Oct. 24, 2001 — St. Croix police have identified suspects in a brazen ambush attempt Sunday on the car driven by the sister of the lieutenant governor.
Barbara James Petersen, sister of Lt. Gov. Gerard Luz James II, was driving on Melvin Evans Highway at about 8 p.m. Sunday with her daughter and two of her friends following a volleyball game at Good Hope School when two cars boxed her in near Paradise, St. Croix Deputy Police Chief Novelle Francis said. Two shots were fired, striking Petersen’s car.
The car went off the road near the Golden Grove intersection and hit an embankment, Francis said. Neither Petersen nor her passengers were hit by the shots or seriously injured in the crash.
On Tuesday, Francis said police had identified a suspect and an arrest was imminent. He said the ambush was apparently spurred by an earlier altercation between the suspects and one of the passengers in Petersen’s car.
Those in the attackers' car who did not do the actual shooting could be charged with a crime for participating in the ambush, Francis said.

Oct. 24, 2001 — At the behest of Gov. Charles W. Turnbull, the Water and Power Authority has postponed a special meeting set for Wednesday to decide if the utility will agree to purchase water and power for the next 30 years from the administration’s proposed waste-to-energy gasification plant.
WAPA and Caribe Waste Technologies, the company that would construct the $180 million facility for the government, returned to the negotiation table last week to rework a contract for the utility to purchase water and power from the proposed plant. A contract approved by the WAPA board, which was somewhat leery of the proposal last week, is crucial if the project is to go forward.
Carol Burke, board chair, said the board agreed to Turnbull’s request Tuesday to delay a vote until next month.
"The governor requested we don’t vote on this matter and we acquiesced," she said, adding that she had promised to make a courtesy call to Turnbull before Wednesday’s scheduled meeting. "The outstanding issues remain outstanding," she added.
The project, Burke said, is "important to him and his administration and the territory."
WAPA and CWT, the company leading a group of firms proposing to finance, build, own and operate the waste-to-energy gasification plant, have been in negotiations since June trying to work out a contract for WAPA to purchase power and water that will be produced by the gasification plant. The plant is being billed by the administration and CWT as the solution to the territory’s long-standing solid-waste problems.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has ordered the local government to bring the dumps on St. Thomas and St. Croix into federal compliance, and the Federal Aviation Administration has ordered the territory to close the St. Croix dump by the end of 2002 because birds that feed off of it and smoke from frequent garbage fires pose danger to aircraft at the nearby Henry E. Rohlsen Airport.
The Turnbull administration selected CWT earlier this year to construct and oversee the operation of the gasification plant, but the agreement is contingent on WAPA agreeing to buy electricity and water — something the utility's management has said it doesn't need. WAPA consultants have meanwhile questioned the commercial reliability of CWT’s technology.
WAPA is a major part of the picture because its purchase of the water and power could reduce the government’s costs by about $11 million to $12 million a year over the 30-year contract, according to CWT's president, Mark Augenblick. That would leave the government with payments of about $25 million a year, which Augenblick has said could likely be funded by federal grants and a solid waste disposal user fee.
The proposed $180 million price tag for the gasification plant would make it the V.I. government’s single most expensive project ever undertaken.
Under CWT’s proposal, garbage from St. John and St. Thomas would be barged to a single waste-to-energy plant on St. Croix, which could be built adjacent to the Gordon Finch Molasses Pier or on the St. Croix Alumina property. The plant would allow the government to close the Bovoni and Anguilla landfills on St. Thomas and St. Croix, respectively.

Oct. 24, 2001 — At the behest of Gov. Charles W. Turnbull, the Water and Power Authority has postponed a special meeting set for Wednesday to decide if the utility will agree to purchase water and power for the next 30 years from the administration’s proposed waste-to-energy gasification plant.
WAPA and Caribe Waste Technologies, the company that would construct the $180 million facility for the government, returned to the negotiation table last week to rework a contract for the utility to purchase water and power from the proposed plant. A contract approved by the WAPA board, which was somewhat leery of the proposal last week, is crucial if the project is to go forward.
Carol Burke, board chair, said the board agreed to Turnbull’s request Tuesday to delay a vote until next month.
"The governor requested we don’t vote on this matter and we acquiesced," she said, adding that she had promised to make a courtesy call to Turnbull before Wednesday’s scheduled meeting. "The outstanding issues remain outstanding," she added.
The project, Burke said, is "important to him and his administration and the territory."
WAPA and CWT, the company leading a group of firms proposing to finance, build, own and operate the waste-to-energy gasification plant, have been in negotiations since June trying to work out a contract for WAPA to purchase power and water that will be produced by the gasification plant. The plant is being billed by the administration and CWT as the solution to the territory’s long-standing solid-waste problems.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has ordered the local government to bring the dumps on St. Thomas and St. Croix into federal compliance, and the Federal Aviation Administration has ordered the territory to close the St. Croix dump by the end of 2002 because birds that feed off of it and smoke from frequent garbage fires pose danger to aircraft at the nearby Henry E. Rohlsen Airport.
The Turnbull administration selected CWT earlier this year to construct and oversee the operation of the gasification plant, but the agreement is contingent on WAPA agreeing to buy electricity and water — something the utility's management has said it doesn't need. WAPA consultants have meanwhile questioned the commercial reliability of CWT’s technology.
WAPA is a major part of the picture because its purchase of the water and power could reduce the government’s costs by about $11 million to $12 million a year over the 30-year contract, according to CWT's president, Mark Augenblick. That would leave the government with payments of about $25 million a year, which Augenblick has said could likely be funded by federal grants and a solid waste disposal user fee.
The proposed $180 million price tag for the gasification plant would make it the V.I. government’s single most expensive project ever undertaken.
Under CWT’s proposal, garbage from St. John and St. Thomas would be barged to a single waste-to-energy plant on St. Croix, which could be built adjacent to the Gordon Finch Molasses Pier or on the St. Croix Alumina property. The plant would allow the government to close the Bovoni and Anguilla landfills on St. Thomas and St. Croix, respectively.

Oct. 23, 2001 – A volleyball tournament featuring St. Thomas girls' varsity teams will be held at Antilles School courts on the weekend. Teams from Charlotte Amalie High School, All Saints Cathedral School, Sts. Peter and Paul School, Antilles School, and an all-star Antilles JV team will compete.
The public is invited. Food, drinks and t-shirts will be on sale during the tournament, which starts at 2 p.m. Friday and continues at 8 a.m. Saturday, according to a release from Antilles School.
The 10th Annual Ocean Spray Volleyball Tournament, sponsored by B&D Wholesale, distributors of Ocean Spray products, was originally scheduled with visiting teams from St. Croix and Puerto Rico. It has shaken down, however, to a competition among girls' teams from St. Thomas, said Antilles coach Dawn Wheatley. Eudora Kean School also dropped off the rosters.

Oct. 23, 2001 – The Firearms Bureau in St. Thomas will be closed Friday and Nov. 2, Sgt. Annette Raimer said in a V.I. Police Department release.
The closing is for the purpose of updating and processing records. The department regrets any inconveniences due to this revised schedule.
The public is also reminded that firearms license renewals can be made up to 90 days in advance of license expiration date.
Questions regard renewal, or care and safety of firearms and ammunition, can be addressed to Sgt. Anthenia Brown at 774-2211 ext. 4124 between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Oct. 23, 2001 – FBI and other federal agents raided the three Plaza Extra supermarkets and other places of business in the Virgin Islands on Tuesday morning as part of what authorities said was an investigation into illegal alien smuggling.
Agents of the FBI, Internal Revenue Service, Immigration and Naturalization Service, Customs, Drug Enforcement Administration, U.S. Marshals Service and the V.I. Police Department executed search warrants at the two Plaza Extra Supermarkets on St. Croix and the one on St. Thomas.
One of the principal Plaza Extra owners, Fathi Yusuf, a U.S. citizen who was born in Palestine, was inside the St. Thomas store speaking with investigators Tuesday morning.
Federal law-enforcement officials said there were other locations searched as well, but they did not disclose where those raids occurred.
The search warrants and all documents attached to them were being kept under seal to protect the integrity of the investigation, according to an announcement of the raids from the U.S. Attorney's Office on St. Thomas.
No arrests were made, and no charges have been filed in connection with the investigation, according to Acting U.S. Attorney David Atkinson. He did not say what the nature of the investigation was.
In a release, Atkinson urged the public not to draw any conclusions from the fact that the principal owners of Plaza Extra are Arab-Americans, and he noted that discrimination against anyone based on ethnicity or religion is a federal crime.
One of the other businesses federal officers visited was the Food Town Supermarket on St. Croix, also owned by Arab-Americans. There, a source said, authorities came in Tuesday afternoon, asked questions, and then left.
Also Tuesday afternoon, agents searched several convenience stores owned by Palestinian-born residents on St. Thomas, including the One Stop in Altona, the Esso station in Red Hook and the Lindbergh Bay Grocery across from Cyril E. King Airport.
Majdi Muhyieden, the owner of the St. Thomas One Stop and Red Hook Esso station as well as several other stores, said the agents searched the One Stop for about 45 minutes on Tuesday afternoon. He said the agents were pleasant and that he cooperated completely with them, but that he did not see a search warrant and felt that they were unfairly targeting Arab-owned stores.
"I think it's only against Arabs, and I don't think it's right," Muhyieden said. "I cooperated 100 percent, and they were nice, but it doesn't look good for our customers. It makes us suspect."
"They are executing routine search warrants," Hugh Mabe, assistant U.S. attorney, said Tuesday morning. He added that more information might be available later Tuesday. No arrests had been made Tuesday morning in connection with the raids.
The Plaza Extra supermarkets had been open a short time when the agents made the raids at about 8 a.m. Employees at the St. Thomas Plaza Extra store said the agents gathered the employees to photograph and interview them, then let them leave the store. The supermarket area in the Tutu Park Mall was blocked off by police throughout the morning as agents carried out small boxes said to contain evidence.
Last year Yusuf, 60, pleaded guilty to three counts of hiring three illegal immigrants from Palestine. That plea came in connection with an investigation in which several other St. Thomas businessmen with connections with the island's Arab community also pleaded guilty to charges that they tried to help the three men immigrate to the United States illegally.
The illegal immigrants, Ahmed Daas, Mohammed Alqadi and Suleiman Mohammed Jussef, were stopped at the airport in San Juan as they attempted to fly from St. Thomas to Florida in 1999, according to court records.
As part of Yusuf's plea bargain, he agreed to cooperate with future investigations and to make monthly reports of all of the employees at Plaza Extra, according to court papers. He was sentenced in September to one month of home confinement and a year of probation.
Muhyieden, a naturalized U.S. citizen who has lived in the United States since 1974 and on St. Thomas for about 10 years, said he has never been in any trouble with the law and has not been connected to any illegal immigration cases.
"There is no reason for them to be at my place, and I told them that," he said, adding that he signed a consent to search the store only after the agents had completed their work. Muhyieden said he and all of the other Arabs he knows completely condemn any terrorist attacks, and he told the agents he would call them if he heard anything suspicious.
Workers at several other Arab-owned convenience stores on St. Thomas — the Hometown Grocery in Anna's Retreat, Fort Mylner Grocery and Friendly Grocery in Dorothea — said no agents had been to their stores as of 4 p.m. Tuesday.
In the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the mainland, federal agents have cited illegal immigration to the U.S. Virgin Islands as a national security issue. They have not said whether any recent immigration investigations are connected to the nationwide search for people linked to terrorist activities.

Oct. 23, 2001 – Scientists of the Puerto Rico Seismic Network are taking a close look at the half-dozen minor earthquakes that occurred in the region Monday.
"We are studying the situation," geophysicist Victor Huerfano said Tuesday. The tremors ranged from 4.4 to 5 on the Richter Scale, which measures earthquake strength.
A total of 118 minor earthquakes have been recorded in the area since Oct. 16. However, Huerfano and John Minsch, a geophysicist at the National Earthquake information Center in Golden, Colo., both said there is no cause for alarm.
Minsch said earthquakes often occur in a series. His agency reported a total of five, a difference Huerfano said was due to the fact that the Puerto Rico Seismic Network has more stations in the area.
The earthquakes occurred at mid-day in the Sombrero Seismic Zone, located about 85 miles northwest of the U.S. Virgin Islands. While no one in the territory reported feeling the tremors, Huerfano said three were felt in Puerto Rico.

Oct. 23, 2001 – Scientists of the Puerto Rico Seismic Network are taking a close look at the half-dozen minor earthquakes that occurred in the region Monday.
"We are studying the situation," geophysicist Victor Huerfano said Tuesday. The tremors ranged from 4.4 to 5 on the Richter Scale, which measures earthquake strength.
A total of 118 minor earthquakes have been recorded in the area since Oct. 16. However, Huerfano and John Minsch, a geophysicist at the National Earthquake information Center in Golden, Colo., both said there is no cause for alarm.
Minsch said earthquakes often occur in a series. His agency reported a total of five, a difference Huerfano said was due to the fact that the Puerto Rico Seismic Network has more stations in the area.
The earthquakes occurred at mid-day in the Sombrero Seismic Zone, located about 85 miles northwest of the U.S. Virgin Islands. While no one in the territory reported feeling the tremors, Huerfano said three were felt in Puerto Rico.

Oct. 23, 2001 – Scientists of the Puerto Rico Seismic Network are taking a close look at the half-dozen minor earthquakes that occurred in the region Monday.
"We are studying the situation," geophysicist Victor Huerfano said Tuesday. The tremors ranged from 4.4 to 5 on the Richter Scale, which measures earthquake strength.
A total of 118 minor earthquakes have been recorded in the area since Oct. 16. However, Huerfano and John Minsch, a geophysicist at the National Earthquake information Center in Golden, Colo., both said there is no cause for alarm.
Minsch said earthquakes often occur in a series. His agency reported a total of five, a difference Huerfano said was due to the fact that the Puerto Rico Seismic Network has more stations in the area.
The earthquakes occurred at mid-day in the Sombrero Seismic Zone, located about 85 miles northwest of the U.S. Virgin Islands. While no one in the territory reported feeling the tremors, Huerfano said three were felt in Puerto Rico.

The Territorial Committee of the Democratic Party will hold a retreat from Friday, Nov. 2, to Sunday, Nov. 4, at the Divi Bay Hotel and Casino.
For more information contact the State Chair, Arturo Watlington at 774-9697.