Cineplex introduces $1.50 booking fee for online ticket purchases

What to watch as puck drops on Jets training camp

Welcome to a Winnipeg Jets training camp like no other — one where the on-ice storylines and battles threaten to be trumped by what’s happening away from the rink.

Yes, the dark cloud that is the Connor Hellebuyck situation looms over the organization as it prepares to try and turn the page on a terrible 2025-26 campaign which ended with a 26th-overall finish.

It’s not going to be easy, especially in a highly competitive Central Division and Western Conference and with such a major unresolved issue.

But the work starts now, and Free Press hockey writers Mike McIntyre and Ken Wiebe get you set for what to expect ahead of the 84-game regular season, which begins Oct. 2.

Manitoba abandoning spring, fall clock changes

Time’s up for the time change in Manitoba.

Manitobans won’t be setting their clocks back an hour next month. The province has decided to permanently stay on daylight time after surveying residents on the twice annual clock adjustment.

“We heard from Manitobans loud and clear — no more changing the clocks in Manitoba,” Premier Wab Kinew said in a news release Thursday.

Most of the 72,000 votes submitted in an online EngageMB survey — 92 per cent — said they would like to see the practice end. The survey asked if they preferred earlier sunrises in winter with standard time or the later sunsets in summer with daylight time. More than half of survey participants (58 per cent) indicated a preference to stay on permanent daylight time; 34 per cent voted to eliminate the time change but stay on standard time.

Online fundraiser for ‘polite, modest farmer’ facing firearms charges sending message, neighbour says

Thousands of dollars have been raised to help cover the legal fees of a Manitoba man charged after he allegedly fired a gun at thieves during a theft on his farm in August.

Winnipeg, police and downtown crime

A safer downtown is not much use if people are still afraid to walk there.

That is the uncomfortable message from Winnipeg’s latest police citizen survey, and one city council should take seriously.

Downtown crime has fallen this year, according to the most recent police statistics. Violent crime is down even more. But for most Winnipeggers, the downtown still feels like a place to avoid, particularly after dark.

Only 44 per cent of survey respondents said they feel very or reasonably safe walking alone downtown during the day. At night, that number plunges to just eight per cent. Among women, it is an appalling three per cent, compared with 14 per cent of men.

Rain causing poor harvest conditions for farmers

BRANDON — Farmers are dealing with poor harvest conditions owing to the high amount of rain this month.

Brandon had received 74.7 millimetres of rain by Sept. 15, a spokesperson for Environment and Climate Change Canada said Wednesday. The amount is equal to 173 per cent of average rainfall for Brandon.

The wet conditions are causing crop loss and delays in harvesting, several Westman farmers said this week.

“At this point, it (could be) six figures of loss. And that all happens in days,” Cassandra Lepp, a Rivers-area wheat and canola farmer, said. “We have good crops out there, and they are disappearing.”