Brooklyn: As real estate prices rise, many homeowners in Brooklyn are feeling the heat, as real estate fraud, intense harassment of homeowners to sell their homes and over development in which multi-story buildings are beside one-family houses have also increased to alarming levels. Comment

Viewpoints: For many, owning a home or piece of real estate is a dream come true. It is generally the single most important and largest investment we make in our lifetime. We take out mortgages which we have to repay over a very lengthy period of time, sometimes up to 30 years. For the lucky few, they would have been gifted their real estate through a will from a family member or friend. Comment

Food: Brooklyn’s premier beer and wine fest returns this year at a new time and a new location. Tap+Cork: Brooklyn Beer & Wine Fest will host its seventh annual event on Saturday, May 25, 2019, at Kings Theater in Brooklyn. More than 1,700 festival-goers are expected to descend upon the day -long event, which combines the experience of grand tastings with a block party atmosphere. Comment

Jamaica: Flush with shame and criticism about the way they treated colonial era West Indian migrants authorities in England earlier this month announced plans to compensate nationals who were forcibly deported back home or were denied health care and other basic services because they were misclassified as illegals but the amounts being proffered appear set to trigger yet another controversy over the so-called Windrush generation of Caribbean immigrants. Comment

Books: They said it would never work. He married up too high. She was a gold-digger and he didn’t realize it yet. She wanted a Daddy figure; he was Mama’s Boy. Neither was good enough for the other, so they said it wouldn’t work. And in the new novel, “Before We Were Wicked” by Eric Jerome Dickey… they were right. Comment

St Vincent: The Brooklyn-based, Vincentian group, Friends of Sion Hill, Inc. on Saturday, April 13 bestowed its Lifetime Achievement Award on former West Indies fast bowler Winston Davis at a gala honor ceremony at the Friends of Crown Heights Educational Center in Brooklyn. Comment

Brooklyn: New York City Public Advocate Jumaane D. Williams on Tuesday denounce what he characterized as Hudson Yard’s “wealthy-focused business practices,” which includes “many cashless businesses and the unsavory use of the EB-5 program to claim funds intended for economically distressed areas.” Comment

Arts & Theater: Trevor Smith says he is known as the grandmaster of kite making in Guyana. “Making kites come with three phases. I love making kites…I have a passion for preparing my frames, and at the end of process, I feel joy when I see what I have accumulated from honest work,” said the street vendor, who has become a permanent fixture at the corner of Regent and Camp streets, in the capital city of Georgetown, during the Easter season. Comment

Brooklyn: Ten rent-stabilized tenants on Tuesday filed a complaint in Kings County (Brooklyn) Supreme Court alleging that their landlord, the Shasho family, has engaged in long-term tenant harassment and illegal housing practices in an effort to push tenants out of their rent-stabilized apartments in Brooklyn’s gentrifying Prospect-Lefferts Garden neighborhood. Comment

Trinidad and Tobago: The Trinis ill-treated their Bajan hosts by handing them a 24-14 thumping to win gold in the Under-19 Boys’ Water Polo final at the 34th CARIFTA Aquatics Championships over the weekend. Comment

St Vincent: The Friends of Sion Hill, Inc., a Brooklyn-based, Vincentian community group, on Saturday, April 13 honored Vincentian centenarian Mitchinson “Mitchie” James with its Longevity Award. Comment

Sports: The new Cricket West Indies Board (CWI) has fired the entire West Indies selection panel and a three-man committee will select the regional team for the upcoming International Council (ICC) World Cup in England starting at the end of May 2019. Comment

Haiti: NEW YORK (AP) — A second federal judge has blocked the Department of Homeland Security from forcing tens of thousands of Haitians to return to their native country. Comment

Movies: Despite being saddled with a couple of generic American names, John Smith’s (Marcel Ruiz) life story has been anything but boring. It’s just too bad that the shy, 14-year-old has been too embarrassed to share it. Comment

Movies: Fast Color (PG-13 for violence and brief profanity) Sci-fi thriller about a woman (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) forced to abandon her family and go on the run by a sheriff (David Strathairn) who discovers she has superpowers. With Lorraine Toussaint, Saniyya Sidney and Christopher Denham. Comment

West Indies fast bowler Alzarri Joseph grabbed 6 wickets for 12 runs to record the best-ever figures in Indian Premier League (IPL) history, as he made a sensational start to his IPL career by firing Mumbai Indians to a 4-run victory over Sunrisers Hyderabad recently. Comment

Sports: Barbados were crowned West Indies Women’s Twenty20 Blaze and the regional women’s double-crown champions following an unbroken third-wicket stand between world-rated all-rounder Deandra Dottin and West Indies women’s teammate Kycia Knight, which formalized an eight-wicket victory over Guyana at the Guyana National Stadium recently. Comment

Trinidad and Tobago: Barbados The Convener of the Barbados Bar Association’s Human Rights’ Committee, Lalu Hanuman, has expressed concern over a move by the government to implement legislation making it more difficult for people to be granted bail. Comment

A female couple in the Cayman Islands decided that if at first they couldn’t succeed, they would try again. Motivated by that popular adage one year after they were refused application and permission to marry, a re-trial of the procedure proved successful allowing them to amend the laws of the British territory. Their successful request was approved when Chief Justice Anthony Smellie ruled that the practice of denying applications for same-sex unions were in violation of the constitution. Comment

Jamaica: Unlike neighbors in the eastern Caribbean that revel with abandon prior to 40 days of fastidious sacrifice and dedication to their Christian conviction related to the Lenten season, the end of the period and the arrival of Easter, Jamaicans are ready for Bacchanal Jamaica a high energy, national soca celebration in the land of reggae. Comment

Sports: Newly elected Cricket West Indies (CWI) President, Ricky Skerrit has announced a “shake-up” of the selection policy which could pave the way for past players like Kieron Pollard, Dwayne Bravo, and Sunil Narine who have not featured in in the One-Day International team in recent years to have a chance to play at being selected for the World Cup. Comment

Arts & Theater: The 40th anniversary production of Jamaican playwright Easton Lee’s “The Rope and The Cross” will be staged on Easter Sunday, April 21, at The New Vibe Lounge, in Rockville Centre, Long Island. Comment

Arts & Theater: From a tender age Trinidad-based actor and producer Gregory Pollonais has always had a fascination with the arts in particular the world of film. With a creative mind and determined spirit, he is currently pursuing his passion for film on a professional and international scale. Comment

St Lucia: CASTRIES, April 12, 2019 (IPS) - Jua Kali is a social enterprise tackling waste management and helping to reduce reliance on St. Lucia’s only landfill, which will reach the end of its lifespan in 2023. The company, with its slogan ‘Trashing the Idea of Waste,’ hosts waste collection drives through pop up depots that encourage residents to bring in glass, plastic and tin cans in exchange for supermarket shopping points. Comment

Books: You were crazy in love. It happened the first time you heard Beyoncé Knowles, before she won a Grammy, before she added to her life with a man and motherhood. It happened the first time you saw her, a skinny child with a mispronounced name, and in “Queen Bey,” a book of essays edited by Veronica Chambers, you’ll want to say that name again. Comment