Venezuela: While authorities in Trinidad and Tobago battle to stabilize its economy, grapple with gangland violence, a murder every 24 hours and prepare the country for general elections next year, government is also being forced to cope with a multifaceted problem involving Venezuelan refugees including sex rings, refugees and possibly acts of piracy at sea. Comment

People: Governor Andrew M. Cuomo on Wednesday, May 15 signed the Domestic Violence Survivors Justice Act (DVSJA), legislation first introduced in 2011 — now sponsored by Brooklyn Senator Roxanne J. Persaud — that reduces prison sentences for survivors of domestic violence and allows judges to order them to community-based programs instead of incarceration. Comment

New York: Brooklyn Democratic Sen. Zellnor Y. Myrie will on Thursday, May 30 lead a public hearing on automatic voter registration in Albany. Comment

Brooklyn: Senator Roxanne J. Persaud, (D) 19th Senate District in Brooklyn, presented a NYS Resolution to Steven Spohn, COO of AbleGamer Charity and Global Gaming Citizen, on World Global Accessibility Awareness Day, May 18, alongside New York Knicks Inaugural 2K league Gaming Champions, and Lead User Researcher, Jamaican American, Greg Haynes. Comment

Sports: The boys of the Barbados Defence Force moved closer towards being the island’s Premier League 2019 champions when they stung the reigning two-time defending champions, Weymouth Wales 2-0 Sunday to gain the edge following a draw in the best of three battle. Comment

Bangladesh scored an upset against the West Indies to capture the Tri-Nations trophy after the regional team slumped to a five-wicket defeat under the Duckworth-Lewis system in the final match of the series in Dublin, Ireland last week. Comment

St Vincent: A Vincentian athlete attending Kingsborough Community College (KCC) in Brooklyn has been named CUNY (City University of New York) Community College Male Scholar-Athlete of the Year 2019. Comment

Sports: Cricket West Indies (CWI) is facing serious financial problems which have forced new President Ricky Skerritt to stop all “nonessential activities”. Comment

Grenada: Freedom of movement for CARICOM citizens within the 15-country grouping does not mean that police in a jurisdiction cannot detain any such Caribbean person while law officers are legitimately investigating an issue. Comment

Haiti: Hardly a week after she won the special election to replace Grenada American former New York City Councilmember Jumaane Williams as representative for the 45th Council District in Brooklyn, Haitian American Farah Louis is already back on the campaign trail, urging votes to re-elect her in the Democratic Primary on June 25 for the much-coveted district seat. Comment

With the number of cyclists killed in New York City on the rise in 2019, it’s clear something must be done to prevent further tragedy. Brooklyn’s streets are proving to be treacherous for cyclists. There have been 10 cyclist fatalities in 2019 — the same number the city saw in 2018, according to Vision Zero data — eight of which have occurred in Brooklyn, including three in a four-day span last week. Comment

Viewpoints: KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, May 21, 2019 (IPS) — After the failure and abuses of privatization and contracting-out services from the 1980s, there has been renewed appreciation for the role of the state or government. Earlier promoters of privatization have taken a step backward, only to take two more forward to instead promote public-private partnerships (PPPs). Comment

Books: You were their hope for the future. For your elders, your birth represented things they wished would happen but that they’d never know. It was a joy for them to see you come into the world but for you, as in the new book “Ladysitting” by Lorene Cary, it’s harder to see them go. Comment

Guyana: Celebrating unity and pride, and sharing messages of love and togetherness, religious leaders joined Guyanese to commemorate the nation’s 53rd Anniversary of Independence at an Interfaith Service on Sunday, May 18 at York College in Queens. Comment

Sports: Cricket West Indies (CWI) and Cricket Canada recently met in Antigua to update the existing Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) designed to strengthen partnerships between both cricket organizations. Comment

Guyana: Barbados A call is being made for the government to ensure that construction companies in Barbados pay their taxes with new multimillion-dollar construction projects set to come on stream soon. Comment

Venezuela: PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — When her daughter was 4 years old, Jennifer Jean started a small catering business in Bourdon, a lower middle-class district of the Haitian capital. Comment

Brooklyn: A judge in Brooklyn on Friday, May 17 sentenced a Brooklyn youth to 17 1/3 years in jail for killing a 22-year-old college student just before the Caribbean J’Ouvert festival in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn began in 2016. Comment

Music: The king of reggae — Bob Marley, the king of pop — Michael Jackson, the queen of soul — Aretha Franklin and another entitled, music, royal named Prince all have something else in common. In life they were superstar achievers the world revered for their unrivalled talent. In death they are revered ancestors. Comment

Movies: Diamantino (Unrated) Carloto Cotta plays the title role in this dysfunctional family comedy about a champion soccer player forced to confront his long-estranged, evil twin sisters (Cleo Tavares and Carla Maciel about the meaning of genius. With Chico Chapas, Margarida Moreira and Anabela Moreira. Comment

Movies: “Isn’t it Romantic” Comment

Guyana: The Caribbean Community’s highest judicial body this week tried to make sense of Guyana’s unusual and highly complex electoral system, as its judges struggled to come to grips with aftermath issues linked to a late December opposition no confidence vote that had toppled the administration of retired army general David Granger. Comment

Brooklyn: First-year Senator Zellnor Y. Myrie on Thursday, May 9 held a Housing Forum in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, with the goal of connecting tenants to officials at city agencies and nonprofits who can help resolve their housing issues and build awareness of the effort to reform the rent laws in New York State. Comment

People: A ban on pre-employment testing for marijuana usage has now become law in New York City. The legislation from New York City Public Advocate Jumaane D. Williams was approved by the City Council on April 9. It has officially been enacted after passing the 30-day deadline without action from the mayor. Comment

Brooklyn: Brooklyn Senator Roxanne J. Persaud will host on Saturday her annual Senate District 19 College Resource Fair, featuring dozens of colleges and representatives from across New York and other states. Comment

St Vincent: KINGSTOWN, Mar 4 2019 (IPS) — In the tiny eastern Caribbean nation of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, proverbs relating to the weather are very common. Comment

Sports: West Indies has climbed to the eighth position in the just released One-Day International (ODI) rankings — a boost ahead of the World Cup, after overhauling Sri Lanka to reach that spot in the International Cricket Council ODI charts. Comment

Grenada: When the 125th running of the illustrious Penn Relays Carnival at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia got underway last week, there was a new flag among the few at the Franklin Field Stadium. Comment

Venezuela: In the Caribbean Community family of 15 nations, there are two major simmering border rows dating back centuries to the days of British and Spanish colonialism. One involves Venezuela’s claim to almost two thirds of Guyana and large tracts of its sea space where American supermajor ExxonMobil has found more than six billion barrels of light, sweet, crude oil. The other has to do with Guatemala laying claim to half of the territory of Belize so it could easily gain road access to the Caribbean coast through Belize for its imports and exports. Comment

Guyana: The United Federation of Teachers (UFT) Saturday night bestowed its Juanita Diggs Educator of Excellence Award on Guyanese-born, Queens Family Group Daycare provider Shaundell Agrippa. Comment

Viewpoints: A ban on any of fur products is unacceptable. The bill, which was just introduced in late March, is being inexplicably fast tracked to the hearing stage, which was scheduled for May 15. This does not allow our industry ample time to prepare or accurately study the implications of this decision. Comment

Brooklyn: Newly-elected Haitian American Assemblywoman, Dr. Mathylde Frontus is focused on making government more accessible for constituents in the 46th Assembly District in Brooklyn. Comment

The Young Guyanese Professionals Alliance, founded by Melissa Noel and RKHTY, will host a networking event titled, “Untapped: Defining our Legacy” on Saturday, May 18, at the Slope Lounge, 837 Union St., Brooklyn to begin Guyana’s 53rd Independence Anniversary celebrations. Comment

Haiti: UNI, a Haitian an artist collective, says it is collaborating with the Consulate General of Haiti in New York in celebrating Haitian Flag Day on May 18 at the Judson Memorial Church in Washington Square in Manhattan under the theme, “San-Souci.” Comment

Brooklyn: The People of the Sun Middle Passage at Brooklyn’s Medgar Evers College says it will hold its 30th Annual Tribute to Our Ancestors of the Middle Passage, between 16th and 17th Streets on the Boardwalk, Coney Island, on Saturday, June 8, from noon to sun down. Comment

Music: Only a few performers earn acclaim for developing a unique sound. Emeline Michel can count herself among those few. Known for her fusion of traditional Haitian rhythms (kompa, rasyn, and twoubadou) with other musical genres (pop, jazz, and blues), Michel said she created a sound, which appealed to both traditional and contemporary listeners worldwide. Comment

Sports: A maiden century by Vincentian Sunil Ambris helped West Indies to their highest successful run chase to make 331-5 to beat Ireland by five wickets in the ongoing One-Day International (ODI) Tri-Nation Series in Ireland. Comment