On today's NewsFeed, during a press briefing, Governor Albert Bryan Jr provided next steps to address the brown water crisis on St. Croix. During a ceremony at Government House Lisa Alejandro was officially sworn in as Commissioner of the Department of Property and Procurement. The United States Attorney announced the indictment of 13 charges against Richard Dangleben Jr., related to the July 4, 2023, shooting death of Virgin Islands Police Detective Delberth Phipps. Governor Bryan declared October as Rett Syndrome Awareness Month. We speak with Shane Gaspard, one of the founders of Ella’s Hope, an Awareness Organization in the territory. Click "listen" for these stories and more.
TRANSCRIPT:
Welcome to the WTJX Newsfeed in today's top stories. During a ceremony at Government House today, Lisa Alejandro was officially sworn in to lead the Department of Property and Procurement. The United States attorney announced the indictment of 13 charges against Richardson Dangleben related to the July four, 2023 shooting death of Virgin Islands Police Detective Delberth Phipps. Governor Albert Bryan declared October as Rett Syndrome Awareness Month.
We speak with Shane Gaspard, one of the founders of Ella's Hope, an awareness organization in the Territory. These are some of your headlines for today's WTJX News Feed from the Virgin Islands Public Broadcasting System Studios on Saint Thomas. This is the WTJX News Feed with Marcellina Ventura-Douglas welcome to the WTJX News Feed, bringing you the latest news and updates throughout our community.
We are seeing this as if we have a serious contamination problem in the Virgin Islands, specifically in Saint Croix. Following the results of the water testing related to the brown water issues facing residents on Saint Croix, Governor Albert Bryan Jr. Issued a no drinking advisory for potable water within certain areas on the island. The recent testing identified elevated levels of copper and lead in certain areas of the potable water distribution system. For locations that did have elevated levels following the sampling after the flushing of water for a period where Estate Diamond, Castle Burke, Cal Calhoun and Mon Bijou.
At a press briefing, Governor Albert Bryan made statements regarding steps being taken to address the water crisis. Our plan includes both short term and long term actions to mitigate and prevent future occurrences like this. Now, in the short term, we are addressing corrosion and metal contamination by flushing the lines within the system.
And what we've gone about doing from last night is all of the deadlines lines where people may be connected to houses, opening up those lines and flushing out those lines from the system. We're also making revisions to supply provisions to supply water to residents if needed, and making resources. Every single resource of the government available to our emergency management team and our workers at WAPA.
Testing is of the utmost importance in testing, testing, testing and therefore we are securing, testing and lab resources. Whether on island and off island, that can give us timely information on contamination. We've activated our emergency protocol protocols through our Joint Incident Information Center and by TMR and keeping and making sure that information, information, information is disseminated to the public.
That is one of the key things in this. We're having constant contact with the EPA and federal partners to access as many resources as we can to tackle this problem. While the Governor mentioned asking businesses to not take advantage during this time, Senator Angel Bolques has issued a letter to the governor calling for a water price freeze amid the water crisis.
Very deeply concerned about the developments that are taking place. And as we know, given the critical importance of water to human survival and health, it's important that we ensure that water is accessible to the people of the Virgin Islands, whether it's bottled water or water that's being hired for either systems or water, human consumption and even water filtration products.
All of these things should be on a price freeze. As you know, price gouging in recent times has been an issue here in the Virgin Islands, whereas opportunistic endeavors have been taking place by by some businesses. We don't want that to happen because, you know, we should have and make sure that our people are not deprived of adequate access to water in this time where we are dealing with the ongoing crisis of the Virgin Islands Water and Power Authority, concern concerning our water.
In July, the 35th Legislature approved Governor Albert Bryan's nomination of Lisa Alejandro to head the Department of Property and Procurement. During a ceremony at Government House today, Mrs. Alejandro was officially sworn in as commissioner of the Department of Property and Procurement. The newly sworn commissioner spoke on her road that included her time in both the private and public sector that has ultimately led her to the new position.
So I just want to speak about my passion for moving the department forward, because basically for me it's about redefining and reforming public procurement here in the Territory. But I want to say that it is my desire, and we have begun the journey to be a part of that change. And as a result, about two or three months ago, we got involved and shook hands with Nashville.
The National Association of State Professionals officials, and were awarded a grant, a grant here for the territory that we would be able to recruit from the University of the Virgin Islands in terms to work in the profession of procurement and property acquisition. Governor Bryan remarked during the ceremony that they could not have found a better person to manage the department, referring to Mrs. Alejandro being a pastor.
There are people in government. They like the legends. You hear about them, but you never see them. But you keep her. I kept hearing her name every time there was a problem to fix. Every time there was a solution to be had in property procurement, Lisa name came up. And what a blessing to have a person like this as the Commissioner of Property and Procurement.
And how was that for transparency and integrity? Jesus ..... can administers our contracts and in a time when we have so many, so much government funds coming through, I really like to thank the legislature for helping me and confirming her the way they did, because the integrity of all of us is on the line. As we continue to update the news feed.
Yesterday, United States Attorney Delia Smith announced that a federal grand jury had returned a 13 count indictment charging Richardson Dangleben Jr. With federal and territorial offenses related to the July 4, 2023 shooting death of the Virgin Islands Police Department, Detective Delberth Phipps. On that date, Detective Phipps and VIPD Officer Shahim Skeete responded to a 911 call that came in at approximately 7:54 a.m., the caller reported, observing a shirtless man in the hospital gown area of Saint Thomas wearing a bulletproof vest and appearing to have a gun in his back pocket.
Shortly after Detective Phipps and Officer Skeete arrived on the scene, Dangleben began firing at them. Both Officer Skeete and Detective Phipps returned fire and during the shootout, Detective Phipps suffered a fatal gunshot wound to his torso. Dangleben eventually laid on the ground to surrender, where he was subdued and transported to the Schneider Regional Medical Center to be treated for gunshot injuries that he sustained.
Detective Phipps was pronounced dead at the Schneider Regional Medical Center at 9:05 a.m.. Dangleben has been detained in federal custody since his initial arrest following the shooting at the time of the July 4th incident, Dangleben was on pretrial release for a prior shooting death that he had previously been arrested on in connection with a February 24th, 2023 homicide and was charged in the Saint Thomas Superior Court.
Dangleben Release conditions included an order to not possess any firearms, ammunition or any dangerous weapon. As we update the Virgin Islands, National Guard is celebrating its 50 year anniversary in the Territory to mark the celebrate win. Retired Lieutenant Colonel Beresford Edward, President of the Virgin Islands National Guard Association and Executive Committee Chair of the 50th anniversary celebration, provided details.
The Virgin Islands National Guard was federalized on 19th October 1973. At the time, it was a major, major layout. Galiber took charge of two companies, a headquarters detachment and a66 61st military police company. And to commemorate those at the 50th anniversary, we have a series of activities and we already started. But the main activity or the second main activity will be a military ball, which be held at the Western Beach and Spa at Frenchman's Reef the 22nd of October, starting at 6 p.m.
Ticket outlets are Chelsea's Gift Shop, sold to Sole and Cheryl's gift shop also at the Leonard B Francis Armory. Tickets will be sold. You may contact Chief Warrant Officer Antoine and her number is 3403446975. The cost per ticket is $125. A keynote speaker will be Brigadier General retired Deborah Harwell and also additional speaker feature speaker will be Major General Jets.
Rick. Major General Jets. Ray is originally from Saint Thomas. The honorees for this event are First Sergeant Terrence Holland, Lieutenant Colonel, retired Clarice Commission and Sergeant retired Beverly Baron. Also like to know that for those who are still looking for rooms to attend this event, which will, as I indicated, will be at the Frenchman's wreath, you may contact Chief Antoine also, if there's any business or any organization would like to sponsor a table at this event, you may contact Chief Antoine at the same number 3446975.
The body of former Senator Alicia “Chucky” Hansen will lie in state on October 19th at the legislature on St. Croix. Senator Hansen served 11 terms in the legislature where she held the positions of secretary, White House liaison and vice President of the Senate. Her body will lie in state from 12 p.m. to 3 p.m. at the St. Croix Legislature Building, Frits E. Lawaetz Legislative Conference Room, located at 3022 Golden Rock, Christiansted.
Members of the 35th Legislature, along with the community, may pay their respects during the public viewing. Funeral services for Senator Hansen will be held on October 20th at the Friedensthal Moravian Church in Christiansted with viewing at 9 a.m. and the service at 10 a.m., followed by interment at Kings Hill Cemetery. As we continue to update the news feed last week, Governor Albert Bryan Jr. designated the month of October as Rett Syndrome Awareness Month in the U.S. Virgin Islands.
He recognized the efforts of Ellis Hope, Inc., a local nonprofit organization working to raise awareness of Rett Syndrome in the territory and helping to fund a global research initiative. We spoke with Shane Gaspard, father of Ella Gaspard, namesake of Ella's Hope. My daughter Ella was born in Saint Thomas, and she was born a happy, healthy little girl.
And she was playing and kind of dancing and running on the beach. And she had a few words. She was about to two and a half years old. And then she stopped talking and you were like, Well, something could be could be wrong. And so we took her to the doctor and they said that this year diagnosed the Saint Thomas with autism.
And so we said, okay, well, we'll go with autism. So we kind of got involved in the autism community for a little bit and we realized she stopped using her right hand. I'm like, okay, this is not this is more than autism. So we this was about she's about two and a half, almost three years old. So we went we said we have to leave island and we have to go somewhere.
So what's the best place? Can we bring her to say what children's hospital in Philadelphia. And they diagnosed her Rett Syndrome, which is her. Her symptoms are cerebral palsy, epilepsy, Parkinson's, severe anxiety disorder, all in one little girl. So we were like, devastated. We ask when she'll talk again. This is she never will and she never has.
And today she's lost all purposeful use of her hands. She can't speak. She's not walking the beach anymore. She's in a wheelchair and she's fed by feeding tube. So Rett syndrome is progressively gets worse as as she gets older. And the purposive awareness group lost hope is to get the word out about Rett Syndrome because one and every 10,000 little girls and a primarily happens of little girls is diagnosed
Rett Syndrome is not genetic. It's not from myself or my wife. It's a spontaneous deletion of a protein on an X chromosome, which is women have two X chromosomes. And that's what primarily happens to little girls. Now, Ella is the only girl ever diagnosed Rett Syndrome in the Virgin Islands. So those numbers don't really work for us because she was originally misdiagnosed.
So we think that there's other little girls that may have been misdiagnosed and not actually receiving the proper care that Ella is. So we're trying to reach out and create this awareness that, hey, this this exists. Because when the doctors told us about Rett Syndrome, we had no idea what it was. And the doctor's like, don't Google it first.
Go see a therapist, because it's so devastating. It's what we wanted to do was a lot of people, a lot of families, they they deal with Rett syndrome privately because it's such a devastating diagnosis. We wanted to deal with it publicly and take people with Ella on a journey along for a cure for her. And so that's the purpose that it really is, trying to create awareness that maybe someone else's daughter has it and been diagnosed.
And also we raise funds and we directly directly fund research grants for a cure for this syndrome through Breast Syndrome Research Trust and the National Rett Syndrome Foundation and Harvard University neurobiology lab, we fund directly to. And these these are great, great people actually making a difference because Ella was diagnosed in 2017. And at that time, there were zero companies in the United States working on therapeutics for for the symptoms or a cure.
Now there's more than 20 and we started this just in the Virgin Islands and now we fundraise and probably 6 to 7 different countries around the world. We asked Mr. Gaspard to share where those interested could find more information about Ellis Hope. Our Facebook page, as Ella Hope Fund on Facebook and our web pages. ellashope.com
And we are we are Our organization is are all for a cure. 501c3. If you send a dollar to our organization, that dollar goes to fund research grants for a cure because we don't believe I don't believe my wife doesn't believe either from taking $1 from the path of a cure for little girls like Ella. As we update the news feed, the Social Security Administration announced that recipients who receive Social Security and Supplemental Security Income benefits will see a 3.2% increase in 2024.
We spoke with Kevin Rodriguez as public affairs specialist for Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands to give us the details. All of our beneficiaries of Social Security Administration who receive benefits for retirement, disability dependents and survivor's benefits, will see an increase of their benefits effective in January 24, all our beneficiaries, including babies and persons from babies who collect benefits because their parents receive only permanent disability or die.
Total persons who are over 100 years old who are receiving benefits. Anybody would qualify for increase of 3.2% or their benefits. So these are these are increases with the automatic so that persons do not have to fill any form, don't have to contact us. Social Security will send them a letter. notification by mail in December that will tell them I will how much will be the new benefit that we're going to deposit in January.
They're going to receive this amount, this benefit, and expect the date that they are receiving their monthly benefits. So I want to alert persons to be aware of scam calls, a person who may be calling you, asking for personal information to process this do not disclose any information to answer this call, this phone call. Because these are these increases would be automatic.
You have to complete any form, we ask. Mr. Rodriguez also provided an update to Medicare beneficiaries, the Center for Medicare and Medicaid just announced their new premium rates for their Medicare Part B, effective in January 2024, and this year 2023 persons who enroll on time to Medicare Part B, are paid $164.90 per month. But effective January 2024, the amount the premium amount will be $174.70 $174.70.
This situation where, first of all, I'm not it's not these are an increase on their benefits. They have to look for how much we’re deducting for Medicare premium because most of the time they're paying a lower amount for Medicare. In December, they're going to receive by mail notification showing how would be their benefit amount, including the deduction for Medicare premiums and how much they're going to receive in January.
Nominations are being sought for the presidential, science, technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics Teaching Award in the District of Saint Croix. Mrs. Juanita Boneque, who serves as the coordinator for the VI State Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics, Science and Technology, encouraged the nomination of K through six educators. The Presidential Award for Excellence in Math Science. Teaching is an award that they pay one pick out exemplary teachers.
We do a selection of state selection here, and we get state finalists. Presently, we have three state finalists from Saint Thomas last year from the secondary school level, which was sent to National and from National. They seem like one of the three to represent the Virgin Islands. Speaking on the intent of the competition, that competition in the competition that really likes sort of give teachers a prestige or and show the quality of teaching that they do and then they're compensated with a prize.
They get a trip, all expense paid to the White House and they participate. And a lot of friends they have up there. And then they're presented a check of $10,000 as part of the award as well. Speaking on how nominations are done, Mrs. Boneque stated, Anybody can nominate a teacher. They go on the website and there's a part that nominates a teacher.
They can go up there, put in, make sure they have the information of the teacher along with an email, because that email will then send information to the teacher that they have been nominated to participate in the program. The teacher has to have at least five years teaching experience to be able to be eligible for that award, to nominate a teacher and learn more about the Presidential award, visit www.paemst.nsf.gov or contact Mrs. Boneque at uanita.boneque@vide.vi that's JUANITA.BONEQUE@VIDE.VI nominations closed January 8th, 2024.
In more updates, the Virgin Islands Public Service Commission announced that its meeting scheduled for Tuesday, October 17th, has been rescheduled. The new date has not yet been announced and the Virgin Islands Economic Development Authority announced that a public hearing is scheduled for the Virgin Islands Economic Development Commission, a subsidiary of the VIEDA. The meeting will be held at 9 a.m. on Thursday, October 19, followed by a governing board decision meeting.
At the hearing, the board of directors will hear presentations and will consider an application from representatives of the Saint Croix business DM Management. A decision meeting for the VIEDA and the Economic Development Park Corp. as well as an application and compliance matters for the Economic Development Commission, will occur following the public hearing. The EDA Board of Directors may go into executive session with respect to any decisions made at any time during the meetings.
The meeting will be held over Zoom and registration is required to participate. Interested parties can find the information on the EDA's Facebook page or by contacting the department @info @usvi.eda.org. As we move down the news feed, we're turning now to our regional report. A former Haitian senator pleaded guilty in the United States on October 10th to charges related to the 2021 assassination of former President Jovenel Moise.
Jean Joel Joseph made his appearance at a Miami federal court and changed his plea after reaching an agreement with the government. Federal Judge Jose Martinez set sentencing for December 19th. Joseph faces the possibility of a life sentence, but the U.S. government would recommend reducing it if he cooperates with the investigation. That's according to the plea agreement. The former senator was extradited from Jamaica to the U.S. in June to face charges of conspiring to commit murder or kidnaping outside the United States and providing materials support resulting in death.
Knowing or intending that such material would be used to prepare for or carry out the conspiracy to kill or kidnap. Joseph is a well-known politician and opponent of the slain president's party. He is one of the 11 people in South Florida facing charges related to the killing. Eight more defendants are awaiting trial in the United States. According to charges, Joseph and others, including about 20 Colombian citizens and several dual Haitian American citizens, participated in a plot to kidnap or kill Haiti's president.
President Jovenel Moise was killed in his home on July seven, 2021. The Haitian government also arrested more than 40 people for their alleged roles in the murder. In our final update on the news feed, we're turning now to the territory's weather forecasts. Here's a look at the short term forecast for the Virgin Islands. I'm meteorologist Eric Weglarz. The heat advisory continues for the entire area.
We'll find a few increasing clouds across Saint Croix this afternoon and a few scattered showers as well. Highs will hold near 90 with the heat index values as high as 110 for Saint Thomas and Saint John. We'll find a few scattered showers as well with temperatures holding the lower nineties. Heat index values as high as 111 through this afternoon tonight.
Any scattered showers will taper off to partly cloudy skies across Saint Croix. Lows will fall back to near 80 ones from the east at 10 to 15 miles per hour. At Saint Thomas and Saint John. Scattered showers and thunderstorms will taper off to mostly cloudy skies overnight. Lows are mild in the lower eighties across both islands. Winds from the east southeast at 10 to 15 miles per hour during the day.
On Wednesday, we're expecting mostly sunny skies with a few scattered showers in the afternoon. Highs are very similar at Saint Croix in the upper eighties to near 90 heat index values between 107 and 110. So the heat advisory will likely reappear during the afternoon at Saint Thomas and Saint John will find a few scattered showers in the afternoon.
Temperatures will climb into the upper eighties and lower nineties. Heat index values close to 110. He concerns also expected there and scattered showers become more numerous overnight into Thursday with lows in the lower eighties. That's the latest look at your forecast our meteorologist Eric Weglarz. We are at the end of today's WTJX news feed I’m Marcellina Ventura-Douglas.
Join me every weekday at 5 p.m. Be sure to download the WTJX app and if you miss a part of our news, listen to it on demand wherever you get your podcasts. We now return to All Things Considered.
