Important Note: This Internet version of 7 News is a verbatum
transcript of our evening television news script. Many interviews on our newscast
are conducted in Creole. In the interest of clarity for our foreign readers,
we attempt to paraphrase the Creole quotes in English
Gunshots rang out around 11:30 this morning on Castle Street, killing a man who's no stranger to the law. 40 year old Gion Bernard - who was paralyzed back in 2019 - had just left his home when he was targeted. Bernard spent his life in and out of prison and the courtroom, but those close to him say that after a bullet left him in a wheelchair, he turned his life around.
Bernard was supposed to spend today getting a haircut, going to the clinic, and taking a few drinks with some friends. But he was killed before he could even begin his day.
Courtney Menzies was on the scene and has this story.
40 year old Gion Bernard, better known as Gizmo, has been living in a wheelchair for 6 years but that didn't stop a gunman from pulling the trigger and ending his life this morning. Bernard was reportedly on his way to the clinic but a single gunshot was fired at him while he sat right outside his gate.
He'd been renting at that home on Castle for about a month, and one of his friends and neighbors said that earlier this morning, he asked him to hang out.
Voice of: Friend of Deceased "He is someone who just likes to relax and probably just hangs on the block and whosoever knows him might stop and give him a little handout or whatever and he take a drink or two. He sent me a voice note this morning and told me, let's link up and take a two drink. Well, I'm not a drinker like that so I told him, I'm not into that drinking right now."
"Probably couple hours later I came out of yard and somebody said someone got shot on the street. When I came, the man had his face on the tar."
Bernard had been left paralyzed after he was shot in 2019. It was the same year he walked from two attempted murder charges. It also wasn't the first time he'd been shot - only three years before that he'd survived an attempt on his life.
But despite that, his landlady and long time friend said that he was no longer a threat to anybody.
Voice of: Landlady of Deceased "I know Gion for years, everybody knows Gion used to give his little trouble but since he got shot and paralyzed Gion doesn't really give trouble. Everyone know Gion is no threat to anybody, even if he and somebody would catch in an argument, yes he would have a little hard talk but at the end of the day, before the hard talk done, Gion will come and apologize and everything, straight with you again."
"He talks about things he used to do in the past and how he learnt, how he's changing his life and so, only that."
Courtney Menzies: "And he never confided in you that maybe there was a threat or something on his life?"
Voice of: Landlady of Deceased "No, none at all."
But while they don't know why he was targeted, his friend told us he never lived in fear, despite making enemies.
Voice of: Friend of Deceased "Gizmo is an ignorant person but at the end of the day, it's like if you and him are friends, he's cool with everybody and he will respect you. He call me his old school, I'm far older than him so at the end of the day. If you and him can't agree, you will always catch, but at the end of the day, once you're friends it's different so I don't know what is the situation, I don't know what happened, I just came as a bredrin that knows and lives around him."
"He's a person that's always moving around and he's never been a fearful person that at the end of the day, if somebody wants to do him something, he won't stay in his house even though he's in a wheelchair."
"He's a youth and again, he's ignorant. You can't tell him anything and he will just take it like that. He doesn't care because he's in a wheelchair. One next thing, he doesn't feel sorry for himself. He was a person who's fearless in the sense that he always say God got him."
"My question is not to want to know who did it, my question is why."
Bernard had 3 children.
Apart from the two attempted murder charges, Bernard has also faced charges of robbery, theft, rape, and firearm offenses.
And another sign of an escalating crime climate in the city came last night when two innocent women were shot at around 6:30 near Berger Field, at the corner of Sarstoon and Vernon Street.
40 year old Stephany James and 55 year old Maria Cruz - who are from the area - were walking with what police call "a known male individual" when they came under fire.
As they got near a food stall in the well lit area, Martin noticed a dark-complexioned man wearing a red shirt standing approximately 30 feet away beside the football field fence on Sarstoon Street. Moments later, he pulled a firearm and opened fire in their direction, injuring James and Cruz. Cruz received one gunshot injury to her right ankle, while James received one gun shot injury on her upper right arm and one on her upper back.
Stephany James was treated and released, while Maria Cruz remains admitted in stable condition.
The Commissioner of Police is in the north on a two day tour following the murder of two Belizeans in Chetumal. These Belizeans - Aaron Tunn and Michael Whittaker - were found bound and taped up with a warning written on a sign next to them. And cops believe there was another Belizean who escaped the killers and jumped the border into Belize. So the ComPol was in Corozal observing the illegal border crossings, which he says are a problem they need to address urgently.
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police "Myself accompanied by commander operations Mr Grinage, the other regional commander Mr Noble and the unit commanders Mr Gamboa and Mr Mejia, we went and did a tour of the irregular border crossing areas, the areas that are within the northern operations area of responsibility and the purpose is just to make sure that our team on the ground is prepared and doing what need to be done to be able to ward away those persons from across the border who may want to come into Belize and operate and you'd know that over the past few days we have seen an increase in cartel activities across neighboring Chetumal and so we want to make sure that those persons from that area do not come over to Belize and seek refuge so we're making sure that we look at our plans that we have in place and if there's a need to tweak it to make it more effective then that is what we are doing."
"There seems to be a lot of movements of Belizeans going over the Mexican side via the irregular border crossings. I think that is something we need to address, particularly in the Botes area. We need to see what we can do to eliminate that. We would know that most of the activities the take place in that area are motivated by the cartels so that's one issue we have to address. In terms of the officers' preparedness, I'm happy to say they're equipped. Thanks to the government, we have received a number of equipment for them to be able to execute their duties, including vehicles, weaponry, body armors, etc, they have those things, drones. So in terms of equipment, they're ready. They seem to be quite motivated and prepared for the task."
Williams said that they haven't received an update on the investigation from their Mexican counterparts as yet.
Last week the US said it will take away the visas of those public officials involved in employing Cuban Doctors from the medical brigade, this week they're targeting public officials who they believe facilitate illegal immigration and that includes immigration and customs officers.
The announcement from the Secretary of State Marco Rubio demands that countries along migratory routes do their part to stem the flow of illegal migrants to the United States. And for those who the US deems aren't doing their part, Rubio says they will have their visas cancelled. The release says it, quote, "(applies) to foreign government officials, including immigration and customs officials, airport and port authority officials, and others believed to be responsible for knowingly facilitating illegal immigration to the United States, including through failure to enforce immigration laws or establishing and implementing policies and practices that knowingly facilitate the transit of aliens intending to illegally immigrate into the United States via the U.S. southwest border." End quote.
How will it affect officials in Belize? Well - we do know that there are immigration officers informally accused of facilitating fraudulent migration and we also know that some of them had already had their visas cancelled. And there may be more of that coming.
But, according to the CEO in the Ministry of Immigration Tanya Santos, at the policy and legislative level all that can be done, with many suspected illegal migrants incarcerated and returned to their countries of original - on even a suspicion of false migration. And indeed, many times they have been known to enforce to a fault, sending home visitors from Jamaica and Brazil who have staked every claim to legitimacy as vacationers.
But, who knows what will satisfy the US State Department. Rubio's statement says, quote, "America will not back down when it comes to defending our national security interests."
One of the manifesto promises in Plan Belize 2.0 is another raise in the minimum wage, to $6 an hour. During a roundtable discussion today, the president of the Belize Chamber of Commerce and Industry explained why this move can do more harm than good.
Katherine Meighan, President, Belize Chamber of Commerce "We want to be able to know that there is a path and predictability for something that as significant as changing the minimum wage. A change in the minimum wage has a very very impactful, it can be positive it can be negative, effect within our business economy and within our business community. From the minimum wage perspective this goes back when the discussions about $5 an hour had come up there was a group that was put together of the tripartite entity meaning the unions or the employees, the employees and the government they took a tremendous amount of time to identify what was the most predictable and healthiest way to move that forward and unfortunately that formula and all the work that went into that did not get applied. And the purpose of that and I will add that from the employees end there was commitment and agreement and there was a clear understanding of why there was a need for the formula and why there was a need for more predictability I also think it's important for us to think about is the minimum wage really having the impact that we need it to have. When there is an increase in the minimum wage coupled with inflation."
And as inflation continues to be a growing concern Meighan also spoke about how the Tariff wars in the north could have potential impacts on Belize's economy and development sector. She says while there isn't a solution to this, there are things we can do as a country to prepare and to minimize the impact.
Katherine Meighan, President, Belize Chamber of Commerce "An increase in costs and it comes right back to what we were talking about and each country has to do all it can to be able to have the most stable, the most predictable and I know that's a theme of our discussion but it is really important. Stable predictable and growing economy with those challenges that are coming from outside we have to prepare for an environment where things will increase in cost. We are primarily an import driven society. That means where are these items coming from? Many of them even if they are in transit they move from the United States what does that mean? Also there are other angles to that we are so interconnected when it comes to the cost or the details that has to do with where some of these ships that are bringing these items our way are coming from what does that mean when this sort of environment and lack of better way of saying it trade war is really happening around us it means a couple things to me it' means one we need to do a better job at figuring out how we can make our business environment our economy a stable and working as efficiently as possible and secondly we have to start to take the actions of being a preventive type entity or nation so that we can prepare for what is to come because we know it's going to mean an increase in costs."
With general elections only a week away, the Albert constituency is heating up. For the first time, voters will see two women going head to head - an area rep of ten years and a newcomer in the general elections.
Yesterday, our team joined Kaya Cattouse on the campaign trail and she brought along a secret weapon - the prime minister. It's no secret that Albert is one of UDP's strongholds, but the PUP are hoping to change that this election. And Cattouse says the hard work and determination she learned from being an athlete will help her do just so.
Courtney Menzies was on Wagner's Lane with her and has this story.
The Albert Division has 3 candidates to choose from - two of whom are UDPs - but if they choose to go the blue route, they'd be voting for an athlete turned city councillor who is now vying to represent them.
Kaya Cattouse-a newbie in the general elections-will face their two-term area rep, Tracy Panton. But putting her name on the ballot wasn't an impulsive decision. Yesterday, as she campaigned through the streets, she said she always knew this was the route she would take.
Kaya Cattouse, PUP Standard Bearer, Albert "I think it was always the plan, the road I wanted to take. Coming from a sporting background, I have seen a lot of raw talent across this country, natural talent, that has not been well honed, well harnessed, well developed and I think that this is one of the platforms to do just that for youths in sports not only in the Albert constituency but across the country."
"Coming from a sporting background, for a race you have to have the perseverance, the determination, I mean all that stuff that comes with being an athlete and transferring all of that to my life as a politician, it has definitely been just a matter of transferring all those virtues and attributes that you have built in that aspect of your life to this one so it fits right in."
And while one of her opponent has had decades to build relationships with the residents, Cattouse says that doesn't necessarily translate into a better quality of life.
Kaya Cattouse, PUP Standard Bearer, Albert "Coming into this area and seeing the deplorable conditions that people have been living in, seeing the ways that things have been happening for the past ten years. I have no doubt that on Election Day we will be successful. I mean, being in an area just to say you're a representative but doing nothing for the people, that's a pretty tough one."
And she's not only getting help from the early-elected area reps from their neighboring constituencies of Pickstock and Fort George, she also brought PM Briceno along for the walk. He's been on a countrywide tour, visiting the divisions that he believes could benefit most from his presence. And while it's grueling work, he says it's not difficult to try and sell their Albert standard bearer.
John Briceno, Prime Minister "Kaya is a great candidate, I don't even have to try and sell her, she's selling herself, that people see what she's all about, that she's about the people and she wants to try to see how we could uplift Alberts. I mean, we had 13 years of a UDP government in Albert Division. They spent 1.1 billion dollars apart from the taxes they're collecting and look at where Albert is. They must could do better."
"It would be a shame for the country to go blue and Albert will still stay red for a person that's not really looking out for them, that person is only trying to be leader."
Courtney Menzies: "In the 2020 elections, Mr Paul, he lost by only 40 votes, very close. Is the energy different this time around as your campaigning compared to 2020?"
John Briceno, Prime Minister "Well the first thing is that we're not in COVID so you could walk with people and interact even easier and yes I think it's much better, it's more optimistic, it's more uplifting, people are speaking out more freely, people have seen the work of our government, of what we have done in just 4 years and 4 months and then also to have a fresh candidate, although Kaya has run two city councils, she's running for the general for the first time for the Albert Division so it gives you a sense of change, something new, but within the same party that's been in government so I'm very excited and very optimistic that the people of Albert will support Kaya next week Wednesday."
And throughout this journey, Briceno says he hasn't been "bucking up" any candidates from his opponents' parties.
John Briceno, Prime Minister "Actually, no you know, now that I think about it. I was in Mesop and I met about two campaigners and they came and hailed me and I don't want to tell you what all they said, but it was not really nice about what's going on in their division. And I've been all over the country, come to think about it, and I've not met my opponents in Orange Walk Central either so I don't know what kind of games they're playing or if they feel they have some kind of magic trick or maybe they have liquid ink that will make sure when you put the X it will disappear from the blue and come out on the red but even that it's going to be, which red because they have two reds. So I don't know what's their strategy."
Tomorrow, we'll take you back to Albert where you'll hear from the two-term representative, Tracy Panton.
The People's Democratic Movement - a party contesting the general elections - held their manifesto launch, introduced their candidates and affirmed their commitment for justice and equality this afternoon. Their party chairman says that they do not see themselves as a third party but instead as a more refined organization of persons willing to better their constituencies and help their people. While they may not have a full 16 slate, we met 4 of their candidates who are running for Belize Rural Central, Albert, Port Loyola and Queens Square. Here's what they promised in their manifesto.
Estevan Perera, People's Democratic Movement "Belize has been in a crisis for too long and it is time now that the people of Belize rise up and answer our calls. We are happy to have been campaign for a couple of months and we have been eating some very good feedbacks, and from there I will go on to my constituency. I am running in the Belize rural central constituency and I have been in there fighting, I just left Hatiiville and the people of Hattiiville are saying that in Hattiville they don't even have an ATM machine. They don't even have a highs cool not one street is paved in hattiville there is no employment in Hattiville."
"There is nothing that the PUP have done for them and that is one of the reasons why on election day they will vote them out."
Garry Matus, PDM, Queens Square Standard Bearer "This the price of living we can't have a price of living we have a population of people nearly 350k people we cannot raise the price of living high. What happen is the rich can't pay the tax the rich only pays a simple tax only three months the tax is paid and the poor every minute pays the rich the tax that is too way out."
Elmore Tablada, PDM, Port Loyola Standard Bearer "A lot of people in my area in port Loyola area is suffering Mr Usher says he is giving away land but I don't see how because people are renting apartments in the neighbourhood and sometimes they come and beg me for something small to pay toward rent because they don't have any land or nothing so the next thing they like to do is they give the rich people the good land and then they give the poor people the land they have to full out. And the people can't afford to full it so they sell it you understand."
The Belize Agricultural Health Authority has announced the suspension of the issuance of all import permits for lettuce, purple, white, and yellow onions, potatoes, cabbage, carrots, cauliflower, broccoli, and celery. This is because there is a sufficient local supply of these vegetable. BAHA advises that anyone caught with these imported produce will be prosecuted and can face hefty fines, imprisonment, or both.
She walked us through the adult intensive care unit and the medical ward at the KHMH, where she tends to her patients daily. Each one has a different ailment, but all of them require the same care from her - and that is to help them to breathe with the assistance of machines. Jomarie Lanza met the hospital's only Respiratory Therapist, Bertha Gonzalez and she gave us some insight as to what her job entails. Here's that story.
She is one of the most valuable specialists at the KHMH, and spends a lot of her time educating her team members on how they too can better assist patients that are struggling to breathe. Bertha Gonzalez is the only Belizean Respiratory Therapist at the hospital, she specializes in intubating patients in the ICU, monitoring their breathing and managing the machines.
Bertha Gonzalez, Respiratory Therapist, KHMH "Basically what I do is to help people breathe better a little better right so I work mainly with intensive care patients right so it could be newborns to toddlers and adults and to elderly people."
"So my job is basically I am an extra pair of eyes for the intensivists, the MO's here and I'm an extra hand for the nurses as well we work as a team and in my case I would have to assess the patient's airway right so most of them like at this moment we have everybody on ventilators they have a tube in their trachea that we call the endotracheal tube and so that one is conducted to this one so when I go and see the patient I have to make sure that the tube is in properly that the distance is the correct one and I have to make sure the machine is going to par with the patient itself we do that based on lab you know like a blood test so we would take a blood sample and we would see if we need to make changes on the machine."
Gonzalez has been working at the KHMH for the past 16 years. Most of her patients consist of the elderly with medical complications and premature babies in the NICU. But often a large percentage of those patients are RTA victims who are placed on ventilators. She says their patient intake has changed a lot since Covid, when they had to care for dozens of persons at a time with respiratory complications.
Bertha Gonzalez, Respiratory Therapist, KHMH "During covid we got a lot of, we were handling about 35 ventilators at that time. We did get a lot of inflow of I would say basically donations at the time and we were using a lot of ventilators and high flow machines right we even used sometimes the home devices which is basically the C pap and Bi Pap machines. So it's been a transition from you know the amount of ventilators that were available at the time to this time now."
"At the moment I am the only respiratory therapist at the KHMh we do need another person, ideally maybe 2, but you know we have a lack of staff in the entire country when it comes to medical staff so at KHMH its a teaching hospital so we have the medical officers and we have the nurses and everybody has to be in tune and be a little bit knowledgeable when it comes to the ventilators right and the equipment. In my case you have to keep up to date because you never know when you are going to get a new machine so if you notice this is one kind of machine here but we get different modules so I have to be using the different types of modules and knowing how each one operates."
Gonzalez decided to pursue this specialty after seeing the need for a respiratory therapist in country. They needed someone to learn how to work with the machines that often are the only thing that stands between life and death for a patient
Bertha Gonzalez, Respiratory Therapist, KHMH "I would encourage people if they you know are thinking of trying to get into another field, respiratory therapy is a good field to get into. You could go all the way from being the technician in the hospital field you can go all the way to being managerial post especially in other countries you have a bigger array of um."
"Of fields that you can get into we work from the ambulance setting, the emergency setting, you know back in the day when I just started I had to go in the ambulance several times for patient transportation right it doesn't happen that much more anymore because we have a lot more medical officers so they are the ones that are doing that at the moment right we get a very versatile amount of things to do we have to be very creative in the sense of looking and seeing what the patient actually needs at the moment and providing that support."
Those who wish to contact Gonzalez for a consultation can reach her through CPap Now Belize, at 625-4589 or 625-4420
The Belize Chamber of Commerce held an open roundtable discussion with the media today on the release of the their business policy roadmap for 2025. It serves as a comprehensive guide to address issues currently affecting the economy. This included tax reform, business development and tackling corruption. Their president Katherine Meighan gave us more details.
Katherine Meighan, President, Belize Chamber of Commerce "So just to give a bit of a background tax reform is critical for us and why? Because we really feel taxes in its entity and its definition is a significant part of either the success or the challenges of business development and economic development. For as we are discussing it business policy road map today meaning what we want to talk about is that there is a clear, less complex and there is a predictable form of tax. We understand the significance of taxes within the business community we have to give back because we are part of that cycle right? As we talked about today how does a road get developed and what does that mean when a road gets developed in terms of infrastructure it gets people to work, the business community understands that but what we want to make sure is that it's transparent that it is clear and that it is simplistic and it's not a form of double taxation as well and that gave we want to be able to ensure that there is accountability for the receive as well and there is accountability for the give as well."
He fought one of the aggressive pro bono legal efforts we've ever seen - but now Anand Ramlogan has raised the white flag.
7News has learned that he has written to government's attorney Eamon Courtenay to say that his client Jerry Enriquez is abandoning his claim,
He concedes that there's no point in continuing to pursue the claim since they cannot stop the election from happening March 12th. With that, he and Enriquez have withdrawn their application for an expedited hearing.
Likely, this has been done with an eye on costs and the possibility that government's costs could be awarded against Enriquez.
Government still hasn't announced it - but neither have they denied our reports that they have withdrawn from the Hague Group - which is a pro Palestinian grouping of 9 nations from the Global South. Their stated mission is to hold Israel to account for the genocide of Palestinians. Some felt that Belize's membership in this group could spell trouble for Belize at the International Court of Justice.
The former Foreign Minister didn't agree when we spoke to him yesterday:
Jules Vasquez "Will leaving the Hague Group make Belize's case more favorable for the ICJ?"
Eamon Courtenay, SC, Attorney for the AG "I don't believe that there will be any evidence before the ICJ as to who is in the Hague Group or who is not in the Hague Group."
"I don't think membership in the Hague Group gives rise to any legal issue or non-membership should give rise to any legal issue. If membership of a group like the Hague Group influences judges, then in my opinion they are not independent."
"So, I do not believe that there will be any deleterious effect on our case, whether or not we are a member of the Hague Group."
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Gunshots rang out around 11:30 this morning on Castle Street, killing a man who's no stranger to the law. 40 year old Gion Bernard - who was paralyzed back in 2019 - had just left his home when he was targeted. Bernard spent his life in and out of prison and the courtroom, but those close to him say that after a bullet left him in a wheelchair, he turned his life around.
And another sign of an escalating crime climate in the city came last night when two innocent women were shot at around 6:30 near Berger Field, at the corner of Sarstoon and Vernon Street.
The Commissioner of Police is in the north on a two day tour following the murder of two Belizeans in Chetumal. These Belizeans - Aaron Tunn and Michael Whittaker - were found bound and taped up with a warning written on a sign next to them. And cops believe there was another Belizean who escaped the killers and jumped the border into Belize. So the ComPol was in Corozal observing the illegal border crossings, which he says are a problem they need to address urgently.
"Myself accompanied by commander operations Mr Grinage, the other regional commander Mr Noble and the unit commanders Mr Gamboa and Mr Mejia, we went and did a tour of the irregular border crossing areas, the areas that are within the northern operations area of responsibility and the purpose is just to make sure that our team on the ground is prepared and doing what need to be done to be able to ward away those persons from across the border who may want to come into Belize and operate and you'd know that over the past few days we have seen an increase in cartel activities across neighboring Chetumal and so we want to make sure that those persons from that area do not come over to Belize and seek refuge so we're making sure that we look at our plans that we have in place and if there's a need to tweak it to make it more effective then that is what we are doing."
Last week the US said it will take away the visas of those public officials involved in employing Cuban Doctors from the medical brigade, this week they're targeting public officials who they believe facilitate illegal immigration and that includes immigration and customs officers.
"We want to be able to know that there is a path and predictability for something that as significant as changing the minimum wage. A change in the minimum wage has a very very impactful, it can be positive it can be negative, effect within our business economy and within our business community. From the minimum wage perspective this goes back when the discussions about $5 an hour had come up there was a group that was put together of the tripartite entity meaning the unions or the employees, the employees and the government they took a tremendous amount of time to identify what was the most predictable and healthiest way to move that forward and unfortunately that formula and all the work that went into that did not get applied. And the purpose of that and I will add that from the employees end there was commitment and agreement and there was a clear understanding of why there was a need for the formula and why there was a need for more predictability I also think it's important for us to think about is the minimum wage really having the impact that we need it to have. When there is an increase in the minimum wage coupled with inflation."
With general elections only a week away, the Albert constituency is heating up. For the first time, voters will see two women going head to head - an area rep of ten years and a newcomer in the general elections.
"I think it was always the plan, the road I wanted to take. Coming from a sporting background, I have seen a lot of raw talent across this country, natural talent, that has not been well honed, well harnessed, well developed and I think that this is one of the platforms to do just that for youths in sports not only in the Albert constituency but across the country."
"Kaya is a great candidate, I don't even have to try and sell her, she's selling herself, that people see what she's all about, that she's about the people and she wants to try to see how we could uplift Alberts. I mean, we had 13 years of a UDP government in Albert Division. They spent 1.1 billion dollars apart from the taxes they're collecting and look at where Albert is. They must could do better."
"Belize has been in a crisis for too long and it is time now that the people of Belize rise up and answer our calls. We are happy to have been campaign for a couple of months and we have been eating some very good feedbacks, and from there I will go on to my constituency. I am running in the Belize rural central constituency and I have been in there fighting, I just left Hatiiville and the people of Hattiiville are saying that in Hattiville they don't even have an ATM machine. They don't even have a highs cool not one street is paved in hattiville there is no employment in Hattiville."
Garry Matus, PDM, Queens Square Standard Bearer 
"A lot of people in my area in port Loyola area is suffering Mr Usher says he is giving away land but I don't see how because people are renting apartments in the neighbourhood and sometimes they come and beg me for something small to pay toward rent because they don't have any land or nothing so the next thing they like to do is they give the rich people the good land and then they give the poor people the land they have to full out. And the people can't afford to full it so they sell it you understand."
The Belize Agricultural Health Authority has announced the suspension of the issuance of all import permits for lettuce, purple, white, and yellow onions, potatoes, cabbage, carrots, cauliflower, broccoli, and celery. This is because there is a sufficient local supply of these vegetable. BAHA advises that anyone caught with these imported produce will be prosecuted and can face hefty fines, imprisonment, or both. 
She walked us through the adult intensive care unit and the medical ward at the KHMH, where she tends to her patients daily. Each one has a different ailment, but all of them require the same care from her - and that is to help them to breathe with the assistance of machines. Jomarie Lanza met the hospital's only Respiratory Therapist, Bertha Gonzalez and she gave us some insight as to what her job entails. Here's that story.
Bertha Gonzalez, Respiratory Therapist, KHMH
He fought one of the aggressive pro bono legal efforts we've ever seen - but now Anand Ramlogan has raised the white flag.
Eamon Courtenay, SC, Attorney for the AG