Fauci contempt vote reflects the enduring politics of COVID

NEW YORK (AP) — Dr. Anthony Fauci is sitting before Congress, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is on TV debating COVID lockdowns and Americans can’t agree on what science to trust.

You might think it's 2020 again.

Six years after COVID-19 thrust the world into the fear and uncertainty of a global pandemic, Republicans in power aren’t leaving it in the past. Instead, they’ve returned its familiar political arguments to center stage for new scrutiny, demanding accountability for the scientists and media figures whom they feel deceived and mistreated Americans years ago.

The efforts ramped up last week, when a Republican-led Senate committee chaired by Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul subpoenaed the now-retired, 85-year-old Fauci to testify about his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Winnipeg artist RYAN AD's ambitions growing as work reaches Paris

RYAN AD is Jamaican-Grenadian, lives in Winnipeg and receives iPhone notifications in French.

One of these notifications recently gave the photographer (who goes by his artist name) good news: a prestigious Parisian art gallery was interested in featuring two of his photographs in one of its exhibitions. One was captured in Manitoba, the other in Jamaica.

“I felt a constant sense of community in Jamaica. You’ll walk down the road and people will talk to you,” he says. “Here you have to be buying something to exist in most places.”

One photo, entitled Born Underwater, is a gentle depiction of Lake Winnipeg, reminiscent of Wanda Koop for its symmetry and pastel-like softness. The other, Myself When Young, shows a man leaning on an old car with its hood popped, a glimpse into Jamaica’s culture of repair and resourcefulness.

Goldeyes catcher Pelletier moonlights as team barber

Tucked inside the Winnipeg Goldeyes’ clubhouse is a no-frills washroom with a urinal, a pair of toilets and a trio of sinks beneath matching mirrors.

But when rookie catcher Raphael Pelletier drags in a well-worn black leather salon chair with cracked upholstery and lays out his clippers, trimmers and shears, the space transforms into something else: a barbershop.

While far from luxurious, it’s the type of haircutting experience that could only exist inside the wacky world of independent baseball.

“He keeps everyone looking good on the field, honestly. We needed this,” said third-year Goldeyes pitcher Derrick Cherry, while getting a trim on Wednesday ahead of the team’s game against the Chicago Dogs.

Central remains toughest division in league

With NHL training camps set to open in just over five weeks’ time, the Central Division still looks like one of the toughest places to earn a playoff spot in the league.

With three of the top seven teams in the NHL standings last season residing within it — including the Presidents’ Trophy winning Colorado Avalanche (121 points) — it’s clear that the most likely path back to the Stanley Cup playoffs for the Winnipeg Jets is by earning one of the two wild-card berths available in the Western Conference.

And since a couple of teams in the Pacific Division are on the rise, including the Anaheim Ducks and San Jose Sharks (who missed the playoffs by four points in Macklin Celebrini’s second NHL season), it’s likely going to take north of 90 or 92 points to punch a post-season ticket.

With that in mind, let’s take a look at some of the moves that were made in the Central, realizing there are a few questions left unanswered for the Jets and the seven other clubs:

Sea Bears say Allen recovering from nightclub assault

The Winnipeg Sea Bears are preparing for the Canadian Elite Basketball League playoffs without the services of its Most Valuable Player.

The club announced on Tuesday that star guard Teddy Allen has been ruled out for Thursday’s Western Conference semifinal against the Saskatoon Mamba at Canada Life Centre (7:30 p.m.) as he recovers from “significant health injuries” suffered after being assaulted by security staff at a downtown nightclub on Sunday.

“We continue to co-operate with the Winnipeg Police Service on its investigation and have referred them individuals and information based on what has been provided to us from those on the scene,” a statement from the club read.

“What we’ve seen and heard to date leads us to believe that Teddy was the victim of an assault at the hands of security at a downtown nightclub.”

Homegrown grub: Resto turns to the Leaf for freshest ingredients

The term “eat local” has taken on a whole new meaning at Gather Craft Kitchen and Bar, where the journey from plot to plate is measured in footsteps rather than miles.

Head chef Mike Licharson has expanded the restaurant’s focus on local sourcing by incorporating fruit and vegetables grown in The Leaf’s biomes and outdoor kitchen garden into his menu.

Bananas from the tropical biomes star in his banana-bread French toast and accompanying banana compote. Leeks, braised slowly and paired with Manitoba-grown beluga lentils, and Swiss chard — which takes the place of grape leaves in Licharson’s play on classic meze dolmades, a nod to the chef’s Greek-Ukrainian-Irish heritage — are both grown in the outdoor kitchen garden.

The park’s produce complements the restaurant’s other locally sourced ingredients, Licharson says.

Book gives patients tools for navigating the Canadian health-care system and getting treatment they need

More than a few of us have been known to complain about the Canadian health-care system: the lack of staffing, the long ER waits, the challenge of finding a family physician, the lengthy waiting lists for specialized tests and surgeries. There’s been an outcry for answers for a long time.

The publication of The Canadian Health Care Guerrilla Handbook: How to Fight for What You Need is welcome news for anyone seeking those answers.

Written by Michael Decter, who served as cabinet secretary in Manitoba before his move to Ontario — and Mike McCarthy, patient advocate and consultant who brings a personal story of living with hemophilia, the book is a must-have, packed with answers to commonly asked questions that will help the reader navigate a complex and fractured system.

The book, written in plain language, talks about how to get what you want and need: a family doctor, diagnostic tests, appropriate medications, a second opinion, long-term care, home care, mental-health care — all of that and more is easily accessible in its 217 pages.

TV with kick, secrets, rebellion and green rings

Deep into a summer with endless-seeming heat waves, squadrons of both mosquitoes and dragonflies, and a dearth of insect repellent, here is a richly varied smorgasbord of TV, new and returning, to illuminate your shade-darkened viewing spaces. Also, remember to hydrate.

• Ted Lasso (Season 4 premières Wednesday, Aug. 5, on Apple TV)

It’s the return of the nice guy, the can-do guy, the BELIEVE guy! But enough of that feel-good stuff. There are questions to be answered when the soccer-is-life series returns! How and why does Ted (Jason Sudeikis) leave the U.S. to go back to the U.K. to coach the AFC Richmond women’s team after having quit the Richmond men’s team at the end of Season 3? What fresh stories will the show come up with to avoid a female rewind of the first three seasons, good as those stories were? And finally how will Hannah Waddington gear down from the fun assassin role in Prime Video’s excellent new series Ride or Die back to the buttoned-down AFC team owner Rebecca Welton? Shall we all find out together?

• The Shards (series premières Wednesday, Aug. 5, on FX, and the next day on Disney+/Hulu)

Sous les eaux islandaises avec Julien Nayet-Pelletier

Avec Julien Looks Under Things: Under Iceland’s Waters, le vulgarisateur scientifique Julien Nayet-Pelletier entraîne le public sous les eaux islandaises. Son documentaire met en lumière une biodiversité fascinante et les personnes qui travaillent à sa préservation.

Devenir cinéaste n’était pas un rêve d’enfance du franco-manitobain Julien Nayet-Pelletier.

Mais bien qu’il ait toujours été fasciné par la nature et le théâtre, et bien qu’il demeure fan des documentaires de David Attenborough, c’est donc sans surprise que la vie l’a finalement mené sur cette voie.

Il est l’animateur de la série numérique Julien Looks Under Things, où il vise à dévoiler les éléments variés de la nature avec humour et un talent pour rendre la nature accessible.

Stampeding to Starlette’s

ELMA — Build it and they will come.

Lee and Star Giesbrecht are the owners of Starlette’s Burger Saloon, a western-themed, outdoor eating spot situated on the married couple’s 40-acre spread, immediately north of Elma.

Seated at one of a half-dozen picnic tables that dot the grounds, Star recalls a conversation she and Lee had prior to the May 2025 grand opening of their locale, which, with its weathered-wood exterior and rustic swinging doors, wouldn’t look out of place in an episode of Yellowstone.

Because they are “literally in the middle of nowhere,” Star says Lee thought it would be advantageous to mount a TV in one corner of the kitchen, for those occasions when they’d be twiddling their thumbs for hours on end, with little to do.

Around the NSL: Roaring Rapid; Mighty Maroons motoring; Wild still looking for first win

WELCOME back to the View from Row Z!

What a fortnight of footy in the Northern Super League. With two Week 15 games already in the books, this edition of the View will look a little different, capping off all the action from Week 13 and 14.

Let’s start with questions going into the two games left in Week 15.

Can the Rapid be stopped?

‘Good deal of synergy’ brewing in South Osborne

Pub crawls could become the next South Osborne draw.

At least, that’s the hope of entrepreneurs in the area as three breweries build out locations in the Winnipeg neighbourhood.

Nonsuch Brewing Co. and Good Neighbour Brewing Co. have opened storefronts along the strip in the past three months. Dastardly Villain is creating a taproom and nanobrewery.

“I’m really excited to have these pubs and taprooms,” said Ben Shantz, board chair of the South Osborne Business Improvement Zone.

Bombers defence still holds hope season can be turned around

One solitary, one-syllable word was all Mike O’Shea needed to try and describe what he had just seen.

The head coach of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers had watched his defence get shredded for almost 400 yards in the rushing game alone in what was a 35-19 loss to the B.C. Lions on Thursday night before a stunned crowd of more than 31,000 at Princess Auto Stadium.

“Oof,” said O’Shea, before he explained things a bit further on the tactical side and provided some of the reasons things went sideways in such an important facet of the game.

It wasn’t that the description the head coach of the Bombers gave on that front wasn’t important, but the preamble to the soliloquy on how a series of errors and missed tackles wasn’t really necessary for anyone who had just witnessed this debacle.

Smoke taint new reality in wine as world burns

Your clothing isn’t the only thing that absorbs the scent of wildfire smoke — in affected grape-growing regions, winemakers also have to contend with the potential for their wines to develop what is called smoke taint.

Wanderers centennial transcends the pitch

A local rugby club’s influence on Winnipeg’s sports scene impacts thousands of Winnipeggers every day. Their story is one of the city’s best-kept secrets.

This year marks the 100th anniversary of the Winnipeg Wanderers Rugby Football Club. The Kildonan-based Wanderers' storied history reflects the core values of a global community, rooted in camaraderie and fuelled by a burning love for the sport.

The Wanderers’ influence on both rugby and football has built stadiums, shaped families, and pioneered the way for Winnipeg’s beloved professional gridiron football team.

Last month, Manitoba’s oldest rugby club celebrated the milestone with the communities it helped build. The club hosted a weekend of festivities at Maple Grove Rugby Park and was honoured on two separate occasions at Princess Auto Stadium.