It’ll pay to walk away from big-day delay

Sweet sendoff for apprentice jockey

Three outside smoothies and a crunchy ride up the rail in the $40,000 Frank Arnason Sire Stakes on Tuesday vaulted apprentice jockey Ciera Pruitt into the top 10 at Assiniboia Downs for the first time this year.

The crunch came first. And she won’t be here much longer.

Pruitt led all jockeys on the week with four victories, the first coming aboard Manitoba-bred Bromeo in the 39th running of the Frank Arnason, for her mother, trainer Lise Pruitt. Bromeo and Pruitt duelled from the inside throughout and prevailed after a long, tight drive up the rail to take home the $24,000 winner’s share of the purse for longtime owner/breeder Barry Arnason.

“I just got really lucky, honestly,” said Pruitt. “Everything kind of fell into my hands. God was looking after me this week and it all worked out in my favour.”

Pointing fingers and shifting blame

Why is it always someone else’s responsibility, and not the City of Winnipeg’s problem?

More often than not, it seems the city is willing to pass the buck upwards to the provincial government — while also being equally willing to download it onto individual home and business owners.

Some cases in point, in just the past week:

A West Broadway landlord was told by the city to clear away the mess left by a homeless encampment at the rear of his riverside apartment building, or have the city use its staff to do the work, adding the cost to his property tax bill.

Five things from Wednesday's SNC committee

OTTAWA - Five things we heard Wednesday as the House of Commons justice committee heard from Gerald Butts, former principal secretary to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, as well as Privy Council clerk Michael Wernick and deputy justice minister Nathalie Drouin.

The committee is trying to determine whether the Prime Minister's Office improperly pushed former attorney general Jody Wilson-Raybould to head off a trial of SNC-Lavalin for fraud and bribery by ordering prosecutors to negotiate a remediation agreement with the company.

1. The cabinet shuffle

Butts said the only reason Trudeau shuffled his cabinet in January was that Scott Brison quit politics. Trudeau didn't want another shuffle and wanted to keep it as small as possible. Butts said Trudeau needed an experienced minister replacing Brison as president of the Treasury Board and was concerned about choosing a new Nova Scotia minister without alienating other Nova Scotia MPs. SNC-Lavalin was not a consideration, he said.

Researchers aim to help teachers de-stress

For Cori Wiebe, teaching math using online tools is getting a little bit easier every day.

At the same time, work is even more difficult — every day classes are suspended, she misses her students more.

“I’d love to be back in the classroom to have that social contact. (The distance) does make you appreciate what you had,” said Wiebe, a Grade 6-7 math teacher at Westdale School, before starting to cry during an interview about her last five weeks on the job, away from her 120 students.

Rallies, moments of silence honor George Floyd a year later

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A family-friendly street festival, musical performances and moments of silence were held Tuesday to honor George Floyd and mark the year since he died at the hands of Minneapolis police, a death captured on wrenching bystander video that galvanized the racial justice movement and continues to bring calls for change a year later.

Floyd’s sister Bridgett and other family members held a moment of silence at a “Celebration of Life” event at a downtown Minneapolis park that included music, food trucks, an inflatable bouncy house and a pop-up vaccination stand.

A few miles away, at the site of the intersection where Floyd died, dozens of people gathered around a steel fist sculpture and kneeled for several minutes — symbolic of the 9 minutes, 29 seconds during which Floyd was pinned to the ground.

“It’s been a troubling year, a long year,” Bridgett Floyd told the crowd in downtown Minneapolis. “But we made it. ... The love is very outpouring today. The love is here. George is here."

Colour guard: city, mobile sign industry clash over proposed restrictions

Winnipeg’s mobile sign industry is seeing red over what the city is calling a black-and-white issue.

New restrictions proposed by the City of Winnipeg limiting the number and types of colours, size, and placement of temporary signage is drawing sharp criticism from those responsible for the eye-catching advertisements.

“Some of the changes could devastate our industry and potentially end up bankrupting some of us. And it’s also going to hurt small business across Winnipeg,” said Brad Ingles, spokesman for Association of Mobile Signs Winnipeg.

The group was formed last year, when the city began reviewing bylaw enforcement and regulations, Ingles said Wednesday, and represents a handful of professional signage companies.