Hush up about hopeless crush and step up

The long haul of the long hall

Being alone. Probably no one likes to be alone all the time, but I think more and more, we should all be spending a little more time alone. Maybe a lot more time. Alone with our thoughts. Alone with ourselves.

Wednesday morning, early, I was walking the north and west borders of Frank Whyte Park. It had rained the night before, the first real rain in a while, and things had changed. A roadside cardboard box I’d noticed on the edge of the road on Inkster near McPhillips on Tuesday had softened and bowed. Many trees had dropped curls and dots of spent blossoms on to the sidewalk. Twisting worms traversed wet stretches of pavement. At the corner of Fife and Inkster, two tall honeysuckles had broken from bud into flower overnight, a new scent fighting with the lilac that is so prevalent this week.

The dust had been smacked down and stuck to the pavement, and all the green colours suddenly suddenly seemed fuller and brighter.

A corner-turning day; spring to summer with the help of rain.

Staff shortage forces province to reduce traffic court, ticket-payment hours in Winnipeg

The Manitoba government quietly began closing the Winnipeg provincial offences court office early three days a week in mid-October, in a temporary measure tied to staffing shortages.

The office at 373 Broadway, where traffic tickets are paid and where provincial offence hearings are held, began closing at 3 p.m. every Monday, Wednesday and Friday on Oct. 13. The reduction in hours is expected to remain in place until early 2026.

The office remains open until 4:30 p.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

A provincial government spokesman said the office is not at a full staff complement, but added there is an active recruiting effort underway to fill vacancies.

West Kildonan Industrial residents call for speed bumps after child hit by truck

Residents in the West Kildonan Industrial neighbourhood are calling on the city to install speed bumps in their area after a child was hit and dragged by a vehicle Thursday.

Katelyn Bemister lives near the area where the child — who was hospitalized as a result of the incident and has been upgraded to stable condition — was struck. She says people frequently speed in the area.

“They’re going really fast, and they’re not really paying attention at all to the pedestrians in the area,” says Bemister.

In video supplied to the Free Press by a resident, the child can be seen riding a bike down a sidewalk along the 500 block of North Point Boulevard.

Planting the seeds for a better growing season

After experiencing the worst drought in 70 years on the Prairies, the annual meeting of Keystone Agricultural Producers served both as a debrief on the rough experience many Manitoba producers faced last year and a chance to set the stage for the year ahead.

KAP’s annual meeting is typically the first major agricultural event of the year and Manitoba’s new agriculture minister, Derek Johnson, took the opportunity to speak (virtually) to KAP’s membership for the first time.

He was able to announce record levels of AgriInsurance coverage for 2022 which is expected to exceed $4.66 billion.

With the expectation that commodity prices will remain strong, average coverage is estimated at $463 per acre, compared to $321 per acre in 2021.

Germany seeks to boost renewable energy, cut Russian imports

BERLIN (AP) — The German government unveiled a major package of reforms Wednesday to boost the production of renewable power, meet its climate goals and become independent of energy imports from hostile nations such as Russia.

The 600-page “Easter package” approved by Cabinet lays out ambitious goals for the expansion of offshore power and declares the installation of renewable energy to be of “overriding public interest” — a trump card meant to cut through Germany's often lengthy bureaucratic processes.

Europe's biggest economy aims to generate almost all of its electricity from renewable sources such as wind and solar by 2035 — more than doubling the current rate in 13 years. But the roll-out has slowed sharply in recent years due to complex rules and changes in feed-in subsidies.

"In sum, this package will lead to a significant increase in renewable energy,” Economy and Energy Minister Robert Habeck told reporters in Berlin.

Damian Warner, the world’s greatest athlete with a pretty good back story, is the right choice to carry the Canadian flag at Tokyo’s closing ceremony

“It is the honour of a lifetime,” the decathlon champions says. “And I understand that this honour could have went to anybody on this team.”