New eagle camera is going live in Minnesota to the delight of global viewers

Hydro reports $446-M loss in 2025-26, points to fourth drought year in past five

Manitoba Hydro posted a $446-million loss in 2025-26, as drought conditions slashed hydroelectric generation, forcing the Crown corporation to buy more power while leaving it with less electricity to sell outside the province.

The loss was $666 million worse than the $220-million profit Hydro had budgeted. The utility posted a $63-million loss the previous year, according to the utility’s annual report released Tuesday.

Hydro said the 2025-26 fiscal year, which ended on March 31, marked its fourth low-water year in the past five years, among the worst stretches of water-flow conditions in its recorded history.

Hydroelectric generation fell 23 per cent to 24 billion kilowatt-hours from 31 billion the previous year, leaving Hydro a net importer of electricity.

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.

What’s open, what’s closed, what’s up in Winnipeg on National Day for Truth and Reconciliation Sept. 30, 2026

The National Day of Truth and Reconciliation, or Orange Shirt Day, as it's known in Manitoba, happens Sept. 30 with many commemorative community events scheduled.

Wab Kinew as ‘communicator in chief’

Premier Wab Kinew and his party have been riding high in the polls longer than normal for a government one year or less away from its first re-election contest. One reason is his ubiquitous, dominating communications presence as NDP leader and premier.

The argument here is that Kinew has supplemented his prerogatives as premier and party leader (such as appointing cabinet ministers and approving party nominations) with the skilful use of communications to advance his policy agenda, boost his personal popularity and maintain the competitive advantage of his party over the opposition Progressive Conservatives.

Communications has always been a significant part of politics and policy making. However, in the contemporary political and media environments, communications considerations have moved from the background to the foreground of decision-making by political parties, including when they are performing in the role of government. Campaigning and governing now overlap in what has been described as a permanent election campaign.

Political parties use communications strategies for several purposes: to establish an image of the leader which makes a positive emotional connection with voters; to promote a coherent message and to keep party members on message; and to gain favourable media coverage for its policies and other actions on almost a daily basis.

Manitoba PC leader Khan survives confidence vote

Manitoba Progressive Conservative Leader Obby Khan survived a confidence vote last week.

Caucus communications director Alison Sutherland confirmed the vote was held Friday and that Khan still has “the full confidence” of the PC caucus.

She did not provide further details.

The party under Khan’s leadership is floundering, a recent poll suggests.

New eagle camera is going live in Minnesota to the delight of global viewers

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Eagle lovers around the world who were crushed by the live-streamed collapse of a nest housing two birds and their chick will get another viewing opportunity when a new eagle camera goes live on Thursday.

The new camera, operated by the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, is in a different location and will show a different nesting pair, the agency announced Tuesday. But the DNR will also keep its old EagleCam running because the old pair built a new nest about a half-mile away and still visit their old territory. They've been seen there as recently as Friday.

The old camera had viewers in 50 states and around 160 countries, in homes, classrooms and nursing homes, according to Lori Naumann, a spokesperson for the DNR's Nongame Wildlife Program, which runs the cameras. The old nest was home to a pair that viewers unofficially nicknamed “Nancy and Beau” until it collapsed during a heavy snowstorm on April 2, 2023. The female bird flew off as a branch supporting the 2,000-pound (900-kilogram) nest, which was over 20 years old, gave way. The chick was later found dead.

There was an outpouring of grief in popular Facebook groups that followed the pair, and members of those groups expressed excitement at the news Tuesday.