FDA approves Moderna’s new lower-dose COVID-19 vaccine

Renewed spirit and life: Indigenous treatment centre expands with $21-M revamp

Don Robinson knows first-hand that many people don’t get sober by themselves.

In late June 1984, Robinson downed his last drink. His recovery began at Pritchard House in Winnipeg’s North End, a 22-bed treatment facility run by the Native Addictions Council of Manitoba.

“I didn’t get sober by myself,” said Robinson, a member of Bunibonibee Cree Nation who now works in grief and trauma counselling and traditional knowledge as an elder at Ka Ni Kanichihk Inc.

More than four decades later, Robinson was back at the council on Monday, crowded into a room at its newly renovated treatment centre at 160 Salter St. — a place he once turned to for help and where he helps others now.

Man who killed truck passenger handed new 12-year sentence

Manitoba’s highest court has given a man who shot at a passing truck and killed a 20-year-old woman a 12-year prison sentence for manslaughter.

William Ryerson Thomas Comber, now in his mid 20s, was found guilty of second-degree murder by a jury in December 2022 for the killing of Hailey Dugay on Nov. 17, 2018. Comber was later sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 12 years.

Dugay died after the truck she was travelling in was struck by gunfire late at night on a gravel road near Fraserwood, 90 kilometres north of Winnipeg.

The Court of Appeal struck down Comber’s murder conviction earlier this year and ruled he was instead guilty of the lesser offence of manslaughter.

At last, some good news on homelessness

There is no shortage of reasons to be frustrated about homelessness in Winnipeg. But the latest numbers provide something that has been increasingly difficult to find — evidence that at least some things are getting better.

FDA approves Moderna’s new lower-dose COVID-19 vaccine

The U.S. approved a new COVID-19 vaccine made by Moderna late Friday but with limits on who can use it — not a replacement for the company’s existing shot, but a second option.

The new vaccine, mNexspike, is a step toward next-generation coronavirus vaccines. It's made in a way that allows for a lower dose — a fifth of the dose of its current COVID-19 vaccine, Spikevax — by refining its immune target.

The approval “adds an important new tool to help protect people at high risk of severe disease from COVID-19,” Stephane Bancel, Moderna’s CEO, said in a statement Saturday.

The Food and Drug Administration approved the new vaccine for use in all adults 65 and older, and for people age 12 to 64 who have a least one health condition that puts them at increased risk from the coronavirus.

Officers, not technology, stop huge drug drop into Stony prison

Stony Mountain Institution officers intercepted $1.8 million worth of drugs and other banned items Sunday in one of the largest reported seizures in recent years at Manitoba’s only federal prison.

Jake Suelzle, president of the Union of Canadian Correctional Officers’ prairie region, said employees spotted a drone while it delivered packages containing contraband.

“What marks this one a little bit unique is the (Correctional Service of Canada) just invested a significant amount of money into a drone detector, and this drone detector sure showed its worth when it didn’t detect at all,” he said Tuesday. “No alarm was raised when this package was dropped.”

In a news release that offered limited details, the correctional service said the items, including THC concentrate, were found in packages thanks to the “vigilance” of employees.