Spencer reigns supreme in the 400m hurdles

BY HOWARD WALKER Observer senior reporter walkerh@jamaicaobserver.com

Sunday, January 11, 2015    

HAVING already copped the Caribbean Sports Journalists and the JAAA Athlete of the Year titles, Kaliese Spencer has done everything asked of her to be named RJR Sports Foundation National Sportswoman of the Year.

The year 2014 was a supreme one for Spencer as she made her pet event — the 400m hurdles — her own, with some scintillating and dominant performances.

In March, Spencer showed her versatility and won two silver medals at the IAAF World Indoor Championships in Sopot, Poland. She was second in the flat 400m in a personal indoor best of 51.54 seconds behind American Francena McCorory in 51.12 seconds.

Spencer would later run the third leg of the 4x400m relays that included Patricia Hall, Anneisha McLaughlin and Stephanie McPherson to establish a national indoor record of 3:26.54 minutes. It is the third fastest time ever behind winner the United States of America, who did 3:24.83 for gold. The Russians with 3:23.37 minutes done in 2006 is the fastest.

In June, Spencer yet again became the Jamaican champion over the 400m hurdles in a world-leading time of 53.41 seconds before taking the world by storm.

Despite the outstanding performer of 2013, Czech Republic’s Zuzana Hejnova missing most of the year due to injury, nothing can be taken away from Spencer’s awesome displays throughout the year in which she had the three fastest times over the 400m hurdles, and eight of the top 10 times for the year.

Spencer, 27, who was born in Westmoreland, lost her opening race at the Doha Diamond League where she was upstaged by Bahrain’s unheralded Kemi Adekoya, but went on to win every race afterwards.

She would eventually win seven Diamond League races and was the overall champion, walking away with her piece of the precious stone for the fourth time since 2010.

In-between the Diamond League races, Spencer had time to be crowned Commonwealth Games champion over the 400m hurdles in 54.10 seconds.

Spencer’s dominant year ended with her dipping under 54 seconds four times and under 54.30 eight times.

The only other sub-54 hurdler was American Kori Carter with her 53.84 at the US Championships, but her best after that was 55.94 seconds.

Spencer would end her season in style, picking up another gold in September, this time representing the Americas in the IAAF Continental Cup in Morocco. Spencer clocked 53.81 seconds and once again she defeated the emerging star Eilidh Child of Great Britain, who clocked 54.42 seconds.

It would be a fitting end to her 2014 campaign as Sportswoman of the Year following an outstanding season in which she dominated IAAF Diamond League; picked up the Commonwealth Games title, won a silver medal as part of Jamaica’s 4x400m team at the IAAF World Relays in Nassau, and posted a world-leading time of 53.41 to win the Jamaican Championships in June.

View the original article here

Spencer reigns supreme in the 400m hurdles

Dems to gain seat? Nasty primary may hurt GOP in Michigan House race - Supreme Court allows Texas to enforce new voter ID law for election - PROGRAMMING ALERT: Fox News Reporting on "American Payday — The Big Squeeze," with Bret Baier, tonight at 9 p.m. ET

Dems to gain seat? Nasty primary may hurt GOP in Michigan House race - Supreme Court allows Texas to enforce new voter ID law for election - PROGRAMMING ALERT: Fox News Reporting on "American Payday — The Big Squeeze," with Bret Baier, tonight at 9 p.m. ET

Supreme Court blocks Texas, Wis. from implementing voter ID laws

FILE: Voters at the Charles Allis Museum cast their ballots for the U.S. presidential election in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. (REUTERS)

AUSTIN, Texas –  A federal judge likened Texas’ strict voter ID requirement to a poll tax deliberately meant to suppress minority voter turnout and struck it down less than a month before Election Day — and mere hours after the U.S. Supreme Court blocked a similar measure in Wisconsin.

The twin rulings released Thursday evening represent major and somewhat surprising blows to largely Republican-backed voter identification rules sweeping the nation that have generally been upheld in previous rulings.

Approved in 2011, Texas’ law is considered among the nation’s harshest and had even been derided in court by the Justice Department as blatant discrimination. Wisconsin’s law was passed the same year and has remained a similar political flashpoint.

“We are extremely heartened by the court’s decision, which affirms our position that the Texas voter identification law unfairly and unnecessarily restricts access to the franchise,” U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said in a statement. “We are also pleased that the Supreme Court has refused to allow Wisconsin to implement its own restrictive voter identification law.”

U.S. District Judge Nelva Gonzales Ramos of Corpus Christi on Texas’ Gulf Coast, an appointee of President Barack Obama, never signaled during a two-week trial in September that she intended to rule on the Texas law before Election Day. But the timing could spare an estimated 13.6 million registered Texas voters from needing photo identification to cast a ballot.

The Justice Department says more than 600,000 of those voters, mostly blacks and Hispanics, currently lack eligible ID to vote.

Gonzales Ramos’ nearly 150-page ruling says the law “creates an unconstitutional burden on the right to vote, has an impermissible discriminatory effect against Hispanics and African-Americans, and was imposed with an unconstitutional discriminatory purpose.” It added that the measure “constitutes an unconstitutional poll tax.”

Republican Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott’s office said it would appeal, but in the meantime the state may hold the election under rules that predate the voter ID law.

“The Court today effectively ruled that racial discrimination simply cannot spread to the ballot box,” said Sherrilyn Ifill, president and director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund.

In the Wisconsin case, meanwhile, the nation’s highest court used a one-page order to grant an emergency stay sought by the American Civil Liberties Union and blocked implementation of the state’s voter ID law — overturning a decision by the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals three days earlier that declared it constitutional.

Justices Samuel Alito, Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas dissented. Wisconsin Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen said in a statement that he believed the law was constitutional and that “nothing in the Court’s order suggests otherwise.”

Still, Luis Roberto Vera, Jr., national general counsel for League of United Latin American Citizens, said “You can call it the perfect storm against voter ID.”

“It’s a total victory on both fronts,” Vera said.

Dale Ho, director of the ACLU’s Voting Rights Project, said the order “puts the brakes on the last-minute disruption and voter chaos created by this law,” that he said imperiled the vote for thousands of registered voters in the state.

Wisconsin advocates now have 90 days to file a formal petition asking the Supreme Court to take up the case, a deadline so far beyond Election Day that the law may not be reinstated by Nov. 4. The dissenting Supreme Court justices raised concerns that absentee ballots had been sent with no notification of the need to present photo IDs — and that there was not enough time to address this issue before voting begins.

Nineteen states have voter ID laws. Courts nationwide have knocked down challenges — including at the U.S. Supreme Court. But Texas’ case attracted unusual attention from Holder.

He brought the weight of his office to the case after the Supreme Court last year struck down the heart of the Voting Rights Act. It had blocked Texas and eight other states with histories of discrimination from changing election laws without permission from the DOJ or a federal court. Holder vowed to wring whatever protections he could from the new and weakened version, and made Texas a first target.

“Even after the Voting Rights Act was seriously eroded last year, we vowed to continue enforcing the remaining portions of that statute as aggressively as possible. This ruling is an important vindication of those efforts,” Holder’s Thursday statement said.

Abbott is the favorite to replace outgoing Texas Gov. Rick Perry in the Nov. 4 election. His office had argued that minorities and whites alike supported the law in public opinion polls. It also pointed to other states, such as Georgia and Indiana, where the similar measures have been upheld.

But opponents slammed Texas’ law as far more discriminatory. College students IDs aren’t accepted by poll workers, but concealed handgun licenses are. Free voting IDs offered by the state require a birth certificate that costs little as $3, but the Justice Department argued that traveling to get those documents imposes an outsize burden on poor minorities.

As a result, attorneys argued, Texas has issued fewer than 300 free voter IDs since the law took effect.

View the original article here

Supreme Court blocks Texas, Wis. from implementing voter ID laws

Supreme Court to hear case of interdicted women"s bureau head today

Monday, September 29, 2014 | 9:21 AM    

KINGSTON, Jamaica — Faith Webster, the interdicted head of the Bureau of Women’s Affairs, is to appear in the Supreme Court today for a first hearing into her challenge of the decision to remove her from office.

Webster was removed from office pending a hearing before the Public Service Commission (PSC) regarding the finding of an internal audit of the Government-run agency.

Webster, who had been appointed executive director of the agency in 2008, filed action in the Supreme Court in March, seeking judicial review of the decision to place her on interdiction.

She’s claiming that the process of her interdiction was in breach of natural justice as she did not get an opportunity to respond to claims made against her.

Webster has named Okina Miller, the permanent secretary in the Office of the Prime Minister, and the Public Service Commission as defendants.

The embattled Webster was interdicted by way of letter from Miller on February 7. The letter followed two meetings on February 4 to discuss the audit report.

There was also a meeting on February 10, but Webster is claiming this to be a “sham” as it was clear from the February 7 letter that the permanent secretary had made a decision that Webster should be interdicted. Webster has also claimed that no reasons were given for the interdiction and the cutting of her salary by a half.

Like our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/jamaicaobserver

Follow us on Twitter https://twitter.com/JamaicaObserver

View the original article here

Supreme Court to hear case of interdicted women"s bureau head today

Supreme Court reserves judgement in Mandela bus-lane challenge

The Supreme Court has reserved judgement in the application by transport operators challenging the creation of  a lane on the Mandela Highway for Jamaica Urban Transit Company, JUTC, buses.

Lawyers for the operators, the JUTC, the police and the Office of  Utilities Regulation, OUR, completed arguments yesterday.

Justice Lennox Campbell is to rule next week whether leave should be granted to the operators to seek a judicial review. The operators want the Ministry of  Transport to change the use of  the dedicated bus lane.

They say it should not be exclusive to the JUTC and other public passenger vehicles should be allowed to use it.

View the original article here

Supreme Court reserves judgement in Mandela bus-lane challenge

Supreme Ventures introduces Top Draw

Supreme Ventures Limited (SVL) will today introduce a new lottery game. It will be called Top Draw.   
The game, which will give players a chance to win up to one million dollars daily, coincides with the company’s 13th anniversary.   
The starting jackpot will be $200,000, and will increase by a similar amount after each draw, if there is no winner.   
Top Draw represents the ninth online game offered by SVL.

View the original article here

Supreme Ventures introduces Top Draw

Supreme Venturers Limited celebrates anniversary with "Top Draw"

Supreme Ventures Limited (SVL) will celebrate its 13th anniversary today with the roll-out of a new lottery game.

The game, Top Draw, will give players a chance to win up to a million dollars every day. The starting jackpot each day will be $200,000 and the jackpot will roll by $200,000 after each draw, if there is no winner. The company has five game draws each day (at 8:30 a.m.; 10:30 a.m.; 1 p.m.; 5 p.m. and 8:25 p.m.), so the daily jackpot could climb to as high as $1 million, if there is no winner for draws one to four.

Sonia Davidson, SVL’s Vice President of Group Corporate Communications said, “Top Draw offers quick returns of minimum $200,000 each draw, for an investment of just $50 per wager. We look forward to the public’s participation when we roll out the game…”

In the Top Draw game, players simply choose five numbers from one to 22. The lottery will draw five numbers and players matching all five numbers will win the jackpot for the draw. Players who match four and three numbers will also win subsidiary prizes. The game is pari-mutuel, so all prizes levels are shared among the number of winners. If there is no jackpot winner for the draw, the jackpot will roll by $200,000 to the next draw that day. Once the jackpot is hit, the next draw starts at $200,000.

Top Draw represents the ninth online game offered by SVL. The company has over 1,100 lottery retailers islandwide.

View the original article here

Supreme Venturers Limited celebrates anniversary with "Top Draw"

Supreme Ventures introduces Top Draw

Supreme Ventures Limited (SVL) will today introduce a new lottery game. It will be called Top Draw.   
The game, which will give players a chance to win up to one million dollars daily, coincides with the company’s 13th anniversary.   
The starting jackpot will be $200,000, and will increase by a similar amount after each draw, if there is no winner.   
Top Draw represents the ninth online game offered by SVL.

View the original article here

Supreme Ventures introduces Top Draw

Supreme Court turns down Finsac debtors" application

News

Tuesday, August 13, 2013

THE Supreme Court yesterday refused an application by the Association of Finsac’d Entrepreneurs (AFE) for Judicial Review of a decision by the Finsac Commission of Enquiry not to produce a report on their enquiry.In refusing the application, Justice Marva McDonald-Bishop said that given the terms of reference of the Commission, only the governor general could compel the commissioners to produce the report, following completion of the enquiry, which lasted from October 2008 to November 2011 and cost the country over $65 million.The court made the decision after hearing an application brought by Milton Baker, husband of the president of the AFE, Yola Gray-Baker, who claimed losses of over $150 million due to the 1990s financial meltdown, when two of his properties were foreclosed by the Financial Sector Adjustment Company (Finsac), which was established by the Government to handle the losses arising from the meltdown.The AFE, represented by attorney-at-law Kent Gammon, sought a Judicial Review for an interim report to be produced by Finsac Commissioners Charles Ross and Warrick Bogle. However, the attorney for the commissioners, Patterson Mair Hamilton, tendered an objection to the claim, stating that it was an abuse of the process, and that the commissioners/defendants “did not owe the claimant any duty to produce a report from the evidence given and presented at the enquiry… and cannot therefore be compelled to produce such a report”. The court agreed with the defendants.

HOUSE RULES

1. We welcome reader comments on the top stories of the day. Some comments may be republished on the website or in the newspaper – email addresses will not be published.

2. Please understand that comments are moderated and it is not always possible to publish all that have been submitted. We will, however, try to publish comments that are representative of all received.

3. We ask that comments are civil and free of libellous or hateful material. Also please stick to the topic under discussion.

4. Please do not write in block capitals since this makes your comment hard to read.

5. Please don’t use the comments to advertise. However, our advertising department can be more than accommodating if emailed:mailto:advertising@jamaicaobserver.com.

6. If readers wish to report offensive comments, suggest a correction or share a story then please email: community@jamaicaobserver.com.

7. Lastly, read our Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy

comments powered by

View the original article here

Supreme Court turns down Finsac debtors" application

Sunday lottery earns Supreme Ventures $700 million in three months

Business

BY STEVEN JACKSON Business writer jacksons@jamaicaobserver.comFriday, August 09, 2013

Sunday lottery earned $700 million in its first three months of allowance, according to financials from dominant gaming company, Supreme Ventures Ltd (SVL).“The company began Sunday/holiday lottery sales and game draws on 1st April 2013. The additional selling days positively impacted the revenues for the financial period, with Sunday sales contributing over $700 million to the revenues,” said SVL in a statement adjoining the June-quarter financial accounts, signed by chairman Paul Hoo and CEO Brian George.SVL earned $8.6 billion in total revenues for the June quarter compared with $7.2 billion a year earlier.The directors added that the impact of Sunday sales on total revenues was, however, countered by a reduction in unclaimed prizes of $44 million, lower net win of $119 million from VLT gaming due to delayed opening of the refurbished Acropolis lounges and Odyssey, and $38 million from discontinued hospitality operations.Government in February announced measures to raise $16.4-billion in additional taxes and offered SVL carrot-and-stick measures. It first allowed SVL to sell lottery tickets on Sundays and public holidays effective April 1, but concurrently forced them to incorporate an increase in lottery tax (GPT) rates from 17 per cent and 23 per cent to 20 per cent and 25 per cent respectively on nine games.Christians view Sunday as a religious day of rest, and the local church body opposed the introduction of Sunday lottery for years.Meanwhile, higher Lotto liabilities and taxation were blamed for the company posting $99.9 million in June-quarterly net profit or 69 per cent less than a year earlier.“The decrease in net profit after tax was directly attributable to higher-than-designed lottery game liabilities and the impact of increased taxation on the gaming sector, which came into effect on 1st April 2013,” stated financials.The directors’ outlook remained tempered by the weak economy and taxation.“The third quarter is expected to be a continuation of the challenging times faced by many local companies, as the limited disposable income of many consumers will be directed towards back-to-school expenses,” stated the joint statement in the financals. “While game liabilities will correct themselves over time, the company expects that the impact of the new taxation measures on the gaming sector will continue to adversely affect the financial results going forward.”

HOUSE RULES

1. We welcome reader comments on the top stories of the day. Some comments may be republished on the website or in the newspaper – email addresses will not be published.

2. Please understand that comments are moderated and it is not always possible to publish all that have been submitted. We will, however, try to publish comments that are representative of all received.

3. We ask that comments are civil and free of libellous or hateful material. Also please stick to the topic under discussion.

4. Please do not write in block capitals since this makes your comment hard to read.

5. Please don’t use the comments to advertise. However, our advertising department can be more than accommodating if emailed:mailto:advertising@jamaicaobserver.com.

6. If readers wish to report offensive comments, suggest a correction or share a story then please email: community@jamaicaobserver.com.

7. Lastly, read our Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy

comments powered by

View the original article here

Sunday lottery earns Supreme Ventures $700 million in three months

Patterson: Norman Manley was a supreme organiser

MANDEVILLE, Manchester — The failure on two occasions of a mobile electricity generator at remote Roxborough was a source of embarrassment and annoyance during the July 4 celebration of the birth of national hero Norman Manley.

However, the failing generator provided an unexpected opportunity for the keynote speaker.Former Prime Minister P J Patterson grabbed the chance to highlight Manley’s organisational strength and tendency to always have a contingency plan.Norman Manley “always travelled with his own microphone in his own car and he always pulled up the car before the platform so there would be no power interruption… because he used a battery,” according to Patterson.“I think, perhaps, he is signalling us in today’s function that we ought, in making our arrangements (to ensure) there should be no lack of attention in dealing with the details…,” added Patterson.“Among the things I will always remember, is Norman Manley’s towering intellect, his passion for selfless service, his energy, which was boundless, and his enduring stamina,” said Patterson, who as a young People’s National Party (PNP) organiser learnt political practice at the feet of Manley.Patterson also learnt “meticulous attention to detail in whatever activity…, that’s why I say if he (Manley) was in charge of planning this function what has happened (loss of electricity) could never take place”.That meticulousness and attention to detail would colour Manley’s contribution as social activist; as a politician in building the PNP and as “architect” of modern Jamaica.In-between humorous stories of their relationship, Patterson told the audience at Roxborough, Manley’s birthplace in south central Manchester — which is been renovated and developed as a permanent museum — that the national hero was convinced, at first, that social activism rather than politics was the way.“Before he entered the political arena, Norman Manley, a Rhodes scholar and military hero… was a passionate social activist, who thought at first his advocacy of the poor and oppressed was best served through social work,” explained Patterson.“He regarded community effort as a pillar for national development and hence Jamaica Welfare Ltd was established, and you see that edifice in Porus (Porus Community Centre), which was built by Norman Manley and opened in 1939,” said Patterson.According to Patterson, it took Manley “some time to be convinced that his talents and leadership skills should be transferred from what nowadays is called NGOs and civil society… into the political arena”.The change was influenced “to some extent” by the 1938 labour riots in Frome and on the Kingston waterfront, “all of which reflected” a movement across the Caribbean as people sought to rid themselves of the “legacies of slavery, the iniquities of plantation system and the yoke of colonial oppression”.“Norman Manley had a dream; it was a dream for that time, when Jamaica would be in charge of its own affairs and be able to shape its own destiny, for a Jamaica when every Jamaican could be proud to be Jamaican, and where being Jamaican” would enable people to “cash in on the world stage,” Patterson said.For Patterson, Manley was the first to “articulate what we now know as brand Jamaica”.And, having recognised the value of political organisation, Manley proceeded to do so with vision and energy, Patterson suggested.“There are many people who are content to criticise everything which politicians do or fail to do, but when challenged will tell you politics is dirty and they are not prepared to dirty their hands,” Patterson said.“Norman Manley felt not only could no country proceed in the absence of political organisation, but it was his job to build a political movement that would help to clean up corruption and iniquity and injustice, in whatever areas of Jamaica it existed,” he said.The former prime minister described Manley’s seven-and-a-half years as head of pre-independent Jamaica between 1955 and 1962 as a time of great achievement in the modernisation of the country.The opening up of an educational scholarship system to enable Jamaicans of humble background to enter high school was of watershed importance.“The most profound thing that was done was when he opened the doors of secondary schools, no longer confining entry to one student per parish but to 2,000 children all over the island of Jamaica.“Some of you may feel 2,000 scholarships was no big thing. It is no big thing now. It was a very revolutionary thing in those times. What it did was to create a new professional class in Jamaica that would be able to serve Jamaica in every aspect of our national development,” said Patterson.“He built the College of Arts, Science and Technology (Now UTech), he established the Scientific Research Council, he moved away from the concept of land settlements… to… meaningful activities in business and agriculture.“He created the national youth corps, the Cobbla Camp. I still meet people, as I travel the world, who tell me they were among the first to attend the Cobbla Camp, later expanded to include Chestervale…,” said Patterson.Patterson recalled that even in pre-independent Jamaica, Manley was able to assert himself in foreign policy, establishing principles such as Jamaica’s stance against apartheid South Africa that would earn the country worldwide and lasting respect.Under Norman Manley’s leadership, Jamaica became the “the first colony at the same time as independent India, to ban the import and export of goods from (apartheid) South Africa. He created the platform from which no Jamaican leader from either side has been able to retreat,” he added.Patterson credited Manley for “creating an efficient public service because whatever you may think, you cannot run this country successfully in the absence of competent public officers, to distinguish between being able to respond to political instructions and being able consistently to make sure that it is the national agenda which is being pursued”.He credited Manley for his vision in infrastructure development such as the road to Negril, though he was severely criticised for building “a road into the swamp” of Westmoreland and Hanover.“Go and look at Negril today and understand that it is the result of the foresight of Norman Washington Manley. The same thing applies to the National Stadium; he was building the National Stadium because of the importance he attached to sports as a tool of national development, and an arena for promoting our entertainment possibilities. Little did he know that it would be the place from which the flag was unfurled for the first time on Independence Day, the 6th of August, 1962,” said Patterson.He hailed Manley for his “unambiguous commitment to democracy and the right of the people to decide and the obligation of a political leader to respect that decision”.That aspect came strongly to the fore when the then opposition Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) withdrew support from a regional federation. Manley decided first on a referendum on the issue, and subsequently an election — more than two years before it was due. Manley paid the price with defeat on both counts.But “when that decision was given he didn’t halt in his stride. He took the necessary steps to chair the committee that would chart a constitution for a new and independent Jamaica,” said Patterson.“That constitution has served to provide safeguards against abuse, the first constitution in the parliamentary system where the position of Leader of the Opposition was enshrined in the constitution,” said Patterson.“Sometimes when you are prime minister, you wish it weren’t so but when you are in opposition, you are very happy and delighted that it is so…,” said Patterson to laughter and applause.He urged Jamaicans to embrace the unifying aspect of Manley’s legacy.“I think, as we approach a time of great difficulty in the life of our nation, we must be reminded of something Norman Manley always emphasised: that unity of purpose which transcends political partisan lines, to embrace the entire nation of Jamaica irrespective of the party, religion, or the group to which we belong,” Patterson said.Former Jamaican Prime Minister PJ Patterson with Youth and Culture Minister Lisa Hanna (centre) and Beverley Manley, ex-wife of late prime minister Michael Manley, at the July 4 celebrations to honour national hero Norman Manley at his birthplace in Roxborough, Manchester. (PHOTOS: SHANICE BENNETT)Former prime minister PJ Patterson and youth and culture minister Lisa Hanna tour the newly developed permanent exhibition on the life of National Hero Norman Manley.Students perform musical tributes at the 120th anniversary celebration of national hero Norman Manley at Roxborough, his birthplace in south central Manchester.

View the original article here

Patterson: Norman Manley was a supreme organiser