Officials identify driver who crashed into a Texas pipeline and sparked a 4-day fire

Pretty, purple and pernicious plants plaguing Prairies

After noticing mysterious purple flowers popping up in little patches around the Wolseley neighbourhood last summer, Vic Penner didn’t give it too much thought.

However, this summer, the deceivingly beautiful flowers were impossible to ignore.

“They were just everywhere,” said Penner, 37.

Wolseley isn’t the only neighbourhood being overrun by the plant.

Community rallies around family devastated by fire

Dennis Lafreniere and his wife didn’t expect to celebrate 27 years of marriage Thursday in a Selkirk hotel room while reeling from a recent house fire.

The couple and their two daughters lost their home last Sunday in a raging fire that left nothing behind, but overwhelming support from multiple communities has kept them afloat.

“It’s devastating when you don’t have any clothes, any medication, all of that stuff, and it’s just so overwhelming the next morning. It’s just nasty,” Lafreniere said.

Investigators suspect the fire was caused by a fridge, freezer and battery charger that were all plugged into the same electrical line that got overheated. The house, located on Highway 59 between Selkirk and Libau, is a farmhouse built in 1943, and investigators think worn-out electrical lines also contributed to the fire, said Lafreniere.

Frustration mounts as drug raids sweep problems out of downtown, into West End

West End business owners say their neighbourhood has been under siege for months, and some believe downtown police drug sweeps have made things worse by pushing more street disorder in their direction — and pushing customers away.

Officials identify driver who crashed into a Texas pipeline and sparked a 4-day fire

The driver of a vehicle that crashed into a pipeline valve and sparked a four-day fire that forced the evacuation of nearby neighborhoods in a Houston suburb was a local 51-year-old man, according to police.

Remains found in the SUV following the fire are those of Jonathan McEvoy of Deer Park, according to a statement Monday night from Deer Park Police Lt. Chris Brown.

The cause of McEvoy's death and why the vehicle he was driving went through a fence alongside a Walmart parking lot and struck the above-ground valve remained under investigation, Brown said Tuesday.

“We're still gathering information ... but I don't know that we'll ever have an exact determination” of the cause, Brown said.

Executive exodus continues at Shared Health with three recent departures

Manitoba’s provincial health authority is looking for its fourth chief financial officer since 2023 and additional replacements after the recent departures of three executives.

Letters, Aug 24

The article says the Wolseley Residents Association has fundraised about $20,000 to inoculate publicly owned trees in Wolseley against Dutch elm disease. Ian Dyck is a member of the association’s tree committee, and he says that the Wolseley Residents Association hopes that others will follow their lead. This project will pay for 150 American elms to be protected against the disease for about three years.