Coral World, Dive World and a handful of other businesses in the Coki Point and Smith Bay area, are planning a unique triathlon aimed at getting the community actively involved in keeping the island clean.
The race scheduled for Saturday, Oct. 23 will involve swimming, running or walking, and collecting a bag full of litter.
For details go to Things to do.

The Coki Point Triathlon originally scheduled for Oct. 23 was postponed. It is now scheduled for Nov. 20.
Details to be furnished as they become available.

In another development that may help the territory's finances, the U.S. Senate Finance Committee has approved a bill containing a provision that would lift the cap on how much rum taxes are returned to the territory.
And Delegate to Congress Donna Christian-Christensen said Friday that unanimous passage of HR 2841 by the U.S. Senate brings the Virgin Islands one step closer to obtaining the same "general borrowing authority as authorized by the V.I. Legislature."
HR 2841 will be sent to President Clinton for his signature.
"Now that the our local Legislature has also passed a borrowing bill for the territory, we can proceed with the business at hand of working through our strategy to eliminate the fiscal deficit before us," the delegate said.
On Tuesday, the V.I. Legislature passed a bill submitted by Gov. Charles Turnbull that sought approval for a $130 million bond issue. The bill passed only after an amendment was added authorizing the Public Finance Authority to issue up to $300 million instead of the requested $130 million in bonds to fund a working capital loan.
Proponents of the amendment believe the larger borrowing will allow for measures to stimulate the economy, including paying past-due income tax refunds, paying vendors what the government owes and funding a retirement-incentive plan.
The local legislators shot down the original two-tier bill in a late-night session Oct. 1. In that vote, the bill failed on a 7-7 vote.
The Turnbull administration has maintained that without the authority to borrow money, it would be unable to meet payroll starting in November. On Tuesday, Paulette Rabsatt, deputy assistant to the governor on fiscal policy, said the government was facing a $39 million shortfall by Nov. 18.
The bill authorizes the government to issue bonds to borrow working capital. However, it was contingent on the passage of HR 2841.
The revised bill submitted by Turnbull for consideration at Tuesday's special session of the Legislature calls for a one-step bond structure as opposed to the more costly and complicated two-step process of the earlier bill.
Meanwhile, another revenue source for the territory may be secured through the end of 2000, Christensen said.
"I am also happy to announce that we have made another step forward in the process to lift the cap on rum taxes returned to the territory . . . with the vote in the Senate Finance Committee to lift the cap for 18 months beginning retroactively in July of this year."
The measure, which would mean an additional $20 million to $22 million annually to the territory, must still be passed by the full Senate before going to a House-Senate conference committee.
"Even though it was not included in the House version, we are cautiously optimistic because of the committee's action and the strong White House support," Christensen said. "If passed, it would still only be a partial victory, and so we are still continuing to work to have the cap lifted permanently."

At 12:03 p.m. Friday the power went off across the island. Some offices will close early as a result of the outage.
Patricia Blake Simmonds, spokesperson for the Water and Power Authority, said the outage was islandwide. It was caused by the breakdown of a main south insulator.
Simmonds said power would be returned gradually and should be fully restored by 3 p.m.
In the wake of the outage it was announced that all offices of the Lieutenant Governor would close at 1 p.m.

A crucial part of the Turnbull administration's economic recovery plan got a boost Thursday night when the U.S. Senate authorized general borrowing authority for the V.I. government.
In another development that may help the territory's finances, the Senate Finance Committee approved a bill tat would lift the cap on how much rum taxes are returned to the territory.
Delegate to Congress Donna Christian Christensen said Friday unanimous passage of HR 2841 by the U.S. Senate brings the Virgin Islands one step closer to obtaining the same "general borrowing authority as authorized by the V.I. Legislature."
HR 2841 will be sent to President Clinton for his signature.
"Now that the our local Legislature has also passed a borrowing bill for the territory, we can proceed with the business at hand of working through our strategy to eliminate the fiscal deficit before us," the Delegate said.
On Tuesday, the V.I. Legislature okayed Gov. Charles Turnbull's request for a $130 million bond issue. The bill passed only after an amendment was added authorizing the Public Finance Authority to issue up to $300 million instead of the requested $130 million in bonds to fund a working capital loan.
Proponents of the amendment believe the larger borrowing will allow for measures to stimulate the economy, including paying past-due income tax refunds, paying vendors the government owes and funding a retirement incentive plan.
The legislators shot down the original two-tier bill in a late-night session Oct. 1. In that vote, the bill failed on a 7-7 vote.
The Turnbull administration has maintained that without the authority to borrow money, it would be unable to meet payroll starting in November. On Tuesday, Paulette Rabsatt, deputy assistant to the governor on fiscal policy, said the government was facing a $39 million shortfall by Nov. 18.
The bill authorizes the government to issue bonds to borrow working capital. However, it was contingent on the passage of HR 2841.
The revised bill submitted by Turnbull for consideration at Tuesday's special session of the Legislature calls for a one-step bond structure as opposed to the more costly and complicated two-step process of the earlier bill.
Meanwhile, another revenue source for the territory may be secured through the end of 2000, Christensen said.
"I am also happy to announce that we have made another step forward in the process to lift the cap on rum taxes returned to the territory . . . with the vote in the Senate Finance committee to lift the cap for 18 months beginning retroactively in July of this year."
The measure, which would mean an additional $20 million to $22 million annually to the territory, must still be passed by the full Senate before going to a House-Senate conference committee.
"Even though it was not included in the House version, we are cautiously optimistic because of the committee's action and the strong White House support," Christensen said. "If passed, it would still only be a partial victory, and so we are still continuing to work to have the cap lifted permanently."

The V.I. attorney general’s request to have a federal judge hear Sen. Alicia "Chucky" Hansen’s lawsuit against the V.I. government-Beal Aerospace land exchange was denied Thursday.
In his decision to deny Attorney General Iver Stridiron’s motion, Judge Raymond Finch said District Court didn’t have jurisdiction in the matter.
On Oct. 8, Territorial Court Judge Alphonso Andrews granted Hansen’s request for a temporary restraining order against the land swap, which had been approved by the V.I. Legislature three days earlier. Andrews ruled Gov. Charles Turnbull violated the public trust when he sent the land exchange agreement to the Senate for approval.
Following Andrews’ decision, Stridiron moved that the case be heard in District Court and the temporary restraining order stayed. Stridiron said a majority of the issues pertained to federal laws and therefore the case should have been heard in District Court.
Hansen said Finch’s decision was "good news" and that she and the 19 other plaintiffs in the suit are, so far, winning the legal battle.
"We won round one and two." The first round was the TRO, she said, and "the second was the one on Thursday."
On Oct. 5, the Legislature approved the land swap so that Texas-based Beal could acquire 14.5 acres of land, once the home of the Camp Arawak youth camp, for a portion of a parking lot. The lot will accompany Beal’s proposed $57-million world headquarters and rocket assembly plant near Great Pond Bay. In exchange for the Camp Arawak land, the government would receive acreage owned by Beal in Estates Whim and Grange Hill.
Opponents of the swap contend that the Camp Arawak land was deeded to the people of the territory to be developed into a park and therefore cannot be traded away.
Andrews had scheduled a hearing for Oct. 21 on whether to grant Hansen a preliminary injunction. He also had extended the temporary restraining order to Oct. 28. As of Thursday, Territorial Court offices were closed and the hearing had not been rescheduled
Hansen’s attorney, Ned Jacobs, who lives adjacent to Camp Arawak, said the hearing may be rescheduled for next week.

Here we go again – another exploration of a 15-year marriage gone stale, or haywire, or whatever. However, "The Story of Us" is directed by Rob Reiner, who also plays a small part, so we are guaranteed some solid comedy.
Michelle Pfeiffer as Katie Jordan and Bruce Willis, as Katie's husband, Ben, are the movie's protagonists, who ask the question: why did we ever get married in the first place?
Facing this problem, the Jordans attempt a trial separation while their children are off at summer camp. Katie is a crossword puzzle designer (I always wondered what they called those people), and Ben is a writer, a "true romantic." Katie mourns the fact that Ben has lost his spontaneity, his playfulness. Ben is bewildered. However, again, there is Reiner in there and the story, the examination of what has happened to them, to the "us," is witty and touching, although one reviewer has described it as "When Harry left Sally."
There is an overload of comic relief in the casting of the couple's two sets of parents – Red Buttons, Betty White, Jayne Meadows and Tom Poston. Also in the cast is the wonderful, fey Julie Hagerty – remember "Airplane?"
The film is rated "R" for language and sexuality.
It starts Thursday at Sunny Isle.

A steelband made up of young people from Denmark will take center stage in Christiansted this weekend.
The Danish steelband, called Vendsyssel Marimba Steelband (VMS), consists of
young men and women ranging in age from 17 to 19 . Members were selected
from four public music schools in Denmark.
The group will be playing on Friday at a free concert at King’s Alley Walk at 5 p.m. The group will perform again on Saturday at 5 p.m. at Wahoo Willy’s restaurant.
In Denmark, the VMS band performs as musical ambassadors specializing in
Caribbean steel pan music. VMS is visiting the U.S. Virgin Islands to explore the island's music and culture. The group played on St. Thomas last weekend.

In what has been described as "The Ice Storm plus Lolita," the semi-noir "American Beauty" looks to be one of the year's most serious and complicated films. It stars Academy Award winner Kevin Spacey, and Annette Bening, along with Mena Suvari of "American Pie," and newcomer Thora Birch.
Spacey plays Lester Burnham, a media reporter in an "average suburban neighborhood," married to real estate agent Carolyn, Annette Bening. However, their situation soon becomes anything but average. Burnham is sleepwalking through his mediocre life until one day he notices his teenage daughter's friend, Angela, played by Suvari. ( Perhaps we should say here that the movie has an introductory voice-over informing us that Burnham will be dead within a year – he just doesn't know it yet.)
When Burnham meets Angela, he suddenly wakes up; she has that effect on him. At first, he simply is content to fantasize about her. But, a fantasy is not enough. He quits his job, starts pumping iron, and begins smoking some of his teenage next door neighbor's excellent quality pot. He somehow thinks all this activity might put the magic back in his own marriage to Carolyn, but Carolyn, having an affair of her own, doesn't seem to notice.
First-time director Sam Mendes made a name for himself on Broadway recently with the revival of "Cabaret," and his direction of "American Beauty" is described as "dazzling."
The movie is rated "R" for strong sexuality, language, violence and drug content.
It starts Thursday at Sunny Isle.

Because of a hurricane heading for the islands, acting Tourism Commissioner Michael Bornn had to cancel a scheduled Tuesday-afternoon press conference at which he was to have announced the territory's new advertising agency.
Informed sources said the choice would be the international firm of Ogilvy & Mather.
Oglivy is the world's seventh largest advertising agency, with billings in 1997 of $8.8 billion. The firm has some 377 offices in 97 countries.
The agency recently won five awards at the prestigious Communications Arts magazine's 40th annual competition, arguably the advertising industry's most highly regarded awards.
Ogilvy & Mather won for a campaign on behalf of Mattel's Scrabble game, Junior Scrabble and three Junior Scrabble single ads. Only 3 percent of all entries to this year's competition won awards.
Other clients represented by Ogilvy include Air France, Kodak, American Express and Jaguar.
The Ogilvy network offers a full range of marketing and communication disciplines including advertising, direct marketing, interactive media, media planning and buying, database management, telemarketing, directory services, public relations, sales promotion, graphic design, and related marketing disciplines.
Though Ogilvy will handle the territory's advertising, Martin Public Relations remains on the job providing public relations services for the Virgin Islands.
For more information on the advertising giant, click here.