Archive for December, 2011
Row erupts after atheists win park’s nativity spots
(LATimes): Organizers of Santa Monica's well-known Christmas Nativity scene at Palisades Park are accusing atheists of "hijacking" the tradition. Atheist groups objected to use of the park by churches to espouse a religious message and applied to the city of Santa Monica for their own spaces. Officials used a lottery to dole out spots in the prime location along Ocean Avenue. The atheists turned out to be the lucky ones: Of the 21 plots in the park open for displays, they won 18. The Nativity story that once took 14 displays to tell — from the Annunciation, continuing to the manger in Bethlehem and onto infant Jesus' journey to Egypt and back to Nazareth — had to be abridged to three and crammed into two plots.
"A small group of out-of-town atheists is trying to hijack Santa Monica's nearly 60-year-long Christmas tradition," said Hunter Jameson, chairman of the Santa Monica Nativity Scenes Committee, the group that works with more than a dozen churches and civic groups to organize the display.
Jameson said he intends to keep the Nativity tradition many have enjoyed since1953 from being displaced. Palisades Park, he said, is the "historic home where it really belongs."
"Their goal is getting rid of us, and squelching our 1st Amendment rights," said Jameson, 65, who no longer lives in Santa Monica but still worships at Lighthouse Church of Santa Monica.
Patrick Elliott, a lawyer for the Freedom From Religion Foundation, said tradition is no excuse for violating the boundaries between church and state. "Just because they're long-standing doesn't mean they're right," he said.
Google gets US patent for self-driving cars
(BBC): The intellectual property rights relate to a method to switch a vehicle from a human-controlled mode into the state where it takes charge of the wheel. It explains how the car would know when to take control, where it is located and which direction to drive in. The search firm suggests the technology could be used to offer tours of tourist locations or to send faulty models to repair shops. The application for Transitioning a Mixed-mode Vehicle to Autonomous Mode was applied for in May, but had been hidden from public view until this week.
The document describes using two sets of sensors. The first identifies a "landing strip" when the vehicle stops. This then triggers the second set which receives data informing the machine where it is positioned and where it should go.
"The landing strip allows a human driving the vehicle to know acceptable parking places for the vehicle," the patent filing says. "Additionally, the landing strip may indicate to the vehicle that it is parked in a region where it may transition into autonomous mode."
Suspect US army whistleblower appears in court
(BBC): A US Army analyst suspected of leaking government secrets is set to make his first military court appearance. Bradley Manning faces charges of obtaining and distributing government secrets – which he allegedly leaked to the anti-secrecy website Wikileaks. The Article 32 hearing will determine whether Pte Manning is to stand trial and is the first opportunity for his defence team to present their case. Pte Manning was arrested in Iraq in May 2010 and is held in military custody. The hearing is taking place under tight security at an army base in Maryland.
During the Article 32 hearing, which is similar to a pre-trial hearing, both prosecuting and defence lawyers will make their initial cases and are permitted to cross-examine witnesses.
Proceedings are expected to last around five days, after which recommendations will be made to a military general, who will decide whether to proceed to a full trial, according to his lawyer, David Coombs.
UK primary school kids in obesity crisis
(PABNews): Shocking figures revealed by the NHS show obesity amongst primary school children is at an alarming level in the UK. One in three children leaving primary school is obese or overweight by the time they leave, according to data released by the National Child Measurement Programme. The study looked at more than one million school pupils and showed numbers to have gone up compared to last year. The 2010-11 figure stands at 19% of 10-11 year olds being classed as obese – a rise of 0.3% over the 18.7% figure last year. Statistics reveal British children are definitely getting fatter as research conducted in 2006-07 revealed the figure to be 17.5%.
On the positive side the study by the NCMP showed the number of reception class obese children, between 4 and 5 years old had fallen. In 2009-10 the figure was at 9.8%, currently between last year and this year the figure is at 9.4%. The report has led many people to question the success of the much televised healthy school dinner campaigns, led by Jamie Oliver.
Boys were shown to be fatter according to the report; 34.9% of boys between ten and eleven were either obese or overweight in comparison to 31.8% of girls. Furthermore, pupils from deprived and less privileged areas were shown to be unhealthier and more overweight. London had the highest obesity figures, with urban areas and cities being more prevalent compared to rural areas.
Polar bears turn to cannibalism as ice melts
(LiveScience): Summer and fall are lean times for polar bears in the Arctic. In the colder months, they prey on seals, which sprawl on the sea ice that fringes the bears' terrain. But in the summer, much of this icy real estate melts away, and the seals take to the open seas or move north toward ice floes beyond the polar bears' reach. Left without their usual prey, the bears occasionally resort to a disturbing behavior: cannibalism. A new article in the journal Arctic suggests that polar bear cannibalism typically the predation of small bears or cubs by much larger adult males — is either much more commonplace than previously thought, or has lately become more common. (Photo USFWS)
In the paper, leading polar bear biologist Ian Stirling and nature photographer Jenny Ross detail three recent instances of the behavior among polar bears in Norway's Svalbard Archipelago, each of which was photographed from the decks of ecotourism and research boats anchored a few hundred yards away.
Police seek witnesses in suspected arson case
(CNS): Update — A 30-year-old man has been arrested and is presently in police custody in connection with a fire at a property in George Town on Wednesday. Police say he was arrested in the George Town area last night on suspicion of arson with intent to endanger life. At around 10:45pm on Wednesday night police and fire fighters were called to the scene of a house fire on Fairlawn Road. Theresa Brown, a mother for four and resident at the property, said she woke in the middle of the night to see flames coming from the air conditioning unit. She told Cayman27 that after the fire she and the rest of her family went to her mother’s home in the same yard where a few hours later there was another fire.
Police said that structural damage was caused to Brown’s home but no one was injured in the fire. Enquiries into the possible double arson are continuing. Anyone with information on this matter or any crime taking place within the Cayman Islands is asked to call any of the police stations or 800(TIPS) 8477.
See Cayman 27 video here
Mac signs West Bay Rd swap
(CNS): Government has signed a deal with the Dart Group which will see the West Bay Road closed and become part of a new beachfront resort on the site of the former Courtyard Marriott. Sources close to government confirmed Thursday night that the premier signed the agreement with Dart giving the developer a stretch of the West Bay Road in exchange for the development of the Esterley Tibbetts Highway to West Bay, the new Reverend Blackman Road extension and $5 milllion in cash. The government source stated that this is only one element of the ForCayman Investment Alliance and will ensure that Dart can begin work on its proposed five star resort.
The agreement was signed at the Government Information Services conference room on Thursday afternoon but it is understood that neither Cayman27, iNews, or Cayman News Service were invited to the ‘press’ event where the premier agreed to give 2,300 feet of the existing West Bay Road to Dart. Cayman 27 reported this evening that footage of the signing was sent to the television station by GIS.
This first step in what is expected to be a much more complex deal does not yet include the refurbishment of the existing public beach or the new public beach north of the new resort, the land in Barkers, the land in West Bay for the development of the Grace Academy school or the full cash donation that was proposed as part of the what has been described as the West Bay Road Corridor projects. Government did receive a cheque for $5 million that will be split equally between education projects and helping people with residential mortgage arrears, the government source told CNS.
All of the other West Bay Road related projects, as well as the land swap for the George Town landfill with land in Bodden Town for a new waste management project, will all form part of the full ForCayman Alliance when that is signed.
This deal focuses mostly on the National Roads Authority element of the deal but it does include the use of crown land as part of the swap. This means government will still need to go through a proper legal process and an independent valuation of the land that it has now formally agreed to give to Dart. That valuation will also need to go through a public consultation process and go before the Legislative Assembly.
On Monday a petition of almost 4,000 signatures was submitted to the governor opposing the closure of the road but the campaign to preserve the road appears to have fallen on deaf ears now the premier has officially signed over to the Dart Group the stretch of West Bay Road from the public beach to the yacht club.
Check back for more on this story Friday.
CoP faces removal from ACC
(CNS): The government has said it wants time to consider a proposal to remove the automatic membership of the police commissioner, the complaints commissioner and the auditor general from the country’s Anti-Corruption Committee (ACC). The independent member for North Side filed a private member’s motion Thursday calling for the Legislative Assembly to vote to change section three of the anti-corruption law removing the automatic appointment of the three senior independent civil servants from the board. The proposal calls for the governor to appoint five people to the commission, one of whom would be a judge, magistrate or JP and one a retired lawyer. (Photo Dennie Warren Jr)
Although the government did not accept Ezzard Miller’s motion as submitted, it did not vote the motion down but instead altered the wording on the proposal to allow “government to consider amending” rather than allowing the Legislative Assembly to vote on the material change to the law there and then.
The premier said that the government wanted to consider a number of elements within the anti-corruption law, which came into effect in January 2010. He told Miller and his other legislative colleagues that government wanted the time and leeway to considerthe whole law as he felt there was room for improvement.
Meanwhile, the first ever annual report of the commission was tabled in the parliament on Thursday but it gives very little away about the work of the body so far. It does, however, reveal that the commission has plans to educate the public, particularly public servants, about reporting information to the commission.
The anti-corruption law places significant responsibilities on the civil service to report instances or suspicions of corruption and places penalties on people who fail to report apparent or suspected breaches of the law that they encounter in their work as public servants.
The commission said in the report that it intends to create a “learning package” that will spell out the role of government employees about their responsibilities under the law. The report also stated that the commission was seeking ways on top of the confidential hotline to “make things simple” for people to come forward and report concerns confidentially.
The report said that since the implementation of the anti-corruption law, it has investigated 21 reports. So far, the only person that has been charged under the law is a civilian member of the RCIPS who was recently suspended and is now awaiting trial. A second man and former member of the National Housing and Development Trust Board was arrested in October under the law but he has not been charged with any crime.
The report is now a public document but it is not yet posted on the ACC website.
Accused men freed after judge dismisses case
(CNS): Two men whom the prosecution claimed had been seen escaping the scene of a robbery in West Bay earlier this year have had the case against them dismissed after the judge found there was no evidence implicating the men. Justice Charles Quin released Dennis Ebanks and John McLaughlin on Thursday after an application by the defence that there was no case to answer as it had become apparent during the trial that none of the witnesses in the case were able to link them directly to the robbery. Although the two men had been seen getting into two vehicles across the street from the robbery, there was no other evidence to link those men with the crime.
Ebanks and McLaughlin had been charged with a daylight heist at the Tortuga liquor store in West Bay because witnesses outside the store said they saw two men who were acting suspiciously just after the robbery get into two different vehicles, and as a result called in the registration numbers. The men in those cars were then stopped by police and later arrested and charged with the robbery but no other evidence was presented to the court that indicated either of the men were in fact the robbers.
On the day of the crime two masked men held up the store at gunpoint and made their escape with around $2,000.
The store is situated between the Turtle Farm, the Cayman Car Museum, a dolphinairium, the Cracked Conch restaurant and the Macabuca Tiki Bar, all of which are popular tourist locations. The hold-up took place on a day when there were four cruise ships in port.
CJ considers Anglin’s fate
(CNS): The chief justice now holds the fate of 26-year-old Devon Anglin in his hands after hearing all of the evidence against the West Bay man who is accused of murdering Carlos Webster in the Next Level Nightclub in September 2009. Anglin's case was heard by judge alone and he must now await the decision of the country's most senior judge who said Thursday that he would take time toconsider his verdict but did not reveal when he expected to deliver the ruling. Anthony Smellie dismissed the no case submission submitted by the defence team Thursday morning, stating that he believed the crown had made a case against the defendant that could on one view of the evidence be properly considered.
However, following the judge’s ruling Anglin did not take the stand and called no witnesses in his defence, leaving his lawyer to make submissions in a closing speech on his behalf.
The crown’s case depends heavily on the evidence of two anonymous witnesses, whose identities remained under wraps throughout the trial. Although the judge was able to see and hear the witnesses via video link and head phones, the rest of the court only heard the witnesses via a distorted audio link.
The first witness stated that they had seen Anglin pull a gun from the waist band of his pants and shoot Webster near to the bathrooms in the crowded nightclub. The second witness said they did not see the actual shooting but saw the defendant standing close to Webster a few seconds before he heard shots and before he turned a few seconds later to see the defendant head towards the exit holding a gun, which he was pushing into the waist of his pants.
In her closing statement the director of public prosecutions, Cheryll Richards QC, told the judge that with the evidence of the two anonymous witnesses together with corroborating evidence from the CCTV, the crown had proved that the accused was the gunman who shot and killed Webster that night. Richards said the expert evidence, along with the eyewitnesses together with the circumstantial evidence presented a cogent and compelling case that proved the charges against the defendant.
The inconsistencies between the witnesses and the CCTV and the errors they made in recollection were not sufficient to undermine the entirety of their evidence, the DPP said, as they were not material. She also told the court that there was no evidence or motive for either of the anonymous witnesses to lie.
Anglin’s defence attorney, Dorian Lovell-Pank QC, however, stated that the inconsistencies were material and so much so that the judge could not safely convict his client. He said the crown had presented serious inconsistencies in its evidence that undermined the integrity of its own case. The prosecution was arbitrarily selecting from the evidence to suit its own theories of what could have happened that night, he added.
The lawyer said the only question that the judge had to consider was whether the gunman was Devon Anglin or not. He said that while it was not contested that his client was in the club that night, it was contested that he was the man on the CCTV who the crown contends was the gunman.
The crown had presented such contradictory evidence which was so unreliable that no court could feel sure that the defendant, Anglin, has been identified as the man who shot Carlos Webster, Lovell-Pank said. If the court were to apply the proper intellectual rigour, he said, the only proper verdict it could return would be one of not guilty.
On hearing both closing statements, the judge said he would now need time to consider the verdict on the three counts with which the defendant is charged. Alongside the charge for the murder of Webster and possession of an unlicensed firearm, Anglin is also charged with the attempted murder of Christopher Solomon, who was hit in the stomach by a bullet that the prosecution believe passed through Webster’s forearm. Webster was killed by a bullet wound to the head but the gunman fired at him three times in the crowded nightclub at around 1:30 in the morning of 10 September 2009.