April 27, 2001 – The man whose dead body was found in a car along a Crown Mountain side road Wednesday afternoon has been identified as 22-year-old Carlos Colon of Lindbergh Bay.
Colon's body was found in the driver's seat of a Mazda sedan. Law enforcement sources said Thursday the vehicle was not registered to Colon, but persons who knew him said they had seen him driving the vehicle recently. The killing was described as an execution by police sources who would not say if investigators have theorized whether Colon was shot from inside or outside the vehicle. No bullet holes appeared on the vehicle and none of its glass windows were shot out.
An autopsy conducted by Medical Examiner Dr. Francisco Landron disclosed that either the gunshot to the head or the shot to the chest would have been fatal.
Colon was found when a citizen called police to report that a person inside a vehicle along the roadway that leads to WGOD radio station on Crown Mountain maybe dead.
Police continued the appeal to the public for more information. Anyone with information on the murder should call police at the confidential crime line 777-8711, homicide investigators at 774-4050 or emergency 911.

April 27, 2001 — No one knows what's going to happen on the island of Vieques the next few days.
But one thing we do know is that if there's trouble the blame belongs to Sila Calderon, a governor who has spent weeks stirring up the Puerto Rican people against the U.S. Navy and at the last minute appealed for calm.
This is akin to an arsonist, empty gas can in hand, running away from a burning building and shouting at agitated spectators to remain calm.
Consider what the former mayor of San Juan has touched off.
The legislature of Puerto Rico—elements of it, anyway—are enroute to the tiny island off the east coast with the intention of holding an outdoor session there. This renders even more appropriate the Navy decision to resume bombarding its small range on the east end of the island with "dummy" bombs, not live munitions.
Hundreds of other protestors, most of them independentistas eager to be present for yet another confrontation with the great colonial power, are heading there, too.
To their credit, many members of the hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church appear to be standing aside this time. The Church knows the power of an agreement, and the risks of breaking one.
But not Gov. George Pataki of New York. Shameless George is trying to convince one million Puerto Ricans living in his state to mail postcards to President Bush asking him to stop the Navy's practice shelling of the island that has served for half a century as the Navy's chief training site in the Atlantic.
Pataki may have those postcards confused with absentee ballots. When he runs for reelection next year, he's hoping all those democrat Puerto Rican voters in New York will forget he's as republican as you can get without embracing Jerry Falwell.
Meanwhile, ships of a Navy battle group slipped their moorings at the Norfolk Navy Station in Virginia and headed south yesterday morning. Enroute to Vieques they were notified a federal judge in Washington had given them permission to resume their practice shelling of Vieques.
So the stage was set for another messy, and potentially dangerous, confrontation between Washington and San Juan.
It's all so stupid and unnecessary.
Let the record show it's time for the American Navy to abandon its bombardment range on Vieques. Bill Clinton recognized that. That's why he overruled his admirals and negotiated an agreement with Calderon's predecessor, Pedro Rossello. It took months for the two leaders to agree, but agree they did.
It was complete victory for Puerto Rico. There would be no more live bombing. Residents of Vieques would vote in a referendum late this year that the Navy should leave, and the Navy would be gone forever by 2003.
So Calderon takes office in January and promptly repudiates the agreement, calling it nothing but an exchange of letters.
Why would she do this? She is a political opponent of Rossello, but that hardly explains her startling behavior. A beguiling but improbable explanation is that someone convinced her the residents of Vieques just might possibly vote next November to keep the Navy around because so many of them make their living off the military.
Whatever her reasoning, Calderon reignited the Vieques cauldron. It was her hand alone that touched the match to the firewood; she alone must bear the consequences.
Puerto Rico is by no stretch of the imagination a banana republic, but this governor acts as if she doesn't know that.
Editor's note: Frank J. Jordan is a radio commentator in the Virgin Islands and a former UVI journalism professor.

April 27, 2001 — Alec Dizon, the former director of the V.I. Lottery, pleaded guilty Thursday in federal court to bilking the government out of $82,000.
Dizon, 36, the Lottery director in the Schneider administration, was arraigned and entered a guilty plea to federal wire fraud charges before St. Thomas District Court Judge Thomas Moore. According to a release from U.S. Attorney David Atkinson, Dizon admitted that between February 1996 through Feb. 1 1999, he made $82,000 worth of unauthorized expenditures that were paid for with V.I. government money.
According to Atkinson, Dizon opened a Merrill Lynch Working Capital Management Account funded with money from the V.I. Lottery. Dizon then obtained a Visa charge card for the account, which he used to make $82,000 worth of personal expenditures.
The investigation of Dizon is just one case of government corruption undertaken by federal and territorial prosecutors over the last year and a half. In addition to prosecuting former Gov. Roy Schneider for misuse of government funds following Hurricane Marilyn in 1995, which ended in Schneider reimbursing the government, the V.I. Department of Justice has gone after former acting Health Commissioner Dr. Lucien Moolenaar II for embezzlement, embezzlers in its own Paternity and Child Support Division, a Finance Department employee for allegedly pilfering computers and a cop from New York who investigators say was posing as an attorney.
Former Public Works commissioner and prominent St. Croix businesswoman Ann Abramson was sentenced last year to a 2-1/2-year prison term for making false claims and false statements in connection with Federal Emergency Management Agency funds.
Meanwhile, Dizon pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud, which carries a maximum of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine or both. A sentencing date has not been set. Dizon was released Thursday on a $100,000 unsecured bond pending the sentencing, Atkinson said.
The U.S. Department of Interior, Office of Inspector General and its V.I.-based auditors uncovered the unauthorized expenditures made by Dizon, Atkinson said.

April 27, 2001 — Alec Dizon, the former director of the V.I. Lottery, pleaded guilty Thursday in federal court to bilking the government out of $82,000.
Dizon, 36, the Lottery director in the Schneider administration, was arraigned and entered a guilty plea to federal wire fraud charges before St. Thomas District Court Judge Thomas Moore. According to a release from U.S. Attorney David Atkinson, Dizon admitted that between February 1996 and Feb. 1, 1999, he made $82,000 worth of unauthorized expenditures that were paid for with V.I. government money.
According to Atkinson, Dizon opened a Merrill Lynch Working Capital Management Account funded with money from the V.I. Lottery. Dizon then obtained a Visa charge card for the account, which he used to make $82,000 worth of personal expenditures.
The investigation of Dizon is one of several cases of government corruption that federal and territorial prosecutors have undertaken over the last year and a half. In addition to prosecuting former Gov. Roy L. Schneider for misuse of government funds following Hurricane Marilyn in 1995, which ended in Schneider reimbursing the government, the V.I. Department of Justice has gone after former acting Health Commissioner Dr. Lucien Moolenaar II for embezzlement, embezzlers in its own Paternity and Child Support Division, a Finance Department employee for allegedly pilfering computers, and a cop from New York who investigators say was posing as an attorney.
Ann Abramson, a former Public Works commissioner and prominent St. Croix businesswoman, was sentenced last year to a 2-1/2-year prison term for making false claims and false statements in connection with Federal Emergency Management Agency funds.
Dizon pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud, which carries a maximum of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine or both. A sentencing date has not been set. Dizon was released Thursday on a $100,000 unsecured bond pending the sentencing, Atkinson said.
The U.S. Department of Interior's Office of Inspector General and its V.I.-based auditors uncovered the unauthorized expenditures made by Dizon, Atkinson said.

April 27, 2001 — Alec Dizon, the former director of the V.I. Lottery, pleaded guilty Thursday in federal court to bilking the government out of $82,000.
Dizon, 36, the Lottery director in the Schneider administration, was arraigned and entered a guilty plea to federal wire fraud charges before St. Thomas District Court Judge Thomas Moore. According to a release from U.S. Attorney David Atkinson, Dizon admitted that between February 1996 through Feb. 1 1999, he made $82,000 worth of unauthorized expenditures that were paid for with V.I. government money.
According to Atkinson, Dizon opened a Merrill Lynch Working Capital Management Account funded with money from the V.I. Lottery. Dizon then obtained a Visa charge card for the account, which he used to make $82,000 worth of personal expenditures.
The investigation of Dizon is just one case of government corruption undertaken by federal and territorial prosecutors over the last year and a half. In addition to prosecuting former Gov. Roy Schneider for misuse of government funds following Hurricane Marilyn in 1995, which ended in Schneider reimbursing the government, the V.I. Department of Justice has gone after former acting Health Commissioner Dr. Lucien Moolenaar II for embezzlement, embezzlers in its own Paternity and Child Support Division, a Finance Department employee for allegedly pilfering computers and a cop from New York who investigators say was posing as an attorney.
Former Public Works commissioner and prominent St. Croix businesswoman Ann Abramson was sentenced last year to a 2-1/2-year prison term for making false claims and false statements in connection with Federal Emergency Management Agency funds.
Meanwhile, Dizon pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud, which carries a maximum of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine or both. A sentencing date has not been set. Dizon was released Thursday on a $100,000 unsecured bond pending the sentencing, Atkinson said.
The U.S. Department of Interior, Office of Inspector General and its V.I.-based auditors uncovered the unauthorized expenditures made by Dizon, Atkinson said.

Benjamin Buntin, of #508 Kings Cross Street, Frederiksted, died Friday, April 20 at Juan F. Luis Hospital. He was 87.
Funeral services will be held at 11 a.m. Friday, May 4 at Beeston Hill Wesleyan Holiness Church, with a viewing preceding the service beginning at 10 a.m.
Interment will follow at Kingshill Cemetery.
He is survived by his wife, Priscilla Buntin; daughters, Carol Nathaniel and Cerene Deazle; sons, Alfred Buntin and Alphonso Gordon; grandchildren, Benjamin, Mikey, Halem, Haleema, Angelique, Alphonso Jr., Kevin, Frederick and La Shawn; adopted grandchildren, Shane, Alan, Lois, Brent and Alene Browne; sister, Frances Gerald; brother, Nathaniel O'Garro; special niece, Jane Browne; nieces, Sonia Francis and Rose Nathaniel; nephew, Trevor Buntin; close neighbor and friend, Purline Bryan; special cousin, Geneva George; sisters-in-law, Emily Harris, Leonie Proctor, Ohalda Brady and Ann O'Garro; brothers-in-law, Michael and Novell Harris; special friends, Lillian Nisbett, Daisy Millet, Mr. & Mrs. Alex Browne, Bernice Hogan, Carol Punter, Bernadette Mappe, Myrna Cole, Aliston Simon, the Rev. Spence and his wife and members of Frederiksted Wesleyan Holiness Church; along with many other relatives and friends.
Funeral arrangements are in the care of James Memorial Funeral Home.

An opening reception will be held at 9 a.m. Wednesday, May 2 at M.J. Kirwan Elementary School to present a student art exhibition to the public.
The show will continue that day from 10 a.m. until 7 p.m. The show will also be held on Thursday, May 3 and Friday, May 4 from 8 a.m. until 3 p.m. at the school.
Whitman Browne, principal of M.J. Kirwan, said in a release, "Art education is an important component in the total education of the children. I look forward to seeing many parents and community members visit the art exhibit to enjoy the art work and support the students."

Rotary East will meet from 6:30 to 8 p.m. Wednesday, May 2 at the Ritz-Carleton Resort.
Paul Deaton, of Channel 2, and Chris Delsman, from Merrill Lynch, will be the guest speakers.

April 26, 2001 – Things are looking down for consumers on St. Thomas — pricewise, that is.
The latest entry into the St. Thomas retail arena, Pricesmart, is scheduled to open for business at 10 a.m. Friday, May 4. The St. Thomas manager, Phil Visser, hopes to woo shoppers away from the competition with unusually low prices on everything in his store.
He wouldn't say how low. "We haven't figured out the percentages yet," he said. "All I can say is it's going to be substantial. It's not going to be nickel and dime. It will be very substantial."
There's one catch. Pricesmart stores are retail enterprises modeled after the first membership merchandising chain in the United States, Price Club. To shop at Pricesmart, one must first buy an annual membership for $24. However, introductory memberships are being sold for $12.
As an alternative, first-time shoppers can obtain a one-day pass. But they will find a surcharge added to their bill by the checkout cashier.
The St. Thomas Pricesmart is located in a brand-new, 45,000-square-foot building set back from Weymouth Rhymer Highway across from Fort Mylner. There's a wide entrance and plenty of parking. Inside, the facility is well-lighted during the day, thanks to roof skylights along with electrical fixtures. The building interior is neat and clean and pleasantly cool.
The extensive product and services mix may come as a surprise to shoppers. Add some of the best features available at Kmart, Cost-U-less, Plaza Extra, Office Max and Western Auto, and you have a rough idea of what to expect at Pricesmart.
Visser, who formerly managed Cost-U-Less on St. Thomas, said, "We will keep 75 to 80 percent of the product mix in stock at all times and continually change 20 to 25 percent of the mix to keep it new and exciting."
Hours of operation are 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Sunday.
Pricesmart already operates stores in Aruba, Barbados, the Dominican Republic and Trinidad and Tobago, as well as in Asia and Latin America. The chain's corporate website is located at www.pricesmart.com.

April 5, 2001 – The British have a knack for so many things – literature, fish and chips, turning out a good (if warm) pint, scorning and adoring and their royalty, and producing fine, offbeat, working class films. And it looks like "Billy Elliot" is one of those.
Billy Elliot (Jamie Bell) is a lonesome 11-year-old living in a desolate mining town in North East England with his recently widowed father and his unsmiling brother, both of whom are involved in a massive coal miner's strike. With his brother and father at an emotional impasse – he can't really communicate with them – Billy starts playing his late mother's piano when nobody is around. He enjoys it.
He is supposed to be taking boxing lessons in the afternoon, which he dutifully does until he discovers a ballet class at the other end of the building. He soon ingratiates himself with the dance teacher Mrs. Wilkinson (Julie Walters), and begins secretly taking lessons. Wilkinson is astonished at Billy's natural talent, and Billy is thrilled to have found what he loves.
When his father finally finds out about the dancing lessons, a major crisis erupts as Billy tries to explain his love for dance. His family is having none of it.
One critic probably said it best: "a simple story, laced with sass, incredible charm and superb acting." It is a debut role for 13-year-old Bell who tried out along with about 2,000 other boys, for the part. Director Stephen Daldry was overjoyed to find Bell when he had almost despaired of finding a youngster from North East England with the right accent, who could dance as well as act. Bell does all his own dancing.
The movie is rated R for language.
It starts Thursday at Market Square East.