7 News Belize

7 News Belize HeadlinesWednesday, March 27, 2024

Portico Developer No Show At Senate Inquiry, Here's Why
The fifth hearing of the Senate Special Select Committee was scheduled for this morning, however, it never went live, and today's star witness, the point man for Portico, David...
San Pedro Running Red Line On Power Consumption
Once the temperature spikes over 90 degrees, it's time to crank up the AC or turn up those fans. But for the island of San Pedro, doing so may cause BEL's maxed out power grid to cras...
Bowen Says Alleged Herbicide In Coke Bottle Did Not Originate From Them
Yesterday we told you about the tourist who claimed that she ingested a herbicide that was inside a Coke Zero bottle, which she found in her room's refrigerator. The tourist wrote in a...
Uncustomed Liquor At VLB, Customs Still Investigating
The Customs Department continues to assess 850 cases of uncustomed liquor they confiscated from the Victor L Bryant Warehouse in Belize City on Monday. A rare release from that De...
Belize Asked To Hop Abroad Mexico's Tren Maya
It's one of the biggest Mexican tourism initiatives ever - and now Belize is hoping to hop onto Mexico's "Tren Maya". It's a 28 billion dollar, thousand mile intercity railway that span...
LIU Chairlady Says Program Still Beneficial Despite Recent Murders
Yesterday the State of Emergency was activated in parts of Southside Belize City, Hattieville, the Another World area of Roaring Creek and the Young Bank area of Camalote. As we told y...
Alleged Child Molester Remanded
A Belize City Fisherman, 47 year old Arden Sentino accused of molesting a 12 year old girl was arraigned this afternoon at the magistrates court, where he was also granted bail. According ...
ComPol Not Buying Accused Murderer's Alibi
And while he had his day in court, Christian Espat is awaiting his own trial while in remand at the Belize Central Prison. Espat is accused of committing a triple murder, which took the ...
GDP Up Thanks To Tourism
In other news, today the Statistical Institute of Belize today released the figures for the fourth quarter of 2023. One of the main areas of focus was the gross domestic product, which gre...
Fewer Belizeans Poor In 2023 Than In 2021
And the statistical institute of Belize also today released its Multidimensional Poverty Index - and it shows that there are fewer poor Belizeans than there were in 2021. The Poverty...
Mesopotamia Soap Opera Ends Before It Really Started
If it were a TV show, the Mesopotamia soap opera would rank as one of the worst ever. On paper it looked good: it pitted brother versus brother, and leader versus follower. The storyl...
$140M "Invested" In Stake Bank Without Security
In our continuing coverage of the most expensive receivership in Belize's banking history - the one at Stake Bank Jules Vasquez tonight looks at another mystifying feature of...
A Playground For Primary School Kids
Primary school students are on Easter break right now, but the kids at All Saints are in for a surprise when they get back. Today, the school, in collaboration with the Rotary Club of ...
Kosovars To Train In Belize
Soldiers from the southeastern European country of Kosovo will be coming to train in Belize. The Cabinet has received a request from BATSUB for members of the Kosovo Security Force to condu...
Fuel Prices Go Down In Time For Easter
Those taking those long drives for the easter break will get a little break at the pump since the prices in premium and regular fuel are set to decrease tonight at midnight. Premium will g...
Cherisse Anchors On NBC Affiliate
And finally tonight, we have an update on Channel 7 alumni Cherisse Halsall. To our knowledge, she is the first Belizean journalist who's made it to the anchor chair in a US City. She las...
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7 News Belize - News:
Important Note: This Internet version of 7 News is a verbatum transcript of our evening television news script. Many interviews on our newscast are conducted in Creole. In the interest of clarity for our foreign readers, we attempt to paraphrase the Creole quotes in English

Portico Developer No Show At Senate Inquiry, Here's Why

The fifth hearing of the Senate Special Select Committee was scheduled for this morning, however, it never went live, and today's star witness, the point man for Portico, David Gegg never showed up.

But according to Gegg, it wasn't because he didn't want to participate. Rather, he didn't realize he was supposed to attend until yesterday afternoon because of the seemingly haphazard way he was "invited."

In addition, he feels as though the probe cannot be objective with Senator Janelle Chanona at its head.

Gegg explained his position in a letter he addressed to the clerk of the National Assembly. Courtney Menzies took a look at it and has this story.

Today was anticipated to be the apex event of the Senate Select Committee Hearing. It's the day that Portico developer David Gegg was expected to reveal all the events that led up to the signing of the Definitive Agreement. But the session ended up being another anticlimax - that's because it never happened since Gegg didn't appear.

In a letter obtained by 7News, Gegg complains to the clerk of the National Assembly that this is what was sent to his house. This envelope reads "Edgar Gegg," who is David Gegg's late father, and says only that it is an invitation.

In Gegg's letter, he says that since it was not addressed to him - and since it was found in his driveway by his assistant - he didn't immediately open it. Once he did, he learnt that it was an invitation for him to appear as a witness before the committee this morning.

He then goes on to say that upon hearing of the launch of a Senate Inquiry, he released a statement confirming his willingness to participate and cooperate fully. And while Gegg says he still maintains that position, he adds though that due to the speculation of bias on the part of Senator Janelle Chanona, who heads the inquiry, he will not appear unless she recuses herself or if he is properly summoned.

The speculation directed at Senator Chanona arises from a letter written to her from Waterloo Holdings back in June 2023, shortly after the announcement of the inquiry. In that letter, CEO Stewart Howard claims that the environmental conservation community - including Oceana Belize - has shown the Waterloo project unfair treatment in comparison to Port of Magical Belize.

Gegg then states in his letter that, since the hearings are public, if he is summoned before the Committee, he will issue a comprehensive statement detailing all events, meetings, and discussions that led to the signing of the DA.

At 12:47pm, almost 3 hours after the hearing was supposed to start, the National Assembly issued a sheepish and curt release stating that the session had been postponed until further notice.

We'll let you know what happens at the next hearing.


San Pedro Running Red Line On Power Consumption

Once the temperature spikes over 90 degrees, it's time to crank up the AC or turn up those fans. But for the island of San Pedro, doing so may cause BEL's maxed out power grid to crash!

With a veritable March heatwave upon us, the island town is running at the redline for power consumption and BEL has advised the residents to be wary of their power consumption.

We spoke to BEL Corporate communications today to discuss what's been happening with the island's power consumption, and whether they are prepared to handle the demand which is expected to increase during the Easter weekend.

Emanuel Pech, BEL Corporate Communications
"What is happening in San Pedro is, like you rightly said, the temperatures are very hot. And I just wanted to bring your attention to the fact that this is not something that is happening, in Belize, this not is something isolated to Belize. This is a situation that's happening globally and has been happening for a long period of time. I will tell you that in San Pedro, we are faced with a situation where just last year, we had projected for a certain amount of peak power demand for the island, which fell perfectly in line with the plans that we already had in place to increase the capacity for San Pedro. And this includes the installation of a mobile GT power power capacity in San Pedro. This also includes installation of battery storage solutions in San Pedro, and as part of the long term plan for San Pedro, we had the installation of the second submarine cable, which by our plans is supposed to be in place by 2027."

"It's part of our 2028 business plan, right? So what happened in 2023 is that we, San Pedro surpassed even the most optimistic projections. And when we do projections, we'll do several projections We do best-case scenario, we even do worst-case scenario projections to plan ahead. And I will tell you that 2023 surpassed even the most pessimistic of our projections for where our energy demand would have been in San Pedro. So that's the situation in a nutshell. And what we are doing now and what have we been doing since last week since this heat wave started is that we've been working with our bulk power producers. We've been with all our partners, even in collaboration with our most valuable stakeholder in San Pedro, which are our customers. We've been working on all of them, and that's why you see the hourly updates on our social media pages."

Pech reassures us that BEL has contingency plans set in place in the event that the island does experience power issues. He says while they do remain optimistic that they will not lose power, they do have a plan to control the situation. He notes that peak power demand is usually experienced every day between 1:00 p.m. and 3:00 p.m. in the afternoon, and 6:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m. in the evenings.

Emanuel Pech, BEL Corporate Communications "All our team is on board with managing the capacity and managing the supply for San Pedro and we are doing the utmost best to ensure that the energy supply to San Pedro remains reliable going into and throughout the Easter weekend."

"That is our plan, you know if you are talking about disruptions in the energy supply that is the last resort that we want to it's not even being considered as part of the plan you know. The plan is to address the issue with the strategy that we have going on. It seems to be working right now to manage the energy supply and we will continue to do that working with our partners, working with our stakeholders in order for us to ensure a reliable supply of energy to San Pedro at this moment going into and throughout the Easter weekend."

BEL encourages the public to be responsible and practice energy conservation where possible.


Bowen Says Alleged Herbicide In Coke Bottle Did Not Originate From Them

Yesterday we told you about the tourist who claimed that she ingested a herbicide that was inside a Coke Zero bottle, which she found in her room's refrigerator.

The tourist wrote in a Trip Advisor review that she was staying at Manta Island Resort, on Glover's Reef. She claims they gave her very little help, and she also stated that in her communication with Bowen and Bowen, they told her that the bottle did not originate at their plant.

And though the tourist insists that the bottle was sealed, Bowen maintained that position today. In a press release, they state, quote, "Immediate action was taken to initiate a comprehensive internal review, carefully executing all the required verification procedures. After a thorough investigation, including checks on the production retention batch samples and other bottles with the same date codes from the resort, we have found no quality issues or complaints with the corresponding production batch." End quote.

The release also said that Bowen uses advanced manufacturing to ensure product safety, and that each product undergoes stringent quality control checks. Bowen also maintains control of the product from the production process until delivery to customers.

So how exactly did a Coke Zero bottle allegedly containing Paraquat end up in a refrigerator at Manta Island Resort? Well, we still don't know, and though we reached out to the owner of the resort, he refrained from commenting.

The incident occurred over a month ago, and led to health complications experienced by the tourist. She just posted about the experience earlier this week.


Uncustomed Liquor At VLB, Customs Still Investigating

The Customs Department continues to assess 850 cases of uncustomed liquor they confiscated from the Victor L Bryant Warehouse in Belize City on Monday.

A rare release from that Department says, quote, "On March 25, 2024, officers of Customs executed a search warrant on the premises of Victor L. Bryant warehouse located on Chetumal Street in Belize City and therein discovered an amount of liquor suspected to be uncustomed and bearing fraudulent Supplies Control Unit labels. The Department is currently conducting a detailed exercise to confirm the actual quantity and value of the seized liquor and collaborating with the Supplies Control Unit regarding the apparent fraudulent labels. We emphasize that this is an ongoing investigation and our officers are diligently working to ascertain the extent of this seizure." End quote.

So, according to latest reports to 7news, the total lost in government revenue is about 350,000 thousand dollars in what customs suspect was a thriving operation to wholesale uncustomed alcohol to establishment including major hotels and resorts. So how did this kind of alleged racket happen at a major legacy business in Belize? We did try to contact Sanjay Hotchandani who is known as the principal of Victor L Bryant - but at newstime he had not responded to our request for a comment.




Belize Asked To Hop Abroad Mexico's Tren Maya

It's one of the biggest Mexican tourism initiatives ever - and now Belize is hoping to hop onto Mexico's "Tren Maya". It's a 28 billion dollar, thousand mile intercity railway that spans southeastern Mexico - from Cancun to Chetumal across to Palenque.

On Monday, investment ambassadors Jaime Briceño and Haisam Diab, and Belize's Ambassador to Mexico, Oscar Arnold met with representatives of the Tren Maya in Mérida to ask them to add a stop in Belize.

An official release says "Discussions centered around the possibility of establishing one of the stations at Belize's Northern Border with Mexico, thereby providing passenger and freight service for Belize to all of southern Mexico."

The route linking Chetumal and Cancún is scheduled for completion between June and July 2024. This will open access to an additional estimated four million travelers yearly as well as provide an alternative route for Belizean products to penetrate Mexican markets."

Then Maya is the largest project of its kind in the Western Hemisphere.


LIU Chairlady Says Program Still Beneficial Despite Recent Murders

Yesterday the State of Emergency was activated in parts of Southside Belize City, Hattieville, the Another World area of Roaring Creek and the Young Bank area of Camalote.

As we told you, this SOE was triggered by three murders and two shootings that the police believe are all gang related. The murders began with Elwin "Bobo" Lewis on Friday evening, and an increased police presence was needed to ensure there was no retaliation.

But Lewis was a reformed gang member who was much more interested in cultivating peace in his community. He'd been working with the LIU for some time, and even accompanied the Minister of Home Affairs when he traversed the George Street area.

But is his murder a sign of failure on the part of the LIU?

According to chairlady Dominique Noralez, hundreds of people benefit from the project, and while every lost LIU member is a tragedy, it's not a reason to dismantle the system that assists those who need it the most.

Dominique Noralez, Chairlady, LIU
"There are over, in the work program alone, which is not the only program we have, there's the sports program, the agriculture program, the Tubal training program, in the work program alone, we touch the lives of over 300 people in Belize City and the urban areas, so the Roaring Creek, the Dangriga, and all of that so even up north in Orange Walk we've done some work there in terms of the trans-national crime that has been leeching into schools. I have to reiterate all the time that when one of my guys as I call them, get involved as victims or perpetrators, it cannot be the excuse to stop a program and say it is not working because there are 265 other people who are benefitting from a program such as this, which of course needs a bit more of structuring, needs a bit more of institutionalization, which we are working on, in fact I am at a strategic planning meeting as we speak, working on those sort of things, to ensure that we are institutionalized and that we're just not shooting in the dark, which we have not been doing. So yes, it is something that while it saddens us and has us kind of shocked for a moment in time it also reminds us why this sort of work is important because it is generational work that is being done. These men have been caught up in the life of gang and gun violence, which I have to add is a consequence of socio-economic neglect of Southside Belize City and so I always, there's a speech I did where I called the LIU like a Mea Culpa program because we're trying to give people the opportunities that have been taken away from them and some of them are so deep in the life that sometimes it's a bit difficult to come back from but they try, they do their best."

"Instances like these, tragedies like these, is only more of a reason, provides us with more of a purpose to say that this kind of work has to be done because the effects of programs like the LIU will only show ten to twenty years later down the line."


Alleged Child Molester Remanded

A Belize City Fisherman, 47 year old Arden Sentino accused of molesting a 12 year old girl was arraigned this afternoon at the magistrates court, where he was also granted bail. According to a report on March 1st, Sentino intentionally touched the child without her consent. He was charged with sexual assault, and in addition to the charges, another offense was brought up in court from 2020 where he owed up to $1,005 for failing to wear a mask. Sentino was offered bail in of $2,500 dollars. But first he had to clear the outstanding fine owed to the court. He could not and so he was remanded to the Belize Central prison.

ComPol Not Buying Accused Murderer's Alibi

And while he had his day in court, Christian Espat is awaiting his own trial while in remand at the Belize Central Prison. Espat is accused of committing a triple murder, which took the life of a toddler, her father, and another man, back in October. However, Espat's family and his lawyer say they have credible evidence that Espat was in Chetumal at the time of the murder, getting treatment at a hospital.

But the family is saying the police are not listening to them or acknowledging the evidence that they have presented. Based on a witness statement, they are insisting that Espat committed the crime.

Yesterday, the media brought the issue up to the ComPol.

Reporter:
"In regards to Christian Espat who was charged for a murder in 2023, his family is claiming that they have evidence regarding video footage and passport stamps that he is innocent and could not be in the time and place of the murder. Has the police acknowledged that evidence? They say they were refused to be represented in court by an attorney and they were refused to show their evidence."

Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
"I have evidence that I was in Belmopan a few minutes ago and I'm here now."


GDP Up Thanks To Tourism

In other news, today the Statistical Institute of Belize today released the figures for the fourth quarter of 2023. One of the main areas of focus was the gross domestic product, which grew when compared to the fourth quarter of 2022. And that growth is mainly due to the tertiary sector, which refers to services provided.

Statistician Christopher Hulse explained more.

Christopher Hulse, Statistician II, Economic Statistics Department
"Based on the sum of the four quarters of the year we see that Goods and Services for 2023 were valued at an estimated 5.27 billion dollars, this is an increase of 234.3 million dollars or 4.7%. The primary drivers for growth were in the tertiary sector, as primary sector was down by 6.3%, secondary sector was down by 1.6% then the tertiary sector was up by 9.6%. So this is just a snapshot of what we expect to be the annual when we publish that later in the year."

"October to December of 2023, we see that goods and services produced totaled 1.35 billion dollars. This is an increase of 41.44 million dollars of 3.2% when we compared it to that same time period for 2022. Again the primary drivers for economic growth were in the tertiary sector as we saw the primary sector decrease by 3.1%, the secondary sector decreased by 5.3% and the tertiary sector up by 8.8%."

And the reason the tertiary sector saw that increase was due mainly to the boom in tourism numbers. The primary sector as well as the secondary sector saw decreases, due to reduced output in the agriculture and mining industries.

Christopher Hulse, Statistician II, Economic Statistics Department
"We can see that almost 2/3 of the GDP share is in the tertiary sector so out of that 1.35 billion, this is saying that approximately 867.4 million dollars of that 1.35 billion is found in the tertiary sector then we say that 12% for the secondary sector, the primary sector 11.7% so round up to 12% and then we have have taxes at 13% so altogether we have the 1.35 billion dollars."

"Now we look at each sector in detail, starting with the primary sector. In quarter four of 2022, we had 163.4 million dollars, we are now at 158.4 million dollars. This is a decrease of 5 million or 3.1% but I must make note that for 2023, most of the year, we had drought like conditions, mainly in the northern and western parts of the country which impacted agriculture and in turn that will impact the secondary sector. So within the primary sector, we see agriculture, forestry and fishing went down by 0.8% and mining went down by 28.3%."

"The tertiary sector went from 797.1 million dollars in quarter 4 of 2022 to 867.4 million dollars for quarter four of 2023. This is an increase of 70.3 million dollars or 8.8%, mainly driven by an increase of the hotels and restaurants industry, transportation, we see arts, entertainment and recreation, the industries that have a tie to the increase in tourism movement."


Fewer Belizeans Poor In 2023 Than In 2021

And the statistical institute of Belize also today released its Multidimensional Poverty Index - and it shows that there are fewer poor Belizeans than there were in 2021.

The Poverty Index is not just a measure of income - but it looks at the various symptoms of poverty - in four main areas: Health, education, living standards, and employment.

The 17 indicators drawn from those general headings include everything from whether a home has a "Fiya haawt" to whether it has internet.

And, based on all these indicators, the September 2023 survey found fewer poor Belizeans:

Christian Orellana, Statistician
"For the period September 2023 the incidence of multi-dimensional poverty is 26.4 percent. That means that 26.4 percent of the population is multi-dimensionally poor. A total of 103,944 persons were multi -dimensionally poor among 24,096 households."

But the metric doesn't only measure the incidence of poverty - it also measures the intensity of it. And while there may be fewer Belizeans who are poor than two years ago, their poverty is just as intense:

Christian Orellana, Statistician
"We now compare the 2023 MPI results to the 2021 MPI results. A decrease of 10 .1% was observed for the incidents. This is a result of 38 ,596 individuals among 8,902 households coming out of being multi-dimensionally poor since the 2021 pandemic landscape, notably due to decrease in the share of the population that experienced deprivations in areas such as underemployment, food insecurity, employment, and cooking fuel."

"Now, when we compare the intensity between the two years, it can be observed that the severity of poverty among the poor remains the same with very little change."


Mesopotamia Soap Opera Ends Before It Really Started

If it were a TV show, the Mesopotamia soap opera would rank as one of the worst ever. On paper it looked good: it pitted brother versus brother, and leader versus follower. The storyline involved theft, a threat of death, police complaints, and a settlement deed.

And when the cast of characters includes people with names like "Files", "Yellows", and "Shyne" - you know it's gonna be good. But the Mesopotamia story fell apart before it could even properly start when the storyline collapsed.

With very little regret we announce that Brian Yellowman Audinett today withdrew his police complaint against his leader Shyne Barrow - where he alleged - without any proof - that the leader had put a hit out on him. So the complaint is dead before police could investigate.

So where does this story of textbook political toxicity go next? Well, don't be surprised if you see old Yellow back working at the party headquarters sometime soon. Sounds wild, but this soap opera is nothing if not that. How's that for a season ending cliffhanger? We'll let you know how it goes.


$140M "Invested" In Stake Bank Without Security

In our continuing coverage of the most expensive receivership in Belize's banking history - the one at Stake Bank Jules Vasquez tonight looks at another mystifying feature of that project.

He asks - how could 140 million - of the 200 million dollars that funded the still incomplete project have been unsecured?

This agreement is between the investors from a company named Operaciones Portuarias and the principals of Stake Bank Enterprises, Mike and Melita Feinstein. These investors are from El Salvador and Honduras and pumped 140 million Belize dollars into the project.. Reports on one side say they did so without a guarantee, reports on the other side say their agreement was for 50% equity participation. Both sides agree they never got that equity.

In clause 8.1 of the agreement, they commit to "negotiating, arranging and procuring…all required finances for the development of Stake Bank Island. Clause 7.5 makes it clear that for this they get what's called a consultancy fee of 4.5 million US dollars.

For his part, clause 8 makes it clear that Mike Feinstein and his wife are not required to give any personal guarantee whatsoever.

So what was supposed to be an equity investment ended up as at least 140 million dollars in unsecured debt.

It's now the receiver Marlowe Neal's job to figure out how he can recover it for them.

For the Atlantic Bank, its 60 million dollar loan to the project is secured by the 16 acre island itself, but as we showed you last night, that appears to be an impaired asset because the mortgage debenture does not include the 24 acres that Feinstein filled in around the original island. The bank calls that fraud - Feinstein calls it a very strong hand. We'll see what the court says.

Estimates are that to complete the project now will require upwards of another 50 million dollars - which would come from the same Central American investment group.


A Playground For Primary School Kids

Primary school students are on Easter break right now, but the kids at All Saints are in for a surprise when they get back. Today, the school, in collaboration with the Rotary Club of Belize, inaugurated a brand new playground. It's the 9th one by the club, and the president told us how this playground will impact the students' education.

Katherine Meighan, President, Rotary Club of Belize
"So we're really happy to be able to inaugurate our ninth playground for the Rotary Club of Belize. This is actually the 15th playground across Belize City that our Canadian partners and Rotary Clubs in Belize have been supporting across the Belize District."

"And it's actually one part of a wider initiative. Education is a focus area for Rotary and of course for our club. And this is a part of what we call an education literacy and creative learning project."

"And what I mean when I say that is that there's things to learn on the playground for kids, right? You learn friendships, you learn about working together, teamwork, etc. So there are good opportunities there."

"As mentioned, this one part is what includes also literacy projects and then we also have feeding programs for some schools. So we're lucky, with the Canadian partners, what happens is that in Canada, they have certain rules and guidelines that give them opportunity for playgrounds."

"It's a part of a wider, not-for-profit organization. So, we partner with the Canadian Clubs who partner with Emmanuel Foundation and they get access to playground, there are playground's of different sizes, they come from different areas of Canada as well."

"And what we try to do is match the school size with a playground type. And then we also have the Emmanuel Foundation helping us get them here and then what we try to do is we work with the principals to make sure that it's the right type of playground to meet the students' needs and align in terms of their educational goals as well."

Colin Estrada, Principal, All Saints School
"It is very important because one of the things that you look at, it is not just the academics, it's also the social and the soft skills whereby when the children are on the playground, they will learn how to share, they learn to cooperate, they'll learn on how take turns."

"If someone drops them, then they can say something, let me pick up my friend. So again, building those soft skill that are very imporant. It's a sense of happiness. At the end of the day, all the work that has been done is for their happiness, so I'm elated to see how they're playing on it."

Reporter
"Do you think they are excited to come back after Easter?"

Colin Estrada, Principal, All Saints School
"They will be more than excited. We've had shared in some of the chats, and the parents are also happy that we have the playground, so just imagine if the parents are happy, what happens to the children when they see it when the come."


Kosovars To Train In Belize

Soldiers from the southeastern European country of Kosovo will be coming to train in Belize. The Cabinet has received a request from BATSUB for members of the Kosovo Security Force to conduct training along with the British soldiers. A release says Cabinet gave its approval and requested that the Ministry of Defence and Border Security develop a Status of Forces Agreement.

Fuel Prices Go Down In Time For Easter

Those taking those long drives for the easter break will get a little break at the pump since the prices in premium and regular fuel are set to decrease tonight at midnight. Premium will go down by 21 cents while regular will go down at by 31 cents per gallon. Kerosene, on the other hand is set to increase by 25 cents.

Cherisse Anchors On NBC Affiliate

And finally tonight, we have an update on Channel 7 alumni Cherisse Halsall. To our knowledge, she is the first Belizean journalist who's made it to the anchor chair in a US City. She last night anchored the main evening newscast KOMU - the NBC affiliate in Columbia, Missouri. Cherisse is currently pursuing a master's degree in journalism at the University Of Missouri.








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