PETERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Colorado -- Representatives from The Royal Bahamas Defence Force visited U.S. Northern Command headquarters Sep. 17-20. The visit was a theater security cooperation engagement between partner nations to enhance the strong relationships between the two countries. During the visit participants took the opportunity to exchange ideas and information with command senior leaders on emergency response processes during natural and man-made disasters.

The Bahamian delegation, led by National Emergency Management Agency Director CAPT Stephen Russell, met with USNORTHCOM disaster response planners, joint interagency coordination planners, and humanitarian assistance program managers to see first-hand how USNORTHCOM responds to disasters in support of U.S. government agencies.

The Commonwealth of The Bahamas became the 157th country to sign onto the Convention on the Rights of Persons With Disabilities Tuesday, setting the framework for the introduction of national disability legislation.

The signing, which took place at 9:30am, comes as the country celebrates its 40th anniversary as an independent nation. The Convention, along with the proposed national disability legislation, is expected to give Bahamians with Disabilities true "independence" as it is expected to protect and enhance the rights of Persons With Disabilities in The Bahamas.

This year's date is set for the Generations Junior Angler Tournament - Saturday October 19th. This tournament is in benefit of the Ranfurley Homes for Children. It is an open invitation tournament; everyone is invited to fish. What more could a kid want: a day of fishing with the family and friends ending with free ice cream and prizes!

The junior anglers are divided in 2 age groups; 4 to 12 years old and 13 to 17 years old with a prize for the largest jack, grunt, turbot and snapper for each age group. There is also a top boat prize for the heaviest combined weight for each species. The entry is only $50.00 per boat. We raise money for the tournament and the Ranfurley Home through donations and sponsors. Please contact us if you would like to donate, sponsor or take child or children from the Ranfurley Home on your boat fishing. Your kids will love it!

Rotarians from the South East Nassau club and Rotaract members spent valuable hours volunteering with the Bahamas National Trust (BNT) to clear invasive cattails from around the boardwalk at Harrold and Wilson Ponds National Park, an important New Providence national park. "Rotary is a great partner for the BNT, they understand the importance in protecting the natural environment, and are always willing to volunteer their time to assist the BNT in our conservation work," said Lynn Gape, Deputy Executive Director at the BNT.

Cattails, though they are visually pleasing, can ruin the visual and recreational benefits of our natural wetlands when they grow out of control. Unfortunately, at the Harrold and Wilson Ponds, this is the case, as the cattails have begun to be the dominant vegetation in the wetland area.

Conch N' Kalik, managed by Cacique-Award winning chef Devon Johnson, is the newest restaurant to open in downtown Nassau.

The restaurant and sports bar celebrated with a soft opening event recently at its Pompey Square location. As the restaurant opens, Chef Johnson, the general manager and managing chef, said operators are already considering expanding to as many as four other locations. The original location is a high-pedestrian traffic location, he said.

Knowledge is a powerful weapon in the fight against cancer. Genetic screening determines the risk of hereditary breast cancer in women. Genetic tests can check for BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations. If a harmful BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutation is found several options are available to help a person manage their cancer risk. Early detection of cancer can save one's life.

Employees of RBC Royal Bank recently benefitted from onsite, free breast cancer genetic testing. The initiative was a joint partnership between RBC and the Bahamas Breast Cancer Initiative Foundation (BBCIF). The genetic testing was carried out onsite at Royal Bank House, with additional support and advice made available to employees.

The Minister of Education, Science and Technology the Hon. Jerome Fitzgerald was among officials who joined in the 20th anniversary celebrations of Adventure Learning Centre (ALC) on Friday, September 20.

ALC is a Christian-based centre and camp that was founded in 1993 by Randy and Kimberly Grebe and offers an outdoor education programme. The centre was built by financial donations and volunteer labour from generous supporters throughout the world. Its mission is to provide children with hands-on science based educational experiences to discover God's creation. The objectives of the Centre are to educate, evangelise and disciple. It is estimated that over 9,000 students visit ALC on field trips each year.

Very early on Saturday morning, September 21st, 23 students from Lucaya International School on Grand Bahama Island arrived at Gold Rock Beach International Coastal Cleanup Day (ICC) 2013, at Lucayan National Park, in east Grand Bahama Island.

A grand total of 470 pounds of marine debris was collected, recorded and bagged for collection for the Gold Rock Beach zone. Students noted that debris items of local concern included a hamper, shoes, life jacket and a very large rubber walkway rug from a ship.

After announcing the advent of Island Outsourcers' call centre into the Grand Bahama market, bringing with it some 600 permanent jobs, The Grand Bahama Port Authority, Limited (GBPA) was happy to learn that renovation projects at the Reef Village and the airport's domestic terminal are also continuing on schedule, heralding thousands more jobs on the horizon.

Demolition work at the Reef Village is nearing completion with finishing work set to begin on 500 units that will comprise the 5-star hotel property to be leased by Sunwing under the Memories brand.

Domino's Pizza is proud to announce the re-branding of its Port Lucaya Marketpace store to the Pizza Theatre Concept, giving customers a cinematic view of the food preparation process. The newly renovated store officially debuted on Saturday, September 14th, 2013 and includes many new and exciting features.

"Our décor has been substantially upgraded and we have opened our back-of-house kitchen to allow our guests to view up close the pizza-making process", says Lageisha Miller, District Manager for Domino's Pizza, Grand Bahama.

On Thursday, September 19th, at 10:00am a service wave hit the island of Grand Bahama as 31 representatives from the non-profit, volunteer service organization Students Today Leaders Forever (STFL) out of the upper Midwest, USA visited to conduct a volunteer service project for one day.

In June of this year, Josh Reimnitz, Coordinator - STLF, contacted the Ministry of Tourism for assistance in locating a service project for the group to participate in while on the island. As a result of the request, an immediate partnership was forged between the Ministry of Tourism and service partner Urban Renewal who worked together to make this service venture a reality.

Summer is over (although the heat does not make that fact evident here) and the fall social season is upon us! Our regular followers will know that the HSGB has faced some extraordinary challenges in the last nine months, which resulted in some serious financial short falls.

Our amazing fundraising committee, along with some other kind souls, including some of our own staff, have been very busy behind the scenes coming up with some amazing, fun and even practical events for this fall. We believe we have come up with something for everyone - and our animals sure need the help.

We are so pleased to offer a cornucopia of events for Grand Bahama.

After a thorough tour of marine habitats in Bimini to observe the results of ongoing development, rapidly-growing environmental movement Save The Bays is strongly urging the government and Genting Group to make public the findings of the hotel and casino developer's environmental impact assessment (EIA). The request comes days after executives of the Bahamas National Trust (BNT) also toured the island on a fact-finding mission, discovering a mass sense of uncertainty from residents and a withholding of information from those who have the answers.

"Even the BNT has not had the opportunity to view the EIA, so a lack of transparency while having no environmental protection act in place makes this matter worse," said Save The Bays Director Joe Darville.

The Sands Man in the Boat Sculling Race was recently held in Treasure Cay, Abaco, but rather than just having the race and leaving, Sands wanted to do something that would benefit the community of North Abaco. "The sculling races have been very successful, local communities have been embracing us, and we wanted to do something to give back to the community, to thank them for their support," commented Lynden Johnson, Sales and Marketing Manager at Bahamian Brewery and Beverage.

While planning the first sculling race in Abaco, the Bahamian Brewery and Beverage team approached Gary Smith, Chief Councilor for North Abaco for assistance in planning the event, but also to discover what they could do for the island. Smith indicated that the library in Cooper's Town needed additional computers before they could officially open.

The Rotary Club of Freeport presents its first annual wine and cheese tasting on Saturday October 5th, 2013, to be held at the Grand Bahama Yacht Club, from 7:00pm-11:00pm. Part-proceeds of the event have been ear-marked for the Humane Society of Grand Bahama.

Purchase a ticket at $50.00 and come out and enjoy the evening, partaking of cheese and wine from all around the world as well as other scrumptious hors d'oeuvres. Bottles of wine will also be on sale.

As the Grand Bahama Children's Home gears up for its annual fundraiser on October 18th, it is also preparing for a FUN auction being facilitated by young Lucaya International School (LIS) Students.

Cassandra Haddad, Katie Hindley and Imani Sterling are all part of the International Baccalaureate programme at LIS where part of their Creativity, Action and Service (C.A.S.) programme is to educate students about the importance of caring about others less fortunate than themselves. These students have chosen to spearhead a unique, fun and fantastically simple idea for celebrities and well-known people of The Bahamas to be involved with and help the children of the Home: all it takes is a 'doodle.'

With 130 nations competing for one title, it's no easy task to consistently stand out. Yet Miss World Bahamas De'Andra Bannister is steadily emerging as a fan favorite at this year's Miss World competition, and hopes are high that she will join the elite two Bahamian women who have excelled at the prestigious pageant.

From the moment she stepped off the plane in Bali, Indonesia, De'Andra made it clear that she was on a mission to not only match but possibly exceed the successes of Jody Weech and Braneka Bassett at the Miss World competition. Her classic style, regal elegance, and competitive nature have already landed her a semifinalist spot in the beach fashion competition where she was among the Top 30 contestants singled out by the judges.

It was a cultural awakening for approximately 350 faculty, staff, students and family members of The Bahamas Technical and Vocational Institute (BTVI) as they recently flocked to The National Art Gallery of The Bahamas for the much-touted 'The Bahamian Collection' photographic exhibition. Well executed, the strikingly artistic portraits of 40 men and women represent the depth of the Bahamian spirit via the lens of Duke and Lisa Wells. The extraordinary exhibition is in commemoration of the 40th anniversary of The Bahamas' independence.

BTVI's Student Affairs Coordinator, Mrs. Raquel Bethel explained that the trip to the art gallery was to encourage those in the Student Success, Entrepreneurial Workforce Prep, English classes and the wider BTVI community to get to know more about their cultural heritage.

Despite heavy rain, over 200 competitors and spectators gathered in the early morning hours at Jaws Beach on Saturday, September 21st, 2013, for the first Baark! Potcakeman Triathlon. The swim-bike-run route started in the ocean for a 750m swim followed by a 21km ride to Frank Watson Blvd onto Adelaide before returning for the transition into a 5km run along the scenic trails of Clifton Heritage Park.

"We had more participants than we ever imagined," said race director Sarah Kennedy from Baark!

After great success in Nassau, the organisers of the 242 Colour Run have now committed to hosting the event in Freeport and Abaco before the year's end. On December 8th, the colourful race will hit the streets of Freeport, and on December 28th the event will take place in Abaco.

The inaugural event in Nassau on July 13th drew 333 participants, along with dozens of volunteers and spectators. The five kilometre course started and finished at Montagu Foreshore and had five colour stations. As the participants ran and walked through the course, they were bombarded with food-grade powders in Flash Caribbean Breeze Blue, Flamingo Pink, Bahamian Yellow, Sun Burnt Orange and Key Lime Green.

My whole life I have been a Manchester United supporter and therefore I have always had a dislike for Manchester City and Liverpool. Any day that Manchester United play against Manchester City or Liverpool I take the result very personally.

I have witnessed a lot of great things at Manchester United, winning titles across the UK and Europe. I have watched some of the best players at Manchester United such as Ronaldo and Rooney and have seen DVDs of older generation players like Eric Cantona, George Best and many more. Manchester United have always been consistent getting in the top four of the league and winning loads of trophies. I have always thought they were the best team and no one could beat them, you could say I am bias towards them.

With more than 150 anglers landing over 6,000 pounds of Wahoo in two more recent tournaments sponsored by the Bimini Big Game Club Resort & Marina, management has announced plans for Wahoo Smackdown III scheduled for November 21-23.

"They start running soon and we will be on the water to chase them," said Capt. Paul Cameron, tournament director. "With some $30,000 in cash and prizes this should be another great tournament for Bimini."

Which radio station is the best? When it comes to beach games this year, Guardian Media came out on top during the first-ever Radio Beach Battle held at and sponsored by Palm Cay.

The $200 million beachfront community on Nassau's southeastern shore hosted the fun-filled tournament exclusively for the radio industry. Competition was intense, as radio personalities went from disc jockeys to sports jockeys, fiercely participating in a variety of games like tug-o-war, beach volleyball and relay races.

Grand Bahama casino workers remain uncertain about their future

Back on August 7, Tourism Minister and Grand Bahama MP Obie Wilchcombe told the media that he planned to make an announcement "within two to three weeks" about who the government had chosen to become the new operator of the island's sole casino at the Grand Lucayan Resort.

That "two to three weeks" time period would have put his anticipated announcement to happen by the end of August. This is now close to the end of September and that announcement has yet to be made. Casino employees are continuing to bemoan their uncertainty and stress about their future.

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Decision delayed is justice denied for casino workers

While continuing to recover from the worst global economic recession of our life time, which continues to drive unemployment especially among our youth to unacceptable high levels both locally and nationally, over the past year the Minister of Tourism has repeatedly issued assurances and public statements regarding the imminent naming of a Casino partner for the Our Lucaya/Sunwing (Reef) property in Freeport. His announcements indicated that there were a number of interested groups, including two Bahamian groups being considered to operate the only Casino in Grand Bahama, which is struggling mightily to remain open and not close its doors sending more Bahamians to join our desperately growing out of work masses yearning for a job, any job.

Over and over promises are made but remain unfulfilled week after week for the long suffering employees of this Casino property, who continue to live in fear and limbo, unable to secure loans or to plan long-term for their families.

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