A major expansion in access to Jamaica’s regulated cannabis industry is under way, with new permit regimes aimed at bringing more small and traditional farmers into the legal framework. The reforms, now formalised in the Jamaica Gazette, are designed to tackle long-standing barriers that have kept many rural cultivators out of the licensed sector.

WESTERN BUREAU: Jamaica secured major global exposure yesterday as NBC’s morning programme, Today with Jenna & Sheinelle, aired from the island, with the aim of reinforcing its recovery from Hurricane Melissa and appeal to the critical United States (US) market. The popular US network show will continue its multiday Girls’ Trip broadcast from Jamaica today, but it was not the first time Today hosts have made their way to the island.

Attorneys for Rae Town Councillor Rosalie Hamilton have issued a 24-hour ultimatum to Kingston Central Member of Parliament (MP) Donovan Williams, threatening Supreme Court action unless he ceases “unwelcome contact” and alleged harassment against her. The legal strike, contained in two letters dated March 26, also rejected claims that the councillor defamed Williams in a series of leaked voice notes now widely circulated.

The Ministry of Education, Skills, Youth and Information has indicated that it has engaged multiple stakeholders to help locate the more than 300 students who have been missing from the formal school system since the passage of Hurricane Melissa in October last year. Speaking yesterday during a quarterly press briefing hosted by the Education Transformation and Oversight Committee (ETOC), Dr Kasan Troupe, permanent secretary in the education ministry, said the ministry has revamped its Find The Child initiative, which was first launched during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Tank-Weld Metals (TW), the leading supplier of steel products in Jamaica, is “likely abusing its dominance in the market by harming rivals and customers”, a report by the country’s fair competition watchdog has concluded. The report is based on an investigation conducted by the Fair Trading Commission (FTC) into a complaint filed by another company, ARC Manufacturing Limited, alleging that TW was selling steel reinforcing bars – also known as rebar – below cost to the detriment of rivals.

WESTERN BUREAU: For the next three months, the Hanover Municipal Corporation (HMC) will be putting into effect an advertisement and building amnesty, which will become effective on April 1 and run until June 30. Mayor of Lucea and Chairman of the HMC, Sheridan Samuels, told The Gleaner that the amnesty was not just an income-earning exercise but was aimed at strengthening compliance, improving community development, and strengthening orderly growth across the parish.

The upcoming 11th Biennial Diaspora Conference is being touted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade as potentially the most impactful since the first was held in 2004, with a number of changes implemented to achieve this. Alando Terrelonge, minister of state in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, addressing a town hall meeting to launch the conference in New York on Monday evening, said he was excited about the prospects of the upcoming event, to be held at the Montego Bay Convention Centre from June 14 to June 18.

WESTERN BUREAU: Prime Minister Dr Andrew Holness is urging Jamaicans to embrace environmental stewardship and resilience as the country embarks on the Restoration, Ecological Enhancement and Landscape Framework (RE-LEAF) National Programme, an initiative aimed at restoring forests devastated by Hurricane Melissa. Speaking at the launch in Lowe River, Trelawny, yesterday, Holness recalled the destruction he witnessed immediately after the storm.

What should have been a routine trip to the doctor with his children ended in bloodshed just steps away from the Kingston Public Hospital (KPH), where tragedy unfolded on a strip of land long whispered about for fear and turf control. Yesterday afternoon, 30-year-old Damion ‘Danger’ Henry was gunned down in the unofficial parking area adjacent to the hospital — a space meant to serve the sick, but one now stained by years of violence. Henry had come for one reason, his relatives said: to seek medical attention for his ailing children.

It was the guidance of a mentor that led Dorrette Rhoden Henry into the teaching profession and, 30 years later, that influence continues to shape her approach to teaching and learning. After graduating from the Mary Mount High School in St Mary, Rhoden Henry said she was invited by the former principal of Preston Land Primary School, in the parish, to join the teaching staff there. It was here that she discovered her “calling” for teaching and, despite challenges, has diligently stayed the course.

As the transatlantic hurricane season approaches, Ansord Hewitt, director general at the Office of Utilities Regulation (OUR), is calling for a multilayered disaster risk framework for the utility sector to ensure access to funding and provide a critical safety net in the aftermath of any adverse event.

The further cross-examination of a senior investigator took centrestage in the Clansman gang trial yesterday, as defence attorneys sought to challenge the credibility and thoroughness of the policeman’s investigative work in relation to the murder of William Christian. The detective sergeant, who has served in the police force for approximately 20 years and is on a path to be promoted to an inspector, came under intense questioning from defence attorney John Mark Reid. Reid represents several defendants in the trial.

WESTERN BUREAU: Dr Anthony Taylor, principal of St Mary’s Preparatory School, says his institution will tighten safety measures around bun-eating contests but will not remove the activity from its sports day programme unless parents or the Ministry of Education, Skills, Youth and Information request that children not participate.

Rae Town Division Councillor Rosalie Hamilton is daring Member of Parliament for Kingston Central Donovan Williams to proceed with his promised lawsuit as the now-public feud between the two Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) representatives intensifies. The division falls within the Kingston Central constituency. Yesterday, Hamilton, who has served the division as councillor for 19 years over separate periods, dismissed the legal threat issued by an attorney for Williams, which stemmed from a series of explosive allegations she levelled against him.

The Government has adjusted its tax policy in relation to the Special Consumption Tax (SCT) on non-alcoholic sweetened beverages and the Environmental Protection Levy on domestic goods, but the measures will remain revenue neutral. In closing the 2026-2027 Budget Debate in the House of Representatives yesterday, Finance and the Public Service Minister Fayval Williams said the SCT on non-alcoholic sweetened beverages would now be levied at a rate of 22 cents per gram of added sugar rather than on the volume of the beverage as previously announced.

WESTERN BUREAU: In the wake of two violent incidents involving students in St Ann earlier this month, the National Secondary Students’ Council (NSSC) is urging the expansion of anti-violence campaigns and mental-health support across schools. The council argues that a stronger, more coordinated approach is needed to improve student safety and security. NSSC President Brian Anderson said that protecting Jamaica’s young people requires a collective effort – one in which students themselves must be active participants.

The handling of a bag recovered from the scene of a 2020 murder came under intense scrutiny in the Supreme Court on Monday, as the defence pressed its case that investigators may have compromised key evidence in the ongoing Clansman Gang trial. During cross-examination of a detective sergeant, the case’s lead investigator, defence attorney Denise Hinson suggested that the senior officer “disturbed the crime scene” when he removed a “red-and-black” bag before the arrival of forensic personnel.

Jamaica is embarking on an ambitious drive to expand agricultural output, bolster food security and earn more foreign exchange by planting at least 3,000 acres of five key fruit trees – mango, ackee, breadfruit, avocado and coconut – by 2035. The initiative is designed to draw in farmers from one-acre plots to large commercial holdings, provided they have suitable land, appropriate crop choices and a willingness to participate.

Dr Tomlin J. Paul, the late deputy principal of The University of the West Indies (UWI), was yesterday remembered as a “Caribbean man”, a devoted father, and a distinguished medical professional, as mourners gathered at the University Chapel to bid him farewell. As rain clouds gathered overhead and birds chirped across the chapel grounds, tributes painted the picture of a one-of-a-kind man with a natural gift for making people feel valued. They spoke of a leader who prioritised students’ growth and well-being, reflected on their realities, and championed practical solutions.

As the curtain falls on more than half a century of medical cooperation with Jamaica, highly trained Cuban specialists will begin exiting the island this Thursday, departing on four chartered flights from Kingston to their homeland, which has been reeling from increasingly frequent islandwide blackouts linked to a United States (US)-imposed fuel blockade.

A catholic priest who was found guilty of having sex with a minor on the compound of his church was on Friday sentenced to 12 years’ imprisonment in the St Catherine Circuit Court. The 41-year-old was sentenced by Justice Dale Palmer to 12 years for having sexual intercourse with a person under 16 and five years for sexual touching. The sentences are to run concurrently, meaning he will serve 12 years in prison. He must serve eight years before being eligible for parole.

Regarded as part of the ‘dream team’ of specialist ophthalmologists at St Joseph’s Hospital, Dr Roberto Mirales has spent years restoring sight to patients once condemned to darkness. Affectionately called ‘Dr Roberto’, the Cuban doctor has worked in Jamaica for the past nine years, breaking only to return home during the COVID-19 pandemic. When hospital officials later requested his return through the Cuban government, his answer was immediate. It was yes.

Cuban medics are preparing to leave Jamaica this week and Jamaicans have been showing appreciation and solidarity with the men and women of the Caribbean island that has been wilting under the onslaught of a fuel blockade. Twice in five days, their homeland has gone into complete darkness as Cuba’s ageing grid failed again and again, crippling all activities and sending the country’s health sector into further chaos.

From the benches of Parliament to the debating society at The University of the West Indies (UWI), arguments for and against legalising consensual sex among minors continue to stir opposing views, particularly an accompanying Jamaicans For Justice (JFJ) recommendation of a ‘close-in-age’ defence, which could absolve adults, up to age 19, of having sexual relations with 14-year-olds.

Although she spends every school day assisting her seven-year-old son in class, Janice Tulloch Parkinson is not officially recognised as his “shadow”, a role defined and regulated by the Ministry of Education, Skills, Youth and Information, and typically reserved for trained personnel rather than parents.

Two of Jamaica’s most recent high-profile convicted killers, former policeman Noel Maitland and ex-parliamentarian Jolyan Silvera, are now housed under similar conditions inside the Tower Street Adult Correctional Facility, where both men have been placed in single cells, according to sources familiar with the details of their incarceration.

Regarded as part of the ‘dream team’ of specialist ophthalmologists at St Joseph’s Hospital, Dr Roberto Mirales has spent years restoring sight to patients once condemned to darkness. Affectionately called ‘Dr Roberto’, the Cuban doctor has worked in Jamaica for the past nine years, breaking only to return home during the COVID-19 pandemic. When hospital officials later requested his return through the Cuban government, his answer was immediate. It was yes.

The Criminal Records (Rehabilitation of Offenders) Amendment Act, 2026 was passed in the Senate in January and signed by Governor General Sir Patrick Allen on February 20. In addition to the reform is the automatic expungement in certain older, non-custodial matters, where the sentence was imposed and completed prior to January 1, 2005, and the individual has not been convicted of another offence. Such individuals automatically benefits from expungement without being required to undergo the application process.

WESTERN BUREAU: From the quiet hills of Adelphi in St James to the corridors of power at the Pentagon, Jamaica-born Mark Denton is poised to make history as the first Black man to lead the Cadet Corps at Norwich University in its more than 200-year existence. Denton, who migrated to the United States (US) at age 10 and is now an American citizen, has been selected as the 57th Commandant of Cadets and Vice President of Student Affairs at the prestigious private military institution in Northfield, Vermont, founded in 1819.

Onion importers are pushing back against suggestions that their business is killing local farmers, now experiencing a glut. Since the first round of reaping began following the devastation wrought by Hurricane Melissa, local farmers have been howling about their inability to sell their produce, resulting in hundreds of pounds rotting in the field. From St Elizabeth to St Thomas, they have pointed the finger of blame at importers of foreign-produced onions.

Courtney Anderson would have been relieved when an assault case against him was dismissed in 1996, but little did he know that 30 years later he would still be experiencing the recurring nightmare of trying to get his police record cleared so he can move forward with his life unencumbered by the case. Jamaica’s expungement law allows eligible individuals to have certain criminal charges and/or convictions removed from their records, providing them with an opportunity for a fresh start.

Customs officials have implemented a new policy that mandates employees to detain all three-dimensional or 3D printers imported into Jamaica, pending an internal verification of the end-user, a leaked internal memo has revealed. The move by the Jamaica Customs Agency (JCA) comes amid fears that Jamaican crime syndicates have gained access to the machines and are using them to print component parts used to make so-called ‘ghost guns’.

Jamaica’s Ambassador to the United States, Major General (Ret’d) Antony Anderson, last Tuesday reinforced a commitment to the Caribbean’s regional defence and security cooperation, as he addressed defence and security professionals from 16 nations at the William J. Perry Center for Hemispheric Defense Studies, National Defense University, Fort McNair, Washington DC.

Western Bureau: A simple act of care, which was sparked by a newborn baby wrapped in a worn towel, has blossomed into a meaningful donation for mothers and babies at the Savanna-la-Mar Public General Hospital in Westmoreland. On Friday morning, the hospital’s maternity department received more than 200 receiving blankets from the United States (US)-based Support Your Girlfriends Foundation, an initiative led locally by returning resident Vanessa Moore. Moore said the effort began after witnessing a close friend struggle during an emergency delivery.

WESTERN BUREAU: Nickeisha Black, the 34-year-old mother of three children who is battling Stage-3 colorectal cancer, says she is placing her fate in the hands of God and the prospective kindness of others, as she continues to seek help amid mounting medical and financial challenges