PHILIPSBURG – “What is the big secret? That memorandum of understanding should not be confidential,” said an exasperated UP-MP Tamara Leonard on Tuesday morning during the continued central committee meeting about the dire situation at the university of St. Martin. But Leonard’s request for details about the memorandum fell on deaf ears with Valerie Giterson-Pantophlet, the chair of the USM-board. “We will adhere to the meeting of November 29.” she said, referring to a meeting with Minister Silveria Jacobs (Education) where the memorandum was presented and where parties agreed to keep its contents confidential. Minister Jacobs said at a press…
Author: The Publisher
By Hilbert Haar What you read right here is protected by copyright laws. You are not allowed to take it off the internet and use it for another publication without my permission and without paying me for it. It’s a simple rule that is badly understood by the good people at Ultimo Noticia, a Curacao-based newspaper that made a habit of stealing photos made by Dick Drayer, an independent journalist based in Curacao who operates Press Agency Curacao and is maybe best known as the correspondent for the NOS in the Netherlands. Drayer talked to Ultimo Noticia about their bad…
MARIGOT – The French Minister of Labor, Muriel Pénicaud will visit Martinique, Guadeloupe and Saint Martin between from Thursday, December 14 until Monday, December 18, senator Guillaume Arnell announced. The minister will focus during her visit to the three islands on vocational training and labor issues. Senator Arnell is unable to accompany Pénicaud during her visit to Saint Martin, because he has business to attend to in the senate in Paris. Arnell did meet however with the minister before her departure and discussed the specific problems that are haunting Saint Martin after the passing of Hurricane Irma. Arnell has also…
By Emilio Kalmera The news in the last week of November about the court striking the licence fee for Travel Planners must have been an interesting state of affairs for the community. In a ruling which may have big consequences for the banking and financial sectors, the Court of First Instance decided that Windward Islands Bank (WIB) N.V. is no longer allowed to charge a one-percent licence fee over international transactions on behalf of Wise Travel Bureau N.V., the holding company of Travel Planners travel agency. When reading the preliminary verdict details, there was part that stated “De Centrale Bank…
PHILIPSBURG – In May of this year Fernett Payne called in the help of the now defunct Today newspaper to report about a dispute with real estate developer Smart Homes. The developer broke Payne’s fence, put rocks on her property in Defiance and refused to do anything about it when she complained. Now Payne has sought legal counsel to settle the matter. The report in Today triggered an angry phone call from Smart Homes director Henry Lynch, the ousted director of the St. Maarten Housing Development Foundation who growled why the paper had the nerve to publish about the situation,…
PHILIPSBURG – The anti-corruption task force (TBO) arrested Corrine de T. on Sunday on suspicion of money laundering, not reporting unusual transactions, operating a trust office without a permit and destruction of evidence. De T. is the former co-owner of the Standard Trust Company that played a role in the investigation against former head of immigration Marcel Loor in 2007. De T., 54, was arrested in the course of an ongoing investigation into fraud with construction projects. In December 2010, the Court in First Instance sentenced the Standard Trust Company and its three directors – Corinne de Tullio-Stamm, Allard Stamm…
PHILIPSBURG – The government will run out of money by the end of this month. This appears from a letter Cft-chairman Raymond Gradus sent to Finance Minister Richard Gibson about the proposal to amend the 2017 budget. Revenue for the year will drop by 126.7 million guilders to 351.4 million, while expenditures will increase by 38.1 million to 496.2 million. This will result in a deficit of 144.8 million guilders. St. Maarten had indicated to the Cft that liquid assets will be completely exhausted by the end of the year. The financial supervisor notes in its letter that not all…
Philipsburg — The Police Force was very busy the last weekend attending numerous requests for police assistance, conducting traffic controls and investigating an armed robbery to name a few. Armed robbery On Friday December 08th at approximately 03.15 p.m. a police patrol was sent to Union Caribe located on the Cannegieter Street in Philipsburg where an armed robbery, according to reports, had just taken place. On the scene the investigating officers learnt, that a man had entered the building on business and once inside he pulled a fire-arm and threatened the workers to use it if no cooperation was given.…
Harbour View – On Saturday, December 09, 2017, the Governor of Sint Maarten, His Excellency drs. E.B. Holiday, met with and received an update from formateur Mr. Franklin Meyers on the progress regarding the pending points of the formation. Considering that the background screening of candidate ministers is still ongoing the formateur therefore requested a further extension of his commission to form a new government. Governor Holiday as a result and having assessed the situation extended the commission for Mr. Meyers to present him the final report of the formation process by December 15, 2017.
~ A six part series on agriculture published initially in StMaartenNews.com email newsletter ~ Part 1 – Why we should store up food like animals Ever stop to wonder why so many animals store up food for the winter season? This is to help them survive when Mother Nature shuts down on them. Animals understand the seasons of the year and the weather conditions these brings perfectly and they plan ahead of time in preparation for when the going gets tough. You’d be amazed at the variety of animals that store up food in order to survive: ants, squirrels, leopards,…
