CHRISTIANSTED — Commissioner of Tourism Joseph Boschulte said a 50 percent spike in COVID-19 cases in the territory can largely be blamed on incoming blue-collar refinery workers on St. Croix — not rich American tourists visiting St. Thomas. Responding to international reports concerning a jump in cases here, Boschulte said

SAN JUAN — Puerto Rico’s governor declared a state of emergency effective Monday as a worsening drought creeps across the U.S. territory amid a coronavirus pandemic. Starting July 2, nearly 140,000 clients, including some in the capital of San Juan, will be without water for 24 hours every other day as

SAN JUAN — Two strong earthquakes have shaken Puerto Rico, but there have been no reports of injuries in the latest of a series of tremors that have hit the U.S. commonwealth since late December. A tremor with a preliminary magnitude of 5.5 hit just southwest of the island in

CHRISTIANSTED — A Puerto Rican woman admitted to being part of the Puerto Rican crime wave plaguing the U.S. Virgin Islands, owning up in federal court to bringing 10 pounds of marijuana to St. Croix in 2017. Nathalie Lopez, 31, pled guilty today in U.S. District Count in Golden Rock to

CHRISTIANSTED — In an effort to mitigate the growing spread of the COVID-19 virus in the territory, Governor Albert Bryan, Jr. has ordered all beaches to be closed at 4 p.m. for the Fourth of July holiday weekend, and all bars are ordered to stop serving, and alcohol sales territory-wide

KINGSHILL — A St. Croix man who violated a Superior Court restraining order by texting his former girlfriend has been arrested by police, authorities said. Hasani J. Hippolyte, 25, of Bethlehem New Works, was arrested at 5:51 p.m. Saturday and charged with contempt of court-domestic violence, the Virgin Islands Police

CHARLOTTE AMALIE — The Virgin Islands Police Department said it began conducting live-fire tests of the ShotSpotter gunshot detection service on St. Thomas on Wednesday. The purpose of the test was to verify all ShotSpotter systems are operating as expected and guide any final adjustments before activating the service. “The

CHRISTIANSTED — The Juan F. Luis Hospital will resume elective surgeries and outpatient procedures effective tomorrow. “Through the pandemic, JFL has performed urgent and emergent surgical cases, however, all other patients planning to have surgery or a procedure have had to place their medical care on hold,” Interim Chief Executive

ORLANDO — Dutch authorities are working with U.S. officials to extradite a Florida man who they say shot two people on Sint Maarten, injuring one and killing another, according to a motion filed by U.S. District Attorney Maria Chapa Lopez. According to the motion, Sint Maarten authorities were called to

WILLEMSTAD — Four U.S. Air Force planes will be deployed to Curacao for counter-narcotics operations, the U.S. Southern Command announced on Friday. An E-3 Sentry surveillance plane and an E-8C Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System plane, supported by two KC-135 Stratotanker aerial refueling aircraft, will fly detection and monitoring missions