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Volume: 123 No. 188, Wednesday, August 26, 2026

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MATHS PASSING RATE ‘SIMPLY NOT ACCEPTABLE’ Performance in subject deteriorated sharply again in past year

By EARYEL BOWLEG Tribune Staff Reporter ebowleg@tribunemedia.net DEPUTY Prime Minister and Minister of Education Chester Cooper has called the country’s 33.3 percent BGCSE Mathematics pass rate “simply not acceptable” after performance in the subject deteriorated sharply again this year.

Only one in three students passed Mathematics in the 2026 examinations, while the number earning

grades A through D fell by 14.1 percent compared with last year.

“I am particularly concerned that the BGCSE Mathematics pass rate declined to 33.3 per cent,” Mr Cooper said. “One in three students passing is simply not acceptable.”

The result emerged as education officials reported modest improvement overall in the national examinations, but MATHS - SEE PAGE THREE EDUCATION Minister Chester Cooper speaks during Queen’s College employee orientation on Monday.

Photo: Nikia Charlton

JUDGE BLOCKS FORCED RETIREMENT OF OFFICIAL Youth gun violence has to be

By LYNAIRE MUNNINGS Tribune Staff Reporter lmunnings@tribunemedia.net

A THREE-YEAR dispute over efforts to remove Deputy Financial Secretary Athena Marche from her post has been laid bare in a Supreme Court ruling, revealing that Financial Secretary Simon Wilson accused the senior official of unresolved performance

problems and insubordination before she was given a choice between transferring to the University of The Bahamas or facing retirement in the public interest.

Justice Leif Farquharson has now temporarily blocked the government from taking further steps to retire Ms Marche, finding that her challenge raises

RETIRE - SEE PAGE THREE

confronted, says AG Munroe

By LYNAIRE MUNNINGS Tribune Staff Reporter lmunnings@tribunemedia.net ATTORNEY General Wayne Munroe yesterday urged Bahamians to confront the gun violence gripping New Providence after three men were killed in separate shootings

within about 20 hours over the weekend.

Speaking outside the Office of the Prime Minister ahead of the weekly Cabinet meeting, Mr Munroe said the country continues to struggle with young people carrying high-powered weapons and warned that the consequences extend beyond intended

targets.

“It’s a matter of fact that we have some citizens doing foolishness,” he said. “We still have young men with guns, and I am understanding in one of the recent incidents, even a young woman was one of the persons GUNS - SEE PAGE SEVEN

BPL EXTENDS SUSPENSION OF UNION SHOP STEWARD

By KEILE CAMPBELL Tribune Staff Reporter kcampbell@tribunemedia.net

BEWU PRESIDENT KYLE WILSON

BAHAMAS Power and Light has extended shop steward Wellington Porter’s suspension by another 20 days as it continues investigating allegations of gross misconduct, deepening a dispute with the electrical

Nassau & Bahama Islands’ Leading Newspaper

workers’ union amid the country’s persistent electricity disruptions.

Bahamas Electrical Workers Union president Kyle Wilson said union representatives were told of the extension during a meeting with BPL chief executive officer Toni Seymour. Mr SUSPEND - SEE PAGE THREE

THE TRIBUNE

Wednesday, August 26, 2026, PAGE 3

Cooper demands urgent review as BGCSE math pass rate plunges MATHS from page one

MINISTER OF EDUCATION CHESTER COOPER

acknowledged that much of the progress came from increases in C and D grades while the proportion of top A and B grades declined.

Education Director Dominique McCartney-Russell said Mathematics remained the most significant concern in this year’s BGCSE results.

She said a ministry study examining a decade of declining Mathematics performance identified poor student engagement, maths anxiety, weaknesses among some teachers and insufficient practical, hands-on learning among the problems affecting achievement.

Mrs McCartney-Russell said parents’ own negative attitudes towards Mathematics could contribute to students’ anxiety.

She also said some primary school teachers, who are responsible for teaching several

subjects, had acknowledged that Mathematics was not their strongest area. The ministry has provided additional support, including through a maths lab.

Mr Cooper said he had accepted recommendations for a targeted review of the results to determine what was driving the decline and what changes were required.

“Math is critical to our students’ future and to the skills our country needs,” he said.

The Davis administration is developing a strategy to address performance gaps, particularly in Mathematics, with its broad outlines expected to be released before the end of September.

The Mathematics results overshadowed incremental gains elsewhere in the examinations.

Of the 6,169 candidates registered for BGCSE examinations, 2,002 sat five or more subjects.

Only 649 of them — about 32.4 percent — earned at least five C grades or better.

That was up from 627 candidates last year, but still meant roughly two-thirds of candidates taking five or more subjects did not achieve at least five passes at grade C or above.

The overall proportion of A-D grades edged up to 71.49 percent.

Mr Cooper described the results as showing “modest overall improvement” and congratulated education officials, teachers, students and parents who performed well.

“Our schools continue to produce outstanding young Bahamians, and we should celebrate them,” he said. “But we must also be frank about where we are falling short.”

He said the education system would continue working to improve outcomes for students.

“Accordingly, we will commend the progress, confront the weaknesses and do the work necessary to improve the future of our students and our Bahamas,” he said.

UNION SLAMS BPL AS STEWARD’S SUSPENSION EXTENDED 20 DAYS SUSPEND from page one Porter had initially been suspended for five days. Melvin Babb, manager of Fuel and Special Projects, who reportedly received a suspension letter for alleged gross misconduct, also had his suspension extended.

He said BPL cited a “pending further investigation” as the reason.

Although critical of the decision, Mr Wilson acknowledged that BPL was acting within the terms of its industrial agreement with the union.

Mr Wilson said the union welcomed BPL’s adherence to the agreement but warned: “What we’re saying is, don’t abuse it.”

The extension comes as the union continues to challenge BPL’s handling of an overtime controversy, arguing that employees cannot assign or approve their own overtime and questioning why managers and supervisors responsible for authorising payments have not faced the same scrutiny.

“These men do not sign their own overtime,” Mr Wilson said. “They don’t call

themselves for overtime.

Where are the managers?

Where are the supervisors?

Where are the people who manage these areas?”

Mr Porter made the same argument.

“I cannot put in for overtime,” he said. “Overtime is approved by management and signed off by management.”

He said he did not understand why BPL continued pursuing him and other workers he described as innocent.

Mr Wilson characterised the overtime controversy and disciplinary proceedings as “smoke and mirrors”, accusing BPL of focusing attention on workers while the electricity system continues to suffer serious failures.

“We’ve seen massive failures of the grid,” he said.

“People are suffering. We have islands without power for weeks — weeks on end.”

He later described the situation as “the worst energy crisis in the history of this country”.

Mr Wilson also renewed allegations that bribes had previously been offered to him, saying Mr Porter and BPL manager Melvin

Babb signed a letter as witnesses and that all three were interviewed during an investigation.

“What behooves me is I’ve been asking now for months on end for an investigation into alleged bribes that were offered to me,” he said.

Mr Wilson did not identify who allegedly offered the bribes, when they were offered or what they were allegedly intended to achieve. No supporting documents were presented during the press conference.

He questioned why BPL appeared to be pursuing its overtime investigation more aggressively than the alleged bribery matter.

“You want to investigate overtime,” he said, “but you don’t want to investigate gross malfeasance in the company where the names of leaders are being called in connection with bribery.”

Mr Wilson suggested the disciplinary proceedings could intimidate witnesses, although he acknowledged that he did not know whether that was BPL’s intention.

Mr Babb has also reportedly been suspended. Mr Wilson said he did not know

the outcome of Mr Babb’s latest meeting with BPL because his matter was being handled separately.

Mr Wilson also defended his own overtime claims, saying forms must be verified through several levels of management before payment can be made.

“No employee can just take a form, take it to finance and say, ‘Pay me,’” he said.

“That form has to be verified at my level. I am a senior technician. It has to be verified by two managers — a manager and his manager.”

He also denied an allegation that he claimed overtime while outside the country.

“Someone went as high as lying to our own prime minister,” he said, “claiming that I was off the island and put in overtime. That never happened.”

Mr Wilson said the union has filed disputes with the Department of Labour, consulted its legal team and contacted Prime Minister Philip “Brave” Davis.

He announced no industrial action, saying the union would pursue the matter through the courts, conciliation and other lawful

channels rather than take steps that could further hurt residents and businesses already affected by outages.

“I try not to hurt the Bahamian people, the momand-pop businesses,” he said.

“They’re suffering enough now. Persons are losing businesses, meat spoiling, ice cream melting.”

Mr Wilson said the disciplinary proceedings were also discouraging experienced BPL employees from helping respond to electricity problems.

“When they see things happening to their fellow brothers in the union, they are discouraged,” he said.

“All of this is hurting the Bahamian people because they’re not enthusiastic to go there and work and be discredited for their hard work.”

He disputed suggestions that insufficient generation was behind the electricity disruptions, instead blaming problems with the transmission and distribution network operated by Bahamas Grid Company.

“We don’t have a generation issue,” he said. “We can supply the generation.

There’s enough power being

generated.”

Mr Wilson claimed BPL vehicles, equipment and tools had been transferred to BGC while network failures continued, and questioned what had been achieved through the investment in the company.

“We’ve invested hundreds of millions now,” he said.

“We’ve turned over all of the Bahamian assets that belong to the Bahamian people — all of our trucks, all of our vans, all of our equipment, all of our tools — to this third-party entity, and it has all fallen apart.”

He praised the Davis administration for attempting to improve the electricity system but urged officials to reassess the arrangement and work more closely with BPL employees.

“If it has failed, we can recalibrate, we can start over and we can look at where we made the mistakes,” he said.

“We are the experts. We are the workers,” Mr Wilson said. “Had you sat down at the table first, it all starts with respect. If we respected the talent of the BPL workers, we would not be facing this fiasco.”

SUPREME COURT HALTS FORCED RETIREMENT OF SENIOR FINANCE OFFICIAL RETIRE from page one serious questions that must be determined before the process can continue.

The ruling provides the first public account of a dispute that began in April 2023 and has kept Ms Marche away from her duties for more than three years.

Ms Marche, who was appointed Deputy Financial Secretary by the Governor General in March 2020 with effect from July 2018, attended a meeting with Mr Wilson on April 24, 2023.

According to the ruling, Mr Wilson referred to a memorandum prepared by then-Acting Financial Secretary Marlon Johnson and said Ms Marche’s performance difficulties and insubordinate behaviour described in the document remained unresolved.

She was presented with two options: vacate the office of Deputy Financial Secretary and transfer to the University of The Bahamas, or face a recommendation that she be retired in the public interest.

Ms Marche, through her attorney Khalil Parker KC, disputed the allegations, challenged the procedure being followed and requested particulars of the alleged misconduct.

Her attorney also wrote to the then-Director of Legal Affairs seeking an investigation into her treatment.

On May 11, 2023, Ms Marche was placed on administrative leave for two weeks without loss of pay.

The ruling said the letter placing her on leave gave no reason. The leave was subsequently extended several times, and she remains away from her duties.

By March 2024, the matter had escalated.

The Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Labour and the Public Service informed Ms Marche that a recommendation had been made to retire her in the public interest under regulation 45 of the Public Service Commission Regulations.

A six-page report prepared by Mr Wilson was enclosed, and Ms Marche was given 14 days to show why she should not be retired.

The process was subsequently halted while the parties were engaged in conciliation before the Department of Labour.

They now disagree over how long that standstill was intended to last.

Ms Marche launched judicial review proceedings in May 2025 challenging the decision to begin the retirement process, Mr Wilson’s recommendation that she be retired and the decision to place and keep her on administrative leave.

She alleges illegality, procedural unfairness, irrationality, improper purpose and abuse of power, and

also challenges the lawful basis for her administrative leave.

Her lawyers have argued that allegations of insubordination, poor performance, attendance difficulties and related misconduct are disciplinary in substance and should have been dealt with under the disciplinary provisions of the Public Service Commission Regulations rather than through retirement in the public interest.

Justice Farquharson said that argument raised a serious question for the court.

Regulation 45 permits the retirement of a public officer in the public interest where, on grounds that cannot suitably be dealt with under other provisions, the officer should be required to retire.

The judge said the court would have to consider whether regulation 45 was lawfully used in Ms Marche’s circumstances or whether the allegations against her should instead have been dealt with under the disciplinary regulations.

He also identified questions about whether Ms Marche had received adequate particulars of the allegations against her before the retirement process began and whether the process met the required standard of procedural fairness.

Significantly, Justice Farquharson said the court would have to consider the propriety or rationality of

relying on allegations going back as far as 2012 — years before Ms Marche’s elevation to Deputy Financial Secretary in 2020.

The judge stressed that his ruling does not decide whether the allegations against Ms Marche are true or whether the government ultimately has grounds to retire her.

He found only that the case was neither frivolous nor vexatious and raised serious issues requiring judicial determination.

Ms Marche argued that being forced into retirement in the public interest could damage her public office, reputation, pension interests, career and future employability. Justice Farquharson found that damages might not adequately remedy some of the potential consequences if she ultimately won her case.

The government, meanwhile, argued that there was no serious question with a realistic prospect of success, that regulation 45 authorised the proposed process and that Ms Marche had been invited to show why she should not be retired.

It also argued that further delay would affect the public service and the need to maintain discipline and integrity.

Justice Farquharson was unpersuaded that any urgency required the retirement process to be completed before the substantive court hearing,

particularly because it had effectively been suspended since April 2024.

He said there was no evidence of any new circumstance requiring the process to be completed in the short period before the hearing.

The injunction prevents the Attorney General, the Minister of Labour and the Public Service and anyone

acting on their behalf from restarting or taking further steps to retire Ms Marche under regulation 45 until the court determines her application for an extension of time and, if allowed, her substantive judicial review, or until further order.

The matters are scheduled to be heard on September 9.

PAGE 4, Wednesday, August 26, 2026

THE TRIBUNE

Leaked police plan ordered ‘aggressive’ stop and search

By RASHAD ROLLE Tribune News Editor rrolle@tribunemedia.net POLICE officers were ordered to “aggressively” stop and search suspected vehicles and occupants and search “all suspected pedestrians” during a 114-officer operation across New Providence last week, according to a restricted operational plan obtained by The Tribune.

Commissioner Shanta Knowles condemned the leak of the document this week, saying it potentially undermined efforts to catch criminals. She suggested the leak was internal.

The internal Royal Bahamas Police Force document lays out the instructions for Operation “Clean Sweep”, a four-hour crackdown conducted on August 20 and 21 that included road checks, searches for firearms and drugs, warrant executions, traffic enforcement and checks of nightclubs and

restaurants.

Among the force’s stated intentions was to “aggressively ‘Stop and Search’ suspected vehicles and occupants”. Officers were also told to conduct systematic road checks, apprehend people with illegal firearms and dangerous drugs and execute arrest warrants.

The instructions for mobile patrol teams included stopping and ticketing all traffic offenders, searching suspected vehicles and occupants for drugs and firearms and stopping and searching “all suspected pedestrians”.

The document does not define a “suspected pedestrian” or explain what officers were expected to regard as suspicious.

It does, however, place limits on the searches.

Elsewhere, the plan says officers were to conduct lawful searches of people and vehicles “where reasonable suspicion exists” and required participants to act in strict accordance with the force’s standard

operating procedures governing stops, searches and seizures.

The distinction is important because broad stop-and-search powers have repeatedly raised human rights concerns internationally, particularly over the potential for arbitrary searches and racial profiling.

The United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination has called for stop-and-search powers to be exercised lawfully and without arbitrariness or discrimination, based on reasonable suspicion and subject to oversight.

The committee has also warned against searches based solely on a person's appearance, colour, features or racial or ethnic background.

In a landmark 2010 case involving the United Kingdom, the European Court of Human Rights found that anti-terrorism powers allowing police to stop and search people without reasonable suspicion violated the right to respect for private life

because the powers were too broadly drawn and lacked adequate safeguards against abuse.

The court also identified the risk of arbitrary and discriminatory use when police are given broad discretion over whom to search.

The Clean Sweep order does not authorise searches without reasonable suspicion. On the contrary, it expressly refers to reasonable suspicion and lawful searches.

The operation also required police to keep records of their encounters.

Officers carrying out static duties and mobile patrols were instructed to document on a log sheet everyone stopped and searched, including the driver and all passengers of a vehicle. Divisions were required to submit information on arrests, stops and searches, name checks and search warrants executed, along with photographs, for an endof-shift report.

The document does not say what the photographs

POLICE COMMISSIONER SHANTA KNOWLES were supposed to depict.

Clean Sweep was presented as part of Commissioner of Police Shanta Knowles’ 2026 priority of enhancing operational preparedness through what the document calls “intelligence-led policing and predictive criminal insight”.

Police said in the plan that crime data and predictive analysis would be used to identify hotspots and patterns and determine where resources should be deployed. The aim, according to the document, was to produce measurable results in reducing opportunities for crime.

Police also cast a wider enforcement net during the operation. Officers were instructed to visit nightclubs and restaurants to ensure they were not operating contrary to the Liquor Licences Act, while road checkpoints were to be used to check vehicle documentation.

Senior Assistant Commissioner of Police Zhivago Dames, who has responsibility for Information and Communications Technology, was put in command of the operation. Participating officers were instructed to wear depot or tactical dress with body armour.

BPL PROMISES LONG-TERM PLAN FOR LITTLE GRAND CAY POWER

By LEANDRA ROLLE Tribune Chief Reporter lrolle@tribunemedia.net BAHAMAS Power and Light (BPL) said it is developing a long-term generation plan for Little Grand Cay and plans to implement it in the coming days as the island continues to grapple with extended power outages.

In a statement yesterday, BPL apologised for the prolonged interruption of electricity supply, acknowledging the importance of reliable power.

It added that a replacement generation unit was expected to arrive on the island yesterday and would be installed and commissioned by BPL’s technical teams.

The update follows repeated delays in repairing a replacement rental generator after an operational fault with the initial unit triggered a widespread outage earlier this month.

Since then, residents have endured difficult conditions without electricity for the past three weeks.

“Over the past two years, BPL has been developing a long-term generation plan for Little Grand Cay to provide increased capacity, appropriate backup generation and greater security of supply,” BPL added.

“That plan has now advanced to the project-development stage, and BPL is preparing for its execution over the coming months.

The company is currently evaluating and narrowing its selection of vendors, with particular attention to technical requirements, reliability and equipment delivery times.”

BPL said its objective is to implement a generation configuration that reduces the likelihood that the unavailability of a single unit will result in an extended interruption affecting the entire community.

GRAND CAY, Abaco.

The prolonged outage has forced residents to rely on portable generators, spending hundreds of dollars on fuel.

Residents have also reported damages appliances and questioned whether they will be reimbursed or receive credits on their electricity bills for money spent on fuel.

Yesterday, BPL acknowledged the potential losses associated with the outages, saying a customer assistance team will visit the island once electricity has been restored and stabilised to provide guidance on the claims process.

“Customers who intend

to submit a claim are encouraged to retain relevant photographs, receipts, invoices, repair reports and other supporting documentation,” the power company added.

“The customer assistance team will help residents understand the requirements and ensure that submitted claims are properly received and reviewed in accordance with the established process.”

BPL added that it remains focused on restoring electricity safely and will continue to engage with the community and provide updates as their work progresses.

THE TRIBUNE

Wednesday, August 26, 2026, PAGE 5

Rescued Bimini fishermen blast authorities over official response

By DENISE MAYCOCK Tribune Freeport Reporter dmaycock@tribunemedia.net FIVE Bimini fishermen spent a night drifting helplessly in rough seas after their boat ran out of fuel, with waves slamming the disabled vessel as they slept on its floor before local boaters found them the following morning.

Cruz Stuart, 34, who was aboard the 22-foot Boston Whaler with four other men, said the group left Bimini on Thursday morning and travelled farther than planned before exhausting their fuel supply.

“We underestimated fuel, and we went too far; we ran out of fuel,” Mr Stuart said.

The men drifted for about a day.

Mr Stuart said conditions deteriorated during the night as strong waves tossed the vessel from side to side while the men tried to sleep on the floor.

“We encountered one or two rough waves in the middle of the night when we tried to sleep on the floor,” he said. “The waves were slapping us back and forth and it feel like I could fall over.”

After the men failed to return on Thursday evening, Bimini residents mobilised and launched a search the following day.

Police said local volunteers found the men around 8am in the area of the Isaacs, about five to six miles north of Bimini.

All five were in good health.

Police thanked the volunteers and others who assisted in locating the men and bringing them to safety.

Mr Stuart said the group had enough drinking water but had eaten all of their snacks by the time they were rescued. The boat also had a covering that protected them from prolonged exposure to the sun.

He did not say whether

the vessel had a marine VHF radio.

Despite the conditions, Mr Stuart said the men remained confident that people from Bimini would eventually come searching for them.

“We were not scared,” he said. “We knew someone would come looking for us.”

He said three boats from Bimini ultimately reached them.

“And the next day, three boats from Bimini come and rescue us,” Mr Stuart said. “No police, no defense force.”

He criticised the official response and called for improvements to search-and-rescue efforts.

“We feel bad; the government is lousy,” Mr Stuart said. “But if they heard drugs was on the boat they was coming out from that night.”

He accused authorities of placing greater priority on drug interdiction than rescuing people in distress.

“If they had heard it was a drug deal, they would be looking for us from that night,” he said. “They more concerned about drugs; life and death don’t matter too much to the police.

That’s how we feel.”

Mr Stuart said the experience had not deterred him from returning to the water.

“I’m rescued and back on the sea right now,” he said.

He said he has since equipped his boat with another means of communication.

“I have Starlink this time so someone can reach me,” he said.

Mr Stuart called for greater government attention to maritime emergencies.

“All we need to do is our government need to step up their search and rescue,” he said.

A Bimini resident who asked not to be identified said the volunteer

FIVE Bimini fishermen who spent a night at sea after their boat ran out of fuel are rescued by local boaters on Thursday. response reflected the close ties among people on the island.

“That’s human nature,” the resident said.

“Bimini is a place where

as everybody's family.

Everyone is basically family or friend.”

“That’s what we do when someone needs help in our community.”

Bahamian accused of smuggling 18 people into United States

By LEANDRA ROLLE Tribune Chief Reporter lrolle@tribunemedia.net A BAHAMIAN man accused of trying to smuggle 18 people from Bimini into Florida was arrested after the overloaded boat lost steering and began taking on water about 22 miles off Miami-Dade County, according to a US federal complaint.

Henryk Erris Walkes was taken into custody on August 18 after US law enforcement tracked the westbound vessel and moved in when it appeared to be in distress.

According to a criminal complaint filed in the Southern District of

Florida, officers found 19 people aboard the boat, including Walkes, far exceeding its passenger capacity.

US Department of Homeland Security Special Agent Joshua Viera said Walkes was identified as the vessel’s driver.

“Ultimately, the suspect vessel had a total of nineteen individuals, including Walkes,” the complaint said. “CBP MIAs also identified Walkes as the driver of the subject vessel and saw Walkes handing what appeared to be handfuls of cash back to the other individuals on board.”

Authorities said tracking data showed the vessel had travelled from

Bimini towards Miami.

After boarding the boat, agents conducted immigration inspections and record checks which allegedly showed that none of the 19 people aboard, including Walkes, had proper documentation to enter or remain in the United States.

The group was transferred to the US Coast Guard Cutter Richard Etheridge for processing.

Among those aboard were Haitian national Azain Vassor, Dominican Republic national Darwis Campusano Carela and Honduran national Wilson Mendoza Flores.

US authorities said further checks showed that all three men had

35 foreign nationals convicted of immigration offences THIRTY-five foreign nationals were convicted of immigration offences in Magistrate’s Court yesterday, with several receiving custodial sentences of up to one year.

The defendants, comprising 19 Haitian nationals, six Dominican nationals, six Ecuadorian nationals, three Brazilian nationals and one Venezuelan national, appeared before Assistant Chief Magistrate Kara Turnquest-Deveaux and all pleaded guilty.

The charges included overstaying, illegal landing and illegal embarkation.

Seventeen Haitian nationals, 14 males and three females, and two Dominican males were convicted of overstaying.

Two Haitian males and three Brazilian males were convicted of illegal landing.

Six Ecuadorian nationals, four males and two females, one Venezuelan female and four Dominican nationals, three males and one female,

were convicted of illegal embarkation.

The defendants were fined between $300 and $3,000, while some received custodial sentences ranging from one month to one year at the Bahamas Department of Correctional Services.

Following payment of their fines or completion of their sentences, all of the individuals were ordered to be turned over to the Department of Immigration for deportation.

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previously been deported from the United States.

They were charged

with illegal entry.

Walkes was charged with encouraging or

inducing undocumented migrants to enter the United States.

PAGE 6, Wednesday, August 26, 2026

THE TRIBUNE

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The results must become a roadmap for reform THE release of the latest national examination results should not become another annual ritual in which percentages are announced, modest improvements are celebrated and troubling weaknesses are discussed briefly before the country moves on.

These results should instead become a roadmap for action.

There are encouraging signs in the 2026 BJC and BGCSE results.

The overall BGCSE pass rate increased from 70.13 percent last year to 71.49 percent, while the proportion of grades between A and C also rose slightly. Eleven of the 13 BJC subjects improved their grade-point averages.

Those gains should be acknowledged. They reflect the work of students, teachers, parents and education officials operating in a system that continues to face significant challenges.

But the deeper figures demand our attention.

Only about one in three candidates who sat five or more BGCSE subjects earned at least five grades of C or above. Even more concerning, only 360 candidates earned at least a C in Mathematics, English Language and a science subject. That represents just 5.83 percent of the overall BGCSE candidature.

Education officials have properly cautioned that examination results provide only a snapshot because some students spread their subjects across multiple sittings. That context matters, but it cannot be allowed to obscure the broader message.

Too many Bahamian children are leaving school without demonstrating strong competency in the subjects most closely connected to further education, technical training and meaningful participation in the modern economy.

This is not simply a Ministry of Education problem. Nor should the results be reduced to a political argument over which administration bears responsibility. The weaknesses within our education system developed over many years and will require sustained national effort to correct.

The Government must lead that effort, but it cannot carry it alone.

The first priority should be mathematics. We need a clear national strategy beginning at the primary-school level, where many children first fall behind.

Students who do not master basic numeracy in the early grades are unlikely to suddenly overcome those deficiencies when they reach junior or senior high school.

Early assessment, targeted intervention and smaller remedial groups must become normal features of the system—not programmes introduced only when examination results create public concern.

Teachers must also be given the training, classroom support and modern resources needed to teach mathematics in ways students can understand and apply.

The private sector, particularly banks, accounting firms, engineering companies and technology businesses, should be invited to support tutoring, mentoring and practical numeracy programmes.

Parents have an equally important role. Schools cannot succeed when attendance is irregular, homework is ignored or education is treated as the responsibility of teachers alone. Parental involvement must extend beyond collecting report cards or appearing at school when conflict arises.

We should also examine the gap between male and female candidates. Females again outperformed males at both the BJC and BGCSE levels. This is not a reason to diminish the success of young women. It is a reason to ask why so many boys remain disengaged and what changes in teaching, mentoring and discipline might help them perform better.

The results are not a verdict against our children. They are evidence of where greater attention is required.

There has been some progress, and that should encourage us. But incremental improvement will not be enough in a world where literacy, numeracy, science and technology increasingly determine economic opportunity.

The question is not whether blame can be assigned. It is whether these results will produce a serious, measurable and sustained response.

An honest conversation on the real legacy of BPL EDITOR, The Tribune.

I HAVE been fortunate enough to have lived a fairly long life and would have experienced and observed all of the coming and goings of first The Bahamas Electrical Company ; then The Bahamas Electricity Corporation and now the celebrated and much malaigned The Bahamas Power & Light Corporation.

Back in the late 1950’s and the 1960’s, the then BEC was managed by what was then an administration controlled mostly by the white and Conchy Joe oligarchies, the for runner of what emerged as The United Bahamian Party or UBP. My maternal family lived on Step Street, in the heart of Fox Hill. We had no memorable blackouts or frequent disruptions.

Maybe, during rough weather or brief passage of a hurricane, there may have been issues with the electrical grid but nothing to talk about.

In the 1960’s and 1970’s there was yet another name change to The Bahamas Electricity Corporation when the PLP was agitating and later became the first majority ruled government. This era, allegedly, and backed up by available statistics in the public domain, was when noticeable increases in the frequency of breakdowns and/or lack of spare parts, that the overtime levels at BEC then started to rise. It was almost as if a normal 8-12 hours shift was Not Enough to keep generators; equipment and power lines up to scratch.

It is hardly known to the public, but personnel

LETTERS letters@tribunemedia.net employed today at BPL as ‘meter readers’ pull down in excess of B$600.00 per week! One can only imagine what executives at the low; middle and upper levels are pulling in or down.

There is no public disclosure of salary and wage levels. The Bahamas must be one of the few nations in the world where many governmental outfits, especially standalone corporations and boards, where few know what is being raked in by many employees.

They say if you were to actually tell Bahamians the real levels, they would Talk it and could ‘endanger’ individual lives due to robbery and extortion!! Well Blow me down! Now it has been revealed by no less a person than Mr Kyle Wilson, the esteemed President of The Bahamas Electrical Workers Union, that some months ago ‘someone’ or ‘entity’ made an attempt to Bribe he and others. Mind you, he never disclosed who these individuals or entities are or even if he ever reported the matter to the Police.

Now it is being further bandied about in the public domain that certain, selected union executives, et al, are pulling in over B$100,000 plus per annum in Overtime alone!! How is this possible and who all are the beneficiaries of such largesse. This is totally unacceptable and Must be forensically audited and investigated by The

Office of The Prime Minister directly and post haste!!

While the PM, a former Minister with responsibility for BEC/BPL etcetera, he might wish to also disclose precisely what current management at BPL, across the board and at all levels are being paid and for doing exactly what? For far too long BPL as it is today, has delivered inefficient and extremely poor services for the massive rates which Bahamians are obliged to fork out.

I have reached out to the current President of the Bahamas Electrical Workers Union, my good friend and fellow professed Christian, Kyle Wilson, to make a guest appearance on the #1 rated Talk Show, The Final Word, to dialogue with the vast audiences here at home in The Bahamas and, indeed the region. So far, he’s declined.

We need a frank and honest conversation about the Real Legacy at BPL. Big pay packages; Big overtime possibilities; guaranteed service disruptions; no accountability; a Big Gussiemae!

Employee complement and, of course, a management team that may be in over its collective head.

I also implore the PM to draft the Hon Leslie Osborne Miller back to BPL as Executive Consultant on a short-term contract. To God the, Who will save us all from the grip of monopolised electricity. To God the, Who keeps the lights on, in all things, be the glory.

Jr

ORTLAND H BODIE, Nassau, August 15, 2026.

Time for Cabinet retreat EDITOR, The Tribune.

THE late great and deeply lamented, Sir Lynden Oscar Pindling, our first Prime Minister, was a master political operator and strategist, bar none. He had the ability to bring together diversified groupings of individuals and hone them into an unbeatable political force for decades. It was precisely because of this uncommon trait that the modern Bahamas has emerged.

Back in the period of the 1960’s into the 1980’s those were heady days for the movers; players and shakers in the then political world existing here at home. There were ‘strong’ personalities in the political arena. Men like: the late Sir Cecil Wallace-Whitfield; the late Sir Randol Fawkes; Sir Carlton Francis; the late Jimmy Shepherd ; Basil Nichols; Edmund Moxey; Loftus Roker and countless others.

Sir Lynden, however, was able to best them all and emerge as Premier then Prime Minister. The rest is history and we now have the indomitable Most Honorable Philip ‘Brave’ Davis, KC, MP as our Prime Minister.

I have long held that Brave is akin to Joshua of old. In my considered opinion , he is the one who will lead the nation, finally, over the proverbial Jordan and into The Promised Land.

It has been three months

since the general elections.

Parliament has met. A cabinet has been appointed and the second consecutive Davis administration is in place. Public service in The Bahamas has evolved into a growth industry whereby a successful politician and/ or their stooges are able to amass ‘power’ and a measure of ‘wealth’ BUT are most of them even checking for their enabling constituents?

Sir Lynden had a habit of calling and invoking strategic conclaves or gatherings of his cabinet colleagues, et al, every so often to read them the Riot Act and to ensure that they were all sown with the party’s agenda. One of the more famous one was down in Las Palmas, Andros another was at Small Hope Bay, also over in Andros.

I fear that there is a handful of current cabinet ministers who may be out of depth within their respective ministries due to inexperience; arrogance and sheer ineptitude. This is not an indictment but a warning shot across the bow of SS PLP. Bad or incompetent ‘actors’ could be detrimental.to taking the nation where we, as a people, need to go.

Already a sense of arrogance and dismissive attitudes are enveloping a few prominent persons and will end up causing

alienation from the PLP brand if we are not careful. Communication skills by ministers and permanent secretaries must be improved or just shut the hell up. It has always been better for one to stay quiet if he/she has nothing sensible to say.

There are ministries which are under performing, not always due to the substantive minister but often due to the ‘politics’ of some civil servants which might be contrary to that of the incumbent administration at any given time. Then, of course, a few ministers might be so lazy that they allow the PS , et al, to actually run the ministry And to implement policy matters to their personal liking. Some ministers may well need to ‘grow’ some backbones.

And so, I strongly recommend to the Prime Minister that he convene a timely cabinet retreat either over in Andros or Cat Island to flesh out and fine tune the way forward for the rest of this year. The legacy of PM Davis, which is just beginning to be cemented is much too important in Bahamian annals to ‘allow’ any serious damage to the same. Nevertheless, in all things, to God be the glory.

Jr

ORTLAND H BODIE, Nassau, August 25, 2026.

Khandi Gibson deserves Oscar for best actress EDITOR, The Tribune.

I LISTENED in horror and disgust as two adult women discussed a matter pertaining to the alleged sexual assault of a young woman. The conversation of the two has led me to appreciate why so many victims of rape and sexual assault are reluctant to come forward. It’s usually immoral men who are defending those accused of rape. One case in point would be rabid Los Angeles Lakers male fans defending Kobe Bryant, after it was alleged that he had raped a 19-year-old woman

named Katelyn Faber in a Hotel in Colorado in July 2003. I recall seeing a photo of Faber posted on the wall of a sports bar in Freeport with a vile description of her. The male fans of Bryant were absolutely furious with her. Bryant was an American.

These irate fans were Bahamians. They didn’t deny that something happened in that hotel room.

Their argument was that it was consensual. As a wealthy and famous basketball superstar, there was no need for Bryant to rape, according to his male fandom. He could’ve had

any woman he wanted.

That was the prevailing argument back then. Ours is a rape culture that punishes the victims of rape by blaming them. I recall an eight-year-old girl on a Family Island who was repeatedly molested by her paternal uncle who was in his thirties. When she finally conjured up the courage to tell a trusted guardian of the assaults, she was blacklisted and disowned by her paternal grandmother and aunts. It was a case of victim blaming. Now as an adult, the middle-aged woman has yet to fully recover psychologically and emotionally.

The audio purporting to be that of Families of All Murdered Victims Director Khandi Gibson brings to mind this disturbing true story. The audio of Gibson went viral on social media.

Gibson, if she reads this write-up, would be familiar with what I’m talking about.

I am not dismissing the work she and FOAM have done in helping families of those who were tragically killed. But the audio calls into question her sincerity and motives. Without hearing the other deeply troubling audio that also went viral, the FOAM founder had apparently

prematurely formed an opinion of the alleged victim. It’s a trend in this country where rape victims are blamed for the actions of the perpetrators. Maybe the victim wore seductive apparel or was too friendly or was too flirtatious. Whatever the case may be, the rapists are never blamed.

It’s always somebody else’s fault. The educational system failed them. Maybe it was the fault of the Free National Movement or the Progressive Liberal Party. Or maybe the church dropped the ball. The rapists are never blamed.

Gibson deserves an Oscar for Best Actress.

She is more talented than legendary actresses Meryl Streep, Jane Fonda and Cate Blanchett. She had the entire nation completely fooled. She is no different than the thousands in this country who are always quick to point the finger at the victims of rape. Congrats Madame Gibson on a stellar acting career of pretending to care for the victims of rape and murder.

KEVIN EVANS Freeport, Grand Bahamas August 23, 2026.

THE TRIBUNE

Wednesday, August 26, 2026, PAGE 7

Munroe urges action on gun violence after three men killed over weekend GUNS from page one

Mr Munroe said people must recognise the wider danger posed by heavily armed offenders.

“Persons have to understand that this is a society in which you live in; you need to stop it,” he said.

“You running around here with high-powered weapons, suppose you kill somebody who you know, apart from saying you don’t mind killing your enemies.”

He said the violence was a problem the country had to confront collectively, arguing that those involved were products of the society in which they were raised.

“At the end of the day it’s a problem that we face as a society; these are our

children,” he said. “They didn’t drop from the sky so we have to continue to work on raising proper, well-adjusted children.”

His comments followed three separate killings between Friday afternoon and Saturday noon.

The first occurred shortly before 4pm on Friday near Soldier Road and Blue Hill Road, where police found a 51-year-old man lying face down near an apartment complex with apparent gunshot wounds.

Police said two men emerged from a white Japanese-model vehicle, produced firearms and fired several rounds at the victim before fleeing east along Soldier Road.

Less than 16 hours later, shortly after 7am on Saturday, a 52-year-old man was

shot dead at his Joe Farrington Road residence.

Police said three men emerged from a silver SUV and approached the victim. Two were armed with high-powered weapons and the third carried a handgun.

The gunmen opened fire as the victim ran inside his residence in an attempt to escape. Police said the attackers followed him inside and continued shooting before fleeing west along Joe Farrington Road.

About five hours later, a 36-year-old man was shot dead while carrying out landscaping work on Gladstone Road, north of Fire Trail Road.

Police said two armed men exited a white Japanese-model vehicle and

opened fire on the victim before fleeing north.

The suspected vehicle was later intercepted by officers assigned to Operation Black Scorpion in the Pride Estates area, triggering a police pursuit that ended in Allen Close.

Police said the occupants allegedly opened fire on officers, resulting in an exchange of gunfire.

The driver eventually stopped behind a residence and four occupants — an 18-year-old woman and three men — exited the vehicle. Police said one of the men allegedly continued firing at officers before the three male suspects escaped over a fence.

Officers later found the 18-year-old woman hiding beneath a bus and arrested her in connection with the

ATTORNEY GENERAL WAYNE MUNROE matter.

Detectives processing the vehicle and surrounding area recovered two high-powered firearms, a handgun and ammunition.

Police were also

investigating another shooting on Sunday night in the Reeves Street area, off Fox Hill Road, where two men were shot and taken to hospital by ambulance.

AG: Lack of a body will not stop Kelly murder prosecution

By LYNAIRE MUNNINGS Tribune Staff Reporter lmunnings@tribunemedia.net ATTORNEY General Wayne Munroe said the absence of Katrina Kelly’s body does not prevent prosecutors from pursuing a murder case, saying a death can be proved through circumstantial evidence.

His comments come after two men and a woman were charged with murdering the 34-year-old Eleuthera mother, whose remains have not been recovered since she disappeared on August 14.

Mr Munroe said courts in the United Kingdom and United States have

convicted people of murder in cases where a victim’s body was never found.

“You can prove a death by circumstantial means,” he said, “and I would expect that is why the police would’ve levied the charge because in their view they have sufficient circumstances to warrant it.”

Mr Munroe said convictions without the recovery of a body are not unprecedented, pointing to cases dating back decades in the United Kingdom and others in the United States.

“If you are referring to the concept of somebody being able to be convicted without a body ever being found,” he said, “that happens as far back as the

1950’s in the UK.” Ms Kelly, a mother of two, disappeared from her home in Bluff, Eleuthera.

Her 11-year-old daughter previously told The Tribune that her mother said she was going to drop off friends and pick up food.

The child said she later saw three dark figures get out of a vehicle and speak with her mother before Ms Kelly left with them.

Two men, ages 31 and 34, and a 43-year-old woman were charged on Friday with murder, damage to property and compounding a crime following the investigation into her disappearance.

The charges marked a devastating turn for relatives who had hoped Ms

Kelly would be found alive after an extensive search involving police, volunteers and divers. Rewards totalling more than $52,000 were offered for information that could help locate her.

Her uncle, Keith Kelly, said the family was “heartbroken” and struggling to comprehend how quickly the search for a missing relative had become a murder investigation.

Mr Kelly said the family was particularly concerned about Ms Kelly’s two children. He said her mother had also been struggling with the latest developments but was drawing strength from prayer.

He praised investigators, including officers who travelled from New Providence to assist with the search, but said he believed some information provided during the investigation could have been acted upon more quickly.

The family also had to contend with false reports and voice notes circulating on social media claiming Ms Kelly’s body had been found. Mr Kelly said relatives refused to accept such claims unless the information came directly from police.

He said the case had also shaken the wider Eleuthera community, particularly because the people accused were known in the

community.

Ms Kelly worked as an assistant manager at Pink Sands Hotel and also operated a car rental business.

Her disappearance and the murder charges come less than a year after her family suffered another violent loss.

Ms Kelly’s 23-year-old brother, Ashantio “Clevorn” Johnson, a trainee Bahamas Department of Correctional Services officer, was fatally stabbed during an altercation at Blu Ice Restaurant and Bar in November 2025.

Mr Kelly said the family continues to pray that Ms Kelly’s remains will be recovered so they can bring her home.

CROWN SEEKS UP TO 20 YEARS FOR ATTEMPTED MURDER OF EX

By PAVEL BAILEY Tribune Staff Reporter pbailey@tribunemedia.net A MAN who admitted trying to kill his ex-girlfriend by stabbing her at her home in 2022 appeared in the Supreme Court yesterday for sentencing submissions.

The defence called for a seven-year sentence, while prosecutors sought a term of 15 to 20 years.

Jermaine Laing, 27, appeared before Justice Jeannine Weech Gomez for sentencing on an attempted murder charge.

Laing attempted to stab and kill his 32-year-old ex-girlfriend outside her residence around 9pm on April 24, 2022.

A probation officer told the court that on the night of the incident, Laing overheard the complainant on the phone with a male friend.

When he confronted her, he claimed this was the reason they had broken up.

Laing lunged at the complainant’s throat with a knife, but she managed to avoid the attack.

A struggle followed, during which the complainant’s sister intervened and struck Laing with a bucket.

At some point during the struggle, the complainant was stabbed in the left hand. The injury later required stitches.

Laing reportedly managed to wriggle out of his shirt and escape.

Police later recovered the knife used in the incident.

The probation officer said Laing contacted the complainant after the stabbing to apologise for his actions and pleaded with her not to die.

However, he later contacted her again by text and told her he hoped she would die.

Laing subsequently tried to salvage their relationship, but the complainant maintained that it was over.

The probation officer said people who knew Laing described him as quiet, reserved, articulate, smart and kind and expressed shock when they learned of the charge against him.

They asked the court to be lenient, claiming imprisonment would cause him to deteriorate.

While the complainant did not indicate what punishment she wanted Laing to receive, her sister recommended incarceration.

The probation officer

said Laing pleaded guilty at the outset of the trial and that the complainant suffered no long-term injuries.

Defence attorney Damian White said his client’s guilty plea was a mitigating factor because it spared the court a lengthy trial.

Mr White described Laing as relatively young, childless, a contributor to society and someone who had no previous convictions. He also said his client was remorseful.

Mr White described the case as a domestic matter that “got out of control”.

The defence recommended a seven-year prison term, with a onethird reduction for Laing’s guilty plea. Mr White acknowledged that the prosecution was seeking a substantially longer sentence.

He said Laing attended anger management classes while on release in connection with the case.

Mr White said his client was not running away from punishment, but argued that the punishment should be tempered with mercy.

The defence argued that Laing fell at the lower end of the sentencing spectrum and pointed out that

Man and woman get bail after Exuma firearm arrest

By PAVEL BAILEY Tribune Staff Reporter pbailey@tribunemedia.net A MAN and woman were accused yesterday of having a loaded gun in Farmer’s Hill, Exuma, last weekend.

Prosecutors allege Shomari Longley, 28, and Sabrina Rose, 27, were found with a black Stoeger STR-9C

9mm pistol and one round of ammunition on August 22.

The defendants pleaded not guilty to possession of an unlicensed firearm and possession of ammunition before Senior Magistrate Algernon Allen Jr. Sergeant 3004 Forbes raised no objection to bail but asked that conditions be imposed.

Longley and Rose were each granted $8,500 bail with one or two sureties.

Under the terms of their bail, they must sign in at George Town Police Station every Tuesday and Saturday by 6pm.

Their trial is scheduled to begin in Exuma on October 29.

Mario Gray represented the defendants.

no firearm was used.

Prosecutor Davina Pinder, however, called for a sentence of between 15 and 20 years.

Ms Pinder described the defence’s seven-year recommendation as “a slap in the face of Justice” and argued that anything below 12 years would be unduly lenient.

Mr White disagreed.

Ms Pinder said Laing was outside the complainant’s home with two knives on the night of the incident.

She said the complainant tried to run away, but Laing caught her, choked her and attacked her with a knife. The prosecution said the woman was

stabbed in the arm and hand.

The prosecution also claimed Laing admitted to police that he had tried to kill the complainant.

Laing reportedly told authorities that he had caught the complainant cheating. According to the prosecution, he told police he intended to kill her by slitting her throat, keep her in his memories and then kill himself by jumping into a canal.

Ms Pinder disputed that Laing had pleaded guilty at the earliest opportunity, saying he did so only in April, shortly before his trial was scheduled to begin.

Although she

acknowledged that the plea spared the court a trial, she argued that the aggravating factors far outweighed that consideration.

Ms Pinder cited the seriousness of the offence, the planning involved and the allegation that Laing had stalked the complainant before the stabbing.

She also pointed to the prevalence of domestic violence against women and asked that Laing’s sentence send a strong message that such behaviour was unacceptable.

Laing returns for sentencing on September 24.

Valentino Bowe also served as a prosecutor.

Suspect gets $7k bail on charge of stabbing hotel security guard

By PAVEL BAILEY Tribune Staff Reporter pbailey@tribunemedia.net A MAN was accused of stabbing a security guard at a West Bay Street hotel last weekend.

Prosecutors allege Raleigh Storr, 38, stabbed Askew Wallace in the shoulder while he was

working at the Courtyard Marriott Hotel on August 22.

Mr Wallace was treated in hospital for serious injuries.

After electing to have his case tried in the Magistrate’s Court, Storr pleaded not guilty to grievous harm before acting Chief Magistrate Ancella Evans.

Storr was granted $7,000 bail with one or two sureties. Under the terms of his bail, he must be fitted with a monitoring device and sign in at Cable Beach Police Station every Sunday by 9pm.

His trial is scheduled to begin on November 25.

Corporal Moultrie served as the prosecutor.

Man remanded after allegedly cutting his monitoring device

By PAVEL BAILEY Tribune Staff Reporter pbailey@tribunemedia.net A MAN accused of trying to cut off his monitoring device while awaiting trial on a causing harm charge was remanded to prison.

Prosecutors allege

Nelson Scott, 22, tried to cut off and remove his monitoring device at 9pm on August 20 in New Providence.

Scott pleaded not guilty to violating his bail conditions before Magistrate Abigail Farrington.

The prosecution objected to bail, arguing that the

nature of the offence made Scott a flight risk.

Scott was denied bail and remanded to the Bahamas Department of Correctional Services.

His trial is scheduled to begin on September 7.

Assistant Superintendent of Police K Bauld served as the prosecutor.

PAGE 10, Wednesday, August 26, 2026

THE TRIBUNE

Psychologist testifies Lindsay Clancy was criminally responsible for killing her 3 children

By MICHAEL CASEY Associated Press AFTER nearly a month of testimony, jurors in the Lindsay Clancy murder trial are hearing Tuesday from the final witnesses in a case that has largely been

about her mental state when she strangled her three young children.

Testimony resumed from a forensic psychologist hired by prosecutors to evaluate Clancy’s psychiatric history and assess the defence claim that

she had acute postpartum psychosis when she killed Callan, Dawson and Cora Clancy in January 2023 in the basement of their Massachusetts home. The rare mental illness can follow childbirth.

Kirk Heilbrun told jurors

that he didn’t believe Clancy’s claim that she hallucinated a voice telling her to kill her children, who ranged from 8 months to 5 years old. He said he instead believed she took their lives so they wouldn’t “suffer” after she killed

DEFENDANT Lindsay Clancy wipes away tears as she listens to testimony during the Lindsay Clancy murder trial in Plymouth Superior Court, Plymouth, Mass., on yesterday.

Photo: Greg Derr/The Patriot Ledger/AP herself.

“Everything I did as part of this evaluation, the evidence much more strongly, in my opinion, supported the second explanation, which was the serious suicide attempt accompanied by killing the children out of love,” Heilbrun said.

Clancy’s lawyer, Kevin Reddington, challenged Heilbrun about his conclusions, including whether he had made up his mind before he interviewed Clancy this year at the state hospital in Tewksbury where she stays.

“Would you agree with me, sir, that before you met with Lindsay in Tewksbury, you pretty much had an idea this woman was a beast, killed her three kids didn’t you?” Reddington asked.

Heilbrun disagreed with that characterization, adding that he “did his best to have an open mind.”

Reddington also highlighted earlier testimony from Clancy’s friends and family, including her former husband, Patrick, that she was “an incredible mother taking care of her kids.”

“Bringing her life experience, which you’ve testified yesterday, that she never had any abuse in her life, was raised by loving mother and father, good student, hard worker, great mother, good friend, wonderful wife,” Reddington said. “She then randomly decides to kill her children by strangling them. Those are the facts we’re dealing with?”

In the months before killing her children, Clancy had sought treatment for mental health problems from multiple providers

and admitted herself to a psychiatric hospital.

Heilbrun told jurors that Clancy had bipolar disorder and depression, conditions made worse by her insomnia and adverse reaction to medications she was prescribed. But he concluded that Clancy was “criminally responsible” for the killings.

“She retained an awareness of the illegality of killing others, including her children,” he said. “Her moral awareness of this killing was influenced by her strong desire to die and, if she was dead, not to leave her children behind.”

Prosecutors say the former labour and delivery nurse planned the killings and contrived to get her husband out of the house by sending him to pick up medicine for one of their children and dinner for the family.

Heilbrun said Clancy’s actions involved a set of choices that she had to make and ran counter to her claim that they involved no decision-making on her part.

“This is difficult but important to say. There are many ongoing decisions that have to be made to accomplish a killing like this in 18 to 20 minutes,” Heilbrun said. “For example, why the basement?

Who among the children goes first? What do you say to the kids to keep them from panicking.”

Prosecutors are expected to call at least one more expert witness Tuesday.

That will be followed by closing arguments, likely no earlier than Wednesday.

Clancy, 36, has pleaded not guilty to murder charges.

Legal Notice NOTICE HERTEFORD COMPANY LIMITED NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN as follows: (a) HERTEFORD COMPANY LIMITED is in voluntary dissolution under the provisions of Section 138 (4) of the International Business Companies Act 2000. (b) The dissolution of the said Company commenced on the 21st day of August 2026. (c) The Liquidator of the said Company is Baird One Limited of Deltec House, Lyford Cay, P.O. Box N-3229, Nassau, Bahamas.

Dated 26th day of August A.D. 2026 Baird One Limited Liquidator

HELP WANTED Established electrical company seeking to hire electricians to join our team.

Contact 466-5632 For more information.

N O T I C E OF DISSOLUTION TAKE NOTICE that CLEAR WATER FUND LIMITED was dissolved on the 23rd day of April, 2026.

Dated this 25th day of August, 2026

THE TRIBUNE

Wednesday, August 26, 2026, PAGE 11

World News

Dolly Parton, music star, actor and beloved figure who spanned generations, dies at 80

By KRISTIN M HALL Associated Press DOLLY Parton, the country music icon whose soaring vibrato vocals, poignant songwriting and sparkling costumes defined her rise from a log cabin in the Tennessee mountains to the height of stardom and acclaim, has died. She was 80 years old.

Parton died peacefully Tuesday in Nashville, Tennessee, her publicist said in a statement.

Known for her curvy physique, massive blonde wigs and skin-tight outfits that served her self-deprecating wit, she was among the most beloved personalities in music and beyond — the rare celebrity whose appeal transcended generations, geography and politics.

She wrote hundreds of songs, including classics like “Jolene,” “Coat of Many Colors” and “I Will Always Love You,” that totalled more than 100 million worldwide sales and more than 1 billion online streams. Parton, who plucked bejewelled banjos, guitar and dulcimers with her long fingernails during performances, was a generous philanthropist and successful businesswoman whose projects included a theme park in the Smoky Mountain foothills near her birthplace.

Her career was forever influenced by her upbringing as one of 12 children born into what she called a “dirt poor” Tennessee family. She started her education nonprofit, Imagination Library, to send free books to children in Tennessee because her father, who quit school to work on the farm, struggled to learn to read.

Parton’s first musical performances were in church, where her grandfather was a preacher. By age 10, she was learning guitar and singing on local television shows.

At 13, she appeared on the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, where Johnny Cash introduced her as “a little girl here from up in East Tennessee.”

With a suitcase of songs, she followed her uncle, Bill Owens, also a songwriter, to Nashville after graduating high school in 1964. Fred Foster, who produced Roy Orbison, Willie Nelson and more, saw her potential and got her songs cut by other artists, as well as recording and releasing Parton singing her own material. By the mid-1970s, Parton was a Nashville queen.

Parton’s partnership with Porter Wagoner, a pencil-thin pompadoured star with flashy rhinestone outfits, was key to her career.

She honed her acting skills on his syndicated TV show and he advocated for her to get a record deal at RCA. Their first duet, “The Last Thing On My Mind,” was released in 1967, the same year she started her own publishing company.

While their duets were often big radio hits, Parton’s solo singles didn’t chart as high at first. With Wagoner as a co-producer, she began to adjust her country warble to a more polished, pop-leaning style.

She got her first No. 1 solo single with “Joshua,” and reached the Top 5 with the ballad “Coat of Many Colors,” about how her mother sewed together scraps of clothes to make a coat Parton wore “so proudly” even as her peers mocked her for being poor.

The song, with its Biblical references and ode to maternal love, was later made into a children’s book and a TV movie.

In 1973, she had the hit that made her career — “Jolene,” a country music standard with its steady, churning rhythm and Parton’s repeated delivery of the title as she pleads for the woman not to steal her man.

The song topped the country charts, crossing over to pop and later being released internationally, opening up new audiences for Parton.

“Jolene” is one of her most covered compositions,

DOLLY Parton poses for a photo at her office in Nashville, Tenn., August 11, 2005.

Photo: John Russell/AP

DOLLY Parton performs at Glastonbury music festival, June 29, 2014.

Photo: Jonathan Short/Invision/AP including by Miley Cyrus (Parton’s goddaughter), Olivia Newton-John and The White Stripes.

She left Wagoner’s show in 1974, amid reports of squabbling between the two, although they continued to record together and Wagoner stayed her producer for years after that. But the relationship turned litigious when Wagoner sued her in 1979 for millions in management fees and royalties.

She followed “Jolene” with a huge hit in 1974, “I Will Always Love You,” an ode and farewell to Wagoner that helped her win the Country Music Association’s female vocalist of the year back-to-back in 1975 and 1976. She famously turned down Elvis Presley, who wanted to record it, because she would not share publishing rights.

Decades later, Whitney Houston’s version of “I Will Always Love You” became a smash for the soundtrack of her 1992 film “The Bodyguard,” and broke sales records. Houston won a Grammy for her performance in 1994, presented to her by Parton.

“Here You Come Again,” a pop crossover hit and one of the few she didn’t write, further established Parton as a multi-genre entertainer and brought her first Grammy Award in 1979.

“A lot of people thought I had totally lost my mind,” she told The Associated Press in 1979 of changing her singing style. “But I had no fear of change. I expected success, but I was braced for failure. I didn’t care if people thought I was wrong. In my own heart, I knew I was doing the right thing.”

Parton’s other crossover hits included the title song from “9 to 5,” the 1980 comedy starring Parton, Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin; and her duet with longtime friend Kenny Rogers, “Islands in the Stream,” written by brothers Barry, Maurice and Robin Gibb of the Bee Gees. In 1987, she collaborated with Linda Ronstadt and Emmylou Harris on the million-selling “Trio” album.

For millions of fans, she was simply “Dolly,” a mixture of Southern charm, humour and glamour. But she was also considered a feminist role model for

holding the reins of her own career, writing her own songs, owning her content and looking after her finances in an entertainment world dominated by men.

Parton was open to making fun of herself; when she hosted “Saturday Night Live” in 1989 she told the writers that her only restrictions were she wouldn’t curse and she wouldn’t make fun of Jesus. She regularly joked about her breasts or her dumb blonde appearance, but with a wink that she was the one controlling the laughs. In the memoir “My Life So Far,” Fonda remembered Parton’s way with a wisecrack, “usually high raunch,” and a laugh that was “somewhere between a girl’s giggle, an explosive shriek, and a cascade of little bells.”

After her gown split down the front when she won CMA’s entertainer of the year in 1978, Parton quipped: “My Daddy said that’s what I got for putting 50 pounds of mud in a fivepound bag.”

Throughout her career, she embraced her glamorous style, often wearing custom curve-hugging rhinestone dresses and bodysuits even if they drew tsk-tsks from others in the industry.

Her look was always a part of her larger musical business plan.

“I knew my songs were good even if I had been ugly as sin,” she told the AP in 2014. “So I thought, ‘Well, I would have probably chose to look this way even if I had been a waitress.’ I mean, this is my look. I mean, I like a lot of makeup. I like a lot of hair. I like flashy clothes. I like to show it off. But that’s just who I am.”

She married Carl Dean, an asphalt paving contractor, in the mid-1960s; they were together until his death in 2025 at the age of 82. Though rarely seen in public, he was an influence on her career.

She told NPR that she wrote “Jolene” about a flirty bank teller who seemed to take an interest in Dean.

In her first major film role, Parton played alongside Fonda and Tomlin as office workers who rebel against their tyrannical boss in “9 to 5.” Critic Roger Ebert called her a “natural-born movie star” and the title song earned her two Grammy

DOLLY PARTON, left, and Kenny Rogers rehearse a song for their appearance on the TV show “Live... And in Person” in Los Angeles on September 27, 1983.

Photo: Doug Pizac/AP Awards and a ranking of 78 on the American Film Institute’s list of top 100 movie songs. Starring roles in “The Best Little Whorehouse In Texas” and “Steel Magnolias” followed.

“I never thought of myself as a movie star,” she told AP’s Bob Thomas in 1979. “I knew I’d be a star, but as a singer or as a writer of songs or books or poetry. I wanted to be a famous performer and wear flashy clothes, but singing in movies was not

one of my ambitions. My family lived in the mountains and we didn’t see movies.”

Her love affair with TV and film continued for decades, with appearances alongside Cyrus on “Hannah Montana” and adaptations of her music for Christmas specials, films and streaming series. She also became an author, her books ranging from the memoir “Dolly” to a bestselling novel co-authored by James Patterson,

“Run, Rose, Run.” The stage adaptation “9 to 5: The Musical” debuted in 2009, and “DOLLY: A True Original Musical” is set to open in December.

Beyond her music, Parton’s most lasting legacy might be her generosity and broad appeal.

When a deadly wildfire swept through the Smokies in 2016, she held an all-star telethon and set up a foundation that sent monthly checks to residents whose homes were damaged or destroyed.

She opened up her Dollywood theme park in East Tennessee, a major economic driver in Appalachia that draws tourists from around the country, and established the Dollywood Foundation. She wrote books and memoirs, was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame and was given a lifetime achievement award by the Recording Academy. She was selected for the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 2025.

With 55 Grammy nominations and 10 wins, Parton is the third-most nominated woman in Grammy history, only behind Beyoncé and Taylor Swift.

Parton spanned social and political divides, through multiple generations of fans, urban and rural and in between. In tumultuous election years, it wasn’t uncommon to see “Dolly for President” shirts. But she was strict in not voicing her own political beliefs, often turning aside questions about presidents, candidates, policies and other controversies.

“I don’t do politics,” Parton told host Jad Abumrad on his hit podcast “Dolly Parton’s America.”

“I have too many fans on both sides of the fence.

Of course, I have my opinion about everything, but I learned years ago to keep your mouth shut about things.”

When the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Foundation sent out a ballot in 2022 with her name on it, though she said she felt she hadn’t earned it, the voters answered with a “Hello, Dolly.” Parton showed up to the induction ceremony, performed and then put out a rock album.

DOLLY Parton poses for a photo during an interview in Nashville, August 15, 1996.

Photo: Mark Humprhey/AP