ESTABLISHED 1965 www.caymancompass.com – 50 CENTS – WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 3, 2018 High of 90 Low of 78 Slight to moderate with wave heights of 2 to 4 feet. EDITORIAL | PAGE 4 AUDITORS UNEARTH $2 MILLION OF PROBLEMS AT DEH BUSINESS | PAGE 10 OTEC COMPLIMENTS CAYMAN ON RENEWABLE FUTURE Poor compliance on government travel, credit card transparency JAMES WHITTAKER jwhittaker@pinnaclemedialtd.com Very few government ministries have com- plied with a transparency requirement to pro- actively publish credit card and travel ex- penses for senior officials. Data is supposed to be uploaded monthly to each ministry’s website as per the terms of a policy introduced by Deputy Governor Franz Manderson in 2014. The policy was part of a raft of measures introduced at the time to help control travel expenditures and ensure government credit cards were used for official business only. It does not appear to have been strictly en- forced, however. A Cayman Compass survey found that only the Office of the Premier and the Ministry of Commerce, Planning and Infrastructure were regularly publishing details of their travel and credit card expenses. Several other ministries did update their records after the Compass made inquiries. As of last week, Moses Kirkconnell’s Min- istry of District Administration, Tourism and Transport had not published any expense data since August 2015. The Ministry of Education, Youth, Sports, Agriculture and Lands, led by Minister Ju- liana O’Connor-Connolly, did not appear to have published any records at all, although officials did provide a 2018 expense report to the Compass after an inquiry. The Compass was also unable to find any published expenses for the Ministry of Human Resources and Immigration, which of- ficials attributed to website problems. Several other ministries had not posted up- dated records since the May 2017 election. Even the Deputy Governor’s Office and Portfolio of Civil Service, responsible for im- plementing the policy, had fallen behind on TELECOMS COMPANIES OPPOSE OFREG’S INTERNET PLAN Regulator misses timeline for issuing broadband determination KEN SILVA ksilva@pinnaclemedialtd.com In March, the Utility Regulation and Com- petition Office, known as OfReg, announced that it was launching a process that would result in high-speed internet services being made publicly available to every resident in the territory. The announcement was made around the same time as when Premier Alden McLaughlin and other legislators made public statements decrying the slow internet speeds in the eastern districts and other under-served areas. OfReg’s process was to determine what mandatory internet speeds should be offered by Cayman’s telecommunications companies and by when those speeds should be available. OfReg said it would then determine how the speeds should be provided. Mr. McLaughlin said government was planning on building its own fiber network and making the telecoms companies pay for it. OfReg said in March that it planned on making a determination on these issues by the end of September. However, that timeline has not been met, and the telecommunications companies strongly oppose OfReg’s proposals. When the initial consultation was launched in March, OfReg proposed to force all tele- coms companies to offer broadband internet access services to all residents of the Cayman Japanese firm buys Cayman hotels JAMES WHITTAKER jwhittaker@pinnaclemedialtd.com There is a new player in Cayman’s hos- pitality industry. A Japanese real estate investment firm has bought the Westin and Sunshine Suites hotels. Invincible Investment Corporation paid US$285 million for the Westin and US$55.3 million for the Sunshine Suites, according to data on the company’s website. The 343-room Westin resort on Seven Mile Beach underwent a CI$50 million renovation that concluded in October last year. Sunshine Suites, which has 132 rooms, was under the same ownership. Both ho- tels were bought in 2015 by a private, U.S.- based investment group. The sale to Invincible Investment Corp. was completed on Friday, Sept. 28. The firm specializes in real estate and has an extensive portfolio of hotels, residential PLEASE TURN TO PAGE 6 » PLEASE TURN TO PAGE 7 » PLEASE TURN TO PAGE 6 » Invincible Investment Corporation has bought The Westin hotel, pictured, and Sunshine Suites. - PHOTO: TANEOS RAMSEY2 LOCAL&REGIONAL WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 3, 2018 • CAYMAN COMPASS • Matinees Daily (matinee price before 6pm) • Seniors $8.00, Mon-Fri Before 6pm • Additional charges apply per 3D/VIP tickets Cayman Cinema@cbcinema6cbcinema6 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 - 640-FILM (640-3456) NIGHT SCHOOL (PG13) 12:30 I 3:30 I 7:40 I 9:00 LIFE ITSELF (R) 1:00 I 3:50 I 7:10 I 9:50 BLOCKBUSTER RE-RELEASE: BLACK PANTHER (PG13) 3:40 I 6:40 THE HOUSE WITH A CLOCK IN ITS WALLS (PG) 1:25 I 4:00 I 6:30 SMALLFOOT (PG) 12:40 3D I 3:00 3D I 5:20 I 6:35 THE NUN (R) 1:20 I 10:15 THE PREDATOR (R) 5:00 VIP I 7:30 VIP I 9:00 I 10:00 VIP BLOCKBUSTER RE-RELEASE: JURASSIC WORLD: FALLEN KINGDOM (PG13) 2:00 VIP I 9:40 CORRECTION A story titled “Bottles top list of plastic waste,” that ap- peared in the Oct. 1 edition of the Compass, mistakenly re- ported the number of volunteers that helped Plastic Free Cayman with trash cleanups on Grand Cayman in the past year. The correct number of volunteers is 1,100. MEXICO COMMEMORATES 1968 MASSACRE WITH FLAG AT HALF-STAFF MEXICO CITY (AP) – Author- ities raised a giant, iconic Mexican flag to half-mast in Mexico City’s main square Tuesday in commemora- tion of the 1968 massacre of student protesters by army troops 50 years ago. Students and surviving leaders of the 1968 stu- dent democracy movement attended the ceremonies marking the anniversary of an event that caused such revulsion it helped spur long-term political re- forms. Today, the move- ment is credited with sparking Mexico’s demo- cratic transition and its par- ticipants and martyrs are treated as heroes. The lower house of Con- gress included the stu- dent movement on its Wall of Honor in golden let- ters, alongside the coun- try’s foremost political and military heroes. And President-elect An- dres Manuel Lopez Ob- rador, who has partly credited students for his July 1 election victory, pledged he would never use the army to repress so- cial movements. “I give my word that I will never ever give an order to the armed forces, the ma- rines, the army or any police force, to repress the people of Mexico,” Lopez Obrador said during a ceremony at the centuries-old Tlate- lolco plaza, where the kill- ings took place. It is unclear how many protesters, reviled at the time as troublemakers, died after troops attacked the peaceful rally at Tlatelolco. Estimates range from the official version of 25 dead to a more recent investigation that identified 44. Activists at the time claimed hun- dreds, saying large numbers of bodies were carted off in garbage trucks. The government at the time was almost a one- party institution, dominated by the Institutional Revolu- tionary Party, or PRI, which held the presidency from 1929 to 2000. While it faced little mass opposition – the gov- ernment had been able to guarantee steady eco- nomic growth throughout the 1960s – officials har- bored an almost paranoid fear that the students might try to disrupt the Olympic games held in Mexico City a few weeks later. Multiple systems bring wet weather to Cayman Forecasters with the Cayman Islands National Weather Service are keeping their eyes on a broad area of low pressure, currently lingering south of the is- lands, near Panama. The U.S.-based National Hurricane Center on Tuesday forecast the system at a 20 percent chance of tropical storm formation by Sunday. “Some gradual develop- ment of this system is pos- sible late this week and this weekend while the low drifts generally northward during the next several days,” the NHC said. Local meteorologist Avalon Porter, however, said it was still too early to judge the potential of the system. “It’s going to linger over us for the next week or so and then it will move into the Gulf of Mexico,” Mr. Porter said. “It’s a little early to tell how strong it’s going to get or what it’s going to do.” He said the heavy rains that fell Monday and Tuesday were unrelated to the system. Instead, those rains were the result of a tropical wave and upper-level trough west of Cayman. He expected Wednesday would bring a temporary break from the showers. By Thursday, however, more showers could fall, resulting from a low-pressure system coming from Cuba. Brac arson charge sent to Grand Court Woman remanded in custody CAROL WINKER cwinker@pinnaclemedialtd.com Susie Diane McKinley, 54, appeared in Summary Court in Grand Cayman on Tuesday afternoon after being brought over from Cayman Brac on Monday on a charge of arson. She was charged with damaging by fire an apart- ment owned by another, in- tending to endanger the life of another or being reckless as to whether the life of an- other would be endangered. The charge arose from an incident that occurred on Saturday, Sept. 29, at a prem- ises on Frigate Drive. A press release from police indicated that a bed in the residence was set on fire and the Brac Fire Service attended the scene and extinguished the fire. No one was injured in the incident. Crown counsel Scott Wainwright objected to bail. Defense attorney John Furniss said bail could be of- fered because there was an address where Ms. McKinley could stay in Grand Cayman and the court could order her to wear an electronic mon- itor. He questioned whether the charge should be damage to property, since the Crown had made no mention of structural damage. Magistrate Valdis Foldats said he was not prepared to grant bail, but the defendant could apply to the Grand Court. He pointed out that arson is a charge that can be dealt with only in the Grand Court and he transmitted the file there. The matter was set for mention in the higher court on Friday, Oct. 12. Palliative care conference held Presenters line up at the Cayman HospiceCare’s sixth biannual Caribbean Palliative Care Conference, held at the Westin resort on Sept. 27. More than 150 delegates attended the one-day conference, which was open to the medical community and the public. The theme this year was ‘One goal, many paths to providing quality of life care.’ Topics included end-of-life management of patients with blood disorders, talking with children about illness and death, the benefits of holistic services, and cannabis in palliative care. – PHOTO: MAGGIE JACKSON A press release from police indicated that a bed in the residence was set on fire and the Brac Fire Service attended the scene and extinguished the fire. SOURCE: NOAAThe islands’ most-trusted news source 3 CAYMAN COMPASS • WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 3, 2018 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. The recently released auditors’ report confirms three enormous concerns within the Department of Environ- mental Health: the garbage accumulating on curbsides and in dumpsters; the department’s $2 million in over- spending on overtime pay in the 2016/17 budget; and the public statements at the ministerial level that consistently downplayed departmental problems, even while internal auditors were discovering and reporting them. Let’s review: In late 2017, the department – responsible for solid waste collection and the Cayman Islands’ landfills – ran out of money to pay salaries with two months left in the year. The Ministry of Health, Environment, Culture and Housing – led by Chief Officer Jennifer Ahearn – asked internal auditors to investigate. At the beginning of 2018, in response to inquiries about the conspicuous absence of DEH Director Roydell Carter, Ms. Ahearn issued a brief statement: “Contrary to reports in the media, DEH Director Roydell Carter has not been suspended and there are no funds unaccounted for at DEH.” The first phase of the internal audit review, issued in February, concluded: “Ultimately, the [DEH Director Carter] had the responsibility of managing the approved budget, avoiding cost overruns and escalating concerns to the Ministry, all of which he substantially failed to do. At the Ministry level, [Chief Officer Ahearn] should have been agreeing and authorizing overtime for the Depart- ment and the CFO and DCFO should have been moni- toring expenditure, budget variances and forecasts, and escalating concerns to the CO to ensure the Department was operating within the parameters of its approved budget; however, these responsibilities were not carried out as intended.” Delays in trash collection continued over the next several months, and the government issued multiple public statements (including a public apology in May by Deputy Governor Franz Manderson) that omitted refer- ences to the tangle of mismanagement being sussed out by auditors, or to Mr. Carter’s continuing absence. On July 12, the government announced that Richard Simms and Mark Bothwell would serve as interim Acting Director and Acting Assistant Director for the solid waste division, focusing their efforts on fleet maintenance, staff hours and schedule maintenance. But at the time, officials knew – as we now know they knew – that auditors had reported that vehicle downtime and staff absenteeism could not by themselves explain the department’s runaway overtime expenditures. Auditors wrote in the second phase of the review, issued in July: “With inadequate management informa- tion, malfunctioning internal controls and conflicting evidence, we believe there is a high probability that inten- tional abuse of the system was another significant factor behind the increased expenditure.” It was not until September – two months after the announcement of “Acting Director” Simms and more than nine months since former Director Carter’s disap- pearance – that Ms. Ahearn told the public that Mr. Carter had “opted to retire from the civil service.” She would not say whether his departure was con- nected to the audit or any disciplinary action, or whether there was any financial settlement or other payout involved. Around the same time, in the third and final phase of the review, auditors concluded: “Our review identified multiple employees from the Department of Environ- mental Health with implausible 2016/17 overtime records, indicative of widespread abuse and substantial misman- agement within the Solid Waste Collections, Landfill, Recycling and Fleet operations. “We believe the exploitation of a cultural practice, whereby overtime is routinely accrued before the completion of regular contracted hours, intensified in 2016/17. Inadequate management information renders it impossible to quantify, but a significant number of paid overtime hours could have been regular work hours for which no additional expenditure should have been made.” It is worth noting that Ms. Ahearn, as Chief Officer, both ordered the audit and controlled the release of the auditors’ report under the Freedom of Information Law. In her response to the open records request filed by the Compass, Ms. Ahearn said, “the matter is still being investigated.” The next logical question is: Who is now in charge of the investigation? With the work of internal auditors now complete, it seems time to swap out the “barking watchdogs” with “biting bulldogs” – in other words, law enforcement. Auditors unearth $2 million of problems at DEH WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 3, 2018 • CAYMAN COMPASS A rumbling of the volcano that the left cannot hear HUGH HEWITT An hour’s brisk walk can take you from the Dunker Church, across “the cornfield” and down Bloody Lane all the way to Burnside Bridge – the key locations on the bat- tlefield at Antietam, a little more than an hour’s drive from the U.S. Capitol and scene of the bloodiest single day for the American military in our history. Some 23,000 in blue or gray were killed or wounded, or went missing during the grueling 12 hours of close combat at Sharpsburg, Mary- land, on Sept. 17, 1862. When pundits talk of a “cold civil war” in the country, they mark themselves as ig- norant of the real thing. Far from real war, the civil tension in the country isn’t even close to 1960s levels of violence, much less the sort of actual war that once convulsed the country in the 1860s. But some seem to wel- come a slide in that direc- tion. “Tell me again why we shouldn’t confront Republi- cans where they eat, where they sleep, and where they work until they stop being complicit in the destruction of our democracy,” tweeted Ian Millhiser, justice editor at ThinkProgress. “Because it is both wrong & supremely dangerous,” re- plied Georgetown Law pro- fessor Randy Barnett. “When one side denies the legiti- macy of good faith disagree- ment over policy – as well as over constitutional principle – the other side will eventu- ally reciprocate. Neither a constitutional republic nor a democracy can survive that.” We’re already in the or- ange zone of bitterness and hatred of citizens toward fellow citizens. We’re about to enter the red zone. This is how faction destroys demo- cratic republics.” The daily ratcheting-up of rhetoric is driving people away from ordinary political con- versation. It is too freighted with potential for dispropor- tionate responses to talk can- didly about such things as one’s views of the Kavanaugh hearings. The intentional re- lease of senators’ home ad- dresses by someone there is reason to believe is a Capitol Hill staffer is an ominous step in the Millhiser direction. Its cause is the retirement of a Supreme Court justice who was appointed by a Re- publican president, and his imminent replacement by a Supreme Court justice nomi- nated by a Republican pres- ident. Though Donald Trump is not anyone’s idea of a con- ventional president, Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh is not only extraordinarily quali- fied but also a deeply conven- tional choice. So when argu- ments about process failed, that part of the left that de- mands power above all other things turned to character assassination. A vast swath of the public has concluded that Demo- crats sat on an explosive charge until the last minute, and they imagine themselves being ambushed that way at work. They do not want their daughters and sons to live in a society where allega- tion is conviction. Throw in an insufferable “Spartacus” (and who doesn’t work with at least one of them) and the never-to-be-topped irony of Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D- Conn., who falsely claimed service in Vietnam, lecturing Kavanaugh on a common jury instruction of “falsus in uno, falsus in omnibus” – a warning that a witness who lied in one thing can be as- sumed to have lied about other things – and anger to- ward every hypocrite present in every citizen’s life be- gins to bubble. Toss in Mi- chael Avenatti, and a New Yorker article that no other reputable news platform would stand behind as meeting their standards for reporting, and the volcano erupts because Kavanaugh – a thoroughly decent man – was slimed. Media elites locked inside “blue bubble” newsrooms don’t see, hear or feel it. Just as they didn’t see, hear, or feel the 2016 volcano’s rum- blings either. There is indeed wide- spread, genuine sympathy for Christine Blasey Ford. But millions do not believe Kavanaugh assaulted Ford, though they believe she has been assaulted, and they will not be eye-rolled into saying otherwise. The other allegations spitballing out at the judge have caused the country to shudder. So deeply decep- tive, manipulative and un- fair are the proceedings, they rightly brought forth com- parisons with McCarthyism. Democrats seem to think that the refusal to saddle up with the new Roy Cohns of the left dooms the right. The right is convinced the opposite is true. November will tell. Hugh Hewitt, a Washington Post contributing columnist, is a professor of law at Chapman University. © 2018, The Washington Post. Media elites locked inside “blue bubble” newsrooms don’t see, hear or feel it. Just as they didn’t see, hear, or feel the 2016 volcano’s rumblings either. 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 3, 2018 Now you can have a fully installed GPS satellite tracking device in your car, shipping container, truck, boat – or even complete vehicle fleet for less than $35 per month with no upfront cost. If your possessions ever get stolen, you can log in through your mobile device to locate it immediately. It can even be given to a family member to ensure you’re aware of their location. To find out more about this special offer contact the Security Centre on 949-0004 or email info@security.ky Just mention “Sat Trak” to get more information about this great deal. FULLY-FITTED GPS TRACKING UNITS FOR LESS THAN $35. Cayman development plan to be updated TRIAL DATE SET FOR BAR INCIDENT CAROL WINKER cwinker@pinnaclemedialtd.com Fire officer Jon Mikol Rankin appeared in Sum- mary Court on Tuesday, when he pleaded not guilty to charges arising from an in- cident at Da Station Bar on Shamrock Road on Aug. 18. The charges included wounding a named female and causing actual bodily harm to another female. The next charge was causing harassment, alarm or distress to a third person by charging at her with an ob- ject in his hand. The final charge was being a drunk and disorderly person. There had been an addi- tional charge of damage to property, but the bar owner, who is the defendant’s fa- ther, indicated to police that he did not wish to pursue any complaint, so that matter was not proceeded with. Mr. Rankin, 23, elected to be tried in Summary Court. Defense attorney Amelia Fosuhene confirmed that CCTV footage pertaining to the incident had been provided to her. Magistrate Valdis Foldats set a case management con- ference for Jan. 10, 2019, and trial for March 6. Mr. Rankin had his bail extended until then. SPENCER FORDIN sfordin@pinnaclemedialtd.com For generations, the urban plan in the Cayman Is- lands has been dictated by changing circumstances. The next plan will seek to guide those changes instead of react to them, according to planning officials. Haroon Pandohie, director of Cayman’s Department of Planning, said Monday that the government is preparing to release its next urban planning document, “Plan Cayman,” for public perusal. This new plan, he said, will attempt to shape the fu- ture of Cayman by antici- pating where people will live, where they will work and how they will get to every stop in between. Mr. Pandohie, speaking at the Road Safety Conference being hosted by the National Roads Authority this week, said that past iterations of Cayman planning have been prone to incrementalism and fixing problems only as they crop up one at a time. “Unfortunately, here in the Cayman Islands, we’ve equated planning with, ‘Let’s just get to the end as quickly as possible.’ And what hap- pens after that is someone else’s problem,” he said. “Un- fortunately, as we see every single day, that becomes our problem. We’re the ones stuck in traffic. We’re the ones funding roads. We’re the ones saying, ‘Well, why can’t you just build a wider road?’ That means we have to remove houses.” He added, “It’s interesting when you think about plan- ning and land-use plan- ning. The problems that we face today as a first-world country are problems we cre- ated for ourselves.” Plan Cayman is expected to be released by the end of next week, and then the De- partment of Planning will accept public feedback from October through the end of December. After that, the gov- ernment would hope to put the plan in effect and begin rezoning parts of Cayman in early 2019. Mr. Pandohie said that he hopes to create zones where people can both live and work, and he wants the fu- ture of Cayman development to proceed with an eye on fu- ture demographics. “The goal is to carve the island up into specific areas and come up with regula- tions and a vision that meets the needs of those areas,” he said. “How do we address land use, infrastructure and socioeconomic needs in these specific areas? And how do we come up with the best mix and the best modes of transportation that support the character of that area that you wish to have?” Plan Cayman is expected to ultimately replace the 1997 Development Plan for Grand Cayman, and it will incorpo- rate a planning statement, a general plan, detailed area plans and a zoning map. The idea, though, is to try to shape the future by building a blueprint for the most efficient ways to grow, Mr. Pandohie said. Mass transit cannot be efficient, he explained, unless it serves an economy of scale. And right now, for too many people, driving is the only way to get from home to work and back. “Unfortunately, for far too long, traffic safety and how it interacts with land-use planning has been an after- thought,” he said. “We build it, they come, and then we figure out, ‘How do we move them around?’ We build 100-some- thing homes, and then we’re shocked to know that in ex- cess of 100 people show up to live in those homes. We build it. We fully stock it. And then we say, ‘Where do those people work? Where do they go for entertainment? Where do they shop at? How do they get around?’” Fundamental change in Cayman’s transportation grid will take time, but Mr. Pandohie said that prob- lems of congestion and traffic cannot be confronted without being proactive. In this case, he said, that means completely rethinking how Grand Cayman’s neighbor- hoods are zoned. “We look at, ‘Is an area … primarily residential? Is it an employment center? … Is it a peripheral pattern with a core? Do we have cor- ridors or do we have satel- lites?’” Mr. Pandohie said. “In most jurisdictions, that land- use pattern is driven by your transportation network. De- pending on the availability of your transportation network, land use fills in that cor- ridor. But again, we find our- selves here in Cayman where we create a land use and af- terwards say, ‘Can I get a road, please?’” Haroon Pandohie, director of Department of Planning, speaks about the future of Cayman’s zones and districts on Monday at the Road Safety Conference on Monday. - PHOTO: SPENCER FORDINThe islands’ most-trusted news source 6 WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 3, 2018 • CAYMAN COMPASS publishing records. The policy is mandatory for senior civil servants but is optional for elected mem- bers. Premier McLaughlin is the only government min- ister who appears to be con- sistently and proactively posting his credit card and travel data online, on the Pre- mier’s Office site. Gloria McField, acting deputy governor and head of the Portfolio of Civil Service, acknowledged that compli- ance from various ministries had been mixed. She said travel was often required for government business and the civil ser- vice aims to ensure all trips are cost-effective. She said credit card postings should happen on a monthly basis and chief officers had been instructed to bring their re- cords up-to-date. “We recognise that trans- parency is an essential tool. Chief Officers have been re- minded of this and I expect that these entities’ publica- tions will be brought current very shortly, and maintained in fulfilment of the perfor- mance expected,” she told the Compass in an email. The Portfolio of Civil Ser- vice had not updated its own records since April 2017 at the time of the Compass inquiry. Ms. McField said that depart- ment had fallen behind during a handover of responsibility for web postings, but the site had now been updated. She said the civil service had made great strides in demonstrating accountability and value for money in travel expenditure since a critical auditor general’s report in 2014. These include imple- menting a travel policy and achieving significant savings on expenses compared with the period studied by the au- ditor general. As part of a survey on this matter, the Compass emailed every government ministry to ask them to verify and ex- plain their publication record on credit card and travel ex- penses. The Compass did not receive any response from the Ministry of Tourism, whose records were last up- dated in 2015, or the Min- istry of Commerce, Planning and Infrastructure, whose re- cords were up-to-date for se- nior civil servants. The Ministry of Finance, which had last updated its records in January 2017, published data for 2017 and 2018 for both Financial Sec- retary Ken Jefferson and Minister Roy McTaggart on its website on Tuesday, fol- lowing the Compass inquiry. The Ministry of Educa- tion, Youth, Sports, Agricul- ture and Lands provided the Compass with spreadsheets covering credit card and travel expenses for senior civil servants, as well as Min- ister Juliana O’Connor-Con- nolly and councilors David Wight and Barbara Conolly. The Ministry of Health, Environment, Culture and Housing provided the Com- pass with data for Minister Dwayne Seymour, Coun- cilor Eugene Ebanks and Chief Officer Jennifer Ahearn, and updated its website early this week. The Ministry of Financial Services and Home Affairs had not updated its informa- tion since January 2017, and no information was avail- able for Minister Tara Rivers, who took on the post in May of that year. Chief Officer Dax Basdeo said that data would be made available to anyone who made an FOI request. He said the ministry had been delayed in the launch of a new website, which will con- tain a section for the regular posting of this information. The Ministry of Human Resources and Immigration had no data on its website. Chief Officer Wesley Howell attributed this to a technical problem which he said he would seek to resolve. The deputy governor’s own records were up-to-date through the end of 2017 at the time of the Compass in- quiry. Records through Sep- tember 2018 were posted on- line earlier this week. GOVERNMENT TRAVEL AND CREDIT CARD EXPENSES PUBLICATION RECORD - THE BEST AND WORST MINISTRY OF FINANCE AND ECO- NOMIC DEVELOPMENT Ease of access: Expenses filed under pub- lications on website. Last update: Initially January 2017. Up- dated through September 2018 after Com- pass inquiry. Last trip documented: October 2016 trip to Washington for then Finance Minister Marco Archer for Caribbean Finance Minister Award and for Mr. Archer and Financial Secretary Ken Jefferson to travel to London in the same month for the Joint Ministerial Council. Response: Records updated after Compass inquiry. Chief Officer: Ken Jefferson Minister: Roy McTaggart MINISTRY OF EDUCATION, YOUTH, SPORTS, AGRICULTURE AND LANDS Ease of access: The Compass was unable to find any information on expenses on the ministry’s website. Response: Requested records provided to Compass. Ministry says it will update website. Chief Officer: Cetonya Cacho Minister: Juliana O’Connor-Connolly MINISTRY OF DISTRICT ADMINISTRA- TION, TOURISM AND TRANSPORT Ease of access: Filed under publications on ministry’s website. Last update: August 2015 for travel, 2013 for credit cards. Last trip documented: August 2015 trip for Chief Officer Stran Bodden for Florida Caribbean Cruise Association meeting. Response: No response to Compass email by publication deadline. Chief Officer: Stran Bodden Minister: Moses Kirkconnell MINISTRY OF HEALTH, ENVIRON- MENT, CULTURE AND HOUSING Ease of access: Filed under “About Us” section on ministry’s website under sub- heading of travel and credit card reports. Last update: June 2017 for both credit card and travel for chief officer. Nothing filed for minister. Last trip documented: June 2017 airfare to London for Jennifer Ahearn to attend Professional Certificate course in Strategic Policy Planning at International Centre for Parliamentary Studies. Response: Updated records provided to Compass for both chief officer and minister. Website updated. Chief Officer: Jennifer Ahearn Minister: Dwayne Seymour MINISTRY OF COMMERCE, PLAN- NING AND INFRASTRUCTURE Ease of access: Filed under publications on ministry’s website. Last update: September 2018. Regular fil- ings for chief officer and other senior civil servants. Last trip documented: July 2018 trip to Boston for a negotiation master class for Deputy Chief Officer Tristan Hydes. Response: No response to Compass email by publication deadline. Chief Officer: Alan Jones Minister: Joseph Hew MINISTRY OF FINANCIAL SERVICES Ease of access: Filed under Freedom of In- formation on the ministry’s website. Last update: January 2017. Regular filings up to that point for both minister and senior civil servants. Last trip documented: January 2017 trip for then minister Wayne Panton to New York for Cayman Finance meetings. Response: Ministry said records available through FOI and would be regularly posted after new website launch. Chief Officer: Dax Basdeo Minister: Tara Rivers MINISTRY OF HOME AFFAIRS Ease of access: Filed under Resources section of ministry’s website. Last update: November 2014 for credit cards, nothing filed for travel. Last trip documented: None found. Response: Ministry said records available through FOI and would be regularly posted after new website launch. Chief Officer: Dax Basdeo Minister: Tara Rivers MINISTRY OF HUMAN RE- SOURCES AND IMMIGRATION Ease of access: No records found. Response: Ministry said it was experi- encing technical problems with its website. Chief Officer: Wesley Howell Minister: Alden McLaughlin OFFICE OF THE PREMIER Ease of access: Filed under publications on website. Last update: July 2018. Last trip documented: July 2018 trip to Montego Bay for heads of government meeting for Premier Alden McLaughlin and Senior Political Advisor Roy Tatum. PORTFOLIO OF CIVIL SERVICE Ease of access: Filed under publications on website. Last update: Initially April 2017. Updated through September 2018 after Compass inquiry. Last trip documented: Legislative As- sembly trip to Cayman Brac for Acting Deputy Governor Gloria McField Nixon. Response: Records were updated following Compass inquiry. developments and offices throughout Japan. The two Grand Cayman hotels are the only overseas investments listed on the company’s website. Cayman-based Blue Point Consultants Ltd. worked with U.S.-based commercial real estate firm CBRE Group to broker the deal. Fleur Peck, managing di- rector of Blue Point, said: “We are all very excited to see a new major international real estate investor enter the Cayman Islands’ market. They come with a wealth of knowledge and experience in the hospitality sector and will offer a new perspective to the Cayman tourism in- dustry. The hotel attracted a number of credible local and overseas interest[s] for what is perceived as one of the most attractive proper- ties in Cayman.” Jim Mauer, managing di- rector of the Westin Grand Cayman, said Pyramid Hotel Group, which runs the prop- erty, had been retained and there would be little imme- diate change in the day-to- day running of the property. He said Invincible had a vision for a long-term invest- ment in the hotel and was in- terested in investing in fur- ther upgrades to the property. During a two-year renovation project, under the previous owners, all of the Westin’s 343 rooms and suites were updated, and extensive effort was put into reshaping the corridors, public spaces, pool deck and retail gallery. The elevators were replaced and the lobby and bar renovated to create floor-to-ceiling glass windows that offer a view of the ocean. Mr. Mauer said other areas of the hotel that could be upgraded or devel- oped included bars, restau- rants and the spa. CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 Poor compliance on government travel, credit card transparency Japanese firm buys Cayman hotels CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 The Westin recently had all of its 343 rooms and suites renovated during a two-year effort. The new ownership hopes to continue improvements. - PHOTO: TANEOS RAMSAY FRANCE HOLDS IRANIAN FUNDS, RAIDS GROUPS OVER ALLEGED PLOT PARIS (AP) – French au- thorities on Tuesday froze the assets of the internal security section of Iran’s Intelligence Ministry as well as those of two Ira- nians, and all but pointed a finger at Tehran as the force behind an alleged plot to bomb an Iranian exile group’s rally near Paris. Police also raided the headquarters of a Muslim religious association in northern France, seizing weapons and detaining three people. The building houses a Shiite federa- tion, an anti-Zionist party and other groups. The as- sets of the groups and their leaders were frozen as well. A joint statement by France’s interior, economy and foreign ministers made clear the six-month freeze on the Intelligence Minis- try’s internal security sec- tion was linked to the al- leged attempt to bomb the June 30 rally outside Paris of the People’s Mujahedeen of Iran, or MEK. “An attempted attack was thwarted,” the state- ment said. “This act of an extreme gravity envisioned on our territory could not go without a response.” The ministers called the action “preventative, tar- geted and proportionate.” The statement did not ex- plain what funds might be in France. In the second move, au- thorities froze the assets of Centre Zahra France, a Muslim association in the town of Grande-Synthe, outside Dunkirk, as well as those of three organiza- tions and four men linked to the groups.The islands’ most-trusted news source 7 CAYMAN COMPASS • WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 3, 2018 Islands, with at least one of their broadband service plans offering an unlimited data allowance. The regula- tor’s proposed definition for “broadband” is download speeds of 100 million bits per second (Mbps) and upload speeds of 50 Mbps or higher. OfReg proposed to set a three-year timeline for tele- coms companies to meet these requirements. The regulator’s proposals were not met favorably by the telecommunications com- panies, which objected for a litany of reasons in a public response document posted on OfReg’s website. For instance, Flow criti- cized OfReg for putting the “cart before the horse” by mandating internet speeds without first formulating a plan for how they would be delivered. Flow also stated that OfReg’s speed requirements would be much more strin- gent than those in other de- veloped countries. “The [United States] down- load speed target of 25 Mbps and upload speed target of 3 Mbps diverge signifi- cantly from OfReg’s pro- posed speed requirements of 100 Mbps download and 50 Mbps upload,” Flow stated, adding that the U.S. does not have a required date for the implementation of its target speeds. Canada, too, only has speed requirements of 50 Mbps for downloading and 10 Mbps for uploading, and has a “loose” 10-15 year time- line for implementing those requirements, Flow stated. According to Flow, the European Union is the only jurisdiction cited in OfReg’s consultation docu- ment that will require min- imum download speeds of 100 Mbps. However, the EU is giving companies a nine- year timeline to implement those speeds – as opposed to OfReg’s proposed three-year timeline – and does not have a requirement for upload speeds, the company stated. Flow further criticized OfReg’s three-year timeline, wondering how the regulator came up with that number. “Nowhere in the Consul- tation Document does OfReg explain why three years is a reasonable period to achieve these very high proposed speeds and make them avail- able universally, and without any caps on consumption, to all residents and every house- hold across the Cayman Is- lands,” Flow stated. Digicel also disagreed with OfReg’s minimum speed re- quirements. While other coun- tries have set minimum speed targets, they have not man- dated individual providers to cover 100 percent of their pop- ulations, the company stated. Digicel added that it finds it “pointless” to man- date speeds higher than what customers need, want or are willing to pay for. “Digicel recommends, therefore, that before pro- posing any such limits, OfReg needs to conduct a more ful- some examination of the de- mand-side requirement,” the company stated, adding, “The OfReg approach of consid- ering a single set of down- load and upload parameters for fixed and mobile services is fundamentally flawed, given the inherent differences in characteristics between the services.” Like Flow and Digicel, Logic criticized OfReg’s pro- posed mandatory speeds and timeline, calling them “clearly unrealistic.” Logic stated that, based on its research, the average Cayman customer uses download speeds of 20 Mbps and upload speeds of 5 Mbps. The performance minimum should be set accordingly, and could be universally achieved within five to seven years, the company argued. Logic also warned against requiring all the companies to build their own fiber net- works. The company admitted that its licensing agreement requires it to roll out fiber to the entire territory – all tele- coms companies besides Flow have this requirement – but stated that, in retrospect, that obligation was unreasonable. “Historically, there was a belief that scale economies in other jurisdictions would ul- timately reduce the hardware and software costs, and that the level of complexity and labour requirements would similarly reduce, to the point where 100% deployment would be economically pos- sible,” Logic stated, adding, “These assumptions were common to all market par- ticipants, and the regulator, and they were quite simply overly optimistic.” Logic stated that it has spent some $10 million over the last two years to provide fiber to about 65 percent of Cayman homes, and plans to invest another $6 million in the current fiscal year. However, requiring all companies to build fiber net- works through the whole is- land would likely lead to one or more providers going out of business, Logic warned. “If forced to do the un- economic, a licensee will ultimately fail, and under- served households will re- main unserved, while the broader market will lose the competitive benefit of that licensee,” the com- pany stated. “Customers and the broader public will be worse off if licensees go out of business.” Instead of requiring is- landwide fiber rollouts, 5G wireless technologies could offer a feasible alternative to providing broadband univer- sally, Logic added. C3 provided the most fa- vorable response to OfReg’s proposals. That company stated that minimum speeds requirements should be set at 50 Mbps for downloads and 10 Mbps for uploads. C3 did not provide a sub- stantive response for when those speeds should be re- quired to be available. “The first objective of the broadband policy is to as- sure that all the residents of Grand Cayman have ac- cess to at least two providers of fixed network technolo- gies islandwide. Until that first objective is achieved, the Broadband Policy can’t be considered as meeting any of the other objectives,” the company stated in response to the question on a reason- able timeline for achieving the mandated speeds. OfReg did not respond to Compass questions about its time line for making a deter- mination on the above issues. Telecoms companies oppose OfReg’s internet plan CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 BRETT KAVANAUGH WILL NOT RETURN TO TEACH AT HARVARD LAW CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (AP) – Har- vard Law School has an- nounced that U.S. Supreme Court nominee Brett Ka- vanaugh will not return to teach in January. The announcement was made in an email from ad- ministrators to law stu- dents on Monday. The email said “Judge Kavanaugh indicated that he can no longer commit to teaching his course in Jan- uary Term 2019, so the course will not be offered.” A Harvard Law School spokeswoman confirmed Ka- vanaugh’s decision to The As- sociated Press on Tuesday. Kavanaugh was sched- uled to teach a three-week course called “The Supreme Court Since 2005.” He has taught at the law school for about a decade.The islands’ most-trusted news source 8 WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 3, 2018 • CAYMAN COMPASS Italian mayor arrested on immigration charges The mayor of a small town in southern Italy who has become a symbol for welcoming migrants has been placed under house arrest for allegedly aiding illegal immigration. Italian financial police arrested the mayor of Riace, Domenico Lucano, early Tuesday. Churchill’s Funeral Home Condolences can be registered at: www.churchillsfuneralhome.com We have been asked to announce the passing of Mrs. Cerry Lusenda Tulloch, who passed away on Monday, September 24, 2018. A Thanksgiving Service will be held at All Nations Pentecostal Church, 23A Wood Lake Drive, George Town on Sunday, October 07, 2018 at 2:00 p.m. Viewing: Closed Casket Interment follows at Garden of Reections Cemetery. UK gov’t says EU immigrants will not get priority after Brexit Boris Johnson turns up heat on May at Conservative meeting BIRMINGHAM, England (AP) – Former Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson revved up Britain’s Conservative Party Tuesday and ramped up pressure on Prime Minister Theresa May, condemning her proposed divorce deal with the European Union as a “cheat” that would keep the country manacled to the bloc. A day before May was due to rally Tory troops with a keynote speech at the gov- erning party’s annual confer- ence, the popular, but divi- sive Johnson stole the prime minister’s thunder with an address laying out his own vision of Brexit and do- mestic politics. It was a leadership speech in all but name from a politi- cian who quit the government in July over May’s Brexit plan, but remains a huge Conserva- tive star – and, his fans hope, a future prime minister. In front of 1,500 con- ference delegates in Bir- mingham, central England, Johnson lambasted May’s so- called “Chequers plan,” which would see Britain stick close to EU rules in return for re- maining in the bloc’s single market for goods. Johnson said that ap- proach would leave the U.K. “in the tractor beam of Brus- sels,” unable to set its own tariffs and regulations or to strike new trade deals around the world. “This is not pragmatic, it is not a compromise,” Johnson said. “It is dan- gerous and unstable – politi- cally and economically.” He said that if the Checkers plan were adopted, “the U.K. will effectively be paraded in manacles down the Rue de la Loi” – a Brussels street lined with EU offices. “This is not democracy. It is not what we voted for,” Johnson said. “It’s not taking back control. It’s for- feiting control. “Chequers is a cheat,” he added, drawing huge applause from party members with a call to “chuck Chequers.” With six months to go until Britain leaves the Eu- ropean Union on March 29, the EU is seeking new pro- posals from Britain, and May is sticking to her plan, bringing negotiations to a standstill. The Conservatives are divided over how to pro- ceed, caught between Brexi- teers like Johnson and those who want to keep close eco- nomic with the bloc, Britain’s biggest trading partner. Johnson’s full-blooded pro-Brexit rhetoric has wide support among Conserva- tive Party members, though the speech was light on de- tail about his proposed alter- native. Johnson said simply that Britain should use a 20- month transition period after Brexit to negotiate a looser, Canada-style free trade deal while stepping up prepara- tions for a “no-deal” exit. The tousle-headed politi- cian is known for Latin quips and verbal blunders that have included calling Papua New Guineans cannibals and accusing people in Liverpool of “wallowing” in victimhood. In August, he was criti- cized for comparing Muslim women who wear face-cov- ering veils to “letter boxes,” and last month he com- pared May’s Brexit plan to a “suicide vest.” Tuesday’s British newspa- pers ran a photo of Johnson going for a jog in a grain field. Many took it as mocking May’s assertion that the most mischievous thing she had ever done was run through a field of wheat as a child. Johnson’s list of indiscre- tions is rather longer. In 2004, he was fired as Conservative vice chairman after lying about an extra- marital affair. Last month, Johnson and his wife Ma- rina Wheeler announced they were divorcing after 25 years of marriage – a move some saw as an attempt to neu- tralize potential stories about his private life before a lead- ership campaign. After Britain’s 2016 EU membership referendum, Johnson pulled out of a race to lead the Conservatives, which was won by May. His attacks on the prime min- ister suggest that he wants a second shot at the top job. Johnson did not call Tuesday for May to be re- placed, saying she should simply abandon her plan. He joked that a claim by Trea- sury chief Philip Hammond that Johnson would never be prime minister had “a dis- tinct ring of truth.” But with his shock of blond hair smoothed down, Johnson was in a sober, statesmanlike mode. His language was rela- tively restrained, with invec- tive reserved for the opposi- tion Labour Party, which he dismissed as “Hugo Chavez- loving, anti-Semitism con- doning Kremlin apologists.” BIRMINGHAM, England (AP) – Britain will not offer Eu- ropean Union citizens pref- erential immigration status after Brexit, the government said Tuesday, announcing a system designed to give mi- grants with skills the U.K. needs priority over low- skilled migrants. At present, all EU na- tionals can live and work in Britain under the bloc’s free- movement rules, but that will change after the U.K. leaves next year. Announcing Britain’s big- gest immigration changes in a generation, Prime Minister Theresa May said that the new system “ends freedom of movement once and for all” – a key government promise on Brexit. “For the first time in de- cades, it will be this country that controls and chooses who we want to come here,” May said. Under the proposals an- nounced at the Conserva- tive Party conference in Bir- mingham, applicants from any country wanting to settle in Britain will have to meet a salary threshold, and will only be able to bring their family to live with them if they are sponsored by their employers. The government con- firmed its previous commit- ment that all the 3 million EU citizens currently living in Britain can stay, even if the U.K. leaves the bloc without an agreement on fu- ture relations. Despite the government’s assertion that all countries will be treated the same, min- isters and business groups have said the U.K. could offer preferential access in re- turn for free-trade deals – in- cluding one with the EU. The announcement in- cludes a plan to speed up entry for short-term tour- ists and business visitors with a system of “e-gate visa checks” at airports. Immigration is a divi- sive issue in Britain, and re- ducing the number of new- comers was a major factor for many who voted in 2016 to leave the European Union. More than 1 million EU citi- zens have settled in Britain since eight formerly Com- munist eastern European na- tions joined the EU in 2004. May said “for too long people have felt they have been ignored on immigra- tion and that politicians have not taken their concerns seri- ously enough.” The Conservative govern- ment has a long-standing goal of reducing net im- migration below 100,000 people a year, which it has never come close to meeting. The current level is more than double that. The government’s post- Brexit plan does not men- tion a figure, but says im- migration will be set at “sustainable” levels. Julia Onslow-Cole, head of global immigration at PwC, said businesses re- garded the 100,000 target as “very unhelpful.” Former Home Secretary Amber Rudd, who was in charge of immigration policy until earlier this year, said the target had not been of- ficially dropped, “but I don’t think you’ll find many secre- taries of state championing it ever-louder.” Businesses in areas such as farming, food manufac- turing, hotels and domestic care, which rely heavily on workers from the EU, warned they could face em- ployee shortages under the proposals. British Retail Consor- tium chief executive Helen Dickinson said the immigra- tion system should be “de- mand-led” rather than based on a “cut-off line some- where arbitrarily on salary or types of skills.” Pro-EU Labour Party law- maker David Lammy said ending free movement from the EU was “an act of na- tional self-sabotage that will lock us out of the world’s largest single trading bloc that happens to be on our doorstep.” The government confirmed its previous commitment that all the 3 million EU citizens currently living in Britain can stay, even if the U.K. leaves the bloc without an agreement on future relations. Prime Minister Theresa May arrives at the Conservative Party annual conference at the International Convention Centre in Birmingham. - PHOTO: PA WIRE Conservative MP Boris Johnson addresses delegates during a speech at the Conservative Party Conference at the ICC, in Birmingham, England, Tuesday. - PHOTO: AP9 WORLD&REGIONAL CAYMAN COMPASS • WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 3, 2018 New dwarf planet spotted at the very fringe of solar system Scientists from US, France, Canada win Nobel for laser work STOCKHOLM (AP) – Three scientists from the United States, Canada and France won the Nobel Prize in physics Tuesday for work with lasers described as rev- olutionary and bringing sci- ence fiction into reality. The American, Arthur Ashkin of Bell Laboratories in New Jersey, entered the record books of the Nobel Prizes by becoming the oldest laureate at age 96. Donna Strickland, of the University of Waterloo in Canada, be- came the first woman to win a Nobel in three years and is only the third to have won the prize for physics. Frenchman Gerard Mourou of the Ecole Poly- technique and University of Michigan will share half of the $1.01 million the prize carries with Strickland; Ashkin gets the other half. Sweden’s Royal Academy of Sciences, which chose the winners, said Ashkin’s de- velopment of “optical twee- zers” that can grab tiny par- ticles such as viruses without damaging them realized “an old dream of science fiction – using the radiation pres- sure of light to move phys- ical objects.” The tweezers are “ex- tremely important for mea- suring small forces on in- dividual molecules, small objects, and this has been very interesting in bi- ology, to understand how things like muscle tissue work, what are the mol- ecule motors behind the muscle tissue,” said David Haviland of the academy’s Nobel committee. Strickland and Mourou helped develop short and in- tense laser pulses that have broad industrial and med- ical applications, including laser eye surgery and highly precise machine cutting. The academy said their 1985 article on the technique was “revolutionary.” “With the technique we have developed, laser power has been increased about a million times, maybe even a billion,” Mourou said in a video statement released by Ecole Polytechnique. Strickland’s award was the first Nobel Prize in physics to go to a woman since 1963, when it was won by Maria Goeppert-Mayer; the only other woman to win for physics was Marie Curie in 1903. “Obviously, we need to cel- ebrate women physicists be- cause we’re out there. And hopefully in time, it’ll start to move forward at a faster rate, maybe,” Strickland said in a phone call with the academy after the prize announcement. Michael Moloney, CEO of the American Insti- tute of Physics, praised all the laureates. “It is also a personal de- light to see Dr. Strickland break the 55-year hiatus since a woman has been awarded a Nobel Prize in physics, making this year’s award all the more historic,” Moloney said. He credited the work of all three with “expanding what is possible at the ex- tremes of time, space and forms of matter.” Ashkin’s tweezers can be used to hold and manipu- late proteins, DNA and other biomolecules to study their mechanical properties or stimulate them, said Erwin Peterman, a physicist at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, who called the award “a great rec- ognition for this visionary scientist who was ahead of his time.” On Monday, American James Allison and Japan’s Tasuku Honjo won the Nobel medicine prize for ground- breaking work in fighting cancer with the body’s own immune system. The winner or win- ners of the Nobel chemistry prize will be announced Wednesday, followed by the peace prize on Friday. The economics prize, which is not technically a Nobel, will be announced Oct. 8. A previously unknown dwarf planet circles through the far reaches of our solar system, the International As- tronomical Union’s Minor Planet Center announced Tuesday. Officially desig- nated 2015 TG387, the small and spherical object is prob- ably a ball of ice. Astrono- mers first observed the dwarf planet on Oct. 13, 2015, from the Subaru telescope at Ha- waii’s Mauna Kea Observa- tories. Embracing the near- Halloween October spirit – and for want of something pronounceable – its discov- erers nicknamed 2015 TG387 “the Goblin.” The Goblin is “about 300 kilometers in diameter, on the small end of a dwarf planet,” said Scott Sheppard, an as- tronomer at the Carnegie In- stitution for Science in Wash- ington who discovered the object along with colleagues at Northern Arizona Univer- sity, University of Hawaii and the University of Oklahoma. Dwarf planet Pluto, by com- parison, is six times as wide. Sheppard has embarked on an ongoing survey to find tiny planetoids on the solar system’s outer rim. He’s inter- ested in the Goblin because it “always stays well beyond the giant planet region,” refer- ring to the lineup of our solar system’s four biggest planets: Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. Because 2015 TG387 exists so far away, speaking in terms of miles becomes unwieldy. Instead, astrono- mers refer to its orbit in as- tronomical units, or AU, where 1 AU is the distance between the sun and Earth. Pluto sits at an average of 40 AU from the sun. The Goblin comes no closer than 65 AU. Only a few known ob- jects in our solar system have comparable orbits, such as dwarf planets 2012 VP113 (nickname: Biden) and Sedna. And 2015 TG387’s lopsided elliptical orbit takes it much farther away than those two remote objects – at its far- thest, the Goblin reaches 2,300 AU, into a region of space called the Oort cloud. This also means the Goblin takes 40,000 years to com- plete one orbit of the sun. If we set our calendars by 2015 TG387, then one “Goblin year” ago the last of the Neander- thals walked the earth. Confirming the orbit of 2015 TG387 required re- peated observations, through May 2018, because the planet moves so slowly. The astrono- mers were lucky to catch the Goblin when they did. As it travels along 99 percent of its orbit, 2015 TG387 is too far and too faint to be detected. Sheppard said he predicts thousands of objects the same size as 2015 TG387 dot the rim of our solar system. But they are likewise too dis- tant to be seen the vast ma- jority of the time. He antic- ipates astronomers will be able to detect only another dozen or so objects in the next few years of the survey. “Objects such as 2015 TG387 allow us to probe not only the makeup of the solar system itself but also the gravitational mechanisms that sculpt it,” said Kon- stantin Batygin, a planetary scientist at the California In- stitute of Technology who was not involved with the ob- servation. “This is a great dis- covery indeed.” The Goblin’s orbit is very skewed, and so is Sed- na’s and Biden’s. Sheppard says a large and unknown planet could be “shepherding” these dwarf planets, di- recting them like a cosmic border collie around the solar system’s fringe. Sheppard is not the only astronomer to propose that a putative planet, called Planet Nine or Planet X, lurks at the dark edge of the solar system. The planet, if it ex- ists, would be bigger than the Goblin or Pluto. Batygin, in a 2016 paper in the Astronom- ical Journal, estimated Planet Nine would be up to 10 times as massive as Earth. As such, Planet Nine would be a “massive per- turber,” as Sheppard called it in a 2014 Nature article. Smaller objects like the Goblin have to dance around Planet Nine, or else they would collide with it or be ejected from their orbits. So far, all of the objects Shep- pard has spotted appear to dance as predicted. “This clustering can only be maintained if the solar system hosts an additional, yet unseen, super-Earth type planet,” Batygin said. He added, “I’m running code as we speak that evaluates how the inferred orbit and mass of Planet Nine are affected by this new object.” The Goblin sits right in the middle of the cluster of known objects, he said, and the astronomical search helps scientists home in on Planet Nine’s location. © 2018, The Washington Post This image shows a comparison of 2015 TG387, at 65 astronomical units, with the Solar System’s known planets. - GRAPHIC: CARNEGIE INSTITUTION FOR SCIENCE The Nobel Prize laureates for physics 2018 are Arthur Ashkin of the United States, who won one half of the prize, while Gerard Mourou of France and Donna Strickland of Canada shared the other half. - PHOTO: APNext >