Worse-for-wear riverwalk a victim of total neglect

Partway down my well-beaten path from West Broadway to The Forks, I feel a bit like Dorothy navigating Oz. The path ahead is lined with Winnipeg’s version of dancing poppies and flying monkeys: hazards, confrontations and ghostly spectres to which we’ve become perhaps far too accustomed.

Searing heat draws visitors to California’s Death Valley, where it’s tough to communicate the risks

DEATH VALLEY NATIONAL PARK, Calif. (AP) — Ray Estrada's 11-year-old grandson is used to Las Vegas' scorching summers, but he'd always wanted to experience the heat in one of the Earth's hottest places. So Estrada recently drove him to Death Valley National Park, with an umbrella, extra water and electrolytes in tow. That day, the thermometer soared to 118 F (47.78 C).

“We have to be very careful when we go out there,” Estrada told him. “If you start feeling dizzy or whatever... we’re just gonna turn back and be safe so we can do this again another time.”

The extreme temperatures in this stretch of California desert attract visitors every year, some determined to finish a grueling, multiday race, others just curious about the sizzling heat and the landscape's vast beauty. Yet despite the warnings, the heat kills one to three people annually, and park rangers respond to overheated visitors multiple times per week, making communication about heat safety a priority for the National Park Service.

But that's easier said than done.

Wildfire smoke changing outdoor sports landscape

Air quality concerns due to wildfire smoke are changing the landscape of sporting events in Winnipeg. From community centre-run programs to professional leagues, outdoor sports have been impacted by smoke delays, cancellations and playing in less than ideal conditions, leading some to rethink how summer outdoor seasons should be planned going forward.

Krista Fraser-Kruck, general manager of Riverview Community Centre in South Osborne, which offers baseball, soccer, softball, ultimate (frisbee) and summer day camps, says wildfire smoke has forced cancellations and caused rescheduling challenges, especially difficult in a short summer season.

“The priority is keeping kids safe,” said Fraser-Kruck. “For our community, we just want to keep our kids safe, and so doing what’s in the best interest of their health is our priority.”

For their youth soccer games, Riverview Community Centre follows the Winnipeg Youth Soccer Association’s policy, which calls for citywide cancellations if Environment Canada’s Air Quality Health Index (AQHI) reaches seven or higher.

Enhanced Games perpetuate a growing problem

We appear to be entering a new golden age of steroids.

Years of scandals out of the Olympics, pro baseball, pro wrestling, and other athletic fields should have put to bed the notion that there is any athletic or cultural value in using performance-enhancing drugs, or PEDs, to get an edge. With every suspension, with every prize stripped from a competitor or left tainted by the way it was obtained, the message was clear — it’s cheating, and it’s not worth it.

Some haven’t received the message. The Enhanced Games hopes to hold its first-ever event in Las Vegas, Nev.

The Enhanced Games, as the name suggests, is a multi-sport athletic competition in which athletes are openly using PEDs. The games’ website makes much ado about the close supervision the athletes will be under, overseen by medical professionals to ensure their health and safety.

Shiffrin says in essay she feels ‘like myself again’ after recovering from ski racing crash, PTSD

Two-time Olympic champion Mikaela Shiffrin finally feels “like myself again” after recovering from a ski racing crash last season and lingering post-traumatic stress disorder.

Shiffrin described in an essay for The Players’ Tribune released Friday the physical and mental hurdles she needed to clear after her serious spill during a giant slalom race in Killington, Vermont, on Nov. 30. In the crash, something punctured Shiffrin’s side and caused severe damage to her oblique muscles.

“Everyone knows what it feels like to have a bad cough. But PTSD … it’s not like that,” the 30-year-old from Edwards, Colorado, wrote. “It comes in all shapes and sizes. Everyone experiences it in their own way, and no two cases are exactly alike.”

Shiffrin was leading after the first run of the GS that day in Killington. With the finish line in sight on her final run, she lost an edge and slid into a gate, flipping over her skis. The all-time winningest Alpine World Cup ski racer then slammed into another gate before coming to a stop in the protective fencing. To this day, she doesn’t know what led to the puncture wound, only that it was "a millimeter from pretty catastrophic,” she told The Associated Press.

Winds push smoke from Canadian wildfires south into US and worsen air quality

Air quality in some parts of the United States is worsening as smoke from dozens of wildfires in Canada travels south, pushed by winds high in the atmosphere.

Through parts of Minnesota and into Wisconsin, the air quality is deemed unhealthy for people and animals sensitive to pollution and other airborne particles, according to the Environmental Protection Agency's AirNow page.

As of Friday afternoon, the interactive air quality map showed a strip of orange moving northwest to southeast across Wisconsin. Most of the state showed moderate air quality as did all of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Eastern Iowa and northwestern Illinois also showed moderate air quality on the AirNow map.

Over the next day or so, particulates from the burning trees, leaves and other vegetation could reach further south into Oklahoma, Tennessee and Arkansas, said Patrick Ayd, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Duluth, Minnesota.

CDC removes language that says healthy kids and pregnant women should get COVID shots

NEW YORK (AP) — The nation's top public health agency posted new recommendations that say healthy children and pregnant women may get COVID-19 vaccinations, removing stronger language that those groups should get the shots.

The change comes days after U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced that COVID-19 vaccines will no longer be recommended for healthy children and pregnant women.

But the updated guidance on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's website sends a more nuanced message, saying shots “may” be given to those groups.

“The announcement from earlier this week sounded like CDC was going to fully withdraw any statement that could be construed as a recommendation for these vaccines in these populations,” said Jason Schwartz, a Yale University health policy researcher. “It's not as bad as it could have been."

Lance McCullers gets 24-hour security after online death threats, some aimed at 5-year-old daughter

HOUSTON (AP) — Soon after Lance McCullers Jr.’s family received online death threats following a tough start by the Houston Astros’ pitcher, his 5-year-old daughter, Ava, overheard wife Kara talking on the phone about it.

What followed was a painful conversation between McCullers and his little girl.

“She asked me when I came home: ‘Daddy like what is threats? Who wants to hurt us? Who wants to hurt me?’” McCullers told The Associated Press on Wednesday. “So, those conversations are tough to deal with.”

McCullers is one of two MLB pitchers whose families have received online death threats this month as internet abuse of players and their families is on the rise. Boston reliever Liam Hendriks took to social media soon after the incident with McCullers to call out people who were threatening his wife’s life and directing “vile” comments at him.

Oilers defenceman Stecher understands Scheifele’s pain: ‘Still affects me day to day’

DALLAS - Edmonton Oilers defenceman Troy Stecher felt for bereaved Mark Scheifele when the Winnipeg Jets centre suited up for an NHL playoff game with the knowledge his father had just died.

Stecher's father Peter died of diabetes complications at age 65 in 2020, shortly before the defenceman entered the NHL's summer playoff bubble with the Vancouver Canucks.

Scheifele scored Winnipeg's lone goal in Saturday's Game 6 loss to the Dallas Stars — Edmonton's opponent in the Western Conference final — after learning his father, Brad, had just died at age 68.

"A lot of respect for him," Stecher said Friday before Game 2 of the conference final.

Guardians’ right-hander Ben Lively will have Tommy John surgery and miss rest of the season

DETROIT (AP) — Guardians pitcher Ben Lively will undergo Tommy John reconstruction surgery on his right elbow and will be sidelined for the rest of the season.

The Guardians said before Friday night's game at Detroit that Lively's surgical date has not been set, but it will be performed by Dr. Keith Meister in Arlington, Texas. The right-hander is expected to miss 12-16 months.

Lively — on the injured list since May 13 due to a strained right flexor tendon — sought a second opinion on his right elbow with Meister earlier this week. Meister confirmed the presence of a flexor tendon injury while also noting medial elbow joint laxity due to an insufficient ulnar collateral ligament.

The Guardians physicians and Meister recommended UCL reconstruction along with flexor tendon repair.

Anxiety, hope as children return to school

On one side of the chain-link fence separating Glenelm School from the street, nervous elementary students fidgeted with their masks and bulky backpacks on the playground as they waited to meet new teachers and friends in lines.

On the other side, parents on the sidewalk — among them, Joisy Fernandez — peeked through the grey diamonds with anxieties of their own.

"I wish I could go in there and just stand next to her and say, ‘It will be OK,’" said Fernandez, who dropped off her daughter Natalie for the first day of Grade 5 on Wednesday morning. "As tough as it is on us, we have to show them that (a safe school year) is possible."

Glenelm, a K-6 building at 96 Carmen Ave., has kept its pandemic policy for drop-offs intact this year to prevent congestion on the playground. Parents are discouraged from entering both the Winnipeg school's grounds and building.

Auto detail shop poised to fight pandemic

Since COVID-19 has taught us to continually wash our hands, and many of us have already cleaned every corner of our homes, it's a sure bet a few of us have also turned our efforts to sanitizing our vehicles.

Your usual Saturday morning ritual of washing your car on the driveway with the garden hose and vacuuming the interior and wiping down hard surfaces with car cleaning products is likely all you'll need to keep your vehicle shiny and safe — but if you know or suspect your vehicle has come into contact with coronavirus, or just want to increase your peace of mind, it may be time to call in a professional.

The majority of auto detail shops, which fall under the same essential services category as automobile repair shops, have remained open during the pandemic.

Tom Segal, 45, the owner of Blue Ocean Auto Detailing in Headingley, has seen it all in the more than 25 years he's been cleaning cars, including dirty diapers, rotten food crammed between seats and rodent infestations, but this is his first pandemic.