Banish badgering beach bully with generous gesture

Making the right move on rail lines

It’s a familiar sound in Winnipeg.

(No, not sirens, which are now almost a constant.)

It’s the 3 a.m. distant and lonesome train horn, the sound of a train crew working through the night hours, the horn giving its warning at level crossings. Some Winnipeggers hear far more: when the night is still enough, they can hear the rhythmic “tap-tap, tap-tap” of rail wheels on the tracks as long trains thread through the city.

Sounds romantic, in its own way. Unless, of course, the romance is close enough to your bedroom window to wake you up.

Fusion pop-up coming to street food festival

After surviving breast cancer and watching her husband live through a brain tumour, Marilyn Magtoto decided it was time to take a chance.

Magtoto left her corporate job as a mortgage specialist in July to start M3 Cravings, a pop-up restaurant that blends the traditional Filipino cuisine she grew up on with Mexican street food.

“To me it was like, how much longer do I want to put on hold this thing I’ve been wanting to do for a while now?” Magtoto says. “People may think I’m crazy for leaving behind a corporate professional career I’ve been doing for 22 years, but you know what — it’s worth it.”

Magtoto will now have the chance to share her food at the Streat Feast Festival at The Forks to Sunday; the event brings together people from a variety of backgrounds to share their culture through food, art and performances.

Loblaw freezes all No Name prices until end of January

Canada’s biggest grocer is freezing prices on its No Name brand items until the end of January, a move that affects more than 1,500 products.

Democrats try to stamp out school closures as omicron surges

When Chicago teachers voted to work remotely last week to protest COVID-19 safety protections in the nation’s third-largest school district, Democratic Party officials leapt into action.

Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker pushed for a quick end to the job action and helped secure rapid tests to entice teachers back to the classroom. Mayor Lori Lightfoot said the teachers “abandoned their posts” in “an illegal walkout.” White House press secretary Jen Psaki stressed that students should be in school. The standoff ended with a tentative agreement late Monday.

Nearly two years into a pandemic that shows no signs of waning, Democrats are speaking out more forcefully against COVID-19 school closures, recognizing a rising anger among parents worried that their kids are falling behind. But in doing so, Democrats risk angering some teachers unions, which are advocating for more protections for educators as the omicron variant takes hold and whose support helped get Democrats elected.

The political peril for Democrats became clear after their candidate lost the Virginia governor’s race in November to a Republican who focused on education and slammed the prior year’s school closures. Now, in what already promises to be a tough midterm election year, with frustrations mounting among their base over stalled voting and spending legislation, they may face real trouble over an issue that directly affects Americans' lives.

Local high school, collegiate athletes trying to focus on future, not dwell on season past

Nobody can relate to what today’s young athletes are going through.

Imagine entering your final year of high school and being told at the last minute that you can’t compete for a provincial championship. Or what it feels like to be the kid who made sacrifices their entire life to one day earn a scholarship and when that time comes, they’re informed the next season might not happen and their university experience will consist of them sitting behind a computer screen, taking online classes.

The realities in today’s pandemic world are unprecedented. No coach or parent can look at these athletes and say, ‘I know what you’re going through.’ Neither can Adrienne Leslie-Toogood, the director of sport psychology for the Canadian Sport Centre Manitoba. But the former University of Manitoba Bisons shooting guard said it’s important for athletes to not pretend that everything is fine during these challenging times.

“I think that bitter ends up resulting down the road if you don’t allow yourself to feel deeply. That’s the one thing we know in sport for sure, that we feel deeply. We celebrate, we work hard, we invest our heart and soul, so things can hurt pretty bad, too,” Leslie-Toogood says.

City Lego seller continues to build up its business

Brick by brick, a Winnipeg Lego seller is building its third expansion — in less than two years.

The Little Brick Market Co.’s new shop was mainly a blank slate Thursday.

A case of Lord of the Rings figurines rested against a wall. In a week, a corner nearby should have some 1,350 minifigures displayed for sale.

Staff are hauling in more than 2,000 Lego sets, two “pick a brick” tables and retro Lego magazines for reading.