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The Tribune

Volume:117 No.114, MAY 8TH, 2020

Established 1903

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WEEKEND: KEEPING THE LOVE ALIVE IN LOCKDOWN

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Friday, May 8, 2020 art books entertainment film fashion music history puzzles animals

Welcome back

By RASHAD ROLLE Tribune Senior Reporter rrolle@tribunemedia.net ONE hundred and ninety Bahamians returning to the country today could have their homes evaluated to determine if they qualify for home isolation or have to be quarantined in a government facility.

The logistics of the process is not clear but Deputy Chief Medical Officer Dr Delon Brennen said the Ministries of Health and National Security, the Royal Bahamas Defence Force, the National Emergency Management Agency and the Office of the Prime Minister are coordinating the matter.

“The way to make sure that we are protecting our populace is to make sure that we put in place parameters for people that are

MINISTRY of Health officials cannot find 12 people who were in quarantine, COVID-19 response coordinator Dr Merceline Dahl-Regis said yesterday.

She said there are fewer than 250 people currently in quarantine, with many having completed their required 14-day period in isolation.

“Twelve of that number

A COMIC’S VIEW GIVE US WHAT WE NEED AND NOT WHAT WE WANT

‘FINALLY’ PAY DAY’S ARRIVED

going to be able to come into the country and be able to come into a government quarantine facility or be able to go home,” Dr Brennen said during a Ministry of Health press conference yesterday.

“At the beginning of the exercise we will be doing a risk assessment for everyone, an evaluation for those who request to have the ability to go into home isolation or home quarantine. When we complete the analysis if it is deemed that the facility or home situation they want to go into has been evaluated by one of our government agencies, whether the Ministry of Health, Social Services, if their home is determined to be suitable for them to be able to go into and safely be able to home quarantine,

By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

FORMER Bahamian Contractors Association president Stephen Wrinkle says today’s first construction industry payroll for seven to eight weeks will prove “a huge stress buster for families”. “There’ll be cash in the economy,” he said as many of the industry’s 19,500 employees receive their first pay cheque following the sector reopening this week.

FULL STORY - SEE BUSINESS

PLP BOARD DELAYED KEY IDB PROJECT

SEE PAGE FIVE

we have not been able to find,” she said.

Asked how this could happen, Chief Medical Officer Dr Pearl McMillan said: “We get addresses, contact numbers for all of our contacts. At times the address may not be exact, those phone contacts may not be listed.”

Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis announced last month that an app will be used to track people in quarantine.

SEE PAGE FIVE

high pg13

SEE PAGE SEVEN

WANTED: 12 MISSING FROM QUARANTINE

By RASHAD ROLLE Tribune Senior Reporter rrolle@tribunemedia.net

Page 12

Dream chasers

New music duo sets sights

Returnees flying in today face checks on if they go home

LOVE IN LOCKDOWN

PLAYING POINT NEW Providence Basketball Association held a distribution drive through at City of Praise Church yesterday. Above, nine-year-old Trevor Johnosn of Eva Hilton Primary gives a helping hand. Full report and more pictures - see Sport.

Photo: Shawn Hanna/Tribune Staff

By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

A PLAN to solve New Providence’s wastewater woes was delayed for 14 months after the-then WSC Board sought a “sole-source award” of the contract. An Inter-American Development Bank report discloses the $1.1m contract was delayed by the Board headed by the late Bradley Roberts, the former PLP chairman.

FULL STORY - SEE BUSINESS

OUR FOOT’S ON YOUR NECK, EU WARNS

By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

ATTORNEY General Carl Bethel last night said senior European officials and politicians have warned The Bahamas: “We won’t take our foot off your neck until you implement a corporate income tax.”

Mr Bethel revealed a “senior” member of the European parliament had delivered this extraordinarily blunt message to Maria

AG Carl Bethel O’Brien, The Bahamas’ ambassador to the European Union, as this nation’s

inclusion on the bloc’s antifinancial crime blacklist was confirmed yesterday.

He added that Ms O’Brien was also informed by the official heading the body that oversees the initiative there was “nothing The Bahamas can say or do” to alter the decision, which he branded “a breach” of the Commission’s commitment to engage impacted countries before listing them.

FULL STORY - SEE BUSINESS

Nassau & Bahama Islands’ Leading Newspaper

DIANE PHILLIPS

SOUNDS GREAT - A JOB FROM WHICH YOU CAN’T BE FIRED SEE PAGE EIGHT

PAGE 2, Friday, May 8, 2020

THE TRIBUNE

WSC Executive Chairman Adrian Gibson yesterday directed the dispatch of Nassau-based WSC personnel to inspect and assist local teams with the flushing and temporary water connection line between Spanish Wells and Russell Island.

Causeway being built after bridge collapse A3MAIN

THE TRIBUNE

By EARYEL BOWLEG ebowleg@tribunemedia.net A CAUSEWAY is being built between Spanish Wells and Russell Island after the bridge connecting the two areas collapsed and cut off the community’s main water supply.

Robert Roberts, the island’s chief counsellor, explained yesterday that residents are either using their private boats or a free ferry service to travel between the two islands.

WSC personnel sent from Nassau worked all day yesterday with local teams to restore water supplies between Spanish Wells and Russell Island and

this was achieved just after 4pm. Residents were left in shock on Wednesday when the bridge caved in with a heavy vehicle and golf cart on it. No one was hurt and efforts to move the vehicle were successful.

A contract was signed in July 2019 to replace the bridge that had been there since 1992, but Works Minister Desmond Bannister previously told this newspaper the construction was delayed by losses incurred to the contractor’s equipment during Hurricane Dorian. He added the new bridge is a kit bridge that is in nine containers on Spanish Wells and only needs to be installed.

Thursday, May 7, 2020, PAGE 3

THE bridge connecting Spanish Wells and Russell Island collapsed yesterday

A bridge too far

By EARYEL BOWLEG ebowleg@tribunemedia.net THE bridge connecting Spanish Wells and Russell Island collapsed yesterday affecting water supply and travel between the two islands.

Pictures and video on social media showed a heavy-duty truck and a golf cart on the collapsed bridge. The island’s chief counselor, Robert Roberts, told The Tribune he got the call about the incident at 1.10pm.

He said several people were in the truck that was crossing the bridge. No one was injured during the ordeal, he said.

“Nobody got injured and we managed to get the truck off of the bridge and that’s about where we are right now. Trying to put together a plan for temporary water and passage back and forth to Spanish Wells and Russell Island,” he said.

In a statement, Senator Clay Sweeting reported the water main that was attached to the bridge that serviced the community on Russell Island has also been destroyed, leaving residents without potable water.

“It would also be remiss of me if I didn’t note the red water that is quite evident in the photo which poses another issue for the residents in North Eleuthera,” according to the statement.

“There is no way now for vehicular traffic to traverse from Spanish Wells, the commercial and business centre, and Russell Island which is largely residential.

“I would recommend that the government work with haste to replace the bridge and ensure that the residents of this community once again have safe potable water.”

Mr Russell drew attention to the fact that the dump where garbage for both islands is disposed is on Russell Island as well.

Works Minister Desmond Bannister explained to The Tribune his ministry is in the process of building a new bridge as the government signed a contract in July 2019 for the installation. He said the current bridge was only supposed to be there for a few more weeks.

“The new bridge is a kit bridge that only needs to be installed. The entire bridge is in Spanish Wells in nine containers,” he told The Tribune.

“The works were delayed by losses incurred to the contractor’s equipment during Hurricane Dorian.

The plan has always been to use a barge to transport residents from one side to the next whilst the old bridge is being dismantled and the new one erected.”

Mr Bannister also stressed that officials have warned residents that heavy-duty vehicles should not cross the bridge.

“We have been to Spanish Wells on several occasions, and residents are aware that no heavy vehicles such as the concrete truck that apparently

HOW The Tribune reported on the story yesterday.

Collapse causes huge problems in Spanish Wells and Russell Island caused the collapse should be on the bridge,” Mr Bannister said.

However, Mr Roberts pointed out that the power company located on Russell Island uses heavy equipment and cannot provide service without it. Not to mention, the garbage cannot be picked up without it either. Mr Roberts revealed the truck on the bridge was from Island Block and Concrete.

According to Mr Roberts, the bridge was installed in 1992 after Hurricane Andrew and was intended to be temporary and had been a concern for the community and the district council for the past eight years.

He added: “This community has continued to grow as fast as any I know in the Bahamas. Now, we had outgrown that bridge and besides that the fact that the bridge had some wear and tear on it. Saltwater had affected a good portion of it. You know that type of stuff and everybody was aware of it.

“We knew the bridge was weak. We were hoping of course it would’ve been installed prior to anything happening but unfortunately that wasn’t the case.

This is nothing new.”

With a weekend lockdown coming, Mr Roberts hopes water service will be restored by today or tomorrow.

To see a video of the incident, go to tribune242.com

The minister said: “The plan has always been to use a barge to transport residents from one side to the next whilst the old bridge is being dismantled and the new one erected.”

With the loss of a passage, Mr Roberts said a temporary causeway will be put in place.

“Two days is for the small little barge service, correct.

Tomorrow we’re hoping to have a temporary causeway in place so that by the time we’re out of the lockdown then vehicular traffic can proceed,” he said.

“Then when the contractor’s barge gets here then that will take the one that’s gonna be here tomorrow

and that will be there for the time period while the bridge is being disassembled and reassembled.”

Mr Roberts could not say when the new bridge will be installed, saying that is something for the Ministry of Works to answer.

The bridge collapse in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic is a hurdle, Mr Roberts said.

“General construction is open in the Family Islands but for something like the bridge or other things that are ongoing on the island, you have to get special permissions and COVID cancelling the whole work.

So the contractor is not on site,” he said.

THE TRIBUNE

By DENISE MAYCOCK Tribune Freeport Reporter dmaycock@tribunemedia.net WORK on the Fishing Hole causeway bridge in Grand Bahama has resumed and officials expect it to be completed before the hurricane season starts.

The $6.5 million bridge - which was almost completed last year - was significantly damaged by tidal surge during Hurricane Dorian last September, causing delay and setback with the project.

Minister of State for Disaster Preparedness, Management and Reconstruction Iram Lewis, along with Deputy Prime Minister Peter Turnquest, Minister of State for Grand Bahama Kwasi Thompson, and Pakesia Parker-Edgecombe, MP for West Grand Bahama, met with the contractor on Tuesday to view the progress of work.

According to Mr Lewis, the bridge causeway will be more resilient than the former asphalt surface that was initially laid.

“We promised to build back better and stronger,” he said, adding that concrete instead of asphalt is being used on the approach ramp on the eastern side.

“The western side has been completed and is now curing. The concrete replaces the asphalt that was there pre-Dorian; we don’t dare say this is something that could withstand any force of nature, but we can guarantee it is stronger and more resilient.”

Mr Lewis is confident that the contractor, ABC Construction, would meet the completion timeline for the project.

Mrs Parker-Edgecombe was very pleased with the progress of the work.

“As you are aware this road has been one of contention for many years. The fact that we are building back better and stronger will attest to our resiliency

Friday, May 8, 2020, PAGE 3

Work on $6.5m bridge is close to completion

MINISTER of State for Disaster Preparedness, Management and Reconstruction Iram Lewis (left) explains to Deputy Prime Minister Peter Turnquest, and Minister of State for Grand Bahama, Kwasi Thompson some of the work being carried on Fishing Hole Bridge. Below left, DPM Peter Turnquest.

Photos: Lisa Davis/BIS

in moving forward with regards to hurricanes. So, to hear we are going to be completed very soon and, to know that the only connection point out of West GB into East GB is going

to be completed, it is good news for us and we can’t wait for it to be finished,” she said.

Mr Turnquest said the completion of the bridge will also serve as “important

infrastructure” for commerce on the island, and particularly West Grand Bahama.

“We are very happy to arrive at this stage where we are actually seeing concrete go down on this bridge, which is a very important piece of infrastructure, not only for protecting lives and having access to emergency service in Freeport but also for commerce to allow people to go back and forth to the west unimpeded.”

He added: “It is very important…as we are going to have to depend more upon our domestic economy than we are to our guests.”

Mr Turnquest believes

that “having access to residents from the eastern side to the western side is going to help overall in being able to support one another as we work our way through this (COVID-19) crisis.”

The bridge will serve as the primary artery into Freeport, while the service road below is going to remain in place for heavy loads, he explained.

“We don’t want to over stress the bridge although it is designed and can take the load. We will have the heavy trucks go down on the service road, and it will also serve as an emergency road for maintenance to be done,” Mr Turnquest said.

Mr Turnquest, the MP

for East Grand Bahama, also noted that road works are also underway in eastern Grand Bahama, where paving is being carried out from McLeans Town to High Rock.

“We are pleased about that. It just demonstrates that while progress has been slower than people would want, the fact is these are technical issues we want to make sure we do it right and spend the money and get the best value for the Bahamian people. We appreciate the patience as we continue to improve upon our infrastructure and deliver services that GB needs,” he said.

People are still living in hurricane shelters

By LEANDRA ROLLE Tribune Staff Reporter lrolle@tribunemedia.net

WITH the COVID-19 pandemic impacting daily operations, Deputy Director of Social Services Kim Sawyer said yesterday officials are not certain when shelters for Hurricane Dorian’s victims will be completely deactivated.

This includes the Bahamas Academy Auditorium on Wulff Road, which is currently housing less than 100 people, the deputy director told The Tribune yesterday.

As it relates to the Poinciana Inn on Bernard Road, which is now serving as a transitional home for affected families, Ms Sawyer said officials are still hoping to have the temporary shelter closed by next week.

She said: “Well, the Poinciana Inn was technically for 90 days and the 90 days will end the 15th of May and so, we were informed to remind persons of that agreement and that is what we have been doing.

“Now we have where we can assist them with finding other accommodations and we’ve been trying to do that but with the COVID-19, that threw us back.

“But we’re still trying to work with them to see what we can do to assist them to move on. It’s really not our call to say if the time (at the inn) will be extended or not.

That is the call of the government for that decision.”

Asked what will happen to those victims who have not found living accommodations by next week, Ms Sawyer replied: “Well, we can’t put people out on the streets.”

The ministry and its partners originally housed more than 2,000 people in shelters across the country following the passage of Hurricane Dorian in early September.

officials had to limit the movement of Dorian evacuees.

She said: “We had to limit the movement of the shelterees because we didn’t want them going out into the community and even when there is not a curfew, we have asked them to limit their movements because we don’t want them to go out into

THE POINCIANA Inn on Bernard Road However, to date, only two shelters remain open in New Providence. Combined, the shelters house less than 200 people. “(There are) 74 at Poinciana Inn (and) 97 at Bahamas Academy,” Ms Sawyer told The Tribune yesterday.

Earlier this year, Social Services Minister Frankie Campbell said officials were hoping to have the shelters deactivated before the start of the 2020 hurricane season, which is set to begin June 1 until November 30.

He noted his ministry was relying on several factors to finalise the matter, including receiving assistance from the Ministry of Disaster Preparedness, Management and Reconstruction.

“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 told reporters outside Parliament in February. 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.”

Noting the COVID-19 pandemic has thrown a “monkey wrench” in the ministry’s plans, Ms Sawyer told The Tribune that officials have not yet finalised a date for when the Wulff Road shelter will close.

She said: “. . .That is still a temporary shelter.

I understand from quite a number of the persons that are housed that they would like to return to Abaco, and I think that is what they were working towards.

“But, with the COVID situation, that’s not possible now because we have some situations where a spouse or partner would have returned to Abaco and was working and just trying to secure adequate housing for the family and like I said, this sort of threw a monkey wrench in our plans.”

Ms Sawyer added officials were also depending on the government’s family relief centre to accommodate storm victims.

She added: “My understanding was that in addition to the domes in Abaco, there was supposed to be a family relief centre and my understanding was that they were still working towards that.

“And so, some of our (shelter residents) who were probably disqualified to go into the domes would have been qualified to go into the family relief centre.”

The pandemic has not only affected the ministry’s housing plans for Dorian survivors, but it has also impacted the daily operations of the shelter itself.

Due to fears of shelter victims contracting the virus, Ms Sawyer said

the community and then bring something into the shelter. “You could imagine if that happens. So, we had to limit their movements in and out of the shelter. We had a few that we even had to ask to leave for various reasons or some infraction but otherwise than that, like I said as an agency, we can’t put people out on the streets.”

PAGE 4, Friday, May 8, 2020

By LEANDRA ROLLE Tribune Staff Reporter lrolle@tribunemedia.net LOCAL LGBTI activists say the restrictions implemented by the government to prevent the spread of the coronavirus have left members of their community particularly vulnerable to domestic violence and other social issues.

This comes after a new report from LGBTIQ human-rights organisation Outright Action International found that challenges faced by the community have been amplified as a result of the virus compared to the wider population.

Saying the pandemic has disrupted the lives of many in the marginalised community, local activist Erin Greene told The Tribune yesterday that the COVID19 emergency orders have exacerbated existing issues like domestic violence and the ability to find living accommodations.

She said: “We know that a number of issues members of the community have already been dealing with are exacerbated by the state of emergency and the lockdowns and curfews in response to COVID. “In particular, members of the community who would be deemed homeless or unhoused and couch surfers are now having an even (more) difficult time finding places to live and maintaining safe space in

THE TRIBUNE

LGBTI activisits fear restrictions leave members vulnerable the lockdowns. Some have been forced to return to homes with abusive family members…and then we have the employment issue.”

In an effort to prevent the spread of the infectious virus, in March the government ordered businesses to close their offices and mandate employees work from home, except for essential employees where needed.

However, on Sunday, Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis amended the order, announcing businesses that are able to provide delivery services and curbside pickup will be allowed to operate weekly from 8am-5pm. Businesses in the hospitality sector, such as hotels, have also laid people off due to the travel shutdown.

Ms Greene said the restrictions have forced

usually independent LGBT members to find other means of income for support.

“People with minimal support systems because of stigma and discrimination within the community and within family networks relied on their own steam and employment to support themselves and now being unemployed, they have very little to fall back on,” she said.

“Many members of the community are involved in informal employment and so not (readily) can they access NIB and that’s a problem as well. A lot of members in the community would support themselves by selling food informally and services like that.”

She continued: “So, it has been problematic and for members of the community that may have been

engaging in sex work for support, that stream of income is practically shut down and they’re not viable for state support services.”

Another LGBTI activist, Alexis D’Marco, made similar comments to The Tribune, adding that some people have even been experiencing symptoms of anxiety due to job uncertainty amid the pandemic.

“We’re working with (a psychologist) to line up some psychosocial support for our community with her via Zoom sessions and based on the social distancing, she was able to do some one-on-one, so we do have some of our community members who have expressed that and are trying to seek help.”

She said that the pandemic has not disrupted the community’s access to healthcare.

ACTIVIST Erin Greene “We have a good relationship with the Ministry of Health and the HIV department in the Ministry of Health, so we have, which is my organisation the Demarco Organisation - that we actually take meds and we do meds pickups for members of our community who are HIV positive,” she noted.

“So, it is not a disruption that they cannot access the healthcare systems that are needed.”

The main concern, Ms

WILL LOCAL ELECTIONS GO AHEAD? ASKS DAVIS

Divided views on Sands’ decision to resign

By TANYA SMITH-CARTWRIGHT ts-cartwright @tribunemedia.net BAHAMIANS have mixed views on Dr Duane Sands’ resignation from Cabinet this week.

Raleigh Francis, an insurance executive, feels Dr Sands “got played by political operatives”.

“Dr Sands could not have been the only man involved.

He got played by political operatives,” Mr Francis said. “If you followed the story closely you can see that. No doubt Dr Sands is a legend in his respected medical field, but in politics he is still growing.

“In this COVID-19 pandemic and if I was in the Minnis administration I surely would not want the health portfolio at this time...too demanding and stressful. The PM had no other choice but to step in and take on the role as minister of health. He is presently a part of the leadership team keeping the country informed with COVID-19 and also was the last minister of health in the Ingraham administration.”

Richard Simms, a certified public accountant, thinks Dr Sands was honorable in resigning. However,

the resignation has left many questions behind, he said.

“He broke the rules that were set out by the prime minister,” Mr Simms said.

“However, he could not have acted alone so there should have been more resignations. Someone had to give the approval for the plane to land. Someone had to give customs and immigration permission to search the plane and its passengers.

“If Dr Sands had orchestrated this he should have known the amount of persons on the plane. There are so many unanswered questions that will or will not be answered. Dr Sands was a sacrificial lamb and he did it with his head held high.”

Antoinette Lotmore, an operations and training professional, said: “I have a lot of respect for Dr Sands for his work in the healthcare field and for what he has done for years which is managing the health of the Bahamian people. I have even more respect for the way he has handled this pandemic. It has been comforting to me to see him at the head of it. “Everyone knows that I am not a personal fan of his, but I cannot take away from him

Demarco said, is ensuring that LBGTI people “who are living in hostile environments” have access to food and other essential items.

“The priority right now is food,” she said. “We are trying to be the mediator between our community and the government agency so that’s where we’re at right now so there’s nobody being left behind. “. . .We never knew that most of our LGBTI people had difficulties accessing healthcare, accessing education, living below the poverty line, all of these issues, we never did a study on LGTBI communities, knowing that they are a part of our vulnerable communities.

“So, I think right now COVID has opened everybody’s eyes to the real issues that we face here,” she said.

By EARYEL BOWLEG ebowleg@tribunemedia.net

BAHAMIANS have mixed views on Dr Duane Sands’ resignation from Cabinet this week. the excellent job he has been doing.

“What has impressed me even more is that what he did in this residents travel fiasco was wrong, but he owned up to it. He never once ran away from it, he never once tried to justify it, he never blamed anybody and he never tried to hide behind anyone. He was honest and upfront.

Of course it needed to be addressed but I think it should have been shelved until we have gone through this crisis and then let the chips fall where they may.

This is not the time for us to play politics and this is not the time for us to change our direction right in the middle of this pandemic,” she said.

Architect Sheldon Maycock said Dr Sands’ resignation has not brought a fair and just end to the

controversial matter. “Customs, immigration, civil aviation and the health department were all involved here,” Mr Maycock said. “As Dr Sands was just in charge of health, these other departments and their ministers are not doing the public the fair service by not specifically stating their roles in this debacle.”

Bahamian classical singer and consultant Franz Hepburn said what has occurred should usher in a new era in politics.

“I have lived in the UK for 30 years and I am used to seeing Cabinet ministers resigning for certain actions taken by their ministries,” Mr Hepburn said. “Dr Duane Sands did the right thing in resigning as health minister. If not, it would have sent the message that has blighted Bahamian

politics, ‘Do as I say and not as I do.’ I am sure it was a difficult decision for Prime Minister Minnis to accept the resignation, but he made the right one and the optics quite powerful for our country and the region.

“PM Minnis taking on the role of health minister should be an interim measure due to the magnitude of the current pandemic, but a new health minister should be appointed in due course.”

The Elizabeth MP offered his resignation to Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis on Monday for his actions related to six permanent residents who landed in the country last week with COVID-19 testing supplies and were allowed to quarantine at home before they produced a negative COVID-19 test result.

PLP Leader Philip “Brave” Davis has called on the government to say if it intends to go ahead with local government elections set for May 20 “It does not seem to us that these elections can take place given what is happening in the country,” Mr Davis said at a press conference this week.

“The government needs to say whether given the emergency, they intend to proceed with elections because the mandate of councils expires on June 30, 2020.”

He also said some islands do not have a lawfully appointed administrator, citing Freeport, East Grand Bahama, North Eleuthera, Spanish Wells, Harbour Island and Sweetings Cay. He said these appointments are crucial in the midst of the COVID-19 crisis. He also questioned whether local government was facing some funding issue.

“The government has asked all local government authorities to send all money not expended back to the Treasury,” he said.

“This is part of the COVID-19 strictures.

However, local government councils are still being asked to perform core functions that require funding and there are pending contractual arrangements which likewise require funding. So why request the returns of funds held by councils?”

PLP’S Philip Davis

MOTHER FINED $525 FOR DRIVING HOME TO SEE SICK SON

By FARRAH JOHNSON fjohnson@tribunemedia.net

A WOMAN who claimed she violated the lockdown because she was trying to get home to be with her sick son was fined $525 yesterday.

She and three others appeared before Senior Magistrate Derence RolleDavis for lockdown and curfew infractions.

Is’lane Delva, 35, was charged after officers found her on Moonshine Drive around 7pm on April 5.

According to prosecutor Kendrick Bauld, on

the night in question, officers on motorcycle patrol observed a silver Nissan Note travelling west on Moonshine Drive. The officers beckoned for the vehicle to stop and asked the driver, who identified herself as Is’lane Delva, to exit the vehicle. When questioned, Sgt Bauld said Delva did not give the officers a “legitimate” reason to justify her being outside of her home that night. As a result, she was taken to a nearby station where she admitted the offence.

During the hearing,

Delva told the magistrate she was only outdoors because she was “heading home to deal with her seven-year-old son”. Delva said she was staying at a friend’s house that weekend and had left her son home with her mother. She said her son called her and told her he was feeling bad and was experiencing “shortness of breath,” so she left her friend’s house to go home.

She pleaded guilty to the offence and was given a $500 fine or two months in prison. She was also fined an additional $25 for failing

to appear at court for her original arraignment date, which was scheduled for May 6.

Meanwhile, a 15-yearold boy was also charged after officers found him on Ida Street around 11.15am on May 3. He also pleaded guilty and was fined $500 or two months in prison. Sgt Bauld said at the time of his arrest, the juvenile told the police he was outside because he had “come by his boy to chill”.

However, when given an opportunity to speak, the defendant told the magistrate he was outdoors

because his family had run out of gas and his mother had sent him to a store around the corner to buy some. He claimed he was “talking to his brethren” while waiting for the gas tank to be filled when the police approached and questioned him.

Raymond Rolle, 35, was charged after officers found him at Arawak Cay around 1.30am on May 6. He was also charged with breaking the bottom portion of the entrance door of Joey’s Restaurant and causing $535.25 worth of damage.

During the hearing,

Rolle was incoherent and refused to listen to the correctional officers or respond when the magistrate called him.

As a result, Magistrate Rolle-Davis adjourned the matter to July 6 and remanded Rolle to prison, where he will undergo a psychiatric evaluation.

Officers found Percwell Rolle, 29, on Fritz Lane around 2.30am on May 6.

He pleaded guilty to violating the national curfew and was fined $800 or two months at the Bahamas Department of Correctional Services (BDCS).

THE TRIBUNE from page one

then we will allow them to be able to sign an agreement that says yes they will go in, they will follow those rules, they will continue to be monitored by the Ministry of Health but then we can be assured there wouldn’t be any issues with ongoing risk to the community by introducing them into the wider Bahamian populace.”

Yesterday’s press conference was the first since Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis accepted the resignation of former Health Minister Dr Duane Sands on Monday and temporarily assumed the health portfolio. Dr Minnis, however, was not at the press conference. Asked about his absence, Chief Medical Officer Dr Pearl McMillan said she could not say where he was.

There were no new confirmed cases of COVID-19 yesterday, though Dr Merceline Dahl-Regis said the number of recovered cases increased by five to 31.

She further revealed that officials are giving serious consideration to locking down Bimini for two weeks out of concern for potential exponential growth of cases there. To date she said 78 people on that island have been tested and 11 have been confirmed to have the disease.

Dr Dahl Regis said before the country moves from one stage of reopening to the next, there should be a monitoring of new cases, particularly those reflecting community spread as opposed to those arising within a cluster.

She said officials remain

Friday, May 8, 2020, PAGE 5

Returnees flying in today face checks on if they go home

HUBERT Minnis in his temporary role in charge of Health concerned about the number of frontline health workers who have contracted COVID-19, noting the Bahamas has a high number of such cases compared to other countries in the region. Twenty-two healthcare workers have contracted COVID-19 to

date, including five doctors, one physiotherapist, two trained clinical nurses, one domestic staff, seven registered nurses and patient care technicians. This represents 23.9 percent of total cases in the country.

Editorial View - Page 6

WANTED: 12 MISSING FROM QUARANTINE

from page one

Dr Dahl-Regis said the process of signing a contract to use an app to verify people’s whereabouts will soon be completed.

She says the app will “draw a parameter around the quarantine site and then send an alarm should there be violation of that

parameter.” She said officials are coordinating this with the Ministry of Health surveillance team, the Royal Bahamas Defence Force and law enforcement and will require the app for people in quarantine on all islands. The penalty for breaking quarantine rules is a fine of up to $20,000 or up to five years imprisonment or both.

PAIR IN COURT ON VAGRANCY CHARGES

By FARRAH JOHNSON fjohnson@tribunemedia.net

had called the Carmichael Police Station to report that her former boyfriend was TWO men were taken making a disturbance at her to court yesterday to face home. Sgt Bauld said by the vagrancy charges. Dudley time officers arrived on the Smith, 30, appeared before scene, Smith had already left.

Senior Magistrate Derence Sgt Bauld said the Rolle-Davis after officers woman told them Smith found him in the Stewfish had damaged her winDrive area on April 29 and dows. He added that the had reason to suspect he woman declined to make a was planning to commit an formal complaint about the offence. He pleaded guilty damage. and was discharged with a During the hearing, Smith warning. told the magistrate the inciProsecutor Kendrick dent occurred because he Bauld told the court the had an argument with his defendant’s ex-girlfriend baby’s mother. He insisted

he had already paid for the windows to be repaired and apologised for his actions.

After he was discharged, he promised Magistrate RolleDavis he “would never see him again.”

Meanwhile, 57-year-old Sonny Rolle was charged with vagrancy after officers found him on West Hill Street on May 6. He pleaded not guilty and the matter was adjourned to today for trial. Rolle was remanded to the Bahamas Department of Correctional Services in the interim.

FINE OR PRISON FOR LICENCE PLATE FRAUD

By FARRAH JOHNSON fjohnson@tribunemedia.net

A 21-YEAR-OLD man appeared in court yesterday charged with licence plate fraud. Stephen Turnquest appeared before Senior Magistrate Derence Rolle-Davis charged with fraudulent use of a licence plate after officers found him on Baillou Hill Road driving a vehicle that did not have the same registration as the licence plates on the car.

Prosecutor Kendrick Bauld told the court that on April 29, police on mobile patrol in the Baillou

Hill Road stopped a white Honda. They informed the driver, who identified himself as Stephen Turnquest, that they would be searching him in reference to dangerous drugs and firearms. During the search, Sgt Bauld said the officers noticed that the car’s disc did not match the plates.

As a result, Turnquest was arrested and taken to the Grove Police Station. There, he admitted that the plates belonged to his girlfriend.

During the hearing, Turnquest’s attorney told the magistrate that he had not renewed his own vehicle’s

licence since last December.

He explained that Turnquest’s girlfriend was an essential worker and she had asked him to drop her to work so they decided to put her plates on his car.

In response, Magistrate Rolle-Davis told the defendant that his actions were criminal because he intended to deceive the law when he took his girlfriend’s plates and put them on his car.

He pleaded guilty to the charge and was fined $500 or two months at the Bahamas Department of Correctional Services.

TEENAGER CHARGED WITH FREEPORT MAN ADMITS SHARING EXPLICIT VIDEO SHOPBREAKING OFFENCES

By FARRAH JOHNSON fjohnson@tribunemedia.net

By DENISE MAYCOCK Tribune Freeport Reporter dmaycock@tribunemedia.net

AN 18-YEAR-OLD was charged in Magistrate’s Court yesterday after recording and publishing a sexual video of a woman and another man. Trevor Brown appeared before Chief Magistrate Joyann FergusonPratt charged with two counts of voyeurism.

He pleaded guilty to both charges.

The teenager admitted to recording a video of a nude female while she was engaged in sexual intercourse with another man sometime in March. He also admitted to publishing the sexually explicit video within that same timeframe, knowing it was obtained illegally.

During the arraignment, Magistrate Ferguson-Pratt said she was not in a position to hear the summary of the facts for the case. As a result, the defendant was remanded to the Bahamas Department of Correctional Services.

A FREEPORT man was yesterday charged with a number of shopbreaking offences between March and April.

Deon Marcuis Hall, 43, of No 167 Morgan Lane, appeared before Magistrate Charlton Smith in Court Two on three counts of shopbreaking, one count of stealing, and one count of trespassing.

The matters are in connection to complaints made to police involving a break-in at St Pauls Methodist College school, where over $1,000 of items was stolen; and Wholeman Christian Centre and a two-storey building which were also broken into.

Hall pleaded guilty to the charges and was remanded to the Sandilands Rehabilitation Centre for six weeks evaluation and counselling.

He is expected to return to court for sentencing on June 30.

PAGE 6, Friday, May 8, 2020

THE TRIBUNE

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Where is the leader when he’s needed?

WHAT a difference a week makes.

On Sunday, Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis gave his national address and, barring his note that a statement would be coming from his Health Minister the next day on the issue of the border breach, projected a sense of calm and that matters were under control.

Yesterday’s press conference was anything but a continuation of that.

Let’s start with what was missing: Dr Minnis.

Having taken on the duties of the health portfolio after accepting Health Minister Dr Duane Sands’ resignation, Dr Minnis was conspicuous by his absence yesterday. No Minister of Health, no explanation of where he was.

When asked directly by reporters where was Dr Minnis, they could not say.

Imagine, if you will, that things had gone differently in the past week. Imagine if Dr Minnis had allowed Dr Sands to continue in his post. One would imagine that press conference would have gone very differently.

Previously, it seemed that while we had our setbacks in the battle against COVID-19 there was a steady progression back towards normality. Yesterday, things seemed rudderless – as if charting a course with no one to set the direction.

Let’s talk about the other thing that was missing – a dozen people supposedly under quarantine.

We’re not sure how 12 people who are supposed to be staying indoors and are meant to be monitored can somehow disappear – but we are sure that not everything is being done to find them, no matter what might have been said in yesterday’s conference.

The penalty for breaking quarantine is up to five years in jail – and yet no police alert for these individuals has come the way of the press. No wanted posters. No appeals to the public to identify where these potential dangers to public health might be.

There was even a query raised by officials as to whether fictitious names were given by those individuals. How were more thorough checks not done?

Are we not even sure of the identities of those in quarantine?

It’s a long way from how things seemed to be going a week ago. Certainly, if Dr Sands was still in his post, those dozen people might still be missing – but would the matter have been taken more seriously? Might there have been a stronger response? Rather than just seemingly shrugging it off. Dr Pearl McMillan even said that of all those who had been in quarantine, “12 of that number is not too bad”.

What’s the point of a quarantine if it isn’t being enforced. As we prepare to welcome home more Bahamians who will have to go into quarantine, how do we know they will be monitored any more stringently than those 12 missing people?

And now let’s talk about the final thing that was missing – an opportunity.

After the turbulence of this week, this was a chance for Dr Minnis to push the reset button. This was a chance to stand in front of the nation and assure them that despite the change at the top of the health ministry, there was no change in the progress being made.

This was a chance to let the Bahamian people know that things were being taken care of, and that he was in charge.

Instead, he went missing. He wasn’t there to answer questions – which perhaps might have been his reason for not being there if there were questions he didn’t want to answer. He wasn’t there as a figurehead. He wasn’t there as a bridge to other organisations – such as the police to advise on what was being done to track down the missing dozen.

Perhaps this is one job too far. Perhaps this puts more on his plate than he can handle. Perhaps even now he might be asking what if Dr Sands was still in that post. Would it be too much to consider returning him to the post, if that is what the nation needs right now?

Despite the opening up of more parts of the country, this week has been a stumble for the government, and it needs to get back in its stride. Dr Minnis will presumably give another address on Sunday – likely without questions – but he can’t avoid giving answers forever.

Sad to see numbers shops reopening EDITOR, The Tribune

LETTERS

I WAS very disappointed with the Prime Minister‘s decision to reopen the numbers web shops.

As a result of Hurricane Dorian and the ongoing Corona virus, the Bahamas government has disbursed many millions of dollars from the NIB fund in unemployment, housing and food benefits. The continued financial health of this rapidly depleted fund should be a major concern to the many thousands of Bahamians who now rely on, and will continue

to rely on, NIB as their only means of income and subsistence.

It would be interesting to know what percentage of these recently disbursed funds will now end up in the coffers of the numbers houses rather than spent on what they were intended for, ie food and housing, etc. Do the taxes derived from the number’s

READERS have been posting their reactions to the stories making the news this week.

After Minister of Works Desmond Bannister said he will be “smiling from ear to ear” if his wish for a $500m capital works budget to improve decaying infrastructure

and boost the economy is granted, John had this to say: “This will be an excellent stimulus to keep the country moving as tourism still seems to be some distance off from opening back fully. Make it a full billion and share the works around the Family

letters@tribunemedia.net

businesses compensate for the social disintegration on the flipside of that coin? These are numbers of diminishing returns.

The proliferation of these government sanctioned rackets is a blight on the country, equally as insidious, addictive and destructive as the cocaine epidemic of the Pindling era was. Having looked upon all this, what do you tell the man in the mirror Prime Minister?

IAN MABON Nassau, May 7, 2020.

Islands. Tourism budget can be cut by 50 percent for now as can a number of other ministries. Include the Carmichael Road expansion project because driving in that area on a regular day is a nightmare.”

Ben Albury, Bahamas Bus and Truck’s general manager, is urging the government to “level the playing field” as he voiced concerns that competitors

Why we need globalisation IN JUST a few months, COVID-19 travelled from China to more than 200 other countries, and has now killed more than 200,000 people. Some claim the pandemic sounds the death knell for globalisation - but in fact, it reveals the disasters that can arise when nations try to go it alone.

Examining where the world went right or wrong in its COVID-19 response may help mitigate another global crisis, climate change.

In the face of coronavirus’ global sweep, most national governments acted independently from each other, rather than in unison. Just as in global action on climate change, the responses of nations to the health crisis has largely been ad hoc, piecemeal and, in many cases, lethally ineffective.

My recent research as an international business scholar has focused on finding the common threads of national cultures. My research shows that people around the world have many needs and aspirations in common, such as good health, education and employment. These are best fulfilled when world leaders work jointly with a global, rather than a national, mindset.

So let’s look at the lessons COVID-19 has taught the world, and how this might help the global effort to curb climate change.

Following the COVID-19 outbreak in China, many countries imposed unilateral travel bans on Chinese arrivals, against advice from the World Health Organization.

The bans mirror the response of many nations during the west African Ebola epidemic which began in 2013. Research has shown that those travel and trade restrictions acted

as a disincentive for nations to report outbreaks.

There are undoubtedly legitimate questions over China’s reporting on the coronavirus outbreak.

However, travel bans may have made China more defensive and less willing to share vital information with the rest of the world.

A shortage of vital supplies also exposed fractures in international cooperation. For example, France and Germany banned the export of medical equipment such as face masks, and the United States was accused of intercepting a shipment of medical supplies en route to Germany.

But where the world has cooperated to stop the spread of COVID19, the benefits have been obvious.

Collaboration between global health scientists has helped identify the virus’ genome sequence, and grow the virus in the lab.

Similarly on climate change, international unity is required if the world is to keep temperatures below 2 degrees C warming this century. But international climate meetings frequently end in disunity and despair.

Meanwhile, global emissions creep ever higher.

One person practising social distancing during the pandemic might think their effect is negligible.

But coronavirus is highly infectious: on one estimate, a single person with coronavirus could eventually infect 59,000 others.

Similarly, many countries seek to avoid responsibility for taking climate action by claiming their contribution to the global problem is small. The Australian government, for example, repeatedly points out it contributes just 1.3% to the world’s emissions total.

But on a per capita basis, Australia is one of the world’s highest emitters.

And as a rich, developed nation, we must be seen to be taking action on cutting emissions if poorer nations are expected to follow suit.

So actions Australia takes will have major global consequences.

As the COVID-19 experience has shown, the longer we delay action on climate mitigation, the more global, costly, and lethal the consequences.

As others have noted, a major supplier of swabs used for coronavirus testing is based in Italy, and a German company is a primary supplier of chemicals needed for the tests.

Many counties rely on foreign suppliers for ventilators, and an Indian firm – the world’s largest vaccine manufacturer – says once a COVID-19 vaccine is ready for mass production, it will supply large volumes to the world, at low cost.

It’s clear that international cooperation is critical for effective mass testing and treatment for the virus.

Nations must work together to improve production and distribution, and resources must be shared.

So too is cooperation needed to deal with the worldwide economic downturn. The global recovery will be long and slow if nations adopt sovereign mindsets, putting up barriers to protect their own economies. With the coronavirus as with climate change, working together is best way to secure humanity’s safety, health and well-being.

are being allowed to open in-store more frequently than his own business. That prompted this comment from DWW: “I wonder who thinks this is all a good idea? Let’s cut store hours to a few hours one day a week so everyone jam up at the same time. So stupid.

The better way is to open it all up including Sundays.

The lockdown was not a good idea.”

Tetelestai said: “I ask this in all seriousness, shouldn’t we just reopen the country now?”

And the news that Abaco residents feel the island is in no way ready for the start of hurricane season next month, led to this post from Tell_it_like_it_is: “Yeah, it doesn’t seem like this government will be able to chew gum and walk. There’s only three weeks before

the start of the hurricane season. We can only pray that the Good Lord keeps the severe hurricanes away from our shores because we simply won’t be ready.

“Sufficient businesses won’t even be open for the amount of hours needed for people to prepare their homes with all the materials they have to procure when a hurricane passes. May the Lord be with us all!”

By Sunil Venaik, Associate Professor of International Business, The University of Queensland. theconversation.com

THE TRIBUNE

Friday, May 8, 2020, PAGE 7

Give us what we need and not what we want

AS more manure continues to hit the fan, on one end of the “Swabs for Entry Scandal”, the plot thickens on the other, with some interesting characters both old and new, raising their heads.

I’m going to let it all play out before I offer commentary on that one, I don’t want to miss a thing.

Meanwhile our religious community, mirrors “reality television” and in some cases, bad reality television.

Complete with outbursts against the government, infighting, and the continuous calls for tithes.

Let’s have a closer look.

•PAY PAL PASTORS • After wishy-washy responses, or in some cases none at all, to several recent issues of national importance, I must say I’m a bit amazed that some clergy have so much to say in regards to “tithes” and their continued payment by their congregations, despite social distancing protocols.

Several churches have gone completely digital in order for their worshippers to conveniently pay tithes.

This week alone I’ve observed multiple “Pay Pal Pastors” pop up all over social media, instructing members of their various congregations on how to pay their “tithes” on line.

I understand that the

various churches need their “tithes” to operate, however all I’m saying is, in all of your “religiousness” and with the same conviction, speak out or take action against everyday atrocities here in the Bahamas that go unchampioned, such as crime, guns, sweetheartin’, child molestation, human trafficking and the list goes on and on.

Don’t be selective, even though you want your members to be selective paying their “tithes” on line with those $25, $50, $75 and $100 donations to Believers Faith Outreach Ministries International.

Watch it Sebas, now the pastors them online too!

•MAD MATTIE•

Now I totally get why “The Running Man” Jonathan Ash was selling liquor illegally during the curfew, he’s allegedly a member of Believers Faith Outreach Ministries International, and those tithes had to pay.

And in case you missed it, the controversial head of Believers Faith Outreach Ministries International Prophetess Dr. Mattie Nottage, leads her flock from front to back and top to bottom.

She’s taking on all and sundry when it comes to her church being closed and its subsequent tithes trickling in, including the leader of

ONE MAN CAN’T HIDE HIS DELIGHT THAT DRINK IS BACK ON THE MENU the nation Prime Minister Hubert Minnis. (More on this in a moment).

Part 1a of the essential services list has churches serving hot meals listed, as remaining open.

So if Believers Faith Outreach Ministries International was serving hot meals daily like, Bishop Walter Hanchell and his Great Commission Ministries International does daily there should not be an issue of being open.

Serving meals to over 100,000 hungry Bahamians daily, along with several other organizations is indeed a blessing. Sadly Believers Faith Outreach Ministries International does not appear to have this option, however they do offer On line tithing (Who do you think inspired the ‘Pay Pal Pastors’ ? Thank you Mattie).

Dr. Nottage’s book Life’s Survival Kit for Storms.

(Available for purchase).

The Women of Fire and Power Online Conference.

(Tickets range between $25.00 and $100.00) A Royal Mother’s Day

Celebration for Prophetess Dr. Mattie Johnson.

(Where church members can shower their Prophetess with ‘Love Gifts’ ranging from $300 to $2,500).

Midnight Prophetic Prayer (Members can donate or tithe on line daily).

I guess you got to pray to play.

It’s clear Dr. Nottage preaches the “prosperity gospel” and her version seems to be on steroids!

It’s also painfully obvious her angst with the PM comes from his recent decision to open liquor stores, while churches remained closed.

(Dr. Nottage please see part 1a of essential services above).

Liquor merchants are making money and the churches aren’t?

(Especially Believers Faith Outreach Ministries International) seemingly equates to blasphemy in Dr. Nottage’s book, leading her to unleash a scathing biblical, seven-day warning on Prime Minister Minnis, on her various social media platforms, with both local

and international viewers alike tuned in.

Totally inappropriate actions on Dr. Nottage’s part, in my opinion. Some circles, may even call Dr. Nottage’s rant a “curse”.

Call it what you want, but according to Dr. Nottage, the PM has, and I quote: “Seven good days to open the churches.”

(Presumably Believers Faith Outreach Ministries International first of course).

“Or the judgment and hand of God will be against your administration.”

(That really escalated rather quickly).

I’m amazed by such an ugly outburst from the “Prophetess” considering churches globally are continuing to adhere to social distancing protocol.

Might I ask what happened to praying for our nation’s leaders, have you forgotten about Timothy 1-3, Dr Nottage?

1. I exhort, therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; 2. For kings, and for all

that are in authority that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty.

3. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour.

I must say that in the midst of the COViD-19 pandemic, that I’m appalled by the actions of Dr. Nottage, a religious leader, attacking the government over money, not a good look.

Like the old timers say “God make ugly, but he don’t like it.”

I’m shocked, I hear no prayers for the healing of the nation and a rapid return to normalcy and employment.

Free from the bondage of necessary, curfews, lockdowns and masks, with the same conviction as the seven-day ultimatum, Dr. Nottage?

Such antics and questionable behaviour by Dr. Nottage reminds me of another scripture, Mathew 7:15.

Until next week may God bless us all, and give us what we need, and not what we want!

PERFECT STORM FOR A CRISIS IN MENTAL HEALTH

by Jean Twenge Professor of Psychology, San Diego State University

WHEN the novel coronavirus roared into the US, mental health took a back seat to physical health.

The number one priority was making sure hospitals wouldn’t be overwhelmed and that as many lives as possible could be saved.

Schools closed, remote work became the norm, restaurants shuttered and getting together with friends was no longer possible. The news cycle spun with story after story highlighting the ever-increasing number of cases and deaths, while unemployment soared to levels not seen since the Great Depression.

Any one of these shifts could be expected to cause an increase in mental health issues. Put together, they created a perfect storm for a crisis. Experts speculated as much, and polls showed that many people seemed to intuitively grasp the mental toll of the pandemic.

However, data on mental health metrics was scant; we didn’t know the magnitude of any changes in mental health issues, nor did we understand which groups of people were suffering more than others.

So I decided to collect data on mental health during the pandemic and compare it to data from before all of this happened.

The differences were even worse than I anticipated.

A generational divide

On April 27, I surveyed 2,032 US adults using a standard measure of mental distress that asks, for example, how often a respondent felt sad or nervous in the last month. I compared the responses with a sample of 19,330 demographically similar people in a 2018 government-sponsored survey of US adults that asked the same questions.

The results were staggering: The 2020 participants were eight times as likely to screen positive for serious mental illness – 28 percent,

compared with 3.4 percent in the 2018 survey. The vast majority of the 2020 participants, 70 percent, met criteria for moderate to serious mental illness, compared with 22 percent in 2018.

Clearly, the pandemic has had a devastating affect on mental health.

Yet some people are suffering more than others.

Younger adults ages 18 to 44 – mostly iGen and millennials – have borne the brunt of the mental health effects. They’ve experienced a tenfold increase in serious mental distress compared with 2018.

Meanwhile, adults 60 and older had the smallest increases in serious mental health issues.

Why might this be the case? After all, the virus has far more dire health implications for older people.

It could be because older people are more protected from the economic disruptions of the pandemic.

Younger adults were more likely to lose their jobs as restaurants and stores

closed and were more likely to be in a precarious financial position to begin with. The youngest adults were also already struggling with mental health issues: Depression among 18- to 25-year-olds surged from 2012 to 2017, possibly because young adults spent less time interacting with others in person than they used to, a situation only exacerbated by the pandemic.

Parents under pressure

The other group in distress won’t be a surprise to parents: those with children under 18 at home.

With schools and daycares closed during the pandemic, many parents are trying to do the nearimpossible by working and supervising their children at the same time. Sports, scouting, music classes, camps and virtually every other activity parents rely on to keep their kids occupied have been cancelled.

Even parks were closed for weeks.

This trend didn’t occur just because people with children at home are younger. Even among 18to 44-year-olds, those with children at home showed larger increases in mental distress than those without kids.

In 2018, parents were actually less likely to be experiencing mental distress than those without children. But by the end of April 2020, parents were more likely to be in distress than their childless peers.

Where do we go from here?

The findings of this study are preliminary. The 2020 and 2018 samples, though very similar in age, gender, race and region, came from different sources and thus might differ in other ways.

However, there are also other indications that mental health is suffering during the pandemic. For example, calls to mental health hotlines appear to have surged.

This doesn’t necessarily

mean we should open up the economy to preserve mental health. The resulting spike in illness and death from COVID-19 could be even worse for mental health, and workers required to return to their jobs may rightly worry about catching the virus.

It does mean policymakers need to be prepared for a potentially unprecedented number of Americans needing mental health services. Just as hospitals risked running out of ventilators during a surge of COVID-19 patients, the mental health care system might be quickly overwhelmed.

The survey also shows just how widespread the impact of the pandemic has been, and just how many people are suffering.

If you have been feeling sad about everything that’s been lost – and nervous about the uncertainty of what comes next – you are not alone.

theconversation.com

PAGE 8, Friday, May 8, 2020

THE TRIBUNE

W Sounds great - a job for

IKIPEDIA tells us there are two billion mothers in the world, 84.5 million of them in the United States. We don’t know exactly how many mothers there are in The Bahamas but one thing we do know – an awful lot of them are holding down the fort on their own.

In 2016, The Tribune ran the story of a single parent society, reporting the findings of a survey that showed fully 75 percent of Bahamian households are single parent entities. True, some of those are headed by dads or a grandparent, but most are headed by women and only a higher power knows how they do it.

Hallmark may have created the holiday we call Mother’s Day because if any of those tens of thousands of mothers, especially the single parent household mother, had their way, they’d know it should be celebrated every day of the year.

The thing about motherhood is it is a job you can never lose. You can’t get furloughed or fired, laid off or suspended. They don’t keep personnel records on you. From the prenatal stage of watching every intake of calcium to the hours of labour during

life where you can’t get furloughed or fired delivery, from the first diaper you change and messy behind you wipe to the last load of clothes you pull in from the line as the sun is fading, motherhood is a full-time job even if you have another part-time job that keeps you away from home all day.

From struggling with science projects to helping them understand life will go on after their first crush

dumped them for someone obviously far inferior, you are the keeper of the Kleenex and the shoulder they lean on.

You, Moms of The Bahamas, are the rocks on which this beautiful country is built. When your children ask you – and it doesn’t matter how old they are, they are still your children – when they ask you “What can I give you this

year, Momma, when John Bull is closed?” tell them you want them to give you what you always want and need from them – respect.

When they ask you, “Where can I take you for brunch this year, Momma, when Marketplace, Café Madeleine, Compass Point, Aquafire and Island House are closed?” tell them they can take you out to the back porch and serve you a brunch they made themselves.

And tell them to please sit down and talk to you while you eat what they have prepared, really talk to you like they did when they were younger and wanted your advice and reassurance. Remind them to leave their earbuds inside along with their cellphones.

Mother’s Day won’t be easy for any of us this year and yet, for those whose are still fortunate beyond words to still have a living mother, it may be one of the most memorable in your lives. I wish I could have said our lives, but my mother died more than 50 years ago and there has not been a day since that I have not thought of her.

The last words I ever said to her were “I love you” as visiting hours ended at the hospital. If you are among the fortunate, make those the first words you say this Mother’s Day. “I love you, Momma.”

For us moms, there is no greater gift than knowing the child we birthed and raised and never stopped loving loves us back.

DIANE Phillips’ mother

...and while we are on it, let’s celebrate dads too THERE was a tear-jerking story on a local TV station Wednesday night, a single fatherof-six being evicted from a rundown concrete block structure he called home so the landlord could make repairs. The reporter, Sancheska Brown, asked the right questions including what happened to your wife. She died in childbirth, he said. And now he was trying to raise all the children, the restaurant where he worked was closed and now they were about to lose the roof over their heads. He showed Sanny Brown the buckets where they washed their clothes and the camera did the rest, the holes in the ceiling, the smears and peeling paint on the walls outside, the dirt where grass should have been for children to play safely on without fear of ringworm.

There’s enough to worry about in a COVID-19 world.

So, while we take this weekend to celebrate moms, let’s remember those special dads who are raising their children alone because Mommy died and went to heaven. Let’s take a moment to appreciate that it is harder in some ways for them to be Mommy and Daddy than it would have been for Mom to play both roles, not because of genetics necessarily, but because women, despite all the talk of glass ceilings, are still raised to be the caregivers.

Let’s also celebrate the Grammys and Grampys who are integral to many a child’s upbringing in The Bahamas, and the aunts, uncles, cousins, nephews and nieces who helped raise someone in the family and on this special day have been forced to social distance, deprived of the opportunity to fuss over whose mac ‘n cheese is the best in the family.

It may be Mother’s Day on Sunday but for most of us moms, it’s a day to say no matter what, family is the most important thing in our lives.

Happy Family Day to all Bahamians and Residents of The Bahamas. We will be able to hug one another very soon.

For comments, e-mail diane@dpa-media.com

THE SINGLE father-of-six being evicted from a rundown concrete block structure he calls home so the landlord can make repairs.

WHY SEARCH FOR VACCINE MAY TAKE LONGER THAN WE THINK

By SIMON KOLSTOE Senior Lecturer in Evidence Based Healthcare and University Ethics Advisor, University of Portsmouth

DONALD Trump may be “very confident” we will have a vaccine for COVID19 by the end of the year, but the rest of us should be more cautious. Billions of dollars are being spent trying to develop vaccines and treatments as a more permanent solution to the crisis than the lockdowns currently being enforced around the world.

As of May 2020 there are 182 treatments and 99 different vaccines being developed globally. But, based on recent history, only one or two are likely to be transformative, a couple may be partially helpful, some will be shown as downright dangerous, and the majority will have conflicting evidence as to their effectiveness.

This is because medical research is a slow and painstaking process. It is also very complicated and easy to come to the wrong conclusions.

Trusting the experts One good thing to have come out of the coronavirus pandemic seems to be a renewed trust in experts.

The routine presence of scientists at government

briefings seems to recognise that rather than deserving our suspicion, we need these people to beat the virus.

But more trust in experts means more scrutiny of science as it happens – the latest studies showing promising results are now headline news. This can be worrying because, while there is no doubt that treatments for COVID-19 will eventually be found, it is easy for enthusiasm to turn into cynicism if expectations are not met as quickly as the public and politicians may hope.

There seems to be little recognition that, while thousands of drugs have shown promise in early animal or clinical tests – for example, the vaccine trials at the University of Oxford – the vast majority that show early promise will never make it into routine clinical use. On average it takes 12 years and over US$1 billion (£805 million) to get a drug to market.

Good research takes time I chair research ethics committees. Over the last few years I have reviewed thousands of research protocols representing the very best, and occasionally some quite poor, examples of medical research.

Good research is defined as rigorous and reliable, producing results that are not only interesting, but

are practical, useful and in some cases transformative. They are also reported clearly, transparently and in the context of previous studies. This is precisely the type of research we need to address the COVID-19 crisis.

But such good research comes at a cost. Much of society thinks of cost in terms of dollars and pounds, and indeed mindful of our own survival, scientists and researchers are of course always going to lobby for more investment.

While it is very helpful to have the funds to order any chemical that is needed, access highly specialised equipment, or pay others to conduct experiments and analyse results quickly, we must take care never to underestimate the importance of taking time to think carefully about what results actually mean.

It is only once researchers have taken the time to understand the context of results that they can start turning them into effective applications or treatments.

The real cost of good research is therefore time.

The frustrating truth about medical research is that the majority of experiments appear not to work because the subject being studied is so horrendously complex. In fact, rather than “not working”, many experiments are simply inconclusive. To make progress you have to slow

The pressure to find a cure

PRESIDENT Donald Trump down, look at the evidence and take time to think very carefully about what the results might mean.

The thinking needed for this takes years. I was involved with one project that was delayed for almost ten years while the team tried to work out why a single animal showed cardiovascular complications.

Another project I worked on showed promise reducing an Alzheimer-like pathology in mice, yet 18 years later similar effects have yet to be conclusively shown in humans. Commendably, the team is still working on it.

The reality is that the long road to a vaccine or drug for any disease is littered with trials that did not lead to expected results.

Even when a study is successful, it takes a long time to go from the lab to the general public.

One worrying aspect of the current situation is the pressure on researchers to work quickly and come up with solutions for COVID19 almost immediately.

For perhaps the first time, financial resources are not a limiting factor, and so politicians and the public are expecting researchers to take the cash and provide the answers. This has been coupled with significant pressure on regulators to streamline or even suspend some of the normal processes so that treatments can get to the clinic as quickly as possible.

Lured by promises of unlimited funding, and perhaps fame should their chosen idea work, some researchers may be tempted to engage in questionable research practices. History shows that whenever a large amount of money is involved, the temptation to commit, fraud, misconduct or other questionable practices increase. The UK spent more than £400 million during the 2009 swine flu outbreak stockpiling a drug whose effectiveness had been inflated by the manufacturers due to publication bias – where negative or inconclusive results from a trial are not published in scientific journals, but positive results are.

Without appropriate scrutiny there is a real risk

that ineffective, or even harmful, treatments begin to get used. This may be considered an acceptable risk in the current crisis, but if so, it is important that any new treatments are monitored very closely and withdrawn without hesitation if the harms mount up.

Given time – maybe two, three or perhaps even ten years – researchers will be able to take stock of the evidence from experiments and trials, perform a metaanalysis and systematic review, hold international conferences, and then, following careful thought, tell the world what the best treatment for COVID-19 is.

The world clearly needs scientific and medical answers to the current pandemic as soon as possible, but we need to recognise that initially we may only find partial or tentative answers. Instead of a quick vaccine that completely prevents COVID-19, a variety of partial successes will be combined until eventually a full solution is found.

There may even be some blind alleys with promising, but ultimately futile, treatment ideas. This is not a failure of research, or misuse of resources. Above all, researchers need to be supported to work with integrity, and not be made scapegoats for the challenges that undoubtedly lie ahead.

theconversation.com

THE TRIBUNE

Friday, May 8, 2020, PAGE 9

ARRESTS MADE IN SHOOTING DEATH OF BLACK MAN AFTER OUTCRY SAVANNAH, Georgia Associated Press

GEORGIA authorities yesterday arrested a white father and son and charged them with murder in the February shooting death of a black man they had pursued in a truck after spotting him running in their neighborhood.

The charges came more than two months after Ahmaud Arbery, 25, was killed on a residential street just outside the port city of Brunswick. National outrage over the case swelled this week after a cellphone video that appeared to show the shooting.

Those close to Arbery

celebrated the news, but also expressed frustration at the long wait. “This should have occurred the day it happened,” said Akeem Baker, one of Arbery’s close friends in Brunswick. “There’s no way without the video this would have occurred. I’m just glad the light’s shining very bright on this situation.”

Gregory McMichael, 64, previously told police that he and his son chased after Arbery because they suspected him of being a burglar. Arbery’s mother, Wanda Cooper Jones, has said she believes her son, a former football player, was just jogging in the Satilla Shores neighborhood

before he was killed on a Sunday afternoon.

Benjamin Crump, an attorney for the slain man’s father, Marcus Arbery, said it was “outrageous” that it took so long for arrests to be made.

“This is the first step to justice,” Crump said in a statement.

“This murderous father and son duo took the law into their own hands. It’s a travesty of justice that they enjoyed their freedom for 74 days after taking the life of a young black man who was simply jogging.”

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation announced the arrests the day after it began its own

investigation at the request of an outside prosecutor. The agency said in a news release that Gregory McMichael and his 34-year-old son, Travis McMichael, had both been jailed on charges of murder and aggravated assault.

The GBI news release said the McMichaels “confronted Arbery with two firearms. During the encounter, Travis McMichael shot and killed Arbery.” No other details were immediately released.

It was not immediately known if either of the McMichaels had an attorney who could comment on the charges.

Gregory McMichael served as an investigator for Glynn County District Attorney Jackie Johnson.

He retired last year. The connection caused Johnson to recuse herself from the case.

At a news conference before the arrests were announced, Republican Gov. Brian Kemp told reporters he was confident state investigators would “find the truth.”

“Earlier this week, I watched the video depicting Mr. Arbery’s last moments alive,” Kemp told a news conference in Atlanta.

“I can tell you it’s absolutely horrific, and Georgians deserve answers.”

33M HAVE SOUGHT US JOBLESS AID WASHINGTON Associated Press

LEFT: vendors sell fruit on the street corner in Katlehong, east of Johannesburg, South Africa, yesterday. Above: A boy takes a bath inside a plastic container at a coastal village in Cavite province, south of Manila, Philippines.

UN appeals for $6.7bn to help poorer countries Associated Press THE United Nations yesterday called on governments, companies and billionaires to contribute to a $6.7 billion fund for immediate needs in fighting the coronavirus pandemic in vulnerable countries, warning that a failure to help could lead to a “hunger pandemic,” famine, riots and more conflict.

UN humanitarian chief Mark Lowcock said that “COVID-19 has now affected every country and almost every person on the planet.”

He said the U.N.’s initial $2 billion appeal unveiled in March was being increased because there is already evidence of incomes plummeting and jobs disappearing, food supplies falling and prices soaring, and children missing vaccinations and meals. He added that the peak of the pandemic isn’t expected to hit the world’s poorest countries for three to six months.

Lowcock said in a video briefing launching the new appeal that the

poorest countries face “a double whammy” — the health impact of COVID-19 and “the impact of the global recession and the domestic measures taken to contain the virus.”

“We must be prepared for a rise in conflict, hunger, poverty and disease as economies contract, export earnings, remittances and tourism disappear, and health systems are put under strain,” he warned.

“Lockdowns and economic recession may mean a hunger pandemic ahead for millions.”

The executive director of the World Food Program, David Beasley, said there are two keys to averting the possibility of 265 million people being on the brink of famine by the end of the year: providing money and keeping supply chains running smoothly.

The UN appeals to wealthy nations for funding all the time, he said, but the pandemic is “a one-time phenomena, a catastrophe we’re hitting,” so it’s not

unreasonable to ask the wealthiest people and the wealthiest companies to give.

“I don’t mean just a few million.

I’m talking about hundreds of millions of dollars, billions,” Beasley said.

He also urged action to address the “breakdown of supply chains globally.” Nations must ensure “that we don’t have export-import bans, restrictions at borders, shutdown of ports, shutdown of distribution points,” he said, saying that some countries have already imposed export bans that are having ripple effects on food supplies.

As an example, Beasley said that if young people in urban areas in Africa lose their jobs as a result of the economic impact of the pandemic, they don’t have bank accounts to fall back on. “And if they don’t have food, you’re going to have protests, riots, unrest and destabilization. It’s going to cost the world a hundredfold more to react after the fact,” he warned.

He said that if the world doesn’t respond with sufficient funding, it will be catastrophic. “We’re facing famine of biblical proportions,” he said. “We can avert famine if we act and we act now.”

The UN’s initial $2 billion appeal has so far raised $1 billion, including a lot from Europe — Germany, Britain, the European Commission — with contributions also from Japan, Persian Gulf countries, Canada and others, Lowcock said.

The updated appeal adds nine vulnerable countries to the 54 nations covered in the initial appeal — Benin, Djibouti, Liberia, Mozambique, Pakistan, the Philippines, Sierra Leone, Togo and Zimbabwe. Lowcock said more countries are being monitored for possible addition to the list.

The $6.7 billion will fund the U.N.’s humanitarian response plan to help the world’s most vulnerable people deal with the pandemic now and in the coming months.

NEARLY 3.2 million laid-off workers applied for unemployment benefits last week as the business shutdowns caused by the viral outbreak deepened the worst US economic catastrophe in decades.

Roughly 33.5 million people have now filed for jobless aid in the seven weeks since the coronavirus began forcing millions of companies to close their doors and slash their workforces. That is the equivalent of one in five Americans who had been employed back in February, when the unemployment rate had reached a 50-year low of just 3.5%.

The Labor Department’s report yesterday suggests that layoffs, while still breathtakingly high, are steadily declining after sharp spikes in late March and early April. Initial claims for unemployment aid have now fallen for five straight weeks, from a peak of nearly 6.9 million during the week that ended March 28. Applications for jobless aid rose in just six states last week, including Maine, New Jersey, and Oklahoma, and declined in the 44 others.

The report showed that 22.7 million people are now receiving unemployment aid — a rough measure of job losses since the shutdowns began. That figure lags a week behind the figures for first-time unemployment applications. And not everyone who applies for jobless aid is approved.

The number of laid-off workers receiving aid is now equal to 15.5% of the workforce that’s eligible for unemployment benefits.

Those figures are a rough proxy for the job losses and for the unemployment rate that will be released today, which will likely be the worst since modern recordkeeping began after World War II. The unemployment rate is forecast to reach 16%, the highest since the Great Depression, and economists estimate 21 million jobs were lost last month.

DEMOCRATS PUSH PRESIDENT FOR JUSTICE DEPARTMENT DROPPING ANSWERS ON VENEZUELA RAID FLYNN’S TRUMP-RUSSIA CASE MIAMI Associated Press

WASHINGTON Associated Press

THREE Democrats on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee are demanding answers from the Trump administration about how much it knew about an attempted raid to capture Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, an operation they said potentially violated US law and ran counter to American support for negotiations to end the South American country’s political standoff.

In a letter to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Attorney General William Barr and Richard Grenell, the acting director of national intelligence, the lawmakers led by Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut expressed “alarm” about the raid led by a former Green Beret and which has resulted in the detention in Venezuela of two American citizens.

“Either the US government was unaware of these planned operations, or was aware and allowed them

THE Justice Department yesterday said it is dropping the criminal case against President Donald Trump’s first national security adviser, Michael Flynn, abandoning a prosecution that became a rallying cry for the president and his supporters in attacking the FBI’s Trump-Russia investigation.

The action was a stunning reversal for one of the signature cases brought by special counsel Robert Mueller. It comes even though prosecutors for the past three years have maintained that Flynn lied to the FBI in a January 2017 interview about his conversations with the Russian ambassador.

Flynn himself admitted as much, pleading guilty before later asking to withdraw the plea, and he became a key cooperator for Mueller as the special counsel investigated ties between Russia

PRESIDENT Maduro shows what Venezuelan authorities claim are documents of former US special forces and US citizens to proceed,” according denied any US involvement to the letter sent yester- in the raid and Goudreau day. “Both possibilities are has said he was unable to problematic.” ever persuade the Trump The letter cited the find- administration to support his ings of an investigation bold plan for a private coup. into Jordan Goudreau, Maduro has insisted the who claimed responsibil- operation was directed ity for the foiled incursion. by the White House.

The investigation detailed Meanwhile, aides to Juan how Goudreau had teamed Guaidó, the opposition up with a retired Venezue- leader recognized by the lan army official to train at US and 60 other nations secret camps in Colombia as Venezuela’s rightful dozens of deserters from leader, have acknowledged Venezuela’s security forces exploring the idea last for a mission targeting year but said they quickly Maduro, for whose capture backed out after deciding the U.S. has offered a $15 Goudreau couldn’t deliver million bounty. Trump has or be trusted.

MICHAEL FLYNN and Trump’s 2016 political campaign.

Yesterday’s action was swiftly embraced by Trump, who has relentlessly tweeted about the “outrageous” case and last week pronounced Flynn “exonerated.” It could also newly energize Trump supporters who have taken up the retired Army lieutenant general as a cause. But it will also add to Democratic complaints that Attorney General Barr is excessively loyal to the president, and could be a distraction for a Justice Department that for months has sought to focus on crimes arising from the coronavirus.

Shortly before the filing was submitted, Brandon Van Grack, a Mueller team member and veteran prosecutor on the case, withdrew from the prosecution, a possible sign of disagreement with the decision.

After the Flynn announcement, Trump declared that his former aide had been “an innocent man” all along. He accused Obama administration officials of targeting Flynn and said, “I hope that a big price is going to be paid.” At one point he went further, saying of the effort investigating Flynn: “It’s treason.

It’s treason.”

In court documents, the Justice Department said that after reviewing newly disclosed information and other materials, it agreed with Flynn’s lawyers that his interview with the FBI should never have taken place because he had not had inappropriate contacts with Russians. The interview, the department said, was “conducted without any legitimate investigative basis.”

SPORTS

THE TRIBUNE

Thursday, May 7, 2020, PAGE 11

Kicking off: Texans at Chiefs to open NFL season September 10

By BARRY WILNER AP Pro Football Writer THE Kansas City Chiefs will open defence of their Super Bowl championship by hosting Houston on September 10 in the NFL’s annual kickoff game — pending developments in the coronavirus pandemic, of course.

The Texans won a regular-season game at Arrowhead Stadium in 2019, then blew a 24-0 lead in the divisional round of the playoffs.

Another highlight of the opening weekend will have Tom Brady’s regularseason debut with Tampa Bay against Drew Brees at New Orleans on September 13 — the first matchup

of 40-plus quarterbacks in NFL history.

The opening of SoFi Stadium in the Los Angeles area that Sunday night has the Rams hosting the Cowboys.

Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas will debut on the Monday night, September 21, with the Raiders facing Brees and the Saints.

All of the 32 teams released their schedules early yesterday evening, with the full 2020 list scheduled to be revealed by the league a bit later.

The Chiefs, who won their first Super Bowl in a half-century last February, need baseball’s Royals to move their game for September 10, which now is part of a doubleheader two

days earlier. The teams’ stadiums share parking lots.

The NFL schedule, not to mention offseason activities and the preseason, has to be considered tentative given the current prohibition on large gatherings.

But Commissioner Roger Goodell has said the league is planning for a normal season, albeit while making contingency plans.

“The league and the clubs have been in contact with the relevant local, state and federal government authorities and will continue to do so,” NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy said.

The traditional Monday night doubleheader on opening weekend will have Pittsburgh at the New York Giants, which has a rookie

head coach in Joe Judge, and Tennessee at Denver.

“The number one positive is we’re getting ready to play football, so that’s the biggest thing,” Judge said. “Once you get the schedule, it starts moving a little bit faster in your mind in terms of preparing for what’s in front of you.”

Top overall draft pick Joe Burrow and the Bengals start off against the sixth overall selection in April’s draft, Justin Herbert and the Chargers at Cincinnati. The Bengals also will face the other highly rated rookie quarterback Tua Tagavailoa and the Dolphins in Week 13.

New England, without Brady at QB for an opener for only the second time

since 2001 — he was suspended for the first four games of 2016 — hosts Miami on the opening Sunday.

Thanksgiving games will have Houston at Detroit, Washington at Dallas, then one of the league’s fiercest rivalries with Baltimore at Pittsburgh in the night game.

Late-season Saturday games will be scheduled but with undetermined matchups for flexibility, something the NFL has done previously.

Certain to draw heavy early season interest will be the past two league MVPs, Patrick Mahomes and Lamar Jackson, facing off in Week 3 on Monday night at Kansas City. The

Chiefs and Ravens each have five prime-time games, as do New England, Dallas, Green Bay, Tampa Bay, defending NFC champ San Francisco, and the Rams.

Detroit and Washington have no prime-time outings.

There’s one Friday night contest, on Christmas, when Minnesota visits New Orleans.

Every team has two home and two away games in the first month of the schedule.

Whether that’s a quirk or by design is unknown. The season ends January 3 with all divisional matchups, as in recent years. Then follow the playoffs, with the Super Bowl slated for February 7 in Tampa, Florida. Pending developments with the coronavirus, of course.

FRANCO MILLER JR REFLECTS WOODS, MICKELSON, QBS TO DONATE ON LIST OF HIS TOP SCHOOLS $10 MILLION TO COVID-19 RELIEF FROM PAGE 14 Community Service Team. The only freshman to receive the recognition, Miller had his true freshman season cut short due to a stress fracture in his kneecap that eventually led to surgery. He was granted a medical redshirt.

While sidelined he was one of eight Rebels that silently protested by kneeling during the American national anthem in response to Confederacy rallies hosted near the stadium in February 2019.

“I do feel like BYU has a lot to offer. Coach [Mark] Pope, they all just talked to me, we went over my analytics. I think that they’re really big on getting people better and focusing on things that you need to get better at and make you the best player that you can be.”

FRANCO MILLER JR There is no timetable set for his decision and he will have three years of eligibility remaining when he signs to a new programme.

Miller chose the Rebels over the Oklahoma Sooners, Oregon Ducks, Minnesota Golden Gophers and Towson Tigers.

The 6’3”, 200-pound guard previously received offers from Hofstra,

Montana State, Wyoming, St Bonaventure and Illinois at Chicago.

Following his tenure for the Tabernacle Baptist Academy Falcons, Miller played at Crestwood Prep in Ontario, Canada. He led the Lions to the National Preparatory Association playoffs. He was also named to the roster for the 2018 Allen Iverson Roundball Classic.

ROBYN ROLLE-CURRY JOINS BAHAMIANS AT MOORHEAD DRAGONS TRACK & FIELD FROM PAGE 14 and seven men’s team titles. He coached two NCAA All-Americans, seven national qualifiers and 10 school record holders.

Representing the Bahamas, Barry was a high jump finalist at the 2016 Summer Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil he finished 11th. He also qualified for the 2012 Summer Games in London. He was a World High Jump finalist in 2015 and was a bronze medallist at the 2011 World Outdoor Championships. He has been

instrumental in recruiting Bahamians to the programme, including Dragons’ Men’s Field Athlete of the Year (Indoor) and Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference’s Newcomer of the Year - Shyrone Kemp.

Kemp now ranks in the Dragons top 10 in the high, triple and long jumps.

The Dragons’ roster also includes sprinter Ty Dawkins. This past season, Dawkins was named the programme’s Most Improved Male Athlete. He now ranks on the Dragons’ All-Time Top 10 list at 60m, 200m and 400m.

CHRIS FERGUSON STILL HAS HOPES OF BEING UNDRAFTED FREE AGENT IN NFL FROM PAGE 14 helped lead the way with a total of 343 rushing yards and four rushing touchdowns. It marked the third bowl game appearance for Ferguson during his tenure with the programme.

Ferguson was able to return for his sixth season when he was granted an eligibility-extension waiver by the NCAA because of injuries suffered earlier in his career. He began the season with four starts this season at both left and right tackle, but missed two games against UCF and Houston with an ankle injury. Since his return, he has played at several positions along the offensive line.

The Bearcats also defeated the Virginia Tech

Hokies 35-31 in the PlayStation Military Bowl to conclude the 2019 season.

The win came four years following the 2015 Military Bowl loss when the Hokies defeated the Bearcats 33-17. Ferguson was a freshman at the time.

As a freshman, he was initially recruited as threestar recruit on the defensive line, following his senior season at Lake Nona High School in Orlando, Florida when he recorded 17 total tackles, one sack, one forced fumble and one fumble recovery.

After a redshirt true freshman season, he shifted to the offensive line but did not see playing time in the 2015-17 seasons.

Ferguson won the starting job at right tackle in

the following offseason and went on to start 11 games. He was also one of 10 members of the Bearcats football team to earn his degree (criminal justice) in April 2018.

“Being a kid, growing up in The Bahamas and turning on the television to see football players, is how I grew up,” Ferguson said prior to the draft.

“There aren’t many football players in The Bahamas, so you can’t play football in high school and go off. Doing this and being able to make my dream come true and make it to the NFL is a goal of mine.

I just hope I can help other kids back home in The Bahamas, help fulfil their dreams of playing in the NFL.”

HOBE SOUND, Fla. (AP) — The next match involving Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson involves a $10 million donation for COVID-19 relief efforts, along with plenty of bragging rights in a star-powered foursome May 24 at Medalist Golf Club.

Turner Sports announced more details yesterday for “The Match: Champions for Charity,” a televised match between Woods and Peyton Manning against Mickelson and Tom Brady.

Medalist is where Woods plays when he’s at home.

Manning and Brady said they have played there before — Manning running out of golf balls before reaching the 18th, Brady posting a 106.

The format will be better ball for the front nine and

modified alternate shot on the back nine, meaning both players hit tee shots and they take turns from there.

It will be simulcast on May 24 at 3pm EDT on TNT, TBS, truTV and HLN, along with pre-match coverage available on the Bleacher Report app.

WarnerMedia and the four players will collectively make a charitable donation of $10 million to benefit various relief efforts locally and nationally. Turner said the match includes a partnership with the “All In Challenge,” an initiative that provides food for those in need.

Mickelson beat Woods in a playoff under the lights in Las Vegas over Thanksgiving weekend in 2018. This time, they are bringing in

two of the NFL’s greatest quarterbacks to add to the entertainment.

The announcement came with a video interview by TNT’s Ernie Johnson of the four players, in which Brady said he wanted Woods as a partner until Manning’s father called to switch the teams.

The match will be held one week after live golf returns to television for the first time since the coronavirus pandemic shut down the PGA Tour and other tours around the world.

Rory McIlroy and Dustin Johnson will play a charity match against Rickie Fowler and Matthew Wolff at Seminole Golf Club, one of Florida’s most famous courses that will have a televised event for the first time.

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THE TRIBUNE

Column: Still bad after all these years, Tyson hits gym

By TIM DAHLBERG AP Sports Columnist IT is hard to say what is more startling, seeing Mike Tyson hitting a bong or watching him hitting the mitts in a boxing gym like he was getting ready to fight Evander Holyfield again.

Videos of both can be found online, mostly because Tyson is as good as promoting himself in his second career as he was knocking guys silly in his first.

Here’s hoping the former heavyweight champion is aware there’s a big difference between the two activities.

Because while smoking copious amounts of marijuana probably won’t kill him, getting back in the ring at the age of 53 just might.

Tyson hasn’t announced any plans to return to fight again, though he did suggest on an Instagram post he might make himself available for 3 or 4-round exhibitions if the price was right. Already, some people in Australia are talking about offering him $1 million to fight an exhibition against a rugby star or two.

If the internet is any guide, there’s certainly interest. Tyson’s video showing him hitting mitts in a gym not only generated more than 9 million views in just a few days but also some buzz about just what the ageing former champion might have left.

And let’s admit it. Tyson looks good, still explosive and still very powerful even at an age when his mailbox mostly consists of sign-up letters from AARP. In someone’s fantasy — maybe his own — he looks

good enough to take on another heavyweight in a real fight if someone was willing to offer him millions of dollars to do so.

“He hasn’t hit mitts for almost 10 years. So I didn’t expect to see what I saw,” trainer Rafael Cordeiro told ESPN. “I saw a guy with the same speed, same power as guys 21, 22 years old.”

It’s a drill Tyson has always excelled at. When he was grooming Tyson as a teen, trainer Cus D’Amato had a number system for each punch Tyson threw and would call them out as an assistant held the mitts and Tyson dutifully threw a right hand or left hook.

I watched Tyson train for most of his big fights, and hitting mitts worn by a trainer was always a big part of his preparation.

To be honest, he doesn’t look much different doing it in the video at the age of 53 as he did as heavyweight champion at the age of 23.

The speed is still blazing, and the power still looks real.

When no one is hitting him back, that is.

Tyson posted the video with the hashtag #stillthebaddestmanontheplanet.

His fans didn’t take long to respond with predictions that Tyson could be the heavyweight champion once again.

That’s nonsense, of course.

Tyson couldn’t beat a journeyman heavyweight at his age, much less the cream of a division that was just starting to hit its stride when the pandemic shut everything down.

And while people remember Tyson for his spectacular knockouts in his prime, remember that this is a man who gave up

MIKE TYSON, right, delivers a blow to Trevor Berbick during a boxing bout in Las Vegas on November 22, 1986. Tyson hasn’t announced any plans to return to the ring, though he did suggest on an Instagram post he might make himself available for 3 or 4-round exhibitions if the price was right. And already some people in Australia are talking about offering him $1 million to fight an exhibition against a rugby star or two. (AP) TYSON spars during a training exhibition in Las Vegas in 2006.

while sitting on his stool in his last fight 15 years ago.

But boxing will return.

And Tyson remains intriguing, even to a new generation of fans who know him only through tales from their fathers or videos of him at his most vicious.

I’ve got as much insight into this as most. I was ringside when Tyson became the youngest heavyweight champion ever by knocking out Trevor

Berbick in 1986, and I was there in 2005 in Washington, D.C., when he quit after six rounds against a journeyman who wouldn’t have made it through the first round with him in his prime.

In between, I covered him as he threatened to eat Lennox Lewis’ children, bit Holyfield’s ear and led us all on a wild ride around the world the likes of which we will never see again.So I feel qualified to say that

any fantasies that he can legitimately fight again are just that.

I’m guessing Tyson is doing nothing more than fanning the flames of fame by teasing fans with his latest video.

The fact is, he’s done a remarkable job in finding a new path in life after boxing with acting gigs, a one-man show, a podcast and now his Tyson Ranch cannabis business. All publicity is good publicity when you’re Mike Tyson, and he’s getting plenty with a video dropped at a time the world is starved for sports of any kind.

The alternative is he’s smoking so much weed he’s beginning to believe he can be what he once was.

Or maybe it’s just making him hungry.

Which would, of course, make a third fight with Holyfield seem a lot more appetizing than it really is.

WBC SETTING UP JUDGING FROM HOME VIA VIDEO FOR PRO BOXING LONDON (AP) — WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman expects professional boxing to return without spectators and with judges officiating by video from home.

Sulaiman said the World Boxing Council has produced a protocol for fights during the coronavirus pandemic that limit, for instance, a four-fight card to about 40-50 people at a venue. Those numbers include one handler for each fighter, boxing commission supervisors, media and TV production crews.

“The judges will be judging from home via access to the live video,” Sulaiman said by video conference this week.

“The video we would have without commentary of the television network so it’s a clean international feed. They are in secure communication. The judges score the round, it gets fed into the system administration, it gets to the supervisor and the local commission.

There is a contingency plan for failure of connections.

So we have Plan A, Plan B and Plan C.” All people at the venue would be tested for COVID-19.

“We all are tired of watching TV, and old fights.

I do really think that with responsibility, taking all the precautions with a very well-prepared protocol, we could have boxing events again without any risk,” he said.

Sulaiman believed it could be up to two years before pro boxing looks like as it was, and urged promoters “to be pioneers with ideas.”

REGIONAL MMA FIGHTERS FACE HAZY PROFESSIONAL FUTURE IN CAGE

By DAN GELSTON AP Sports Writer

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Kyle Daukaus could use a job. The Philadelphia native seeks manual labour work to earn money while on a break from the kind of profession not often noted on LinkedIn: the undefeated middleweight champion of regional MMA promotion Cage Fury Fighting Championships.

“As far as fighting,” Daukaus said, “I can’t do anything.”

Outside of UFC, the mixed martial arts world has largely shut down, leaving thousands of prospects like the 27-year-old Daukaus out of work and with little idea when the cage door will open again.

There’s nowhere to fight -- the regional scene has vanished during the coronavirus pandemic -- and their gyms are shuttered. So Daukaus does what he can, taking to a nearby park for sprints on empty parking lots and pounding pads with his brother in the garage of his Philly home. Far from the millions top MMA fighters earn with each massive pay-per-view fight, Daukaus is paid by CFFC almost on commission -the more tickets he sells to friends and family for one of his fight nights, the more cash he can earn.

And in this climate, there’s nothing to sell.

Cage Fury has postponed its scheduled cards, as have most of the larger MMA promotions such as

Bellator, One Championship and the Professional Fighters League.

The promotional drought has left fighters scurrying for a nibble of whatever open preliminary bouts might be available on a UFC card.

Hector Castro, a fight manager with Empire Sports Management, said UFC has tightened the ship on which outliers are offered deals.

But his phone is buzzing from the pleas of his stable of roughly 20 fighters who crave a fight with any promotion.

“Everybody wants to get in there,” he said. “But the major issue is, they want to be smart about it. They understand this is how they make a living. But

a lot of them also see the opportunity.”

Daukaus is among the fighters looking to seize the moment. He fought on the UFC “Contender Series” and nearly scored a contract with the company.

There’s a chance he could earn another crack at UFC if he lands a spot on the next “Contender” if it goes through with a summer taping.

“He texts me almost every other day, ‘Hey, tell (UFC) I’m ready,’” Castro said. “Tell the Bellator guys, ‘Hey, I want this guy.’ I’m like, listen, bro. It’s quiet right now. There’s nothing going on. Let’s hope we can get back to work and these guys can make a living. The longer we go, the longer the line goes. You’re only

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allowed 12 fights, 15 fights a card. You’re at the bottom of the totem pole.”

With no money stream, fighters are more willing than ever to gamble with their health and fight during the outbreak.

“Will they risk getting sick? I’m sure 90% would,” Castro said. “The mentally strong are going to survive this.”

Daukaus normally trained twice daily with jiujitsu sessions in the morning and practicing other mixed martial arts skills at night.

He taught kickboxing classes at a Philly gym and worked out with a strength and conditioning coach in New Jersey. He now relies on weights in his basement and shadow boxing to stay fit, mixing in the occasional sparring sessions with his older brother, a fellow MMA fighter and Philadelphia police officer.

Daukaus was trained by former Bellator fighter Will Martinez, who opened his Brazilian jiu-jitsu school nearly 10 years ago in Philadelphia. He shut the doors in mid-March and his empty gym has become another casualty of the pandemic.

“Ten years may be going down the drain,” Martinez said. “How many schools and places like us are in the same predicament? I can’t really dwell on it. I’ve got to sit back and wait.”

Martinez suspended the accounts of nearly 200 members and wonders how his 3,700-square-foot gym could survive even if it opens under a new era of social distancing.

“Mentally, physically, financially, emotionally, it’s terrible,” he said. “Jiujitsu is in a real terrible predicament because we’re not like other gyms where people can keep social distancing and keep six feet apart because they have a 30,000-square-foot facility.

We can’t do that. So what do we do? There’s no timeframe to our return.”

Daukaus is 9-0 since he turned pro in 2017 and last fought in early February at a casino. He’s generally

FIGHTER Kyle Daukaus trains in his garage. (AP) paid when he weighs in and earns more if he wins his fight, dollar figures nudged higher if ticket sale incentives are met, and a drop in the spit bucket compared to the millions raked in by PPV stars Khabib Nurmagomedov or Conor McGregor.

“It’s a big deal when I have fights here locally, which is good because I have a lot of people coming so I get that extra money,” Daukaus said.

Daukaus is an independent contractor. Unlike pros in the NBA or NHL, two leagues interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic whose players are getting most or all of their regularseason paycheck, Daukaus doesn’t receive a salary and lives at home with his mother, a nurse practitioner with Temple University Hospital.

“I hear about how bad it is at her work,” Daukaus said. “But for me, it’s very tough not having any income. I know that fighting as a profession is a struggle in the beginning, and I’m fine with struggling like that. But I’m not even guaranteed monthly payments from the gym right now. I’m doing as best as I can to spend as minimal an amount as possible.”

Daukaus had hoped to fight again this month.

Instead, he trains at home for a fight that might not happen this year.

“I don’t have a Plan B,” Daukaus said. “If the opportunity comes and I get a call, I’m going to take it.”

THE TRIBUNE

Friday, May 8, 2020, PAGE 13

Bundesliga soccer to resume on May 16 in empty stadiums

By CIARÁN FAHEY AP Sports Writer BERLIN (AP) — The Bundesliga soccer season will resume on May 16 in empty stadiums, picking up right where it left off two months ago amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Yesterday’s announcement comes one day after clubs were told the season could restart following a meeting between German Chancellor Angela Merkel and the country’s 16 state governors.

“Everyone has to be clear. We’re playing on probation,” German soccer league managing director Christian Seifert said.

“I expect everyone to live up to this responsibility.

Our concept is designed to catch infections early.”

Seifert said the return of soccer was because of the success the country’s leaders and health officials have had in response to the outbreak.

Germany has had a high number of COVID-19 infections — nearly 170,000

by Thursday, according to Johns Hopkins University — with about 7,000 deaths, a lower number compared to elsewhere.

The country’s relative success in combating the virus has been attributed to early testing, a robust health service and strict lockdown measures that are now being loosened.

“That we’re allowed to play again boils down to German politics for managing this crisis, and the health system in Germany,” Seifert said.

“If I were to name the number of tests that I was asked about in teleconferences with other professional leagues, with American professional leagues, with clubs from the NFL, the NHL, Major League Baseball and others, and I tell them how many tests are possible in Germany, they generally check, or there’s silence, because it’s just unimaginable in the situation over there.”

Only about a third of Germany’s massive testing

capacity of almost one million a week is being currently used, said Lars Schaade, the deputy head of the Robert Koch Institute.

Seifert said the season will restart with the 26th round of games, including the Ruhr derby between Borussia Dortmund and Schalke on the opening Saturday. That match will test local authorities who hope to keep groups of fans from gathering around the stadium or at bars to watch on television.

Pay-TV broadcaster Sky said it will show all games on the first two weekends for free in Germany.

Seifert, who was speaking in Frankfurt after a video conference with members from each club, warned that everyone involved will need to maintain strict hygiene measures to ensure another suspension will not be necessary.

The Bundesliga was suspended on March 13 with nine rounds remaining. Seifert said the last

round is now planned for the weekend of June 27-28.

He said the second division will also begin on May 16.

“The decision means economic survival for some clubs,” Seifert said.

Seifert said there have been 10 positive cases of COVID-19 in the first two waves of tests among the 36 professional clubs, with another two positive cases found in a third wave.

It was initially planned that teams would spend two weeks in quarantine before games could resume, but a compromise on shorter training camps in isolation for each team was reached because players have been undergoing regular tests.

Seifert said a decision on whether to temporarily allow five substitutions per match depends on FIFA rules. FIFA made the proposal to help players cope with game congestion but it is still subject to approval from the International Football Association Board, soccer’s law-making body.

1993 — Lennox Lewis of Britain scores a unanimous 12-round decision over Tony Tucker in his first defence of the WBC heavyweight title in Las Vegas.

1995 — New Zealand’s Black Magic 1 takes a 2-0 lead, defeating Young America by the widest margin for a challenger since the 1871 America’s Cup. 2001 — Randy Johnson becomes the third pitcher to strike out 20 in nine innings. He doesn’t finish the game as the Arizona Diamondbacks go on to

beat Cincinnati 4-3 in 11 innings.

2003 — Minnesota becomes the first team in NHL history to rebound from two 3-1 series deficits to win in one postseason with a 4-2 victory at Vancouver.

2011 — University of Georgia senior Russell Henley becomes the second amateur winner in PGA Nationwide Tour history, shooting a 3-under 68 for a two-stroke victory in the Stadion Classic.

2012 — Josh Hamilton becomes the 16th player to hit four home runs in a

game, launching a quartet of two-run drives against three different pitchers to carry the Texas Rangers to a 10-3 victory over the Baltimore Orioles.

2014 — The Houston Texans takes South Carolina defensive end Jadeveon Clowney with the first pick in the NFL draft.

The draft’s other big name, Texas A&M quarterback Johnny Manziel, sits until Cleveland makes its third trade of the round and grabs the 2012 Heisman Trophy winner at No. 22.

RAIN clouds draw over the stadium Veltins Arena and the rolled out pitch of Bundesliga club FC Schalke 04 in Germany.

(AP Photo/Martin Meissner)

AP SPORTLIGHT

By The Associated Press MAY 8 1954 — World record holder William Parry O’Brien becomes the first man to throw the shot put more than 60 feet with a 60-5¼ toss at a meet in Los Angeles.

1968 — Jim “Catfish” Hunter of the Oakland A’s pitches a perfect game, beating the Minnesota Twins 4-0. It is the first perfect game in the American League regular season in 46 seasons.

1970 — Walt Frazier scores 36 points to lead the New York Knicks to a 113-99 victory over the Los Angeles Lakers and the NBA championship in seven games.

1984 — On the day the Olympic torch relay begins, the Soviet Union announces it will not take part in the 1984 Summer Olympics.

The Soviet National Olympic Committee Union said the participation of Soviet athletes would be impossible because of “the gross flouting” of Olympic ideals by United States authorities.

FORMIGA (AP)

42-YEAR-OLD BRAZILIAN VETERAN FORMIGA SIGNS DEAL WITH PSG PARIS (AP) — Brazilian veteran Formiga signed a contract extension with French club Paris SaintGermain yesterday, tying her to the team until 2021.

The 42-year-old midfielder played in a record seventh Women’s World Cup last year and has made nearly 200 appearances for Brazil. She has played 77 games for PSG since joining in 2017 and captained the team when it won the French Cup in 2018. “(Formiga) will play her 27th professional season in 2020-2021,” PSG said in a statement. “(She) is quite simply a legend in women’s football.”

In September, Formiga became the oldest player to score in a European competition at the age of 41 years, 193 days, netting against Sporting Braga in the Champions League.

Formiga, which means “the ant” in Portuguese, won the Copa America with the Seleção in 2018.

She has represented Brazil at six Olympics between 1996 and 2016, and plans to end her international career at the rescheduled Tokyo Games in 2021.

SPORTS

SECTION E

FRIDAY, MAY 8TH, 2020

PAGE 11

NPBA gives back

By BRENT STUBBS Senior Sports Reporter bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

W

ith their season interrupted because of the COVID-19 pandemic, members of the New Providence Basketball Association took the time out to reminisce on what they missed during the past two months.

The NPBA executives, led by president James Price, hosted a give-away for their players, coaches, managers and officials of the league yesterday at the City of Praise on Cowpen Road.

While the event was all about showing their appreciation to the participants, it was also an opportunity for many to socialise with each other.

League public relations officer Moses Johnson commended Price, who heads the executives of Team Next Level, for coming up with the gesture to give back to those persons who make up the NPBA. “These are tough times and we know that some of these guys had their work times reduced or they are not working at all,” said Johnson, who is also a coach in the league.

“Our league is made up of a huge demographic, so when we can help one, we can help everybody. We are bonding together.

This COVID-19 pandemic has really brought us together and the guys are appreciative about the effort with these care packages.”

Notwithstanding the nature of their gathering, Johnson fully believed that if they had a rim up, they could have done a little exhibition because they had sufficient players, coaches, referees and table officials in attendance to conduct a proper pick-up game or two.

“We like the fact that everybody is coming out and sitting around or standing up and conversating with each other,” he said. “This has been a very humbling experience.”

One of the coaches present, Donnie Culmer, called it a great venture on behalf of the league to give back in this time of need.

“These are some hard times now with COVID-19 going on,” Culmer said. “Most of our players work in the hotel, so this is just a way for the league to give back

FRANCO MILLER JR REFLECTS ON LIST OF HIS TOP SCHOOLS

By RENALDO DORSETT Tribune Sports Reporter rdorsett@tribunemedia.net

GIVING BACK: The New Providence Basketball Association yesterday held a distribution drive at the City of Praise Church, giving care packages to players and coaches. NPBA executives, including President James Price, are pictured.

Photos: Shawn Hanna/Tribune Staff

MICHAEL BAIN JR, top left, and Moses Johnson at the give-away yesterday. to them in a time of need. “This is just something to give them so they can feed their families and get a belly full.

“It’s better than not getting anything at all. So I’m happy to see the league reaching out to everyone like this.”

Culmer, however, said they are ready to get back on the basketball court. With protocol already established, Culmer said they have to make sure that everybody is safe.

“Hopefully we can start playing again very soon,” said Culmer, who moved his three-time division II champions Breezes High Flyers up to division one where they are waiting to play against the three-time defending champions

Commonwealth Bank Giants in the postseason whenever they resume competition.

For Giants’ point guard Michael ‘Ferly’ Bain Jr, it’s the thought that counts the most as he too sang the praises of the league’s executive team, despite the fact that he was ejected for the first time out of the last game he played in before the break. “I think it’s very helpful, very thoughtful,” he said. “No matter what’s in it, it’s the thought that counts because a lot of people need a lot of help in this pandemic.

“These are serious times, but it shows that we still have each other’s backs. It’s a competitive sport, but it’s moments like this that brings us closer together.”

And it’s that camaraderie that Bain Jr hopes will be exhibited whenever they return to the basketball court. “We hope we can finish this season off strong and get back to full competition,” he said. “Individually as a club, we try to challenge each other to stay in shape so that we can be in tip-top shape for the playoffs when the league reopens.

“We’re just waiting for things to clear up so that we can start working together as a team again.

Hopefully it won’t be too long now.

But whenever it is, we hope to be ready to go after another title.”

With restoring lives through the pandemic first and foremost on the minds of all those present, the league took the time to say thank you to its players, coaches, managers and officials.

And while some Bahamian residents stopped by to find out if they were able to secure a package for their families, there were some who commended the league for the initiative.

Price, Johnson, league secretary Rochelle Kemp and other executives on hand say they could not have done it without the support from the teams that make up the league.

As the first league in New Providence to give back to its players, coaches, managers and officials, it was a gesture well done.

FRANCO Miller Jr has fielded several offers since he entered the transfer portal and discussed a list of his top schools that have emerged thus far from the process.

Miller told ESPN 960, an affiliate of the worldwide leader in sports based in Provo, Utah, that his top schools were Division I schools BYU and North Carolina-Charlotte, along with several junior college options.

He also discussed the reasons behind his decision to transfer from the Ole Miss Rebels after two seasons.

“I just felt that during the season my confidence was a bit shot. Things weren’t going the way that I wanted them to and I was kind of upset about that. I grew from it and I learned from it. Ole Miss was a great place, nothing bad to say about Ole Miss, it just wasn’t the spot for me,” he said. “I’m not a guy that’s going to accept just sitting on the bench. I’d rather go somewhere and contribute and play.”

Miller played sparingly last season as a redshirt freshman and appeared in just 13 games. In those few appearances, he reached double figures in minutes just three times. He scored four points in his season debut against Alabama State, but would go scoreless for the remainder of the season.

Despite falling out of the rotation, Miller made an impact off the court and was named to the 2020 SEC Men’s Basketball

SEE PAGE 11

ROLLE-CURRY JOINS BAHAMIANS AT DRAGONS TRACK AND FIELD

By RENALDO DORSETT Tribune Sports Reporter rdorsett@tribunemedia.net ROBYN Rolle-Curry will become the latest student athlete to join the Bahamian pipeline at Minnesota State Moorhead Dragons track and field programme.

The programme has announced members of its incoming freshman class in a month-long roll out via social media.

The Kingsway Academy Saint heads to the Dragons with personal bests of 24.82 seconds in the 200m and 56.14 in the 400. A member of the Star Trackers Club, her shortened season

concluded with a second place finish in the 400m at the BAISS championships in the aforementioned personal best time.

The Dragons compete out of the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference of NCAA Division II. Two time Bahamian Olympian Trevor Barry currently serves on staff as an assistant coach.

Barry previously served as an assistant coach at North Dakota State.

At NDSU during Barry’s time as an assistant, the Bison won nine Summit League women’s team titles

SEE PAGE 11

CHRIS FERGUSON STILL HAS HOPES OF LANDING IN THE NFL

By RENALDO DORSETT Tribune Sports Reporter rdorsett@tribunemedia.net CHRIS Ferguson did not hear his name called during the recent virtual NFL draft, but the former Cincinnati Bearcat still has hopes of catching on to an NFL roster as an undrafted free agent.

A total of 255 players were selected over the three-day 2020 NFL Draft but hundreds gain opportunities every year following the draft and are invited to training camps as undrafted free agent signees.

NFL.com’s Media senior analyst, Gil Brandt, ranks Ferguson at No.22 among

unsigned offensive tackles. Thus far, 11 of the 41 listed offensive tackles have signed with teams.

Prior to the draft, the 6’5” 315-pound Ferguson said there had been 15-20 teams that have shown interest in him, but five or six of those teams have been following his progress.

Chris Ferguson concluded his collegiate football career on a high note when his No. 23 Cincinnati Bearcats dominated the Boston College Eagles 38-6 in the TicketSmarter Birmingham Bowl in Birmingham, Alabama. He led an offensive line that

SEE PAGE 11