The 4th annual Women's Conference coordinated through the office of Sen. Lorraine Berry will take place Oct. 9 on St. Thomas at the Wyndham Sugar Bay Resort. Its theme is "Embattled Families: Saving Our Children from Abuse, Violence, Drugs and Alienation."
Public housing community residents should pre-register with their council presidents. Guidance counselors should sign up with Irene Williams in the Education Department. All others wishing to attend should pre-register through Berry's office. Call 774-2696 to learn more.

The 4th annual Women's Conference coordinated through the office of Sen. Lorraine Berry will take place Oct. 9 on St. Thomas at the Wyndham Sugar Bay Resort. Its theme is "Embattled Families: Saving Our Children from Abuse, Violence, Drugs and Alienation."
Berry is especially encouraging public housing community residents to plan to attend the conference. Housing council presidents are handling pre-registration for the residents of their respective communities, she said in a release Monday.
She identified the council presidents: Estate Bovoni, Judith Dawson. Estate Donoe, Carmen Donovan. Estate Knolls, Sharon Isaac. Estate Tutu, Marleen Francis. Kirwan Terrace, Joyce Faulkner. Oswald Harris Court, Jean George. Paul M. Pearson Gardens, Evelyn Webster.
Guidance counselors wishing to register should contact Irene Williams in the Education Department, the release stated.
All other persons wishing to register for the conference should contact her office, Berry said. The telephone number is 774-2696.

Bruce Willis steps our of his macho attire and into a somber suit to portray Malcolm Crowe, a renowned Philadelphia child psychologist currently suffering a career slump in The Sixth Sense. He is recovering from being shot by a psychotic ex-patient, (and, apparently, he doesn't react in his "Die Hard" mode).
Haunted by a "sixth sense" is eight year old Cole Sear, brilliantly played by Haley Joel Osment, who sees ghosts everywhere. These ghosts are not of the friendly Casper variety, but threatening, sickening critters. The disturbed Sear, son of a struggling single mother, is ridiculed by his classmates and teachers and considered a freak
Dr. Crowe eventually discovers the child's secret – he can't even close the door at night to keep the bogeyman out. This brooding and sinister trip through the child's psyche winds up with the year's "most inventive cinematic twist" according to one reviewer. And, if you remember The Usual Suspects, the ending of Sixth Sense would have Keyser Soze clapping in delight.
The movie has also been described by one viewer as being for "someone who understand what real love is."
The film is written and directed by M. Night Shyamain and is rated PG for "intense thematic material and violent images." 'The Sixth Sense' is playing at Sunny Isles Theaters.

Described as everything from "Sharks for Dummies"to "the summer's blockbuster action flick," Deep Blue Sea apparently has something for everyone, or anyone with a hankering for a good scare.
Samuel Jackson plays a financial backer who supports the study of a scientist, played by Saffron Burrows, to study shark DNA in an underwater lab (the same lab where Titantic was filmed). When money is running tight, Jackson threatens to close down the project. In as effort to stave off the demise of her experiments, Bullock invites Jackson to come see the "progress" in her shark studies which, apparently, have been brutal, even for sharks.
Well, guess what? The sharks bite back. Such is the stuff that summer movies are made of.
Directed by Renny Harlin, the film is rated R for "graphic shark attacks." 'Deep Blue Sea' is playing at Sunny Isles Theaters.

Described by some sources as "the Exorcist girl grows up," this latest in the religious horror genre stars Patricia Arquette as an atheist who suddenly starts to have religious visions and to exhibit mysterious crucifixion scars (the stigmata).
When word of these would-be miracles reaches the Vatican, a young priest
played by Gabriel Byrne is dispatched to investigate the claims. Well, he finds not only the supernatural phenonomena visiting the young unbeliever, but a plot against her life as well.
This seems to be another attempt to rival the success of "The Exorcist," but is described as "good summer fun." Ah, if only winter would arrive.
The film is directed by Rupert Wainwright, who brought us "Blank Check"
("Blank Check"?) and is rated R. 'Stigmata' is playing at Sunny Isles Theaters.

Conrad Francois Jr., executive director of the V.I. Housing Authority, told the Senate Finance Committee Monday that some of the most defenseless members of society are suffering under the government's current fiscal policies.
As budget hearings continued, representatives of the Department of Housing, Parks and Recreation, the Magens Bay Authority, the V.I. Horse Racing Commission and the V.I. Carnival Committee took their turns defending their FY 2000 budgets.
While some agencies, like the Carnival Committee, have been slated for almost total budget cuts in the coming year, others like the V.I. Housing Authority say they have yet to receive their government allotments for FY 1999, which ends Sept. 30.
Francois said most of his operating funds come from the federal government, allowing him to proceed with hurricane-mitigation projects at selected housing communities.
But the Housing Authority also has responsibility for management of the territory's homes for the aged. The missing local funds, said Francois, are earmarked for care of the aged and shut-ins, some living in public housing.
"As of this date we have not received one dollar of our appropriation for our current fiscal year," he said. "We have made several inquiries with the Office of Management and Budget and the Department of Finance and have received no satisfactory response. It is unconscionable in a community whose only low-income housing is 100 percent federally subsidized to say that it cannot find the means to take care of its elderly."
Still, the Housing Authority director pledged to adhere to Government House's dictate for budget cuts, announcing plans to cut back on nursing shifts at senior homes among other cost-savings measures.
Francois also said funds he requests from the V.I. government pay for programs and services not subsidized by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
The V.I. Housing Authority is currently operating with a $3.2 million deficit, which Francois said means it cannot meet financial obligations; among them payments to the V.I. Water and Power Authority.
Committee members raised the prospect of consolidation of a number of housing and housing-related agencies as a contribution toward government budget cuts.
Several lawmakers expressed displeasure over Francois' reports of inadequate funding and treatment of public housing's vulnerable tenants.
"I believe in two things – a society is judged by how we treat our elderly and how we treat our young, and we are failing miserably on both ends," said Sen. Gregory Bennerson.
As for Carnival, the Finance Committee finds itself in the business of making unpopular decisions. Committee members have yet to decide how to impose budget cuts for the V.I. Carnival celebrations on St. Thomas, St. Croix and St. John.
Officials of the Turnbull administration have recommended elimination of government subsidies for the annual cultural celebrations. Officials of the Carnival Committee discussed the prospect earlier this year.
The head of the committee, Kenneth Blake, warned lawmakers that thankless attitudes and misplaced priorities might produce an unexpected loss of revenues brought in by this lavish annual event.
Blake, expressing frustration, said the V.I. community has never fully appreciated the contributions of the fete to the local economy nor acknowledged the hard work of a core of volunteers who would be paid to the tune of $1.4 million if they were organizing carnivals on other islands.
"The members of the Carnival Committee of all three festivals are volunteers. Why can't we understand that?" asked Blake. "People volunteer their time and still the government expects more from the Carnival Committee.
"All these three committees need to do is go home. There would be no festival. The government would be out millions of dollars, and I think it's coming to that point where members are getting annoyed over the constant bickering, the constant bashing."
Blake pointed to figures published by the Bureau of Internal Revenue showing peaks in revenue during the months when V.I. Carnival, the St. John Fourth of July Festival and the Crucian Christmas Celebration take place.
Yet other government officials, such as acting Tourism Commissioner Michael Bornn, have said that Carnival has grown over the years to an entertainment product that is ready and should be financially self-sufficient.
The FY 2000 budget hearings are now at the start of their fourth week, having endured three false starts, rescheduled hearings to accommodate a public demonstration and one agency that failed to appear at its scheduled time.
Monday evening members of the V.I. Hospitality Institute were summoned before the committee. Committee chair Lorraine Berry ordered them to appear under subpoena after they failed to appear on Sept. 3.
As she plods towards completion of her appointed task of approving the governor's spending plan, Berry drove her team of lawmakers through the afternoon session, hearing from Attorney General Iver Stridiron and the V.I. Department of Justice.
The AG told the committee the plan to return some 70 prisoners from stateside jails is still on schedule for later this year.
Those transfers were made in 1997 as part of a court-ordered mandate to relieve overcrowding at the St. Thomas Bureau of Correction and the Golden Grove Correctional Facility on St. Croix.
Stridiron also said that hiring outside attorneys on a per-case basis was improving the flow of casework through the department and costing less than hiring assistant attorneys general.
Sen. Roosevelt David took Stridiron to task on the touchy subject of overtime, noting that at the V.I. Bureau of Corrections, which operates under Stridiron's direction, overtime costs were reaching astronomical proportions.
Stridiron responded that overtime costs for Corrections personnel had actually dropped. Citing a report, he said expenditures were down from a FY 1996 high of $1.5 million to $509,000 for FY '99 through May.
"This amount is still not acceptable to the department and we will improve on it during Fiscal Year 2000. When we return to this table and these chambers, you should be able to pin me to the curb on whether we have been able to reduce the overtime below that $509,000, and we should."
Hearings continue Tuesday, with the Virgin Islands Police Department, Narcotics Strike Force, Law Enforcement Planning Commission, Government Employees Retirement System and the office of the Lieutenant Governor scheduled to present their FY 2000 budgets.

Saying that maybe he's in the wrong profession, Virgin Islands Inspector General Steven vanBeverhoudt told the Senate Finance Committee Monday night that with his current staffing, it is impossible for him to cover all the requests he gets for audits.
In one audit of the Public Works Department, vanBeverhoudt discovered Public Works had spent $6 million for roadside cleanup over two years — with $5 million spent on St. Thomas alone, causing the IG to remark, "That is $6 million to cut bush. Maybe I'm in the wrong profession."
VanBeverhoudt met the governor's 15 percent mandated budget cut, leaving him with a budget for Fiscal Year 2000 of $668,000. This represents "a point 2 percent share" of the government's $430 million budget, he said. It also leaves him with an unprecedented low of 13 staff members.
Sen. George Goodwin asked, "With all the malfeasance (uncovered by vanBeverhoudt's audits) is the attorney general pursuing cases?"
VanBeverhoudt said he was working with the white collar unit of the AG's office — a unit that is also underfunded. But "we're not getting the speed of attention I would really like."
"There's a lot of money out on the street and I don't feel we're doing enough to collect it," he added.
VanBeverhoudt did not disagree when Sen. Gregory Bennerson said, "We won't change some of our habits until people are held responsible for their actions."
Instead, the inspector general reminded senators of his recommendations to the recently passed Financial Accountability Act that an investigative arm of the IG's office be created.
But the investigative arm — a normal part of most IG offices elsewhere, according to vanBeverhoudt — was taken out of the bill, he said.
When asked if his recommendations over the 10 years he's been the IG have been implemented, he said the majority had not been.
Sen. David Jones remarked that the approximately $7 million spent for the audits over those 10 years could have saved the V.I. government a billion dollars or more.
VanBeverhoudt said he was trying to address the issue with the current administration.
"I don't have the power to make anyone do anything," he said. But he hopes the governor will implement a recommendation he made that would mandate all departments to make quarterly reports on progress being made on the IG's recommendations.
As far as prosecution is concerned, vanBeverhoudt said it's up to the attorney general to decide what cases to prosecute.

Conrad Francois Jr., executive director of the V.I. Housing Authority, told the Senate Finance Committee Monday that some of the most defenseless members of society are suffering under the government's current fiscal policies.
As budget hearings continued, representatives of the Department of Housing, Parks and Recreation, the Magens Bay Authority, the V.I. Horse Racing Commission and the V.I. Carnival Committee took their turns defending their FY 2000 budgets.
While some agencies, like the Carnival Committee, have been slated for almost total budget cuts in the coming year, others like the V.I. Housing Authority say they have yet to receive their government allotments for FY 1999, which ends Sept. 30.
Francois said most of his operating funds come from the federal government, allowing him to proceed with hurricane-mitigation projects at selected housing communities.
But the Housing Authority also has responsibility for management of the territory's homes for the aged. The missing local funds, said Francois, are earmarked for care of the aged and shut-ins, some living in public housing.
"As of this date we have not received one dollar of our appropriation for our current fiscal year," he said. "We have made several inquiries with the Office of Management and Budget and the Department of Finance and have received no satisfactory response. It is unconscionable in a community whose only low-income housing is 100 percent federally subsidized to say that it cannot find the means to take care of its elderly."
Still, the Housing Authority director pledged to adhere to Government House's dictate for budget cuts, announcing plans to cut back on nursing shifts at senior homes among other cost-savings measures.
Francois also said funds he requests from the V.I. government pay for programs and services not subsidized by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
The V.I. Housing Authority is currently operating with a $3.2 million deficit, which Francois said is resulting in the inability to meet financial obligations, among them, utility payments to the V.I. Water and Power Authority
Committee members raised the prospect of consolidation of a number of housing and housing-related agencies as a contribution toward government budget cuts.
Several lawmakers expressed displeasure over Francois' reports of inadequate funding and treatment of public housing's vulnerable tenants.
"I believe in two things – a society is judged by how we treat our elderly and how we treat our young, and we are failing miserably on both ends," said Sen. Gregory Bennerson.
As for Carnival, the Finance Committee finds itself in the business of making unpopular decisions. Committee members have yet to decide how it will impose budget cuts for the V.I. Carnival celebrations on St. Thomas, St. Croix and St. John.
Officials of the Turnbull administration have recommended elimination of government subsidies for the annual cultural celebrations, a subject that has been raised among officials of the Carnival Committee earlier this year.
The head of the V.I. Carnival Committee, Kenneth Blake, warned lawmakers that thankless attitudes and misplaced priorities might produce an unexpected loss of revenues brought in by this lavish annual event.
Blake, expressing frustration, said V.I. society has never come to fully appreciate the contributions of the fete to the local economy and has never acknowledged the hard work of a core of volunteers who would be paid to the tune of $1.4 million if they were organizing carnivals on other islands.
"The members of the Carnival Committee of all three festivals are volunteers. Why can't we understand that?" asked Blake. "People volunteer their time and still the government expects more from the Carnival Committee.
"All these three committees need to do is go home. There would be no festival. The government would be out millions of dollars and I think it's coming to that point where members are getting annoyed over the constant bickering, the constant bashing."
Blake pointed to figures published by the Bureau of Internal Revenue showing peaks in revenue during the months when V.I. Carnival, the St. John Fourth of July Festival and the Crucian Christmas Celebration take place. Yet other government officials, such as acting Tourism Commissioner Michael Bornn, have said that Carnival has through the years grown to a scale and developed an entertainment product that is ready and should be financially self-sufficient.
The FY 2000 budget hearings are now at the start of their fourth week, having endured three false starts, rescheduled hearings to accommodate a public demonstration and one agency that failed to appear at its scheduled time.
Monday evening, members of the V.I. Hospitality Institute were summoned before the committee after committee chair Lorraine Berry ordered them to appear under subpoena because they failed to appear on Sept. 3.
But as she plods towards completion of her appointed task of approving the governor's spending plan, Berry drove her team of lawmakers through the afternoon session, hearing from Attorney General Iver Stridiron and the V.I. Department of Justice.
The AG told the committee the plan to return some 70 prisoners from stateside jails is still on schedule for later this year.
Those transfers were made in 1997 as part of a court-ordered mandate to relieve overcrowding at the St. Thomas Bureau of Correction and the Golden Grove Correctional Facility on St. Croix.
Stridiron also said the contracting of outside attorneys was improving the flow of casework through the department at a lower cost to the agency than hiring the equivalent number of assistant attorneys general.
But Sen. Roosevelt David took Stridiron to task on the touchy subject of overtime, noting that at the V.I. Bureau of Corrections, which operates under his direction, overtime costs were reaching astronomical proportions.
Stridiron responded by saying overtime costs for Corrections personnel had actually dropped, citing a report that said expenditures were down from their FY 1996 high of $1.5 million to $509,000 for FY '99 through May.
"This amount is still not acceptable to the department and we will improve on it during Fiscal Year 2000. When we return to this table and these chambers, you should be able to pin me to the curb on whether we have been able to reduce the overtime below that $509,000, and we should."
Hearings continue Tuesday with the Virgin Islands Police Department, Narcotics Strike Force, Law Enforcement Planning Commission, Government Employees Retirement System and the office of the Lieutenant Governor scheduled to present their FY 2000 budgets.

St. Croix Educational Complex students went to school on Monday but it wasn’t for classes, it was to protest.
The high school students, supported by a few teachers, were protesting, among other things, the lack of school nurses, trained campus monitors and security, the need for cleaner facilities, and dress code issues. The issue of security was one of the main reasons for the protest, following an altercation between a student and an adult monitor last week.
"We want to be heard by the public and the administration," said one student leader Monday morning. "We know what we want and what we need. We can’t learn in a school that’s not properly protected."
Educational Complex Principal Kurt Vialet met with student leaders on Friday to discuss their complaints, two of which he agreed with, he said: the nurse shortage and the need for more training for campus monitors.
Vialet said monitors have undergone training to deal with aggressive behavior. But that did not apparently help avert last week's clash between a male student and a monitor. The matter is being investigated by Public Safety, he said.
"We share their (students’) concern of students being hurt on campus," Vialet said. "I apologize to all parties."
Educational Complex teacher Terrence Nelson supports the students. He said the monitor who was involved in the altercation, George Armstrong, should be fired.
"Mr. Armstrong is a menace to this school," Nelson said. "He’s got to go."
Nelson, who has taught at the school since it opened four years ago, didn’t mince words when it came to his boss, Vialet.
"This didn’t just happen today or last week," he said. "Vialet’s attitude dealing with the children is ridiculous. This is not gang territory. It’s a place of learning."
As for the nursing issue, Education Department officials have said that until two nursing positions can be filled, the registered nurses who teach in the school’s nursing program will assist in emergency situations. Low pay is the reason cited for not filling the positions, which require a registered nurse.
Students also complained that after the school’s short-staffed custodial crew cleans restrooms, they are often locked for a period of time. Vialet said that was because some students then go in and paint the walls with graffiti and stick wet paper towels on the ceilings.
Vialet conceded there is a shortage of custodians, but said students had to do their part in keeping the campus clean.
Sen. Norman Jn Baptiste, chairman of the Senate’s Education Committee, said a meeting between students, Education Department superintendents, school administrators, parents and teachers will be held later this week.
"I hope such a meeting will allow us to put our heads together . . . to find a resolution," he said.
Vialet, meanwhile, was to meet with the parents of students Monday evening to discuss the protest. He also said he will tell parents they should urge their kids to attend classes on Tuesday.
"I encourage parents to talk to their children," he said. "We lost an entire day of instructional time. It’s time to move on."

Private-sector development, which has stagnated for 10 years, will be the key to turning the Virgin Islands economy around, according to John P. de Jongh Jr., chairman of the Governor's Fiscal Recovery Task Force.
De Jongh told the monthly meeting of the League of Women Voters on Monday that he would not support a federal control board, but rather sees privatization as the major key to solving the government's ongoing deficit problems. The Water and Power Authority, Vitran, the motor pool and solid waste are a few of the areas ripe for privatization, he said.
He also said the government needs to stop subsidizing revenue-generating government agencies.
"Since 1994 general fund revenues have not covered general fund expenditures," deJongh said. In fact the general fund covers only about 67 percent to 70 percent of the expenses month to month.
The 1998 working deficit is $115 million and if things continue at the current rate will reach $216 million for fiscal year 1999.
For comparison de Jongh said that when the city of Miami had a $65 million deficit, there was virtual chaos.
"The government can't afford to think within a one-year plan," de Jongh said.
Philadelphia, where de Jongh worked on strategic planning, and Washington are two cities that he said have benefited from a five-year plan.
When Philadelphia was facing a payless payday, city officials agressively put a privatization plan into place.
The five-year V.I. plan is being designed to have built-in accountability, he said. It will also have an implementation plan — the most important part, according to de Jongh.
De Jongh said he would also favor a real merit system in government.
But it will take the consensus of all the stakeholders to make anything happen.
That is why this task force includes members of all the segments of the community: the executive branch of government, the Legislature, the private sector and labor.
He also pointed out that every year 1,200 students graduate from local high schools. But there are only 400-500 private-sector jobs — with no growth.
Retired educator and League member Ruth Thomas said it was time for people to hear the message that government can't continue to be everybody's mother and father. "They have to be weaned," she said.
Thomas said her generation knew they would have to go away after high school, and people never expected to have the government be their employer.
De Jongh said people here would not be hurt by privatization.
He also said he did not favor tax increases or the proposed cruise-ship head tax.
"It is an expenditure-driven problem," he said. "I don't believe we should raise taxes without reducing expenditures."
The task force is not designed to take care of the government's debt — only to balance revenues and expenditures. De Jongh said a very important part of that will be the forgiveness of the Federal Emergency Management Agency disaster loans from Marilyn and Bertha.
However, de Jongh said, "Pure debt is not something that hurts us. We need to get the general fund in balance by growing the private sector."