They made the news last week

Portia Simpson Miller

Peeved about a Sunday Gleaner story in which political analysts claimed that her failure to provide leadership was one of the factors behind the bitter quarrels in the People's National Party (PNP), the prime minister fired back at her critics as she declared that anyone who thinks she is missing in action needs to have their heads examined.

Raymond Pryce

The articulate first-time member of parliament announced that he was stepping away from representational politics after an internal dispute over who should represent the PNP in the North East St Elizabeth con-stituency turned ugly, with a court move to block Evon Redman from challenging him and street protest by persons who wanted the face-off to take place.

Lloyd B. Smith

The first-time Central St James member of parliament cried foul after he failed to capture the 66 per cent of delegates' votes he needed to be confirmed as the PNP's standard-bearer in the constituency

for the next general election; however, the leadership of the party offered him a lifeline when it announced that it accepted that all was not well in the voting process and a selection exercise is to be held in the constituency.

Janet Farr

A mystery illness hit many nurses in the public sector last week as they stayed off the job, but Farr, the president of the Nurses' Association of Jamaica, was honest enough to admit it was the Government's protracted delay in paying retroactive money from the reclassification of the health sector that was making the nurses sick.

Mark Barnett

After proving his mettle while acting in the job, Mark Barnett was been appointed president of the National Water Commission, effective August 1.