Don’t forget to rewind before taking this gem back to the video store

Day 1 of Jets training camp in the books with pairings essentially cemented

Nearly six minutes into his question-and-answer session, Scott Arniel took a welcome detour from the news of the day.

After exhausting the discussion around the goalie who wasn’t in training camp, the head coach of the Winnipeg Jets finally got a query about the line combinations and defensive pairings that were unveiled in training camp.

And unlike past years, when exhibition games were more frequent and the training camp wasn’t this condensed, Arniel conceded these groupings were intentional and were likely staying together for some time.

The expansion to an 84-game regular season brings with it a reduction to four pre-season games and a much shorter training camp, which could limit the amount of experimentation that Arniel can do during the next two weeks.

United Way, other charities fight for dollars as donor base shrinks

Winnipeg’s charitable sector is being squeezed from both sides: demand for help is growing while the pool of donors to meet that need is shrinking.

The imbalance is increasingly being carried by a relatively small group of deep-pocketed donors. Last year, 600 people — about three per cent of United Way Winnipeg’s individual donors — accounted for roughly $8 million, or 55 per cent of individual donations.

The fundraising pitch isn’t getting any easier.

Homelessness and public drug use have become increasingly visible, household budgets remain strained and the problems charities are trying to address can seem so entrenched that donors may reasonably wonder what difference another contribution can make.

Former Bombers linebacker Gauthier enjoying career as electrician

Most professional football players don’t ride off into the sunset on their own terms.

Shayne Gauthier was well aware of that, but it didn’t make it sting any less when the Winnipeg Blue Bombers informed the veteran linebacker that they weren’t bringing him back for 2026.

“I was really hoping to play one more (season) because it would have been my 10th season, so, I’d say it didn’t really end the way I wanted,” Gauthier recently told the Free Press.

“It left a little sour taste in my mouth, but that’s part of pro sports. If everybody got the ending that they wanted, then it wouldn’t really work.”

Lauded Manitoba author chronicled life in the Interlake

Longtime Manitoba author, editor and professor David Arnason died on Monday at age 86.

Safety review calls for improved security at Siloam Mission

A safety review of Winnipeg’s largest homeless shelter is recommending improvements to security for staff, volunteers and community members after what its leadership acknowledged has been a challenging year.

The Siloam Mission report, which has not been made public, was discussed during a town hall Thursday night at the Millennium Centre on Main Street, where shelter leaders laid out what they described as a road forward for the organization.

Interim CEO Lisa Cefali, who was brought in at the end of May following the departure of Sonia Prevost-Derbecker after three tumultuous months in the job, said she could see the toll turmoil had taken when she arrived May 29.

Employees alleged Prevost-Derbecker made derogatory remarks about Indigenous people, people struggling with substance use and the downtown neighbourhood surrounding the mission’s Princess Street headquarters.