Gasoline prices
May began with the news that gasoline prices in the Cayman Islands rose by roughly 40 cents a gallon between 27 and 28 April, with the highest price for premium grade gasoline at some gas stations as high as $5.96 a gallon.
Gas prices increased by 25 cents only weeks ago in April and by about 10 cents compared to a month earlier.
Terrorist’s death recalls 9/11 Afghan intrigue
The death of al-Qaida leader and 9/11 mastermind Osama bin Laden recalled a time when fear gripped the entire globe, including the Cayman Islands.
In particular, there was the intrigue of three Afghan nationals who inexplicably came to shore in August 2000, some 11 months before the attacks on America.
The suggestion that they were terrorists was made in an anonymous letter mailed to Radio Cayman in late August 2001, two weeks before the 9/11 attacks. The author said he was convinced the men were organising an attack against the United States using an airline or airlines.
The events of 9/11 created worried interest in the letter and, as a result, the Afghan men, who were seeking asylum in Grand Cayman and staying in a guest house, were arrested and detained at Northward Prison. Authorities from the investigative branches of the American government, including the FBI, subsequently came to the Cayman Islands to look into the matter.
No charges were ever filed against the men.
Heroes nab two robbers
Two have-a-go heroes chased down and caught a pair of masked robbers who tried to hold up Blackbeard’s liquor store at Grand Harbour in an attempted robbery.
Police arrested the suspects, aged 17 and 18, who were armed with a shotgun and pepper spray. Edward Acan, one of the two fishermen who chased the robbers, said he and his friend Charles Ebanks had seen the pair enter the store with a shotgun and tackled them when they came out.
What in tar-nation?
Visitors to Cayman Brac are smelling a new odour on the Island – fresh asphalt.
A project to pave Cayman Brac’s roads for the first time in 30 years began last June and since then, the north coast road has been paved along with several private parking lots of businesses and churches.
The south coast of the Island and most of the roads on the Bluff – part of the 50-miles of road on Cayman Brac – remain unpaved.
Some residents of the Island are asking why public resources and equipment are being used to pave private carparks while much of the Island remains unpaved and during a time when government coffers are stretched.
Alcohol drug of choice for Cayman students
More than half of Cayman’s middle and high school students who admit using substances have consumed alcohol, according to a survey of grades 7-12 pupils.
The Cayman Islands Student Drug Use Survey, which tracks trends of drug use among Cayman’s high school students, found that 54 per cent of students who had taken substances reported drinking alcohol at least once in their lives and 39.2 per cent said they had drank alcohol in the past year.
The average age for students to have an alcoholic drink for the first time is 11.6 years, according to the survey, which also showed that about 37 per cent of drinkers had their first drink between the ages of six and 11.
UK refuses to sign off on budget
The United Kingdom Government has refused to sign off on Cayman’s budget for next year until more civil service personnel cuts are made.
Premier McKeeva Bush, explaining why the presentation of the 2011/2012 budget had been postponed for the third time this month, said the UK Government wanted more time to review the proposed budget. He said the main area of scrutiny was personnel costs that the Cayman Islands Government was unwilling to cut further.
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