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VOLUME:117 No.62, FEBRUARY 20TH, 2020

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CLASSIFIED TRADER: CARS, CARS, CARS & MORE CARS

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$400k Dorian funds lawsuit

By RASHAD ROLLE Tribune Senior Reporter rrolle@tribunemedia.net

GINA Knowles, a cofounder of the HeadKnowles Foundation, has sued her former partner Lia HeadRigby and her husband, accusing them of using GoFundMe funds for personal use while violating a mandate to send all the donations to The Bahamas.

The lawsuit, filed in Florida on Monday, claims Mrs Head-Rigby went from being on the brink of poverty to living like the “rich and famous” at the expense of the Hurricane Dorian victims she vowed to help. At dispute is more than $400,000.

The plaintiff, HeadKnowles, wants a judgement declaring its organisation the rightful and beneficial owner of the GoFundMe (GFM) funds raised as well as other relief determined to be just or necessary.

Mrs Head-Rigby allegedly “perjured herself” by using invalid Bahamian documents to start the GoFundMe campaign on September 5, 2019. The lawsuit says the documents, a memorandum of association for the HeadKnowles Foundation, were dated March 20, 2018 and were never approved by the Bahamian government.

FEARS were mounting last night that Bahamas Customs’ decision to ban Abaco’s sole aviation freight provider from flying to the island will further setback the island’s postDorian recovery.

Furious Abaco residents told Tribune Business that blocking Abaco Freight’s regular flights was the latest example of bureaucratic red tape undermining

FULL STORY - SEE BUSINESS

MURDERED MAN WAS DUE TO BE MARRIED

By EARYEL BOWLEG ebowleg@tribunemedia.net

A MAN died in hospital shortly after he was shot outside an apartment in the Wilson Track area Tuesday night, police said.

The murder has left family and loved ones of 31-year-old Valdez McKinney from Green Castle, Eleuthera, in shock. However, a relative conceded to The Tribune that McKinney had spent time in prison for the sexual assault of a nine-year-old girl for which he was sentenced to three years in jail in June 2017.

‘OFFICER BEAT MY SON IN PRISON’

By RASHAD ROLLE Tribune Senior Reporter rrolle@tribunemedia.net

SEE PAGE THREE

restoration efforts, with Customs demanding that its local agent both pay a bond and go to Nassau to train on the new Click2Clear electronic goods clearance system before it can return.

Kimber Mazzeo, Abaco Freight’s West Palm Beachbased principal, warned the ever-growing freight backlog - now standing at three to four planeloads - threatened to delay the planned March 4 re-opening of one of the island’s major resorts.

L SOUR CE

SEE PAGE FIVE

CUSTOMS HALT AIRLINE DELIVERING TO ABACO

By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

$1

A MAN on remand for marijuana possession was beaten so badly by a prison officer that his leg required surgery, his mother alleged yesterday.

Ellen Kemp, 51, said she went to the Department of Correctional Services on Monday after she was told her son was seen in hospital with a damaged foot.

SOMETHING OLD, SAUNDERS SOMETHING NEW - MILLER SEE PAGE FIVE

DOESN’T LAST SHELTERS STAY OPEN ‘TIL JUNE SCARE ME UPCYCLED island chic: Find out how designers are coming up with new ideas with vintage clothing in The Tribune’s Weekend section, out tomorrow

By KHRISNA RUSSELL Tribune Chief Reporter krussell@tribunemedia.net

OFFICIALS hope to have completely deactivated shelters for victims of deadly storm Dorian before the start of the 2020 hurricane season, according to Social Services Minister Frankie Campbell yesterday.

This includes the Poinciana Inn on Bernard Road – which is currently

THE POINCIANA Inn serving as a transitional home for affected families — and Bahamas Academy

Auditorium on Wulff Road.

Combined, the remaining two shelters house less than 300 people, the minister told reporters yesterday.

The 2020 hurricane season is from June 1 to November 30.

“The Kendal G L Isaacs (Gymnasium) as of the 15 (of this month) has been deactivated,” Mr Campbell said outside Parliament.

“We are now in the process of trying to restore it back

Nassau & Bahama Islands’ Leading Newspaper

SEE PAGE EIGHT

By KHRISNA RUSSELL Tribune Chief Reporter krussell@tribunemedia.net

TALL Pines MP Donald Saunders said yesterday his record alone will thwart off any challenge by former area MP Leslie Miller.

Mr Saunders also suggested constituents and by extension the country have nothing to gain from Mr Miller being elected to office again.

SEE PAGE TWO

PAGE 2, Thursday, February 20, 2020

THE TRIBUNE

Saunders: Miller doesn’t scare me from page one He said newer, younger candidates are needed in politics and questioned Mr Milller’s impact at the Bahamas Electricity

Corporation and Water and Sewerage Corporation. Mr Miller served as chairman of both entities during the last Christie administration.

On Tuesday, the former Tall Pines MP said he’s certain he can win the

seat by at least 500 votes in the 2022 general election, whether or not the PLP allows him to run on its ticket. He said his prospects are just as good under party affiliation as they are being an independent candidate.

“…I don’t care if he runs with the PLP (and) I don’t care if he runs independently,” Mr Saunders said in response yesterday. “I am going to go on my soapbox in the next two years or whenever election is called

TALL Pines MP Donald Saunders and I am going to point to these various developments that we have succeeded on and the projects that we intend to succeed on.

“I have never been afraid of Leslie Miller. I have never been afraid of anyone. This is a democracy.

“During the last election he said publicly that he was going to beat me by 1,600 votes. Now he’s saying 500, whatever it is the people of the Bahamas are going to make that decision. At the end of the day I think the FNM government and my representation in Tall Pines would be one that I think they would give me the opportunity to continue in the success that we’ve seen in Tall Pines.

“I say that I would beat Leslie Miller once more as I beat him in 2017 and I think as I said earlier and you can tell Leslie Miller this: I am going to run on my record.”

He also said: “I can’t speak for the Progressive Liberal Party, but if I was in leadership of the Progressive Liberal Party I would probably tell Leslie (to) relax but that is up to him.

This is a democracy. Yes, he is over 70-years-old, (but) I do believe that we need

younger fresher faces to stand up and represent our people.

“Is there a need for Leslie Miller in the Bahamas today with all of our bright minds and younger persons who want to have that opportunity to serve in this Parliament? Do we need a Leslie Miller?

“What’s the significance of a Leslie Miller in Tall Pines right now? He was at Bahamas Electricity Corporation. What great stuff did we see from him there? The FNM is now putting in the new generators.

“He was at Water and Sewerage, what great news did he bring there? So what do the people of Tall Pines and by extension the people of The Bahamas need from a Leslie Miller?”

Mr Saunders said his record in Tall Pines includes addressing chronic New Providence Landfill issues; ensuring there is a community centre with homework and computer lab space; establishing community associations that focus on crime watch and neighbourhood development and establishing three new parks though the use of constituency funds, among other things.

THE TRIBUNE from page one “Head knew (this) and intentionally misrepresented their validity to GFM in order to begin the campaign,” it claims.

While the agreement she signed required she transfer funds raised to HeadKnowles in the Bahamas, the lawsuit alleges: “Head did not transfer all of the funds to the plaintiff as she attested that she would.

She perjured herself. Head converted funds and used them for her own purposes in violation of the attestation. Head’s scheme after Hurricane Dorian struck The Bahamas was to use the good name of the plaintiff and the empathy that would be evoked for the people for The Bahamas, in order to raise funds through GFM and ultimately help herself to those funds that she stated were intended to go to Bahamian victims.”

The GFM campaign raised about $1.5 million before it was closed. The funds were transferred from GFM to a personal Bank of America (BoA) account accessed by the women.

At first, in accordance with the GFM agreement, Mrs Head-Rigby transferred $ 737,070 from the BoA account to a Royal Bank of Canada account in The Bahamas which both women could access, according to the lawsuit.

That account, HEADKNOWLES Limited, was initially used in 2015 to accumulate funds raised for Hurricane Joaquin victims simultaneously with the establishment of a not-for profit corporation, HK Limited Company.

Although that not-for profit organisation became invalid in 2016 because annual filings were not made to the government, the lawsuit says the RBC account continued to accumulate funds for disaster relief efforts.

After sending GFM money to the RBC account, Mrs Head-Rigby allegedly began making “inappropriate withdrawals” from that account and to avoid detection by GFM or US bank authorities, she allegedly withdrew money from the RBC account rather than the BoA account, the lawsuit alleges.

Two withdrawals of $1,000 from the RBC account are highlighted in the lawsuit as sources of

Thursday, February 20, 2020, PAGE 3

$400k Dorian funds lawsuit

GINA KNOWLES, left, a co-founder of the HeadKnowles Foundation, with her former partner Lia Head-Rigby controversy that eventually led to the break-up of the charity group.

When confronted about the withdrawals, Mrs HeadRigby’s husband allegedly admitted in a WhatsApp chat that $1,000 was taken to pay for gas and groceries for his family and that the other was used by his wife for petty cash.

“Later on in the WhatsApp conversation, Head herself joins the conversation and realises that her husband, Rigby, admitted that she inappropriately took funds from the GFM

campaign,” the lawsuit alleges. “The very next day, on September 16, 2019, Head issued a press release announcing to the Bahamian media that she is no longer affiliated with the plaintiff. Head did this because she realised she was caught taking funds and attempted to separate herself from the plaintiff. From the moment of Head’s press release announcing to the world that she was no longer associated with plaintiff, Head stopped remitting funds to the plaintiff in violation of

her execution attestation to GFM.” After separating herself from HeadKnowles, Mrs Head-Rigby allegedly began paying herself $120,000 per year from crowdsourced funds in September 2019, despite being unemployed just weeks earlier, the suit claims. That same month, the Florida Department of Agriculture is said to have began asking her about the GFM campaign to see if she was complying with Florida law.

In an interview with The

Tribune yesterday, Mrs Head-Rigby denied she was paying herself such a salary.

Mrs Head-Rigby said: “We were trying to rent this house for a family and it was right down the road and the lady from the American company, the realty company, she said just write a letter, put a letter to say that you are the foundation and you are working. . .so I did that, it looks good. . .it’s a job letter for Italia Head-Rigby. . .and I put that the salary was $120,000 — there is no

$120,000 salary. That’s the only transgression I did, but (I did that) to get those families from Abaco and Grand Bahama a house and I’d do it again.”

The lawsuit says Mrs Head-Rigby later registered the Head Foundation in Florida, submitting a financial statement indicating the foundation had a revenue of $1,229,976.84, total expenses of $1,046,220.06 and a net fund balance of $183,756.78 for the fiscal year ending December 31, 2019, according to the lawsuit.

“These values correlate to the amounts raised through the GFM campaign outlined,” the document says. “At the date of her application to the department, Head was telling the State of Florida, through her attorney, who stated the application was ‘true and accurate,’ that her new entity had received and spent approximately $1,046,220.

“In fact, what happened was that Head, after her press release on September 16, 2019, and after living on the brink of poverty with a personal bank account balance of $93.79, found herself in control of a sum of money she had never seen before and seized the opportunity to commence a lifestyle of the ‘rich and famous,’ and separate herself from the rightful possessor of those funds, the plaintiff and most importantly, the Bahamian victims of Hurricane Dorian. Head’s scheming, misrepresentations…to the plaintiff, GFM and the State of Florida is breathtaking.

Her conduct, in terms of brazen disregard for the law, rivals that of Bernie Madoff and Scott Rothstein.”

None of it is true - my hands are clean, insists Head-Rigby IN response to a lawsuit filed by the HeadKnowles Foundation that alleges she withheld Hurricane Dorian donations, Lia Head-Rigby maintained her complete innocence, saying her “hands are clean”.

When contacted by The Tribune, Mrs HeadRigby, co-founder of the foundation, said she only learned of the lawsuit after an American news crew showed up at her house in Florida yesterday seeking comment.

She claims she was fully transparent and compliant with the law during the whole Hurricane Dorian fundraising process — during which the foundation raised more than $1m after the deadly storm — and may file a countersuit for defamation.

“None of it’s true,” Mrs Head-Rigby said about the lawsuit’s allegations. “Every dime I have accounted for and I have been cleared by the Florida State Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, they’re the IRS of Florida.

They actually hold all the receipts, which is why so many receipts are in the

complaint. Gina (Knowles) wouldn’t have gotten them if I hadn’t sent them, right?

I have sent everything I scan, as soon as it’s done I upload to a folder and they have full access to all that.

So I’ve been in compliance since day one. And there’s just no way I am going to allow my name to go down these real serious rabbit holes.”

The lawsuit says that as of October 2019, the foundation’s GoFundMe account had raised $1.5m. However, only a little more than a million dollars has been turned over to the Bahamian NGO, the lawsuit alleges. More than $400,000 is in dispute.

Yesterday, Mrs HeadRigby confirmed that she sent the HeadKnowles Foundation more than $1 million. She said any money that she did not turn over was used for an “operations budget” as she needed funds to pay for logistics and transport of donated materials.

“My hands are clean.

I’m just so disappointed in Gina and this hunt for money that she’s always known where it is,” Mrs

Head-Rigby said. “We sent over a $1 million that was frozen by Ministry of Finance, the other money that she asked to be frozen for the GoFundMe that we pay because she said they were taking too long and they wanted to know where the money was.

“Everything was sent and the monies that I kept on this end for the operation budget. . .you know, as a Bahamian slash American over here, I am fundraising.

There’s nobody I can call here like in Nassau. . .we had quite a few volunteers for a week and that was that.

“I couldn’t send the relief if I didn’t have money to send it down. You can’t

ask America to do for free, Americans ain’t doing nothing for free. So I spent money on mostly transportation for shipping via plane, via boat, via FedEx once and we paid taxes. . .and Gina knew about it.”

Last September, Mrs Head-Rigby revealed she was stepping back from the foundation “with a heavy heart”. At the time, she said she was “disheartened by certain measures to defame my name and reputation as a Bahamian whose only goal has been to assist those devastated from natural disasters.”

Yesterday, she told The Tribune the split came after the $1m she sent to the HeadKnowles Foundation

was allegedly deposited in a Bahamian bank account that had her name on it, but to which she was not a signatory. She claimed she was not consulted about this.

According to the lawsuit, Ms Knowles and Mrs HeadRigby knew each other for some 20 years before

working together on disaster relief in 2015. Yesterday, Mrs Head-Rigby said she still loves her former colleague, in spite of the allegations.

“We did love each other,” she said. “I still love Gina. . . my hands are clean and it will come out in the end.”

PAGE 4, Thursday, February 20, 2020

THE TRIBUNE

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Are we prepared for the next hurricane season?

AS MUCH as we have talked about the aftermath of Hurricane Dorian, we must now turn our minds to a new hurricane season.

Of course, it is February now and the hurricane season is some months away, starting in June, but if there is one thing we must learn from the storm that devastated Abaco and Grand Bahama, it is that we can never be too prepared.

Golden Isles MP Vaughn Miller fired a warning shot of dissent yesterday, saying that the mid-year is “woefully deficient” and that government had not done enough to show it was prepared for the next season. He highlighted the lack of an allocation for the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) in the budget.

Minister of Works Desmond Bannister took issue with Mr Miller’s comments, but the news that officials only “hope” to have completely deactivated shelters by the time of the next storm season do raise concerns.

For all we’ve heard about dome cities and the use of other locations as temporary housing – such as the Poinciana Inn on Bernard Road – the thought that there isn’t certainty over shelter arrangements for June is disconcerting. If there are people still in shelters by then, where will people go if, heaven forbid, we are struck by another hurricane?

Certainly we should be learning lessons from last year, when some shelters weren’t deemed fit for use and there wasn’t a list of shelters even publicly available by the start of the hurricane season.

Social Services Minister Frankie Campbell strikes the right note over wanting to be in a position to cease the

use of shelters so final preparations can be made for the new season – while wryly noting that “the media likes to hold us hard and fast to dates and that’s probably why we don’t give dates”. It’s not that we like to hold government to dates – but if a date is given and flies on past without an update, it’s always appropriate to ask the question about what happened. Especially when we’re talking about public facilities, public money and, most important of all, public safety.

By now, we should have clearly assessed the biggest problems in the Hurricane Dorian response – the availability of shelters, the speed of the rescue response, the supply chain to deliver food and hurricane supplies, the speed of the reconstruction effort. It’s not a difficult conversation – hurricane survivors will have a list of the areas they feel could have been handled better.

Beyond the government response, though, Hurricane Dorian ought to have taught us that as citizens we need to be better prepared in case of a storm.

Dorian looked as though it was petering out before roaring through Abaco and Grand Bahama – so it shows we must always be prepared. Get your hurricane kit ahead of the start of the season. Work out your plan for getting to your nearest shelter ahead of a storm’s impact. And plan for the worst – how do you get out of your home if it suddenly fills with 20 feet of water?

Hurricane Dorian has shown us some of the structural problems of our hurricane preparations and response. But it has also shown us the need to be ready ourselves. That is a lesson we must learn.

The farce of red tape IN THE realm of “you couldn’t make it up”, Bahamas Customs has banned the only Abaco aviation freight provider from flying to the island.

In the middle of hurricane recovery efforts, this is the kind of decision that leaves people tearing their hair out in frustration.

What’s the big problem? Customs insists that the local agent for Abaco Freight has to pay a bond – oh, and in the middle of hurricane relief, the agent has to go to Nassau to be trained on the government’s Click2Clear electronic goods clearance system.

Meanwhile, the freight stacks up as a backlog, and the lack of flights could

cause a delay in the planned March 4 reopening of Abaco Beach Resort.

Worse, one person said they were expecting their blood pressure medicine from Abaco Freight – but it has been unable to supply it.

Imposting Customs red tape at this time and without any alternatives ready and waiting seems like an abundance of red tape and a lack of foresight. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Finance financial secretary played pass the parcel and pointed The Tribune to the Customs comptroller - who couldn’t be reached. If only people on Abaco could get their parcels…

Sort it out, please, government. And quickly.

Reservists like my father deserve better treatment EDITOR, The Tribune MY father is a Reservist with many years of service. He had performed duties in the Royal Bahamas Police Reserve, he is one of those officers that can be called upon at any time. Without hesitating or complaining and stop whatever it is he is doing to go to that appointed station or function.

What I really want to write about is the time he has put in at the hurricane shelters and is not getting paid. He stated that he was told that he was mobilised to work and from my understanding whenever a Reservist is mobilised to work they would receive the same pay as a regular police officer no matter the rank.

So far he has been working at two shelters from

October 2019 and this is now February 2020. There is no one from the Government or the Commissioner of Police saying anything to them about the mobilisation payment. From October and every month to now he has only been receiving his regular 150 hours payment but in the January 2020 pay every other reservist has been paid, excluding those who are working the shelters.

Questions were asked as to why that has happened but there was no one who could give them an answer.

From my understanding they asked Deputy Commissioner Paul Rolle why aren’t they receiving what is due to them and he said he does not know the reason why.

If they are not going to pay those officers the mobilising pay then at least pay

them their regular pay on time and that would give them the chance to decide if they will stay or quit. If it was me from the first month I did not receive my due pay I was not going back.

Most of the officers working those shelters are retired like my father so they need that pay to keep them going. Yes my father loves his job but my father also has bills that need to be paid just like every other reserve and if they are being paid in my opinion he should be paid as well.

Once again thank you for giving me the space to express my disgust as to how these retired dedicated reservist are being treated.

Disgruntled child of a Reservist.

DISGRUNTLED Nassau, February 11, 2020.

A Christian education EDITOR, The Tribune

WHILE technological innovation has its place in the overall transformation, growth and development of education in The Bahamas, the teaching of Christian values in our schools ought to continue to play a pivotal role in nation building. If we want productive, responsible and spiritual citizens, then spiritual values taught from a Christian perspective is crucial.

Unlike many developed countries, The Bahamas still has the legal basis, according to the Education Act, to ensure that Christian instruction continues to be a mandatory discipline in all schools maintained by the Government. The Education Act in Section 17 (2) declares that ‘Subject to the provisions of this section, religious instruction shall be given in every maintained school’.

Interestingly, in light of the literal or purposive rule of statutory interpretation, religious instruction may be construed as Christian instruction, not Hindu, Islamic or some other religious instruction. In addition, there is a subtle difference between religious instruction and religious education – at least in our jurisdiction-- the former being a particular religious instruction, Christian instruction for example, the latter referring to teaching about religion in general. Hence, there may be some maintained schools that are operating in contravention of the law.

Now the essence of a Christian academic curriculum or a Christian

LETTERS letters@tribunemedia.net instruction programme is biblical worldview integration. With this philosophical outlook every subject taught – science, math, history, geography, computer studies and so on – helps the student to know, understand and appreciate the fact that God is the source of all truth, that all are accountable to Him, that every discipline is under His Lordship, that man’s acquisition of the knowledge of His Word and the world is intended to serve His purpose, all for His glory and all for man’s good.

It therefore follows that Christian teachers have the sacred duty to guide students by example and precept in forming a godly lifestyle and Christian mindset. Christian school leaders produce and publish instructional materials (curricula, textbooks, workbooks, lesson plans, etc.) designed for the use of themes of creation, the fall, redemption and consummation. The delivery of quality Christian education is accomplished by the work of the Spirit, in and through committed and competent Christian teachers and administrators. This makes for stronger minds and a better Bahamas.

The Bahamas more than ever before needs authentic and holistic Christian education, education that will instil in our students timeless values and truths that would stand against the ever growing force of moral degradation and secular

humanism. It is true, as the late Hon Bernard Nottage once said, that there is nothing more powerful than a mind made up and that’s exactly what biblical integration in teaching leads to – students developing such strength of character or a mind made up transformed and sustained by the power of God’s Word, coupled with a firm belief in moral absolutes in order to lead a moral life and be the “salt and light” in this world.

Although church affiliations, religious instruction or biblical studies, Bible verse memorisation, collective school worship and the engagement of various Christian denominations are all part of the Christian school experience, the most crucial element, however, is the comprehensive application of biblical integration that should be woven throughout every fabric of the operation and management of the school.

The product of such a work will make, in my view, the greatest positive difference in our community; a powerful antidote to the surge of violence, the breakdown of family life, and criminal activity. And if we want a kinder and gentler Bahamas, then we must teach our children to think critically, ‘proving what is acceptable to the Lord’ (Ephesians 5:10) and doing ‘those things that are pleasing in His sight’ (1 John 322).

Lord, teach us to number our days that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom (Ps. 90:12).

REV PERRY R CUNNINGHAM Nassau, February 18, 2020.

A history of corruption EDITOR, The Tribune LET’S look back to the earliest times of when The Bahamas was discovered

by Columbus…on behalf of the Spanish many of the original tribes of the Bahamas were taken as slaves to Mexico and other parts.

Come forward….Ship wrecking…certainly on the islands covering the navigational lights and then

plundering the ships was not legal.

Bootlegging … Bahamian vessels with hidden compartments smuggled liquor to the US certainly illegal from the eyes of the US. Gun running during the US Civil War…not legal.

Drugs through the ‘80’s to the US…not legal.

Commission of Enquiry on drugs in the ‘80’s…

little found except a lot of very bad memories and the coining of “I can’t remember!” or “I don’t recall.”

Editor, you see illegal acts – Corruption has been very much the face of the Bahamas…true history does not tell an untruth.

AJ KNOWLES Nassau February 18, 2020

THE TRIBUNE

By RASHAD ROLLE Tribune Senior Reporter rrolle@tribunemedia.net POLICE are still investigating allegations of sexual misconduct against Canadian fashion mogul Peter Nygard, a top official said yesterday.

However, an investigation into allegations that Mr Nygard bribed law enforcement officials to facilitate his alleged crimes does not appear to have taken off.

Chief Superintendent of Police Solomon Cash, head of the Central Detective Unit, said police are “looking into reports of (Mr Nygard’s alleged) sexual intercourse with underage females.”

Asked about an investigation into the claims of bribery that were revealed in a class action lawsuit filed in New York last week, CSP Cash said that would not come before him. “We investigate criminal allegations,”

Thursday, February 20, 2020, PAGE 5

Police investigating Nygard sexual misconduct claims he said, referring to CDU. “I can’t speak to that.”

Acting Commissioner of Police Paul Rolle, when contacted, said nothing has come before him relating to the bribery allegations.

The lawsuit alleges Mr Nygard bought police protection and offered corrupt officers children and young women with whom to engage in commercial sex acts. It claims he gave money to officers on his payroll to help him bury reports of sexual abuse and to intimidate and harass his victims. It alleged that when Mr Nygard learned

MOGUL Peter Nygard of the police investigation into him, “he engaged lawyers to facilitate bribery payments to top Bahamian police officials to get more information that would enable him to attempt to

bribe victims or intimidate them into silence.” It further alleges that when Mr Nygard’s “girlfriends” tried to leave him, they were harassed and threatened

by Bahamian police on his payroll.

In a recent interview, National Security Minister Marvin Dames said it is important police investigate the bribery allegations against law enforcement and public officials, saying the country’s reputation is at risk.

Meanwhile, Save the Bays expressed disappointment yesterday that the Progressive Liberal

Party linked it to the lawsuit accusing Mr Nygard of sexual crimes. That lawsuit, accuses PLP officials of accepting bribes.

“While the current allegations against Mr Nygard are indeed serious, they have nothing to do with Save The Bays,” STB said in a statement. “We are an environmental conservation and good governance NGO which has only ever clashed with the fashion designer over his illegal dredging and other unauthorised construction activities at Nygard Cay which damaged the environment. We

have no comment on these new allegations and our organisation is not involved in the matter in any way.”

STB said it had hoped it would work with the PLP in opposition to pressure the Minnis administration to act on environmental protection, freedom of information and the rule of law.

“But for some reason that we cannot fathom, anyone who questions or confronts Peter Nygard on any issue is immediately seen as an enemy of the PLP party,” the group said. “And if Nygard stubs his toe, it must be STB’s fault.”

My son was beaten in prison, says his mother from page one “When we went to see him, he came out hopping, handcuffed behind his back,” she said. “He said, ‘You see my foot mummy?’

His right leg was black and swollen, all his toes and everything.

She alleged: “He said he had an altercation with a juvenile in a cell who threw (urine) on him and an officer came in and slapped up the juvenile.

My son speaks his mind so apparently the officer told another officer to open the cell so he could take my son out and deal with him.

“My son said they threw a bucket of water on him and the officer went in the cell and beat him while two other officers stood out watching. He said he was kicked and stamped and no one did anything. This happened from last week, Wednesday, and no one

took him to the doctor until he had to go to remand court where they sent him over to medical and that’s how he got to the hospital.

He had to go in surgery (on Tuesday) for his foot.

They had to cut the skin from the bottom to drain it because it started to get gangrene.”

Ms Kemp said she reported the incident to the department’s internal affairs section on Tuesday, following which officials took statements from her son, Jonathan Lightbourne, at the hospital. Ms Kemp said when she went to visit her son at the hospital yesterday, guards allegedly told her that they received orders that he was not allowed to receive visitors anymore.

Lightbourne, 33, is on remand after allegedly being caught with joints of cannabis, Ms Kemp said. She said it is the second time he has been

arrested for possession and he has been in prison on remand since January 9.

Ms Kemp insisted she does not support her son if he breaks the law, saying she purposely failed to sign off on his bail.

She said it’s especially upsetting he was allegedly beaten at a time when the government wants to decriminalise possession of small amounts of marijuana.

“It bothers me because that could’ve been my son life,” she said. “I don’t lie for my children, that’s why I didn’t sign for his bail and I didn’t go and see him (in prison). This is a minor crime and for this to happen when marijuana is something they trying to make legal is ridiculous.”

When contacted, Bahamas Department of Correctional Services Commissioner Charles Murphy said the matter will be looked into.

JONATHAN Lightbourne pictured in the hospital

MURDERED MAN WAS DUE TO BE MARRIED

from page one

He was also reportedly stabbed during an incident at a bar last year.

According to a police report, shortly before 10pm Tuesday, a man was sitting at the back of a home on Wilson Track, when he was approached by a gunman, who shot him before running away. Police said paramedics took him to hospital where he later later died from his injuries.

His fiancée, Aniska Cash, told The Tribune he was killed at the apartment where they lived with her family. The two were set to marry this May. “I feel like I broken,” his fiancée said. “Me and him just been together last night (Tuesday) talking and all that before he get shoot. I see him from the back door and I come from the front and see him drop on the floor and he start getting weak.

He was shot multiple times.

He was a nice person. He was a loving person. Anything I want – I use to get from him. He did love his little girl.”

Currently, his four-yearold daughter is now with her mother, who is not Ms Cash.

Present the night of the

shooting, Ms Cash’s mother, who did not want to be named, recalled his last moments and trying to help him as he fought for his life.

She said: “Last night (Tuesday), he went in the back and I hear the shots so I just scream, I say, ‘You get shot, you get shot’ and when I said that ...he came from the back there, and when look he run this way and he drop on the floor and it was like he was in plenty pain, so the neighbour came from over there and she say put something there so he could put his head on.

“He was out of it... Every time they tell him lay down and he lay down and he get back up because of the pain was so severe.”

She, with McKinney’s fiancée and cousin, went to the hospital to check on the father-of-one, but were not allowed in until the police called them into the room, only to be informed by the doctor that nothing could be done to save him.

Although he lived with his fiancée’s family for only two to three months, members of Ms Cash’s family were deeply affected by their future in-law’s death.

Meanwhile, speaking from Eleuthera, his sister, Natasha Sands, told The

Tribune that the family is “not well at all” and his passing has hit the Green Castle community.

“It’s a shock to everyone…Coming from a peaceful place, yeah it’s unbelievable,” his sister said by telephone. “A complete tragedy, Never expected it. You see these things on the news.”

According to Ms Sands, this was not her brother’s first time being the target of violence as she recounted when he was stabbed about three times at a bar last year. Yet, her brother was unfazed by the attack.

“He wasn’t fearful at all,” she said. “He’s like ‘I’m all right, you know not that bad. He stabbed me on my shoulder.’”

The last time the two spoke was on his birthday

THE VICTIM, Valdez McKinney, and the scene yesterday

on February 9, when she wished him a happy birthday. She said he was in good spirits.

Ms Sands said the family was planning to come to Nassau, but would bury her brother in Eleuthera.

The killing is the tenth for the year, according to this newspaper’s records.

PAGE 6, Thursday, February 20, 2020

By KHRISNA RUSSELL Tribune Chief Reporter krussell@tribunemedia.net THE Minnis administration’s mid-year budget is “woefully deficient”, charged Golden Isles MP Vaughn Miller, insisting government did not do enough to show it was prepared for the impending 2020 hurricane season.

Speaking in the House of Assembly yesterday, the independent member of Parliament said there was no doubt in his mind that the government maintained a “lackadaisical attitude” toward hurricane preparedness, despite having to grapple with the devastation of Hurricane Irma years ago. That storm ravaged Ragged Island in September 2017 and the small island has since struggled to return to normal.

Mr Miller said his main concern was money had not been sufficiently allocated to ensure the preservation of human life or that the country will be equipped for another storm like Hurricane Dorian impacting the Bahamas. His concerns were compounded by there being no allocation for the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) in the mid-year budget.

Mr Miller’s rebuke of the Minnis administration drew rebuttal from several government members of Parliament. Among them was Finance Minister and East Grand Bahama MP Peter Turnquest who maintained that this was not a matter of a lack of planning but of responding to the

THE TRIBUNE

Miller dismisses FNM mid-year budget as ‘woefully deficient’ sheer magnitude of devastation that exceeded the country’s financial means.

He added that NEMA’s allocation had come under that of the Office of the Prime Minister.

“Dorian snuffed out the lives of many Bahamians and residents alike, men women and children as well as caused tremendous damage to property and infrastructure in Abaco and Grand Bahama,” Mr Miller said during his parliamentary address yesterday.

“From the instructive perspective, Mr Speaker, there is no doubt in my mind that the government having seen previously the utter devastation in Ragged Island caused

by Hurricane Irma still maintained a lackadaisical attitude toward hurricane preparedness that had prevailed for decades in our county and was thus caught off guard and unable to do anything to assist people in saving their lives in Abaco and Grand Bahama.

“It is in this vain that I

find this supplementary budget woefully deficient.”

“My concern is that in all these presentations, discussions, deliberations, calculation, projections there was nothing - no allocation whatsoever that deals with protecting human life in the face of the hard cold fact that the 2020 hurricane season begins in a little over three months from now on June 1, one month before this supplementary budget expires on June 30.

“There is nothing in this budget that addresses this instructive aspect of Hurricane Dorian, which is hurricane preparedness.

The government is doing much to repair after the hurricane while failing dismally to prepare before the hurricane,” Mr Miller continued.

Works Minister Desmond Bannister took issue with this statement saying there was a group in his ministry mainly of senior engineers that begins preparation at the end of every hurricane season. This group he said

GOLDEN Isles MP Vaughn Miller had also been in continuous discussions with NEMA. For his part, Mr Turnquest said as it concerned financial preparation, the government laid its risk mitigation strategy across various instruments from credit lines to the Caribbean Catastrophic Risk Insurance and the country’s own disaster relief fund.

“It is important for everybody in this country to understand and appreciate that the reason why we are going to be borrowing money

is chiefly because of the ravages of Hurricane Dorian,” Mr Bannister told the House. “That’s not an issue of preparation. It’s an issue of challenges that we see in Abaco when we see the utter destruction (and) when we go to East End Grand Bahama and how the Bahamian people are suffering.

“So in this money that we’re borrowing is money for Bahamas Power and Light so that they can generate power and restore in Abaco and the cays. In this budget

is million and millions of dollars for the clean up effort in Abaco and Grand Bahama.

The money of this budget is for the Bahamian people and to restore our country. It is chiefly about restoring the country.”

Still, Mr Miller said was not convinced that the government had gone far enough.

“There is not enough in this budget to suggest that funds are to be expended to sufficiently save lives from potential perils of a Category Five hurricane.

“This seemingly lackadaisical attitude of successive governments mere weeks before hurricane threats begin bring to mind the parable that Jesus gave relative to the 10 virgins.”

Mr Miller also criticised the preparedness of hurricane shelters to withstand strong winds, insisting most were not structurally sound and could not weather 20ft sea surges.

Editorial View - Page 4

EU DECISION PROVES OUR FINANCE INDUSTRY IS SOLID, SAYS TURNQUEST

By FARRAH JOHNSON fjohnson@tribunemedia.net

DEPUTY Prime Minister Peter Turnquest said yesterday that the removal of The Bahamas from the European Union’s tax watch-list proves that the country’s financial services industry is solid and managed by a “sound regulatory regime.”

Mr Turnquest made the comments at a Financial Crimes Enforcement, Compliance and Risk

Mitigation seminar hosted by the Bahamas Financial Services Board Industry (BFSB) at the British Colonial Hilton yesterday.

“At the meeting in Brussels, the European Union Economic and Financial Affairs Council completely removed The Bahamas from its list of non co-operative tax jurisdictions,” he said. “And this is confirmation that the Bahamas has committed the necessary (reforms) to meet the EU’s

criteria of tax governance and cooperation for tax management. It is confirmation that the Bahamas’ financial services industry is stable and governed by a sound regulatory regime.”

Mr Turnquest said in March of last year, the country was placed on the EU’s Annex II, otherwise known as the “grey list,” which he said varied from the “more serious Annex I black list.”

He said at the time,

the country was subject to “ongoing monitoring” by the EU in regards to the “implementation of economic substance requirements.”

“With the EU’s decision this week, the Bahamas has addressed all the concerns on economic substance, removal preferential exemptions and automatic exchange of tax information,” he said.

“The government welcomes the decision and the

positive impact it should have on growth to investor confidence in the industry.”

Mr Turnquest also thanked the agencies, regulators and industry stakeholders who contributed to the achievement.

He noted that their “support, encouragement and technical skills,” were crucial aspects during the process of addressing the issue. “Coming off this list was indeed not an easy process,” he said. “We engaged many stakeholders and executed a comprehensive strategy that not only addressed the EU’s concern, but also to defend the jurisdiction in unwarranted recent attacks on the legitimacy of our financial services industry.

“And yes, (that included) plenty trips to Paris, to Brussels and to other European headquarters which affects our travel budget.”

Mr Turnquest said that over the past year, teams of technical advisors had several meetings with the European Union’s code of conduct group to “engage in dialogue on the integrity of the Bahamas’ tax governance measures.”

He said the majority of their decisions were focused primarily on the “introduction of economic substance requirements for investments funds.”

“Early signs of our successful efforts came last July with the forum on harmful tax practices of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) concluded that the domestic legal framework of the Bahamas was in line with international standards and therefore not harmful.

“At every level, the Bahamas is doing its part in a global effort to tackle harmful tax practices and dismantle artificial tax practices.”

Mr Turnquest said officials have worked “diligently to demonstrate” their dedication at the “highest political level.”

He added that their commitment was also evident in their efforts in addressing financial crimes like tax evasion and money laundering.

“We have already satisfied over 30 of the 40 recommendations under FATF (Financial Action Task Force) and continue to take the appropriate measures to ensure that the Bahamas adheres to international best practices,” he said. “The government will continue to promote engagement with all stakeholders on these issues and do it what is in our national interest to ensure the Bahamas remains the preferred

DPM Peter Turnquest jurisdiction of choice for financial services in this region.”

Mr Turnquest also urged financial professionals attending the seminar to “listen with an ear” so that they can prepare for the future. “Just on the horizon we are looking at more significant changes in (the) global landscape that will have a direct impact on us here at home,” he said.

“As you know, taxation of the digital economy is the next frontier for global regulatory reform. In fact, at the G20 summit we have later this year, some of the largest economies in the world are expected to vote in support of the new system of taxation rights allocation.

“The new system intends to prevent multinational companies from diverting taxable income to low tax jurisdictions by opposing the minimum tax levels on their global income.”

Insisting that the “introduction of the global minimum corporate tax rate” will have an immediate and long-term impact on all countries, he added: “It will have future implications for participation in the global economy.

“So now is therefore the time to plan and to prepare so that we can exercise influence and better adapt to new possible realities and we are fully engaged in that process.

“As I have said before, the participation of everyone in the industry is needed to support with this effort and there’s no point in being afraid of it, we have to face it.”

Mr Turnquest said as the country “navigates times ahead,” the government will continue to “protect, promote and facilitate the growth” of the local financial services industry.

“As we have conquered challenges in the past, we will conquer them in the future as well,” he said. “...We do not make the rules, but we have to comply with the rules. We do not make the rules, but we do have an opportunity to be partners and to ensure that the special circumstances that affect jurisdictions like ours are considered in a proactive way.”

THE TRIBUNE

Thursday, February 20, 2020, PAGE 7

PAIR CHARGED WITH ILLEGAL FIREARM POSSESSION

By DENISE MAYCOCK Tribune Freeport Reporter dmaycock@tribunemedia.net

TWO young men were charged with illegal firearm and ammunition possession in the Freeport Magistrates’ Court yesterday.

Keiano Bethel, 20, of Independence Drive, Heritage Subdivision, and Geovano Oliver, 21, of Sandilands Circle, Yoeman’s Wood, appeared before Deputy Chief Magistrate Debbye Ferguson.

They were charged with two counts of possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life, possession of an unlicensed firearm and possession of ammunition.

It is alleged that on February 16 at Freeport, the two were in possession of a handgun with intent to endanger the life of Arsenio Bennett and Shamar Moss. The matter is in connection with complaints reported to police about gunshots heard in the East Sunrise area.

Oliver was represented by Simone Brown.

Both men pleaded not guilty to the charges. They requested to be seen by a doctor. Bail was denied and they were remanded to prison until May 4 for trial.

GEOVANO OLIVER, left, and Keiano Bethel outside court yesterday.

Photo: Vandyke Hepburn

Jamaican accused of murdering Jamal

By DENISE MAYCOCK Tribune Freeport Reporter dmaycock@tribunemedia.net A 19-YEAR-OLD Jamaican was charged with murder in Freeport yesterday. Damaine Donovan Sterling, of Cherry Corner, Poineer’s Loop, appeared before Magistrate Rengin Johnson. He was represented by K Brian Hanna.

A group of people stood outside the courthouse with their cell phones recording as the accused arrived in a police car. Due to space limitations, only one relative of the deceased and the accused were permitted in the courtroom.

It is alleged that Sterling killed Jamal Russell between Wednesday, February 12 and Friday, February 14. He was not required to enter a plea.

Russell, who was last seen last week Wednesday, was reported missing by his family and was discovered dead in his home last Friday. The incident is second murder for the year on Grand Bahama.

During the arraignment, Sterling was asked by the judge about his nationality and status in The Bahamas.

He told Magistrate Johnson that he is a Jamaican attending school in The Bahamas. According to the teen, he lived in this country for the past 14 years, since the age of five, with his stepfather George Pinder.

19-YEAR-OLD Jamaican was charged with murder in Freeport yesterday.

Damaine Donovan Sterling Photo: Vandyke Hepburn Mr Hanna explained his client is a student of Jack Hayward High School.

However, the prosecutor indicated there was nothing in the record specifying his legal status in the country.

“They were in the process of taking him back to Jamaica in the Easter,” explained Mr Hanna.

Bail was denied and the matter was adjourned to May 19.

PAGE 8, Thursday, February 20, 2020

THE TRIBUNE

Last shelters for hurricane victims open until June

THE POINCIANA Inn on Bernard Road from page one to its original state so that it can be used for its original intent.

“Some (persons) left and went on their way. Others were taken to the Poinciana. I think we have about 67 persons or 30 families at the Poinciana (and) the remainder are at the Bahamas Academy.

“There are about 100 (or) less than 200 persons at Bahamas Academy.”

Asked whether officials planned to use an exit strategy for victims from the shelters, he said his ministry was relying on several factors.

“We are relying on collaborative efforts from the new Ministry of Disaster Preparedness and the preparations that are being

made in Abaco and the fact that persons are getting assistance with having their houses repaired,” he said.

“I know the media likes to hold us hard and fast to dates and that’s probably why we don’t give dates, but we are hoping that within the next three months, we are hoping that before the new hurricane season we would be in a position to say that all shelters including the use of the Poinciana has ceased, so that we can truly prepare and make our final preparations for the new season.”

Mr Campbell said some victims were moved to the inn to give them more privacy.

“We wanted to use Poinciana (because) Poinciana has 50 rooms, all of which aren’t completely operable

or inhabitable. We wanted to use that for more families - families who need privacy, husbands, wives, girlfriends, boyfriends — to not have them in the open environment and so therein lies the reason for the segregation.

That was the method that we used.”

Last month, the government said it wanted to reduce the number of people at the Kendal Isaacs Gymnasium and the Bahamas Academy Auditorium and would shelter people at the hotel for up to 90 days, giving first consideration to families because of their privacy needs.

The ministry and its partners originally housed more than 2,000 people in shelters across the country after the deadly September storm.

The Philippines has joined the long list of countries that have assisted in the aftermath of Dorian.

Recalling when the Bahamian government assisted the Philippines in the wake of Typhoon Haiyan, President of the Filipino Association of The Bahamas Florita Viterbo said the association felt “extremely pleased” that the Philippines government was returning the favour by donating to the Bahamian people in their time of need.

“When we have our biggest in history, typhoons, in the Philippines, it’s called Haiyan.. the Bahamian government, the Bahamian people gave us so much too, so it makes us happy that our government you know gave this effort, this big donation to further the recovery efforts,” she told The Tribune this week.

“We have a lot of Filipinos here in the Bahamas working. You know I think we have 1,400 permit holders and this is for us, it’s like giving back to our host country...So, yes, we are extremely happy that they made this effort after we requested them to do something in return for what The Bahamas government is giving to the Filipinos here.”

Last month, Minister of State for Disaster

Preparedness Iram Lewis said the government had received some $9 million in donations since the passing of Hurricane Dorian.

The majority of those funds, he said, have been allocated towards the government’s domes structures.

The temporary housing initiative was established by the Minnis administration after Hurricane Dorian hit Abaco and Grand Bahama in early September, destroying homes and displacing thousands.

“That’s a total of $6.4 million (that was spent on the domes) and that includes the shipping, the reservation and the relevant utilities…,” he said in January. “…(But) to date, we’ve received some $9 million (in donations) that was pledged. So far in terms, of expenditure, it was $7 million and the majority of which was for the purchasing of the domes for the family relief centre.”

Other items purchased with the donated funds include the government’s recreational vehicles and tents, which were used to help house shelter victims at the Kendal G L Isaacs Gymnasium.

“So, so far we have $2 million somewhere hanging around,” Mr Lewis said last month.

PHILIPPINES MAKES $100K DONATION FOR DORIAN

By LEANDRA ROLLE lrolle@tribunemedia.net

FOR SALE

IN an effort to assist residents in The Bahamas following Hurricane Dorian, the Philippines government has donated nearly $100,000 to further the recovery efforts on the storm impacted islands.

The donation, totalling $97,643.62, was given to government officials by Philippine Ambassador Jose Manuel G Romualdez on December 16 during a ceremony at the Embassy of the Bahamas in the United States.

“Philippine Ambassador Jose Manuel G Romualdez led a ceremonial turnover of the financial assistance from the government of the Republic of the Philippines to the government and people of the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, represented

by Ambassador Sidney S Collie,” officials said in a press statement.

“The assistance amounting to USD 97,643.42 will contribute to relief efforts in The Bahamas...Hurricane Dorian was the strongest tropical cyclone on record to strike The Bahamas and is considered as the costliest disaster in the country’s history.”

By donating to the Hurricane Dorian relief efforts,

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THE TRIBUNE

Thursday, February 20, 2020, PAGE 9

SISTER PLEADS FOR HELP TO FIND MISSING BROTHER

By FARRAH JOHNSON fjohnson@tribunemedia.net

RELATIVES of a man who has been missing for over three weeks are pleading for people to come forward with information to assist police with their investigation. Gladstone “GG” McAlpine, 59, was last seen on January 28 at Cowpen and Blue Hill Roads.

According to police reports, his last known address was Sea Breeze Lane. He is 5’10” with a light brown complexion and of slim build.

Yesterday, his siblings, who asked to be identified only as the Symonette family, told The Tribune they are desperate for closure. “We’re here to make a plea for my brother,” his older sister said. “He has been missing now for three weeks and one day to be exact. So anybody out there who has seen anything or heard anything that might be of importance to the police, please give them a call for us. Please, please, we are begging.”

Mr McAlpine’s sister said that the last time she saw her brother was on January 4 when he attended her birthday party. She added that it was “unusual” that no one else in their family had heard from him for weeks.

Asked whether the family believed foul play was involved in the incident, she added: “We don’t know what to say, our mind all over the place. He has three cats that he loved dearly, he wouldn’t have left them.”

Mr McAlpine’s younger

sister also described him as a friendly person who was well known throughout the island. “Everybody in Nassau knows him because when we take the (missing person) flyers around and we say: ‘This is my brother, he’s missing have you seen him?’ Everybody says ‘Yeah we know him, man, he’s a friendly guy he always stops by and hails us.’ He’s a very nice guy.

He does a lot of community work (and) he works with the church.”

Describing the moment the family realised Mr McAlpine was missing, she added: “What happened was that he helps a lady out to Colina with the lunch and she didn’t see him for like two days.

“So she called my niece and asked her how she could reach him. My niece called my daughter because she knew that I (usually) hear from him every day and when my daughter called me I told her ‘No man, that’s funny,’ because I text him Sunday or Monday morning and he didn’t answer me back.”

She said when no one could get in contact with Mr McAlpine, her sister’s children went to his residence along with her other brother to see if they could find him.

“By the time as they get to the house the front door was open, but the screen door was locked,” she said.

“The landlord let them in. His phone was on charge on the bed and he was probably drinking a cup of tea because he left half a

GLADSTONE MCALPINE cup of tea right there and like he gone. That was the last we hear.”

Mr McAlpine’s younger sister said the family did speak to people who said they had seen him on the day he went missing.

She also said the matter was reported to a police officer from the Central Detective Unit (CDU) who told them he would look into the matter.

“My sister was giving him information and stuff like that and he was saying he’s going to check it out. Everything she hear she would call him and tell him.

“But he said that when he is finished his investigation he will turn it over to the person in charge of missing persons and they would probably call us to bring us up to date with what is what. But it’s three weeks now and we haven’t heard from them.”

Police issued a missing person flyer for Mr McAlpine earlier this month.

According to the family, the police are using Mr McAlpine’s phone and footage from cameras at his residence to aid in their investigation.

They told The Tribune their brother was driving his employer’s car when he went missing, but now he and the car are nowhere to be found.

“The car that is missing is a four-door burgundy Honda – one of the late models,” his younger sister explained.

“He was driving that because his car wasn’t working. He doesn’t usually drive that, he would just bring it for a spin and carry it back because he always said he doesn’t want fool with these people car in case someone knock it.

So he vanished, the car vanished and nobody find the car nowhere.

“Usually when people steal cars, you find it strip and throw somewhere, but everywhere we go — we been in bush after bush (and) through old abandoned house — we ain’t see no trace of the car and no trace of him.”

Insisting that all the family wants is closure, she added: “Just say something if you know something. Or if you’re holding him, let him go or throw him somewhere on the side of the road or put him somewhere someone could find him.

“Anybody who have any information, no matter how small it is (should speak up). It might not mean nothing to them, but it means something to us

BAIL FOR PRINCIPAL ACCUSED OF INDECENT ASSAULT

By NICO SCAVELLA Tribune Staff Reporter nscavella@tribunemedia.net

THE principal of a Christian school has been granted bail ahead of his trial over allegations he indecently assaulted one of his former female students last month.

Chief Magistrate Joyann

Ferguson-Pratt granted Thomas Whitfield Nottage $3,500 bail with sureties ahead of his May 12 trial.

As part of his bail conditions, Nottage must report to the Elizabeth Estates Police Station on the 15th and 28th of each month before 6pm. He is also ordered not to come into contact with the complainant.

Last week, Nottage was charged

before the chief magistrate over claims he indecently assaulted the 13-year-old girl on January 29.

Nottage is the principal of Grace Christian School of Excellence, but also a pastor at Grace Evangelical Ministries. According to his attorney, Keevon Maynard, Nottage has been a pastor for over 20 years. Corporal Samantha Miah prosecuted.

because we have been east, west, north and south.

“You name it and we been it. It’s impossible for someone to vanish off the face of the earth and nobody knows nothing and you can’t see or

hear from them.” Anyone with information on Mr McAlpine’s whereabouts is asked to contact the Central Detective Unit at 502-9991/2 or Crime Stoppers anonymously at 328-TIPS (8477).

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PAGE 10, Thursday, February 20, 2020

T

HE latest public spat between US President Trump and one of his key cabinet members has involved a superficially unlikely but perhaps predictable cabinet secretary.

That would be Attorney General Bill Barr, a veteran of previous Republican administrations who reportedly caught Trump’s eye during the untidy tenure of former Alabama senator Jeff Sessions.

Sessions outraged Trump by recusing himself from independent counsel Robert Mueller’s probe of Russian interference in the 2016 American election. Despite Sessions’ ostentatiously obsequious obeisance to Trump in virtually every other matter, the president clearly never forgave Sessions and finally fired him last year.

Enter Barr, who had caught the President’s eye partly by writing a memorandum that embraced executive privilege to an almost unprecedented degree. In so doing, Barr appeared to agree with Trump’s campaign boast in 2016 that he could shoot dead someone on New York’s Fifth Avenue and get away with it.

Barr basically asserted that everything a president does is inherently legal.

THE TRIBUNE

Is Trump about to lose another loyalist who just can’t take any more?

STATESIDE

with Charlie Harper Trump, who clearly admires and envies the autocratic authority wielded by Russian President Putin, Chinese President Xi and even North Korean supreme leader Kim Jongun, liked what he read and hired Barr.

Barr has up to now repaid Trump’s confidence by seeming to bend the US Department of Justice to Trump’s will. But in the case of the sentence for convicted felon and longtime Trump pal Roger Stone, Barr may have had enough.

He complained publicly over the weekend that

Trump should stop tweeting about court cases.

In the Stone case, Justice Department lawyers had sought a nine-year sentence for Trump’s crony. The president complained in several tweets about the unfairness of the prospective penalty.

Barr, in a step most unusual at the Justice Department, seemed to intervene. The prosecutors took the unusual step of resigning from the case in protest.

Over 1,000 former DoJ professionals called for Barr’s resignation. A professional organisation of US federal judges called an

ATTORNEY General William Barr, left, and President Donald Trump emergency conference to consider the implications of the Attorney General’s behaviour. Pundits and commentators became indignant.

The Attorney General’s complaint about Trump’s tweets may have simply been that Trump was

spotlighting for otherwise dazed and anaesthetized American voters the apparent corruption of justice perpetrated by Barr in support of the president. There are rumours that Barr is considering resignation, as he said the tweets impaired his ability to do his job.

Maybe Barr will leave the administration. Maybe he won’t. But in any case, Trump will not change his view that the Attorney General should function as his personal attorney and should offer commensurately consistent support and allegiance.

If exposing the molesters is anything to go by, then women have made progress 2020 is the centennial year for women’s suffrage in the United States. Events are planned to commemorate this milestone throughout the country, all throughout the year. In theory, this year should witness pride and satisfaction in the progress American women have undeniably made in recent years as well as over the long arc of US history.

But what do the headlines actually tell us?

Well, MeToo poster boy and one-time heavyweight Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein, right, is pictured on the daily TV news shows dragging his tired, old-looking body into federal court on sexual assault charges.

Iconic actor and comedian Bill Cosby, whose portrayal of Cliff Huxtable on television probably helped as much as anything to promote in American minds the notion that upstanding black professionals could inhabit their neighbourhoods, similarly paid a heavy price for his alleged sexual predation.

The current president of the United States is a man who has boasted repeatedly about his caveman tactics toward women who interested him sexually. And he was elected nonetheless.

Enough has surely already been said about Donald Trump and his views on women.

Former Democratic senator Al Franken from Minnesota is now a former senator after women charged him with inappropriate conduct toward them. Senate Democrats, led by several women in its caucus, ushered him unceremoniously out of office.

Garrulous Joe Biden has been in hot water for months because some women felt he touched them and generally behaved inappropriately.

Insurgent and possibly resurgent Democratic presidential candidate Mike Bloomberg, the former New York City mayor who may just be someone who can beat Trump at his own game, has long been the subject of criticism for his espousal of misogynistic

locker room banter in his business environment.

Bloomberg will continue to draw ire and fire from opponents for numerous non-disclosure agreements he has signed with women who have credibly complained about his behaviour toward them.

Vermont senator Bernie Sanders has long been dogged by charges that he and his campaign this year and in 2016 did not sufficiently respect women.

He also allegedly told his liberal colleague and presidential nomination rival senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts that a woman could not beat Trump this year.

Many believe Warren’s account over Sanders’ repeated denials.

And so on. It can certainly be argued that the fact these significant public figures have been indicted or pilloried in the court of public opinion represents progress. After all, that’s ultimately what MeToo was and is all about.

Women felt a spotlight should shine on the bad behaviour and general misconduct of powerful men toward females.

If public ridicule is one weapon in the fight for women’s rights in the US, it is largely one that hopes for and relies upon a response from courts and legislatures. While the charges hurled toward Democrats are taken seriously and often result in dire consequences, Trump appears to lose very little support among Republican voters for his outrageous behaviour and apparent attitudes.

We will see in November if the consequences for the President are ultimately dire or not.

Meanwhile, largely behind the scenes, the Equal Rights Amendment is rising from the ashes.

Remember the ERA? Essentially outlawing discrimination based upon gender, the ERA was first introduced in Congress in 1923, but only passed in 1972. The ERA was then remitted, as ordained by the US constitution, to the

states for ratification. There was a 1979 ratification deadline originally attached to the enabling legislation.

It was later extended to 1982.

But 38 (at least threequarters of all) states have to ratify a constitutional amendment for it to become law, and by 1982, only 35 states had signed on. Did the ERA amendment therefore die for lack of support? The issue is now almost certainly headed for the courts, because in this centennial women’s suffrage year, the ERA is back.

Since 1982, the Illinois and Nevada legislatures have ratified the ERA and earlier this year, Virginia’s newly Democraticmajority legislature did the same. So now the ERA has the required 38 votes, right?

Not so fast, it turns out.

First, there is the matter of the 1982 deadline, which passed nearly four decades ago.

Secondly, since that date several states including South Dakota, Alabama and Louisiana have rescinded their support for the ERA. Law and precedent are murky on whether the original ratification deadline was legal or even appropriate, and whether states can subsequently rescind their vote to ratify a constitutional amendment.

Attorneys General in several states have now filed suit on the matter, and it is expected the US Supreme Court will eventually choose to hear one of them. Many observers anticipate the American high court will also soon hear a case on the social conservative touchstone issue of abortion, with particular reference to its own 1973 decision in the landmark Roe v Wade case.

The debate rages on: Are American women making irreversible progress, or do powerful social and political forces threaten a retrenchment which might actually result in fewer rights for women?

THE TRIBUNE

Thursday, February 20, 2020, PAGE 11

‘ASSANGE WAS OFFERED US PARDON IF HE CLEARED RUSSIA’

CHINA STYLE AT MILAN FASHION WEEK MILAN Associated Press MILAN Fashion Week opened yesterday with outreach to China, largely cut off from the rest of the world by a new virus, and to Africa, often overlooked by luxury except as references. New York-based Chinese designer Han Wen presented a runway show on the eve of the main calendar, standing in for three Chinese designers who had been scheduled to show in Milan but were blocked by the spread of the new coronavirus.

As will be key events this week, Han’s show was shared on Chinese social media platforms as part of the Milan Fashion Chamber initiative “China We Are With You.”

LONDON Associated Press

MODELS wear creations as part of Gucci’s Fall/Winter 2020/2021 collection, presented in Milan, Italy yesterday

Debate brawl: Rivals pile in on Bloomberg LAS VEGAS Associated Press FROM the opening bell, Democratssavaged New York billionaire Mike Bloomberg and raised pointed questions about Bernie Sanders’ take-no-prisoners politics during a contentious debate last night that threatened to further muddy the party’s urgent quest to defeat President Donald Trump.

Bloomberg, the former New York City mayor who was once a Republican, was forced to defend his record and past comments related to race, gender and hispersonal wealthin an occasionally rocky debate stage debut. Sanders, meanwhile, tried to beat back pointed questions about his embrace of democratic socialism and his health following a heart attack last year.

The ninth debate of this cycle featured the most aggressive sustained period of infighting in the Democrats’ yearlong search for a presidential nominee. The tension reflected growing anxiety among

MIKE BLOOMBERG, Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders at last night’s debate candidates and party leaders that the nomination fight could yield a candidate who will struggle to build a winning coalition in November to beat Trump.

The campaign is about to quickly intensify. Nevada votes on Saturday and South Carolina follows on February 29. More than a dozen states host Super Tuesday contests in less than two weeks with about onethird of the delegates needed to win

EIGHT KILLED, FIVE HURT IN SHOOTOUT IN GERMAN CITY HANAU, Germany Associated Press

EIGHT people were killed in shootings in the German city of Hanau last night, authorities said. Two hookah lounges reportedly were targeted.

Authorities were searching for the perpetrators hours after the shootings at about 10 pm, which police said also left about five people wounded.

A heavy police presence was in place in central Hanau, with officers cordoning off the scene of one of the shootings as a helicopter hovered overhead.

A car covered in thermal foil also could be seen, with shattered glass next to it.

Forensic experts in white overalls collected evidence.

Police said a dark vehicle was seen leaving the

scene of the first shooting, and another shooting was reported at a second site.

A short police statement gave no information on the victims. It said the motive is not immediately clear.

Regional public broadcaster Hessischer Rundfunk said, without citing sources, that an attack took place in a hookah lounge in the center of the city. It said witnesses reported hearing eight or nine shots and seeing at least one person lying on the ground.

The perpetrator or perpetrators then apparently went to another part of the city, where shots were fired in another hookah lounge, the broadcaster said.

Hanau is in southwestern Germany, about 20 kilometers east of Frankfurt. It has about 100,000 inhabitants and is in Hesse state.

RAPPER POP SMOKE SLAIN IN HOLLYWOOD HILLS SHOOTING LOS ANGELES Associated Press AN up-and-coming rapper known as Pop Smoke was fatally shot during a break-in early yesterday at a Hollywood Hills home, his label said.

“We are devastated by the unexpected and tragic loss of Pop Smoke,” Republic Records said in a statement. “Our prayers and thoughts go out to his family, friends and fans, as we mourn this loss together.”

Police officers found a victim shortly before 5 a.m. after responding to a 911 call from someone who reported intruders

including one armed with a handgun were breaking in, said Capt. Steve Lurie.

Pop Smoke’s legal name was Bashar Barakah Jackson. He was 20. Chance The Rapper said in a tweet: “Rest Up Pop Smoke, you were too young. God Bless and comfort your family.”

From Brooklyn, New York, Pop Smoke came onto the rap scene in 2018 and broke out last spring with “Welcome to the Party” a gangsta anthem where he brags about shootings, killings and drugs. It was a huge sensation that even drew the attention of Nicki Minaj, who dropped her own verse on a successful remix of the song.

the nomination at stake. Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren was in a fight for survival and stood out with repeated attacks on Bloomberg.

She sought to undermine him with core Democratic voters who are uncomfortable with his vast wealth, his offensive remarks about policing of minorities and demeaning comments about women, including those who worked at his company.

Warren labelled Bloomberg “a

billionaire who calls people fat broads and horse-faced lesbians.”

She wasn’t alone.

Sanders lashed out at Bloomberg’s policing policies as New York City mayor that he said targeted “African-American and Latinos in an outrageous way.”

And former Vice President Joe Biden charged that Bloomberg’s “stop-and-frisk” policy ended up “throwing 5 million black men up against the wall.”

Watching from afar, Trump joined the Bloomberg pile on. “I hear he’s getting pounded tonight, you know he’s in a debate,” Trump said at a rally in Phoenix.

On a night that threatened to tarnish the shine of his carefully constructed TV-ad image, Bloomberg faltered when attacked on issues related to race and gender.

But he was firm and unapologetic about his wealth and how he has used it to effect change important to Democrats. He took particular aim at Sanders and his self-description as a democratic socialist.

WIKILEAKS founder Julian Assange plans to claim during an extradition hearing that the Trump administration offered him a pardon if he agreed to say Russia was not involved in leaking Democratic National Committee emails during the 2016 US election campaign, a lawyer for Assange said yesterday.

Assange is being held at a British prison while fighting extradition to the United States on spying charges.

His full court hearing is due to begin next week.

At a preliminary hearing held yesterday in London, lawyer Edward Fitzgerald said that now-former Republican congressman, Dana Rohrabacher, visited Assange at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London in August 2017.

Fitzgerald said a statement from another Assange lawyer, Jennifer Robinson, recounted “Mr. Rohrabacher going to see Mr Assange and saying, on instructions from the president, he was offering a pardon or some other way out, if Mr. Assange ... said Russia had nothing to do with the DNC leaks.”

Responding to the the lawyer’s claims, White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham said, “This is absolutely and completely false.”

US President Donald Trump “barely knows Dana Rohrabacher other than he’s an ex-congressman.

He’s never spoken to him on this subject or almost any subject,” Grisham said.

“It is a complete fabrication and a total lie. This is probably another never-ending hoax and total lie from the DNC.” Emails embarrassing for the Democrats and Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign were hacked before being published by WikiLeaks in 2016. District Judge Vanessa Baraitser said the evidence was admissible in the extradition case.

Assange appeared at London’s Westminster Magistrates’ Court on by video-link from Belmarsh prison.

PAGE 12, Thursday, February 20, 2020

THE TRIBUNE

‘The Bahamas’ own street philosopher’

THE TRIBUNE

Thursday, February 20, 2020, PAGE 13

FOCUS ON PORT AND SHIP SECURITY

By LEANDRA ROLLE lrolle@tribunemedia.net

IN an effort to ensure that the country remains compliant with international security standards for ports and shipping facilities, the Ministry of Transport and Local Government yesterday hosted its first International Ship and Port Facility Security Seminar.

The two-day seminar, which began yesterday at the Paul Farquharson Conference Centre, addressed safety practices and ISPS policies designed at enhancing the security of ships and port facilities.

Speaking at yesterday’s seminar, District Superintendent at the Ministry of Transport Dorothy Anderson noted that the objective of the conference was to

close the gap between security organisations, port security officers and the ISPS compliance unit. “. . .As you may be aware, the international ship and port facilities security code is an amendment to the safety of life at sea convention. The code provides minimum security arrangements for ships, ports and government agencies. “…The Bahamas government remains fully committed to ensuring that all port facilities throughout the Commonwealth of the Bahamas remain ISPS compliant and understands essential benefits to the Bahamas of doing so.”

In October, the Ministry of Transport and Local Government launched the International Ship and Port Security (ISPS) Compliance

Unit to provide oversight of the international port and ship facilities throughout The Bahamas.

The unit, which is led

by Senior Lieutenant Bertram Bowleg of the Royal Bahamas Defence Force (RBDF), is responsible for conducting periodic audits and inspections at shipping facilities in the country.

“Further responsibilities of the unit include the detection of security threats and the development of security measure to mitigate such threats,” Mrs Anderson noted yesterday. “(It also includes) the establishment of roles and responsibilities concerning maritime security for governments local administration and ship port industries at the national and international levels.”

“Accordingly, I urge all ISPS compliance facilities to work cohesively with the ISPS compliance

unit since it is important to understand that each of your facilities, although different

in operations, provide substantial economic benefits to the Bahamian people.”

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PAGE 14, Thursday, February 20, 2020

THE TRIBUNE