Facebook tweaks tools for remembering dead friends

New women’s senior champ to be crowned

They may as well re-name the Manitoba Women’s Senior Championship the “Rhonda Orr Open” at this point, given the way she has dominated the annual event.

The 64-year-old, who plays out of Southwood Golf & Country Club, has won 10 straight titles — and 12 of the past 13 — to etch her name in local sports history.

Unfortunately, Orr’s incredible streak is coming to a screeching halt this week. Rather than teeing it up on Monday at Breezy Bend for the start of the 54-hole event, she was home recovering from a recent medical procedure which quickly put everything into perspective.

“Very disappointing that I wasn’t able to recover enough to play. That was my goal, but it didn’t work out. I definitely had a few tears over it,” Orr told the Free Press.

Manitoba Hydro’s energy plan set to be scrutinized

Manitoba Hydro is set to face questions and concerns over its plan for the province’s future energy needs, which includes proposed natural gas-powered turbines in Brandon and Indigenous-owned wind farms.

The Public Utilities Board, an arm’s-length regulator, will begin six weeks of hearings Monday into the 10-year blueprint and potential ways to satisfy electricity demand, while Hydro grapples with a projected energy shortfall, debt of $25 billion and aging infrastructure.

“The development plan reflects the best available information and analysis of how Manitoba Hydro can meet growing energy demand, while balancing factors we know are important to our customers, including cost, reliability and the environment,” Peter Chura, a spokesman for the Crown corporation, told the Free Press.

“We are confident in our analysis and that we’ve appropriately balanced reliability, affordability, safety and risk.”

Anishinaabe Days teepee poles vandalized

An act of vandalism to a teepee at the Treaty One Development Corp’s Anishinaabe Days did not stop the celebrations from continuing over the weekend.

Someone deliberately cut the poles used to erect the site’s teepee before the event began, Treaty One executive director Jason Whitford said Sunday.

The family responsible for overseeing the teepee and its construction at the site, Naawi-Oodena  on Kenaston Boulevard, went to the site on Friday to erect the teepee when they noticed someone had taken a saw and cut all 15 of its poles in half.

“They were stored in a safe place, and they were stored properly as per protocol,” Whitford said. “They were in an area where there was no construction so they were isolated from any activity.”

An eroding Winnipeg neighbourhood looks to new foundations

WINNIPEG - The lot Jesse Bettcher lives on in Winnipeg's north end used to be a pile of burnt rubble. Same with the one next door. And the one across the street.

But he's now the proud owner of a two-storey house with blue-grey siding and white trim, so new the orange construction fencing is still out front.

It's a dream home for Bettcher, and the latest hope for a city seeking to knock down, clean up and revitalize neighbourhoods that have seen hundreds of homes left vacant, leading to safety hazards and worries about the future.

He bought the house as part of a pilot project aimed at creating affordable home ownership. It let him and his family move out of a rental that he said was falling apart.

Flood relief extended to more Manitoba communities as bills mount

The Manitoba government has expanded flood relief to 13 additional communities as the price tag to repair infrastructure and help property owners pay for damage could reach into the hundreds of millions of dollars, one municipal leader says.

On Monday, the province announced the additional coverage under Manitoba’s flood recovery program, raising the number of eligible communities to 29.

“It’s just taken some time for us to do the technical work,” said Infrastructure Minister Lisa Naylor in an interview with the Free Press. “The spring flood events that we experienced in Manitoba this year are unlike anything we’ve seen and they’re really attributable to what we’re seeing through climate change.”

Naylor said the government introduced the program because people who “never guessed” they’d be hit by flooding are dealing with the aftermath of extreme weather events.

An eroding Winnipeg neighbourhood looks to new foundations

The lot Jesse Bettcher lives on in Winnipeg's North End used to be a pile of burnt rubble. Same with the one next door. And the one across the street. But he's now the proud owner of a two-storey house with blue-grey siding and white trim.