Germany calls nuclear power ‘dangerous,’ rejects EU plan

‘Harm is profound’: judge sentences man to 12 years for sexual abuse of girls

A Winnipeg man has been sentenced to 12 years in prison after admitting to sexually assaulting two young girls he had lured through social media.

“Because you are young and I love it,” then-21-year-old Nathan Marinko told a 12-year-old victim in April 2023 when she asked why he liked her. “It’s hot that you are young.”

Marinko’s offending “covers the gamut of crimes of sexual violence against children,” provincial court Judge Lisa Labossiere said in a written decision released Tuesday.

“The harm is profound, multifaceted and long term, encompassing physical and psychological injuries,” Labossiere said. “The harm also extends deeply into their families, with lasting consequences that will continue well into the future.”

Bee2gether Bikes out of The Forks after lease confusion

Tandem bike rentals aren’t on offer at The Forks this summer — and the longtime company behind them is claiming financial loss, calling the change unexpected.

PCs cleared of election violation for ‘intimacy coach’ invoice

Manitoba’s elections commissioner has cleared the Progressive Conservatives of wrongdoing after a $3,800 expense for a car rental appeared on an invoice from a company offering “intimacy coach” services.

The findings from the commissioner bring an end to a complaint raised by the NDP in October 2024, when it was alleged the PCs violated the Election Financing Act by forging financial documents related to the previous year’s election campaign.

“I am satisfied that the expense was indeed for a car rental, as the invoice described,” Bill Bowles wrote in a letter addressed to both parties Wednesday.

Concerns over the invoice to Lucid Vitality were first raised by a former PC staffer, whose internal emails with party officials were published in the Winnipeg Sun.

Councillors expand downtown cleanup of drug-related items, weapons

City hall wasted no time Thursday expanding the seasonal cleanup of drug needles and other hazardous material from select downtown parks to include many other public spaces, at least until the end of this year.

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.”