Prince collaborator Sheila E. says she’s ‘heartbroken’ at being turned away from Paisley Park

Inappropriate late-night texts to students costs teachers their jobs

Manitoba’s independent teacher commissioner has cancelled two certificates this month because of inappropriate late-night messaging with minors.

Policy change gives Manitoba renters a break from proposed hikes

Aidan Wilson said he was reduced to tears after getting a call from Premier Wab Kinew’s office.

He’d just learned tenants of a West Broadway apartment, including himself, would no longer pay a hundreds-of-dollars monthly rent increase as of Nov. 1.

“It’s been a lot to deal with, it’s a lot to push for, and it’s a lot to speak up. All of these emotions just kind of came flooding out,” Wilson said Tuesday at a news conference alongside Kinew.

The premier announced that renters will not have to pay the increases until the provincial Residential Tenancies Branch hears landlords’ arguments and issues its decisions.

Klein, Gillingham trade jabs over megaproject

Two of Winnipeg’s mayoral candidates wasted no time trading barbs over who bears responsibility for the skyrocketing cost of overhauling the North End sewage treatment plant, during a televised debate Wednesday.

Scott Gillingham and Kevin Klein pointed the finger at each other for the rising cost of the massive project, which had a cost estimate of $795 million in 2015 and had ballooned to $3.2 billion as of the latest estimate.

“We need to be able to understand how that amount tripled in that short a time,” Klein said at the event held at CBC’s downtown Winnipeg headquarters. He pointed out the first estimate was given when Gillingham was chairman of the city’s finance committee. He questioned what the incumbent did to garner funding for the project.

Gillingham shot back by noting Klein was Manitoba’s environment minister in 2023. He accused his opponent of failing to make a dent on the cost.

Mayoral candidates focus on public safety at Indigenous forum

Mayoral hopefuls made their pitch to Winnipeg’s Indigenous community Tuesday at a forum hosted by chiefs organizations.

“Public safety must include trust between police and First Nations,” said candidate Kevin Klein, a former chair of the police board. “Winnipeg needs a policing approach that protects Indigenous residents, supports victims, prevents crime and builds lasting relationships with Indigenous communities.”

The former city councillor and Tory cabinet minister promised harsher penalties for drug dealers and said he’d work to create a community safety task force that would include Indigenous leadership.

He also said the police service must recruit more Indigenous officers to change its culture.

Katie Zacharia and the telling of lies

U.S. President Donald Trump’s new press secretary made her debut last week and was almost universally panned and parodied, lasting just five days before being fired.

Suspect with lighter, torch arrested, released four days before accused charged with murder in fatal arson, trial told

Four days before Alex Courchene was charged with murder for a North End blaze that killed two people, police arrested another suspect who was released that same day without charge, a jury heard Wednesday.

Courchene, 30, has pleaded not guilty to arson and two counts of second-degree murder in the Sept. 14, 2024, deaths of Zenabu Gula, 38, and Geda Wodisso, 49.

Prosecutors allege Courchene set a fire shortly before 3 a.m. in the stairwell of a building at the corner of Main Street and Atlantic Avenue that housed a church and apartment suites.

Gula and Wodisso were unable to escape their second-floor suite and died from smoke inhalation.