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The Chase Files Daily Newscap 14/2/2020

Good Morning #realdreamchasers ! Here is your daily news cap for Friday February 14th, 2020. There is a lot to read and digest so take your time. Remember you can read full articles via Barbados Government Information Service (BGIS), Barbados Today (BT), or by purchasing a Weekend Nation Newspaper (WN).

EDUCATION MINISTRY WARNED ABOUT IGNORING UNION – The “stench of physical rot and infrastructural decay” at Vauxhall Primary is bad. But it’s not the worst case of environmental issues affecting learning institutions across the island, the Barbados Union of Teachers (BUT) has warned. In the wake of a rat infestation problem, substandard bathroom facilities and other environmental issues which have captured public attention, the union has condemned the Ministry of Education’s attitude and approach as “untenable and unacceptable”. And, unless “proactive changes” are made in “short order”, the union is threatening to bring a slew of other unhealthy and unsafe existing situations to the public’s attention. “We are most keenly aware that the conditions at Vauxhall recently made known to Barbadians, do not represent the worst conditions we can identify,” the union said Thursday in a statement. But despite the Education Minister, Santia Bradshaw’s visit yesterday at Vauxhall during a planned “silent protest” by teachers, the union accuses the ministry of ignoring several pieces of correspondence outlining numerous cases of unhealthy environment in schools. The BUT warned: “We will be forced to make the unhealthy, unsafe and unsecured school plants known in the absence of the ministry’s repeated failure to engage the union as requested. “These developments are not consistent with “a talking government”, what is deemed “fit for purpose” or the best managerial practices. There must be dialogue and feedback forms a critical part in dialogue. Without dialogue, conditions will not be satisfactorily addressed in a meaningful manner,” the statement charged. Looking back on issues which resulted in the 2006 closure of Louis Lynch Secondary as well as Society Primary and Chalky Mount Primary being condemned, the BUT complained that signs of decay at a number of schools built in the 1990’s like All Saints Primary, Lester Vaughn and Queen’s College continue to be affected by “systemic neglect”. “This continues today, unchecked, given there is little evidence of guidelines in terms of the maintenance or inspection of the physical infrastructure of public schools; whether older or newer; structures be wooden, coral stone or wall; nursery, primary, secondary or tertiary; in town or the country; or housing a large or small roll,” said the union. “Certain schools have endured the brunt of extreme neglect while others have been better maintained where parents possess the wherewithal. Some businesses have also supported these efforts from time to time and they must be commended,” the statement said. But given Government’s mandate to oversee the health and safety of stakeholders at all public schools, the union has been disappointed with recommendations made to the Prime Minister and the Social Partnership, which appear to have fallen on deaf ears. Zeroing in on issues of safety, the union indicated it is still awaiting a promised increase in “psychosocial support staff” in the form of guidance counsellors, which the union agreed to introduce after extended meetings with education stakeholders last May. The statement acknowledged that agitation by the BUT led to a summer maintenance programme by the Ministry of Education which resulted in physical issues at 40 primary schools and 10 secondary schools being addressed. However, that number, and more particularly the quantum and quality of the repairs undertaken, represent a mere drop of water in the ocean of unsecured, unsafe and unhealthy schools,” the statement complained. On Wednesday, the Education Minister revealed that 300 children would be away from school for the remainder of the week while issues at Vauxhall Primary are addressed. (BT)

FORDE INCEST A BIG WORRY – There seems to be an increase in incest. So said Minister of People Empowerment and Elder Affairs, Cynthia Forde who, while not having any empirical data, has drawn her conclusion from increased reports about the matter. Speaking to the media after a seminar entitled Communities Make A Difference at the Savannah Hotel Wednesday and hosted in collaboration with the National Assistance Board, Forde said too few young people were educated about protecting themselves. “You can’t have young children, 13 or 14 years old, whose bodies are developing and they know little or nothing about AIDS,” she cautioned. “I believe the statistics in this country on incest, of persons taking advantage of young girls and boys, is climbing. I do not have the statistics, but from the stories you hear, from the little snippets you see in the newspaper where men get charged with having relationships with young girls or underaged girls and women getting charged with having relationships with younger boys, it says to me no sensitisation or little sensitisation is there.” (WN)

GENDER IDENITY WRONGFUL DISMISSAL - For the first time on record, the Employment Rights Tribunal (ERT) is being asked to address an allegation of unfair termination on the basis of gender identity. The development follows failed attempts by the Labour Department to resolve a dispute between Alexa Hoffmann and her former employer, Court Caribbean Law Practice over Hoffmann’s decision to change her name as a reflection of her gender identity. The legal firm has refused to place its legal position on the matter in the public domain. If successful, Hoffmann hopes the decision will set a precedent for the local Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) community. The outspoken activist declined to disclose her given name at birth, which was used in August 2015 when she was hired as a legal assistant. Hoffman explained the issues came to a head when she was attacked in February 2018 and her supervisor, lawyer, Nigel Bennett asked her why she was being referred to as Alexa in the public domain. In response, the trans woman said she explained that although her name had not yet been changed, persons referred to her as Alexa as a courtesy. But it was only in October of the same year when her name was officially changed at the national registry that Hoffman claims she was asked to stay home from work. Weeks later, the trans woman said she emailed her employer to inquire about her status and was informed that she had been placed on leave while the company engaged in consultations on the matter. This eventually resulted in a meeting at the labour department on February 7, 2019 where the two parties were unable to resolve the matter “amicably”. When contacted, Attorney Nigel Bennett refused to comment extensively while the tribunal addresses the matter but admitted the law firm was challenging the basis of Hoffmann’s claims. “We have no issues at all, but as a matter of propriety, the matter is before the ERT and we are simply going to put forward our position to the ERT and let them make a determination. Once they have made a decision in that regard we could make a comment, but it would be highly inappropriate of us to do that before,” Bennett told Barbados TODAY. Asked what legal remedies she would be seeking, Hoffmann doubted the practicality of reinstatement but said she is pursuing damages. Even more important she explained, is the need to set a definitive precedent for “marginalised and downtrodden” persons in the LGBT community. “Outside of the compensation, I am looking to send a message that regardless of an employer’s consternation about the diversity of his staff, as long as that diversity does not have a direct impact on the work they are employed to do…it should not be cause to suspend them,” Hoffman said. “If you have an employee whether they are gay, straight, bisexual, trans, disabled, HIV positive or whatever the situation is…let them do their work in peace, and if I have to go through the Employment Rights Tribunal process to let employers know that I have the right to be left alone to do the work that I have been hired to do, then so be it,” the trans woman added. It is still unclear when the tribunal will hear the matter, and while Hoffman is willing to be patient, she has not ruled out the possibility of approaching the civil courts to adjudicate on the case. The trans activist meanwhile added that she was hoping to empower transgender Barbadians to pursue careers outside the traditional areas of beauty and cosmetology, if that is their desire. “I keep realising there are a lot of people who go through what I go through as well but many of them feel so beaten and downtrodden that they can’t seem to muster up the fight to get up and stand up for themselves…but I keep thinking that if I don’t make this move, I don’t know who else will make it,” Hoffmann said. “It’s not just about me anymore, because I am thinking about other people who may want to become professionals in whatever field they want. (BT)

EX-NURSE 39 YEAR OLD CASE DRAGS ON - Former Government-paid nurse Coral Wilkinson says she has had enough of her attorney-at-law Sir Richard Cheltenham,QC, claiming he has been tardy in completing her injury settlement case with the State, almost 40 years after her fall on the job. Wilkinson, who fell and injured her back while on duty at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH) in April 1981, said today she is fed up with how long it has been taking to bring closure to the matter. “I can’t take this any longer,” said Wilkinson. She recalled an occasion in which she said she was being blamed for not getting in touch with Sir Richard. “I said, ‘but you see why I planned that I wasn’t calling back you because every time I call, all I am hearing is that, it doesn’t mean because I am not hearing from you all that nothing isn’t happening. So I said nobody hasn’t called me so I figure nothing is happening,’” Wilkinson stated. Thirty six years old at the time of her spinal injury, the ex-Government health care provider told Barbados TODAY she desperately needs the final payment so she can finish her medical procedures overseas and bring some ease to her deteriorating physical condition where she can no longer bathe herself or touch water with her bare hands. Wilkinson said that last year, her attorney told her he was ready to submit her final claim. “Every time he keeps telling me the same thing over and over,” she declared. While admitting that Sir Richard was able to obtain an initial pay out in 2017 of some $300,000 to allow her to travel to the United Kingdom for one phase of corrective surgery, Wilkinson contended that that money was not even sufficient to cover all her medical bills and stay in the UK. She said she had to pull her pocket to avoid embarrassment when she needed transportation to attend therapy or get around generally. She also revealed that in October last year, another offer of just over half million dollars was made to her as a final settlement, which she rejected. “You know how much he offered me that day as a final settlement? Make a guess…$550,000…after 1981 until now and I can’t even help myself. I said ‘no, no, no.’ No way am I going to accept it. That can’t even cover the hospital fees in England,” Wilkinson said with a chuckle. She said that after numerous telephone calls to Sir Richard’s office and hearing “excuse after excuse” she has decided to stop calling. She told Barbados TODAY that Sir Richard has no valid reason for not submitting her final claim to the Government because she had furnished him with all of the documents he requested since 2017. “I went up to [the UK] and when I was ready to come back down, I told the doctors I was going home on August 3. When I went to see the doctors for physiotherapy and so on, all of the doctors’ reports were there waiting for me to be collected. I came back down here on August 3 [2017], and in a week’s time, I had everything photocopied and sent to him [Sir Richard],” Wilkinson stated. She explained that in the same year, her attorney requested an additional medical report, this time from her local specialist which Wilkinson said was provided outlining the condition of her back and her mental state as well. “That wasn’t enough. In March last year I talked to him. He still had not done anything yet. Nothing he had not done yet,” the former nurse complained, adding that the spinal injury has resulted in such serious neurological problems, she cannot tolerate water on her bare hands “When I go in the bath on mornings and the water comes down and hit my fingers, I would get electric-like current going through my body and I am now bathing in gloves. Can you imagine?” Wilkinson asked with a tremble in her voice. When Barbados TODAY reached out to Sir Richard, he contended that his client’s case was being advanced and more progress was expected in the coming week when his secretary returned from a week-long break. “Her case is being advanced. She got an interim [payout] up to a few years ago. Went off to London and all the rest,” he said “The last thing that Coral told me, bearing in mind that it is a few years and more since she went to London, that she had seen the surgeon specialist here. So I wrote him and asked him, since we can’t get anything from the surgeon specialist in England, to send me a summary of when he last saw her, because you can’t submit a claim with a report two or more years old,” Sir Richard recalled, adding that he required an updated one. He said it was only after his client called him just before Christmas last year and he told her he was waiting on the report from the specialist here, that there must have been a misunderstanding on his part. “Because although I told you [Wilkinson] I had been to him [the doctor], I did not mean for you to get an update from him. But that only happened a few days before Christmas; so the matter is on my desk and I am working. The secretary is off for a week, so that when she comes back we could start doing some business,” Sir Richard told Barbados TODAY.Responding to his client’s complaint that she had been trying to get an audience with him but gets the run-around when she called, the prominent Queen’s Counsel said Wilkinson was always in his office, and had not asked for any audience with him since before Christmas last year. “So as soon as my secretary comes back, which is next week, I will reach out to Coral and give her a new appointment, so that I could review with her what I have written; so that once she says okay that it is accurate, we can go,” Sir Richard promised. “I could understand that she is also troubled and her situation is deteriorating and she has carried her burden for many, many years…except that some three years ago I did get an appreciable interim for her and she went off to London. This is now time to bring closure to it. But there was a misunderstanding about the doctor here, the surgeon specialist…and she did go to see him. I thought since the report from England is dated, that I should write him. But she said she didn’t understand or expected me to do that,” he said.Meanwhile, the former QEH nurse said she presently has six discs out of place in her back and screws implanted in her back from a surgery in 1998 intended to stabilize a shaky spine due to constantly falling at home. Wilkinson, who said she has been seeing a psychiatrist for the past 19 years, will also require a battery to be surgically placed in her back to stimulate the nerve to produce feeling, physiotherapy until the day of her death and a care giver considering she is now unable to bath and dress herself. She revealed that once she got her final payout to assist with further surgery in the UK, she would have to return to England for critical follow up treatment every six months.Wilkinson said her physical disability which has forced her to use a walker continues to cause unbearable pain. (BT)

LABANE CASE THROWN OUT – The year-old La Cabane on Batts Rock beach will get its liquor licence renewed. But the renewal came after three residents from nearby neighbourhoods expressed strong objection to the operation of the restaurant in the Bridgetown Traffic Court yesterday.Queen’s Counsel Clyde Turney, who lives at Batts Rock, along with two residents from Prospect, St James, had filed an objection to the renewal of La Cabane’s liquor licence which expired yesterday. The three residents, whose case was put by Queen’s Counsel Leslie Haynes, argued that the noise coming from the bar and restaurant, on Tuesdays to Sundays, was so annoyingly loud that it prevented them from sleeping and from hearing their televisions. They especially complained about drumming which emanated from the restaurant on Sundays and continued until 9 p.m. The restaurant is closed on Mondays. (WN)

GROOM REMANDED – A young Barbadian who does contract work in Canada and goes between that northern country and home, may have to put his planned wedding on hold. Despite his pleas for a second chance and an opportunity to proceed with his wedding arrangements, 24-year-old Winslow Ricardo Bonnett of no fixed place of abode, heard Magistrate Kristie Cuffy-Sargeant say: ”remanded for sentencing”. Bonnett appeared before Cuffy-Sargeant today charged with entering the apartment of Canadian visitor Ethel Marley and her husband on January 13 with the intention to steal. He is also accused of loitering on the premises of Yellow Bird Hotel on February 3 when it was suspected he was about to commit theft. According to the facts read by the police prosecutor, Marley, who owns the apartment, complained that she and her husband were awakened by a noise coming from the kitchen. The court was told the complainant observed the sliding glass door being opened and saw a man whom she could not identify at the time. However, police investigators were later led to the accused based on finger prints and palm prints taken from the door. This afternoon when the magistrate asked Bonnett if he had anything to say, he replied “I apologize to you, the owner of the apartment. I would like a chance…I would like to proceed with being married.” Bonnett, who pleaded guilty to both charges, will now have to wait until March 12 to know his fate. (BT)

CHOO DOE SERVICE FOR $12 IN POT – One hundred and twenty hours of community service was the sentence today handed down by the District “A” Criminal Court No 2 magistrate on a first-time drug offender. Magistrate Kristie Cuffy-Sargeant informed Benjamin Richard Choo, a self-employed man of #26 Walkers Terrace, St George that he had to complete the service for having $12 worth of cannabis in his possession yesterday. Twenty-seven-year-old Choo pleaded guilty to the offence and was granted $1,500 bail with instructions that he had to reappear in court on June 26. (BT)

FORDE TO REAPPEAR IN COURT – Twenty-one-year-old Rico Radarah Reneal Forde of Salters, St George, was remanded to HMP Dodds after appearing at District ‘A’ Criminal Court Number 2 this morning. He was not required to plead to any of the offences and Magistrate Christie Cuffy-Sergeant remanded him to reappear at District B on February 19 and District ‘A’ Criminal Court Number 1 on March 12. Forde is charged with having one .9mm Smith and Wesson pistol and nine rounds of ammunition on February 7 without the relevant permits from the Commissioner of Police. On January 26, he “recklessly or without lawful authority or excuse, discharged a firearm in a public place”, namely the Sol Service Station at Charles Rowe Bridge, St George, placing Jianne Douglas in danger of death or serious bodily harm. On the same day, he is alleged to have caused serious bodily harm to Shaquille Callender with intent to main, disfigure or disable him, or to do some serious bodily harm to him and used a firearm without a valid licence during the same incident at the gas station. The final incident occurred on January 4 where he is alleged to have discharged a firearm at Government Hill, St Michael, placing Rashad Massiah in danger of death and serious bodily harm. (BT)

DRUG ACCUSED ON BAIL – A 40-year-old unemployed man this afternoon denied four drug-related charges brought against him by the police for the alleged offences which occurred yesterday. When Sherman Danny Green of 3rd Avenue, Harts Gap, Christ Church went before District “A” Magistrate Kristie Cuff-Sargeant, he pleaded not guilty to unlawful possession of cannabis, unlawful possession of cocaine; unlawful possession of cocaine with intent to supply and trafficking of the same drug. After the prosecution did not object to bail, the Magistrate released Green on $1,500 bail when she took into consideration that the value of the cocaine was estimated at $1,050 and the cannabis $60. Cuffy-Sargeant also placed conditions on the bail which require the accused to report to the Hastings Police Station every Wednesday before noon with a form of identification. The case was adjourned until May 6, but has been transferred to the District “A” Criminal Court No 2. (BT)

PRIEST VIOLENCE NOT THE WAY – Barbados cannot continue to turn a blind eye to gun violence, especially when it happens in front of children, warned an Anglican cleric yesterday. Reverend Trevor O’Neale issued the caution in his sermon during the funeral service for 37-year-old Marlon Jermaine Holder at St Philip’s Parish Church. Holder, the second man to be gunned down for the year, was shot and killed outside St Alban’s Primary School in St James, where he had just pulled up to drop off his six-year-old son on January 17. He was shot through the car window. The priest said such acts of violence could have lasting effects on children. “The sad thing about it is, it is being done in the presence of our children. Do you know that a child experiencing violence is going to be scarred? That it is going to lead to behavioural problems? It is going to lead to mental challenges sometimes,” he said. (WN)

FREE CITY WIFI SOMETIME AFTER MARCH – The Smart Bridgetown project, which includes free public WiFi, has been delayed another three months, the Government’s information technology chief has told Barbados TODAY. The free WiFi, which is the first phase of the project, was originally scheduled to begin by the end of last year. But a delay in obtaining a vendor to offer the service has forced officials to set a new implementation date of the second quarter of this year, said Rodney Taylor, the director of the Data Processing Department in the Ministry of Innovation, Science and Technology. He said the tendering process was now closed and officials were in the process of choosing a suitable provider. About a dozen domestic and overseas IT firms submitted bids to provide the service for the community WiFi phase of the project. Taylor told Barbados TODAY: “There were some delays with respect to the public tender. “The tender has closed and we are in the stages of evaluating the tenders we received. “And we hope that by the end of the financial year, which is March, we are able to sign off on a vendor and start with the implementation of that.” Under phase one, free broadband internet access being extended from the Bridgetown Port to Independence Square. And with officials now considering adding new areas including the planned Fairchild Street market, the free Wi-Fi could stretch from the Jewish Synagogue in Magazine Lane to Golden Square in Jordans Lane.The next phase of Smart Bridgetown is “smart parking” which will use a smartphone app to locate available spaces in Bridgetown and pay for parking electronically, said Taylor. Smart Bridgetown was allocated about $1 million to get it started. (BT)

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stephaniefchase · 7 years ago

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Bajan Newscap 11/21/217

Good Morning #realdreamchasers. Here is your daily news cap for Tueday 21st November, 2017. There is a lot to read and digest so take your time. Remember you can read full articles via Barbados Today (BT), or by purchasing Daily Newspaper (WN).

RATE THIS! – Prime Minister Freundel Stuart has again stood defiant in the wake of a series of downgrades, telling party supporters Barbados could not be downgraded by any rating agency. “No rating agency in the world can downgrade Barbados. Rating agencies can downgrade your credit rating, your ability to borrow money, but they cannot downgrade you as a people,” Stuart said at a meeting last night of the ruling Democratic Labour Party (DLP) at The Alexandra School in St Peter. It was a repeat of the position he adopted in March of this year at the DLP’s mid-year conference, one day after international rating agency Standard and Poor’s (S&P) had downgraded the island from ‘B- to ‘CCC+’ – the island’s 18th under his administration at the time – and a week before Moody’s downgraded Government bond and issuer ratings to Caa3, placing Barbados on the same level as Greece, the Ukraine and Venezuela. “Rating agencies can only downgrade Barbados’ credit worthiness, its ability to borrow. They cannot downgrade Barbados itself,” he said then. Stuart was even more dismissive last night of the international rating agencies, as well as economists and political opponents who see the downgrades as evidence that his administration’s economic policies were not working. “What they will say and what they have been saying is that rating agencies downgraded Barbados 18 or 19 or 20 times, whatever it is . . . what credit rating? “You can’t talk about the country’s credit rating without at the same time trying to link that to the credit rating of the average man and woman in the communities of Barbados. “There are so many other aspects to a person rather than whether they can borrow money or not, and as it is true of an individual, so also of a country,” he said. The Prime Minister said that in the history of this island the average man or woman had been unable go to a bank and borrow money as he or she wished because they did not have the collateral. However, he insisted that poor credit ratings did not affect Barbados’ ability to produce excellence. (BT)

GAG ORDER – Former Prime Minister Owen Arthur said today there was only one gift he would love to purchase outspoken Government minister Donville Inniss for Christmas, and that is a political ‘gag’. At the same time the Member of Parliament for St Peter has taken umbrage at what he said was nothing short of “a crude onslaught” delivered by his former Cabinet minister Elizabeth Liz Thompson against his wife and daughters. “It really was crude and there really has been no reaction of decency from the Barbados Labour Party (BLP) from people who ought to be telling Liz Thompson that that is not the way,” Arthur told Barbados TODAY, in response to statements made by Thompson in an address to the party’s 79th annual conference last month, which he said were simply unforgiveable. In fact, in light of that speech, which he said should have been roundly condemned by the BLP’s hierarchy, Arthur said “it will be very difficult for me to ever again support the Barbados Labour Party”. However, he also made it clear that this was not an indication that he was now “a Dem”, following Inniss’ declaration at the ruling Democratic Labour Party’s (DLP) political meeting in St Peter on Sunday night that the former BLP leader and current independent Member of Parliament for the northern constituency, has had a recent change of heart and had switched his allegiance to the ruling DLP, turning his back on the BLP’s Colin Jordan, who he previously described as his political protégé. Addressing party supporters gathered at The Alexandra School in the heart of Arthur’s constituency, which the former BLP leader has been representing for the past three decades, Inniss went further to suggest that Arthur was rooting for the DLP candidate Dave Cumberbatch. “Let me tell you something Dave, you are being fully endorsed by Owen Seymour Arthur,” Inniss assured Cumberbatch after he had delivered his maiden speech as the ruling party’s St Peter candidate. And while referring to Jordan disparagingly as ‘Colin Arthur’, the Member of Parliament for St James South said: “Owen Arthur [and] Colin Arthur [were] all good Dems today.” Inniss also assured that there was no repairing the damage done to the relationship between Arthur and the Mia Mottley-led BLP following Arthur’s resignation from the Opposition party back in 2014. “It has been a hard and long journey for him to have walked away from a political party that he so ably led for such a long time, because he realized the riff-raff and scallywags and hooligans that occupy the halls of the Barbados Labour Party, and have nothing to do with them. And that is why he cannot, and will not, support Colin Arthur, Colin Jordan,” Inniss said, feigning an error. However, when contacted this afternoon, Arthur was simply taken aback by Inniss’ comments, suggesting it was high time for him to be muzzled. “In 34 years in public life I have never had any difficulty speaking in my own name, on my own behalf, and I can’t imagine how at the end of my political career, I could now want somebody to be speaking for me and on my behalf,” he told Barbados TODAY, making it clear he did not need Inniss to deliver any message on his behalf. Arthur suggested that “perhaps it is a St James South thing . . . because . . . he seems to be as erratic as the former Member of Parliament for St James South Elizabeth Thompson. “They are just spouting foolishness all over the place. I have sent Donville Inniss with no message and I’m a little disappointed that a man who would want to get my support and my vote in the next election could be playing so fast and loose with things concerning me,” said Arthur, who resides in Inniss’ constituency. “Surely, if he intends to court me that would be the wrong way to do it,” he said, stressing he had “nothing to do with erratic people”. Calling it “froth and folly”, he said, “It is obviously a St James South thing to just shout off at the mouth and just talk a lot of foolishness. Liz exemplified it and now Donville appears to have caught the same [political virus],” he told Barbados TODAY, adding that “for me to have to respond to folly like this when there are so many other important things that ought to be centre, it just disgusts me”. While stressing that “Donville has to act way better than this”, and that it was not ordinary for constituents to give members of parliament gifts, Arthur said: “I think that for Christmas I might have to consider finding a suitable present for Donville, and it would be a gag . . . and I think it will make him a better politician. “I am an independent person and I am not involved in any political party,” the St Peter representative maintained. The former prime minister, who was recently sidelined with a foot injury, also reported that it was his first day back at the office. “I’m anxious to get back to my work. I don’t want to be drawn into the froth and folly,” he told Barbados TODAY. At a time when Barbados was “going down rapidly with some very serious economic issues to confront”, he complained that the island’s politics had descended to the level of “people living in houses that they do not have and who is qualified in what . . . and you would think that the country doesn’t have a serious crisis that is facing it and . . . I don’t want to be drawn into that foolishness at my age.” (BT)

IT WASN’T US – The Opposition Barbados Labour Party (BLP) today fiercely denied it was behind allegations on social media that Minister of Finance Chris Sinckler owns a $2.5 million house at Rolling Hills, St George. The BLP issued a press release today denying involvement, less than 24 hours after Prime Minister Freundel Stuart gave prominence to the rumour by raising it at a Democratic Labour Party (DLP) meeting at The Alexandra School last night, and accusing the Opposition party of being behind it. However, BLP spokesman Dale Marshall said his party had nothing to do with the post, and complained that the BLP had also been a victim of similar rumours, although he did not say what they were or when such rumours were spread. “[The] Barbados Labour Party distances itself from accusations being made on social media in relation to Mr Sinckler being the owner of a particular house in St George,” Marshall, the Member of Parliament for St Joseph, said in the release. “That post has nothing whatsoever to do with the BLP. The circulation of such stories on social media is not, and has never been, a BLP strategy. “The Prime Minister seems to forget that members of the BLP are also victims of such attacks and allegations. These anonymous posts which are intended to damage are in bad taste and a blight on public discourse. The BLP would never be a part of that.” In becoming the latest member of the DLP to accuse the BLP of engaging in a smear campaign, Stuart last night challenged the Opposition party to prove that Sinckler owns the home by taking the media to the site of the house. (BT)

BOTH BLP AND DLP NEGLECTED ST PETER, CANDIDATE SUGGESTS – Former Barbados and West Indies Under-19 cricket captain Dave Cumberbatch came out swiping last night as he delivered his maiden speech as the ruling Democratic Labour Party’s (DLP) candidate for St Peter. Cumberbatch, 53, made his name as a cricketer in the early 1980s. Now he is seeking to deny the Opposition Barbados Labour Party’s (BLP) Colin Jordan a chance of ever representing the northern constituency, currently held by former BLP leader and independent Member of Parliament Owen Arthur. With Arthur’s political future still uncertain, Cumberbatch told DLP faithful gathered at The Alexandra School last night that both the current and the former administration were guilty of neglecting the rural constituency, particularly Maynards, his place of birth. Cumberbatch, an attorney-at-law and former policemen, recalled that in 1999 “when elections were hot in the air” the National Housing Corporation, under a BLP government, had sent letters in the St Peter community offering residents the opportunity to purchase their lands. “2009 came and nothing was done [by the time the BLP was voted out of office],” he said, while also complaining that the situation still had not been remedied with the DLP in office over past ten years. “The point I am making is that, up to this day, 2017, after receiving letters in 1999, nothing has been done to sell the people of Maynards the land on which they live,” Cumberbatch said, adding that “I had a quiet whisper with Minister [Denis] Kellman about this already . . . [and] if he remains the minister of housing in the next administration . . . I will be turning up my voice . . . even if it is the prime minister that takes over the Ministry of Housing, I will be turning up my voice, so that those people in Maynards who were asked in 1999 if they wanted to purchase land, . . . [can] be successful in owning a piece of the rock”. In response, Kellman informed the meeting that though some people had gone ahead and paid the BLP for their lots, currently residents in 28 of the 55 Government units at Maynards were qualified to be granted property conveyances under the 20-year occupancy programme. However, he did not say if or when they would the conveyances. (BT)

INNISS BLASTS UNIONS – The Democratic Labour Party (DLP) Government is taking the trade union movement to task for blurring its efforts to protect the rights of workers. Minister of Industry Donville Inniss argued Government was so invested in the rights of all workers in Barbados that annually it injects “hundreds of thousands of dollars” of subvention to the Barbados Workers’ Union and the National Union of Public Workers, preserving the proverbial voice of workers. “It is not a BLP [Barbados Labour Party] or DLP thing, historically the union has been given a subvention by Government. My point about it is here is a union that is saying the country is so broke, doing nothing, putting all sort of demands on Government but don’t remind their members or the public about the hefty subvention they get from Government on an annual basis to keep them running. As far as I am concerned they should be getting more of their revenue from their own members and their own activities,” Inniss said. During a fiery contribution at the DLP’s joint northern meeting on Sunday night, Inniss, who is also Minister of International Business, Commerce and Small Business Development, cried shame on the state of the present movement. Speaking to a large crowd at Alexandra School, Queen Street, St Peter, including Prime Minister Freundel Stuart and former St Peter candidate Sybil Leacock, he voiced concern that for many union leaders their first priority was now self-motivated. Inniss said some had been promised diplomatic posts abroad and could not wait to see the back of the DLP. He accused some in the movement of practising political partisanship, and this was shown in the lack of support for the Employment Rights Act, the Sexual Harassment Act and the Employment Rights Tribunal, which were put in place to protect workers. “Rather than say let us recognise that you have a Government that is bringing enlightened policies and programmes to uplift the masses in society, you have these folks finding every reason to go after the Government in a very aggressive and partisan manner and hiding behind the guise of the union,” Inniss said. (DN)

ENERGY DRIVE – Barbadians can look forward to paying less for electricity as Government is set to save big, thanks to a new energy policy. Members of the Division of Energy, including Minister of Energy, Senator Darcy Boyce, announced the ambitious energy policy for 2017 to 2037 yesterday at the division’s offices in Country Road, St Michael. Acting chief project analyst Bryan Haynes told the media the policy’s focus was transitioning the island from fossil fuel dependency to one that was energy efficient and renewable energy based. Barbados could save almost a quarter of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in energy costs within the next two decades and Haynes laid out what this meant for the average person. The project analyst explained that by 2037 Barbados would have to reduce its fossil fuel usage by a whopping 75 per cent. Haynes said this equated to moving from the current 11 000 barrels of fuel a day to 5 400. In order to do this, Haynes said the island would generate 15 per cent of its power from solar, 20 per cent from the wind, 30 per cent from bio-mass and waste energy, 15 per cent from bio-fuels and 20 per cent from natural gas. In 2015, Barbados got 74 per cent of its energy from heavy fuel oils, 17.4 per cent from kerosene, 5.6 per cent from bagasse, 2.2 per cent from diesel, 0.2 per cent from natural gas and a paltry 0.6 per cent from solar. Boyce said he was aware of the high usage of such energy inputs. The importation of petroleum products in 2016 was almost $350 million, thanks to the decline in oil prices, down from almost $900 million in 2014. And with the price of oil fluctuating, Boyce noted Barbados had to safeguard itself by moving towards renewable energy sources. (DN)

HUSBANDS: MAKE USE OF EDUCATION – Taking advantage of the right to an education can help the youth safeguard themselves against unemployment. Senator Harcourt Husbands hammered home this point yesterday as he spoke to hundreds of schoolchildren at the annual World Children’s Day celebrations at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre. In brief remarks, Husbands told the children the Convention On The Rights Of The Child gave them several advantages which, in his time, were not extended to children. However, the Parliamentary Secretary in the Ministry of Education warned the children that with these rights came responsibilities. Husbands explained that education did not just mean the formal aspect, but other areas like sports. As the morning’s concert was children-focused, the programme featured presentations and performances by youngsters. From the skilfully acrobatic performance of the Michael Taitt Tumblers, to the graceful moves of the Praise Academy of Dance and renditions by the Charles F. Broomes Choir, there was lots of talent on display. Also performing were the Coleridge & Parry Secondary School Choir, the Ace Dance Centre, a quintet from Queen’s College and a duet from the Gordon Greenidge Primary School. (DN)

GARBAGE DISPUTE TAKES A NEW TURN – The messy dispute surrounding the dump at Lower Estate, St George has taken a new turn. Owner of the quarry and Chief Executive Officer of Project Recycle Anderson Fat Child Cherry has called in the Royal Barbados Police Force (RBPF) after number of people were apparently caught on camera “trespassing” on the compound after business hours. Cherry also reported today that a fire had occurred at the quarry on Sunday while the facility was closed for business. “Management of the quarry was notified by a resident of the area who also called the fire department, but by that time our team had already extinguished the fire in just five to ten mins,” Cherry said, adding that was footage of people” entering the facility in the early morning between the hours of five and seven o’clock before [it was] opened and late in the evening after the facility [was] closed”. With the matter now under police investigation, Cherry said he did not want to comment any further at this stage. However, the development comes on the heels of last month’s second town hall meeting between the residents and the waste hauler at the Salters Church of God in St George. During that meeting Cherry had promised residents that the “toxic” fumes emanating from the landfill would be gone in two weeks; that no more garbage would be dumped there and that the facility would be shut down within six months. However, he has since gone back on that agreement with a spokesman for the residents, Roger Craigg, informing Barbados TODAY this afternoon that they now had solid “evidence” to prove that Cherry had breached the accord and was in fact still allowing garbage to be dumped on the compound. The residents, who had earlier threatened to take Cherry to court over the matter, are due to meet in emergency session to determine their next move with Craigg also reporting that as recent as today, the landfill was still burning. However, Cherry today insisted that contrary to the reports from the residents “there has been no garbage waste coming into the facility”. In fact, he told Barbados TODAY management had gone as far as to issue a memo “asking employees not to eat anymore chicken thighs on the job” as this may be the garbage the residents were seeing. (BT)

CHILD CARE BOARD REPORTS PROGRESS IN RESOLVING ABUSE CASES – The Child Care Board (CCB) is reporting breakthroughs in a number of cases being investigated by the state agency. However, Chairman Kenneth Knight would not disclose which cases had been fully resolved or how close the CCB was to concluding others. Knight said like other statutory boards, the child protection agency, which was established to investigate reports of child abuse and neglect, was being asked to function with diminishing financial resources. However, he said this would not stop CCB from adequately carrying out its duties, and it had found “other innovative ways to compensate for the reduction of financial resources”. Barbadians have been thrown into consternation from time to time as news surfaced of cases of alleged child abuse and the deaths of minors under questionable circumstances. The most recent one was the death of one-month-old Kaiden Dacosta Greenidge in September. The infant was pronounced dead on arrival at the state-run Queen Elizabeth Hospital after the parents were summoned by Divine Day Nursery & Pre-School, where they had left the child. Some of the most prominent cases in the last two years included the alleged suicide of 12-year-old Shemar Weekes, of Fryers Well, Checker Hall, St Lucy, and the death of six-year-old Jahan King of Belfield, Jackson, St Michael, which occurred weeks apart. Jahan’s mother and her boyfriend were subsequently charged with manslaughter. The most recent available statistics from the CCB showed that between April 1, 2014 and March 31, 2015, there were 864 reported cases of abuse involving 1,173 children, figures officials said were only a fraction of the true number of child abuse cases since many went unreported. Knight today did not have up-to-date numbers, but told Barbados TODAY there continued to be a range of child abuse cases being reported to the CCB, with the most common being sexual abuse. (BT)

MOTHER IN CHILD BEATING VIDEO REPORTS TO POLICE - The police and representatives of the Child Protection and Family Services Agency (CPFS) are to meet this afternoon with the woman who was seen in a video violently beating and threatening to cut off the neck of her young child. Superintendent in charge of the Westmoreland Police, Lansford Salmon, says the meeting was arranged after the woman reported to the Whithorn police station on Saturday, when the video began circulating on social media. Salmon says the woman is not in custody at this time. He says the meeting this afternoon will determine the next course of action to be taken as the investigation progresses. The CPFSA yesterday confirmed that it had begun probing the circumstances that led to the woman using what appears to be a belt to beat a young child while she hurled threats of cutting off the child’s neck. The child protection agency said its investigation revealed that the incident took place in September. The agency says the woman is currently receiving counselling. It is not certain at this time what has been done in relation to the child who received the beating. (BT)

HOUSE SPEAKER IN NEW LEGAL DISPUTE WITH CLIENT – For the second time in three years, Queen’s Counsel Michael Carrington, who is also Speaker of the House of Assembly, has found himself before the law courts over a money dispute with one of his clients. In the latest legal standoff, Ajax Construction Inc has filed a lawsuit in the Supreme Court, challenging the level of fees charged by Carrington for legal work done with respect to the purchase and resale of a portion of land at Warrens, St Michael. Ajax Construction is also claiming that Carrington wrongfully withheld some $45,000 from the company, and has asked the court to reward it certain sums of money, costs and other relief. However, Carrington has filed his defence and counterclaim, arguing that he was entitled to all the monies, including his legal fees and costs for representing the company in the purchase of the parcel of land from the National Housing Corporation and negotiating the sale of the same property to the City of Bridgetown Cooperative Credit Union. According to court documents, Carrington has submitted that if the claimant had a dispute about his fees, it should properly check with the Registrar of the Supreme Court. “In breach of the agreement between the parties, the claimant by letter dated September 22, 2016, wrongfully sought to terminate the agreement between the parties, questioning the fees payable and refusing to honour any agreement between the parties. At the time of the purported termination of the agreement by the claimant, the defendant had completed all tasks necessary for the completion of the work for which he was retained to do,” Carrington said in his defence. Carrington is also denying that the principals of Ajax Construction suffered the alleged loss and damage being pleaded, or any loss at all. Back in December 2014, the High Court ordered Carrington to pay one of his clients, John Griffiths, over $208, 900, the balance from the sale of a property which included a banker’s cheque with cash value of over $84, 194, the remaining proceeds of an estate which was inherited by Griffiths. Justice Jacqueline Cornelius also ruled at the time that Carrington must render an account of all sums belonging to the particular estate within 28 days. He was also ordered to pay interest and legal costs of over $7,700. A settlement was eventually reached, where a banker’s cheque of $200,000 was reportedly paid on behalf of Carrington to the law firm George Walton Payne and Co, which represented 78-year-old Griffiths. When contacted this afternoon, attorney-at-law for Ajax Construction Arthur Holder said that he first had to discuss the issue with his client before sharing any information. Efforts to reach Carrington and his attorney Cecil McCarthy, QC, for comment have been unsuccessful. (BT)

UPP ALLEGES POSTAL FRAUD – The United Progressive Party (UPP) is alleging that something fishy is going on at the post office which rises to the level of postal fraud. UPP candidate for St Michael East Paul Forte is charging that he mailed just over a thousand letters to constituents, but somehow, not a single one was delivered. “I sent out hundreds of letters to first-time voters in September, only to find out on canvassing that not one letter was received, and so I decided to send out another set of letters, this time to constituents in my area, introducing myself and sharing my plans for this constituency, and of the 500 letters sent on November 3rd, not one constituent of St Michael East has received a letter, not one,” Forte complained at a constituency meeting in Cutting Road, St Michael. In fact, UPP Leader Lynette Eastmond went as far as to suggest that a crime had been committed, “There is something called postal fraud and you can get lock up for postal fraud. The Government guarantees us that when we put something in an envelope, seal the envelope, put a 65 cents stamp on it and take it to the post office or place it any postal box across the island, that it is supposed to get where it is supposed to go. It must get to the recipient,” Eastmond stated. “Postal fraud is not any kind of summary offence, it is a serious offence. Those are the offences that you go to the High Court for.” Eastmond added that it was shameful that this was happening at a time when political parties were talking about integrity and integrity legislation. It was an apparent reference to the Opposition Barbados Labour Party (BLP), which on Saturday presented the first draft of its Integrity Commission Bill which it said would help to curb rampant corruption in Barbados. The bill, which was drafted with counsel from Sir David Simmons; Leslie Haynes, QC; Gregory Nicholls and Stewart Mottley, will see the establishment of a six-member commission which will be allotted investigative powers to inspect reports of corruption. It also has provisions to ensure the protection of whistle blowers. Under the bill, which the BLP said would be introduced if it forms the next Government, people guilty of corruption will face jail sentences and fines as high as $500, 000. However, UPP candidate for St James South Christal Austin told constituents of St Michael East the gesture was nothing more than smokes and mirrors. “If you had 14 years and you didn’t do it then why are you going to do it now?” Austin questioned, while making reference to the BLP’s tenure in office before it was voted out in 2008. “Do not let the wolf pull wool over your eyes. They will say and do anything to get into power because they are self-interested and they only want to be in power,” she said. (BT)

MUGABE FACES IMPEACHMENT . . . PRESIDENT COULD BE REMOVED BY WEDNESDAY – Zimbabwe’s ruling Zanu-PF party is set to begin impeachment proceedings against president Robert Mugabe on charges that include allowing his wife “to usurp constitutional power”. The motion is now due to be presented to parliament on Tuesday. Senior party member Paul Mangwana said the process could take as little as two days to complete, and president Mugabe could be removed by Wednesday. A deadline set by Zanu-PF for his resignation passed on Monday. Separately, military leaders said they had planned a “roadmap” for Mugabe’s future, and that the ousted former vice-president, Emmerson Mnangagwa, would return to the country soon. Grace Mugabe and Mnangagwa had both been seen as potential successors to the ageing president. But earlier this month, Mugabe fired his deputy – widely seen as an endorsement of his wife – prompting a military intervention. The country’s top general said Mugabe and his former deputy had been in contact, and would hold in-person talks soon. Zimbabwe’s constitution allows for impeachment on grounds of “serious misconduct”, “violation” of the constitution or “failure to obey, uphold or defend” it, or “incapacity”. The opposition MDC-T party has tried unsuccessfully to impeach Mugabe in the past. But with the support of Mugabe’s own Zanu-PF party, which has an overwhelming majority in both houses, the vote is now likely to go against him. If the impeachment goes ahead, the military can claim that he was removed legally, and not by armed force. If that happens, current vice-president Phelekezela Mphoko should assume the role. But Mphoko is a known supporter of Grace Mugabe, and the generals would prefer to install Emmerson Mnangagwa, the former vice-president who was named the new Zanu-PF party chief on Sunday. The crisis began two weeks ago when the 93-year-old leader sacked Mnangagwa, angering army commanders who saw it as an attempt to position his wife as the next president. With Zimbabwe embroiled in a deep economic crisis, the president had already seen some of his support wane. Last week, soldiers seized control of the state broadcaster and placed the president under house arrest – but denied their actions amounted to a military coup. Since then, he has been held at his “blue roof” mansion near the capital. On Sunday, Mugabe gave a televised address which surprised many Zimbabweans because it made no mention of the pressure from his party and the public to quit. Surrounded by generals, he declared that the military had done nothing wrong by seizing power and placing him under house arrest. He then vowed to preside over the Zanu-PF party congress, due in a few weeks. (BT)

GLENDAIRY BREAK IN – The burglar bars are still in place, but the sash windows are gone, along with several appliances and furniture from the main entrance building of the former Glendairy Prison. The brazen theft of two refrigerators, a television, 40 metal chairs, a table top stove, two coolers, a coffee table and two of the three chairs from a living room suite at the Station Hill, St Michael facility, has left former prison officers bewildered. President of the Barbados Association of Retired Prison Officers (BARPO), Mark Phillips, yesterday pointed to a hole in the fence inside of the property which he suspected was an access point. He also highlighted at least two cars in the bushy courtyard which he said were exhibits in court matters and had been in good condition when placed there, but had now been stripped. Phillips and several members of the association had to wait on an officer from the National Housing Corporation (NHC) yesterday to open the main doors so they could remove the rest of the items they left at the prison in March. It was the last time they visited after the iconic property was decommissioned. (DN)

BUSY BURGLAR COMES CLEAN - For a first-time burglar, Romel Rico Cheltenham was fearless and relentless. So bold was he that he stole a tablet from right under its sleeping owner’s nose. When Cheltenham, 33, of Stadium Road, Bush Hall, St Michael, appeared in the District “A” Magistrates’ Court yesterday, he admitted to committing three acts of burglary. He pleaded guilty to entering the home of Otis Bovell on November 9 and stealing a television worth $2 800, a $500 cellphone, a Playstation valued at $600 and $2 400 in cash. The labourer also pleaded guilty to entering the home of Gracie Newsam-Cadogan on November 15 and stealing a $350 tablet and $600 cellphone. On that occasion, Cheltenham broke into the complainant’s house while she was asleep in her bedroom. Even after he realised she was at home, he still proceeded to steal the tablet, which Newsam-Cadogan had left to charge before going to sleep. Cheltenham also admitted entering the building known as Best, Skeete & Company Chartered Accountants and stealing two laptop computers worth $2 980, and two bottles of wine. He also pleaded guilty to damaging a drink machine belonging to Vending Plus Inc on November 16. He was, however, not required to plead to the indictable charge of escaping from the District “A” Police Station on November 16. Magistrate Kristie Cuffy-Sargeant remanded Cheltenham until December 18 for sentencing, when he will also return to court for the indictable charge. (DN)

SILVER HILL MURDER ACCUSED REMANDED – Juneil Shaquel Holder has been remanded to Her Majesty’s Prison Dodds in connection with the murder of Andrew Prescod, who was shot in the head while liming at Silver Hill, Christ Church on October 20. Prescod succumbed to his injuries two days later at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital. Holder, 22, of Hinds Gap, Halls Road, St Michael, was not required to plead to any of the five indictable charges when he appeared before Magistrate Elwood Watts in the District “B” Court at Oistins, Christ Church this afternoon. He has been charged with murdering Prescod sometime between October 20 and 22. Holder is also charged with intent to maim, disfigure, disable and causing serious bodily harm to 21-year-old Daniesha Williams; intent to maim, disfigure, disable and wounding Elvis Farrell; discharging a firearm along Silver Hill in a public place and in a manner which placed Sahiya Amin, 29, in danger of death and serious bodily harm and using a firearm without a valid licence. All those offences were committed on October 20 at Silver Hill. He is to re-appear at Oistins on January 17. (DN)

NINJAMAN FOUND GUILTY – Dancehall artiste Ninjaman was found guilty of murder a short while ago in the Supreme Court. Ninjaman, whose given name is Desmond Ballentine, was charged along with his son Jahneil with the March 2009 murder of Ricardo Johnson, also known as Trooper, on Marl Road in Kingston. The dancehall deejay, who was granted bail in 2012, was taken into custody four weeks ago after his bail was revoked by High Court judge Justice Martin Gayle, who ordered that the murder trial should begin immediately. The case had seen 17 trial dates and 23 mentions. The case was recently transferred to a special court that handles cases on the books for more than five years. Hailing from the parish of St Mary, Ninjaman came to prominence in the 1980s. He is known for songs including Artical Don, Border Clash, and Cover Me featuring Tinga Stewart. The deejay also had a major role in the local action movie Third World Cop in 1999. (DN)

PRIDE COACH PROUD – Never mind they’ve won one, lost one and drawn two. Barbados Pride coach Emmerson Trotman has expressed satisfaction with his team’s performance in the first phase of the Digicel Professional Cricket League 4-Day Championship. Victory over the Windward Islands Volcanoes on Sunday at the Arnos Vale Sports Complex in St Vincent lifted Barbados Pride to third place in the standings, and the coach was upbeat over the effort of his men as the tournament takes its first break after four rounds of matches. “I’m quite happy with the performance of the boys. We had some new players come into the side and they have adapted well. The seniors players have carried them nicely,” Trotman told NATIONSPORT yesterday. (DN)

HUSBANDS LANDS DOUBLE – Veteran Barbadian jockey Patrick Husbands continued to make his presence felt at Woodbine, riding a double on Saturday’s 10-race card at western Canada’s premier racetrack. The 44-year-old won race four with favourite Souper Fly Over before returning to take race six with 3-1 chance Thora Barber, to move to 114 wins for the season. However, Husbands lies fourth in the standings, out of contention for the jockeys title which Brazilian Eurico Rosa da Silva remains on course to take yet another championship. He has 184 victories, 31 clear of nearest challenger Luis Contreras, with Rafael Hernandez third on 140. Husbands, a seven-time Woodbine champion, kicked off his success over seven furlongs, steering three-year-old colt Souper Fly Over to a narrow victory by a head over the three-year-olds and upward. Husbands was tucked away in mid-pack as Leo From Heaven produced the early splits, with Magical Man stalking and Love in the Forest just off the pace. (DN)

BAJANS ON A HIGH – They started as No. 1 and ended as No. 1. Barbadians Tamisha Williams and Monyata Riviera justified their top seeding to emerge doubles champions at the Suriname International Badminton Championships last week. Coming up against the Suriname pair of Crystal Leefmans and Priscila Tjitodipo in the final, Williams and Riviera came away with a 21-17, 21-17 win. The Bajans breezed through each round but they were pushed to the limit in the semi-finals when they took on Carolyne Jameson and Sherifa James, of Suriname. Williams and Riviera won the first game 21-19 but let the second game slip away and went down 19-21. The pair upped their game in the third and deciding set to win 21-15 and advance to the final for the first time. The newly-crowned champions said they used the same game plan that was used in the Barbados Independence Invitational Games and it paid off for them. Williams also came third in the mixed doubles with Dakeil Thorpe. Meanwhile, top junior player Shae Martin said he was very happy with his showing at the tournament and the training he received at the Young Talents Camp, which was held a week before the start of the tournament. (DN)

TOUCHED BY AN ANGEL ACTRESS DELLA REESE DEAD AT 86 – Actress and gospel singer Della Reese, best known for her role in the Touched By An Angel television series, has died at the age of 86 at her home in California, her family said on Monday. The actress “passed away peacefully at her California home surrounded by love” on Sunday, her husband, Franklin Lett, and her family said in a statement. The statement was posted on the family’s behalf by Reese’s co-star Roma Downey on her Instagram page. “Through her life and work she touched and inspired the lives of millions of people,” the statement added. No cause of death was given, but Reese suffered from diabetes which was diagnosed some 17 years ago. Detroit-born Reese was trained as a gospel singer, and first found fame in the late 1950s and early 1960s with pop and jazz hits like Don’t You Know. By 1969, she had her own talk show Della - the first to be hosted by an African-American woman. She then landed roles in shows like It Takes Two and Crazy Like a Fox. Her biggest part however was her role as the sarcastic supervisor angel Tess on the supernatural CBS TV series Touched By An Angel, which ran for nine years until 2003. Reese also sang the title song Walk With You. In the late 1980s, Reese started a church from her Los Angeles living room. The church, called Understanding Principles for Better Living, known as UP, later moved to its own facilities and Reese became known as The Reverend Dr. Della Reese Lett. Reese’s other TV and movie roles included Harlem Nights, Promised Land and The Royal Family. (DN)

BEYONCE IS 2017'S HIGHEST-PAID WOMAN IN MUSIC WITH $105 MILLION - Beyonce’s hit album Lemonade and world tour made her the highest-paid woman in music in 2017, according to an annual Forbes list on Monday, edging out Britain’s Adele and pop star Taylor Swift. The R&B singer earned some $105 million from record sales and from her Formation concert tour, according to Forbes. She also has her own Ivy Park fashion line and other business interests. Adele, whose 25 album broke first-week US sales records in 2015 and who completed her first major tour since 2011, made second place with an estimated $69 million, despite having no major endorsements for other products. Swift, who topped the last year’s list with $170 million in estimated earnings, raked in $44 million this time despite having finished her 1989 world tour. The singer is expected to see her earnings rise significantly in the next 12 months courtesy of her new album Reputation - the best-selling album of 2017 - and an upcoming tour. Canadian superstar Celine Dion took the No.4 spot, earning some $42 million after taking a break from her Las Vegas residency following the death of her husband Rene Angelil in January 2016. Forbes compiled the list after estimating pre-tax income for the 12 months from June 2016 to 2017, based on interviews with managers, agents, lawyers and some of the stars. It also looked at data from the Pollstar, the Recording Industry Association of America and tracking firm Nielsen SoundScan. (DN)

That’s all for today folks there are 44 days left in the year Shalom! #thechasefiles #dailynewscaps Follow us on Twitter, Facebook & Instagram for your daily news. #bajannewscaps #newscapsbystephaniefchase

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The Chase Files Daily Newscap 1/11/2019

Good Morning #realdreamchasers. Here is your daily news cap for Friday, November 1st, 2019. There is a lot to read and digest so take your time. Remember you can read full articles via Barbados Government Information Service (BGIS), Barbados Today (BT), or by purchasing a Weekend Nation Newspaper (WN).

SCHOOLS REOPEN – The Ministry of Education, Technological and Vocational Training has advised that the Wesley Hall Infants, Wesley Hall Junior and the St. Mary's Primary Schools will reopen today, Friday, November 1. (BGIS)

STUDENTS LATE NOT THE BUS – Don’t blame the poor bus service for the tardiness of some schoolchildren, says one head of a secondary school. Instead, said acting principal of Grantley Adams Memorial School, Major Andrew Skeete, in most cases the fault rested with the youngsters and some of the parents. Yesterday, Skeete defended the Transport Board, stating that in spite of its present constraints, it had been very good to the Blackmans, St Joseph school. “I would say to you that we don’t have a major challenge . . . . Whenever we make contact with the Transport Board, they are ready and willing to assist Grantley Adams. We have asked them for a late bus, they said the Bathsheba bus would come into the yard and pick up those children staying back doing extracurricular activities. You would have your off days, which have been few, but so far the transportation system is reasonable,” Skeete said. On the other hand, he noted that the majority of times when students strolled in late was as a result of them deliberately lingering in the bus stand. The educator said that having noticed the trend, they had reached out to some parents but were met with excuses, while others claimed they were unaware. (WN)

ROSS U COMES UP TRUMP FOR ECONOMY– Government’s decision to bring Ross University may have been a masterful stroke, respected economist Jeremy Stephen has said, as the medical school is shaping up to be as big an economic engine as it once was for its former home, Dominica. Stephen highlighted the university as one of the more substantial takeaways from the Central Bank’s latest report on the economy. Noting the overall report gives Barbadians much to smile about, Stephen told Barbados TODAY that he was most intrigued by the prospects of growth in 2020. He said: “The report is pretty encouraging in that the Barbados economy is forecasted to have a slight uptick in 2020 and a lot of it seems to be dependent on the performance of Ross University. “It was referred to in the document as ‘medical educational tourism’, a very smartly put bit of language, as it appears that they didn’t want to speak to too much specifics. “Based on what I would have read in the report, ‘medical education tourism’ was one of the major players when it came to increased tourism arrivals over the first nine months of the year. “This sector also largely accounted for increased tourism spend. “The largest and newest of these players is Ross University.” The economist noted that while he is on the fence as to whether Ross University students classify as tourists, the development was certainly a good sign for the economy. He also pointed to the re-exportation of goods as helping with the country’s overall export earnings. Stephen told Barbados TODAY: “I have said for the last ten years that trans-shipment is the big opportunity that Barbados has in the near future and it is interesting to see this now. “I am hoping that it is not an anomaly but rather an emerging trend.” The central bank report said the economy declined by an estimated 0.2 per cent so far this year, owing mainly to delays in private sector investment projects and budget cuts in public spending, which eroded the gains made in the tourism industry. Stephen contends that even this could be viewed as the glass being half full, adding that based on the country’s ongoing debt exercise, one would not be faulted for anticipating a larger fall. He said: “The economy did not fall by as much as one would expect considering that we are under a debt exercise. This includes not just the debt restructuring but the IMF programme as well, so this means that the entire economy is being restructured and one would expect a bit of a falloff. “This was compounded by the fact construction and unemployment numbers are going in directions that we do not want. “We are going through an IMF programme and you do not necessarily grow while that is going on.” But the outspoken economist noted that while there was certainly much to write home about, there were troubling and areas which should be urgently addressed. Topping his list of negatives was low capital expenditure. Stephen said: “Capital expenditure is part of the way the economy would grow but unless I am reading the report wrong, capital expenditure increased by just $10 million from the same period last year, despite the flagging standard of infrastructure that we do have.” He further pointed out that the economic report shows that less money has been spent on fuel imports and since Government was the majority importer of fuel into Barbados, one could surmise that the difference at the pumps was much more than just the fuel tax. “This would certainly justify a lot of the anger people are having with respect to cost at the pumps despite continued suppression of prices internationally. “It is my hope that those monies would be accounted for in the public coffers and go toward capital expenditure,” he stressed. (BT)

DECISION REVERSED – Two dozen suspension letters originally issued by the Transport Authority to public service vehicle (PSV) permit holders have been withdrawn. The decision to rescind the letters came following discussions with stakeholders in the industry. Last week chairman of the authority Ian Estwick revealed that two PSV permits which had been obtained illegally had been revoked and 14 permits had been suspended for a number of infractions. The suspension was to run from November 1 to 30. When contacted Estwick declined to comment, but chairman of the Association of Public Transport Operators (APTO) Kenneth Best told Barbados TODAY there had been a change of heart by the authority. Best said he was not sure how many infractions had been committed by the guilty parties, but he noted that every case had been judged on its own merit. “The Transport Authority used the power provided to them under the Act and suspended the permits for a month. There were discussions among all of the players in the industry and the Transport Authority and it was agreed that those suspension letters would be withdrawn and instead people would be given a warning,” he said. However, Best, an attorney-at-law, said going forward he would prefer to see the PSV drivers who commit the infractions being punished first. He said he believed owners should only be punished if it was proven they neglected to reprimand those guilty parties. “One recognizes that the owner in some circumstances will be disadvantaged because he gave someone his vehicle, asked them to conform to the law and they breached it. “But within the Road Traffic Act as well as the Transport Authority Act, the driver can be dealt with and I believe that should be the way going forward. Start with the person who commits the offence first and if they don’t change then you can deal with them, or if the owners neglect to say who was the driver at a particular time then they cannot complain of any infractions because it is their responsibility to know who is driving their vehicles and whose hands they put their vehicles in,” Best, a former politician said. To its credit, Best said the authority had communicated with owners through a series of meetings. He also used the opportunity to plead with PSV operators not to continue to break the law. “What I would want to see going forward is that the drivers conform to the Road Traffic Act and regulations, as well as the Transport Authority Act and avoid anything of this sort because we need to operate within the ambit of the law,” he said. Public relations officer for the Alliance Owners of Public Transport (AOPT) Mark Haynes told Barbados TODAY he was unaware of the development and therefore was not in a position to comment. (BT)

NO ECONOMIC GAINS FOR THE POOR – Despite the positive economic outlook presented in the Central Bank’s third quarter financial report, an outspoken labour leader says the gloomy realities of working-class citizens paint a totally different picture. According to General Secretary of the Unity Workers’ Union Caswell Franklyn heavy taxation policies and inconsistent payment for dozens of public servants were continuing to cripple the economic fortunes of “average” Barbadians and have totally reversed the five percent salary increase given to public servants over a year ago. Franklyn was reacting to a reported upswing in Barbados’ economic prospects over the first nine months of 2019, which was revealed earlier this week by Central Bank Governor, Cleviston Haynes. To the contrary, Franklyn told Barbados TODAY he has been swamped with complaints from his members and believes the only people seeing improvements are those who supported the current Government during its rise to power. “I don’t know what figures the Central Bank’s employees were looking at… but let me tell you something, he [Governor Haynes] is not on the ground. I am not seeing any growth or any prospect of growth for the working man,” the straightforward union leader declared. For him, a clear indication of the inconsistency between the bank’s report and Barbadian reality is reflected in the number of civil servants, some in senior positions, being denied their salaries for months on end. “I was talking to a worker who was complaining that he wasn’t getting his full pay from government and he is quarreling with me for not being able to get him money from government. These are people working in the Drainage Division cleaning the drains and moving dead dogs and things out of the drains, who cannot get their allowances…. If things were improving, these guys would have been able to get their money. These are people working for minimum wage,” he argued. “You have situations where nurses aren’t getting paid and I have nurses who are acting at the senior level who have not been paid since February. I don’t know what the governor is seeing, but he is probably seeing figures from someplace else, not Barbados. There is no positive outlook for anybody working in Barbados unless you are one of the party hacks that is getting these contracts.” In addition, Franklyn complained that Government in the form of taxation was still placing a heavy burden on those who could ill afford to pay. In fact, he said the five per cent salary increase given to workers when the Mia Mottley government first came into office was now virtually useless. “That increase has been wiped out and is now gone. I do not know what the Government is thinking…they are just hitting and missing and when it doesn’t work they are trying something else,” argued Franklyn. “I don’t know if they are practicing trickle down economics where, if you give tax breaks to the people at the top, it would trickle to the people at the bottom. No trickling has been happening,” he said. Instead he suggested Government sack some of its consultants and revert to professional civil servants. “They civil servants have been helping to run this country from Independence but they are bringing in a lot of people who have never managed an economy, know nothing about it, only know text book and are giving very bad advice.” Efforts to reach officials from the Barbados Workers’ Union and the National Union of Public Workers were unsuccessful. Meanwhile, President of the Small Business Association, Wayne Willock said while he was in no position to assess the Central Bank’s Report in the context of small enterprises in Barbados, he was hoping the positive outlook forecast by the governor would translate into positive things. “I think we will have to look further down the road into next year’s projections. Certainly manufacturing and construction are the areas that should see more growth based on what is being highlighted,” said Willock. (BT)

BWU BRIEFS JORDAN ON G4S ISSUES - Minister of Labour Colin Jordan is now fully aware of the grievances affecting security officers at G4S Secure Solutions Barbados (Ltd). This was disclosed by consultant to the Barbados Workers’ Union (BWU), Sir Roy Trotman, after a closed-door meeting with the minister yesterday, amidst reports of the workers preparing to take strike action. “We were able to indicate to him a number of issues which had been outstanding for quite some time, because they had not been escalated up to his office by the Labour Department where we had sent some of them,” he explained. Sir Roy said the BWU had also raised other issues which were not sent to the Labour Department, but which had been occasioning significant challenges for the workforce, making it appear as though it was a battlefield. In the last Midweek Nation, workers complained about some colleagues being offered pay increases while others’ pay remained unchanged. They said workers posted at the United States Embassy had been given a pay raise while those in the cash in transit division, aviation and guarding were to continue at the same rate. (WN)

LOCAL WORKERS FALLING SHORT ON STANDARDS – Finding local workers who adhere to high quality health and safety standards can be a challenge in Barbados for at least one industry, a human resource official has reported. The issue was highlighted on Thursday during the Skills for the Future Summit at the Sandals Royal Barbados hotel under the theme Exploring the Future of Skills. During the panel discussion on the Importance of a Skills-Based Educational System to Barbados’ Economic Development, Head of Human Resources at the Roberts Manufacturing Company Ltd and Pinnacle Feeds Ltd Alison Kirton-Holder said that company had recently had challenges in sourcing local workers who obeyed the health and safety standards. “When we get people to come in and do stuff for us, whether it is replacing a roofing, decking or anything to that effect, we find that based on the Massy Health and Safety Standards, it is difficult to find companies in Barbados who can adhere to those standards,” Kirton-Holder revealed. “Quite recently for example, we had to get a Trinidadian company to come in and place decking on one of our towers. They came with their health and safety person and examined the job and did all these things,” said Kirton-Holder. Pointing out that the way business was conducted in the manufacturing industry was constantly changing so companies could remain competitive, Kirton-Holder said standards have also changed and companies had to constantly keep up-to-date and meet the “sophisticated” needs of customers. Kirton-Holder said the Lower Estate, St Michael organisation, which is partly owned by the Massy Group, was very “standards driven” and had to pay close attention to health and safety. However, the HR executive said their recent experience highlighted the need for residents to continuously upgrade their skills and stay abreast of high quality standards. “We would have liked to have given that job to a local company but we are finding it more difficult, based on standards, to give businesses the work at a local level. “Something as simple as replacing a roof, our health and safety officer would meet with the contractors and we would say what our standards are, but when we confirm and we look at them they are not wearing harnesses for example, and our staff has been sensitized over the last few years so they know what is required,” said Kirton-Holder. (BT)

FOCUS ON BUILDING SKILLS FOR EMERGING ECONOMY – Training officials are insisting that technical and vocational training will play a major role in transforming the Barbados economy. However, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Labour Alyson Forte has insisted that the training should be demand driven and training institutions will be required to make the necessary changes. “When training is demand driven then those persons are better able to come back and put into practice what they have been taught,” Forte told the opening of the Skills for the Future Summit held at the Sandals Royal Barbados on Thursday. “Undoubtedly, technical and vocational education will play a key role in the transformation of the Barbados economy. Consequently, there must be a transformation of the educational system to mainstream such education while strengthening the capabilities of agencies such as the Barbados Vocational Training Board, the Samuel Jackman Prescod Institute of Technology and the TVET Council, both in terms of their curricula and their student output, maybe through expanded campus or campuses,” Forte explained. He said with continued sluggish growth it is now time to focus on investment and economic activity that embrace the latest technology and “facilitate innovation” especially in the emerging sectors of renewable energy, the blue and green economy, the creative industries and digital sector. Thursday’s summit was part of an ongoing process under the Skills for the Future programme to identify, among other things, recruitment and human resource management practices and skills needs for the emerging economies. Stating that the summit was timely, Forte said it came at a time when the Barbados Economic Recovery and Transformation (BERT) programme recognizes both economic recovery and transformation as essential elements to put Barbados back on a path of economic growth. During a panel discussion titled Importance of a Skills-Based Educational System to Barbados’ Economic Development, Executive Director of the TVET Council Henderson Eastmond said he believed the Skills for the Future programme that was introduced in 2014, had started to change the mindset of Barbadians when it came to competency training. “We are going to be, as a country, very strategic in our training. Our training must lead to an export-driven economy. It must lead to a reduction in imports,” said Eastmond. Pointing to the need to reduce food imports, renewable energy and creative industry products, Eastmond said it was about time Barbados “get with it through training and standards”. Officials also agreed that there was need for a development of “core skills” if residents were to contribute significantly to the island’s development and compete favourably with the rest of the world. Country Coordinator of the A Ganar programme Ytanna Wiggins said the basic skills needed to operate as a citizen should take centrestage. “You could enter the world with the greatest technical skills. You can have the greatest first-class degrees but if you do not have those core skills to operate in any industry, the skills of discipline, respect, communication and team work, you will not and cannot fit in any industry anywhere in Barbados, the region or the world,” said Wiggins to applause. She said the workforce development A Ganar programme, which was introduced in 2013 in secondary schools and designed to help youth with basic reading and writing skills and practical experience, was providing those core skills. “We have recognized that we have been talking. The Skills for the Future has showed us where we are going. We have started the work and we are in the secondary schools. The foundation is being laid by the [vocational] training board and Samuel Jackman Prescod Institute of Technology and we now need to decide how much further we are going. We need to stop talking and start working and we need to communicate more,” said Wiggins. Meanwhile, Principal of the Samuel Jackman Prescod Institute of Technology (SJPI) Ian Drakes said it was important that the learning institutions and companies form partnerships in order to provide the necessary training that the various industries and sectors required. “We have to train our young persons for jobs that are not created as yet, digital global competitive citizens,” said Drakes. “I would want us to understand that as training institutions it is more about being driven by the industry and not what you as a leader feel is the greatest thing on earth which may be a waste of time,” he added. (BT)

DRY BUMP – The drought may well have gone from bad to worse, as weather forecasters record a continuing a dramatic slump in rainfall. Figures from the Barbados Meteorological Services have revealed that the amount of rainfall for the year is 15 inches less than the 30-year average, posing a threat to water availability when the wet season ends on November 30. Rainfall for the month of October – a month historically marked by heavy downpours and floods – is already more than four inches below the average, Meteorologist Wayne McGeary told Barbados TODAY. Up to the final day of month, 78.8 mm, or approximately 3.81 inches of rain had been recorded, McGeary revealed. But he said the 30-year average suggested that the month of October normally had 185.1 mm of rainfall. “Basically we are about 4.09 inches below the 30-year average and that is only for the month of October,” McGeary noted. He further revealed that the cumulative rainfall recorded for the year so far was 614.6 mm, or approximately 24.19 inches. The normal cumulative rainfall average for the same period was 1009 mm, or 39.72 inches. McGeary said: “You can see that we are about 15 inches below the normal amount of rainfall which we receive, which is a lot of rainfall when you think about it. “And the predictions would suggest that at least down to December we are still going to get below normal rainfall totals.” He said the last time Barbados had experienced such low levels of rainfall was in 2015, when only 23.09 inches of rainfall had been recorded during the same period. As the island moves into the dry season, the shortfall was also worrisome, said the met officer. He explained that December and January were “transitional months” leading into the dry season which officially begins in February. And while McGeary said he was not in a position to speak on behalf of the Barbados Water Authority (BWA) as it relates to the challenges these prolonged drought conditions would have on the BWA’s ability to provide customers with water, he said it was more likely than not that the utility would be adversely affected. Only yesterday, the BWA issued a press release stating that the “extreme drought like conditions” affecting the island was impacting on its well sources in St Lucy. The BWA said it had resulted in less available groundwater and increased salinity in the wells supplying some St Lucy and St Peter districts as seawater begins to seep into the aquifers to fill the void left from depleted potable water supplies. McGeary told Barbados TODAY: “Of course it would [make matters worse]. I can’t speak on BWA business, but from a rainfall standpoint, quite clearly we are well below the rainfall amounts. “And then when the rain falls it still takes a while before it reaches the aquifers, so that is potentially why they [BWA] has to ration the water so to speak so that people can still receive water. “It is something that we definitely have to keep a close eye on because we are so accustomed to having constant supplies of water, but in these conditions you have to be very mindful of the water used and try not to waste water.” (BT)

FAMILY STILL IN DARK OVER GRAVE DIGGER’S DEATH – The family of gravedigger Stephen Cadogan laid him to rest in Westbury Cemetery yesterday, but they are not resting easy at the way their loved one was taken from them. As scores of mourners sang When The Roll Is Called Up Yonder, Cadogan, who worked as a soil technician at the graveyard, was buried a stone’s throw away from where he was found with stab wounds early Sunday morning, October 13. His was among the 40 murders so far for the year. His brother Wayne Yarde said he was still struggling to come to grips with the situation. “I was working on my son’s vehicle when I got the news and I had to stop. I couldn’t work no more,” he told the Weekend Nation. “Right now, the family isn’t doing too well, because he was one of the pillar stones, and he was my favourite out of all of my siblings, so we are just trying to hold on.” He added since the killing, they had not received any new information from the police, other than investigations were continuing. (WN)

POLICE IDENTIFY LATEST SHOOTIN VICTIM – Omar Phillips, 36, of #6 Harbour View, Pine, St Michael, received a gunshot injury to his right hand after he was involved in a shooting earlier today. Police received a report that the incident took place in Shepton Lane, The Pine, St Michael around 9:25 this morning. Phillips was standing near the corner of Shepton Lane and Golden Rock, when he was approached by an unknown masked man who fired several shots in his direction. He was taken to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital for medical attention, where he was treated and discharged. Police are still investigating this matter. Anyone who may have witnessed this incident, or who may have knowledge of it, is asked to contact District ‘A’ Police Station at telephone number 430-7242/7295, Police Emergency number 211, Crime Stoppers at 1-800-TIPS(8477) or the nearest police station. (WN)

WANTED DARIO FLATTS – The Royal Barbados Police Force is trying to locate a man who is wanted for questioning in connection with a serious criminal matter. He is 22-year-old Dario Delisle Flatts, alias “Mouse”, of last known address Fields Place, Bayville, St Michael. Flatts has a brown complexion, a slim build and is approximately five feet eight inches tall. He has a tattoo depicting a star with the initials “DF” on his right lower arm, a tattoo of the word “MOB” on his right upper arm and has burn scars on his left arm. Flatts can present himself to the Hastings Police Station, Hastings, St Michael accompanied by an attorney of his choice. Anyone who may know the whereabouts of Dario Delisle Flatts, is asked to contact the Hastings Police Station at 430-7219, Police Emergency at 211, Crime Stoppers at 1-800-TIPS (8477), or the nearest police station. The public is reminded that it is a serious offence to harbour or assist wanted persons; any person caught committing this offence can be prosecuted. (WN)

SPIRITS HAUL ENDS IN JAIL FOR THEFT ACCUSED – An unemployed young man was sentenced to 12 months behind bars today for stealing from A1 Supermarket on Tuesday. When 26-year-old Chad Jabbari Hazell of Kingsland Crescent, Christ Church appeared before District ‘A’ Magistrate Kristie Cuffy-Sergeant he pleaded guilty to the stealing $1,206.05 worth of items. A restitution order was also made for the convict to repay the supermarket. The facts, which were read by police prosecutor Station Sergeant Crishna Graham revealed that at about 4 p.m. Tuesday, Hazell stole four bottles of brandy valued at $690.35 and three bottles of whisky, worth $515.70. According to the facts of the case he went to the supermarket and pretended to be shopping. He took up a shopping cart and pushed it through the aisle where the alcoholic beverages are located. The prosecutor said Hazell had entered the Black Rock supermarket with a bag in which he placed the items. He was being observed by the store’s security officer. The unemployed youth then tried to leave the store but was intercepted by the security officer who contacted the police. The facts revealed that Hazell admitted to the offence when he was interviewed by the police. (BT)

MURDER TRIAL RESUMES – The case in which Ryan Omar Samuel is charged with murdering Charley Dume at a City bar five years ago, continued today in the absence of the jury. For the entire day, the No. 2 Supreme Court sat in voir dire [a case within a case] to conduct a preliminary examination of various prosecution witnesses prior to going before the jury. The voir dire is expected to continue tomorrow morning for a shorter period following which the 12-member panel of jurors will be invited back into the court room for the trial. The accused, who sat in the dock throughout the day’s proceedings, is charged with the shooting death of Dume on April 26, 2014 while at a bar on the corner of Wellington Street and Nelson Street. The accused has already told the presiding judge Randall Worrell he did not commit the crime, but the prosecution is alleging otherwise. While defence counsel Mohia Ma’at will try to protect his client’s presumed innocence, Acting Director of Public Prosecutions Alliston Seale must prove the Crown’s case beyond a shadow of a doubt. Yesterday, a witness testified how he was in close proximity to a group of people, including a man holding a haversack to the front of his body with his hands inside, when he heard about eight shots even though he saw no gun. (BT)

DRUG TESTS SOON – The drug busters could be bowling at regional cricketers over the next month in an attempt to discourage the use of prohibited performance-enhancing substances. Barbados Cricket Association’s (BCA) president Conde Riley yesterday revealed that there will be drug testing at the upcoming Colonial Medical Insurance Regional Super50 Cup, which bowls off in St Kitts and Trinidad and Tobago, next week.“There is drug testing at all regional tournaments. I think that is carried out by the [CWI] Medical panel and there are also a number of workshops about what you [the cricketers] can drink and take. We have a list of substances that the guys are not supposed to take,” Riley told Weekend Sport yesterday. “There is a medical panel at Cricket West Indies that comes around to all the territories before tournaments and they do educational stuff with regard to the dos and don’ts as it relates to drugs and so on. But if you see an exceptional performance, that person would get tested,” added Riley. Riley, who made the remarks following a press conference at Kensington Oval where chairman of the senior selection panel, Henderson Broomes defended the selection of the Barbados team. (WN)

AFGHANISTAN NOT EASY – Newly-appointed West Indies head coach, Phil Simmons, has warned of the threat posed by his former side Afghanistan, and says execution and consistency will be crucial to success in the upcoming series. West Indies arrived here this week for a six-match limited overs series – three Twenty20 Internationals and One-Day Internationals – but are aware that even though Afghanistan are one of the youngest international sides, they will be dangerous in familiar subcontinent conditions. “It’s a positive thing that I know much about the rivals but they are a young and energetic side who can upset anyone,” cautioned Simmons, who stepped down as Afghanistan coach following the ICC World Cup in July.“Over the last many years, they have become quite a confident unit. They will be playing on home turf; it’s not going to be easy for us. We have to make sure we are ready for what comes to us while facing an aggressive opposition. “On both the occasions when Afghanistan beat West Indies, I was their coach, and this time I would like to see things in the reverse order. It would be important to see how the West Indies boys execute plans.” (WN)

CLEAR SIGHT – Returning nationals based in Barbados are eagerly anticipating next year’s We Gatherin’ Vision 2020 celebrations and are predicting tremendous success in reconnecting dozens in the diaspora with their homeland. But economic uncertainty over ongoing Brexit negotiations has threatened to slash the spending power of those living and working in Britain or receiving pensions from the British government. A closely-knit community of returning nationals shared the views while at the Speightstown Resource Centre enjoying a four-hour session of ballroom and line dancing on Thursday.. While the retirees are mostly focused on enjoying their golden years in the land of their birth, many are deeply concerned about their country’s social and economic prosperity as well as an increasing loss of patriotism among their children and grandchildren.(BT)

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The Chase Files Daily Newscap 3/1/2019

Good MORNING #realdreamchasers! Here is The Chase Files Daily News Cap for Friday 1st March 2019. Remember you can read full articles for FREE via Barbados Today (BT) or Barbados Government Information Services (BGIS) OR by purchasing by purchasing a Weekend Nation Newspaper (WN).

‘SERIOUS STEPS’ TO STEM GUN FLOW – Measures have already been implemented to deal with the smuggling of firearms into Barbados and gun crimes in general. This was revealed yesterday by Attorney General Dale Marshall as he reacted to the recent shootings which resulted in the deaths of four men between Saturday and Wednesday. “We are taking serious steps to eliminate the entry of illegal firearms into the island,” Marshall told THE NATION. “We are taking steps to round up those illegal firearms that have reached our streets, and to round up the people who wield them, and those in the drug trade who fuel the demand for the weapons,” he said, while pointing out that he could not share the details of police operations and strategies. (WN)

URGENT INTERVENTION NEED TO ARREST CRIME – Crime and violence in Barbados are almost at a crisis level. So says Opposition Leader Joseph Atherley and he called for urgent interventions to address the worrying situation. “The moment is urgent; the matter is approaching crisis proportions; the measure of our resolve will determine the Barbados profile of tomorrow,” Atherley said in an Opposition statement on a national crime response issued today. “This statement constitutes a call on Government to establish urgently a national platform for dialogue on crime and violence. We suggest that the effort be led by a special sub-committee of the Cabinet inclusive of the ministries of the Attorney General, Home Affairs, Education and Youth and Community Development.” The Opposition leader said it was inaccurate to suggest that the increased cases of violent crime in Barbados was as a result of the Democratic Labour Party’s (DLP) inability to present more opportunities to young people during its time in office. Atherley said there was a need for a researched-based, proactive, strategic and holistic approach. He explained that the transnational and inter-regional dynamics of Barbados’ culture and development needed to weigh heavily when considering a response platform to crime and violence. “Our national response must better understand the contributing dynamics associated with family life and parenting. The church and other social agencies must be more relevantly engaging our youth and communities,” the statement read. “Our leaders all across the board must offer better modeling of desired conduct and we must deliberately promote long-held Barbadian values and better shield those values from the threat of imported perverted influences.” Bishop Atherley also called for more investment in a targeted and significantly enhanced school’s guidance counselling programme. According to him the current educational system also needed to be evaluated and he also called for a revamped justice system. “The positive efforts at penal reform must continue with strong elements of rehabilitation. Our custodial responses must be reviewed to ensure that proper penalties apply, while at the same time avoiding the outcome of creating habitual offenders,” the statement read. “The justice system must be made to work more efficiently with greater measure of restorative and restitutionary elements incorporated. At the same time, the hand of the judicial sanction must be firm.” Atherley also made a call for customs operations to be strengthened and for increased policing of our ports of entry to stem the flow of illegal guns and drugs. He added that there also needed to be investigations of the ‘bigger brains and pockets’ behind criminal activity in Barbados. (BT)

‘REVISIT MANDATORY YOUTH SERVICE’ – A mandatory National Youth Service may be the answer to the challenges facing at-risk youth, a prominent sociologist has suggested . Richard Carter told the National Strategic Consultation on the Social Response to Crime held on Wednesday, the idea of a National Youth Service, first mooted in 1999, was “still-born” at that time. Hoping that there would be greater resolve in implementing the programme at this time, given “the current circumstances”, he explained that what was being proposed was that every young person who was not attending school or employed should be required to enroll in a day-release National Youth Service. He further proposed a residential youth service for first-time and minor offenders. These “unattached youth”, he said, would be involved in community service, continuing education and training, and preparation for jobs. Noting that there was “a huge amount” of research which demonstrated the effectiveness of this approach, he cautioned that results would not be seen immediately, and a measure of patience would therefore be required. Carter told the gathering: “What we are facing is a multidimensional problem which needs a multidimensional response. It will not yield immediate results, medium term at best. It required thinking about the problem at its genesis, that is, at the family and community level.” The sociologist also stressed the importance of an integrated, and not just multi-sectoral, response with everyone working collaboratively. That level of integration, he said, would require the ceding of “sovereignty” and people and institutions would have to be willing to cede territory in pursuit of the overall goal. Finally, he said, expectations must be managed and everyone must be realistic, accepting that it will not be possible to save every at-risk youngster. (BT)

TRADE GUNS FOR OUR SELF-HELP TOOLS’ – The minister for young people is seeking to make a deal with gun-toting peers: replace their guns with Government-issue tools for self-empowerment. Minister of Youth and Community Empowerment Adrian Forde is hoping to strike a bargain with young men on the block, as a rash of gun attacks claimed its two latest victims yesterday. In an interview with Barbados TODAY, Forde said he was deeply concerned by the level of the violence in just the first two months of the year. As of last night, Barbados recorded its ninth shooting death, which raised the overall murder tally to 14. Forde said: “We are saying to the young people to put down those guns because when a bullet leaves a gun it does not have a name attached to it. The only names that I see on a bullet are death and destruction. So, I am making an emotional plea to our young people to put down those guns, and when you do, I promise that we as a Government will make sure that there are tools of empowerment around to be picked up. Whether it is sports, arts, culture, entrepreneurship, we will help you.” Police were called to the scenes of the 13th and 14th murders within hours of each other yesterday. The first happened in broad daylight when, just before midday, at St Martins, St Philip, Shane Brathwaite, 35, was gunned down, leaving residents and some eyewitnesses traumatised. As day fell to night, in busy Clevedale, Black Rock, 47-year-old Lester Holder, a construction worker of Denton Road, Grazettes was shot moments after leaving his mother’s home. Calling on young people to find different ways of conflict resolution, the Minister of youth revealed that Government is working on measures to enable a tempered approach to resolving differences. He said: “Let us find different ways of conflict resolution. If we lose one person, that is one too many and with this current situation, I am saying to look for other ways to resolve issues. We are going to provide mechanisms that will give them that chance that they never had. A mind scratched by a new good experience will never go back to its old ways.” He argued that it was for this reason that programmes such as his building block initiative rolled out last year, is important in eradicating youth unemployment which stands at 30 per cent, according to the most recent tracer study by the Ministry of Youth and Community Empowerment. As Prime Minister Mia Mottley did last week, Forde blamed apparent youth disenfranchisement on the policies of the Democratic Labour Party administration – zeroing in on an initiative to provide summer camps for children. “I have said this before and I will say it again in other places, the last government spent $3 million in catering for a summer camp, so that they could share up the fatted calf among their friends,” said the Minister. “That money could have facilitated a lot of young people across Barbados. You have these sorts of things happening in Barbados while young people on the blocks and across the country are suffering and feeling neglected because no one is looking back at them,” he stressed. (BT)

“BE WARY OF QEH CUTS” – The last in, first out policy cannot hold in the health sector. This has been indicated by Opposition spokesperson for health, wellness and the environment Paul Gibson as he said they had heard about 115 upcoming layoffs at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH). “It is very important to measure, quantify and evaluate the role you will be eliminating from the health system. It is very important to look and see what people are doing there before they are laid off. The ones who are inefficient or not giving a full day’s work need to go but those who are, need not to be touched. “The unions have their place in Barbados but if you know that you can have another three or four heart attacks by eliminating certain roles, would you listen to the union, or the ones having the heart attack? The health space does not necessarily follow the natural [course] of labour law . . . and if you are evaluating the health space, it needs to be done with more calculation and thought,” he said. (WN)

UNIFORM COMPROMISE –Persons dependent on public transport can breathe a little easier tonight, as the Transport Authority has reached an 11th-hour compromise with privately-owned Public Service Vehicle (PSV) operators over the rollout of the controversial uniform code, which was to be effective from tomorrow. In a joint statement released this afternoon by the PSV Workers’ Association and the Transport Authority, it was agreed that the introduction of the mandatory uniform, bearing the authority’s logo has been put on hold until further notice. The decision came after five hours of talks two days ago between the authority under the chairmanship of Ian Estwick, and members of the PSV Workers Association, which included President Shawn Best, Public Relations Officer Fabian Wharton and Director Rodney Bellamy. The release stated, “With respect to the wearing of the Transport Authority’s logo, it was agreed that once the prescribed shirts and pants or jeans are worn, we will hold in abeyance the wearing of the logo on the shirts.” It was further agreed that on weekends and bank holidays, drivers and conductors will be allowed to wear polo shirts, providing that they are in the legally allowed colours, which are grey for drivers and yellow or cream for conductors. “We have also agreed drivers and conductors can wear black jeans with the prescribed shirts,” the statement detailed, noting that negotiations of this nature ought not be seen through the lenses of winners and losers, as dictated by the current adversarial culture. Last week, PSV operators said that they were blindsided by the Transport Authority’s notice of the new dress code, which had resulted in a two-day bus strike last month when attempts were first made to introduce it. In his interview with Barbados TODAY last Friday, Wharton contended that putting out the notice while negotiations were still taking place, suggested that the concerns of drivers and conductors were not being taken seriously. This afternoon a much happier Wharton said, “We are happy that the Transport Authority has taken the position of hearing us and are willing to work together to not only make things better for us as operators but also to bring order to this sector. We acknowledge that there are a few who give the majority a bad name but in large part, most of our members want to comply with the law and to see their business and this sector grow. “We know that with a better reputation, more people will be encouraged to use public transport and that will be to all of our benefit. We are pleased with the approach this new board is taking and we are committed to doing our part to see that meaningful, positive changes continue to happen. (BT)

FIRE CAUTION –The fire service is reporting a significant jump in fires for the first two months of the year, with grass fires increasing by 575 per cent, and double the number of rubbish fires. Chief Fire Officer Errol Maynard said there was an overall increase of 147 per cent in the number of fires firefighters responded to up until February 25, year on year. The fire service responded to 2,200 fires last year, of which 1,500 were grass and rubbish fires. This trend has not changed as Chief Maynard said grass and rubbish fires continue to lead the statistics, with 270 grass fires being recorded so far this year, compared with 40 for the same period last year; and 90 rubbish fires this year, compared with 45 last year. He said in an interview with the Barbados Government Information Service: “These fires continue to be considered nuisance calls as they cause our resources to be stretched unnecessarily, as most persons who start these fires are either burning garbage or clearing lots and not realizing that their actions are destroying the environment, causing distress to persons, especially those with respiratory issues, and also placing others in danger of losing their homes or even their lives, if and when these fires get out of control.” Maynard said grass fires were stretching the fire service’s resources, with as much as 1,200 gallons of water being used to fight one major fire. The fires also affected the department’s manpower capacity and use of diesel, and contributed to wear and tear on fire engines. Maynard suggested that residents avoid using fire to clean-up around their homes, as it a was dangerous practice that could lead to a loss of life and property. The fire chief stated that all of the service’s divisions were “extremely busy” with the southern division responding to 87 fires and 112 overall incidents; the northern division responded to 105 fires and 125 overall incidents, and the central division to 248 fires and 297 overall incidents. He also expressed concern about the notable increase in house fires, with 14 being recorded up to February 25, compared with 11 for the same period last year, a 27 per cent increase. Maynard said most of the blazes were caused by carelessness, electrical shortages and defective equipment. He cautioned homeowners that they should pay attention to their fans and avoid overloading extension cords and charging cellular phones in bed and overnight. He said persons should only use chargers that come with the phones. Maynard also stated that homeowners should avoid using matches, which produce a naked flame. “Use gas lighters instead,” he suggested, while adding that firemen were also seeing a return of the trend of children playing with matches. The fire chief said that flickering lights in homes should not be ignored, as it could be a warning sign of an electrical problem in the home. Maynard also urged homeowners to ensure that they install smoke detectors, acquire fire extinguishers for their homes, and take out homeowners insurance policies. (BT)

BEACH ACCESS LIMITED – A lounge chair vendor who operates at a west coast beach believes his small business is under attack from officials at a nearby beachfront hotel and officers from the National Conservation Commission after his access to the public beach for business purposes was restricted. Thirty-one-year-old Derry Bayley, a registered vendor at Alleyne’s Bay, below the community of Mount Standfast, St James said security officers from the Royal Pavilion Hotel had been complaining for sometime about where he was placing his beach chairs. The vendor has also accused them of harassing his patrons, mostly tourists and demanding that they move his chairs from “their side” of the beach. Bayley said he had placed his beach chairs on the section of the beach north of the Royal Pavilion, allowing hotel staff to place its own beach chairs on the long stretch of beach in front of the hotel. Unhappy with that arrangement, the luxury hotel appealed to the NCC to intervene. In response, Head of Rangers Alfred Burnett along with a police officer from the Holetown Police Station arrived at the beach on Wednesday to address the matter. Barbados TODAY understands that at the instruction of NCC officials, a black line was spray-painted on a section of the beach and Bayley was informed that his chairs would not be allowed to cross it. The young entrepreneur said that he had very little involvement in the “compromise” and was threatened that his licence to operate on the beach would be revoked if he did not comply. “They were telling me that they wanted to make peace and by making peace, they don’t want me to come a certain distance and they informed the hotel to draw a mark with spray paint, marking a wall which I am not supposed to pass with my chairs,” he said, while adding that the new regulations would negatively affect his growing business. In a statement, General Manager of The Royal Pavilion Jean-Christophe Martinez confirmed that the hotel had concerns with the placement of beach chairs by a private vendor as it was impacting guests at the hotel, but indicated that in their opinion, the matter had been resolved. They said prior to the ‘compromise’: “The management attempted to discuss the matter with the vendor. Two line managers and the GM reached out to him with hope of resolving the matter. When these attempts failed we contacted the NCC to mediate the impasse with Bayley. They have provided the hotel and Bayley with guidelines on the beach chairs yesterday. The issue since seems to have been resolved,” the hotel said. Bayley however is not at all satisfied. “It is not fair because if the general public comes down they can put their chairs anywhere and I believe I have that right, but I choose not to put them in front of the hotel building. I put them to the side where there are no rooms. Since the incident, he said: “I did not operate past the particular mark because they threatened to take my licence. I told them I would inform my lawyer and I am waiting now to speak with my lawyers. “But in the meantime it is going to slow my business down and I am going to lose some of my business. I am not very pleased because this is my lifeline and my income and I need it to pay my bills, to send to school my daughter and I need it to get further in life.” Bayley also credits the tourism industry for providing business opportunities and employment for dozens of young men in his community but said the setback was discouraging. “I am a young person trying to make a dollar and I employ young people like me from in the community. We do this everyday once the season is on and we try to stay out of trouble. I try to keep the guys as busy as possible and working as much as possible. So it feels like the hotel is just trying to cut us down,” complained Bayley. The young entrepreneur, who his extremely proud of his small business said this tourist season has yielded extremely positive results, adding that some tourists were contacting him well beforehand to book the chairs. “My chairs are in better condition, my chairs are not kept on the beach, they are stored at night and they are sanitized every morning and the people are very happy and telling me what a great service I provide, which they have not been able to get elsewhere,” he revealed. While insisting he was not asking to be given any special treatment, Bayley is demanding a greater level of consistency and clarity from authorities about the rules governing beach access and the legal ground for preventing him access to the entire beach. “The same rules that are imposed for a ‘small vendor’ should be imposed on the hotel. There should be no difference. We do all of the same kind of business for the same kinds of people. There’s no difference,” he said. Bayley added that in previous years, the two entities would work closely and the hotel would provide a garbage bag and a rake, which he would use to rake a large section of the beach to help with its upkeep. However he claims after new management took over, they had been minimal dialogue. “They asked me to work with them and I refused to work with them because they only want to work with me when it suits their own interests,” he said. Meanwhile, NCC General Manager Keith Neblett said he was yet to be briefed on the matter, but confirmed a ranger had been assigned to help with a resolution. He also promised to provide an update on Friday morning. (BT)

DEATH AFTER SUPPER AT MUM’S – On Wednesday evening, Lester “George” Holder ate supper at his mother’s house, unaware that it was going to be his last. And during the meal, they made plans which Elizabeth “Patricia” Holder is heartbroken will never come through. “He come in from work, he sit down, he said he wanted soup so I made some, he drank it and went in the room and stretch out on the floor.” She said: “I washed some clothes for him and when he get up . . . he turn and ask what’s for breakfast tomorrow. I said I will make plantain, eggs and oats. He said: ‘See you in the morning about quarter to six’ and I tell him okay and I watched him going up the road.” That would be the last time the 69-year-old would see her oldest child. (WN)

RUN FOR LIFE – In his dying moments, some residents of Clevedale, Black Rock fanned Lester Holder and applied pressure to his wounds in an effort to save his life, but in less than 20 minutes after the sound of gunshots rang out in the neighbourhood, the 47-year-old man was dead. But one man who is grateful that his life was spared is 31-year-old Romar Parris who was in the company of construction worker Holder when the gunman opened fire at a small group hanging out. Parris recalled feeling a burning in his leg after the first shots were fired and the fear sent him running along Black Rock road. He stopped in the region of KFC on that busy road. As he reflected on the incident, Parris told Barbados TODAY that he could not help but to think that last night could have ended tragically for him too. Instead he was treated for a wound to his right leg. He recalled that it was almost 8 p.m., he was standing amongst others. Holder was sitting in a wrought iron chair. He heard footsteps. “When I glanced I see somebody walking with something in them hand. I thought it was a phone or something because it was dark. I turned and when I turned I see it now. And the person said ‘Don’t run’. “From there I hear pax and I feel the burning in my foot. I run bout from there to Kentucky. I was just frightened for my life, so I had to get from bout there. When I swing now I hear two more shots and I put on more speed,” he said. Parris said Holder had just arrived at the liming spot in front of a shop, to say hello to the guys, as he usually does most evenings on his way home from his mother Patricia’s house. The young man said he was not too familiar with Holder, but from observing him whenever he passed by, he has never seen him in questionable company. In fact, Parris said he noticed that Holder was a relatively quiet person. “When he passing he would shout you and he would stop. He don’t really do any lot of liming or nothing. He would spend like a two minutes,” he said. Parris said like many others, he too was struggling to figure out why someone would have opened fire on the group. “Wrong place, wrong time,” the victim said, as he pointed out that he had nothing to do with the incident. “It could have been him. Knowing that he was standing while the other fellas were sitting, he could have easily had that shot,” Parris’ mother said as she stood close by her son. But while he was counting his lucky stars, Parris said the incident was especially rough for him, as it brought back memories of his longtime friend, Shaquille Toppin, who was gunned down close to his Danesbury, Black Rock home on January 8. Toppin was Barbados’ first murder victim for 2019. As he recovers, Parris said he is hoping that police catches the person responsible for Holder’s death. “I want the violence to stop. I want the police to clamp down on all of these murders,” Parris said. The incident has shaken up the Clevedale community, some of whom witnessed Holder taking his last breaths. Frank Edwards, owner of the nearby shop, said he was still in disbelief. He said the sound of the gunshots, which disrupted the peace of the night, coupled with Holder’s loud moans, would be etched in his memory for quite some time. The shopkeeper said he had just finished watching reports on the evening news about another shooting incident, which happened earlier that day at St Martin’s, St Philip and which claimed the life of 35-year-old Shane Brathwaite. “I was inside and a young lady was here. I hear pax, pax, and she say ‘Frank open the door, open the door’. All I could do was open the door and let she in and lock it back. “We stand about ten minutes inside before we come out. He didn’t dead yet. People gathered around and started to fan he. Oh gosh,” Edwards recounted. “But even if the ambulance did get here he would have still died. He would have died on the way,” Edwards added. The female who was in the shop at the time said she heard multiple shots. She told Barbados TODAY that she dropped the item she had bought, her change, and ran for cover. The young woman commended those residents who tried their best to keep the construction worker who was “rocked back” in the chair, alert, until paramedics arrived. “At that point, because people were speaking to him and stuff, he was responsive. After a while he started babbling. Then he just started to take a couple breaths and that was it. People come out and tried to apply pressure on the wounds. I feel he get hit in he chest, he belly and he back. This is sad. This is so sad,” the young woman recalled. Edwards said it took about 20 minutes before residents saw Holder take what appeared to be his last breath. However, Edwards recalled that he and Holder had a drink together in the shop, on Tuesday night. “I would like these people to get hold. They got to start back hanging people. When them go in prison you know what them does tell you, that when them come out them still young. “You got to hang some of them man. Them going up there and eating and drinking and coming out fat,” a concerned Edwards said. Police are still carrying out investigations, and have asked members of the public to provide any information they may have. (BT)

RAPE TRIAL CONTINUES TOMORROW – The trial of a man accused of raping a nine-year-old girl between December 2018 and January 2019 will continue in the No. 5 Supreme Court tomorrow before Madam Justice Pamela Beckles. A nine-member jury empaneled on February 25 is hearing the case against the Bank Hall, St Michael man. So far the jury has heard evidence from seven witnesses, including the complainant through questioning by Senior Crown Counsel Krystal Delaney and Crown Counsel Neville Watson. Queen’s Counsel Michael Lashley and his team – comprising of Dayna Taylor-Lavine and Kadisha Wickham – are representing the accused who was 41 years old at the time of the alleged rape. (BT)

ARTHUR TOLD TO BE ON HIS BEST BEHAVIOR – A general worker must be on his best behavior for the next 12 months if he wants to avoid spending time behind bars at HMP Dodds. Magistrate Kristie Cuffy-Sargeant imposed the sentence today on Dave Rudolph DaCosta Arthur, of Glebe Land, St George. It carries a $1,500 forthwith fine, or four-month prison term if breached. The 43-year-old pleaded guilty to the charge – that being a suspected person, he loitered on Skeete’s Road, Ivy, St Michael with intent to commit theft. Station Sergeant Cameron Gibbons told the District ‘A’ Magistrates’ Court that police were on duty about 3 a.m. when they saw Arthur walking on the road before making a sudden turn unto Howell’s Cross Road. He was stopped and when asked to give an account he could not give a “satisfactory” response. “My apologies for being on the road so late. I had a couple of drinks of alcohol in my head [and] I was looking to get home and unfortunately I was at the wrong place at the wrong time,” Arthur explained before the bond was imposed. (BT)

THINGS ARE HARD –The sentencing phase of a drug case against a fisherman will continue before Madam Justice Pamela Beckles on May 9. The adjournment was given after Crown Counsel Neville Watson gave the details of the offences following guilty pleas from Korey Alphonzo Flatts, of Block, 19C in Silver Hill, Christ Church. Flatts admitted to charges of possession, trafficking and importation of 303.4 kilogrammes of marijuana when he appeared in the No. 5 Supreme Court at Cane Garden, St Thomas this morning. Officers were patrolling the island’s territorial waters on May 9, 2016 when they spotted the vessel Tumakaaround 9:35 p.m. with two men onboard about six nautical miles off Holetown, St James. The vessel, which also had the registration number X347 was stopped and a search was conducted after a tarpaulin was seen attached from the bow to the middle of the boat. Twelve polythene bags and four bulky, taped packages containing vegetable matter were discovered after Flatts identified himself as the vessel’s captain. They were detained, taken ashore and police interviewed Flatts who stated that he left Oistins with the boat on the day and picked up a Vincentian man. They then traveled to Kingstown, got the illegal drug and returned to Bridgetown. “Things are hard and I needed money to support my son,” Flatts, who was 40 years old at the time, reportedly told police. He however declined to give a written statement. Following those details Justice Beckles ordered that a pre-sentencing report on Flatts be prepared. The judge also requested a report on the time he has spent on remand at HMP Dodds. (BT)

MORE ROOM FOR THE FANS – In a quest to meet the demands of future Gold Cups and the likely advent of night racing, the Barbados Turf Club (BTC) is looking at building another stand at the Garrison Savannah. Chief executive officer of the BTC Rosette Peirce, told the NATION the time has come for patrons to have access to greater seating. “The time has come for the facilities at the Garrison to move to the next level. The plan would be to build another stand rather expand the Grand Stand. “I know the fans, the tourists especially, like to be in the Grand Stand but I think a smaller stand, would be a great idea. We had a smaller stand before that was destroyed by [Hurricane] Tomas in 2010, but we never got around to rebuilding that. I think we need to do something with that open area and have a venue that can accommodate days like Gold Cup, the Derby, Boxing Day and Errol Barrow Day (January 21),” she said. (WN)

WELFARE OFFICES CLOSING EARLY TODAY – The public is advised that all Welfare offices will be closed this Friday, March 1, at 1 p.m. to allow staff to attend a funeral service. The Ministry of People Empowerment and Elder Affairs apologises for any inconvenience the early closure may cause. (BGIS)

For daily or breaking news reports follow us on Instagram, Tumblr, Twitter & Facebook. That’s all for today folks. There are 306 days left in the year. Shalom! #thechasefilesdailynewscap #thechasefiles# dailynewscapsbythechasefiles

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The Chase Files Daily Newscap 7/20/2018

Good Morning #realdreamchasers! Here is The Chase Files Daily News Cap for Friday 20th July 2018. Remember you can read full articles by purchasing Weekend Nation Newspaper (WN), via Barbados Today (BT) or Barbados Government Information Services (BGIS).

PM NOT AMUSED BY LATEST AUDITOR GENERAL REPORT – Prime Minister Mia Mottley is not at all amused by the findings of the 2017 Auditor General Report. In fact, in light of the latest findings, she is promising a full review of “every area of Government”, with a view to carrying out the necessary house cleaning. One of the glaring irregularities highlighted in the 186-page report by Auditor General Leigh Trotman is the overpayment of salaries at five state entities to the tune of $3.78 million as at December 31, 2017. These are the Prison Department, in the amount of $134, 123.57; the Ministry of Transport and Works, $134,155.07; the Ministry of Health, $719,606.49; the Ministry of Education, $564,473.55; Ministry of Agriculture, $60, 884.42 and the Police Department, $1,764, 669.26. The main reason given for the overpayments, the Auditor General said, was “the payment of full salaries to officers when they should be on no pay or half pay leave as a result of extended sick leave”, and in the case of the Police Department, Trotman further explained that the affected officers were also enjoying benefits for employment injury from the National Insurance Scheme. With these financial irregularities now coming to light, Mottley told business leaders attending Wednesday’s Barbados Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BCCI) luncheon at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre, that once her review was done, the problems would be addressed. “I am not going to go into details today, but you have to be able first and foremost, to verify your payroll. That is the first thing. If you can’t verify your payroll you have a problem. And if people are being certified as being there by supervisors then we have a problem with them too. So we are not going to have a situation of those kinds of things continuing,” she said in reference to the report. “Secondly you cannot belong to the same Government in different departments and then tell me that you can’t have access or you not talking to each other because then clearly you want to work in a different Government in a different republic. So all of these things – a lack of communication, lack of verification, review of systems – all of these things have led to the inefficiency, some of which you see being reflected in the Auditor General’s Report, much of which doesn’t even get there,” Mottley added. Questions were also raised by the Auditor General about $1.1 billion in loans to statutory entities as at March 31, 2017, with Trotman pointing out that while these organizations were required to repay the amounts advanced, “no loan payments or reimbursements were received”. He also took issue with the fact that many of the advancements were made to state agencies which lack the capacity to repay, while pointing to a $60 million loan to the loss-making Transport Board. “In other cases there is uncertainty about the value of the receivables. This would include the advance [of $120 million] made [back in 2013] to Clearwater Bay with respect to the Four Seasons Project,” the Auditor General said, while stating that “there is no current information on this asset that would help in the assessment of its value”. During, the financial year 2004/2005 an amount of $4.6 million was also advanced to the state-owned Needham’s Point Holdings Limited to facilitate construction of the Hilton Hotel. Since then, that loan has accumulated nearly $2 million in interest, but no payment has been made on the principal, with no evidence of efforts to recover the outstanding debt even though the hotel was recently due to be put up for sale. In his new report released earlier this month, the Auditor General also outlined a number of unpaid loans to non-governmental agencies, as well as dishonoured cheques, unverified balances and other financial irregularities, with Mottley giving a commitment that “we are going to review every area of Government and make sure that we are in a position to validate and verify what the taxpayers’ money is being spent on. “We do it because we want to spend money on things that we know will make a difference to either Barbados’s efficiency, its quality of life, its competitiveness and its ability to be able to create a platform for growth and wealth for its citizens,” the Prime Minister added, while revealing that on Tuesday alone she had five meetings across several ministries. (BT)

SPLIT AMONG NUPW LEADERSHIP SPILLS INTO CAR PARK – The gloves are well and truly off at Dalkeith Road, as a huge fissure between the top brass of the National Union of Public Workers (NUPW) gets even wider. There was no smoothing over the cracks as the animosity between NUPW President Akanni McDowall and General Secretary Roslyn Smith was further exposed today ahead of a meeting called by the union president with the national council. There were heated exchanges in the parking lot, following which several members refused to enter the meeting room for the 3 p.m. talks. Among those boycotting the meeting were General Treasurer Asokorie Beckles and Smith, who last week openly contradicted a report on talks with the International Monetary Fund given to Barbados TODAY by McDowall, who has been ordered by the union to appear before the national council next week to answer questions about the NUPW’s finances. Smith questioned the legitimacy of today’s meeting, while making it clear she would only recognize next week’s face-off between the national council and the union president. “That was not a meeting. They did not have 15 persons. They may have had 15 persons in the yard, but 15 persons did not go into that meeting. So there was no meeting. “Next week, if Mr McDowall chooses to turn up, he would deal with what is on that agenda,” said Smith, who refused to confirm whether a list of charges had officially been sent to McDowall. Following the meeting, which ended at 5:30 p.m., McDowall refused to update the media on what went on behind the closed doors, only stating he would reserve comment until next week’s meeting. However, he was adamant that today’s gathering was legitimate, claiming that more than the 15 members needed for a quorum were present. “I hope you all saw how many people came out. I had more than 25 persons in attendance,” said McDowall, who was officially summoned on Monday to face the union’s management, according to a source familiar with the development. “We sent the letter summoning him to the meeting next week and it was signed for yesterday. So as far as I am concerned he was served and it would be up to him now,” the source said. Barbados TODAY reported last week that McDowall was facing possible dismissal from his post after it was unanimously agreed at a special meeting of the union’s national council last Thursday to give the president seven calendar days, starting on July 13, to answer four issues relating to the NUPW’s finances or face disciplinary action, including possible dismissal. This followed a recent investigation by a sub-committee, which was mandated to carry out an internal financial review. McDowall’s attorney Fabian Walthrus subsequently wrote to Smith on July 11, charging that she had called the special council meeting on or about July 3, 2018, but was later advised verbally and in writing by the acting president Fabian Jones that her actions were in breach of the customary protocols for summoning such meetings. The attorney also accused Smith of breaching the NUPW’s Rules and Standing Orders regarding the same. “I am therefore instructed that, contrary to the acting president’s instructions not to do so, you proceeded to convene the said meeting on the appointed date,” the letter stated. “Consequently, you have acted ultra vires of the powers conferred upon you under rules 8(a)(ii) and/or 12 of the said rules,” it added. “I am therefore instructed that, for your future guidance and for the good governance of the NUPW as per its rules and standing orders, that only the president or national council where your position is merely ex officio, has the right to summon a special meeting at any time,” the correspondence added. The attorney therefore informed the NUPW that his client had nothing to answer. Barbados TODAY understands that the general membership, which had elected the president in the first place, has the power to suspend or dismiss any member for neglect, dishonesty, incompetence or refusal to carry out a decision of the executive. McDowall was re-elected as the NUPW president for a second two-year term back in April 2017, having successfully survived previous no confidence votes. (BT)

P.M: BANK TALKS A MUST – Prime Minister Mia Mottley is to hold talks with the country’s banking sector on a wide range of issues of national concern. Speaking last night at the reopening of the Warrens Great House which has been renovated by CIBC First Caribbean International Bank, Mottley told the audience that such a discussion was paramount as Barbados treaded the choppy waters within its debt restructuring efforts. “We both know we are not here by choice,” she said in reference to the country’s ballooning debt. “We will withstand difficulties and come out stronger for it. I look forward to our respective teams working together for a solution that would be of benefit to your institution and shareholders, and the people of Barbados.” She said the national conversation would help both sides confront issues such as de-risking, and delinquency by some Barbadians, who, because of the serious economic situation they faced over the last decade, were unable to pay their mortgages and lost their homes in the process. (WN)

GOVT LOOKING TO CREATE ‘A SMART’ BARBADOS’ – The new Mia Mottley-led Government is aiming to create “a smart Barbados”. However, Minister of Innovation, Science and Smart Technology Senator Kay McConney is warning that in order for that to happen, there must be an across-the-board change in the way the island does business and responds to technological advancements. McConney was addressing a reception here on Wednesday night marking the opening of the second annual Internet Governance Forum at the Errol Barrow Centre for Creative Imagination. While quoting Microsoft founder Bill Gates as saying “the Internet is becoming the town square for the global village of tomorrow”, she noted that “innovation can move us closer to achieving our goals as a society, but it also disrupts people and our traditional ways of doing business. “Establishing this ministry by bringing together numerous Government departments is one step in our journey, but it will take more than the consolidation of Government units to cause positive disruption throughout the country,” she added. The new ministry combines the functions of the National Council on Science and Technology, the Data Processing Department, the E-Governance Department, Telecommunications Unit and the Office of Public Sector Reform. McConney said her Government, which took office here on May 25 following general elections, was also “determined to ensure we have a seat at the table in shaping global Internet policy beyond mere attendance at international conferences, and we are willing to work with our colleagues in CARICOM [Caribbean Community] to advocate policies beneficial to the Caribbean as a region.” She also cautioned that shaping policy was not enough. “We must be courageous in taking action to show we understand that every day we delay is a day of reckoning,” she stressed. Chairman of the Internet Society Barbados Chapter and Director of the Government’s Data Processing Department Rodney Taylor described the Internet Society as a “non-profit organization founded to provide leadership on Internet related standards, education and access”. He also said its mission was to promote open development of the Internet to benefit people all over the world. He therefore welcomed this week’s forum as an opportunity for all Barbadians to discuss more effective use of the World Wide Web. “There is no one in this room who has not been on the Internet at least once today, and over the next two days, you will hear from panels of experts drawn from all around the world who will give us insight into how we can develop policies governing its use,” he said. Taylor was also pleased to note that this year’s event has attracted twice as many participants as the inaugural one a year ago, and said the society’s recently held youth forum, where they engaged young people on matters like social media, gaming, developing online businesses and education, was also a tremendous success. During the opening reception, the Internet Society honoured the late Director of Public Prosecutions Charles Leacock, QC, for an “inspiring and thought provoking” presentation on the legal ramifications of the Internet at the 2017 conference, and Ian Clarke-Worrell, the man who founded CaribNet, which in 1995 became the first Internet service provider in Barbados and one of the first in the Caribbean. (BT)

PSV HOPES – Minibus and ZR owners say they have no intention of walking out empty-handed from a yet to be finalized meeting with Prime Minister Mia Mottley at which they expect to discuss the newly introduced fuel tax. However, the public service vehicle (PSV) owners and operators remain optimistic that something will come out of the talks. Communications Officer of the Alliance Owners of Public Transport (AOPT) Mark Haynes said while he would make no predictions, an ideal outcome would be an agreement by Mottley to provide duty-free concessions on the importation of new vehicles to replace an aging fleet. “We have pushed several issues such as an increase in bus fare, but the thing we would really like to get would be the duty-free concessions on vehicles because that is really going to be the most [critical]. Most of our vehicles on the road are aging and if we get assistance with that it would help us offset some of the additional cost that we must not take on with these measures,” Haynes told Barbados TODAY. Reminded that the Barbados Labour Party had promised duty-free concessions on electric vehicles during its campaign for the May 24 general election, Haynes said while this was a good start it would not bring immediate relief. “We appreciate that offer and we hope that becomes a reality soon. However, heavy load carrying versions of these green vehicles are only now coming on stream and we now have to invest in expertise and technology to deal with these vehicles. So in the meantime, we are going to need vehicles that use fossil fuels to help the sector [alive] because if on top of the increased fuel tax operators have to incur heavy maintenance costs for old vehicles, many are going to go out of business,” he stressed. Soon after Mottley announced in her June 11 austerity Budget that a tax of 40 cents per litre on diesel and gasoline and five cents per litre on kerosene would replace the road tax, the PSV owners complained the new levy would have a devastating impact on their business. In a joint statement, the AOPT and the Association of Public Transport Operators said the petrol tax would raise expenditure for route taxis to $6,741 from $2,250, while minibus operators would have to fork out $10,861, up from $3,625. They also complained that they had not been consulted on the matter, and expressed a desire to have talks with the Prime Minister, as well as Minister of Transport and Works Dr William Duguid, before July 1. While the proposed date came and went without any indications that she would meet with the private sector transport owners, Mottley promised last Sunday during a live nationally televised interview that she would meet with industry stakeholders, while acknowledging awareness of the complaints about the fuel tax, which is expected to raise $80 million annually. Haynes said today the minibus and ZR owners were pleased that they would have an opportunity to make their case to the country’s leader. “We believe that we would have a very cordial meeting with her. She is apprised of our concerns and while we don’t know the outcome of the meeting, we are eagerly looking forward to meeting with her when that meeting is formerly arranged,” Haynes said. (BT)

LIGHTS DIMMED – Caribbean LED Lighting Inc, one of Barbados’ fastest growing manufacturers, has become one of the latest casualties of Government’s decision to default on its foreign debt payments. The decision to immediately suspend debt payment to international commercial creditors was announced by Prime Minister Mia Mottley a week after taking control of the reins of Government on May 24, while pointing to an out-of-control national debt in the order of $15 billion or 175 per cent of gross domestic product. Earlier this month Barbados TODAY reported that due to this development, the Ontario-based export credit agency Export Development Canada (EDC) implemented new restrictive measures to its credit insurance coverage for Barbados. As a result, Canadian manufacturers and suppliers that receive assistance from EDC are demanding upfront payment from Barbadian businesses when they make an order, instead of giving them as much as a 60-day grace period. During yesterday’s Barbados Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BCCI) luncheon at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre, which was attended by the Prime Minister, the founder and Executive Chairman of Caribbean LED, Jim Reid, complained that his seven-year-old company was finding it more expensive to do business. Reid said while he understood why the debt restructuring was necessary, it was affecting the overall cost of his operations. “We get suppliers from seven countries and one of those is Canada, and that contract for supply was underwritten by the export government corporation, which is now withdrawing support for Barbados, which means we cannot get any credit terms from the supplier. “We have to pay up front. That is an extra cost to our business and we are competing with very cheap, and I would say somewhat inferior products from China,” he added. In openly complaining that “the law of unintended consequences has hit us hard”, the businessman explained to Mottley that while “you did what you thought was right for the country and I agree with you, . . . the impact of that is hurting manufacturers here who [seek] credit terms with suppliers”. “We understand the Prime Minister had no other choice than to do what she did and we support her decision. It is just that the pain when we are all going to carry the load, sometimes the pain can hurt individual companies differently and in this case it has really hurt us,” Reid later told Barbados TODAY, explaining that firms like his would normally be given up to 60 days credit after ordering supplies, which means they would usually be able to make payments after receiving their shipments, manufacturing their products here and selling them. “So you are talking about five to six months before we get our money, so it makes it more difficult to do business . . . . We are growing, but this just makes it difficult for us to do business in Barbados,” he insisted. However, in response to those concerns, the Prime Minister was adamant that her move was necessary given Barbados’ dire debt situation, which she inherited from the previous Democratic Labour Party Government. At the same time, she apologized to local firms who were now feeling the effects of the credit default. “I am sorry. I appreciate the difficulty, but I would like also to give you the confidence of knowing that in every phase where a country has gone through debt restructuring, as long as they have taken the steps to undergo a resumption of fitness that within two, three or four years, they access international capital markets again,” the Barbados Labour Party leader said. “We don’t want to do like those countries that went through debt restructuring, went back to bad behaviour and found themselves in a second debt restructuring, . . . but we accept that there would have been, regrettably, some unintended consequences, because we can’t literally live how we were living, with debt, and not expect to have some kind of pain or consequences,” she added, while offering to meeting with Reid to further discuss the matter with a view to finding a possible solution. Caribbean LED, which currently exports to 18 countries, recently won contracts in Suriname and the Bahamas. After starting operations here in 2011, the company quickly outgrew its location and had to double its floor space in 2013, hiring about 30 people at that time. The company then moved to another location and then to its current offices at Lower Estate, St Michael in February after it was forced to double its floor space again. The company employs 50 full-time workers and produces more than 1,000 bulbs per day. (BT)

GUYANA’S RICE EXPORTS INCREASE FOR FIRST SIX MONTHS OF 2018 – As the Guyana Rice Development Board (GRDB) wraps up its 2018 first crop results from January to June, export volume has increased by 87 000 tonnes compared to the same period last year. “When we look at the figures compared to the first half of 2017, we saw first that the total volume that has been exported is 290 000 tonnes which is 43 percent more than the 203 000 tonnes than was exported during the first half of 2017,” said general manager Nizam Hassan. The increase has so far earned the country GYD$23.2Billion (US$111Million) this year. For the same period in 2017, the country earned GYD$16.1Billion (US$77Million). Hassan credited the increase to the determination of rice producers and millers to meet production targets and more so Guyana’s access to new markets, particularly in Latin America. “We’ve seen some significant increases in some of the blocks. For example, exports to Latin America jumped by 215 per cent. In the first half of 2017, we did 64 000 tonnes as against 202 000+ tonnes in the first half of 2018.” Standing out for exports was Mexico and Cuba taking a total of 133 000 tonnes, 45 000 and 88 000 respectively. Both countries did not take during the January to June exports of 2017. Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo facilitated access to the Mexico market. This comes as approximately 99 per cent of the country’s rice lands cultivated having been harvested. For the first crop of 2018, approximately 508 000 tonnes of paddy has been produced equivalent to 330 000 tonnes of rice. (WN)

CHURCHES CHALLENGE LGBT AGENDA – A group of concerned pastors has come together to challenge the homosexual agenda which they say is trying to take a hold of Barbados. In an hour-long press conference at the MERC Building in Fairchild Street, the leaders, who represent 20 churches, delivered 12 points on their list to challenge the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT). "We are opposed to and are confronting the LGBT Agenda, not the community of the LGBT. We are targeting their agenda," Apostle Eliseus Joseph said. "The Church must destroy any attempt to make homosexual preferences a human rights in Barbados," he added. This protest comes just three days before the planned Pride Parade scheduled to take place in Bridgetown, Barbados. (WN)

NO SAME SEX – A group of church leaders brought down fire and brimstone on the country’s lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community today during a news conference prompted by an upcoming gay pride march and the need to clearly state their position “on the LGBT agenda”. During the hour-long briefing at the New Testament Church, the group of approximately 20 leaders, led by Apostle Eliseus Joseph, the senior pastor of Apostolic Teaching Centre, accused LGBT people of trying to bully Barbadians into adopting the gay lifestyle. “This is a classic definition of bullying. A small segment of the population wants to bully us into accepting their values and norms,” Joseph charged. “Whatever they want to do that is their business, but don’t impose it on our population, don’t impose it on our children. That is bullying. We as a nation, we oppose bullying,” he stressed. Despite his searing condemnation, Joseph said the church leaders had no issue with the LGBT community, but would not tolerate their “agenda”. Therefore, he said, every attempt must be made “to challenge any agenda that propagates homosexuality”. “We are condemning the behaviour, not the person . . . .We are very compassionate but the important thing we need to understand as a church is that we need to address sin. Sin has the potential to enslave us and rob us from having God’s presence and grace in our lives. Our attitude towards the homosexual community and all other is one of love and compassion. “We want to make it clear that homosexual behaviour and preference is a learnt behaviour. God did not create anybody gay. It is not an organic behaviour. There is no homo gene; that is a myth. We oppose any attempt to deconstruct marriage and reconstruct it to legitimize homosexuality [and] same sex partnership, as opposed to the biblical narrative of Adam and Eve,” Joseph insisted. Today’s news conference came just three days before the scheduled pride parade in Bridgetown on Sunday, bringing to an end the observance of pride month, celebrated here for the first time ever. Pride month is a period during which members of the LGBT community come together and celebrate the freedom to be themselves. Joseph saw the planned march as an affront, while suggesting that the very existence of humankind was threatened by the gay lifestyle. “We feel that the homosexual, LGBT agenda is existential. It challenges our existence. The behaviour doesn’t perpetuate the human species,” he said. “We oppose any attempt to rebel against God’s command to increase, multiply and replenish the earth. “The first command the human race received from God was to increase and multiply. If we propagate the LGBT agenda we are going against the commands and undermining God’s desire for propagation and future generations. No same sex can produce an offspring.” Joseph also passionately opposed any attempts at tolerance of homosexuality in schools, contending that there was a sinister plot to indoctrinate the country’s children in a quest to ensure that homosexuality would become the new norm. “We oppose that. It is an attempt to indoctrinate and influence the next generation and we challenge that. They want to do it by changing the curriculum and eclipsing the sexes,” he said. The LGBT community also came under attack at the 37th annual general conference of the Caribbean Baptist Women’s Union at the Barbados Beach Club, where Reverend Vincent Wood of the Emmanuel Baptist Church urged christians to unashamedly and publicly rebuke homosexuality and same sex unions. “Those [who] are engaged in their kind of lifestyle . . . want us to feel guilty when we speak against it, but we are to rise up and to shout and to declare that God made man for woman and woman for man,” he said to applause from the predominantly female conference audience made up of representatives from Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Dominica, Jamaica, Guyana, Grenada, San Andres, Turks and Caicos, Bermuda, Trinidad and Tobago, St Kitts and Nevis and St Vincent and the Grenadines. Meantime, in response to Joseph’s charges, Ro-Ann Mohammad, co-founder of the Barbados Gays, Lesbians and All-Sexuals Against Discrimination, dismissed the accusation that the LGBT community was forcing its agenda on the population. “We don’t have a specific agenda. What LGBT people want is to be able to exist freely in a society which we contribute to. That means living without discrimination and being able to enjoy freedom like everybody else regardless of sexual orientation,” Mohammad told Barbados TODAY. “We are all entitled to certain rights whether we are LGBT or not. We are dedicated to pursuing equal human rights for everybody. We all have freedom of expression and we are not forcing LGBT on anybody,” she said. The LGBT advocate accused the church leaders of spreading “a narrative of separation instead of promoting love and acceptance and peace and respect. “I don’t think it is fair that these church members continue to push this narrative that promotes negative ideas about the LGBT community,” she said. (BT)

HYPOCRITES – Hypocrites! That was how attorney Douglas Trotman described some members of the medical fraternity in Barbados as he blasted them for what he perceived to be dragging their feet to embrace marijuana for medical purposes but were now seeking to gain financially from its use. For two years, Trotman and his wife Kathy-Anne, who died from breast cancer in April this year, had been battling to acquire an import licence for the use of medical marijuana, after it was prescribed by her Canadian doctor as part of her palliative care. In a scathing attack during the question and answer segment of a public forum on medical marijuana hosted by the Barbados Association of Medical Practitioners (BAMP) at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre on Wednesday night, Trotman cried shame on doctors, some who were present. “What is happening now, everybody is jumping on the band wagon because it’s an opportunity to make some money, maybe start a new direction in your practise but I am not going to sit and watch you fool people, that ain’t happening. Anybody who knows me knows that ain’t going to happen and if I got to sue anybody I gine do it for free. I want you all to remember that,” he said. The bereft husband, who indicated his intent to leave the island, was especially angry because, according to him, marijuana was not illegal in Barbados and hadn’t been since 1991. “Marijuana is legal and I have the evidence to prove,” he maintained to the large audience. Trotman said he was in possession of an import licence for cannabis, which he said was signed by acting Chief Medical Officer, Dr Anton Best as the representative for the Minister of Health as well as a civil servant working in the Drug Service. However, he suggested it was the cowardice of some in the medical field that didn’t allow for his wife to attain the medicine. (WN)

JUDGMENT RESERVED IN FREDERICK’S APPEAL – Defence attorney Marlon Gordon today argued that the two “indeterminate” concurrent life sentences handed down on manslayer Charles Matthew O’Brien Frederick almost six years ago were “wrong”. Gordon, in an appeal before Chief Justice Sir Marston Gibson and Justices of Appeal Kaye Goodridge and Andrew Burgess, was adamant that the trial judge had a duty to set a “minimum term of years” on the life sentences, which were handed down on July 30, 2012. The now 42-year-old Frederick had been charged with the August 2, 2011 murders of Gerhard Stock and Arthur Chadderton but had pleaded guilty to lesser counts of manslaughter. However, addressing the appeals court, which is sitting temporarily at Cane Garden, St Thomas, his attorney argued that the judge’s failure to put “tariff terms” on the sentences was “likely to breach [Frederick’s] rights under Section 15 of the Constitution”. Gordon however admitted that there were circumstances when life sentences were applicable, but said this was not so in his client’s case as he had entered an early guilty plea, had not gone to trial and had expressed remorse for his actions. However, Acting Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions Anthony Blackman was adamant that the appeal should be dismissed and the life sentences affirmed. Blackman further contended that the sentencing judge had satisfied all the required criteria in arriving at the ruling, which he said were “correctly and lawfully” applied. The acting deputy DPP also warned that there must be very good reason for the court to overturn the decision which was based on “discretion”. “The appellant has failed to demonstrate that that sentence was wrong in principle, manifestly excessive [and] disproportionate,” he stressed. Judgment was reserved in the case following almost three hours of submissions. (BT)

MECHANIC DENIES CURSING POLICE – A 50-year-old mechanic, charged which committing three offences against police, has been released on $2,000 bail. Mark Winston Rollins, of Farm Road, Ellerton, St George, had been on remand since May 29, after denying a charge of refusing to leave Police Headquarters when directed to do so on May 22. Rollins is also accused of failing to obey a police order to “move and keep moving” and of using abusive language to and resisting police constable Lenroy Scott in the execution of his duties on the same day. However, today he was finally able to find a surety to post bail on his behalf. The accused returns before Magistrate Kristie Cuffy-Sargeant on November 12. (BT)

LOVE TRIANGLE TURNS UGLY – A Barbadian, a Jamaican and a Trinidadian, who were apparently involved in a love triangle, have ended up before the law courts. The Jamaican, 25-year-old Odelva Rose Nathan, appeared before Magistrate Kristie Cuffy-Sargeant today charged with wounding Trinidadian Ornella Hall and damaging a motorcar belonging to Barbadian Samuel Boyce on July 18. After she pleaded guilty to the charge the court heard that Boyce was involved in a relationship with both women. The two women apparently crossed paths and there were discussions about becoming roommates. However, around 3:30 p.m. on the aforementioned date Nathan called Hall to ask whether she could come over and look at the apartment. Hall agreed, but when Nathan arrived, Boyce was in Hall’s bedroom, triggering a fight between the two women in which Hall was injured. Boyce later attempted to leave the scene, but Nathan launched a stone at his car, damaging a front indicator. Today, both women were in court. However, the matter was adjourned until tomorrow when Boyce is expected to appear. The issue of compensation will be discussed then as Hall is expected to leave the country on Sunday. In the meantime, Nathan, who is represented by attorney-at-law Angella Mitchell-Gittens, was granted bail and her passport was handed over to the District ‘A’ Magistrate’s Court. (BT)

NO EXCLUSITIVITY – The possibility of Kensington Oval being used for the sole purpose of playing cricket is very remote. And if it were used exclusively for cricket it would cost in the region of $2 million per year to cover the operations, says chief executive officer of Kensington Oval Management Inc. (KOMI), Ben Toppin. Toppin’s assertions come as preparations are being finalised for the staging of the annual Pic-O-De-Crop finals as well as the Rise Soca Kingdom show on July 31. There have been public outcry and concerns mostly by cricket enthusiasts about the staging of non-cricket events at “the Mecca” over the past couple of years since it was reconstructed for the 2007 ICC World Cup final held in Barbados. Earlier this month, Barbados Cricket Association (BCA) president Conde Riley and acting chief executive officer Uina Prescod expressed fears that major damage could be done to the Oval if a stage was erected on the field for the imminent cultural events. However, with the Barbados Tridents set to take on St Kitts & Nevis Patriots in the Caribbean Premier League (CPL) at the Oval next month, Toppin gave the assurance the outfield would not be threatened. “The issue of the Pic-O-De-Crop stage having an impact on the field so close to CPL was resolved in May. There is no issue,” he stated. However, the CEO toldBarbados TODAY that he saw no problem with using the Oval for cricket only if the cost of running the facility was taken care of. “We can use it for cricket only if somebody is prepared to fill in those blanks in terms of the finances. If somebody is willing to come up with the amount of money it takes to run a sporting facility of this size, of course, we can use it for cricket only. The operating expenses are in the vicinity of two million dollars,” he said. Nevertheless, Toppin disclosed that Kensington Oval was always intended to be a facility which catered to events outside of sports. “The new Kensington Oval was conceptualized as a multi-purpose facility. Most people accept that. Cricket cannot cover the cost of running Kensington Oval. The concept of a single purpose facility has been universally discredited years ago. There are very few facilities like that. A single purpose facility in an economy and society this size cannot be cost-effective.” When asked about a number of patches plaguing the outfield at Kensington Oval, Toppin revealed that a year-long process must be followed in order for the field to be in tip-top condition at all times. “It involves cutting the grass right down to the roots, it will look like if you are forking the entire field up. It is called verity cutting. The soil has to be tilled and re-sanded. It will call for the complete disruption of the surface then followed by a process of levelling, watering and grooming so it comes back looking like a carpet. Under the present circumstances based on the frequency of use and the pattern of use patches will be forming in certain areas all the time,” he said. Toppin added: “The difficulty is if you want a multipurpose facility you have to design it that way. There are cricket facilities in Australia that get their biggest crowd from other sports using big screens. There are also football facilities in England that double as athletics tracks as well. The idea of single-purpose facilities has been discarded worldwide.” He also hinted that if the Oval was solely used for cricket fewer workers would be employed. “We operate on a $4 million budget, half of which we generate on our own and the other half comes from Government assistance. I am assuming that if you are using it for cricket only, you would need far less staff, so money could be saved there,” he said. (BT)

PHILO WALLACE’S VERDICT – Despite the struggles of West Indies batsmen in the recent series against Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, former Barbados and West Indies opener Philo Wallace says the current cadre of players possesses the tools to take the region forward. But the former Barbados captain believes that some of them have to make adjustments to their game to fit specific situations when they arise. Wallace noted that with the exception of Devon Smith who is 36 years old, the regional side had a core group that could take them up the ladder of international cricket. “When one looks at the age of these players, I think they will be around for several years. After a squad has been together for such a length of time, they should start to perform. By then, they should be well aware of each other’s strengths and weaknesses and would have built confidence as a unit, therefore they should start to win more Test matches,” Wallace said. He added: “I like the majority of our batsmen, but I have a special liking for Shai Hope. I think he can score runs at all levels of the game. He is prolific for Barbados at the regional level and is one of the few batsmen who scores double centuries in our first class cricket. “At the Test level, Shai has that record of scoring centuries in both innings in the second Test against England at Headingley to win that Test match for the West Indies last year. When a batsman who seems to have that special touch begins to score runs, tongues start to wag and everyone will expect him to dominate in Test cricket almost every time he goes to the crease.” However, Wallace suggested that Hope had some technical flaws which he needed to address if he wanted to be more prolific. “Hope has some technical deficiencies that he has to work on. One of the things our young batsmen need to understand is that while they might score a century or two hundreds in a Test match, in the following Test they start at zero, and have to assess the opposition all over again. There is so much technology around that their opponents get to view footage of how their play. I have detected that Shai tends to get square on the ball when it is bouncing. When it is coming into him on a length, he plays away from his body. Therefore he has to be a lot more tighter when he is defending, his bat must be straighter and present an open bat face on to the ball rather than a closed bat face which has created problems for him. These are problems that can be corrected in the nets with the West Indies batting coach or even with a coach of his choice. Hope needs to go into the nets and bat for a considerable amount of time, videotape what he is doing and try to get his rhythm back. Shai has lost the rhythm he had in England last year,” Wallace explained. Wallace said opening batsman Kraigg Brathwaite who had a lean time against Sri Lanka but rebounded with two centuries against Bangladesh, had to understand that his style of batting might not always be the correct way. “Kraigg continues to bat his way but he has to understand there are occasions when his way of batting might not be the correct way. I think the bowlers worked him out and he has to counteract that by changing his mindset. Kraigg has become bogged down too much when he is batting in a defensive role. I have noticed that sometimes when he is playing shots, he looks a better player. On the other hand, when he is batting for survival Kraigg looks ungainly and gets into some very bad positions to defend the ball. This was clearly shown in the series against Sri Lanka when he was dismissed softly a couple of times which was out of character for a batsman of his calibre. He has such a strong mental character that he was able to shrug off his failure against Sri Lanka and rebound with two back to back centuries against Bangladesh. My suggestion to him is that he revisit his successes and analyse them in order to move forward because he has a big role to play in taking West Indies cricket forward for several years,” Wallace said. He added that Roston Chase was another young batsman with a massive responsibility on his shoulders who had fallen into a rut. “Chase does not know when to play at the short ball or not, particularly when its in-swinging because he lunges forward on the front foot. Once the ball is banged in short and coming back into him, he is in no man’s land and more often than not, when a batsman finds himself in that position, he drags the ball into his stumps. If the ball is head-height he flinches at it and is caught at short-leg or by the wicketkeeper. These are things that he needs to work on which are not difficult to overcome. It is just about balance, getting into that back and across position and staying balanced and being able to negotiate the ball if it is full or short,” Wallace said. Wallace was also impressed with the way Shane Dowrich batted against Sri Lanka and said leg-spinner Devendra Bishoo had shown improvement since former Pakistan leg-spinner Mushtaq Ahmed came to the region and conducted a clinic for spinners earlier this year. Wallace now lives in Trinidad and Tobago and is pursuing a law degree. He expressed concern that he was not seeing a lot of past players attending cricket-related events. “I am disappointed that most of our cricket legends are not attending functions like the WIPA Awards. Look, they might not like the way how some things are being done off the field but our past cricketers have a vital part to play in taking our cricket forward. All of them cannot be coaches but they have vast knowledge and should share it. I would like to see our former cricketers interacting more with our young cricketers,” Wallace said. (BT)

GAYLE RECEIVES ACCOLADE – West Indies star Christopher Gayle said it means a lot to have been recognized by the University of the West Indies for his contributions to cricket. Gayle and Patrick Patterson were the two honourees recognized today during the innings break when the UWI Vice Chancellor’s XI played Bangladesh in a day/night match at Sabina Park. Before a small but appreciative crowd of several hundred, Dr Akshai Mansingh, Dean of the Faculty of Sports at the University of the West Indies, Mona, read tributes to both men – first Patterson, who was absent and then Gayle. Bangladesh coach Courtney Walsh, a past honouree, collected a plaque on behalf of his reclusive one-time bowling partner from UWI Vice-Chancellor Professor Hilary Beckles, who also presented Gayle with his. “It means a lot. I just want to thank the University of the West Indies, Professor (Hilary) Beckles and the entire team. It’s good to be recognized when you have achieved the outstanding within your career. I am very thankful for that and hopefully set more standards, set more records before I actually depart from the game,” said Gayle, whose contribution of 29 helped take the Vice Chancellor’s XI to 227 for 9 in their turn at bat against Bangladesh. He said he was disappointed that Patterson was not able to make it to the ceremony but happy that he was able to be honoured alongside the long-retired tearaway Windies quick. “It’s good to be honoured beside Patterson aka Rambo, it would have been nice to see him in the flesh. It has been a while since I have seen him, two former (Excelsior students) as well, so it’s actually good to be honoured alongside Patrick Patterson. It’s a privilege to be honoured once more.” Of note, it was Gayle’s 138 playing for the Vice Chancellor’s XI back in 2003 that propelled him back into the Windies team after being out of the squad for two years. Earlier, Yannick Ottley top scored with 58 and Kavem Hodge 44 as the two shared in a 91-run seventh wicket stand to rescue the Vice Chancellor’s XI from 89 for 6 taking them to a respectable 227 for 9. Some lusty hitting in the final over from Javon Searles who was unbeaten on 11 got the Vice Chancellor’s team to their respectable total. Mossadek Saikat took 4 for 14 while Rubel Hossain returned figures of 3 for 40. (BT)

UWI PRINCIPAL APPEALS FOR SUPPORT TO COMPLETE MANDELA FREEDOM PARK – Principal of the Cave Hill Campus of the University of the West Indies Professor Eudine Barriteau is appealing for corporate support in completing the Mandela Freedom Park, which was opened by the university last year in honour of the late South African freedom fighter Nelson Mandela. Speaking during a special celebration at the UWI marking what would have been Mandela’s 100th birthday on Wednesday, Barriteau said he continued to serve as a beacon of encouragement for Cave Hill administrators in their educational pursuits. “Nelson Mandela’s famous observation that education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world, coupled with his exemplary life of a commitment to upend injustices, demonstrated for all humanity crucial lessons on leadership,” she told those gathered at the Roy Marshall Teaching Complex on the day designated by the United Nations as Nelson Mandela International Day. “His regard for, and subsequent pursuit of tertiary education helps us in our quest to underscore the value of access to higher education as fundamental building blocks or stepping stones for those who wish to embark on a life of leadership and service. “Indeed, our strategic pursuit of ensuring greater access to tertiary education remains one of the central pillars of our educational philosophy,” the principal stressed. With respect to the Mandela Freedom Park, which was opened by his granddaughter Ndileka Mandela in March 2017, Barriteau said the cash-strapped university had been unable to complete “that social and recreational space in a manner befitting his memory”. “[However] we remain optimistic that our corporate and philanthropic partners will assist us in completing this project and present to the citizens of Barbados and this region a facility for relaxation and intellectual engagement on issues such as integrity, good governance, commitment to social progress and speaking truth to power,” she said, adding that the university envisioned the park becoming “an idyllic setting to facilitate peaceful reflection, stimulate spiritual renewal and intellectual regeneration [and] . . . viewed as a space for public reasoning and for engaging with the thorny issues affecting Caribbean life”. Mandela, who has been credited for his leadership of the anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa, went on to serve as the country’s first black president before his death in December 2013 at age 95 after suffering from a prolonged respiratory infection. (BT)

NEW CHAIR OF QEH BOARD – Juliette Bynoe-Sutherland is the new chairman of the board of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital. Bynoe-Sutherland is a former director of the Barbados Family Planning Association. She is also the wife of Minister of Small Business, Entrepreneurship and Commerce, Dwight Sutherland, MP for St George South. Also on the board are Dr Abdul-Rehman Mohamed, the permanent secretary in the ministry, Chief Medical Officer Dr Kenneth George, Joseph Laflour, Sharon Christie, Sonia Connell, Annalee Babb, Andrew Niles, the principal of the University of the West Indies, Nigel Hall, Dr Jacqueline King and a representative from the Congress of Trade Unions and Staff Associations of Barbados. The appointments, which became effective on June 28, are for a period of three years. (WN)

E. HUMPHREY WALCOTT BUILDING CLOSED TEMPORARILY – The E. Humphrey Walcott Building, corner Culloden Road and Collymore Rock, St. Michael, will be closed tomorrow, Friday, July 20 due to an environmental problem. Departments housed in the building, namely the Personnel Administration Division, the Ministry of the Civil Service and the Unemployment Section of the National Insurance Department (NIS), will therefore be closed to the public. Persons are advised that during the closure, the services of the Unemployment Section will be available at the NIS’ main offices at the Frank Walcott Building. Normal business at the building will resume on Monday, July 23. Any inconvenience caused is regretted. (PR/BGIS)

MOVES TO INCREASE PANAMA FLIGHTS TO 4 – GOVERNMENT is already looking to expand the arrangement with Copa Airlines to capitalise on the Latin and South American markets, as well as more destinations in the United States. With the ink barely dry on the direct flights arrangement from Panama that was inaugurated on Tuesday, Minister of Tourism and International Transport Kerrie Symmonds said Barbados was in talks with Copa’s management to move from twice weekly flights to four in the near future, as the load factor for the next few months was in excess of 90 per cent, both ways. He was speaking in an interview at the Panama Hilton, Panama City, on the eve of the historic Flight CM 260 to Barbados, which was captained by Barbadian Marc Holford, and returned home by his countryman Captain Chetwyn Clarke. “Copa is interested in having an entity like Barbados work with them towards moving people from the Eastern Caribbean, because there is a lot of heritage linkage. St Lucia, St Vincent, Dominica, all would have had people who went to the Panama Canal and worked there, and also in terms of business traffic.” (WN)

COPA AIRLINES BRINGS EAGER VISITORS – Some passengers on the inaugural Copa Airlines Flight CM 260 from Panama to Barbados just couldn’t wait to be in the land of their ancestors. The historic flight left Tocumen International Airport at 10 a.m. local time Tuesday and arrived in Barbados just before 2 p.m. to an official welcome. Doraldo Branch, travelling with wife Evon and their friend Evelia Carrington, said this was his first visit. His grandfather Charles Branch migrated to Panama in the early 1900s to work on the canal. “I plan to catch up with any relatives, and also eat flying fish and cou-cou. I always heard about it and I want to see what it’s like and tastes like,” he added with a chuckle, his wife nodding in agreement. Carrington, also a first-timer, was keen on “getting into contact with any of my family – the Carringtons”, though she wasn’t quite sure where they were located. A couple seats away, Roxana Brown Larrier and her husband Jaime Brown were just counting down the minutes, even though this was her second visit. Her grandfather Joseph C. Larrier, a former Christian Mission Church pastor, also emigrated to Panama. She said she was the cousin of former meteorologist and television weather presenter Vic Larrier. Sheila Wilkinson was leading a group of 13, including her daughter and grand-daughter. She said although she had been to Barbados nine times, the last being for the 50th Independence anniversary celebrations in 2016, she could not miss out on this. “From the time I hear about it, I said I have to be on this flight. I am looking forward most to the food, family and friends.” Before take-off, there was a short ribbon-cutting ceremony where Panamanian dancers and a folk group, dressed in national costumes, entertained the travellers. There were also speeches by Panamanian government and Copa Airlines officials. Barbados’ Minister of Tourism and International Transport Kerrie Symmonds lauded the Copa team for working with Government for nearly a decade to see the historic moment come to pass, saying it would open up more opportunities for genealogy tourism and business for both countries and the airline. (WN)

FTC ISSUES WARNING TO CROP OVER REVELLERS – The Fair Trading Commission (FTC) is warning Barbadians not to be duped this Crop Over. Director of Consumer Protection Dava Leslie-Ward is specifically advising those taking part in masquerade bands for Grand Kadooment to pay close attention to all contract terms and to avoid misleading or deceptive information. “Persons might have signed up for a specific type of contract, and you know when you are in the midst of Crop Over and you are trying to look good for the season, you accept the contract. And, then you don’t realize that it may have implications after the season has ended. So, those are the types of issues we would have at this time,” she said during a recent outreach programme at Sheraton Mall during which the FTC distributed special brochures for outlining how to be good consumers. During the event, a warning was also issued to frequent users of social media to beware of pop up advertisements encouraging them to sign up for Crop Over gym specials. “Those are very popular at this time. So what we are trying to advise consumers to do is to ask the person: ‘Do you have any contractual terms? What happens if I can’t complete it? Do I still have to pay the entire fee? How do I have to pay it? Do I have to pay all the money up front or is it payable in installments? And what if I miss one of those installments?’” Leslie-Ward also advised those planning to jump on Kadooment Day to carefully examine their costumes and before entering into any contract to make sure they read it and have an understanding of it. The outreach programme continues on Friday, July 20, at Cave Shepherd, Broad Street, and again on Friday, July 27, at Abed’s, Swan Street. (BT)

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