John McCarthy is primarily known for his investigative reporting on the U.S. Virgin Islands. A series of reports beginning in the 1990's revealed that there was everything from coliform bacteria to Cryptosporidium in locally-bottled St. Croix drinking water, according to a then-unpublished University of the Virgin Islands sampling. Another report, following Hurricane Hugo in 1989, cited a Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) confidential overview that said that over 40 percent of the U.S. Virgin Islands public lives below the poverty line. The Virgin Islands Free Press is the only Caribbean news source to regularly incorporate the findings of U.S. Freedom of Information Act requests. John's articles have appeared in the BVI Beacon, St. Croix Avis, San Juan Star and Virgin Islands Daily News. He is the former news director of WSVI-TV Channel 8 on St. Croix.
HAVANA — Island residents watched from shore today as Russian warships arrived for the second time in as many months, in a visit that Cuba called "routine." Cuban authorities fired shots…
PORT-AU-PRINCE (AP) — No chairs. Missing blackboards. A lack of bathrooms. Schools in Haiti’s capital and beyond are crumbling as gang violence deepens poverty and disrupts basic government services as…
While the tropical Atlantic is quiet now, that could change in a hurry come August with at least one system already being tracked. SAN JUAN — An area of disturbed…
PORT-AU-PRINCE — Ganthier, a rural community 28 miles east of Port-au-Prince and 14 miles from the Dominican Republic border, was among the last holdouts from gang control in Haiti. For…
SAN JUAN — A thick plume of Saharan dust is moving across the region, lasting through Sunday morning. During this time hot and hazy conditions will prevail and rainfall will…
CHARLOTTE AMALIE — A woman who tried to fool trained drug-sniffing dogs at the airport by placing bags of frozen shrimp with the cocaine bricks in her luggage has been…
CHRISTIANSTED — A St. Croix man has been arrested in connection to the rape of an underage girl that took place nine months ago. Jason Tuitt, 47, has been arrested…
COLUMBUS, Ohio — A mysterious Associated Press story tried to set the record straight about social media rumors that Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) once had coitus with a sofa. Someone at the wire service…
MIAMI — Royal Caribbean raised its annual profit forecast today for the third time this year on higher ticket pricing and persistent demand for cruise vacations. Cruise operators have raised ticket…
PORT-AU-PRINCE — The United States’ top envoy to the United Nations visited a crisis-wrecked Haiti this week during which she announced tens of millions of dollars in humanitarian and security…