Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar yes­ter­day dou­bled down on her Gov­ern­ment’s in­ten­tion to shift its spend­ing pri­or­i­ties, by an­nounc­ing a sweep­ing cost-cut­ting ini­tia­tive aimed at redi­rect­ing pub­lic funds to­ward es­sen­tial ser­vices.

Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice Er­la Hare­wood-Christo­pher is ex­pect­ed to re­ceive an of­fi­cial let­ter from the Po­lice Ser­vice Com­mis­sion to­day say­ing that her sus­pen­sion was lift­ed, paving the way for her to lead the po­lice ser­vice.

For­mer chair­man of the Po­lice Ser­vice Com­mis­sion (PolSC) and at­tor­ney Nizam Mo­hammed and Pamela El­der, SC, want the PolSC to ex­plain why both Er­la Hare­wood-Christo­pher and Ju­nior Ben­jamin did not re­ceive of­fi­cial let­ters yes­ter­day re­gard­ing their roles and du­ties.

Some busi­ness own­ers are rais­ing con­cerns over mount­ing costs and pro­longed de­lays, as con­tain­ers con­signed to a non-gazetted Gov­ern­ment min­istry re­main stuck at the Port of Port-of-Spain.

Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) stal­warts are rais­ing alarm over the par­ty’s pro­pos­al to host its in­ter­nal elec­tions by the end of June, a move they say risks fur­ther desta­bil­is­ing the al­ready shak­en par­ty.

Trinidad and To­ba­go Na­tion­al Nurs­ing As­so­ci­a­tion (TTNNA) pres­i­dent Idi Stu­art says more than half of the stu­dents who sit the Re­gion­al Ex­am­i­na­tion for Nurse Reg­is­tra­tion (RENR) fail the ex­ams.

In an ef­fort to ramp up the con­struc­tion of new hous­es, new­ly-mint­ed Hous­ing Min­is­ter David Lee has promised that the Gov­ern­ment will make funds avail­able to the Hous­ing De­vel­op­ment Cor­po­ra­tion (HDC) to pay con­trac­tors.

New­ly ap­point­ed Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment Min­is­ter Khadi­jah Ameen has start­ed a na­tion­al flood mit­i­ga­tion cam­paign, which she said will see the im­me­di­ate de­ploy­ment of equip­ment and man­pow­er to clear drains and wa­ter­cours­es to pre­vent flood­ing.

While Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar de­scribed Pa­pourie Road, Bar­rack­pore, as a drain, many res­i­dents say it is much worse.

For the fourth time in eight years, the State has been or­dered to pay sig­nif­i­cant com­pen­sa­tion to a man from Clax­ton Bay due to the ac­tions of the po­lice. 

A tele­vi­sion host has re­quest­ed the dis­clo­sure of records re­lat­ed to mo­tor ve­hi­cle tax ex­emp­tions, State-fund­ed hous­ing, and med­ical ex­pens­es claimed by mem­bers of the for­mer Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) gov­ern­ment.

A lawyer has chal­lenged a judge’s de­ci­sion to re­fer him to the Dis­ci­pli­nary Com­mit­tee of the Law As­so­ci­a­tion of T&T (LATT) for fa­cil­i­tat­ing a ques­tion­able mul­ti-mil­lion dol­lar loan.