Arts & Life team taste-tests new Kraft concoction

Prepare your tongue for the ultimate thrill, as Kraft Dinner has once again veered wildly out of its box and into new territory.

Northern Manitoba mobile MRI makes first move in 15 months

Northern Manitoba’s mobile MRI made its first move since it began scanning in Thompson nearly 15 months ago, setting up shop Monday in The Pas.

How to reset your child’s sleep schedule for back-to-school season

NEW YORK (AP) — After a summer of vacations and late nights, it's time to set those back-to-school alarms.

A good night’s sleep helps students stay focused and attentive in class. Experts say it's worth easing kids back into a routine with the start of a new school year.

“We don't say ‘ get good sleep ’ just because,” said pediatrician Dr. Gabrina Dixon with Children's National Hospital. “It really helps kids learn and it helps them function throughout the day.”

The amount of sleep kids need changes as they age. Preschoolers should get up to 13 hours of sleep. Tweens need between nine and 12 hours. Teenagers do best with eight to 10 hours of shut-eye.

Quebecers support a right to cooling during heat waves, poll finds

MONTRÉAL - A new Léger poll has found that three-quarters of Quebecers support recognizing a so-called right to coolness that would guarantee safe places during heat waves.

Overall, 74 per cent of survey respondents said they support the Quebec government recognizing a person's right to living conditions that include temperatures that are considered safe for human health. Sixteen per cent of respondents said they were opposed, while 10 per cent declined to say.

The results also show that 64 per cent of respondents have experienced at least one effect of extreme heat over the past three years.

Those can include headaches, sleep disturbances or breathing difficulties, as well as a need to adjust daily or work activities.

Mobility tests can tell doctors a lot about how you’re aging, but there are many other factors

Hand grip strength. Balance tests. Standing up from a seated position on the floor. These physical challenges are often touted as measurements of healthy aging and even predictors of longevity.

They can provide valuable indications of your stamina and strength. They can estimate the risk of falls, which increase older adults ' risk of death. And they're useful to doctors who work to address aging or people with injuries.

But they're no crystal ball.

“A poor or declining result is a reason for a health professional to investigate why function is changing, rather than gauging how long someone will live,” said Auriel Willette, an expert on brain aging at Rutgers University.

New Edmonton velodrome puts Olympic cycling champion Kelsey Mitchell back on track

EDMONTON - A new velodrome in her backyard drew Olympic track cycling champion Kelsey Mitchell back to the sport.

After competing for Canada in bobsled in February's Milan Cortina Games, the 32-year-old from Sherwood Park, Alta., is back on two wheels at the new Alberta Velodrome in Edmonton.

The cycling track in the new $153-million Coronation Park Sports and Recreation Centre opened in January.

It's one of three 250-metre indoor UCI-sanctioned tracks in Canada.

Mole Mobile on move for your dermatological needs

This weekend, the Mole Mobile will set up shop at three Winnipeg Walmart locations. The mobile clinic will have certified dermatologists on site to screen suspicious-looking moles or lesions for skin cancer.

Rural councils work hard, plan big to build local arts scenes

BEAUSEJOUR — Brittany Wurch has always been drawn to art. She fell in love with illustration and animation as a kid, but growing up near Beausejour meant she had to travel elsewhere to satisfy her creative interests.

“I had to go to a different community to take art,” says Wurch, who chose to study in Selkirk, about a 30-minute drive west, for its high school’s superior art program.

As an adult, she’s determined to make art more accessible in her community.

A smiling red barn and a tall water tower greet visitors on the way into Beausejour. The cute, compact town is located 50 kilometres northeast of Winnipeg and is home to 3,300 people. It’s surrounded by farmland and situated within the RM of Brokenhead, where agriculture and sports have historically reigned supreme.

In Meta’s trial, families of social media victims see a pivotal moment for online safety

As opening statements kicked off Tuesday in a trial for Meta Platforms, advocates and parents of social media victims gathered outside the federal courthouse in Oakland, California, with a banner that stretched several feet across.

Written on it in black ink were the names of children and young adults who have died from social media related harms, including deaths by suicide after bouts of cyberbullying or sextortion. Giovanni, an 11-year-old, Bubba, a 13-year-old, and Englyn, a 14-year-old, were among the nearly 600 names. Parents said the names were “just the tip of the iceberg.”

“Behind us, justice is going to be served,″ said Lennon Torres, an advocate with the organization Heat Initiative. “The courtroom doors are open, and it is time that the public see what the executives at Meta have known all along: that their products are designed to addict and to harm children.″

Many of the gathered parents have attended previous trials, congressional hearings and other events related to online child safety. But they say this trial, in which the attorneys general from four states are seeking billions of dollars in damages for social media harms to children, marks a significant moment.

Inside the Montreal lab working to prepare Canada against future pandemics

MONTREAL - In a biomedicine laboratory at Polytechnique Montréal, animal protein grows in a bubbling orange solution as researchers in white lab coats take samples with large syringes.

Neatly-labelled glass bottles filled with clear liquid line the shelves next to computer monitors, where the scientists examine the antibodies produced by the cells.

In a room down the hall, a large cryogenic freezer is filled with tubes containing samples of proteins and cells that can be used to develop vaccines and medicines.

Six years after the spread of COVID-19 caught the world by surprise, the Polytechnique lab is spearheading efforts to prepare Canada against future pandemics.

‘You vote with your bike’: cyclists celebrate freedoms, call for increased safety

Patty Wiens got dressed up in her sparkly, hot pink cowboy boots to pedal and talk politics with more than 100 other people on Sunday.

The founder of Winnipeg’s Fancy Women Bike Ride called on attendees of the 2026 event to ask candidates in the upcoming civic election — a half-dozen of whom were in attendance — about their active transportation platforms.

“We’re here today, in an election year, to remind you that you vote with your bike,” Wiens told a crowd of nearly 120 cyclists gathered on the legislature grounds for the group ride.

“When (city council) candidates come to your door and ask what’s important to you, you’re going to say, ‘I want to ride my bike safely in the city. What are you going to do about it?’”

Rise of social media reflects rise of self-promotion — to the detriment of genuine storytelling

A conversation is overheard between two people; one congratulates the other on their success, evident through countless posts on LinkedIn, but the other confesses the prolific aggrandizement is due to slumping success.

A young man on an airplane spends three hours poring over selfies taken on a vacation, zooming in on his biceps and using AI to retouch photos before posting on Instagram.

Anonymous and cowardly trolls on Reddit attempt to end another person’s career.

All this “storytelling” was observed in one day by this reviewer.

An elegy for the smalls

Dad's darkroom was a place of alchemy: dark except for the one red light that wouldn’t spoil the photographic paper, trays of developer and fixer and rinse water, the enlarger with its timer, a quiet darkened patch of peace.

Revered Broadway rail anchors Winnipeg’s resilient skateboarding scene

The Woodsworth Building at the corner of Broadway and Kennedy Street is an accidental, unofficial mecca of Winnipeg skateboarding.

Manitoba supports MAID delay: Asagwara

The number of Manitobans receiving medical assistance in dying in 2026 is on track with previous years while the plan to extend it to those suffering from mental illness may be delayed indefinitely by the federal government — a move Manitoba’s health minister supports.

“There’s so much more work that needs to be done,” Uzoma Asagwara said.

The parliamentary committee that issued its recommendation in June was the third special committee of Parliament struck to assess the eligibility of people with mental illness since 2021, when MAID eligibility was expanded to include people who were not at the end of their lives.

A key condition for MAID eligibility is that a patient must be suffering from a grievous and irremediable medical condition.

The scoop on lawn bowling

If you’ve ever wondered what bowls — better known as lawn bowling — is all about, the Free Press has the scoop on it.

First off, to get you in the right headspace it’s important to not compare bowls to alley bowling. Although there is a ball that is rolled, there are no pins at the end to knock down. Bowls is better compared to curling and bocce ball.

The game is played on a turf known as a rink. The rink can be made of grass — a bowling green — or carpet.

Both types of rinks have advantages and disadvantages, with players usually having a preference. With grass turf, bowlers need more force while rolling the ball to make it through the thicker terrain, while carpet is a smooth surface and requires a lighter touch.

Libau man warns Manitobans after contracting West Nile Virus

A Manitoba man is warning others about the presence of West Nile virus in the region, as he’s concerned his case has not been announced by the province.

Todd Holmes was informed he had contracted West Nile virus on Friday, several days after he attempted to donate blood in Selkirk. Canadian Blood Services called to tell him his sample tested positive for the virus.

Holmes said he was contacted by the province about his diagnosis on Tuesday afternoon, yet a website that logs cases of West Nile in the province continues to read zero.

He decided to take matters into his own hands by posting about his plight on social media.

Federal government invests $24 million for cannabis and brain health research

TORONTO - Federal Minister of Health Marjorie Michel has announced $24 million to create the Canadian Cannabis and Brain Health Consortium.

Funded through the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the group of 10 research teams from across Canada will work together to study how cannabis affects the brain in people of various ages.

The consortium, announced Wednesday, aims to establish scientific evidence about both potential benefits and harms of cannabis, including its effects on epilepsy, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, sleep, mental health and brain development in youth and during pregnancy.

Dr. Patricia Conrod, scientific director at CIHR's Institute of Neurosciences, Mental Health and Addiction, says the researchers will also recruit more than 3,000 people of all ages and collect data about brain function, mental health and substance use across the lifespan.

Quiet opening fitting for controversial site

One of this city’s most loudly debated facilities — after all the angst, all the opposition and all the vocal support — began operations in the most low-key way possible.

A mission to make hearing care easier to access

Armando Di Lello was four years old when he was diagnosed with hearing loss in both ears and received his first hearing aids. He doesn’t remember that moment, but he recalls moments that followed.

“Going through elementary, middle school, high school — it was definitely something that was not a positive experience for me,” he said.

Di Lello’s hearing aids were big, bulky and noisy, and he chose not to wear them much of the time.

“I didn’t perceive the benefit as a kid,” he said. “No kid wants to appear different.”

Fun drop-in last chance to mentor grads of inner-city school with excellent track record

Summer break may be in full swing, but Gonzaga Middle School invited graduates back to the building for water balloon fights and academic, employment and support services this week.

Roughly 30 alumni, including teenagers and twentysomethings, stopped by the grades 6-8 school in North Point Douglas on Tuesday afternoon. They were greeted with slime-making kits, ice cream sundaes and staff ready to answer questions.

The initiative — the final grad drop-in organized this summer — is a new extension of the mentorship and holistic programming baked into the funded independent school’s mandate.

“We have 22- and 23-year-olds coming back and checking in and asking for help on their university papers,” principal Rex Ferguson-Baird said.

Long-awaited supervised drug consumption site opens quietly after months of loud opposition

After three years of planning, delays and constant controversy, Manitoba’s first supervised drug consumption site quietly opened its doors Tuesday morning.

City emergency crews to administer drug that stops opioid withdrawal symptoms

Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service crews will soon give out a medication that stops withdrawal symptoms after someone is treated for an opioid overdose.

Emergency workers will be administering a drug called buprenorphine, after Health Canada granted WFPS permission to use the controlled substance.

“Buprenorphine is a medication that offers people who are in active addiction — so those people who have received naloxone as a result of an overdose and those that are experiencing significant and, at times, dangerous withdrawal symptoms — just a bit of a reprieve … (It) reduces cravings and prevents those immediate withdrawal symptoms, which allows more time to connect those patients to further care,” said Michelle Long, WFPS assistant chief of paramedic operations.

The treatment option is in response to a persistently high number of WFPS opioid calls.