Nurses at St. Boniface hospital have voted to walk off the job. The nurses voted 79 per cent in favor of a strike yesterday. A union rep says seniority and overtime are two of the key issues. So far, no strike deadline has been set.
Some scary times on board a school bus yesterday for 4 city kindergarten kids. They were trapped on their bus for quite some time after power lines landed on its roof. The lines came down after another vehicle knocked down two hydro poles. Fortunately, crews were able to determine that the lines weren’t live hydro wires, and the kids were able to leave the bus safely.
More than 75 of music’s biggest stars gathered in Hollywood yesterday to re-record the 1985 charity anthem, “We are the World.” The recording was actually done in the very same studio the original was cut 25 years ago. This time, stars included Canada’s own Celine Dion, Tony Bennett, Kanye West and the Jonas Brothers. The proceeds from the sale of the single will benefit earthquake recovery in Haiti.
Toyota is sending dealers a small metal shim, something it says will prevent problems with the accelerator mechanism. The carmaker says the fix should only take about half an hour, and can begin at dealerships late this week. The company also insists that the solution has been through rigorous testing and will solve the problem for the life of the car.
It’s Groundhog Day ! Prognosticating rodents…or, humans pretending to be them….will emerge from their burrows this morning to tell Canadians when winter might wrap up. If the groundhog sees its shadow, folklore has it that winter will stick around for another 6 weeks. If no shadow can be seen, the spring is just around the corner.
Automatic garbage collection begins today in parts of the city. The new system features those rolling bins, which are collected automatically by trucks, rather than the garbage men having to pick up bags and toss them. About 42 thousand households will make the switch to the new automated service in the next 3 weeks. The new bins will eventually get rolled out city wide.
A new report from the Canadian HIV-AIDS Legal Network calls for the establishment of needle and syringe distribution programs in this country’s jails. It warns that the high rate of blood borne infections in prisons is a public health issue that affects all of society.
