Your forecast
Clearing early this morning, but increasing cloudiness this afternoon, with wind from the northwest at 30 km/h becoming southwest 20 this morning then light this afternoon. High -7 C. Wind chill -23 this morning and -13 this afternoon.
What’s happening today
Outside Joke’s A Christmas Carol: Bigger Dickens Energy opens at the Cherry Karpyshin Mainstage at Prairie Theatre Exchange at 7:30 p.m. Ben Waldman has a preview here.

Improv comedy troupe Outside Joke (Supplied)
Today’s must-read
Fears of sparking conflict caused the City of Winnipeg to temporarily move its menorah inside city hall.
Mayor Scott Gillingham said the Dec. 8 overnight move of the large, freestanding menorah (which annually faces Main Street near the city hall Christmas tree) was “out of an abundance of caution” and was not meant to offend anyone in the local Jewish community. Kevin Rollason reports.

The menorah has been replaced in front of Winnipeg’s city hall Monday after it was removed over the weekend for precautionary reasons. (John Woods / Winnipeg Free Press)
On the bright side
Joy Hollenback, a veterinarian who lives in Berkeley, Calif., is part of a crew of volunteers who swim, snorkel and dive armed with pick axes and hammers on a sole mission: to crush purple urchins that largely destroyed 96 per cent of California’s iconic bull kelp forests between 2014 and 2020, and with it harmed red abalone and other sea life they supported.
The pilot project off the Mendocino County coast is one of many initiatives California is testing to save such leafy marine ecosystems, which are declining worldwide due to climate change. The Associated Press reports.

Keevan Harding places urchins in a net bag during an event to remove them with the hope of restoring kelp forests near Caspar, Calif. (Gregory Bull / The Associated Press files)
On this date
On Dec. 12, 1930: The Manitoba Free Press reported that outside Toronto, one of two men in a car stolen in London, Ont., earlier in the day allegedly shot two police officers who pulled their vehicle over; local police staged a huge manhunt surrounding the woods the suspects were thought to be hiding in. Nakina, Ont., extended a civic welcome to the first motor car to arrive in the town under its own power. In New York, amid an ongoing vice investigation concerning a handful of police officers, patrolmen of the 10,000-plus force paid for a full page in a newspaper to advertise their honesty. Read the rest of this day’s paper here. Search our archives for more here.

Today’s front page
Get the full story: Read today’s e-edition of the Free Press.

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