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H.P. Tergesen & Sons General Market surpasses 127 years as family-run business in Gimli

GIMLI — Walk into the store. Meander past the clothing, candy and candles. Find him in the corner, his eyes scanning the bookshelves, a smile on his face as a half-dozen people explore this side of the shop.

Wearing grey shorts and a light blue shirt, Stefan Tergesen, the fourth-generation proprietor of H.P. Tergesen & Sons General Market, is explaining his vision for what’s widely recognized as the oldest general store in Western Canada.

“First and foremost, I want everybody to enjoy being in here,” he says. “I want you at some point to look and go, ‘Oh, cool!’ after seeing something that gets your blood flowing.”

If you ever find yourself on the west side of Lake Winnipeg, some 80 kilometres north of Manitoba’s capital, and you realize you forgot to pack something, there’s a good chance you’ll find it at Tergesen’s.

Software engineer who built lessons on AI for kids was ‘terrified’ into action

When Mohamad Alhamoud witnessed his young son ask an artificial intelligence-powered chatbot to do his homework for him, the software engineer felt “terrified.”

It was midway through the 2024-25 school year and the boy, then a Grade 3 student in Winnipeg’s Louis Riel School Division, had been tasked with inventing something new.

“This was supposed to be his moment of innovation, of imagination, of trying to come up with something on his own,” Alhamoud said.

The father of three has since turned his panic into motivation to help his kids and their classmates become digitally literate.

Taxpayers federation pushes for continued federal gas tax holiday

The Canadian Taxpayers Federation is calling on the prime minister to extend the 10-cent per litre gas tax holiday, set to end on Labour Day.

“We’ve done polling that shows a majority of Canadians from across the country oppose the tax coming back on at the pumps,” said Gage Haubrich, Prairie director of the non-profit advocacy group in front of the Manitoba legislature Tuesday.

Those polled in Manitoba and Saskatchewan were more opposed to the return of the federal gas tax than anywhere else in Canada, he said.

Haubrich said the group was also asking Premier Wab Kinew to “follow in the steps of (Ontario) Premier Doug Ford and send a letter to the prime minister calling on him to extend the gas tax cut as well.”

Woman pleads guilty in toddler’s death

A woman who pleaded guilty to failing to provide the necessaries of life after her 13-month-old son died of an drug overdose in their Sherbrook Street apartment will serve a sentence of house arrest.

Latasha Stewart, in her mid-30s, was given the conditional sentence order of two years less a day by provincial court Judge Malcolm McDonald last Wednesday over the Dec. 29, 2022 death of her son Romeo.

“The circumstances in this case are truly tragic. As a result of an adult’s careless drug use, a 13-month-old boy lost his life,” said McDonald.

“It’s hard to imagine a clearer … lesson in the dangers of street-drug use in a household with young children present (than) in this case.”

Blue Bombers volunteer seriously injured in collision with e-scooter

A longtime Winnipeg Blue Bombers volunteer was rushed to hospital and now faces months of recovery after being hit by an e-scooter while directing football fans after a home game last month.

Senior’s family frustrated by Manitoba Housing’s response to apartment’s bedbug infestation

The family of a senior who left his Manitoba Housing apartment after two years of bedbug infestations is accusing the provincial body of being ineffectual and irresponsible in its treatment of the persistent pests.

The senior had lived at the Columbus Courts building at 253 Edgeland Blvd., since 2011, but when he began getting severe skin rashes all over his body about two years ago, his son began to worry.

They found out the 14-storey building was being sprayed for bedbugs after an infestation had impacted several units. After multiple rounds of pesticide treatments, the problem has not subsided, the son told the Free Press.

“They come in, they spray pesticides and then they leave. And it’s been completely ineffectual,” he said. “My dad keeps seeing the bedbugs even the day after the treatments and continuously, they’ve just gotten worse and worse.”