First live ‘murder hornet’ sighted near U.S.-Canada border, say scientists

Livestreamed mental-health meltdown underscores medium’s disturbing decline

On Tuesday evening, a well-known celebrity blogger, best known by the nom de plume Perez Hilton, opened up his TikTok account and began a livestream from his Miami home. What unfolded over the next 30 minutes horrified all who witnessed it — and should force the rest of us to take a very sober look at the ways social media can harm.

50 years of rare tall grass prairie celebrated

Kristin Bestvater is always glad when she heads to Winnipeg’s St. James neighbourhood and visits the Living Prairie Museum.

“It’s beautiful,” Bestvater said of the 13-hectare site, which is one of the last remaining tall grass prairies in North America. “I don’t know how many other cities would have something like this.”

The Island Lakes resident and her nine-year-old son were among the hundreds of people who gathered at the museum on Saturday to celebrate its 50th anniversary.

Designated a park in 1974, it officially became the Living Prairie Museum in 1976 with the opening of an interpretive centre which houses a gallery of exhibits, a gift shop and an observation deck.

World-touring rock star comes home for street-naming

Memories of burning Wayne Gretzky rookie cards while biking up and down Bellavista Crescent came flooding back to Brent Fitz on Friday morning as the local rocker revisited his childhood neighbourhood for a street-naming ceremony in his honour.

Bellavista Crescent has been given the honorary name Brent Fitz Way to celebrate the prolific Winnipeg musician, who has played drums and keyboards alongside such rock legends as Slash, Alice Cooper, Ozzy Osbourne, Gene Simmons and Vince Neil.

“Having this location now officially geotagged, it’s incredible. But it’s geotagged attached to people and friends and family,” Fitz said to a crowd of supporters gathered at the corner of Bellavista and Voyageur Avenue.

The Toque and Streetheart member said growing up in the community is where he learned how to connect with people, which led him to form countless relationships that would change the course of his life.

Former Selkirk teacher convicted of sexual assault denies latest abuse claim

A former private school teacher convicted of sexual assault against several students has denied he abused the Manitoba man who’s now suing him over different claims of sexual violence.

Kenneth MacKinnon Mealey, a former teacher at St. John’s Cathedral Boys’ School in Selkirk, is named in a sexual abuse lawsuit filed in Manitoba’s Court of King’s Bench earlier this year by a man who was once a student at the school.

Mealey was convicted more than 20 years ago of sexually assaulting several boys at the Anglican private school.

The school in Selkirk — known for its harsh discipline and physically gruelling outdoor exercises — closed more than 30 years ago.

$60M, six-storey Harbourview Terrace due to open in June 2028

They donned high-vis vests and brandished shovels with gold-coloured blades Friday morning at the ceremonial groundbreaking for a multi-family residential development in northeast Winnipeg.

Concord Projects has started construction of Harbourview Terrace, the inaugural development by two-year-old real estate company Foxhill Properties. Located in North Kildonan at 1820 De Vries Ave., the $60-million, six-storey apartment building will contain 179 units.

Founder and president Frank Koch-Schulte, who runs the company with his wife Alisha, said Foxhill wants to develop and manage properties with integrity.

“This is kind of like my opportunity to try to do things our way, which I feel is a way that keeps tenants in mind,” Koch-Schulte said. “We live in this neighbourhood. We’re very much invested in seeing quality housing go here.”