Well it was a homecoming of Olympic proportions. Thousands of people crammed the streets of Russell yesterday to welcome Jon Montgomery home from his gold medal win in the men’s skeleton. Montgomery says he’s still coming to grips with how the Olympics have touched people. He also says he has no firm plans for the immediate future, other than spending time with friends and family….and Tom and Joe ! Jon will be with us coming up tomorrow morning.
As you may have heard on the weekend, one of the province’s ice cutters is now sitting at the bottom of the Red River. It sank near the Selkirk lift bridge on Saturday. Crews tried to recover it yesterday, but, with no luck. A spokesperson says the cutter will likely be retrieved within a couple of months and will need some work, but will hopefully be back in service next year.
A tragic end to a St. Paddy’s celebration. A 20 year old man from Laval, Quebec was killed yesterday after he jumped from a flatbed truck during Montreal’s St. Patrick’s parade. It happened along the parade route. Witnesses say the float literally rolled over the man.
Toronto politicians little surprised to hear the news that, their city will be paying for Corey Haim’s funeral. That according to Corey’s mother. Judy Haim told “Access Hollywood” that Toronto is being generous about picking up some of the tab for tomorrow’s funeral in her son’s hometown. Haim of course died last week in California at the age of 39.
The man convicted of stalking ESPN reporter, Erin Andrews and shooting nude videos of her through a hotel room peephole, faces sentencing today in Los Angeles. Michael Barrett, a 48 year old insurance executive, has plead guilty to stalking and agreed to a 27 month prison sentence.
Well, if you talk to most Manitobans, they’ll tell ya that this winter? We kind of got off easy. Not the case in the U.S. Northeast however. They are once again in clean up mode, after a weekend storm brought heavy winds and torrential rain. At least 7 deaths in 5 states are being blamed on the storm, and hundreds of thousands of customers lost power. The storm came just a couple of weeks after the same area was hammered with a huge snowstorm.
Toyota plans to hold a news conference today to release its preliminary findings on that alleged sudden acceleration of a Prius last week on a southern California highway. Officials say they’ve been unable to duplicate the incident, but police say there’s no indication the incident was staged.
A federal program that helps women deliver healthier babies has been very successful….but needs more money. The Canadian Prenatal Nutrition Program is helping many poor mothers to be, stop smoking and drinking and eat healthier. But the program’s 27 million dollar annual budget hasn’t been increased since 1999.
Well the feds are expected to release a national emergency response plan today, 4 months after being slammed for not having one. Auditor General Sheila Fraser complained last fall that the plan’s blueprint was still not done. But later this morning, Public Safety Minister Vic Toews is expected to outline an emergency plan that’s been approved by cabinet. It’ll spell out which department will take the lead on different kinds of calamities, as well as co-ordination efforts between Ottawa and the provinces.
