分类： society

KINGSTON, Jamaica — Law enforcement authorities have issued an update for motorists traveling across the island’s major transport corridor: the westbound lane of Mandela Highway, a key route connecting the capital to the populous municipalities of Spanish Town and Portmore, is now open to traffic again. The stretch had been closed off for forensic investigation and processing after a deadly shooting that left one man dead and a second person wounded.

The violent attack unfolded shortly after 7:15 a.m. on Friday, at the busy Caymanas intersection along the westbound corridor. According to initial police accounts, a Ford Transit work truck was moving through the junction when the driver pulled to a stop. That was when two armed suspects riding a motorcycle pulled alongside the right side of the vehicle, and fired multiple rounds through the truck’s right front window and windshield.

Both people inside the vehicle were hit by gunfire. Emergency responders rushed the injured pair to a local hospital for urgent care, but one of the occupants was pronounced dead shortly after arrival. The second victim remains hospitalized for treatment of their injuries, as of the latest update.

In the immediate aftermath of the shooting, police cordoned off the entire westbound lane to preserve the crime scene and allow investigators to collect evidence. The closure caused significant traffic disruptions for commuters traveling between Kingston and the heavily populated St. Catherine parishes, where both Spanish Town and Portmore are located. With the investigation’s on-site processing complete, authorities have confirmed the lane is once again accessible for regular traffic.

KINGSTON, Jamaica — Adverse weather and early logistical hurdles failed to derail a much-anticipated community-focused autism event held this past weekend, as organizers and attendees pushed forward with the “Learn. Play. Connect.” Autism Awareness Workshop to build stronger support networks for neurodivergent residents and their families. The gathering united hundreds of stakeholders from across the island, including caregivers, classroom educators, and local community leaders, all gathered with a shared goal of deepening public understanding of autism spectrum disorder and expanding accessible local resources.

The event was spearheaded by Shanique Nelson, who holds the title of Intercontinental Queen of Jamaica. Nelson drew from her own lived experience as a parent raising a child on the autism spectrum to design the workshop’s program, prioritizing real-world guidance and peer connection over abstract discussion. Though unseasonably heavy rainfall pushed back the event’s start time and forced minor adjustments to the planned schedule, organizers quickly adapted, and the rest of the day’s activities unfolded with almost no further disruption.

Per an official press statement from the organizing team, attendees arrived continuously throughout the day, engaging actively with a lineup of educational sessions and open conversations. Two leading local experts led core presentations: Laren Hartley, who shares an autism diagnosis, offered personal insights into what it means to live with the condition, while Peta-Gaye Forbes Robinson centered her talk on boosting public autism awareness, expanding formal community support systems, and sharing actionable, everyday strategies for families new to navigating autism-related challenges. Both presentations filled critical information gaps, leaving many first-time attendees with clear, practical guidance they had struggled to find elsewhere.

One of the day’s most anticipated components was a candid panel discussion made up entirely of parents raising autistic children. Moderated by Deidre Ferguson, the panel featured three caregivers — Esther Waugh, Sheriece Blake, and Darrion Blake — who opened up about their personal journeys, the unexpected joys and unspoken struggles of caregiving, and the gaps in public support that Jamaican families still face. Their honest sharing resonated deeply with attendees, many of whom reported feeling less alone in their own experiences after the discussion.

Local organizations stepped up to make the event possible, with Transformational Worship Centre donating both event space and full technical support for the day’s activities. Additional sponsorship and in-kind contributions came from four other local groups: The Party Vault, DABS Creative Designs, McIntosh Photography, and Classic Queen International Ja. To accommodate attending families, organizers also set up a fully supervised, child-friendly play area, which let kids engage in age-appropriate games and activities while caregivers participated in adult-focused workshop sessions.

In post-event comments, organizers emphasized that the workshop was never intended to be a one-off gathering. Instead, the core mission is to spark long-term cultural change: encouraging greater public awareness of autism, challenging harmful stigmas, and fostering far more inclusive community approaches to neurodiversity across Jamaica. Early feedback from attendees has already led organizers to begin planning similar workshops for other parishes across the island in the coming year.

MONTEGO BAY, Jamaica — A major regional business entity is stepping up to support community resilience and educational renewal in western Jamaica, with Liberty Business announced as an official partner for the 2025 Jill Stewart MoBay City Run. The sponsorship deepens the firm’s longstanding dedication to cross-sector collaboration, local community advancement, and sustainable growth across the western region of the island.

Scheduled for Sunday, May 3 at Montego Bay’s scenic Harmony Beach Park, the Jill Stewart MoBay City Run has grown from a local community gathering into one of Jamaica’s most high-profile annual charity road races. For years, the event has channeled public participation and fundraising into impactful philanthropic projects across the country, building a reputation for turning collective enthusiasm into tangible public good.

Unlike previous years, 2025’s iteration of the race will direct all generated proceeds to educational recovery efforts for schools across western Jamaica that suffered severe damage when Hurricane Melissa swept through the region. Funds raised will go toward repairing infrastructure, replacing damaged learning materials, and supporting students and educators as they work to rebuild stable, effective learning environments.

“Western Jamaica is a dynamic, core driver of our national economy, fueled by hardworking residents, tight-knit vibrant communities, and enormous untapped potential,” shared Charles Manus, Senior Director at Liberty Business, in a statement ahead of the event. “We are incredibly proud to stand behind the Jill Stewart MoBay City Run because it embodies the very best of Jamaican spirit: people uniting to overcome shared challenges, restore hope to vulnerable communities, and invest directly in the future of our children.”

Liberty Business has long framed expanded access to quality education as one of the most foundational catalysts for upward economic mobility and broad national progress. By supporting the recovery of hurricane-damaged campuses, the firm says it is helping guarantee that local students retain access to safe, functional learning spaces where they can build the critical skills needed to succeed, and ultimately contribute to the long-term economic growth of their home communities.

The company also offered public praise to the MoBay City Run organizing committee for building a durable, effective platform that consistently converts widespread public goodwill into measurable, life-changing impact for working families across western Jamaica. Event organizers note that the race’s community-focused model has allowed it to adapt to emerging local needs year after year, and this year’s focus on educational recovery resonates deeply with both long-time participants and new partners.

As the countdown to race day continues, Liberty Business is calling on Jamaicans across the island to get involved — whether by registering to run, making a direct donation to the recovery fund, or showing public solidarity with the schools and students working to rebuild after Hurricane Melissa. Organizers report that registration numbers are already tracking above last year’s levels, signaling strong public support for this year’s recovery-focused mission.

MONTEGO BAY, St James — An aggressive enforcement campaign targeting unpaid advertising fees has yielded tangible results for the St James Municipal Corporation, with the local authority recovering just over $8 million in delinquent payments over a recent four-day period.

Richard Vernon, chairman of the corporation and Mayor of Montego Bay, confirmed to Jamaica Observer on Thursday that collections between Friday evening and the following Monday totalled $8,150,861.00. This successful haul cuts the original total outstanding balance of $16,308,620.50 nearly in half, leaving just $8,157,759.50 still owed by non-compliant advertisers.

The push for payment gained public attention last week, when the municipal corporation draped large branded banners over dozens of delinquent billboards across Montego Bay, drastically reducing the advertising exposure for companies and individuals that had fallen behind on their required fees.

While Vernon welcomed the early progress from the campaign, he made clear that enforcement efforts will not slow until every outstanding balance is cleared. To date, the remaining non-paying advertisers have not reached out to the corporation to address their arrears, so officials are shifting to direct outreach via phone and email to secure payment.

“Until full compliance is achieved, the enforcement measures currently in place will be maintained,” Vernon emphasized in his statement.

This is not the first time the local authority has had to implement strict collection measures. Declining revenue has repeatedly put pressure on the corporation’s ability to fund core municipal operations, forcing decisive intervention when delinquent payments grow to unsustainable levels.

“We have a city to run, and running a city requires adequate and reliable funding. Our resources are already stretched, and whenever there is a fallout in revenue we must intensify compliance activities to protect the city’s ability to function effectively,” the mayor explained. “Outstanding advertising payments are a revenue matter, and when arrears grow to a level that threatens service delivery we must intervene decisively.”

Moving forward, the corporation plans to implement more proactive account monitoring and will adjust payment terms for advertisers where appropriate, with all affected entities set to receive formal notification of the updated, stricter policies. Vernon stressed that the enhanced collection efforts are rooted in core principles of fairness and accountability, ensuring that every business that benefits from using public advertising space meets its financial obligations to the residents of Montego Bay.

The push to recover delinquent revenue and restore public order is not isolated to St James. Municipalities across Jamaica have rolled out similar compliance campaigns in recent months. Between January and March 2024, the Kingston and St Andrew Municipal Corporation first offered advertisers a window to resolve unpaid fee backlogs and remove illegally placed signage, before progressing to legal action and physical removal of non-compliant structures.

Beyond advertising fee collections, local governments across the island have also ramped up enforcement around property tax collection and unpermitted construction. In St James and Trelawny, authorities have cracked down on property owners that have launched construction projects without securing required approval from or paying the mandatory fees to local municipal bodies.

This coordinated nationwide push reflects growing pressure on local authorities to shore up revenue streams to maintain consistent public service delivery across Jamaica.

On Friday afternoon, a highway crash disrupted travel along one of Jamaica’s key arterial routes, after a truck carrying bulk bottled water lost control and overturned near Mammee Bay, St Ann, along the North-South highway. Local law enforcement has moved quickly to assess the scene, with the Jamaica Constabulary Force’s Communication Network confirming that the incident has not resulted in any major harm to road users. While first responders have not reported life-threatening casualties, the crash has created significant travel headaches for motorists passing through the area. As of the latest updates, traffic has built up behind the crash site, leading to delays for commuters and commercial drivers traveling along the route. Investigative authorities have not yet released any details on what led to the overturn, noting that the cause of the accident remains under active review as officials work to clear the roadway and restore normal traffic flow.

Six months after Category 5 Hurricane Melissa swept across Jamaica, leaving widespread destruction and disruption to education systems especially in western parishes, the island’s Ministry of Education has announced the successful completion of the 2026 Grade 6 Primary Exit Profile (PEP) examinations. The two-day assessment, held between April 29 and 30, wrapped up without major incident, marking a major milestone for education recovery after the storm.

In an official media statement released Thursday, Education Minister Senator Dr Dana Morris Dixon emphasized that the smooth delivery of this year’s exams demonstrates the ministry’s unwavering commitment to upholding resilience, educational equity, and positive outcomes for every student, even in the wake of national crisis. “We are extremely pleased that the 2026 PEP examinations were conducted successfully across the entire island,” Dixon noted. “This achievement does not happen in isolation — it reflects the extraordinary dedication and seamless coordination of our ministry staff, school leaders, teachers, parents, and students, all of whom stayed focused on this goal despite the ongoing challenges left by Hurricane Melissa last October.”

Dixon added that the core priority for the 2026 exam cycle was to guarantee every eligible learner a fair, supportive space to perform to the best of their ability, and the successful execution of the exams stands as proof of what collective effort can deliver. Now entering its eighth year of operation, the PEP assessment was open to Grade 6 students born between 2013 and 2015, with a total of 31,806 registered candidates for this year’s sitting. Of that total, 15,964 are male and 15,842 are female; 27,375 attend public schools across the country, while 4,431 are enrolled in private educational institutions.

To address the widespread curriculum disruption caused by Hurricane Melissa, the ministry implemented targeted adjustments to this year’s exam structure and curriculum coverage after carrying out extensive consultations with teachers, principals, and parent representatives from both public and private schools. The most significant change was the full cancellation of the 2026 Performance Task assessment component, a decision designed to balance fairness for affected students with preservation of the overall integrity of the PEP secondary school placement model.

For 2026, sitting students completed four core components: curriculum-based tests in mathematics and language arts, an ability test, and assessments for verbal and quantitative reasoning. Both mathematics and language arts feature 60 multiple-choice items, with a 110-minute time limit for each subject. This year also introduced a key update to the assessment framework: for the first time, PEP includes formal, embedded dedicated components to assess Grade 6 students’ literacy and numeracy proficiency.

Ministry officials explain that this strengthened focus on foundational skills will generate critical data on students’ current literacy levels and readiness for the transition to secondary education. It will also allow education stakeholders to track student learning progress from Grade 4 onward, and measure how effective school-level intervention strategies are at closing learning gaps.

To support vulnerable candidates this year, 615 registered students received approval for special accommodations, ranging from extra testing time, on-site readers and writers, and preferential seating to accessible testing formats including Braille and large-print test booklets. An additional 17 candidates were approved for linguistic aides supporting French, Spanish, and Mandarin speakers.

Beyond structural exam changes, the ministry rolled out a comprehensive set of emergency measures to address the ongoing impact of Hurricane Melissa, ensuring all students could access the exam in safe, supportive testing environments. These interventions included relocating damaged examination centres to alternate accessible sites, erecting temporary weather-resistant testing structures at locations where full relocation was not possible, arranging dedicated transportation for students in affected areas to access testing sites, and deploying on-site rapid response teams to resolve any unexpected emergencies that arose during the two-day exam period.

KINGSTON, Jamaica — Tax Administration Jamaica (TAJ) has announced that its dedicated platform for electronic motor vehicle registration certificate (eMVRC) transactions is currently facing an unexpected partial service disruption. In an official press statement issued this Friday, the agency confirmed that some motorists and vehicle owners attempting to access or finalize eMVRC-related services are running into technical difficulties. The tax authority clarified that the outage is not widespread across the entire system, meaning only a limited group of users are currently encountering access interruptions. According to the release, the organization’s technical service partners have already been alerted to the glitch, and engineering teams are working around the clock to fully restore normal system operations as quickly as possible. For users who cannot load the payment portal or get stuck during the payment step of the application process, TAJ is advising them to visit their closest local tax office to get in-person support to complete their transactions. For another group of users who have already successfully submitted their applications and completed online payment but still cannot generate their digital eMVRC, TAJ has noted that agency staff will manually complete the certificate generation process on behalf of applicants, eliminating the need for any extra steps from the user. Once the certificate is ready to access through the Certificate Generation Distribution System (CGDS) online portal, applicants will receive an automatic email notification alerting them to the completed process.