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everything from coliform bacteria to Cryptosporidium in locally-bottled St. Croix drinking water, according to a then-unpublished University of the Virgin Islands sampling.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.
SAN JUAN — Forecasters at the National Weather Service say we can expect humid and wet conditions today. The passage of a tropical wave and a upper level trough will…
Social Security’s Office of the Inspector General (OIG) recently released its quarterly Scam Report to Congress. The report provides information about scam trends in the second quarter of Fiscal Year 2024…
HAVANA (AP) — South Korea’s spy agency said that a senior North Korea diplomat based in Cuba has fled to South Korea, the latest defection by members of the North’s…
KINGSTON — Leaders across the Caribbean were still tallying the financial toll wrought by the earliest Atlantic storm on record to intensify to the maximum Category 5 level, after it…
SAN JUAN — The territorial relationship between Puerto Rico and the United States, as well as a new allocation of federal funds, appear to have motivated a semiconductor production company in…
PORT-AU-PRINCE (AP) — Haitian Prime Minister Garry Conille ordered gangs to surrender their weapons during a televised speech late Wednesday in which he acknowledged how dangerous life in Haiti’s capital and beyond…
SAN JUAN — Excessive Heat conditions will persist throughout the weekend with heat indices above 108 degrees F across the islands. A dense plume of Saharan Dust will continue to…
BANGKOK (AP) — Traces of cyanide were discovered in the cups of six people who were found dead at a Bangkok hotel in unexplained circumstances, Thai authorities said today, and preliminary autopsy…
TOKYO — Nissan issued a "Do Not Drive" warning for more than 83,000 vehicles with the model year 2002-2006 equipped with recalled Takata air bags. According to the National Highway…
ST. GEORGE'S (AP) — People in the southeast Caribbean urgently need food, water and shelter nearly two weeks after Hurricane Beryl crushed the region as a Category 4 storm, officials said Thursday…