Use care when pawing your pets’ food

Sea Bears Dance Crew takes athleticism to the next level

Many grow up believing dance can only be a hobby and never a career. The Sea Bears Dance Crew defies the notion by showing there can be a professional side of dance in Winnipeg.

Tasha Farmer and Kersey Sarao lead a team of 18 dancers from different backgrounds and styles. Together, they create a high-energy game-day experience — one that encourages everyone in the arena to get up and boogie.

Farmer started dancing at a young age, experimenting in all that was offered.

“I trained in ballet, lyrical, hip hop, musical theatre — every single style you can think of,” she said.

Big spike in catalytic converter thefts

Harvey Tschetter didn’t know someone was under his SUV when he was roused by the sounds of a power saw cutting metal and took a look around the vehicle outside his North Kildonan condo.

After finding nothing untoward and going back inside, he heard repeated hammer strikes and saw a vehicle idling next to his Mitsubishi RVR, which he’d purchased two days earlier. Someone was trying to steal the SUV’s catalytic converter.

“I ran out there and I screamed at them, ‘What the F do you think you’re doing?’ They crawled out from under my car, held the hammer up like, don’t come near me, and drove off,” Tschetter said of the June 8 incident. “It was 5 a.m. and completely light out. I can’t believe how brazen they were. They showed no fear.”

The incident happened amid a sharp year-over-year increase in reports of catalytic converter thefts or attempted thefts to Manitoba Public Insurance, after record highs in 2021 and 2022 led to increased enforcement, provincial anti-theft legislation and a period of significant decline.

Nominees announced for Rintoul award for top MB play

With the Winnipeg Fringe Theatre Festival headed into its final stretch, the Manitoba Association of Playwrights announced which six original local productions have made the cut for the prestigious Harry S. Rintoul Award, given out each summer to the top new Manitoban play.

Named for the late founder of Theatre Projects Manitoba, the Rintoul Award winners receive a $750 cash prize, while the honourable mention recipient takes home $250 for their creative efforts.

This year’s list features several playwrights who’ve established reputations for critical and commercial successes at the festival, along with a few first-time Rintoul honorees.

For JHG Creative’s Monique Gauthier, Ian Ingram and brothers Cuinn and Connor Joseph, a spot on the Rintoul shortlist is on the menu for Dead Chef, a black comedy musical set at the French restaurant Eau Bouillante which earned a “chef’s kiss” from Free Press reviewer Jen Zoratti. The winners of the 2023 prize for their World’s Fair 1876: The Centennial Exposition, JHG was also the honourable mention recipient in 2024 for their delivery comedy The Mailroom. The Josephs also won the award in 2019 for The Cause.

Woman pleads guilty to beating teens, injecting them with drugs

Two teens who thought they found temporary harbour in a stranger’s apartment after they missed their late-night bus home were instead terrorized, beaten and injected with methamphetamine against their will, a court has heard.

E-scooter knocks senior onto sidewalk as he gets off bus

A Winnipeg man was thrown onto the pavement and injured after being struck by an electric scooter after stepping off a Winnipeg Transit bus Monday afternoon, an incident he hopes will push the city to take a closer look at sidewalk safety.