Right idea, wrong person: Roseanne reboot doomed from start

Riding the Unity Bus to rally support for Canada in Alberta

It’s a chilly Thanksgiving Monday morning on the eastern edge of Alberta. A sharp wind nips at exposed skin and drab grey clouds hang low in the sky. Such weather does not encourage high spirits, but Unity Bus volunteers can’t afford to let theirs falter: in just one week, on Oct. 19, Albertans will vote on a historic question on whether to remain in Canada.

Right idea, wrong person: Roseanne reboot doomed from start

This was the problem all along: Having "Roseanne" back meant having Roseanne back.

In her relative absence from popular culture — say, in the time between when ABC's "Roseanne" first ended in 1997 and when the network revived the sitcom this March to impressive ratings — Roseanne Barr acquired or developed some opinions that a few people, sadly, may agree with, but that everyone should find appalling.

Barr's tirades, which often drew from right-wing conspiracy theories, were no big secret; Twitter is an irresistible flame to a certain kind of celebrity moth, and Barr had trolled around many times before, under cover of free speech and her provocative brand. But it all caught up to her on Tuesday after she posted several tweets, one of which, about former White House adviser Valerie Jarrett, was particularly racist. By midafternoon, ABC had canceled "Roseanne" — as well it should have.

What Barr did Tuesday is, unfortunately, not a bizarre occurrence in America right now. Many of us have experienced a return home or a reunion with old friends only to find that the conversational dynamic has shifted toward an ugly and unacceptable place. Blame Fox News, blame Infowars, blame the rise of Donald Trump — whatever mechanism of good manners used to direct traffic between people's darkest thoughts and their big mouths has atrophied. Your grandfather changed. Your aunt changed. A high school classmate posted a racist cartoon on Facebook. Your next-door neighbor planted Trump signs all over her yard.

Police, street groups looking to extend co-ordinated outreach-first approach to drug-use, trafficking crackdown

Winnipeg police and street outreach groups are discussing how to extend an initiative that tries to link people with addictions and homelessness services, while targeting open drug use and dealing.

The co-ordinated, outreach-first campaign, which launched Aug. 7 after an initial 10-day police enforcement blitz in some inner-city neighbourhoods, is set to end Oct. 31.

“I think we’re all very happy with the partnership and want to continue in some way. We’ll be having further discussions on what that looks like,” Winnipeg Police Service Chief Gene Bowers said Tuesday.

The WPS reported more than 200 referrals and 55 arrests over a two-month period.

Tenants battling landlords find help in short supply from province

For nearly three years, Quincy Houdayer and Avery Helm repeatedly pressed their landlord to address plumbing failures, water damage and other maintenance problems at their West Broadway apartment, with records showing some issues persisted until the couple turned to the Residential Tenancies Branch.

Emails and text messages between the tenants, Clearwater Management and the RTB reviewed by the Free Press document recurring leaks and flooding, periods without heat or hot water, concerns about mould and basement conditions and repeated followups from the couple seeking repairs.

“Most of the experiences we’ve had with them can be boiled down to, like, they either are very dismissive about it, they act like it’s not their problem… or they will just fully, blatantly ignore you,” Helm said, adding that the only way to get Clearwater to respond was to threaten going to the RTB, a provincial government agency.

RTB data obtained by the Free Press also shows 13 orders involving the three-building complex at 193-197 Furby St. in 2026 alone. All but one favoured the tenant, while the remaining order ruled in favour of both the tenant and landlord on different items.

Hurricane Simon pounds resorts and vulnerable towns along Mexico’s Pacific coast

PUERTO VALLARTA, Mexico (AP) — Hurricane Simon pounded Mexico’s Pacific coast as a Category 3 storm on Sunday, its eye remaining just offshore as its most powerful winds and rain slammed people living between the Sierra Madre and the ocean.

The hurricane's center swirled parallel to the coast, closing in on the Puerto Vallarta area, where its most damaging winds and rain were expected to hit around midnight and continue through Monday morning. Its maximum sustained winds weakened late Sunday to 115 mph (185 kph), according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami, but it was still expected to remain a dangerous hurricane.

That’s not good news for people in and around Puerto Vallarta, a popular tourist destination in the state of Jalisco. Just inland and uphill from the resort areas, many Mexicans live in communities where housing might not stand up to the storm.

By late Sunday, Simon's eye was moving northwest about 45 miles (75 kilometers) south of Cabo Corrientes at about 5 mph (7 kph). A senior hurricane center specialist, Philippe Papin, said this westernmost tip of mainland Mexico is the area most likely to get a direct hit from the system. Cabo Corrientes is at the southern tip of Bahia de Banderas, the wide bay where Puerto Vallarta looks out to the Pacific.

Comparing the Iran and Vietnam Wars

The other day I asked my students in U.S. foreign policy to think about the relevance of the Vietnam War in relation to the ongoing war in Iran. More specifically, I wanted them to identify the similarities and differences between the two wars.