The extreme cold warning continues for Brandon, but the mini ice age is almost over. Brandon will see a couple more days of extreme cold before a weekend warming trend. Saturday’s high is expected to be more seasonal – around minus 10 – and maybe even above normal on Sunday.
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The number of homicides in Manitoba dropped last year – but the per-capita rate of 5-per-100-thousand people tops the country. There were 74 homicides in Manitoba last year, down from 89 in 2022.
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Manitoba’s restaurant operators are calling on the province to do more to fight rising crime. They met with Justice Minister Matt Wiebe this week to discuss solutions to a problem they say is now province-wide. Wiebe says the government has already committed to increasing police funding.
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A 72-year-old woman from Birtle died after her vehicle smashed into a tree on Highway 41 in the town of St. Lazare on Tuesday. RCMP say the car was found at the bottom of a steep hill after it apparently lost traction and fell off the road.
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In a new Angus Reid poll – Manitoba’s Wab Kinew still has the highest approval rating of all provincial leaders at 67%. It’s only a 1% increase from the previous poll – but he’s 12 points higher than second-place Tim Houston of Nova Scotia. Ontario’s Doug Ford is last at 34%.
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Doug Ford, meantime, has threatened to withhold his province’s energy exports to five U-S states – it’s in retaliation to president-elect Donald Trump’s threat of a 25% import tax on all Canadian goods. The premiers and prime minister met yesterday to discuss Canada’s response – and they say retaliatory tariffs are on the table.
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The Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs wants to see a quick resolution to the postal strike – it says essential services like medication deliveries to remote areas have been acutely impacted. On Wednesday, Canada Post said it cannot afford the union’s latest demands which would cost the company more than $3 billion dollars over four years.
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A London, Ontario college student has entered the record books with her tribute to Atari’s ‘Pong’ – the first widely successful arcade game. Victoria Korhonen’s ‘Pong’ game is super tiny – just 63.5 mm tall, about 2.5 inches – and has been named the world’s smallest video arcade machine. She also holds a record for creating the world’s longest selfie stick – used to make animatronic characters for Disney – and now wants to build the smallest humanoid robot.
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George Kresge Junior, who was known to generations of TV watchers as ‘The Amazing Kreskin’ has died at age 89. He made appearances on talk shows hosted by everyone from Merv Griffin to Johnny Carson and David Letterman. Kreskin also hosted his own show in the 1970’s and wrote numerous books including ‘Mental Power Is Real.’
