Pub­lic Util­i­ties Min­is­ter Bar­ry Padarath has pushed back against com­ments by Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) Sen­a­tor Dr Amery Browne, who called on Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar to “cool it” and “mod­er­ate” her lan­guage fol­low­ing re­cent on­line threats made against him.

A heat­ed T&T Po­lice Ser­vice meet­ing on Wednes­day led to a walk­out by some dis­grun­tled Spe­cial Re­serve Po­lice (SRP) of­fi­cers up­set with the cur­rent ab­sorp­tion pol­i­cy.

Chief Sec­re­tary Far­ley Au­gus­tine is pledg­ing to cre­ate a “ba­by trust fund” as To­ba­go bat­tles an alarm­ing drop in births.

The Trinidad and To­ba­go Coali­tion of Bars and Restau­rants (TTCO­BAR) and the Bar­keep­ers Own­ers and Op­er­a­tors As­so­ci­a­tion of Trinidad and To­ba­go (BOATT) are warn­ing that the Gov­ern­ment’s pro­pos­al to in­crease the Amuse­ment Gam­ing Tax from $6,000 to $25,000 per ma­chine per year will crip­ple small and medi­um-sized bar en­ter­pris­es and lead to wide­spread clo­sures and job loss­es.

Re­cent da­ta pub­lished by the Small Arms Sur­vey sug­gests that while there has been a rel­a­tive­ly small in­crease in the num­ber of au­to­mat­ic weapons be­ing seized, hand­guns (pis­tols and re­volvers) are the most com­mon cat­e­go­ry of firearm re­cov­ered by au­thor­i­ties.

A Venezue­lan na­tion­al is be­lieved to have been elec­tro­cut­ed while on a job­site in Mara­bel­la on Wednes­day.

For­mer Pub­lic Ser­vices As­so­ci­a­tion (PSA) pres­i­dent Wat­son Duke will have to wait well over a year to learn the fate of his law­suit over the re­fusal of the union to pay him a pen­sion.

The Teach­ing Ser­vice Com­mis­sion (TSC) has been barred from fill­ing the va­can­cy for a prin­ci­pal at a sec­ondary school in St James, while a se­nior teacher, who has been act­ing in the po­si­tion for five years, pur­sues a law­suit over be­ing blocked from the re­cruit­ment process.

Gov­ern­ment Sen­ate leader Dar­rell Al­la­har has knocked down Sen­ate dis­cus­sion that the Home In­va­sion Bill will on­ly ap­ply if one has a firearm, since he says he will take up a cut­lass to de­fend his fam­i­ly if un­der threat.

A ma­jor air­line has de­clined to launch di­rect flights to To­ba­go and the US Nu­cor steel man­u­fac­tur­ing gi­ant has al­so re­ject­ed the Gov­ern­ment’s of­fer to ex­pand lo­cal in­vest­ment due to crime, says Trade Min­is­ter Satyaka­ma Ma­haraj.

A sec­ond Vat­i­can study com­mis­sion has de­ter­mined that women should not be or­dained as dea­cons, deal­ing an­oth­er set­back to Catholic women who hope one day to be able to pre­side at wed­dings, bap­tisms and fu­ner­als.

A 19-year-old Venezue­lan na­tion­al was elec­tro­cut­ed while work­ing on a job­site in Mara­bel­la yes­ter­day.