Blast from the past very present once again

STARS moves to Brandon to fill gap after Dauphin hospital closure

STARS air ambulance’s operations are being temporarily relocated from Winnipeg to Brandon to help out in the region after an area hospital was forced to shutter due to flooding.

Prairie Mountain Health said in a notice Monday the move to the Brandon Airport is expected to reduce transport and response times for patients requiring rapid escalation to higher levels of care.

The Dauphin Regional Health Centre was forced to evacuate its patients and close its doors on July 1 after the region experienced severe flooding.

The hospital’s basement flooded and power was knocked out, which caused significant damage to the facility’s HVAC system. The hospital’s kitchen, laundry, pharmacy and equipment sterilization are located in the basement.

Mary Tyler Moore’s passing feels more personal than the rest

This one feels oddly personal.

The past year has been a sombre parade of celebrity deaths, beginning with last January's passing of musicians David Bowie and Glenn Frey and continuing through the late winter and early spring with the deaths of comedian/actor Garry Shandling, record producer Sir George Martin, actress Patty Duke and pop-music icon Prince; summer brought sad farewells to legendary sportsmen Muhammad Ali and Gordie Howe, writer/producer Garry Marshall and actor Gene Wilder, and before 2016 could come to its woeful end we also lost golf pioneer Arnold Palmer, poet/musician Leonard Cohen, actor Alan Thicke, singer George Michael and the mother/daughter tandem of Debbie Reynolds and Carrie Fisher.

All of them were, in their own way, beloved, and the passing of each was followed by tributes and, for some, a few tears. But for several reasons, Wednesday's passing of TV icon Mary Tyler Moore feels like it hits a little bit closer to home.

Moore, who died at age 80, was one of television's most adored, enduring and important figures. She rose to stardom, as co-star of The Dick Van Dyke Show, in 1961, which is right around the time I started watching TV. So as someone who loved television as a kid and somehow grew up to spend most of my adult life watching it for a living, it's fair to say Moore has been a pop-culture presence throughout my entire lifetime.

Another fresh start for North Portage

It’s hard to believe that a good chunk of Portage Place mall will face the wrecking ball. As a mixed-use development, Portage Place’s history is marked by controversy and unmet expectations of being an upscale retail centre tasked with saving Winnipeg’s downtown.

To understand the gravity of this week’s announcement regarding new owner Starlight Investments’ planned $400-million retrofit of Portage Place, it’s important to look back to 1984, when Winnipeg’s economic outlook was bleak and our city had weathered the tumultuous 1970s.

It was also this period that tore open the economic and social fabric of the fabled stretch of Portage Avenue, between Eaton’s and the Bay, that had long been the retail heart and soul of not only the city, but also Western Canada.

The story of the mall’s transformation is also indicative of just how dramatic has been the transformation of downtown, and our broader economy, over the past 35 years. What is central is the shift from Winnipeg’s historical “desperation planning” model, dependent on deep subsidies and government-led support, to the more recent private-sector-driven approach.

Search continues for brothers presumed drowned at Nutimik Lake

Search-and-rescue crews on Monday continued their efforts to locate two boys who are presumed drowned after falling into fast-moving rapids at Nutimik Lake on the weekend.

The boys, identified as brothers Aaron Au Ramirez, 13, and Maximo Au Ramirez, 10, were visiting the lake in Whiteshell Provincial Park with their father and some friends when they entered the water near the Sturgeon Falls Trail on Saturday afternoon.

Lac du Bonnet RCMP received a report of the possible drowning at about 12:40 p.m. Police, along with local emergency responders, searched the shoreline and waterways but were unable to find the boys, RCMP said in a news release.

The Manitoba RCMP Underwater Recovery Team and the Hutterian Emergency Aquatic Response Team were later deployed to assist with the search. Drones have also been used.

Parole board decision traumatizes Phoenix’s devastated godmother

Kim Edwards sits with pursed lips and crossed arms in the backyard of her Stella Avenue home. Large stacks of documents, letters and newspaper clippings lay scattered around her. Nearly every one of them mentions the name Phoenix Sinclair.