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Full House at 1st Save The Bays Grand Bahama Fund Raiser

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Grand Bahama, 04 Mar 2015 – Scores of people from every walk of life packed a concert this weekend hosted by Save The Bays, singing along with performers, dancing and helping to raise funds for the fast-growing environmental movement.
Organisers hailed the February 28 fundraiser, Chillin’ by the Dock of the Bay, a success.

The event was held at the popular Flying Fish Restaurant, home of Chef Tim Tibbitts, a Bahamian who returned to his roots after a successful performing career in Canada and is now ranked as one of the Caribbean’s 25 best chefs.
The concert brought five performers together with one common goal – protecting the waters of The Bahamas.
Musical artists included the jazzy Marina Gottlieb Sarles who performed with master guitarist Steve Persaud, Grand Bahama local favourites, Derek Gape,Tim Tibbitts, with the legendary Kirkland ‘KB’ Bodie headlining the event.
Guests were treated to an electrifying lineup. Sarles began the event with a smooth medley of songs, returning to the stage during Gape’s performance to sing her famous brother, Sir Cay Gottlieb’s song ‘Day Break’. Gape also had Tibbitts join him and Persaud on well-known ‘Lyin’ Eyes’ by the Eagles, before Tibbitts performed his own numbers, including crowd favourite, ‘Purple Rain’. The night’s highlight was a surprise duet by KB and Tibbitts singing the well-known ‘Journey’ song, ‘Faithfully’ shortly before guests hit the dancefloor to join KB to the tune of his hit, ‘Just Cause She Fat’.

“I am happy with the outcome and Grand Bahama will definitely see more events being put on by our organization,” said Save The Bays CEO Lindsey McCoy. “We want to do all that we can to raise awareness for our cause and I am happy that we were able to bring five passionate and talented persons to help relay that message.”
Funds raised will help defray educational, legal and operational costs of the organization that has filed several legal actions to hold environmental protection violators accountable and force remediation of damage caused by oil pollution or unregulated development.

“We wanted to host a fundraiser in Grand Bahama where Save The Bays’ impact, particularly in the education arena and among young Bahamians, has been so great,” said McCoy. “We did not want to do anything too formal or fancy, just something that represented what we are all about – preserving the waters for all of us to appreciate and for future generations to enjoy so what better place than on the waterfront.

“Every Bahamian should be aware of how important preserving and protecting our marine environment and our vast marine resources is,” said the Save The Bays CEO, “It’s the beauty of our waters that makes The Bahamas the amazing place it is.”

At the same time, Save The Bays has a need, she says, to raise funds to keep up the campaign, enhancing educational efforts and legal cases holding environmental best practices violators accountable.
Since its founding less than two years ago, the fast-growing Save The Bays organization has grown into a full-blown movement with the largest number of social media followers in Bahamian history.

More than 17,200 persons Like Save The Bays on Facebook and nearly 6,000 have signed a petition calling for a freedom of information act, an environmental protection act and an end to unregulated development among other tenets.

To connect with Save The Bays or sign the petition online, go to www.savethebays.bs

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NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL STATEMENT REGARDING RECENT THREATS MADE AGAINST TURKS AND CAICOS ISLANDS AIRPORTS AND SCHOOLS

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May 6th, 2024 – As co-chairs of the National Security Council, Her Excellency the Governor and the Honourable Premier condemn strongly recent threats made against Turks and Caicos Islands airports and schools.

We have zero tolerance for these disruptions and the alarm that they cause. The Royal Turks and Caicos Islands Police Force (RTCIPF) continues to work closely with partner agencies and will keep the public updated as we manage the situation.

The National Security Council wishes to reassure residents, travellers and parents that the safety and security of our Islands is its highest priority.

All appropriate measures are being taken to address these threats and all required security protocols are being followed.

The Airports Authority and the Ministry of Education, with school principals are collaborating with the RTCIPF  investigations.

We encourage the public to be extra vigilant against phishing and malicious emails and report any suspicious activity to the authorities.

We appreciate the understanding of the public as we work to ensure the safety and well-being of our airports, schools and communities.

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Family of 16 yo Tourist claims negligence in jet ski death; TCI Coroner’s Court hearing evidence

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Dana Malcolm 

Staff Writer 

 

#TurksandCaicos, May 2, 2024 – The family of a 16-year-old who died in Grand Turk six years ago while on a Carnival Cruise into Grand Turk is a little closer to closure as the Turks and Caicos Islands Coroner’s Court has opened his case for an inquest.

“On Wednesday, May 16th, 2018, at 11:30 a.m. Police and Emergency Medical Officials responded to a two-jet-ski collision that left a 16-year-old male dead, near the Cruise Terminal in Grand Turk. Two people were involved in the collision. The second male did not receive any injuries. This incident is under Police investigation.”

That was the brief police report in the aftermath of Nicholas Twyman’s death.

In the comments dozens of residents and visitors claim to have been on the scene that day, as the boy was pulled ashore, some trying to assist while others looked on, horrified.

Coroner Mickia Mills called up the case on March 21, 2024 almost six years after the incident occurred. Mills is in charge of finding out what exactly happened that day in Grand Turk and whether there was any negligence or if it was simply a terrible accident.

That verdict will be for the coroner and her potential jurors to decide. However, the family has shared their version of what happened that day.

A lawsuit filed in Florida Courts in October 2019 (Twyman v. Carnival Corp) detailed the heartbreaking hours that led up to the death of Nicholas. In it, the plaintiffs, listed as Gyjuanna TWYMAN and Michael Twyman, claim that they docked in Grand Turk and were curious about using the jet skis; both parents and the son were told by the Carnival team aboard the ship that there was not a formal shore excursion in Grand Turk involving jet skis, but that jet skis would be available for rent by the hour.

The family from Indiana claims three jet skis were rented, one for Nicholas, another for his father, Michael, and another for a different passenger, while their mother remained ashore. Wet Money Enterprise is listed as the jet ski company.

The family says they were given little instruction on using the Jet Skis, especially their son who was a new rider.  The lawsuit maintains that Michael was not given any instructions other than being told where the kill switch was and not to ride too close to the cruise ship.

Sometime during his excursion, the young man crashed into the other jet ski. The family claims that neither Carnival Cruises nor representatives from the jet ski company responded. They say it was his father who spun around on his own jet ski, dived into the water for his son, and brought him to shore.

Once there, it was the young man’s mother, a registered nurse, who started emergency medical care.

When Turks and Caicos’s EMS did arrive after 15 minutes the family claims they were unsure how to use certain medical implements and had to be directed by the distressed mother.

The court documents list the cause of death for the young man as blunt force trauma and drowning, similar to what is listed in the TCI courts.

Coroner Mills, who took up her position in 2024, will oversee the proceedings which continued on Tuesday, April 23rd.

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Will DPP Office ‘No Show, No Call’ cause criminal cases to be Dropped?

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Wilkie Arthur

Freelance Court Correspondent

 

#TurksandCaicos, May 2, 2024 – On a bright and early Monday morning (15th April, 2024) in the Supreme Court before presiding lady Justice Ms. Tanya Lobban-Jackson and before His Honor The Chief Magistrate Jolyon Hatmin in the Magistrate’s Court, both courts were once again unable to proceed on its scheduled commencement time due to non or failure of attendance by the Prosecution of the Office of the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP).

Given the fact that this has now happened on more than one occasion, in both the Supreme and Magistrate’s Courts, judges and the learned Chief Magistrate have reached its final straw; they have cited the ‘no shows’ as a disrespect and a disregard for prompt and proper time management to be in attendance for legal proceedings.

From this reporters’ perspective, it appears the prosecution shows up when they like, any time they please and some are guilty of not showing at all without a call or message of explanation for the absenteeism.  The repeated instances have been called, “embarrassing” for the Office of the DPP, when defense counsel and the accused are present in the courtroom but the prosecutor is a ‘no-show, no call, no text.’

On at least two or three occasions, the Supreme Court judge was forced to return to her Chambers; exiting the court with a strongly worded warning, only to return with there still being no member of the Director of Public Prosecution present in court.

There has also been a promise that even serious cases could be dismissed due to this inappropriate practice.

In the final weeks of April, the country learned of a review by a KC out of the UK, who was looking into case progression at the DPPs office.  The Office has also hired a new Director, Philip Bennetts, KC, who takes office in the beginning of June, informed a TCIG media release.

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