Lawyer: Hospitalized Weinstein is ‘energized’ about appeal

Today’s horoscope

MOON ALERT: Caution! Avoid shopping (except food and gas) and important decisions after 10:30 a.m. today. The moon is in Pisces.

ARIES (March 21-April 19

This is a challenging day at work. Equipment breakdowns and unexpected problems including staff shortages might occur. People are also touchy. Everyone (including you) is ready to rebel against anything they don’t like. Be mindful of everything you say and do.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20)

Widow on mission to improve mental-health supports for law-enforcement officers, families

Stacia Franz is honouring her late husband’s life and legacy by seeking to ensure no law enforcement officer suffers in silence and no other spouse is widowed at 36.

City pest control giant's roots date back to the early 1900s and one boy's quest for vengeance

No foolin’ with Poulin? Damn straight.

Napoleon Louis Poulin, founder of Poulin’s Pest Control, currently celebrating 75 years in business, was born in 1894 on a farm south of St. Malo. He begged his mother and father for a dog while growing up but their answer was always the same: maybe next year.

In the summer of 1902 he found a stray on their property. He befriended the pooch and kept it in a grain shed, out of his parents’ sight. One morning he rolled out of bed bright and early to feed his new best friend, only to discover it had been viciously attacked by rats during the night.

“It all started when I was a little boy,” he told a reporter from the Winnipeg Tribune in 1962, three years before his retirement and five years before his death at age 73. “I had a little puppy dog and the rats chewed him to bits. Ever since then I’ve been killing them back.

Manitoba volunteer medical mission to Nicaragua cancelled due to unrest

Dozens of Nicaraguans in need of hip and knee replacements won't get surgery this fall, after a group of Manitoba doctors cancelled a surgical mission due to ongoing civil unrest in the Central American country's capital.

For the first time in seven years, a team of doctors, nurses, physiotherapists and other medical staff won't travel to Managua as part of the annual Operation Walk Winnipeg. Medical volunteers from across the province have treated hundreds of underprivileged Nicaraguans over the years; they gave new hips and knees to nearly 70 patients in desperate need of joint surgery during last year's three-day trip.

The 2018 trip, scheduled for November, was cancelled last week, the group's lead surgeon, David Hedden told the Free Press.

"We feel terrible that we can't go this year, but the safety of the team is the most important thing," said Hedden, who doubles as medical director at the Concordia Joint Replacement Group at the Winnipeg hospital.

Spread the message, not COVID: Stay home when sick

Staying home when sick may be the single most important thing people can do to slow the spread of COVID-19. But in a culture where biting the bullet and going to work or school with a sore throat, a runny nose or a cough – if not a full-blown fever – has been programmed into us since elementary school, it’s not a natural directive to follow.

“I’ve done it,” Dr. Brent Roussin, the chief provincial health officer, confessed Thursday, explaining how many of us have ventured out in public when sick prior to the pandemic — and how that needs to change.

It’s not clear how many of the 3,098 cases of COVID-19 in Manitoba were the result of someone spreading the virus in the community while symptomatic. But to illustrate how damaging it can be, Roussin shared the example of someone with symptoms who attended a social gathering Sept. 11, which led to 40 infections in just under two weeks. That represented 2.3 per cent of the 1,711 total infections in Manitoba at the time.

Roussin said contact tracing has revealed multiple examples of people going to work or attending social gatherings while symptomatic. While it’s not easy for some to stay home from work while ill (including those without financial supports, such as paid sick leave), there's no excuse for those attending social gatherings. It’s reckless.

Meta settlement should be first of many

Who knew? A massive company knew its products were harmful to children and teens, and not only kept its products on the market, but worked to make them more addictive, to build their own profits.

Welcome to social media, and a huge settlement in a case against online giant Meta.

First, the cash in the settlement: Meta will pay US$12.1 billion to settle suits by 47 U.S. states, who had argued Meta knowingly exploited teenage weaknesses. (A lot of money, until you consider that Meta’s revenues last year were US$200 billion.)

Meta is promising to limit teens’ access to social media platforms to two hours a day (unless parents allow more), block sites between midnight and 6 a.m., block notifications during school hours, and stop allowing image modifications for teens, among other things.