Your forecast
Snow at times heavy. Local blowing snow in outlying areas this morning, 5 to 10 cm. A Yellow Warning – Snowfall is in effect for Winnipeg. Wind from the northeast 30 km/h gusting to 50. Temperature falling to -5 C this afternoon. Wind chill near -13.
Schools in some divisions may be closed today, or are cancelling school bus service. See this map of school divisions in Manitoba and click on the division to see any announcements or warnings.
A blast of winter is expected in the Prairies over the next 24 hours. (Liam Richards / The Canadian Press files)
Environment Canada is tracking a chilling, windy weather system from the Northwest Territories through Alberta and Saskatchewan and into southern Manitoba. Cold temperatures continue, with much of the northern regions feeling like -40 C. The Canadian Press has more here.
What’s happening today
🎹 Twenty-three-year-old British pianist Jeneba Kanneh-Mason performs with the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra, at Crescent Arts Centre, 525 Wardlaw Ave., 7:30 p.m. Tickets $25-$48 available online. Conrad Sweatman has a preview here.
British performer Janeba Kanneh-Mason and her six siblings have each launched successful international classical music careers. (Johanna Berghorn / Sony Music Entertainment)
Today’s must-read
A former city leader, who a court ruled had taken a bribe linked to the police headquarters project, adamantly denied doing so Tuesday, though he now agrees he had a conflict of interest on the project.
Former Winnipeg chief administrative officer Phil Sheegl appeared as a witness at the public inquiry into the Winnipeg Police Service headquarters project on Tuesday.
Former city CAO Phil Sheegl chats with counsel Evan Roitenberg before the inquiry proceedings start on Tuesday. (Ruth Bonneville / Free Press)
Sheegl said he now believes conducting a private business deal with key HQ contractor Caspian Construction, while also working on the HQ as CAO, amounted to a conflict of interest.
“I completely acknowledge today that it was a conflict. At the time, I did not realize… In hindsight, it was stupid of me not to realize that,” he said. Joyanne Pursaga has the story.
On the bright side
Jessica Allen crunched through fallen leaves among Manzanita trees hunting for something few have spotted before: the Manzanita butter clump — a rare and little-known yellow mushroom found, so far, only along North America’s Western coastlines.
It was last seen here in California’s Napa County two years ago, and Allen, a fungi scientist, was keen to find it. But within minutes, something caught her attention. She knelt, pulled a hand lens to her eye, and peered nose-close into a rock: lichens — a type of fungi — bursting with dazzling shapes, textures and colours.
Rock shield and rock tripe lichen on a large rock during a California Lichen Society field trip at the University of California, Davis’ McLaughlin Reserve in Lower Lake, Calif., in January. (Jeff Chiu / The Associated Press)
Allen and Jesse Miller, president of the California Lichen Society, are enchanted by what they describe as the wondrous and mystical world of fungi, and they’re part of a growing community of people working to protect them. Nearly all life-forms depend on the estimated 2.5 million fungi species on Earth, and they contribute an estimated $54 trillion to the global economy. The Associated Press has more here.
On this date
On Feb. 18, 1950: The Winnipeg Free Press reported 27 men and two women died when a crowded Long Island train ran through a red light on a makeshift siding and sliced head-on into an oncoming train; the train operator, from Baldwin, N.Y., was arrested and charged with manslaughter. In Winnipeg, three men were beaten and one of them robbed by young hoodlums in two separate incidents overnight, according to Fort Rouge police. Search our archives for more here.
Today’s front page
Get the full story: Read today’s e-edition of the Free Press.
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