News Articles

M.A. Dworkin Banco Popular Closing Sunshine Mall Location Banco Popular is permanently closing its Sunshine Mall branch on the West side of STX on December 28, 2026. The bank cited dropping transaction number, slower profits, safety concerns (such as vagrancy) and property limits. Customers are directed to move their regular banking to the new facility in Sunny Isles. No staff members will lose their job, all employees will move to other branches

America needs oil now: Trump is sitting on a sleeping giant in the Virgin Islands By Albert Bryan Jr. Published in the Washington Examiner September 24, 2026 President Donald Trump has made American energy dominance and lower costs national priorities. He recently announced an agreement giving the United States majority control over more than 65 billion barrels of Venezuela’s proven crude reserves and brought refinery executives to the White House with a practical que

A.J. Pike USVI & BVI - A boundary line on the water has become a business line for charter operators in the Virgin Islands. For years, charter boats and water taxis have moved between the U.S. Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands with a rhythm that supported both economies. Guests flew into St. Thomas, boarded boats in the USVI, cleared into the BVI, and spent money across the chain of islands. That balance is now under strain. The USVI has set a new deadline for res

M.A. Dworkin USVI - A refinery restart on St. Croix is never just a business decision. It is a test of how far regulators will go to protect air quality, how much risk nearby communities are asked to accept, and whether a shuttered industrial site can return as an economic engine without repeating the mistakes that shut it down. The EPA’s recent rollback of clean air regulations could shift that balance. If federal greenhouse gas rules and Clean Air Act upgrade requirements b

St. Croix Times Staff Washington, D.C. - FinCEN's federal anti-money laundering agency has put a hard number on a problem that patients, providers, insurers, and investigators have seen for years: health care fraud is not a fringe crime. It is a nationwide financial threat. The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, better known as FinCEN, identified $17.5 billion in suspicious financial activity tied to possible health care fraud. The activit

M.A. Dworkin The Caribbean - Air travel is not a luxury in the U.S. Virgin Islands. It is the road system to the mainland, the medical bridge to specialists, the supply line for tourism, and the link between families spread across islands and states. That is why the possible collapse or sharp retreat of a major low-cost carrier like Spirit Airlines has hit the USVI harder than it would many mainland markets. In larger cities, another airline often steps in quickly. In the Car

Axel Dash USVI - Far below the sunlit coral gardens that most snorkelers and divers know, another reef world begins. Around St. Thomas and St. John, deep-reef habitats sit in dim blue water, often out of sight and out of mind, yet they may hold key clues about fish populations, coral resilience, and the future of marine conservation in the U.S. Virgin Islands. NOAA’s move to seek a diving team for surveys in these deeper waters signals more than a field assignment. It reflect

M.A. Dworkin USVI - A show-cause order sounds alarming because it is serious. It does not mean the University of the Virgin Islands has lost accreditation. It means the Middle States Commission on Higher Education, known as MSCHE, has asked UVI to prove why its accreditation should continue. UVI’s recent submission of its show-cause response is a major moment for the university, its students, faculty, alumni, and the wider Virgin Islands community. Accreditation affects more

M.A. Dworkin The Caribbean - A beach covered in sargassum can change in a single night. Clear water turns brown at the shore. The air fills with the smell of rotten eggs. Fishers struggle to launch boats, hotels scramble to reassure guests, and cleanup crews face a task that feels endless. Sargassum is not new, and it is not always harmful. Floating mats of it in the open Atlantic provide shelter for fish, turtles, crabs, and seabirds. The problem begins when huge amounts was

M.A. Dworkin USVI - Eight major airline carriers have submitted a joint letter and objected to the Virgin Islands Port Authority (VIPA) proposed remodeling plans, a public-private partnership (P3), claiming it would make flying in and out of Henry E. Rohlsen Airport and Cyril E. King Airport more expensive than competing regional airports. In a June 3, 2026 letter to Governor Albert Bryan Jr. and VIPA Interim Executive Director Ava Penn, the USVI Airlines Airport Affai

M.A. Dworkin St. Croix - Governor Albert Bryan Jr. on Monday, August 10, 2026, announced at a Press Briefing at Government House on St. Croix that he has formally requested of U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins to issue a federal drought disaster declaration for all three of the U.S. Virgin Islands. The request comes as the Territory continues to experience extreme drought conditions on St. Croix, St. Thomas and St. John, according to a Drought Information St

M.A. Dworkin Washington, D.C. - The Trump Administration is looking to reopen closed oil refineries, including the embattled one on St. Croix, in the U.S. Virgin Islands, amid high gasoline prices spurred on by the Iran war. A White House official confirmed to several news sources that the Trump Administration “would like to see refineries across the country reopen, especially the St. Croix refinery,” stating that the St. Croix refinery is of particular interest because