Larry Williams Drive

The premier of the British Virgin Islands and the director of the Caribbean territory’s ports were arrested Thursday on drug smuggling charges in South Florida, federal authorities said.Premier Andrew Alturo Fahie and Managing Director Oleanvine Maynard were taken into custody by U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agents at Miami-Opa-locka Executive Airport and charged with conspiracy to import cocaine and conspiracy to launder money, according to a criminal complaint. Maynard's son, Kadeem Maynard, faces the same changes in the alleged scheme, according to the records."Anyone involved with bringing dangerous drugs into the United States will be held accountable, no matter their position," DEA Administrator Anne Milgram said in a statement. "Today is yet another example of DEA’s resolve to hold corrupt members of government responsible for using their positions of power to provide a safe haven for drug traffickers and money launderers in exchange for their own financial and political gain.”Fahie and Oleanvi

Big hype this week about Costco, the world’s largest retailer after Walmart, opening one petrol station in Auckland’s northwest.The retailer is expected to open its big warehouse later this year, including groceries, a tyre centre, a pharmacy, a food court, and an optical and hearing aid centreSo the big question is will Costco bring the gull effect to the supermarket duopoly?Costco managing director Patrick Noone joined Heather du Plessis-Allan.LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The merger between Orcon Group (aka Vocus NZ) and 2degrees has cleared its final hurdle after the Overseas Investment Office granted consent.The deal earlier gained Commerce Commission, GCSB and shareholder approvals.Orcon Group chief executive Mark Callander, who will lead the merged business, said: "We expect the transaction to be finalised in the coming weeks and will come together as a combined business on June 1."The combined business would be known as 2degrees, Callander said.Orcon Group's various sub-brands, including Orcon, Slingshot, Flip and 2Talk will continue to be used. The firm also owns a nationwide fibre network spanning more than 4000km, a small power retailer (Switch Utilities) and provisions service for Sky TV's Sky Broadband.The new company will combine 2degrees' mobile network with Orcon Group's more landline-focused business for what analysts see as a stronger number three competitor to Spark and Vodafone.The merged company's combined revenue will be around $1.2 billion next to Spark's $

Auckland's mayor says the Government's Three Waters model still doesn't stack up for the city.The Government's today confirmed its ploughing ahead with reforms including a public shareholding model.Co-governance is also in the mix at a regional level with each area getting a council and mana whenua chair.Phil Goff told Heather du Plessis-Allan even with the changes, the structure does not reflect the unique position of Auckland which has already amalgamated.“We don’t get any benefit from economies of scale and extra professionalism. It’s what we lose and what we lose is that direct control and accountability of the water service's entity back to the people of Auckland.”LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Warriors suffered a record embarrassment over Anzac weekend.Their 70-10 defeat to the Melbourne Storm was their record defeat, with injuries compounding onto the team’s misery.Tyson Fury has confirmed his retirement from boxing.Fury retires with an unbeaten record and intends on being a family man.Some discussion over Super Rugby players should be personally fined for poor discipline.It came from comments from Jeff Wilson and Sir John Kirwan in a plea to try and reduce the issue.Phil Gifford and Jason Pine joined Heather du Plessis-Allan to discuss the week's sports newsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Car dealers say mistakes in the Clean Car Scheme emissions data is costing $100,000 and altering market behaviour.Dealers have been warning for weeks the fees or the rebates the scheme calculates based on the vehicle's emissions is sometimes completely wrong.But Waka Kotahi doesn't believe there is an issue.Online Motor Group's Paul Carruthers told Heather du Plessis-Allan the issue is the Rightcar website for identifying vehicles in Japan to import is ambiguous its information provided.“So, trying to buy that car out of Japan and import it is effectively like throwing a dart at a dartboard and hoping you hit the right target.”LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Oranga Tamariki says youth crime is not on the rise.Children as young as seven have been involved in the spate of ram raids across the North Island in the past week.There's been another raid in east Auckland early this morning, but it's unclear how old the perpetrators are.Oranga Tamariki Director for Youth Justice Strategy Ben Hannifin told Heather Du Plessis Allan crimes like this are cyclical.“Six months ago, fleeing drivers was a big thing. A year or so ago, it was aggravated robberies and our young people going into the dairies with weapons, and now with the fleeing drivers, it seems to be the same cohort are moving into driving those cars into shop fronts.”LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

While the cost of living continues to rise, so does the cost of death.Funeral directors around the country are calling on the Government to increase funeral grants for low-income families in this year’s budget.The Funeral Directors Association's Gillian Boyes told Heather du Plessis Allan the grant is currently $2300 but is proposing to increase that to the maximum amount of $6300.“So what we see now is that’s round about what those essential costs would be and we think $6300 would give choice to families.”LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A triumph of spin over substance.That's Act Leader David Seymour's take on the Government Three Waters announcement today.They're forging ahead with the plan to create four publicly-owned water entities and have accepted nearly all recommendations from the independent working group.The shake-up includes a public shareholding model and a council and mana whenua chair for each region.Seymour told Heather du Plessis-Allan there's an implication if you're Maori then you're more caring towards the future of this country and you've got something to offer in Three Waters governance that others don't.“I am part Maori, I’ve been looking inside myself for the special insight, I can’t find it, and I know that most New Zealanders will find that deeply offensive.”LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Government is officially pushing on with its Maori co-governance plan for water.Grant Robertson and Nanaia Mahuta today announced that they’re making some changes to the plan reform but they’re refusing to ditch their sacred cow of co-governance.Iwi, under the plan as it stands, will still have 50 percent control in appointing water governance boards.The longer this goes on, the more the Government refuses to budge on the co-governance aspect, the more it looks like this reform isn’t really about cleaning up your water at all, is it?It’s actually about entrenching a new way of running things in New Zealand, isn’t it? it’s about entrenching Maori co-governance as a system.This is how it’s going to work in terms of the water assets: The Government’s going to take all council water assets and then throw them together into one of four big water bodies across the country divided up geographically.Councils will still own their water assets, that’s one of the changes today, they’re going to be assured that they

The Auditor-General is to launch an inquiry into how mental health and addiction services are working for young people.It comes after National's mental health spokesman Matt Doocey wrote to the Auditor-General, Parliament's independent spending watchdog, to look at the $1.9 billion for mental health allocated in the 2019 Budget.The Auditor-General normally looks at whether laws might have been broken around the spending of public money, not the merits of individual spending decisions.In a letter published today, John Ryan said he believed there was already sufficient oversight of that Government investment, through reviews by the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet's Implementation Unit, and the Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission, which recently reported that investment had not seen improvements "materialise" as hoped.Rather than duplicate the processes, Ryan said his office would focus on the effectiveness of mental health and addiction services for young people "a group with an increasing need

Moderna is seeking to be the first to offer COVID-19 vaccine for the youngest American children, as it asked the Food and Drug Administration Thursday to clear low-dose shots for babies, toddlers and preschoolers.Frustrated families are waiting impatiently for a chance to protect the nation’s littlest kids as all around them people shed masks and other public health precautions -- even though highly contagious coronavirus mutants continue to spread. Already about three-quarters of children of all ages show signs they've been infected at some point during the pandemic.Moderna submitted data to the Food and Drug Administration that it hopes will prove two low-dose shots can protect children younger than 6 -- although the effectiveness wasn't nearly as high in kids tested during the omicron surge as earlier in the pandemic.“There is an important unmet medical need here with these youngest kids,” Dr. Paul Burton, Moderna's chief medical officer, told The Associated Press. Two kid-size shots “will safely protect t

The Government could cut the number of pokie machines in pubs and make remaining machines less appealing.Consultation on possible reforms closed yesterday and minister in charge Jan Tinetti wants to implement recommendations by the end of the year.Gaming Machine Association chair Peter Dengate-Thrush told Heather du Plessis-Allan says there's better ways of dealing with problem gamblers.“We don’t think reducing the fun of the game for everyone else is really going to help that number of seriously addicted people.”LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It's reporting season, and a few big US tech companies have got involved.After Netflix’s stocks dropped to 45 percent last week, expectations have been low.Microsoft and Meta maintained just profit guidance, but the shares are up 6 and 7 percent respectively.Fisher Funds Senior Portfolio Manager Sam Dickie joined Heather du Plessis-Allan.LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A big upset for the hospitality sector.A multi-million dollar deal to buy Nourish Group has fallen over because overseas investors couldn’t easily travel to New Zealand and are concerned about future pandemic restrictions.Nourish Group owns a number of well-known hospitality businesses around the country, includingSoul Bar in Auckland and Shed 5 in Wellington.The deal would’ve been worth more than $20 million.Restaurant Association National President Mike Egan joined Heather du Plessis-Allan.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Winter grazing rules have changed.One of the rules concerning re-sowing crop paddocks has been changed from November 1 to as soon as possible.A lot of the regulations were due to come in May 1 last year, but were moved to May 1 this year and then again to November 1.The Country Host Rowena Duncum joined Heather du Plessis-Allan.LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

ANZ’s latest Business Confidence Survey is suggesting we’re going to face more inflationary pressure still.Unsurprisingly, confidence overall is down and there are concerns over rising inflation.Activity expectations has picked up and the rate of acceleration of cost increases is slowing.NZ Herald Business Editor at Large Liam Dann joined Heather du Plessis-Allan.LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Despite warnings that New Zealand needs to diversify, the country’s dependence on China has grown over the past four years.Almost 33 percent of all of our international exports are sent to China.That’s an increase from four years ago when it was 25 percent.New Zealand China Council Chair John McKinnon joined Heather du Plessis-Allan.LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Companies using the Reader’s Digest Most Trusted logo in their branding are being charged for it.Reader’s Digest Managing Editor Zoe Meunier says brands aren’t being trusted to be a part of the survey.Two ram raids took place overnight in Auckland and Hamilton.In Hamilton, a group of children aged 12, 11, 10 and 7 were all caught attempting to steal from a shopping centre in Hamilton, while would-be thieves failed to steal jewellery from another shopping centre in Auckland.Rotorua Council have paused a controversial local electoral bill.The bill would allow an equal number of Maori and general seats, but a report from the Attorney-General dubbed the report in its current form discriminatory.‘Bank of Mum and Dad’ is the fifth-largest bank for handing out home loans, making it bigger than Kiwibank.14 percent of families surveyed offered financial aid for their kids to buy a house, with an average offering of $108,000.Listen above as Clare de Lore and Neale Jones discuss the day's news with Heather du Plessis-Al

Assurances the door is still open for a controversial bill which would boost Maori seats in Rotorua.The local bill would allow an equal number of Maori and general seats - granting both sides three sets a piece.But an Attorney-General report earlier this week dubbed the bill in its current form is discriminatory.Progress on the bill has been halted.Rotorua Mayor Steve Chadwick told Heather du Plessis-Allan a pause is sensible to complete policy work.“The bill is about the right way forward for Rotorua. We’re committed to working through the parliamentary process and if a delay is needed, then we’ll get the work done.”LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.