Focus on upsides of ex’s relocation nearby

Laine blockbuster: Ehlers emotional, Wheeler stoic but sincere

They were joined at the hip, a pair of charismatic and extremely talented young Winnipeg Jets wingers who formed an instant bond and never missed a chance to take a friendly shot at the other. And so Saturday's news that Patrik Laine had been traded to the Columbus Blue Jackets was an especially tough pill to swallow for Nikolaj Ehlers.

"He’s a guy that I’ve had a really good relationship with since my second year, since his first year. We were roommates together on the first road trip. We’ve been brothers since day one, so this is not very fun. It’s part of the business. It’s the way it goes," an emotional Ehlers said following his team's morning skate at Bell MTS Place.

They actually got a chance to say goodbye in person, as the injured Laine was down at the rink when the trigger was pulled.

“I found out like the other guys in there. Me and Patty are ones that we always joke around. You guys know that. We always chirp each other. So there’s a little bit of joking but we also know that we were roommates for three years. We’ve been really good friends for the last five years. So this is tough. This is not much fun. So he’s a guy that I’m for sure going to miss a lot," said Ehlers, who signed a seven-year contract extension with the Jets in 2017.

Paralympics open in empty stadium - just like Olympics

On Wednesday at 12 p.m. ET, Toronto Star baseball columnist and Deep Left Field podcast host Mike Wilner will answer your questions about the Blue Jays and anything else baseball-related.

Occupied Ukraine holds Kremlin-staged vote on joining Russia

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — A Kremlin-orchestrated referendum got underway Friday in occupied regions of Ukraine that sought to make them part of Russia, with some officials carrying ballots to apartment blocks accompanied by gun-toting police. Kyiv and the West condemned it as a rigged election whose result was preordained by Moscow.

Meanwhile, in a grim reminder of the brutality of the 7-month-old invasion, U.N. experts and Ukrainian officials pointed to new evidence of Russian war crimes. Kharkiv region officials said a mass burial site in the eastern city of Izium held hundreds of bodies, including at least 30 displaying signs of torture.

The referendums in the Luhansk, Kherson and partly Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia and Donetsk regions were widely seen as a prelude to Moscow annexing the regions. The voting, which was overseen by authorities installed by Russia, is scheduled to run through Tuesday and is almost certain to go the Kremlin's way.

Authorities in the Kherson region said residents of a small Moscow-controlled area of the neighboring Mykolaiv province also will be able to vote, and that small area was “incorporated” into Kherson until all of Mykolaiv is taken over by Russian forces.

Leaked data prompts news backlash in Canada, U.S.

WASHINGTON - Journalists in Canada and the United States, veterans of a daily grind that entails tracking down and chatting up newsmakers, politicians and ordinary citizens by whatever means necessary, are encountering a very different — and hostile — world as they work to learn more about supporters of the protests in Ottawa.

Reporters are being harassed, spammed, "doxxed" and even threatened for reaching out to donors to an online crowdfunding campaign that was targeted last week by hackers who disclosed the contact details of thousands of pro-trucker contributors.

"I actually had someone come to my door and leave a threatening note," said Bryan Schott, a political reporter with the Salt Lake Tribune who used the list to send emails to donors with Utah zip codes.

In Schott's case, along with countless others, people have been using social media to post screen shots of emails they've received from reporters — usually innocuous queries asking for confirmation that they had donated to the protesters and whether they'd agree to an interview.