School boards shouldn’t have to raise their taxes this year. That message from the provincial government, who says, it’ll increase its portion of funding by nearly 3 per cent. The province funds about 63 per cent of school operating costs.
Wanting to avoid a repeat of last spring’s ice jam, the province has bought more ice breaking equipment. 2 new Bobcat machines, equipped with a circular saw on the front, have been purchased at a cost of 240 grand each. The province says the strategy to limit the ice jam threat is already in full swing, as radar and satellite technology is being used to measure the thickness of the ice on the Red River.
We first told you about this story yesterday. Police have now charged a 16 year old boy with attempted murder, following a shooting over a dispute about dirty shoes….not an X-Box game, as was reported yesterday. The 27 year old victim says he was shot after he asked his younger brother to remove his dirty shoes while inside their grandmothers home. The older brother who was shot by the way, was treated in hospital and is now doing okay.
There’s mixed news from Toyota on the problem that triggered a massive recall earlier this week. The world’s biggest automaker says it has started shipping parts to repair the faulty gas pedals. However, Toyota won’t predict when the affected customers would get their vehicles fixed. In this country alone, 270 thousand vehicles are affected, while the recall in the U.S. and Europe totals in the millions.
The name of the Canadian athlete who’ll carry the flag at the opening ceremonies in Vancouver will be announced today. Among the 200 candidates is speedskater, Clara Hughes as well as Scott Niedermayer—captain of the men’s hockey team. The games by the way begin in exactly 2 weeks.
A privacy expert says people’s personal information could be floating around the globe from one computer server to another….and in far away places. David Loukidelis says the information is never at rest. He says a generation ago, the information was being stored in filing cabinets, but now it’s often outsourced to data collection and storage firms in other countries.
Doctors and aid workers say Haiti’s devastated hospitals are being severely taxed as they treat tens of thousands of people injured by the earthquake 17 days ago now. They say basic medical supplies are running dangerously low at some hospitals and clinics. One U.N. official in fact, says there is a grave need for medicine all over Haiti.
Former Winnipegger and WWE star, Chris Jericho, in a bit of trouble with the law. He and another wrestler, Greg Hurricane Helms, were arrested in Cincinnati early Wednesday morning. Apparently the two, along with a few others got into some sort of altercation at a gas station around 4 a.m. The 39 year old Jericho was charged with public drunkenness….but managed to come up with the 120 dollars needed for bail. He’ll now appear in court next month.
