MOST-WATCHED VIDEO ON YOUTUBE EVER: “Despacito” by Luis Fonsi featuring Daddy Yankee and Justin Bieber. Despacito means “slowly” in Spanish. “Despacito” is the first top 20 hit song in Spanish in America in 20 years. SAN JUAN — The Puerto Rico Tourism Company (PRTC) has announced that Latin Pop-Star, Luis

BALTER HEAD CHEF BOLTS ST. CROIX: Digby Stridiron is off for the greener pastures of South Carolina where he will be the executive chef of Parcel 32 Restaurant in historic Charleston. CHRISTIANSTED — St. Croix native Digby Stridiron is calling it quits from Balter Restaurant on Company Street in Christiansted

CHRISTIANSTED — Two days before Invest 91L was expected to reach the territory, the Virgin Islands Water and Power Authority (WAPA) plunged St. Croix into darkness for nearly six hours. At least 14,000 WAPA customers were affected as a light drizzle fell on St. Croix accompanied by 19 mile-per-hour winds.

NEW YORK — Seeing few options for improvment to the territory’s finances,  Fitch Ratings took its credit rating on the Virgin Islands down all the way to triple-C from B. That’s a steep three-notch downgrade, bringing it to a level that indicates significant risk of default. Also, Fitch is maintaining a negative

HIRED AGAIN: Veteran NBA executive Milt Newton of St. Thomas. MILWAUKEE — St. Thomas native Milt Newton has a job again in the NBA. This time he will be the assistant general manager for the Milwaukee Bucks. The Bucks announced multiple additions to their staff on Wednesday, with the most

CHARLOTTE AMALIE — The Virgin Islands Department of Tourism has unveiled its new advertising campaign, called “Real Nice.” In partnership with its advertising agency of record, J. Walter Thompson Atlanta (JWT), which is responsible for creative design, and local Virgin Islands company FilmVI, the popular “Virgin Islands Nice” campaign was

CHARLOTTE AMALIE — One of the selling points of the Virgin Islands current tourism campaign is to emphasize “No Passport Required.” But for nine United States that is all about to change … starting in 2018. So the question becomes: What will the impact be to tourism in the territory?

DEAD AT 92: Hank Wright NEWARK — Long-time St. Croix resident Robert F. “Hank” Wright died on Monday in Holmdel, New Jersey. He was 92. Wright was the President and Chief Operating Officer of Amerada-Hess Corp, from 1986 to 1995. He joined Hess Oil Corp. in 1963 when Hess acquired the

 $50 MILLON MAN LINVAL JOSEPH OF ST. CROIX (Photo courtesy: John Autey) MANKATO, Minn. — The Minnesota Vikings have locked up another core piece of their defense, signing Linval Joseph to a four-year contract extension that puts him under team control through the 2022 season. Joseph’s agency, SportsTrust Advisors, announced

GUARANTEED! NO MAINSTREAM NATIONAL “ORGANIC MEDIA” ATTENTION FROM BJ CONVENTION: By devoting precious tourism dollars to such a small scale, segmented, fringe audience, Tourism Commissioner Beverly Nicholson-Doty is virtually guaranteeing that the U.S. Virgin Islands beautiful product will not come before the largest audience possible — which translates to a