THE Department of Environmental Planning and Protection will start assessing a Bahamas Power & Light diesel spill in North Andros within a week, nearly 20 months after large quantities of oil reportedly leaked there.
“We need to see what is going on first to be able to determine if BPL has
complied with the law or not complied with the law,” DEPP Director Dr Rhianna Neely-Murphy said yesterday. “So once we conduct our site assessments, we will be able to get further information.”
It is not clear when DEPP was notified about the leak. Under the Environmental Planning and Protection Act, those who own, operate or
By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net
SEBAS Bastian’s radio station has escaped a fine despite committing multiple violations by broadcasting “sexually explicit” and “offensive, obscene and vulgar language” during prime daytime hours that children may have heard.
The Utilities Regulation
and Competition Authority (URCA), in a July 17, 2023, final determination and order ruled that The Beat 103.5 was guilty of breaching 14 clauses in the Bahamian broadcasting industry’s content code of practice as well as its own licence terms as a result of material that was transmitted on four separate occasions earlier this year.
ATTORNEY General
Ryan Pinder said the government would “repeal and replace” the Commercial Enterprises Act in the next Parliamentary session, eliminating some “objectionable” aspects of the legislation.
THE law came under withering criticism from the Progressive Liberal Party
in opposition, with Prime Minister Philip “Brave” Davis pledging in 2017 to repeal the legislation.
The law allowed enterprises wanting to establish themselves in The Bahamas in niche sectors to get work permits for management and key personnel.
Mr Pinder said the administration would
SEE PAGE THREE
By LEANDRA ROLLE Tribune Staff Reporter lrolle@tribunemedia.net
TOURISTS who accused a taxi driver of defrauding them in a viral video never made a complaint to the police about the incident. Inspector McKell Pinder said the driver –– who released a voice note defending himself –– was questioned, but the investigation cannot proceed without an official complaint.
Her comment came after Transport Minister Jobeth
A 23-YEAR-OLD man and a 20-year-old woman were arrested and accused of manslaughter by negligence in the case of their two-year-old son, who died on Saturday.
Police reported that sometime around 10.30am, while driving in the area of Robinson Road and Old Trail Road, the parents of the child were alerted by other motorists that the child appeared unconscious with his head hanging out of the vehicle’s rear passenger window.
The toddler was removed from the window and taken to the hospital by a private vehicle. He later died.
‘I want to do what is right’
By JADE RUSSELL Tribune Staff Reporter jrussell@tribunemedia.net
A DUMP site in Treasure Cay, Abaco, is so congested with garbage that people are littering the road leading to the area, to the annoyance of residents.
Toran Russell, chairman of the Treasure Cay Township, told The Tribune yesterday the dirt road path leading to the dump site is covered with refuse.
“The road is really bad,” Mr Russell said. “Because the road is bad, we shortcut it and just throw dump anywhere, and now it becomes an eyesore to the tourist, and it’s just not a good look. The disposal of the garbage is not going in the designated areas.”
Pictures shared with The Tribune confirmed the messiness, showing stacks of broken furniture, boxes, glass, wood, debris, and other waste scattered on both sides of a road.
Mr Russell said the
mountains of garbage can be seen from Treasure Cay’s highway.
He said the problem started after Hurricane Dorian in 2019.
“What really caused it is that our old debris site, which is closer to the Treasure Cay airport, was the site that was taking most of the dump,” he said. “That site is closed, so they’re depending on the Treasure Cay dump site. And the road is horrible. If the road can be paved, that would be a big plus.”
Mr Russell said the central government is
in charge of clearing the dump site. A contractor cleans the area monthly.
“Once a month isn’t enough,” Mr Russell said. “Local government doesn’t have any money.”
He said the local government is constructing a building so a dump attendant can work on the site in “humane conditions”.
He said he spoke to North Abaco MP Kirk Cornish about the matter before the MP was charged last week with rape, assault, and death threats involving his ex-girlfriend.
Two residents of Treasure Cay who spoke to
The Tribune anonymously said they could not access the dump site because the pathway was covered with garbage.
“It hasn’t been in this condition in years, and I am very concerned,” said one resident.
Another resident said:
“We cannot access the actual dump site. I need to sound the alarm that the ministry needs to see that this dump site is pushed so that the residents of Treasure Cay and the contractors of Treasure Cay will have someplace to dump their stuff.”
CYNTHIA “Mother”
Pratt said she wants to make a difference and “touch the lives of every Bahamian” as the next governor general.
Prime Minister Philip “Brave” Davis announced yesterday that Mrs Pratt will ascend to the highest office effective September 1. “I want to do what is right,” she told The Tribune yesterday. “I want to make a difference. That’s the bottom line.”
Mrs Pratt, 77, was the member of Parliament for the St Cecilia constituency for 15 years. She was the first woman to be deputy prime minister.
Her appointment as governor general is likely to be accepted by people across political lines. She will be the third woman
governor general in the country’s history.
Yesterday, she said she wants to impact many areas in her new role.
“Overall, I know we do have a number of challenges in our country, but you know there’s nothing that we cannot solve,” she said. “We can do it collectively as a people.
I believe it’s a matter of our people having confidence in us, that they can come and join us, and we can work as a team, not as the governor general sitting over the people like you have a whip in your hand. It’s about inviting the people to join me to help, it’s about the people that you’re leading.”
Since leaving the forefront of politics in 2012, Mrs Pratt said she remained an active churchgoer. She is also a former co-chair of the Urban Renewal Commission.
“As a matter of fact, I hesitated in coming to public life, period, and so right now, I don’t feel anxious about anything,” she said.
“I’m not worried about anything as I know God would lead me and guide me with prayer. With prayer, I would be able to execute my duties.”
Mr Davis said Sir Cornelius A Smith would officially demit office on August 31.
He said Mrs Pratt had made significant contributions to the nursing, education, politics, sports and religious industry.
“I am confident that the appointment of Cynthia Pratt will be widely accepted as a representation of Bahamians everywhere due to the character and contributions which distinguish her as a nationalist of the highest order,” he said.
from page one
“foster the economic development zones component of that” law, but remove the “automatic granting of work permits and the employment aspects of it that are objectionable to us.”
Under the law, a “specified commercial enterprise” can obtain an Investments Board certificate to receive work permits for specific positions.
“We did a full review of that piece of legislation coming into the election,” Mr Pinder said. “In our blueprint for change, you would have noted, we had some objection to that legislation.
“Our objection was focused around the automatic grant of work permits and ensuring that Bahamian employment is protected. However, on a full review of the legislation, we thought there were aspects of it that would be useful for economic development.
“So, it provides for commercial enterprise zones, which would be given some commercial preference in different types of industries. We see that happening in Dubai and Cayman Islands and other countries. So we thought that was a valued piece of the legislation that really needed
to be expanded upon and reformed.
“So, it is on our horizon.”
“Instead of doing a full repeal, we’re taking a more progressive approach on it.”
Amending the Commercial Enterprises Act was a promise the administration reiterated in the 2021 Speech from the Throne.
It also pledged to amend the Education Act to “provide for universal pre-primary education for three and four-year-olds, consolidate the National Accreditation and Equivalency Council of The Bahamas (NAECOB) and the Pre-school and Day Care Council, and specify home-schooling modalities”.
Asked about not executing this commitment, Mr Pinder said: “Well, you know, we have passed over 100 pieces of legislation in less than two years so we’ve been rather aggressive in our legislative agenda. To say that we’re not going to advance something that was in the prior Speech from the Throne would be incorrect. Certainly, we stand by the legislative agenda that was reflected in the first Speech from the Throne, and those items will be addressed in the coming legislative session.”
from page one
Coleby-Davis said her ministry was aware of a video of a tourist accusing a local taxi driver of taking her family’s money and leaving them stranded at the beach.
The woman discussed her encounter with a taxi driver identified as “Cousin Clarence“.
“We paid $30 a person for 18 people to drive us around for the day,” she said in a video. “He said he would take us anywhere we wanted to go for the day. We went to the Queen’s staircase and then he drove us to Junkanoo Beach, where he said he would be back at 3 o’clock to pick us up and never came back to get us.”
“He said we could leave our belongings in his vehicle, and my daughter left her bag with her necklace and her bracelet, which we had just bought from the market by the Queen’s staircase and her sea card to get back on the ship and then he never came back to get us. We had to pay another $70 in taxis to get back to the port.”
The driver, however, claimed he only left the people after they failed to return as scheduled.
“I had these people today on a tour,” he said in a voice note. “It was 18 of them for $30 a person. I been to the fort almost an hour with these people. I must carry them to the beach, come back for them like 3’oclock.”
He said when the people failed to arrive on time, he left.
He said they left nothing on his bus.
“I don’t want nobody think I obligated to stay there and wait until they decide they want to come back,” he said. “That’s not how it work. I running a business.”
However, Wesley Ferguson, president of the Bahamas Taxicab Union, said he was not surprised by the incident.
“I went on record and said the influx of the new taxi drivers, untrained, ungazetted and unregulated, this was going to happen,” he said.
“When you have a sudden uptick in competition, it causes good drivers to turn bad because the competition is now fierce.”
He said incidents of potential fraud could be minimised if the government implemented a code of conduct for taxi drivers.
“There are a bunch of improprieties in this taxi industry right now,” he said, “and we are still awaiting the minister to roll out and to implement this new code of conduct that we announced. This would go a long way in assisting the police and the road traffic supervisor along with the controller and the ministry and the union to basically curtail or to mitigate this kind of behaviour in the future.”
“In the absence of consequences, when there’s no enforcement, the industry is in trouble so you have to have a disciplinary board that acts and acts decisively with due diligence, do their investigations and make sure they’re not taking advantage of the taxi drivers.”
TOURIST who accused a taxi driver - ‘Cousin Clarence’ - of defrauding them in a viral video never made a complaint to the police about the incident. The taxi driver said that when he went to pick them up they failed to show up, and said they left nothing on his bus.
HEALTH and Wellness
Minister Dr Michael Darville said the second phase of renovations to the Princess Margaret Hospital’s accident and emergency section should be completed before the end of October.
Bahamas Nurses Union
President Muriel Lightbourn told The Tribune last week that nurses considered walking off the job amid poor working conditions at PMH.
She claimed the air conditioning in A&E was not working, frustrating nurses who deal with overcrowding and staff shortages.
Yesterday, Dr Darville acknowledged the union’s concerns and said conditions at PMH should improve later this year.
“I’m sure the media is aware that a large portion of the accident and emergency is under active renovation, and as a result of it, the nurses and doctors are working in cramped locations, and it has definitely impacted the smooth flow of the operation at the accident and emergency,” he said before a Cabinet meeting.
“To compound that, there was a problem with the chiller system, which
happens sometimes in the middle of summer. Since then, we have resolved some of those issues, and the renovations of the accident and emergency is moving very rapidly and, hopefully, we are on schedule for that part of the renovations to hand over to the Public Hospital Authority for operation somewhere in October.”
Staff shortages prompted the Public Hospital Authority to issue a notice on Friday, advising non-emergency patients to contact their primary care physician or utilise community clinics for care.
Dr Darville said officials have since seen fewer people visit A&E, easing the burden on workers.
“I can say, yesterday, we had the opportunity to tour the accident and emergency and a lot of pressures that was there some weeks before has now been relieved,” he said. “The accident and emergency goes through waves. Sometimes it’s quiet; sometimes it’s bursting from the seams. We had an incident couple days ago where the challenges were very great to find individuals who have been admitted beds at the Princess Margaret Hospital, and that has settled down to some extent.”
“And the PHA did put
a notice out so that some of those minor cases can be dealt with at our clinics and the private sector rather than people waiting for the middle of the night to address something that really is a primary
healthcare component.”
He encouraged Bahamians seeking non-emergency care to visit community clinics.
“Utilise those facilities because we are renovating the accident
and emergency room, and we ask the Bahamian people to bear with us because, by October, that asset will be in our remit and under our control, which means that we’ll be able to have better spaces,
more leg room, more ability to handle cases and we are looking forward for that new portion of the accident and emergency to come on stream for our doctors and as well as our clients.”
THE inquest into the 2017 police-involved shooting of Ronald Mackey began yesterday, with officers testifying that the 28-year-old fled the scene of an accident and was shot in the back of his head during a car chase.
The victim’s mother, Bethsheba Deveaux, said she identified the victim’s body two days after the shooting. She wept as photos of the body of her only child were shown in court.
Acting Coroner Kara Turnquest Deveaux presided as Sergeant Antoine Sweeting recalled the events that led to Mackey’s death on November 25, 2017.
Sgt Sweeting said he was responding to a traffic accident involving Mackey’s white Honda Accord and a grey vehicle around Fox Hill Road South and Joe Farrington Road. When officers approached Mackey and asked him to turn off his vehicle, Sgt Sweeting said the deceased sped away from the scene when he saw police lights.
A high-speed chase
between Mackey and the police followed. Sgt Sweeting said the defendant swerved and hit at least five cars in an attempt to evade capture.
After Mackey burst past the first police blockade, reportedly hitting speeds up to 80mph, his left front tyre blew out. The officer said Mackey continued to drive away from the police.
Sgt Sweeting said after the deceased rammed through a second police blockade near Bay Lily Drive, he heard a volley of shots that caused him to duck for cover. He said Mackey’s vehicle started decelerating before it hit a traffic light near Savannah Avenue and Golf Course Blvd.
After stopping his police cruiser approximately 50ft from the crash, Sgt Sweeting said he saw Mackey’s body slumped over the centre console. Mackey was pronounced dead later that night at the Princess Margaret Hospital.
Under questioning from K Melvin Munroe, who represents Sgt Fox and Police Constable Dormeus, Sgt Sweeting said that he did not fire his weapon. He also said
that none of the occupants of his cruiser fired or saw the shooting.
During cross-examination from Ryszard Humes, who represents the interests of the deceased’s estate, the officer said his vehicle sustained a crack to the upper windshield during the chase.
Mr Humes noted a discrepancy between Sgt Sweeting’s report and a photo of the police cruiser near the victim’s car. The report indicated that the cruiser was labelled 205, while the car in the photo was numbered 123.
The officer disagreed with the suggestion that it was not his police cruiser photographed at the scene.
He also disagreed with the suggestion that the deceased’s car couldn’t reach 60 to 80 mph speeds with a blown front tyre.
Detective Sergeant Paul Adderley testified that he arrived after the shooting around 10.30pm as a crime scene investigator.
He said he collected 24 9mm bullet casings near the police Taurus cruiser, and one fired bullet from inside the deceased’s car.
D/S Adderley said the vehicle suffered from gunshot damage. He said
the front left side of the car had been smashed in and he observed bullet damage to the front windshield near the driver’s seat. The officer also saw suspected blood and grey matter spread across the passenger seat.
The officer told Mr Humes that no firearm was collected and no bullet casings were found in the car.
When asked if any police firearms were confiscated after the shooting, D/S Adderley said such a decision would depend on the investigating officer’s discretion.
Dr Caryn Sands, forensic pathologist at PMH, testified that Mackey’s cause of death was a headshot wound.
Her autopsy report indicated that the bullet entered the deceased’s head from the right back side before it fragmented in the brain’s left temporal lobe.
Dr Sands also noted that the deceased’s body had lacerations to the back of the neck, which she attributed to bullet fragmentation. She said Mackey’s right eye was also swollen.
Patrick Sweeting marshalled the evidence.
from page one
control premises involving a pollutant spill must notify DEPP, implement an approved contingency plan and work to minimize the threat to human health or the environment.
Randy Butler, the president and a director of Daran Corporation Holdings, a company suing BPL over the leak, expressed outrage yesterday at how long it has taken officials to address the issue, which some fear threatens the environment.
“You have two oil leaks,” he said yesterday, “one was in 2019, the other in 2022. Both were reported to you. If you’re going now to do it when there are possible damages, irreparable damage to the water table and possibly, in fact, people, I don’t know how that is. What would be the purpose of going now? I mean, it’s never too late, but what would you do if you found out that this stuff is already in the water table and moving away to create issues?
What do you do?”
Mr Butler said the media’s coverage of the leak pushed officials to address the problem, calling this “sad” and “very bad optics”. In an affidavit he filed in June, he alleged that he spoke to top DEPP officials about the matter last year, but got no response.
Diesel spills near water bodies can pose significant challenges. The longer it takes to perform remediation activities, the chance increases that the substance would migrate through soil or groundwater and spread.
“I don’t know if they’ve been now ordered to come or they were not ordered to come before, or Androsians are not that important to them,”
Mr Butler said.
“This should have been a simple matter to resolve due to the nature of what are the gallons of diesel fuel.”
Marva Miller, the owner of a property also affected by the spill, said her brother collected diesel from the ground after an earlier spill.
She said she would hire a lawyer.
“I will because I know the land is contaminated with diesel spill and all that stuff,” she said. “If anything happens, we could lose our building, and it’s not good for the building, period.”
BPL, which did not previously disclose the leak, declined to comment on Monday, citing ongoing litigation.
Yesterday, Attorney General Ryan Pinder said his office had not been engaged on the matter.
In May, Daran Corporation Holdings filed a lawsuit that accuses BPL of failing to inform the public about the “serious health risks” associated with the diesel spill.
Job Summary:
Responsibilities
• Conduct research to provide information and support to other teams and departments when required.
• Perform administrative tasks, including the preparation of invoices, estimates, and the scheduling of meetings.
• Monitor and generate reports on the progress of projects.
• the Project Manager.
• project management, and contract management and improvement.
• Advocate for safe, cost-effective, and optimal practices.
• Aid in the formulation and execution of project
By DENISE MAYCOCK Tribune Staff Reporter dmaycock@tribunemedia.netOIL residue found on several Grand Bahama beaches has been sent to the United States for testing to determine the source, Grand Bahama Minister Ginger Moxey said yesterday. She said that clean-up, monitoring and investigations into the incident are
underway to determine where the oil came from.
On August 8, tar washed ashore at Fortune Beach. Residents and visitors encountered oil on their feet and swimsuits while walking the beach. A pet dog was also burned on its paws.
Some have reported oil residue in Gold Rock Creek and old Freetown Beaches in East End.
Minister Moxey said
the government agencies involved include the Department of Environment Planning and Protection, the Department of Environmental Health Services, the Ministry of Transport, the Ministry for Grand Bahama, the Ministry of Tourism, and the Grand Bahama Port Authority Environmental Department.
• Participate in the selection and oversight of contractors, consultants, and vendors.
•
• Conduct regular site visits to oversee work facilitate solutions.
Requirements:
• as Project Management, Business Administration, Enginee
Deadline August 28th, 2023
IN today’s Tribune, we report further on the potential contamination of groundwater in Nicholls Town, North Andros – with the remarkable update that the Department of Environmental Planning and Protection is packing its bags to go and assess the site nearly 20 months after the oil leak there.
In yesterday’s Tribune, we reported the concerns of residents in the area following the leak, which reportedly took place all the way back in January 2022.
The leak took place at a Bahamas Power and Light pipeline, but shockingly BPL did not report the leak to the public.
Worse, when contacted by The Tribune, BPL officials would not even discuss the state of remediation efforts in the area. Their reason? Ongoing litigation, after a lawsuit was launched over that leak, and another said to have taken place in June 2019.
There should be no legal limitation on reporting the state of any clean-up operation – if there has been a concerted effort to carry out any clean-up. It should be in the company’s interests to show the extent of efforts to mop up any spillage and show the lack of damage or impact on nearby communities.
More to the point, this is about people’s health – those living nearby deserve an answer as to whether a cleanup operation has made the water safe to drink or bathe in.
It brings back memories of another gas spill, in 2012, at the Rubis site in Marathon. That generated great controversy – not least of all over the lack of transparency in being forthcoming with residents over the issue. It led to significant criticism of then Marathon MP Jerome Fitzgerald.
This time, BPL is the company involved – but the silence over the alleged spillage remains the same.
For BPL to acknowledge that there is litigation means of course that they knew about it. The company is therefore choosing to stay silent, no matter what that means about leaving local residents
unwarned, and unaware of how long it will be before the situation is remedied.
Environment Minister Vaughn Miller is, it seems, silent again on an environment issue.
And that brings us to the DEPP, for which it is unclear when they were notified about the leak, and whose arrival on the scene in North Andros within the next week is many months too late.
Randy Butler, the president of a company suing BPL over the leak, says that officials were notified of both incidents, the one in 2019 and the other in 2022.
He said: “What would be the purpose of going now? I mean, it’s never too late, but what would you do if you found out that this stuff is already in the water table and moving away to create issues? What do you do?”
He added: “I don’t know if they’ve been now ordered to come or they were not ordered to come before, or Androsians are not that important to them.”
If all is as has been said, there has been ample opportunity to notify the Bahamian public about this spillage –and it has not been done.
There has been plenty of time to carry out full remediation – yet The Tribune was told that remediation was stopped.
There have been many months in which experts such as those at DEPP could have visited to assess the extent of the spillage and the potential damage. Until now, they have not.
Does this seem like all concerned are showing urgency about protecting the health of Bahamians, the environment they live in and ensuring the best for our nation?
Even if BPL wants to cling to the claim of legal action being the reason for not commenting publicly, the spillage reportedly took place in January 2022 and the legal action only began in May this year. There was a long time during which the company could have released details of this spillage.
The government has spoken of cracking down on those who pollute the environment – will it hold BPL to the same standard?
EDITOR, The Tribune.
THE US Embassy Nassau is excited to announce that Freeport, Grand Bahama has been selected as one of 129 cities across Latin America, the Caribbean, and the United States to participate in the Cities Forward programme. The US government has partnered with ICLEILocal Governments for Sustainability, Resilient Cities Catalyst, and the Institute of the Americas to create this flagship urban sustainability initiative. Freeport has been paired with Coral Springs, Florida, to share successes and challenges in priority areas, including, but not limited to, extreme heat, watershed and water resource management, greenhouse gas reduction, renewable energy, mobility/transportation access, green infrastructure and green spaces for underserved communities, circularity and plastics pollution control.
A collaborative partnership, both cities will provide peer-to-peer exchange, capacity building, and diplomatic engagement, focused on implementing projects that solve critical urban challenges around sustainability, inclusivity, and resiliency.
In June 2022, US President Joe Biden and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced the Cities Forward programme at the 9th Summit of the Americas, and officially launched the programme
at the Cities Summit of the Americas on April 27, 2023.
The goals of this initiative are to mitigate pollution, strengthen climate resilience, and improve the health and welfare of underserved populations.
Three key principles will guide Cities Forward. First, it is city-led, with local stakeholders leading the action plan design and local project implementation. Second, the actions taken will benefit the cities’ underserved and under represented residents. And third, solutions derived from this programme will be environmentally, economically, and socially sustainable.
The first phase matched 12 large, medium, and small cities in Latin America and the Caribbean with counterparts in the United States.
The second phase will consist of a multi-stakeholder planning process, training workshops, and networking conferences held in participating cities to help them develop their own sustainability action plans.
In the third phase, Cities Forward will help cities achieve the goals they have set for themselves through tailored connections and partnerships with the private sector, the research and academic community, philanthropies, non-government organi-
sations, development finance entities, multilateral organisations, and US government agencies. Best practices from phase two will be shared with more than 50 cities across the hemisphere through an online training platform called the Cities Forward Academy. The selected cities in the Western Hemisphere and their identified pairings are as follows:
Freeport, The Bahamas + Coral Springs, Florida, United States. Montego Bay, Jamaica + Hoboken, New Jersey, United States. Guatemala City, Guatemala + Dallas, Texas, United States. Cartagena, Colombia + Denver, Colorado, United States. Cali, Colombia + Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Fortaleza, Brazil + Hawaii County, Hawaii, United States. Manaus, Brazil + Stockton, California, United States. Rosario, Argentina + Chattanooga, Tennessee, United States. Mérida, Mexico + Austin, Texas, United States. Hermosillo, Mexico + Dubuque, Iowa, United States. Ambato, Ecuador + Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Renca, Chile + Evanston, Illinois, United States.
US EMBASSY
Nassau
August 15, 2023
After Minister of Social Services Obie Wilchcombe invited groups to offer comments on the Protection Against Violence Bill recently passed by Parliament, readers of www. tribune242.com had their views on the matter.
Sickened said: “Aren’t these the same concerns voiced over and over again? But only now they will consider incorporating them? Jokers!”
Birdiestrachan countered: “The FNM government had sufficent time to pass this bill where was ms Bostwick?”
Rosiepi said: “Ms Bostwick-Dean, Ms Wilson et al are right to push for these basic human needs, the problem is the “they” reference constantly used by said Minister and his fellows, “They were very concerned about the emphasis in the previous draft bill,” and “they want”. If “we’re all on the same page” why not say so?
“We’re very concerned about protective care for women on an island where violence against women
(and girls) is endemic and epidemic. We know that all the laws and provisions we enact are toothless unless we use their power as stated- to stop violence against women and their children. And we shall do so”.
TrueBahamian added:
“I haven’t been following this discussion fully but I hope they carefully the legislation where a victim ismt only considered to be women. Although, women more than men would be victims of gender violence, men can also be as well.”
Readers also spoke up on the Tribune’s assessment over the government’s accomplishments and its remaining agenda as Parliament was prorogued.
Birdiestrachan said: “Roman was not built in a
day and God the all mighty took 6 days, God could have accomplished all in one day but he took six there is a lesson in it.”
Exposed02C said: “The Tribune is obviously much too dependent on government advertising dollars to report the truth about the many legislative bills that have been indefinitely shelved. And just think, government shovels to The Tribune, in the form of paid advertising, a lot of the hard earned money it takes from us taxpayers.
“And of course, The Tribune always chooses to suppress as much bad news as possible about the government for fear of losing some of those valuable advertising dollars that government throws their way as its biggest advertising customer.”
ThisisOurs added: “Passing Bills is their job. The fact that they have a super majority makes passing a bill even less significant. What else?”
GRAND Bahama Minister Ginger Moxey said Carnival’s Cruise Port project is on track to be ready to open in 2025. The project which is going to be located at the Sharp Rock area of Grand Bahama is expected to be one of the world’s largest cruise ports when completed. The drawing to the right is a preliminary development plan, the final master plan has not yet been completed.
A MAN accused of a spree of sexual assaults in Carmichael earlier this year was sentenced to 24 months in prison after admitting he had a gun in his room.
Magistrate Lennox Coleby sentenced Seantino Rolle, 27, on charges of possession of an unlicensed firearm and possession of ammunition.
Sean Rolle, 49, Adolice Rolle, 53, and Nessta Petit-Frere were Seantino’s co-accused.
Rolle was arrested on May 16 after the police found a black Smith & Wesson 40mm pistol in his room on Lincoln Blvd.
The seized weapon had seven unfired rounds of ammunition.
After Rolle reversed his earlier position and pleaded guilty to the charge, the firearm charges against his three co-accused were withdrawn.
Rolle was sentenced to 24 months at the Bahamas Department of Correctional Services for the offence.
During his initial arraignment, Rolle was also charged in relation to a string of sexual assaults that allegedly happened in May. He was charged with attempted rape, three counts of rape and two counts of forcible taking or detention with intent to have unlawful sexual intercourse.
A 33-year-old Freeport woman was charged with two counts of conspiracy to possess a firearm with intent to endanger the lives of two people.
She was also charged with conspiracy to cause public terror.
Treigh Newbold appeared before Magistrate LaQuay Laing.
It is alleged that on June 27, the accused, being concerned with another, conspired to possess a firearm with intent to endanger the lives of Glen Smith and Jonathan Cooper.
It is also alleged that on the same date and place, the accused, being concerned with another, conspired to cause public terror.
Paco Deal represented Newbold, who pleaded not guilty to the charges. Police prosecutor
Sergeant Calsey Arthur did not object to bail. The woman must avoid contact with the witnesses and sign in weekly to the nearest police station.
Sergeant Arthur also informed the court that the male co-accused could not appear in court due to exposure to COVID while in custody at Central Police Station. He said the accused is in quarantine for seven days.
Mr Deal argued that his client is an upstanding citizen and the mother of a child suffering from sickle cell and sometimes has to travel outside the jurisdiction for medical treatment in the United States.
Magistrate Laing ordered Newbold to sign in once a month on the first Wednesday to the Southwestern (Port Lucaya) Police Station. She was granted $8,000 bail with three suretors. The case was adjourned to September 1, 2023.
By DENISE MAYCOCK Tribune Staff Reporter dmaycock@tribunemedia.netGRAND Bahama Minister Ginger Moxey said Carnival’s cruise port in Grand Bahama is on track to open in the summer of 2025.
“Plans are coming along
very well and we know that there is a lot of excitement,” she told reporters yesterday before a Cabinet meeting. “It is going to provide so many entrepreneurial and new job opportunities.” When asked about the number of retail spaces reserved for Bahamians, she could not say because
Carnival has not yet completed the master plan for the project.
The project, located at the Sharp Rock site, is expected to be one of the world’s largest cruise ports, with the capacity to accommodate two of Carnival’s largest ships, the Mardi Gras and Carnival
Celebration, which each carry up to 6,000 guests. Ms Moxey said discussions are ongoing between the parties regarding Royal Caribbean’s cruise port development at Freeport Harbour. Plans for the new airport development are continuing to progress, she said.
AS parents and guardians prepare to send children back to school, the usual conversations for this time of year are coming up. People are asking where they can find the best prices on school supplies. Some are asking about tax-free days and when they will be announced if they are happening at all this year. Hair appointments are being made, shoes are being purchased, eye exams are taking place (for those who made their appointments early enough), and traffic is already increasing as at least one school has already opened.
The heat has also intensified. There have been daily complaints about the heat. This has, of course, been a part of the conversations about the exponential increase in electricity bills for many. Many say that they cannot make it without air conditioning for at least a few hours every day. People who do not have functioning air conditioning in their cars speak of their plight. It is not easy. Every year, we talk about the summer being the hottest we have ever experienced. Perhaps we are not yet ready to acknowledge that, every year, it is also the coolest summer we will ever have. It is only getting hotter. Heat and the reopening of school converge, and someone asked a very good question in a Facebook group yesterday. “When you do you think shorts will become the school uniform for girls?” It was easy to guess what the replies would
By Alicia Wallacebe like because people are quick to turn any suggestion that change needs to take place into a danger. The danger they manifest is usually a threat to an old system that does not serve the people, but they usually manage to frame it as a threat to a group of people that they can convince the masses we need to “protect” from the invented danger. At present, most school uniforms for girls include a skirt of a thick and heavy material. Many of them are plaid, and many of them are dark. Dark colours absorb heat. The colour and the fabric combine to make for very uncomfortable attire for girls who are expected to pay attention in class, behave well, and get good grades. Looking at social media over the past few months and recalling our own conversations with family members, friends, and colleagues, we can admit that discomfort affects our ability to function. When it is hot, it is difficult to concentrate and can be nearly impossible to undertake our regular activities, even as adults.
Why are children expected to push through the discomfort of heat, sweat, and damp clothes? Why do girls have to wear
skirts made from fabric that is completely incompatible with our climate? Why are girls required to wear skirts at all? When, as the person who made the post asked, will girls be able to wear shorts? They are, at least, made of a lighter material and attract less heat. They also tend to be more comfortable for many reasons. I can remember, for example, almost all of the girls in my class wearing shorts under skirts to protect against a number of possible occurrences. This continues for students today. They are easier to wash, iron, and generally maintain. They also come with pockets!
When will girls be able to wear shorts?
One person who makes a point of making the most ridiculous comments possible asked, “Short shorts?”
Short shorts are obviously not what the person was referring to, and this commenter wanted to detract from the point being made and pave the way for more ignorant responses that sexualise girls’ bodies rather than recognise that girls have the right to be comfortable in their bodies and the clothes they wear.
It is interesting that a number of people asked about skorts. It is unclear
This is a rare and exciting opportunity to join an outstanding and ambitious founding team at Inspired’s new premium school in Nassau, The Bahamas.
We are looking for a SEN teacher and leader who brings a dedication to supporting the thriving of each student, a forward-thinking attitude and outstanding experience of best practice across the sector.
You will be able to demonstrate experience in coordinating and delivering outstanding SEN provision in an academically ambitious environment, and in working collaboratively with a team of dedicated educators to design and implement personalised learning plans and inclusivity strategies.
The successful candidate will be providing one on one or small group support to students with SEN, whilst also building the foundations for a thriving department which will grow with the school. As such, the ideal candidate would have a strong background in Special Education, with a proven track record in coordinating and delivering SEN provision in an academically ambitious environment.
In addition to a relevant degree and a SENCO qualifcation, it is preferable for the ideal candidate to also have a postgraduate degree in special education or a related feld, and a Level 7 qualifcation or equivalent, allowing them to diagnose dyslexia and dyscalculia.
A willingness to participate fully in the co-curricular life of the School is expected. King’s College School, The Bahamas, offers a vibrant learning community, already renowned for its high academic standards, and committed to inclusion and the holistic development of every student. The school will offer the highest quality modern facilities in a new purpose-built state-of-the-art facility on an expansive 10-acre campus, ensuring that students beneft from a learning environment that has been designed for how students learn in the modern day.
Facilities include football pitches, tennis and Padel courts, as well as dance, drama, and art studios. There will also be state-of-the-art science labs, a multi-purpose hall, a 25m competition swimming pool, an adventure park playground, and plenty of green spaces and shaded areas for students to enjoy.
Job Description
The SENCO is line-managed directly by the Founding Principal and is directly responsible for ensuring that pupils who are registered as having, or show symptoms of, Special Educational Needs are identifed and then supported as fully and appropriately as possible across all year groups. The role holder will deliver one-on-one or small group support initially, whilst also establishing a thriving SEN department which will grow with the school. Some of the responsibilities or the role will be:
To support individuals and small groups of students.
To work alongside the class teachers to help to identify pupils who may have Special Educational Needs through the use of initial in-house diagnostic tests and refer children to an Educational Psychologist for diagnostic testing whenever necessary.
To work collaboratively with colleagues to ensure all SEN pupils’ needs are met fully at all times, also by creating, preparing and implementing Individual Learning Plans (ILPs) for pupils identifed as having Special Educational Needs.
To ensure the details of all ILPs are recorded on iSams and updated regularly and are shared appropriately with class teachers.
To arrange and attend meetings with parents and teachers.
To advise the teaching staff on the support for SEN pupils through targeted and specifc differentiation, including by leading regular INSET for staff on SEN matters and by participating in the drawing of the school development plan.
When joining King’s College School you will join the family of the awardwinning Inspired Education Group, the leading global group of premium schools, with over 80 schools operating in 23 countries. We offer a competitive salary and benefts and access to best practice and career pathways with some of the very best schools worldwide. To apply please send a CV and letter of motivation to admin@kingscollegeschool.bs
Why are children expected to push through the discomfort of heat, sweat, and damp clothes? Why do girls have to wear skirts made from fabric that is completely incompatible with our climate?
why, when the question is raised about shorts, people either countered with “skorts“. Is it because they think it would be more acceptable for girls to be seen to be wearing skirts or articles of clothing that at least look like skirts?
One commenter said, “It will show off too much of their shape, with [skirts] on these boys will be admiring you.” They went on to say, “Imagine pants where you could see the real shape.” Even more devastatingly, they said, “Even the male teacher wouldn’t be able to keep his eyes [off] his students, some of these little [girls] already shape like woman, looking for trouble.” The comment ended with a smiley face.
Another commenter responded: “If an adult male can’t control his eyes from staring at a child’s body in a sexual way then he need not work with children, because regardless of their shape, they are children.”
Someone else said: “In 2020 we still talking about girls shapes and what they possible invoke or evoke in boys and men! Y’all cannot be serious. It is 1000 degrees outside [and] these antiquated skirts and blouse and neckties and long pants are going to suffocate and kill these poor children. Train your young men then we will not be having these types of discussions. If you think sexual assault, rape, or indecent assault is about shape, some of yinna need to be educated.”
One person suggested that shorts are “a good suggestion for the young kids”, but that it “might be distracting for the older ones”.
Another commenter said: “We want our young ladies to accept how they look and have high self esteem, yet we blame them for other people looking at them in an inappropriate manner.”
The danger is not shorts. The danger is not girls’ bodies. The danger is not “shape”. The danger is misogyny and rape culture. What is being threatened by this idea of girls having the option to wear shorts is colonial ideas about dress. We have, for far too long, allowed people who did not live in The Bahamas
or experience its yearround heat to dictate dress codes that are completely inappropriate. What is considered professional in The Bahamas is dark colours, long sleeves, suits, neckties, pantyhose, and closed-in shoes, and it is ridiculous. This was allowed to filter into school uniforms for children. We have sevenyear-old children sitting in classrooms with shirts buttoned up to their necks and neckties on. Why? What is the reason for trying to preserve what is old, unsuitable, and physically uncomfortable? We need to choose climate-appropriate fabric. We need to reduce the cost of uniforms. We need to allow children to be children, and not constrained by unnecessary articles of clothing or ruled by the misogyny or predatory behaviour of adults. We need to take the responsibility for teaching children that their bodies are their own and that no one, in any position, has the right to make them feel uncomfortable at any age.
We should be concerned about our children’s sense of self, physical comfort and safety, and ability to learn and participate in school activities. We should not be distracted
by the people who are sick enough to think that girls wearing shorts rather than skirts are “distracting” or will be somehow disadvantaged or preyed upon. We have social ills to address. We have education to provide. We need to do them both at the same time, and one must not be at the expense of the other. Someone in the comments on the post about girls wearing shorts said that it would probably happen “the same time you are allowed to set foot in the Department of Immigration in shorts or a tank top”. We are so accustomed to being policed as adults who are supposedly free that many do not bat an eye at the policing, adultification, and sexualisation of children. Shorts are not the danger. “Standards” are not being threatened. Old, useless systems are being challenged, and the people who benefit from them - in various waysdo not like it. Let them be uncomfortable. Increase the comfort of the children. Make changes to uniforms, adapting to our climate and classrooms. Do away with foolish ideas of “professional dress”. Just because it has been doesn’t mean it must be.
1. Ladies First: A Story of Women in HipHop. This four-part docuseries explores the ways women shaped and changed hip-hop. It is an education on the contributions of and the trials faced by women in hip-hop, and how they have been celebrated, wronged, recognized, and/or erased. You’re probably familiar with Queen Latifah, and maybe you’ve heard of MC Lyte, but do you know Sha-Rock? Do you remember Rah Digga? Do you know how Roxanne Shanté entered hip-hop and how male rappers responded? See how Lauryn Hill and Missy Elliott paved the way for the artists dominating radio, streaming services, and playlists today.
2. Feminist Book Club . Equality Bahamas and Poinciana Paper Press have been reading together all year. On August 24, members will meet to discuss Assembly by Natasha Brown. In September, they will read and discuss Bitter by Akwaeke Emery. Sign up for more information: tiny.cc/fbc2023.
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) —
Almost a week after the Apple faithful collectively gasped at the first evidence that the iPhone’s red “end call” button might soon be vacating its centre position to take up residence one column to the right, it looks like it might have been mostly a false alarm. The initial shock followed the release of last week’s test, or beta, version of iOS 17, the next major update of the iPhone’s operating software. That’s where users first saw the end-call button, which has traditionally lived in splendid isolation centred well below function buttons such as “mute,” “keypad” and “speaker,” instead joining its peers and taking a more assimilated position in the lower right-hand corner of a six-button block.
THE APPLE iPhone 13 is displayed on its first day of sale, in 2021.
Now, though, images of the latest iOS 17 beta shared by multiple
Associated Press
TRUTH OR CONSE-
QUENCES, N.M. (AP)
— Virgin Galactic rocketed to the edge of space with its first tourists Thursday, a former British Olympian who bought his ticket 18 years ago and a motherdaughter duo from the Caribbean.
The space plane glided back to a runway landing at Spaceport America in the New Mexico desert, after a brief flight that gave passengers a few minutes of weightlessness.
This first private customer flight had been delayed for years; its success means
Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic can now start offering monthly rides, joining Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin and Elon Musk’s SpaceX in the space tourism business.
“That was by far the most awesome thing I’ve ever done in my life,” said Jon Goodwin, who competed in canoeing in the 1972 Olympics.
Goodwin, 80, was among the first to buy a Virgin Galactic ticket in 2005 and feared, after later being diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, that he’d be out of luck.
Since then he’s climbed Mount Kilimanjaro and cycled back down, and said he hopes his spaceflight shows others with
Parkinson’s and other illnesses that “it doesn’t stop you doing things.”
Ticket prices were $200,000 when Goodwin signed up. The cost is now $450,000.
He was joined on the flight by sweepstakes winner Keisha Schahaff, 46, a health coach from Antigua, and her daughter, Anastatia Mayers, 18, a student at Scotland’s University of Aberdeen. They high-fived and pumped their fists as the spaceport crowd cheered their return. “A childhood dream has come true,” said Schahaff, who took pink Antiguan sand up with her. Added her daughter: “I have no words.
The only thought I had the whole time was ‘Wow!’ “
media sites shows the red button right back in the centre of the phone dialpad, pretty close to where it’s long staked out its territory. But it’s still not alone; now it’s in the second row, centre seat of that six button block, where it appears to be daring you to try hanging up without also opening the keypad or accidentally adding another participant to your call.
To be fair, it’s always difficult to draw firm conclusions from beta software releases, which are intended both to help engineers hunt down bugs and to gauge user reaction to changes large and small. So they’re a bit experimental by nature, and some experiments fare better than others. But we don’t have much choice but to speculate whether the endcall button’s wanderings have come to an end. Apple typically doesn’t comment on its design process — or much of anything else — and did not reply to a request for comment from The Associated Press.
AMAZON is rolling out a new generative AI feature that summarises product reviews for customers.
The feature, which the company began testing earlier this year, is designed to help shoppers determine at a glance what other customers said about a product before they spend time reading through individual reviews. It will pick out common themes and summarise them in a short paragraph on the product detail page.
The company wrote in a blog post published Monday that the AI-generated reviews are now available to a subset of mobile shoppers in the U.S. across a “broad” selection of products. And it may be expanded to more shoppers and additional categories of products in the “coming months” based on customer feedback, said Vaughn Schermerhorn, Amazon’s director of community shopping.
PASSENGERS during Virgin Galactic’s first space tourism
flight on Thursday. The space plane glided back to a runway landing at Spaceport America in the New Mexico desert, after a brief flight that gave passengers a few minutes of weightlessness. (Virgin Galactic via AP)
MEMBERS of the Easy Car Sales technical team recently attended a two-week course on service and support of JAC brand electric vehicles (EV) in Santiago, Chile, and returned with top marks, distinguishing themselves over all the other students in attendance. Representatives from several JAC dealerships in Latin America participated in a series of theory and practical hands-on sessions in EV evaluation, diagnosis and repair of JAC fully electric vehicles now available in The Bahamas.
Lead EV technician Dwight Laing described the intensive course as challenging: “We know a lot from experience over the past five or six years of working on BYD electric vehicles, but every brand is a little different,” he said.
“We got to open the lithium phosphate battery and we worked with the modules and learned about their functions. That was interesting.”
Ransford Malcolm, who earned a Bachelor of Science Degree in Electrical Engineering Technology from the University of The Bahamas and now serves as one of the EV techs at Easy Car Sales, said: “I loved it! I really got to use my college education on this course, understanding the electrical circuits and how to make sure the new JAC vehicles work at their best for our customers.”
But the most challenging aspect might have been that the course was held in Spanish, which meant that Dwight and Ransford also made good use of the Google Translate
App to ace their exams, and now they can maintain the JAC vehicles in two languages. Established in 1964, JAC says its mission is to deliver best quality automobiles and top craftmanship to global users.
It now has a footprint in more than
130 countries including The Bahamas, and to date, JAC has delivered over 10 million vehicles globally. Last year, it sold more than 500,000 units. In 2010, the firm started manufacturing New Energy Vehicles (NEVs). It has partnered with 40 Fortune 500 companies around the globe for a
greener future in transportation.
JAC’s fully electric sedans, SUVs, cargo and passenger vans are now in stock at Easy Car Sales on Gladstone Road. Visit www.easy242.com to book your test drive and enter for your chance to win a tablet in a weekly drawing.
The Seattle-based company has been looking for ways to integrate more artificial intelligence into its product offerings as the generative AI race heats up among tech companies. Amazon hasn’t released its own high-profile AI chatbot or imaging tool. Instead, it’s been focusing on services that will allow developers to build their own generative AI tools on its cloud infrastructure AWS ford lures a pple executi V e to oV ersee its new software subscription serV ices unit
DETROIT (AP) — Ford has hired away a key Apple executive to run a new business unit that will sell software-related subscription services to vehicle owners.
The Dearborn, Michigan, automaker said Monday it hired Peter Stern, who was Apple’s vice president of services. He’ll be president of Ford Integrated Services, a unit that will combine software and hardware into services.
At Apple, Stern oversaw Apple TV plus, iCloud storage, Apple Books, the arcade and fitness operations and other businesses, Ford said in a statement Monday.
Stern started Monday and reports directly to CEO Jim Farley.
Stern also will expand Ford’s BlueCruise hands-free partially automated driving system, as well as productivity and safety and security services, the statement said.
Asked if people are getting tired of paying for subscription services, Stern said people will buy single services and bundles as long as they see the value.
“When we do that right, customers will sign up not only for individual, ala carte services, but I think we’ll also create bundles of services that make it really easy for customers to get the most out of their vehicles,” he said.
IN A brief ceremony held at the Royal Bahamas Defence Force’s (RBDF) Coral Harbour Base, participants of the Force Recon Graduation were awarded certificates to commemorate their successful completion of the intensive training programme.
This rigorous course which included 26 participants from both the Defence Force and Bahamas Department of Correctional Services (BDOCS) spans nine weeks from June 5 to August 3a and is a milestone for new personnel entering the Commando Squadron Department. There were 17 graduates, including six individuals from BDOCS who started the course, and four who completed it.
NEW YORK
Associated Press
TES T IMONY from FTX founder S am Bankman-Fried’s “trusted inner circle” of former executives at his collapsed cryptocurrency empire will be used to prove at an O ctober trial that he misappropriated billions of dollars from his investors to fuel his businesses, make illegal campaign contributions and enrich himself, prosecutors said M onday.
Prosecutors made the assertions in papers filed in M anhattan federal court, where BankmanFried is charged with defrauding investors in his businesses and illegally diverted millions of dollars’ worth of cryptocurrency from customers using his FTX exchange.
He has pleaded not guilty.
The court filing, in which prosecutors describe evidence they plan to present to jurors, came three days after Bankman-Fried was sent to a federal jail in Brooklyn to await trial by Judge Lewis A. Kaplan, who said there was probable cause to believe he had tried to tamper with witness testimony at least twice since his December arrest.
I t also came on the same day that prosecutors filed a streamlined indictment that contains the seven charges Bankman-Fried faces at the O ct. 2 trial — but there’s no longer a campaign finance charge for now, though it could go to trial later if they are found to conform with the terms of an extradition treaty with the Bahamas. S till, prosecutors said in the latest indictment that Bankman-Fried misappropriated customer money to help fund over $100 million in political contributions in advance of the 2022 election. The indictment said he sought to “maximize FTX’s political influence” and use
“these connections with politicians and government officials to falsely burnish the public image of FTX as a legitimate exchange.” Late M onday, Bankman-Fried’s lawyers filed their own court papers related to trial evidence.
I n them, they asked that the trial judge exclude evidence about the FTX bankruptcy, the solvency of FTC and its affiliated trading platform, Alameda Research, and their ability to pay customers back.
They also asked that the judge ban prosecutors from telling jurors that Bankman-Fried resigned from FTX. They said they may oppose the prosecution’s plans to introduce evidence related to severed or withdrawn counts, such as the campaign finance charge.
Before Friday, Bankman Fried, 31, had been living with his parents in Palo Alto, California, after signing a $250 million personal recognizance bond following his extradition from the Bahamas last December.
Prosecutors recently sought his detention, saying he had tried to intimidate his former girlfriend, Caroline E llison — the onetime C EO of Alameda Research — by releasing some of her writing to a journalist.
O n M onday, the government said they would rely on testimony from E llison, FTX co-founder Gary Wang and former FTX engineering chief N ishad S ingh to show jurors “the unlawful conduct directed and undertaken by the defendant.”
All three have pleaded guilty to criminal charges in cooperation agreements with the government that could earn them leniency at sentencing.
Prosecutors said they “formed the defendant’s trusted inner circle during the course of the conspiracy” and their testimony
Associated Press
THE FOURTH indict-
ment of former President
Donald Trump may be the most sweeping yet.
The sprawling, 98-page case unveiled late Monday night opens up fresh legal ground and exposes more than a dozen of Trump’s allies to new jeopardy.
But it also raises familiar legal issues of whether the First Amendment allows a politician to try to overturn an election. Already, Trump and his supporters are alleging the indictment is the product of a politicized, corrupt process to hobble him as he competes for the GOP nomination to face President Joe Biden next year.
Here are some takeaways from Monday’s indictment:
THE BIG ONE
This may be the last of the Trump indictments, but it was the big one. The indictment lists 18 defendants in addition to Trump, all joined together by Georgia’s unusual anti-racketeering, or RICO, law.
Many of the defendants aren’t even based in Georgia. The betterknown defendants include former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and attorney Sidney Powell, who appeared in numerous hearings and on television spreading false claims about unfounded incidents of purported election fraud.
Giuliani and Powell were among the unnamed coconspirators in the federal indictment against Trump for his push to overturn the election that was released earlier this month.
Others, however, had to date escaped mention in charging documents, like Trump’s then-chief of staff Mark Meadows, who was on the call during which Trump urged Georgia election officials to “find” him the votes he needed to be declared winner of the state.
Other defendants include Mike Roman, a Trump campaign official who the indictment alleges helped arrange slates of fake Trump electors whose votes Congress could count rather than those of the actual appointed ones for the winner of the election, President Joe Biden. Another person charged is Jenna Ellis, who has become a prominent conservative legal personality after working on the Trump campaign and helping spread Trump’s false allegations of widespread fraud.
The charges also fall upon several Georgia players, including Ray Smith and Robert Cheeley, lawyers working for Trump in Georgia, and David Shafer, then the state GOP chairman, for serving as a fake Trump elector along with fellow co-defendants Shawn Still, then the state GOP finance chairman, and Cathleen Alston Latham.
Critics may argue this is an overreach for a local prosecutor’s office. But the Georgia RICO statute gives Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’ office the ability to construct a wide-ranging narrative by citing and charging other players in the alleged wrongdoing, even those out of state.
Some legal analysts think that Jack Smith, the federal prosecutor who filed the earlier charges against Trump for trying to overturn the election, didn’t charge people identified as co-conspirators in his case, like Giuliani, because he is aiming for a trial as quickly – and with as much time as possible before the 2024 presidential election — as feasible.
Willis on Monday night said she hoped for a trial date in six months. But her office is taking a notably different, more sweeping approach from the more streamlined federal indictment. She vowed that she would seek to try all 19 defendants together.
THE FIRST AMENDMENT ARGUMENT
Trump is expected to employ a similar defence in both the earlier federal indictment and the Fulton County case. He and his supporters contend he’s being charged simply for
speaking up against what he saw as an unfair election and practicing politics as usual.
But it’s not clear that defence will work.
Indeed, some of the 161 acts that prosecutors contend were part of the conspiracy to overturn may sound like protected political machinations in isolation – emails and texts about meetings of people contending to be Trump electors, tweets about alleged voter fraud, even the filing of a lawsuit in Georgia challenging the election outcome.
But the indictment argues they were all steps in what it calls “a conspiracy to unlawfully change the outcome of the election in favour of Trump.”
For example, it alleges that those fake elector meetings were part of an attempt to convince Georgia state lawmakers to “unlawfully” appoint the phony Trump electors, rather than the Biden ones they were bound to by law.
The indictment contends the tweets about phony voter fraud and even the lawsuit were part of a similar scheme. And, finally, it says some of the lies trying to persuade Georgia’s top election official, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, and Gov. Brian Kemp to declare Trump the victor could be considered another crime under state law, solicitation of violation
of oath by a public officer.
DOCUMENT DRAMA
A document briefly posted to the Fulton County Clerk’s Office website earlier Monday snagged the day’s proceedings and gave Trump a window to further disparage the case against him.
People were still waiting to testify before the grand jury when Reuters reported on a document listing criminal charges to be brought against Trump, including state racketeering counts, conspiracy to commit false statements and solicitation of violation of oath by a public officer.
Reuters, which later published a copy of the document, said the filing was taken down quickly. A spokesperson for Willis said the report of charges being filed was “inaccurate,” but declined to comment further. A statement subsequently released by the Fulton County courts clerk called the posted document “fictitious,” but failed to explain how it got on the court’s website.
Trump and his allies immediately seized on the apparent error to claim that the process was rigged. Trump’s campaign aimed to fundraise off it, sending out an email with the since-deleted document embedded.
“The Grand Jury testimony has not even
FINISHED — but it’s clear the District Attorney has already decided how this case will end,” Trump wrote in the email, which included links to give money to his campaign. “This is an absolute DISGRACE.”
Trump’s legal team said it was not a “simple administrative mistake.” Rather, it was “emblematic of the pervasive and glaring constitutional violations which have plagued this case from its very inception,” said lawyers Drew Findling, Jennifer Little and Marissa Goldberg.
The sheer number of investigations, criminal cases and lawsuits brought against Trump are unprecedented for a former president. The same could be said for the tens of millions of dollars in legal fees paid out to attorneys representing him and his allies, straining the finances of his campaign.
An Associated Press analysis of recent fundraising disclosures shows Trump’s political committees have paid out at least $59.2 million to more than 100 lawyers and law firms since January 2021.
The threat posed by this colossal drain of resources has led Trump’s allies to establish a new legal defence fund, the Patriot Legal Defence Fund.
WASHINGTON
Associated Press
A LEGAL showdown over the derailed plea deal for Hunter Biden continued Tuesday as prosecutors asserted that an agreement on a gun charge is dead along with the rest of the deal as the case makes a major shift into a special counsel investigation.
While the agreement that was supposed to have wrapped up the longrunning investigation of President Joe Biden’s son largely unravelled during a contentious court hearing last month, prosecutors said the two sides had continued to negotiate until the defence rejected their final counterproposal the day before US Attorney David Weiss asked to be named special counsel.
Lawyers for Hunter Biden have argued that prosecutors reneged on an agreement on tax charges but said a separate
agreement sparing him prosecution on a gun charge remains valid. The agreement on the gun charge also contains an immunity clause against federal prosecutions for some other potential crimes.
Prosecutors denied reneging on any deal. While the agreement on the gun charge was signed by a prosecutor, probation agents didn’t sign it and so it never became valid, they argued.
The conflict is now in front of US District Judge Maryellen Noreika, who is weighing the prosecution’s motion to pull the tax misdemeanour charges they filed and potentially file them in another court like California or Washington.
Biden’s defence attorney on the case, Christopher Clark, also filed to withdraw from the case Tuesday, saying that he could be called as a witness over the negotiation and drafting of the deal and cannot also act as his lawyer. He’s been replaced by another Hunter
Biden attorney, Abbe Lowell.
The plea agreement had been decried as a “sweetheart deal” by Republicans who are pursuing their own congressional investigations into nearly every facet of Biden’s business dealings and the Justice Department’s handling of the case.
The agreement had originally called for Biden to plead guilty to failing to pay taxes on over $1.5 million in income in both 2017 and 2018, and get probation rather than jail on the misdemeanour counts. A separate agreement was to spare him prosecution on the felony crime of being a drug user in possession of a gun in 2018 if he kept out of trouble for two years.
Attorney General Merrick Garland’s surprise announcement last week of Weiss as special counsel raised fresh questions about the case ahead of the 2024 election. Hunter Biden’s history of drug
use and financial dealings have trailed the political career of his father.
The case comes against the backdrop of the Justice Department’s indictments against former President Donald Trump — Joe Biden’s chief rival in next year’s election.
Trump has been indicted and is awaiting trial in two
separate cases brought by special prosecutor Jack Smith. One is over Trump’s refusal to turn over classified documents stored at his Mar-a-Lago estate. The other involves charges of fraud and conspiracy to overturn the 2020 election in the run-up to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol.
In the case of Hunter Biden, prosecutors have not made any accusations or charges against the president in probing the affairs of his son. House Republicans have been trying to connect Hunter Biden’s work to his father, but have not been able to produce evidence to show wrongdoing.
By BRENT STUBBS Senior Sports Reporter bstubbs@tribunemedia.net
MVP JONES’ DOUBLE DOUBLE LEADS LIBERTY TO WIN
By TENAJH SWEETING Tribune Sports Reporter tsweeting@tribunemedia.net
s she gets set to compete in her fourth World Championships, Devynne Charlton is hoping that she will finally get her breakthrough as a medallist in the women’s 100 metres hurdles on the senior global stage.Charlton, 27, will be part of the Bahamas’ 11-member delegation that will be in Budapest, Hungary, this week to participate in the championships, scheduled for August 19-27.
The team will be led by defending women’s 400 metre champion Shaunae Miller-Uibo, men’s Olympic champion Steven Gardiner, sprinter Anthonique Strachan, versatile Charisma Taylor and javelin thrower Rhema Otabor, quarter-miler Alonzo Russell, sprinter Terrence Jones, veteran high jumper Donald Thomas, long jumper LaQuan Nairn and hurdler Shakeem Hall-Smith.
Laketah Charlton will be the team leader, assisted by Tito Moss, the track coach, while Corrington Maycock will be the throws coach. Keir Miller will travel as the team doctor and Pharez Cooper will be the physiotherapist.
Charlton, coming off her season’s best performance of 12.62 seconds on August 4 at the Wolfe Track and Field Complex in Memphis, Tennessee, said she’s ready for Budapest.
“I had my first practice session since I got in. It went pretty well and so I’m ready to go,” said Charlton, who is already in Budapest. “The conditions here are great, the weather is warm.
“That’s the kind of conditions that I look forward to competing in. So I’m really looking forward to turning in some pretty good times and hopefully it will get me to achieve my goals.”
In her World Athletics’ preview, Charlton is just listed as a contender for the event, but she said
it’s not going to bother her because she’s looking forward to improving on her seventh place finish at her fourth appearance at the championships last year in Eugene, Oregon.
“Usually coming into the championships, I’m not normally considered to be a contender for a medal, so it doesn’t phase me out,”
she said. “I know what type of shape I’m in so it’s just a matter of me going out there and executing on that day.”
Without divulging too much information, Charlton said the goal is to get on the podium and bring home some of the hardware.
“I’m definitely looking forward to something
special,” said Charlton, who ended her season last year as the Commonwealth Games and NACAC Championship silver medallist. She noted that the field of competitors is expected to be intense as usual, with or without Nigeria’s Tobi Amusan, who lowered the world record to 12.12 in the
Spain beats Sweden 2-1 with last-minute goal and advances to its first Women’s World Cup final
By ANNE M PETERSON AP Sports Writer
AUCKLAND, New Zealand (AP) — Spain will play for its first Women’s World Cup championship after Olga Carmona’s goal in the 89th minute lifted La Roja to a 2-1 victory over Sweden in the semifinal yesterday.
Spain, which overcame last year’s near mutiny by its players against coach Jorge Vilda, will play the winner of tournament co-host Australia and England on Sunday in the final in Sydney.
The controversy surrounding Spain dates to last September, when 15 players signed a letter complaining about Vilda and the conditions for the the national team.
Three of those players are on this World Cup team, and Vilda a day before the game against Sweden praised the Spanish federation for its support.
Now, La Roja has a chance to become a firsttime World Cup champion. “This is a historic day,” said Vilda. “We’re in the final, that’s what we wanted.”
He again thanked the federation and its leadership for the support that has Spain one win away from the World Cup.
“The end result is a learning process which has made us all stronger in my opinion, and to leave it archived in the past and think about the future,” Vilda said through a translator. “And to think that
we’re here because we deserve it.”
Carmona’s goal capped a flurry of late scoring that saw Sweden tie the game, then Spain win it 90
seconds later on the surprise score. Salma Paralluelo, the 19-year-old super-sub who
semifinals before she went on to secure the gold at last year’s championships in Eugene.
Amusan’s participation is pending a decision from the Athletics Integrity Unit, following her anti-doping suspension for three whereabouts failures.
BEHIND the Most Valuable Player (MVP) performance of Grand Bahamian Jonquel Jones, the New York Liberty upset the Las Vegas Aces to win the Commissioner’s Cup.
Jones had 16 points and 15 rebounds, Marine Johannes scored 17 points with five 3-pointers and the Liberty beat the Aces 82-63 last night to win the third WNBA Commissioner’s Cup championship.
New York handed Las Vegas its first home loss of the season — in 16 games — after holding the Aces below 65 points for the second time in nine days.
In the Liberty’s first appearance in the in-season tournament, the powerhouse Eastern Conference squad earned the resounding win over the defending champions.
The ongoing rivalry between the dominant ladies’ teams definitely came head-tohead throughout the first three periods of the game.
Jones’ team threw the first blow early, claiming a 17-11 advantage over the Aces in the initial period of play.
However, the latter tied the score 32 apiece erasing the early deficit created by the Eastern Conference team.
The score favoured the Aces 34-32 as they regained their footing in the ballgame and looked to keep the momentum going into the second half of play.
Former WNBA MVP Jones showed glimpses of her previous self in the bout, ending the night with a monster 16 points and 15 rebounds double double.
The Aces had no answer for Jones who completed the first half with nine points and five rebounds as
GETTING USED TO SOME RULE DIFFERENCES PART OF WCUP LEARNING PROCESS FOR USA BASKETBALL
ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates (AP) —There were 1.4 seconds left in the first half of USA Basketball’s first exhibition game of its pre-World Cup tour this summer, with the Americans taking the ball out on the far end of the floor. US coach Steve Kerr signalled for a quick inbounds pass and desperation heave.
If he was coaching such a game in San Francisco, or any other NBA city, Kerr probably would never call timeout in that situation.
Only this summer, he’s coaching under FIBA rules. And after getting a bit of an education on how timeouts don’t carry over into
the second half under FIBA rules, Kerr realised he could have called one to set up a better play.
“All this stuff comes into play now,” said Kerr, coach of the Golden State Warriors. “That’s what these exhibition games are for — for players and coaches.”
The international game and the NBA game are basically the same: The rims are still 10 feet off the ground, teams still play 5-on-5 and fouls are still fouls.
But there are a slew of differences — some nuanced, some not so much — that will make the World Cup seem different from the game that the Americans are used to playing in the United States.
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“It’s unfortunate if she’s not there because you want everybody to line up,” Charlton said. “We know that there are injuries and some ongoing investigations that may hinder some of the competitors this year.
INTERNATIONAL Sports Academy in collaboration with Reloaded Baseball commenced the “Bat 2 Base-ics” baseball and softball camp this past Monday at the Baillou Hills Sporting Complex.
The developmental sports camp saw kids from the Tee-Ball to the 14-and under (14U) division show up in droves to learn the fundamentals of both sports at an early age.
The two-sport camp is focused on enhancing the baseball and softball skills of the players, improving their discipline and conduct, and preparing them for traditional and unorthodox in-game situations that may arise locally and internationally.
Peron Burnside, president of Reloaded Baseball, is particularly excited to get the collaborative camp started following the team’s recent return from the Perfect Game baseball tournament in Sanford, Florida.
“The first two days have been a huge success and we have a lot of kids who are not a part of the Reloaded programme who are here, particularly from the Family Islands, Grand Bahama and Eleuthera, and it is going really well,” Burnside said.
With the first two days of training in the books, the president said the main objective is to collectively
work on the individual deficiencies of each young player. “We want to target certain key aspects of development so we are using this camp to pinpoint the deficits in each child, and develop those fundamentals. Our ultimate goal is to bring every child up to international standards in pursuit of higher international development,” he said.
The president added that once the players stick with the newly-started programme, they will
see improvements and the team will provide the specific data to show the development in their skill sets as time progresses.
Geron Sands, co-founder of I-Elite, worked along with the Tee-Ball kids yesterday and was impressed with the body of work accomplished in the first two days.
“It’s been amazing so far the last two days just seeing these kids come out here and be excited to play baseball and learn more.
It’s exciting to see them so
SOUTH WILLIAMSPORT, Pennsylvania.
(AP) — Little League has been hosting its World Series in Williamsport since 1947, yet it will be welcoming a new guest when the tournament starts today — Cuba.
Bayamo Little League beat Habana del Este Little League 6-2 to become the first Cuban team to qualify for the tournament back in March.
And the club from Bayamo sure is happy to have made it. Walking into a Little League-sponsored picnic Monday at a college across the Susquehanna River, the Cubans entered with a player draped in the Cuban flag, the only team to carry one to the event. They play their first game today against Japan.
“We are very proud to be here representing Cuba,” manager Vladimir Vargas said through a translator. “We have many teams that want to be here, and we are the ones. It is an awesome thing for us.”
It hasn’t been an easy feat to make it to Williamsport both on and off the field for the Cubans.
Little League expanded from 16 teams to 20 teams in 2022, part of which
meant adding Puerto Rico, Panama and Cuba in a rotation where each region gets an automatic berth for a team in the tournament two out of every three years.
In the third year, they compete to make the LLWS in their larger region. This year, the top Cuban team was a lock to make the tournament.
While Cold War tensions kept Cuba out of the LLWS for decades, when Little League officials reached out more recently, the Cubans responded by bringing about 700 teams under the banner of Little League.
Still, even with Havana and Miami just 228 miles apart, this is the first time the Cuban players and coaches have set foot on US soil.
“We are very proud to be here,” Cuba’s team captain, Edgar Torrez, said through a translator.
“This is a good experience for us. The best moment so far was just seeing the field that we are going to get to play on.”
The Cubans don’t have an easy task in their first appearance, taking on Japan, which was the last international team to win it all in 2017. The Japanese also have won the tournament five times since 2010, about the closest thing to a
dynasty the LLWS has had in that time.
“We have seen a couple videos of their games, but Japan is always a tough team,” Vargas said. “We are going to play the way we did in Cuba — to win.”
On the field, Bayamo Little League finished its national tournament run with a record of 8-2, losing the first game of the best-of-three series in the second round and in the championship.
Bayamo Little League downed teams with their bats, scoring at least five runs in each of the three games in the championship series.
The Japanese squad the Cubans are playing isn’t the same Tokyo-based team to win it all in 2017, but it’ll be no easy match as Musashi Fuchu Little League went undefeated in its region.
Japan manager Toyo Hirooka has been to the Little League World Series before. He visited 10 years ago to cheer on his son, who was on the Japan team in 2013. That team was one of three Japanese clubs in the span of four years to win it all. It’s Hirooka’s first time back to the United States since.
“We just want to win here,” Hirooka said through a translator. “The same as before.”
ready to play at this young age,” Sands said. He relayed that the softball aspect of the joint camp is going great as well and wants to bring the sport back to the forefront for the young ladies.
“Softball is going great, we have a couple of girls out here learning the fundamentals, something we want to do in the future is bring girls softball back from a younger age and this is a good beginning for that, we are just hoping to build off this and stay
Photos: Antonio Rahming
focused on the young females,” he added.
As the co-founder of I-Elite, Sands said camps like “Bat 2 Base-ics” are great for placing more focus on certain skills and in the future they hope to host more clinics like this throughout the year.
Individuals interested in registering can still capitalise on the opportunity by contacting 445-4551 or bat2basics242@gmail.com
The collaborative multisport camp wraps up on Friday.
“But we still have a talented field of competitors who are expected to line up so I’m looking forward to racing against all of them.”
According to World Athletics, if Amusan is not allowed to compete, the top two contenders would be American Nia Ali and Jasmine Camacho-Quinn of Puerto Rico, who have clashed 17 times since the start of the 2022 season, while American and former world record holder Kenny Harrison is next.
The others are Jamaica’s Megan Tapper, Danielle Williams and rising talent Ackera Nugent, the 21-year-old NCAA champion, as well as American Masai Russell, who finished second to Nugent in the NCAA final. Also mentioned is Ditaji Kambundji, who has run a Swiss record of 12.47.
As for Team Bahamas, Charlton said it’s a pretty strong one and she’s looking forward to having some medals come home at the end of the championships.
Hopefully, she will get one as she starts the process of earning the first of two major international medals that have eluded her so far.
The other is the Olympic Games, which she hopes to pursue in her second appearance next year in Paris, France.
“I’m just trying to add to my collection,” she said. “I’ve captured medals at all of the international stages, I’m still looking forward to getting my first from the World Championships and hopefully that will take me into the Olympics.”
Charlton, who is trained by Bahamian Rolando ‘Lonnie’ Greene in Lexington, Kentucky, produced her lifetime best of 12.46 in the semifinals before she ended up seventh in the final in 12.53 at last year’s World Championships in Eugene, Oregon.
The winner of the CubaJapan game moves on to face Mexico, which has an opening-round bye. The loser drops into the elimination bracket.
Mexico made it to the semifinals on the international side of the bracket last year but was beaten by Curacao, which in turn lost 13-3 to Hawaii in the final.
This year, that champion from Honolulu didn’t make it to Pennsylvania after it was knocked off by Northern California, and then Southern California took the West Region beating Northern California, 3-1.
The Cubans, meanwhile, will get some added motivation by even getting to play in front of their families in South Williamsport.
“I am even going to be playing better,” Edgar said. “I am happy for my family.”
NO MORE BUNK BEDS
Little League said it’s made a change to the sleeping arrangements this year after a player was injured in a fall from the top bunk of one of the beds in 2022.
Now there will be single, one-level beds for the players to sleep on, removing the bunk beds completely from the dormitories on the South Williamsport campus where the teams stay. Two
teams, one from the United States and one from the international bracket, are generally paired in each dormitory so the players get to meet kids from another nation.
also scored the game-winner in Spain’s 2-1 extra-time quarterfinals victory over the Netherlands, scored in the 81st minute to put Spain up 1-0.
She gestured for the crowd to cheer, and the crowd thought it was celebrating Spain’s decider.
MIAMI Marlins’ Jazz Chisholm Jr steals second base as Houston Astros second baseman Mauricio Dubon waits for the throw during the fourth inning of a baseball game last night in Miami.
MIAMI (AP) — The run support the Astros were missing in Monday’s loss to the Marlins showed up last night.
Kyle Tucker hit a tiebreaking homer in the seventh inning, Yainer Diaz and Chas McCormick also went deep, and Houston rallied past Miami 6-5.
“I thought yesterday’s game we put up some really good at-bats and hit the ball pretty well. It just didn’t go our way,” Tucker said. “Today we were able to put some runs across the board and the pitching staff did a good job.”
Tucker connected on the first pitch from reliever
A.J. Puk (5-5), sending it 422 feet to right-centre. The Astros, who dropped the first game of the series at Miami and trailed 3-0 in this one, have won six of nine and hold the second NL wild-card spot.
The Marlins’ three-game winning streak ended.
They remained one game ahead of the Chicago Cubs for the final NL wild card.
Hunter Brown (9-8) pitched two scoreless innings in his first relief appearance of the season. Ryan Pressly allowed a one-out double by Jesús Sánchez in the ninth but held on for his 28th save in 32 opportunities.
The Marlins went ahead 5-4 in the fifth when Joey Wendle, who led off with a walk, scored on a throwing error by starting pitcher Cristian Javier. Josh Bell reached on a throwing error by second baseman Mauricio Dubon on the same play. Dubon was in for second baseman Jose Altuve, who exited with a left knee contusion after fouling the first pitch he saw off his left shin. X-rays were negative, and he is day to day. Altuve finished the at-bat with an infield single — the 1,997th hit of his career.
In the fifth, centre fielder Jazz Chisholm Jr and left fielder Bryan De La
Cruz collided while trying to catch a fly ball from Tucker. Chisholm Jr was charged with an error and Mauricio Dubón scored to make it 4-4.
“We were both going very aggressively to the ball. We both didn’t hear each other,” Chisholm Jr said. “Just going hard, trying to make a play for our pitcher. It happens. We shook it off and kept playing baseball.”
Chisholm had two hits, including a triple in the second, and stole his 16th base.
BRAVES 5, YANKEES 0
ATLANTA (AP) —
Bryce Elder pitched seven brilliant innings in a combined one-hitter, Ronald Acuña Jr. and Marcell Ozuna went deep and the Atlanta Braves cruised past the reeling New York Yankees 5-0.
The Braves wasted no time jumping on Luis Severino (2-8), whose dismal season has been marred by atrocious numbers in the first inning.
That trend didn’t change against the Braves. With two outs, Ozuna launched his 24th homer of the season over the centerfield wall for a three-run shot. The homer extended Ozuna’s hitting streak to 13 games and gave the Braves a major league-best 120 first-inning runs.
RANGERS 7, ANGELS 3
ARLINGTON, Texas
(AP) — Corey Seager hit two homers and drove in five runs as AL West-leading Texas beat slumping Los Angeles.
Seager had a two-run homer that just cleared the left-center wall and later pulled a no-doubt shot into the right-field seats for his 12th career multi-homer game.
The All-Star shortstop capped his three-hit night with a two-run single in the eighth inning.
Jordan Montgomery (8-10) struck out nine without a walk over six innings in his third start for the
Rangers since they got him in a trade-deadline deal from last-place St. Louis.
BLUE JAYS 2, PHILLIES 1
TORONTO (AP) — Cavan Biggio was hit in the foot by a pitch from Seranthony Dominguez (2-3) with the bases loaded pitch in the eighth inning to force in the tiebreaking run, and Toronto beat Philadelphia.
Jordan Hicks (2-7) struck out all three batters he faced as Toronto won its second straight after losing the previous three.
RED SOX 5, NATIONALS 4
WASHINGTON (AP)
— Alex Verdugo led off the game with a homer and Boston beat Washington. Boston, which remained three games behind Toronto for the American League’s last wild-card spot, has won six of eight. The Red Sox improved to 9-1 at Nationals Park.
John Schreiber (2-1), the second of five Red Sox relievers, pitched a scoreless sixth inning. Kenley Jansen handled the ninth for his 28th save.
TWINS 5, TIGERS 3
MINNEAPOLIS (AP)
— Matt Wallner hit a grand slam to cap a five-run sixth inning and Minnesota beat Detroit.
Tigers slugger Miguel Cabrera hit his 509th career homer to match
Gary Sheffield for 26th alltime, a two-run shot in the second inning. It was just the second homer this year for Cabrera, who’s playing his final season.
PIRATES 7, METS 4 NEW YORK (AP) —
Jason Delay hit a two-run double in a six-run seventh inning and Pittsburgh beat New York.
Pittsburgh stranded 10 runners through six innings before sending 10 batters to the plate against a trio of pitchers in the seventh. Jose Butto (0-2) allowed three runs, two hits and three walks in 2 2/3 innings.
Colin Selby (1-0), making his fourth big league appearance, entered a 1-1 game in the sixth and got the win despite allowing back-to-back homers — a two-run pinch-hit shot by DJ Stewart and Jonathan Arauz’s second homer in as many games.
CARDINALS 6, ATHLETICS 2 ST. LOUIS (AP) — Nolan Arenado and Jordan Walker homered in the first inning against Spenser Watkins (0-1) and St. Louis beat Oakland.
Arenado finished with four hits and Tommy Edman also homered for the last-place Cardinals, who have won five of six.
Dakota Hudson (4-0) recorded his third successive win, allowing two
FROM PAGE 12
And the five-game exhibition slate for the Americans, which wraps up this week in Abu Dhabi, is a chance to figure out many of those changes.
“The games,” said U.S. forward Bobby Portis of the Milwaukee Bucks, “are two totally different games.”
The games are shorter at the FIBA level — 10-minute quarters as opposed to 12 in the NBA — and so is the 3-point line, from a couple of inches in the corners to about 18 inches at its deepest points. Players foul out on their fifth foul in FIBA, not their sixth like in the NBA. There’s no defensive 3-second rule in FIBA.
Players can’t call timeout to avoid a jump ball or heldball situation, and once a ball touches the rim it’s fair game for the offence and the defence; it’s not goaltending or basket interference if someone strikes the ball after it hits the rim.
“The physicality is different,” U.S. forward Paolo Banchero of the Orlando Magic said. “You can be physical on defence in terms of redirecting your man, the way you can guard. That’s the biggest thing that stands out. And a 40-minute game, it goes by quicker. In the NBA, you can be down 20 in the first quarter and not be worried because you’ve got time. You can ease into the game a little bit. Not
here; you want to be going 100 mph from the jump.”
Jaren Jackson Jr clearly doesn’t have any issue with NBA rules when it comes to defence; the Memphis Grizzlies centre is the league’s reigning defensive player of the year. And he’s finding that FIBA’s rules allow him to play even more freely on that end of the floor.
“It’s great with the rule changes,” Jackson said. “You can be a lot more physical, guards can be physical up high, they can kind of funnel everything down to the bigs down low.”
There is still a learning curve, but the Americans seem to be picking up the differences in rules just fine. USA Basketball, as it has
several other times, had FIBA referees in training camp for this team in Las Vegas earlier this month to blow the whistles in scrimmages — and the team has gone 3-0 in its exhibitions, winning all by double figures including Sunday’s road win over Spain, the world’s top-ranked team.
Games seem to be flying by, US point guard Jalen Brunson of the New York Knicks said, and that’s not just because of the shorter quarters. Even the timeouts last for less time in FIBA games than they do in the NBA, when it seems like the last few minutes of a fourth quarter can take forever.
“There’s a mixture of being physical and
But the celebration was brief. Rebecka Blomqvist tied it for Sweden in the 88th. Then, just 90 seconds later, Carmona beat Sweden goalkeeper Zecira Musovic with the game-winner.
“It was really, really really crazy,” Spanish defender Irene Paredes said.
“After scoring the first one it was like, ‘OK, this is the end, we have to keep this score.’ But they scored quite fast and I was like, `What the hell happened?’ But we had confidence that we could create something else.”
Sweden has now lost in four of five semifinals and will try to finish third for a fourth time. “I have to watch the game, I really do, before I can make any assessments,” said Sweden coach Peter Gerhardsson.
“Right now I am full of emotions. It is is the third loss in the semifinals. I think everyone just feels sadness and huge disappointment.”
Paralluelo became just the second teenager to score in a Women’s World Cup semifinal after Kara Lang of Canada in 2003, also against Sweden
“It was a magic moment. It is something very unique when I scored the first goal.
To be able to repeat is really incredible,” Paraluello said.
runs on five hits over 6 2/3 innings. Lawrence Butler hit his first major league homer for Oakland, which has lost five straight overall and its last nine on the road.
WHITE SOX 5, CUBS 3
CHICAGO (AP) — Luis Robert Jr. hit a tiebreaking solo homer in his return to the lineup, and the White Sox beat the crosstown Cubs at Wrigley Field. Robert drove a hanging slider from Julian Merryweather (4-1) deep to left with two out in the seventh inning, giving the White Sox a 4-3 lead. It was Robert’s team-high 32nd homer. He had been sidelined since last week with a sprained right pinky finger.
GUARDIANS 3, REDS 0
CINCINNATI (AP)
— Rookie Logan Allen allowed four hits in six innings, Kole Calhoun hit a two-run single in the first and Cleveland won consecutive games for the first time in three weeks.
Allen (6-5) struck out seven and walked three for the Guardians, who had not strung together wins since three in a row from July 25-27. Emmanuel Clase pitched a one-hit ninth for his 32nd save in 41 chances. Cincinnati’s Graham Ashcraft (6-8) allowed all three runs seven hits in seven innings.
Spain is playing in only its third World Cup. Four years ago, La Roja advanced to the knockout round but lost to eventual champions the United States.
“Now it’s the final. I think we have to do what we’ve done in every match,” said Paralluelo. “We’ve overcome every challenge and now we face the ultimate challenge, the big one”
The Swedes have never won a World Cup. They were the 2003 runner-up and have finished third three times. Sweden won silver medals at the Tokyo Olympics two years ago, and at the 2016 Games in Brazil. “I’m tired of crying big tournament tears,” said Kosovare Asllani. Sweden also lost in the semifinals of the Euros last September.
The Swedes swept their opponents in the group stage before knocking out two-time reigning champion the United States on a penalty shootout after a scoreless draw.
Sweden then got by previously unbeaten Japan 2-1 in the quarterfinals.
Spain fell to second in its group after a blowout loss to Japan, but rallied to beat Switzerland 5-1 and the Netherlands 2-1 to reach the semifinals. It was La Roja’s first appearance in a major semifinal since the 1997 European Championships.
sometimes not being able to touch,” Brunson said after practice yesterday at New York University’s Abu Dhabi campus. “It’s different. The game is totally different. But it’s
about how fast you can adjust. We don’t play by these rules year in and year out and the small things are different, but you just have to adjust a little bit. It’s still basketball.”
COACH Chris DeMarco liked the way the men’s national basketball team came together and played their first game in the FICA Olympic Pre-Qualifying Tournament.
In their opening game on Monday night in La Banda, Argentina, Team Bahamas blasted Cuba 109-68 behind the big trio of National Basketball Association players Chavano ‘Buddy’ Hield from the Indianba Pacers and DeAndre Ayton and Eric Gordon, who will be teaming up for the first time with the Phoenix Suns this season.
DeMarco, an assistant coach with the Golden State Warriors, said after playing just two scrimmages against Kansas without all of their players, they came out to find their identity against Cuba.
“We came together and worked on our stuff that we’ve been practicing over the last few days, so I kind of felt that things went very well,” said DeMarco, who is assisted by Moses Johnson and Mikhail McLean.
“Overall, we are trying to build our chemistry because a lot of these teams have been together for a while and so we’re just trying to speed up that process. We had about 9-10 days together, the longest we’ve had in a while, so our goal every window is trying to build chemistry and I feel we’re getting there.”
Despite getting off to a slow 20-16 start at the end of the first quarter against Cuba, DeMarco said he liked how the players were able to rally around and used a 14-0 start behind the dynamic trio to turn things around in the second quarter.
Hield led their balanced attack with 24 points on 10-20 from the field (4-7 from downtown), six rebounds and five assists. Ayton added 22 points and 10 rebounds, while Gordon, in his Bahamas debut, had 17 points and 4 dimes.
All 3 exited the game midway through the 4th quarter with the team up by 33 points. Franco Miller (9 of his 18 points in the 4th quarter) and Kentwan Smith (10 points) led Bahamas’ bench unit that outscored Cuba’s 39-24.
Shooting guard Karel Guzmán (16 points) and centre Pedro Bombino (14 and 5 rebounds) were Cuban’s only players scoring in double digits.
DeMarco said after the team found their footing, they were on cruise control. But he admitted that every player on the team is in Argentina for one goal and that is to win.
“We have Argentina, who is the fourth ranked team in the world on Wednesday and they play a beautiful brand of basketball,” DeMarco said. “But we have to be ready. Our guys are focused.
“Canada didn’t show up, so they haven’t played a game yet in this window. They did have some scrimmages in Europe, so they have been playing, but it will be a feeling out process for both teams. We just have to be ready to play like we did against Cuba.”
Those are the only two games the Bahamas will play out of their pool with Canada not participating. The outcome of today’s game will determine their
fate in the playoffs that will take place on Saturday when they crossover against the top two teams out of the Group that features Uruguay, Chile, Virgin Islands and Colombia. The winner from the tournament on Sunday will qualify for the Olympic Qualifying Tournament in 2024 that will determine who gets to play in the Olympics in July.
This is the best chance for the Bahamas to advance to the Olympics and DeMarco said the players are all convinced that they can get the job done.
“Bahamas Basketball has a bright future. We’re trying to build this thing the right way. We’re on our way,” DeMarco said. “We have a great coaching staff, a great training squad and we feel we have some really good players, so we are heading in the right direction.
“We like our chances with
she was prepared to propel her team to a Commissioner’s Cup win. Jones held down the fort in the paint but the real difference maker was bench points where the Liberty outscored the Aces 28-8.
Marine Johannès played an instrumental role off the pine for the Eastern Conference leader, pouring in 17 points in 14:20 minutes of action while splashing 5 three-pointers on the night.
It was a tale of two halves at the Michelob ULTRA Arena, because following the brief intermission the Liberty outscored the Aces 24-14 in the third quarter.
Cup leaderboard, put the pedal to the medal and ran out to a 14-point lead (66-52) at the 7:05 mark.
The game was no doubt a foregone conclusion after that point as the Liberty notched their biggest lead of the game, going up 20 points with only 2:18 remaining.
every game we play in each window. We’re here to win and we are going to do our best to ensure that this team puts its best foot forward in accomplishing that goal.”
DeMarco expressed his gratitude to the Bahamian public for the tremendous outpouring of support.
He said it’s a grind for everybody to come together and play in this type of competition so the support is definitely what is needed.
“We’re excited. We’re excited about the team that we have and we hope that we can get better every day,” he stated. “The obstacles that we faced in pulling this off to get this team in such a short time. But we’re here to get the job done.”
The other members of the team are Domnick Bridgewater, Rashad Davis, Travis Munnings, Lourawls Nairn, Jaraun Burrows, Garvin Clarke and Davis Nesbitt.
Meanwhile, in the final period of the Commissioner’s Cup Finals, the team remained dialed in on offence and stingy on defence. The first-seeded Eastern Conference team on the Commissioner’s
Despite it being one of forward Breanna Stewart’s worst games of the season, both Courtney Vandersloot and Sabrina Ionescu chipped in to aid Jones’ efforts. Vandersloot pumped in 11 points to complement her 10 dimes and Ionescu notched 12 points and eight rebounds. The two respective Eastern and Western conference leaders will add more fuel to the ongoing rivalry in the next meetup at 10pm on Thursday in the Michelob ULTRA Arena.
SEASON SCHEDULE
Teams will get their regular-season schedules and national broadcast schedules on Thursday.
Minnesota at Golden State, Memphis at LA Lakers.
NEW YORK (AP) —
The first basket of the NBA’s inaugural In-Season Tournament likely will be made in Indianapolis.
The league unveiled the 60-game schedule for group play of the new event yesterday — with the first game set to be Cleveland visiting Indiana on Nov. 3, the opener of what is scheduled to be seven games on that first night of matchups.
Each team will play four games in the group stage, with the winners of the six groups and two wildcard teams moving on to the single-elimination quarterfinals.
At stake: about $18 million in prize money. The tournament payouts for players on standard contracts will be $500,000 apiece for those on the winning team, $200,000 apiece for those on the runner-up, $100,000 apiece for those on the teams that lose semifinal games and $50,000 for those on the teams that lose in the quarterfinals.
GROUPS Teams were assigned last month to a five-team group. They’ll play one game
against each other as part of the tournament.
West Group A — Memphis, Phoenix, the Los Angeles Lakers, Utah and Portland.
West Group B — Denver, the Los Angeles Clippers, New Orleans, Dallas and Houston.
West Group C — Sacramento, Golden State, Minnesota, Oklahoma City and San Antonio.
East Group A — Philadelphia, Cleveland, Atlanta, Indiana and Detroit.
East Group B — Milwaukee, New York, Miami, Washington and Charlotte.
East Group C — Boston, Brooklyn, Toronto, Chicago and Orlando.
TOURNAMENT SCHEDULE
All games on Tuesdays and Fridays in November will be designated as tournament-game days. (That doesn’t include Nov. 7, when the league will not hold any games in observance of Election Day.)
There are 14 teams that will begin play on Nov. 3, and 13 teams will get their first tournament games in on Nov. 10.
Orlando and Atlanta won’t start their tournament schedules until November 14, and Toronto doesn’t make its tournament debut until November 17.
Another highlight: 10 games on the schedule for November 24, the day after Thanksgiving and traditionally one of the busiest holiday shopping days. That day’s slate starts with
Boston visiting Orlando at 2:30 p.m. EST.
KNOCKOUT ROUNDS Quarterfinals will be played on Dec. 4 and Dec. 5. The semifinals are in Las Vegas on Dec. 7, and the championship game is there on Dec. 9.
Every tournament game will count as a regular-season game in the standings — except for the championship game.
Those lists will have only 80 games. The two games missing from each team’s schedule will be played in December — either as part of the tournament, or for the 22 teams that don’t qualify for the knockout round, as added regularseason games that will be scheduled for Dec. 6 and Dec. 8.
DAY-BY-DAY SCHEDULE
Nov. 3 — Cleveland at Indiana, New York at Milwaukee, Dallas at Denver, Washington at Miami, Brooklyn at Chicago, Golden State at Oklahoma City, Memphis at Portland.
Nov. 7 — No games, Election Day.
Nov. 10 — Brooklyn at Boston, LA Lakers at Phoenix, Philadelphia at Detroit, Charlotte at Washington, New Orleans at Houston, Utah at Memphis, Minnesota at San Antonio, LA Clippers at Dallas, Oklahoma City at Sacramento.
Nov. 14 — San Antonio at Oklahoma City, LA Clippers at Denver, Miami at Charlotte, Atlanta at Detroit, Indiana at Philadelphia, Orlando at Brooklyn, Dallas at New Orleans, Portland at Utah,
Nov. 17 — Sacramento at San Antonio, Phoenix at Utah, Milwaukee at Charlotte, New York at Washington, Philadelphia at Atlanta, Detroit at Cleveland, Boston at Toronto, Orlando at Chicago, Denver at New Orleans, LA Lakers at Portland, Houston at LA Clippers.
Nov. 21 — Cleveland at Philadelphia, Utah at LA Lakers, Toronto at Orlando, Indiana at Atlanta, Portland at Phoenix.
Nov. 24 — Boston at Orlando, Phoenix at Memphis, Miami at New York, San Antonio at Golden State, Chicago at Toronto, Detroit at Indiana, Denver at Houston, Washington at Milwaukee, Sacramento at Minnesota, New Orleans at LA Clippers.
Nov. 28 — Milwaukee at Miami, Golden State at Sacramento, Chicago at Boston, Toronto at Brooklyn, Atlanta at Cleveland, Charlotte at New York, Oklahoma City at Minnesota, Houston at Dallas. Dec. 4 and 5 — Quarterfinals at team sites.
Dec. 6 — Regular-season games TBA.
Dec. 7 — Semifinals in Las Vegas. Dec.
A SHARP drop for Wall Street capped a day of declines around the world Tuesday after discouraging data on China raised worries about the global economy.
The S&P 500 slumped 1.2% for one of its worst drops since the spring after data showed a deepening slump for the world’s second-largest economy. The Dow Jones Industrial Average tumbled 361 points, or 1%, and the Nasdaq composite sank 1.1%.
Coming into this year, the expectation was that China’s economy would grow enough after the government removed anti-COVID restrictions to prop up a global economy weakened by high inflation. But China’s recovery has faltered so much that it unexpectedly cut a key interest rate on Tuesday and skipped a report on how many of its younger workers are unemployed.
Worries about the knockon effects for the rest of the global economy are weighing on Wall Street, where stocks have already been retrenching in August. The pullback follows a gangbusters first seven months of the year that critics called overdone.
In the U.S., the economy has remained more resilient than expected despite higher interest rates. A report on Tuesday showed growth for sales at U.S. retailers accelerated by more in July than economists expected.
“U.S. retail sales are charging ahead, and a lot of that may be on charge cards,” said Brian Jacobsen, chief economist at Annex Wealth Management. “Still, the U.S. consumer is showing few signs of slowing down.”
The strong retail sales report raises hopes that the U.S. economy can keep growing and avoid a longpredicted recession. But on the downside for markets, it could also raise the Federal Reserve’s resolve to keep interest rates high in order to fully grind down inflation.
The Fed has already hiked its key interest rate to the highest level in more
than two decades. High rates work by bluntly dragging on the entire economy and hurting prices for investments.
“Numbers like today’s just make it more likely that rates will remain higher for longer, even if the Fed doesn’t hike them next month,” said Mike Loewengart, head of model portfolio construction at Morgan Stanley Global Investment Office. Treasury yields initially rose following the retail sales report, approaching their highest levels since the 2007-09 Great Recession, before jostling up and down.
A faltering Chinese economy could mean less demand for oil and other commodities.
The price for a barrel of U.S. crude oil dropped $1.52 to $80.99. Prices also fell for Brent crude, the international standard, and for copper.
The declines meant stocks of energy producers were among the biggest losers in the S&P 500. Exxon Mobil’s 2.6% drop was one of the heavier weights on the index.
Banks also sank, continuing a rocky run since the high-profile failures of several during the spring that were caused in part by high interest rates.
Smaller and midsized banks have been under particular scrutiny from investors and credit-rating analysts, and Comerica, Zions Bancorp. and Citizens Financial Group all fell at least 4.4% for some of the sharper losses in the S&P 500.
The largest loss came from Discover Financial Services. It dropped 9.4% after it said its CEO is stepping down, effective immediately.
Elsewhere on Wall Street, more reports on corporate profits that came in better than expected helped to limit the market’s losses.
Home Depot gained 0.7% after it topped expectations for both revenue and profit, though it’s feeling the effects of much higher interest rates. The home improvement retailer said it’s seeing continued pressure on some types of big-ticket projects.
ABOUT 146,000 mem-
bers of the United Auto Workers union will vote next week whether to authorize their leaders to call strikes against the Detroit automakers.
Union President Shawn Fain told members in a Facebook Live appearance Tuesday that the talks, which started in mid-July, are moving slowly and have yet to get to wages and other economic issues.
The union's contracts with General Motors, Ford and Stellantis expire in about a month, at 11:59 p.m. Sept. 14.
"If we want to make progress at the bargaining table, we need to show the companies that it's not just talk," Fain said of the strike vote.
He told local offices to report the results of their votes to the union headquarters by Aug. 24.
Strike authorization votes are a routine part of contract talks and are often overwhelmingly approved,
Stocks of homebuilders were also among the limited number of winners after Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway disclosed it bought stakes in several. Other investors often try to copy the famed investor’s moves, and D.R. Horton rose 2.9%. It was one of just 43 stocks in the S&P 500 that rose, as more than 90% within the index fell.
All told, the S&P 500 fell 51.86 points to 4,437.86. The Dow dropped 361.24 to 34,946.39, and the Nasdaq sank 157.28 to 13,631.05.
In stock markets abroad, indexes slumped in Europe after falling 1% in Hong Kong and 0.1% in Shanghai.
Pressures are appearing worldwide. Also Tuesday, Russia’s central bank raised its main lending rate in an emergency move to strengthen the ruble after the currency reached its lowest value since early in the war with Ukraine. In the U.K., data showed wages for workers are growing at a strong pace, which threatens to add upward pressure on its already high inflation.
Japanese stocks were an exception. The Nikkei 225 rose 0.6% after Japan reported unexpectedly strong growth in its economy during the spring.
In the bond market, the yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 4.21% from 4.20% late Monday. It helps set rates for mortgages and other important loans.
The two-year Treasury yield, which more closely follows expectations for the Fed, fell to 4.94% from 4.97%.
but Fain said the vote is a sign of the union's strength.
Fain has set high expectations for the contract talks and says the union will seek more than 40% general pay raises over four years, restoration of pensions for newer hires, cost-of-living increases, an end to wage tiers, and other benefits. He has said workers can make big gains but must be ready to strike to get them.
The union also wants guarantees that it will represent workers at 10 U.S. electric vehicle battery plants proposed by the companies. Most are joint ventures with Korean battery companies.
Much of Fain's rhetoric has been focused on Stellantis, the most profitable of the three companies with the highest profit margins.
Fain has complained that Stellantis is seeking concessions in the contract when the union wants gains. But a union spokesman said singling out Stellantis doesn't mean the UAW has picked a company as a strike target, and it could choose all three.
the roadworks’ significant impact on trade, have met with the likes of Alfred Sears KC, minister of works and utilities, and Michael Halkitis, several times to make their case. The prospect of tax relief, or some other form of compensation, was mentioned in passing during the recent Budget debate but nothing concrete has yet come forth from the Government.
“There has to be some compensation. We’re not talking a few thousand dollars that were lost. We’re talking $100,000, which could easily make or break any business. If I did not own my property, maybe I wouldn’t be in business any more. Come on government, when are you going to do what you promised?
It’s all good.
“If you don’t push them, they kind of let it fade away.
That’s what I think. Nothing has really happened for me, and nothing has really
happened as far as what was promised: They were going to help to relaunch Village Road and do advertising, and this and that. That’s all really talk, I think.....We’re still waiting for the compensation, even if it’s just $5,000 to say we’re looking out for people. I’ve already done my complaining and seen how far it got me.”
Mr Fox said he had previously “raised hell” about damage done to his boundary wall and fence during the roadworks, but Emile Knowles, principal of Knowles Construction, the project’s main contractor, told Tribune Business there was no evidence that his vehicles or anyone connected to the project was responsible.
As a result, the Montague Motors chief said he had performed the necessary repairs himself “otherwise I would still be waiting, but $2,000 here, $3,000 there, it all adds up”.
Mr Fox said the Government could compensate
impacted businesses in a variety of ways without having to spend its scarce cash resources, suggesting that it offer VAT, Business Licence or real property tax relief or a combination of all these measures.
“They could give compensation by way of giving me a VAT holiday,” he added. “There’s a number of ways where it’s not going to cost the Government a cash outlay. They could do something with Customs duties, VAT, Business Licence fees, waive something here or there.”
Some 15 companies previously signed their names to a letter authored by the Village Road collective, where it was suggested the Government provide “refurbishment grants” for residents and business owners to repair damaged premises, vehicles and other facilities impacted by the project. It also called for Bahamas Power & Light (BPL) bill discounts, and “full sponsorship” of
a collaborative marketing campaign to entice consumers back to the Village Road area.
VAT credits, plus Business Licence and real property tax waivers, were also suggested as mechanisms to compensate for the damage inflicted by roadworks that have caused consumers to avoid the area “like the plague” and resulted in up to a 46 percent income losses for businesses.
It is not unheard of, though, for the Government to provide tax breaks and other concessions for businesses impacted by long-running roadworks projects. The last Christie administration did so for the New Providence Road Improvement Project that impacted multiple businesses in numerous areas of the island more than one decade ago.
Mr Fox, meanwhile, said that while the situation was “a little better” his yard is still flooding during heavy
rain. This is despite a new drain that was installed at Village Road’s northern end at the bottom of the hill, and he added: “They never really dug a new drain. They dug across the street and connected to an existing drain.
“They really didn’t solve the problem of excess flooding. It’s still not draining when it floods. It’s a little better but still flooding. A lot of money was spent but they have still to address the issue. It is what it is. It seems that the more you complain, the less you get done.”
Mr Fox also reiterated that the roadworks had failed to solve his sewerage system connection issues. With the city’s sewerage pipe now higher than previously, it is impossible for his line to connect to this, and he will continue rely on the same lift station used for the past 40 years to pump waste - with all the maintenance and associated costs that brings.
“The road is in good condition and we have the flow of traffic coming back,” Mr Fox said. “It looks good, but we have the same pre-existing issues at the bottom of Village Road. I tried to get their attention before they broke ground, and everyone was aware of it, but it was not in their plans to sort out. I was out there begging them that I’d like to hook back up to the sewer line.”
To do that now, Mr Fox said, means he will have to spend around $50,000 to dig a new sewer line from Village Road to the back of his property and raise it six inches to connect with the city’s line. “At the end of the day, we’re rolling along doing pretty well,” he added. “The road looks good. The issues haven’t been resolved, but life goes on.”
Associated Press
WITH two bidders revealed in a matter of days and more in the wings, United States Steel Corp. — a symbol of American industrialization that for more than a century helped build everything from the United Nations building in New York City to the New Orleans Superdome — appears be on the cusp of being absorbed.
Here's what's happened so far, and how the acquisition of U.S. Steel could reshape steelmaking globally.
BIDDING WAR
After rejecting a $7.3 billion buyout proposal from rival Cleveland-Cliffs on Sunday, U.S. Steel said it was considering its next move. On Monday, industrial conglomerate Esmark offered $7.8 billion for the Pittsburgh steelmaker.
Shares of U.S. Steel soared more than 30% Monday with good odds that bids for the 122-yearold steel producer will head higher.
U.S. Steel says it has other offers to consider as well, and the company gave no timeline for if and when it might make any decision about selling itself.
A POTENTIAL GIANT
Cleveland-Cliffs said its proposal, first made on July 28, would create
a company that would be among the 10 biggest steelmakers in the world and one of the top four outside of China, which dominates global steel production. Cleveland-Cliffs CEO Lourenco Goncalves said a tie-up between the two U.S. steelmakers would create "lower-cost, more innovative and stronger domestic supplier for our customers."
Goncalves said he's ready to continue talks with U.S. Steel despite its rejection of the company's initial offer. Cleveland-Cliffs is the largest producer of flatrolled steel and iron in North America. Acquiring U.S. Steel would further shrink the number of players in the U.S. steelmaking industry, which has experienced significant consolidation in recent years, including the two steelmakers at the center of developments this week.
TO ALL SHAREHOLDERS
The Board of Directors of Bahamas Waste Limited has declared a Dividend for Ordinary Shares, to all shareholders of record as of August 25, 2023, of $0.16 cents per share
The payment will be made on September 6, 2023, through Bahamas Central Securities Depository Limited, the Registrar & Transfer Agent
Robert V. Lotmore Corporate SecretaryThe proposed acquisition would give Cleveland-Cliffs control of about 50% of the domestic flat steel market and 100% of blast furnace production, Citi analysts wrote in a note to clients. It would also create "close to a domestic monopoly" on auto body sheet steel and close to 100% of U.S. iron ore.
That will most certainly garner the interest of antitrust regulators who, under
the Biden administration, have raised the bar for mergers in a number of industries. Automakers and other big buyers of steel will also likely push back over shrinking competition among U.S. steelmakers.
Soaring prices have helped fuel consolidation in the steel industry in this decade. Steel prices more than quadrupled near the start of the pandemic to near $2,000 per metric ton by the summer of 2021 as supply chains experienced gridlock, a symptom of surging demand for goods and the lack of anticipation of that demand.
Cleveland Cliffs acquired AK Steel in 2019 right
NOTICE is hereby given that ALEJANDRO MARTINEZ DIAZ of New Providence, The Bahamas applying to the Minister responsible for Nationality and Citizenship, for Registration Naturalization as a citizen of The Bahamas, and that any person who knows any reason why registration/naturalization should not be granted, should send a written and signed statement of the facts within twenty-eight days from the 16th day of August 2023 to the Minister responsible for nationality and Citizenship, P.O. Box N-7147, Nassau, New Providence, The Bahamas.
NOTICE is hereby given that PEDRO AUGUSTO CEPEDA of P. O. Box SB-51056, #21 Rapper Road, Kool Acres, New Providence, Bahamas is applying to the Minister responsible for Nationality and Citizenship, for registration/naturalization as a citizen of The Bahamas, and that any person who knows any reason why registration/naturalization should not be granted, should send a written and signed statement of the facts within twentyeight days from the 16th day of August, 2023 to the Minister responsible for nationality and Citizenship, P.O. Box N-7147, Nassau, Bahamas.
NOTICE is hereby given that DAYNE A. BARNES of Faith Avenue off Carmichael, New Providence, The Bahamas applying to the Minister responsible for Nationality and Citizenship, for Registration Naturalization as a citizen of The Bahamas, and that any person who knows any reason why registration/ naturalization should not be granted, should send a written and signed statement of the facts within twentyeight days from the 9th day of August 2023 to the Minister responsible for nationality and Citizenship, P.O. Box N-7147, Nassau, New Providence, The Bahamas.
before steel prices began to spike and within a year, it acquired ArcelorMittal USA in 2020 for $1.4 billion. U.S. Steel bought Big River Steel the following year. Prices have settled back to around $800 per metric ton, but that remains at the top end of the spectrum for steel prices over the past six years. An extended economic rebound, particularly in the U.S, has helped keep prices for flat-rolled steel elevated.
U.S. STEEL HISTORY
U.S. Steel has been a symbol of industrialization since it was founded in 1901 by J.P. Morgan, Andrew Carnegie and others, and the domestic steel industry dominated globally before Japan, then China, became
the preeminent steelmakers over the past 40 years.
The company survived the Great Depression and became an integral part of U.S. efforts in World War I and II, supplying hundreds of millions of tons of steel for planes, ships, tanks and other military gear, in addition to steel for automobiles and appliances.
During the late 1970s and early 80s — amid an energy crisis and multiple recessions — U.S. Steel cut production and spun off many of its other businesses. With oversupply and an influx of lower-priced steel imports dragging down prices into the new century, the company reorganized in 2001 and separated its energy business, which became Marathon Oil Corp.
NOTICE is hereby given that LUIS MIGUEL CORDERO of New Providence, The Bahamas applying to the Minister responsible for Nationality and Citizenship, for Registration Naturalization as a citizen of The Bahamas, and that any person who knows any reason why registration/naturalization should not be granted, should send a written and signed statement of the facts within twenty-eight days from the 16th day of August 2023 to the Minister responsible for nationality and Citizenship, P.O. Box N-7147, Nassau, New Providence, The Bahamas.
NOTICE is hereby given that
ODILET LAPIN of P.O.Box N-720 Claridge Road, New Providence, The Bahamas applying to the Minister responsible for Nationality and Citizenship, for Registration Naturalization as a citizen of The Bahamas, and that any person who knows any reason why registration/ naturalization should not be granted, should send a written and signed statement of the facts within twentyeight days from the 9th day of August 2023 to the Minister responsible for nationality and Citizenship, P.O. Box N-7147, Nassau, New Providence, The Bahamas.
NOTICE is hereby given that
CONSTANTINO GARO SANTANA of New Providence, The Bahamas applying to the Minister responsible for Nationality and Citizenship, for Registration Naturalization as a citizen of The Bahamas, and that any person who knows any reason why registration/naturalization should not be granted, should send a written and signed statement of the facts within twenty-eight days from the 16th day of August 2023 to the Minister responsible for nationality and Citizenship, P.O. Box N-7147, Nassau, New Providence, The Bahamas.
so we thought that was a valued piece of the legislation that really needed to be expanded upon and reformed.”
The Commercial Enterprises Act was seen as an attempt by the Minnis administration’s to liberalise and deregulate key elements of the Bahamian economy to drive greater GDP growth and job creation, while sending a message to investors - Bahamian and foreignthat the country was open for business.
It was designed to remove the bureaucracy and “red tape” investors encounter when attempting to obtain work permits from the Immigration Department for key management and skilled workers, signalling the Government’s commitment to improving the “ease of doing business”.
The Act sought to introduce certainty and predictability to the work permit regime by requiring the director of immigration to make a decision on their approval within 14
days of the application’s receipt. Applications from businesses covered by the Act have to presently be submitted within 30 days of the worker’s arrival in The Bahamas.
The legislation, though, does not apply to all - only businesses listed in its schedule, and these have to be approved by the Government before they can access the incentives. The Commercial Enterprises Act is largely focused on industries not present in The Bahamas, but which have the potential to create high-earning jobs and be major foreign currency earners. Financial services leads the way with reinsurance; captive insurance; investment fund administration; arbitration; wealth management; international trade and international arbitrage included in the ‘fast track’ work permit sectors. Also covered by the Commercial Enterprises Act are technology-related industries such as computer programming; software design and writing; bioninformatics and analytics;
nano technology; and biomedical health facilities.
“Boutique health facilities”; data storage and warehousing; aviation registration and ‘approved’ aviation maintenance operations; ‘call centres’; and manufacturing and assembly/logistics businesses round out the sectors targeted by the former administration, which said there was nothing in the legislation that prevents the Immigration Department from revoking a permit issued under the Act if adverse information is subsequently discovered.
The Act’s introduction was also hailed by many in the private sector. Judith Whitehead, Graham, Thompson & Company’s managing partner, expressed hope during the 2019 Bahamas Business Outlook conference that the 14-day work permit approval deadline imposed on the Department of Immigration by law would result in an improved turnaround time for all other applications. She backed the Act’s introduction as “setting
the stage for the future” by moving the Bahamas’ investment incentives regime away from its emphasis on “bricks and mortar” projects, and suggested many of the criticisms surrounding its introduction were misplaced, since the businesses/industries targeted were “a virtual mirror” image of those identified for foreign direct investment (FDI) long ago by the Bahamas Investment Authority (BIA).
Meanwhile, Mr Pinder yesterday said The Bahamas was making rapid progress in tackling the three areas of weaknessadequate legal regime, its enforcement and the economic substance reporting portal - that resulted in the country’s blacklisting last year by the European Union (EU) for being non-cooperative for tax purposes.
“There were really three aspects on why we were on the non-cooperative list. The first one would be the legislation, and updating the legislation to make sure we were complying with
international best practices,” he added.
“The second component was the reporting portal was ineffective. That was the one that was put in place at Inland Revenue, and the third component was we needed to show that we were actually enforcing the laws; doing on-site inspections, seeing if everybody was complying who should be complying.”
The Government has hired BDO, which also developed the BOSS (Beneficial Ownership Secure Search System) for The Bahamas to create a purpose-built economic substance reporting portal, which has “already been demoed (demonstrated) by industry.”
A training session will be held this week with the financial services industry on use of the reporting portal, which will help to provide the Government with the necessary feedback. Mr Pinder added: “We’re looking at a full launch of that portal [for the] first week in September, just in time to the for the end of the reporting
FROM PAGE A24
the day at a rate of $30 per person.
She alleged that the driver dropped the group off at Junkanoo Beach and agreed to collect them at 3pm. Megan said the driver never returned for the group and absconded with a bag of her daughter’s that contained souvenirs and the sea card for the cruise ship. She added that the experience cost her group $610.
“We paid $30 a person for 18 people to drive us around for the day,” Megan said. “He said he would take us anywhere we wanted to go for the day. We went to the Queen’s Staircase and then he drove us to Junkanoo Beach, where he said he would be back at 3pm to pick us up and never came back to get us.
“He said we could leave our belongings in his vehicle, and my daughter left her bag with her necklace and her bracelet that we had just bought from the market by this Queen’s Staircase, and her sea card to get back on the ship. Then he never came back to get us. We had to pay another $70 in taxis to get
back to the port, so that’s what $600.. $610 now we’ve paid.”
Mr Ferguson said the union was responsible for making the video. It was passed to the relevant authorities and he was unaware of how became public. He added that the taxi union is conducting the investigation because they have an agreement with the Nassau Cruise Port (NCP), and that incidents such as this happen “daily”.
He said: “It is the Bahamas Taxi Cab Union who is in charge of the investigation because we have an agreement with Nassau Cruise Port to actually operate and run the taxi industry, so we assist them in the disciplinary measures against taxi drivers.
“It’s on a daily basis that these things happen. It’s just that particular video was recorded by an executive of the Bahamas Taxi Cab Union, and I don’t know how it went viral, but it was the union that passed the information on to the police, the authorities at the Nassau Cruise Port and the Road Traffic Controller, Linda Moxey.”
“Road Traffic is supposed to be the watchdogs
LEGAL NOTICE
Pursuant to the provisions of Section 138 (8) of The International Business Companies Act, 2000 of the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, notice is hereby given that Dunamis Trading (Bahamas) Ltd. has been dissolved and struck off the Register as of the 27th day of July, 2023
of this industry, make sure that dress codes are kept, upkeeping of your taxi, making sure you have all the requisite licences and paperwork that qualifies you to be a taxi driver,” Mr Ferguson added.
“The responsibility of disciplining taxi drivers rests on the shoulders of the Road Traffic controller. We pass the information on to the controller so that she can have all of the information that she needs in order to do proper due process and disciplinary measures.”
Mr Ferguson again criticised the issuance of new taxi plates to drivers who were not properly trained and regulated, adding that the situation is a “dark mark” on the taxi and tourism industries.
He said: “I went on record and said look for
the influx of the new taxi drivers untrained, ungazetted, unregulated. This was going to happen. I’ve been in this industry long enough to know when things are going to go haywire. He received a new taxi plate. I wouldn’t say he’s a new driver but you have to understand, when things get out of hand and you have an uptick in competition, it causes good drivers to turn bad because the competition is fierce. The union went on record to say that these kinds of things may happen.”
Jobeth Coleby-Davis, minister of transport and housing,said yesterday that the ministry is aware of the incident and police are looking into the matter.
“Please be advised the Ministry of Transport and Housing and the Road
Traffic Department is aware of the incident involving a taxi driver and a tourist. The police are investigating the matter. Once the police investigation is completed, the ministry will provide an update,” she said.
The taxi driver allegedly involved in the incident yesterday responded in a social media voice note where he denied any wrongdoing. He he acknowledged that he transported a group of 18 at the rate of $30 per person to Junkanoo Beach and arranged to collect them at 3pm.
However, he said he arrived at 2.45pm and waited until 3.20pm for the group and, when they did not come to the vehicle, he left. The driver indicated that to his knowledge none of the tourists’ belongings were left in his taxi and that
period, which ends September 30.
“On the enforcement side, the Ministry of Finance is the competent authority and have been doing on-site inspections. They’ve done in excess of 30 on-site inspections.
“To evaluate compliance with reporting, they found a few that were non-compliant. They’ve actually issued fines and asked for remediation on those aspects, so those on-site inspections are underway and they have about 35 more slated to start in September. So we’re meeting all the expectations that were laid out for us and the EU usually comes for a reassessment in October.”
Prime Minister Philip Davis KC and Michael Halkitis, minister of economic affairs, last month and met with the EU technical group that handles tax matters to update them on The Bahamas’ efforts to meet their demands and become compliant.
he is running a business and not obligated to wait on late clients.
He said: “I had these people today on tour, it was 17, 18 of them for $30 a person. I been to the Fort almost an hour with these people. They tell me I must carry them to the beach, come back for them like 3 o’clock. I reach there like 2.45 early, and 3.20 these people ain’t never show up so I leave.
“I ain’t stay there till no 3.30 or no quarter to four because guess what? If the ship say 10 minutes, ain’t no different than the ship. I don’t want nobody to think I obligated to stay there and wait till they decide they want to come back. That ain’t how it work. I running a business and that’s the way it go.”
NOTICE
International Business Companies Act No.45 of 2000
ENEL INVESTMENTS LIMITED (the “Company”)
Notice is hereby given that, in accordance with Section 138 (8) of the International Business Companies Act, No.45 of 2000, the Dissolution of ENEL INVESTMENTS LIMITED has been completed, a Certifcate of Dissolution has been issued and the Company has therefore been struck off the Register. The date of completion of the dissolution was the 19th day of May, 2023.
change the Bahamas Building Code.”
In it, he flagged several alleged deficiencies with a property under construction which, he subsequently told this newspaper, would likely cause it to “fail” in a hurricane of Category 3 strength or higher if the mistakes are not rectified. Disclosing that the property is being built for a “major residential developer” by a third-party contractor, both of whom he declined to name, he circled the purported construction mistakes he had identified.
“I will not mention the major residential developer that is building these homes,” Mr Sands wrote. “However, I will make a personal call to the chief executive tomorrow and raise these concerns. Their clients deserve better than this.” Responding to calls asking him to explain what was wrong in the photos, he said the property was not being constructed using the “typical building system
where columns and beams are required”. What was absent, he added, was the rebar “extending from the foundations to the belt course” and the filling of all walls with concrete to ensure there were no voids. “It is very clear from these photos that this was not done,” Mr Sands wrote, adding later that the installation of block work on top of the platform was also “not in keeping with best practice”.
Describing the faults he had identified as “extreme”, the BCA chief said he was moved to question “how many more extreme examples are there” due to the lack of contractor licensing and the inability to enforce the Bahamas Building Code throughout the country due to a lack of inspection resources. He had, though, as of yesterday afternoon, not spoken to the development company involved.
“I think the statement I wish to make at this point in time is that the BCA, and any proper contractor, is
certainly concerned where we see any indication of failure with a building being constructed that does not meet the Bahamas Building Code,” Mr Sands told Tribune Business. “That building does not meet the minimum threshold for the Building Code and should be addressed immediately.
“It underscores the need for rigorous inspection by the Ministry of Public Works and also the need for licensing of all contractors offering work to the public. What I witnessed there was obviously a contractor that did not know sufficient about constructing that type of building system to build that kind of structure, and they were doing a very poor job of it. They should be stopped from doing further work.
“Nothing on that [home] site met the Bahamas Building Code. It is not satisfactorily in line with the Code in any respect. Nothing structurally is correct, and it should not have been approved to have the roof installed without the
ATLANTA Associated Press
HOME Depot topped profit and sales expectations in its most recent quarter, but sales continued to decline as inflation and soaring interest rates play a larger role in the spending choices made by Americans.
Second quarter revenue was $42.92 billion, edging out Wall Street expectations for $42.25 billion, according to a survey of industry analysts by Zacks Investment Research. Yet that’s down 2% from the
$43.87 billion that nation’s largest home improvement retailer reported during the same stretch last year, and sales have fallen 3.1% through the first half of the year compared with 2022.
Despite the strongerthan-expected sales figures, Home Depot on Tuesday stuck to previous guidance for the year, seeing sales decline between 2% and 5%, after lowering its forecast in the last quarter.
It’s the first time the chain forecast declining annual sales since 2009 when the U.S. economy
was decimated by a massive housing bubble.
There are signs that consumers, after spending big on homes during the pandemic, are slowing their roll.
“While there was strength in categories associated with smaller projects, we did see continued pressure in certain big-ticket, discretionary categories,” said Ted Decker, chair and CEO. “We remain very positive on the medium-tolong term outlook for home improvement and our ability to grow share in a large and fragmented market.”
structural deficiencies being addressed. It calls into question whether it’s been properly inspected by Ministry of Works officials.”
Turning to the issues raised, Mr Sands added: “It does speak to wider concerns about the overall management of the built environment by the Ministry of Works. We’ve stated for a long time the concern, and it’s been acknowledged by several ministers of public works, that we don’t have the manpower to manage the construction of buildings going on in the country on any given year. It’s an ongoing concern that has to be addressed.
“One solution that has been proposed, and needs to be taken very seriously, is the need for third party inspectors - private engineers, architects and quantity surveyors - to do building inspections and be part of the inspection function at the Ministry of Works.
“That’s been offered for several years now, but the ministry and successive
ministers have not been welcoming of it. They should be because they don’t have the bodies required to inspections in New Providence, let alone the Family Islands. We’re long past the point of what should happen. It happens in other jurisdictions, the US and Canada. It’s time for The Bahamas to follow through. We’ve simply outpaced the capacity of the Ministry of Works, and the only ones suffering because of it are the public,” he continued.
“If you don’t have the safeguard of that inspection by ministry officials, how do you know your home is meeting the standard that has been set. That’s the risk, and it’s a serious risk. If you have a 25-30 year mortgage on that building, that’s the assurance for you. The Ministry of Works provides that standard so your building meets that. You shouldn’t be guessing.”
Mr Sands said he and other BCA members often noticed non-compliance with the Bahamas Building
Code as they moved around the country, but what he had witnessed and identified in those photos was a much higher “degree of deficiency”.
He added: “Failure to adhere to the Code happens across the landscape of the country very frequently, but not as extreme. This is an extreme example, but how many extreme examples are there because we are not doing inspections everywhere? What if we looked at every structure that was built? How many more instances would we come across?
“It should be concerning to the Ministry of Works, it should be concerning to the public, and it should be concerning to good contractors because their reputation can be called into question because of one contractor. That’s the real danger and damage; that they are impacted by just one contractor.”
FROM PAGE A22
had a day yet where the electricity is on all day,” Mr Bethel added.
“Its causing people to not want to be in Andros and it’s hurting business. There is a seamstress that came to me and she was considering coming to Nassau to finish her work because, with the power continuously going off, she is having difficulties completing the uniforms.”
Turning to Mr Lightbourne’s response to last week’s protest, Mr Bethel maintained that the frustrations of the residents are not politically motivated. “The statements by the member of parliament were very defeating for the community. It was very defeating for the community to hear him say that they are trying to make it political. His statement came off as if he is suggesting that the people were
complaining for nothing,” Mr Bethel said.
“The residents are very frustrated by his remark because it has nothing to do with politics. Everybody is feeling the power outages, and everyone has suffered in one way or the other. He has yet to address the general public and say to them what he can do to help mitigate or mediate the situation wherever he can, and whatever communication he has with BPL. It’s almost like he doesn’t care.”
Mr Bethel praised the work done by BPL employees since the fire, and said the community has always felt the staff were doing their best but have not been given the proper tools from BPL to be “successful”. He added that the generators sent to North Andros were used and not “properly” maintained, creating many issues for the employees to solve.
“He mentioned about four or five times inside of his posts that the guys on the ground are working hard,” Mr Bethel said of Mr Lightbourne. “We’ve never ever tried to jeopardise those guys’ jobs ,and we’ve never suggested that they weren’t doing a good job. We’ve always felt like they were doing a good job. Right to this day they are still outside in the rain.
“It came off as if he was trying to pin the community against them, as if to say, when you complain, you’re suggesting that these guys are not doing a good job. But that’s not the case. We’re saying that BPL has not given them the right equipment for them to be successful. The operation of those generators are new to them. And the generators are not new, and they were not properly maintained prior to being sent to North Andros, so they are having a lot of issues.”
Responsible for ensuring the attainment of targeted revenues and and providing appealing restaurant service; managing staff and ensuring the smooth operation of the restaurant.
Essential Duties
• Maintain operations by enforcing company’s policies, standard operating procedures; implement production, productivity, quality, patron- service standards; determine and implement system improvements.
• Maintain patron satisfaction by monitoring, evaluating, and auditing food, beverage, and service.
• Ensure that all food and products are consistently prepared and served according to the restaurant’s recipes, portioning, cooking, and serving standards.
• Maintain a safe, secure, and healthy facility environment by establishing, following, enforcing sanitation standards and procedures; complying with health and legal regulations; maintaining security systems.
• Develop employees by providing ongoing feedback, establishing performance expectations and by conducting performance reviews.
• • Prepare schedules and ensure that the restaurant is staffed for all shifts.
• • Work with C. E.O/C.O. O and Head cook to plan and price menu items.
• Control food cost and usage by following proper requisition of products from storage areas, product storage procedures, standard recipes, and waste control procedures.
• Oversee and ensure that restaurant policies on employee performance appraisals are followed and completed on a timely basis.
• Conduct training for all personnel in conjunction with H.R and Sr. Manager or Regional Manager.
•
PHYSICAL REQUIREMENTS
• Flexible and long hours sometimes required.
• Ability to stand during entire shift.
Bachelors Degree in Business/ Hospitality or a related feld from an accredited college/university with at least 3 years of proven supervisory/management experience. Please forward your resumes to hr@sapodillabahamas.com
Application deadline 18th August, 2023.
We thank all applicants for their interest, however only shortlisted applicants will be contacted for an interview.
EY Bahamas has disclosed that De’Andre Forbes is the recipient of its Jamaine McFall Memorial Scholarship. The scholarship will fund his pursuit of an accounting degree at Saint John’s University, Minnesota.
“Before applying for the EY Bahamas Jamaine McFall Memorial Scholarship, I had a clear vision of working in an environment that fosters growth, transformation and a meaningful career,” Mr Forbes said. “I identified EY as the organisation that perfectly aligns with my aspirations. The opportunity fills me with immense gratitude towards family, teachers and friends, whose unwavering support and guidance propelled me
to this important milestone in my life.”
Michele Thompson, EY’s regional managing partner for The Bahamas, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands and Cayman Islands, said: “The EY scholarship reflects EY’s commitment to supporting talented individuals like De’Andre and nurturing their potential.
“EY believes in investing in exceptional students who exhibit the qualities and values that align with the organisation’s vision and culture. Through the scholarship programme, EY aims to empower the next generation of leaders and contribute to their success.”
Tiffany Norris-Pilcher, EY Bahamas country managing partner and emerging
manager platform leader, added: “De’Andre’s selection as the recipient of the EY scholarship is a testament to his outstanding
achievements and potential. His dedication to academic excellence, coupled with his strong leadership skills,
have set him apart as an exemplary student.
“Throughout his academic journey, De’Andre has
FROM L to R: Michele Thompson, EY regional managing partner, and scholarship winner, De’Andre Forbes.
consistently demonstrated a commitment to surpassing expectations and embracing new challenges with enthusiasm.” The scholarship is valued at $30,000 annually and provides students, who have shown academic excellence, with the opportunity to access higher education and build successful careers in the professional services industry.
The scholarship also includes an eight-week summer internship to gain practical experience and an offer for full-time employment at EY upon successful completion of the university programme.
draft order it issued on the matter, back on May 8, 2023, “as a warning” given that this was its first licence and content code breach in the almost six years since it was authorised to start broadcasting on June 15, 2017. Based on its final decision, the regulator appears to have taken these arguments on board.
Detailing how the controversy first arose, URCA said: “Paramount Systems operates a radio station on the island of New Providence, The Bahamas, and broadcasts content throughout the island over the radio frequency 103.5MHz (also known by its call sign ‘103.5
The Beat’). On February 8, 2023, an anonymous complaint was made to URCA regarding the content of a radio program called ‘Unfiltered with Drew and Just Mo’ that was broadcast on 103.5 The Beat on January 30, 2023.
“Consequently, URCA conducted a content monitoring exercise using URCA’s content and technical standards monitoring system (CTSMS) and found that the broadcast of Unfiltered on January 30, 2023, contained adult-themed and unsuitable content for children, unjustified offensive, obscene and vulgar language, as well as sexually explicit discussions and portrayals of sexual behaviour outside the watershed.”
This resulted in URCA launching an investigation and demanding that Paramount Systems provide “the complete, unedited recording of the entirety” of the Unfiltered broadcast to it. This was provided to the regulator on February 17, 2023.
“URCA conducted further FM broadcast content
monitoring exercises using the CTSMS and observed that content similar to that which was broadcast during the Unfiltered show on January 30, 2023, was subsequently broadcast on 103.5 The Beat during the Unfiltered show on February 23, 2023; March 9, 2023; and April 24, 2023,” URCA added.
The material that was the subject of the initial complaint was broadcast between 1pm and 3pm on January 30, 2023, to a daytime listening audience that could have included children. Paramount Systems, in its initial response, said this was “the first occasion” it had been accused of breaching the broadcasting content code, and added that no complaint was received by itself even though the person had been advised to do so.
It also suggested that Unfiltered’s hosts were “under the impression that children would be at school”, and thus would not have heard the offending material, which was contained during a 25-minute conversation between 1.33pm and 1.54pm on January 30, 2023. The broadcasting content code of practice requires that children are protected from
“unsuitable material” and that this only be transmitted “outside the watershed” when they are likely not to be listening.
Nevertheless, in its response, Paramount Systems took ultimate responsibility for ensuring that program hosts comply with the code and anything broadcast on its stations.
“Paramount Systems will also undertake to provide content which is consistent with the standard of good taste and decency and, conversely, to avoid content which could be considered harmful, abusive, offensive, discriminatory or otherwise contrary to the standards of taste and decency which generally obtain in Bahamian society,” URCA said of the radio station operator’s reply.
The regulator also said Paramount Systems “has apparently misinterpreted the code” by failing to “make and maintain complete and accurate recordings of all broadcasts”. URCA noted that the Unfiltered recordings did not include the advertisements or music played, although the station operator said copyright restrictions limited the inclusion of music in live video recordings.
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“In a letter from Paramount Systems’ chief executive, Gershan Major, to URCA, Paramount Systems undertook to maintain in an appropriate and commonly used format complete and accurate recordings of all materials broadcasted by Paramount Systems excluding the recordings of copyright material that can only be shared through a listener’s radio system and not via social media in video form,” URCA added.
To pacify URCA, and remedy the breaches, Paramount Systems said it had altered the Unfiltered timelines and schedules.
“Paramount Systems further represented to URCA that its chief executive met with
the hosts and Paramount Systems’ radio program manager for the purpose of mitigating the possibility of future breaches of the code and ensuring compliance with the code,” the regulator said.
“Paramount Systems represented that its chief executive directed the hosts of Unfiltered to immediately cease all adult content and to issue an on-air public apology. Paramount Systems noted that it submitted a video clip of the apology to URCA.....
“Paramount Systems noted this is the first matter of such an extent that Paramount Systems has been made aware of, and has been the subject of, since
being issued the licence by URCA and therefore would like URCA to strongly consider the draft order as a warning. Paramount Systems also reiterated to URCA that all necessary steps have been taken to ensure that this matter or matters of similar instances do not occur in the future.” These pledges, and Paramount Systems’ promise to ensure “all employees and agents acting on its behalf are adequately and appropriately supervised” dissuaded URCA from imposing a fine in the final determination and order that was signed-off by the regulator’s chief executive, Carlton Smith.
THE North Andros Chamber of Commerce president yesterday said he will press for financial redress for the losses, damage and inconvenience suffered by the area’s businesses and residents when he meets Bahamas Power & Light (BPL) this week.
Darin Bethel told Tribune Business that companies must properly document their losses if they are to receive financial compensation with North Andros experiencing frequent power outages ever since the recent fire destroyed BPL’s generation equipment and related infrastructure.
He also voiced concern that the area’s MP, Leonardo Lightbourne, would seek to portray a recent protest over North Andros’ electricity woes as being politically motivated since such sentiments were both incorrect and “defeating” for residents and companies.
“First of all, I would like for them to properly consider our concerns. I hope that they agree in terms of compensating the business community and that they look into resolving our
problem,” Mr Bethel said of BPL. “I represent the business community and I fear that a lot of the business owners have not properly documented their loss. While I am very well aware
that they did have a loss, in order for BPL to compensate them they are going to look for losses that are properly documented. So some people may benefit and some people may not.”
Mr Bethel added that he is also seeking compensation for residents amid soaring electricity bills that have seen BPL’s all-in rates increase by 70 percent within just ten months. He said senior citizens who live on a fixed income are seeing electricity bills that exceed their pension cheques.
“The light bills are extremely high, and while they are high all over The Bahamas, they are exceptionally higher in North Andros,” he argued. “I’ve had several people tell me their bill has quadrupled and they called BPL, and they were told it’s because of the power surges, the constant cutting on and off, and you can imagine for the residents who experience that four to five times a day.
“We are seeing senior citizens that use their pension to pay their light bills, and it has increased so much that they are having difficulties paying their light bills.
FRANCHISE owners yesterday reiterated it is premature for jitney drivers to increase fares by 25 cents amid reports that some have already begun this week to charge passengers $1.50
Harrison Moxey, president of the United Public Transportation Company’s (UPTC), which represents franchise owners, told Tribune Business that no bus should be charging passengers $1.50 as the Ministry of Transport and Housing
has yet to finalise, announce and gazzette any fare increase. While a proposed 25 cent rise is “forthcoming”, it has not been made law and brought into effect.
“There hasn’t been any implementation of any increase. There have been discussions on it. The 25 cent increase is what is to be forthcoming based on their position, but it is not to be implemented for the next several weeks [until] after a series of town meetings, which we are supposed to be a part of,” Mr Moxey said.
This newspaper was yesterday informed by one adult passenger that the
jitney they rode in the Carmichael area had already implemented a 25 cent increase, requiring them to pay a $1.50 fare as opposed to $1.25. Such a move is in line with a previous communication issued to franchise holders, bus owners and drivers by the Bahamas Unified Bus Drivers Union (BUDU), which represents the jitney drivers.
It advised that jitney fares will be increasing by 25 cents for adults, and junior and high school students, with effect from Monday, August 14. This would take the bus fare to $1.50 for adults and $1.25 for junior and high school
students in uniform during school hours, and $1.50 for the latter during school breaks and weekends. The rates for elderly passengers and primary school children were to remain unchanged.
“As of Monday, August 14, 2023, the bus fees/fares will be going up by $0.25,” the union said. “Adults $1.25 will now be $1.50, students in senior high and junior high school will move from $1 to $1.25 in uniform during school hours but $1.50 during school breaks and weekends. Primary and senior citizens remain at $0.50 and $0.75. All other rates are to be adjusted by $0.25. This agreement
I’m hoping they will look at the bills and compensate anybody that would have paid more because of these surges as people should not have to pay for their difficulties.”
Mr Bethel said Central Andros recently received a new generator to help resolve its electrical woes, and voiced hope that the island’s north could receive one as well. Since BPL can connect the two areas, he added that if the state-owned utility can resolve the electricity issues in Central Andros it may be able to share and relieve the “pressure” on the temporary generators in the north.
“They just sent a new generator to Central Andros,” the Chamber chief said. “The plant there was designed to be able to give power to North Andros but, because Central Andros has been having problems as well, we haven’t been able to borrow electricity from them. So hopefully if they can get Central Andros up and running, they connect the two and take some pressure off the smaller generators.
has been agreed to by the union and the Ministry of Transportation.”
This statement was branded premature by both Mr Moxey and the Ministry of Transport and Housing when it emerged. The latter yesterday indicated this remains the position, as it referred Tribune Business to its previous statement on the matter. That release said the Government has not concluded deliberations on a fare increase and the date when it will be implemented.
Echoing the Government’s stance, Mr Moxey said: “We haven’t agreed. We’re just saying based on the discussion from the Government’s side, and we’re still getting to the point where we will have a meeting with the
The North Andros Chamber chief said the constant power outages are creating a “damaging experience” for visitors as many hotels do not have generators, while the ones that do are booked out. “On Saturday a business person called me from out of the country. He had some guests in Andros and he wanted to know where can I send my guests tonight that has power,” Mr Bethel said.
“Most of the hotels I called had no power, and the ones with generators were booked out. I had to call BPL and they said to me that it would be out for another two hours and I had to relay that to them.” Mr Bethel said that after last week’s protest the electricity service enjoyed “two good days” before returning to load shedding where power has been out for four to six hours at a time.
He added that the outages are hurting small businesses such as tailors and seamstress that are on a tight schedule to complete uniforms before schools reopen. “I mean we haven’t
Government. The discussions will be whether the lower class can support an increase. But nobody is supposed to be charging any bus fee higher than what the regular thing is.” His members “have not given up” on their initial proposal for raising bus fares to $2. “The bus drivers (BUDU) met and had a different conversation, but nothing to move in the direction that their union is actually moving in, trying to force hands and charge people prematurely,” Mr Moxey said.
“So it would be premature for the UPTC to say we are going to charge $1.50 because things have to be approved and gazetted, and public notices have to be given, so you can’t just haphazardly do it.”
CARNIVAL Cruise Lines is aiming to make up to 50 retail and marketplace spots available to local tenants at its Grand Bahama port that will ultimately cater to as many as 17,000 persons daily. The cruise line, in its ‘request for information’ for retailers interested in securing space at the port, said its plans currently provide for three so-called ‘anchor’ stores; 15 ‘standard’ stores; and some 32 market kiosks.
The ‘anchor’ stores, which will be between 1,400 square feet and 1,800 square feet in size, covering around a total 4,500 square feet, will focus on duty-free type retailing and goods, jewellery and general gifts and souvenirs. The ‘standard’ stores, which will be between 450-600 square feet, and cover a total area of 8,100 square feet, will sell a variety of items.
Carnival’s information request said these will range from general souvenirs and apparel, including
branded items, t-shirts, and local jewellery, to crew retail and beach essentials such as sunblock, sunglasses and hats. The market kiosks, which will be sized between 70 to 180 square feet, and cover a total 5,300 square feet, are to have “uniquely Bahamian” offerings including “handmade, handcrafted artisan type products”.
“Carnival is constructing a dedicated cruise ship destination designed to accommodate two cruise ships per day, with a daily onshore capacity of up to 13,000 guests and 4,000 crew members,” the cruise line said. “The destination is expected to open in summer 2025. In order to provide a quality retail experience, Carnival will negotiate and execute lease agreements with many qualified operators. Agreements may take the form of standard, long- term retail leases.”
While Carnival’s port will receive cruise vessels between the hours of 8am and 5pm seven days per week, it added that night operations may eventually be considered. “Approximately one million guests
are expected to visit the destination in its first year of operation, with potentially up to two million guests in the second year forward,” Carnival added.
“Retail footprint at the destination is not foreseen to be dense, and will be differentiated by being mostly Bahamian-focused and inspired.... Total retail footprint is anticipated to be approximately 18,000 square feett, split into different categories.”
Ginger Moxey, minister for Grand Bahama, yesterday said Carnival is conducting “community engagement exercises” on the island and showcasing the retail opportunities that will be available when the port is completed in summer 2025.
“We’re really excited about what’s happening with that. It’s going to provide so many entrepreneurial opportunities for the people of
the community as well as new job opportunities,” she added. The Grand Port will be located at Sharp Rock.
While Royal Caribbean also has a port project for Grand Bahama, it has been “dealing directly” with the Freeport Harbour Company. “We’re really focused on the Carnival cruise port development at this time and I’m sure that Royal Caribbean will update as soon as they have
additional information on that,” Mrs Moxey said.
Discussions with the Grand Bahama Port Authority are ongoing, she added, and there is a strong desire to see “all hands on deck” to move the island in the right direction. Tar balls of oil that recently washed up on Grand Bahama’s shoreline have been sent to the US for testing to determine exactly where originated from.
As for Grand Bahama International Airport’s (GBIA) redevelopment, Mrs Moxey said the winning consortium’s operating partner, Manchester Airport Group, will be in Freeport this summer to assess the facility and “plans are continuing to progress in that direction.”
She added: “There’s a lot happening on the island. We are excited about everything that’s happening. We know that Grand Bahama, we’ve said we wanted it to be the events and entertainment destination in The Bahamas. We’ve been busy having many events on the island.”
SEBAS Bastian’s radio station has escaped a fine despite committing multiple violations by broadcasting “sexually explicit” and “offensive, obscene and vulgar language” during prime daytime hours that children may have heard.
The Utilities Regulation and Competition Authority (URCA), in a July 17, 2023, final determination and order
ruled that The Beat 103.5 was guilty of breaching 14 clauses in the Bahamian broadcasting industry’s content code of practice as well as its own licence terms as a result of material that was transmitted on four separate occasions earlier this year.
However, the regulator ultimately decided not to impose financial sanctions or penalties on The Beat 103.5 and its immediate parent, Paramount Systems, which broadcast from University Drive right by the
By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.netA Village Road auto dealer yesterday said his business is “on the mend” with sales returning to pre-COVID levels amid the ongoing wait for government compensation following the roadworks’ completion.
Brent Fox, Montague Motors’ principal, told Tribune Business he “cannot complain” with auto sales “bouncing back pretty well” over the past three to four months but urged the Davis administration to deliver on its promises of relief for roadworks-hit businesses just to show it is “looking out for people”.
Noting that it will likely be impossible for his firm
and others to recover what they lost during the road improvements, he added that Montague Motors would likely have enjoyed a post-pandemic revival
a year sooner without the closures and general disruption created by the project.
“We’ve actually bounced back pretty well. I can’t
six-legged roundabout and the Esso gas station located there.
It instead appears to have decided that a final warning and a rap on the knuckles is sufficient. Besides having to prove it maintains “complete and accurate” recordings of all broadcasts, the only other imposition by URCA requires Paramount to improve its complaints handling procedures. The broadcasting regulator, in its verdict, appeared to accept the assurances of Paramount and its chief executive,
complain,” Mr Fox told this newspaper. “That was actually a year there where we could have rebounded a lot earlier. Where we were going to be a year ago we ware there now since the construction finished.
“Other than that I cannot complain because sales have been pretty good in the last three to four months. We’re back to pre-COVID levels. I would say that we’re definitely back to normal over the last three to four months, but we would probably have been in this position a year ago had it not been for the roadworks construction. We’re on the mend.”
Village Road businesses, having formed a Collective to press the Government for financial relief due to
SEE PAGE A18
THE taxi union’s president yesterday admitted the authorities need “more teeth” to punish rogue operators as the police were summoned to investigate an alleged incident involving one driver and a group of tourists.
Wesley Ferguson, the Bahamas Taxi Cab Union’s (BTCU) chief, told Tribune Business that the roll-out of the new code of conduct for drivers will help curb conflicts involving the sector and visitors as a group of cruise ship passengers complained one operator had absconded with their belongings and left them stranded to the
beach. They also had to spend hundreds of extra dollars to find an alternative ride back to the cruise port.
Conceding that the taxi industry’s current code of conduct lacks the “teeth” to be effective and levy proper disciplinary measures against drivers
who have “spiralled out of control”, Mr Ferguson added: “We are still waiting on the ministry [of transport and housing] to actually roll out the new code of conduct. That’s to sort of mitigate some of these incidents and give them some kind of clear directive on what course of
action should be taken in a situation like this.
“We need the ministry to agree on it and have it gazetted, basically as law, so it can give the authorities more teeth in order to have efficient and good governance in the taxi industry. Because of a lack of administrators and the lack of disciplinary measures levied against taxi drivers, they seem to basically spiral out of control.”
A video was widely circulated on social media yesterday depicting a tourist relaying their alleged experience with a taxi driver. The speaker identified herself as Megan, and said she hired a taxi to take her party of 18 around for
SEE PAGE A19
THE Attorney General yesterday said the Government will retain the Commercial Enterprises Act’s “useful aspects” when it moves to “repeal and replace” the existing law’s work permit-related provisions in the next parliamentary session.
Ryan Pinder KC, speaking ahead of the weekly cabinet meeting, disclosed that the Davis administration plans to retain sections in the existing Act that provide for the creation of commercial enterprise
zones since this can be a tool that aids Bahamian economic development.
This country already possesses something similar in Freeport’s Hawksbill Creek Agreement, but he referred to Dubai and Cayman Islands when giving examples of such zones. However, Mr Pinder said the more flexible work permit regime contained in the original Act, which was passed by Parliament when the Minnis administration was in office, will be repealed in line with the Government’s election campaign promises to better protect employment
and job opportunities for Bahamians.
“We did a full review of that piece of legislation coming into the election,” the Attorney General added. “In our blueprint for change, you
would have noted, we had some objection to that legislation. Our objection was focused around the automatic grant of work permits and ensuring that Bahamian employment is protected.
“However, on a full review of the legislation, we thought there were aspects of it that would be useful for economic development. So it provides for commercial enterprise zones, which would be given some commercial preference in different types of industries. We see that happening in Dubai and Cayman Islands, and in other countries, and
SEE PAGE A19
Gershan Major, that “all necessary steps have been taken” to ensure such incidents are never repeated. The Beat 103.5 operator supplied 40 individual declarations signed by its employees and agents, acknowledging the content code’s existence and agreeing to abide by it, while those responsible for the offending broadcast and material gave an on-air apology. Paramount also urged URCA “to strongly consider” the first
By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.netTHE BAHAMIAN Contractors Association’s (BCA) president yesterday said the deficiencies he identified in a home being built for a major residential developer expose the “serious risk” the sector’s regulatory shortcomings pose to the public.
Leonard Sands told Tribune Business that, besides the continued failure to implement a self-regulatory licensing and certification system for Bahamian contractors, the Ministry of Works has been “outpaced” by construction activity and simply lacks sufficient inspectors and resources to conduct “rigorous” examination of all new buildings.
Warning that these weaknesses, which have been flagged repeatedly over many years, represent a potentially serious threat to the biggest investment Bahamian homeowners will make, he spoke out after making an August 13, 2023, Facebook posting that asked: “When did we
‘Show you’re looking out for Village Road’
