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Volume: 118 No.247, November 18, 2021

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HIRED - BUT WITH NO WORK TO DO Freeze on public sector recruiting as Govt finds new hires sit at home

By KHRISNA RUSSELL Tribune Chief Reporter krussell@tribunemedia.net STATE Public Service Minister Pia Glover-Rolle disclosed yesterday that there were instances where people were engaged for jobs on Election Day, while about 40 workers were hired and are being paid but remain at home because there are no jobs for them to do.

Due to these instances

EMPLOYERS with workers currently furloughed due to the COVID-19 pandemic have until March 2022 to decide their fate, according to Press Secretary Clint Watson yesterday.

The expired emergency powers orders gave a 30-day window post-expiration for companies to decide

BUILDING A MORE FUNCTIONAL DEMOCRACY

- SEE PAGE EIGHT

PARTNERS IN PORT

among other issues, the minister said there is now a hiring freeze in the public service which will remain in place until an audit of the service is completed in 2022.

It is also likely some of those engaged in the lead up to the September election may have to be disengaged, the minister said.

“There is a hold on hiring at this time until we SEE PAGE FIVE

EMPLOYERS SET MARCH 12 DEADLINE ON FURLOUGHS

By KHRISNA RUSSELL Tribune Chief Reporter krussell@tribunemedia.net

FRONT PORCH

whether employees would be let go or re-engaged.

As those orders have now fallen away, the Davis administration is encouraging employers to follow the provisions under the labour laws, which give 90 days for a decision to be made regarding those workers in limbo.

When both the expired orders and the labour laws are considered, there is a SEE PAGE FIVE

ROYAL Caribbean CEO Michael Bayley, Erin Brown, Prime Minister Philip Davis and Deputy Prime Minister Chester Cooper on board Royal Caribbean’s newest ship, Odyssey of the Seas, yesterday. The vessel is the first quantum ultra-class ship in North America. See page five.

Photo: Racardo Thomas/Tribune staff

TAX AMNESTY FUELS ‘SUPER RICH SHOULD NEW NON-PAYMENTS BE PAYING US MORE’

By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net A PROMINENT realtor yesterday warned the Government’s frequent

real property tax amnesties “almost discourage compliant taxpayers” from continuing to pay in full and on time.

SEE BUSINESS SECTION

By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

THE Bahamas “needs a little more than residency” from the mul-

tiple millionaires and billionaires that reside within its borders, an accounting firm’s principal is urging.

SEE BUSINESS SECTION

CHURCHES CONDEMN RISING DOMESTIC VIOLENCE

STATESIDE

THE Bahamas Christian Council has spoken out against escalating domestic violence in the country, saying it is “outraged” by the “unconscionable domestic abuse and attempted murder” of a woman caught on CCTV this week.

In a statement yesterday, the BCC said it is “angry at this brutal act of violence

TIME FOR A REST BETWEEN ELECTION SEASONS? THINK AGAIN

By EARYEL BOWLEG Tribune Staff Reporter ebowleg@tribunemedia.net

THE SCENE of the incident on Key West Street on Monday. against a woman and child.”

The religious group called on domestic abusers to walk away in the heat

of the moment and seek professional help for their anger instead of causing harm to others. The council also urged victims of domestic violence to seek help from the Crisis Centre or a nearby church.

“As we continue to find our footing from one crisis after another crisis, our society is scorched with the escalating acts of domestic violence in our nation. The Bahamas Christian Council

Nassau & Bahama Islands’ Leading Newspaper

SEE PAGE THREE

- SEE PAGE NINE

PAGE 2, Thursday, November 18, 2021

THE TRIBUNE

FAMILY’S PAIN OVER TRAFFIC DEATH

By DENISE MAYCOCK Tribune Freeport Reporter dmaycock@tribunemedia.net

TO ADVERTISE IN THE TRIBUNE CALL 502 2394

THE family of the pedestrian who was hit and killed by a car last week in Eight Mile Rock, Grand Bahama, said the tragedy is a hard pill to swallow.

Jermaine Lightbourne said his brother Ricardo McKenzie, 47, was the father of eight children.

Their mother is devastated, he said.

He also took issue with information reportedly posted by a Facebook page and website about the incident.

“There is a lot of speculation out there,” said Mr Lightbourne, who said that relatives are waiting to speak with police concerning the incident.

He said he heard that the deceased was standing on the sidewalk when he was hit by a vehicle that was overtaking another car.

However this has not been confirmed by police.

When contacted for an update yesterday, Assistant Superintendent of Police Stephen Rolle said police are still awaiting the results of an autopsy.

According to official police reports, the accident occurred shortly before 10pm on Friday, November 12. Police received a report of a lifeless body on Queen’s Highway, Bartlett Hill, Eight Mile Rock.

Initial investigations indicated that a man who was attempting to cross the street was struck by an unknown vehicle travelling west.

Police said the driver of the vehicle did to stop, however, he later returned to the scene after he had checked his vehicle and saw visible damage.

EMS arrived on scene and said the man was lifeless. He was taken to hospital by EMS where he was pronounced dead.

Mr Lightbourne said his brother was a carpenter who had eight children between the ages of 26 and five years.

He received a call that night about his brother, but did not believe he was dead.

“When I heard the news at first, I thought it was just a simple accident and that he got hit, and maybe he had a broken arm or leg or something like that,” Mr Lightbourne said.

Then he received another

RICARDO McKenzie call that his brother had passed away.

“I said, ‘what you mean he’s gone?’ They said, ‘he died,’ and I broke down crying,” Mr Lightbourne recalled.

When Mr Lightbourne and his wife arrived at the scene, his brother’s body was still lying on the ground. Even though the area was cordoned off, he said his brother’s body was still visible to onlookers.

“His body laid there on the ground for almost an hour. I came all the way from Freeport, and they did not cover his body up right away.”

He said the incident is a blow to the family, following the recent loss of other close relatives.

“We found out that three of my brother’s siblings recently passed away on his father’s side and that their burials are also coming up. His father’s family was coming over here to bury them, and then they got this news – everybody is in pain right now.

“We are waiting on the police to get full details – I do not want to speculate,” Mr Lightbourne said.

He said that his brother was not a troublesome person. “He was never in problems or any mix up.

He was always smiling and cracking jokes,” he said.

“He would come home in the evening and make sure mother gets something to eat and then he would go chill out. He had just reached home and took some food to mother and went right back out front, and not even five minutes when this happened.

“My mother is very devastated about what happened, and so are his children,” Mr Lightbourne said.

A police investigation into the incident is ongoing.

THE TRIBUNE

ZONTA CLUB CALLS FOR SPECIAL COURT FOR DOMESTIC AND CHILD ABUSE CASES THE Zonta Club of New Providence has called on lawmakers to establish a special court to hear domestic and child abuse cases, so these matters can be heard swiftly.

Yesterday, Central Grand Bahama MP Iram Lewis also spoke out against domestic violence, saying stronger laws are needed to protect women and a safe house for victims is also needed.

The calls were made after CCTV video spread on social media this week, showing the extent of the brutal attack on a woman by a man known to her.

Police have said the incident, which took place on Key West Street, was a domestic dispute. The woman was attacked in the street while holding a young child. Bystanders intervened and one removed the young child from her arms. However, her attacker returned moments later and ran over her with his car.

The Zonta Club said: “ZCNP also calls on the parliamentarians to urgently do all that is necessary to put in place a specialised court for domestic and child abuse matters where justice can be safely and swiftly achieved. The nation’s health requires this.”

ZCNP is currently in the midst of its “16 Days to End Gender-Based Violence” campaign.

This is an international campaign, backed by the United Nations. It runs from November 25, the International Day to End Violence Against Women and Girls, to December 10, International Human rights Day. For his part, Mr Lewis said he is outraged by Monday’s attack.

“I was horrified by what I viewed in the video and to me, violence is never the answer towards another human being, and particularly not one of the opposite sex,” Mr Lewis said in a statement.

“A person should never permit themselves to become so engaged that they abuse someone physically and mentally.

“As the father of daughters, a brother, and an uncle, I cannot understand what would invoke such rage. Nothing can justify that.

We are supposed to be the protectors, the defenders of women, not the ones doing the attacking.

“Women are one of the greatest assets we have in this country.

They are our mothers, the ones that bring our children into the world. They are the ones that keep our families together. We, as men, should be protecting and respecting them.

“We need to bring stronger laws onto our books to protect our women, and we should also provide at least one safe house per populated island for them.

“Unfortunately, many women who feel stuck in abusive relationships because they feel they cannot make it on their own. We need to find ways to assist them so that like in the video, young ladies are not exposed to this type of violence. “. . .I will be saying more on the matter in the coming weeks after consultation with various women’s organizations so that collectively we can tackle this and many other social issues facing our society. My thoughts and prayers are with the young mother who I understand is in very serious condition.”

Thursday, November 18, 2021, PAGE 3

WAYNE MUNROE AND ANN-MARIE DAVIS RECEIVE MARCO’S ALERT TEST MESSAGE MINISTER of National Security Wayne Munroe and Ann-Marie Davis, wife of the prime minister, attended a test event for the MARCO Alert system at ALIV yesterday.

The successful test was sent on the ALIV network, with Mr Munroe and Mrs Davis both receiving the alert on their cell phones yesterday.

“I’ve been waiting for this for a long time,” Mrs Davis, of the Office of the Spouse, said at yesterday’s event, I think maybe seven or eight years, ever since young Marco Archer was found brutalised and killed. “. . .To know that he wasn’t the first that it happened to, I wanted to see this system in place to stop something like that (from) ever happening again.”

She said she thinks the alert system will be a significant tool in the fight against violence against children.

The test message read “This is MARCO’s Alert from the Office of the Spouse of the Prime

Minister.”

The system will allow authorities to send out an alert in the case of an emergency or missing child using geomapping technology, meaning anyone in a certain radius will get the message.

System Mr Munroe said he hopes the system will be fully up and running by the end of this month.

Yesterday, BTC CEO Andre Foster said the telecommunications company is looking forward to meeting with Mr Munroe and his team today. This comes after Mr Munroe criticised BTC last week for not being ready to roll out the alert system on its network.

“BTC is pleased to see that the government has completed its initial test of the MARCO’s Alert SMS system. We look forward to meeting with Wayne Munroe, Minister of National Security, and his team tomorrow,

MINISTER of National Security Wayne Munroe joined wife of the Prime Minister and Office of the Spouse representative Ann Marie Davis and Aliv CEO John Gomez at the testing of the MARCO’s Alert cellphone component, at Aliv’s Corporate Office yesterday. Manager responsible for wireless engineering for Aliv and Cable Bahamas Julian Dean conducted the test alert, and several Government and Aliv stakeholders were also present.

(BIS Photos / Eric Rose)

November 18, to discuss how BTC will support this very important project as we determine the next steps for our testing and implementation of the system.

“The ability to provide SMS alerts in the unfortunate event that a child goes missing is extremely important and we are committed to working with the government to provide this service across the Bahamas.

“We will provide a detailed update following tomorrow’s discussions,” Mr Foster said in a statement.

CHURCHES CONDEMN RISING DOMESTIC VIOLENCE FROM PAGE ONE is again outraged by the gruesome and unconscionable domestic abuse and attempted murder recorded on a security camera video being circulated on social media,” the statement read.

“As a community of Christian leaders advocates, the Bahamas Christian Council is angry at this brutal act of violence against a woman and a child and see this as a sign of the depravity that humanity has sunk in recent times.

We are grieved that our nation is seemingly spiralling out of control at such an alarming rate in which these incidents have been occurring. We call upon our citizenry to seek peaceful resolutions to their conflicts and seek intervention to assist in diffusing relational feuds. We must value the dignity and life of others.

We are mindful of the growing number of victims of domestic violence who suffer daily under the brutality of others. “We appeal to them to seek the help needed to address their issues.”

The video in question shows a woman, who was holding a young child, being dragged towards a car by a man she knows before she falls to the ground and is attacked in the street.

Bystanders intervened to stop the assault, with one eventually removing the child from the woman’s arms.

The man drove off in his car only to return a short time later to run the woman over with his speeding vehicle. She was also dragged a

short distance by the car.

The victim, who is in her 30s, remains in hospital in critical condition.

The incident took place on Monday on Key West Street.

The suspect—who tried to flee the scene after his car overturned on hitting a parked car—was subdued by bystanders and later taken into police custody.

Police have said the incident was a domestic assault.

However, last night police could not confirm the specific nature of the relationship and whether the man is her boyfriend or ex-boyfriend.

Meanwhile the BCC said abusers need to seek professional help to refrain from causing harm to others and themselves.

“We plead with abusers and those who are prone to outburst of uncontrollable anger, to peacefully walk away in the heat of the moment and seek professional assistance to dismantle the internal rage within.

“We admonish them to actively work on preventing their emotional state from causing damage to others as well as themselves.”

The council also said the nation must take collective responsibility for the things that occur in our communities and be an example to others by displaying harmonious relationships.

“As a nation, we must challenge ourselves to be more collectively involved in taking responsibility for the things that occur within our very own communities and by being an example to others in demonstrating

harmonious relationships.”

The religious group said it was happy to learn that the Crisis Centre is now fully open for in-person sessions, having been temporarily closed due to COVID-19. It was also noted there are a number of churches that are also available to those persons needing to speak to someone.

The victim in Monday’s assault lived in the area in which she was attacked, police said.

PAGE 4, Thursday, November 18, 2021

MINISTRY AIMING TO PROCURE MEDICATIONS FOR COVID-19 TREATMENT BY END OF THE YEAR

By KHRISNA RUSSELL Tribune Chief Reporter krussell@tribunemedia.net

THE Ministry of Health and Wellness has set an end of year timeline to procure medications not currently in The Bahamas to treat people sick with the coronavirus.

Last month, Health and Wellness Minister Dr Michael Darville said officials were looking into acquiring the additional drugs.

Press Secretary Clint Watson said yesterday: “We’re expecting to have them by the end of the year. That’s our target and we hope that these new medications will be here within the year.”

He also appealed on behalf of the government for people to be responsible as they hit the social scene following the expiration of the emergency powers orders last Saturday.

Over the weekend there were many events with large gatherings of people enjoying a curfew-free environment.

Mr Watson said COVID-19 ambassadors remain active and there were plans to ensure more of them were deployed at large events to ensure compliance with rules.

“The COVID police are very active,” Mr Watson said.

“As a matter of fact, I can say that discussions are ongoing to increase the number of COVID ambassadors throughout the country, along with additional training, particularly in light of relaxed curfews and people having more events to ensure that the guidelines are followed and people enforce the laws.

“That’s why I stress again to people, it requires personal responsibility.

We can keep these numbers down if people are personally responsible for themselves to ensure that they follow the protocols because no matter how much we police it people will complain about the policing.

“But we want people to take personal

responsibility to ensure that protocols are followed with events and with gatherings,” Mr Watson said.

He also noted that with The Bahamas’ travel health notice advisory from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention being lowered, people can once again visit the country for group events.

The advisory was at the maximum Level Four “Do not travel”, but has been lowered one notch to Level Three - “Reconsider Travel.”

Encouraged “This is both a significant implication and manages tourism’s overall product,” Mr Watson said. “We’re encouraged that the Davis administration’s response to the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak in the country has resulted in the CDC modifying its level. This is welcomed news for the tourist industry.

“It also means that hotels can begin to now receive group and conference bookings.

“At a level four groups and conferences were not allowed to book in The Bahamas because of their guidelines and because of their high risk.

“Now with our lowering to level three we can now welcome groups and conferences and conventions to begin booking at our major resorts which, as you know, is a significant portion of our tourism revenue and tourism product.

“So that spells good news for The Bahamas there,” he said.

The Ministry of Health reported 16 new cases of COVID-19 were recorded on Tuesday and 12 new cases were recorded on Monday.

The country now has 22,613 confirmed cases of the virus, however, only 210 of those are active.

Four new deaths were recorded on Monday, bringing the toll to 669.

The patients died between November 3-10.

Forty-four people are in hospital with COVID-19.

THE TRIBUNE

Social conversation ‘has to be had’ on marital rape issue

By KHRISNA RUSSELL Tribune Chief Reporter krussell@tribunemedia.net

A NATIONAL conversation that reflects the public’s will could drive the issue of marital rape to the forefront of the Davis administration’s legislative agenda, according to Press Secretary Clint Watson.

Last week in a tweet from his Twitter account, Prime Minister Philip “Brave” Davis said marital rape is wrong and that the country remained one of few in the world where this was not recognised in law. His tweet also noted that should there be a change in this regard he supported there being a national conversation.

Asked by The Tribune about the issue yesterday, Mr Watson was adamant the will of the people would be best articulated through nationwide discourse on marital rape. He said people should not just look to the government for a decision, but seek to learn the positions of groups like the Bahamas Christian Council, as well as human rights and civic groups.

“First of all, I think it’s important to say there are laws already on our books that if any crime is committed whether it be abuse, whether it be sexual assault, all of these are already on our books so these are already criminalised,” Mr Watson said during the weekly press briefing at the Office of the Prime Minister.

“So, there are actions that can be taken against people who commit these

kinds of acts. The issue of marital rape obviously is a social conversation that has to be had. What I mean by that is it has to incorporate many other organisations like the church, civic groups, women’s rights groups, marriage groups. It has to incorporate a national conversation.

“What you find happening is whenever governments put forth information or a referendum on particular issues sometimes we think it’s going to go a particular way, like the last one we had and it didn’t,” Mr Watson continued.

“You would think women’s rights, ‘oh yes everybody wants that’ and then we saw overwhelmingly people voted against it and this has to be a conversation driven by the people.

“Governments can have positions, you would have seen many persons in government have expressed outrage against it and taken the position that they believe it should not happen. . .That’s not enough people in government expressing their views.”

He was referring to the failed June 7, 2016 gender equality referendum where the four referendum questions were overwhelmingly rejected.

“If we want this to become a major discussion and perhaps lead to legislation then let’s build the story around how impactful this is to the country.”

In recent days the issue of domestic violence has also been reignited after a woman was beaten and attacked in the street by a man—reportedly her partner or ex-partner—who then ran her over with his car.

CCTV footage of the domestic abuse spread on social media this week, prompting outrage.

National Security Minister Wayne Munroe has said what happened was “completely unacceptable.”

Police confirmed they have a man in custody in connection with the incident, which took place on Key West Street on Monday afternoon.

Assistant Superintendent of Police Audley Peters has said the woman in the video is in critical condition.

The incident has also sparked a discussion at the government level, Mr Watson said.

“The Minister of Social Services and his minister of state have talked about it and that’s a good example again of national issues and people shaping the conversation.

“As tragic as the events are, they caused an outcry among the people and forced the government to consider and take a look at these things. I’m not saying let’s wait for an event to happen because Lord knows we don’t want that to happen, but there has to be an outcry of the issue that will drive the conversation and that has driven this conversation and there are talks in the works.

“Even the Attorney General says that he’s reviewing these laws on the books regarding domestic abuse and violence and so forth to see whether there is any room for strengthening or reforming, but the conversation is being had at the government level, yes,” Mr Watson said.

IRAM LEWIS NOMINATED FOR FNM LEADER

By TANYA SMITH-CARTWRIGHT tsmith-cartwright@ tribunemedia.net

IRAM Lewis, MP for Central Grand Bahama, was officially nominated yesterday for leader of the Free National Movement and insisted he wanted to be in the job for the “long haul.”

With the leadership contest set for next week, Mr Lewis is confident of emerging as the victor. Kwasi Thompson, MP for East Grand Bahama, and Michael Pintard, MP for Marco City, have also offered themselves as contenders for party leadership.

Some have questioned if the winner of next week’s race will only be an interim leader until another convention is held in two years.

After being nominated at FNM headquarters, Mr Lewis was asked if he would just be an interim leader if he wins.

He denied this saying he is in it for the “long haul.”

“I’ve said in my launch that I am in it to win it and

IRAM LEWIS, MP for Central Grand Bahama, speaking yesterday.

PHOTO: Racardo Thomas/Tribune staff I am in it for the long haul,” he said. “This is not a temporary fix. I am 56 years old. I am following the FNM from inception.

“I’ve been a part of this organisation and I see myself as a part of the leadership moving forward. This is no temporary fix. This is no interim position that I seek to hold. I am in it for the long haul and I am sure others are in it for the same reason.

“I was six years old when one of the founding fathers came to our house in Water Cay and told my father that the Free PLP was forming this movement, the Free National Movement. He was the first one to vote FNM in Water Cay. So I’ve been following the founding fathers, then Mr Ken Russell and on to Mr Brent Symonette when

I moved to Nassau.”

Mr Lewis and his team said the movement to ‘Get the FNM Back on Track’ became official as the Central Grand Bahama MP was nominated by FNM Women’s Association member Keva Roberts-Nethersole and seconded by Torchbearers Youth Association member Xavier Knowles.

He said this is reflective of his determination and commitment to ensure that both women and younger people are empowered in the party.

Some observers say many of the FNM’s supporters have become turned off from the party leadership, in particular of Dr Hubert Minnis, who they have labelled as the main cause of them not showing up at the polls to vote.

Mr Lewis said there is no

one person to blame for the defeat. He said the blame should be collective.

“I will not put it on any one person,” he said. “If it’s a fault of leadership then I have to be a part of the responsibility, because I was in Cabinet also. I was a part of leadership. With respect to collective responsibility, I accept my part.

“There is no one person who you can put this on and I would be very disingenuous if I would call the name of any one person who caused us to be where we are right now. We acted as a team and our team dropped the baton in certain instances. We had some self-inflicted wounds as a team. A team is what I want to work with, going forward, to mend broken relationships.”

He was the first to officially announce his intention to run for leader following the election defeat of September 16.

And, like the others in the race, Mr Lewis has vowed to mend the broken relationships with disenfranchised FNMs who did not turn out to the polls to vote, thus causing the party’s defeat.

He said his first order of business is to unify and solidify the party’s base; take the party back to the principles on which it was founded by the “Dissident Eight”, led by the late Sir Cecil WallaceWhitfield 50 years ago.

SEE PAGE FIVE

THE TRIBUNE

HIRED - BUT WITH NO WORK TO DO FROM PAGE ONE make an analysis based on the audit of where we need to build capacity,” the minister said during the weekly press briefing at the Office of the Prime Minister.

“We can’t just hire and not know where to put people.

“We have to make sure we’re placing people in positions that are available and that are necessary to move the public service forward.

“As you know we do have a programme called the 52-week programme that will be relaunched as the public service professional engagement programme that will resume in the middle of 2022 where we will continue to take on cohorts of the 52-weekers, but the plan is after your 52-weeks you will be confirmed in the service should you have no adverse reports.

“Those that have not performed well and may have adverse reports then we would give an extended period for them to acclimate or those that need to be released from the programme.

“But that hiring process, which is the stream that we bring persons into the public service generally, will resume as soon as our audit is done and I anticipate that will be about June or July 2022.”

Asked whether anything questionable had taken place within the service in the lead up to the general election, the minister said there was hiring on Election Day and people reported for jobs in the weeks after.

“We have found that in instances there has been engagement into the public service on the day of election and even days after election when the government would have obviously been changed.

So, those in particular we will be looking at to ensure that the proper methodology of engagement was engaged for those persons.

“That doesn’t mean that everybody that came in during a certain period is questionable, but we need to make sure that they aren’t and then take the necessary measures to either engage them the proper way with proper contracts signings or whatever the case maybe or see where they are to be placed.

“I will tell you that there are persons that were hired in the last eight weeks that are still at home that are being paid but there is nowhere to place them and that is why we have to have the audit to ensure that we are filling the gaps and building capacity where it’s necessary and not just bringing people on to have a job.”

Currently, she said officials were looking to see where these people could be placed.

While she said she could not confirm what these new hires were costing the government, she said they were spread across the country.

“The persons at home are not only in New Providence. They are across the country. So, as we analyse our records for the persons that are engaged or the persons we think are engaged and we do our due diligence to check, obviously with their immediate supervisors, that is how we are processing the check and balance of who is on the job.

“That process again is ongoing.

“As a result, I don’t have final numbers and as a result I don’t have final costs.

“I want you to know that these programmes like the 52-week, the funds are available but we can’t have people being paid to sit at home or we can’t have people being paid that come to work and there is no job for them to do.”

Asked to give a conservative figure of how many were at home, she said: “In the first instance I would say probably about 40 and let me make it relative: the programme normally engages about 1,000 people so at this time about 40.”

Thursday, November 18, 2021, PAGE 5

PM is impressed by Royal Caribbean’s efforts to minimise environmental impact

By RASHAD ROLLE Tribune Senior Reporter rrolle@tribunemedia.net PRIME Minister Philip “Brave” Davis highlighted Royal Caribbean’s efforts to minimise the impact its fleet has on the environment during a ceremony yesterday that celebrated the cruise company’s newest ship, Odyssey of the Seas.

The vessel is the first quantum ultra-class ship in North America and it features a number of amenities.

Erin Brown, a disability rights activist and the first Bahamian para-triathlete to compete in the Paralympic Games qualifiers, was recently named godmother of the ship.

During yesterday’s ceremony, Mr Davis said: “I believe that if we take care of the ocean, the ocean will take care of us. Safe and sustainable development is priority number one.

“There is much concern in the international arena about the cruise and shipping industry’s contributions to climate change. As my administration fosters growth within these industries, we must also pay heed to the existential threat that rising sea levels pose to us as a low-lying ocean state.

“I am particularly impressed by the measures that Royal Caribbean has taken to minimise the environmental impact of its fleet.

According to the available literature, the Odyssey of the Seas has two emissions purification systems, removing 98 percent of sulphur from emissions and reducing nitrous

PRIME Minister Philip “Brave” Davis speaking during yesterday’s ceremony.

PHOTOS: Racardo Thomas/ Tribune staff

PRIME Minister Philip “Brave” Davis and Erin Brown at yesterday’s event. oxide. It is fully compliant with the International Maritime Organization’s NOx Tier 3 standards, significantly reducing the ship’s environmental footprint.

“My administration has fully committed to the development of the Blue Economy as a high priority item on our agenda - with all the implications that has for increasing employment, generating wealth, and expanding opportunities.”

Officials yesterday stressed Royal Caribbean’s commitment to helping small businesses in The Bahamas succeed.

Samantha Rolle, director of external affairs at Access Accelerator, Small Business Development Centre, highlighted a pepper sauce initiative.

“It’s really a pilot

programme to showcase Bahamian vendors who produce and manufacture their pepper sauce and to give them an opportunity to showcase that as a part of a pilot programme on RCL’s cruise ship,” she said. “So what we’ve done, we’ve started with a cohort of about 13 vendors and throughout the process eliminated some vendors based on certain things, requirements and standards such as being export ready, and today what was so amazing is we had three amazing, ready to go, successful entrepreneurs, vendors who were able to showcase their products for the passengers on board the ship, but also for the local delegates that were here for the ceremony.”

RCL President and CEO Michael Bayley said the winner of the pepper sauce

competition will now supply their hot sauce to Royal Caribbean’s guests.

“What we’re trying to focus on now is connections within the business ecosystem,” said Davinia Bain, executive director of SBDC. “You have small businesses that need to be connected with medium business and medium businesses which need to be connected with larger businesses. And so it’s not that easy as a small business person to get in direct contact with the buyers from some of these larger businesses. When we talk about being the access accelerator, a lot of people believe that’s access to funding. It’s really access to opening doors to expand your business. We used our relationship with RCL in the same way that they had hoped we would.

They wanted better access to small businesses and we have quite a number of them and so we just created the tie-in.”

ERIN BROWN, a disability rights activist and the first Bahamian para-triathlete to compete in the Paralympic Games qualifiers, was recently named godmother of the ship.

ROYAL CARIBBEAN CRUISE LINE ‘VERY OPTIMISTIC’ ABOUT GRAND LUCAYAN BID

By RASHAD ROLLE Tribune Senior Reporter rrolle@tribunemedia.net MICHAEL Bayley, the president and CEO of Royal Caribbean Cruise Line, says the company remains “very optimistic” about its bid to take over the Grand Lucayan resort, saying officials have had productive discussions about the deal with the Davis administration.

His comments come weeks after Tourism, Investments and Aviation Minister Chester Cooper described the proposed sale agreement for the resort as “egregiously bad.”

During debate on the Speech from the Throne earlier this month, Mr Cooper said: “After the government pumped over $150 million into this property, the group at the table wanted a loan from the government to develop the property, which they were only interested in developing during the second half of the decade.”

In late September, Mr partnership way to achieve Cooper said he still thinks these goals. I think in the the deal is an “egregiously discussion we’ve had with bad” one, a view he held the government reprewhile in opposition. sentatives they’ve been Mr Cooper’s comments constructive and positive. have raised questions I think with a company about the future of the prothat’s been coming to The posed deal, which involves Bahamas for over 50 years a partnership between we feel very much part of Royal Caribbean and ITM. that community. We feel “I’m not able to discuss like we want to be part of (the matter) in detail,” the solution.”

Mr Bayley said yesterday. MICHAEL Bayley Mr Bayley also high“Obviously the new govlighted Royal Caribbean’s ernment I think has been other local investments. in its position for, I’m not sure how “We have our investment in Perlong, I’m going to say 60 days. And I fect Day, Cococay,” he said. “We know that they’ve got multiple priori- invested a quarter of a billion dolties that they are working on, but we lars in developing that experience a have had productive discussions with couple years ago. It opened in 2019. the government regarding these pro- We have a partnership with some jects that I’ve talked about. of our competitors in the Grand “They’ve certainly expressed their Bahama Shipyard which, it went concerns and how they see the future. through a terrible time during the We’re more than happy to work in a hurricane, and now we’re re-investing

EMPLOYERS SET MARCH 12 DEADLINE ON FURLOUGHS FROM PAGE ONE March 12 deadline for the status of workers to be confirmed.

Mr Watson said the government was unsure of the number of people on furlough because there was no proper record keeping under the former Minnis administration.

However, in the case of Atlantis, which employs between 5,000 and 6,000 people, about 45 percent to 50 percent of unionised workers remain at home, according to Bahamas Hotel Catering and Allied Workers Union President Darrin Woods earlier this week.

Mr Watson said: “Under the previous administration what was given was a 30-day window after the emergency orders would have expired for companies to make a decision and determination as to what they were going to do. Now, that 30 days would take us to December 12.

“The laws also provide a 90-day window, which takes us to March 12.

“What has to happen within that window by March 12 companies either have to disengage the persons or call them back to work.

That is the law and that is the parameters that we are now working in for companies to make a decision.

“So, they have until, by the latest, March 12 to either disengage those furloughed workers or return them back to work and the government is standing behind the law.”

The government, Mr Watson said, has discussed the options with employers.

“We’ve had that discussion and we’ve reminded employers that they have to make a

decision. They are aware of that.

“We do know that some people were brought back and we do know that some people were disengaged, but we have made it clear to employers that you have to make a decision.

“So, we’re hoping that they don’t wait until March 12 before they decide what they’re going to do. That the employees who you would think to them are valuable and important, that they make a decision as to what you’re going to do with people who are weighing in the balance.”

Earlier this week Mr Woods said “quite a bit” of Atlantis workers remained furloughed, adding they

TEL: 325-3341

continue to hang in the balance for word on what the hotel intends to do with the end to the COVID-19 Emergency Powers Orders.

He said: “Atlantis has some between 5,000 and 6,000 workers in general and out of that I think about 4,000 plus are a part of the bargaining unit and out of that we have the majority.

“I would say we (are) just barely scraping 50 to 55 percent of our members who are back to work.

“So, there are still quite a bit of persons who are still home.

“They will tell you that they only have a couple home, but I’ll tell you that there are quite a bit that’s still home,” Mr Woods said.

into the shipyard to bring that back alive so it can operate as a regional hub for the cruise industry and that we think is a really positive thing.

“We are still working––of course the pandemic caused a pause because of all the issues we were dealing with––we’re still very optimistic about the Freeport project, which is really the Grand Lucayan development, the destination development and resort, along with increased investments in the port.

“And we think and we hope we can bring that alive in the coming years and we think that’s going to be a game changer in Freeport. We’re also working on a project at Paradise Island, the Royal Beach Club, and we’re very close to finalising all the various discussions, etc. We’ve already created the concept and we’re very close to being able to start that project and we’ll continue to be a very attractive option for the number of tourists that The Bahamas has.”

IRAM LEWIS NOMINATED FROM PAGE FOUR He said, “We have started already making phone calls.

Persons we know did not show up on September 16 for various reasons, some felt disenfranchised, some felt like they were disrespected, forgotten and they are the ones on whose shoulders we stand.

“So we’re making phone calls to the various associations embracing our foot soldiers starting from the foundation because if we do not go out there and reconnect with them, apologise to them, the healing will never start.

“Once we start the healing process, we will continue to do what we can to ensure that we are healed, that we are back together as a family .… that we can grow as a family. Once this party gets to the level that it should be and beyond, we will become the party of choice.”

The FNM will hold a press conference today when nominations close and Deputy Leader Peter Turnquest is expected to take the reins as party leader until November 27 when a new leader is elected at the special convention.

PAGE 6, Thursday, November 18, 2021

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After COP26, the hard work begins on making climate promises real How much the world achieved at the Glasgow climate talks – and what happens now – depends in large part on where you live.

In island nations that are losing their homes to sea level rise, and in other highly vulnerable countries, there were bitter pills to swallow after global commitments to cut emissions fell far short of the goal to keep global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7°F).

For large middle-income countries, like India and South Africa, there were signs of progress on investments needed for developing clean energy.

In the developed world, countries still have to internalise, politically, that bills are coming due – both at home and abroad – after decades of delaying action on climate change. The longer the delay, the more difficult the transition will be.

There were also signs of hope as coalitions of companies, governments and civil society and indigenous peoples groups forced progress on issues such as stopping deforestation, cutting methane, ending coal use and boosting zero-emissions vehicles. Now, those promises must be acted upon.

As a former senior U.N. official, I’ve been involved in the climate negotiations for several years. Here are five key elements to watch over the coming year as countries move forward on their promises.

Bending the curve to 1.5°C Going into the Glasgow summit, countries’ commitments had put the world on a trajectory of warming about 2.9°C this century, well beyond the 1.5°C goal and into levels of warming that will bring dangerous climate impacts. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s announcement in the first days (much to the surprise of Indian observers) that India would reach net zero emissions by 2070 and generate 50% of its energy from renewables by 2030 helped lower that trajectory to 2.4°C. Countries agreed to return for the next round of climate talks in November 2022 in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, with stronger commitments to put the world on track for 1.5°C. That turns the spotlight back on national action. China reminded everyone, while throwing shade at the U.S., that goals must be backed with plans for implementation.

U.S. Cabinet members and Congressional leaders had much to say in Glasgow about being “back,” after the previous administration withdrew from the Paris climate agreement. Yet they had little to offer in terms of the U.S. share of the finance, and the world cast a worried eye over its continued partisan politics.

More South Africa deals, please While all countries are important for reaching the world’s climate goals, some are more important than others.

Countries that are high emitters and heavily dependent on coal will be a focus of international attention in the coming months, not just to phase down coal but importantly to fund a just transition to green sources of energy and the necessary electricity infrastructure.

The poster child for this approach is South Africa, where a presidential commission has worked for three years to develop a just transition plan and has been able to attract US$8.5 billion from the U.K., the EU, the U.S. and others to help them execute on it.

That, coupled with guarantees and other financial aid that could help draw further private investment, could become a replicable model.

The key was national ownership. In the year ahead, look for plans to come together in Indonesia and Vietnam and other countries needing to fast forward away from coal.

Getting climate finance flowing Many developing countries already have national platforms to deliver on their commitments, but throughout Glasgow’s conference halls, officials complained that finance wasn’t flowing to help them succeed.

This isn’t just a climate finance problem.

Many countries are also facing economic disruption from the COVID-19 pandemic and have chafed at the way international financial institutions fail to address issues of access to finance and trade. Advanced economies didn’t come to Glasgow ready to provide even the $100 billion a year in finance promised a decade ago, which

shrank the landing zone for agreement on all issues.

The Chinese calculate the value of growth lost through a few measures, such as floods and heat. Unsurprisingly it amounts to trillions of dollars. It may be a useful exercise whenever a government balks at the “cost” of climate action.

In the end, governments agreed to reach the $100 billion annual climate finance target within the next two years and agreed that adaptation funding should double. But with the U.N. Environment Programme estimating that adaptation funds will need to quadruple by 2030 from today’s $70 billion, there’s a long way to go.

The Glasgow Climate Pact also criticised the traditional channels of public funds that set the conditions for finance to flow, including the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. Look for G7 and G20 countries, the largest shareholders of these institutions, to examine how they can be managed differently to respond to the climate emergency. All eyes are on Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi, current president of the G20 and an experienced central banker. Actions could range from bolstering the Climate Investment Funds, managed by the World Bank, and loosening the terms and conditions of the IMF’s proposed management of the reallocation of special drawing rights, to incentives to leverage more private funds and take more risk.

Finance pledges and cries of ‘greenwashing’ In the first week of Glasgow, the titans of the financial industry heralded the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero – the commitment by financial institutions representing $130 trillion in assets to accelerate the transition to a net-zero emissions economy. The shifts within financial markets away from exposure to carbon emissions was palpable. But without more detail, the announcement attracted cries of “greenwashing.”

Organisers of the alliance will need to work hard to hold members to account, and throw out those still underwriting the coal industry, for example.

The principle of getting everyone pledged and in the tent and then making them improve has been used before, for example, the Net Zero Asset Managers Initiative.

But this only works with transparency, and buried among the press releases was their report that, of the advertised $57 trillion of the initiative’s assets under management, only an estimated 35% is actually in line with net zero.

The U.N. secretary-general announced an expert group to propose clear standards for companies and others making net zero commitments, partly in response to furor around greenwashing.

That group is expected to report back in 2022.

At the heart of Glasgow was a new seriousness around transparency, credibility, integrity and accountability. Watch this unfold this coming year.

The third leg of a wobbly stool: Loss and damage Climate action is a three-legged stool – mitigation, adaptation and loss and damage.

Loss and damage was mentioned an unprecedented 12 times in the final Glasgow texts, but without commitments to funding or mechanisms to secure funding. Loss and damage, or reparations, can be understood this way: you broke it (or endangered it), you pay for it. But, afraid of lawsuits in international courts – which the U.S. does not belong to – or afraid of the costs, developed countries have opposed progress on the issue in recent years.

Developing countries left Glasgow disappointed, but there was no escaping the debate. Watch for a design of a mechanism to help pay for loss and damage and plans to start funding it. With the next year’s U.N. climate conference in Africa, this will move centre stage.

There’s a Scottish proverb, “fools look to tomorrow, wise men [sic] use tonight.”

There were wise people in Glasgow, and fools too.

But there’s not a night to lose in the year ahead.

• This article is by Rachel Kyte, Tufts

University, for theconversation.com.

Empty paper bags?

EDITOR, The Tribune.

IT’S been almost two months since the elevation of the Most Hon Philip ‘Brave’ Davis, QC, MP, as Prime Minister of our wonderful nation. The shock waves of this are still vibrating among those within the opposition and many socalled elites. Brave, in their unadulterated view was not prime ministerial material, whatever that is supposed to mean. Indeed, there were/are many within the PLP who never supported him or believed that he could stand in the political gap on behalf of the people of The Bahamas. Well, he is now doing it with aplomb and focused intensity.

Dr Minnis and his people squandered the trust given to them in May, 2017 within a few short years. The hurricane and the pandemic may have made it a bit difficult for them to overcome the negatives, but I am of the view that it was not so much those two back-toback events but rather the sheer arrogance and gross incompetency of the Most Competent Authority and his kitchen cabinet. Never before in the history of The Bahamas has a major party been shown the exit door so swiftly.

Brave has gone on the world stage. When Minnis was so-called in charge he went up to the United Nations once I believe and even then his speech/ address was given by the Hon, Member for St Barnabas, the Hon Shannendon Cartwright. Within two months the new Prime Minister has rubbed shoulders with over sixty world leaders. It was once said, maliciously, that Brave could not speak or talk well.

Now, world leaders listen to him with rapt attention?

Nobody paid any attention to Minnis.

The Bahamas and her people are faced with daunting challenges, but we will soldier on. The decimation of the middle class and the sweeping away of the poor is an indictment that will follow Minnis and the kitchen cabinet for life.

The social fabric has been torn apart and the very economic survival and mental health well being of our

LETTERS letters@tribunemedia.net people are at the brink.

Many have gone to the poor house or bread lines because of the jacked up and cock- eyed policies of that failed Prime Minister and the rest of them.

The Minister of Social Services & Urban Renewal, the Hon Obediah H Wilchcombe (PLP-West End & Bimini) and his ministry have their work cut out for them. Tens of thousands of ordinary Bahamians are still without jobs or gainful employment almost two years since the draconian and abrupt shut down of the economy by Minnis and them. Thousands more have probably “gone crazy” and are stressed out mentally. Obie and his capable people at his ministry will have to contend with thousands of other Bahamians who are homeless; no sustainable source of food; an increase in alleged prostitution (sell what you have syndrome) among females and males; a sense of inertia and more.

I am persuaded that brother Wilchcombe is up to the task else Brave would not have selected him for this vital and overreaching ministry. These are the times that try the very souls of men and women. As a united people, however, there is nothing that we cannot achieve with focused and solid leadership. Urban Renewal was a concept under brother Christie and that is his light weight legacy. This unit is a no brainer for the revitalization of the inner city areas of New Providence and Grand Bahama.

It would be nice and assuring to see Minister Wilchcombe and a select team from his ministry doing regular walk-abouts in Bain & Grants Town; Englerston; Coconut Grove; Jones Town; Eight Mile Rock, etc. Entrepreneurs and investors could be encouraged to spruce up neighbourhoods and secure green spaces with connectivity.

Buildings such as the former Corner Motel on

Carmichael Road and Faith Avenue; the Cast-aWays Motel up in Nassau Village and the seemingly abandoned building up on Wulff Road which used to be The Bahamas Academy could and should be utilized to provide safe and affordable shelters for the homeless and even for battered women or single parents with multiple children and no support from the putative dead beat fathers.

There is much work to be done by this God-sent Davis administration and there is no time for distractions, least of all by Flight 732 which crashed and burned on the 16th September.

A few passengers escaped, but they were badly politically injured to the point of irrelevance.

At least the flight got off the runway, even if Chief Pilot Minnis and Navigator Desmond Bannister paid no apparent heed to the sputtering of the engines and the head winds. Now, brother Michael Pintard (FNM-Marco City) has launched his not so coy bid for “leader” of the rumpest of political entities – the Free National Movement.

Is this a case of empty political paper bags?

It has been suggested that when Pintard was Chairman of the FNM that he had several meetings with characters known as Togie and Bogo or something similar and that there were discussions to generate alleged documents. Pintard was obliged to step down as Chairman.

This man is delusional if he believes, even for a nano second, that he is able or capable to best Brave at the next national polls.

Is this the same Pintard who once ran up against the brick wall of the Most Hon Philip ‘Brave’ Davis, MP, QC, over in Cat Island; Rum Cay & San Salvador a few years ago? He could not beat Brave then what makes him think that he’d be able to do so in this life time? Empty paper bags.........part two.

ORTLAND H BODIE, Jr Nassau, November 7, 2021.

THE TRIBUNE

RASTAFARIAN MAN APPEALS DRUG CHARGE

By LEANDRA ROLLE Tribune Staff Reporter lrolle@tribunemedia.net

A RASTAFARIAN man has launched an appeal against a drug charge he received last year after being found with $150 worth of marijuana, arguing that certain sections of the Dangerous Drugs Act are unconstitutional and infringes upon his fundamental rights.

Lorenzo Stubbs, 33, was arrested last December after police found 1.6 ounces of marijuana at his home.

Stubbs pleaded not guilty to the offence, which he believes is in violation of his rights, and is now appealing the charge before Justice Loren Klein. Stubbs’ trial before the Magistrate’s Court is presently on hold pending the outcome of his appeal.

The Rastafarian is challenging the constitutionality of Section 29 (6) of the Dangerous Drugs Act and is also seeking declaration that his rights as outlined in Article 22 of the country’s Constitution were infringed upon.

Article 22 states: “Except with his consent, no person shall be hindered in the enjoyment of his freedom of conscience, and for the purposes of this Article the said freedom includes freedom of thought and of religion, freedom to change his religion

or belief and freedom, either alone or in community with others, and both in public and in private, to manifest and propagate his religion of belief in worship, teaching, practice and observance.”

In view of this fact, Stubbs contends that the Dangerous Drugs Act, which prohibits possession of the drug, violates his constitutional right to practice his faith as a Rastafarian.

The 34-year-old is represented by attorneys Bjorn Ferguson and Rhodreka Strachan. He is also requesting vindicatory damages.

During a hearing before Justice Klein yesterday, Mr Ferguson argued that Stubbs, a longtime Rastafarian, was not found with large quantities of marijuana, but only $150 worth, which, he said, Stubbs used for religious purposes.

Referring to the rights outlined in Article 22, Mr Ferguson said: “His right is breached because marijuana is viewed in their faith as a Eucharist, a holy sacrament and in order for Stubbs to enjoy the full practice and observance of that faith, possession of marijuana has to take place.”

Mr Ferguson also contended that using marijuana as a sacrament is not much different from Christians partaking in communion.

The attorney also sought

to reject the idea that marijuana is a “dangerous drug,” which he claims is simply not accurate.

“Marijuana is a plant, unprocessed and used in its natural state,” he told the court. “Every one of those other drugs…there has to be some processing and added chemicals to make the end drug. Marijuana is a plant created by God .. and so, the legislative objective cannot be reasonably justified where you infringe upon the Rastafarian faith which rely on this plant.”

To further support his argument, Mr Ferguson also pointed to a report conducted by a CARICOM commission that concluded there is no scientific evidence to suggest that marijuana is dangerous, adding that there is no logical reason for having the substance labeled as such in current legislation.

“There is no rational connection to having Indian hemp placed in the legislation as dangerous and going so far to infringe upon the adherence of Rastafarianism,” the attorney said.

Shifting his focus on the hardships experienced by Rastafarians, Mr Ferguson said the community has suffered a “decades” long assault because of the provisions outlined in the Dangerous Drugs Act. Mr Ferguson further

CHARGES IN CONNECTION WITH DRUG SEIZURE

By LEANDRA ROLLE Tribune Staff Reporter lrolle@tribunemedia.net

A 28-YEAR-OLD man was remanded to prison yesterday after being charged in connection with the $5m drug seizure in Grand Bahama earlier this week.

Kenly Guerrier, of Eight Mile Rock, stood before Magistrate Samuel McKinney faced with several drug related charges stemming from the November 15 seizure of 250 kilos of cocaine.

Police allege that Guerrier, being concerned with others, was found in possession of cocaine with intent to supply and conspired to possess it also with intent to supply.

He is also accused of conspiring to import cocaine and importing the drug while concerned with others on the same date.

According to police reports, on the day in question, officers from Drug Enforcement Unit, US Drug Enforcement Administration and OPBAT conducted a joint operation, which led them to an apartment complex in Russell Town, Eight Mile Rock.

Police said officers knocked on the front door of the unit on the western end of the complex and conducted a search of the home, but nothing was found.

Officers were then led to the apartment unit next door, where they discovered nine suitcases, containing 250 kilos of suspected cocaine.

During yesterday’s

hearing, Guerrier pleaded not guilty to all of the charges and the matter was adjourned to March 26,

EVERY MONDAY IN THE TRIBUNE

INSIGHT

2022 for trial.

However, he is set to return to court tomorrow for a bail hearing.

reminded the court that it is their duty “to uphold the Constitution against contraventions by either the executive or Parliament” to protect affected parties’ basic rights.

And where such contraventions are found, he said the court must act.

However, Crown attorney Cordell Frazier, in her submissions, countered that to declare Section 29 (6) of the Act unconstitutional simply “cannot stand.”

Ms Frazier contended the Act was enacted in the interest of public health, and not as a means to discredit the Rastafarian faith.

She also noted that religious freedoms are not hindered in The Bahamas, but only have limitations, which in Stubbs’ case is for the sake of public health.

SEE PAGE 11

Thursday, November 18, 2021, PAGE 7

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PAGE 8, Thursday, November 18, 2021

THE TRIBUNE

Building a more functional democracy

G

overnmentoperated schools around the world, including in The Bahamas, tend to require certification and training for teachers from primary to high school. Such training seeks to ensure teachers are better prepared with learning methods to educate young people. Subject area competency is also required.

Many private schools around the world also require certification. Some of the best preparatory schools require master’s degrees in subject areas.

For those private institutions which do not require teacher training, there are mentoring and development programmes, as well as opportunities for ongoing advancement and sabbaticals for further learning.

With education a national priority, the Teachers Training College of New Providence and San Salvador trained scores of teachers in a newly independent Bahamas.

Today’s Faculty of Education at the University of The Bahamas (UB), includes the Department of Early Childhood and Primary Education and the Department of Secondary Education.

In her welcome message on UB’s webpage, chairperson Raquel BarrEdgecombe notes: “Our programmes include courses in educational psychology, educational research, educational technology, teaching methodology, content areas and field experiences.

“Faculty in Education seek to develop well-rounded teachers who in turn will develop wellrounded students with the capacity to contribute positively to the growth and advancement of the Bahamian society and the larger global community.”

To be appointed a trained teacher in The Bahamas

one must have a first class degree and teacher certification. However, individuals can be appointed as assistant teachers with a first class degree and no teacher training. Teachers without certification are paid less.

In most areas of professional life, training, certification and ongoing development are critical for success and service to clients. We would be derelict, irresponsible in sending a completely unprepared teacher into the classroom or an untrained lawyer into the courtroom.

SPIRAL Yet, disturbingly, in the downward and dysfunctional spiral in our democracy, we continue to recruit and elect unprepared and incapable individuals to the House of Assembly, many of whom are appointed cabinet ministers, sometimes with terrible outcomes.

We have a multifold problem. While we encourage individuals to pursue careers and vocations in various fields, honing their talents and gaining experience over many years, there is a silly and immature attitude by many that we should quickly change politicians and that experience

and longevity in politics are deficits.

Related to this is another ill-conceived notion: Get rid of older politicians and replace them with young people with no experience, just because they are younger. Even in professional sports, a team of older and younger talent may be a recipe for success.

In law, medicine, the corporate world and other fields, the grey hairs or few hairs often typify good judgement and wisdom borne from many years of experience.

A friend insists that if she required neurological surgery she wants a surgeon with some wrinkles who has performed the operation many times over many years, and not the newbie with little to no experience.

In a successful country like Singapore, older and senior ministers help to guide and mentor new ministers so that experience and good practices are passed on from one generation to the next so that institutional knowledge is not lost.

A part of the immaturity of our democracy is that we continue to advance immature ideas, and put in place immature parliamentarians and ministers who know little despite believing they are highly capable because they are adept at posting something supposedly clever on social media.

For political reasons, large, unwieldy cabinets are being appointed. Our cabinets have become too big. Quite a number who serve as cabinet ministers, ministers of state and parliamentary secretaries simply do not have the capacity for such roles.

Further, with many, including many capable women, disinclined to run for elected office, the field of individuals to choose from for frontline politics is limited.

Still, a good number of those chosen by both parties as candidates in general elections have been

disastrously poor choices.

The decline has been occurring for a number of years.

It continues to worsen.

In both the last government and the current administration there are individuals who do not possess most if any of the perquisites required to be capable parliamentarians.

Worse, their capacity to serve as a cabinet minister is next to nil. While some people may grow and are educable, there are others who are untrainable and uneducable in various areas, and who will never be suitable in government.

Seminars and training will make scant to no difference for some, including the incorrigibly ignorant and those unwilling and blind to taking advice, and those convinced of their supposed natural genius.

There is also confusion about the role of a Cabinet Minister and there is need for clarity regarding the status of Ministers of State.

In our parliamentary democracy with cabinet government there are Cabinet Ministers who are answerable to Parliament for the various departments and matters in their portfolios. The Cabinet as a whole is collectively responsible to Parliament.

There are also junior ministers with the designation Minister of State and Parliamentary Secretary.

Ministers of State are not Cabinet Ministers although they have been allowed to sit in Cabinet.

A Minister of State serves under a Cabinet Minister and may deal with matters assigned to him or her subject to the general direction and control of the Minister.

A Minister of State may be given a descriptive courtesy title by the Prime Minister.

EGOTISM There is a story of a former cabinet minister who, upon arrival at a new post, spoke glowingly to public officers about the former’s resume and supposed intellectual abilities.

The minister proved highly incompetent and incapable, typically blaming others for failures that were the minister’s. The Dunning–Kruger effect, named for social psychologists David Dunning and Justin Kruger, is “a hypothetical cognitive bias.” People with low ability suffer from an “internal illusion [overestimating] their own ability. …

“The miscalibration of the incompetent stems from an error about the self. …

It is related to the cognitive

After he became Prime Minister, Perry Christie also held a governmental training session, organized in part by the highly capable the late Lois Symonette, one of the best permanent secretaries of her generation, who after retirement penned a primer on government entitled Understanding Government: With a Bahamian Perspective, which remains an important read.

These and other attempts bias of illusory superiority and comes from people’s were all good faith efforts inability to recognize their but were insufficient. The Government of The Bahalack of ability.

“People with high abil- mas should work with the Secreity at a task underestimate Commonwealth their own ability. … The tariat and local experts to miscalibration of the highly design a comprehensive competent stems from an training programme for error about others” being cabinet ministers and new and returning members of more capable.

After majority rule and parliament and senators.

It may include trainindependence there were many parliamentarians ing and mentoring on how and cabinet ministers who cabinet government works, understood our system how the public service runs, because they had served what a good cabinet paper for some time and because looks like, parliamentary many of them helped to procedure, speaking in pardraft the 1969 and the Inde- liament and other areas. A one or two-day seminar is pendence Constitution. insufficient.

In the US the Harvard University Kennedy School of Government’s Institute of Politics (IOP) offers a They understood par- programme for new memliamentary procedure, bers of Congress, “designed collective responsibility and to help new members forge other essential features of bipartisan relationships our parliamentary democ- and learn practical skills of racy. A number of them, lawmaking.” read books and articles on Last year, in addicabinet government and tion to general training, politics around the world. a number of policy areas Today, it is amusing were covered, including: and bewildering to watch “COVID-19, rebuilding the new parliamentarians and economy, America’s role in cabinet ministers, some of the world, and the effects of whom believe that a blue the pandemic and economic plate magically endows recession on educational them with intellectual supe- access, food security, crimiriority and automatic policy nal justice, and democratic competence. governance.”

Politicians tend to have As in the former adminhealthy egos. But there is istration there is bright and an egotism among many capable talent in the new of today’s politicians that government. is alarming and curious, with many of them believing they are a Prime Minister-in-waiting.

What one observer To cultivate this talent has termed “the rarefied atmosphere of the Cabi- and to diminish the net Room” supercharges damage that will inevimany egos, who strut across tably be done by those the political stage believ- suffering from the conceits ing God and the Heavens of power and overestimahave destined them for tion of their ability, the greatness. The pomposity Davis administration still of some is as comic as it is has an opportunity to offer training and mentoring frightening.

To help to repair our for a mostly inexperienced democracy we desperately cabinet and parliamentary need to develop a multilay- group.

The realities of power ered and multi-year training programme for parliamen- and office are perennial: the need for restraint, the bentarians and ministers.

We are doing great efits of humility, the effects damage to our system and of the conceits of arrogance to the country by constantly and the Icarus effect, the unleashing mostly ill-pre- limits of power, the fierce pared parliamentarians expectations and anger of and ministers on the body a public waiting for quick politic. Repeating this same fixes alongside a media mistake from government environment hungry for to government is a form of pratfalls, error and political warfare. political madness.

The best training in When he first won election to office, former Prime politics and government Minister Hubert Ingraham is experience. But if one is brought in a regional expert forearmed and forewarned to provide some training in through prior study, trainparliamentary procedure ing and mentoring, the for members of his new gov- mistakes may be less selfernment. In a subsequent defeating and harmful, and term, he utilized domestic the success may be greater and more lasting. expertise to offer training.

PROCEDURE

OPPORTUNITY

THE TRIBUNE

Thursday, November 18, 2021, PAGE 9

Time for a rest between election seasons? Think again I

t’s definitely starting early this year.

Most of the time, bi-election years (evennumbered years that fall between American presidential elections) are rather slow-developing.

The jabbing, sparring, dirt-on-your-opponent spewing and general uncivil misbehaviour that has come to characterize US politics usually takes a lengthy break after a presidential election year for at least several months before bi-elections.

Maybe that’s because everyone, most of all American voters, has had enough of politics and needs a rest.

From early returns, it looks like the 2022 election cycle in the US has gotten off to an unusually early start. Pundits are still obsessing about a clever, self-funded Republican millionaire’s successful campaign this month for governor in blue-trending Virginia and a closer than expected gubernatorial election in Democratic New Jersey.

But that narrative is moving along now without the usual pause to next year’s Congressional elections. Just about every commentary mentions how the newly-installed party in the White House can get clobbered in the first subsequent bi-election year. Very often, the example cited is 2010.

Then, Barack Obama and the Democrats got an early, unambiguous reminder of just how conservative the US electorate can often be. America’s first black President and his party got whacked.

But it could have actually been much worse. The Democrats somehow managed to retain control of the Senate. How did that happen and could we be heading for a repeat next year? It’s not too early to speculate. Everyone else is.

Obama took office in January 2009 with a filibuster-proof Senate majority of 60 seats. But the country’s mood had changed profoundly within a couple of years. In November 2010, the GOP gained an astounding six seats from the Dems while successfully defending every one of their own. That was quite unusual.

The Republican candidates for Senate also got 7.2 million more votes than their Democratic opponents in 2010. That’s three percent, which is a lot in a national American election.

One of the main reasons for the Democrats’ holding on to their majority despite a lot of negative factors favouring their opponents was that 2010 saw perhaps the high point in influence of the Tea Party movement within the Republican party. Much like Trumpers these days, the Tea Partiers were as disdainful of “mainstream, country-club Republicans” as they were of Democrats. There were many primary challenges to more traditional Republican Senate candidates in 2010 –- and in 2012. Some succeeded, and their success in GOP primaries led to Republican candidates getting beaten in that year’s general election.

A couple of examples stand out still. In Delaware – Joe Biden’s deep blue home state – the Tea Party managed to defeat an extraordinarily popular GOP congressman running for his party’s Senate nomination. The Tea Party candidate, Christine O’Donnell, could not escape a past that included an embrace of witchcraft, and was trounced.

In Missouri, the Tea Party managed to nominate someone who actually said in public before witnesses that rape was in some circumstances a good thing. That election didn’t go well for the Republicans either, and as a result, a highly vulnerable Democratic incumbent was re-elected.

Now we head into 2022 with Trump supporters exercising an even stronger hold on Republican primary

STUDYING IN THE STATES

B

ahamian families with high hopes for their children have long steered them toward colleges and universities in the

elections than what the Tea Party demonstrated a dozen years earlier. In several states, history looks like it might repeat itself and save the Democratic Senate majority.

No party nominees have yet been chosen, but in Missouri, Pennsylvania and Georgia, Republican frontrunners all face personal issues that most voters may find disqualifying.

Former Missouri governor Eric Greitens is running well ahead of his competition at this point. Greitens, 48, compiled an enviable record before his 2016 election as governor, including degrees from Duke and Oxford Universities and a much-decorated period of service overseas as a Navy officer.

Yet his 16-month tenure as Missouri governor was the shortest in the state’s history since 1861.

Dogged by charges that he tied up his hairdresser mistress in the basement of his home to compel her silence about their affair, the twice-divorced Greitens was compelled to resign as governor in June 2019.

An early and vehement Trump supporter, Greitens declared his candidacy for the Senate less than two years later.

In Pennsylvania, the Republican incumbent senator is not running for re-election. While the Democrats have several attractive potential nominees already in the race, leading the GOP pack is Sean Parnell. This muchdecorated Army veteran is also a successful author and lecturer and has been closely and very publicly aligned with Trump for several years. He has recently featured in two nationallywatched congressional races.

Parnell’s gubernatorial prospects took quite a hit this month, however. His

estranged wife has accused him in a court custody hearing of choking and otherwise abusing her and their children. Parnell has been in damage-control mode for the past several weeks, but if Trump sticks with him, he could nonetheless capture the GOP nomination for next November.

Then there’s Herschel Walker, the Heisman Trophy running back from the University of Georgia who seems likely to be the GOP nominee for the Senate seat now held by African-American minister Raphael Warnock.

Like Greitens and Parnell, Walker has led an apparently largely laudatory life.

Aside from his fantastic college football success and subsequent triumphs in the professional ranks, Walker has been identified with successful and meritorious charity work.

Since he played for a Trump-owned team in the now-defunct United States Football League nearly 40 years ago, Walker has been associated with the former President. Trump (and Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell) have already endorsed Walker.

But, again like Greitens and Parnell, Walker is burdened with charges involving a woman, in this case his ex-wife who has alleged that he assaulted her and threatened her with a gun.

None of these three has yet won the Republican nomination for the Senate in key swing state elections.

All face the possibility of further personal disrepute.

But all presently enjoy Trump’s endorsement.

Like Tea Party favourites a dozen years ago, that may well be enough to ensure their primary election success next spring.

But as one Republican strategist told reporters, “The great misperception

in politics is that these bad publicity things will work themselves out. But often they don’t. And when they don’t, the nominating party can look bad and lose elections it should win.”

The Republicans should know this. But Trump has changed the political calculus so profoundly that the GOP may be unable to save itself from some of his endorsements. That may be the Democrats’ best hope for next year.

US. Some of those American institutions of higher learning have resultant long-standing relationships with high schools and guidance counsellors in The Bahamas that have meant not only significant numbers of Bahamian matriculations at US colleges but also the establishment of a track record of Bahamian student achievement at those schools that greatly facilitates further opportunities there for young Bahamians.

Two relevant items of note have been recently reported.

First, the numbers of students from abroad (including The Bahamas) at US colleges and universities has rebounded from COVID-related factors that caused foreign enrolment to drop by 15 percent last year.

In September of this year, data showed about a four percent rise compared with the previous year.

That’s good and reassuring news.

Until COVID, foreign student numbers at US colleges and universities had annually surged from 25,000 in 1949 to more than a million 70 years later.

Second, though, predictive analytics via mathematical algorithms is reportedly gaining influence in college admissions in the US. That’s not good news for most Bahamian students, who generally graduate from high schools without a proven track record for reference by American college admissions staff.

There just aren’t sufficient numbers of Bahamian graduates at most US colleges for meaningful comparisons.

There is no reliable yardstick by which to compare today’s applicant with yesterday’s graduate.

One expert said “predictive analytics tends to encode historic harms into our planning, limiting our sense of possibility.”

This all puts even more pressure on our high school graduates to excel as individuals.

It also heightens our sense of gratitude for the established relationships that already exist with some US schools.

PAGE 10, Thursday, November 18, 2021

THE TRIBUNE

Body cameras do work in cutting complaints against police

By SUAT CUBUKCU, Professorial Lecturer, American University; ERDAL TEKIN, Professor Department of Public Administration and Policy, American University; NUSRET SAHIN, Assistant Professor of Criminal Justice, Stockton University; VOLKAN TOPALLI, Professor of Criminal Justice, Georgia State University WITHOUT video evidence, it’s unlikely we would have ever heard of George Floyd or witnessed the prosecution of his killer, a Minneapolis police officer.

The recording of Floyd’s killing echoed the documentation in the deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner, two black men who were killed at the hands of US police.

The circulation of such videos – witness cellphones, dashcams and police body-worn cameras – have helped awaken a protest movement centred on police accountability and systemic racism in the United States.

They have also diminished trust in law enforcement, which has dipped to its lowest level since 1993, according to a 2020 Gallup Survey.

Nineteen percent of black Americans said they trust police, compared to 56 percent of white Americans. And a majority of those polled, 56 percent, called for major reforms in policing, including 88 percent of black people and 51 percent of white people.

Much discussion on police reform revolves around police officer recruitment, training processes and re-budgeting or “defunding” the police.

But another way to reform policing is to make police services more transparent and officers more accountable.

Over the past decade, the implementation of body camera technology has rapidly expanded across major metropolitan police departments, including Washington, New York and Chicago.

We are criminologists and economists, and our recent study has found that providing police officers with body cameras has a substantive effect on investigations of police accountability. The cameras have also helped reduce racial bias against citizen complainants.

Increased fairness in investigations The vast majority of US public complaints against police officers are dismissed.

Only 2.1 percent of the

OVER the past decade, the implementation of body camera technology has rapidly expanded across major metropolitan police departments.

Photo Ryan Johnson

citizen complaints filed in Chicago between 2010 and 2016 resulted in a disciplinary action against police officers, according to the Invisible Institute, a journalism organization that “collects and publishes information about police misconduct in Chicago” in its Citizens Police Data Project. This rate is about one-third lower when complainants are African Americans.

There is a similar pattern in cities like Columbus, Ohio, and Portland, Oregon.

Traditional strategies to address police misconduct have focused on internal affairs divisions in police departments, which investigate possible lawbreaking incidents and professional misconduct within police forces, or citizen oversight review boards, which investigate citizen complaints. But both of these have been criticized for being biased against citizens.

Such investigations of police misconduct have relied heavily on eyewitness accounts, often producing “he said/she said” patterns of flawed evidence and, thus, inconclusive results.

This has changed, however, with the introduction of body camera technology.

While there have been dozens of studies on the impact of body cameras on police behaviour – with some promising outcomes in the reduction in police wrongdoings – their effect on the resolution of citizen complaints has been relatively understudied.

We recently studied an eight-year period – 2013 to 2020 – of citizen complaint data from

Chicago’s Civilian Office of Police Accountability.

During that span, the Chicago Police Department assigned these cameras to its officers in a staggered fashion, district by district across a 17-month period, from June 2016 to December 2017.

This allowed us to conduct the first study to estimate their effect on the outcomes of citizen

“Many policymakers see this technology as a potential gamechanger in policecitizen relations. It can protect officers from spurious complaints and make them more accountable for actual misconduct.” complaint investigations across multiple time frames.

We found a significant effect on police accountability following the implementation of body cameras. Police officers were 64 percent more likely to be subject to disciplinary action after a complaint investigation.

Consistent with the existing studies, we identified a considerable degree of racial disparity in the resolution of citizen complaints prior to the implementation of police body cameras.

Complaints from black people were more likely to be dismissed – 53 percent vs. 38 percent – and less likely to be sustained – 10 percent vs. 21 percent – than those of white people.

But following their

NASSAU

widespread implementation in Chicago, body cameras largely eliminated such racial disparities, according to our study.

Complainants from all racial groups benefited from body cameras, with a greater overall rate of disciplinary action.

We found that the percentages of dismissed citizen complaints were reduced to 16 percent, 18 percent and 15 percent for white, black and Hispanic complainants, respectively.

Our findings initially illustrated the existence of racial bias in the dismissal of police complainants.

They subsequently show that the introduction of body cameras can change this.

And the continued implementation of such cameras is likely to continue reducing the disparities that play a large role in mistrust of law enforcement by people of colour.

Many policymakers see this technology as a potential game-changer in police-citizen relations.

It can protect officers from spurious complaints and make them more accountable for actual misconduct.

Seven states – Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Maryland, New Jersey, New Mexico and South Carolina – have already mandated the use of body cameras.

Because body cameras produce an objective accounting of the interactions between police and citizens, they have the potential to overcome previous weaknesses in the quality of evidence. theconversation.com

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THE TRIBUNE

Thursday, November 18, 2021, PAGE 11

US-CANADA BORDER TOWNS ASSESS DAMAGE FROM DEVASTATING FLOODS

By LISA BAUMANN and ELAINE THOMPSON Associated Press SUMAS, Wash. (AP) — Residents of this small U.S. city along the Canadian border were assessing damage from flooding that hit an estimated three quarters of homes, as Washington state and British Columbia tried to dry out from an intense, days-long rain storm that cut off key roadways and forced hundreds of evacuations.

Skies were sunny Wednesday morning in the area around Sumas, Washington, where about 500 rescues and evacuations were reported.

“We’re looking at going door-to-door, as waters go down in different parts of town,” Sumas Mayor Kevin Christensen told The Seattle Times. “Half is on dry ground, half has water.”

By Wednesday afternoon, only one river in Washington had an active flood warning.

The soaking fueled by a socalled atmospheric river that dumped torrents rain on the Pacific Northwest and British Columbia from Saturday through Monday reminded people of western Washington’s record, severe flooding in November 1990 when two people died and there were more than 2,000 evacuations.

While the weather was improving, the situation remained dire in British Columbia, where the Canadian government was sending in the military to help with floods and mudslides that destroyed parts of several major highways. One death was reported and officials said Wednesday that more deaths were expected.

Immediately across the border from Sumas, police using helicopters and boats had evacuated about 180 residents of a low-lying area of Abbotsford, British Columbia, after they were warned Tuesday of a significant risk to life because of rising water levels. Evacuations continued Wednesday.

Mayor Henry Braun said Wednesday that conditions were bad overnight because a key pumping station was in danger of being overwhelmed. He said crews spent Tuesday night sandbagging around the station and things were “holding steady.”

“I’m feeling much better today than last night,” Braun said, although he cautioned the danger had not passed.

Those evacuated in Abbotsford joined thousands of others in the province who were forced from their homes by floods or landslides starting Sunday night.

On Facebook, the City of Sumas said Wednesday that water levels were continuing to drop and it looked like the community wouldn’t be affected by additional potential flooding in Abbotsford.

It said crews were working hard to clear roads and return power to some parts of town.

“These families and businesses need our prayers and support as we start the process of cleanup and rebuilding over the next few days,” the city said in another Facebook post.

To the south, a flood warning for Washington’s Skagit River will remain in effect until Thursday because it will take time for the floodwaters to drain, the National Weather Service said. Officials recommended that

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A WOMAN cleans out her flood-damaged home Wednesday in Sumas, Wash. An atmospheric river—a huge plume of moisture extending over the Pacific and into Washington and Oregon—caused heavy rainfall in recent days, bringing major flooding in the area.

(AP Photo/Elaine Thompson) residents of several nearby islands evacuate in the meantime.

Across the border, the body of a woman was recovered from a landslide near the small community of Lillooet, British Columbia. Royal Canadian Mounted Police said at least two other people were reported missing.

British Columbia Premier John Horgan declared a state of emergency Wednesday following the unprecedented flooding.

In Washington’s Whatcom County, home to Sumas, the county sheriff’s office said on Facebook that authorities and search crews on Wednesday had located a body believed to be a 59-year-old man who had last been seen clinging to a tree after his truck was swept into a flooded field in the town of Everson.

In the city Ferndale, also southwest of Sumas, officials urged people in homes and businesses Tuesday to evacuate in an area near the rising Nooksack River. Bystanders

near the town’s main street rescued a man Tuesday who mistakenly drove into floodwaters.

Ferndale officials on Wednesday rescinded evacuation notices and the flood warning had ended by Wednesday afternoon. Southwest of Ferndale, authorities said Wednesday that all routes off the Lummi Peninsula, home to the Lummi Nation, were closed because of water over the roads.

Officials in the city of Bellingham said only a few roads there remained closed on Wednesday because of flooding and officials were also assessing damage.

More rain fell in Bellingham from Saturday through Monday — about 5.57 inches (14.14 centimetres) — than normally falls there during all of November, according to National Weather Service data.

The normal monthly rain total is 5.2 inches (13.2 centimetres) for November, the weather agency said.

Transportation officials on Washington’s Olympic Peninsula — where the Coast Guard earlier in the week rescued 10 people stranded by floodwaters — on Wednesday were also assessing conditions and clearing debris from closed roads.

Washington Gov. Jay Inslee on Monday declared a severe weather state of emergency in 14 counties. Inslee was expected to visit Ferndale on

Wednesday to survey storm damage and meet with first responders, families and officials.

It was the second major widespread flood event in the northwest part of Washington state in less than two years, and climate change is fueling more powerful and frequent severe weather, Whatcom County officials told the Bellingham Herald.

RASTAFARIAN MAN APPEALS DRUG CHARGE

FROM PAGE SEVEN

As it relates in the CARICOM report on marijuana, she highlighted the matter as being irrelevant to the case.

“We are solely here to look at the constitutionality of that provision and we say that the authorities at the time were acting under the written law,” she said yesterday.

Section 29 (6) of the act, she argued, not only speaks to the criminalisation of marijuana, but other drugs as well and warned that declaring it as unconstitutional could also result in several implications.

“The provision is a general application and if the court was to strike it down as being unconstitutional, it will affect the right of any person to possess cocaine,” she said.

After hearing both arguments, Justice Klein informed the attorneys he would notify them of his decision after careful consideration.

SPORTS PAGE 14

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 2021

Bahamas set to face Canada in FIBA World Cup 2023 Qualifiers

By RENALDO DORSETT Tribune Sports Reporter rdorsett@tribunemedia.net

T

he Bahamas senior men’s national basketball team is set to return to action in less than two weeks when they face Canada in the first window of the FIBA World Cup 2023 Qualifiers.

The teams are set to face off in a back-to-back Sunday, November 28 and Monday, November 29 in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, at 4pm local time.

Team Canada announced its roster this week and is currently in training camp at the University of Houston in Houston, Texas. Team Bahamas has yet to be named.

Due to COVID-19 protocols, teams will be hosted in several designated “bubble” locations, with limited access to the general public.

The Bahamas also competed under the bubble format for the AmeriCup Qualifiers in Indianapolis, Indiana, last November and San Juan, Puerto Rico, in February 2020.

Team Bahamas was drawn into Group C alongside Canada, The Dominican Republic, and The US Virgin Islands.

In the second window, The Bahamas will face The USVI on February 24, 2022, and The Dominican Republic on February 27, 2022. In the third and final window, The Bahamas will have its second matchup against The USVI on July 1, 2022, and will conclude with the second matchup against The Dominican Republic on July 4, 2022.

The Bahamas advanced to this month’s qualifier after a 3-0 performance at the FIBA World Cup 2023 Americas Pre-Qualifiers. The Bahamas opened the tournament

in thrilling fashion as they rallied from an 18-point fourth quarter deficit to defeat Cuba 89-88.

In game two, The Bahamas dominated Costa Rica 75-51 and concluded play with an 87-79 win over El Salvador.

Sixteen teams will compete in the Americas region, vying for seven spots.

The top three teams from each group will qualify for the second round of qualifiers.

In the second round, the 12 teams that qualified will be divided into two groups of six.

Subsequently, the three best teams from each group, and the fourth-placed team, will qualify to the World Cup. The FIBA World Cup 2023 will take place August 25 to September 10 in multiple countries for the first time - Indonesia, Japan, and the Philippines. A total of 80 countries are left vying to be among the 32 teams at the 2023 World Cup. The FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023 will qualify teams directly for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games or through 4 FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournaments.

HIELD SCORES 16 POINTS IN KINGS’ 107-97 LOSS TO TIMBERWOLVES

By BRIAN HALL Associated Press MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Anthony Edwards scored 16 of his 26 points in the fourth quarter and Karl-Anthony Towns had 22 for the Minnesota Timberwolves in a 107-97 win against the Sacramento Kings last night.

Patrick Beverley added 14 points, six rebounds and six assists for Minnesota, which lost eight of its previous nine games. The Timberwolves’ improved

defence held Sacramento to 36.6 percent shooting and forced 20 turnovers.

Edwards hit four 3-pointers in the fourth quarter to push Minnesota to just its third win in 10 home games.

De’Aaron Fox had 28 points for the Kings and Chavano “Buddy” Hield finished with 16 off the bench. Sacramento had a season-high 20 offensive rebounds but lost for the fifth time in six games.

SEE PAGE 18

SACRAMENTO Kings guard Chavano “Buddy” Hield runs up court during the first half of an NBA game against the Detroit Pistons on Monday in Detroit. He scored 16 last night.

(AP Photo/Carlos Osorio)

NFL PICKS, Pg 17

YOUNG JOINS INDIANS IN PUERTO RICAN WINTER LEAGUE

By RENALDO DORSETT Tribune Sports Reporter rdorsett@tribunemedia.net CHAVEZ Young is continuing his 2021 season in the Liga de Béisbol Profesional Roberto Clemente (LBPRC), commonly known as the Puerto Rican Winter League.

The Toronto Blue Jays prospect has joined the Mayaguez Indians and the club is currently at second place in the standings at 5-3.

Through eight games, Young is hitting .290, with a .450 on base percentage, an .869 OPS and slugging .419 with a double, home run, five RBI and 13 total bases.

He finished with an RBI single and two runs in Tuesday night’s 14-2 run over the Carolina Gigantes in Mayaguez, Puerto Rico.

The Indians currently field 16 minor league prospects on their roster.

The Puerto Rican Winter League consists of five teams and the league’s champion advances to the Caribbean Series.

The league was founded in 1938.

In May 2012, the league debuted its current name, choosing to honour Baseball Hall of Fame inductee Roberto Clemente by naming it after him and adopting his philosophy of athletic development.

Young spent his last minor league season with the New Hampshire Fisher Cats in the AA Eastern League.

Over the course of the year, he had the most productive hitting stretch of his career in August.

In that timespan, Young led the Fisher Cats to a 6-3 record and his 9-game hit streak included a .588 average with three homeruns, three doubles, 10 RBI, five runs scored, and three stolen bases.

He had five multi-hit games including 3-5 with a home run, three runs, and four RBI in a 12-0 win over Hartford on August 17, 2-5 with a home run and, one run and two RBI in a 3-2 win over Hartford, and 3-4 with a home run, three RBI and a run scored in a 5-3 loss to Hartford.

Young appeared in 78 games with the Fisher Cats and hit .265 with 74 hits and 52 RBI. He also had an .758

SEE PAGE 18

Bahamian football players receive offers from colleges

By RENALDO DORSETT Tribune Sports Reporter rdorsett@tribunemedia.net A PAIR of Bahamian football players have garnered collegiate offers following successful seasons at one of the newest rising prep programmes in South Florida.

Miami International Academy players Dwayne Lewis and Mazio Randall have received offers from programmes at both the NAIA and NCAA levels.

Lewis, a 6’3” 215-pound outside linebacker and defensive end has fielded offers from Kentucky Christian Knights in the NAIA and Wagner Seahawks in the Northeastern Conference. He finished the year with eight sacks.

Randall, a 6’4” 280 lineman, played on both the offensive and defensive

MAZIO Randall sides of the ball last season.

He also received an offer

from Kentucky Christian and the Webber International Warriors in the NAIA and a previous offer from South Alabama in the Sun Belt Conference.

“One of the most unselfish kids I ever coached, Randall was a starting defensive tackle the last two seasons but has made the move to offensive tackle to help the team,” said Miami Prep’s Mike Tunsil.

“College coaches, he can play offensive tackle, defensive tackle, or strongside defensive end at the next level. Randall is one of the best interior players in South Florida.”

Miami International Academy finished their inaugural season 2-7 but was highlighted by a 40-0 South Florida High School Orange Bowl win over Palm Beach Christian Prep.

THE TRIBUNE

Thursday, November 18, 2021, PAGE 15

LILLARD RALLIES BLAZERS TO 112-107 VICTORY OVER BULLS

By ANNE M. PETERSON AP Sports Writer

SUNS centre Deandre Ayton, right, backs dow Mavericks centre Dwight Powell during the first half last night in Phoenix.

(AP Photo/Matt York)

Deandre has double double, Suns earn 10th straight win

By DAVID BRANDT AP Sports Writer PHOENIX (AP) — Devin Booker scored 24 points, Deandre Ayton had 19 points and 13 rebounds and the Phoenix Suns ran their winning streak to 10 games, beating the Dallas Mavericks 105-98 last night.

Chris Paul drove to the basket and was about to fall out of bounds before finding Ayton for the dunk and a 100-96 lead with 1:27 left. Paul had seven assists in the fourth quarter and finished with 14.

Booker hit a long 3-pointer with the shotclock expiring with 50 seconds left to seal it. The Suns scored 37 points during a stellar fourth quarter.

Dallas lost for the second time in the last seven games. The Mavericks were playing their first game this season without star guard Luka Doncic, who suffered sprains to his left knee and ankle in the waning moments of a victory over Denver on Monday.

Even without their best player, the balanced

Mavericks nearly won.

Tim Hardaway Jr scored 22 points, Kristaps Porzingis added 21, and Jalen Bruson had 18.

The game was tight throughout, though the Mavericks usually had a slight advantage. Booker gave the Suns their first lead of the fourth quarter at 87-86 when he made a driving layup with 5:32 left.

Dallas took a 73-68 lead into the fourth quarter after Trey Burke hit a shot just before the third-quarter buzzer. The Mavericks held a 46-45 lead at halftime. Booker had 15 points

for the Suns, and Ayton added 10 points and eight rebounds. Porzingis had 14.

DOUBLE-DOUBLE MACHINE Ayton finished with his 100th double-double in 186 career games, which is the quickest to that mark in franchise history.

TIP-INS Mavericks: Doncic and Maxi Kleber (left oblique strain) didn’t play. Doncic is averaging 24.9 points, 8.3 rebounds and 7.9 assists per game. ... Frank Ntilikina scored 13 points on 5 of 8 shooting. ... The

Mavericks shot 16 of 32 (50%) from 3-point range.

Suns: F/C Frank Kaminsky (knee soreness) didn’t play. ... It took the Suns nearly four minutes to score their first point.

Phoenix missed its first seven shots and fell into an 8-0 hole before Ayton made a fallaway jumper. ...

Paul missed his first nine shots of the night before making a 15-foot jumper early in the fourth quarter. He has seven points. ... Landry Shamet scored 11 points off the bench.

JaVale McGee added 10 points and six rebounds.

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Damian Lillard struggled at the start but warmed up to finish with 22 points and 10 assists, rallying the Portland Trail Blazers to a 112-107 victory over the Chicago Bulls last night.

Jusuf Nurkic added 18 points and 12 rebounds for the Blazers, who trailed by 20 in the first half.

Zach LaVine had 30 points and DeMar DeRozan added 22 for the Bulls, who had won four of five.

Portland closed to 85-81 going into the final quarter and the teams wrestled for the lead down the stretch.

Lillard’s 3-pointer put Portland in front 102-98 and Nurkic dunked to extend it.

Lonzo Ball’s layup with three minutes to go narrowed the gap to 104-102.

Lillard answered with a basket, but LaVine’s 3-pointer made it a onepoint game and his layup put Chicago back on top 107-106.

Lillard made free throws and Portland reclaimed the lead.

After LaVine missed a 3-pointer on the other end, Larry Nance Jr, who was fouled under Chicago’s basket, made a pair of free throws with 12 seconds left to put Portland up 110-107.

The Moda Center crowd chanted “Larry! Larry!” and the Bulls couldn’t catch up.

Lillard (abdomen) and Norman Powell (left ankle) were both questionable for Portland going into the game, but started. Powell finished with 18 points.

AFTER A SWIM WITH A GATOR, THE DOLPHINS START EYEING JETS

By TIM REYNOLDS AP Sports Writer MIAMI GARDENS, Floridam (AP) — Perhaps this week will be less eventful for Robert Hunt.

To recap, here’s what last week’s schedule included for the Miami right guard: two games over five days in which he was on the field for all 144 of the

Dolphins’ offensive snaps, a getting-flipped-over touchdown that didn’t count, and finally some rest and relaxation provided in the form of a quick trip to the Everglades.

Where he went swimming.

With an alligator.

It wasn’t planned. It just sort of happened.

“I just wanted to say I did it,” Hunt said. “Now I can say I did it, so when I do say I did it, you’ll say, ‘Damn, what did you do?’ People don’t expect that.”

The Dolphins wouldn’t mind keeping this run of defying expectations going, either.

Winners of two straight to get to 3-7, Miami heads north this week to take on the New York Jets (2-7) with hopes of keeping whatever realistic chance it has at a second-half turnaround intact.

“I think the Jets have a good, young team,” Dolphins coach Brian Flores said.

“I think they play hard.

I think they’ve beat some very good teams and we’re going to have to play well.”

The Dolphins are coming off a Thursday night win over Baltimore, meaning they went into the threeday mini-break in a very good mood after two wins in less than a week.

Miami snapped a sevengame slide by topping Houston on November 7.

Flores spent the down time with the family, recharging his battery.

Defensive tackle Zach Sieler and his fiancé headed to a place they have a couple of hours north of Miami in Sebring, Florida, to spend a couple of days

playing with their dogs “in the middle of nowhere.”

And Hunt wasn’t intending to swim with a gator, but realised he was about 10 yards from one while splashing around.

“I haven’t done anything like that, I’ll tell you that,” quarterback Tua Tagovailoa said.

The extent of his adventure-seeking these days is trying to play quarterback in the NFL with a bangedup finger on his left, or throwing, hand.

But Tagovailoa is the starter yet again, deemed healthy enough to be the first-stringer over Jacoby Brissett for the first time in three games even though his finger hasn’t fully healed.

Tagovailoa replaced Brissett in the second half of the win over the Ravens, after Brissett — who was able to practice yesterday — had to leave with a knee injury.

“I don’t think there are going to be any limitations for this Sunday with the finger,” Tagovailoa said.

“I think it feels good at this point. We should be good.”

The Dolphins are beginning a four-game stretch of teams that, as of now, don’t have winning records.

They play the Jets twice in that span, Carolina (5-5) visits Miami on November 28 and the New York Giants (3-6) visit on December 5.

Flores’ Miami teams have gone a combined 4-17 in games played in September and October.

They’re 14-7 in games played in November, December and January.

That doesn’t count Hunt’s brush with danger over the weekend.

Turns out, even he has limits. He saw the gator and decided it might not be super wise to re-engage.

“I wasn’t going back in,” Hunt said.

“Once he ducked head underwater, I done.”

His swim was over.

Dolphins’ season — hope — continues.

his was The and

PAGE 16, Thursday, November 18, 2021

THE TRIBUNE

NEW-LOOK INDIA BEATS NEW ZEALAND

BY FIVE WICKETS IN FIRST T20 MATCH NOVAK Djokovic celebrates after defeating Andrey Rublev during their ATP World Tour Finals singles tennis match, at the Pala Alpitour in Turin, yesterday.

(AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

Novak Djokovic beats Rublev to reach ATP Finals semifinals TURIN, Italy (AP) — Novak Djokovic advanced to the semifinals of the ATP Finals by beating Andrey Rublev 6-3, 6-2 yesterday.

The top-ranked Djokovic is attempting to match Roger Federer’s record of six titles at the season-ending event for the top eight players in the world.

Djokovic was again almost perfect on his serve, although Rublev managed to break him in the opening game. Djokovic broke twice in each set and won the match with his 12th ace.

“I knew that I had to be on my toes and start well,”

Djokovic said. “I dropped my serve again like in the first match. It was quite a nervous start from both of us until 4-3, then with new balls I somehow managed to find the right shots at the right time.

“Winning the first set I put additional pressure on him, and I started to maybe play more consistently from the back of the court.

I served well, that helped tremendously. I wanted to put him out of his comfort zone, taking away the time and mix up the pace.”

Djokovic is now 2-0 in the Green Group. He beat Casper Ruud in his opening group match.

Ruud kept alive his hopes of making the semifinals by fighting back from a set down to beat Cameron Norrie 1-6, 6-3, 6-4.

He now faces Rublev on Friday with a place in the final four on the line for both players.

Norrie was called in as the second alternate after 2019 champion Stefanos Tsitsipas was forced to withdraw with an injured elbow.

Matteo Berrettini was replaced by Jannik Sinner on Tuesday.

Sinner had won his match just hours after finding out he would play in the tournament and it

seemed as if Norrie was going to do the same after a storming start from the British player.

But Ruud slowly started coming back into the match and levelled following an error-strewn second set from Norrie.

The decisive moment happened in the fifth game of the third set.

Norrie managed to save two break points but double faulted to hand the Norwegian the advantage.

Ruud went on to waste three match points but won his first ever match at the ATP Finals with a powerful serve that Norris could not return.

JAIPUR, India (AP) — Suryakumar Yadav scored 62 off 40 balls to help India beat New Zealand by five wickets in their first T20 match yesterday, giving a winning start to the newly appointed captain-coach duo of Rohit Sharma and Rahul Dravid.

India finished on 166-5 in 19.4 overs after winning the toss and making New Zealand bat. New Zealand scored 164-6.

The three-match series marks a new era in Indian cricket after a poor performance at the T20 World Cup. Dravid takes over as coach from Ravi Shastri, while Sharma leads on the field as captain. Virat Kohli, who has been rested for the series, announced before the World Cup that he was standing down as India’s T20 captain at the end of the tournament.

“The ball was coming on nicely to the bat, came on a bit slow later, but (I am) happy to be on the winning side,” said Yadav, who was named man-of-the-match for recording his third T20 half-century.

“I try to bat the same way in the nets and replicate the same in the game,” he continued. “If I get out, I go into the dressing room and think what better I could have done.”

Chasing 165, KL Rahul (15) and Sharma got off to a great start by putting on 50 runs in 31 balls. After

Rahul’s wicket, Yadav carried on the scoring pace as he added 59 runs with Sharma for the second wicket.

Yadav notched his highest T20 score for India, including six fours and three sixes. Sharma also hit five fours and two sixes and finished with 48 off 36 to play his part.

Trent Boult (2-31) struck a double blow to remove the set pair. Yadav’s dismissal in the 17th over put India’s chase under pressure.

Shreyas Iyer (5) and debutant Venkatesh Iyer (4) fell in the space of three balls, and India needed eight runs off the last over.

Rishabh Pant sealed the chase with two balls to spare, scoring run-a-ball 17, with two fours.

Earlier, Martin Guptill and Mark Chapman scored half-centuries to power New Zealand’s innings.

Guptill scored 70 off 42 balls, including three fours and four sixes. Chapman scored 63 off 50 balls, with six fours and two sixes.

They put on 109 runs for the second wicket after Daryl Mitchell was bowled for nought. This was Chapman’s highest T20 score for the Black Caps.

Their 100-plus partnership came off only 65 balls.

But the visitors were not able to build on it and managed only 54 runs off the last six overs.

Analysis: Federer sees ‘end is near,’ hopes for on-court bye

By HOWARD FENDRICH AP Tennis Writer JUST before the start of Wimbledon in late June, Roger Federer recalled a conversation about retirement that he had with Pete Sampras a decade ago.

“He was wondering how much longer I had in the tank. This was when I was just hitting 30,” Federer said. “He was thinking I was coming towards the end or something, just because it was, for him, normal that at 31, 33 — with the career

that we’ve had, with all the sacrifice, in a way, you have to go through — it’s hard to keep on pushing for more years on tour.”

Federer, who turned 40 in August, went on to explain that he never thought he’d still be going at this age, especially after a series of knee operations. With yesterday’s news that not only will he sit out the Australian Open in January but also expects to miss Wimbledon in 2022, the notion that Federer really might not have many — or

perhaps even any — highlevel performances left in him becomes all the more real.

To his fans, to his sport at large and, most importantly, to the man himself.

“Even if I know that the end is near, I want to try and play some more big matches. That will not be easy, but I want to try,” Federer said in an interview published in the Tribune de Genève newspaper.

“Let’s be clear: My life is not going to fall apart if I don’t play another Grand

SWITZERLAND’s Roger Federer plays a return to Poland’s Hubert Hurkacz during the men’s singles quarterfinals match on day nine of the Wimbledon Tennis Championships in London on July 7. With Roger Federer saying he will sit out the Australian Open in January and also could miss Wimbledon in 2022, the notion that he really might not have many -- or perhaps even any -- high-level matches left becomes all the more real. (AP) Slam final. But that would be the ultimate dream — to

get back there,” he said. “I want to see one last time what I’m capable of as a professional tennis player.”

That is a sentiment surely shared by plenty of others.

Count Novak Djokovic among them.

“Obviously, Roger is an icon of our sport, and people around the world love him. They love watching him play; they love seeing him around. He is very important for our sport, on and off the court,” Djokovic said yesterday in Turin, Italy, where he is competing at the ATP Tour Finals.

“So for the sake of our sport, I sincerely hope that we can see him play, at least another time.”

Federer, who shares the men’s record of 20 major singles championships with Djokovic and Rafael Nadal, has not competed since undergoing surgery on his right knee for the third time in 1 1/2 years.

That procedure to repair his meniscus and cartilage came not long after Federer lost 6-3, 7-6 (4), 6-0 to Hubert Hurkacz in the quarterfinals on July 7 at Wimbledon, where he has won eight titles.

Federer was physically compromised that day against an opponent never previously past the third round at a Slam.

That was only the third 6-0 shutout handed to Federer in 429 Grand Slam matches.

That’s why, in the interview published yesterday, Federer said his fans “deserve better than the image left during the

grass-court season,” even if he also figures, correctly, that the lasting memory of his play would be his triumphs and “how they felt watching me play,” rather than the stumble against Hurkacz.

He acknowledged he needs to be patient as he works to recover and rehabilitate, drawing a distinction with 2016, when he missed half a season following an operation on his left knee, then won three of the first four majors he entered after returning.

As of now, Federer is aiming to be able to jog in January and resume tennis work two or three months after that.

“I’m sure that he doesn’t want to end his career this way. I think he’s going to definitely going to try to give it the last push,” said Djokovic, who eclipsed Federer’s record for most weeks atop the ATP rankings and Sampras’ mark for most years finished at No. 1.

“For everything that he has achieved and created for this sport, he deserves to play and he deserves to have a proper farewell.”

As the long-ago chat with Sampras (or, as Federer calls him, “Pistol”) illustrated, people have been asking the Swiss star forever about how much longer he plans to play.

“We would all like that I could say goodbye in my way and on the tennis court,” Federer said, adding: “In absolute terms, there’s not a right moment to leave. Just the right moment for each athlete.”

THE TRIBUNE

Thursday, November 18, 2021, PAGE 17

Falcons fans might be shielding their eyes, ears vs Patriots

By BARRY WILNER AP Pro Football Writer EVEN the most die-hard Atlanta fans might avoid watching tonight’s matchup with New England. They all know that Fox will be hitting hard on that February 2017 night in Houston when the Falcons went brain dead and allowed the Patriots to steal a Super Bowl.

While this game won’t likely be so painful for the A-T-L — no way these Falcons build a 28-3 second-half lead — the result figures to be the same.

With rookie quarterback Mac Jones looking like the real thing despite the occasional misstep, and with a ball-hawking defence, the Patriots are on a fourgame winning streak. They made two of their supposedly main competitors in the AFC, the Chargers and Browns, look pedestrian recently, finally beating some decent opponents.

As for 2017 ...

“You can’t go back and win that game from 2017,” says Atlanta quarterback Matt Ryan, one of the few remaining Falcons from that debacle. “So you have to move on from it and try to do everything we can to get ourselves back to .500. I really don’t think it exorcises any demons or anything like that. That game is over and has been played.”

The Patriots, No. 8 in the AP Pro32, are 7-point favourites at No. 23 Atlanta, according to FanDuel SportsBook. That’s a bargain.

PATRIOTS, 27-16 KNOCKOUT POOL: The Colts made us sweat before putting away the Jaguars. This time, the obvious choice — surprisingly we have not taken them yet — happens to have the AFC’s best record.

TENNESSEE. No. 32 Houston (plus 10) at No. 2 Tennessee Logic in Week 11 says don’t lay big point spreads.

But Houston is so bad ...

BEST BET: TITANS, 30-13 No. 3 Dallas (plus 3) at No. 10 Kansas City So many folks are excited by the Chiefs’ showing at Las Vegas. We remain skeptical of their defence.

UPSET SPECIAL: COWBOYS, 31-30 No. 12 Pittsburgh (plus 6) at No. 11 Los Angeles Chargers The Steelers could be missing key ingredients and aren’t facing Detroit this week.

CHARGERS, 21-16 No. 31 Detroit (plus 10) at No. 17 Cleveland Again we see the Lions keeping things close without winning.

BROWNS, 24-17 No. 1 Green Bay (minus 3) at No. 19 Minnesota We don’t have the guts to pick an upset, but expecting this to come down to the end.

PACKERS, 23-21 No. 14 New Orleans (plus 1 1/2) at No. 21 Philadelphia We don’t have the guts to pick an upset here either.

Another tight outcome.

EAGLES, 24-22 No. 4 Arizona (minus 2 1/2) at No. 24 Seattle But here we do, especially if Kyler Murray and DeAndre Hopkins aren’t 100 percent.

SEAHAWKS, 19-17 No. 15 (tie) Indianapolis (plus 7 1/2) at No. 5 Buffalo The Colts are showing as much balance as the Bills did earlier in the schedule.

BILLS, 27-23 No. 25 Washington (plus 3 1/2) at No. 18 Carolina Cam Newton vs. Ron Rivera? A very intriguing matchup.

Christian McCaffrey will be the difference.

PANTHERS, 26-23 No. 22 San Francisco (minus 6 1/2) at No. 29 Jacksonville Travelling cross country after a Monday night game isn’t a recipe for success.

Niners will manage.

49ERS, 20-17 No. 27 (tie) Miami (minus 3) at No. 30 New York Jets

AP PRO PICKS: Really like the Patriots Thursday night at Atlanta

With rookie QB Mac Jones looking like the real thing despite the occasional misstep, and with a ball-hawking defense, New England is on a four-game winning streak. The Patriots, No. 8 in the AP Pro32, are 7-point favorites at No. 23 Atlanta, according to FanDuel SportsBook. That’s a bargain.

GAME NE at ATL

LAS VEGAS (AP) — A Las Vegas judge ordered former Raiders receiver Henry Ruggs III to appear before her on Monday after learning he missed a required alcohol test while on house arrest following a fatal crash he’s accused of causing by driving drunk at speeds up to 156 mph.

Ruggs’ lawyers told Justice of the Peace Suzan Baucum that Ruggs “selftested” negative shortly after missing one of his calls for a breath test last weekend.

Ruggs’ attorney, David Chesnoff, blamed the delay on trouble with testing equipment.

A note posted later in the court record shows Ruggs missed a test at 4:41pm Saturday and that he completed “a client initiated remote breath test” at 6:28pm.

The alcohol monitoring agency noted that it “cannot confirm Mr Rugg’s sobriety during this pointin-time,” and said Ruggs’ attorney provided an updated phone number for text notifications for Ruggs’ remote breath test.

Ruggs, 22, was not in court yesterday for the brief hearing during which Baucum also told his lawyers she won’t issue a subpoena for fire department records about the fatal November 2 crash and fire.

The judge said the attorneys can get those records on their own. Ruggs could face a return to jail.

A judge who set his bail at $150,000 warned Ruggs directly that if he didn’t comply with release restrictions he faced rearrest.

Ruggs is under home confinement with electronic monitoring and four-timesa-day alcohol checks.

He is required to respond to a telephone or text signal by blowing into a device that checks his blood-alcohol level.

Records show he owns a $1.1 million home not far from where the crash occurred.

Prosecutors have said Ruggs’ blood-alcohol level after the crash was 0.16 percent, twice the legal limit for drivers in Nevada.

Authorities said he and his girlfriend, Kiara Je’nai Kilgo-Washington, were injured when Ruggs’ Chevrolet Corvette slammed

PICK NE 27-16

Patriots are finally beating some decent opponents ...

HOU at TEN

Logic in Week 11 says don’t lay big point spreads, but Houston is so bad ...

TEN 30-13

DAL at KC

Many folks excited by KC’s showing at LV – we remain skeptical of their D

DAL 31-30

PIT at LAC

Steelers could be missing key ingredients and aren’t facing Detroit this week

LAC 21-16

Again we see the Lions keeping things close without winning

CLE 24-17

DET at CLE GB at MIN

Don’t have guts to pick an upset but expecting this to come down to the end

GB 23-21

NO at PHI

Don’t have guts to pick an upset here either – another tight outcome

PHI 24-22

ARI at SEA

But here we do especially if Kyler Murray/DeAndre Hopkins aren’t 100%

SEA 19-17

IND at BUF

Colts are showing as much balance as Bills did earlier in the schedule

BUF 27-23

WAS at CAR

A very intriguing matchup – Christian McCaffrey will be the difference

CAR 26-23

SF at JAC

Traveling cross country after Monday night game but 49ers will manage

MIA at NYJ

Traveling to the Meadowlands these days is a recipe for success

NYG at TB

Just can’t see Buccaneers flopping for a third straight game

BAL at CHI CIN at LV

SF 20-17 MIA 20-13 TB 27-17

Ravens are a mystifying bunch, Bears are who we thought they are

BAL 23-19

One of these teams needs an immediate turnaround

CIN 26-20

NAUGHTY’S NFL PICKS - WEEK 11 LAST WEEK: 7-6-1 SEASON: 101-48-1 Teams on bye - Rams, Broncos TWO straight weeks I’ve ‘bucked my toe’ and I’m convinced Wilner is working ‘voodoo’ on my picks!

No long talks this week, except for “HOW GOOD MY COWBOYS ARE PLAYING” and who I like in this week’s matchups.

THURSDAY NIGHTY: Patriots at Falcons Patriots look to win their fifth game in a row on the road against a banged up Falcons squad coming off a drubbing from my Cowboys. The Patriots streak lives.

PATRIOTS 27 - Falcons 17 SUNDAY 1:00PM Ravens at Bears The Ravens right the ship.

RAVENS 31 - Bears 20 Packers at Vikings Classic NFC North shootout with the usual results.

PACKERS 31 - Vikings 27 Colts at Bills The Bills are refocused, the Colts are starting to win. Something had to give?

BILLS 27 - Colts 20 Lions at Browns The Lions are focused on Thanksgiving and their first win against the Bears.

They will get another L on the road in Cleveland.

BROWNS 27 - Lions 17 Travelling to the Meadowlands these days is a recipe for success.

DOLPHINS, 20-13 No. 27 (tie) New York Giants (plus 11) at No. 6 Tampa Bay (on Monday night)

JUDGE ORDERS RUGGS BACK TO COURT AFTER MISSED ALCOHOL TEST

By KEN RITTER Associated Press

STORYLINE

into the rear of Tina Tintor’s Toyota Rav4, rupturing that vehicle’s fuel tank.

His lawyers have said in court filings that a witness told them firefighters were slow to extinguish flames They have not identified the witness.

Other witnesses told police they heard screams and tried to rescue Tintor, 23, and her dog but were turned back by heat, flames and smoke.

A Clark County spokesman has said there were no delays in the firefighting response or the attack on the fire.

Baucum has set a December 16 preliminary hearing of evidence on two felony charges of driving under the influence causing death or serious injury.

Each charge carries two years of mandatory prison time for a conviction, and as much as 20 years each.

Ruggs also faces two felony reckless driving counts and a misdemeanor weapon charge after police said a loaded handgun was found in his wrecked sports car.

Prosecutors said Ruggs suffered a leg injury and Washington underwent surgery for an arm injury.

Washington at Panthers “CAM OH CAM”: Cam Newton is back as the starter in Carolina.

That’s enough for a road win in Washington.

PANTHERS 24 - WFT 23 Texans at Titans Titans handle divisional business at home.

TITANS 27 - Texans 17 49ers at Jaguars The Niners continue to pound the ground game and churn out their second straight win.

NINERS 31 - Jags 20 Dolphins at Jets The Dolphins are chasing a Wild Card from a distance, winning their third straight game helps in that regard.

DOLPHINS 24 - Jets 20 Saints at Eagles This one is going to be ugly, the Saints have the better defence and get RB Alvin Kamara back.

We just can’t see the Buccaneers flopping for a third straight game.

BUCS, 27-17 No. 9 Baltimore (minus 6) at No. 26 Chicago The Ravens are such a mystifying bunch. But the

SAINTS 20 - Eagles 17 SUNDAY 4:00PM Raiders at Bengals Bengals off the bye at home, they’ve had two weeks to clean some things up.

BENGALS 31 - Raiders 24 Cowboys at Chiefs Good old fashioned Cowboys and Indians shootout.

The Cowboys have the better defence and will run on the Chiefs weak defence opening the padding game for Cowboys QB Dak Prescott.

Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes will make it very interesting but he will run out of arrows.

COWBOYS 45 - Chiefs 37 Cardinals at Seahawks Big NFC West battle in this one.

The Seahawks only because they are in Seattle.

SEAHAWKS 20 - Cardinals 17 (If Cardinals starting QB Kyler Murray returns from injury this week. The Cardinals on the road ) SUNDAY NIGHT Steelers at Chargers The Chargers are a real roller coaster in their own right. The Steelers have their own issues. Chargers at home.

CHARGERS 24 - Steelers 20 MONDAY NIGHT Giants at Buccaneers I’m tempted to roll the dice on the Giants, however Brady doesn’t lose three straight games ever.

BUCS 31 - Giants 23

Bears are who we thought they are.

RAVENS, 23-19 No. 13 Cincinnati (minus 1) at No. 15 (tie) Las Vegas One of these teams needs an immediate turnaround.

BENGALS, 26-20

2021 RECORD Last Week: Straight up: 8-5-1. Against spread: 6-8.

Season: Straight up: 94-55-1. Against spread: 81-65-2.

Best Bet: Straight up: 5-4-1. Against spread: 7-3.

PAGE 18, Thursday, November 18, 2021

THE TRIBUNE

Giannis scores 47 points, Bucks beat Lakers 109-102 MILWAUKEE (AP) — Giannis Antetokounmpo scored 47 points, Khris Middleton tied Milwaukee’s record for career 3-pointers and the Bucks beat the Los Angeles Lakers 109-102 last night.

Middleton returned after missing eight games due to COVID-19 and made consecutive 3-pointers 30 seconds apart early in the fourth quarter to put the Bucks ahead for good.

The second of those 3s was his 1,051st with the Bucks to match Ray Allen for first place on the team’s list. Allen holds the NBA record with 2,973 3-pointers in a career that also included stints with the Seattle SuperSonics, Boston Celtics and Miami Heat.

LeBron James missed an eighth straight game for the Lakers due to an abdominal strain. The Lakers have gone 3-5 during that stretch.

Talen Horton-Tucker scored 25 points for the Lakers.

NETS 109, CAVALIERS 99 NEW YORK (AP) — James Harden scored 27 points, LaMarcus Aldridge had 24 and Kevin Durant 23 to help Brooklyn beat short-handed Cleveland.

Patty Mills added 21 points to give the Nets four 20-point scorers for the first time this season.

Brooklyn improved to 11-5 with its eighth victory in 10 games.

Ricky Rubio led Cleveland with 25 points, Darius Garland added 24 and Kevin Love, Cedi Osman, and Dean Wade each had 11. The Cavaliers dropped to 9-7.

Cleveland played without centre Jarrett Allen (illness), guard Collin Sexton (torn left meniscus), and forwards Evan Mobley (sprained right elbow), Lauri Markkanen (conditioning) and Lamar Stevens (sprained right ankle).

HEAT 113, PELICANS 98 MIAMI (AP) — Jimmy Butler had a triple-double in his return from a sprained right ankle, finishing with 31 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists in Miami’s victory over New Orleans.

With Miami without starters Bam Adebayo

BUDDY FROM PAGE 14

MILWAUKEE Bucks’ Giannis Antetokounmpo reacts after making a shot and being fouled during the second half against the Los Angeles Lakers yesterday in Milwaukee. The Bucks won 109-102.

(AP Photo/Morry Gash) (bruised left knee) and Kyle Lowry (rest), Butler shot 10 of 12 from the field and made 10 of 12 free throws after missing the previous three games.

Tyler Herro scored 17 of his 19 points in the second half, and Max Strus added 15 points for the Heat.

Herro also hit three 3-pointers, including a midcourt pass intended for Butler that landed inside the rim. Nickeil AlexanderWalker scored 24 points for the Pelicans. They are 2-14.

HAWKS 110, CELTICS 99 ATLANTA (AP) — John Collins scored 20 points, Cam Reddish and Kevin Huerter had 19 apiece and Atlanta beat Boston for its third straight

YOUNG FROM PAGE 14 OPS, slugged .409 with 20 stolen bases, 41 runs scored, 15 doubles, two triples, and seven home runs.

A 24-year-old outfielder, he spent his last offseason with the Canberra Cavalry in the Australian Baseball League. He hit .217 with a .467 OPS, five hits, two runs, one RBI, five total bases and two stolen bases.

Young was also called up to Spring Training prior to the COVID-19 pandemic and in his short time there, impressed the Blue Jays’

victory.

Trae Young chipped in with 18 points and 11 assists as the Hawks used a balanced attack to overcome a 34-point performance by Jayson Tatum.

The Celtics missed a chance to climb above .500 for the first time this season.

HORNETS 97, WIZARDS 87 CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Terry Rozier scored 19 points, Miles Bridges added 17 and Charlotte beat Washington for its fourth straight victory.

Kelly Oubre Jr had 14 points for Charlotte, which ended Washington’s fivegame winning steak after ended stopped Golden State’s run at seven Sunday

Bradley Beal led Washington with 24 points.

MAGIC 104, KNICKS 98 NEW YORK (AP) — Cole Anthony had 15 points and 10 rebounds, Mo Bamba added 12 points and 11 rebounds and Orlando Magic rallied to beat New York.

Terrence Ross scored 19 points off the bench and rookie Jalen Suggs added 13 for the Magic. They snapped a three-game losing streak.

RJ Barrett scored 17 points for New York.

THUNDER 101, ROCKETS 89 OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Lu Dort scored 34 points to help Oklahoma City beat Houston.

Dort made 14 of 22 shots and had the second-best points total of his career.

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander had 15 points, nine assists and seven rebounds.

Jalen Green scored 21 points for Houston.

The Rockets have lost 13 straight. Houston beat Oklahoma City 124-91 about a month ago for its only win of the season.

PISTONS 97, PACERS 89 DETROIT (AP) — Jeremi Grant scored 19 points, Cory Joseph added 18 and Detroit rallied to beat Indiana. Cade Cunningham added 16 points for Detroit, and Saddiq Bey had 15. Malcolm Brogdan led Indiana with 19 points.

Prior to the game, Kings coach Luke Walton stressed the need for better rebounding from his team, repeatedly mentioning it in regards to matchups in the game and potential lineups going forward.

The rebounding kept Sacramento in the game.

The Kings had 13 offensive rebounds in the first half, led by Richaun Holmes with four. The focus resulted in 16 secondchance points and a close game despite the poor shooting and heavy turnover totals.

Minnesota also struggled shooting in a lacklustre first half for both teams.

Towns finally took control in the third quarter. He scored the first seven points of the second half and the Wolves used a 10-2 run to take command.

The lead grew to eight and Minnesota found its shooting by going 13 of 20 from the field and 4 of 7 from 3-point range in the third quarter.

Hield, too, found his shooting stroke after going 1 of 10 in the first half. He hit four 3s and had Sacramento within one early in the fourth until Edwards countered and Minnesota pulled away.

TIP-INS Kings: Entered 19th in the NBA in rebounding, averaging 45.2 per game.

They finished with 47 rebounds on Wednesday. ...

The 20 turnovers were four off a season high. ... Holmes had 12 points and seven rebounds. He didn’t have an offensive rebound in the second half.

Timberwolves: Josh Okogie was inactive with back spasms. Naz Reid returned after missing one game with right foot soreness and led the reserves with eight points. … It marked the fourth time this season Minnesota has held a team under 40% shooting. … The Wolves tied a season high with 56 points in the paint.

UP NEXT Kings: Return home against Toronto on Friday.

Timberwolves: Host San Antonio today for their first back-to-back of the season.

George scores 34, Clippers school young Spurs 106-92

By BETH HARRIS AP Sports Writer

CHAVEZ YOUNG front office in the Grapefruit League both on the field and to move up the rankings and entered the top 30 on the prospect list.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Paul George scored 34 points, hitting 12 of 13 free throws, and the Los Angeles Clippers defeated the San Antonio Spurs 106-92 on Tuesday night.

Reggie Jackson overcame a poor start and finished with 21 points to help the Clippers bounce back after their seven-game winning streak ended on Sunday.

“We needed every bit of it,” Clippers coach Tyronn Lue said. “He was huge for us.”

Dejounte Murray narrowly missed his second triple-double since Sunday, leading the Spurs with 26 points, 12 rebounds and nine assists.

Derrick White added 19 points and Drew Eubanks had 10 rebounds in the Spurs’ third straight loss.

“We still have to figure some things out, but still too much mishaps that are costing us in these games,” White said. “Just try to shore those up and execute a little bit better and try to figure out how to win some games.”

Rookie Brandon Boston Jr. scored the Clippers’ first six points of the fourth before Eric Bledsoe’s steal and layup pushed their lead to 18 points. “I don’t know what I’m going to do, so the defense doesn’t know what I’m going to do,” Boston said.

The young Spurs kept at it and cut their deficit to 91-82.

Jackson hit consecutive 3-pointers and George scored for a 99-82 lead.

Doug McDermott and Keldon Johnson made back-to-back 3-pointers that again drew the Spurs within nine. Boston scored the Clippers’ final five points and finished with 13 to close out the game, playing 20 minutes with other players out.

SAN Antonio Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich looks toward the scoreboard during the second half of an NBA basketball game against the Los Angeles Clippers Tuesday, Nov. 16, 2021, in Los Angeles.

(AP Photo/Mark J Terrill) “I love the kid,” George said. “He gives us energy and we need that.”

Boston is known for standing the entire game when he’s mostly on the bench.

“I’m the youngest so I got to bring energy to these guys,” he said.

Gregg Popovich is coaching his youngest roster since coming to San Antonio in 1996. The team’s average age is 24.5 years.

“The effort is there. They ae growing, doing little things better all the time,” he said. “Frustrating to lose, but when a team is working that hard and willing to learn it’s enjoyable as hell even in a loss.”

White’s basket early in the third gave the Spurs their first lead since the opening quarter. The teams

traded baskets before Thaddeus Young scored to tie it at 69-all.

From there, the Clippers outscored the Spurs 14-2 to go into the fourth leading 83-71. After struggling in the first half, Jackson exploded for a quick seven points, a blocked shot and fed Isaiah Hartenstein for a onehanded jam.

The Clippers saw most of their 12-point lead disappear by halftime.

The Spurs closed the second on a 13-5 run, including nine by Murray, to trail 57-53 at the break.

TIP-INS Spurs: Dropped to 2-6 on the road. ... Jock Landale remains in the league’s health and safety protocols. ... Jakob Poeltl could return Thursday. He’s getting his fitness back after being in the health and safety protocols.

Clippers: F/G Terance Mann sat out with a left ankle sprain. ... Justise Winslow was out for personal reasons.

THE ROOK Boston is one of six players featured in “Klutch Academy,” a five-part series debuting Nov. 23 on BET. It follows the players as college prospects preparing for their pro careers leading up to the NBA draft.

Agent Rich Paul executive produced the series as part of a partnership with Klutch Sports Group and BET Studios.

“That’s going to be a good one,” said Boston, who played at Kentucky.

“It’s going to show the work we put in this summer.”

UP NEXT Spurs: Visit Minnesota today to finish a three-game trip.

Clippers: Visit Memphis today to open a two-game trip.