Sportscaster fined for having unlicensed car

Former ZBM sports broadcaster Nick Jones was taken to Magistrates? Court in handcuffs yesterday morning following his arrest for failing to show up in court to face a car licensing offence.

Unshackled before Senior Magistrate Archibald Warner and after a wait of almost an hour in a packed court room, Jones admitted his unlicensed car had been parked on a public road earlier this year.

And Jones admitted that he had forgotten about his scheduled court date to answer the charge ? but not before querying whether he had broken the law given that the car was parked and not being driven.

But Mr. Warner was quick to confirm the worst and handed out a fine of $700 ? which Jones paid immediately on his way out of court.

Fuel costs top $6

Bad news for motorists making their way to the fuel pumps today you will end up paying just over $6 a gallon for gasoline this week.

Since the beginning of the year, the price of fuel has increased by 38 cents from $5.15 a gallon for gasoline in January.

However, the Ministry of Finance announced that the price of diesel is down by one cent a litre, followed by kerosene which is down by six cents a litre.

As a consequence, consumers will now be paying just over $6 a gallon for gasoline at the pumps, $5.11 a gallon of diesel and $4.20 a gallon of kerosene.

Buffet to raise funds for West Africa

The Nannini Group in Bermuda will be hosting a fund raising buffet to not only raise awareness, but also funds for the Bermuda Red Cross West Africa Crisis Appeal.

Nannini spokesperson, Shelly Wilks said with over 3.5 million people ? including more than one million children ? facing starvation in Niger and neighbouring countries, they felt the least they could do was try and raise money for the plight.

?I was determine to spread the word about the current crisis in West Africa by hosting this fund rising buffet in aid of the calamity,? she said.

Ms Wilks added that she and Fosco Nannini had joined forces in donating the food and alcohol for the buffet which would take place on September 5 at Pirate?s Landing at the Royal Naval Dockyard.

The event begins at 6.30 p.m. and costs $15 per person. Ms Wilks said wine and beer were included in the $15 fee and all the money raised would be donated towards the Bermuda Red Cross.

Longbird Bridge schedule changed

The final morning opening for Longbird Bridge on the Causeway has been cancelled following recent technical problems with the bridge.

Effective Friday, the Ministry of Works and Engineering has cancelled the 11 a.m. opening time, meaning the bridge will now open every half hour between 8 a.m. and 10.30 a.m.

The Ministry expect the closure to allow for ?a smother, uninterrupted flow of traffic to and from the airport during peak departure and arrival times?.

Last month, airline passengers were forced to walk across the Causeway to the Airport after the antiquated bridge jammed while it was being closed. It took several hours to get the bridge back into its proper place to allow vehicles across.

The afternoon opening schedule, beginning at 3 p.m., will continue the same as usual, every half an hour until 6 p.m.

For further information contact Principal Mechanical Engineer Stephen Outerbridge at 293-2210.

Middle school nline curriculum ready

The online curriculum successfully piloted by Whitney Institute over the last year will be implemented at all middle schools by September.

At the beginning of the year teachers and principals from middle schools visited Whitney to see first hand the online curriculum in action ? and they were impressed.

Requests were sent to the Ministry of Education to implement the programme at all middle schools before the end of this year after a private school, Bermuda Institute, announced plans to install the programme in the new school year.

The online curriculum caters to different learning styles ? providing the same lesson at three different levels.

The lessons are placed onto a computer server and then made accessible to all classrooms and resources to support the lessons can be found on the server.

Tests, video clips, quizzes, and films are also available on the programme and should other schools adopt the system, information can be shared with everyone.

Whitney?s principal, Freddie Evans said the system provided invaluable and exercised five skills including interpersonal, problem solving, maths, language arts, and technology.