At Oscars, Florida’s ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill target of joke

Why are Manitoba's school immunization programs so far from achieving herd immunity?

Sometimes, neither a lollipop nor a dinosaur sticker is enough to convince someone to get a needle.

Dr. Michele Feierstein, a pediatrician for more than 35 years, knows that all too well.

Feierstein has given thousands of immunizations to young patients throughout her career, but she has also had her fair share of difficult conversations with parents who are vaccine-hesitant or outright anti-vaxxers.

She does not bar families who have lukewarm feelings about or adamant views against immunization, whether they be rooted in misinformation, distrust, religious belief, or any other reason, from her practice at the Manitoba Clinic.

The Leaf at Assiniboine Park welcomes first visitors

The parking lot was full and Winnipeggers came out in droves Saturday morning for the public opening of The Leaf, the new indoor horticultural attraction at Assiniboine Park.

Khan files document proving teacher commissioner resigned, wasn’t fired

Opposition Leader Obby Khan says he has proof the teacher commissioner resigned and wasn’t fired, as the government has claimed.

On Thursday, he tabled a government order in council, dated April 8, that revokes Bobbi Taillefer’s appointment as commissioner. The order says Taillefer resigned on April 7.

Education Minister Tracy Schmidt initially told the Free Press Taillefer had resigned. After the article’s publication last week, Premier Wab Kinew told media the government had fired the bureaucrat.

Her departure was announced after he and Schmidt learned Taillefer was working remotely from Florida, he said.

Third fire hits troubled Manitoba Housing apartment block

Residents of a North End Manitoba Housing apartment block with a long history of trouble say they’re shaken after the building was hit with its third fire in eight months Friday night.

An apartment complex at 145 Powers St. was evacuated by firefighters after a fire broke out at around 7:45 p.m.

When longtime resident Sharon Markwell heard the fire alarm go off, she chalked it up to a false alarm — kids will get into the building and pull the fire alarm around once or twice a month, she said — until smoke began billowing into the hallway of her fifth-floor apartment.

“Once I realized that I could smell smoke very, very strongly, and the smoke was seeping into my room, into my apartment, I said to myself, ‘This is no false alarm. This is the real thing,’” Markwell, 64, told the Free Press Sunday.