A look at the deadliest avalanches in US history

Residents fear mailbox crime sprees

Some North End residents are concerned new community mailboxes will become a target for vandalism and crime after the base of one was recently lit ablaze — before it was even installed.

The community mailboxes started to show up on Andrews Street within the last two weeks. Some have been installed, while at other locations, only the concrete foundation is in place.

“They just dumped them on the boulevard,” said Stephen Giesbrecht, who lives beside one of the boxes in the St. John’s neighbourhood. “They dumped them on the corner and then they were gone.”

One of the concrete slabs has already played host to a fire and some of the hardware needed to install the mailbox melted.

Winnipegger just one shot off the lead after opening round at Manitoba Open

Braxton Kuntz began the week not knowing if he’d even be able to play in the Manitoba Open.

The 22-year-old Winnipegger will head to Elmhurst early Friday morning just one shot off the lead — hanging tough with the heavyweights from PGA Tour Americas — after firing a fantastic five-under 65 Thursday afternoon.

“Playing in front of friends, family, a nice gallery watching out there…to start out like that, I’m putting myself in contention,” said Kuntz.

He didn’t realize just how close he was until the Free Press informed him that only Kentucky’s Drew Doyle, who has already won on tour earlier this season, had posted a better score among the 156-player field. Doyle shot a six-under 64.

NDP touts health-care gains, but critics question impact on ER wait times

Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara doesn’t mince words when describing how bad things are in the province’s emergency departments and urgent-care centres.

“The wait times that we are seeing in Manitoba are unacceptable,” said Asagwara in an interview with the Free Press.

“I hear from families, I hear from providers, I hear from Manitobans who are concerned about the wait times that they’re seeing, that they’re experiencing, and those concerns are valid — I share those concerns.”

So what is the NDP, who promised voters nearly three years ago it had the answers to bring down wait times, doing about it?

ER wait times have hit all-time highs in Winnipeg and are impacting nearly all aspects of hospital operations

On most days at Health Sciences Centre’s adult emergency department, all 58 treatment beds are filled with sick patients. Another dozen or so brought in by ambulance line the hallways on stretchers, with only one nurse to look after them.

Out in the waiting room, about 30 or 40 people — sometimes more — are slouched in chairs in pain or discomfort, waiting hours to see a doctor. Most have been assessed by a triage nurse, but many will have to wait 10 to 20 hours to be examined by a physician because there’s no room for them in the treatment area.

Some patients leave because they can no longer tolerate the excruciating wait, only to return days later, sicker than they were before.

Welcome to the emergency department at Manitoba’s largest hospital, where some of the highest-acuity patients seek medical care but now face delays that were unimaginable a few years ago.

Doctor speaks out, raises alarm over gas plant expansion plans

A retired doctor is raising red flags on Manitoba Hydro’s proposed gas plant expansion in Brandon and the health-related consequences of climate change.