ESTABLISHED 1965 www.caymancompass.com – 50 CENTS – WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 4, 2017 High of 88 Low of 76 Slight to moderate with wave heights of 2 to 4 feet. EDITORIAL | PAGE 4 A FRESH START POSSIBLE FOR IMMIGRATION BUSINESS | PAGE 10 TRUMP TAX PLAN WOULD STOP FIRMS SHIFTING PROFITS TO ‘TAX HAVENS’ Economy shows signs of growth in first quarter MICHAEL KLEIN mklein@pinnaclemedialtd.com Cayman’s gross domestic product grew by 2 percent in the first quarter of this year compared to the same period in 2016. Data provided by the Economics and Statistics Office shows that while the eco- nomic performance was broad-based, the construction sector, wholesale and retail trade and utilities contributed most to the growth. The financial and insurance sec- tors, which make up the largest part of GDP, grew by 1.4 percent. The first quarter economic expansion is consistent with annual growth forecasts of 2 percent, the ESO said. The economic performance also buoyed government’s finances. Despite an 8.2 per- cent increase in expenditure, central gov- ernment recorded an overall surplus of $178.1 million in the first quarter as a re- sult of 2.7 percent higher total revenue. The rise in government revenue resulted from domestic taxes on goods and services and financial services fees. Government’s current expenditure rose by $5.8 million and its capital expenditure jumped by $5.5 million. Central govern- ment’s outstanding debt continued to fall. In March 2017, it stood at $481.3 million, 5.3 percent lower than a year earlier. Plans to export invasive species face stumbling block Spinion approved by FDA, but still seeking green light in Cayman JAMES WHITTAKER jwhittaker@pinnaclemedialtd.com A Cayman Islands business has been li- censed to export lionfish and iguana meat for sale in the U.S. But the company, Spinion, says its ef- forts to provide an economic solution to the two invasive species threatening Cay- man’s environment are being hampered by an opaque and seemingly endless local reg- ulatory process. Mike Foreman, who co-owns Spinion, said the company had met the approval pro- cess to export both species for sale in the U.S., but had been struggling for over a year to get approval from the Department of En- vironmental Health in the Cayman Islands. He said the territory has no docu- mented approval process for a food pro- cessing business. Efforts to get endorsement from the De- partment of Environmental Health for a trade and business license to process both fish and iguana at the same plant have been frustrated by what he sees as an ad hoc list CAYMAN SEES 47 CRASHES IN TWO WEEKENDS Over the past two weekends, 47 road traffic accidents have been re- corded in the Cayman Islands: 22 last weekend and 25 the weekend before. Police say recent rainy weather cannot be blamed, and that many of the acci- dents involve drunk driving. For more on this story, see page 3. OFREG RULES FOR VIDEO BROADCAST, WIFI LICENSING PROPOSED Draft plan includes exemptions for internet cafes, WiFi hot spots, hotels and B&Bs BRENT FULLER bfuller@pinnaclemedialtd.com Draft proposals to regulate information, communications and technology services in Cayman seek to exempt certain uses of wire- less internet signals and internet streaming services from licensing requirements. Internet cafes and hotels would be exempt from WiFi licensing requirements under the draft rules, which were released on Sept. 19 for public comment. OfReg, Cayman’s utilities and commodities regulator, is seeking public feedback on the proposals until 5 p.m. on Oct. 19, according to notices published on its website. According to the draft that was circulated, the types of information communications technology (ICT) services requiring a license include telephony, television services, sound broadcasting and internet services. However, the proposed regulations would set exemptions for certain types of services based on where they operate. For instance, anyone holding an accom- modation license under the Tourism Law and who does not provide internet services outside of those licensed premises, such as hotels or B&Bs, would not be required to obtain a sepa- rate WiFi operating license. Similarly, internet cafes or WiFi hot spots providing access to the internet “where there is no fee associated with obtaining such ac- cess, and who maintain minimum security standards” as defined by OfReg, would not be PLEASE TURN TO PAGE 6 » A diver culls lionfish on a Cayman Islands reef. Spinion is seeking a license to process and export both lionfish and green iguanas, both invasive species, from the same George Town plant. - PHOTO: COURTNEY PLATT, VIA SPINON PLEASE TURN TO PAGE 6 » PLEASE TURN TO PAGE 6 »2 REGIONAL NEWS WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 4, 2017 • CAYMAN COMPASS I Daily Matinees Every Day $8.00 Seniors, Mon-Fri Before 6pm Cayman Cinema@cbcinema6cbcinema6 *Additional charges will apply per 3D ticket requested. 640-FILM (640-3456) SATURDAY NIGHT: For your viewing pleasure, minors under the age of 18 will not be admitted to any film starting after 6pm, unless accompanied by their parent. - WEDNESDAY - FLATLINERS (PG13) 12:50 VIP I 3:45 I 6:40 VIP I 10:10 BATTLE OF THE SEXES (PG13) 1:10 I 4:10 I 7:00 I 9:50 LEGO NINJAGO MOVIE 3D (PG) 1:30 2D I 4:00 I 6:30 2D I 9:00 KINGSMAN: THE GOLDEN CIRCLE(R) 12:30 I 3:30 VIP I 6:35 I 9:20 VIP AMERICAN MADE (R) 1:40 I 4:25 I 7:15 I 10:05 IT (R) 12:50 I 4:00 I 7:05 I 9:45 Dr. Neeraj Prasad Consultant Cardiologist To book an appointment, please phone: 949-4309 or 623-4309 Will be at Grand Harbour Medical Center from June 12th to June 16, 2017 Dr. Wayne R. Porter MD F.A.A.D. Dermatologist call : 946-9020 between 9am to 5pm Dees Plaza #282 on Crewe Road, GT He will be in office from October 5th, - October 12th, 2017 Tickets available from resellers, A.L. Thompson, Funky Tang and ONLINE At www.extravaganza.ky New US-Cuba trade rules delayed, possibly until 2018 TAD STONER tstoner@pinnaclemedialtd.com The 90-day period in which U.S. President Donald Trump pledged to alter trade regulations with Cuba expired in mid-September, and pri- vate industry and State De- partment officials have no in- dication when changes will be announced. Nor has Washington met a promised 30-day deadline to “initiate a process to ad- just current regulations re- garding transactions with Cuba,” kicking off that 90-day redefinition. “This process is still ac- tively under way, and while we don’t have a specific date yet for when those revised regulations will be publicly released, we anticipate it will be in the coming months,” a Treasury Department official, asking anonymity, told the Cayman Compass. “We will issue a public an- nouncement and guidance on our website once the regula- tions are released,” he said, specifying that both Treasury and the Department of Com- merce’s Office of Foreign Asset Control “will roll out the new regulations at the same time.” In June 16 remarks in Miami, President Trump vowed to roll back Obama-era trade rules, calling the former president’s 2014 opening to Havana a “terrible and misguided deal.” “We will not be silent in the face of communist oppres- sion any longer,” Mr. Trump told a “Little Havana” crowd in Miami. “Effective immedi- ately, I am canceling the last administration’s completely one-sided deal with Cuba.” However, Cuba-trade ex- perts say there has been little indication of what the changes might be or when they will become effective. Emilio Morales, CEO and president of The Havana Con- sulting Group in Miami told the Compass his company “has not been disclosed any- thing about the measures. We, like you, are waiting for the announcement.” The Havana Consulting Group, founded 20 years ago, is “a consulting firm fo- cusing primarily on the Cuban economy and on the Cuban market,” according to its website. Washington-based law firm Greenberg Traurig, ad- viser to The Havana Con- sulting Group and to the Washington-based U.S.- Cuba Chamber of Commerce, will offer an Oct. 27 sem- inar titled “Inside Cuba Busi- ness Briefing.” The firm declined to an- swer questions about the briefing or new trade regula- tions, but U.S.-Cuba Chamber of Commerce President Mar- garet Pulles Machado said the group had “no new infor- mation at this time regarding upcoming revisions to U.S.- Cuba policies,” but hoped the presence of “a representative from the State Department and Treasury Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) at our briefing on Oct. 27” would “ad- dress this and other issues.” Mr. Morales said that while The Havana Consulting Group did not “really know the reasons why the an- nouncement of these mea- sures has been delayed … we consider that there is a high probability that the an- nouncement will be made be- fore Oct. 27.” The issue of trade regu- lations, however, “belongs to [Treasury’s] OFAC and they are the ones who decide where and when they are going to make the announcement. President of the New York- based U.S.-Cuba Trade and Economic Council John Ka- vulich said the new rules “were expected by now,” but “OFAC is overwhelmed with other issues.” In a lengthy post on his www.cubatrade.org website, Mr. Kavulich wrote “The Of- fice of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the United States Department of the Treasury, the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) of the United States Department of Com- merce, and the United States Department of State are (were) expected to issue regulations and lists of entities within the Republic of Cuba that are controlled (owned/oper- ated) by the Revolutionary Armed Forces (FAR) of the Re- public of Cuba. “These entities would be prohibited from engagement,” he said, but noted “OFAC and BIS did issue statements sug- gesting that existing opera- tional agreements with FAR- controlled entities by airlines, cruise lines, tour operators and travel agents would be permitted to continue. “Principally, the reasons are what the Obama Adminis- tration and the Castro Admin- istration failed to implement relating to commerce. He said not enought had been autho- rized by either government, “which created a landscape for the Trump administration to be disruptive.” This has caused “con- tinuing bilateral ambiguity,” Mr. Kavulich said, calling it “exceedingly negative in all respects,” especially in regard to bilateral commerce, and said it would “likely continue, unabated, through Feb. 24 next year, when Cuban Pres- ident Raul Castro is sched- uled to retire.” He pointed out that the Four Points Sheraton Havana is managed by Starwood Ho- tels and Resorts Worldwide, a subsidiary of Marriott Inter- national, but owned by FAR. Marriott International Di- rector of Public Relations and Social Media for the Ca- ribbean & Latin America Ker- stin Sachle told the Compass the company was “not aware that new rules have been re- leased by the administra- tion and therefore cannot comment on the impact on our operations.” Mr. Kavulich said Ha- vana’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Bruno Rodriguez met U.S. Secretary of State Rex Til- lerson in Washington on Sept. 27, and Josefina de la Caridad Vidal Ferreiro, Cuba’s director general of the Department of the United States had “bilat- eral meetings” at the State De- partment on Sept. 19. “There is no published in- formation as to meetings with representatives of the United States business community, no published information as to meetings with representa- tives of organizations, no pub- lished information as to meet- ings with officials of state governments, and no pub- lished information as to meet- ings with Members of Con- gress,” Mr. Kavulich said. Cuban President Raul Castro3 LOCAL&REGIONAL CAYMAN COMPASS • WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 4, 2017 Shoppers Nıght Out UP TO 75% OFF WIN $ 500 GIFT CARD ONE NIGHT ONLY! SPECIAL OFFERS MUSIC, FOOD & REFRESHMENTS RAFFLE PRIZES FEATURED BRANDS INCLUDE: CAMANABAY.COM where life blossoms THURSDAY OCTOBER 5 5-8 pm Cayman tallies 47 crashes in two weekends BRENT FULLER bfuller@pinnaclemedialtd.com The Cayman Islands has seen at least three week- ends within the past two months with more than 20 vehicle accidents between Friday and Sunday, ac- cording to records published by the Royal Cayman Islands Police Service. On the weekend of Sept. 29-Oct. 1 there were 22 ve- hicle crashes; the previous weekend, Sept. 22-24, there were 25 accidents; and from July 28-30, there were 26. RCIPS Traffic Unit In- spector Ian Yearwood said, in most cases, drivers cannot blame the accidents on weather conditions. “While we know that a fair amount of rain in re- cent weeks has played a role in the number of collisions, the fact remains that most of the serious crashes appear to be alcohol-related,” Inspector Yearwood said. Unlike the weekend of Sept. 22 to Sept. 24, this past weekend a number of crashes led to serious in- juries. No fatalities have been recorded. Hit and run Three cars collided Sat- urday on the Esterley Tib- betts Highway, sending one woman to the hospital. According to police, a silver Honda Accord veered into oncoming cars along the two-lane section of the road, causing an SUV to swerve and smash into a retaining wall and strike another ve- hicle – a Honda Inspire – that was directly behind the SUV. The Honda Accord’s driver left the crash scene, but turned himself in to po- lice on Sunday. The woman driving the Honda Inspire was hospi- talized with what were de- scribed as non-life-threat- ening injuries. Drunk driving Police were investi- gating two other crashes Sat- urday in which alcohol may have played a role. At 4 p.m. a Honda Civic ran into the trees along Boat- swains Bay Road in West Bay. Both passengers in the Honda suffered minor cuts and bruises, and the driver, a 23 year old man, was ar- rested on suspicion of DUI. Another crash, around 10:20 p.m. Saturday involved a Suzuki Swift veering off South Sound Road into a tree. The driver, a 31-year-old woman, suffered head inju- ries and was still in hospital as of Monday. Police said she refused to comply with a DUI test and was warned for prosecution. A 25-year-old Bodden Town man was arrested after a Sunday night crash on Shamrock Road. According to police, both the driver and his fe- male passenger were hurt when the BMW the man was driving crashed into a wall near the Watlers Es- tates subdivision. The woman was hospital- ized in serious condition; the driver suffered minor injuries. “[T]he fact remains that most of the serious crashes appear to be alcohol-related.” IAN YEARWOOD, RCIPS inspector UN says recovery of eastern Caribbean could cost $1 billion (AP) – The recovery of eastern Caribbean islands hardest hit by recent hurri- canes, including Dominica, Barbuda, Turks and Caicos, the British Virgin Islands and Anguilla, could cost up to $1 billion, a senior U.N. official said Tuesday. “It’s going to be a large- scale rebuilding effort that will take time,” said Ste- phen O’Malley, the U.N. res- ident coordinator for Bar- bados and the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States, “and it will be important to do that right.” He told U.N. correspon- dents in a phone briefing from Dominica that “we don’t have exact figures yet,” but for the worst-affected islands the recovery bill will be “half a billion to a billion dollars.” O’Malley said the United Nations, World Bank and Antigua government have conducted a post-disaster needs assessment for Bar- buda, whose 1,800 residents were evacuated to Antigua before Hurricane Irma dam- aged 95 percent of its struc- tures on Sept. 14. And he said a similar assessment will be done in Dominca, which was ravaged on Sept. 18 by Hurricane Maria, a Cate- gory 5 storm, probably in about three weeks. “They want to build back better and they take that very, very seriously – to make sure that that can be done,” O’Malley said. Dominica’s Prime Min- ister Roosevelt Skerrit said he wants to have the world’s first “climate-resilient nation.” He made an impassioned case for the world to do more to help vulnerable coun- tries cope with the effects of global warming and urged the U.N. General Assembly 10 days ago to “let these ex- traordinary events elicit ex- traordinary efforts to rebuild nations sustainably.” O’Malley said the effects of climate change are evident in the Caribbean, where the sea is heating up. “The fact that the Ca- ribbean Sea heats up, it in- tensifies the strengths of hurricanes; it doesn’t neces- sarily make them more fre- quent but it intensifies” the storm, he said. O’Malley said the chal- lenge for the islands in re- building is: “How do you pro- tect yourself against that? How do you ensure that you have a resilient state and a resilient economy if you know that the risk factors are going to be elevating in this next period of time?” As for immediate disaster relief following Hurricanes Irma and Maria, he said, re- gional efforts and military assistance from outside the region have been critical. He singled out the Ca- ribbean Disaster and Emer- gency Management Agency which sent a ship from Bar- bados to Dominica with ini- tial aid workers the day after Hurricane Maria devas- tated the island. When he landed at the air- port in Dominica on Tuesday, he said there were policemen from St. Kitts, soldiers from Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago securing the airport and other sites. “That has helped the gov- ernment set itself back up – that regional solidarity,” O’Malley said.The islands’ most-trusted news source 4 – EDITORIAL – Opinion&Letters The Cayman Compass welcomes comments, opinions and viewpoints from readers. Letters to the editor can be emailed to editor@pinnaclemedialtd.com, submitted via www.caymancompass.com, sent by post or hand-delivered to the Compass office. Two immigration stories on the front page of Monday’s Compass are a reminder that sometimes the end is an opportunity for a new beginning. First, the number of people who are appealing denials of their permanent residence applications has reached at least five and is climbing. Second, after being on paid leave for nearly three years, former Chief Immigration Officer Linda Evans has reached an early retirement agreement with the Cayman Islands government, freeing up the top spot in the Department of Immigration. Both of these developments offer opportunities to forestall yet another cycle of immigration dysfunction. Since Aug. 1, when immigration officials began hearing PR applications in earnest, they have issued 277 decisions, including 95 denials. In line with most administrative law matters in gov- ernment, denied applicants can bring challenges to the Immigration Appeals Tribunal, and then if they are denied again, to the Cayman Islands Grand Court in the form of a judicial review. As the immigration department continues to chip away at the PR backlog (which over a period of more than three years was allowed to grow to more than 1,000 applica- tions), officials should plan now for the corresponding future increase in the number of appeals. Allocating resources in advance may help to meet increased demand in a timely and efficient manner and avoid yet another immigration bottleneck at the appeals level. As a further step, Cayman’s court system should be prepared to hear the inevitable challenges to appeals tribunal decisions. Typically, when seeking to assign accountability for a bureaucratic morass that has gradually accumulated over a period of years, we first look to the top of the adminis- trative ladder. During the time the PR logjam developed, since the former Progressives government passed a new Immigration Law in fall 2013, the titular head of the immi- gration department was Ms. Evans. However, it is not clear how much of the blame should be allocated to Ms. Evans, who has been on paid adminis- trative leave since December 2014. Ms. Evans’s absence was only one of many leader- ship vacancies in the immigration department, which at one point this year had eight staffers on required leave at full pay. Additionally, though not on leave, Deputy Chief Immigration Officer Garfield “Gary” Wong continues to battle charges of careless driving, leaving the scene of an accident and driving under the influence of alcohol, stemming from an incident along Shamrock Road on Dec. 28, 2013. Now that Ms. Evans has officially retired from her position, the search must begin immediately for the best possible Chief Executive for this critically important, and critically beleaguered, governmental entity. The lack of leadership has likely contributed to the immigration department’s well-documented difficul- ties, dysfunction and paralysis. In recent years, there has simply been no one with the clear authority to bring about systemic change and issue long-term strategic directives. As we see with other key government vacancies (and particularly leadership posts in “100 percent Caymanian” departments such as immigration and the fire service), there will no doubt be intense political and populist pressure to appoint “the best Caymanian for the job.” Government officials should resist that influence and instead search for “the best person for the job,” period. The role of immigration in Cayman’s government and Cayman as a country is far too vital to dismiss sum- marily any candidate based solely on nationality or immi- gration status. If the best candidate for the job happens to be Caymanian, great. If the best candidate happens not to be Caymanian, also great. The new immigration chief must have the expertise, talent and drive to drag the immigration department out of its current difficulties and shape it into the efficient and effective government service that Cayman expects and deserves. A fresh start possible for Immigration WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 4, 2017 • CAYMAN COMPASS LETTERS TO THE EDITOR The necessity of true values-based decisions It has been wisely ob- served that when public poli- cies are crafted and decisions made with financial gain as the “bottom line,” the end re- sults are never in the inter- ests of the public at large. In a free-market system, it is natural to expect that a major value steering the decisions of merchants is financial gain; money is the bottom line. However, governments exist to ensure that capital- ism’s greed does not go un- checked or unregulated. Reflecting on the ongoing drama of “Peanuts” and the Liquor Licensing Board, and the growing list of cast mem- bers, it is clear to me that the values driving public policy and merchants’ aspirations are too similar to provide any protection of public interests. Clearly it does not matter that the results of mixing gaso- line and alcohol, so to speak, create a deadly cocktail, as our road-death records re- mind us. Nor does it seem to matter that there is no dearth of retail outlets for the sale of liquor in our little island, nor, sadly, that the one day that Caymanians tradition- ally held some level of respect for, and therefore exercised some restraint in the matter of dispensing liquor to the public, is now being treated like any other day. I suppose that policies and decisions are made by those in authority on the basis of what is fair. But fair to whom? Is it just the merchants that must be considered, so that if “Coconuts” has a license to sell liquor, then to be fair, one cannot deny “Peanuts.” What about the rest of us? The gen- eral public? Does it not matter that it is an established fact (not personal opinion) that al- cohol as a drug has caused more deaths in multiple ways than any other drug – legal or prohibited? I applaud the notion of “value-based decision- making” as a sane and con- scientious approach to policy formation and actions. Thus I would plead for our legis- lators to revisit, review and reappraise the values that underlie the laws, and there- fore shape the decisions that bodies like the Liquor Licensing Board are con- strained to make. There are values far greater than financial gain that must inform the de- cisions of public-serving bodies, from the Legislature down to statutory boards, if the true interests of all per- sons are to be served. M. Alson Ebanks Senior Pastor, Church of God Chapel Why focus on Sunday liquor sales? Referring to the Ministers Association’s representations to the Governor concerning the sale of alcohol on Sun- days (“Sunday alcohol sales: Church ministers’ letter to governor revealed,” Sept. 12), I would ask if the Governor was elected by the ministers to represent them. What au- thority does the church have over the Governor to involve her in their foolishness? With all the other things happening on this island, why do they want to focus on the matter of what people do on Sundays? Surely their energies would be better ex- pended on what some people are doing the rest of the week. It makes me wonder which God they are serving. If they had a relationship with Jesus Christ, then they would know God the Father. To my knowl- edge, Grand Cayman has al- ways been a religiously tra- ditional island and all we got was additional religious traditions from the outside world. Look at what has be- come of the gospel of Jesus Christ. I have sat in many congregations and I have yet to hear or see the gospel of Jesus Christ manifested among participants. Everyone has their idea of serving God. The first thing the High Priest said is that you must be born again and then seek the kingdom of heaven, but what I see is people joining church, what I call “day clubs,” when the Bible says we have to join Christ. There is no way that we can take the word of God, ignore what Jesus said, and make it work. It is said in the scrip- tures that if anyone comes preaching another gospel, even an angel, let him be ac- cursed. Let me refer you to some forgotten scrip- tures: John 3:16, Book of Jude, Galatians 3, Romans 1 and Ephesians 5. Will the true born-again believers please stand up? Velma Herod PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY: Caymanian Compass Limited (a subsidiary of Pinnacle Media Ltd) Compass Centre Shedden Road, George Town SEND US YOUR VIEWS OR NEWS: P.O. Box 1365 Grand Cayman KY1-1108, Cayman Islands Telephone: (345) 815-0095 Email: newsdesk@pinnaclemedialtd.com ADVERTISE WITH US: Telephone: (345) 949-5111 Email: sales@pinnaclemedialtd.com Website: www.caymancompass.com PUBLISHERS DAVID R. LEGGE AND VICKI L. LEGGE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF DAVID R. LEGGE EXECUTIVE EDITOR PATRICK BRENDEL A MEMBER OF THE INTER-AMERICAN PRESS ASSOCIATION “Give light and the people will find their own way”5 LOCAL NEWS CAYMAN COMPASS • WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 4, 2017 Cayman boxers hone their skills at training camp in London SPENCER FORDIN sfordin@pinnaclemedialtd.com Some of Cayman’s best boxers are using an overseas training camp to sharpen their skills. The Cayman Islands Boxing Asso- ciation sent four fighters to London on Monday for a two-month camp that will prime them for the Ca- ribbean Championships in St. Lucia in December. The fighters – Dariel Ebanks, Hopkin Ebanks, Alexander Smith and Brandy Barnes – will train with coach Ryan Barrett in London in an effort to improve their skills and to broaden their horizons. The training camp is sponsored by Elite Marble and Granite, and the fighters say they can’t wait to get in the ring. Dariel Ebanks, a 28-year-old mid- dleweight, said he went to London once before for a training camp, but this time, he’ll be setting the example for his younger peers while rounding out his own game. “You’re in a big place. You’ve got a lot of things to do,” he said. “But you’ve got to keep focus. You’ve got to keep your mind in the game. Ba- sically, what we do is just take one rest day on Sundays. We go out, we do sightseeing and stuff like that just to take our minds off it. But besides that we’re training 24/7.” Dariel Ebanks, who usually fights at light heavyweight, is trying to cut weight and establish himself in a lighter class. He said that being in London can be an isolating experi- ence and that he will think about his family while he’s away. But when he’s in the ring, he’s really only thinking about taking care of business. “We train the right way,” he said of moving down to middleweight. “There’s nothing really wrong with it. I’ll just be stronger, but they’ll be pretty fast. I’ve got a little bit of speed myself, so I’ll be all right.” Alexander Smith, the youngest fighter in the group, is an 18-year- old junior lightweight who has been boxing for about four years. Smith loves the hard work and dedication required to compete at the higher levels, and he said this trip will be the longest he’s ever been away from his family. “I hope to gain more experience, get tougher and get more fights down there so I can go to St. Lucia and get a gold medal,” he said. Hopkin Ebanks, a 19-year-old welterweight, went to London once before for a training camp. He has been fighting for six years, and his favorite boxers are Floyd May- weather and Guillermo Rigondeaux, but he doesn’t necessarily want to train to fight like them. “I look at how they’ve been achieving and how they’ve done it,” Ebanks said of the inspira- tion he takes from his boxing role models. “Hopefully, one day I can be as big as them or even bigger.” He said that while there are lim- itless distractions in London, he al- most feels like crossing the Atlantic Ocean gives him a better opportu- nity to concentrate than he would have at home. “To be honest, when I’m in Cayman, my hometown, I almost feel like there’s more distractions than when I’m out of town,” he said. “When I’m out of town, I’m so fo- cused. But everybody at home sup- ports me so much. It just makes me focus more on what I’m doing.” Brandy Barnes, the lone woman in the group, has been boxing for about a year. She thinks the two- month training camp will give her a chance to immerse herself in the sport she loves. The 21-year-old light flyweight, like Hopkin Ebanks, said she will have a better chance at con- centrating far away from home. “It will keep me focused. It will help me tune in,” she said. “I won’t have anything to worry about except boxing. I won’t be distracted by my friends or regular stuff at home.” Barnes said she looks up to boxing champion Katie Taylor, in ad- dition to Mayweather and Ukranian up-and-coming champion Vasyl Lo- machenko. Barnes said it can be a tougher road to be a woman in boxing, but she said she loves the game for the same reason as her male counterparts. “It depends on the girl,” she said of boxing appealing to women. “Ag- gression is natural for girls too. What’s tough about it is that there’s a limited amount of females boxing. It’s harder to find fighters within your weight division to fight against, so most of the time you’re sparring against guys instead.” Coach Barrett has organized in- ternational sparring and competition for the young boxers while they are in London. They also will undertake medicals, physiotherapy and a “mil- itary fitness” training program, ac- cording to the boxing association’s president Leyla Jackson. They are scheduled to return to Cayman on Nov. 28 “to re-group with the rest of the team to train together and swap knowledge before leaving for the Caribbean Championships the following week,” Ms. Jackson said in a press release. Other boxers on the Cayman team who were unable to travel to London will continue to participate in training on island. Coach Barrett will return to Cayman for two weeks to coincide with a visit from interna- tional boxing expert James Beckles, from mid-October to early November, Ms. Jackson said. “Mr. Beckles will work with our coaches Nayon Anglin, Ryan Barrett, Rogerio Pitta and Tristan Wesen- hagan, as well as with association members, sponsors and key stake- holders, to structure both our na- tional team training and our after- school and community outreach to help us modernize and upgrade the programs. “It is also our intention to bring in international coaching and spar- ring for national team athletes who are remaining on island, during No- vember, and this is in the process of being finalized,” she said. Man who behaved indecently was upset, attorney says Defendant’s right to be Caymanian had been challenged CAROL WINKER cwinker@pinnaclemedialtd.com A man who pleaded guilty to indecent assault and weapons charges was upset at the time of his offenses because his right to be Caymanian had been challenged, defense attorney Dennis Brady said in court last week. This week, Mr. Brady con- firmed that the status of the de- fendant, Alex Kessell Johnson Moore, still was not sorted out. When his offenses occurred in April, Moore was upset and con- cerned not only for himself, but also for other family members, the attorney explained. Cayman Compass archives for April 2015 contain a story about Moore and his brothers pleading not guilty to charges of making a false statement in their “right to be Caymanian” applica- tions on the grounds of descent. Mr. Brady said the matter had not yet proceeded to trial. The charges to which Moore pleaded guilty arose from a series of inci- dents at the Meringue Town Bar in the early hours of April 22, 2017, Crown counsel Darlene Oko told the court. Several women were dancing together and Moore asked for a dance but they refused. He then approached one of them and slapped her bottom. This upset her, but she was encouraged to let the matter go. About a half-hour later Moore returned and slapped an- other woman on her bottom. This time the group remonstrated him and he walked away. Later, one of the women was dancing with her husband and she felt someone rubbing her bottom. She turned around and saw Moore, who then firmly grabbed her. The woman complained to her hus- band, who followed Moore out into the parking lot. He asked why Moore had touched his wife and Moore responded by hitting him in the face with his fist. The men began fighting and Moore pulled out a knife, which he flicked open. The husband went back into the bar and Moore followed but could not find him. He then went to his car and got a machete, returning to the bar with it and still looking for the husband. When police arrived, offi- cers told Moore to drop the ma- chete. He refused and walked to- ward the officers with it. One of the officers deployed his Taser and Moore fell to the ground, dropping both the knife and the machete. Later he said he had drunk six or seven beers, but he de- nied being drunk. Mr. Brady said Moore apologized to everyone for his behavior. Magistrate Grace Donalds im- posed concurrent sentences of four months for each of the indecent as- saults; four months concurrent for the flick knife, which is a prohib- ited weapon; three months concur- rent for the machete, which is a re- stricted weapon, meaning it is legal to have it but not carry it in public places at night. The magistrate noted that these offenses were committed while Moore was on a suspended sentence for theft. It had been imposed in August 2016 for two years. She therefore activated two months of that sentence and gave Moore a total of six months’ imprisonment. EMPLOYER ADMITS HOLIDAY PAY OFFENSES CAROL WINKER cwinker@pinnaclemedialtd.com An employer pleaded guilty on Tuesday to six charges of failure to pay public holiday remuneration. Stephen McDermott, trading as Beauty Edge Salon and Spa, ad- mitted failing to pay a total of ap- proximately $2,448 in holiday pay to employees between March and December 2016. He also faces seven charges of failing to pay the national min- imum basic wage. Defense attorney Dennis Brady explained that before the minimum wage law came into effect, Mr. McDermott had an ar- rangement with employees that was based on percentage. Magistrate Valdis Foldats sug- gested that the situation be dis- cussed further with officials from the Labour Department. The matter was set for mention again on Oct. 30. From left, Alexander Smith, Hopkin Ebanks, Brandy Barnes, Dariel Ebanks and CIBA president Leyla Jackson pose before their flight to London. The fighters – Dariel Ebanks, Hopkin Ebanks, Alexander Smith and Brandy Barnes – will train with coach Ryan Barrett in London in an effort to improve their skills and to broaden their horizons.The islands’ most-trusted news source 6 WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 4, 2017 • CAYMAN COMPASS Inflation matches economic growth Meanwhile, inflation matched economic growth rates, as consumer prices increased by 2.2 percent in the second quarter of this year compared to one year ago. The Consumer Price Index showed a 7.9 per- cent rise in the price of restaurants and hotels. Clothing and footwear (5.9 percent) and housing and utilities (4 percent) showed above average price growth. Average food bills were 2.2 percent more ex- pensive compared to the same period in 2016. Es- pecially milk, cheese, eggs and fruit pushed prices up by 6.8 percent. Imports decline Despite an increase in petroleum imports, the total value of all merchandise goods imported into the Cayman Islands continued to decline in the second quarter. Non-petroleum product imports fell by $4.3 million, or 2.4 percent, to reach $176.86 million. Among the merchan- dise goods that declined, gold imports registered the largest reduction. In con- trast, transport and equip- ment parts and accessories grew by 24.7 percent, con- sisting mainly of passenger vehicles and vehicles for in- dustrial purposes. The importation of petro- leum and petroleum-related products grew in the second quarter by 6.1 percent to reach $26.84 million. of ever-increasing licensing demands. The company has involved lawyers in an ef- fort to get the impasse re- solved and raised concerns that it is being treated dif- ferently to other food pro- cessing businesses, including the Cayman Turtle Farm. “All I’m asking for is for them to deal with it and have a procedure that is fair. Give us the rules of the game and apply them to every- body,” he said. The application for a Trade and Business License was filed in July 2016. The business, initially established to cull and sell lionfish lo- cally with the goal of ex- panding to export to the U.S., was seeking permission to also process iguana for local sales and export. Mr. Foreman said the long-term plan is to export the prime cuts for sale in the U.S., where he believes there is a growing customer base for the meat. The rest of the iguana would be processed for animal feed. The com- pany, which already sells li- onfish locally, also wants to export lionfish fillets for the U.S. market, processed at the same George Town plant. “We want to be in the local market to raise aware- ness and to allow us to em- ploy Caymanian cullers and processors while we ramp up the operation in the U.S., but our primary business will be export,” he said. “There is a much higher price point for both species in the U.S. and that is what will ultimately make the business viable.” It took six months, he said, to get a response from the Department of Environ- mental Health on the July 2016 application. In January 2017, after multiple inquiries, the de- partment wrote to his wife and business representative Maria Yapelli to say it did not recommend the applica- tion for approval because the same equipment could not be used for processing food for animal and human consump- tion and because the pro- posal lacked sufficient detail on food safety controls. The rejection letter did not cite any law or regulation or say what detail was required, according to Mr. Foreman. He said the company pro- vided details of the require- ments it had met to comply with U.S. federal law and after a meeting in April it received partial approval to process iguana meat for human consumption. How- ever, the approval carried the restriction that lionfish or food for animals could not be processed at the plant. The company wrote through its lawyers to the De- partment of Environmental Health in June, suggesting it could seek a judicial review of the decision. “Your decision to restrict our client solely to the pro- cessing of green iguana meat and solely for human and not animal consumption … ren- ders our client’s facility prac- tically useless since it is not viable to operate on such a limited basis. Of equal con- cern is the fact that you have not provided any basis in law or practice for your deci- sion,” attorney Sharon Roul- stone wrote in a letter re- questing reconsideration of the application. The letter notes that the business has met all existing local requirements as well as the U.S. Food and Drug Ad- ministration’s standards for handling, processing, pack- aging, labeling and importing of meat products in the U.S., which it says are the same for both human and an- imal consumption. Roydell Carter, the di- rector of the Department of Environmental Health, declined to comment for this article. A response to Ms. Roul- stone’s letter from the At- torney General’s Chambers indicates that the Department of Environmental Health is concerned about the risk of cross contamination between lionfish and iguana meat and is seeking further infor- mation about cleaning and scheduling practices. It also highlights concerns about how the iguana will be processed for animal feed, which involves the whole carcass rather than just the legs and tail. “The DEH wishes to work through its concerns with your client with the aim that the restrictions currently in place can be lifted,” the letter states. It indicates that the De- partment of Environmental Health still requires more details on the process, in- cluding test results of sample batches, as well as details of the company’s cleaning and sanitation practices, storage practices, record keeping and recall procedures. Mr. Foreman says he is re- luctant to supply any more information that is not set down in a law or guidance document that will be ap- plied equally to all other food production companies. “Where does it stop? That is the issue,” he said. “I want them to write down what a food manufacturing business is required to provide, be- cause if someone else shows up, they need to be held to the same standard. All we want is for clear requirements to be drafted and for everyone else to have to meet them.” Given the length of time the application process has taken, he said he does not want to provide informa- tion that is not currently le- gally required. “We consider some of what they are asking for to be our intellectual prop- erty,” he added. required to obtain a license. The rules also seek to implement licenses for “video on demand” ser- vices – streaming video material in the Cayman Islands to someone who has subscribed to that service. The licensing require- ment for video on de- mand is exempted if the video stream is delivered over the “public internet” or the video material in- volved is television pro- gramming, according to the draft regulations. The former Informa- tion and Communication Technology Authority, now operating under the OfReg banner, most re- cently issued an enforce- ment notice under the former ICTA Law in 2011 regulating the use of in- formation and communi- cations services. It states: “The au- thority has … determined that all ICT services that use an ICT network to provide services to the public, whether or not for a fee or for commercial profit, are required to be licensed …. ” The topic of licensing for WiFi services was raised earlier this year following a notice from OfReg indicating that a number of businesses charging customers to use their wireless internet service should be licensed by government. “There are currently no WiFi hot spot providers licensed by the office to offer such service within the Cayman Islands,” an OfReg notice issued in February stated. Govern- ment ICT officials told the Cayman Compass in May that at least nine com- panies were “illegally” charging customers for wireless internet access. However, OfReg has not taken any enforce- ment action since then and has acknowledged that current rules set out under Cayman’s Informa- tion and Communications Technology Law may not reflect “reality and the rapidly changing land- scape of technology.” Premier Alden McLaughlin said in August that his coalition govern- ment would not support any new licensing fees for businesses that provide wireless access as a free service to their customers. “We campaigned on re- ducing bureaucracy and to reduce the cost of doing business in this country,” Mr. McLaughlin said. “The imposition of fees and taxes are a matter for the Cabinet of these islands, regardless of whether it is Cayman Airways or OfReg or the Water Authority. CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 Economy shows signs of growth in first quarter Internet cafes and hotels would be exempt from WiFi licensing requirements under the draft rules, which were released on Sept. 19 for public comment. OfReg rules for video broadcast, WiFi licensing proposed CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 Plans to export invasive species face stumbling block CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 Queen’s essay winners named MARK MUCKENFUSS mmuckenfuss@pinnaclemedialtd.com It’s been several months since Megha Cherayath, 10, wrote her piece for the Queen’s Commonwealth Essay Competition, long enough that when she was announced as a gold certifi- cate winner on Tuesday, she had a hard time recalling what she’d written. “It was about a boy called Jack,” she said of the essay that addressed the theme, “My Peaceful Place.” Beyond that detail, the story has faded from memory. There was nothing faint about her excite- ment at winning. Her broad grin said it all. “I didn’t think I would get anything, really,” she said. Cherayath was one of eight students recognized with winning certificates at a morning awards assembly for primary students at St. Ignatius Catholic School on Tuesday. They were among 33 primary and secondary Cayman Islands students who won bronze, silver or gold certificates in the world- wide competition that drew 12,300 entries. This was the first year the younger students at St. Ignatius participated in the 134-year-old contest. The world’s top four win- ners in the contest, which is run by the Royal Com- monwealth Society, travel to Buckingham Palace to receive their prizes. In 2015, St. Igna- tius student Martina Watler was named a runner-up and made the trip. Lemuel Hurlston is the Cayman organizer of the essay contest. He said he’s not sure why fewer schools participated in this year’s contest, but he hopes to gen- erate more interest next year. “I think we’ll simply be appealing to school princi- pals to remind them of this opportunity,” Mr. Hurlston said. “The rewards are there as well. A trip to Buck- ingham Palace is not to be sneezed at.” Senior division Gold certificate winners in the senior division of the essay competition were Joc- elyn Cahill of St. Ignatius and Lucy Parchman of Layman E. Scott Sr. High School. Yesenia Ebanks of Layman E. Scott Sr. and Asya Ebanks of St. Ignatius re- ceived silver certificates, and Pierce Morgan, Erika Sobers, Makeda Harris, Kelsi Persad, Alison Jackson and Nilakni Jayasekera, all of St. Ignatius, received bronze certificates. Junior division Olivia Weaver, Linda Mu- karakate, Megha Cherayath and Ava Hickey, all from St. Ignatius, received gold certifi- cates in the junior division of the competition. There were 14 winners of silver certificates in this cate- gory: St. Ignatius students Za- yden Clarke, Louise De Jesus, Greta Ecke, Zara Garofalo, Jonathan Grandage, Diandra Whittaker, Kendra Harrison, Farrah Hydes, Leila Sulliman- Maw, Shayana Windsor, Sofia Venuto and Matthew Fisch- etti. Cayman Prep Primary student Clementine Lumsden and Eliana Nickason, who attends Cayman Interna- tional School, were also silver winners. The bronze certificate winners in this category were Keira Bodden from Layman E. Scott Sr., and St. Igna- tius students Jhevere Harris, Sahil Jyoti, Doireann Lynch and Valeria Granados. Megha Cherayath, 10, of St. Ignatius School, receives her gold certificate for the Queen’s Commonwealth Essay Competition from teacher Katherine Johnson.7 LOCAL NEWS CAYMAN COMPASS • WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 4, 2017 YELLO DIGITAL DIRECTORIES BUDGET FRIENDLY with a local partner that has 35 years of media expertise 3X Google Display and Mobile CHAMPION Generate Leads We know digital “How do I get more customers to my business?” CALL NOW for a FREE CONSULTATION of your business 345-949-7027 www.yellomg.com SEM AND DISPLAY ADVERTISING GOOGLE PREMIER PARTNER YOYOY UTUBE ADS WEBSITE DEVELOPMENT and built over 4,000 websites. Woman carried rum to prison inmate Responsible woman made ‘ridiculous decision,’ attorney says CAROL WINKER cwinker@pinnaclemedialtd.com A woman who smuggled two small bottles of rum and a phone charger into North- ward Prison was sentenced on Monday after Magistrate Valdis Foldats questioned “why on Earth” she would become involved with a man serving a lengthy sentence and then be willing to carry contraband to him in her bra. Defense attorney John Furniss replied by saying that defendant Gabrielle Myles was a very responsible woman who made “this ridic- ulous decision.” That decision was dis- covered on Sunday, Oct. 9 last year when Myles went to visit her boyfriend, Crown counsel Aaliyah McCarthy said. The prison officer who was observing the scene via CCTV saw Myles hand some- thing to the prisoner, who then placed it inside his trousers. The prisoner was checked and two 50-milli- liter bottles of Appleton rum and the phone charger were found. Myles, who was later arrested at her home, denied the allegation, pointing out that other people were in the visiting room and someone else could have given the items to the inmate. The inmate admitted re- ceiving the items from Myles. Ms. McCarthy noted that although alcohol is not an il- legal drug, the offense was serious and could not be taken lightly. The magistrate agreed that alcohol is legal elsewhere in the community, but it is an intoxicant and as such becomes a form of cur- rency in prison. He said car- rying such contraband to prison was not an impulsive act, not a “spur of the mo- ment” decision. It involved receiving instructions, ob- taining the items, deciding how to smuggle them and then carrying them into the prison compound. Mr. Furniss pointed out that Myles, 33, had no pre- vious convictions, had pleaded guilty, had held a re- sponsible job overseas and had four children to care for. “I just can’t get over why you would do this,” the mag- istrate told Myles. He re- ferred to a pre-sentence re- port and noted that there was no previous relation- ship between Myles and the inmate; it had started when he was already in prison. He said it “boggled the mind” that she had risked losing her family. With 12 months as his starting point, he said the mitigating factors brought that down to six months. With one-third credit for her guilty plea, the final sen- tence was four months. The magistrate then suspended this term for two years and placed Myles on proba- tion for one year because he wanted her to attend a re- habilitation program in re- lationships. He also ordered her to perform 80 hours of community service. The magistrate agreed that alcohol is legal elsewhere in the community, but it is an intoxicant and as such becomes a form of currency in prison. The defendant passed two small bottles of Appleton rum and a phone charger to the prisoner she was visiting at Northward Prison. - PHOTO: TANEOS RAMSAY 2018 PUBLIC HOLIDAYS CONFIRMED The Deputy Governor’s Office released on Monday the list of Cayman Islands public holidays for 2018. Next year, there will be 11 public holidays. The con- firmed dates are as follows: ■■ New Year’s Day: Monday, Jan. 1 ■■ National Heroes Day: Monday, Jan. 22 ■■ Ash Wednesday: Feb. 14 ■■ Good Friday: March 30 ■■ Easter Monday: April 2 ■■ Discovery Day: Monday, May 21 ■■ Queen’s Birthday: Monday, June 11 ■■ Constitution Day: Monday, July 2 ■■ Remembrance Day: Monday, Nov. 12 ■■ Christmas: Tuesday, Dec. 25 ■■ Boxing Day: Wednesday, Dec. 26 TWO MEN APPEAR IN COURT ON ANIMAL CRUELTY CHARGE SPENCER FORDIN sfordin@pinnaclemedialtd.com Two men, Andrei James Challenger and James Rolin Challenger, charged with causing unnecessary suf- fering and failing to exer- cise proper care and super- vision, appeared in Summary Court Tuesday. The two men were charged under the Animals Law in relation to Dora, a dog that suffered severe burns on May 13. The dog was preg- nant at the time and was treated via emergency sur- gery by Dr. Brenda Bush at Island Veterinary Services. Andrei Challenger, 18, who was also charged with cru- elty to animals, was arrested in May. James Challenger, 63, was arrested in September. Both men were charged in late September and ordered to appear in court Tuesday. The two men are being represented by attorney Kathleen Ryan. Ms. Ryan re- quested more time to re- view the case, and Mag- istrate Valdis Foldats ordered the men to return to court on Oct. 17.The islands’ most-trusted news source 8 Vegas shooter had interest in guns, video poker, real estate MESQUITE, Nev. (AP) – Stephen Paddock had a penchant for guns, high-limit video poker and real estate deals. His fa- ther was a notorious fugitive bank robber. He had a recent live-in girlfriend and two ex- wives and seemed to live a comfortable life in a Nevada retirement community. His life is the subject of a sprawling investigation into what drove him to show up at the Mandalay Bay Hotel and Casino with at least 10 suitcases filled with guns and open fire from his 32nd floor suite on a country music fes- tival, killing 59 people and injuring nearly 530. Law en- forcement and family mem- bers could not explain what would motivate a one-time accountant with no known criminal record to inflict so much carnage. Las Vegas po- lice said he had 23 guns at the hotel, including semiau- tomatic rifles, and 19 at his home along with thousands of rounds of ammunition. The 64-year-old gunman killed himself in the hotel room before author- ities arrived. On the surface, Paddock did not seem like a typical mass murderer, said Clint Van Zandt, a former FBI hos- tage negotiator and super- visor in the bureau’s behav- ioral science unit. Paddock is much older than the typ- ical shooter and was not known to be suffering from mental illness. “My challenge is, I don’t see any of the classic indica- tors, so far, that would sug- gest, ‘OK, he’s on the road ei- ther to suicide or homicide or both,” Van Zandt said. Nevertheless, his actions suggest that he had planned the attacks for at least a period of days. Some of the rifles had scopes, the sheriff said. And authorities found two gun stocks that could have let him modify weapons to make them fully automatic, ac- cording to two U.S. officials briefed by law enforcement who spoke on condition of anonymity because the inves- tigation is still unfolding. “He knew what he wanted to do. He knew how he was going to do it, and it doesn’t seem like he had any kind of escape plan at all,” Van Zandt said. Asked about a potential motive, Sheriff Joseph Lom- bardo said he could not “get into the mind of a psycho- path at this point.” “I can’t even make some- thing up,” his bewildered brother, Eric Paddock, told reporters Monday. “There’s just nothing.” Public records offered no hint of financial distress or criminal history, though mul- tiple people who knew him said he was a big gambler. “No affiliation, no religion, no politics. He never cared about any of that stuff,” Eric Paddock said as he alter- nately wept and shouted. “He was a guy who had money. He went on cruises and gambled.” Eric Paddock also told The Associated Press that he had not talked to his brother in six months and last heard from him when Stephen checked in briefly by text message after Hurricane Irma. Their mother spoke with him about two weeks ago, and when he found out recently that she needed a walker, he sent her one, Eric Paddock said. Eric Paddock recalled re- ceiving a recent text from his brother showing “a pic- ture that he won $40,000 on a slot machine. But that’s the way he played.” He described his brother as a multimillionaire and said they had business deal- ings and owned property to- gether. He said he was not aware that his brother had gambling debts. “He had substantial wealth. He’d tell me when he’d win. He’d grouse when he’d lost. He never said he’d lost $4 million or something. I think he would have told me.” Heavily armed police searched Paddock’s home Monday in Mesquite, about 80 miles northeast of Las Vegas near the Arizona border, looking for clues. Paddock lived there with his 62-year-old girlfriend, who authorities said was out of the country when the shooting happened. Eric Pad- dock described her as kindly and said she sometimes sent cookies to his mother. Police also searched a two-bedroom home Paddock owned in a re- tirement community in Reno, 500 miles from Mesquite. While Stephen Paddock appeared to have no crim- inal history, his father was a notorious bank robber, Eric Paddock said. Benjamin Hoskins Paddock tried to run down an FBI agent with his car in Las Vegas in 1960 and wound up on the agency’s most wanted list after es- caping from a federal prison in Texas in 1968, when Ste- phen Paddock was a teen. The oldest of four chil- dren, Paddock was 7 when his father was arrested for the robberies. A neighbor, Eva Price, took him swimming while FBI agents searched the family home. She told the Tucson Cit- izen at the time: “We’re trying to keep Steve from knowing his father is held as a bank robber. I hardly know the family, but Steve is a nice boy. It’s a terrible thing.” An FBI poster issued after the escape said Benjamin Hoskins Paddock had been “diagnosed as psychopathic” and should be considered “armed and very dangerous.” He’d been serving a 20-year sentence for a string of bank robberies in Phoenix. The elder Paddock re- mained on the lam for nearly a decade, living under an as- sumed name in Oregon. In- vestigators found him in 1978 after he attracted pub- licity for opening the state’s first licensed bingo parlor. He died in 1998. Stephen Paddock bought his one-story, three-bed- room home in a newly built Mesquite subdivision for $369,000, in 2015, property records show. Past court fil- ings and recorded deeds in California and Texas suggest he co-owned rental property. He previously lived in an- other Mesquite – the Dallas suburb of Mesquite, Texas – from 2004 to 2012, according to Mesquite, Texas, police Lt. Brian Parrish. Paddock owned at least three sepa- rate rental properties, Parrish said, and there was no indi- cation the police department had any contact with him over that time. He has been divorced at least twice, including marriages that ended in 1980 and 1990. US orders 15 Cuban diplomats to leave Washington WASHINGTON (AP) – The United States expelled 15 of Cuba’s diplomats Tuesday to protest its failure to pro- tect Americans from unex- plained attacks in Havana, plunging diplomatic ties be- tween the countries to levels unseen in years. Only days ago, the U.S. and Cuba maintained dozens of diplomats in newly re- opened embassies in Ha- vana and Washington, pow- erful symbols of a warming relationship between long- time foes. Now both coun- tries are poised to cut their embassies by more than half, as invisible, unexplained at- tacks threaten delicate ties between the Cold War rivals. The State Department gave Cuba’s ambassador a list Tuesday of 15 names and ordered them out within one week, officials said, in a move that aims to “ensure equity” between each nation’s em- bassy staffing. Last week, the U.S. announced it was with- drawing 60 percent of its own diplomats from Havana be- cause they might be attacked and harmed if they stay. The dual moves marked a sharp escalation in the U.S. response to attacks that began nearly a year ago and yet remain unexplained de- spite harming at least 22 Americans – including a new victim identified this week. Still, U.S. officials em- phasized they were not ac- cusing Cuba of either culpa- bility or complicity, merely a failure to stop whatever is happening to Americans working out of the U.S. Em- bassy in Havana. Investigators continue ex- ploring the possibility of a “sonic attack” harming dip- lomats through sound waves, but have discovered no de- vice and identified no culprit. “We continue to maintain diplomatic relations with Cuba, and will continue to cooperate with Cuba as we pursue the investigation into these attacks,” said Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. Cuba’s Embassy in Wash- ington did not respond to multiple requests for com- ment. President Raul Castro’s government denies involve- ment in the attacks, and is likely to view the move as un- warranted retaliation. The U.S. also disclosed that the scope of the attacks has continued to grow, with a 22nd victim confirmed on Monday. In recent weeks the State Department had said there were 21 individ- uals “medically confirmed” to be affected by attacks that harmed their hearing, cog- nition, balance and vision, some with diagnoses as se- rious as brain injury. The additional victim was attacked in January but was not confirmed to have been affected until symptoms prompted a new medical re- evaluation, said the State De- partment official, who briefed reporters on a conference call on condition of anonymity. Both the U.S. and Cuba will see their diplomatic staffing in their embassies drop to the lowest levels in years. Before full diplomatic re- lations were restored in 2015, Cuba had about two-dozen ac- credited staffers at what was then the Cuban interests sec- tion, according to a State De- partment list. That number at times climbed as high as more than 50, and the latest edition of the U.S. “Diplomatic List” identifies 26 accredited Cu- bans at the embassy, almost all accompanied by spouses. The removal of 15 will reduce the Cuban staffing to roughly a dozen accred- ited diplomats. In Havana, the U.S. had roughly 54 diplomats in its embassy until deciding Friday to pull more than half of them out and leave behind only “essential personnel.” The departing Americans are expected to have all left Cuba by week’s end, officials said. The Cuban diplomats being expelled will not be deemed “persona non grata,” officials said, a designation that would prevent them from ever returning to U.S. soil. The government often uses that designation to expel suspected foreign spies and ensure they can’t come back. Lawmakers who had called on the Trump admin- istration to expel all of Cu- ba’s diplomats applauded the move Tuesday. Sen. Marco Rubio, a Florida Re- publican and vocal critic of Castro’s government, called it “the right decision” in a Twitter post. Nobel winners find ripples in universe Rainer Weiss of MIT and Barry Barish and Kip Thorne of CalTech have won the Nobel Physics Prize for detecting faint ripples flying through the universe — the gravitational waves predicted a century ago by Albert Einstein that provide a new understanding of the universe. Las Vegas gunman Stephen Paddock, in an undated photo - PHOTO: AP Roberto Lopez, Briana Calderon and Cynthia Olvera of Las Vegas pause Tuesday at a memorial site for the victims of Sunday night’s mass shooting. - PHOTO: AP9 WORLD&REGIONAL CAYMAN COMPASS • WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 4, 2017 Trump arrives in Puerto Rico, lauds administration’s relief effort Tom Petty, down-to-Earth rock superstar, dies at 66 (AP) – Tom Petty, an old- fashioned rock superstar and everyman who drew upon the Byrds, the Beatles and other bands he worshipped as a boy and produced new clas- sics such as “Free Fallin’,” “Refugee” and “American Girl,” has died. He was 66. Petty died Monday night at UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles a day after he suffered cardiac arrest at his home in Malibu, California, spokes- woman Carla Sacks said. Petty and his longtime band the Heartbreakers had recently completed a 40th- anniversary tour, one he hinted would be their last. “I’m thinking it may be the last trip around the country,” Petty told Rolling Stone last year. “We’re all on the back- side of our 60s. I have a granddaughter now I’d like to see as much as I can. I don’t want to spend my life on the road. This tour will take me away for four months. With a little kid, that’s a lot of time.” Usually backed by the Heartbreakers, Petty broke through in the 1970s and went on to sell more than 80 million records. The Gaines- ville, Florida, native with the shaggy blond hair and gaunt features was loved for his melodic hard rock, na- sally vocals and down-to- earth style. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, which in- ducted Petty and the Heart- breakers in 2002, praised them as “durable, resourceful, hard-working, likeable and unpretentious.” He was a beloved member of the rock community and musicians sent their condo- lences. Bob Dylan, a longtime friend, tweeted “I thought the world of Tom. He was great performer, full of the light, a friend, and I’ll never forget him.” Ringo Starr, featured in the video for “I Won’t Back Down,” tweeted “God bless Tom Petty.” Eric Clapton is- sued a statement that Petty was “such a huge part of our musical history, there’ll never be another like him.” Petty’s albums included “Damn the Torpedoes,” “Hard Promises” and “Full Moon Fever,” although his first No. 1 did not come until 2014 and “Hypnotic Eye.” As a songwriter, he focused often on daily struggles and the will to overcome them, most memorably on “Refugee,” “Even the Losers” and “I Won’t Back Down.” “It’s sort of the classic theme of a lot of the work I’ve done,” he told The Asso- ciated Press in 1989. “I think faith is very important just to get through life. I think it’s really important that you be- lieve in yourself, first of all. It’s a very hard to thing to come by. But when you get it, it’s invaluable.” Petty did not just sing about not backing down, he lived it. In 1979, he was en- raged when his record label was sold and his contract transferred. Stating that he would not be “bought and sold like a piece of meat,” he self-financed what became “Damn the Torpedoes” and declared bankruptcy rather than allowing his label, MCA, to release it. He eventually reached a new deal with MCA, for better terms. In the early 1980s, he was again at war with MCA, this time over the label’s plans to charge extra money, a dollar higher than the standard $8.98, for his album “Hard Promises.” He again prevailed. Petty was both a musi- cian and obsessive fan, one who met his childhood he- roes and lived out the fanta- sies of countless young rock lovers. He befriended Byrds leader Roger McGuinn and became close to George Har- rison, who performed on “I Won’t Back Down” and joined Petty, Dylan, Roy Or- bison and Jeff Lynne in the impromptu supergroup the Traveling Wilburys. Petty in- ducted Harrison into the Rock Hall in 2004; two years earlier Dylan’s son Jakob in- ducted Petty. In the 1980s, Petty and the Heartbreakers supported Bob Dylan on a nationwide tour. He would speak of being consumed by rock music since childhood, to the point where his father, whom Petty would later say beat him savagely, thought he was “mental.” Awed by the chiming guitars of the Byrds, the melodic genius of the Bea- tles and the snarling lyrics of Dylan, he was amazed to find that other kids were feeling the same way. “You’d go and see some other kid whose hair was long, this was around ‘65, and go, ‘Wow, there’s one like me,’” he told The Associated Press in 1989. “You’d go over and talk and he’d say, ‘I’ve got a drum set.’ ‘You do? Great!’ That was my whole life.” By his early 20s, Petty had formed the group Mudcrutch with fellow Gainesville na- tives and future Heart- breakers (guitarist) Mike Campbell and (keyboardist) Benmont Tench. They soon broke up, but reunited in Los Angeles as the Heart- breakers, joined by bassist Ron Blair and drummer Stan Lynch. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers’ eponymous debut came out in 1976 and the band’s following steadily grew, fitting in well with the New Wave sounds of the time and appealing to those who loved the rock music of the ‘60s. “Damn the Torpedoes” was Petty’s first top 10 album and included his first top 20 singles, “Refugee” and “Don’t Do Me Like That.” SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) – On the ground in Puerto Rico nearly two weeks after a hur- ricane ravaged the island, President Donald Trump heaped praise Tuesday on his administration’s relief workers and, more selectively, Puerto Rican officials after earlier dismissing critics of the federal response as “polit- ically motivated ingrates.” Trump told officials and relief workers assembled in an airplane hangar that the low death toll from Hurricane Maria – he was told 16 or 17 – was a tribute to the relief efforts. “We’ve saved a lot of lives,” he said, and singled out Gov. Ricardo Rossello for “giving us the highest praise.” The help did not come cheap, he said: “I hate to tell you, Puerto Rico, but you’ve thrown our budget a little out of whack.” “But that’s fine,” he said, “because we’ve saved a lot of lives.” The most prominent critic, San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulin Cruz, attended the first event, in an airport hangar, shaking Trump’s hand as he went around a table greeting officials before sitting in, in the shadow of a hulking, gray military plane. “How are you?” he asked. Her response could not be heard. He thanked her. Days earlier, Cruz said the Trump administration was “killing us with the ineffi- ciency,” pleading for more effective federal leadership in the crisis. Air Force One brought the president, first lady Melania Trump and aides to Puerto Rico in late morning. They were expected to spend more than five hours on the ground, meeting first responders, local officials and some of the 3.4 million people whose lives have been upended by a hurricane that, in the presi- dent’s words, left the island U.S. territory “flattened.” At least in his first mo- ments on the island, Trump remained focused primarily on the reviews his adminis- tration is getting. “He didn’t play politics at all,” he said of the governor. “I appreciate your support and I know you appreciate ours,” he said. “Our country has really gone all out. It’s not only dangerous, it’s ex- pensive. But I consider it a great honor.” Before leaving Wash- ington, he said Puerto Ricans who have called the federal response insufficient “have to give us more help.” Large-scale protests against Trump, talked about in advance, failed to mate- rialize by early afternoon, with only a few handfuls of people gathering around San Juan to decry his criticism of local politicians. Nearly two weeks after the Puerto Rico storm, 95 percent of electricity cus- tomers remain without power, including some hos- pitals. And much of the coun- tryside is still struggling to access such basic necessities as food, fresh water and cash. Even before the storm hit on Sept. 20, Puerto Rico was in dire condition thanks to a decade-long economic re- cession that had left its in- frastructure, including the island’s power lines, in a sorry state. Trump and other ad- ministration officials have worked in recent days to re- assure Americans that re- covery efforts are going well and combat a perception that the president failed to fully grasp the magnitude of the storm’s destruction in its immediate aftermath. While early response ef- forts were hampered by logis- tical challenges, officials say that conditions, especially in the capital, have improved. According to the Fed- eral Emergency Management Agency, there are now more than 10,000 federal officials on the ground on the island, and 45 percent of customers now have access to drinking water. Businesses are also beginning to reopen, with 60 percent of retail gas stations now up and running. The Health and Human Services Department says federal medical teams with their own equipment and supplies have been sent to help provide care at Centro Medico, a major trauma center in San Juan. Addi- tional teams have been sent to five hospitals in other parts of the island. The department has also placed a liaison in each hos- pital that was open, to make sure the facilities can get timely shipments of fuel needed to keep generators running, as well as med- ical supplies. Tom Petty performs with The Heartbreakers at Madison Square Garden in New York on June 17, 2008. - PHOTO: AP President Donald Trump shakes hands with San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulin Cruz during a briefing Tuesday on hurricane recovery efforts with first responders at Muniz Air National Guard Base in San Juan, Puerto Rico. - PHOTO: APNext >