Lead Stories

One of several appeals made on Saturday.
August 23, 2026 by Janet Silvera

‘We need help’ - Cooper’s Pen residents return to the streets, plead for relocation as demolition threat hangs over community

WESTERN BUREAU: “Where are you, Mr Prime Minister? Where are you? We need help.” It was the anguished cry from Cooper’s Pen, on Saturday morning as residents, some already homeless and others fearful…
August 23, 2026

How to help your kids make friends at a new school

For students starting at a new school, the first day holds many questions: Will they see any familiar faces? Who will they sit with at lunch? Who will they play with at recess? “I’m this much…
News
August 22, 2026 by Ruddy Mathison

PNP bets on democratic socialism - Golding embraces Manley’s 1970s philosophy, vows to build on former PM’s legacy

People’s National Party (PNP) President Mark Golding has embraced democratic socialism, the political philosophy championed by former PNP leader and Prime Minister Michael Manley in the 1970s,…
Regional Director Dr Michelle Pinnock.
August 22, 2026 by Janet Silvera

In the classroom, six days a week…Region Four’s 36 volunteer educators rally students after Melissa – and the results are in

WESTERN BUREAU: They started with mathematics. Then students wanted Spanish, English, science, information technology and social studies. Soon, four weekdays were not enough. “Miss, we’re ready,” they…
Immediate Past President Mark Malabver passes the baton to La Sonja Harrison, the newly installed president of the Jamaica Teachers’ Association, during the investiture ceremony at the association’s 62nd Annual Conference at the Ocean Coral Spring Hote
August 22, 2026 by Christopher Thomas

Returning JTA president raises $18-billion school repair doubt

WESTERN BUREAU: La Sonja Harrison, the newly reinstalled president of the Jamaica Teachers’ Association (JTA), wants the Ministry of Education, Skills, Youth, and Information to say whether the $18…
Helene Coley Nicholson addresses the Jamaica Teachers’ Association delegation during her keynote address at the association’s 62nd Annual Conference at Ocean Coral Spring in Trelawny.
August 22, 2026

Coley Nicholson: Focus on physical schooling over AI

WESTERN BUREAU: Attorney-at-law Helene Coley Nicholson, president of Lawyers’ Christian Fellowship Jamaica, is encouraging educators to prioritise interpersonal interaction with students to develop…
Medical and healthcare practitioners listen keenly to data on mental health during the Western Regional Health Authority’s Family Health Review, held at the Burchell Baptist Church Hall in Montego Bay on August 20.
August 22, 2026 by Albert Ferguson

Stigma blocking children from mental-health care

WESTERN BUREAU: Nurse practitioner Tackaya Brown-Lawrence, who heads the St James Child and Adolescent Wellness Centre, says mental-health stigma remains a major barrier preventing children and…
Head of the JPS Foundation Sophia Lewis (left) in conversation with Paul Thomas Watson, one of the Foundation’s six Power Up East-West Power Grant recipients at a recent awards ceremony at The Jamaica Pegasus hotel in New Kingston. Watson was awarded a s
August 22, 2026

Built For success - Aspiring civil and medical engineer among JPS Foundation scholars

Civil engineering dreams for Paul Thomas Watson were moulded as a teenage labourer on construction sites, working alongside his father. Now, days away from beginning his degree at the University of…
American Airlines passenger planes are parked at Miami International Airport in Miami, Florida, on July 17, 2015.
August 21, 2026 by Janet Silvera

FLIGHT SQUEEZE - Ja-Florida fares soar past US$3,000 as travellers battle for scarce seats

WESTERN BUREAU: Travellers trying to get between Jamaica and Florida in the United States are facing airfares exceeding US$3,000, sold-out flights, and limited alternatives as a severe summer squeeze…