In response to concerns expressed by Sen. Adelbert Bryan about "missing" information in the reorganization proposal submitted to the Legislature by Government House last week, Gov. Charles Turnbull's chief of staff, Juel Molloy, said in a letter to Bryan on Tuesday that the only data due to the Legislature by Oct. 23 is the proposal to reorganize the executive branch.
Noting that this was done "five weeks ahead of the deadline," she asked Bryan to let her know prior to her scheduled Sept. 30 appearance before the Finance Committee if anything was missing, so she could get such information to the lawmakers before that hearing.
In the letter, Molloy stated that it had been "an error of judgment to attempt to provide the Legislature with all of the other documents which were not required."
In a Sept. 17 letter to Finance Committee chair Lorraine Berry, Molloy acknowledged "omissions" in the documentation provided to the Legislature on Sept. 15 and pledged to provide complete data packages early this week.
The recently enacted law Molloy cited calls upon the governor to propose the reorganization so as to promote government efficiency and productivity, reduce the work force through attrition, and reprogram resulting savings "to departments requiring increased appropriations and salaries in order to provide improved services."

Testing for Virgin Islands residents interested in careers in the U.S. Foreign Service — representing U.S. interests and responding to the needs of U.S. citizens abroad — will take place at the University of the Virgin Islands St. Thomas campus on Nov. 6.
Anyone interested in taking the 1999 Department of State Foreign Service Officer examination can obtain registration materials at the offices of Delegate to Congress Donna Christian-Christensen in Vitraco Park on St. Thomas or in Sunny Isle on St. Croix.
Completed application forms must be submitted by Oct. 8.
Applicants may also register on-line by that date at www.act.org/fswe/index_r.html. The Foreign Service written examination study guide web page can be accessed at www.act.org/fswe/index_s.html. For more information, call 774-4408 or 778-5900.

Delegate to Congress Donna Christian-Christensen came out Tuesday on both sides of the recent and continuing sickouts by public school teachers and safety services personnel — and assailed the Turnbull administration for what she called its failure to meet with union leaders to address their "well-founded gripes."
The disgruntled government workers "have very legitimate concerns that must be addressed," she said in a release from her Washington office. At the same time, she decried "the plight of the children and their families during these job actions."
Concerns about "raises and other actions taken by the present adminstration, having been ignored, are now beginning to come to fruition," she said, "making it extremely difficult to reach such resolution."
Christensen said she had "repeatedly advocated a frank, open and purposeful set of meetings between the administration and the unions." Had there been such meetings, she said, "we would at least be on the road to some agreed-to plan to address the long-overdue retroactive payments, and we would not be neglecting the needs of our children."
Further, the delegate stated, the administration's failure to meet with union leaders has left her office without direction in terms of efforts it could "begin to undertake on the administration's and the workers' behalf."
Even so, she said, it's not too late for the administration "to reconsider its actions, and for such talks to take place "for the good of our children and the territory."

Testing for Virgin Islands residents interested in careers in the U.S. Foreign Service — representing U.S. interests and responding to the needs of U.S. citizens abroad — will take place at the University of the Virgin Islands St. Thomas campus on Nov. 6.
Anyone interested in taking the 1999 Department of State Foreign Service Officer examination can obtain registration materials at the offices of Delegate to Congress Donna Christian-Christensen in Vitraco Park on St. Thomas or in Sunny Isle on St. Croix.
Completed application forms must be submitted by Oct. 8.
Applicants may also register on-line by that date at www.act.org/fswe/index_r.html. The Foreign Service written examination study guide web page can be accessed at www.act.org/fswe/index_s.html. For more information, call 774-4408 or 778-5900.

A big emphasis of the "Business After Hours" at Thursday's St. Thomas-St. John Chamber of Commerce mixer will be show business.
Tillett Gardens and Polli's Mexican Restaurant, located within the arts and crafts complex across from Four Winds Plaza, are co-hosting the event. Also keeping their doors open "after hours" in the garden will be Caribbean Herbals, Birds from Paradise, Cabinet Gallery and Design Showroom, Mermaid's Glass, the Kushiba Art Studio, the Ridvan Studio and the Tillett Art Gallery.
But the main focus will be on upcoming Arts Alive events in the garden — the 13th annual Classics in the Garden concerts, the 3rd annual Tillett Garden Series of non-classical shows, and the annual Thanksgiving weekend arts and crafts fair.
There'll be live music by Vance Hines on keyboards, recorded music by the artists booked for the concert series, finger food courtesy of Polli's, the chamber's usual two-dollar bar (operating this time out of Polli's) and door prizes. Hours are 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Admission's free and open to chamber members and friends, as well as others in the business community interested in joining the organization.

Kevin Costner is off and running again (the bases, that is), in For Love of the Game, his third at bat with the national pastime. Makes one think that if you film it, they will come.
The star of the delightful Bull Durham, and the moving drama, Field of Dreams, appears this time as Billy Chapel, aging Detroit Tigers ace pitcher, who is facing mid-life crises of sorts both on the diamond and off.
He has just taken a called third strike with journalist girlfriend, Jane Aubrey, played by Kelly Preston, who is about to fly off to greener playing fields in London. And as if that weren’t enough, the Tigers’owner is looking to sell the team, which would probably result in Chapel, the one time pride of Detroit, being traded to the San Francisco Giants. These are, indeed, big league problems.
The story unfolds as Chapel is mulling over this sorry state of affairs. He is pitching a big game against the imperious Yankees at home in Yankee Stadium, complete with all their awful fans. He is pitching his heart out, sore shoulder and all. As the innings roll by, and he rests in between, he takes a hard look at his career and his always rocky romance with Jane. Where did he go wrong? Suddenly he looks at the scoreboard – Good Lord, he is pitching not only a no-hitter, but a perfect game! Immortality, here I come. Maybe. Kostner is a baseball natural. He actually looks more like a big leaguer than some big leaguers, themselves.
Editor’s note: There have been only 14 perfect major league games thrown this century, and none by Detroit. The last two were thrown in 1998 and 1999 by, guess who? The Yankees David Wells, and then, David Cone.
The movie, directed by Sam Raimi, is rated PG and starts Thursday at Sunny Isle.

Gas prices have remained steady on St. Croix while rising on St. Thomas.
The five stations with the best buys on self service are: Five Corners, Glynn, Lionel, Remy's and Tony's all at 96 cents, according to the latest survey by the Department of Licensing and Consumer Affairs.
U & W, however beat them all on premium at $1.07 for self service.
The lease expensive full service is at Shuama at $1.17 for premium and $1.07 for regular.
This compares with $1.72 for premium self serve on St. Thomas and $1.62 for self serve regular.

Gasoline prices on St. Thomas have risen again. Domino has gone up 10 cents, Texaco seven cents and Esso has risen eight to nine cents.
The most recent survey by the Department of Licensing and Consumer Affairs reported that Fast Stop in Contant had the lowest self service prices at $1.72 for premium and $1.62 for regular.
American Yacht Harbor had the lowest full service prices – even lower than Fast Stop's self service prices – at $1.71 for premium and $1.61 for regular.

Following yet another round of teacher sickouts that canceled classes at four public schools on St. Croix Tuesday, Education Commissioner Ruby Simmonds has ordered that those who have called in sick be charged with leave without pay.
"There will be no sick, personal or annual leave granted to employees participating in job actions on any day which the Department of Education experienced a job action resulting in the closure of any school," Simmonds said in a release Tuesday afternoon. "Any and all absences shall be charged to leave without pay."
The commissioner’s stance comes on the heels of sickouts that preempted classes Tuesday at Claude O. Markoe, Alfredo Andrews and Charles H. Emanuel Elementary Schools and John H. Woodson Junior High School.
Those sickouts followed similar actions at eight other schools on St. Croix since last Thursday. In all, thousands of students have been affected by the actions of more than 500 teachers and support staff. The St. Croix sickouts followed a job action on St. Thomas a week ago when approximately 90 percent of the 700-plus teachers in the St. Thomas-St. John district called in sick.
Simmonds said her decision to dock teachers with leave without pay will apply to all the job actions that have taken place and any in the future.
The teachers are protesting inadequate conditions and lack of supplies in the territory’s public schools and the fact that they are owed millions of dollars in back pay since 1993.
Despite their complaints, Simmonds said she could not excuse the missed instruction days caused by the sickouts or the fact that canceled classes means many youngsters are left unsupervised most of the day.
But Cecil Benjamin, president of the St. Croix chapter of the American Federation of Teachers, said teachers are indeed "sickened and depressed" and therefore have every right to take their allotted sick and personal leave.
"Everybody has the right to their sick time. By law you use it as you wish, for personal reasons — period," Benjamin said, adding that the sickouts are not sanctioned by the AFT.
Simmonds, however, said that while the AFT hasn’t formally declared a strike, she said she believes the sickouts violate the union contracts between the government and Education employees. On Sept. 14, Simmonds said, she contacted AFT officials and asked them to direct members to end the sickouts. Instead, she said, the actions have intensified.
Meanwhile, Benjamin said that along with the issue of back pay, which stands at $100 million for teachers, the fact that Gov. Charles Turnbull found more than $400,000 to fund personnel positions and raises in the executive branch since January was enough to depress even the most hardened trade unionist.
"It’s sickening for (teachers) to see the governor pay a chauffeur $25,000 a year when they can’t pay a teacher with a four-year degree $25,000," Benjamin said. He said a first-year teacher’s salary is $23,000 annually.
In addition, he said, Turnbull’s proposed five-year economic recovery plan was "without a dime" for government employees.
"I have to wait five more years, on top of the six, to get my money. How do you expect (teachers) to feel?" Benjamin asked. "Some people are desperate. Some people are depressed."
Both Simmonds and Benjamin said the sickouts hurt students, but Benjamin said that so does low teacher morale and schools that are in need of repair and lacking in supplies.

Seventeen former government officials fired by the Turnbull administration appeared in U.S. District Court on Tuesday to seek reinstatement. In the first day of the proceedings, four of them were successful.
In their class-action lawsuit, the former employees claim political discrimination in the firings.
About a dozen of them took turns on the witness stand Tuesday, telling Judge Raymond Finch what duties they had held prior to dismissal and what part they had taken in the re-election campaign of former Gov. Roy L. Schneider.
After their testimony, the judge ordered four officials rehired under sealed agreements. One of the four was former Democratic Party state chair Marylyn Stapleton, who also was forced out of the party chairmanship, which was taken over by James O'Bryan Jr., now a special advisor to the governor.
Testimony was to continue on Wednesday in the cases of the other 13 plaintiffs.
The lawsuit contends that government workers who do not hold policymaking positions have the right to campaign for the candidate of their choice without fear of penalty.
"The only thing that ties it all together is that they are the entire upper level of the 'Re-elect Schneider Committee,'" said Attorney James Derr, representing the plaintiffs.
Derr said 10 dismissed government workers in the St. Croix District are taking similar legal action.
Representing the governor in court Tuesday were Government House legal counsel Rhys Hodge and Assistant Attorney General Karrie Drue.
On Wednesday, Turnbull and his chief of staff, Juel Molloy, are scheduled to testify. Derr said he expects to question them about the disloyalty dismissals and about new hires they've made since taking office in January.