From school meals to food labelling standards, contributors to our mini-series on Cayman's obesity crisis highlight a range of solutions.

While a little sugar here and there won’t hurt, the daily sugar we consume is quietly wreaking havoc on our bodies, writes dietician Taryn Stein.

Thousands of people in Cayman are using ‘skinny jabs’ like Ozempic as a weight loss aid amid an obesity epidemic that is stretching the healthcare system to the limit.

What if taxation could actually improve our health, reduce government costs, and make Cayman a healthier place to live, asks Compass columnist Simon Cawdery.

Perhaps Cayman should, in the current good years, run a surplus of cash from financial services taxation, invest this surplus wisely, and use the accumulated wealth to support itself if or when the geopolitical winds change.

Planned changes to the National Conservation Act will strip it of its power and tilt the balance of Cayman's future towards unchecked development, two former sustainability ministers have claimed.

As the new year begins, we look at 10 issues that will be front and centre of our coverage in 2025.

Amid reports of lost parcels, missing letters and slow-moving mail, the Compass launched an investigation into the challenges of getting packages to Cayman. The results were astonishing.

The Cayman Islands spends hundreds of thousands of dollars each year to fund visits for influencers, content creators and journalists who write or post about the destination, according to data from a freedom of information request.

While in social media parlance the ‘receipts’ of a great vacation might go on Instagram or TikTok, the actual receipts of some of Cayman's most important visitors go to the Department of Tourism.

Under six months out from the general election a handful of key issues, including population growth, cruise tourism and rising rents, are emerging as hot-button topics for the nascent political parties and teams. 

The race is on for Cayman's general election 2025 with former EY partner Dan Scott's nascent political party one of several emerging groups seeking to offer a fresh direction as the island's politicians turn their back on the era of independents.

Cayman’s public spending is out of control and failing to deliver value for money, according to an analysis by Compass contributor Simon Cawdery.

In 1908, two rival expeditions competed in a race against time and the elements to recover treasure from a sunken Spanish galleon at Pedro Bank.

Cayman has no plans for a UK-style early release policy to ease the pressure on its overcrowded prison system. Inmates in England and Wales can now be released after serving just 40% of their sentence.

For many inmates, getting out of prison is far from the end of their sentence. One released prisoner explains the challenges.

Cayman’s men’s prison is overcrowded, prone to flooding and suffering from shortages of clothing and bedding for inmates, multiple prisoners told the Cayman Compass.

Seven Mile Beach contributes $1 billion annually to the Cayman Islands economy, according to a new report that makes the case for immediate action to replenish sand lost to erosion at the iconic attraction.

Within a sprawling – but loosely defined and sometimes contested – marine zone around the Cayman Islands is a potential bounty of mineral wealth, vast fishing grounds and research opportunities.

The Cayman Islands government is seeking to resume negotiations with Cuba and Jamaica to fully settle the islands' maritime boundaries.

As Cayman grapples with beach erosion challenges, we look at how Florida deals with the issue and where officials could source high quality sand to replenish Seven Mile Beach in similar fashion.

The Compass took a boat ride across previously pristine beach, now submerged under several feet of water, to document the rapidly worsening erosion problem at the southern end of Seven Mile.

Erosion along Seven Mile Beach following Tropical Storm Helene has worsened and expanded to the point where only a few slivers of sand remain along a mile-long stretch of once prime beach front. Bar owners, hoteliers, residents and holiday rentals are suffering a parallel erosion of their businesses, property values and quality of life.

Just one in four of the sewage treatment plants at private properties checked by the Water Authority across Grand Cayman last year met the legally required minimum standards.

In the Florida Keys, a disease called ‘white pox’ almost wiped out the elkhorn coral on local reefs in the 1990s and 2000s, before a team of scientists proved that a human pathogen, spread through improperly treated effluent, was the cause, and politicians and the local community took a stand to save the coral and improve the quality of the coastal waters.

Since the very dawn of democracy, threats to its continual survival have never been far below the surface. So how does Cayman’s democracy look?

Cruise executives warn if the Cayman Islands does not invest millions of dollars in building a cruise berthing facility, then the next generation of cruise ships would simply sail on by, taking their lucrative port fees and thousands of spending passengers with them.

If a picture tells a thousand words then Courtney Platt's post-Ivan collection is its own library. In a special project with the Cayman Compass, the veteran photographer has reshot some of his most striking images 20 years later.

It’s hard to imagine the utter devastation Hurricane Ivan left in its wake. Today, 20 years later, there are only a few lingering signs of its impact. Explore the stark differences in these photos taken by Courtney Platt following Ivan in 2004, and present day in 2024.

It was a bittersweet moment when Peter Davey sat on the tiled floor of what was once his kitchen and held his precious pewter tankard out towards the photographer’s lens.

Cayman is facing a brain drain of some of its brightest young talent because of lack of opportunities and the high cost of living on the islands.

In a special report, the Cayman Compass Issues section delves into the long delays that have plagued Cayman's plans for a residential care facility for people with mental illness and speaks to patients exiled in Jamaica who say they are desperate to come home.

After a decade of planning and almost five years of construction it is still not clear when the Poinciana Rehabilitation Centre, as it is now known, will finally open to patients.

It is time for Cayman, its elected representatives and its people, to think of some fresh ideas to address the jurisdiction's housing crisis.

A lightning bolt shaped stretch of road dissecting private property sandwiched between the green swathe of two blue iguana reserves is at the centre of a new dispute between landowners and wildlife guardians.

Sweeping changes to Cayman’s anti-firearms laws, bringing tougher jail times for offenders and zeroing in on a creeping threat from ‘ghost guns’, were passed by legislators this week. Our Issues section has covered gun crime extensively this year and today we look at what the new law does - and what it doesn't do - to make Cayman safer.

As lawmakers consider tougher mandatory minimum sentences for firearms possession, the Cayman Compass investigates the hidden challenges of zero-tolerance gun laws.

The Cayman Compass goes inside the 'cone of uncertainty' to explain how we survived a near miss with Hurricane Beryl and analyse the threats that lie ahead in what promises to be an active and dangerous storm season.

Cayman's National Road Safety Steering Committee is planning to issue a buyer beware warning about Honda Fits and similar small cars made for the Japanese market that may pose a "clear and present danger" to motorists.

As evening fell over John Gray High School, hundreds of students and other members of the public held aloft lighted candles, while blue-and-white dove-shaped balloons floated away during a striking pink-and-indigo sunset.

Small island developing states (SIDS), like the Cayman Islands, present an anomaly in economic growth, thriving despite traditional economic theories predicting failure.

Tourism's status as a pillar of Cayman's economy has been up for debate in recent times. It's an industry that comes with the potential for negative impacts, writes guest columnists Ernest Ebanks and Jasmin Siegle, of Cayman based Aquilae Consulting Group. But, done right it can provide jobs and business opportunities, complement financial services and provide the impetus to protect and cherish our natural resources.

Coral bleaching in Cayman is part of a worldwide phenomenon that is threatening reefs across every ocean on the planet, apart from the Arctic.

Marine conservationist Lois Hatcher, who has been working on trying to restore endangered corals along the east coast of Grand Cayman, has seen much of her work wiped out over the past year, as bleaching killed off most of the corals she transplanted.

Cayman’s government has decided it is sensible to research something called ‘Gross Domestic Happiness’, but they don't do the very basics of statistical reporting well enough right now.

The surge in cost-of-living is impacting more and more people with Cayman now facing recruitment challenges in middle income professions, including education and healthcare, that are vital to the functioning of society.

Caribbean cartels are using music promoters and performers as a front for organised crime, according to the head of a regional task force investigating drugs, guns and people trafficking.

In the final part of our series on the 'deadly trade' in guns and drugs, the Cayman Compass looks at possible policies, regionally and locally, that could help disrupt organised crime.

As Cayman celebrates Emancipation Day for the first time in over half a century, the Cayman Compass takes a detailed look at how a century of slavery came to a dramatic end on these islands.

The UK has pledged $1 million to improve radar surveillance around Grand Cayman as part of a package of measures to disrupt drug and gun trafficking.

An assortment of freelancers, opportunists and semi-organised contractors risk their lives and their freedom making dangerous sea journeys in ill-equipped boats on the 'ganja run' from Jamaica to Cayman. The Cayman Compass embedded with the Coast Guard to take an in-depth look at the trade.

Arms traffickers are funnelling guns, hidden in cargo shipments, from the US to the Caribbean with relative impunity, contributing to escalating violence throughout the region, including in Cayman.

With the assistance of law enforcement experts, analysts and academics, the Compass pieced together the possible route of a gun across decades and international borders and through the hands of multiple owners from its sale in the US to being fired in Cayman.

When a shooting takes place in the Cayman Islands, more often than not an American-made gun was responsible.

Guns are trading in Cayman for as little as $1,500 in some cases while high powered weapons go for as much as $7,000. In the first past of a Compass crime series, Commissioner of Police Kurt Walton vows to tackle the 'merchants of evil' profiting from violence on our streets.

When police make arrests and seizures in gun or drug import cases, it tends to be the courier rather than the broker that gets caught.

International comparisons of Cayman's minimum wage have caused some to ask whether the planned increase to $8.75 should go further - but others call for caution because of the knock-on costs to businesses.

Set against other economically developed states, comparable island nations, and even other low-tax economies, Cayman's national minimum wage sits almost last among 35 countries analysed by this newspaper.

Compass contributor Simon Cawdery explores what can be done to deal with Cayman's many traffic issues, from a rush-hour tax to improved public transport.

It will cost tens of millions of dollars and won't necessarily make Internet any cheaper, but new subsea cable infrastructure is considered critical to the future of the Cayman Islands. Here's why.

'Urgent action' is needed to avoid severe damage to property and the permanent loss of some of Cayman’s most high-value beachfront, according to a detailed scientific report on coastal erosion on Seven Mile Beach.

A ‘beach bond’ has been proposed as a possible solution to help fund a major sand replenishment project on Seven Mile Beach.

A behind-the-scenes power struggle is being waged over the future of Cayman’s energy supply. As policymakers finalise the road map to transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy, stark divisions remain over how that switch takes place – and who gets to be involved.

Henk Rogers found fame as the inventor of video game Tetris. But he has gone on to be the founder of Blue Planet Foundation and the champion of Hawaii’s renewable energy revolution. His latest non-profit venture aims to spread Hawaii’s success to other island nations including Cayman.

Efforts to stem gang and gun crime in Cayman must focus on youth development, training and education, rather than tougher policing and longer sentences, a host of community leaders have warned.

It is round two in the battle for the beach. With government set to begin clearing vendors off Seven Mile Public Beach following the implementation of a new permitting process, some long established entrepreneurs say they are mystified to have missed out and are facing a battle for their livelihoods.

Two months ago, the Cayman Compass accompanied workers from non-profit ARK to interview Shirley Christian, who was sheltering inside a derelict stall at an abandoned tourism market. Since we first reported her story, a home has been found for her and she is now living in a hotel as she waits to move in.

Entertainer, singer and storyteller Quincy Brown opens up about his arrest for crack cocaine possession, his battle with addiction and his path to redemption.

The Compass has compiled 10 possible solutions to issues facing people in crisis in Cayman, including homelessness and its underlying causes, ranging from mental health and drug challenges to broken families and a lack of community support.

Multiple criminal suspects, including some with mental health challenges, are being kept in prison for lengthy periods rather than being bailed or given community sentences because they are homeless.

New year, same problems? Well, kind of. The Cayman Compass list of issues we will be watching closely in 2024 features some familiar concerns as well as pressing new challenges that loom on the horizon.

A small but growing cohort of people suffering various forms of crisis - from drug addiction and mental health challenges to trauma, poverty and abandonment issues - are sleeping in derelict buildings, on beaches or in vehicles across Cayman. In the first of a three-part series we look at the challenges for Cayman's homeless.