Congress should take action

Trade- I've often wondered the same thing. Why aren't there more class-action suits here?

My wife worked at the hospital on STX for the last two years. She regularly brought home stories of people dying because of negligence or inadequate care. If five or ten patient families filed a suit against the hospital and/or the govt, wouldn't that get the necessary attention to truly affect some change?

But, then I think of the prison and umpteen years of contempt of court charges with little action or consequence, I think again.

Any legal minds out there interested in explaining the potential of a wave of class-action suits in the VI?

Jeff

I may be mistaken, but I believe that there are limits on the amount you can sue the government including the employees of the hospitals.

Hello, all,
As I understand it 4 Senators voted against. Would the sale have solved the problem(s)?

COMPANY NEWS; SOUTHERN CO. UNIT MAKES OFFER FOR VIRGIN ISLANDS UTILITY
Published: March 24, 2000
The Southern Company said yesterday that one of its units had offered the United States Virgin Islands more than $380 million for 80 percent of the government-owned utility holdings company, Virgin Islands Water and Power Authority. Under the proposal, the company's Southern Energy unit would control most of Virgin Islands Water and Power Authority's assets in a new company called Virgin Islands Electric and Water. The government would own the remaining 20 percent stake and would be entitled to dividend payments. The offer calls for Southern Energy to pay $105.4 million in cash, assume $153.9 million in bonds and forgive $24 million that the government owes the authority.

Thanks

I could be wrong, but if I remember correctly, they backed out because of stipulations the Government made on the sale. I doubt it would have been profitable for them because of that if they had agreed to those stipulations.

Trade -

It would be interesting to find out what those stipulations were mainly because in the past this deal with Southern has been mentioned here as an "if-only-we-had" senario.

PT

There are articles in the archives like this one: http://www.virginislandsdailynews.com/index.pl/article_home?id=10406561 and this one http://www.allbusiness.com/caribbean/633271-1.html.

Yeah, that was a good reminder. And 80 employees wanted the government to continue to own it for their retirement benefits & job security. There was concern over that & job security.

Ah, and cash flow problems: http://www.onepaper.com/stthomasvi/?v=d&i=&s=News:Local&p=1212898933

I'm not that smart, but if "WAPA" Collects from the USVI Govt and the Govt Collects form the citizens/taxpayers and the oil companies continue to raise their prices and "WAPA" keeps billing the USVI Govt and the Govt continues to bill the taxpayer etc, etc. WAPA is owned and operated by the USVI Govt. So by them not paying the bill, its kind of a subsidy to the taxpayer. How long can this go on? I don't Know. However there is a lot of federal grants available for alternative energy solutions for State and territories! This problem will not go away, it should be the number 1 priority for our elected officials. This is more than a quality of life issue, its a matter of life and death for some. So Take a moment and write all of your elected Officials today. Tell them enough is enough, do something! Write them everyday, stop them walking in the street ask them what they are doing, send letters to the papers call the radio stations. It will not get better if we continue to rely on "OIL".