Don’t parade around half-naked in front of kids

Adorable accoutrements for the school year

By now, with only a handful of days left before summer holidays draw to a close, the back-to-school essential kit lists will be landing in inboxes throughout the province.

Specifying children turn up to school with a precise number of pencils — sharpened, of course — a deck of playing cards, a multipack of neon highlighters and an exact number of duotangs (or, as they are known elsewhere in the world, three-pronged report folders) in distinctly different colours, the rigid tyranny of the official school-supply list leaves little room for personal expression.

But this mandatory uniformity doesn’t mean every single item must conform. Just because it’s an essential doesn’t mean it can’t be cute.

Forget moody blues and midnight black — unless they’re your fave colours, of course — and opt for something a bit brighter, a bit sunnier, a bit more doodle-friendly as cheery add-ons for that first day back at schools … without breaking any rules.

Former Gilbert Plains CAO forged doc’s note to get out of court: RCMP

A former rural municipal official awaiting sentencing for stealing more than $500,000 from community coffers has been accused of forging a fake doctor’s note to get out of attending court.

Amber Fisher, the former chief administrative officer for the Rural Municipality of Gilbert Plains, pleaded guilty to one count of theft over $5,000 last year.

Dauphin RCMP say investigators learned Fisher, 42, had submitted the note indicating she would be unable to attend court for her Sept. 2 sentencing, after she was seriously injured in a vehicle collision on July 22.

Fisher’s lawyer submitted the note to the court and the judge adjourned her sentencing to a later date.

Woman who saved child, father from Red River uncomfortable with hero label

A Winnipeg woman who’s been hailed as a hero by police for saving a father and his young child from the Red River says she doesn’t feel like one.

“I’m a mom… and I would do it again,” said Jayclyn Morrissette, who was walking with her neighbour through St. John’s Park on Aug. 24 when they spotted a young girl flailing in the nearby river. “I was meant to be there and that was supposed to happen.”

Morrissette, who spoke to the Free Press Wednesday after police released details about the rescue, said she and her neighbour began looking for the child’s parents and found them at the nearby playground searching for her.

Morrissette waved them over. The father, who she said could not swim, jumped into the river first and immediately began to sink.

Ending special duty helps staff cruisers

If you’re not from Winnipeg, the first time you see it can be a little alarming.