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Chuck Callesto @ChuckCallesto BOMBSHELL REPORT: US Virgin Islands AG Denise George TERMINATED just days after filing suit against JPMorgan Chase claiming Jeffrey Epstein used the bank to FACILITATE SEX-TRAFFICKING activities on Little St. James. FYI: THE BIDEN'S SPENT THE HOLIDAYS IN THE VIRGIN ISLANDS...

ST. CROIX — Six of the ten contestants who participated in Sunday evening’s Miss Universe U.S. Virgin Islands were women from outside the USVI, most with no known ties to the territory and some of whom had participated in other pageants just months prior. The competition, held in a banquet room at the Divi Carina Bay Casino, was the qualifying event whose winner will represent the U.S. Virgin Islands on the world’s biggest and most prominent pageantry stage: Miss Universe. But what was a relatively engaged audience turned somewhat raucous when not one of the four local young women who...

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico – Congress on Wednesday gave final passage to legislation that would shut down legal cockfights in U.S. territories including Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, ending an institution dating from the colonial era that generates millions of dollars each year. Opponents of the measure approved by the House said it will have a devastating effect on the islands' economies, noting that in Puerto Rico alone the cockfighting industry generates $18 million a year and employs some 27,000 people. “We're all going crazy. Everybody is desperate,” said 86-year-old Angel Ortiz, who owns a cockfighting ring in...

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (Reuters) - Saddled with economic problems and its own damage from Hurricane Irma, Puerto Rico is taking thousands of refugees from the U.S. Virgin Islands whose homes were destroyed by the storm, with a cruise ship carrying up to 2,000 more due to set sail for the U.S. territory on Wednesday. Visibly shaken residents from St. Martin and the Virgin Islands arrived on Tuesday on U.S. military aircraft, bringing tales of terrifying winds and a breakdown of law and order. "The people of Puerto Rico - what big hearts you guys got because our (local) government...

Hurricane Irma churned across the Atlantic Ocean in September 2017, battering several Caribbean islands before moving on to the Florida Keys and the U.S. mainland. As the clouds cleared over places like the Virgin Islands, the destruction became obvious even from space. These natural-color images, captured by the Operational Land Imager (OLI) on the Landsat 8 satellite, show some of Irma’s effect on the British and U.S. Virgin Islands. The views were acquired on August 25 and September 10, 2017, before and after the storm passed. They are among the few relatively cloud-free satellite images of the area so far....

St.Thomas resident Mike Laplac on Monday said that looters are robbing residents using machetes and guns in the aftermath of Hurricane Irma pummeling the Caribbean island. “I actually know of eight people that were robbed in broad daylight with machetes for everything they had in their vehicles, including their fuel. Yesterday we spent about 3 ½ hours in a line for fuel, and machetes were pulled there as well.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Puerto Rico's federally appointed financial oversight board said on Wednesday it will investigate the U.S. commonwealth's debt "and its relationship to the fiscal crisis" which has left it with $72 billion in debt and a 45-percent poverty rate. The board, a creation of the 2016 federal Puerto Rico rescue law known as PROMESA, said in a statement that the investigation will review the fiscal crisis, examine the debt and how it was issued, including disclosure and selling practices. "The Oversight Board considers this investigation an integral part of its mission to restore fiscal balance and economic...

The White House announced that Vice President Joe Biden would spend the weekend vacationing in the U.S. Virgin Islands. It's his second vacation there in three months. His White House schedule reads: DAILY GUIDANCE FOR THE VICE PRESIDENT Friday, March 7 – Sunday, March 9 The Vice President and Dr. Jill Biden will visit the U.S. Virgin Islands. There are no public events scheduled. And as Geoff Earle of the New York Post reported on December 27, the vice president spent New Year's on the U.S. Virgin Islands.

The attorney general of the U.S. Virgin Islands is targeting dozens of conservative and libertarian organizations in a racketeering lawsuit against climate change skeptics that has been widely described as an effort to silence political opponents. In a subpoena issued in March, the office of USVI attorney general Claude Walker demanded from Exxon Mobil copies of communications between the oil company and 90 different political and policy organizations “and any other organizations engaged in research or advocacy concerning Climate Change or policies.” The subpoena was part of a national, coordinated legal campaign by state attorneys general and left-wing advocacy groups...

The attorney general of the U.S. Virgin Islands is targeting dozens of conservative and libertarian organizations in a racketeering lawsuit against climate change skeptics that has been widely described as an effort to silence political opponents. In a subpoena issued in March, the office of USVI attorney general Claude Walker demanded from Exxon Mobil copies of communications between the oil company and 90 different political and policy organizations “and any other organizations engaged in research or advocacy concerning Climate Change or policies.” The subpoena was part of a national, coordinated legal campaign by state attorneys general and left-wing advocacy groups...

Editorial note: Mohammed Morsi’s victory as Egypt’s first elected civilian president—and first leader with a PhD—also brings the first traditionally Islamic First Lady. MINNEAPOLIS, Minn.--The world now knows that Mohammed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party became the first civilian elected president in Egypt’s long history on June 24. But this isn’t the only “first” that Morsi has brought to the Egyptian political landscape. Morsi is the first Islamist to get to the presidential palace. He is the first Egyptian president with Mohammed as an actual first name—although Hosni Mubarak and Anwar Sadat injected “Mohammed” into...

CHARLOTTE AMALIE, U.S Virgin Islands — A 14-year-old Puerto Rican tourist was killed in front of her horrified family when she was caught in the crossfire of a gunfight attributed to warring gangs on the U.S. Virgin Islands. Gov. John deJongh identified the slain tourist as Lizmarie Perez Chapparro from Puerto Rico, who was struck by a bullet as she rode with her relatives on a packed "safari bus" that ferries tourists across the three-island territory. The girl and her family arrived in St. Thomas aboard the Carnival Victory, a Carnival Cruise Line ship that departed Puerto Rico's capital of...

If you didn't before, you sure do now. That's why he's got that grin on his face. It's not rum in the Captain's barrel, you see. It's your booty. According to Bloomberg.com, Diageo Plc, the maker of Captain Morgan rum, was essentially given... wait for it... $2.7 billion in tax incentives to move its production from Puerto Rico to the U.S. Virgin Islands (USVI). That's a lot of other people's money to be rearranging like barstools on our Titanic of an economy. WHAT'S A PIRATE'S FAVORITE LAW? TAaaRrrP. The article notes that USVI Governor John deJongh, Jr. had no idea...

SAN JUAN (Reuters) - Hurricane Omar strengthened on Wednesday as it bore down on Puerto Rico and the small islands of the northeastern Caribbean, and could be a "major" storm by the time it reaches them, U.S. forecasters said. The 15th tropical cyclone of a busy Atlantic hurricane season formed north of the Dutch island of Curacao on Tuesday, briefly preventing Venezuela from loading tankers with crude oil and knocking out power at the OPEC nation's 200,000 barrel-per-day Puerto La Cruz refinery. The U.S. National Hurricane Center predicted Omar would grow into a Category 2 storm on the five-step Saffir-Simpson...

01-23) 04:00 PST Washington -- Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her House Democrats plan to push through legislation Wednesday that would increase the size of the 435-member House on most matters by giving votes to delegates from four U.S. territories and the District of Columbia. Republicans are outraged by the plan, referring to it as a "greedy power grab'' in a statement from the office of Minority Leader John Boehner of Ohio. But they are probably powerless to stop it. The proposal would allow the elected members from Washington, D.C., American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands a vote...

The tourism industry is bracing itself for a hit in just over two months, when the elements of America’s Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative come into effect, forcing US tourists to obtain passports to re-enter the country when returning from their vacations. This week, Mary Kramer, the outgoing US ambassador to Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean, tried to calm fears about the impact of the requirements on Caribbean tourism, but local and regional tourism stakeholders have maintained that the initiative will send serious shockwaves throughout the industry. Kramer was quoted in the regional media making the point that more than 75...

CHARLOTTE AMALIE, U.S. Virgin Islands (AP) - A federal judge threw out evidence against four men charged with laundering more than $60 million through their chain of U.S. Virgin Islands grocery stores, ruling that FBI agents acted in "reckless disregard for the truth." The ruling, released Monday, found that the FBI's search warrant was obtained improperly. It said agents, who had claimed to have seen suspicious tax records from the men, admitted they had only seen a computer printout of the records and did not thoroughly verify the evidence with the U.S. Caribbean territory's Internal Revenue Bureau. U.S. Attorney spokesman...