‘FNM USING INGRAHAM TO PROP UP PINTARD’
Munroe: Ingraham has no record to talk about on immigration
By EARYEL BOWLEG Tribune Staff Reporter ebowleg@tribunemedia.net
By LEANDRA ROLLE Tribune Chief Reporter
party can take the seat. Jamaal Cooper, a longtime PLP supporter and campaign general, said the party has strong support among young voters, but argued the FNM’s base remains strong and many residents are disappointed PLP Long Island candidate
LONG-TIME political observers believe FNM stronghold Long Island could be more competitive this election cycle, but a senior PLP campaign figure on the island doubts his
- SEE PAGE
MINNIS BLAMES BAHAMIANS FOR IMMIGRATION CRISIS
By LYNAIRE MUNNINGS Tribune Staff Reporter lmunnings@tribunemedia.net
FORMER Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis said The Bahamas’ ongoing immigration challenges are being fuelled not only by illegal migration, but by corruption within the country’s own systems, arguing that Bahamians have exploited
vulnerable migrants seeking a better life.
Speaking on Beyond the Headlines with host Shanique Miller, Dr Minnis, who is running as an independent candidate in Killarney for a sixth term, said the country must stop placing blame solely on migrants and instead
NATIONAL Security Minister Wayne Munroe accused the FNM yesterday of using former Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham to prop up Michael Pintard’s leadership. He also argued that Mr Ingraham has no formidable record on immigration and that the Davis administration has taken stronger enforcement action than previous administrations. Mr Munroe made the comments after Mr Ingraham raised concerns about the number of foreigners allegedly found with fraudulent Bahamian passports and other government-issued documents.
By KEILE CAMPBELL Tribune Staff Reporter
kcampbell@tribunemedia.net
OPPOSITION leader Michael Pintard yesterday accused Parliamentary Commissioner Harrison Thompson of seeking legal advice on whether potentially thousands of people
“You judge somebody on their record,” he said. “Mr Ingraham has no record to talk about immigration. Brave Davis has a record to talk about immigration,
whose names are not on the register could vote using regular ballots in Tuesday’s general election, saying such a move would alter election rules days before polling day. At an emergency press conference, Mr Pintard
PINTARD
Davis urges Grand Bahamians to ‘choose progress’ over FNM
BY DENISE MAYCOCK Tribune Freeport Reporter dmaycock@tribunemedia.net
PRIME Minister Philip ‘Brave’ Davis urged Grand Bahamians to “choose progress” as he defended his administration’s record and criticized the opposition during a PLP rally in Pineridge on Thursday.
Addressing supporters days before the general election, Mr Davis described the vote as one of the most important decisions facing the country, saying Bahamians must choose between continuing the progress made over the past four-and-a-half years or “hitting the reset button” by returning the Free National Movement to office under Opposition
Leader Michael Pintard.
Reflecting on Grand Bahama’s past as a thriving economic center, he said hurricanes and other hardships had weakened the island’s spirit over the years. However, he said the PLP administration had worked to restore growth and confidence through major projects and reforms.
Mr Davis mentioned the recent acquisition of the Grand Bahama Power Company, which he described as a historic move aimed at lowering electricity costs for residents and businesses while integrating Grand Bahama into the country’s broader energy reforms. The prime minister said the move would help create a stronger and fairer energy system and provide new opportunities for Bahamian engineers, technicians and energy professionals. He criticized the opposition for opposing the acquisition and accused the FNM of failing to address high electricity costs while in office.
The Prime Minister also defended his administration’s handling of
longstanding issues involving the Grand Bahama Port Authority. He accused previous governments of allowing the Port Authority to avoid accountability while Grand Bahama stagnated economically. Mr. Davis said his government took legal action to clarify the Port Authority’s obligations. “We will secure annual payments and the arrears from the Port Authority in the second phase of the arbitration,” he pledged.
He vowed to continue pushing forward with major developments, including the Freeport Health Campus, redevelopment of the Grand Bahama International Airport and redevelopment of the Grand Lucayan resort.
During his address, Mr Davis defended the country’s economic performance, pointing to recent international credit rating upgrades and increased foreign investments as evidence that the Bahamas is moving in the right direction under his administration.
He denied that the country is in shambles as the FNM claims.
Mr Davis noted that recent upgrades by agencies such as Moody's Ratings, Standard & Poor’s and Fitch demonstrated that the Bahamas is moving in the right direction economically. He noted that the country received two credit rating upgrades within a single fiscal year, something he said had not happened in more than 20 years.
Prime Minister Davis said if the economy were truly struggling as the opposition claimed, international agencies would not be issuing positive assessments.
Mr. Davis also addressed criticism surrounding immigration and government travel spending, insisting that his administration had strengthened immigration enforcement and pursued international partnerships that brought billions of dollars in investments to the country.
He warned supporters not to become complacent despite strong turnout at
PLP rallies, urging voters to show up at the polls and support the PLP party, saying progress would only continue if Bahamians actively voted to protect it.
PLP West Grand Bahama candidate Kingsley Smith delivered a spirited defense of the Davis administration, arguing that the previous FNM government failed to deliver meaningful development for Grand Bahama despite having all five seats in Grand Bahama who were in Cabinet.
Addressing supporters, Mr Smith praised Prime Minister Philip Brave Davis for advancing major projects on the island in less than four years.
Mr Smith said the FNM had five Cabinet ministers from Grand Bahama between 2017 and 2021, including Opposition Leader Michael Pintard, but questioned what tangible benefits they delivered for residents during their term in office. He said they did not deliver an airport, hospital, hotel, and no GB Power Company acquisition for Grand Bahama.
“Five cabinet seats, zero deliveries. That is the FNM record on Grand Bahama,” he told the crowd.
He argued that despite the island having strong representation at the Cabinet table during the Minnis administration, major concerns such as healthcare, airport redevelopment, energy costs and economic revitalization remained unresolved.
Mr Smith credited the Davis administration with moving forward on several key initiatives, including the construction of the Grand Bahama Health Campus, upgrades at Rand Memorial Hospital, redevelopment of the Grand Bahama International Airport, plans for the redevelopment of the Grand Lucayan resort, and efforts related to the acquisition of the Grand Bahama Power Company.
According to Mr Smith, those projects demonstrate the government’s commitment to Grand Bahama and show that the island is experiencing long-awaited progress under the PLP administration.
He also criticized the FNM for what he described as a lack of vision for the future, claiming the opposition had not presented a clear development plan for Grand Bahama.
Calling Prime Minister Davis “the right leader for this time,” Mr. Smith said no modern Bahamian prime minister had advocated more strongly for Grand Bahama. He urged supporters to “choose progress” and remain united behind the governing party.
Ginger Moxey, MP for Pineridge, said the Davis administration is responsible for the economic recovery and redevelopment taking place on Grand Bahama.
Mrs Moxey pointed to several major developments and initiatives now
underway on the island, including the government’s acquisition of the Grand Bahama Power Company, She said the power company acquisition would lead to lower electricity costs for Grand Bahama residents, businesses, churches and schools, calling it a historic step for the island.
She also mentioned the new cruise port with MSC, and a new development at Xanadu Beach. She added that the Afro-Caribbean Marketplace is coming.
Mrs Moxey urged voters in Grand Bahama and Pineridge to support the PLP at the polls, saying the election is about choosing between “forward with progress and strength or backwards.”
Mr Chester Cooper, Deputy Prime Minister, said if Bahamians want to continue to see progress they must vote for the PLP. He said that Tuesday, May 12, will be “a generational milestone.”
He said significant economic gains have been achieved by the PLP government, pointing to two recent upgrades in the country’s international credit ratings, growth in tourism arrivals, investments in Grand Bahama, and major infrastructure and redevelopment projects underway on the island.
The deputy prime minister stressed that the Davis administration had shown courage by confronting longstanding issues involving the Grand Bahama Port Authority and energy costs.
Mr Cooper repeatedly urged voters, particularly young people, not to interrupt what he described as the island’s economic momentum by changing governments. He warned that a return to the FNM would jeopardize ongoing progress and investments, while encouraging voters to “protect their progress” at the polls.
Ingraham accuses PLP of buying votes in Abaco
By KEILE CAMPBELL Tribune Staff Reporter
kcampbell@tribunemedia.net
FORMER Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham accused the Davis administration of trying to influence Abaco voters by wiping electricity arrears for residents of Grand Cay and Moore’s Island, telling FNM supporters the Progressive Liberal Party was “trying to buy some votes”.
Mr Ingraham made the comment during a campaign rally in Abaco last night as he urged voters to support FNM candidates Jeremy Sweeting in Central and South Abaco and Terrece Bootle in North Abaco in the upcoming general election. "The people of Grand Cay are grateful that they do not have to pay no light bill,” Mr Ingraham said. “But the hurricane hit Hope Town and Marsh Harbour and Dundas Town and Murphy Town and Spring City and Treasure Cay and this part of Abaco, and how come you got to pay your light bill and not the people down Grand Cay because they try to buy some votes out here?” His comments came days after the government confirmed it moved to clear outstanding Bahamas Power and Light balances for Grand Cay and Moore’s Island residents. Many residents were stunned to find their balances at zero, with
seemingly little regard to whether it all was affected by Hurricane Dorian.
The Davis administration said the arrears stemmed from disruptions caused by Hurricane Dorian and the COVID-19 pandemic, which affected billing, collections, travel and business activity in the area.
According to the administration, some residents were previously told under the former administration that they would not have to pay electricity bills, although balances continued accumulating in the system. BPL's CEO at the time, Whitney Heastie, and the then minister responsible for the corporation, Desmond Bannister, have both denied this
claim.
The wiping of electricity bills drew criticism from mainland Abaco residents who told The Tribune they also suffered catastrophic storm damage, rebuilt homes without significant assistance and continued paying large utility bills in the years after Dorian.
During his speech, Mr Ingraham accused the PLP of neglecting Abaco despite repeated promises of progress and recovery.
He criticised the government over infrastructure, healthcare facilities, airport redevelopment and stalled housing projects.
representing the constituency effectively.
Iris Aranese Rolle
Iris
“The Hands That Held the World” Mother’s DayRememberance Minister
Your hands were never still they stitched torn knees with kisses, braided mornings into our hair and cupped the trembling light, when we were too small to hold it. Your voice was a harbor, soft with tides of lullabies, yet strong enough to anchor us with prayers through storms we could not name.
You taught us that love is not a single bloom, but a garden tended daily soil under the nails, sun on the back with patience in the rain. Today, we see the years woven into your smile, and we carry them like a lantern knowing every step we take is lit by the hands.
Celebrating you this Mother’s Day as you continue to rest in heavenly peace.
From your husband: Vernal; daughters: Raquel (Woody), Shavonne (Tyrone) Tameka (Reuben); grandchildren: Michael (Patrelle) and Jada; great grandson: Kellen; brother: Reginald; nieces and nephews.
Mr Ingraham said he visited the clinic in Cooper’s Town and found the front entrance unusable. He also criticised the condition of Treasure Cay Airport, saying it still lacked a proper terminal building and public bathroom years after the hurricane.
Mr Ingraham also called out North Abaco MP Kirk Cornish while discussing infrastructure concerns, saying he had repeatedly asked the government to fix conditions at Treasure Cay Airport.
“I sent photographs to the government several times, assisted Kirk in getting the photographs taken and sent to the government to please fix them,” Mr Ingraham said.
He accused the government of failing to continue subdivision expansion plans in Central Pines that began under the FNM administration.
Mr Ingraham argued that Abaco needed stronger representation and greater local control, saying an FNM government would restore powers to local government authorities.
He praised Mr Sweeting and Mrs Moxey-Gibson as experienced local government figures capable of
The former prime minister also warned supporters about possible problems with the voters register on election day, claiming there were issues in several constituencies.
“There is going to be some problems at the polls because they messed up the register in many constituencies,” he said.
Mr Ingraham told supporters they should seek to vote if they had voter cards, even if their names did not appear on the register.
He also urged FNM supporters to monitor polling stations closely on election day, telling them to “tolerate no foolishness” during the voting and counting process.
“Keep your eyes on that presiding officer,” he said.
“Make sure only one ballot goes in the box, one ballot handed out.”
Mr Ingraham also revisited the FNM’s 2021 election defeat, saying the party disappointed voters, particularly in its handling of Hurricane Dorian recovery efforts. He said he deliberately stayed off the campaign stage during that election.
“FNM disappointed us the last time, especially over Dorian,” he said. “And so I did not ask you to come back and vote for them.”
Despite that admission, Mr Ingraham argued the PLP had also failed to deliver meaningful progress for Abaco since returning to office.
Toward the end of his speech, he defended his decision to campaign for the FNM after criticism from PLP chairman Fred Mitchell and maintained that Abaco’s “best interest lies with the FNM.”
Mr Ingraham mocked criticism over his recent campaign apperances, appearing to reference former governor general Dame Marguerite Pindling’s public appearances alongside PLP candidates during the election campaign.
“I do not know why they do not want me to talk,” Mr Ingraham said. “And they got Pindling talking from the grave on social media. They got Mag who 90-something holding hands with candidate to get elected, but I must be quiet? Child please.”
FORMER PRIME MINISTER HUBERT INGRAHAM
PRIME Minister Philip ‘Brave’ Davis speaks during the PLP rally in Grand Bahama last night.
Photo: Vandyke Hepburn
FNM warns of thousands left off voter register
ALTER from page one
said the number of affected voters could be “several thousand”, adding that one source suggested the figure could be “as high as 15,000”.
No official figure was produced during the press conference, and Mr Thompson did not answer calls seeking comment yesterday.
According to Mr Pintard, the Free National Movement received “reliable information” that the Parliamentary Registration Department, through Mr Thompson, sought advice from the Office of the Attorney General on whether people with voter’s cards but absent from the register could vote using regular ballots.
Mr Pintard argued that allowing people to vote based solely on possession of a voter’s card, without their names appearing on the register, would “decouple” the card from the register and undermine the electoral process.
“Once you say a voter’s card alone is enough to vote on Tuesday, once you decouple the card from the register, you are not just opening the door for the Bahamians who were wrongly left off the list,” Mr Pintard said.
He claimed that Mr Thompson confirmed when asked that his department had sought advice from the Office of the Attorney General.
FNM legal adviser Khalil Parker said that after the party received the tip, a meeting was held on Wednesday with Commissioner of Police Shanta Knowles, Mr Thompson and political party representatives present.
Mr Parker said Mr Thompson indicated that people with voter’s cards whose names were absent from the register would be required under the law to vote using coloured protest ballots.
When asked whether
the PRD was seeking a “workaround”, Mr Thompson said officials were “seeking an opinion”.
“I indicated to them that an opinion would not change the effect of the statute,” Mr Parker said. “I was advised by the parliamentary registration department that the Supreme Court was still open, which I took as a sarcastic reference to their ability to seek an opinion.”
While Mr Thompson denied that the PRD would ask the Supreme Court for “an opinion or declaratory relief”, Mr Parker said he understood officials were preparing to make an application, though it had not been filed by yesterday morning. He said the FNM demanded advance notice if the PRD later decided to approach the Supreme Court.
Mr Parker criticised the PRD, saying the matter was disclosed only after questioning during the meeting and was “not disclosed voluntarily”.
Mr Pintard said the Parliamentary Elections Act clearly sets out what must happen when people have voter’s cards but are not listed on the register, adding that the matter was settled “long before this commissioner came into office, and it remains settled today”.
He cited Section 58(1) (c) of the law, which he said requires people with voter’s cards whose names are not on the register to vote on a coloured ballot paper as a protest vote, not on a standard white ballot paper.
Mr Pintard argued that permitting people absent from the register to vote using standard ballots could open the door for fraudulent voter’s cards already “in circulation”, claiming the FNM had repeatedly raised such concerns with police and the PRD in recent months.
Mr Pintard said the commissioner was not seeking clarification, but looking for a way to bypass the law. He also criticised the
“It is not the commissioner asking a question he does not know the answer to. It is the commissioner asking for permission to override an answer the law has already given.”
timing of the request for legal advice, arguing that election rules should not be revisited five days before an election.
“It is not the commissioner asking a question he does not know the answer to. It is the commissioner asking for permission to override an answer the law has already given,” Mr Pintard said. “That is not a clerical question. That is a question about whether the rules of who can vote in the Bahamian general election can be changed on Thursday before a Tuesday election.”
Mr Pintard also used the issue to broaden his criticism of the voter register, saying concerns raised by the FNM throughout the election season pointed to systemic failures within the PRD.
He said the party had repeatedly warned the government about omissions from the register, duplicate
voter’s cards, transfer problems and alleged fraudulent voter’s cards in circulation, adding that the concerns were formally raised with both the PRD and the government over several months.
“We wrote the parliamentary registration department, we wrote the prime minister, we asked him in writing to remove the commissioner,” Mr Pintard said. “The country is now living with the consequences of that refusal.”
Mr Pintard further alleged that some voters who sought constituency transfers were unable to complete the transfer, while duplicate entries and deceased people remained on the register.
“When persons have died four years ago, you know, again, so these are the things that we are concerned about,” he said.
He argued that while some issues may reflect
incompetence, the FNM believes there were also deliberate attempts to gain political advantage through weaknesses in the electoral system.
“We believe that this government is doing everything possible to frustrate voters, to find an advantage, which is a fancy word or phrase for saying cheating in order to have their way,” Mr Pintard said.
The FNM also issued several demands ahead of polling day, insisting that voting procedures strictly follow the Parliamentary Elections Act and the existing voter register. Mr Pintard said the party was demanding that no voter be allowed to cast a ballot outside the requirements of the law and the official register “as it stands today”.
The party also called on Mr Thompson to publicly account for the number of registrations and transfers
omitted from the register and explain the causes of those omissions before election day.
The FNM demanded that the commissioner disclose what steps had been taken to identify and remove alleged fraudulent voter’s cards from circulation.
Mr Pintard also called on the government and the PRD to make “no further attempt” through the Office of the Attorney General, administrative action or any other mechanism to alter voting eligibility rules ahead of the election.
The opposition leader said international observers confirmed for the election, including representatives from the United States Embassy, should be briefed on the matter.
“These are not unreasonable asks,” Mr Pintard said. “These are the minimum the Bahamian people are entitled to ahead of Tuesday.”
PLP GENERAL DOUBTS PARTY CAN WIN LONG ISLAND
that key promises have not been fulfilled.
He said Long Island could have been a winnable seat for the PLP, but many residents are still struggling and promises to upgrade clinics and improve banking services have not materialised.
“I think the FNM going back in because Brave Davis made promise, and we still going through some struggle,” he said. “I was one of the generals, one his founders in Long Island from Alex Storr times 15 years ago.” The Davis administration has advanced several infrastructure projects on the island, describing them as part of a focused and coordinated vision for Long Island.
Earlier in its term, the government signed a Heads of Agreement for the Calypso Cove cruise port project, which is expected to accommodate thousands of cruise visitors once completed.
Last year, the government also signed contracts for road rehabilitation and waterworks, as well as the reconstruction and expansion of Deadman’s Cay Airport.
Work has started on the projects, but they remain unfinished.
Mr Cooper dismissed the projects as rushed, last-minute efforts and said several issues affecting residents remain unresolved.
He said he raised concerns with Prime Minister Philip “Brave” Davis about the need to repair and upgrade local clinics so residents would not have to travel to New Providence for X-rays and other medical services.
He also said he raised concerns about the lack of adequate banking services on the island.
Mr Cooper said Mr Davis promised improvements, but nothing has happened.
“We like we backwards, like the PLP could have put these things in place on what we campaigned on,” he said.
“To be honest, I don’t think Reneika gon win because plenty FNMs remain FNMs and plenty PLPs like me and couple other people, they thinking twice.
“And then some of them ain’t going to the poll and some going to the polling. Some gon’ vote FNM. Some may vote COI or independent. That’s real talk.”
A resident familiar with the FNM’s campaign said the PLP’s recent infrastructure
projects may have helped the party with younger voters, but he doubted that would be enough to win the seat.
“They started the water,” the resident said. “They ain’t finish. They started the airport. They ain’t finish. They started the road. They ain’t finish, but for our younger people, they started it so in the eyes of them, they started it but the older people know that’s only pie in the sky.”
He said older voters remain the most reliable bloc and said they lean heavily toward the FNM.
“They will get the majority of the younger people, no question about it. I would say 75 to 25 almost,” he said. “They don’t know what they voting for. They say they voting for change but they don’t know what the change is.”
Still, the resident predicted a close race, saying several factors could shape the outcome.
He said the PLP’s unfinished projects could hurt the party, but added that unfinished work from the previous FNM administration could also affect support.
“The FNM didn’t sign the airport,” he said. “The FNM didn’t finish the road they was supposed to finish down north. They’re building a dock at the regatta site. That’s a headwind the (FNM) could’ve done.”
The PLP has nominated Reneika Knowles for Long Island, while the FNM has selected Dr Andre Rollins. Former FNM MP Adrian Gibson won the seat by 154 votes in the 2021 election.
FNM LEADER MICHAEL PINTARD
DOUBT from page one
PLP LONG ISLAND CANDIDATE RENEIKA KNOWLES
Mitchell dismisses Ingraham’s return as ‘tedious irrelevance’
settling down entries by whipping the Royal Bahamas Defense Force troops with more interceptors in repatriating, deporting more people than any other administration has in history, including Mr Ingraham.”
Mr Munroe also attacked Mr Pintard’s leadership, suggesting the opposition’s use of Mr Ingraham showed a lack of confidence in the FNM leader.
“I understand that they feel that Mr Pintard can’t do it on his own, and they have to bring back the old war horse,” he said.
“I think that just sets out what everybody knows, that Michael Pintard isn’t fit to be prime minister of The Bahamas, and if he needs to be propped up by Hubert Ingraham, so be it.”
Responding to Mr Ingraham’s criticism of the PLP’s so-called lack of outrage over forged court documents and passports, Mr Munroe said the government had focused on arrests and prosecutions rather than rhetoric.
“The difference is this, they did nothing about it,” he said, referring to the FNM. “That was happening during their tenure, during Ingraham’s tenure, during Minnis tenure, you did not see the efficiency in detecting it and prosecuting them.”
“You know how I prefer to show my outrage about you having a forged document? I prefer to show it by locking you up, by putting you before the courts and sending you to jail.”
“That’s how we should demonstrate our outrage to people who do that, and
we’ve committed that after we succeed this election, increasing the penalty for public servants who participate in that sort of activity.”
“They’re good at outrage, which is theatrics. We’re good at action, which is catching the perpetrators and calling them to
Minnis says he would ask voters
how to break a tied Parliament
from page one
investigate the Bahamians facilitating illegal activity.
His comments come as immigration remains one of the country’s most politically charged issues ahead of the general election, with national debate intensifying over document fraud, border enforcement and repatriations..
“A lot of people try to blame the immigrant, the Haitian, or whoever they are,” Dr Minnis said. “They are not at fault. It’s us, the people you see. We use them because they’re looking for advancement and a better life.”
“We take advantage of them, charge them astronomical fees, promise them we can get this done through the door and whatever else, and they’re looking for a better life. So yes, they pay this $1,000 or $2,000, but it’s just the people. Why don’t we do serious investigations, determine who the culprits are, who the corrupt
individuals are, and deal with it appropriately? Why are we afraid?”
Dr Minnis pointed to actions taken during his administration involving The Bahamas embassy in Haiti.
“We were informed that there were probably corrupt things happening at the embassy in Haiti with respect to visas,” he said. “There were many visas being issued under the table and through illegal means.”
Public concern surrounding immigration has continued to grow, particularly in communities such as Abaco, where residents have complained about the growth of informal settlements and alleged failures in enforcement. Dr Minnis said his administration responded by shutting down the visa department and temporarily halting Bahamasair flights between New Providence and Haiti while investigations were conducted.
“During that time, there were a lot of Haitian
vessels caught on the high seas because they couldn’t get visas and came via these boats,” he said.
He argued that the situation changed after the Progressive Liberal Party returned to office.
“As soon as the government changed, they subsequently reopened and allowed visas to be obtained freely again. Bahamasair started flying again,” Dr Minnis said.
“Now look at it today. Do you see any Haitian vessels coming in? The answer is no. They are all now coming in via the airport. So proper investigations need to be done.”
During the interview, Dr Minnis also urged voters to directly question candidates about corruption and accountability during the election campaign.
“I think when individuals are out campaigning, constituents need to ask them, ‘Are you prepared to deal with corruption?’” he said.
Asked why Killarney voters should support him
Freeman Elias Dean, 80 affectionately called “Lil Pa” a resident of #65 Knowles Drive South, Faith Avenue, New Providence, Bahamas and formerly of Roses, Long Island, Bahamas died at the Princess Margaret Hospital on Sunday, May 3rd, 2026.
He is survived by his son: Esau Dean; daughters: Susanna Dean-Rolle (Trevor) and Renea Dean; brother: Roy Dean (Vivian); grandchildren: Keva (Marvin), Raynard (Dior), Leron, Reshon, Reagan Williams, Treymaine, Dezaraye, Kristal and Regina Dean, Trevanna and Trevonya Rolle; sisters-in-law: Emily Martinborough and Maria Darville and a host of other relatives and friends.
Funeral arrangements are being finalized and will be announced at a later date.
account. My cousin Pintard is an actor, so he’s big on theatrics.”
Progressive Liberal Party chairman Fred Mitchell also dismissed Mr Ingraham’s appearance at FNM political events.
“He is seeking neither the Office of Prime Minister nor any other public position,” Mr Mitchell said. “At this stage, what he says or does is best characterized as tedious irrelevance.”
Mr Mitchell said the FNM’s use of Mr Ingraham reflected poorly on Mr Pintard’s leadership.
“Michael Pintard is running for prime minister, not Hubert Ingraham,” he said. “It says a great deal about the state of the FNM that they have had to bring someone back from the FNM graveyard to save their political souls.
The man who sold BTC in a fire sale, resulting in lost jobs, poor phone service, and one of the worst phone systems in the Caribbean, can hardly prescribe public policy for our country.”
He added that Bahamian voters had already judged Mr Ingraham’s political legacy.
“The Bahamian people took a chance on Hubert Ingraham three times as Prime Minister,” Mr Mitchell said. “Having tried unsuccessfully to block Brave Davis from becoming prime minister, he is now engaged in another bitter exercise, seeking to block others from that office. Michael Pintard should stop hiding behind the ghost of Christmas past and defend his own worthless, jingoistic policies.”
PLP spokesman Latrae Rahming also accused the FNM of leaning on Mr Ingraham.
“Instead of presenting a clear vision for the future, they are borrowing credibility from the past,” he said. “This election is about who can lead The Bahamas through uncertain times, protect progress, and move the country forward with steady leadership.”
“The FNM knows this election cannot be won on Michael Pintard’s leadership alone. That is why the focus keeps shifting everywhere else except him.”
over candidates from the Free National Movement and the Progressive Liberal Party, Dr Minnis said his experience and familiarity with the constituency distinguished him from his opponents.
Dr Minnis was also asked what he would do if the next general election produced a tied Parliament, with the FNM winning 20 seats and the PLP winning another 20 seats, leaving him as the deciding vote in the House of Assembly.
“That’s a very interesting question,” he said.
“As an independent candidate, I am the mouthpiece and representative of the people. The people put me there and therefore, if there was a tie, I must go back to the people because they put me there. I must go back to them and ask them which side I should choose.”
Pressed on whether he would reveal which side he personally leaned toward, Dr Minnis maintained that the decision would rest with Killarney residents.
“I am not bound by any political party, and I will do what the people say. If the people say go left, I will go left. If the people say go right, I will go right,” he said.
Kathleen Buchanan, 65
a resident of Polaris Drive, New Providence, Bahamas died at the Princess Margaret Hospital on Tuesday, May 5th, 2026.
Funeral arrangements are being finalized and will be announced at a later date.
MINNIS
KILLARNEY CANDIDATE DR HUBERT MINNIS
PLP CHAIRMAN FRED MITCHELL
She is survived by her son: Andrew Donte’ Roker Jr.; daughter: Davina Dorothy Bethel; siblings: Agnes McKenzie, Alfreda Russell and Everette Buchanan; companion: Andrew Roker Sr. and a host of other relatives and friends.
Health warning issued as heat index expected to reach 108°F
By LYNAIRE MUNNINGS Tribune Staff Reporter lmunnings@tribunemedia.net
RESIDENTS across
The Bahamas are being urged to take precautions as dangerous heat conditions are expected to push heat index values as high as 108°F beginning today and lasting into early next week.
The Department of Meteorology, in conjunction with the Ministry of Health, issued a heat health bulletin warning yesterday that excessive heat will affect all islands throughout the period. The bulletin warns that prolonged exposure to the heat could increase the risk of heat exhaustion and heat stroke, particularly among vulnerable groups.
Chief Meteorological
Officer Orson Nixon said the country is expected to experience heat index values ranging from 102°F to 108°F over the next several days.
The heat index reflects what the temperature feels like to the human body when humidity is factored in, rather than the actual air temperature.
Mr Nixon said officials are continuing to monitor weather conditions closely and could update the advisory if conditions worsen or the heat persists longer than expected.
Although temperatures are expected to be unusually high, Mr Nixon noted that the current heat wave is not considered record-breaking. He stressed the importance of residents taking precautions, particularly with increased outdoor
activity expected during the upcoming election period. Residents are being advised to avoid spending long periods in direct sunlight, remain hydrated throughout the day, and take breaks in cool or shaded areas whenever possible.
Mr Nixon also encouraged persons who must remain outdoors for extended periods to wear protective clothing and use sunscreen, especially as ultraviolet exposure is expected to increase where cloud cover is limited.
“If you are going to be outside, limit the amount of time you spend in direct sunlight,” he said. “Always take little breaks from the heat.”
He added: “Make sure you remain hydrated.”
The heat bulletin
identified several vulnerable groups that may face greater health risks during the heat wave, including elderly persons, young children, pregnant women, displaced individuals, pets, and people on prescription medication. Mr Nixon also warned that residents should expect more frequent periods of extreme heat as summer approaches.
“With summer approaching, we will begin to see more of these heat waves coming through,” he said. “In terms of the frequency, we are still assessing that at the moment.”
The Ministry of Health is advising residents to seek medical attention if they begin experiencing symptoms associated with heat-related illnesses, including dizziness, nausea, weakness, confusion, or loss of consciousness.
Below-average hurricane season forecast for 2026
By EARYEL BOWLEG Tribune Staff Reporter
ebowleg@tribunemedia.net
THE Atlantic hurri-
cane season is expected to be below average this year, with one international forecast projecting 13 named storms, six hurricanes and two major hurricanes.
Chief Meteorological Officer Orson Nixon said the season is being shaped by a transition from a weak La Niña toward El Niño conditions.
“Right now, we're moving in from a weak La Niña season going into El Niño situation where you're looking at it being more to strong, but that is going to have most of its effect across the Caribbean,” he said. “Now, the thing is, The Bahamas is right on the fringe.”
However, Mr Nixon warned that warm sea surface temperatures in the western Atlantic, currently rising to about 30 degrees Celsius, could still fuel dangerous storms.
“Now this could
actually, if a system do fall, could cause rapid intensification,” he said.
“This season is going to be a representation of a very complex battle between the atmospheric suppression brought on by El Niño and also the fuel of the warm surface temperatures.”
Colorado State University recently forecast 13 named storms, six hurricanes and two major hurricanes.
That projection is lower than the university’s forecast last year, which called for 17 named storms, including eight hurricanes, four of which could become major hurricanes. Mr Nixon noted that one of last year’s major hurricanes was Hurricane Melissa, which devastated Jamaica.
Despite the below-average forecast, he warned residents to remain alert, saying even one powerful storm could pose a serious threat.
The Atlantic hurricane season officially runs from June 1 to November 30.
SUPER El-Nino is projected to emerge between June and August this year 2026 and may persist throughout the year into early 2027. El Niño is a climate phenomenon characterized by the unusual warming of sea surface temperatures in the central and eastern Pacific Ocean, which disrupts normal weather patterns worldwide.
In Africa history shows El-Nino often enhance rainfall activities across East Africa and the Sahel, due to increase convective activities. while Central to Southern Africa, including coastal regions of West Africa usually experience suppression of normal rainfall activities.
The Tribune Limited
NULLIUS ADDICTUS JURARE IN VERBA MAGISTRI
“Being Bound to Swear to The Dogmas of No Master”
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Publisher/Editor 1903-1914
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Publisher/Editor 1919-1972
Contributing Editor 1972-1991
RT HON EILEEN DUPUCH CARRON, C.M.G., M.S., B.A., LL.B.
Publisher/Editor 1972-
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Taking the high road in politics
WE applaud Mario Moxey for the effort.
With only a few days to go until election day, the new Bahamas Christian Council president has called for respect in the political campaign. That ship seems to have sailed.
Pastor Moxey told candidates “your leadership has the power to either calm the atmosphere or charge it” and urged them: “Choose to be a stabilising force. Choose to bring dignity to the process. Choose the high road.”
Meanwhile, there has been a motorcade taking the low road.
There was the disrespectful sign put up targeting Prime Minister Philip Davis that saw the PLP accuse the FNM of putting it up only for the FNM to deny and disavow the sign. Whoever put it up had no intention of bringing respectable debate to the table and they should be ashamed of themselves.
There are the signs that have gone up in the colours of one party but clearly put up by another – in at least one case prompting the opposing party to put up another sign in front of the original saying “lies”.
There have been incidents such as the video featuring Rick Fox going toe to toe with a PLP political operative in a heated moment after that operative said he “didn’t give a **** about the rules”.
There was the moment when the PLP’s Patricia Deveaux bizarrely snapped “filth” during an interview segment on camera featuring her and FNM chairman Dr Duane Sands.
There was the chaotic confrontation when JoBeth Coleby-Davis blocked a classroom door, and take your pick of moments involving Lincoln Bain.
There was the moment when PLP candidate for East Grand Bahama Dr Monique Pratt announced from the microphone at a rally that she had Crown land deeds “in my possession” and had been instructed by the prime minister to release them to residents.
There was considerable backlash to that. At this point in time, Dr Pratt is nothing more than a private citizen – so why she had other people’s Crown land deeds in her possession was a mystery that was never answered.
Surely the PLP would not be so foolish to repeat that mistake?
And yet here we have PLP candidate Sylvanus Petty announcing that the government will distribute more than 300
Crown land grants in North Eleuthera, saying: “The prime minister promised me that he would be back in five days to deliver the Crown land.”
Mr Petty also promised the people of Harbour Island that they would have extra power generation capacity and expanded water storage – which is needed, but promises at the end of a term in office always prompt the question why it has not been done already.
All of this does not even take into account the many memes and allegations circulating on social media – which often fall far short of the dignity that Pastor Moxey is calling for.
Debate can be conducted with dignity. It does not have to descend into the gutter.
John McCain was a senator in the US in 2008 when he ran against Barack Obama for the presidency. Back then, there were many accusations against Obama in a landscape where racism was often not far from the surface.
During a town hall debate, one supporter said she did not trust Obama because she believed he was “an Arab”. McCain said no, no, and took the microphone, and said that Obama was a “decent family man and citizen that I just happen to have disagreements with on fundamental issues”.
The next day, Obama thanked McCain, saying: “I appreciated his reminder that we can disagree while still being respectful to one another.”
McCain also said: “That’s the way politics should be conducted in America.”
McCain lost. But he was remembered for the rest of his life as a man of dignity, who provided moral leadership in what often seems an immoral maze.
It is easy to descend into the tribalism of politics, it is also self-defeating for our nation. Every time we tear one another down we remove the possibility of raising one another up.
So we hope that the pastor’s words will not fall on stony ground but on good soil, and will be taken to heart. We hope that they take root and perhaps make some pause from the vitriol they were about to speak in the hopes of winning one more vote. Maybe that is the easy way to earn that extra vote – but it is no way to earn respect. Like McCain, we would suggest that candidates who earn that respect will have a far more lasting presence in our political landscape than those who descend to the gutter.
Performance and rationality
EDITOR, The Tribune.
I TRY my level best Not to involve myself in ad homen political or personal attacks on right thinking Bahamians. I subscribe to live and let live. There are times, however, when one is obliged to refer to boorish; comical and potentially behavior which is tantamount to an act of criminality. Yes, violence and inflamed tempers have long been associated with Bahamian politics, from the days of Lewis Yard over in Grand Bahama to the gruesome murder down at Perpall Tract decades ago. Today, however, one would have thought that we’ve evolved beyond the physical.
A week or so ago there was a very public altercation between the FNM Garden Hills candidate and an alleged supporter of the PLP. Of course, I was not there so I go by what was reported in the media. There was an exchange of words between the FNM candidate and the PLP supporter. The FNM candidate was seen lounging towards that individual
while being restrained by his campaign manager! Wild man behavior was patently demonstrated and unprintable invectives were hurled like holy water in the direction of the PLP supporter by the candidate. Threatening behavior could be construed as an attempt to commit a criminal act and/or disturbance of public order. That candidate demonstrated poor judgment and an even worst temperament. Garden Hills has a clear and concise choice...the Hon Mario Bowleg, a legendary disciplinarian and positive mentor. Mario is an exceptional and hard-working people’s person. The Boozine Town fiasco exited for generations under all administration. Occupiers of land up there were either squatters or held bogus and dubious ‘title’ to the same. Thousands of Bahamians were born and raised up there.
Under the focused and persistent leadership of the Hon Mario Bowleg, the Minister of Youth; Sports & Culture, legitimate titles are available, upon appropriate
Sir Pindling was not a god
EDITOR, The Tribune. DESPITE anything to the contrary, it is my view that the the historical tapestry of the Bahamas is undeniably woven with the profound influence of Sir Lynden Oscar Pindling, a figure widely seen as the architect of the modern Bahamian state and, indeed, the “Father of the Nation.”
His leadership influence, like it or not, catalysed a monumental shift, that fundamentally empowering Bahamians in general and Afro-Bahamians in particular by guiding the Bahamian archipelago from colonial subjugation to what was to become the proud assertion of self-governance.
However, one cannot ignore the fact that during Sir Lynden Oscar Pindling’s time in office, there were many Bahamians who suffered from a malady… massive victimisation against some of the very people, mainly black and some white in the same manner that the United Bahamian Party practiced another form of entrenched victimisation…. racism that was, in a sense, certainly a form of massive victimisation from a racial (blacks) to a greater extent)!and poor white to a lesser extent. However, the practices, of Sir Lynden Oscar Pindling, were against many of the people he eventually freed.
It is my professional view that this practice came about because, somewhere in the euphoria of victory and governing, the distinction between the political campaign and governance was lost. You the reader must be judged…
Yet, this towering legacy of the first premier/prime minister is not without its other intricate shadows, cast by serious allegations of corruption and a governance style often perceived as autocratic, which ultimately culminated in his electoral defeat in 1992.
If the first black Premier/ Prime Minister had in mind the grace of knowing when to leave, he would have Pindling’s political acumen shone brightly in 1967, orchestrating the Progressive Liberal Party’s historic victory that ushered in majority rule – a seismic shift ending centuries of minority governance by the white oligarchy. This foundational achievement paved the way for the Bahamas’ full independence from Great Britain in 1973, a pivotal moment he presided over, liberating the nation from its colonial bonds and placing its destiny firmly in Bahamian hands.
application, to those who are able to establish equity and long possession. That land is now marketable and easily transferrable. Performance or wild man style!!
A fully refurbished Boxing Academy with beautiful landscaping. World class athletic achievements and subvention for qualified Bahamians in all sporting disciplines. Rationality has been brought to Junkanoo by Bowleg and the administration. Hitherto Junkanoo was managed and operated just like ‘junkanoo’. Other cultural exploits are just around the corner.
A second consecutive term for this enlightened Davis administration is critical for more reasons than one. We chose progress and rationality or you all have the choice to embrace ‘wild man’ and ‘cry wolf leadership’ alternative. Do not play with your future; your family’s future and that of our wonderful nation. To God then, in all things, be the glory.
ORTLAND H BODIE, Jr Nassau, May 6, 2026.
status as the unchallenged “Father of the Nation”, a visionary who dared to imagine and then realise a truly independent Bahamian identity.
However, the narrative of his leadership is indelibly marked by significant controversy. The damning findings of the 1984 Royal Commission of Inquiry cast a long shadow, detailing widespread allegations of corruption, bribery, and unsettling ties between high-ranking officials within his administration and international drug trafficking networks. While public sentiment at the time often navigated these revelations with a degree of pragmatic tolerance, their implications were profound and continue to fuel historical debate. Critics also point to what they describe as an increasingly authoritarian style of governance. Pindling’s firm hand, while effective in consolidating national power and pushing through his agenda, sometimes suppressed dissenting voices, leading to concerns about democratic accountability and transparency. This ‘strongman’ image, though often contextualised by the undeniable achievements of the era, remains a contentious aspect of his rule.
Ultimately, a confluence of these lingering ethical questions and a growing weariness with his long tenure contributed to his Progressive Liberal Party’s defeat in the 1992 general election, bringing to an end an extraordinary chapter in Bahamian political history.
Thus, Sir Lynden Pindling’s legacy is one of profound duality. He is unreservedly celebrated as the driving force behind the Bahamas’ independence and the upliftment of its people an undisputed national hero whose achievements redefined the nation. Yet, any comprehensive understanding of his impact must also grapple with the complex ethical questions and criticisms that emerged during his long and powerful leadership, acknowledging both the monumental triumphs and the enduring controversies that define the era of the “Father of the Nation.”
Beyond political emancipation, Pindling was the primary engine of a profound societal transformation. He was instrumental in fostering a burgeoning Black middle class and strategically establishing critical national institutions – such as the Central Bank of The Bahamas, the National Insurance Board, and the national airline, Bahamasair – all cornerstones of a modern, self-sufficient nation. These initiatives significantly improved the standard of living for countless Bahamians, imbuing a widespread sense of national pride and opportunity. It is these unparalleled contributions to self-determination and the construction of state apparatus that solidify his
My reflections on the foundational leadership of Sir Lynden Oscar Pindling, particularly concerning the widespread perception of him as “Black Moses” during his extensive tenure as the first black Prime Minister of the Bahamas, underscored a fascinating intersection of political charisma, national liberation, and the challenges inherent in an emergent democratic system. And so it was in the Bahamas as the sun dawned in the eastern skies in the Bahamas on the morning of the eleventh of January 1967
While it is historically accurate that Sir Lynden never formally proclaimed divine status, the fostering of a profound cult of personality by his fervent supporters, particularly within the Progressive Liberal Party (PLP), is an indisputable aspect of Bahamian political history. This “Black Moses” moniker was far more than a mere
nickname; it encapsulated a powerful messianic narrative. Pindling was cast as the indispensable liberator, the figure destined to lead the Bahamian people from the “colonial wilderness” of minority rule to the promised land of majority governance and, ultimately, full independence. This biblical allegory resonated deeply with a populace yearning for self-determination, bestowing upon Pindling an almost sacred authority derived from his perceived role in fulfilling a national destiny.
The profound impact of this deification cannot be overstated. It created an environment where critical scrutiny of Pindling’s policies, and indeed, his administration, became extraordinarily difficult. Opponents, even those raising legitimate concerns or allegations of corruption — which became increasingly prominent in the 1980s — were often met with fierce vilification from his loyal base. To challenge Pindling was, for many, to challenge the very embodiment of national aspirations and liberation, effectively stifling robust democratic discourse and accountability. This dynamic undoubtedly contributed to the longevity of his political dominance and the resilience of his government in the face of scandal.
Pindling himself was a master orator, possessing an unparalleled charismatic presence that could galvanise crowds and inspire intense devotion. His ability to connect with and sway the electorate was instrumental in nurturing this cult of personality, transforming political rallies into near-spiritual gatherings. Yet, despite this seemingly unassailable persona, his concession of defeat in the 1992 general election offered a remarkable moment of democratic gravitas. His declaration, “the voice of the people, is the voice of God,” while perhaps a rhetorical flourish, simultaneously acknowledged the ultimate sovereignty of the electorate and offered a glimpse of a leader, however deified, who ultimately submitted to democratic principles. This statement, delivered at a critical juncture, serves as a complex coda to a period defined by extraordinary reverence.
The enduring legacy of this “cult of personality” continues to shape political narratives and historical interpretations in the Bahamas. Even decades after his passing, Pindling remains a towering, often mythic, figure whose contributions to nation-building are celebrated with deep reverence. Understanding this phenomenon is crucial for appreciating the intricate interplay between charismatic leadership, the aspirations of a newly independent nation, and the inherent tensions between hero-worship and the demands of democratic accountability. It serves as a potent reminder of how the narratives constructed around leaders can profoundly influence a nation’s trajectory and its historical memory.
DR DONALD M McCARTNEY
Freeport, Grand Bahama May 6, 2026.
Fiancée defends accused in child molestation trial
denied this.
POLLWATCH BAHAMAS LAUNCHES INTERACTIVE ELECTION MAP
By PAVEL BAILEY Tribune Staff Reporter pbailey@tribunemedia.net
A WOMAN yesterday said she could not believe allegations that her fiancé molested her nine-year-old sister in 2024.
The 22-year-old woman, whose name is being withheld to protect the complainant’s identity, testified in the unlawful sexual intercourse trial of Chequal Martin before Justice Neil Braithwaite.
Prosecutors allege that Martin had unlawful sexual intercourse with the young girl in June 2024 and again in October that year.
The defendant’s fiancée said her sister lived with her and Martin in the summer of 2024.
She said she slept in the same bed as her sister.
On August 2, 2024, the witness said she went into labour and was taken to the hospital by her fiancé and his father. She said she was discharged the following day.
She claimed Martin and his father took her to and from the hospital.
The young woman said she still speaks with the complainant by phone and that there is no animosity between them.
The witness said she learned of the allegations from her mother in October 2024, before her mother died.
She said she could not believe the allegations.
The prosecution suggested that Martin’s fiancée had been with him for eight years. She maintained that she met him when she was 16, going on 17 and that they got engaged when she was 20.
Although she admitted that she lied to Martin by telling him she was 17 when she was 16, the woman denied lying about anything in court.
She agreed with the prosecution that she was unable to have sex with Martin during the late stage of her high-risk pregnancy. She claimed the two were physically intimate during the earlier stages of her pregnancy.
The prosecution suggested that Martin slept in the bed between two children and next to the complainant. His fiancée
The young woman said she began dating Martin when she was 16, going on 17. Regarding their relationship, the woman said Martin did not have unlawful sexual intercourse with her. She described her sister as happy and playful and said the children in the house played on a PS4 in the living room.
The defence claimed that Martin slept in his car and gave up the bed to others in the home.
The woman denied that Martin slept with the complainant or that she knew about it.
When it was put to her that Martin allegedly assaulted her sister while she was in hospital, the woman denied the allegation. She said that although she was not aware of exactly when Martin left the hospital, she was on the phone with him.
She also denied that Martin ever played games with the complainant.
The young woman told Justice Braithwaite that she never saw blood or other bodily fluids on the sheets or the complainant’s clothes. She said she washed both.
She said the complainant never came to her about the allegations and acted normally.
The defence closed its case after she finished her testimony.
The accused returns to court on Monday for closing arguments.
Dorsey McPhee represented the accused, while Kara Butler White, Cashena Thompson and Jacklyn Conyers were the prosecutors.
Repeat child molester gets 13-years prison for latest attack
By PAVEL BAILEY Tribune Staff Reporter pbailey@tribunemedia.net
A REPEAT child molester was sentenced to 13 years in prison yesterday for having sex with a nine-year-old boy he lured into his home shortly after being released from prison for raping a five-year-old boy. Dwight Jason Bell, 58, was sentenced for unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor of the same sex before Justice Jeannine Weech-Gomez.
Bell had sex with the boy at his home on Market Street and Laird Street in New Providence on
September 7, 2024. The boy had been picking fruit with his siblings before Bell lured him into the home.
After the child’s mother searched for him and found him in Bell’s yard, the boy told her he had been molested.
Bell pleaded guilty to the charge last October. Prosecutor Desiree Ferguson previously noted that Bell had a prior child molestation conviction involving a five-year-old victim.
Bell was sentenced to nine years and five months in prison for raping the five-year-old boy on Christmas Day 2014.
Ms Ferguson said his latest offence happened shortly after his release from prison.
Ms Ferguson told the court that Bell told authorities he had “a weakness for young boys”. Justice Weech-Gomez previously said that if Bell had received proper psychiatric care while in prison for the first offence, he might not have returned before the court.
As part of Bell’s latest sentence, he must receive psychiatric assistance in prison. He will also be added to the sexual offenders registry. Nathan Smith represented Bell.
Murder suspect fined $2,500 for 111-day bail breach
By PAVEL BAILEY Tribune Staff Reporter pbailey@tribunemedia.net
A MAN awaiting trial for a 2019 murder in Chippingham was fined $2,500 yesterday after admitting he breached his bail conditions for 111 days. Chadwick Capron, 28, failed to sign in at his local police station for 111 days between December 5, 2025, and May 4.
Capron is awaiting trial in June for the murder of George Seymour, who was shot dead on Foster Street on April 22, 2019.
He is also on bail on charges of conspiracy to commit murder, armed robbery and attempted armed robbery.
Capron pleaded guilty to violating his bail conditions before Deputy Chief Magistrate Shaka Serville. After warning Capron to take his bail conditions more seriously or risk having his bail revoked, the magistrate fined him $2,500. He faces 16 months in prison if he fails to pay.
Capron returns to court on May 15. Inspector Cordero Farrington prosecuted the
MAN JAILED FOR BREAKING INTO STALL AND STEALING ALCOHOL
By PAVEL BAILEY Tribune Staff Reporter pbailey@tribunemedia.net
A MAN who admitted breaking into an Arawak Cay stall and stealing $400 worth of property last month was remanded to prison yesterday.
James Talbert, 46, broke into Kalfa Stall at 7.30pm on April 25, damaging a wooden door valued at $200. He also stole $400 worth of property, including two bottles of alcohol, a Monster Energy drink, a can of juice and a portable camera. Talbert was also found vagrant in the same area that day. He pleaded guilty to shopbreaking, stealing, damage and vagrancy before Deputy Chief Magistrate Shaka Serville. Inspector Cordero Farrington, the prosecutor, recommended that Talbert be given a prison sentence. Talbert was remanded to the Bahamas Department of Correctional Services until his sentencing on May 22.
By EARYEL BOWLEG Tribune Staff Reporter ebowleg@tribunemedia.net
POLLWATCH Bahamas has launched an online election platform that lets users forecast results in all 41 constituencies as the country enters the final week before voters go to the polls.
The independent civic initiative features an interactive electoral map, candidate information, a community discussion page and tools allowing users to share predictions about the outcome of the 2026 General Election.
In a press release, PollWatch Bahamas said the platform is intended to make the electoral process more accessible and easier to understand through digital innovation. It said its
mission is to give Bahamians tools that promote awareness, transparency and constructive national dialogue before the election.
case. Ryszard Humes represented Capron.
PollWatch Bahamas said the website will also provide live election results and real-time updates on election day.
“The map is not to scale and is intended strictly for interactive forecasting purposes,” it said.
“Users can easily share their customized forecast using built-in share buttons or embed their projection directly into a website or blog — making it an ideal engagement tool for media houses, radio talk shows, bloggers, and political commentators.”
The website also includes a community page where Bahamians can discuss election-related issues, exchange views and share opinions about the campaign.
“With 41 constituencies across The Bahamas now confirmed by the 2026 Boundaries Commission report, and a majority of seats required for a party to form the next government, every seat matters. The path to victory is not simply about popularity, it is about numbers, strategy, and constituency-level outcomes,” the press release said. “All elections are ultimately a numbers game and Pollwatch Bahamas invites the public to play along. Everyone has their own theories and beliefs about who they think will win. Now, citizens can take those predictions and transform them into a dynamic visual forecast.”
Eric Wiberg • Lighthouses
Lights and wrecks of Ragged Island, the Jumentos, and Long Island
HMS Spey took on a local pilot at Crooked Island and then doubted him. The wreck was south of Buena Vista Cay, north of Ragged Island in the Crooked Island Passage. The navy captain “believed the post-master at Crooked Island was not a seaman,” however “he was not aware that he was in fact a teacher of navigation.”
He underestimated local talent.
The crew had run on a sand bank on their previous time passing north of St. Domingo Cay (east of Ragged), and so the lead soundings were flying, yet the captain was ill, and they attempted the route at night.
HMS Spey was under the command of Lieutenant-Commander
Robert Bastard James. While being piloted by the sailing master, Mr Barrett, and Lieutenant James, “on her passage from Crooked Island to Havannah, between the Racoon and Buena Vista Cays” of Ragged Island, she struck a coral reef. This is a surprising choice, given that between Nurse Cay and Raccoon Cay, the deep channel is only about 1,200 feet wide, whereas just northwards are channels of over three miles, as north of Man of War and south of Flamingo Cay.
The captain ensured the salvage of quicksilver (mercury) and other valuables at the expense of saving his own belongings, and all passengers and crew were rescued.
Fortunately, the beacons were used to guide them.
After arriving from the UK at Crooked Island, they intended to “run over the Great Bahama Bank by a passage between the Racoon and Bona Vista Keys, on arriving in sight of the beacon on Racoon Key. The Master was in the forecastle and, but a few minutes before, had been remarking how well the banks had been laid down in the charts. They were steering mid-channel, but rather inclined to the beacon side” and making five knots with good
weather and many depth soundings made (meaning a young voice would be shouting data at them).
The guns were thrown over, water pumped out, and goods landed on the cay, which was close enough to get a line to. Though they moved the ship six feet, by the next day, word was sent to Governor Cockburn in Nassau that their ship was doomed. Nearly 200 years later, bits of her must still be there.
The detailed transcript of the courts-martial contains some details that make for colourful reading, from the usual blame game to terrifying descriptions of channels, currents, and weather in The Bahamas and the relative skills of local pilots. We learn of “passages marked on charts with a view to expedite the mail to Havannah.” We learn that “the dangers of the old channel are so numerous and subject to such uncertain currents that it was thought highly desirable to cross the bank.”
And then there is the “but he did it!” blame game: “passages do exist over it, proved by the HMS Thunder having come down the back and crossing the bank,” and “many square rigged vessels were seen to cross while HMS Spey was aground.”
Though in his 11 years in the navy’s packet service, the captain had transited Crooked Island Passage four times, in this case, he was sick and delegated the duty to the master, who felt this option was safer than the current-strewn Old Bahama Channel. They brought on board Mr Malcolm from Crooked Island, “a skilled islander and a gentleman we knew to be knowledgeable on navigation.”
Their problem was the pressure to deliver the mail. On the previous voyage, they lost eight days in the Old Bahama Channel and estimated they could save two weeks by cutting between the Jumentos Cays and into the shallow Great Bahama Banks, where they could also anchor if needed. The court severely reprimanded the two junior officers and placed them at the bottom of the list of those eligible for promotion.
The primary lighthouses of Long Island are Cape St. Maria Lighthouse to the north, Nuevitas Rock Light to the central-southern west – on the way to the Jumentos Cays on the Exuma side--and on the main island past Dunmore, Rose’s, Cabbage Point, Gordon’s and Mortimers, is South Point Lighthouse. These lights
must be similar to well-built military fortresses that deter assailants and thus have little combat histories, since it’s challenging to find details of wrecks at them. Instead, in the early 1900s, we learn of the heavy lifting of lighthouse tenders like Carnarvon, Ana Patricia and Firequeen that dutifully ply the remote Bahamian islands, supplying light stations.
The lighthouse department’s buildings had many uses, including the study of dead pets. In December of 1913, we find a rather unusual article in the Nassau Tribune on the canine post-mortem for the captain of a Russian sailing ship (barquentine Taara).
“Examination of the body of the pet dog, which was supposed to have
by Dr R. W. Brace, who disclosed that the dog had swallowed a bone which caused a spasm resulting in death.”
In 1971, a renowned naval interior designer and graduate of Harvard Business School named Nathaniel Arnot, who furnished the nuclear submarine USS Nautilus as well as many ocean liners for the United States Lines, passed away at Cape Santa Maria, Long Island. The reliability of these lights was considered significant enough to make the news. For example, in the New York Herald of 1922, USS Wyoming’s commanding officer reported that at 9 pm the San Salvador Light “was observed to be showing 1 group of 2 flashes every 29.75 seconds, thus: flash 2.25 seconds, eclipse 3 seconds, flash 2.56 seconds, -
The fact that this was news in a foreign country stands in stark contrast to modern times, where we rely so much on technology for our information, including electronic charts, radar, and satellite communication.
Those visiting lighthouses today may have to cling for hundreds of feet onto rusty and almost ruined flakes of salted steel that used to be sturdy steps. After carefully mounting countless steps to explore these structures, you may find the lights shot out by criminals who don’t want their activities seen. You’ll often find irreplaceable Fresnel lenses, hand-fit, in shatters. Scattered around are personal belongings like medications and little backpacks with clothing scattered, evidence of people smuggling.
Many lights either don’t work or are no longer relied upon. This is particularly true after storms, when they are most needed, but instead are damaged and dragged off location. After all, a navigator is rarely able to reply on one source. Rather, he must consider several factors on a running basis, checking off data inputs and correlating them with his positions as he and shipmates go from landmark to landmark along a coast.
Thankfully, the lighthouses –automated or not – are still there as part of a mariner’s safety suite.
RUINS on Raccoon Cay where HMS Spey wrecked and there was a beacon in 1840
NUEVITAS Rock Lighthouse between Exumas, Long Island and Jumentos Cays
CAPE St. Maria Lighthouse Long Island
Diane Phillips
More than 50,000 repaired shoes –a cobbler’s half century view from East Steet & Wulff Road
TYRONE Wilson was nine years old when he began working with his dad, the shoemaker for the working Bahamian.
He never questioned why he should follow his dad, Thaddeus, to work in the summers, or hang out helping him on Saturdays while other kids played ball. He liked it – being close to dad, the smell of the materials, the activity of the busy shop, the magic of seeing a piece of heavy black or brown leather turn into something people would wear to work or school or church.
In the beginning, the shop handled more than footwear. It was a kind of local department store that sold sewing machines and china made in Japan, the popular brown or blue pattern likely to show up in backyards for Sunday lunch in hundreds of homes. The store was called “Wilson Deluxe”
at age nine, continues to open daily and the business still flows. Now, at 75, Mr Wilson is as busy as ever though he has made a few concessions to age.
“I only work until 2pm
appear to be equal sets of teeth on the inside ready to close and bite into whatever is placed between its jaws. It was purpose built, I learn, to do what I translated into “surgery on a pair of shoes,”
back then.
Young Mr Wilson liked it so much he never really thought about doing anything else for a living.
As the years went by, while the variety of goods declined, the list of customers grew. They came for the friendly conversation, the shoes, and, most often, the repairs. A broken heel on a pair of dress shoes the owner loved and did not want to part with, a worn insole, a rundown heel on a man’s work boot. And more recently, tennis and sports gear in need of a glue or reconnecting of top to bottom.
The atmosphere is dated, but friendly: two couches from different eras, linoleum tile floors with flowered and butterfly patterns (meticulously clean despite the traffic), soft jazz playing in the background. Old family photos and memorabilia hang on the walls, a mini-museum of East Street history.
Other shoe manufacturers and shoe repair shops opened, but Mr Wilson’s Shoe Repair at the corner of Wulff Road and East Street became more than a neighbourhood fixture. It evolved into a quiet landmark.
Its original owner passed away in 2010 at the age of 83. But the son, who started
The corner where the shop sits was once the family home site.
opening them up like a surgeon would, fixing what was wrong, stitching them back up and giving them new life.
Mr Wilson is industrious, his hands glide over a wooden ruler as he measures a strap to re-size it, smooth movements he has probably done thousands of times before. Ask him how many shoes he has handled and he hesitates only briefly.
“Over 50,000,” he says.
“East Street used to end right here,” he says, pointing to Wulff Road. “When Pindling pushed the road through all the way to the south, he made Englerston.” It was the perfect opportunity for a Bahamian to open a business and old man Wilson, ever on the hunt for the next great path to success, moved his little shop and created the Wilson Deluxe hardware and shoe store.
Jiffy Cleaners had opened one year earlier across East Street on the
southwest corner. The familiar orange and blue of the Jiffy’s family-ownedand-run cleaners is gone. Today, there’s a Wendy’s on the corner. Heastie’s Lumber was to the south. That later became a branch of Scotiabank. Today, it bears the look and logo of Island Luck gaming. Through it all, Mr Wilson’s Shoe Repair has survived. The man who started helping his dad mend the tired or broken shoe has built a step stone of Bahamian folklore. He is sorry to see the all-Bahamian way of life give way, to witness the end of an
era when black and white mixed at over-the-hill clubs like the Silver Slipper and Cat and Fiddle or when the best treat a child could ask for was a trip to Mortimer’s Candies just down the street. But his is a business that survived through all the social, cultural, technological changes around it because one man understood that work done well does not need applause. It just needs one more day with the ability to open the six foot high plain double metal security bars, unlock the door, and flip the sign to “Open.”
these days,” he says. “But the sign says you are open on Saturday,” I point out.
“Yes, six days a week but I close a little earlier.”
It’s after 2pm on a weekday when we’re talking, and customers are still pouring in. He doesn’t lock the door. These are neighbours or folks who have been there before. He knows all but one of the five who arrived while I was poking around into tangible history, photographing an old heavy black rotary dial phone, piles and piles of shoes--maybe hundreds of them--some in pairs, many single. Most bear a small green paper ticket with a number on it. Someone will claim the goods at some point. If not, they will just add to a collection that mirrors the styles that came and went or came back again. There are silver slippers and bright red designer shoes, oxfords, loafers, and sandals of every style and colour.
But my attention is drawn to the machinery behind a comfortable couch, where I can only imagine hundreds have sat and chatted about life over the years.
The equipment is metal, heavy-gauge mild steel, about knee-high, two feet wide or so, mostly black with a touch of red with two sides that open up, and what
Herbalist brings plant-based diet to Paradise Island market
HERBALIST Derica
Clarke is her own walking testimony to the power of healthy living.
When she was a child, her mother loved plants, and the young Derica would help her to water them and learn about them at the same time. But it was 15 years ago that her love of nature began to transform her own life.
“I always loved nature,” she said, and talked of how her connection to a bobo priest 15 years ago “just heightened that in me”.
Derica studied farming in an online class, and then started putting those lessons into practice.
“My personal testimony,” she said, “I was 287lb. As soon as I went on the vegan base, I could see the change.”
Derica now takes her
knowledge of herbalism and healthy living to the people – with a stall that offers native and seasonal fruit, dry powders, bush teas and natural juices, coconut water and sweet milk, and vegan food.
For Derica, she says that when it comes to healthy living, it is about what you put into it – and what you put into you. She also said her own spirituality and faith in God was an important part of her journey.
“I have had persons who tried to get healthy and I helped persons with that,” she says, saying that even people who have been battling pancreatic cancer have been helped.
For most people, she says: “I find many of them are interested in taking supplements – but until you adjust your own habits,
you are defeating your own purpose.”
Derica is one of a dozen vendors taking part in the latest Paradise Island Farmers Market on Saturday, from 8am-3pm, and she says previous markets have been useful for being able to help people to change their lifestyles.
“People do come and ask and want to talk about how they can change to become healthier,” she said.
The market includes locally grown produce, handcrafted goods and Bahamian treats, and is held at the Paradise Island Straw Market across the street from Marina Village, in partnership with Atlantis and the Agricultural Development Organization.
ADO executive chairman Philip Smith says that the market has attracted
hundreds of visitors to previous events, and urges people to make the most of local produce for a healthier lifestyle.
He said: “Eating what’s grown locally can make a real difference. You know where the food comes from, it’s from farm to table without preservatives or other additives. It can make a real difference in living a healthier lifestyle.”
The market is held each month at Atlantis – and Mr Smith has said giving people the chance to shop locally is “a win for everyone”.
He said: “If we buy from home, we don’t have to import that food from elsewhere. The money stays here.”
For more information about ADO, visit adobahamas.org. To contact Derica, call or Whatsapp 433-6562.
World News
Russia is ramping up its attempts to kill opponents in Europe, intelligence officials say
By EMMA BURROWS and JOHN LEICESTER Associated Press
WHEN Vladimir Osechkin wants to take his children to school or go to the supermarket, he calls the police.
The Russian activist has lived under protection since 2022 because French officials believe Russia is trying to kill him.
In April 2025, a crew of Russian men staked out Osechkin’s home and the surrounding area in southwestern France for several hours, taking videos and photos in suspected groundwork for an assassination, according to court documents seen by The Associated Press that are not public. Several years earlier, Osechkin said, a red dot — which he thought was a laser sight for a gun — appeared on his wall.
Elsewhere in Europe, Lithuanian officials disrupted a plot last year to kill a Lithuanian supporter of Ukraine and another against a Russian activist. Officials in Germany have similarly broken up two plots: one to target the head of a German weapons company supplying Ukraine, the other against a Ukrainian military official. Polish authorities arrested a man in 2024 in what they said was a plot to assassinate Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. And that same year, a Russian helicopter pilot who defected was killed in Spain — with Russian operatives the prime suspects.
While Russian officials
have long been accused of silencing the country’s enemies abroad, three Western intelligence officials from different countries told AP that a campaign of targeted killings has ramped up since President Vladimir Putin’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
The officials said Russia’s security services are now more brazen in their choice of targets, going after Russian activists and foreign supporters of Ukraine, in addition to the usual suspects like military defectors. All three officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive information.
“This campaign is not by accident or chance,” said one of them, a senior European intelligence official. “There is political authorization.”
The intelligence officials, a former senior British counterterrorism official and prosecutors in Lithuania see the campaign as connected to Russia’s broader efforts to undermine European countries that support Ukraine, including 191 acts of sabotage, arson and other disruption linked to Russia by Western officials that the AP has mapped across Europe since the beginning of the war.
Many accused in that campaign are people who were recruited as cheap proxies for Russian intelligence operatives. Moscow is now using that model to target its perceived enemies abroad, according to the French court documents, officials and information from the Lithuanian prosecutor.
Putin’s spokesperson
Dmitry Peskov told AP he didn’t see “any need” to comment. Russian officials have previously denied that Moscow is behind attempts to kill its opponents abroad.
The AP spoke to three of the people targeted: Osechkin; Lithuanian activist Valdas Bartkevičius; and Ruslan Gabbasov, who advocates for independence for the Russian region of Bashkortostan.
A trip to the seaside
Three of the four men detained by French police in the plot to kill Osechkin travelled to the beach resort of Biarritz, where Osechkin lives, in April 2025, court documents show. They surveilled his house “with a view to assassinating him and subsequently intimidating all political opponents of the Russian authorities living in France,” the documents said.
All four were born in Russia’s Dagestan region. One has multiple criminal convictions while another said he had been arrested by Russia’s domestic security service and fled the country to avoid being sent to Ukraine.
Osechkin founded a rights group for prisoners years ago and runs a project that exposes abuses in Russia’s prison system, but he said the threats against him escalated after he began investigating alleged Russian abuses in Ukraine and helping Russian military defectors flee.
He moved to France in 2015 and was put under police protection seven years later when French officials
Survivors of Mississippi tornadoes crawled under furniture and held onto their kids
MISSISSIPPI Associated Press
ANUNCIATA Schwebel could only watch in horror on FaceTime while her friend and tenant slunk into a bathtub to take cover from one of several tornadoes that slammed into Mississippi just after sunset Wednesday.
Her friend screamed that the windows were breaking. Schwebel could see on her screen the devastation to the cluster of cottages she owned in the town of Purvis — walls and roofs ripped away, her tenants huddled in their bathrooms.
“We could see a line of people sitting in their tubs,” Schwebel said Thursday.
“We thought people were dead.”
Yet, for a second time in less than a month, a big burst of tornadoes caused no deaths. Authorities estimated that 500 homes were damaged across five counties Wednesday and said at least 17 people were injured. The powerful storms spawned at least three tornadoes across the bottom half of Mississippi that could be seen on weather radar, meteorologists said, possibly more.
Tornado flipped home and ‘scattered everybody’ Survivors told stories of crawling under furniture while winds tore off the roof and of hiding in a closet, holding on to a child. At Coaltown Baptist Church in Purvis, members hunkered down in a hallway, singing and praying until the storm passed.
A dozen people were hurt at a trailer park in the small community of Bogue Chitto, in rural Lincoln County, said Scott Simmons, a spokesperson for the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency.
Most of the two dozen homes were flattened into heaps of splintered boards and twisted metal. People picked through the debris Thursday morning under cloudy skies as a chain saw buzzed in the background.
Krystal Miller and six others — including babies as young as 4 weeks old — grabbed a Bible and sheltered in their hallway when the tornado sent their
home cartwheeling through the air.
“We just flipped, and it threw us all out,” she said. “It scattered everybody out. ... I can’t find the Bible.”
Her young son was in the hospital for monitoring and another child was injured in the face, she said.
“The trailer is in pieces but we made it out,” Miller said. “I’m feeling grateful.”
Max Mahaffey was with his 59-year-old grandmother and watching TikTok videos on his phone when they realized the tornado was bearing down. They ran to the bathroom, but when the roof was torn off, they crawled to the living room and hid under a couch, he said.
“You heard screaming, glass breaking, horns honking — everything,” said the 15-year-old.
Survivors grateful to be alive
Dmell Burnes didn’t realize his home was in the tornado’s path until seconds before it struck. The house shook as he covered his 11-year-old daughter in his arms, but the frame inside the closet where they protected themselves held even as the home’s walls and roof came apart.
“It was one of the most scariest moments of my life. Me and my daughter were praying,” Burnes said while standing on what was left from his trailer. “We’re just grateful to be alive.” Residents dug out jackets, school backpacks, Bibles and a watch — whatever was salvageable.
A storm chaser walking through the debris early Thursday heard a meow but feared the worst when the cries stopped after a few minutes of searching. But after picking through insulation, Ashton Lemley found a tiny kitten, hiding between two wooden posts. “I’ve been in these situations so many times,” he said. “I don’t try to get overly emotional. But it is very heartbreaking to see any type of animal or human go through something like that.”
Debris closed interstate in southern Mississippi National Weather Service meteorologist Daniel Lamb said at least three tornadoes
received information that his life was in danger.
“If it weren’t for them, I probably would have been killed,” he said.
Targets say Moscow wins if they hide
Across the continent in Lithuania, Gabbasov, the activist from Bashkortostan, discovered an Apple AirTag tracker hidden on his car in February 2025. Police told him to leave the device and followed the people following him, he said.
A few weeks later, Gabbasov said he was attending celebrations marking Lithuania’s independence from the Soviet Union with his wife and 5-year-old son when officers called and told him not to return home.
The next day, he said officers told him: “Yesterday, a killer was detained near your house; he was waiting for you with a gun. ... He was ready to wait for you all night.”
Lithuanian authorities, he said, offered him the chance to completely “disappear” — change his name, move and stop his work.
He turned them down, saying many people from his mainly Muslim home region near Kazakhstan see him as a leader in the campaign for independence. The region is important to the Kremlin, Gabbasov said, because of its gold reserves and because large numbers of its men have been sent to fight in Ukraine.
“I can’t betray them all by simply disappearing, especially out of fear,” Gabbasov
said, adding that would play into Moscow’s hands.
“What difference does it make to them?” Gabbasov asked, referring to Russia’s security services. “They could kill me ... or I could hide from everyone and stop engaging in political activity. That’s exactly what they want.”
A plot to put a bomb in a mailbox
The authorities in Lithuania made the same offer to Bartkevičius, after he said they discovered a plot to kill him with a bomb planted in his mailbox in March 2025.
But disappearing also wasn’t an option for the activist who raises money for Ukraine and who gained notoriety for his anti-Russian acts, including urinating on a Russian war memorial.
That, he said, would be “social death.”
Lithuanian prosecutors charged 13 people from at least seven countries with involvement in the two plots — among at least 20 people authorities have detained, charged or identified as involved in such plots in Europe over the past year.
The people involved in the Lithuanian cases were directly ordered by Russian military intelligence, prosecutors said, and some had connections to Russian organized crime and could be linked to other arson and espionage plots elsewhere in Europe.
Moscow’s switch to relying on such proxies can be traced to a previous attempted assassination, Cmdr. Dominic Murphy told AP before
he retired as head of the counterterrorism squad at Britain’s Metropolitan Police.
In 2018, former Russian spy Sergei Skripal was poisoned with a nerve agent in Salisbury, England — an attack the U.K. government accused Moscow of carrying out with military intelligence officers.
In response, Britain and other Western nations kicked out hundreds of Russian diplomats — and spies — making it harder for Russian officers to operate in Europe, Murphy, a lead investigator, said.
The fact that most of the plots made public by Western officials since 2022 have been foiled could indicate that it’s harder for Moscow to carry them out with proxies, as opposed to its own officers, one of the Western intelligence officials said.
Still, the attempted killings may serve additional purposes, they said, including scaring the Kremlin’s opponents into silence and wasting European law enforcement resources.
Pointing to the case of Maxim Kuzminov — the helicopter pilot who defected and was threatened with death by masked men in military fatigues on Russian state television — the official said it’s clear Russia’s security services can kill someone in Europe if they really want to. For that reason, the European intelligence official said, targets will never be safe.
“Even if you thwart an operation once, you still need to be ready in case they strike again.”
caused significant damage. Investigators plan to survey other areas to determine if more touched down.
“Pray for Mississippi,”
Gov. Tate Reeves posted online, saying the state Emergency Management Agency was coordinating response efforts.
Debris from the storms closed Interstate 55 and many other roads in Lincoln County. The governor said a volunteer rescue group was providing a 50-person
shelter and supplies to the county, which reported at least 200 damaged homes. Lamar County to the southeast reported about 275 homes damaged, according to the Emergency Management Agency.
Alisha Marbury was teary eyed as she surveyed the wreckage in Bogue Chitto. Still, she counted her community blessed since it appeared no one had died. Many of the people she knew at the trailer park had been away at work, she said.
“God spared us,” Marbury added. “Houses and homes and cars and stuff are replaceable, but your life ain’t.”
PEOPLE stand among debris at Gene’s Mobile Home Supply, a trailer park in Bogue Chitto, Miss, yesterday, after a tornado cut across the state. Photo: Gerald Herbert/AP