The public is invited to attend mid-day devotions at 12 p.m. on Ash Wednesday, Feb. 17 at Nisky Moravian Church.
The theme is "Our Lamb Has Conquered."

Jus Action Carnival troupe will meet Friday, Feb. 19, at 7:30 p.m. at Percy's Bus Stop. Final measurements will be taken.
All members are urged to attend and be on time.
For information, call Stefan Jurgen at 777-8344.

The American Bar Association voted overwhelmingly at its midyear meeting in Los Angeles last week to endorse congressional action to grant Article III status to the District Court of the Virgin Islands.
This has been a long battle, according to attorney Adriane J. Dudley, who stood at the meeting and cited a Supreme Court ruling that provided precedent for the resolution.
Dudley has been working for several years as a member of the ABA's board of governors, and even before that, to get the resolution passed.
Dudley said she had a lot of help from Judge Stanley Brotman, chief District judge from New Jersey, who introduced the resolution.
The status, if approved by Congress, would grant District Court judges in the territory security of tenure and compensation, according to St. Thomas attorney Tom Bolt.
They might have to be appointed by the president, but once that happened it would be a lifetime appointment, Bolt said.
A bill to give judges here Article III status has been introduced by V.I. Delegate Donna M. Christian-Christensen. If Congress passes it, the District Court here "will be put in the same position as all other federal district courts," Bolt said.
One of Dudley's arguments is equity. Why, she asked, should District Court judges here be any less than full-fledged judges?
Chief District Judge Thomas K. Moore said that he and Judge Raymond L. Finch appreciated the efforts of all involved to get the ABA to endorse Article III status for the Virgin Islands court.
The ABA action in the Virgin Islands matter is important because the 400,000-member organization has a powerful voice in Washington and could influence congressional action on the pending legislation.
It is wonderful, Dudley said. It was a landslide vote.

A YMCA for St. Thomas is in the works.
A coordinator from the YMCA of America will be in St. Thomas this week to kick off the project.
Tom Massey, senior national field coordinating consultant for YMCA of America, said he will meet with local organizers to launch a local campaign for a Y in St. Thomas.
St. Thomas attorney Tom Bolt has taken the lead in getting the national organization to help start a YMCA here. Bolt is chairman of the organizing committee. He said other members of the committee have not been solidified, but mentioned Al Laborde and Joe Potter as potential members. Massey said the YMCA of America can provide a lot of assistance to the local community in getting a Y started.
We have a 400-page book on how to do it, he said.
They will also send a retired YMCA director to the island to help organize the local effort.
That person has already been identified. Frank Mark, retired director of the North Brook YMCA near Chicago, is prepared to come to St. Thomas to get the programs going.
Massey said it s a four-step process and it doesn't start with a building.
We want to use existing facilities at first," he said, and we don't want to replicate what's already being done.
The first step has already been taken – forming an organizing committee. The next step is to raise the necessary funds.
According to Bolt, that is about $300,000.
Massey said the third step will be programming, which involves hiring a staff member and gathering volunteers to run the programs.
Then a board of directors is formed.
There is no charge for the assistance given by the national organization.
That's what we do, Massey said.
There are 2,200 Y s across the country. The organization is 150 years old.
Among the things national Y can provide are insurance and a political policy arm.
The Y can also provide administrative assistance. Massey said there are a lot of small organizations out there that have been struggling to stay alive. If they become part of the Y, a lot of their problems will be solved.
But if they do this, Massey said, they cannot maintain autonomy. They would have to be absorbed into the YMCA, for both legal and philosophical reasons.
The YMCA has created its own insurance company.
"We got tired of not being able to get insurance, so we created our own company," Massey said. "The YMCA does everything from rock climbing to scuba diving and it's all covered."
As for philosophy, no kid gets turned away, ever. He said any child who wants to participate can. The Y also offers scholarships.
The most important thing is the community, according to Massey. All Ys are locally owned and operated.

I would just like to say something about compulsory driving insurance as I experienced it when I lived in Colorado.
When I lived there they required that everyone have insurance. Well…not everyone did. The reason? Because the insurance companies raised the rates sky high. I had never had a ticket and the rate per month was $115. Now, can you imagine a single other, going to college, trying to make ends meet paying $115/month (things there are much cheaper remember). When the choice came up between groceries or car insurance you can guess which one won.
I was stopped by police in routine checks 2 times, both times my insurance had lapsed. I was summoned to court with all kinds of other "law breakers". Shop lifters, drug users, and lots of people there who failed to have compulsory insurance!
I read recently in the Denver, Colorado paper that now they think 1/3 of the drivers don't have insurance. This law won't make people have insurance. However there was a proposal for a pay at the pump tax that would insure all drivers. It is still not a reality there.
I think an even better solution would to be to make the bus system here useable for locals. The drivers need to actually follow a posted schedule. More bus riding would relieve the congestion downtown. Think MASS TRANSIT!

Cindy Larason
former Denverite

Beal Aerospace, L.L.C. would like to take the opportunity to introduce ourselves to the U. S. Virgin Islands and respond to some of the issues raised in recent weeks concerning our plans involving St. Croix.
First, some background information is helpful in understanding who we are and what our business plan is. Beal Aerospace, L.L.C. is a U. S. Virgin Islands company set up to be a launch service provider in the commercial space industry. Beal Aerospace s parent company, Caribbean Space Technologies, L.L.C., is a U. S. Virgin Islands company established to build a high-tech office and assembly facility on St. Croix where rockets will be assembled that will carry commercial satellites to space. We are, essentially, in the space transportation business transporting cargo from earth to orbit, only we also build our own transportation vehicles (BA-Series Rockets) in order to establish ourselves as a low-cost leader of commercial space launches. You see, there is an ever increasing need for commercial satellites to be placed in space that relay voice, data, and video streams to any place on the globe, but the costs of placing those satellites in space has been extremely expensive to date. Thus, the need for a low-cost launch solution, which is our business plan. Beal Aerospace s launch vehicles (rockets) would be assembled on St. Croix using our proprietary three-stage BA-2 Rocket design pioneered by our research and development operations in Texas. The BA-2 Rocket stages assembled on St. Croix would be transported by barge to Sombrero Island, a remote island north of Anguilla, to be integrated into a complete flight-ready rocket and then launched from our launch facilities being constructed there to the desired orbits specified by our commercial customers. Among these customers are the telecommunication companies that own and operate satellite phone, paging, and other communication systems.
After an extensive evaluation, the U. S. Virgin Islands were selected for our rocket assembly operations because of their proximity to Sombrero Island and the excellent tax incentives available to beneficiaries under the Industrial Development Commission (IDC) Program. In fact, we plan to establish our worldwide headquarters on St. Croix, if we obtain the necessary approvals to carry out our aerospace operations. After an extensive search, a site was selected on St. Croix for building a campus-style corporate headquarters and assembly facility. The facility to be constructed on St. Croix is very similar to the research and development facility that is in Texas. It blends the best look and feel of the Caribbean with the 21st Century business that we are bringing to the U. S. Virgin Islands. These facilities are patterned after the high-tech office facilities that you would typically see in Silicon Valley, south of San Francisco, California. The specific site on St. Croix includes approximately 270 acres east of Great Pond Bay and west of Mt. Fancy located on the southeast shore of St. Croix. Only the property (approximately 60 acres) south of Southshore Road is being developed. This property is currently commercially zoned, thus, requiring only a minimal zoning change from W-1 to W-2 for our facilities. The balance of the 270 acres is zoned residential, and we are not developing that property, either commercially or residentially. We purchased both the commercial and residential parcels because they were both owned by the same owner who wanted to sell them together as part of one sale.
There have been suggestions that we should locate our facilities in the existing industrial sections located on the southwest end of St. Croix or separate our facilities into two facilities one for offices and one for assembly. The short answer is that the site we selected was the only available site on St. Croix that met the requirements we need for our business success. We also cannot split our facility into two pieces because they are inseparable, due to the high-tech nature of our business and the need to have all of our employees together in the same facility for assembly-line efficiency which is key to our business success. Besides, our high-tech office and assembly facility on St. Croix is to be our worldwide headquarters, and we need to be located in a different location from the more traditional manufacturing companies located in the industrial area on the southwest end of St. Croix. We are not an industrial company.
There have also been reports that our plans for St. Croix are not environmentally sensitive. This is absolutely false! It is in our own economic self-interest to be environmentally responsible. The BA-2 Rocket uses the most environmentally sensitive propellants of any rocket launched in the world today. And, the environmental impact from our assembly operations is far below every allowable local and federal EPA standard for solid waste streams and air quality. Equally important, the marine transport system we plan to use is designed to be environmentally sensitive, using shallow draft barges with low-impact propulsion, so as to preserve the environmental integrity of Great Pond Bay, including specifically, the reef system. Our plans do not involve dredging Great Pond Bay, as some have suggested. The current site has trash on it and has not been maintained. There is also severe erosion with a resulting negative impact on water quality due to undeveloped access to the beach by local traffic. We plan to improve and beautify the site it will be our corporate home. Our project plan is being developed with all of these factors in mind, and after meeting with government officials, community leaders, and local groups including those representing environmental organizations. Any suggestion that our St. Croix plans have been designed without local community input or environmental sensitivity is simply not true.
Let me be clear here. We absolutely support environmental standards that keep our environment healthy and clean. But, the environmental rush-to-judgement, without knowing all of the facts by a few in this case is unfair. The U. S. Virgin Islands rules that apply here require us to do an environmental impact study and present that to the appropriate officials for a final determination on the merits of our project. That is what we are doing completing the Environmental Assessment Report for submission to the Department of Planning and Natural Resources ( DPNR ). Shouldn t we be given the opportunity to complete our preliminary development plans, including the appropriate environmental safeguards that are part of our plans before final opinions are formed? We are not asking for any favors here only fairness. We are only asking for unbiased determinations based on all the environmental facts that pertain to our project. As a good corporate citizen, we are developing our project plans with environmental concerns in mind.
Our responsibility as a good corporate citizen is also evident by our commitment to give math and science scholarships to deserving U. S. Virgin Islands students for them to continue their education in these disciplines at the University, as well as our grants to local non-profit organizations. As for our employee base, we intend to find and offer employment to the best and brightest in the U. S. Virgin Islands. We are confident that our excellent wage and benefit packages will do just that. Make no mistake. Our primary goal is not to be the sole solution to the financial challenges currently facing the U. S. Virgin Islands. Admittedly, we are business people and not politicians. We certainly wish the new administration well in addressing these financial challenges and will lend our support. But, our goal is first, and foremost, to operate a successful business. In fact, the most important thing we can do for the U. S. Virgin Islands is to establish and operate a successful business. Beal Aerospace is exactly the type of high-tech, non-polluting business that the U. S. Virgin Islands should seek to attract. To be successful here, we need timely answers to our various approval applications from th
e government and we need the support and encouragement of the local community. As for our part, we pledge our commitment to operate a successful space transportation business and build world-class facilities here in St. Croix. We also commit to being environmentally responsible. Seeing is believing. So, come to Texas and see our operations there, if you want to see proof. If you do, I believe you will become convinced that sometime in the not too distant future, you can come to our corporate headquarters on St. Croix, and see Beal Aerospace at work as the most successful launch service provider in the space transportation industry.

R. Brad Oates

All of us in St. Thomas will have an opportunity this Saturday to see and hear one of the most outstanding musical talents of the '90s at the Reichhold Center for the Arts. My strong suggestion is, do not miss it.
Denyce Graves, one of the premier operatic singers of our time, is a mezzo-soprano whose talent and drive are capable of being bigger than Maria Callas. And she came to singing opera out of a genuine love for the genre, as well as having a gift for singing and acting.
When Graves was a year old, her minister father abandoned the family. Her mother, who supported the three children and herself by working in a laundry, worried about the Washington, D.C., neighborhood they lived in. In order to keep the children occupied and out of trouble, they devoted a lot of time to church activities.
Thursday night was choir rehearsal. And the Faith Bible Church of Southwest D.C. was fertile soil indeed for this young girl. Denyce was in her element and knew it.
At her audition for the Duke Ellington School as a theater major, she sang "You Light Up My Life," accompanied only by her boom box. It was suggested she try out as a voice major instead.
It was here, at Duke, that she found Eddie Jackson, director of the D.C. Youth Chorale. With Jackson's encouragement she soon developed the operatic talent that garnered her scholarship to Oberlin College.
She was 16, on her own and in a hurry. After an all-night bus ride from Washington to the Ohio campus, she walked into the Conservatory lounge and saw all the "weird kids like me. I looked around and thought, 'This is my home.' I was in an environment where I was appreciated and could flourish."
It was at Oberlin that she sang in her first opera, the world premiere of "Eros and Psyche."
From Oberlin her path led her to finish her schooling at the New England Conservatory in Boston.
One of her part-time jobs while there was as the night-shift telephone operator at the Omni Park House. She told an interviewer for the Boston Globe in 1998, "The Met tour was still coming to Boston, and one of my jobs was to make the wake-up calls. 'Good morning, Mr. Ramey, this is your 7 a.m. wake-up call.' It was all I could do to keep from adding, 'My name is Denyce Graves, and I'm an opera singer, too!'"
In addition to the job at the hotel, Graves also bagged groceries and worked at the church.
She won the Metropolitan Opera regional auditions in 1988 and told The New York Times that she had to win because she was three months behind in her rent and couldn't even pay for the rented dress she was wearing.
Since leaving Washington, D.C., Graves has continued to grow into her talent and her chosen profession. One of the most delightful aspects of her personality is that she does not take on the airs of a typical prima donna. Graves has a good sense of humor, will tell you her age if asked, and has a big, easy smile to share with the world. Her success has not come about because of some grand plan, but rather because she has followed her voice and her desire to sing.
In September 1997, I had the pleasure of seeing Ms. Graves as Carmen at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. I must agree with her critics who say that her Carmen is earthy, sexual and from the start, a portrayal of a woman in revolt.
Her performance was riveting, breathtaking, perfect. It made such an impression on me that I now have a picture of her in his role as the "wallpaper" for my computer screen.
And now I have the opportunity to see Ms. Graves at close range. She will be singing some opera arias to be sure. But, also, she will sing gospels and more contemporary songs.
I can guarantee you that I will be in the audience come Saturday night. I wonder if you will be the person sitting next to me.
The Denyce Graves performance, "A Night at the Opera," begins at 8 p.m. For tickets call the Reichhold Center box office at 693-1559.
Graves' concert is presented by the Birch Forum, in cooperation with the Reichhold Center. Co-sponsors are Banco Popular de Puerto Rico and Chase Manhattan Bank.

To see and hear Denyce Graves, go directly to her website www.denycegraves.com

If you haven't bought your tickets yet for Metropolitan Opera star Denyce Graves' performance Feb. 20 at Reichhold Center for the Arts, you'd better hurry. They're going fast.
Graves, as many Virgin Islanders know, is a superstar in the opera world. And with good reason.
The American mezzo-soprano has been acclaimed internationally for her portrayal of the title role in Bizet's "Carmen," and for her role of Dalila in Saint-Saens' "Samson et Dalila," where she sang opposite Placido Domingo in several performances last year at the Met in New York and the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.
The young diva has performed around the world, including a recent engagement at the Paris Opera Bastille with Domingo.
Nor is she a stranger to television. She got rave reviews for her 1997 Christmas special on PBS and BET called "Denyce Graves: A Cathedral Christmas," filmed at the National Cathedral in Washington, and has been featured on CBS's "60 Minutes."
"A Night at the Opera" at 8 p.m. Feb. 20 at Reichhold is sponsored by the Birch Forum and co-sponsored by Banco Popular de Puerto Rico and Chase Manhattan Bank. It will feature arias, classics and spirituals.
Tickets are $50, $25 and $5, which reflects the Birch Forum's commitment to ensuring that everyone can attend the outstanding performers it brings to St. Thomas.

To see and hear Denyce Graves, go directly to her website www.denycegraves.com

Banco Popular officials spent the weekend getting their new building on Veterans Drive in Altona ready to open for business Tuesday.
The building will house the bank's main branch and its regional headquarters. Banco Popular officially closed its former main branch on Veterans Drive in Charlotte Amalie at the close of business Friday.
The new building, complete with a two-floor parking garage, will have 10 teller stations, eight drive-through lanes, a night depository, two walk-up automatic teller machines and a drive-through automatic teller machine, according to the Daily News.
Banco Popular de Puerto Rico has other branches in Fort Mylner, Sugar Estate and Red Hook. The bank plans to replace its Charlotte Amalie waterfront branch with one in Hibiscus Alley, the Daily News story said.

After a grim mission rescuing rebel-held hostages from civil-war-torn Sierra Leone, British sailors from the HMS Norfolk will have six days to rest and enjoy themselves in St. Thomas. Many will have family members join them here.
It is a welcome respite for 185 crew members who were exposed to indescribable horrors on their mission off the coast of West Africa.
They were diverted to Sierra Leone from a mission near Puerto Rico to provide communications, transportation and logistics support to the rightfully elected government of Sierra Leone and to its people, according to Bruce Williams, captain of the HMS Norfolk.
Williams described to the V.I. Independent some of the horrors of the mission.
"When we arrived," he said, "we had to maneuver the ship around the bodies floating in the water."
On shore, Williams said, the rebels had destroyed everything in their path. He said they had a policy of gouging out the eyes and cutting off the arms of innocent civilians before killing them.
The HMS Norfolk, though a heavily armed warship, did not become involved in the conflict. Instead the ship protected critical supplies and assisted in the evacuation of the archbishop of Freetown, five Roman Catholic priests and two badly injured nuns from Mother Theresa's Sisters of Mercy. The nuns had been held hostage by the rebels for more than two months. They also rescued a British national who had been shot.
Sierra Leone has been torn by civil war for eight years. More than 10 percent of its population has fled to neighboring countries, according to a Jan. 31 New York Times report. Government authority has crumbled, and the citizenry is caught in the middle.
Nigeria sent a peacekeeping force known as Ecomog in June to restore Sierra Leone's president, Ahmad Tejan Kabbah, to power. Kabbah had been elected in what were considered fair elections, but had been run off by the rebels who claimed the government was monopolizing the country s diamond mines to support a small elite clique.
Sierra Leone is ranked by the United Nations as the poorest country in the world.
Despite Kabbah's return, there is reportedly no real national defense force, only the Kamajors, a group of men and boys who often wear mirrors on their chests, believing this will ward off bullets.
Even the Nigerian Ecomog group is expected to pull out by May. The United States gave Ecomog $3.9 million in 1998 for peacekeeping in Sierra Leone, but has cut that amount to $1.3 million for 1999.
One Western diplomat in the region told the New York Times, "It's a big mess and not one that will be easy to clean up."
Lt. Karen Hibberd, assistant public relations officer on the HMS Norfolk, had spent a day in Freetown. She told the V.I. Independent the devastation was everywhere, "so much so that you couldn't focus on one tragedy because everywhere you turned there was something much worse."
Williams said the ship received permission to dock in St. Thomas for six days before taking up joint U.S. Naval exercises off the south coast of the United States. The ship arrived Saturday.