Daily Archives: June 19, 2017

June 19, 2017 15:20 ET | Source: Bahamas Ministry of Tourism

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NASSAU, Bahamas, June 19, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Bahamas was presented the 2016 Caribbean Sapphire Pegasus Business Aviation Award for Outstanding Country Promotion, the first award of its kind for the region. The Sapphire Pegasus Award is a symbol of gratitude for the superb performance in an industry segment where mediocrity is unacceptable.

The award was introduced to the region during the Caribbean Aviation Meetup in St. Maarten, June 13-15. Based on expert advice and the long record of outstanding performance, we decided that The Bahamas should be awarded for the excellent promotion of the Caribbean over a longer period of time in the business aviation industry, said Antonia Lukacinova, founder of the Sapphire Pegasus Awards.

It is not just about the presence and presentations at international conferences and exhibitions, but also about the available online information and hardcopy documentation. The explanations are so well done and comprehensive that they hardly leave an opening for questions. We believe that this needs to find international recognition and honoring.

Director General in The Bahamas Ministry of Tourism and Aviation, Joy Jibrilu, was presented with the award on Tuesday, June 13 during the Caribbean Aviation Meetup in St. Maarten. She also delivered the keynote address at the aviation conference.

I am excited and thrilled by the announcement that The Bahamas has won the award for our outstanding promotion in business aviation. We at The Bahamas Ministry of Tourism and Aviation work tirelessly to create new strategic partners in key markets across the world to increase airlift and new routes to the country. That is our goal. We also go above and beyond to promote our destination and position ourselves as the best in the region. As a team, we have accomplished many mammoth tasks and this award is vindication of that hard work. Thank you, Mrs. Jibrilu said.

The Sapphire Pegasus Awards are a unique series of international business aviation awards and are given for the outstanding performance by companies or individuals in the business aviation sector. The finalists are nominated by companies and individuals in the business aviation sector.

The Sapphire Pegasus Awards started out by recognizing the outstanding performance of companies, teams and business individuals from the EMEA region and Russia. This is the first year that four awards are being given out for excellence in the Caribbean.

About The Bahamas

The Islands Of The Bahamas have a place in the sun for everyone. Each island has its own personality and attractions for a variety of vacation styles with some of the worlds best golfing, scuba diving, fishing, sailing, boating, as well as, shopping and dining. The destination offers an easily accessible tropical getaway and provides convenience for travelers with preclearance through U.S. customs and immigration, and the Bahamian dollar is on par with the U.S. dollar. Do everything or do nothing, just remember Its Better in The Bahamas. For travel packages, activities and accommodations information, call 1-800-Bahamas or visit http://www.Bahamas.com. Look for The Bahamas on the web on Facebook Twitter and YouTube

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A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/b5f25008-6531-43bd-b84a-4aaa0e631eec

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A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/d24a91ad-f97a-4b46-b8e5-637dd7d8bd41

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Bahamas wins new business aviation award - GlobeNewswire (press release)

A sun worshipper in Granary Square, central London, on Sunday. Photograph: Amer Ghazzal/Barcroft Images

Temperatures in some parts of the UK exceeded those in Los Angeles and the Bahamas on Monday as the hottest day of the year so far gripped the country.

Temperatures rose to a sweltering 32.4C in parts of greater London in the afternoon, just above the 32.1C highs of the weekend. Most of England and Wales was affected by the hot weather, which was made particularly sweaty by the absence of a breeze, though the north of England and Scotland saw cooler, cloudier conditions.

Emma Sharples, a spokeswoman at the Met Office, said: Heatwave is a funny term we dont really have a definition of it in the UK but none of us can deny it has been a prolonged period of hot weather, and night-time temperatures have been quite unusually high, which can also be the cause of potential health problems, as well as a lot of restless nights.

Public Health England has issued an amber heat alert until Wednesday, one tier below level four, which marks a national emergency.

The warm, dry weather contrasts with the heavy rain that dominated the final weeks of June last year, causing treacherously muddy conditions at the Glastonbury festival, where the highest temperature recorded for the month was just 28C. The forecast for Glastonbury this year looks considerably dryer, but still variable, with the Met Office advising people to bring both suncream and wellies.

The hottest day of the year could also still be to come, with predictions that the south of England could have temperatures of 34C on Wednesday and Thursday.

Traditionally, youd expect to get these sorts of temperatures much later on in the summer, in late July and August, but were seeing high temperatures already, said Sharples. And weve already had a fine spell of weather in May.

The unusually warm weather is due to an air mass coming from the tropical parts of the Atlantic, around the Azores islands, while at the same time the very hot conditions across France and Spain last week are being pushed northwards.

As the wind changes direction on Wednesday, there will be no respite from the heat. Sharples warned people to expect a few more sweaty, sleepless nights until Friday, with temperatures remaining high even after the sun has set. Night-time temperatures on Sunday and Monday hovered at around 24C.

There will be some thunderstorms across the north on Wednesday and a few showers, though they will get no further south than the Midlands.

The temperatures look set to drop by next weekend, however, as the cool air comes down from Scotland over Manchester and the north of England on Thursday, and over the London and the south-east by Friday.

While the prolonged heatwave will give a welcome boost to sales of sunscreen, ice cream and fans, it also comes with a health risk for the ill, vulnerable and elderly. The 10-day heatwave in 2003 resulted in about 2,000 heat-related deaths, and 680 people died during the long spell of hot weather in 2006.

Link:

Heatwave temperatures in UK higher than Los Angeles and Bahamas - The Guardian

On May 15, 2017, President Donald Trump announced that the next U.S. ambassador to the Bahamas will be a rich, ultraconservative real estate developer and hotel owner who became a media figure in his sixties, has fathered a large family, and opposes same-sex marriage as an affront to traditional marriage but divorced his wife to marry a much younger woman from the former Soviet blocjust like Donald Trump. This Trump doppelganger is Doug Manchester, who contributed early and heavily to Trumps presidential campaign and is being rewarded with the Bahamas nomination. Manchester already has a home in the Lyford Cay gated community on Bahamas New Providence Island.

Manchester, who insists on being called Papa Doug, backed Trump early, donating $50,000 to the Make America Great Again PAC in 2015. Both he and his second wife, Geniya Derzhavina Manchester, gave $454,800 to pro-Trump PACs. Manchester also helped organize several fundraisers, was a Trump delegate to the Republican convention, and donated $1 million to Trumps inauguration.

Just two weeks after Trumps inauguration, Manchester gushed that for the first time, a true capitalist is in the White House, an incredibly smart man with a big heart and an amazing family.

Born June 3, 1942, in Los Angeles, California, Douglas Frederick Manchester grew up in Coronado, California; Pueblo, Colorado; and San Diegos Pacific Beach neighborhood, where his father managed an apartment building. He graduated La Jolla High School in 1961, and earned a B.S. in Business at San Diego State University in 1965, where he worked as an insurance salesman. Also in 1965, Manchester married his girlfriend, Betsy Eldredge, with whom he eventually had five children.

After college, Manchester went into real estate, founding the Manchester Financial Group in 1970. Over the years, Manchesters company built a number of big buildings in San Diego, including First National Bank Center, the San Diego Marriott Marquis & Marina, the Manchester Grand Hyatt Hotel San Diego, and the Fairmont Grand Del Mar luxury resort. Manchester also founded two banks, the La Jolla Bank and Trust Company and La Jolla Pacific Savings Bank.

But in 2008, life started getting difficult for Manchester. He donated more than $125,000 to California Proposition 8 to ban same-sex marriage, claiming that his Catholic faithleads me to believe that marriage should be between a man and a woman. His activism for Prop 8, which passed in 2008, but later was ruled unconstitutional, led gay rights groups to boycott Manchesters hotels. Manchester eventually apologized, offering $125,000 in cash and hotel credit to same-sex rights groups, saying hes against gay marriage, not gays and lesbians.

In a stroke of irony, in October 2008just a month before the Prop 8 voteManchester left his wife of 43 years, who filed for divorce in June 2009. After several years of hardball litigationBetsy alleged that Papa Doug drained their joint bank accounts and opened her mailtheir divorce was finalized November 7, 2013. Just six weeks after the demise of his traditional marriage, on December 21, 2013, Doug Manchester, age 71, married Geniya Derzhavina, a 38-year-old Siberian.

Also in 2013, Manchester got himself and his business into hot water when San Diego Mayor Bob Filnera Democrat whose election Manchester had opposedtold a large audience that Manchester had asked him, through an aide, to to intervene and stop the code enforcement actions the City had taken because of several longstanding violations at Manchesters Grand Del Mar resort. Eventually, according to Dorian Hargrove of the San Diego Reader, Manchester had to sign a settlement, agreeing to not only mitigate impacts to natural habitat and stop using the [non-permitted facilities] but to also fork over $87,000 in fines and $250,000 for ongoing maintenance.

At the same time, Manchesters attempt to build a conservative media empire in San Diego took offand crashed. Manchester bought The San Diego Union-Tribune in 2011 for $110 million, acquiring his only daily competitor, the North County Times, for $12 million in 2012 as well as eight local weeklies in 2013.

From the outset, Manchester openly used the newspaper to promote conservative politics and construction projects that were in his financial interest. By 2012, New York Times writer David Carr opined that Manchester was using the paper as a brochure for his special interests, and criticized his ownership as a situation where moneyed interests buy papers and use them to prosecute a political and commercial agenda.

In 2015, after several years of falling circulation, Manchester sold The San Diego Union-Tribune to the Tribune Publishing Company, which owns The Los Angeles Times, for $85 milliona loss of at least $30 million. Around the same time, deprived of his bully pulpit, Manchester began his political dalliance with Donald Trump, leading ultimately to his ambassadorial nomination.

Manchester has been a major philanthropist in San Diego. He has made large donations to many local institutions, including San Diego State University, the University of San Diego, and the San Diego Symphony. He is a former trustee of the University of San Diego and of Wake Forest University, and has served on the board of trustees of the Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute.

Doug Manchester has played himself in three TV movies. The San Diego County Board of Supervisors declared May 31, 2012 (his 70th birthday) to be Papa Doug Manchester Day.

-Matt Bewig

To Learn More:

Doug Manchester to be Bahama Papa for U.S.? (by Don Bauder, San Diego Reader)

Who Runs San Diego? Douglas Manchester and U-T San Diego (by Eva Posner, San Diego Free Press)

The Fall of The San Diego Union-Tribune: How A Major GOP Donor Turned A Respected Paper Into A Corporate Shill (by Joe Strupp, Media Matters)

See more here:

Ambassador of the US to the Bahamas: Who is Doug Manchester? - AllGov

Posted on 19 June 2017. by Jones Bahamas

The Clifton Review

The Clifton Review is a bi-weekly column that examines the question of the Clifton project along with the evolution of the war between two billionaires, the links to unsavory characters, the use of the courts for personal agendas, the involvement of a political party, and the attacks on the Government of The Bahamas.

We covered the start of this war with articles describing the battle over easement rights, the mysterious burning of a home, the blocks to rebuilding, and countless questionable court filings. This series of articles asks the needed questions and presents the arguments in full.

By P.J. Malone

Apparently, in a presentation to Waterkeeper Alliance, Save The Bays Director and attorney Fred Smith expressed that Save The Bays members are constantly denigrated, as was reported in a Tribune article.

The Commonwealth of The Bahamas does not have a history of denigrating organizations. As a country, we have always welcomed and allowed free speech and a difference of opinion, especially on governance.

However, never in our history have we come across an organization whose activities are so hypocritical, persecutory, and subversive; it is these types of activities and some of its members and associates behavior that have certainly resulted in its denigration.

For fear of being seen as denigrating Save The Bays, lets simply list the facts to explain this point fully:

Hypocritical

A Witch-Hunt

Subversive

Who does that? Only individuals with no sense of allegiance to The Bahamas can speak so disparagingly with no ounce of compunction or sense of duty to protect their countrys good name.

In essence, Save The Bays has spent a lot of time being devious, underhanded, deceitful, dishonest, and downright subversiveto subvert or overthrow, destroy, or undermine an established or existing system, especially a legally constituted government or a set of beliefs.

Maybe its not the entire organization or all of its members. But if you let yourself be represented by an individual who engages in these activities, you have to accept that it will define all of you.

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Is It Not A Fact? - The Bahama Journal

PHOTO: Dive boats docked at Club Med Columbus Isle, Bahamas. (photo by Eric Bowman)

Were halfway through 2017 and if The Bahamas havent been calling your name, they ought to be now.

Bahamas Ministry of Tourism details the various activities for people of all ages to enjoy life in the Caribbean.

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For starters, the perfectly clear blue water will take your breath away. Sit and relax at any beach in the Bahamas and you know your stress will melt away.

After all, you are in paradise!

If you love sensational food, youll want to check out Santanas Grill Pit in Williams Town, Exuma. Located on the beach, youll have a stunning view while you feast on authentic island food.

And speaking of Exuma, you have to make the trek out to go swim with the pigs. These pigs basically have their own island, and they gladly welcome humans here to feed them. Just be smart and feed them good stuff, no junk and no alcohol, please!

READ MORE Go Under the Sea for a Sensational Exploration in The Bahamas

If alcohol is your thing, youll love visiting Sip Sip in Harbour Island. And per the Bahamas blogger, Town and Country Magazine has described Harbour Island as the Nantucket of The Bahamas.

If youre a nature lover, head to Freeport, Grand Bahama to be mesmerized by The Garden of the Groves. The Bahamas isnt just the beach, so come explore the beautiful nature they help preserve here.

For those travelers who love history, check out the underwater plane wreck at Rokers Point Settlement in Exuma, as well as the pirate steps at Clifton Heritage Park in Nassau.

Other great historic spots can be found in Bimini, where travelers can see the Dolphin House and take a dip in the Healing Hole.

For more information on Bahamas Ministry of Tourism, check out their blog here.

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Art is a veteran travel writer.

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There's Something for Everyone in The Bahamas - TravelPulse (blog)

Charlotte Observer

'Massive miracle': Charlotte-area woman recounts vicious shark attack Charlotte Observer The 32-year-old Concord woman's defiance came two weeks ago during a life-threatening battle with a shark off the coast of the Bahamas. Johnson would eventually lose much of her right arm, but she had surgery at Carolinas Medical Center last Friday ... and more »

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'Massive miracle': Charlotte-area woman recounts vicious shark attack - Charlotte Observer