TRUMP's 12th GOLF TRIP in 65 DAYS : Trump Said He Was in Meetings But Was Actually Golfing — Again Isn’t this the party of personal and fiscal responsibility?

03/29/2017 09:18 am ET David Pakman 

Host & Executive Producer, The David Pakman Show

Donald Trump has taken his twelfth golf trip since becoming president just nine weeks ago. He’s been at his usual routine, rather than in Washington, D.C. actually getting important work done.

During a recent round of golf, the press pool had been told that President Trump was busy attending meetings at Trump National Golf Club, in Sterling, VA, but several social media posts by employees at the golf course proved otherwise.

The White House has not even commented on the president’s weekend trip. This is the party of personal and fiscal responsibility, so shouldn’t there be someone in an official position holding President Trump accountable? Republicans loved to criticize Obama for taking golf trips, but he didn’t hit the course within his first 65 days. Further into his presidency, he played his 12th round of golf on his 201st day in office.

These trips of his are costing taxpayers endless money, which just benefit Trump’s many hotels and resorts. The president promised he would work for the American people, but it’s looking like the other way around. more

FOND FAREWELL : Edi Fitzroy gets fond farewell at the Tent City Seventh-day Adventist Church in Portmore, St Catherine

Wednesday, March 29, 2017 — Brian Bonitto Jamaica Observer

SCORES of entertainment fraternity members, family and former colleagues filled Tent City Seventh-day Adventist Church in Portmore, St Catherine last Sunday to pay respect to singer Edi Fitzroy.

Edi's casket

The cover of Edi Fitzroy’s funeral programme.
(Photos: Steve James)

Desi Young, president of the Jamaica Federation of Musicians, who read one of the lessons, said Fitzroy made a positive impact and was well respected.

“He got a good farewell. It was well-attended by members of the entertainment fraternity,” he told the Jamaica Observer.

In addition to Young, remembrances and lessons were given by television personality Suzie Q, Fitzroy’s former Jamaica Broadcasting Corporation (JBC) colleagues Tony Patel and Winston Williams; deejays Major Mackerel and Merciless. Percussionist Bongo Herman and Thriller U offered musical tributes.

(From left) Entertainers Little Lennie,
Dillinger, Triston Palmer,
 Thriller U, Michigan
 and Bongo Herman. (Steve James)

Edi Fitzroy, whose real name was Fitzroy Edwards, died in the May Pen Hospital in Clarendon on March 3. He was 61.

Sly Dunbar & Trinity

While working as an accountant at JBC in 1978, Fitzroy recorded Miss Molly Colly, his breakthrough hit. In the 1980s, he had a slew of hits which included The Gun, Check For You Once, and Princess Black.

He is survived by six daughters , two sisters, and a brother. A son, Rory, predeceased him.

Interment for Edi Fitzroy was in Dovecot Memorial Park in St Catherine.

Comey: FBI is 'not on anybody's side....'I know when I'm going to cause a 'storm'

By Eli Watkins, CNN Updated 11:19 PM ET, Wed March 29, 2017

Washington (CNN)FBI Director James Comey said Wednesday his agency makes its decisions on a nonpartisan basis and said he doesn't care about the political backlash of the choices he makes.

"I know that when I make a hard decision, a storm is going to follow," Comey said at the Intelligence and National Security Alliance Leadership dinner. "Honestly, I don't care."

During a question-and-answer session, Comey said he regretted that the FBI confused people with decisions like announcing the reopening of an investigation into Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton's email practices as secretary of state, but attributed their confusion to partisan blinders.

"People sometimes look at me and say, 'Look at what you did, look at what you did,'" Comey said. "Most people are wearing glasses that filter the world according to (their) side."

Nunes, Comey clash on whether FBI chief invited to House Russia investigation

Comey has become a lightning rod for controversy over the past year. During the presidential campaign, he publicly announced he would not recommend the Department of Justice move to prosecute Clinton, although he did criticize her at length. Then, shortly before the election, Comey sent a letter to Congress saying the FBI was reopening its investigation.

WORLD'S BEST DESTINATIONS: TripAdvisor ranks Jamaica top Caribbean destination

Monday, March 27, 2017 | 5:54 PM  

KINGSTON, Jamaica — TripAdvisor Travelers’ Choice has ranked Jamaica number 12 on the “World’s Best Destinations" list and number one in the Caribbean.

The awards rank Jamaica among destinations such as Bali, London, Paris and Rome.

Visitors enjoying the Dunn’s River Falls in St Ann. (Photo: UDC)

A news release from the Jamaica Tourist Board explained that the award winners were determined using an algorithm that took into account the quantity and quality of reviews and ratings for hotels, restaurants and attractions in destinations worldwide, gathered over a 12-month period, as well as traveller booking interest on TripAdvisor.

“Jamaica is honoured to have been recognised as one of the top destinations in the world by the TripAdvisor community, not to mention the number one in the Caribbean,” said Minister of Tourism, Edmund Bartlett. “Our hospitality offerings and especially our warm-hearted people, make each vacation unforgettable. We want to thank all of our visitors for choosing Jamaica and we are ready to welcome them back again and again.”

Jamaica has a large variety of accommodations for travellers looking for a memorable trip, including boutique hotels, all-inclusive resorts and expansive villas. Some of Jamaica’s top accommodation offerings on TripAdvisor include Geejam, Hermosa Cove, The SPA Retreat Boutique Hotel, and Jamaica Inn.

The island has the most attractions of any other English-speaking Caribbean country including natural wonders such as Dunn’s River Falls and Seven Mile Beach, to thrill-worthy adventures like Mystic Mountain’s bobsledding and zip lining experiences. more

Manhattan skyscraper deal between Kushner, Chinese firm collapse.....$7.5 billion project raised conflict-of-interest concerns

Published: Mar 29, 2017 8:48 p.m. ET

Negotiations between New York real-estate developer Kushner Cos. and a large Chinese company over a planned $7.5 billion tower in Manhattan collapsed amid an outcry over possible conflicts of interest involving the Trump administration.

Anbang Insurance Group Co., which has close political and family ties to the Chinese government, began pursuing a possible investment of as much as $1.25 billion in the project at 666 Fifth Ave. last July, according to people familiar with the discussions.

Read: Ivanka Trump takes official, unpaid position in White House

But Anbang began backing away from the deal in recent weeks as it became a lightning rod for critics of the Trump administration who have said President Donald Trump and some of his top advisers haven’t taken sufficient steps to avoid possible conflicts between their government roles and their former businesses.

Jared Kushner, a senior White House official and Trump’s son-in-law, had been running the family-controlled Kushner business before last year’s election and was involved in the early discussions with Anbang. To protect against potential conflicts, he has sold his personal stake in 666 Fifth Ave. and other properties to family members. Critics said that didn’t go far enough, noting that Jared Kushner was involved in foreign policy and might be influenced by a deal with a Chinese firm that enriched his family.

An expanded version of this report appears on WSJ.com.

SPERM MATHEMATICAL FORMULA : Scientists solve the mystery of how sperm swim

Sunday, March 26, 2017 

Researchers have developed a mathematical formula based on the rhythmic movement of a sperm’s head and tail, which significantly reduces the complexities of understanding and predicting how sperm make the difficult journey towards fertilising an egg.

Researchers at the Universities of York, Birmingham, Oxford, and Kyoto University, Japan, found that the sperm’s tail creates a characteristic rhythm that pushes the sperm forward, but also pulls the head backwards and sideways in a coordinated fashion.

Successful fertility relies on how a sperm moves through fluid, but capturing details of this movement is a complicated issue.

The team aims to use these new findings to understand how larger groups of sperm behave and interact, a task that would be impossible using modern observational techniques. The work could provide new insights into treating male infertility. Dr Hermes Gadêlha, from the University of York’s Department of Mathematics, said: “In order to observe, at the microscale, how a sperm achieves forward propulsion through fluid, sophisticated, microscopic, high- precision techniques are currently employed.

”Measurements of the beat of the sperm’s tail are fed into a computer model, which then helps to understand the fluid flow patterns that result from this movement.

“Numerical simulations are used to identify the flow around the sperm, but as the structures of the fluid are so complex, the data is particularly challenging to understand and use. Around 55 million spermatozoa are found in a given sample, so it is understandably very difficult to model how they move simultaneously.

”We wanted to create a mathematical formula that would simplify how we address this problem and make it easier to predict how large numbers of sperm swim. This would help us understand why some sperm succeed and others fail.”

By analysing the head and tail movements of the sperm, researchers have now shown that the sperm moves the fluid in a coordinated, rhythmic way, which can be captured to form a relatively simple mathematical formula. This means complex and expensive computer simulations are no longer needed to understand how the fluid moves as the sperm swim.

The research demonstrated that the sperm has to make multiple contradictory movements, such as moving backwards, in order to propel it forward towards the egg. more

Former Miss Jamaica Gina Hargitay making a huge mark.... Beauty queen continues to shine with Shashamane Sunrise charity

  Sunday, March 26, 2017 

Former Miss Jamaica Gina Hargitay spends a lot of time travelling the world.

The vivacious beauty has a busy schedule, including her role as a sought after motivational and public speaker who primarily works with young people.

She has had several speaking engagements all over the world, to places such as Senegal, Brazil, Grand Cayman, Canada, and the United States. She is currently studying history and politics at the University of Westminster in London. No matter where she is in the world, her mind and heart is still focused on one place — her homeland Jamaica.

The former beauty queen is swarmed by children of the
 National Basic School in Trench Town.

In 2013 at age 18, she was selected as Miss Jamaica World and represented the country at the Miss World Pageant in Bali, Indonesia, where she placed in the top 10 and became Miss World Caribbean. Three years later she became the youngest inductee in the Caribbean Hall of Fame, which recognises people from the Caribbean who have made significant contributions to the region’s culture and heritage. This was just one of the several instances where her penchant for helping others, especially young people, was being recognised. Among the charities that she works with in her homeland is the Sickle Cell Foundation of Jamaica. Her work there is driven by the fact that her older brother has sickle cell, and she and her mother carry the trait. The charming beauty queen is passionate about raising awareness about the disease.

But in November 2016 Gina took on another role — ambassador for the international charity Shashamane Sunrise, a group which assists with educating children in developing countries, including in her homeland, Jamaica, Haiti, Trinidad and Tobago, Kenya, Uganda, and Ethiopia. During a chance meeting with a representative of the organisation that year, she was alerted to the work of the organisation and subsequently made contact with its chairman, Dr Rene ‘Zazou’ Williamson.

Gina has already made significant strides since becoming a ‘Shash Ambassador’. In January this year she co-hosted the organisation’s flagship charity event, “Fashion Meets Music” alongside another former beauty queen, Miss Universe 1998 Wendy Fitzwilliam. Gina has also been a key figure in the organisation’s services tours to sponsored schools in Jamaica, including the Windsor Forest Primary, which is located in a poor farming community in the parish of Portland; and the National Basic School in Trench Town, one of the most socially and economically challenged communities in the Corporate Area. more

Russia Detains Hundreds, Including Opposition Leader, In Crackdown On Nationwide Protests

MOSCOW/YEKATERINBURG, March 26 (Reuters) - Police detained hundreds of protesters across Russia on Sunday, including opposition leader Alexei Navalny, after thousands took to the streets to demonstrate against corruption and demand the resignation of Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev.

The protests, reckoned to be the biggest since a wave of anti-Kremlin demonstrations in 2011/2012, come a year before a presidential election which Vladimir Putin is expected to contest, running for what would be a fourth term.

Opinion polls suggest the liberal opposition, which Navalny represents, have little chance of fielding a candidate capable of unseating Putin, who enjoys high ratings. But Navalny and his supporters hope to channel public discontent over official corruption to attract more support.

A Reuters reporter saw police detain Navalny, who hopes to run against Putin, as he walked along central Moscow’s Tverskaya Street with supporters, part of an unsanctioned rally as a police helicopter circled overhead.

Police put Navalny in a truck around which hundreds of protesters crowded, trying to open its doors.

“I’m happy that so many people came out (onto the streets) from the east (of the country) to Moscow,” Navalny said, moments before he was detained.

HAPPY 72nd BIRTHDAY SINGER/ACTRESS DIANA ROSS, b. 3/26/1944

Veteran band, INNER CIRCLE celebrates 50th anniversary in 2018

By Howard Campbell Observer senior writer  Sunday, March 26, 2017    

A play based on the life and music of Jacob Miller is among the events that will mark Inner Circle’s 50th anniversary next year.

The band’s co-founder Ian Lewis told the Jamaica Observer that the play opens in May at the Little Theatre in Kingston when Miller, who died in March 1980, would have turned 68.

Inner Circle

The play will have two dates, followed the next day by a free concert at Emancipation Park, headlined by Inner Circle.

“We are blessed to be out there still actively touring. Once yuh working like dat, it keep di creative juices flowing,” he said. Lewis, a bass player, co-founded Inner Circle in 1968 with his older brother Roger on rhythm guitar, Stephen “Cat” Coore on guitar, and keyboardist Michael “Ibo” Cooper.

They reaped from a purple patch during the 1970s when Miller led them on classics like Tenement Yard, Forward Ever, Backward Never, and Disciplined Child.

After Miller died in a motor vehicle accident in Kingston, the Lewis brothers settled in Miami, where they fashioned Inner Circle’s second coming in the early 1990s with the mega hits Bad Boys and Sweat.

Jacob Miller

Today they operate a successful recording studio in north Miami and tour tirelessly. Ian Lewis, 64, says while they are thankful for the success, losing Miller at the peak of his prowess still hurts 36 years later.

“That was a pitfall for us and dat’s a reason why this documentary is so important to us,” he said.

‘This documentary’ is a feature film tracing the band’s roots at Jamaica College to the Miller era and Miami years. A celebratory book is also in the making.

Roger Lewis, 66, and keyboardist Bernard “Touter” Harvey are the other survivors from the classic 1970s line-up. Guitarist Mick Sterling, singer Trevor Bonnick and drummer Lancelot Hall complete the current line-up. more