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Volume: 123 No. 63, Monday, February 23, 2026
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POWER OUTAGE ‘PLAYED ROLE’ IN COACH’S DEATH Hall of Fame coach Bonnie Basden died after bomb threat power cut shut down her vital oxygen machine By DENISE MAYCOCK Tribune Freeport Reporter dmaycock@tribunemedia.net THE family of Grand Bahama coach and 2025 Sports Hall of Famer Bonnie Basden believes an islandwide power outage in response to a bomb threat on Thursday morning played a role in her death. Basden, 64, who relied on an electric oxygen machine, was found unresponsive on the floor of her bedroom at her home at Tasmania Road shortly after 7am. She was later pronounced dead at the hospital.
The outage began shortly after 7am when the Grand Bahama Power Company initiated an emergency shutdown and evacuation of its operations following a reported bomb threat at its generation plant on West Sunrise Highway and Peel Street. Police, firefighters and a bomb assessment team searched the facility. No explosive device was found. The outage lasted several hours. “I absolutely think the power outage contributed to Bonnie’s demise,” Adrianne Sands said at the COACH - SEE PAGE FIVE SPORTS HALL OF FAMER BONNIE BASDEN
Court rules ‘redeployment’ of five Family Island Administrators unlawful
IMMIGRATION UNION WANTS SEARS FIRED OVER IGNORED GRIEVANCES
By KEILE CAMPBELL Tribune Staff Reporter kcampbell@tribunemedia.net
By JADE RUSSELL Tribune Staff Reporter jrussell@tribunemedia.net
THE government unlawfully moved five Family Island Administrators out of their posts in 2021 by calling the change a “redeployment”, a step the Supreme Court found was, in substance, an
unauthorised transfer that had no legal effect. In a recently released judgment, Justice Carla Card-Stubbs declared the letters that directed the officers to report to other ministries “null, void and without legal effect”. The claim was brought by Arimentha Newman, Elizabeth Collie, Ernestine
Fernander, Lauretta Marshall and Carletta Turnquest against the Attorney General. The Bahamas Public Services Union, their bargaining agent, was the second claimant. Justice Card-Stubbs found that letters dated November 29, 2021 UNLAWFUL - SEE PAGE FIVE
IMMIGRATION Minister Alfred Sears.
THE head of the union representing customs and immigration officers has called for Immigration Minister Alfred Sears to be fired, accusing him of ignoring months of complaints over promotions, pay and
insurance. The demand came during a press conference on Friday where the BCIAWU detailed what it described as deepening frustration among officers in the Immigration and Customs departments. Mr Brooks said staff SEARS - SEE PAGE FOUR
HEROIC WORKER TACKLES ARMED MAN IN BRAZEN ROBBERY By TRIBUNE STAFF REPORTER AN heroic kitchen worker tackled a man armed with a hand-held machine gun during a brazen restaurant robbery in which three British ex-pats had a $20,000 Rolex and a $2,000 gold ring stolen. Staff at the upmarket Island Brothers café and restaurant, outside Lyford Cay, fled for their lives when
a balaclava-clad gunman, dressed all in black, entered the premises through a back door at 10pm on Saturday evening. As one brave worker grabbed the nozzle of the weapon and grappled with the gunman, he yelled at his colleagues to run and they fled through the restaurant and out into the street, leaving the few remaining diners stunned at the commotion. GUNMEN - SEE PAGE THREE
ISLAND Brothers café near Lyford Cay.
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