Before the company was given this contract what major water development systems had they overseen?

There is nothing wrong with giving a new company an opportunity, but 3 things should be true, first, something should tell you that the major players have the potential to be successful, i.e., their base of knowledge in the field should be deep and extensive and they should have access to adequate funding. Being careful not to be fooled by the inclusion of a foreign "*token*" for name recognition (which is my major concern with the BPL deal, that this is a FOCOL *who've overseen two major oil spills in our waters* deal with the Pike name included to instill confidence.. but I could be wrong...). And conversely, not to give contracts to political cronies who know nothing essentially and outsource to a myriad of subcontractors hiking costs exponentially

Second, the company's history of engagement should demonstrate ethical behaviour (selling swamp land to thousands of fellow Bahamians in Pinewood without batting an eye, that's a serious black mark) and finally, the ecosystem in which that company operates should be different than that of one with decades of experience and success. The last being something the govt needs to oversee.

This problem on Eleuthera is spanning years, this is more than a "*maintenance issue*", this is breakdown and systemic failure. **I'd say this calls for a public post mortem forum (with FNM and PLP equally represented) in what not to do. especially on family islands**, you cant throw them to the wolves.

Add to this the mysterious *hidden among construction material* alcohol shipment at customs that someone was allowed to clear

Lol. That ran across my mind, "*I guess they wasnt kidding about a confiscated boat coming next*"

Did you read the story of the boat confiscated by police, pending payment of fine that is allegedly now in someone's yard with registration info removed and boat sanded? I believe the majority of police are good workers trying to do a good job, but something strange is going on with the number of police straight through the ranks doing real foul stuff. Illegal guns, drive by shootings, missing prisoners, highway robbery (literally), now "stolen" boat. Nobody removes the registration from a legit boat purchase

The sad thing here is they stated it was US dollars. The police could literally say holding US dollars is illegal and be done with the story.

They need to toughen the character testing for entry to the police force.

Confused. Is he claiming someone stole the boat and used it for a drug run or someone on his crew had drugs in their possession unbeknownst to him.

Can someone change a boat registration? Wouldnt they have to show a chain of custody when they licensed it or insured it... well I guess they dont have to do either. If they just gave this man's boat to some police officer or sold it and pocketed the money, that's criminal.

If this individual removed the registration info they should be prosecuted to the full extent, theyve demonstrated their knowledge that they were receiving shady goods.

True, still 9.9% unemployment is **pretty** bad. That's about 19000 people. 1900 job fairs to hire 80 or so people as maids and helpers for good looking numbers. If they'd interviewed 2 more people it just might have scratched 10%. Healthy economies have unemployment in the low digits around ~3 or less.

They also dont report **under**employment. The people who take any job just to have a job, or work less hours than theyd like to. Invariably neither circumstance fulfills them or economically sustains them based on their skill and commitments. To be fair it appears that underemployment is under reported in most places, but post COVID it must be a big factor in personal economies and overall economic health of a country. **Statistics needs to begin reporting underemployment for a real view of the health of the economy**

Another troubling thing about our job market is most of the advertised jobs are for blue collar workers. Thats likely a natural phenomenon, but with a smaller population it eventually means you need a bachelor's degree to cash at McDonalds. The only thing that combats that is growth, and we are not growing. We are expanding the same *didnt work yesterday* tourism model, which yes, feeds alot of people, but it doesnt get us much further than we were 50 years ago. In fact we appear to have peaked before 2008 and are now regressing.

Govt needs to stop misappropriating ideas/competing with business and calling it innovation. Let the private sector grow their own ideas unvictimized. (And not the things that make money but are eventually a blight on the community, drugs prostitution alcohol gambling)

This the wrong tree Mr Pintard. What the gas retailers are facing is, yes, exacerbated by govt taxes but it also clearly market forces on an industry with too many operators and not enough customers. They want to make the same profit they made when they had half the number of operators as if it's their right to make a profit. Globally this is an industry with very low profit margins that survives on volume business. Many of these stations are empty for 80% of the day. That should be a giant red flag to them.

The problem with a national lottery is "*at this stage*" it will be these same actors running it, basically a slightly altered version if any of the current system.

"*Government. he added, “inherited” a fully functioning industry build by gaming house operators*"

God only knows what else they inherited from decades of illegal activity. Casinos and gambling are operations that notoriously go hand in hand with money laundering, prostitution, sex trafficking, drug dealing and in the Bahamas human smuggling.

If urban legend is to be believed precisely how casinos got here in the first place after fleeing newly communist Cuba

Theres nothing to jump to conclusions on. It was the wrong apartment. The young lady clearly didnt order her dog to attack. The dog either moved toward the officers because it was curious or it was in an aggressive posture. The officer felt threatened and did what was natural, defended himself from a breed of dogs *thought* to be dangerous. I dont fault the officer for trying to defend himself.

What Mrs McCombe Pinder is saying is, all of that could have been avoided if officers were trained in proper protocols for interaction with household animals. (And while they're at it, regular citizens).

The officers should not have had to encounter the dog at all. Likely the first thing they should have done was ask if there were animals inside then allow the owner time to secure the dog. If after all that was done and the dog still came into proximity with the officer he would have been more than justified to defend himself. But none of it was done, that's the advocate's point.

And of course some remorse would have been nice, I dont think it makes them any less likely to face litigation and damages