Winnipeg author Van Rooy dies in Montreal

Manitobans on hook for $40M in unpaid medical bills racked up by non-Canadians

Manitoba Nurses Union president calls the amount “shocking.”

Hydro’s planned outages turn out the lights for thousands across province

Business owners in the East Beaches area of Lake Winnipeg hauled out generators Wednesday after a planned Manitoba Hydro outage left thousands of residents and cottagers without power.

Lise Bourassa, who runs several stores in Grand Beach, had to rent generators to accommodate the eight-hour blackout, which affected the area from Beaconia to Victoria Beach as well as Sagkeeng First Nation, while Hydro crews fixed a pole that was damaged by fire in May .

Despite the spare power source, she was only able to open one of her stores during the outage and said it came at a bad time.

“I understand the importance of what Manitoba Hydro is doing, the problem all the businesses in this area are having is that our season is very short and to be shut down for a full day has a fairly big impact, plus they added cost of getting generators,” she wrote in a message to the Free Press. “We also had less than one week to make arrangements, find electricians and generators to be able to keep all the food safe.”

Man armed with ‘edged weapon’ dies after dispute in Linden Woods home

The family of a 42-year-old Winnipeg man shot and killed by police in Linden Woods on Monday night says the incident raises troubling questions about how officers respond to people in mental-health crisis.

“Their reaction to mental health is my concern,” said the man’s sister-in-law, Erica Smith, who spoke outside her brother-in-law’s Avon Gate home on Tuesday. She said her brother-in-law struggled with his mental health.

“It didn’t have to end like this,” she said, fighting back tears. “It could have ended differently.”

Police said officers encountered the man armed with an “edged weapon” at the home when they arrived shortly before 10:30 p.m.

Report calls for schools to add more ‘sensory rooms’

Manitoba schools are being urged to set up more “sensory rooms” and use the spaces — which can feature mood lighting, flexible seating and fidget toys — to address growing concerns about student outbursts and related injuries.

A new report from the Manitoba Federation of Labour is renewing calls to better protect educational assistants, teachers and other public-sector employees.

One of its 10 recommendations, published on Monday, focuses on tackling overcrowding in community facilities and establishing “safe spaces in schools to respond to violence.”

“It’s become the norm: kids having meltdowns that require you have to evacuate the classroom,” said Jane Allison, an educational assistant in Winnipeg.

Putting the pancake pilgrimage in focus

It’s a simple enough recipe: one-and-1/4 cups all-purpose flour, one tablespoon of sugar, two-and-1/2 teaspoons of baking powder, 1/4 teaspoon of baking soda, 1/4 teaspoon of kosher salt, one cup milk, one large egg and one tablespoon of canola oil.

That’s all you need, according to the Good Housekeeping test kitchen, to make the best pancakes ever. The secret, apparently, is not just what you put in the bowl: it’s also knowing not to mix the ingredients too thoroughly and also knowing the exact right time to flip the pancakes.

Only a small portion of the total ingredients is oil and even that oil can be replaced with melted, cooled unsalted butter.

The Good Housekeeping recipe says nothing about political leaders trekking halfway across the country to flip the pancakes on a Calgary Stampede griddle, often looking ridiculous in the process.