The Freeport Concrete Company hosted their Third Annual Home Centre Classic Golf Tournament under the auspices of The Grand Bahama American Women’s Club. This year’s tournament was held at Our Lucaya’s Reef Golf Course, with a 12 noon shotgun start, Texas Scramble format.

Betsy King a famed golfer participated, adding excitement to the tournament! Ms. King is a leading money winner on the LPGA Tour and has finished in the top ten category repeatedly in her golfing career. In 1995, it is reported that she became the first player in LPGA history to cross the $5 million mark in career earnings.

An Awards Dinner and presentation of trophies followed thereafter at the Hawksbill Yacht Club.

We are delighted to announce that the tournament, which was supported by the Home Centre’s vendors, netted $12,200. From the proceeds scholarships are awarded to local students on Grand Bahama Island. Freeport Concrete Company is proud to make a difference in the lives of some 13 students in the form of scholarship renewals, new scholarships and special donations.

James Sarles Realty announced today that their well-respected local real estate firm has been selected to join the oldest international real estate firm in the United States, Coldwell Banker. According to James Sarles, President of James Sarles Realty, “we are proud to announce that as of March 1, 2006, our new name is Coldwell Banker James Sarles Realty which connects us into a worldwide network of 3,900 residential and commercial real estate offices and 126,000 sales associates in 29 countries to better serve our customers.”

When asked why he elected to join forces with Coldwell Banker, President James Sarles said, “We see this as an opportunity to expand the ways we can promote properties on Grand Bahama Island. Now, as Coldwell Banker, we have the resources of one of the largest firms in the world, which will result in exposing more qualified buyers to the homes we sell. This means that when you list a property with Coldwell Banker James Sarles Realty we are now able to actively promote our clients’ properties to an international buyers market, instead of waiting for them to discover Grand Bahama by chance. With Coldwell Banker we have a direct link to a larger pool of potential buyers around the world. The additional international exposure we can now give our real estate properties will benefit both our clients, and ultimately the entire island.

James Sarles Realty has made an impressive mark on Grand Bahama Island real estate over the past five years through creative advertising, a first class web site (www.sarlesrealty.com) and a commitment to professional, honest service. Many people have credited James Sarles (better known as Jamie) to taking real estate to a higher level of professionalism on Grand Bahama Island. “We are committed to going the extra mile to helping our clients achieve their goals whether they are buying or selling real estate, Coldwell Banker will enable us to combine our local expertise with national reach to raise the bar to an even higher level and provide better service to all of our customers” said Sarles.

Coldwell Banker is the oldest national real estate organization in the United States. Coldwell Banker Real Estate Corporation was founded by San Francisco native Colbert Coldwell from the ashes of the 1906 earthquake. After Benjamin Banker joined as a partner, they helped rebuild San Francisco by attracting businesses and families to the city through the professional, honest real estate transactions they guided. Now, a century later, the Coldwell Banker system boasts more than 3,900 residential and commercial real estate offices and 126,000 sales associates in 29 countries and territories around the globe. Jim Reed, marketing manager, Coldwell Banker Real Estate Corporation said “It is truly satisfying to know that for 100 years, Coldwell Banker professionals have been helping families buy and sell homes, and establishing a foundation for security, stability and growth. We are proud that James Sarles Realty has joined our team to continue the tradition on Grand Bahama Island”

Coldwell Banker James Sarles Realty offices are located in Regent Center East across from Royal Bank of Canada. The staff includes estate agents; Catherine MacLeay, Ollie Ferguson, Jan Lowe and Helena Burrows. The office manager is Tia Rahming.

The 2006 SPORTS ILLUSTRATED Swimsuit Issue features 25 of the world's most beautiful supermodels, including eight who grace this year's cover, posing at spectacular locations around the world. The eight models who appear on the cover are Carolyn Murphy, Daniela Pestova, Elle Macpherson, Elsa Benitez, Rachel Hunter, Rebecca Romijn, Veronica Varekova and Yamila Diaz-Rahi.

In addition to 25 supermodels, this is the ninth consecutive year the issue has featured a figure from the world of sports. The only athlete to grace the pages of this year's issue is tennis superstar Maria Sharapova.

This year's issue is the eighth orchestrated by Senior Editor Diane Smith. The annual search for paradisiacal locales took the magazine to eight exotic locations: Harbour Island and Cat Island in the Bahamas, Hollywood, Huahine in French Polyneisa, Las Vegas, Colombia, Palm Springs and Turks & Caicos.

In Palm Springs, 2003 cover model Petra Nemcova posed in her first SI shoot since surviving last year's Asian tsunami. Nemcova is also the subject of SI columnist Rick Reilly's back-page story, "Petra Shines On".

Veteran SI starlets Anne V and Noemie Lenoir hit the Hollywood hills and the streets of Los Angeles with rookie Yesica Toscanini. SI favorites Ana Beatriz Barros, Fernanda Motta and Mallory Snyder joined first-timer Aline Nakashima in stunning Huahine in French Polynesia. Molly Sims, star of NBC's Las Vegas, posed all around Sin City, including the roulette tables. Colombia's San Pedro de Majagua played host to rookies Brooklyn Decker & Pania Rose and second-year SI model Oluchi Onweagba. SI veterans Bridget Hall, Daniella Sarahyba and Marisa Miller welcomed newcomer Carla Campbell to the white sand beaches of Cat Island in the Bahamas.

Body paint artist Joanne Gair has sprayed and brushed swimsuits on some of the world's most beautiful women for SI since 1999. This year her inspiration is 1998 cover model Heidi Klum. Gair, who also photographed the spread, styled Heidi as a glamour girl of old Hollywood in four captivating suits and sexy poses.

Economics is the science of production and trade. It tells us that in the long run, both are maximized under a capitalist economy; and in the long run both are destroyed under an collectivist (un-free) economy. Observe the following quote is the mission of the Department of Statistics that illustrates the mindset of Bahamian politicians:

"To ensure that the Bahamian Government, Businesses and People are never hampered in their activities by any inadequacies of statistics, their recent trends or their interpretation: and in particular, to ensure that the managers of the Bahamian economy in the Ministry of Finance, The Central Bank and elsewhere, never lack adequate statistics nor argue about them." [emphasis added]

"Managers of the Bahamian economy?" Bahamian government politicians think too much like socialists.

In a business, a manager makes decisions on how a firm's resources are allocated as directed by the owner (shareholders and board of directors). This makes sense. All that businesses require is that their inalienable right to use their property to make a profit is protected (so long as they do not violate the rights of others). This is the fundamental purpose of government: to protect the rights of the individual (and thus businesses). By protecting the rights of all individuals, the government protects their property, and in doing so protects the economy.

So what does government "management" of the economy mean? It means that the government bureaucrats use the power of government to protect rights, to violate the rights of Bahamians, by physically forcing them from using their property as they wish. The classic example of such a policy is Nazi Gernmany, Soviet Russia, and the African states where people are starving. This is a moral abomination.

Morally, in a free country the government does not own the Bahamian economy--so it has no right to manage it. Any coercion by government on how private citizens must allocate their property is a violation of the citizen's rights. Morally, government management of the economy is evil. Practically, planned economies operating under a rule of men to serve "the people" (as opposed to a rule of law that protects individual rights) does not work and has never worked--that is unless starvation is your goal.

Under capitalism, an economy must not be managed, but protected, i.e., the inalienable rights of those individuals producing and trading should be protected from coercion by private criminals and their public counterparts in government. To follow a sports analogy, government is supposed to be the referee who makes sure that everyone plays by the rules (respects the rights of others by not initiating force against them); it's job is not to determine the plays, or decide who gets to play, or to decide who wins.

No the Bahamas is not a socialist state like Cuba -- for now -- because, the Bahamian people have too much "common sense." Unfortunately, common sense is not protection in the long term, which requires that Bahamians think long-range via reason, logic, and knowledge of capitalism--all three of which are downplayed in our public schools.