Jamaican

WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court has extended some leniency to legal immigrants who are convicted of having a small amount of marijuana, ruling that such a crime is not an “aggravated felony” that leads to deportation. In 7-2 decision, the justices said the government must show that a defendant sold the drugs or possessed a significant quantity for the crime to be deemed an aggravated felony. Under the terms of the Immigration and Nationality Act, a non-citizen who is guilty of an “aggravated felony” is slated for deportation, regardless of whether he or she has lived legally and productively in the United States.

Tony Johnson, 56, founder and producer of Reggae Sunsplash, the Jamaican music festival. Praised for introducing international audiences to reggae, Johnson was a native of Jamaica educated at UCLA. He founded Reggae Sunsplash in his homeland in 1978. Seven years later, he began touring a five-hour version of the five-day annual festival to cities around the world. The tours usually began in Los Angeles at the Greek Amphitheater.

Beenie Man is comfortable with modern pop. The reggae singer's newest album, "Tropical Storm," recruits Janet Jackson, the Neptunes, Lil' Kim and others. But at the House of Blues on Sunday, he was all about the dancehall. "I'm not a rapper. I'm a chanter," he told the crowd. "I do this the Jamaican way."

They'll be back. And this time the Jamaican bobsled team wants to be remembered as competitors, not as a curiosity. The crew most known in the 1988 Olympics for a spectacular spill will be in Albertville for the 1992 Winter Games hoping to show that athletes from their Caribbean nation are made for this cold-weather sport.

Justin Hinds, 62, a Jamaican vocalist and songwriter responsible for dozens of ska and rocksteady hits in the 1960s and 1970s, died of cancer Thursday in his native Steertown, St. Ann's, in Jamaica. Hinds was a cruise ship singer when he was discovered by producer Duke Reid. He soon became Reid's most successful artist.

Thousands of miles and a world away from his police chief's office in South Pasadena, Michael Berkow craned over a harried Jamaican police dispatcher Thursday as a command center console crackled nonstop. "Shots fired. Olympic Gardens." "Crowd forming. No ballot boxes." "Barrytown, Montego Bay. No black books."

The conservative People's National Party won a crushing victory Tuesday in parliamentary elections marred by confusion approaching chaos and partisan conflicts that neared serious violence. With more than 60% of the vote counted, computer projections gave the PNP and its leader, Prime Minister P. J. Patterson, at least 64% of the vote against 36% for the opposition Jamaica Labor Party of former Prime Minister Edward Seaga, who conceded defeat.

One is a tough urban community that serves as home to a professional basketball team and horse racing. The other, a miniature island port known for its serenity, deep-sea fishing and river rafting. Inglewood and Port Antonio, Jamaica, thousands of miles apart, are planning a sister city arrangement in which they will share cultural exchanges. Inglewood has been the sister city of Pedavena, Italy, since 1981.

Grace Jones, who spent three days in a Jamaican jail on suspicion of cocaine possession, is determined to turn adversity into advantage. Released on $2,700 bail Tuesday, Jones, 36, has decided to return to the Kingston jail in which she languished this weekend to film videos for two cuts on her upcoming album, tentatively titled "On My Way," which is due out in June. She also made good use of her time in jail, writing six songs for a future album and completing a storyboard for a video, she said good-naturedly in a telephone interview from her home in Jamaica.

Winston Grennan, 56, an innovative drummer known as the inventor of the "one-drop" reggae rhythm and an original member of the influential group Toots and the Maytals. Born in Jamaica to a musical family--his mother, grandfather, grandmother and many uncles played in local bands--Grennan started playing homemade drums as a child.