Works and Trans­port Min­is­ter Jear­lean John says she is await­ing ex­pert as­sess­ments on the MV Blue Wave Har­mo­ny, af­ter the ves­sel sus­tained hull dam­age in Scar­bor­ough.

In re­sponse to warn­ings from school maxi taxi op­er­a­tors that ser­vices could be sus­pend­ed from Mon­day, Ed­u­ca­tion Min­is­ter Dr Michael Dowlath as­sured that dri­vers are re­ceiv­ing pay­ments.

For­mer Prime Min­is­ter Stu­art Young has called on Pres­i­dent Chris­tine Kan­ga­loo to im­me­di­ate­ly seek for­mal clar­i­fi­ca­tion from Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar over al­le­ga­tions that two In­de­pen­dent Sen­a­tors at­tempt­ed to trade their votes for per­son­al favours dur­ing de­bate on the Zones of Spe­cial Op­er­a­tions (ZOSO) Bill.

A for­mer con­trac­tor with the Com­mu­ni­ty-Based En­vi­ron­men­tal Pro­tec­tion and En­hance­ment Pro­gramme (CEPEP) who sued for over $4 mil­lion was in­stead or­dered to pay the com­pa­ny over $200,000 in le­gal fees.

Tears of joy flowed from Jhu­mantie Mo­hammed af­ter a Wa­ter and Sew­er­age Au­thor­i­ty (WASA) team ar­rived at her home on Fri­day, con­duct­ing tests and start­ing ex­ca­va­tion of a con­demned WASA line which she be­lieves is re­spon­si­ble for the un­der­min­ing of her Debe home.

The Law As­so­ci­a­tion of Trinidad and To­ba­go says if the al­le­ga­tions made by the Prime Min­is­ter against In­de­pen­dent Sen­a­tors have sub­stance, they must be re­port­ed to the ap­pro­pri­ate au­thor­i­ties for a fair in­quiry, and if not, they should be with­drawn.

The MV Blue Wave Har­mo­ny sus­tained hull dam­age dur­ing a sea tri­al at the Port of Scar­bor­ough on Fri­day.

As pres­sure mounts on Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar to iden­ti­fy the in­de­pen­dent sen­a­tors she claims at­tempt­ed to trade their votes for per­son­al favours, the In­tegri­ty Com­mis­sion says it can­not act with­out specifics.

Pres­i­dent of the Crim­i­nal Bar As­so­ci­a­tion, Is­rael B Khan, SC, says Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar’s al­le­ga­tion that two in­de­pen­dent sen­a­tors sought per­son­al favours in ex­change for sup­port­ing the Zones of Spe­cial Op­er­a­tions (ZOSO) bill amounts to a claim of se­ri­ous crim­i­nal con­duct and must be for­mal­ly in­ves­ti­gat­ed.

There has been si­lence from the gov­ern­ment bench in the Up­per House, as sev­er­al gov­ern­ment sen­a­tors have re­fused to iden­ti­fy the two in­de­pen­dent sen­a­tors ac­cused by Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar of at­tempt­ing to so­lic­it per­son­al favours to se­cure their vote for the Zones of Spe­cial Op­er­a­tions (ZOSO) bill. 

PANA­MA CITY—Ja­maica’s Min­is­ter of For­eign Af­fairs and For­eign Trade, Kam­i­na John­son Smith, con­tin­ues to rec­om­mend her coun­try’s Zones of Spe­cial Op­er­a­tions (ZOSOs) as a key part of a crime-fight­ing strat­e­gy, es­pe­cial­ly af­ter sim­i­lar leg­is­la­tion failed to pass in the Trinidad and To­ba­go Sen­ate.

Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar must fire the Gov­ern­ment sen­a­tor who al­leged­ly re­ceived “bribe” so­lic­i­ta­tions from two un­named in­de­pen­dent sen­a­tors, since the Gov­ern­ment sen­a­tor’s fail­ure to alert the Sen­ate of the is­sue is tan­ta­mount to a crim­i­nal act, says Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) deputy leader San­jiv Bood­hu.