New Free Press cookbook to spice up your kitchen

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.

Provincial teacher watchdog releases names, details in three disciplinary matters

An Interlake teacher with a history of “intimidating” outbursts has been ordered to participate in counselling and study anger-management strategies after he made a child cry.

Seniors left hanging during Bell MTS outage: property manager

Shelly Durham said when it comes to many of her elderly tenants of a downtown highrise apartment, their landline is their lifeline.

That lifeline was disconnected Tuesday after a copper cable that provides telephone service was cut Tuesday during construction work.

“It could be a matter of life and death,” said Durham, the building manager at Broadview Manor. “That’s the scary part.”

Manitoba Hydro spokesperson Peter Chura said a contractor working for the utility contacted the underground communications cable while installing a streetlight cable.

Around the NSL: Wild week; Playoff race heats up; Roses bounce back

It was another Wild week in the Northern Super League — and talk about slaying giants.

Calgary defended its home pitch last Saturday and defeated the league-leading Ottawa Rapid 4-3 at McMahon Stadium.

For the Wild faithful who have stuck with the club all season, this one was for you.

The home side came out firing, barraging Mollie Eriksson and Melissa Dagenais with 16 shots towards the net, with nine of those shots on target.

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.