Manitoba’s Faouzia takes Unsigned Only grand prize

Pair of banks abandoning Brandon’s downtown

Two of Canada’s major banks are set to relocate from their longstanding downtown Brandon locations in October.

City rescinds Balmoral Street property owner’s order to clean up encampment

A West Broadway landlord is off the hook for clearing a large riverbank encampment after the City of Winnipeg rescinded an order threatening to stick him with the cleanup bill.

Marvin Sharp, CEO of Astroid Management Ltd., which operates the Pen-Eve Apartments at 35 Balmoral St., said he received a call from the city Tuesday letting him know the order has been cancelled.

In a statement from the city, an official said the order was shelved due to an existing and active easement on the property.

“We have been communicating with the property owner throughout this process and they have been informed of this development,” a spokesperson said.

Shelters overwhelmed as rising vet costs forcing some owners to surrender pets

In the fall of 2022, Tara Miller was faced with a difficult decision: keep her car or sell it to pay for a second knee surgery for her dog.

Ultimately, she needed her car to commute during the winter and decided to manage her dog Corby’s arthritis with medication and home therapy.

“Mentally it probably broke me,” said the 54-year-old.

While insurance covered two-thirds of the dog’s initial $6,000 surgery, Miller had to pay the remaining $2,000. That was on top of the $500 checkup before the surgery and the monthly $175 pet insurance premium.

Two-time cancer survivor trades blows with angry Lake Winnipeg in epic 12-hour fundraising swim

After 12 hours of wind, waves and a painful shoulder, Jonathon Fenton has finished what he started, making it across Lake Winnipeg.

The 62-year-old two-time cancer survivor completed the roughly 26-kilometre swim Sunday, a year after shoulder problems forced him to stop 16 kilometres into his first attempt.

The swim was the second year of Fenton’s Jonny’s Big Swim fundraiser, which supports the Alberta Cancer Foundation, CancerCare Manitoba Foundation and Health Sciences Centre Foundation.

He raised roughly $48,000 this year, bringing the two-year total to about $90,000.

Rural Manitoba homeowner charged with shooting at accused thieves

A homeowner in southern Manitoba has been charged after he fired shots at a group of people accused of stealing from his property, police say.

Officers were sent to the Rural Municipality of Dufferin Saturday after a report of a theft in progress. RCMP said four people went to the property, located about 95 kilometres southwest of Winnipeg, and returned later the same day driving two vehicles stolen from Watrous, Sask.

The owner of the property, a 66-year-old man, saw the suspects on a motion-activated camera and saw someone transferring fuel from a portable container into one of the stolen vehicles. The man confronted the group and fired shots towards the vehicles, police said.

Three people stayed at the scene until officers arrived and took them into custody, RCMP said. Various items believed to have been stolen from the property were found in the back of a truck. A fourth suspect fled in the other vehicle.

Hayden Panettiere, who starred in ‘Heroes’ and ‘Nashville,’ dies at 36

Hayden Panettiere, a onetime child star who soared to fame in the TV shows “Heroes” and “Nashville” while enduring struggles with alcohol addiction and depression, has died. She was 36.

Police said Panettiere was found unresponsive in an apartment in Greenville, South Carolina, shortly before 2 p.m. Sunday. Lifesaving measures were performed but she was pronounced dead at the scene.

No cause of death has been determined and Panettiere's death remains under investigation. An autopsy found no signs of trauma and police said officers saw no signs of foul play.

The television and film performer, who would have turned 37 on Friday, had been open about her private battles and wrote at length about them in the memoir, “This Is Me,” which came out in May. She described lifelong scars from her early fame, and acknowledged being addicted to alcohol and enduring postpartum depression after the birth of her daughter, Kaya, with Ukrainian boxer Wladimir Klitschko in 2014.