it's Tuesday July 23 good afternoon I'm Herman green with your midday news if
you're watching online at one spot meter comm a very special welcome to you the
Jamaica Fire Brigade is reporting a dramatic increase in the number of fire
caused between January and June when compared with the same period in 2018 as
a meeting held at the same cafe Municipal Corporation it was revealed
that the st. Catherine st. Catherine recorded the third highest number of
bush fires we are the details in this report the latest data from the Jamaica
Fire Brigade show that bush fires across the island are up 30 to 1.3 percent this
year compared to last year the total number of bush fires between January and
June of this year is three thousand three hundred and ninety two with June
recording the most 823 of those 823 fires 116 of them were reported in st.
Catherine punished all receive a total of twitch 21 were genuine calls it were
malicious false alarm we had 49 bush fires and six special
service for war food they receive a total of 30 calls to which five were
genuine either emerged as far Selam and 17 were bush fires district officer the
st. Catherine Fire Department never beckford detailed the number further
indicating that lanes did recorded 17 bush fires and Old Harbor 37 the
estimated loss in these fires is more than 30 million dollars in all that the
estimated risk hundred and six million
an estimated loss of million three hundred thousand and it
immoral seed is 91 million six hundred and thirty he was speaking at a recent
st. Catherine municipal cooperation meeting Prince more TVJ news there is
more support for calls to stop all plans for mining in sections of the cockpit
country it comes from the late colonial a magistrate Association whose president
has added his voice to the debate the Trelawny lay magistrates Association
president Kenneth grant was part of Monday's protest in Alberta on Jelani
President Grant who is also a business operate in Albert tone says he wants his
voice heard on the issue I am totally totally against any farmer
bauxite mining in the cockpit culture and I am prepared to do whatever it
takes within the boundaries of the law to try and prevent this he joins
environmentalists including the Jamaica environment trust jet who are raising
concerns about plans to do mining in communities they say fall within the
boundaries of the cockpit country there has been a mining lease granted by the
government of Jamaica its SML special mining lease 173 and it covers a very
large area from all the way in Gibraltar coming all the way over this side to
also spring intra Lonnie and that's the mining lease that were most concerned
about no it's already been granted so mining has been approved it's undergoing
an environmental impact assessment but frankly you know the risk to the area
would risk to the environment from mining is far too great the risks to
these communities are too great to allow mining in this part of the cockpit
country in a recent tour of sections of the cockpit country Prime Minister
Andrew Holness indicated that no mining was taking place within the proposed
boundaries however residents say they are not satisfied with those boundaries
these communities are copy country as you can see the turnout today is is
wonderful you can see a whole many community
communities are represented here today and they are a Demonte they have always
been adamant for you know over a decade that they don't want mining in their
communities and I'd like to send a message to the government and to the
Prime Minister please do not consider any former bauxite mining in the cockpit
country to destroy our flora and our fauna to make people lives miserable and
uncomfortable and have to relocate we provide 40% of the freshwater that
Jamaica needs oh can we destroy this source a warning to the government this
afternoon from president of the Jamaica agricultural society linworth Fulton to
be careful with food importation it follows that claim that there has been
unnecessary importation of agricultural produce the details in this report we
need to be careful a stern warning from the Jamaica agriculture society Jas
president Landreth Fulton mr. Fulton says poultry farmers are
finding it difficult with the importation of certain meet the sea
believes is as a result of what he describes as taking place at this time
which so we need to be careful mr. Fulton acknowledges that there might be
a need to import some items given the challenges of the dry period however he
says constant importation of things like poultry could make it harder to source
foreign currency to buy the necessary food items nine point three billion oh
and to continue to look under import no it is going to create great with the
fine exchange but then we have intervened actually weekly now into the
foreign exchange market which tells that there's some problems here as well
we just can't find the file exchange to do what we want to do and it is creating
our Joe and and they are useless simple there are import that shouldn t machine
masters TVJ News Prime Minister Andrew Holness says the summary of his
statutory declaration should be published this week there has been
pressure for the Integrity Commission to release the report on his filings
following indications about two months ago that he was yet to complete the
process yesterday we sought an update from the
prime minister at a function in Kingston but he offered very little information
only saying it should be published this week the details of the earnings and
other financial information for opposition leader dr. Peter Phillips
were published in the Drina on Saturday the newspaper report said checks up to
that time revealed that the report on dr. Phillips s Declaration was the only
one available at the government's printing office
the parliamentary opposition and local anti-corruption watchdog national
integrity action have been calling for the publication of both reports and we
know take a break here on the midday news but stay with us more stories after
these messages
welcome back continuing the news the People's National Party PNP is adamant
that it would still be ready should the government decide to call a snap general
election the assurance from the PNP comes despite an internal presidential
contest scheduled for September 7 even though there's a perceived division in
the PNP general secretary Julian Robinson says the internal contest has
not derailed the party's readiness the party has had internal contests we have
been able to bounce back well from them and I don't see this being any different
so we are prepared we have our candidates in place we have been doing
the political work leading up to this contest and we continue to do so at the
NEC on Sunday will indicate the candidates that we have in place at this
stage which to me would be significant in terms of the numbers of persons
particularly new and young candidates in play so we are doing the work in
preparation for an election and the contest has not
dérailleur efforts to be ready as a political party that was also the
sentiment of PNP presidential aspirant Peter bunting in a recent interview with
James the party come together before after the 2008 challenge of Porsche sim
semilla by dr. Philips and we won the 2011 general election by a landslide
so I am not too concerned that we won't be able to bring things together very
quickly with a strong mandate from the delegates any leader will be in a better
position to go forward into a general election chief executive office of the
Child Protection and Family Services Agency Rosalie gage gray says her agency
will be conducting a survey and taking measures to target at-risk youths in
need of intervention she was speaking at a recent jamaicans for justice seminar
held at the University of the West Indies headquarters that there needs to
be a national first responder system it can't be just a police or you know there
needs to be a coordinated response to emergency involved in children and
others within the country right across there will be select areas involved in
the survey to target these at-risk youths we get a lot of cost when people
sit down on the street and we have been going to the regular spots legally half
a tree done robbing and constant spring Waterloo Hope Road three miles
you know those areas and I remember one stopping at three miles and a little boy
came to the car and I pulled out my ID and I said you're not supposed to be on
the road and he read it he says you name so and ran off so obviously be they know
I know their rights too but the Saint and Municipal Corporation could find
itself in a legal battle if this wall at the st. and infirmary located in prayer
is not fixed as a matter of urgency TVJ News understands that the wall
collapsed some two years ago following a motor vehicle
crash but since then nothing has been done it's now creating an even greater
issue a breach of security for the residents at the infirmary as they can
walk over the wall and into the path of vehicles on the busy thoroughfare along
the north coast counselor for the st. Ann's Bay division Dallas Dickinson says
it's not that he hasn't made representation but the insurance is the
problem the insurance help are the ones who are holding up the whole matter
there but I have learned recently that there are some in-house discussion
between insurance and the council and I'm well aware that the problem that are
there is that it needs to be properly sorted out as quickly as possible
because we have the inmates and we we are the ones who will be all accountable
for the inmates if anything goes wrong there as for plans to relocate infirmary
mr. Dickinson says that's a no-no when I first in we had identified lands
anywhere around as yet and for the inflammatory move you have to have the
very suitable land you have to have proper infrastructure Road water light
and the worst amenity that goes with it so for no the removal the infirm is a
no-no for the time being the counselor says another factor is the proximity to
the hospital he says based on some of the illnesses
that the words of the infer may have it would be detrimental to have the
infirmary far away a gruesome motor vehicle collision claimed the life of a
biker in Portland last night upset at the nature of the crash
residents of the era took to the streets in protest we have more in this report
streets aligned with the bloody footprints and scattered debris combined
with these chants it's the scene of a fatal crash in Orange Bay Portland at
last tonight TV genuine understands that the deceased a 30 year old Melvin Thomas
was a thrown some 35 meters when his motorcycle collided with an oncoming
vehicle mr. Thomas died on his way to hospital
his sister explained what she heard of the incident
riding to the river baka Portland Orange Beach lack of water the Barbara is no
criminal here telling us a methodological from the bottom drag
another Marcia Byrd under left window residents are calling for a
blood-alcohol test to be carried out on the driver of the motive Eco they
claimed that the driver had been drinking at a bar since early afternoon
and then upon leaving collided with the investigation is still underway machine
masters TV news a taxi man was killed yesterday evening in Southfield st.
Elizabeth while working at the taxi stand at the Southfield square in the
parish he has been identified as 36 year old the main and day
according to witnesses two bikers approached mr. day's vehicle and shot
him three times before making a hasty escape mr. day died on the spot the
Saint Elizabeth police are currently investigating the murder mr. days
killing is the third murder in the parish in the space of three days we got
on to news in sports confidence is high in the reggae girls camp as they are
aiming to secure a medal at the Pan American Games in Lima Peru later this
month as Simon Preston reports the games would also serve as preparation for the
Olympic Games qualifiers later this year after gracing the international stage at
the 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup in France the Riga girls will now be
heading to Lima Peru for their first appearance at the Pan Am Games since
2007 11 out of the 23 squad members from the World Cup will be heading to South
America for the Pan Am's the Jamaicans will face Mexico Colombia and Paraguay
in the group stages of the tournament the top
two teams from the group stages will advance to the semi-finals of the
competition I think we'll do well we're definitely ready to represent Jamaica
and perform well we are gonna obviously go in with the mindset that we're gonna
win we're here to play games we're here to progress and get better so that's
what we need to do training I've been good we've been working really hard and
I think we can do well at this Shania adds that the experience on the world
stage also gives the team a boost well being on the biggest stage and going
against the best teams obviously gives us really good experience like we have
to push ourselves then on the biggest stage and we'd have to continue doing
the same thing now with the Pan Am Games and the Olympic qualifiers on the
horizon head coach Hugh Menzies is delighted with regular competitive games
for the team it gives us an opportunity and not only to prepare for the Olympics
must sustain our program which is important especially after the World Cup
to identify another crop of players because we want to sustain this and the
next four years you want to be going to wherever that were Cup is one of either
for what Trudi Carta has picked up an injury and coach Menzies is looking to
utility player Lauren Silva to fill the spots yeah truly truly is still
struggling a little bit from her knee and we didn't want to take the risk you
know the big career ahead of her and obviously you know Lauren's a much you
know well represented work of our country before so we figured I would
bring a little bit more experience to the table and we can we do have a young
couple knows their first game will be against Mexico and July 28th at the
Estadio Universidad San Marcos Simon Preston reporting for TVJ sports and
that's the midday news I'm Herman green remember primetime news is at 7:00 on
behalf of the new sports and production teams good afternoon