The St. Thomas Humane Society has a gift for all elementary school students – all the students have to do is get their teachers to sign up for "Kind News," a monthly publication of the Humane Society of the U.S. The paper is free to all elementary schools.
The monthly four-page student newspaper helps instill in children kindness to people, animals and the earth. Each issue is filled with colorful stories (in color), about cats, puppies, pancake tortoises, turtles, dik-diks (yes, dik-diks), hippos, sunbirds, or even a Tanzanian Nyala.
The paper also has puzzles, comics, Earth Tips, quizzes, news from other "Kind News" school groups, and projects. And this isn't all. There's "Dr. Kind" whom you can write with questions about pets, and riddles, too. Question: Which side of the chicken has the most feathers? Answer: The outside, silly.
Lisa Walker, spokesperson for the Humane Society, said "the problem we're having is getting the teachers to sign up for it." The turnover in teachers presents a problem, as the teachers don't meet their replacements and the communication is lost. Walker has sent forms to all the schools, and she said the response could be much better.
"The paper costs the shelter $24 per subscription, but it's free to the schools," Walker said. The paper is paid from funds left the Society by the late St. Thomas resident Ethel Brinkerhoff, whose legacy requires that funds be used for educational purposes only. The subscription includes 32 copies of "Kind News," each month and is published at three levels: primary (grades K-2), junior (grades 3-4) and senior (grades 5-6).
Walker said the subscription forms must be submitted by May 31 for the subscriptions to start in September. However, applicants can also phone the Humane Society at (340) 775-0599 and ask to have the form faxed. The form can then be returned by fax, as well.
The offer is good for all St. Thomas and St. John schools.
On a different note, Walker said the Spay Day program the shelter conducted in February was a howling success. The program simply required pet owners to fill out a contract and bring in their pets for free spaying or neutering by April 30. Though the deadline has passed, Walker said the contracts would still be honored for those who had made arrangements for later service. She happily noted that 166 pets had been altered in the program, which is a lot of potential homeless puppies and kittens.

The St. Thomas Humane Society has a gift for all elementary school students – all the students have to do is get their teachers to sign up for "Kind News," a monthly publication of the Humane Society of the U.S. The paper is free to all elementary schools.
The monthly four-page student newspaper helps instill in children kindness to people, animals and the earth. Each issue is filled with colorful stories (in color), about cats, puppies, pancake tortoises, turtles, dik-diks (yes, dik-diks), hippos, sunbirds, or even a Tanzanian Nyala.
The paper also has puzzles, comics, Earth Tips, quizzes, news from other "Kind News" school groups, and projects. And this isn't all. There's "Dr. Kind" whom you can write with questions about pets, and riddles, too. Question: Which side of the chicken has the most feathers? Answer: The outside, silly.
Lisa Walker, spokesperson for the Humane Society, said "the problem we're having is getting the teachers to sign up for it." The turnover in teachers presents a problem, as the teachers don't meet their replacements and the communication is lost. Walker has sent forms to all the schools, and she said the response could be much better.
"The paper costs the shelter $24 per subscription, but it's free to the schools," Walker said. The paper is paid from funds left the Society by the late St. Thomas resident Ethel Brinkerhoff, whose legacy requires that funds be used for educational purposes only. The subscription includes 32 copies of "Kind News," each month and is published at three levels: primary (grades K-2), junior (grades 3-4) and senior (grades 5-6).
Walker said the subscription forms must be submitted by May 31 for the subscriptions to start in September. However, applicants can also phone the Humane Society at (340) 775-0599 and ask to have the form faxed. The form can then be returned by fax, as well.
The offer is good for all schools in the territory, not just St. Thomas schools.
On a different note, Walker said the Spay Day program the shelter conducted in February was a howling success. The program simply required pet owners to fill out a contract, and bring in their pets for free spaying or neutering, by April 30. Though the deadline has passed, Walker said the contracts would still be honored. She happily noted that 166 pets had been altered in the program, which is a lot of potential homeless puppies and kittens.

The St. Thomas Humane Society has a gift for all elementary school students – all the students have to do is get their teachers to sign up for "Kind News," a monthly publication of the Humane Society of the U.S. The paper is free to all elementary schools.
The monthly four-page student newspaper helps instill in children kindness to people, animals and the earth. Each issue is filled with colorful stories (in color), about cats, puppies, pancake tortoises, turtles, dik-diks (yes, dik-diks), hippos, sunbirds, or even a Tanzanian Nyala.
The paper also has puzzles, comics, Earth Tips, quizzes, news from other "Kind News" school groups, and projects. And this isn't all. There's "Dr. Kind" whom you can write with questions about pets, and riddles, too. Question: Which side of the chicken has the most feathers? Answer: The outside, silly.
Lisa Walker, spokesperson for the Humane Society, said "the problem we're having is getting the teachers to sign up for it." The turnover in teachers presents a problem, as the teachers don't meet their replacements and the communication is lost. Walker has sent forms to all the schools, and she said the response could be much better.
"The paper costs the shelter $24 per subscription, but it's free to the schools," Walker said. The paper is paid from funds left the Society by the late St. Thomas resident Ethel Brinkerhoff, whose legacy requires that funds be used for educational purposes only. The subscription includes 32 copies of "Kind News," each month and is published at three levels: primary (grades K-2), junior (grades 3-4) and senior (grades 5-6).
Walker said the subscription forms must be submitted by May 31 for the subscriptions to start in September. However, applicants can also phone the Humane Society at (340) 775-0599 and ask to have the form faxed. The form can then be returned by fax, as well.
The offer is good for all schools on St. Thomas and St. John.
On a different note, Walker said the Spay Day program the shelter conducted in February was a howling success. The program simply required pet owners to fill out a contract and bring in their pets for free spaying or neutering by April 30. Though the deadline has passed, Walker said the contracts would still be honored for those who made arrangements for later service. She happily noted that 166 pets had been altered in the program, which is a lot of potential homeless puppies and kittens.

Gov. Charles W. Turnbull gave a strong indication Tuesday that he may not be willing to go with some of the recommendations of the task force he appointed at the start of the year to draft a plan to pull the territory out of its economic abyss.
The Economic Recovery Task Force, chaired by St. Thomas business leader John deJongh Jr., submitted its Five-Year Operating and Strategic Financial Plan to the governor on April 27. Senators got their first official look at it on May 8 at a Finance Committee meeting.
On Tuesday, Turnbull sent a letter to Senate president Vargrave Richards saying that the administration's proposed fiscal year 2001 budget for the territory, due by law to be delivered to the Senate on May 30, won't get there until June 30. In his letter the governor wrote:
"As you are aware, the administration's Five-Year Operating and Strategic Financial Plan contains several revenue and expenditure initiatives which are under review. The review process is to determine the measures to be incorporated into the FY 2001 executive budget to ensure it is fiscally viable. Therefore, it is necessary to delay the submission of the budget."
At a Senate Agriculture, Economic Development and Consumer Protection Committee meeting addressing the territory's tourism outlook Monday night, Berry, a member of that committee and chair of the Finance Committee, said Rudolph Krigger Sr., the governor's special assistant for fiscal policy and economic affairs, had stated publicly that the various department heads in the Turnbull administration were being told to adhere to the five-year plan in drafting their FY 2001 budgets.
The plan, an inch-thick document of double-sided printing, analyzes government operations department by department, summarizing findings and making recommendations for structural reform. It strongly emphasizes a need for new public-private partnerships and privatization of a number of functions that are now government responsibility.

Jason Carroll, the 18-year-old victim of a daylight shooting on Main Street in the heart of the Charlotte Amalie shopping district, was an innocent bystander, police sources confirmed late Tuesday night based on a preliminary investigation.
Carroll, the son of Assistant U.S. Attorney James Carroll and his wife, Cecelia, was shot in the chest and arm as he walked past the Main Street entrance to Drake's Passage, police said. He staggered across the street and collapsed on the sidewalk in front of Princess Jewelers, where he died a few minutes later as Joe Elmore, a local resident and longtime American Red Cross worker with experience in war-torn areas, was attempting cardiopulmonary resuscitation.
Elmore and his lunch companion, St. Thomas-St. John Chamber of Commerce executive director Joe Aubain, heard the shots as they were returning to the chamber offices after having lunch on Back Street. As Elmore began CPR, Aubain rushed into a nearby store to call police.
The gunfire broke out about 1:25 p.m. Tuesday after a fight erupted between two unidentified individuals, police said. Carroll was struck by two bullets, in the chest and the left arm. One police source said there was no evidence that he had been shot while attempting to foil a robbery at a Drake's Passage store, as some early, unconfirmed reports suggested. "He was merely walking past the Drake's entrance when he was struck by the bullets," the source said.
Carroll had just completed his freshman year as a full-time student at the University of the Virgin Islands. A close family friend said he had gone into town Tuesday to look for a summer job.
UVI president Orville Kean expressed his sympathies to the Carroll family Tuesday night, saying, "Any senseless loss of life should be abhorrent to the community. At UVI, when we lose one of our students, a young person like this, it hits us especially hard."
On Tuesday afternoon, police were seeking a black male with shoulder-length dreadlocks, about 5'8" in height, wearing a white T-shirt and blue jeans. Witnesses said shortly after the shooting that the assailant fled toward the Back Street area. There were other reports that the gunman made his getaway through Drake's Passage to the waterfront. Deputy Police Chief Theodore Carty asked that anyone with information contact the Major Crime Task Force by calling 774-2196, 774-4050 or 911.
Tuesday's shooting occurred as hundreds of tourists from the only cruise ship in port, the Century, wandered throughout the shopping district. When the gunshots rang out, most ran for cover in nearby stores, one shop owner said. The Virgin Islands Independent quoted a tourist from Michigan as saying that he and another Century passenger had been walking out of a Main Street gift shop about 50 feet from the place where Carroll fell "and I heard two loud pops. We turned around and saw this kid drop his bag and slump against that wall there by the jewelry store."
Sens. David Jones and Roosevelt David, who heard about the shooting while having lunch at Gladys's Restaurant in Royal Dane Mall, joined the crowd that gathered at the scene. Both decried the brazen daylight shooting in the heart of downtown St. Thomas as tourists nearby photographed and videotaped the crime scene.
Jones said he was "outraged that vagabonds would come into the heart of town to fight and open gunfire which today killed an innocent man." He termed the killing "another nail in the coffin of tourism in the Virgin Islands." Jones, who chairs the Senate committee which has tourism as one of its areas of focus, had presided over a four-hour hearing the night before on the topic of how to address the territory's foundering hospitality industry.
Two hours after Tuesday's shooting, the yellow crime scene tape put up earlier by police had been removed, and all that was left to remind shoppers and pedestrians physically of the violence were the chalk outline and blood stains on the ground where Carroll fell to his death and a blood-soaked blue towel lying within its perimeter.
The killing was the eighth in the territory this year and the fifth in the St. Thomas-St. John district. It was the third shooting in downtown Charlotte Amalie within a month. A man was shot in the chest in the Savan on Sunday. Another 18-year-old, also an innocent victim, was shot in the back on Snegle Gade behind Back Street on April 25 and was left paralyzed as a result. Police have announced no arrests in either case.

Editor's note: For further details on the shooting, see the earlier story headlined "Gunfire kills man on Main Street, St. Thomas."

Gov. Charles W. Turnbull gave a strong indication Tuesday that he may not be willing to go with some of the recommendations of the task force he appointed at the start of the year to draft a plan to pull the territory out of its economic abyss.
The Economic Recovery Task Force, chaired by St. Thomas business leader John deJongh Jr., submitted its Five-Year Operating and Strategic Financial Plan to the governor on April 27. Senators got their first official look at it on May 8 at a Finance Committee meeting.
On Tuesday, Turnbull sent a letter to Senate president Vargrave Richards saying that the administration's proposed fiscal year 2001 budget for the territory, due by law to be delivered to the Senate on May 30, won't get there until June 30. In his letter the governor wrote:
"As you are aware, the administration's Five-Year Operating and Strategic Financial Plan contains several revenue and expenditure initiatives which are under review. The review process is to determine the measures to be incorporated into the FY 2001 executive budget to ensure it is fiscally viable. Therefore, it is necessary to delay the submission of the budget."
At a Senate Agriculture, Economic Development and Consumer Protection Committee meeting addressing the territory's tourism outlook Monday night, Berry, a member of that committee and chair of the Finance Committee, said Rudolph Krigger Sr., the governor's special assistant for fiscal policy and economic affairs, had stated publicly that the various department heads in the Turnbull administration were being told to adhere to the five-year plan in drafting their FY 2001 budgets.
The plan, an inch-thick document of double-sided printing, analyzes government operations department by department, summarizing findings and making recommendations for structural reform. It strongly emphasizes a need for new public-private partnerships and privatization of a number of functions that are now government responsibility.

Jason Carroll, the 18-year-old victim of a daylight shooting on Main Street in the heart of the Charlotte Amalie shopping district, was an innocent bystander, police sources confirmed late Tuesday night based on a preliminary investigation.
Carroll, the son of Assistant U.S. Attorney James Carroll and his wife, Cecelia, was shot in the chest and arm as he walked past the Main Street entrance to Drake's Passage, police said. He staggered across the street and collapsed on the sidewalk in front of Princess Jewelers, where he died a few minutes later as Joe Elmore, a local resident and longtime American Red Cross worker with experience in war-torn areas, was attempting cardiopulmonary resuscitation.
Elmore and his lunch companion, St. Thomas-St. John Chamber of Commerce executive director Joe Aubain, heard the shots as they were returning to the chamber offices after having lunch on Back Street. As Elmore began CPR, Aubain rushed into a nearby store to call police.
The gunfire broke out about 1:25 p.m. Tuesday after a fight erupted between two unidentified individuals, police said. Carroll was struck by two bullets, in the chest and the left arm. One police source said there was no evidence that he had been shot while attempting to foil a robbery at a Drake's Passage store, as some early, unconfirmed reports suggested. "He was merely walking past the Drake's entrance when he was struck by the bullets," the source said.
Carroll had just completed his freshman year as a full-time student at the University of the Virgin Islands. A close family friend said he had gone into town Tuesday to look for a summer job.
UVI president Orville Kean expressed his sympathies to the Carroll family Tuesday night, saying, "Any senseless loss of life should be abhorrent to the community. At UVI, when we lose one of our students, a young person like this, it hits us especially hard."
On Tuesday afternoon, police were seeking a black male with shoulder-length dreadlocks, about 5'8" in height, wearing a white T-shirt and blue jeans. Witnesses said shortly after the shooting that the assailant fled toward the Back Street area. There were other reports that the gunman made his getaway through Drake's Passage to the waterfront. Deputy Police Chief Theodore Carty asked that anyone with information contact the Major Crime Task Force by calling 774-2196, 774-4050 or 911.
Tuesday's shooting occurred as hundreds of tourists from the only cruise ship in port, the Century, wandered throughout the shopping district. When the gunshots rang out, most ran for cover in nearby stores, one shop owner said. The Virgin Islands Independent quoted a tourist from Michigan as saying that he and another Century passenger had been walking out of a Main Street gift shop about 50 feet from the place where Carroll fell "and I heard two loud pops. We turned around and saw this kid drop his bag and slump against that wall there by the jewelry store."
Sens. David Jones and Roosevelt David, who heard about the shooting while having lunch at Gladys's Restaurant in Royal Dane Mall, joined the crowd that gathered at the scene. Both decried the brazen daylight shooting in the heart of downtown St. Thomas as tourists nearby photographed and videotaped the crime scene.
Jones said he was "outraged that vagabonds would come into the heart of town to fight and open gunfire which today killed an innocent man." He termed the killing "another nail in the coffin of tourism in the Virgin Islands." Jones, who chairs the Senate committee which has tourism as one of its areas of focus, had presided over a four-hour hearing the night before on the topic of how to address the territory's foundering hospitality industry.
Two hours after Tuesday's shooting, the yellow crime scene tape put up earlier by police had been removed, and all that was left to remind shoppers and pedestrians physically of the violence were the chalk outline and blood stains on the ground where Carroll fell to his death and a blood-soaked blue towel lying within its perimeter.
The killing was the eighth in the territory this year and the fifth in the St. Thomas-St. John district. It was the third shooting in downtown Charlotte Amalie within a month. A man was shot in the chest in the Savan on Sunday. Another 18-year-old, also an innocent victim, was shot in the back on Snegle Gade behind Back Street on April 25 and was left paralyzed as a result. Police have announced no arrests in either case.

Editor's note: For further details on the shooting, see the earlier story headlined "Gunfire kills man on Main Street, St. Thomas."

Gov. Charles W. Turnbull gave a strong indication Tuesday that he may not be willing to go with some of the recommendations of the task force he appointed at the start of the year to draft a plan to pull the territory out of its economic abyss.
The Economic Recovery Task Force, chaired by St. Thomas business leader John deJongh Jr., submitted its Five-Year Operating and Strategic Financial Plan to the governor on April 27. Senators got their first official look at it on May 8 at a Finance Committee meeting.
On Tuesday, Turnbull sent a letter to Senate president Vargrave Richards saying that the administration's proposed fiscal year 2001 budget for the territory, due by law to be delivered to the Senate on May 30, won't get there until June 30. In his letter the governor wrote:
"As you are aware, the administration's Five-Year Operating and Strategic Financial Plan contains several revenue and expenditure initiatives which are under review. The review process is to determine the measures to be incorporated into the FY 2001 executive budget to ensure it is fiscally viable. Therefore, it is necessary to delay the submission of the budget."
At a Senate Agriculture, Economic Development and Consumer Protection Committee meeting addressing the territory's tourism outlook Monday night, Berry, a member of that committee and chair of the Finance Committee, said Rudolph Krigger Sr., the governor's special assistant for fiscal policy and economic affairs, had stated publicly that the various department heads in the Turnbull administration were being told to adhere to the five-year plan in drafting their FY 2001 budgets.
The plan, an inch-thick document of double-sided printing, analyzes government operations department by department, summarizing findings and making recommendations for structural reform. It strongly emphasizes a need for new public-private partnerships and privatization of a number of functions that are now government responsibility.

Jason Carroll, the 18-year-old victim of a daylight shooting on Main Street in the heart of the Charlotte Amalie shopping district, was an innocent bystander, police sources confirmed late Tuesday night based on a preliminary investigation.
Carroll, the son of Assistant U.S. Attorney James Carroll and his wife, Cecelia, was shot in the chest and arm as he walked past the Main Street entrance to Drake's Passage, police said. He staggered across the street and collapsed on the sidewalk in front of Princess Jewelers, where he died a few minutes later as Joe Elmore, a local resident and longtime American Red Cross worker with experience in war-torn areas, was attempting cardiopulmonary resuscitation.
Elmore and his lunch companion, St. Thomas-St. John Chamber of Commerce executive director Joe Aubain, heard the shots as they were returning to the chamber offices after having lunch on Back Street. As Elmore began CPR, Aubain rushed into a nearby store to call police.
The gunfire broke out about 1:25 p.m. Tuesday after a fight erupted between two unidentified individuals, police said. Carroll was struck by two bullets, in the chest and the left arm. One police source said there was no evidence that he had been shot while attempting to foil a robbery at a Drake's Passage store, as some early, unconfirmed reports suggested. "He was merely walking past the Drake's entrance when he was struck by the bullets," the source said.
Carroll had just completed his freshman year as a full-time student at the University of the Virgin Islands. A close family friend said he had gone into town Tuesday to look for a summer job.
UVI president Orville Kean expressed his sympathies to the Carroll family Tuesday night, saying, "Any senseless loss of life should be abhorrent to the community. At UVI, when we lose one of our students, a young person like this, it hits us especially hard."
On Tuesday afternoon, police were seeking a black male with shoulder-length dreadlocks, about 5'8" in height, wearing a white T-shirt and blue jeans. Witnesses said shortly after the shooting that the assailant fled toward the Back Street area. There were other reports that the gunman made his getaway through Drake's Passage to the waterfront. Deputy Police Chief Theodore Carty asked that anyone with information contact the Major Crime Task Force by calling 774-2196, 774-4050 or 911.
Tuesday's shooting occurred as hundreds of tourists from the only cruise ship in port, the Century, wandered throughout the shopping district. When the gunshots rang out, most ran for cover in nearby stores, one shop owner said. The Virgin Islands Independent quoted a tourist from Michigan as saying that he and another Century passenger had been walking out of a Main Street gift shop about 50 feet from the place where Carroll fell "and I heard two loud pops. We turned around and saw this kid drop his bag and slump against that wall there by the jewelry store."
Sens. David Jones and Roosevelt David, who heard about the shooting while having lunch at Gladys's Restaurant in Royal Dane Mall, joined the crowd that gathered at the scene. Both decried the brazen daylight shooting in the heart of downtown St. Thomas as tourists nearby photographed and videotaped the crime scene.
Jones said he was "outraged that vagabonds would come into the heart of town to fight and open gunfire which today killed an innocent man." He termed the killing "another nail in the coffin of tourism in the Virgin Islands." Jones, who chairs the Senate committee which has tourism as one of its areas of focus, had presided over a four-hour hearing the night before on the topic of how to address the territory's foundering hospitality industry.
Two hours after Tuesday's shooting, the yellow crime scene tape put up earlier by police had been removed, and all that was left to remind shoppers and pedestrians physically of the violence were the chalk outline and blood stains on the ground where Carroll fell to his death and a blood-soaked blue towel lying within its perimeter.
The killing was the eighth in the territory this year and the fifth in the St. Thomas-St. John district. It was the third shooting in downtown Charlotte Amalie within a month. A man was shot in the chest in the Savan on Sunday. Another 18-year-old, also an innocent victim, was shot in the back on Snegle Gade behind Back Street on April 25 and was left paralyzed as a result. Police have announced no arrests in either case.

Editor's note: For further details on the shooting, see the earlier story headlined "Gunfire leaves UVI student dead on Main Street."

The V.I. Water and Power Authority has completed its $80,000 Little Mon Bijou potable waterline project.
The line installation project, designed by WAPA and funded by the Public Finance Authority, will supply potable water to 23 homes in Little Mon Bijou.
Residents in the area are encouraged to come to the St. Croix Customer Service Office at Sunny Isle and fill out an application for water service. To apply, residents need to bring proof of ownership or tenancy of the property and personal identification showing a picture, signature and Social Security number of the person applying for service. A minimum service connection fee of $75 is required.