Call leering brother-in-law out with hubby in earshot

Province has provided $20M in flood relief so far, infrastructure minister says

The province has sent out $20 million in relief to Manitobans and municipalities affected by severe flooding in several communities in June and July, Transportation and Infrastructure Minister Lisa Naylor told MLAs Thursday.

Naylor said the government received more than 2,400 applications for financial assistance from residents and businesses, plus applications from 64 local authorities.

Provincial staff have so far processed more than 2,000 applications, she said.

Manitoba offered financial assistance after many homes and businesses were inundated, swathes of farm land were submerged and municipal roads and provincial highways were washed out by overland flooding from western Manitoba to the Interlake.

Community’s support sways judge in sentencing drunk driver who killed friend

Spinning “doughnuts” in his truck at high speed on the family farm was something Kyle Nolan Devos told police he “did for fun.”

Broadening prediction-market gambling a bad idea

Let’s make a prediction: sooner or later, when Canadian governments find a way to take their own cut of the action, prediction-contract gambling on everything from sports to entertainment to political decisions is going to come to Canada.

And that’s a horrible, dangerous, pernicious idea.

Unless you have particular access to information — either inside information or strategic information based on skills or education — you’re not likely to make money at it. In fact, structurally, you’re likely to lose. In prediction markets, you basically pay an amount, plus fees from the company involved, to bet on whether something will or will not happen within a certain time frame. The amount you pay for your contract depends on how other people are also betting.

As Wealthsimple describes it, “You buy whichever side you think is right. Prices move with demand, so if the market leans towards one outcome, the more that side costs. If a lot of people are backing the TSX to finish above 38,000, yes gets more expensive and no gets cheaper.”

Around the NSL: Silano’s spectacular strike; Rapid treading water; Post-season posturing

And just like that, the Northern Super League playoffs are nearly set with only fourth place — and home-field advantage, of course — up for grabs.

AFC Toronto is on a tear, and the Wild continue to terrorize the post-season race. Week 23 was a wild ride — pun intended.

With three weeks of the regular-season schedule remaining, the crystal ball of who has the best chance of taking the Diana B. Matheson Cup has never been cloudier.

And with a pivotal Friday night matchup, here’s an early edition of View from Row Z.

The idea of Alberta separation viewed through a faith lens shows further fracture lines

CALGARY — One morning in May, John Pentland, a minister at Hillhurst United Church in Calgary, opened his newspaper and read about a group of Albertans who were trying to divide his country.

Something inside of him felt like it cracked open. He started to weep.

“I couldn’t stop, I couldn’t breathe,” he said. He called a friend and told him: “I think I’m losing my mind.”

Pentland has always believed in Canada — flawed as it might be — as a nation gifted with diversity and welcoming of asylum seekers, refugees and immigrants. But recently that belief has been shaken as he’s witnessed right-wing ideologies charged with anti-immigrant sentiment take root in his province. It makes him angry and embarrassed for the country he loves.

Anhang widow faked Jewish heritage to find refuge in Israel, trial told

SAN JUAN, PUERTO RICO — Looking for a safe refuge from American justice, the widow of murdered Winnipeg native Adam Anhang used forged documents to claim she was Jewish, and then asked an Israeli lawyer: “How can I be protected? Is Israel American soil?”

A jury in San Juan heard the account of international deception Friday in the trial of Aurea Vazquez-Rijos, accused with her sister and a boyfriend of conspiring to have Anhang killed in 2005 in a bid to get their hands on millions of dollars from his estate.

The forgery scheme, which included the widow’s mother and brother, was revealed through the introduction of dozens of emails and documents by the prosecution, which closed its case Friday.

Vazquez-Rijos was not Jewish; however, in her pre-nuptial agreement with Anhang in 2005, she promised to convert to Judaism within two years of their wedding. Anhang was killed six months later in an assault on a San Juan street, with his wife by his side. The killer later told police he’d been promised $3 million by the three accused to kill Anhang.