I'm the Caribbean editor for Travel Weekly, the largest trade publication in the travel industry and I regularly write about the U.S.V.I. I am delighted to see your site and be able to read up-to-date news of St. Thomas. The U.S.V.I. is a terrific destination.
Gay Myers
Chester, N.J.

OK, news fans, here's today's Journalism 101 trivia question: As of this date, how many daily newspapers are there in the U.S. Virgin Islands? (Irrelevant background information: As of one year ago, there were two.)
What's your answer, then? Three? Four?
Five.
Most of you probably immediately said The Daily News, which circulates throughout the territory. And since you're reading this commentary in The Source, the territory's new cyberpaper, you most likely listed it as well.
St. Croix residents doubtless said The Avis, which circulates on that island. And many, although probably nowhere near all, St. Thomas and St. John residents said The Independent, which circulates only on those two islands and first hit the streets just last March.
And No. 5? It's one that made its debut last fall and circulates on all three islands. But most of you have probably never heard of, let alone seen, it — unless your business has been approached about advertising or you have some connection with the hospitality industry.
It's called the Virgin Islander, and like the other three "hard copy" (i.e. printed) papers, it's a tabloid with lots of color front and back. It circulates exclusively to overnight island visitors at our hotels and resorts. It's produced by The Daily News Publishing Co. and it carries a printed price of 60 cents but is distributed free to guests by the hotels.
For a market area of about 100,000 residents to have five daily newspapers, even if one is a cyberpaper, has got to be unique in the United States, if not the world.
Only 28 cities in our nation today have more than one local "hard copy" daily paper and only three — New York, Chicago and Tucson, Ariz. — have more than two. Chicago and New York each have five, but they also have metro populations of multi-millions, and, even so, in each case one of their dailies is targeted strictly to a suburban market.
Of those 28 cities, 16 have two newspapers that are, at least on paper, editorially independent but are produced under joint operating agreements whereby the printing, advertising and circulation operations are combined.
Our four "hard copy" papers in the USVI have interrelations of a different sort.
The Independent is produced by The Avis and is owned by Rena Brodhurst, who is a co-owner of The Avis, which was for many years under the direction of her father, Canute Brodhurst. Ms. Brodhurst started the Independent in direct response to perceived public outrage over the sale of The Daily News a year ago by the Gannett chain to interests controlled by Jeffrey Prosser, whose political alliance with the then-incumbent governor was well known.
Each day, many, if not most, of the same local stories appear in both the Independent and The Avis, on different pages sometimes and with different type faces, as do regional, national and world news reports. But since one circulates on St. Croix and the other on St. Thomas/St. John, readers never see the duplication, unless they make a trip from one district to the other and acquire both papers in a given day.
The Daily News, as noted, publishes the Virgin Islander. Many of the same pages, including sports, business, opinion, national/world and comic pages, appear in both papers each day, with a change in typeface for headlines.
But there is one significant difference in the editorial content: With the exception of sports and an 8-inch column of "What's happening" listings of activities of potential interest to visitors, there is no local news in the Virgin Islander.
No crime, violence, political scandal, fiscal mismanagement, health and education crises or other negativity to upset visitors. But also no cultural, community or other positive news.
Many in the hospitality industry and the wider business community think leaving out our "bad" news is just dandy. On the other hand, for years, the tourism industry has hyped "local culture" as a visitor attraction, yet the new product eliminates all reference thereto.
Each day's Virgin Islander carries a colorful tabloid 24-page weekly insert called Island Delights. This is a visitor guide of "where to go and what to do" listings that changes little from week to week except for the first two pages of feature stories. Many tourist-oriented shops and services that do not advertise in The Daily News are buying into the new product.
The upside of this five-paper position is that our Virgin Islands community has considerable choice in its sources of newspaper news. Readers can stick with their preferred paper or read more than one (where available).
The downside is that, as with the wonderful world of telephone books, advertisers are between a rock and a hard place. In an economy crouched on the cusp of bankruptcy, the last thing the business sector can afford to do is multiply or divide its advertising dollars.
Newspapers, like every other element of the private sector, have to make money to stay afloat. Whether the local economy can support five of them —- and what will happen if it cannot — remains to be seen.
Editor's note: Journalist Jean Etsinger moved to St. Thomas in 1982 after working as an editor at The Chicago Tribune and the Miami Herald. She is "the" journalism faculty at the University of the Virgin Islands.

I'm not a Blues fan; simply enjoy good music. Wednesday evening at Tillet Gardens was some of the best.
The evening started with a six-piece band playing some mundane music. A good lead guitar, sax, bass sax, bass guitar, and drums. Good stuff. Looked like an enjoyable evening. Then Paul Oscher got on board and began playing the harp B mouth harp/ mouth organ/ harmonica. Make that harps as in big time plural.
Like most Western males, I have puffed a harmonica now and then. My family kept wanting me to be talented instead of just another hard-nosed German/ Danish/ Welsh/ English/ Dutch/ American. Unfortunately, it simply wasn't in the genes. My fingers were too short and too fat for stringed instruments, my teeth were encapsulated with braces making the brass impossible and the reeds painful and I couldn't make the transition from music to memory on the classical piano.
When Mr. Melchior came to town looking for a Basso Profundo protegee, we thought we had found an "out" with singing, but it soon became evident I had a problem with memorization which precluded walking around with a dozen full operas in my mind. I did; however, become a good B if somewhat eclectic B listener. Wednesday evening was a true gift.
Mr. Oscher turned out to be simply a fantastic musician with a wealth of talent evidenced by his ability to wring fantastic sounds from a half dozen different mouth harps, rumble my bones with piano, and strum an excellent slide guitar. He rasped out blues that put you in Mississippi and Chicago depending upon your bent. Finally, he PLAYED
Note: there is no period on that last statement. This man simply got into his music and played! My wife and I had to quit around ten thirty as it had been a long day for her and an early day following. But it was apparent Mr. Oscher is simply cruising at full rpms.
Now some talents back themselves with a few good sidemen, but Mr. Oscher managed to pick up a whiz 19-year-old guitarist who simply defied explanation. It was like that first four-minute mile. Unbelievable! It is most unfortunate that the Tillet blurb didn't print the names of the boys in the band. Mr. Oscher gave them credit several times, but my mind is a sieve for names. Bottom line, there is a young guitar player who must be heard to be believed. And the sax? This apparently middle aged gentleman looking a bit bored when he wandered onto the stage, turned out to be a 79-year-old virtuoso of one of the most satisfying sounding instruments of American music. I mean the man SPEAKS.
During the first real display piece the drummer rolled off a few nice rifts and began to subside back to obscurity on the back of the stage. Mr. Oscher called on the Cadillac Man to pay attention and give the folks a show. Rising to the challenge, the drummer beat another set and showed his true colors. From then out, we knew we were being treated to some of the best.
What a NITE!

The telephone number for the Education Department's special education office has changed again. It is 776-5802.
Before the Christmas break the office moved from Ninth Street in Sugar Estate to the second floor of the Frostco Building near the Addelita Cancryn Junior High School.
The office is not yet ready to reopen for classes, according to a press release Friday. No date was given for reopening.

The annual Martin Luther King Jr. service at the St. Thomas Synagogue, which honors seven high school students for their contributions toward brotherhood and peace, will be held at 7:30 tonight at the synagogue on Crystal Gade.
Guest speaker for the special service will be Dr. Ephraim Isaac, a noted biblical scholar at Princeton University.
Dr. Isaac, a native of Ethiopia, spoke at the synagogue during its Bicentennial Celebration in 1996, and won accolades throughout the community for his insight and erudition. He knows 17 languages, is on the editorial boards of two international scholarly journals on Afroasiatic Languages and Second Temple Jewish Literature, respectively, and is international board chairman of the Peace and Development Committee for Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa.
Dr. Isaac's topic Friday night will be "Jewish/African/American relations into the year 2000."
Dr. Isaac will also present a lecture at 7 p.m. Saturday at the University of the Virgin Islands, Business 110, on "Ancient Axumite Civilization and Religion and Peace in the World."
The public is invited to both events.
The students being honored at this year's Martin Luther King service are:
Eurita Austin, Wesleyan Academy.
Charesma Rhymer, Eudora Kean High School.
Tremain Wheatley, All Saints School.
Sharyn Niles, Charlotte Amalie High School.
Gamira Sprauve, Seventh-day Adventist School.
Westra Bea Miller, Antilles School.
Vivicka Garfield, Sts. Peter and Paul School.

The annual Martin Luther King Jr. service at the St. Thomas Synagogue, which honors seven high school students for their contributions toward brotherhood and peace, will be held at 7:30 p.m. Friday at the synagogue on Crystal Gade.
Guest speaker for the special service will be Dr. Ephraim Isaac, a noted biblical scholar at Princeton University.
Dr. Isaac, a native of Ethiopia, spoke at the synagogue during its Bicentennial Celebration in 1996, and won accolades throughout the community for his insight and erudition. He knows 17 languages, is on the editorial boards of two international scholarly journals on Afroasiatic Languages and Second Temple Jewish Literature, respectively, and is international board chairman of the Peace and Development Committee for Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa.
Dr. Isaac's topic Friday night will be "Jewish/African/American relations into the year 2000."
Dr. Isaac will also present a lecture at 7 p.m. Saturday at the University of the Virgin Islands, Business 110, on "Ancient Axumite Civilization and Religion and Peace in the World."
The public is invited to both events.
The students being honored at this year's Martin Luther King service are:
Eurita Austin, Wesleyan Academy.
Charesma Rhymer, Eudora Kean High School.
Tremain Wheatley, All Saints School.
Sharyn Niles, Charlotte Amalie High School.
Gamira Sprauve, Seventh-day Adventist School.
Westra Bea Miller, Antilles School.
Vivicka Garfield, Sts. Peter and Paul School.

Police say they hope to step up patrols on the East End of St. Thomas to prevent the burglaries that have recently terrorized the area.
According to Friday's Daily News, burglars returned to Cabrita Point on Thursday and broke into the home of Jean Charlton, trashed it and stole items ranging from wrapped Christmas presents to a new bike that belonged to a 13-year-old friend.
Late Monday night two men attempted to break into the home of Charlton's neighbor, Edie Murphy. They broke Murphy's sliding glass door and slashed Charlton's screen but were scared off when other neighbors came to the scene.
The paper said intruders tried to get into the Bovoni apartment of Elouris Carr, a nurse at Roy L. Schneider Hospital, twice in the last week. When they failed the first time, they returned with a crowbar, said Carr, who described herself as "devastated."
Acting Police Chief Jose Garcia said he expects to get more police cars soon, which will allow him to patrol the East End more effectively.
Murphy and Charlton had complained that it took police an hour to respond to their frantic burglary-in-progress calls.

The Virgin Islands has entered the most decisive year in its recent history.
Last Monday (Jan. 11) the islands completed their acceptance of governance by Democrats, who now must find a way out of the financial sinkhole into which the territory has been allowed to fall.
In the morning, the 15 senators were sworn in. They subsequently convened to introduce themselves to a television and radio audience.
Lorraine Berry seemed relieved to be free of the heckling she endured the past two years as Senate president. She will relax by chairing the powerful Finance Committee.
One of her hecklers, Alicia Hansen, demonstrated again that although the other 14 senators more or less represent the Virgin Islands, she represents some other entity she identifies, usually in a shout, as "My People" —
Where is that?
Another devoted Berry heckler, Adelbert Bryan, resplendent in his African tribal chieftan's robes, marched again to his own drummer, declining to appear on the Emancipation Garden bandstand for the swearing in ceremonies. (He has reason to be shy of bandstands after last July 3 in Frederiksted.)
Later, in the Senate chamber, Bryan decried Eastern Caribbean influence in the Senate (five members), declaring he never would be allowed to hold public office in any of those island nations.
Most startling thought: Freshman Norman Jn. Baptiste, a native of St. Lucia, assured Bryan that if he moved to St. Lucia and applied himself, there was no reason why he, Bryan, couldn't become prime minister there.
Best speech: newcomer Anne Golden, whose graceful remarks charmed this television viewer.
That evening, the senators reconvened to hear the first State of the Territory address by Gov. Charles W. Turnbull, inaugurated one week earlier.
It was a short speech, under 30 minutes, but it made up in somber tone and candor what it might have lacked in length.
Tumbull confirmed the worst fears of those senators who worry about money. Not only is the cupboard bare but the termites are gnawing away at the shelves. The long-term debt is more than a billion dollars. Unless something good happens, the budget shortfall for this year will be almost $250,000, thanks to the Schneider administration.
You want more somber, how about this? Tumbull raised the specter of payless paydays, and said he is drawing up an attrition plan to reduce government personnel by 25 percent over five years.
As Sen. David Jones pointed out after the governor's address, it takes $26 million each and every month just to meet the government's swollen payroll.
Within minutes after Turnbull finished speaking, some senators were grousing he didn't offer enough solutions. That amounts to piling onto the quarterback as he runs onto the field for the first time.
Watching all this was congressional Delegate Donna Christian-Christensen, starting her second term. She knows her political future is tied to her fellow Democrats—Turnbull and seven senators.
One senses they will rise or fall together during this decisive year. Most of the public at last is alarmed about the crushing debt.
Turnbull, Christensen and the seven senators were elected to build a ladder, however shaky, out of the financial sinkhole and into the new century. They'll need more than unity, respect and service. They'll need some luck.
Editor's note: Frank J. Jordan is a radio commentator, former UVI journalism professor, and former NBC news executive.

A biweekly charter flight from Newark, N.J., to St. Thomas and St. Croix has been canceled because not enough seats were sold.
The flights, organized by GoGo Tours, did fairly well during the Christmas holidays but after that came in more than half-empty, the Independent reported Friday.
"The response we got was so poor that we had to cancel the flights," said Wendell Snider, a St. Croix hotelier.
"The frightening message is we had GoGo, one of the leading tour operators, advertising very aggressively at very good rates, with a deep discount from the hotels, and we couldn't fill the plane once a week," Snider told the Independent. "That's terrifying. It speaks ill of the image of the territory."
GoGo, a leading travel wholesaler, was one of several new charters brought in by the Schneider administration to supplement existing airline service.
The others include Apple Vacations, flying from Chicago; Sunsail/Britannia, flying weekly from London; Fun Jet/Sun Country, offering a weekly flight from Minneapolis to St. Thomas and St. Croix; Conquest, flying from Toronto; and Dansk Vestindien Rejser, flying weekly from Copenhagen, Denmark, to St. Croix beginning Feb. 1.

The School of Visual Arts and Careers meets in the Fort Christian Museum. So, when the students were assigned to create designs for a silkscreening project, it’s not surprising that one youngster decided to depict the fort’s distinctive clock tower.
Jared Etsinger — at 11 years of age, the youngest student in the class —never dreamed that his clock tower design would end up mass-produced on 6-inch ceramic tiles.
Jared, who’s now 12, says he settled on the clock tower as a subject for his pen-and-ink design “because it was an easy thing to draw, and because it was right there. It’s the most obvious thing about the fort.”
His teacher, Edie Paljavcik Johnson, decided to silkscreen the clock design in four versions, each showing a different time. (The actual clock has not worked for decades; those who gaze up at the tower do, indeed, see the hands in different positions on each face.)
The designs were used for gift tags to be sold with packaged greeting cards bearing artwork by other SVAC students. The teaching point of the project was to combine the design, production and marketing of artwork.
For the school’s winter exhibit last year, it was Johnson’s idea to combine the four silkscreened clock faces as a single piece of artwork. When Jared’s mother, journalist Jean Etsinger, saw the square configuration of the combined images at that show, “it seemed a natural design for a tile,” she says.
She found that the tiles could be produced locally by TOPS and secured a Virgin Islands Council on the Arts mini-grant to help cover the cost of producing about a hundred of them. Each has cork backing for table use and a hook for hanging. Proceeds from sales will benefit the two not-for-profit entities based at the museum: SVAC and the Friends of Fort Christian.
SVAC is an afterschool and summer visual arts program open to high school students. Founded in 1983, it has met at the fort for all but the year after Hurricane Hugo, when structural damage forced a temporary move. The Friends of Fort Christian provides support for programs and projects presented at the museum.
The tiles are being sold in downtown St. Thomas at the museum gift shop, Going Caribbean, the Camille Pissarro Gallery and MAPes MONDe; in Nisky Center at Noah’s Ark; in Havensight at The Pirate’s Chest (Paradise Point) and Southern Exposure; and in Red Hook at The Color of Joy.
To fort museum curator Dolores Jowers, a big part of their appeal is the fact that “the design was done by a young student, and that it reflects something that’s historic and yet supports a current cause.”
SVAC, she says, “is one of the most consistently successful youth programs in the Virgin Islands. The fact that the school represents a place where kids from all over St. Thomas can get together in the arts and prepare for a profession is very important.”
Although his art is being marketed throughout St. Thomas, Jared says he doesn’t see himself as a career artist at this point. “It’s just a hobby,” he says.
That may put him in the minority among his SVAC colleagues. Six students graduated from the school in August, school director Phebe Schwartz says, and “every single one is now in college majoring in art or attending a professional art school.”
The fact that the fort tower clock doesn’t work strikes Jared as “kind of sad, since it’s something we look up and see every day, and so do our visitors.” His opinion is, “I think they should fix it, whoever ‘they’ are.”