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A three member panel looking into Manitoba’s prison system got an earful last night from a number of groups and members of the public mainly concerned about overcrowding. Manitoba’s 7 correctional facilities were designed to hold about 1500 inmates but the current population exceeds 2400. The panel’s report and recommendations for solutions to the problem should be ready for the provincial government by next spring.

A big chunk of North Winnipeg went dark during the afternoon rush hour yesterday. Manitoba hydro crews shut down power to make repairs to the system that had been knocked out last Friday and Tuesday afternoon by pole top fires. Those types of fires are a common occurrence when the humidity is high. Moisture can get into hairline cracks on insulators and cause sparks and arcing and consequently a power outage.

The Nominees for the 2012 Juno Awards were revealed yesterday. I few Manitoba performers received nominations. The Wailin Jennys and Twilight Hotel both up for Roots and Traditional Album and Portage la Prairie’s, Doc Walker nominated for Country Album of the year.

The country’s number-crunching agency is about to unleash the first wave of new census date today. There is a lot of anticipation about the Statscan report, because the data says a lot about us as a nation – both politically and socially. The info from the count influences everything from the number of government representatives in the area – even where playgrounds are located.

A Winnipeg jury was shown photographs of Beverly Rowbotham taken just hours before her violent death. Crown witnesses have testified that Stohbee told the his wife had gone grocery shopping in the afternoon, but their son was acting up, so she left early and disappeared on the way back to the store. But the surveillance photos show Rowbotham spent 46 minutes inside the store and their son was not acting up.

And there’s a new way to get a shot of caffeine and it may not be a good thing. “Aeroshot” is a lipstick-sized tube that contains caffeine powder that’s inhaled. It went to market last month in New York and Massachusetts, but New York Senator Charles Schumer wants the FDA to review the product, fearing it will be used as a club drug.

City officials have deactivated pedestrian-crossing buttons at several major intersections around Winnipeg because they were affecting the flow of traffic.
Pedestrians now have to wait for the traffic lights to change at regular intervals, rather than spurring the lights to change by pushing the buttons. There are about 12 intersections on Kenaston Boulevard from Academy Road to Scurfield Boulevard with deactivated buttons, along with another 12 on St. Anne’s Road from Kingswood Avenue to Aldgate Road. Another 15 intersections on Main Street from Euclid Avenue to Fernbank Avenue also have deactivated buttons.
Canada’s top court is set to hear the case of an HIV-positive Winnipeg man who didn’t disclose his medical condition to his sexual partners. Clato Mabior recently completed his prison sentence and is set to be deported to Sudan in mid-February. He was sentenced to prison in 2008 for 14 years after he was found guilty of having unprotected sex with 4 females, including a 12 year old girl.

The Winnipeg Humane Society is set to offer up about 80 dogs seized in January from a property in West St. Paul. The animals were covered in filth and forced to stay in small cages. The shelter took them in and nursed them back to health. They are now asking people interested in adopting to complete a survey. Once approved it goes into a draw with a chance to take one home.

City officials have deactivated pedestrian-crossing buttons at several major intersections around Winnipeg because they were affecting the flow of traffic.
People now have to wait for the traffic lights to change at regular intervals, rather than spurring the lights to change by pushing the buttons. Want to know which ones, up at our website. Workers have starting removing the buttons, with most of the ones in downtown already gone.

Woman in central China has given birth to a 15.52 pound baby. The 29-year mother delivered the boy by cesarean section and took about 20 mins. It’s not the biggest baby born though. The Guinness World record says the heaviest newborn ever recorded was born to an Ohio woman in 1879 and weighed 23.7 pounds.

The deadly house fire in West Kildonan that killed a mother, grandmother and three young girls started in a downstairs couch. Unfortunately, since no one can say what was going on inside the house before the fire, the cause of the fire will stay undetermined.

The Manitoba Government and General Employees’ Union has filed a motion questioning the legal validity and jurisdiction of the provincial inquiry into the death of Phoenix Sinclair. The five-year-old was killed in 2005 after being released into her parents’ care from Child and Family Services. Her mother Samantha Kematch and stepfather Karl McKay were convicted of first degree murder for her death.

At a time when most of us are trying to tighten up the purse strings, Ottawa spent $7.5 million dollars to celebrate the Queen’s diamond jubilee. Especially out in Quebec, where at least 6 MPs have returned their Jubilee medals in protest.

Manitoba Public Insurance is giving police in Brandon and Winnipeg $120 thousand to crack down on distracted drivers. Even though nearly 5000 tickets have been issued since it became illegal to use a hand held device behind the wheel in July, a study show most of us still are.

The union for Manitoba prison guards will tell the province today we need new prisons. The number one concern for members, according to union president, is overcrowding. Our jails only have room for 1492 people, but there are 2214 current inmates.

A two vehicle collision northeast of Stratford, Ontatio has left 11 people dead. The accident was caused by a large passenger van running a stop sign, where it was hit by a flatbed truck.

Former Winnipeger, Dustin Paxton, has been found guilty in Calgary of aggravated and sexual assault against his roommate and former business partner, but not of unlawful confinement.

A female pedestrian is in hospital in stable condition after she was hit by a City of Winnipeg vehicle on Monday afternoon, police have confirmed. Emergency crews were called to the corner of Watt Street and Munroe Avenue just before 1 p.m.

A review of 20 years worth of studies on disciplining children has found that spanking, shaking or yelling at kids might make them more aggressive towards each other. The findings are in the Canadian Medical Association Journal.

The censors were fast, they just weren’t fast enough. Censors did blur singer MIA giving the finger during the half time show but they were less than a second late. She’s known for being very outspoken and saying pretty shocking things, so no surprise that, while NBC has issued an apology, MIA has not.

Three winning tickets were sold for the weekend’s $50 million Lotto Max jackpot — two in Quebec and one in British Columbia.

Two men are facing murder charges in Winnipegs second murder of 2012. 29-year-old Ian John Folster died after being stabbed on January 25th. Police say a 29-year-old woman was also assaulted and stabbed trying to protect him and his fiancé witnessed the attack.

A woman was carjacked at gunpoint in the parking lot of the St. Vital Shopping Centre on Friday, police said. Reports are the suspect pulled out a gun as she was leaving the car she’d just parked. She handed over the keys and the suspect drove off, police said.

A kitchen fire in the North End sent three young children to hospital Saturday night due to smoke inhalation, a Winnipeg fire department spokesman says. The three, aged 3, 2 and 1, were taken to Children’s Hospital in stable condition,

A family was pepper-sprayed Sunday afternoon. Just before 3 p.m. Sunday on Fife Street, a mother and her five young children had a window broken in their home, then pepper spray filled the room.

RCMP have found the body of a 17-year-old from Winnipeg reported missing Jan. 30. Andrew Stevenson’s body was discovered in a rural area south of Hodgson. Foul play is not suspected.

Police say a man was carrying a sawed off rifle and ammunition when he was arrested in Portage Place. At the time of his arrest, 23-year-old Justin Michael Henderson, was under a weapons ban, say police. There was also an outstanding warrant out for his arrest.

Canada’s supreme court is set to hear arguments over whether it’s a crime for people with HIV, if the risk of transmission is low, to not tell their sexual partners. Prosecutors argue it’s up to partners to decide if they want to run the risk of contracting the virus. Advocates argue that condom users or peoop a low enough viral load to make transmitting the disease unlikely should not be punished and this law makes it criminal to have a disease.

Hardly any snow put a stop to a Winnipeg Superbowl tradition. For 15 years the O’Bray family watched the Superbowl inside a massive quinzee. They thought bringing in snow would be cheating, so this year watched in the garage.

Some changes to a west Winnipeg soccer association will make the games less competitive and more developmental. Smaller fields and less players, at certain levels, will get all children more time with the ball. The changes also drops the average sign-up fee down $40 to $70 depending on the community centre.

Super Bowl XLVI controversy! M.I.A. gave the finger during the halftime show. NBC has apologized.

Ontario Provincial Police said Thursday that 213 charges have been laid against 60 people in a wide-ranging child-pornography bust, including one who was a daycare worker and three young offenders. The charges included sexual assault, child luring as well as distributing and producing child pornography. Police have identified 22 victims.

A 26-year-old woman told police that she was sexually assaulted on Wednesday during the noon-hour in The Exchange District. She says was walking near Albert Street when a man came up behind her, grabbed her around the waist, aggressively pulling her towards him and then took off. She described the man as in his late 20s or early 30s, Asian in appearance, medium height and build, thin moustache, dark complexion and acne scars on his cheeks. He was wearing a black toque, dark sunglasses, a waist-length red-and-black snowmobile jacket and dark jeans. If you were one of the strangers that stepped up to help her or saw what happened, police are looking for more information.

Eight new police officers are on the street and there will be 12 more by spring. All are foot patrol officers and will be working 2 at a time, in rotation. During the last election, Mayor Sam Katz promised 58 new officers. That promise will be fulfilled once a new class of officers graduate.

Senator Pierre-Hugues Boisvenu pissed off some people Wednesday by saying “Each assassin should have the right to a rope in his cell to make a decision about his or her life,” He later apologized to families of suicide victims he may have offended. Then, Winnipeg NDP MP Pat Martin called him an “a—hole” and refused to apologize for it. Boisvenu is an outspoken victims’ rights advocate. His daughter was raped and murdered by a repeat offender in Quebec in 2002

Jets all-star defenceman Dustin Byfuglien is likely headed to trial after his lawyer was unable to reach an agreement with the judge. On Aug. 31 last summer, Byfuglien was charged with boating while intoxicated on Lake Minnetonka in Minneapolis. He was also charged for initially refusing to take a blood or urine test and for boating without enough flotation devices for the passengers on board and for operating without navigational lights. He has pleaded not guilty on all charges. Jet fans will also be happy he’s back after 16 games on the injury list

79 dogs seized last week can now start being prepared for adoption. As of Wednesday, the province takes full ownership over the bulldogs, spaniels, wheaten terriers and Lhasa Apsos that were pulled from a barn on Jan. 24. They’re checking the animals to see if they are suitable for adoption; both healthwise and personality. The dogs were thin, thirsty and covered in feces when they were rescued. Some had gum disease, fleas and other health problems.

A 13 year old Winnipeg athlete is off to the Superbowl. Aleksei Minarik will hop a flight to Indianapolis with his mom, dad and sister courtesy of Winnipeg-based non-profit the Dream Factory. It fulfills wishes for kids battling life-threatening illnesses. A little over a year ago, Aleksei was diagnosed with Ewing’s sarcoma, a rare type of cancer that strikes the bones. Even then better than his Superbowl trip – doctors say Aleksei’s treatment has been successful and he’s currently cancer fre.

Jerome Labossiere has been convicted of first-degree murder in the brutal killing of his brother and elderly parents. The court was told that Labossiere hired two men to kill his family. One man, Jeremie Toupin, plead guilty to second degree murder in exchange for his testimony. The other man, Michael Hince, was found not guilty.

What is there was an earthquake and no one was around to feel it? A small 3.3 magnitude earthquake hit Saskatchewan and Manitoba, west of Brandon, yesterday. Geologists say the likely cause was heavy potash mining in the area.

A fire around 10:30 yesterday morning on Bannerman sent one man to hospital suffering burns to his face and head, and smoke inhalation. Three others were treated on scene..

Police can get just as frustrated as the rest of us about some crimes. After 88 year-old great-grandmother Eva Zajac was robbed of her purse, losing nearly 15-hundred dollars, they set up a trust fund to help. The public is welcome to make donations.

The Canadian Advocate for the Adoption of Children or CAFAC will be closing this Friday because of regulations and fee increases. Manitoba Family Services says they’re trying to work with the agency and minimize the effect on families.

The chief climatologist for Environment Canada has, for once, admitted they were wrong. Dave Phillips predicted that Western Canada would have a colder than normal winter, but it’s been the second- or third-warmest winter on record for some of the prairie provinces.

Facebook filed yesterday for an initial public stock offering worth $5 billion dollars.

It was the worst case of soccer violence in Egypt and the deadliest worldwide since 1996. At least 74 people were killed and hundreds injured after soccer fans rushed the field in Egypt, starting fights and a stampede.

You may be able to expect more Lululemon clad booties in your future. The Fort Garry Hotel in downtown Winnipeg will open the 1,860-square-metre Yoga Public, which they’re saying is the largest yoga facility in Canada. It opens February 11th.

Lady Gaga may be looking to start a family – but her conditions are it’s going to be by artificial insemination and the donor must be Italian or, even better, Sicillian.

The man who admits to hitting Canadian Sheila Nabb in an elevator in Mexico, says he was forced to sign a confession claiming attempted murder, which he denies. Mexican authorities say they found clothes stained with Sheila Nabb’s blood in Jose Ramon Acosta Quintero’s home and he knew information about the case that was never released to the public.

A man sexually assaulted a 16-year-old girl just after 3 a.m. Monday in the North End. She accepted a ride from a male stranger in a van near Magnus Avenue and McGregor Street and was assaulted. The man is described as a black male, about 30 to 40 years old, driving a silver-coloured van similar to a Dodge Caravan. Police ask anyone with information to call Crime Stoppers at 786-8477.

Blood, bone chips and clumps of hair from Beverly Rowbotham were found by RCMP in her house and backyard, according to forensic experts. The Crown alleges her husband, Mark Stobbe killed her in the backyard with a hatchet, then drove her body to a remote area north of the city to cover up the crime. Stobbe, a former high-ranking communications specialist with the Doer government, has pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder.

Police arrested a man and woman who allegedly tried to steal groceries from a store, then started punched a 21-year-old security guard trying to stop them. Several bystanders who came to his aid. A male and woman, both 34, are facing a charge of robbery with violence.

A sex offender police believe is a high risk to reoffend was released yesterday.
Brett Russell Jeffrey Pilch, 46, is expected to live in Winnipeg and has a history of sex offences, most involving telephone harassment of women. Some of those offences have involved “direct physical contact.”

Manitoba has a new senator. JoAnne Buth is an agricultural professional with a biology degree from the University of Winnipeg and a master’s degree in entomology from the University of Manitoba. She was previously the president of the Canola Council of Canada and worked for Manitoba Agriculture. Manitoba now has four Conservatives and two Liberals in the Senate.

Ladies, if you get approached by a man outside a bar with a video camera, despite the Jets gear he’s wearing and his name of Mr. Jetz TV, he has nothing to do with the hockey team. Darrell Ackman isn’t doing anything illegal, but he is hoping to film some Girls Gone Wild-style videos to post on YouTube.

A highly toxic drug linked to at least 13 deaths in Western Canada has been found in Winnipeg. PMMA is considered five times more toxic than MDMA, which is normally found in ecstasy, and has been confirmed responsible for eight deaths in Alberta and five in B.C. with hundreds more being treated in hospital.

Winnipeg police are looking for two suspects that robbed a store in Grant Park Shopping Centre just before 9 p.m. Tuesday night. Police said the suspects were armed with what looked like a Taser.

Winnipeg and airport fire crews went on emergency stand-by last night after the pilot of a Cargo plane from Kentucky diverted to Winnipeg after reporting a fire indicator light had activated. The plane landed safely and technicians say the light was a technical malfunction.

Testimony continues today in the second-degree murder trial of a former government adviser, Mark Stobbe. Policed allege Stobbe hit his wife, Beverly Rowbotham, in the head 16 times with a hatchet in 2000. A RCMP forensics expert told the court yesterday evidence showed Rowbotham had been killed, then her body was moved to where she was found, in her car north of Winnipeg.

The City of Winnipeg and the Winnipeg Police Association are fighting over the paychecks of about 14 hundred officers and 400 other employees. The association says, in Western Canada, the only police service of 50 officers or more that pays it’s employees less than Winnipeg is Moose Jaw.

Final arguments were heard yesterday at the trial for two men charged with first degree murder of an elderly couple and their son. Jerome Labossiere and Michael Hince are accused of killing Labossiere’s parents and brother, then setting their farmhouse on fire to cover up the crime. The Judge is expected to charge the jury on Wednesday.

A whole community, some of whom had never met the victims, gathered last night to pay their respects to the mother, grandmother and three daughters who died in last week’s West Kildonan house fire. Hamid Farooq, the father who was at work at the time of the fire, thanked everyone for their prayers and support, saying they gave him comfort.

Winnipeg’s newest ground hog, Willow, makes her live debut February 2nd. The Prairie Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre, which heals and releases injured wildlife, has allowed to take on the duty of letting us know if it will be six more weeks of winter or early spring on Groundhog’s Day.

Don Starkell, the Winnipeger adventurer who set a Guinness Book of World Records paddling more than 19,000 kilometres with his son Dana to the Amazon, has died after a battle with cancer. He was 79. The Starkell family has asked in lieu of flowers, donations be made to the YMCA at Strongkids.ca http://www.ymcastrongkids.ca.

School trustees have to decide between making major cuts or raising school property taxes. Yesterday, Education Minister Nancy Allan announced a 2.2 per cent increase in provincial operating grants for public schools but dropped the tax-incentive grant that added $135 million over the past four years in exchange for divisions freezing taxes.

Winnipeg police have launched the fourth phase of their Just Slow Down campaign. TV commercials started running yesterday meant to show the risks and consequences speeding can have.

Police have charged a female Winnipeg high school teacher and coach with sexual exploitation. Regan Moses, a social studies teacher at Fort Richmond Collegiate, has been put on paid leave after she turned herself in on January 6th. The alleged offence occurred with a former student between February 2006 and February 2008. Police say the charge of sexual exploitation applies when a person is in a position of authority, such as a case with a teacher and a student.

A sad end to an already tragic story – the sole survivor or last week’s West Kildonan house fire, a four-month-old girl, passed away Friday afternoon. Her father, Hamid Farooq, will make a public thank-you Monday night to everyone who has supported him after he lost his wife, their three children and his mother-in-law. A memorial is being put on by the Manitoba Islamic Association and the Islamic Social Services Association from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at the Grand Mosque on Waverley St. Friends, neighbours, the children’s schoolmates and members of the public are welcome to pay their respects.

Four kids and an adult were bear sprayed Sunday night just after 9:30 while they were in a home on the 800 block of Mountain. The injuries are not considered serious. No suspects have been arrested and police continue to investigate.

A 28-year-old Mexican man confessed to brutally beating a Canadian tourist in the resort city of Mazatlan last week but said he did not intend to harm the woman. According to his statement, he was drunk & high when he encountered Sheila Nabb at the sixth floor elevator. When he tried to prevent her from leaving she screamed, and he panicked, hitting her. Police identified the suspect from a security video where they could see him getting out of the elevator where Nabb was assaulted and from blood on one his sandals.

Police in Winnipeg have recaptured a man who escaped custody at the Health Sciences Centre with a rope made of bed sheets. Stephane Martin Bissonnette, 29, was walking down the street Thursday, near Balmoral and Cumberland, when police saw him and re-arrested him. What did Bisonnette do while he was on the lam? Allegedly robbed two banks — one on Portage Avenue and one on Main —within an hour of each other on Jan. 26.

Two Winnipeg filmmakers, Lisanne Pajot and James Swirsky, won the world cinema documentary editing prize at Sundance for Indie Game: The Movie, a documentary about video game developers. The win came right after HBO and producer Scott Rudin had picked up the rights to adapt the film for TV.

A 34-year-old man from Grand Marais has died after the snowmobile he was driving crashed into a tree, according to police. The man was found late Saturday night on the Northstar Snowmobile Trail near Belair. RCMP are still investigating the reason for the crash.

Bad day? Crank up some Metallica, and you’ll feel better in no time! A Columbia University professor, Galina Mindlin, says that rocking out to songs with a certain number of beats per minute can generate certain mental states, like productivity and relaxation, Metallica’s hard-rocking tunes fall into that 100 to 130 beats per minute, and so do “Pride (In the Name of Love)” by U2 and “Lady Madonna” from the Beatles.

The Winnipeg Blue Bombers have hired Gary Crowton as their new offensive coordinator. Crowton, one of the NCAA’s top offensive coaches in the past decade, has no previous CFL coaching experience but does have NFL; he was the Chicago Bears offensive coordinator in 1999-2000. Crowton spent last season at the University of Maryland and had been rumoured to be heading to the Utah Utes.

The credibility of the Crown’s star witness in a triple murder case is coming under attack. Jeremie Toupin struck an immunity deal to plead guilty to second-degree murder and life in prison with no chance of parole for 10 years. In exchange, he’s testifying Jérôme Labossière allegedly hired him and Michel Hince to kill his elderly parents and brother. Labossière and Hince have pleaded not guilty to three counts of first-degree murder.

A new, updated women’s correction centre will open in Headingley in the next two weeks. The new structure has about 100 cells and 193 beds, 25 to be set aside for federal inmates. The 120,000-square-foot , $79.5 million, facility will provide more space for programming, like addictions counseling, programs to help develop coping skills, life-skills and other education programming.

The uncle of a four-month-old girl who survived a house fire that killed most of her family says doctors have told the family she is brain dead. The fire broke out Tuesday night in the family’s semi-detached home in West Kildonan. Firefighters pulled out the baby, her mother, grandmother and her nine- and four-year-old sisters, but smoke inhalation had caused too much damage. A trust fund has been set up at all ACU’s for the father, Hamid Farooq, who was at work when the fire broke out. The fund name is #Team204

The City of Winnipeg will set up a grant program to help aging community centres upgrade their facilities. Mayor Sam Katz said the city will offer almost a million dollars for community centre renovations every year. The city has set aside 15 per cent of the proceeds from city land sales for the grants. This funding means community centres won’t have to cut back on programming to repair their facilities.

The brother of a Canadian woman found badly beaten inside a Mexican hotel is defending the woman’s husband, saying he’s concerned that a statement could be misinterpreted. Mexican authorities had issued a statement in Spanish that could be translated to suggest the attack on Sheila Nabb was the result of “domestic violence.” The circumstances around the brutal beating are still unknown, but victims of another attack that stayed at the same hotel have come forward to share their story and warning. In their case, the attack was planned to extort money via a fraudulent private medical clinic.

In the same superpipe where Sarah Burke pioneered her sport, a gathering of the world’s best skiers and snowboarders honored the fallen skier with a torchlight parade. Four gold medals in the superpipe. The first woman to ever spin a 720 in competition. The first 900. The first 1080. Burke died last week in a Utah hospital after tumbling in a halfpipe while training on Jan. 10.

The details on the inmate escape for the Health Sciences Centre Sunday night are Stephane Bissonnette — who was being treated after shooting himself in the leg during a robbery last October — asked the female guards to leave the room so he could change his clothing. Bissonnette — who was not restrained in any way — then tossed a makeshift rope he made from hospital bed sheets out the window and climbed to freedom. He had previously broke out of a Montreal jail in 2007.

After the capsizing of the Costa Concordia near Italy, the company has agreed to pay the cost of the cruise, all transportation and $14,500 for items lost and any psychological damages to each passenger who suffered no physical injuries. Passengers injured while abandoning the ship will be dealt with individually. A consumer group that did not sign the agreement is collecting names to file a class action suit asking for ten times that amount.

A 32-year-old man is facing charges of second-degree murder after his wife was stabbed to death Monday night in their downtown apartment. Alche Kidane, 34, had only just arrived in Winnipeg in August last year, after she and her husband made their way from Sudan.

An arrest has been made in the weekend beating of the 88-year-old. Police say Daniel Andrew Campbell, 22, is charged with aggravated assault, break and enter, robbery with violence and breach of probation. The victim remains stable in hospital.

No serious injuries after two downtown fires last night. One was an apartment building fire on Graham, the other in the parkade of CityPlace on Donald where a construction worker was taken to hospital to be treated for smoke inhalation. This comes only a day after a woman, her daughter and her two granddaughters were killed by smoke inhalation. A baby girl was the sole survivor of that house fire and is in hospital in critical condition.

A man arrested in a string of break-ins in the Stonewall area managed to escape the town’s RCMP detachment ut has been recaptured. Tuesday night, when the man was allowed to call a lawyer in private, they say he escaped through a garage door. An 18-year-old man is now facing a charge of aiding and abetting his escape.

79 dogs are receiving medical care at the Winnipeg Humane Society after being removed from “substandard breeding facility.” The good news is none of the dogs, so far, have needed to be euthanized, but they were thin, thirsty and covered in feces. Some also had gum disease or teeth problems. The animals had been in a 40 by 70-foot shed, some as many as three to a cage.

An escaped cat kept an Air Canada flight grounded yesterday. Air Canada, Flight 603 from Halifax to Toronto, was delayed for a few hours because a cat escaped from a carrying case that a woman had taken on the plane. Spurway says the cat ran into the cockpit, which is usually open at that time, and then somehow got into the wiring in the panels. It took a couple hours for maintenance crews to locate the cat and check the wiring.