Cougar makes rare appearance in Manitoba

A cougar made a rare appearance on a trail camera in the Whiteshell Provincial Park.

Rare red auroras dazzle as part of Manitoba light show

Solar storm chasers, rejoice: 2025 was an excellent year for aurora borealis, and the remainder of the year could be just as active.

Merry and bright: more than 40,000 expected for annual Santa Claus Parade

Saturday’s annual downtown parade will feature Santa and the Grey Cup, which will be contested Sunday between the Montreal Alouettes and Saskatchewan Roughriders.

High score: Winnipeg Video Game Orchestra goes from joysticks to drumsticks

There is, evidently, a lot of crossover between band nerds and video game enthusiasts.

The Winnipeg Video Game Orchestra has levelled up at an impressive pace, attracting about 70 like-minded players since forming earlier this spring.

The ensemble is set to perform its first major concert at Jubilee Place on Friday featuring background music from Sonic the Hedgehog, Kirby, The Legend of Zelda and other well-known games.

“We grew very, very quickly,” says director Dann Bjornson, who isn’t entirely surprised by the overwhelming local interest.

Elementary students share struggles with reading after report reveals education system failing

The Manitoba Human Rights Commission published the long-awaited results of a probe into how schools are teaching children to read — or failing to do so — at the end of October.

The 70-page report represents Phase 1 of a special project that’s become known as “Manitoba’s Right to Read.” A followup on the implementation of investigators’ recommendations is expected in 2026-27.

Local investigators concluded many teachers do not have training in structured literacy, a neuroscience-backed philosophy founded on explicit instruction in phonics, which stresses recognizing the connection between sounds and letters/letter combinations.

The structured-literacy method of teaching had all but lost the so-called “reading wars” by the 2000s, amid concerns memorizing letter-sound associations was repetitive and, as a result, was destroying students’ motivation to learn. Schools pivoted to prioritizing exposing children to a wide variety of interesting and increasingly difficult texts.

Hurrying hard for Jamaican flavours infusing West St. Paul Curling Club

WEST ST. PAUL — This month marks a full decade since Vincent Dennis opened a Caribbean-flavoured restaurant inside the West St. Paul Curling Club.

And although it could be assumed that a person who has spent that much time in the vicinity of rocks and rings would have picked up a thing or two about the roaring game by now, that doesn’t appear to be the case with the Jamaican-born owner of Tropical Thunder.

Not even close.

“I’ve been here since 2015 and I still don’t have a clue what I’m staring at,” Dennis, 52, says with a chuckle, seated at a table offering a perfect view of the 62-year-old club’s four curling sheets.

Artificial art a threat to human creativity

Thinking of Drew Struzan’s art — magic, really — in hand-drawn film posters, it’s hard not to think that this particular form will be another casualty of artificial intelligence, another art form reduced to cheap slop.

Our monuments, statues and memorials give form to honouring, grieving lives lost in war

Tucked at the end of a walkway, which dead-ends between the University Centre and the Helen Glass Centre for Nursing on the University of Manitoba campus, stands a monument in memory of students who never returned from the First World War.

Carved from local Tyndall stone and at just over a metre high, it commemorates the 30 medical students, from both the Manitoba Agricultural College, which later became part of the University of Manitoba, and other universities across the western provinces, who were killed while serving with the 11th Canadian Field Ambulance.

It’s just one of several monuments at the university marking student sacrifices during the First World War and one of many markers — from cenotaphs to statues and even lakes — across the province commemorating Manitobans who have served in conflicts since the province was created in 1870.

Many of those monuments are either hidden or in hard-to-find places. Even veterans from the Second World War — who not so long ago were part of marching parades and outdoor services marking Remembrance Day — are mostly tucked away living the remaining days of their lives in personal care homes.

Puppy Sphere yoga chain rolls out ‘mood-boosting’ first classes in Winnipeg

Winnipeg yogis seeking to do a downward dog while surrounded by dogs are in luck: puppy yoga is here.

Toronto-based company Puppy Sphere began offering weekend yoga classes at Yoga Public (280 Fort St.) earlier this fall.

Each class consists of a 45-minute yoga flow led by a certified instructor, while puppies from local rescues and breeders roam the studio. The class is followed by a 30-minute wind-down that includes refreshments and canine cuddles.

Puppy Sphere founders Francesca Albo and Lea Burbidge Izquierdo said the classes began selling out almost immediately, which led them to add Thursdays to the schedule. The entrepreneurs are actively looking for a Winnipeg studio of their own.

City tries to get the most bang for its (sewage) buck

The City of Winnipeg is exploring new ways to reuse its treated sewage sludge.

An expression of interest seeks feedback on the best options and technology available to recycle biosolids, a byproduct of the sewage treatment process. The document notes the treated sludge can be composted, used like a fertilizer, or even be transformed to produce energy.

A massive $3-billion upgrade to the city’s North End sewage treatment plant will add new biosolids facilities that improve the end byproduct, which means the city could soon have more options to reuse it, said Cynthia Wiebe, Winnipeg water and waste’s manager of engineering services.

“The key difference is that there are no pathogens in the (biosolids from the new facility),” said Wiebe.

Canadian sprinter Brendon Rodney helping with hurricane relief aid in Jamaica

Brendon Rodney knows even helping a few people is enough to make a big difference.

The three-time Olympic medallist sprinter from Toronto lives in Jamaica where Hurricane Melissa caused significant damage, mainly in the northwest and southwest parts of the country. The Category 5 hurricane hit the island last week and took a number of lives as well.

"It's always tough because it's my home, ... I live here, but it's my home away from home," he said. "And the people that have been affected are not just people that I don't know. But of course my training partners, the students at the school and many different people that I interact with on a day to day, month to month basis.

"So for me, this is difficult because you can't help everybody, but as long as you can help one, two or three people then it does make a big difference. So for us, it's just finding ways that we can help in any possible way."

Donation drive back on its feet after sock theft

There’s a cold-hearted thief in Winnipeg who won’t have cold feet.

Someone made off with more than 160 pairs of socks, to be donated to people in need, that were in Ashley Munro’s car, which was parked downtown Monday afternoon. They had smashed a window to get into the vehicle.

“The first thing (I thought) was ‘My socks are gone,’” said Munro. “I didn’t think of anything else in the car, it was just like, ‘Oh no, I got all these donations and now they’re gone’… it’s 164 pairs that could have gone to quite a few people.”

Munro, who volunteers with the St. Laurent branch of the Manitoba Métis Federation, had collected the socks from community members for Main Street Project’s Socktober campaign.

Slime, Battleship and Trivial Pursuit join the Toy Hall of Fame

Slime, that gooey, sticky and often-homemade plaything, was enshrined into the National Toy Hall of Fame on Thursday along with perennial bestselling games Battleship and Trivial Pursuit.

Each year, the Hall of Fame recognizes toys that have inspired creative play across generations, culling its finalists from among thousands of nominees sent in online. Voting by the public and a panel of experts decides which playthings will be inducted.

Milton Bradley's Battleship, a strategy game that challenges players to strike an opponent's warships, and Trivial Pursuit, which tests players' knowledge in categories like geography and sports, have each sold more than 100 million copies over several decades, according to the Hall of Fame.

Battleship started as a pencil-and-paper game in the 1930s, but it was Milton Bradley's 1967 plastic edition with fold-up stations and model ships that became a hit with the public. Its popularity crested when Universal Pictures and Hasbro, which now owns Milton Bradley, released the 2012 movie, “Battleship,” loosely based on the game. Battleship was also among the first board games to be computerized in 1979, according to the Hall of Fame, and now there are numerous, electronic versions.

Pets contribute to greenhouse gases like us. Here’s how to reduce their carbon pawprint

The whole “pets are family members” idea isn't just a sweet sentiment. Data shows that pet owners are increasingly buying food that resembles their own diets.

The trend toward refrigerated, “fresh” or even “human-grade” pet food can come with a price beyond the pet food budget.

One of the most climate intensive decisions we make is whether to own a pet. It’s for the same reason that humans have a big impact: They eat every day. And most of them eat meat. The environmental impact of meat includes the land the animal lived on, the food it ate, the waste it generated and other factors.

“What else do pets do? We have to feed them. I think that that’s why it’s number one,” said Allison Reser, director of sustainability and innovation at the Pet Sustainability Coalition.

It’s never too brisk to bike — once you get in gear with winter

Excerpt from That’ll Never Work Here: Challenging the Myths Around Biking in a Winter City, by Patty Wiens (Great Plains Press). A book launch will be held Nov. 8 at McNally Booksellers. It is the second book in The City Project, which examines ways to create a happier, healthier more sustainable Winnipeg.

When someone asks me, “How did you become a cycling advocate?” I usually say, “I rode my bike in winter one day and now I’m here.” Bicycle stories usually have a gap in the middle. There’s a well-known joke that says that the beginning of your life is all about bikes, then there’s a bunch of BS with cars in the middle, then you get older and get back to bikes.

That’s true for me.

Travelling sign painter finds his groove on the move

For someone whose writing appears all over the city, Joseph Pilapil’s penmanship isn’t the best.

You’ve probably seen his meticulously formed letters above store entrances, on shop windows and decorating sandwich boards all across the city.

But when it comes to writing on paper, well, the less said the better.

“My handwriting is terrible. When I am writing out my day-to-day stuff, it’s absolutely really bad,” he says, with a laugh.

Invention of combine part reaps recognition in Time

A dozen years ago, Jeremy Matuszewski had only visited farms a few times in his life. Now, Time magazine has recognized him for a product he created to help farmers.

No dog? No problem: Local program offers offices pup for a day

Brandt and Paisley are raring to start their new jobs. But instead of hellos and handshakes, they’ll most likely be giving their co-workers tail wags and face licks. Not that anyone in the office will mind.

Coming of age in the era of ‘fake news’

‘Let’s get media lit(erate)!” The punny slogan was my attempt to get students excited about fact-checking, current events and finding alternative sources to Wikipedia — a crowd-sourced platform anyone can edit.

Winnipeg students develop critical aptitude essential for navigating media landscape

One day in the fall of 2024, two of Lily Godinez Goodman’s Grade 5 students came to her with a question: Why didn’t their Earl Grey School have a newspaper, they wondered — and if they started one, would she serve as editor-in-chief?

Trustees want say in school zone redesign

Trustees are calling on Winnipeg City Council to redesign 30 km/h school zones to better protect everyone who lives, learns and works in their wards — and they want a say in an infrastructure makeover.

For Ryan Palmquist, an active cyclist, dad and first-term trustee, road safety is both a passion and frequent source of frustration.

His son’s trek to École Varennes serves as a daily reminder of why he remains committed to the cause.

“My oldest son crosses a crosswalk — every single day, twice a day, to go to school — where a kid died,” the father of three said.

Dictionary.com’s word of the year is ‘6-7.’ But is it even a word and what does it mean?

Go ahead and roll your eyes. Shrug your shoulders. Or maybe just juggle your hands in the air.

Dictionary.com's word of the year isn't even really a word. It's the viral term “6-7” that kids and teenagers can't stop repeating and laughing about and parents and teachers can't make any sense of.

The word — if you can call it that — exploded in popularity over the summer. It's more of an inside joke with an unclear meaning, driven by social media.

Dictionary.com says its annual selection is a linguistic time capsule reflecting social trends and events. But the site admitted it too is a bit confused by “6-7.”