Op­po­si­tion Leader Pen­ne­lope Beck­les has crit­i­cised De­fence Min­is­ter Wayne Sturge over com­ments sug­gest­ing that lim­it­ing con­sti­tu­tion­al rights is “a small price to pay” if the Gov­ern­ment’s pro­posed Zones of Spe­cial Op­er­a­tions (ZOSO) leg­is­la­tion helps re­move il­le­gal firearms from com­mu­ni­ties.

That’s the view of Op­po­si­tion PNM Sen­a­tor Janelle John-Bates, who says cor­dons and cur­fews in Spe­cial Zones will add an­oth­er prob­lem for bars and oth­er busi­ness­es there, apart from the in­creas­es al­ready im­posed on them by the UNC Gov­ern­ment.

Jus­tice Min­is­ter De­vesh Ma­haraj is cur­rent­ly serv­ing as act­ing At­tor­ney Gen­er­al, with John Je­re­mie out of the coun­try on what is said to be of­fi­cial gov­ern­ment busi­ness.

Or­gan­ised crime and il­lic­it flows of mon­ey are prop­ping up Trinidad and To­ba­go’s econ­o­my and pro­vid­ing jobs and ben­e­fits with­in many com­mu­ni­ties, ac­cord­ing to In­de­pen­dent Sen­a­tor Josh Dray­ton.

As Par­lia­ment de­bates leg­is­la­tion that would give law en­force­ment en­hanced pow­ers in des­ig­nat­ed “Zones of Spe­cial Op­er­a­tions”, the Po­lice Com­plaints Au­thor­i­ty (PCA) has reaf­firmed that it will op­er­ate strict­ly in ac­cor­dance with its statu­to­ry man­date.

Rio Claro moth­er and free­lance jour­nal­ist Kellyann Lemessy was am­bushed and fa­tal­ly shot in her car as she ar­rived home just af­ter noon yes­ter­day.

Bran­don Lal­be­har­ry has been grant­ed $400,000 bail on a manslaugh­ter charge aris­ing from the death of his fa­ther.

The new­ly leased MV Blue Wave Har­mo­ny ar­rived in Trinidad at around 8.30 am yes­ter­day, but no date for its first of­fi­cial sail­ing has yet been giv­en to in­ter-is­land com­muters.

The To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly (THA) has launched an ini­tia­tive al­low­ing mem­bers of the pub­lic to sub­mit ques­tions di­rect­ly to sec­re­taries, which will be an­swered dur­ing a sit­ting of the as­sem­bly.

With just $700,000 in State fund­ing to stage Car­ni­val in the south­ern city, the San Fer­nan­do City Cor­po­ra­tion is tight­en­ing its belt, scal­ing back cel­e­bra­tions and can­celling the for­mal launch this year.

The Wa­ter and Sew­er­age Au­thor­i­ty (WASA) has emerged vic­to­ri­ous in a pro­tract­ed le­gal dis­pute with a con­trac­tor over the ter­mi­na­tion of a mul­ti-mil­lion dol­lar pipe-lay­ing con­tract.

Na­tion­al Car­ni­val Com­mis­sion (NCC) chair­man Pe­ter Kan­hai says there were no dis­cus­sions with or­gan­is­ers of the Ul­ti­mate So­ca Cham­pi­on (USC) be­fore the 2026 edi­tion of the com­pe­ti­tion was shelved due to a lack of fund­ing.