Good morning!
Your forecast: The weather today will continue to be moody and surly, with a 60 per cent chance of rain, and wind from the northwest at 50 km/h, gusting to 70. Those weather conditions are particularly unfortunate today for the many people trying to repair damage caused by a tornado and severe rainstorms on Monday and Tuesday. Thumbs up to the hardy workers who are outdoors to fix Hydro lines, damaged roads, flooded culverts and fallen trees.
In case you missed it
Former Mayor of Winnipeg Sam Katz photographed at Shaw Park Tuesday afternoon. (Melissa Tait / Winnipeg Free Press)
Sam’s foot freedom: Ex-mayor Sam Katz showed interviewer Melissa Martin he was wearing bare feet inside his shoes, and said he enjoys dressing casually now that he is out of the public limelight. READ MORE
Tough talk: Aboriginal Affairs Minister Bernard Valcourt on Tuesday gave First Nations a deadline of Sept. 1 to make public the salaries of chiefs and councils, or federal funding will be docked. READ MORE
Winnipeg loves theatre: It’s often said, for a mid-sized city, Winnipeg punches above its weight in the arts. For example, look at the Winnipeg Fringe Festival — it was announced on Tuesday for the 10th straight year, the Fringe has set a new indoor attendance record with ticket sales of 108,706. For such solid support of theatre, Winnipeg deserves a standing ovation. READ MORE
Up next
Commendable mission: Lighthouse Mission will unveil plans today for a major renovation. The soup kitchen/clothing depot, located near the intersection of Main Street and Higgins Avenue, is the last hope for many people who are homeless. The renovations will include restaurant-quality equipment and new flooring.
Chinatown improvements: Upgrades to Winnipeg’s Chinatown will be announced this morning. An invitation to a press conference promised “new programming components and public space enhancements”, but further details won’t be known until later day. The sixth annual Chinatown Street Festival is scheduled for Aug. 29 and 30.
Around the water cooler
Mike Deal / Winnipeg Free PressFred Raynor’s shed sits underneath fallen trees in his yard after a tornado passed overhead Monday night close to Tilston, Man.
Today’s scary thought: Fortunately, the massive tornado on Monday evening was in an area of southwestern Manitoba that was relatively unpopulated. But imagine the damage if, by tragic geographical happenstance, it had instead hovered for two to three hours over a populated city such as Winnipeg?
iThief: Free Press columnist Jen Zoratti tells today how her iPhone was stolen Monday when she was on a city bus riding to work; a creep ripped it out of her hand and fled out the back door of the bus. Jen used a GPS app to locate her stolen phone on Matheson Avenue, but a police officer told her not to try to retrieve the phone because the thief might be violent. What do you think? Should Jen try to fetch her phone? If it was your phone, would you try to retrieve it? We invite your comments at the bottom of Jen’s column on our website. READ MORE
Trending now
#mbstorm: The popularity of phone cameras today lets people on the scene capture great pictures of freak weather events, such as Monday’s evening’s massive tornado.
On this date
On July 29, 1897: The Manitoba Free Press reported that the British government was constructing four armoured cruisers of a new type to strengthen its fleet. The city of Winnipeg was considering a waterworks system drawing from Poplar Springs, but the quantity of water there was deemed insufficient for the city’s needs. In South Africa, British forces killed famed Zulu chief Mashingombi.
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