Con­trac­tors and Gen­er­al Work­ers Trade Union (CGW­TU) pres­i­dent gen­er­al Er­mine De Bique-Meade is call­ing on Gov­ern­ment to pay her mem­bers their out­stand­ing back­pay be­fore Christ­mas.

Leader of the To­ba­go Coun­cil of the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM), An­cil Den­nis, has ac­cused Chief Sec­re­tary Far­ley Au­gus­tine of know­ing about the mil­i­tary radar in­stalled in To­ba­go be­fore it was made pub­lic.

Lec­tur­er at the In­sti­tute of In­ter­na­tion­al Re­la­tions, Dr Michał Paw­ińs­ki, says the ver­sion of what hap­pened in a tele­phone con­ver­sa­tion be­tween US Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump and Venezue­lan Pres­i­dent Nico­las Maduro so­lid­i­fies that there is no ease in ten­sion be­tween the two coun­tries.

Pub­lic Util­i­ties Min­is­ter Bar­ry Padarath has pushed back against com­ments by Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) Sen­a­tor Dr Amery Browne, who called on Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar to “cool it” and “mod­er­ate” her lan­guage fol­low­ing re­cent on­line threats made against him.

A heat­ed T&T Po­lice Ser­vice meet­ing on Wednes­day led to a walk­out by some dis­grun­tled Spe­cial Re­serve Po­lice (SRP) of­fi­cers up­set with the cur­rent ab­sorp­tion pol­i­cy.

Chief Sec­re­tary Far­ley Au­gus­tine is pledg­ing to cre­ate a “ba­by trust fund” as To­ba­go bat­tles an alarm­ing drop in births.

The Trinidad and To­ba­go Coali­tion of Bars and Restau­rants (TTCO­BAR) and the Bar­keep­ers Own­ers and Op­er­a­tors As­so­ci­a­tion of Trinidad and To­ba­go (BOATT) are warn­ing that the Gov­ern­ment’s pro­pos­al to in­crease the Amuse­ment Gam­ing Tax from $6,000 to $25,000 per ma­chine per year will crip­ple small and medi­um-sized bar en­ter­pris­es and lead to wide­spread clo­sures and job loss­es.

Re­cent da­ta pub­lished by the Small Arms Sur­vey sug­gests that while there has been a rel­a­tive­ly small in­crease in the num­ber of au­to­mat­ic weapons be­ing seized, hand­guns (pis­tols and re­volvers) are the most com­mon cat­e­go­ry of firearm re­cov­ered by au­thor­i­ties.

A Venezue­lan na­tion­al is be­lieved to have been elec­tro­cut­ed while on a job­site in Mara­bel­la on Wednes­day.

For­mer Pub­lic Ser­vices As­so­ci­a­tion (PSA) pres­i­dent Wat­son Duke will have to wait well over a year to learn the fate of his law­suit over the re­fusal of the union to pay him a pen­sion.

The Teach­ing Ser­vice Com­mis­sion (TSC) has been barred from fill­ing the va­can­cy for a prin­ci­pal at a sec­ondary school in St James, while a se­nior teacher, who has been act­ing in the po­si­tion for five years, pur­sues a law­suit over be­ing blocked from the re­cruit­ment process.

Gov­ern­ment Sen­ate leader Dar­rell Al­la­har has knocked down Sen­ate dis­cus­sion that the Home In­va­sion Bill will on­ly ap­ply if one has a firearm, since he says he will take up a cut­lass to de­fend his fam­i­ly if un­der threat.