Seattle startup’s ex-CFO accused of diverting $35 million, losing it in crypto crash

Restaurants ‘under pressure’

Happy hour outings are on Jackie Piggott’s calendar — but even those are fewer.

She and her husband might visit a restaurant once a month. It’s a change over the past year: earlier, they might go twice, thrice or weekly.

“It’s something that we’ve talked about, my husband and myself, just because the pricing is so expensive,” Piggott said, stopping during a grocery run in St. Vital. “It’s also better for our health.”

She’s in the majority: a new Restaurants Canada report found 80 per cent of Canadians are eating out less frequently because of higher living costs, up from 75 per cent in 2025.

Perfumer battling city hall to keep his shop open

Michael O’Malley has been here before — fighting the City of Winnipeg to keep his business open.

He usually spends his days concocting scents. He’s owned La Parfumerie, a Wolseley shop, since 1993.

Twenty-seven natural perfumes line shelves on 145 Evanson St.’s bottom floor. O’Malley lives above the space.

Now, he’s required to change the home’s zoning or shut out walk-in customers. Either would kill the company, O’Malley said.

The Brazilian election

“Flávio Bolsonaro is Trump’s candidate and what Trump wants is to colonize Brazil, take our riches, steal our future and leave us in the dust,” claims the latest video released by President Luiz Inácio ‘Lula’ da Silva’s re-election campaign. The weird thing is about half of Brazil’s voters would be okay with Trump running the country (through Bolsonaro).

Bathhouse owner upset after judge grants bail to man accused in foiled bombing

The owner of a Notre Dame Avenue bathhouse is troubled after a man accused of planting a pipe bomb outside his club was granted bail.

Erik Lymen Olson, 59, was granted release following a contested bail hearing last Monday.

“I don’t think he should have got out with something like this — at all,” said Christopher Gregoire, owner of AQ Sauna.

Olson was arrested Sept. 12, one day after allegedly planting a pipe bomb outside the sex and lifestyle club.

Furby Street residents fed up with inaction on drug houses

Anxious Furby Street residents contacted the city and their elected officials Friday to — once again — report people coming and going from a boarded-up house they call a dangerous “drug centre” and “den of thieves” that’s just steps away from a house under construction.

Linda Zak, who was holding a yard sale with a group of neighbours Friday morning, described the trouble the home attracts, while a woman slumped on the front steps and a man standing in the yard yelled to someone inside it.

“It is a drug centre,” said Zak, 77. “We know that. A couple of days ago, a person lit the front on fire. Now, as you look at it, you can see where the facade was burning and they were trying to harm people inside.”

“We’re very concerned about it being next to the home this man is building,” she said, pointing to the two-storey that’s nearly completed. The boarded-up house is in the 500 block of Furby.