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Repayments eyed: The Winnipeg Regional Health Authority says hospitals and health centres have inadvertently overpaid some staff to the tune of $1.2 million. It blames the overpayments to 1,200 employees on a new payroll system introduced in 2012. READ MORE
Your forecast: Blowing snow will greatly reduce visibility this morning and early this afternoon. The winds, first from the southwest and then shifting to the northwest, will gust from 60 km/h to 80 km/h this morning, diminishing to 30 to 50 km/h this afternoon. The temperature will fall to -27 C this afternoon, creating an extreme wind chill of -43. Tonight, it will clear. The low overnight will be -32, with a wind chill of -42. On Friday, expect local blowing snow late in the afternoon with a high of -19 but a wind chill of -44.
In case you missed it
JOE BRYKSA / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILESStatistics released by MPI on Wednesday indicate that 2016 was the deadliest year on Manitoba roads since 2006.
Road fatalities spike: Manitoba Public Insurance says 2016 was the deadliest year on the province’s roads since 2006. Forty-one of the 112 road-related fatalities last year are being blamed on impaired driving. That statistic was almost 100 per cent higher than in 2015. Deaths due to failing to wear a seatbelt also climbed, MPI says. READ MORE
Hospitals swamped: Health officials have postponed some non-emergency surgeries and patients are being placed in lounges and conference rooms in city hospitals as the institutions become swamped with flu-type cases. An official with the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority said Wednesday that hospitals are having to cope with a spike in patients with respiratory illnesses, and many of those patients have other chronic health conditions. READ MORE
Up next
Warm welcome: Canadian country rock band Blue Rodeo will play at the MTS Centre this Saturday, warming things up on a cold January evening. READ MORE
Around the water cooler
WAYNE GLOWACKI / WINNIPEG FREE PRESSTumia Roberts, 9, and her mother Izabella Roberts. Tumia spent 2.5 hours alone outside Tuesday morning after her Vital Transit school bus in the St. James-Assiniboia School Division failed to pick her up.
Child left in cold: A Winnipeg mother is incensed after her nine-year-old daughter was left in the cold for two and a half hours after a school bus failed to pick her up. She later learned that the Vital Transit school bus in St. James-Assiniboia School Division was running late, and the driver decided to skip the rest of the route. An official with Vital Transit later said there was a “miscommunication” between the driver and the bus firm’s dispatcher. READ MORE
Help sought: City police are seeking help as they continue to investigate a daring drive-by shooting at Donald Street and Stradbrook Avenue in November. On Wednesday, they held a news conference asking anyone with information about the shooting to come forward. A 32-year-old Edmonton man was killed in the incident and another man was seriously injured. READ MORE
Trending now
Hellebuyck: Jets goalie Connor Hellebuyck’s name is trending locally after giving up three goals on just seven shots in 14 minutes of work during the Jets’ game against the Montreal Canadiens. Montreal won 7-4. READ MORE
On this date
On Jan. 12, 1961: The Winnipeg Free Press reported that tensions increased between Peru and Ecuador over the two countries’ disputed border. In Winnipeg, the chief of police defended the force’s practice of keeping informants’ names secret, even though the so-called “stool pigeons” were paid with city funds. Federally, the Liberal Party quashed a motion from within its own ranks for Canada to take the lead in seeking United Nations admission for Red China. In Toronto, Brandon Packers owners Hugh Paton and D. Hubert Cox were arrested and were to faces charges in Manitoba of conspiracy to steal $400,000. READ MORE
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