Friendship with Tinder mismatch may work, but later

TV loses a visionary showrunner

Despite the respectful, nostalgic nods that are occasionally afforded to television’s long-ago, black-and-white past, there is simply no disputing that we — the binge-watching, Netflix-and-chilling, various-device-viewing generation — are living in TV’s golden age.

Not only is more content being created now than ever before, but the best of what is available to viewers of conventional broadcast TV, cable networks and streaming services is being produced at a level of quality that continually pushes boundaries, raises standards and challenges viewers on an almost-weekly basis to reconsider what qualifies as great.

And it’s worth noting, in this week when television lost one of its most noteworthy and powerful creative forces, just how significant Steven Bochco was in the modern evolution of the medium.

Simply put, Bochco, who died Sunday at age 74 after a lengthy battle with leukemia, helped set the stage for the current wave of scripted-TV excellence, particularly in the drama-series realm. Whatever it is that you consider to be the small screen’s best, from Game of Thrones to Breaking Bad to House of Cards to This Is Us, the roots of its success can be found in Bochco’s primetime productions of the 1980s and ’90s.

Knit wit: self-taught knitter quit school, job to stitch together new career

It’s the coldest night of the year and inside a cosy North Kildonan cafe, knitter Janine Myska is spinning her yarn.

Not the woolly kind, as one might expect from an expert knitter, but the proverbial sort that details exactly how the charming, 24-year-old Winnipeg entrepreneur went from crafting simple tuques on a loom to operating her own successful online-based knitwear and pattern company.

Seated at a table for two, Myska sets forth that her flourishing company, Knits N’ Knots — knitsnknots.ca. — got off the ground three years ago when the then-21-year-old was a student of Food Science at the University of Manitoba. Around that time, her mother bestowed upon her a plastic, circular knitting loom on which she speedily churned out roughly 50 simple woolly tuques.

“They turned out really nice,” recalls the milliner, who instantly began posting photographs of the double-brim toques on her Instagram account for all of her 20 followers to admire. (Her first @knitsnknotswpg Instagram post on Feb. 18, 2016 shows her sporting a chunky white tuque with a large pom-pom and black stripe; it garnered 109 “likes.”)

‘I’m incredibly honoured and humbled to represent the Black community’

The magnitude of becoming Manitoba's first Black cabinet minister didn't sink in until the eve of Audrey Gordon's swearing-in.

"It struck me that we were going to, as a community, achieve such an amazing milestone and goal," the Southdale MLA said Tuesday during her first scrum as the minister for mental health, wellness and recovery.

In 2019, the Progressive Conservative was one of three Blacks elected to the Manitoba legislature, including New Democrats Uzoma Asagwara and Jamie Moses.

She made history Tuesday when Premier Brian Pallister appointed her to the newly created mental health portfolio.

HSC weapons scanners effective, needed at other hospitals: nurses union

The AI weapons scanners at Health Sciences Centre have detected close to 2,000 items since they were installed at Manitoba’s largest hospital.

From March 6, 2025 to the beginning of this month, a total of 1,973 items had been flagged by the scanners and identified for further review, Shared Health said this week.

Knives, Swiss army knives and other multi-tools, drugs, alcohol, box cutters, syringes and other injection devices were detected, it said. The technology set up at entrances to the adult and children’s emergency rooms and the crisis response centre is designed to identify a wide range of objects that may require review under site safety protocols.

But Manitoba Nurses Union president Darlene Jackson said the technology isn’t available everywhere at HSC, and a sawed-off rifle was discovered in the adult ER earlier this month.

Can we have a G20 without Russia? Chrystia Freeland sounds ready to give it a try

“It is the case that the G20 can’t function effectively with Russia at the table, and with Russia in the room. It’s an absurd situation,” said Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland.