Bidens head to summer blockbuster ‘Oppenheimer’ during beach vacation

New blood in St. Vital

Candidates to fill the wide-open St. Vital city council seat are sharing their plans to ease traffic, tighten up development rules, protect trees and improve Winnipeg Transit.

Coun. Brian Mayes led the ward since 2011 but is not running for re-election, guaranteeing a new city councillor will be chosen.

Chris Sigurdson, a Louis Riel School Division trustee and criminal defence lawyer, is competing for the job with Mayes’ endorsement.

Sigurdson said his trustee work over the last 16 years provided a valuable education in local government that he could apply at city hall.

Empty desks: Advocates talk chronic school absenteeism

Concerned that school and government leaders are downplaying the state of student absenteeism, community organizers are strategizing to create urgency around who’s regularly missing class — and why — in Winnipeg.

The inaugural Youth at Risk in Winnipeg Symposium, held over the weekend at the Canadian Mennonite University, drew roughly 100 people to discuss barriers to attendance and brainstorm ways to remove them.

Nearly 20 years after he began calling attention to the issue, first as a volunteer with the Point Douglas Residents Committee, Sel Burrows gave an impassioned speech about the lack of political will to take meaningful action to help students from “dysfunctional homes.”

“I’ve dealt with nine cabinet ministers, Conservative and NDP, and five deputy ministers, and the issue has not gotten any better,” Burrows told teachers, reseachers and community support workers gathered Saturday on CMU’s Shaftesbury campus.

Accused used fuel-filled bottle to set blaze that killed two, court hears

Alex Courchene failed once to set a North End church ablaze, then returned a day later and tried again, starting a fire that killed two people living in an upstairs apartment suite, a jury was told Monday.

Policy change gives Manitoba renters a break from proposed hikes

Aidan Wilson said he was reduced to tears after getting a call from Premier Wab Kinew’s office.

He’d just learned tenants of a West Broadway apartment, including himself, would no longer pay a hundreds-of-dollars monthly rent increase as of Nov. 1.

“It’s been a lot to deal with, it’s a lot to push for, and it’s a lot to speak up. All of these emotions just kind of came flooding out,” Wilson said Tuesday at a news conference alongside Kinew.

The premier announced that renters will not have to pay the increases until the provincial Residential Tenancies Branch hears landlords’ arguments and issues its decisions.

Bidens head to summer blockbuster ‘Oppenheimer’ during beach vacation

REHOBOTH BEACH, Delaware (AP) — President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden took a break from their Delaware beach vacation to see the summer blockbuster “Oppenheimer."

The Bidens, after a quick dinner at Matt’s Fish Camp in nearby Lewes on Tuesday, went to an early evening showing of the three-hour movie about the life of Manhattan Project mastermind J. Robert Oppenheimer.

The Bidens chose “Oppenheimer” over the even bigger blockbuster “Barbie,” which was showing at the same time at the Movies at Midway theater.

The total box office in U.S. and Canadian theaters on the opening weekend was more than $300 million, the fourth highest ever. Warner Bros.’ “Barbie” grossed $162 million domestically, the best opening of the year. Universal’s “Oppenheimer” took in $82.4 million.