Pixels: animation, with a twist

Buckled concrete gives drivers the heave-ho

Highways, local roads and sidewalks have buckled and broken thanks to extreme heat in recent days, wreaking havoc with travel.

Garth Thomson was driving on the Perimeter Highway, just north of Assiniboia Downs, around 4 p.m. Sunday when he suddenly came upon a major gap in the road.

“There was a big break in the highway, which was the heaving. I had about four seconds to decide what I was going to do. So, I kind of hit my brakes and drove more towards the centre, where the big chunks weren’t (located),” said Thomson. “It happened so fast … there were big chunks (of concrete), probably a foot (per) square, sticking up.”

His convertible had bumper damage and a hole in its gas tank, he said.

Carney trumps Trump with Gordie Howe bridge deal

This is the reality of dispute resolution with the Trump administration: getting what we want but doing it in a way that gives the wacky, volatile and irrational president some sort of moral victory to parade on social media.

Name-change sex abuser pleads guilty

A convicted child sex predator who changed his name before going on to abuse another victim is now facing a likely 15-year prison sentence.

Ryan Knight, 44, pleaded guilty Monday morning to sexual interference and making child sexual abuse and exploitation material.

Knight remains in custody and is expected to be sentenced in the fall, when Crown and defence lawyers will jointly recommend the repeat offender serve 15 years in prison.

Knight, who was born Ryan Gabourie, has been in custody since last July when he was charged with sex crimes involving a 13-year-old boy.

Hydro’s planned outages turn out the lights for thousands across province

Business owners in the East Beaches area of Lake Winnipeg hauled out generators Wednesday after a planned Manitoba Hydro outage left thousands of residents and cottagers without power.

Lise Bourassa, who runs several stores in Grand Beach, had to rent generators to accommodate the eight-hour blackout, which affected the area from Beaconia to Victoria Beach as well as Sagkeeng First Nation, while Hydro crews fixed a pole that was damaged by fire in May .

Despite the spare power source, she was only able to open one of her stores during the outage and said it came at a bad time.

“I understand the importance of what Manitoba Hydro is doing, the problem all the businesses in this area are having is that our season is very short and to be shut down for a full day has a fairly big impact, plus they added cost of getting generators,” she wrote in a message to the Free Press. “We also had less than one week to make arrangements, find electricians and generators to be able to keep all the food safe.”

Pixels: animation, with a twist

A new improv show at the Winnipeg Fringe Theatre Festival that uses cutting-edge animation technology has sparked a dispute over who owns the innovative concept.

Stephen Sim and Caitlyn Curtis, who reproduce the comedy of George Burns and Gracie Allen at the Pantages Playhouse Theatre (Venue 4) in Burns & Allen — A Loving Tribute, also rise to the challenge of doing a second fringe show, Pixels, at the Platform Centre (Venue 24).

“It’s real-time animation,” said Sim of the latter show. “We’re both on stage, we’re talking to the audience, getting inspiration.

“And then we have (virtual-reality) helmets and the VR joysticks,” Curtis said. “Those are all motion-capturing us, so our bodies are puppetting the cartoon characters that are being projected.

Former Manitoba MP Inky Mark charged with firearms offences; more than 400 weapons seized from home

A former member of Parliament from Manitoba has been charged after a stockpile of ammunition and firearms — including an antique cannon — and $300,000 in cash were seized from a Dauphin home last week.

Manitoba RCMP charged Inky Mark, 78, with a dozen firearms-related charges, including firearms trafficking, possession of property obtained by crime, unsafe storage and careless use of a firearm.

In total, RCMP seized 439 firearms from Mark’s property, Mounties said at a news conference Monday morning.

It is expected to take investigators weeks to sort through the arsenal and determine how many of the weapons were legally possessed, but police have already identified three guns that are believed to have been illegally trafficked, and one that had a tampered serial number, RCMP Cpl. Barry Kirby said.