Em­bat­tled Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) Sen­a­tor Janelle John-Bates has of­fered her res­ig­na­tion from the Up­per House to her po­lit­i­cal leader, but Pen­ne­lope Beck­les has not yet de­cid­ed if she will ac­cept it.

The Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) walked out of the Low­er House last night, ac­cus­ing the Gov­ern­ment of turn­ing the de­bate in­to a “de­lib­er­ate abuse” of par­lia­men­tary pro­ce­dure.

The Gov­ern­ment yes­ter­day moved a mo­tion in the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives seek­ing to com­pel the Op­po­si­tion Leader to re­voke the ap­point­ments of Op­po­si­tion Sen­a­tors Janelle John-Bates and Faris Al-Rawi, trig­ger­ing heat­ed ex­changes.

In a man­ner re­flec­tive of her short but vi­va­cious and colour­ful lifestyle, friends, rel­a­tives and school­mates of nine-year-old J’Lay­na Arm­strong yes­ter­day paid their fi­nal re­spects to her, true to her own unique life.

The Homi­cide Bu­reau of In­ves­ti­ga­tions is pur­su­ing cer­tain leads ob­tained on Thurs­day’s mur­der of Health Min­istry em­ploy­ee Ma­sud Pros­per and ad­di­tion­al types of po­lice pa­trols will be in force around the Queen’s Park Sa­van­nah, Port-of-Spain, where he was killed, says Home­land Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter Roger Alexan­der.

There are mixed re­views com­ing from the Up­per House on the death penal­ty, fol­low­ing the rul­ing that a 31-year-old man be hanged for a dou­ble mur­der.

Se­nior po­lice of­fi­cials be­lieve they have dis­man­tled a ma­jor ex­tor­tion out­fit op­er­at­ing in the Cen­tral Di­vi­sion, fol­low­ing a sting op­er­a­tion in which one man was killed and an­oth­er ar­rest­ed on Thurs­day. A third man es­caped from the sting but of­fi­cials as­sured that an ar­rest is im­mi­nent.

Home­land Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter Roger Alexan­der says the Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice (TTPS) has ramped up op­er­a­tions in Long­denville, Ch­agua­nas, fol­low­ing a re­cent se­ries of home in­va­sions that have left res­i­dents on edge.

May Day ob­ser­vance in San Fer­nan­do yes­ter­day was marked by a low turnout, prompt­ing re­newed calls from labour lead­ers for uni­ty with­in the trade union move­ment.

Pub­lic Util­i­ties Min­is­ter Bar­ry Padarath has or­dered the man­age­ment of the Wa­ter and Sew­er­age Au­thor­i­ty to im­me­di­ate­ly re­sume wage ne­go­ti­a­tions with the Pub­lic Ser­vices As­so­ci­a­tion (PSA).

Joint Trade Union Move­ment (JTUM) leader An­cel Ro­get has cau­tioned that they will leave “no stone un­turn” to sup­port the Gov­ern­ment’s ef­forts in restart­ing the Petrotrin re­fin­ery.

Gov­ern­ment is set­tling out­stand­ing Cost of Liv­ing Al­lowances (CO­LA) and par­i­ty ad­just­ments for Trinidad and To­ba­go Elec­tric­i­ty Com­mis­sion work­ers rep­re­sent­ed by the Oil­field Work­ers Trade Union (OW­TU), Se­nior Staff As­so­ci­a­tion mem­bers and Es­tate Po­lice As­so­ci­a­tion of­fi­cers, with pay­ments start­ing mid-month in­to Ju­ly.