lived among them, earned their trust, and did odd jobs on their properties. Now, residents in the middle-class community of Dunbar Pen in Norwood, St James, are reeling from the fact that the American man they all knew as...
A United States-based woman’s desire to build her dream home in Jamaica is being threatened by ongoing disputes between property owners at the Negril Estate in Westmoreland and the developer, Reading Holdings Limited. Enticed by the promise of...
Organised criminality continues to spread across Jamaica, as the gang culture extends its tentacles far and wide, even as law enforcement has been at pains to keep it under control. Last week’s much-publicised land scam in Clifton, St Catherine is...
The Montego Bay-based St James High School was once considered a den of lawlessness, where future gangsters and young criminal minds passed the time. The wanton disregard for authority in the many inner-city communities surrounding the tourist...
Former Police Commissioner Rear Admiral Hardley Lewin believes the Department of Correctional Services (DCS) should assume responsibility for all persons detained in criminal investigations or awaiting trial, and the police relieved of duties to...
Five months after an elderly woman and her grandchild were washed into Montego River by floodwaters in Montego Bay, St James, residents of Westgreen in the town are anxious about the expected increased rainfall over the next few days. The middle-...
The Supreme Court has quashed the National Environment and Planning Agency’s (NEPA) decision to grant an environmental licence for the construction of a sewage plant at a National Housing Trust (NHT) scheme in Industry Cove, Hanover. Despite...
Mount Salem in St James was the scene of yet another murder on Thursday, five years after a zone of special operations (ZOSO) declared in a section of the community ushered in relative peace. But as residents admit gains have been made, they fear...
It’s a welcome new experience for users of the public thoroughfare in the city of Montego Bay, St James, following an intense multi-agency initiative to restore law and order in the popular tourist resort. The brainchild of Senior Superintendent of...
With little or no disposable income from his monthly salary after meeting his obligations, senior teacher Bancroft Mullings* has spent the past four summers working as a labourer on farms in the United States to shore up his earnings. A specialist...
