Heavy-handed new AMC series has potential

Dozens of Uber, Lyft drivers switched to cheaper insurance coverage: MPI probe

Ride-service drivers have been defrauding Manitoba Public Insurance by improperly insuring their vehicles as for personal use.

The public insurer and the City of Winnipeg, which regulates ride-hailing services like Uber and Lyft, discovered the widespread fraud after MPI conducted a review in December last year.

“When a driver changes their coverage from ride-share insurance to a personal vehicle coverage and continues to operate as a ride-share driver, that is fraud, plain and simple,” said MPI chief executive officer Satvir Jatana at a news conference Thursday.

MPI’s review looked at a random sample of 408 ride-hailing vehicles and found 108 were operating without the proper vehicle-for-hire insurance coverage. In order to register with the city as a ride-service driver, a vehicle must have such insurance and proof must be provided to the ride-booking company.

Alberta’s gopher museum closed until further notice as owners find new facility

A quirky Alberta roadside attraction that has delighted travellers for decades with its stuffed rodents in tiny costumes is closed until further notice.

The World Famous Gopher Hole Museum, located in Torrington, a hamlet about 120 kilometres north of Calgary, made the announcement online earlier this week.

Laural Kurta, museum director, said she was forced to close the doors because the two historical buildings that house the exhibits need to be replaced.

"We have done every patch repair, staple, spackle, everything we could possibly do, and it is just at its end," Kurta said in an interview Tuesday.

Heavy-handed new AMC series has potential

Halt and Catch Fire has a lot going for it.

The series has a teasingly intriguing premise (the early days of the computer revolution in the '80s) and it's set in a place most in the viewing audience might not expect (Texas). It also features some smart performances and a sense that the story could go in surprising places.

Yet, judging from the pilot (which is all AMC made available for review), it's also afflicted with a bad case of heavy hands. The first time we see former IBM exec Joe MacMillan (Lee Pace), a swaggering Don Draper-meets-Steve Jobs New Yorker who believes computers are the key to unlocking the future, he's speeding around a shockingly traffic-free Austin in a Porsche, callously running over a slow-moving armadillo in the process.

Later, while playing with a baseball bat, viewers see that it's inscribed with the words "swing for the fences, son."

Dog feces vandalism shuts down food pantry

A few shelves set up beneath a West End community notice board were meant to offer a place where neighbours could leave food for anyone who needed it.