Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar was ab­sent from the week­ly post-Cab­i­net me­dia brief­ing yes­ter­day, the first time she has failed to chair it since tak­ing of­fice on May 1.

In its first of­fi­cial meet­ing with Ed­u­ca­tion Min­is­ter Dr Michael Dowlath, the T&T Uni­fied Teach­ers’ As­so­ci­a­tion (TTUTA) raised sev­er­al is­sues, chief among them, the de­lays in the up­grad­ing and pro­mo­tion of teach­ers.

In the qui­et hours of yes­ter­day morn­ing, res­i­dents across low-ly­ing com­mu­ni­ties in Pe­nal were met with a fa­mil­iar, un­in­vit­ed force. 

As flood­wa­ters crept in­to the Mafek­ing and Bris­tol com­mu­ni­ties yes­ter­day, the Ma­yaro/Rio Claro Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion took swift ac­tion, send­ing its staff home ear­ly to pre­vent them from be­ing ma­rooned due to wors­en­ing con­di­tions.

Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) Gen­er­al Sec­re­tary Fos­ter Cum­mings has cho­sen not to com­ment on re­ports that a let­ter is be­ing cir­cu­lat­ed ques­tion­ing Dr Amery Browne and Roger Munroe’s par­tic­i­pa­tion in last month’s Spe­cial Gen­er­al Coun­cil meet­ing.

Act­ing Snr Supt Al­lis­ter Gue­var­ro, the Po­lice Ser­vice Com­mis­sion’s nom­i­nee for Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice, has de­clined to com­ment on his po­ten­tial ap­point­ment, say­ing he prefers to wait un­til the par­lia­men­tary process is com­plet­ed.

Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice So­cial and Wel­fare As­so­ci­a­tion (TTPSS­WA) vice pres­i­dent, act­ing ASP Ish­mael Pitt, is wel­com­ing the new ship­ment of 3,500 bul­let­proof vests for of­fi­cers, but says much more of them are need­ed.

There is an emerg­ing trend of scam­mers claim­ing to rep­re­sent le­git­i­mate guest hous­es and of­fer­ing book­ings for tourists then pock­et­ing the mon­ey that is trans­ferred to them.

A for­mer mem­ber of the Spe­cial Op­er­a­tions Re­sponse Team (SORT) has lost his law­suit over be­ing placed on sus­pen­sion for over three years due to a still on­go­ing probe in­to the deaths of two sus­pects in the mur­der of An­drea Bharatt. 

The man was ini­tial­ly held but man­aged to es­cape cus­tody on June 11, as he was be­ing ques­tioned by po­lice.

Syl­van “Split Peas” Thomas, of Covi­gne Road, Diego Mar­tin, was ac­quit­ted of the charge at the end of his judge-alone tri­al be­fore Jus­tice Trevor Jones on Wednes­day.

Po­lice are prob­ing a mur­der in Cunu­pia, af­ter the bul­let-rid­dled body of a man was dis­cov­ered at his home on Wednes­day.