12122024 BUSINESS by tribune242

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 12, 2024

Contractors fearing Business Licences renewal ‘nightmare’

By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

CONTRACTORS were yesterday said to be bracing for a Business Licence renewal “nightmare” in early 2025 given the industry-speciﬁc challenges associated with estimating the upcoming year’s turnover.

Leonard Sands, the Bahamian Contractors Association’s (BCA) president, told Tribune Business that changes set to impact next year’s renewal cycle will likely “slow up” both the industry and individual operators and potentially result in some business closures among small and medium-sized entities.

He explained that the challenges revolve around the new requirement for companies to estimate their 2025 Business Licence fee based on turnover generated during the 2024 calendar year. If this proves an over or under-estimate, in the case of the latter the business will have to make it up by paying the difference, or balance.

Mr Sands, though, told this newspaper that the “dynamic” nature of the construction industry makes it extremely difﬁcult for operators to provide future turnover estimates based on the business done in the prior year. With taxpaying construction ﬁrms dependent on demand for their services, he explained that while business volumes may spike in one year they can be sharply reduced the next.

As a result, the BCA president explained that a construction company can, for example, go from a $5m annual turnover generated

URCA takes GBPA energy battle to Supreme Court

By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

THE Utilities Regulation and Competition Authority (URCA) has put its battle with the Grand Bahama Port Authority (GBPA) over who has the authority to regulate Freeport’s energy sector before the Supreme Court.

Tribune Business can reveal URCA has ﬁled a legal action, seeking to resolve this long-standing vexing dispute, following the two sides’ much-publicised summer exchanges sparked by the GBPA’s decision to proceed with reviewing Grand Bahama Power Company’s three-year tariff application that includes a 6.3 percent base rate hike.

The legal action’s ﬁling, though, has never been publicly disclosed until now. All parties involved were tightlipped on the move when contacted yesterday, with Juan McCartney, URCA’s corporate and consumer relations manager, declining to comment. Fred Smith KC, the Callenders & Co attorney and partner, who is the GBPA’s legal representative in

the case, could not be reached for comment.

However, well-placed sources described the case as “sensitive”. While some observers suggested URCA has likely sought an injunction to prevent the GBPA proceeding with its review of GB Power’s rate proposal, Tribune Business has conﬁrmed this is not the case and, instead, it is simply asking the Supreme Court to determine whether itself or Freeport’s quasi-governmental body has

Watchdog sounds alarm on ‘missing’ electronic presents

By FAY SIMMONS Tribune Business Reporter jsimmons@tribunemedia.net

THE Bahamas’ consumer watchdog yesterday sounded the alarm over a “number of complaints” that local couriers and freight forwarders are failing to deliver electronic and other goods ordered for Christmas. The Consumer Protection Commission, in a public advisory, warned of concerns that electronic items and other products ordered online are going “missing with no accountability or compensation from the freight forwarder” after being sent to US shipping

addresses from where they are to either be collected or shipped on to The Bahamas.

Senator Randy Rolle, the Commission’s chairman, said it has received

By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

THE Bahamian Contractors Association’s (BCA) president yesterday asserted that the construction sector can “at least double” the 2024 second quarter’s $408m in total activity if properly regulated. Leonard Sands told Tribune Business that ﬁnally ending the eight-year wait to fully implement licensing and self-regulation for Bahamian contractors will reduce construction-related risk and give both residential and business clients greater “conﬁdence” to proceed with projects knowing

there will be redress for potential grievances.

Speaking after the Bahamas National Statistical Institute (BNSI) yesterday revealed that the value of nationwide construction starts more than doubled during the three months to endJune, expanding by 172.28 percent or $61.431m to $97.090m as opposed to just $35.659m in the prior year, he reiterated his belief that the absence of proper regulation is holding back the industry and wider Bahamian economic output.

“While this information certainly does represent continued strength and

LEONARD SANDS

SENATOR RANDY ROLLE

YOU TAKE CHARGE OF YOUR MONEY

If you have been wondering why it is so difﬁcult to stick to a budget, you are not alone.

For many, budgeting can be similar to dieting. You might eagerly create a new budget or start a diet in the hopes of saving enough to go on vacation or shedding a few pounds. However, after you have slipped up by eating a slice of cake or spending too much on a new coat, you may be tempted to tear up the budget or say ‘screw the diet’.

The language around budgeting and dieting often has moral connotations. You are sinful and gluttonous when you indulge by breaking the diet or over-spending, and you are self-disciplined when you can adhere to strict spending limits or calorie counts.

It is said that budgets do not work for many. In the same vein, diets are not a size that ﬁts all either, yet I have accepted it is not about dieting but, rather, eating well. And it is not about budgeting but spending and investing well.

There are a variety of reasons why budgeting might not be compatible with everyone’s lifestyles. Many individuals may not fully understand how to maintain a budget due to lack of motivation and unrealistic expectations. For this reason, let us look at what a budget is. At the most basic level, a budget refers to an estimation of revenue and expenses that is made for a speciﬁed future period of time and helps to keep track of the money you are spending each day.

Creating and using a budget is not only for those who need to closely monitor their cash. Almost everyone can benefit from budgeting; even people with a large bank account. It does not require being a mathematics wizard, and nor does it mean you cannot buy the things you want. What it does mean is that you can maintain control over where your money goes and enjoy greater financial confidence and success.

Beneﬁts of budgeting

Getting, and keeping, a handle on your monthly income and expenses allows you to make sure that your hard-earned money is being put to its best purpose.

I am not great at mathematics

Generally speaking, you do not need to be a maths

wizard to follow a budget, but instead understand general concepts relating to your income such as:

Spending, debt, saving and allocating your funds.

I do not want to deprive myself

Budgeting is not synonymous with spending as little money as possible or feeling guilty about every purchase. The aim really is to ensure you are able to spend on what is needed each month. At the very least, ensure you are not spending more than you earn. Tracking your expenses does not change the amount of money you have available to spend. It simply displays where the money is allocated.

I am debt free

Being debt-free without any savings will not pay your bills in an emergency situation. A zero balance can quickly become a negative balance if you do not have a safety net.

I am not disciplined

If you are still not convinced that budgeting is for you, here is a way to safeguard yourself from your poor spending habits. Set up an automatic transfer from a checking account to a savings account that you do not see regularly, meaning using a different bank.

Budgeting concepts

In general, traditional budgeting starts with tracking expenses and eliminating debt and, once the budget is balanced, immediately build an emergency fund.

Sticking to a budget

You have got your budget set up, but that credit card

OPPOSITION CHALLENGES GOV’T: ‘JUSTIFY MASSIVE’ SPEND RISE

By NEIL HARTNELL

The Opposition’s finance spokesman yesterday demanded that the Government “justify the massive” near-20 percent increase in public spending that caused the first quarter deficit to triple.

Kwasi Thompson, former minister of state for ﬁnance in the Minnis administration, pronounced the Free National Movement (FNM) as “astounded” by the magnitude of the deﬁcit and spending increases during the three months to end-September 2024 when compared to the same period in the prior year.

Pointing to a “massive increase in spending, and massive increase in net new debt”, he accused the Davis administration of failing to provide “any explanation

or justiﬁcation for these signiﬁcant and troubling trends”.

“Comparing year-on-year numbers for the previous three-month ﬁscal period, government spending has gone up by more than $140m [and] the deﬁcit has tripled and now stands at over $180m,” Mr Thompson argued.

“There have been no national disasters, no economic emergencies or other disruption to the Bahamian economy. So.... we can find no justification for the significant deviation in performance compared to previous fiscal years.”

Tribune Business reported on Wednesday that a near-20 percent increase in total government spending caused The Bahamas’ fiscal deficit for the 20242025 first quarter to triple when compared to the prior Budget year.

The Ministry of Finance’s ﬁscal performance report for the three months to end-September 2024 revealed that a $143m spending increase drove the year-over-year expansion in the Government’s deﬁcit, which jumped from $61.5m during the same period in 2022-2023 to $185.4m. Revenues, meanwhile, grew by

just $18.7m or 2.8 percent to $682.2m, meaning spending grew more than seven times’ faster.

The Davis administration has frequently argued that Bahamians should base their assessment of its ﬁscal prudence, and ability to meet the deﬁcit and other targets, on the full-year results rather than the outcome for just one quarter as the Budget’s cyclical nature typically shifts the bulk of revenue generation into the second half of the year.

However, comparisons with previous first quarter fiscal reports show that the Government’s total spending as a percentage of the full-year expenditure forecast increased markedly for this 2024-2025 fiscal year. The total $867.7m spent was equal to 24 percent of the forecast $3.613bn annual spend, which represents a notable increase over the 20

‘NEED GREATER THAN EVER’ AS CHARITIES CALL ON BUSINESSES

By ANNELIA NIXON Tribune Business Reporter

CHARITABLE organisations have said the need for donations is heavy this year and “greater than ever”.

Calling on donors, individuals and corporate Bahamas, Bishop Walter Hanchell of Great Commission Ministries International is asking for donations to meet the growing needs of the community, especially during the holidays. He said the ministry is hosting a dinner on Christmas Eve for those in need. While hams, turkeys and other Christmas-related ingredients are welcomed, they invite food donations of all kinds.

“The need is massive, massive, greater than ever,” Mr Hanchell said. “People are lining up early. People line up right now from 7:00 to get a hot plate of food or a bag of grocery. That’s how bad it is right now. We’ve never seen it like this. And so we need help. People are crying, crying out for help.

“Right now, we are stretched to the limit. So what we need is more support. We appeal to the corporate Bahamas to please stop by Great Commission on Wulff Road and help us because we have to

buy so many Christmas gifts for those children. Many of them have no fathers in the home. We have to supply Christmas meals. Grocery. We serve 600 hot meals every day to people that come to us looking for a hot meal because, you know, they don’t have it.”

Those willing to donate can do so on their website, gcmbahamas.com and give through Givelify, a mobile and online donation system. They also accept cheques, and cash in person at the Great Commission Ministries. He added that money is at the top of the list in terms of needs. He said the funds will purchase the much-needed food items and meat which he noted is another necessity given that the organisation prepares over 200 pounds of meat every day. Bishop Hanchell also extended his thanks to donors, supporters, volunteers, and staff.

According to executive director of the Bahamas Feeding Network, Nicolette Archer, the organisation “is up” when it comes to donations this holiday season. She highlighted many of their partners thanking them for their contributions.

“So we have those people who give us money on a regular and then we have people who give us goods in kind and by that I mean

food items, speciﬁcally Cisco, Bahamas International Foods and then we have AML Foods Markets Limited who throughout the year give us their gift cards to give out,” Ms Archer said. “So we are extremely grateful for them. And then we have businesses who do a collection of non-perishable items. This year in particular, I’d like to highlight Atlantis Insurance Management, Central Bank, Scotiabank, and then St Anne’s School.”

“So every year, Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines, who has been a sponsor with us since our inception, donates us turkeys. This year, they are sending us 39,000 pounds of turkeys, which we will receive this weekend and begin distribution next week. And then, like I said, Abaco Markets Ltd, AML Foods, right now, they’re having their promotion in their stores where they are asking you at the counter to make a donation to us, or when you check out at Domino’s online or whatever, you can add a little extra something and that will go towards us and three other non-profits. So we expect to get gift cards from them, which we will also be able to give out to those who we serve.

The organisation which transitioned from distributing prepared meals

to distributing parcels to around 100 feeding partners said with such a heavy need, they made the choice to be more intentional this year in seeking donations from former and new donors given contributions started off on the lower end.

“We realised that if we were going to continue to try and feed, we needed to do something. And so we were intentional. We brought in one of our former volunteers, and we’ve been just bombarding businesses with what we’re up to. And [said] ‘Hey, don’t forget us as you’re getting ready for Christmas.’”

Ms Archer said that although there will be no Christmas dinner or event, those who need it would have already received their turkey and AML food

percent and 20.09 percent benchmarks attained in the two previous years.

And, compared to a total outlay of $674.8m in the 2022-2023 fiscal first quarter, the Government’s spending for the same period has increased by almost $200m in just two years. Mr Thompson yesterday voiced suspicion that the spending increase was fuelled, at least in part, by the Davis administration paying off bills incurred in prior fiscal periods that it has rolled into the new Budget year.

“What new programmes and initiatives could justify the massive increase in spending?” he argued.”Indeed, with spending on social services decreasing by more than $6m year-on-year, Bahamians with legitimate needs are complaining that they are getting less

direct support from public agencies.

“Both small and large vendors contact us as their Parliamentary representatives on a regular basis to tell us that they continue to be owed millions of dollars in the aggregate related to works and services completed long ago.

“What is worse is the types of spending that have increased. Rental costs increased by $8m, utilities increased by over $5m and IT costs by over $21m. These are mostly ﬁxed costs for the year. Why are they increasing? Are these payments that ought to have been made last ﬁscal year but only being paid now?”

The Ministry of Finance’s report said: “Total expenditure expanded by $142.6m (19.7 percent) to $867.7m (24 percent of the Budget

2024, edition, entitled ‘Sandals chief addresses staff in Bahamas, eight other countries’, referred to Sandals’ corporate manager, Jamie Green, as ‘Ms Green’. It should, of course, have been ‘Mr Green’. We apologise for the error Correction

AN article published in Tribune Business on Page 2B in the Wednesday, December 11,

‘WATCH YA MONEY’, SECURITIES COMMISSION TELLS BAHAMIANS

THE Securities Commission yesterday unveiled its ‘Watch Ya Money!’ campaign to help Bahamians better protect themselves from increasingly sophisticated ﬁnancial fraudsters and scammers.

The regulator, in launching its comprehensive multi-media campaign in time for the upcoming Christmas holiday season, said in a statement that the eight-week initiative aims to both protect and educate local investors.

It added that investment fraud in The Bahamas is increasing, with scammers now more sophisticated than ever.

The Securities Commission said these persons have learned to tap into their potential targets’ immediate ﬁnancial needs and emotions, and anyone can become a victim.

‘Watch Ya Money!’ was designed to empower Bahamians by equipping them with the tools needed to identify and avoid fraudulent schemes.

The campaign will use media channels across print, radio, television and social media to educate the public, reduce the stigma surrounding victimisation and encouraging the reporting of suspicious activities to the Securities Commission.

“Investment fraud not only affects individuals but can undermine conﬁdence in the capital markets and broader ﬁnancial system,” said Christina Rolle, the Securities Commission’s executive director. “Our

campaign is a proactive step to ensure Bahamians feel empowered to make informed decisions, recognise the warning signs of scams, and know they have a trusted ally in the Securities Commission to support them.”

The Securities Commission is also planning to provide practical resources, and incorporate fraud protection in its high school outreach and other initiatives, to bring this campaign closer to Bahamians.

Bahamas First drives eco-friendly message

BAHAMAS First yesterday said its annual ‘Green Friday’ exercise brought its ﬁrst-ever Sustainability Month, which was marked by a series of eco-friendly initiatives, to a successful ﬁnish.

The property and casualty underwriter, in a statement, said the monthlong November initiative highlighted its commitment to environmental

responsibility and the company’s role in promoting sustainability and resilience to combat climate change.

The month-long activities were spearheaded by the company’s corporate social responsibility committee (CSRC). Throughout November, Bahamas First employees actively participated in efforts to reduce the company’s carbon footprint.

In a new car pooling initiative, several staff members car pooled to work on a weekly basis, while on Wednesdays those in suitable roles worked from home. Fridays also became a visual statement of the company’s dedication to the cause, with employees donning green attire to raise awareness for sustainability. Bahamas First said sustainability month ended with the annual ‘Green Friday’, which it described as an alternative to the consumer-focused ‘Black Friday’. The insurer made its annual $10,000 donation to the Bahamas National Trust (BNT), coinciding with the latter’s annual Giving Tuesday fundraising programme.

“As an insurance company, we understand the vital role we play in promoting sustainability and resilience,” said Deborah McKinney, the CSRC committee’s chair . “Our initiatives are not just about reducing our carbon footprint but also about inspiring others to join us in protecting our environment.”

Richard Darville, Bahamas First’s chief executive, added: “This year’s Sustainability Month and our annual Green Friday event highlight our dedication to creating a greener future. We believe that by leading with purpose, we can inspire our community to embrace sustainable practices and protect the

beautiful Bahamas we all cherish.”

“The Bahamas National Trust greatly appreciates the support of Bahamas First,” said Geoffrey Andrews its president. “Bahamas First has been promoting sustainability for the past several years, and part of their sustainability campaign has been to contribute to the Bahamas National Trust.

“This is particularly timely this year because it’s kicking off our Giving Tuesday fundraising, and this signiﬁcant donation helps us to get a head start on our campaign goal for the year.”

CHRISTINA ROLLE

BAHAMAS First made its annual $10,000 Green Friday donation to the Bahamas National Trust to support ongoing environmental and conservation efforts. Pictured from L to R are: Kevin Hudson, vice-president of underwriting, Bahamas First General Insurance Company; Joanne Smith, deputy president, Bahamas National Trust; Richard A. Darville, chief executive, Bahamas First General Insurance Company; Geoffrey Andrews, president, Bahamas National Trust; Deborah McKinney, group operations and special projects manager, Bahamas First Corporate Services, and chair of the Bahamas First Corporate Social Responsibility Committee.

FRIDAYS became a visual statement of Bahamas First’s dedication to the cause, with employees donning green attire in November to raise awareness for sustainability.

GUEST NUMBERS UP, SAYS TAXICAB UNION PRESIDENT

By FAY SIMMONS Tribune Business Reporter jsimmons@tribunemedia.net

A TAXICAB union president has indicated guest numbers have increased as Christmas approaches.

Wesley Ferguson, the Bahamas Taxi Cab Union’s president, told Tribune Business that trafﬁc is starting to increase ahead of the holiday season and taxi drivers have beneﬁted from the rate increase granted earlier this year during the slow season.

“The increase has been working out for us, we’re just coming off the slow period so we are working with it to

see how best we can cope, but overall, we have some taxi drivers out there that’s making some money,” said Mr Ferguson. He added the holiday season has been “so far, so good” and numbers have increased leading up to the holidays. In September, the Davis administration approved a margin increase for gas retailers of 25 cents per gallon for gasoline and 15 cents per gallon for diesel. The increases took effect from early October. Bus drivers spoke out about the increase, claiming it cut into the 25-cent bus fare increase they were granted this year.

Mr Ferguson, however, said taxi drivers were not as adversely affected by the increase in fuel as earlier anticipated and pointed out that with the current price of gasoline is comparable to last year’s prices.

“When the gas prices rose, I don’t think it really affected us because there wasn’t a signiﬁcant rise in the prices so you don’t really feel it,” said Mr Ferguson.

“Basically, gas prices are the same now as it was last year this time.”

While taxi drivers were lobbying for an increase earlier this year, there were also concerns raised about relaxing the dress code, which requires them to wear long

sleeve shirts and neckties during the designated winter months as it is a tropical climate.

With the winter season dress code set to come into effect on Sunday, Mr Ferguson said discussions about the dress code will continue over the ﬁrst quarter of next year.

He said while there have been some conversations about the modiﬁcations some details still have to be worked out.

“We’ve had some discussions about it but we didn’t get a chance to iron out all of the kinks so we will have continue in the next year,” said Mr Ferguson.

“We still have to iron out the final details so we’ll have to talk about that the first period and hopefully we can implement it early next year. We have already started to implement some suggestions but we will have to hold off on the final decision until next year.”

Contractors fearing Business Licences renewal ‘nightmare’

from multiple jobs and contracts to just $300,000 the following year from only two to three projects.

With such swings making it extremely difﬁcult to calculate future turnover based on past performance, Mr Sands said there was a concern that some contractors will “seemingly look like fraudsters” to the Department of Inland Revenue (DIR) if a signiﬁcant gap between estimated and actual top-line revenue materialises.

While no discussions have yet taken place with the Department of Inland Revenue over these concerns, the BCA was said to be “preparing the information right now to send out” to members and the wider industry. Mr Sands recommended that contractors hire accountants to help preparation for the upcoming Business Licence renewals - a move that will create an added expense, and add to construction costs and bureaucracy.

“It’s going to be a nightmare for us, Business Licences for contractors,” Mr Sands told Tribune Business. “I think that the Business Licence changes are going to impact a large number of construction businesses mainly because I don’t think there’s been enough public education on what the changes are and how to negotiate the changes as small and medium-sized enterprises” with turnover above $250,000.

“The Chamber of Commerce’s chief executive has highlighted one of the biggest risks to business activity in 2025, which is the changes in the requirements for the Business Licence,” the BCA chief added. “On the face of it, Business Licence fee ﬁlings will be based on activity in the year before and estimated.

“If persons are not savvy enough or have an accountant, how are they going to properly estimate what their turnover will be for next year?” Mr Sands said these concerns were

industry-speciﬁc as, unlike other sectors, construction does not necessarily generate a steady, consistent stream of business for the whole year but, rather, peaks and troughs in activity for many ﬁrms.

“A business that sells burgers, chicken and fries, there’s consistency of sales when persons book their orders at the window,” he added. “But, in construction, a person’s going to have to win contracts and bids, and wins are based on the level of competition and market activity.

“In one year a contractor could do $2m, and then $500,000 the other year. That’s how dynamic it is. It’s not controlled by something as rigid as someone coming to the window and placing an order for burgers and fries. To ask contractors to estimate an amount at the start of the year is incredibly difﬁcult. There needs to be more discussion about it.”

Mr Sands voiced concerns that major variances between actual and estimated turnover could expose some Bahamian contractor to “seemingly looking like fraudulent persons in the eyes of the Department of

Inland Revenue. We don’t want that. There’s already a suspicion, a lack of trust in industry. Coupled with that, it could be problematic. We need to have a discussion on that”.

The BCA chief, though, said some contractors are likely unaware of these challenges. “I think it’s a reasonable concern but I don’t think persons are fully aware of how concerning it should be,” he added. “For those aware, it’s concerning. For those unaware, ignorance is bliss.”

Urging the industry to hire accountants to deal with Business Licence ﬁlings and calculations, he added: “That adds cost to every construction company and adds cost to every project. It means construction project costs could go up because every project will be impacted by the cost of the accountant.”

Pointing out that contractors will have to back up their turnover ﬁlings with documentary evidence, Mr Sands told Tribune Business of the likely consequences: “I think it’s going to slow up the way construction companies are able to quickly prepare to get their Business

Licence documents and operate in the sector.

“The impact is that it may slow some companies down. I expect it to reduce the number of companies in the marketplace who may not be able to pivot and manoevere, and it could have a signiﬁcant impact on small construction companies. I think it’s going to be easier to engage an accountant rather than take it on yourself.”

Only companies with annual turnover exceeding $5m have to submit full audited financial statements for Business Licence purposes, but their smaller counterparts do not escape scrutiny either. Those generating more than $250,000 per annum in top-line revenue need their financials certified by an independent accountant to verify that their filings and payments are accurate.

Companies required by law and regulation to produce their audited ﬁnancial statements at end-April every year, such as the Central Bank’s bank and trust company licensees, will be given until that deadline to do likewise for Business Licence purposes.

And businesses that are pushed above the $5m annual turnover threshold for the ﬁrst time, thereby triggering the Business Licence audit requirement, through enjoying a top-line revenue increase in 2024 will also not be held to the March 31 deadline given that they may be undergoing such rigorous procedures for the ﬁrst time.

Business Licence fees are one area targeted for increased revenues by the Government. They are projected to increase by more than $62.5m, or 44.4 percent, to $203.554m during the current 2024-2025 ﬁscal year compared to the prior one, before rising again to $237.828m and $240.182m in 2025-2026 and 2026-2027, respectively. Meanwhile, some 81.7 percent of the 2023-2024 ﬁscal year’s target was collected by end-March this year. Data unveiled with the 2024-2025 Budget showed that some $115.307m in Business Licence fee revenues had been collected at that point compared to the full-year target of $141m.

BUDGETING LETS YOU TAKE CHARGE OF YOUR MONEY

FROM PAGE B2

still calls your name. Free yourself from that pitfall and focus on the bigger picture by not submitting to

the options that allow you to cheat or make impulse purchases.

By the same token, set up barriers that offer you time to think: “Is this purchase necessary?” It is difﬁcult to predict correctly how much money you will need in every category of your budget, but ensure that you always keep your longterm ﬁnancial goals in the picture.

Prioritise bills and eliminate unnecessary expenses

Distinguish between essential needs and discretionary wants. This shift

in mindset can lead to more deliberate spending choices. Prioritise what can be paid ﬁrst, arrange those that are late, and then set up a payment schedule.

Resist impulse purchases

Assess whether your spending fulﬁlls a genuine need or merely a desire.

Ask yourself: Which proportion of my income do I save, and which proportion do I spend?

Bottom Line

Rethink the way you spend money, and re-focus your ﬁnancial goals and

objectives moving forward. During a rough period, having a budget and a solid ﬁnancial plan will prove to be so important as it offers you a level of certainty in uncertain times. Until we meet again, live life for memories as opposed to regrets. Enjoy life and stay on top of your game.

welcomes feedback at deedee21bastian@gmail.com

marketing analyst/graphic designer, international award-winning author and certiﬁed life coach.

URCA TAKES GBPA ENERGY BATTLE TO SUPREME COURT

the authority to regulate the city’s utilities.

One contact, speaking on condition of anonymity, told this newspaper: “URCA has started a brand new action against the Port Authority. It’s the whole issue about whether the Electricity Act 2024 applies to Freeport.

URCA has grasped the nettle and sued the Port Authority as a result of the Port Authority’s decision to consider the rate application.

“URCA has ﬁled an action. Everybody is eager to get this issue about the regulatory authority over electricity sorted out, and have it decided one way or the other. URCA is the regulator outside the Port area already. The question is whether URCA is the regulator inside the Port area.”

URCA’s action is effectively asking the Supreme Court to determine the same issue - who has regulatory authority for electricity and other utilities in Freeport - as that contained in the 2016 case ﬁled against itself by GB Power. The latter action, though, was based on the original Electricity Act that was implemented in 2016 while URCA’s is derived from the more modern statute law passed by Parliament earlier this year.

As a result, some observers suggested that GB Power’s eight year-old claim - which remains before Justice Loren Klein and has yet to be decided - may be superseded by URCA’s

‘Need

FROM PAGE B3

vouchers to purchase other holiday meal items.

Hands for Hunger, which according to communications, media and events manager JJ Turnquest is a donor of the Great Commission, added that although they will not have a Christmas dinner this year, they do have a pantry where persons can choose their own groceries. She noted that many donors contribute more Christmas-type ingredients around the holidays which will allow visitors to take home ingredients needed to prepare a holiday meal.

“What happens around the holidays is the community always comes together and everybody does something special for the holidays, which is great,”

Ms Turnquest said. “So that allows us to continue focusing on what we have to do every day, which is feed people. We feed people every day, not just around Christmas or Thanksgiving and that’s something that we think is great when different organisation come together and they do these, special initiatives during the holidays. But we just feed people every day. So every day is like an important day. Not just the holidays, Every day is important.

“There’s a lot of people that are doing turkeys and hams. Like I said, we’re just providing our groceries that we do. What’s really great about our pantry is it’s client choice and we have a variety of items at our pantry. It’s set up like a food store, like a convenience store. So, we not only just have shelf stable items, but we also carry dairy so we have milk, we have eggs, we have bread, we have fruits and vegetables. So that’s what makes our pantry a little different, is that we have those we’re able to provide, and we also provide meats. Just recently, we were providing fresh pork to our pantry clients. So whenever we get donations from certain people, we’re able to provide these wonderful items. And what’s so great about the holidays is we do have a lot of our partners and donors who donate around the holidays for Thanksgiving, giving Tuesday, and for Christmas. And they do food drives. And what’s great about food drives is that it allows people to collect a variety of different items, things that they enjoy themselves. So our pantry then becomes stocked full of all kinds of wonderful items. So, there may be some items that are more Christmassy that we can give out to our pantry clients because of the wonderful donations through the food drives.”

given that the regulator’s action is based on the existing Act and not the repealed one.

“That may render the Power Company’s action unnecessary because the law has changed. The two Acts are substantially the same, but the 2024 version is a new piece of legislation,” one source said. While URCA hinted strongly that it would revert to the courts, stating in September that it “will use all avenues available under the law”, its move to actually initiate legal action has been kept quiet and previously known to very few.’

Pastor Eddie Victor, head of the Coalition of Concerned Citizens (CCC) and a long-time GG Power critic, said yesterday he had been aware of URCA’s bid for legal recourse but had been asked not to say anything on it publicly. Giving his backing to the regulator’s move, he explained that he is only speaking out now after Tribune Business uncovered the development.

The crux of the dispute remains the same, with URCA arguing that statute law passed by Parliament in the form of the Electricity Act gives it the authority to regulate energy within Freeport. However, the GBPA has argued that Freeport’s founding treaty, the Hawksbill Creek Agreement, bestows supervisory authority for all utilities within the Port area on itself and is superior to statute law.

This will now have to be settled by the Supreme Court, but Pastor Victor

argued that the concept of the GBPA continuing to oversee Freeport’s energy and utilities sector was incompatible with having a national regulator and means The Bahamas is not aligned with best and accepted global practices.

“My position is that it’s about time that it happened,” he told Tribune Business of URCA’s legal action. “We realise the whole regulatory regime in Freeport needs to line up with the rest of The Bahamas. By virtue of the fact we already have a population that is being regulated [by URCA] outside of the Freeport area, that really always should have been under URCA.

“If you follow the pattern of what has happened over the years, where the Government’s agencies function in Freeport - police, Customs, Immigration and a lot of other departments - if we have a governmentappointed regulator they, too, should be functioning here. And particularly at this stage, where energy and electricity is really important.”

Pointing to the fact that GB Power supplies homes and businesses outside Freeport, and which are outside the GBPA’s regulatory purview, Pastor Victor added: “We have territories outside of Freeport being affected by regulation in Freeport. If those territories are not coming under URCA, they should not be subject to

any regulatory decisions in Freeport.”

Explaining that he was referring to settlements such as Pinder’s Point, Lewis Yard, Williams Town and Hunter’s, he said: “It should all be under URCA. We welcome it. Particularly based on what happened in the past year. It shows the regulatory regime is not working.”

Grand Bahama was subjected to a several months of frequent power outages and blackouts, sometimes lasting for several hours, as a result of GB Power’s generation challenges and mechanical breakdowns associated with key engines. This prompted the GBPA to place its review of the tariff proposal, which would cover 2025 through to end-2027, on hold although there are signs the process is now being revived.

Pastor Victor, meanwhile, challenged why GB Power’s earlier action has yet to be decided despite being launched before the Supreme Court some eight years ago. “Why has this whole matter been stuck in the courts for so long?

That’s a question we need to put out there,” he argued.

“The Government brought in the original Act in 2015 and changed it this year to deal with the regulatory problem in Grand Bahama,” Pastor Victor added. “As part of the process, this whole Act was created to make sure regulation is uniform throughout The Bahamas. We need it.”

The new Electricity Act 2024, which treats Grand Bahama as a Family Island, makes the Grand Bahama Power Company the “approving authority” for anyone submitting a proposal to supply electricity to the public on the island.

The Act states that any approvals by such an “authority” must also be given the go-ahead by URCA, and this has been interpreted as a neat way of circumventing the GBPA’s utilities regulatory authority in Freeport and transferring it to URCA via GB Power Company. Thus the stage for a major regulatory and legal clash has been set.

GB Power, in its still-live 2016 claim, had initially

sought an injunction to prevent URCA “from regulating, or seeking to exercise licensing and regulatory authority” over it. GB Power’s action is founded on the basis that, as a GBPA licensee, it is licensed and regulated by the latter via the Hawksbill Creek Agreement - and not by URCA and the original Electricity Act 2015.

It is arguing that the previous Electricity Act’s sections 44-46, which gave URCA the legal right to licence and oversee energy providers, “are inconsistent, and conﬂict with, the rights and privileges vested in [GB Power] and the Port Authority” by the Hawksbill Creek Agreement. GB Power’s statement of claim argues that itself and the GBPA “have been vested with the sole authority to operate utilities”, including electricity generation and transmission and distribution, within the Port area until the Hawksbill Creek’s expiration in 2054. Cable Bahamas, too, also has a separate legal action contesting URCA’s jurisdiction and authority to regulate its Freeport subsidiary, Cable Freeport.

Full regulation will ‘double’ construction’s $408m in Q2

conﬁdence in the industry, what it certainly does not represent, as I have often mentioned, is the fact that a regulated, licensed industry would probably at least double the output we are seeing, at least double the number of permits, at least double the value of construction,” Mr Sands told this newspaper.

Challenged to back up this assertion, he added: “If we were to be really practical about it, if you were told you were going to an island that you don’t know and build a home for your family in an environment that’s not regulated, if something goes wrong there’s no recourse, no guidelines to protect you and your investment.

“The courts are a very long process and there are no guarantees in that space. It’s a very apprehensive situation. You have to take on a certain level of risk to engage in that environment. That being the case, for there to be $223.265m in permits approved during the second quarter, that is still saying persons are willing

to take the chance so let’s extrapolate from that. “What will be the amount of conﬁdence you have in a regulated environment where where you have certainty that, if things happen, you know there will be very little risk that you are ripped off? That’s the premise that that number will absolutely be double. The main question is does the Government not see the value of doubling the amount of construction activity which would double the level of taxes they get from the industry?”

Together with the $223.265m in permit approvals and $97m in construction starts, the $87.295m in building completions during the 2024 second quarter - a ﬁgure less than $1m off the prior year’s outcome - takes total construction activity during the three months to end-June to just under $408m. Mr Sands’ argument, though, is that activity could rise to more than $800m with a properly-regulated industry.

The Construction Contractors Act was passed by Parliament under the last Christie administration

after being spearheaded by now-prime minister Philip Davis KC. It was intended to bring self-regulation to the last major industry and profession lacking proper oversight but, some eight years after its 2016 passage, it has yet to be fully implemented or brought into effect.

This is because the Board that would oversee the licensing and certiﬁcation of contractors, and help provide redress for consumer grievances related to shoddy workmanship, has yet to be appointed. Describing the Board’s creation as a “winwin” for The Bahamas, Mr Sands there had been no further progress in establishing it.

“I believe they [the Government] have more important matters, but when you’re talking about the economy and construction is the second major contributor to gross domestic product (GDP), you have to put that in an important place and get it done,” he told this newspaper.

Still, Mr Sands said the Institute’s report was “very encouraging” as it reﬂected

that, notwithstanding the absence of industry regulation, “there’s confidence in the sector in the entire Bahamas”. Pointing out that permits signal the intent to begin construction, while starts and completions represent actual building work, he added: “It certainly represents the difficulties in the marketplace for construction financing for residential and commercial projects.

“But I think, based on the numbers we are seeing, the outlook is positive. I don’t think we’re going to see the kind of apprehension that would have existed at the start of 2024, coming out of recessionary challenges, COVID challenges. We have moved past that. I think we’re going to look at strengthening, ways to get more aggressive with the value and number of permits we’re going to see in 2025.”

Mr Sands said the high demand for construction services throughout The Bahamas means that this nation needs to address workforce training and skills to ensure labour can meet this challenge. Otherwise,

he warned, The Bahamas will have to important expatriate workers with the skills demanded by both developers and contractors to ensure work keeps pace.

The Bahamas National Statistical Institute, analysing the ﬁgures, said: “The total number of permits issued for the whole Bahamas (440) was 23 projects more than the 417 projects recorded in the second quarter 2023, while the value increased by $5m over the same period.

“This increase in value was led by the commercial/industrial sector, which increased by approximately $61m. However, this increase was diminished by decreases in value in the private/residential sector and the public sector, which fell by $34m and $23m, respectively.”

As for building starts, the report added: “There was an increase of six projects in the number of construction starts between the second quarter 2023 and second quarter 2024, resulting in an increase in value of $61m.

“The main factors that resulted in the increase in

Watchdog sounds alarm on ‘missing’ electronic presents

complaints about missing

“high price” electronics, such as iPads and laptops, involving more than three Bahamian shipping companies. He added that notices have been sent to the ﬁrms subject to the complaints, but the volume of concerns and seasonal increase in online shopping prompted the public advisory.

“We would have sent out notices to businesses that we would have received complaints about,” Mr Rolle said. “However, we believe that a general notice is necessary because if any other consumers out there are experiencing this we want them to come forward. And we want the public to be extra cautious given the time of year it is, when the

target). Recurrent spending was higher by $83.5m (12.6 percent) at $743.9m, 22.8 percent of the Budget target, with the bulk associated with compensation outlays (29.1 percent), payments of goods and services (21.3 percent) and public debt interest (15.1 percent).

“Capital expenditure increased by $59.1m (91.5

rate of persons purchasing stuff online would deﬁnitely increase.”

Urging Bahamian couriers and freight forwarders to pay closer attention to activity at their US warehouses and collection points, Mr Rolle maintained that the Commission is not attempting to “take away” from any local business but needs consumers to be vigilant as they make online purchases.

“We’ve had complaints about more than three companies. We especially ﬁnd it in high-priced electronic goods, iPads, laptops, these things. And so even if it’s an internal issue within their US addresses, then that’s something that the freight forwarders need to look into,” he said.

“But we want to be able to document it, and we want

percent) to $123.8m or 35.9 percent of the Budget target. Growth was concentrated in the $51.7m boost in outlay for the acquisition of nonﬁnancial assets, primarily allocated to road works and school infrastructure-related repairs, and with an additional $7.4m expended for capital transfers.”

The Ministry of Finance, detailing what drove the spending increases, said:

Bahamian consumers to pay close attention to it, not trying to take away from anyone. But it’s sufﬁcient where we want persons to pay special attention.”

The watchdog, in its advisory, said: “The Consumer Protection Commission wishes to advise the general public that it has received a number of complaints involving the non-delivery of electronic goods ordered online for deliveries to courier companies in the US for onward forwarding to The Bahamas.

“The trend is as follows: After making online purchase(s), consumers in The Bahamas would specify a US address as a place of delivery of the goods. Shortly after the package(s) arrive to the identiﬁed address, the consumer receives an e-mail

“Subsidies, which include transfers to governmentowned and/or controlled enterprises that provide commercial goods and services to the public, rose by $10.5m (11.1 percent) to $104.3m and accounted for 25.3 percent of the Budget.

“Subsidies to public non-ﬁnancial corporations increased by $9.1m (9.9 percent) to $101.2m, reﬂecting higher assistance to the

notifying that the delivery was made.

“However, before items can be transferred from the delivery address onward to The Bahamas, the packages go missing with no accountability or compensation from the freight forwarder.” The Commission encouraged persons that have not received their electronic devices from local shipping companies to contact them as well as the shipping company and the local police department.

“If you are a victim of this, the Commission urges you to contact the courier, the police department in the jurisdiction where the incident occurred and notify us immediately to help you navigate through such circumstances,” said the Commission statement.

Water & Sewerage Corporation ($5.5m), Bahamasair ($2.2m) and University of The Bahamas ($2.4m). Transfers to private enterprises and other sectors rose by $1.3m (72.6 percent) to $3.1m.”

Other major spending increase drivers included civil service pay and beneﬁts; expenditure on goods and services; and so-called “other payments” that included “planned allocations” to the Parks and Beaches Authority and Lucayan Renewal Holdings, which is the Government-owned special purpose vehicle (SPV) that holds Grand Bahama’s Grand Lucayan resort.

“Compensation of employees grew by $8.2m (3.9 percent) to $216.7m,

Mr Rolle, meanwhile, explained that both the shipping companies and the Commission do investigations when a complaint is lodged.

“Courier companies do their own internal investigations, and likewise, when we get complaints, we would also do our investigations given the information that was passed on to us from the consumers. Recently, we’ve received a number of them, sufﬁcient that we believe a public advisory is the right cause of action, especially given the time,” he added;.

“Once everyone does the due diligence, and if the evidence points that someone in your company signed off to say they received it, then by all means, you were responsible. The consumer, they don’t care how you get

which represented 24.4 percent of the Budget target and was explained by planned staff promotions, salary adjustments and additional hires,” the Ministry of Finance report said.

“Spending on the use of goods and services was boosted by $39.6m (33.2 percent) to $158.6m, and included the following key developments. Rental costs, comprising payments for ofﬁce lease and rent, vehicle leases and living accommodations, increased by $8.8m (43 percent) to $29.4m.

“Utilities and telecommunications outlays advanced by $5.3m (58.9 percent) to $14.4m. Spending on services - including IT networks, consultancy services, operation of facilities and equipment

the value of construction starts were increases in the private/residential sector ($60m) and the commercial/ industry sector ($1m). Conversely, the public sector decreased by $206,000.”

Turning to construction completions, the Bahamas National Statistical Institute said: “The total number of construction completions increased by eight projects in the second quarter of 2024, moving from 194 projects in the second quarter of 2023 to 202 projects in 2024.

“However there was a decrease of approximately $959,000 in the total value from $88m in the second quarter of 2023 to $87m in the same quarter of 2024. The decrease in value was led by the commercial/ industrial sector, which had a decrease of $10m, and the public sector which also decreased by approximately $900,000. During this same period, however, the private/ residential sector increased by $10m.”

resolved, they just want to be compensated if, in fact, the item made it to the destination that you would have given them.”

Tribune Business contacted a local shipping company for feedback about the advisory, and the manager conﬁrmed that lost or missing packages are investigated internally and compensation is given to consumers when appropriate.

“When a complaint is ﬁled, we pass that on for an internal investigation and, depending on the results, they get a refund,” they said. When asked if they have seen an increase in complaints recently, they declined to comment and indicated they would not consent to be interviewed or discuss any ongoing issues with consumers.

maintenance - grew by $21.7m (39.2 percent) to $76.9m.”

With debt servicing (interest) payments and social security benefits effectively flat against prior year comparisons for the 2024-2025 first quarter, the Ministry of Finance report added: “Other payments were boosted by $26.3m (40.5 percent) to $91.1m, 25.2 percent of the Budget. “Current transfers not elsewhere classified broadened by $25.2m (49.4 percent) to $76.3m, largely owing to disbursements of planned allocations for scholarships and grants, the Beaches and Parks Authority, court services and Lucayan Renewal Holdings.”

Can ordinary citizens solve our toughest problems?

By GEORGE ANDERS Associated Press

ELIZA Wilson is a little nervous as she draws the microphone close, but she is determined to share her life story. "My father was a disabled veteran," she says. "I ﬁrst experienced homelessness when I was 5 years old."

Wilson, who's 36, leads programs focused on unhoused youth. On a recent Saturday, she is addressing a citizen assembly, a grassroots gathering seeking solutions to tough local challenges.

Her audience consists of 30 ordinary Oregonians. They are acupuncturists and elk hunters; house cleaners and retired riverboat pilots. None are public policy experts. All the same, these participants have been asked to recommend new strategies for combating youth homelessness — a major problem in this afﬂuent Oregon city and the surrounding rural areas of Deschutes County.

This unusual experiment in small-D democracy is underwritten by more than $250,000 in grants from backers such as the Rockefeller Foundation and Omidyar Network. As a key early presenter, Wilson

wins rapt attention, clicking through data-rich slides and sharing her story of crisis and recovery.

That's how citizen assemblies should work, says Kevin O'Neil, an innovation specialist at the Rockefeller Foundation. His research shows Americans are frustrated with what they perceive as aloofness and gridlock within civic institutions. "People want to be directly involved in decision-making," O'Neil says. "They recognize the value of expertise, but they don't want to delegate decisionmaking to experts."

Assemblies can help "overcome polarization and strengthen societal cohesion," says Claudia Chwalisz, founder of DemocracyNext. Her nonproﬁt, launched in Paris in 2022, champions such assemblies worldwide, hoping they can "create the democratic spaces for everyday people to grapple with the complexity of policy issues, listen to one another, and ﬁnd common ground."

At least, that's the theory.

To succeed, citizen assemblies can't settle for a few days of harmonious dialogue among well-intentioned strangers. They need to inspire policy changes or new programs from government and other civic

institutions. In Europe, such wins abound. In the United States, results are spottier.

The most fruitful U.S. effort to date was a 2021 people's assembly in Washington State that produced 148 ideas — including more solar canopies and food composting — to combat climate change. More often, progress is challenging.

An assembly in 2022 in Petaluma, California, spun up ideas to repurpose a long-time county fairground site. Two years later, the fair still operates under short-term leases; its longterm destiny remains in limbo. In Colorado's Montrose County, enacting an assembly's bold ideas for improving rural day care has been "more of a marathon than a sprint," says organizer Morgan Lasher.

Can central Oregon do better? It may take years to know, but evidence so far shows both the assembly system's opportunities and the challenges.

Bend's local economy is strong, with a jobless rate of just 4.2% and median household income of more than $80,000. As housing costs have skyrocketed, though, the spectacle of people living in tent and trailer encampments has become more common. A

January count found more than 1,800 people were homeless in Deschutes County, up from 913 in 2020. In 2023, DemocracyNext and Healthy Democracy, a Portland, Oregon, nonprofit, connected with Bend officials interested in bringing the assembly idea to central Oregon. Josh Burgess, an Air Force veteran, who moved to Bend and became the proverbial "advance man" for DemocracyNext. Operating in a county evenly divided between Democrats and Republicans, Burgess built rapport with both liberal and conservative members on the Deschutes County Board of Commissioners. "It took four or five meetings to get there," Burgess recalls. Organizers decided to focus on homelessness among ages 14 to 24, where opportunities for progress seemed greatest.

To pick citizens for the assembly, organizers contacted 12,000 county residents before selecting just 30. Everything was balanced by age, race, gender, and geography – a slow, costly requirement.

Even so, advocates such as Michelle Barsa of Omidyar Network says assemblies' big edge comes from using "an actual representative sample of the community, not just the people who always show up at town-hall meetings and yell into a microphone for three minutes."

At the northern edge of Oregon State's Bend campus, a few hundred yards from the Deschutes River, is the McGrath Family atrium, a sunlight-drenched space with panoramic woodland views. It feels almost like a spa. As the Bend assembly gets started, black tablecloths at a huge, U-shaped

table convey gravity. Name tags identify attendees as "Noelle," "Dave," "Alex." The ﬁrst few hours go slowly, but everything perks up after lunch.

Eliza Wilson takes command, introducing herself as director of runaway and homeless youth services at J Bar J, a social-services organization. Her voice is unfailingly steady, but emotions race fast across her face: hope, frustration, empathy, resolve, and more. "Teens get really good at hiding their homelessness," Wilson explains. "We don't share family business outside of the family. I was really fortunate that a highschool counselor pointed me, at age 15, to the ﬁrst youth shelter that had just opened in Bend. I stayed there for three years, until I graduated from high school. I ﬁnally got on my feet at age 21."

Google forges ahead with its next generation of AI technology while fending off a breakup threat

By MICHAEL LIEDTKE AP Technology

GOOGLE on Wednesday unleashed another wave of artiﬁcial intelligence designed to tackle more of the work and thinking done by humans as it tries to stay on the technology's cutting edge while also trying to fend off regulatory threats to its empire.

The next generation of Google's AI is being packaged under the Gemini umbrella, which was unveiled a year ago. Google is framing its release of Gemini 2.0 as a springboard for AI agents built to interpret images shown through a smartphone, perform a variety of tedious chores, remember the conversations consumers have with people, help video game players plot strategy and even tackle the task of doing online searches.

In a blog post, Google CEO Sundar Pichai predicted the technology contained in Gemini 2.0 will "understand more about the world around you, think multiple steps ahead and take action on your behalf, with your supervision." It's a similar goal being pursued by hard-charging rivals such as OpenAI, with its chatGPT technology, and industry powerhouse such as Microsoft with a variety of similar tools on its Windows software.

A lot of Google's latest AI technology will initially be conﬁned to test groups and subscribers who pay $20 per month for Gemini Advanced, but some features will be made available through its search engine and mobile apps. Google is planning wider releases next year that will include the technology popping up in its smorgasbord of free products, including its Chrome browser, digital maps and YouTube. Besides trying to outshine OpenAI and other ambitious startups, Google is also trying to stay a step ahead of Apple as that trendsetting company begins to blend AI into its latest iPhones and other devices. After releasing a software update enabling the ﬁrst bundle of the iPhone's "Apple Intelligence" features that spruced up the device's Siri assistant, another batch of the AI technology came out

with a free software update that was also released Wednesday. Google is pushing forward with its latest AI advances even as the U.S. Justice Department is trying to break up the Mountain View, California, company to prevent further abusive practices by its dominant search engine, which was declared an illegal monopoly by a federal judge earlier this year as part of a landmark antitrust case.

Among other things, Gemini 2.0 is supposed to improve the AI overviews that Google began highlighting in its search results over its traditional listing of the most pertinent links to websites earlier this year in response to AI-powered "answer engines" such as Perplexity.

After the AI overviews initially produced some goofy suggestions, including putting glue on pizza, Google reﬁned the technology to minimize such missteps. Now, company executives are promising things are going to get even better with Gemini 2.0, which Pichai said will be able to engage in more human-like reasoning while solving more advanced

math problems and even churn out some computer code. The improvements to AI Overviews will initially only appear to a test audience before a wider release next year.

The technological upgrade is also supposed to infuse a still-experimental universal AI agent dubbed "Project Astra," with even more smarts and versatility, enabling people to have more meaningful and helpful conversations with the technology. In a show of conﬁdence, Google said it

will expand the number of people testing Project Astra without providing any speciﬁcs of the group's size.

As part of Gemini 2.0, Google is also going to begin testing an extension to Chrome called "Project Mariner," which can be turned on to do online searches and sift through the results so people don't won't have to bother.

If the U.S. Department of Justice gets its way, Google will be forced to sell or spin off Chrome as part of its punishment for deploying

its search engine in ways that stiﬂed competition and potential innovation.

Google has ridiculed the

Justice Department's proposal as "overly broad" and vowed to resist any attempt to break up the company during federal court hearings scheduled to begin in Washington D.C. next spring.

Even if those proceedings culminate in a court order mandating a breakup, Google could still appeal in a process that could take years to resolve while it continues its AI expansion. "I can't wait to see what this next era brings," Pichai wrote in his blog post, signaling the company doesn't believe it will be deterred by regulators.

ERIK NELSON, left, a housing program specialist with the Central Oregon Intergovernmental Council, talks with citizen delegates during the Deschutes Civic Assembly on Youth Homelessness at the Oregon State University Cascades campus in Bend, Or., on Sept. 15, 2024. Photo:Oregon State University/AP

ALPHABET CEO Sundar Pichai speaks about Gemini at a Google I/O event in Mountain View, Calif., May 14, 2024.

Photo:Jeff Chiu /AP

What happens next with Alex Jones’ Infowars? No certainty yet after sale to The Onion is rejected

By DAVE COLLINS Associated Press

THE Onion's rejected purchase of Infowars in an auction bid supported by families of the Sandy Hook Elementary shooting dealt them a new setback Wednesday and clouded the future of Alex Jones' conspiracy theory platform, which will remain in his control for at least the near future.

What's next for Infowars and the Sandy Hook families' long-sought efforts to hold Jones accountable over calling one of the deadliest school shootings in U.S. history a hoax was unclear, after a federal judge in Houston late Tuesday rejected The Onion's winning bid for the site. The only other bidder was a company aligned with Jones.

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Lopez in Houston said he did not want another auction but offered no roadmap over how to proceed. One possibility includes ultimately allowing Sandy Hook families — who comprise most of Jones' creditors — to return to state courts in

Connecticut and Texas to collect on the nearly $1.5 billion in defamation and emotional distress lawsuit judgments that Jones was ordered to pay them.

"Our hope is that when this process ends, and it will end, and it will end sooner rather than later, is that all assets that Alex Jones has available are paid to the families, and that includes Infowars, and that as a result of that process Alex Jones is deprived of the ownership and control of the platform that he's used to hurt so many people," Christopher Mattei, an attorney for the Sandy Hook families, said Wednesday. The families, meanwhile, were preparing to mark the 12th anniversary of the Dec. 14 shooting. Why was The Onion bid rejected?

The sale of Infowars is part of Jones' personal bankruptcy case, which he ﬁled in late 2022 after he was ordered to pay the $1.5 billion. Jones was sued for repeatedly saying on his show that the 2012 massacre of 20 ﬁrst graders and six educators was staged by

crisis actors to spur more gun control.

He has since conceded that the shooting did happen.

Lopez said there was a lack of transparency in the bidding process and too much confusion about The Onion's bid, and he expressed concern that the amount of money offered was too low.

The Onion's parent company, Global Tetrahedron, submitted a $1.75 million cash offer with plans to kick Jones out and relaunch Infowars in January as a parody. The bid also included a deal with many of the Sandy Hook families for them to forgo $750,000 of their auction proceeds and give it to other creditors.

The other bidder was First United American Companies, which runs a website in Jones' name that sells nutritional supplements and planned to let Jones stay on the Infowars platforms. It offered $3.5 million in cash and later, with Jones, alleged fraud and collusion in the bidding process. Lopez rejected those allegations.

Manchin, Sinema prevent Democrats from locking in majority on labor board through 2026

Christopher Murray, the trustee who oversaw the auction, said he picked The Onion and its deal with the Sandy Hook families because it would have provided more money to Jones' other creditors.

What happens next?

Lopez directed Murray to come up with a new plan to move forward. Murray and representatives of The Onion did not immediately return messages seeking comment.

The judge said there was a possibility there could be a trial in 2025 to settle Jones' bankruptcy and that Murray could try to sell the equity in Infowars' parent company.

The judge said he wanted to hear back from Murray and others involved in the bankruptcy within 30 days on a plan.

On the social media platform X, Jones called the

MATT BROWN Associated Press

SENATE Democrats failed Wednesday to conﬁrm a Democratic member of the National Labor Relations Board after independent Sens. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema opposed the nomination, thwarting their hopes of locking in a majority at the federal agency for the ﬁrst two years of President-elect Donald Trump's term.

A vote to move ahead with the nomination of Lauren McFarren, who currently chairs the NLRB, failed 49-50. Had she been confirmed to another fiveyear term, it would have cemented a Democratic majority on the agency's board for the first two years of the incoming Trump administration. Now, Trump will likely be able to nominate McFarren's replacement. The NLRB oversees labor disputes, supervises union elections and has the power to investigate unfair labor practices. The partisan breakdown of the NLRB's leadership is fiercely contested by businesses and labor groups, as the majority on the board sets the agenda and determines how readily

judge's ruling a "Major Victory For Freedom Of The Press & Due Process."

Jeff Anapolsky, an adjunct professor at the University of Houston Law Center and the managing director and founder of Anapolsky Advisors, a ﬁnancial consulting ﬁrm, said he was not surprised Lopez rejected the sale. He was not involved in the case but said he has appeared before Lopez and described him as a fair judge.

Anapolsky believes the sale of the Infowars assets will ultimately take place and be approved.

"So that's up to Mr. Murray now, the trustee, to go do something to make everybody feel like everybody had their say and understand the transparency of the process," Anapolsky said.

Sandy Hook families to mark shooting anniversary

the agency uses its power to investigate and enforce labor laws.

"It is deeply disappointing, a direct attack on working people, and incredibly troubling that this highly qualiﬁed nominee — with a proven track record of protecting worker rights — did not have the votes," Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said in a statement.

The rejection of McFarren was yet another blow to Senate Democrats and President Joe Biden from Manchin and Sinema, who served as major brakes — and at times outright obstacles — to much of their legislative agenda the ﬁrst two years of Biden's term.

Manchin left the Democratic Party in May, while Sinema withdrew from the party in 2022. Both chose not to run for another Senate term and will be leaving the Congress in January.

Some congressional Republicans praised Manchin and Sinema for preventing the conﬁrmation.

"This NLRB seat should be ﬁlled by President Trump and the new incoming Senate. Not a historically unpopular president and a

The decision came during a solemn week for relatives of victims of the Sandy Hook shooting in Newtown, Connecticut. The 12th anniversary is Saturday, and some of the victims' relatives were traveling to Washington, D.C., to attend an annual vigil for victims of gun violence. The families usually mark the anniversary out of the public eye. Many of the families have said their lawsuits against Jones bought back the unbearable pain of losing their loved ones, as well as the trauma of being harassed and threatened by believers of Jones' hoax conspiracy. Relatives said they have been confronted in public by hoax believers and received death and rape threats. The families have not received any money from Jones since winning the trials.

Senate Democrat Majority that has lost its mandate to govern," Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, said in a statement after the vote.

"Big Labor knows the days of having the federal government do its bidding are numbered," Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., wrote in a statement. Foxx, who chairs the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, said that the incoming Trump administration would focus on "enacting a truly proworker agenda."

Business groups also praised the rejection of McFarren. Kristen Swearingen, a vice president at Associated Builders and Contractors, a trade group, called McFarren's policies "harmful" and said the process to nominate her was "ﬂawed."

"Under McFerran's leadership, the NLRB has issued decisions and expanded interpretations of the National Labor Relations Act that have been rejected by the business community, Congress and federal courts," argued Swearingen.

Labor unions decried the vote. Liz Shuler, president of the AFL-CIO, the nation's largest consortium of labor unions, said

ALEX Jones speaks to the media after arriving at the federal courthouse for a hearing in front of a bankruptcy judge, June 14, 2024, in Houston.

Photo:David J. Phillip/AP

Albertsons sues Kroger for failing to win approval of their proposed supermarket merger

By DEE-ANN DURBIN AP Business Writer

KROGER and Albertsons' plan for the largest U.S. supermarket merger in history crumbled Wednesday, with Albertsons pulling out of the $24.6 billion deal and the two companies accusing each other of not doing enough to push their proposed alliance through.

Albertsons said it had ﬁled a lawsuit against Kroger, seeking a $600 million termination fee as well as billions of dollars in legal fees and lost shareholder value. Kroger said the claims were "baseless" and that Albertsons was not entitled to the fee.

"After reviewing options, the company determined it is no longer in its best interests to pursue the merger," Kroger said in a statement Wednesday.

The bitter breakup came the day after two judges halted the proposed merger in separate court cases. U.S. District Court Judge Adrienne Nelson in Oregon issued a preliminary injunction Tuesday blocking the merger until an in-house judge at the Federal Trade Commission could consider the matter.

An hour later, Superior Court Judge Marshall Ferguson in Seattle issued a permanent injunction barring the merger. Ferguson ruled that combining Albertsons and Kroger would lessen competition and violate consumer-protection laws.

"I'm in a state of professional and commercial shock that they would take this scorched earth approach," said Burt Flickinger, a longtime analyst and owner of retail consulting ﬁrm Strategic Resource Group. "The logical thing would have been for Albertsons to let the decision sink in for a day and then meet and see what could be done. But the lawsuit seems to make that a moot issue."

Albertsons is unlikely to ﬁnd another merger partner because it has signiﬁcant debt and underperforming stores in most of its markets., Flickinger said.

Consumers will feel the most immediate impact of the deal's demise, he said, since Albertsons charges 12% to 14% more than Kroger and other grocery rivals.

"They had so much debt they had to pay it off it's reﬂected in their pricing and promotional structure," Flickinger said.

Albertsons CEO Vivek Sankaran testiﬁed during the federal hearing in September that his company might consider "structural options" like laying off employees, closing stores and exiting certain markets if the merger with Kroger didn't go through.

"I would have to consider that," he said. "It's a dramatically different picture with the merger than without it."

But in a statement Wednesday, Sankaran said Albertsons would "start this next chapter in strong ﬁnancial condition with a track record of positive business performance." In

The companies could have appealed the rulings or proceeded to the in-house FTC hearings. Albertsons' decision to pull out of deal instead surprised some industry experts.

NOTICE

IN THE ESTATE of GLORIA

ELEANOR RUSSELL AKA GLORIA

ELOUISE RUSSELL late of #165 Fire Trail Road in the Southwestern District of the Island of New Providence, one of the Islands of The Commonwealth of The Bahamas, deceased.

Notice is hereby given that all persons having any claim or demands against the above named Estate are required to send their names, addresses and particulars of the same duly certiﬁed in writing to the undersigned on or before the 12th day of December A.D., 2024, and if required, prove such debts or claims, or in default be excluded from any distribution; after the above date the assets will be distributed having regard only to the proved debts or claims of which the Executor shall then have had Notice.

And Notice is hereby given that all persons indebted to the said Estate are requested to make full settlement on or before the aforementioned date.

MICHAEL A. DEAN & CO., Attorneys for the Executors Alvernia Court, 49A Dowdeswell Street P.O. Box N-3114 Nassau, The Bahamas

LEGAL NOTICE

We, Mark Rolle, Peter Rolle, and Pastor Joshua Rolle, Descendants of the late Cornelius Rolle of Johnson Bay, South Andros, Bahamas, and holders of Power of Attorney in his estate, hereby issue the following Notice to the General Public:

Please be Advised that Cornelius Rolle (Deceased) is the Rightful Owner of the Montgomery Tract of Land, comprising One Thousand (1,000) acres, located in the Settlement of Johnson Bay and extending into Black Point on the Island of Andros, in the Commonwealth of The Bahamas.

Additionally, the Estate of Cornelius Rolle includes the following parcels of land:

● The AUTEC Site: Fourteen (14) acres

● Jane Russell Tract: Twenty (20) acres

● Cornelius Rolle Estate Parcel: Fourteen (14) acres

All Trespassers and Violators on these Properties will be Prosecuted to the fullest extent of the Law.

Dated this 26th Day of November 2024

Contact Information:

● Pastor Joshua Rolle: mjosh02@hotmail.com

| 242-357-2250

● Peter Rolle: peterrollel_81@hotmail.com

| 242-427-6135

● Mark Rolle: tqes65@msn.com | 242-557-1142

(D. 2, 5, 12, 19, 27, J. 2, 9, 16, 23, 30)

the company's most recent quarter, Albertsons' revenue rose 1% to $18.5 billion and it reported $7.9 billion in debt.

Kroger said it would also move forward in a strong ﬁnancial position, with revenue down slightly to $33.6 billion in its most recent quarter. The company announced a $7.5 billion share buyback program Wednesday after a two-year pause.

Kroger and Albertsons ﬁrst proposed the merger in 2022. They argued that combining would help them better compete with big retailers like Walmart, Costco and Amazon, which are gaining an increasing share of U.S. grocery sales. Together, Kroger and Albertsons would control around 13% of the U.S.

grocery market. Walmart controls around 22%.

Under the merger agreement, Kroger and Albertsons — who compete in 22 states — agreed to sell 579 stores in places where their locations overlap to C&S Wholesale Grocers, a New Hampshire-based supplier to independent supermarkets that also owns the Grand Union and Piggly Wiggly store brands.

But the Federal Trade Commission and two states — Washington and Colorado — sued to block the merger earlier this year, saying it would raise prices and lower workers' wages by eliminating competition. It also said the divestiture plan was inadequate and that C&S was ill-equipped to take on so many stores.

On Wednesday, Albertsons said that Kroger

failed to exercise "best efforts" and to take "any and all actions" to secure regulatory approval of the companies' agreed merger transaction.

Albertsons said Kroger refused to divest the assets necessary for antitrust approval, ignored regulators' feedback and rejected divestiture buyers that would have been stronger than C&S.

"Kroger's self-serving conduct, taken at the expense of Albertsons and the agreed transaction, has harmed Albertsons' shareholders, associates and consumers," said Tom Moriarty, Albertsons' general counsel, in a statement.

Kroger said that it disagrees with Albertsons "in the strongest possible terms." It said early Wednesday that

Albertsons was responsible for "repeated intentional material breaches and interference throughout the merger process."

Kroger, based in Cincinnati, Ohio, operates 2,800 stores in 35 states, including brands like Ralphs, Smith's and Harris Teeter. Albertsons, based in Boise, Idaho, operates 2,273 stores in 34 states, including brands like Safeway, Jewel Osco and Shaw's. Together, the companies employ around 710,000 people.

Kroger sued the FTC in August in federal court in Ohio, claiming that the federal agency's in-house administrative hearings were unlawful because the FTC was also able to challenge the merger in federal court in Oregon. In paperwork ﬁled Wednesday, the FTC said it expected to update the court on its next steps in that case by Dec. 17. In Colorado, which also sued to block the merger, Attorney General Phil Weiser said Tuesday that he still was awaiting a decision from a state judge. In that case, Colorado also was challenging an allegedly illegal no-poach agreement Kroger and Albertsons made during a 2022 strike. Shares of Albertsons fell 1.5% Wednesday, while Kroger's stock was up 1%.

A SHOPPER heads into a Safeway store, which is part of the Albertson’s grocery chain, Tuesday, Dec. 10, 2024, in Denver.

Photo:David Zalubowski/AP

SHERIFF IN GEORGIA PROMISES TO PAY SECURITY COMPANY $1.4 MILLION AFTER JAIL WALKOUTS

ATLANTA Associated Press

THE Fulton County Sheriff's Ofﬁce said Wednesday it will send about $1.4 million in electronic payments to a private security company by the end of the week that pulled its staff from the local jail in Georgia.

New York-based Strategic Security Corp. ended its contract with the county in August after it failed to pay money owed and let its ofﬁcers walk out of the Fulton County Jail in the middle of the day. The company provided about 80 guards.

The Sheriff's ofﬁce did not pay the company what

it owed in any billing cycle since the start of its contract in 2023, CEO Joseph Sordi told reporters in August.

Natalie Ammons, a spokesperson for the sheriff's ofﬁce, said the ofﬁce did pay some bills in full.

Fulton County Sheriff Patrick Labat has come under fire from county officials for failing to address dangerous conditions in the Fulton County Jail and for mismanaging funds, including the $146 million to his office allocated this year.

Last year, the Fulton County Board of Commissioners dissolved the sheriff's inmate welfare fund after learning that money had been used for promotional events and

consulting fees. The ofﬁce said it took several remedial actions, including ﬁring the fund administrator.

In October 2023, the commission rescinded $2.1 million in funding for Georgia-based jail software company Talitrix, which was supposed to provide 1,000 wristbands and monitoring devices to the jail. Only 15 were in use. Talitrix then sued the sheriff's ofﬁce over nonpayment.

In Tuesday's statement, the sheriff's ofﬁce said the department is underfunded by the county given its size and mandates. Underfunding has "impacted not only contractual obligations but also critical operational capacities that directly

affect public safety and community trust."

Board of Commissioners Chairman Robb Pitts released a statement in August saying that funding for the sheriff's ofﬁce and jail increased 66% since 2019, but the sheriff "has consistently failed to demonstrate basic budget management practices."

Pitts said the sheriff's ofﬁce signed the contract with Strategic Security

Corp. to provide stafﬁng for watchtowers in the jail without involving the county purchasing department. He said the commissioners allocated $1.3 million for 2024 based on the contract usage and with input from the sheriff's ofﬁce.

The ofﬁce waited until August to tell county management that it had already spent more than $1 million over the budgeted amount, Pitts said.

The commission passed an ordinance in July asking Labat and other constitutional ofﬁcers to use the county purchasing department's procurement process when entering new contracts. Labat said he plans to sue the Board of Commissioners, which he says has gone overboard in managing how he spends money.

FEDERAL COURT FILINGS ALLEGE OFFICIAL COMMITTED PERJURY IN LAWSUIT TIED TO LOUISIANA GRAIN TERMINAL

By JACK BROOK Associated Press

A SOUTHEAST Louisiana ofﬁcial has been accused of committing perjury for failing to disclose information related to a controversial grain terminal in the state's Mississippi River Chemical Corridor in response to a lawsuit brought by a prominent local climate activist.

St. John the Baptist Parish President Jaclyn Hotard denied in a deposition that she knew her mother-in-law could have beneﬁted ﬁnancially from parish rezoning plans to make way for a 222-acre (90-hectare) grain export

facility along the Mississippi River. Hotard also said in court ﬁlings, under oath, that no correspondence existed between her and her mother-in-law about the grain terminal, even though her mother-in-law later turned over numerous text messages where they discussed the grain terminal and a nearby property owned by the mother-inlaw's marine transport company, court records show.

The text messages were disclosed as part of an ongoing lawsuit ﬁled by Joy Banner, who along with her sister, Jo Banner, successfully led efforts to halt the

$800 million grain terminal earlier this year. It would have been built within 300 feet (91 meters) of their property and close to historic sites in the predominantly Black community where they grew up. The legal dispute is part of a broader clash playing out in courts and public hearings, pitting ofﬁcials eager to greenlight economic development against grassroots community groups challenging polluting industrial expansion in the heavily industrialized 85-mile industrial corridor between Baton Rouge and New Orleans often referred to by environmental activists as "Cancer Alley."

VEHICLES are parked outside the Fulton County Jail, April 11, 2023, in Atlanta. Photo:Kate Brumback/AP

Ontario premier says US energy exports will be cut off if Trump imposes sweeping tariffs on Canada

By ROB GILLIES Associated Press

THE premier of Canada's largest province said Wednesday he will cut off energy to the United States if President-elect Donald Trump imposes sweeping tariffs on all Canadian products.

Trump has threatened to impose a 25% tax on all products entering the U.S. from Canada and Mexico unless they stem the ﬂow of migrants and drugs.

"We will go to the full extent depending on how far this goes. We will go to the extent of cutting off their energy," Ontario Premier Doug Ford after meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and other provincial premiers. Ford said "100%" the tariffs are coming.

"We will use every tool in our tool box to ﬁght back. We can't sit back and roll over. We just won't as a country. And isn't this a shame, our closest friends and allies," Ford said.

About 60% of U.S. crude oil imports are from Canada, and 85% of U.S. electricity imports as well.

It wasn't immediately clear if Ford was talking about all Canadian provinces cutting off energy exports to the U.S. or just his province. But a spokesman for Ford, Grace Lee, said it was raised in the call

between Trudeau and the provincial premiers.

"Premier Ford can only speak on behalf of Ontario, but its an area of provincial jurisdiction that we would certainly look at," Lee said in a email.

Lee noted 49% of Ontario's electricity exports were to Michigan and said Ontario is also a major electricity exporter exporter to Minnesota, New York and Michigan.

Canada is also the largest foreign supplier of steel, aluminum and uranium to the U.S. and has 34 critical minerals and metals that the Pentagon is eager for and investing for national security.

"Canada, of course, will respond to unjustiﬁed tariffs," Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland said after the meeting.

Freeland said a number of provincial premiers voiced support for a robust response to the tariffs and said that included critical minerals that are exported to the U.S.

She didn't speciﬁcally mention oil but said "obviously other ideas were discussed as well" when asked if Canada is considering cutting off oil exports to America. About a third of Canada's trade to the U.S. is energy.

The premier of Alberta, which has the vast majority of Canada's oil supplies,

didn't immediately comment after the meeting.

Nearly $3.6 billion Canadian (US$2.7 billion) worth of goods and services cross the border each day. Canada is the top export destination for 36 U.S. states.

Trudeau said this week tariffs would be "absolutely devastating" for the Canadian economy, but it would also mean real hardship for Americans.

Economists say companies would have little choice but to pass along the added costs, dramatically raising prices for food, clothing,

automobiles, alcohol and other goods.

The Produce Distributors Association, a Washingtonbased trade group, has said tariffs will raise prices for fresh fruit and vegetables and hurt U.S. farmers when the countries retaliate.

Trudeau said this week the government is still mulling over "the right ways" to respond, referencing when Canada imposed duties in 2018 against the U.S. in a tit-for-tat response to new taxes on Canadian steel and aluminum.

Canada's central bank, meanwhile, lowered its key interest rate by half

a percentage point on Wednesday and called Trump's threat to impose sweeping new tariffs on Canada "a major source of new uncertainty."

"We did underline that the threat of new tariffs on Canadian exports, particularly at the level suggested, that is a major source of new uncertainty," Bank of Canada Tiff Macklem said at a press conference. "But the reality is we don't know if those tariffs are going to be implemented.

"We don't know if exemptions are going to be agreed on some parts, we don't know at what

level, we don't know if Canada will take retaliatory measures."

Trudeau, meanwhile, got the attention of billionaire Elon Musk, a big supporter of Trump, with comments he made Tuesday about lamenting the fact that U.S. voters selected Trump over Kamala Harris as president.

"We were supposed to be on a steady if difﬁcult sometimes march toward progress. And yet, just a few weeks ago, the United States voted for a second time to not elect its ﬁrst woman president," Trudeau said Tuesday night at a event sponsored by Equal Voice, an organization dedicated to improving gender representation in Canadian politics. "Everywhere, women's rights and women's progress is under attack -- overtly and subtly."

Musk said Trudeau is "such an insufferable tool" in a post on X.

"Won't be in power for much longer," he wrote. Ford also criticized Trudeau for the remarks.

"They are not helpful at all. It was brought up a couple of times in our meeting," Ford said. "Donald Trump was elected democratically. If you like him or you don't like him that's not our issue. We elect Canadians and it was not helpful whatsoever. I'm sure the prime minister got the message loud and clear."

SHERIFF IN GEORGIA PROMISES TO PAY SECURITY COMPANY $1.4 MILLION AFTER JAIL WALKOUTS

LEGAL NOTICE

Mexlend Fund Ltd. INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS COMPANIES ACT (No.45 of 2000)

In Voluntary Liquidation

Notice is hereby given that in accordance with Section 138 (4) of the International Business Companies Act, (No.45 of 2000), that Mexlend Fund Ltd. (Registration no. 207035 B is in dissolution. The date of commencement of the dissolution is the 10th day of December, 2024. The Liquidator of the Fund is Crowe Bahamas and can be contacted at Harbour Bay Plaza, Shirley Street, Suite 587, P. O. Box AP-59223, Nassau, Bahamas. Email andrew.davies@crowe.bs . All persons having claims against the above-named company are required to mail and email their names, addresses and particulars of their debts or claims to the Liquidator before 27th day of December, 2024.

Crowe Bahamas Liquidator

N O T I C E

ORANGE JUWEL LIMITED

N O T I C E IS HEREBY GIVEN as follows:

(a) ORANGE JUWEL LIMITED is in voluntary dissolution under the provisions of Section 138 (4) of the International Business Companies Act 2000.

(b) The dissolution of the said company commenced on the 10th December, 2024 when the Articles of Dissolution were submitted to and registered by the Registrar General.

(c) The Liquidator of the said company is CST Administration (Bahamas) Limited, Shirley & Charlotte Streets, Nassau, Bahamas.

Dated this 12th day of December, 2024.

CST Administration (Bahamas) Limited Liquidator

ATLANTA Associated Press

The Sheriff's ofﬁce did not pay the company what it owed in any billing cycle since the start of its contract in 2023, CEO Joseph Sordi told reporters in August. Natalie Ammons, a

spokesperson for the sheriff's ofﬁce, said the ofﬁce did pay some bills in full.

Last year, the Fulton County Board of Commissioners dissolved the sheriff's inmate welfare fund after learning that money had been used for promotional events and consulting fees. The ofﬁce said it took several remedial actions, including ﬁring the fund administrator.

In October 2023, the commission rescinded $2.1 million in funding for Georgia-based jail software company Talitrix, which was supposed to provide

Legal Notice NOTICE

TNAPB FUND ICON

NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN as follows:

(a) TNAPB Fund ICON is in dissolution under the provisions of the Investment Condominium Act, 2014

(b) The dissolution of the said Investment Condominium commenced on the 20th day of November, 2024 when its Notice of Dissolution were submitted to and registered by the Registrar General.

(c) The Liquidator of the said Investment Condominium is Shareece Scott, Deltec Bank & Trust Limited, Deltec House, Lyford Cay, P.O. Box N-3229, Nassau, Bahamas.

Shareece Scott Liquidator

N O T I C E

GIFA LIMITED

N O T I C E IS HEREBY GIVEN as follows:

(a) GIFA LIMITED is in voluntary dissolution under the provisions of Section 138 (4) of the International Business Companies Act 2000.

(b) The dissolution of the said company commenced on the 9th December, 2024 when the Articles of Dissolution were submitted to and registered by the Registrar General.

(c) The Liquidator of the said company is Leeward Nominees Limited, of Vistra Corporate Services Centre, Wickhams Cay II, Road Town, Tortola, British Virgin Islands VG1110.

Dated this 12th day of December, A. D. 2024.

Leeward Nominees Limited Liquidator

1,000 wristbands and monitoring devices to the jail. Only 15 were in use. Talitrix then sued the sheriff's ofﬁce over nonpayment. In Tuesday's statement, the sheriff's ofﬁce said the department is underfunded by the county given its size and mandates. Underfunding has "impacted not only contractual obligations but also critical operational capacities that directly affect public safety and community trust."

Pitts said the sheriff's ofﬁce signed the contract with Strategic Security

The ofﬁce waited until August to tell county management that it had already spent more than $1 million over the budgeted amount, Pitts said.

Legal Notice NOTICE

SAN LORENZO FUND ICON

NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN as follows:

(a) San Lorenzo Fund ICON is in dissolution under the provisions of the Investment Condominium Act, 2014

(b) The dissolution of the said Investment Condominium commenced on the 20th day of November, 2024 when its Notice of Dissolution were submitted to and registered by the Registrar General.

(c) The Liquidator of the said Investment Condominium is Shareece Scott, Deltec Bank & Trust Limited, Deltec House, Lyford Cay, P.O. Box N-3229, Nassau, Bahamas.

Shareece Scott Liquidator

N O T I C E

DOUBLE TALENT HOLDINGS LIMITED

N O T I C E IS HEREBY GIVEN as follows:

(a) DOUBLE TALENT HOLDINGS LIMITED is in voluntary dissolution under the provisions of Section 138 (4) of the International Business Companies Act 2000.

(b) The dissolution of the said company commenced on the 9th December, 2024 when the Articles of Dissolution were submitted to and registered by the Registrar General.

(c) The Liquidator of the said company is Bukit Merah Limited, The Bahamas Financial Centre, Shirley & Charlotte Streets, P.O. Box N-3023, Nassau, Bahamas.

Dated this 12th day of December, A. D. 2024.

Bukit Merah Limited Liquidator

BANK of Canada Governor Tiff Macklem responds to a question during a news conference, Wednesday, Dec. 11, 2024 in Ottawa, Ontario.

Photo:Adrian Wyld/AP

Meta to build $10 billion AI data center in Louisiana as Elon Musk expands his Tennessee AI facility

By JACK BROOK and ADRIAN SAINZ Associated Press

THE largest artiﬁcial intelligence data center ever built by Facebook's parent company Meta is coming to northeast Louisiana, the company said Wednesday, bringing hopes that the $10 billion facility will transform an economically neglected corner of the state.

Republican Gov. Jeff Landry called it "gamechanging" for his state's expanding tech sector, yet some environmental groups have raised concerns over the center's reliance on fossil fuels — and whether the plans for new natural gas power to support it could lead to higher energy bills in the future for Louisiana residents.

Meanwhile, Elon Musk's AI startup, xAI, is expanding its existing supercomputer project in Memphis, Tennessee, the city's chamber of commerce said Wednesday. The chamber also said that Nvidia, Dell, and Supermicro Computer will be "establishing operations in Memphis," without offering further details.

Louisiana is among a growing number of states offering tax credits and other incentives to lure big tech ﬁrms seeking sites for energy-intensive data centers.

The U.S. Commerce Department found that there aren't enough data centers in the U.S. to meet the rising AI-fueled demand, which is projected to grow by 9% each year through 2030, citing industry reports.

Meta anticipates its Louisiana data center will create 500 operational jobs and 5,000 temporary construction jobs, said Kevin Janda, director of data center strategy. At 4 million square feet (370,000 square meters), it will be the company's largest AI data center to date, he added.

"We want to make sure we are having a positive impact on the local level," Janda said.

Congressional leaders and local representatives from across the political spectrum heralded the Meta facility as a boon for Richland Parish, a rural part of Louisiana with a population of 20,000 historically reliant on agriculture. About one in four residents are considered to live in poverty, according to the U.S. census data. The parish's unemployment rate was 4.6% last year, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Meta plans to invest $200 million into road and water infrastructure improvements for the parish to offset its water usage. The facility is expected to be completed in 2030.

Entergy, one of the nation's largest utility providers, is fast-tracking plans to build three natural gas power plants in Louisiana capable of generating 2,262 megawatts for Meta's data center over a 15-year period — nearly one-tenth of Entergy's existing energy capacity across four states.

The Louisiana Public Service Commission is weighing Entergy's proposal as some environmental groups have opposed locking the state into more fossil fuel-based energy infrastructure. Meta said it plans to help bring 1,500 megawatts of renewable energy onto the grid in the future.

Louisiana residents may ultimately end up with rate increases to pay off the cost of operating these natural gas power plants when Meta's contract with Entergy expires, said Jessica Hendricks, state policy director for the Alliance for Affordable Energy, a Louisiana-based nonproﬁt advocating for energy consumers.

"There's no reason why residential customers in Louisiana need to pay for a power plant for energy that they're not going to use," Hendricks said. "And we want to make sure that there's safeguards in place."

Public service commissioner Foster Campbell, representing northeast Louisiana, said he does not believe the data center will

NOTICE

NOTICE is hereby given that TONY FENEUS GIORVANY of Soldier Road, New Providence, The Bahamas applying to the Minister responsible for Nationality and Citizenship, for Registration Naturalization as a citizen of The Bahamas, and that any person who knows any reason why registration/ naturalization should not be granted, should send a written and signed statement of the facts within twenty-eight days from the 5th day of December, 2024 to the Minister responsible for nationality and Citizenship, P.O. Box N-7147, Nassau, New Providence, The Bahamas.

NOTICE

NOTICE is hereby given that MEOSHI FELICIA RUSSELL of Freeport, Grand Bahama, The Bahamas applying to the Minister responsible for Nationality and Citizenship, for Registration Naturalization as a citizen of The Bahamas, and that any person who knows any reason why registration/naturalization should not be granted, should send a written and signed statement of the facts within twenty-eight days from the 12th day of December, 2024 to the Minister responsible for nationality and Citizenship, P.O. Box N-7147, Nassau, New Providence, The Bahamas.

NOTICE

NOTICE is hereby given that GARROD ANTHONY RUSSELL of Freeport, Grand Bahama, The Bahamas applying to the Minister responsible for Nationality and Citizenship, for Registration Naturalization as a citizen of The Bahamas, and that any person who knows any reason why registration/ naturalization should not be granted, should send a written and signed statement of the facts within twenty-eight days from the 12th day of December, 2024 to the Minister responsible for nationality and Citizenship, P.O. Box N-7147, Nassau, New Providence, The Bahamas.

increase rates for Louisiana residents and views it as vital for his region.

"It's going in one of the most needed places in Louisiana and maybe one of the most needed places in the United States of America," Foster said. "I'm for it 100%."

Environmental groups have also warned of the

pollution generated by Musk's AI data center in Memphis. The Southern Environmental Law Center, among others, says the supercomputer could strain the power grid, prompting attention from the Environmental Protection Agency. Eighteen gas turbines currently running at xAI's south Memphis facility are signiﬁcant sources of ground-level ozone, better known as smog, the group said.

NOTICE

NOTICE is hereby given that ASMILE VIXAMAR PIERRE of Palmetto Avenue, New Providence, Bahamas is applying to the Minister responsible for Nationality and Citizenship, for registration/ naturalization as a citizen of The Bahamas and that any person who knows any reason why registration/ naturalization should not be granted, should send a written and signed statement of the facts within twentyeight days from the 12th day of December, 2024 to the Minister responsible for nationality and Citizenship, P.O. Box N-7147, Nassau, Bahamas.

Patrick Anderson, an attorney at the law center, said xAI has operated with "a stunning lack of transparency" in developing its South Memphis facility, which is located near predominantly Black neighborhoods that have long dealt with pollution and health risks from factories and other industrial sites.

"Memphians deserve to know how xAI will affect them," he said, "and should have a seat at the table when these decisions are being made."

NOTICE

NOTICE is hereby given that DAVID ACHEAMPONG of P. O. Box N-8940, Lumumba Lane, Fox Hill Road, New Providence, Bahamas is applying to the Minister responsible for Nationality and Citizenship, for registration/naturalization as a citizen of The Bahamas and that any person who knows any reason why registration/naturalization should not be granted, should send a written and signed statement of the facts within twenty-eight days from the 12th day of December, 2024 to the Minister responsible for nationality and Citizenship, P.O. Box N-7147, Nassau, Bahamas.

THE META logo is seen at the Vivatech show in Paris, France, June 14, 2023.

Photo:Thibault Camus/AP

Wall Street gets back to climbing, and the Nasdaq tops 20,000

By STAN CHOE AP Business Writer

U.S. stock indexes got back to climbing on Wednesday after the latest update on inﬂation appeared to clear the way for more help for the economy from the Federal Reserve.

The S&P 500 rose 0.8% to break its first two-day losing streak in nearly a month and finished just short of its all-time high. Big Tech stocks led the way, which drove the Nasdaq composite up 1.8% to top the 20,000 level for the first time. The Dow Jones Industrial Average, meanwhile, lagged the market with a dip of 99 points, or 0.2%.

Stocks got a boost as expectations built that Wednesday's inﬂation data will allow the Fed to deliver another cut to interest rates at its meeting next week.

Traders are betting on a nearly 99% probability of that, according to data from CME Group, up from 89% a day before. If they're correct, it would be a third straight cut by the Fed after it began lowering rates in September from a two-decade high. It's hoping to support a slowing job market after getting inﬂation nearly all the way down to its 2% target. Lower rates would give a boost to the economy and to prices for investments, but they could also provide more fuel for inﬂation.

"The data have given the Fed the 'all clear' for next week, and today's inﬂation data keep a January cut in active discussion," according to Ellen Zentner, chief economic strategist for Morgan Stanley Wealth Management.

Expectations for a series of cuts to rates by the Fed have been one of the main reasons the S&P 500 has

set an all-time high 57 times this year, with the latest coming last week.

The biggest boosts for the index on Wednesday came from Nvidia and other Big Tech stocks. Their massive growth has made them Wall Street's biggest stars for years, though other kinds of stocks have recently been catching up somewhat amid hopes for the broader U.S. economy.

Tesla jumped 5.9% to ﬁnish above $420 at $424.77. It's a level that Elon Musk made famous in a 2018 tweet when he said he had secured funding to take Tesla private at $420 per share.

Stitch Fix soared 44.3% after the company that sends clothes to your door reported a smaller loss for the latest quarter than analysts expected. It also gave ﬁnancial forecasts for the current quarter that were better than expected, including for revenue.

GE Vernova rallied 5% for one of the biggest gains in the S&P 500. The energy company that spun out of General Electric said it would pay a 25 cent dividend every three months, and it approved a plan to send up to another $6 billion to its shareholders by buying back its own stock.

On the losing end of Wall Street, Dave & Buster's Entertainment tumbled 20.1% after reporting a worse loss for the latest quarter than expected. It also said CEO Chris Morris has resigned, and the board has been working with an executive-search ﬁrm for the last few months to ﬁnd its next permanent leader.

Albertsons fell 1.5% after ﬁling a lawsuit against Kroger, saying it didn't do enough for their proposed $24.6 billion merger agreement to win regulatory clearance. Albertsons said it's seeking billions of dollars in damages from

Kroger, whose stock rose 1%. A day earlier, judges in separate cases in Oregon and Washington nixed the supermarket giants' merger. The grocers contended a combination could have helped them compete with big retailers like Walmart, Costco and Amazon, but critics said it would hurt competition.

After terminating the merger agreement with Kroger, Albertsons said it plans to boost its dividend 25% and increased the size of its program to buy back its own stock.

Macy's slipped 0.8% after cutting some of its ﬁnancial forecasts for the full year of 2024, including for how much proﬁt it expects to make off each $1 of revenue.

All told, the S&P 500 rose 49.28 points to 6,084.19. The Dow dipped 99.27 to

44,148.56, and the Nasdaq composite rallied 347.65 to 20,034.89.

In the bond market, the yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 4.27% from 4.23% late Tuesday. The two-year Treasury yield, which more closely tracks expectations for the Fed, edged up to 4.15% from 4.14%.

In stock markets abroad, indexes rose across much of Europe and Asia. Hong Kong's Hang Seng was an outlier and slipped 0.8% as Chinese leaders convened an annual planning meeting in Beijing that is expected to set economic policies and growth targets for the coming year.

South Korea's Kospi rose 1%, up for a second straight day as it climbs back following last week's political turmoil where its president brieﬂy declared martial law.