Ford shutting down production of unique Flex

School zones return Tuesday as lead-footed drivers risk steep fines

School crossing guards are preparing to resume their posts on busy corners across the Winnipeg School Division, but Luna Zúñiga isn’t one of them.

Zúñiga hung up her high-visibility vest about 30 months ago after she was struck by a motorist while escorting a child through a pedestrian crosswalk on Grant Avenue at Lanark Street.

Zúñiga protected the child, who wasn’t hurt, but the educational assistant at nearby J.B. Mitchell School suffered life-altering injuries, including nerve damage that limits her stamina, range of motion and makes her left leg “feel like it’s burning all the time.”

“I don’t know what needs to be done (to improve school-zone safety),” she said. “But I do know that when a six-year-old is crossing the street, a car needs to be fully stopped.”

Foreign workers at Manitoba hotel are owed $138K in unpaid wages and fees, labour board rules

BRANDON — The Manitoba Labour Board has ordered the Western Star All Suites Hotel to pay nearly $138,000 in unpaid wages and administrative fees after it dismissed the appeals involving three foreign workers employed by the company.

In a decision dated Aug. 25, the board ordered 6692452 Manitoba Ltd. (doing business as Western Star All Suites Hotel), 1638185 Alberta Ltd. and company director P.X. to pay a total of $137,915.79 to the Employment Standards Branch for wages owed to foreign workers S.J., J.B. and G.R.

The decision was edited to protect the personal information of the employees, who worked at a hotel, reportedly in Melita, at different times and also lived there during their employment.

The board stated the employees were owed wages after hearing evidence about long working hours, irregular payments, inadequate employment records and working conditions.

Naked man dies after jolt from police Taser

A Transcona man says he was lucky to be awake early Sunday when, shortly after 4 a.m., a stranger smashed through his screen door and kicked in the front door of his home.

“It’s all I can think about, like what if I was sleeping?” said the man, whom the Free Press is not naming to protect his identity. “Being awake gave me just a couple of extra seconds to deal with him before he got his whole body in.”

He was sitting on his couch when he heard the glass shatter and saw someone trying to force his way inside.

“Glass flew in and this guy — he was a big guy — tried to climb through the screen door,” the man said. “I hopped off the couch and just remember screaming for help. Well, of course it’s four in the morning, so nobody’s going to help, right? I wasn’t thinking straight.”

Ford shutting down production of unique Flex

The writing was on the wall for the uniquely styled and highly accommodating Ford Flex. Production of its first and only generation, which is 11 years old, is now winding down at the Oakville assembly plant in Ontario, the company has announced.

With 2,418 units sold in Canada through three quarters of 2019, the Flex is by far the brand’s least popular SUV. Surprisingly, though, sales are higher this year than they were in 2018.

Previewed by the 2005 Fairlane concept, the Flex was originally introduced for the 2009 model year as a different type of SUV, one with a lower, retro-looking body and a more upscale interior designed to meet the needs of urban families. It has an AWD option, but is definitely not something you would take far away from the pavement.

In fact, in the eyes of many, the seven-passenger Flex is more of a minivan — or a modern interpretation of the traditional family station wagon of the 1970s — than an actual SUV or crossover, offering exceptional passenger and cargo room.

Letters, Aug. 31

Connor Hellebuyck, as we know, backstopped the U.S.A. to Olympic gold. Shortly after winning, he was invited to the Oval Office and accepted the Presidential Medal of Freedom from his country, a medal that has been awarded to numerous famous athletes — Babe Ruth, Billie Jean King, Jackie Robinson, Muhammad Ali, Michael Jordan, to name a few.

Village Green Bakery keeps focus on classic quality, kindness, fun in Victoria Beach

VICTORIA BEACH — They’re not carved into stone tablets — they’re reminders and not commandments, after all — but behind one of the display cases at Village Green Bakery is a laminated sheet of letter-size paper with a list of statements outlining how owner Jen Leslie wants staffers to approach their work.

Fittingly, there’s a baker’s dozen of them.

One is aimed specifically at a stoic teen who’s worked at the bakery since it opened in summer 2022 — “Smile, Brody,” it says — while the other 12 are meant for all 17 employees at the seasonal business, which is open annually from May long weekend until Thanksgiving.

“Smile and enjoy the ride,” is the first reminder, followed by, “The summer is short, so make it a good one,” “always take the high road” and “you are awesome.”