ST. CROIX - A Senate committee unanimously approved amendments to the V.I. Sexual Offender Registration and Community Protection Act of 1997 during a hearing Wednesday after testimony supporting the bill painted it as being outdated and drawing unwanted attention.
The bill will be heard next in the Senate's Rules and Judiciary Committee.
"There have been no significant enhancements to the Virgin Islands law since its passage in 1997," said V.I. Attorney General Vincent Frazer. "Moreover, we believe that because the law is so archaic, many sex offenders on the United States mainland have been using the Virgin Islands as a safe haven."
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Fitch Ratings, a global credit ratings firm, will issue a comprehensive review in February of the territory's already-strained economy, analyzing the HOVENSA closure.
Fitch Senior Director Marcy Block said the broad-reaching review will consider all financial indicators affected by the territory's largest private employer shutting down.
"It's hard to be specific at this point," Block said, referring to what the review will entail. "There's a lot of concern."
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ST. THOMAS - The Schneider Hospital board's first 2012 meeting Wednesday included preliminary discussions about how the medical center will cope in the territory's dismal economic climate, but the board took few actions.
The board members discussed more aggressively pursuing available grant funding and asking the V.I. Health Department to rally on Schneider's behalf.
After hearing of last year's Schneider Hospital Gala's earnings - $78,000 - board chairman Cornel Williams asked the board to consider a "broader discussion" of possibly creating a Schneider foundation to generate more fundraising opportunities.
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ST. CROIX - A primary incentive to change the local sexual offender-registration law was the federal funding tied to the passage of the bill.
According to testifiers, the territory already has lost out on $92,000 in federal law enforcement funding this year and stands to lose a similar amount for each year that the territory is not in compliance with the mandates required by the federal Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act of 2006. However, the Virgin Islands is not the only state that was noncompliant as of the July 2011 deadline.
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ST. THOMAS - The 2011 Kids Count report released Wednesday details the stark realities facing the territory's young people.
- One in four children live in poverty.
- Child abuse and neglect is on the rise.
- Juvenile violent crime arrests are more than double the national average.
- Nineteen percent of 16- to 19-year-olds are not in school and not working.
- More than half of students in public middle and high schools perform below grade level in reading and math.
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Police on St. John are investigating break-ins at the Caneel Bay apartments, in Estate Enighed and at the Sirenusa Condos.
A break-in was reported Saturday at a Caneel Bay apartment Saturday. The resident who reported the break-in told police he left the apartment at 10:45 a.m. and returned about 9:30 p.m., when he realized his 50-inch TV and laptop were missing, police said.
Police responded to a break-in reported Jan. 14 at Sirenusa Condos, where a unit was plundered, but nothing was taken.
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