GREAT BAY – Two 22-year-old men, identified as Jeff Stephane (photo far left) and Samuel Blaise (photo left) drowned on Saturday around 4 p.m. during a swim at Mullet Bay Beach. The Coast Guard retrieved their bodies on Sunday, after earlier searches on Saturday had yielded no results. According to the police, one of the swimmers had called for help and the other one went into the water to help him. Shortly afterwards they both disappeared underwater. Police officers, ambulance personnel and the Coast Guard went to the scene on Saturday. Clothing and car keys belonging to the swimmers were…
Author: The Publisher
GREAT BAY — Prime Minister William Marlin his wife and Education Minister was among the audience at the interview and debating competition for the teens, senior and mature delegates that competing in the Miss TelCel Queen Pageant. Teen delegates at Miss TelCel Queen Pageant Debate. Senior delegates at Miss TelCel Queen Pageant Debate. Mature delegates at Miss TelCel Queen Pageant Debate. Read the full story in Monday’s edition of the TODAY Newspaper. Click here to register to read the complete digital newspaper online. Click here to register.
Old sins have long shadows, the saying goes and this applies seamlessly to the court case that involved the former director of the tourist bureau and two other suspects. The complaint at the basis of this court case was filed on November 26, 2010 and when the trial begins on May 10, 6 years and 5 months will have elapsed. Some of the charges are about actions that took place in December 2008. Why did it take so long? The public prosecutor said two years ago that at the time of the complaint the National Detective Agency had been overwhelmed…
GREAT BAY – The Ministry of Education, through the Inspectorate of Culture, Youth and Sport, has partnered with the Leo Club of the St. Maarten Lions Club to embark on a drug and alcohol awareness campaign, with its main objective to curb the use and abuse of drugs and alcohol use among our youth. This initiative came about through recent findings within the Ministry of Education has realized that the number of reports of drug and alcohol use among minors are increasing instead decreasing. Our reports also indicate that younger students in our primary schools are also indulging in drugs…
Awareness How do you bring about awareness that question popped into our head when we read that the ministry of education and the Leo Club are going to tackle the always interesting issue of drugs and alcohol awareness. Obviously, the initiative is not meant to make youngsters aware that there are drugs and alcohol available in abundance on the island. The objective is to tell them to stay away from drugs and alcohol. But how do you do that? It is easy to give cheap advice. Don’t do drugs. Don’t get drunk. Simple and straightforward. But here is the thing…
GREAT BAY – The public prosecutor has charged former airport-director Regina Labega, author Fabian Badejo and a third suspect, Erica F. of membership of a criminal organization that embezzled money from the St. Maarten Tourist Bureau. Other activities of this organization were filing incorrect tax returns for wage, profit and income taxes, forgery, money laundering and fraud. Trial date set for May 10 Yesterday there was a pro forma hearing in the Court in First Instance. Only Labega appeared. The court set the date for the trial at May 10 – 6 years and 5 months after the former head…
Dear Editor, Through its work, Transparency International (TI), a global organization, hopes to realize a world in which government, business, civil society and the daily lives of people will be free of corruption. Upon a country’s request, TI assesses its weaknesses and strengths with regard to integrity and good governance. Assessments were conducted for the Netherlands in 2012, for Curaçao in 2013 and for St. Maarten in 2015. To be able to assess a country’s integrity, TI looks at several pillars such as the legislative, executive and judicial branches of government, the public sector, law enforcement agencies, etc. For the…
With Carnival heating up the matter of culture becomes once more a topic for debate. What is it exactly? Not daggering in the streets, if we have to go by the St. Maarten Carnival Development Foundation. It’s something else – like, people behaving properly. That may be true in an imaginary world, in the real world things go differently. That appeared once more in the courthouse yesterday where a man stood trial for, among other things, ill-treating his wife. The woman filed complaints, then wanted to withdraw them and in the end took the wise decision to seek a divorce.…
That the president of the Central Bank failed the screening by the national security service VDSM is an eye opener. Even more of a wakeup call is that nobody ever thought about ordering such a screening, until Finance Minister Richard Gibson did this in June of last year. All this begs the question how many more people are sitting in confidential positions that have never been screened. When the process was applied to airport director Regina Labega – who is in court today – she failed and lost her job because of it. Now Tromp has fallen by the wayside…
GREAT BAY – The suspended president of the Central Bank, Dr. Emsley Tromp (see photo) has failed a screening by the national security service VDSM, Finance Minister Richard Gibson said at yesterday’s Council of Ministers press briefing. This means that Tromp can no longer return in his function. Minister Gibson announced in June of last year that he had ordered the screening. The security service of Curacao has not completed its screening of Tromp yet, but Minister Gibson said that the outcome of the investigation by the VDSM affects both countries. Tromp and the two managing directors of the Central…
