The Virgin Islands Water and Power Authority and the Caribbean Electric Utility Services will be hosting the Human Resources Management Conference on Tuesday, Oct. 27, and Wednesday, Oct. 28, at the Renaissance Grand Beach Resort.
Human Resources Managers and other interested persons are invited to attend the Conference. Registration information can be obtained from Mrs. Cassandra Dunn, 778-8755 or 773-2250 ex 4040.

Word of Faith Center is sponsoring a Harvest Festival from 4 to 8:30 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 30, at the Frenchtown Community Center. There will be food, fellowship, treats, and games.
It's free. No costumes, please.

Internet auction giant eBay is joining forces with St. John's Pine Peace School to help raise funds to complete the school's library and computer center.
"Realizing the need for businesses to get directly involved with the education of our children, e-Bay has adopted the school in order to attract attention to the library drive," Pine Peace development director Steve Walker says. Once completed, the facility will be open to the community surrounding the school, and Pine Peace will offer Internet classes along with basic library instruction, he said.
The auction will be held on eBay www.ebay.com from Monday, Oct. 18, through Thursday, Oct. 28. A number of hotels, resorts and private villa owners have donated one-week stays that will go to the highest bidders, wherever in the world they may be.
Any day the auction is up and running, interested parties can log on to the eBay site, where they will be directed to the Pine Peace School auction page. Once there, they will find the packages to bid on — from large resorts such as the Westin on St. John and the Wyndham Sugar Bay on St. Thomas, as well as a number of small but luxurious island villas. All proceeds from the auction will go directly to the school's library fund.
Pine Peace School is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, which means that the successful bidders on the room packages can claim a tax deduction for a portion of the donation.
For further information locally on the project, contact Walker by calling the Pine Peace office at 776-6495 or e-mailing to sog@viaccess.net. The school's web site is found at www.pinepeaceschool.k12.vi.

Hundreds of Virgin Islands teachers received personal copies of the 10-page preliminary injunction against their sick-out this week.
A two-page permanent injunction already has been issued.
"I don’t understand why the government is wasting paper," said Glen Smith, president of the St. Thomas-St. John Federation of Teachers. Not only is the notification redundant in light of the publicity about the court action, he said, but the preliminary injunction itself "is old and dated."
June Archibald, spokeswoman for the Education Department, said the copies were distributed through schools.
"My understanding is that you had to prove that everybody knew about it" in order to satisfy the court, she said. "I believe it was a joint decision" between Education and the Office of Collective Bargaining to distribute the notice.
She said it went only to teachers who had been absent from school on the days of job actions.
Archibald said she did not know how many teachers received a copy of the injunction, what it cost to supply the copies or whether the department would follow up with copies of the two-page order. She said she would check on those questions, but she did not call back with answers before the end of the work day Friday.

U.S. District Court is a better venue than Territorial Court for Sen. Alicia "Chucky" Hansen’s suit seeking to block the Beal Aerospace-V.I. government land exchange, the territory’s attorney general said Friday.
A week ago, Territorial Court Judge Alphonso Andrews granted Hansen’s request for a temporary restraining order against the land swap, which was approved by the V.I. Legislature on Oct. 5. Andrews ruled that Gov. Charles Turnbull violated the public trust when he sent the land exchange agreement to the Senate for approval.
Last Wednesday the V.I. Attorney General’s Office filed a motion to move the case to District Court and stay Andrews’ temporary restraining order.
"Almost all the issues raised pertain to federal laws. The Organic Act is a Congressional act and there are issues with shoreline and submerged land…" said Attorney General Iver Stridiron. "We felt it would be appropriate to move it to District Court."
District Court Judge Raymond Finch is expected to rule on the government’s motion early next week.
Still, Stridiron said it is his opinion that once his office made the motion to remove the case from Territorial Court, that court’s authority, particularly the restraining order, was automatically suspended. He said, however, that Andrews is arguing such an action only applies to states and not territories.
"We take the position it applies in the territory," Stridiron said. "There will be some issue if the judge will stay the proceedings."
Meanwhile, Hansen said the government’s effort to move the case out of Andrews’ court is an attempt to get a judge who may be more favorable to its case.
"I think it is a total lack of respect of the people of the Virgin Islands," Hansen said. "The government is acting as a front for Beal."
In his motion to stay Andrews’ restraining order, Stridiron said the issue hadn’t "ripened" to the point where court action is warranted. He said it was a "dangerous" precedent for a judge to intervene before a bill was even signed into law.
Because the Senate amended the land exchange agreement, it is unclear whether the governor will give it his approval.
"No one can truly predict how Gov. Turnbull will act when the bill gets to his desk," Stridiron said.
The governor has 10 days to sign the land-exchange bill after it has been transmitted to his office. If he doesn’t sign it, the bill dies.
According to Yvonne Petersen, executive director of the St. Croix Environmental Association, the organization is waiting for that time span to play out before making any legal moves against the land exchange.
"Right now we’re waiting to see if the governor signs the bill," Petersen said. "If he doesn’t sign it, there won’t be a need to pursue it."
If SEA does decide to file suit, it will be on different merits than Hansen’s effort. Petersen said issues such as land use, zoning and the trust will be the main focus.
Andrews has scheduled a hearing for Oct. 21 on whether to grant Hansen a permanent injunction. He also extended the temporary restraining order to Oct. 28.
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 it can’t be traded away.

Although Hurricane Irene kept some notable attendees away from the first full day of the fourth annual CaribNews Multinational Business Conference on St. Croix Friday, it still had "the right people at the right place at the right time."
The aim of the conference, being held at the Sunterra Carambola Resort, is to bring together prominent African-American and Caribbean business people to discuss technology and how it can bridge the gap between the U.S. and the Caribbean. This year’s gathering includes a dozen members of the Congressional Black Caucus.
Several lawmakers, including Reps. Maxine Waters and Charles Rangel, couldn't reach St. Croix because of Hurricane Irene's closure of Miami International Airport.
Still, there were plenty of powerful and influential speakers on hand, including David Jefferson, president of AT&T’s Atlantic States Local Services Organization, and Percy Sutton, founder of Inner City Broadcasting.
Both men said it was important for younger people of color who are climbing the corporate ladder to success to remember to pull along others from their communities.
"We are surrounded today by incredible individuals," Jefferson said. "This is the right people at the right place at the right time."
Jefferson said the digital revolution isn’t just about computers and fiber optics, but "about people."
"Number two, it must be for everyone. And number three, if people of color work together they will be able to extract more out of this special time than if we work alone."
Jefferson said that one quarter of people who use the Internet use it to make purchases. He also said that within the next few years, 60 percent of the nation’s job opportunities will require computer skills.
"This digital revolution must be for everyone, regardless of race, regardless of creed, regardless of color," Jefferson said, adding that the act of "redlining," where companies select only affluent areas to service, cannot be afforded.
Gov. Charles Turnbull noted the need for the Virgin Islands to be involved in the quickly changing world of technology.
"We in the Caribbean … must be able to recognize the opportunities in front of us," he said.
Karl Rodney, publisher of New York-based Carib News, said the aim of the multinational conference is to bring together movers and shakers from the Caribbean and the United States to help develop the emerging markets in the region. The territory, Rodney said, is in a unique position to be a bridge between Caricom and the African-American business community.
Corporations like AT&T, Coca-Cola, Western Union and Lucent Technologies have participated in the past three conferences in Jamaica, Barbados and St. Lucia.

Hundreds of Virgin Islands teachers received personal copies of the 10-page preliminary injunction against their sickout this week.
A two-page permanent injunction already has been issued.
"I don’t understand why the government is wasting paper," said Glen Smith, president of the St. Thomas-St. John Federation of Teachers. Not only is the notification redundant in light of the publicity about the court action, the preliminary injunction itself "is old and dated," he said.
June Archibald, spokeswoman for the Education Department, said the copies were distributed through schools.
"My understanding is that you had to prove that everybody knew about it" in order to satisfy the court, she said. "I believe it was a joint decision" between Education and the Office of Collective Bargaining to distribute the notice.
She said it went only to teachers who had been absent from school on the days of job actions.
Archibald said she did not know how many teachers received a copy of the injunction, what it cost to supply the copies or whether the department would follow up with copies of the permanent restraining order. She said she would check on those questions, but she did not call back with answers before the end of the work day Friday.

Mary Blazine, executive director of the St. John Community Foundation, and her counterpart on St. Thomas, Dee Baecher-Brown, of the Community Foundation of the Virgin Islands, will share their insights from a mainland conference of such organizations at the annual meeting of the St. Thomas-St. John Arts Council, at 6 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 21, in Tillett Gardens on St. Thomas.
Business to be conducted at the meeting will consist of the election of board members. In order to vote, Arts Council members must be current with their 1999-2000 dues, which may be mailed in advance to PO Box 6692, St. Thomas VI 00804, or paid in person just before the start of the meeting. Any member who has not received the October newsletter with the slate of board nominees is asked to call 693-7765 or 776-4812.

In observance of World Food Day, a "Youth Against Hunger" food resources fair will be held from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday on the University of the Virgin Islands campus. It will begin with two hours of music by Stanley and the Ten Sleepless Knights. At 2 p.m. there will be workshops on food and nutrition, preparation of healthful vegetarian meals, and cultivation of pumpkin crops. There will also be a farmers' market, food and drink booths, activities for children, the collection of non-perishable foods to be distributed to the needy, and performances at the end of the day by the Guardians of Culture Mocko Jumbies, Uprising Cultural Theater/Dance and DJ Dog Heart.

The Department of Public Works is no longer accepting used motor oil at the Anna’s Hope collection center.
According to DPW Commissioner Harold Thompson, the discontinuation of the program is due to people spilling oil at the collection sites, which causes soil contamination. He said DPW will revise its collection procedures to prevent contamination in the future.
Thompson said that leaving containers of used oil outside of any collection site or not properly disposing of oil is against the law. He said people who need to dispose of their oil should contact commercial collectors by looking in the Yellow Pages under waste reduction.