NBC will air opening ceremony of Tokyo Olympics live

Hydro Québec faces issue we should avoid

You might be tempted to call it a canary in an electric power generation coal mine.

But instead, it’s just another heads-up into the already-obvious problem with the proliferation of data centres.

This week, Hydro-Québec went before the Régie de l’énergie, Québec’s public utilities board, to change the rules for new and existing large data centres.

Now, it was not that long ago that Hydro Québec was actively wooing data centres — offering bulk power rates to be used to lure labour-intensive, power-hungry heavy industry (think aluminum smelters) with rates substantially lower than they offer Québec’s own residential customers. It was a way to use surplus power to create jobs and drive economic activity.

Alex Jones concedes Sandy Hook attack was ‘100% real’

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — For years, bombastic far-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones ranted to his millions of followers that the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting was a hoax, that children weren’t killed and that parents were crisis actors in an elaborate ruse to force gun control.

Under oath and facing a jury that could hit him with $150 million or more in damages for his false claims, Jones said Wednesday he now realizes that was irresponsible and believes that what happened in the deadliest school shooting in American history was “100% real.”

Jones’ public contrition came on the final day of testimony in a two-week defamation lawsuit against him and his Austin-based media company, Free Speech Systems, brought by Neil Heslin and Scarlett Lewis, the parents of 6-year-old Jesse Lewis. Their son was a first grader who was among the 20 students and six teachers killed at the school in Newtown, Connecticut, on Dec. 14, 2012.

“I unintentionally took part in things that did hurt these people’s feelings,” said Jones, who also acknowledged raising conspiracy claims about other mass tragedies, from the Oklahoma City and Boston Marathon bombings to the mass shootings in Las Vegas and Parkland, Florida, “and I’m sorry for that.”

Stuck ship thrusts sleepy Suez Canal village into limelight

I yearn to see the man at the helm. Does he resemble the overgroomed Francesco Schettino, the captain who steered the Italian cruise ship Costa Concordia onto the rocks off Tuscany in 2012 and then hastily hopped off the ship? Are they the same man?

Wasteful operations should be held accountable

Rising water bills are a top-of-mind issue for residents of Winnipeg going into the fall election. Management of the water and waste system is under question, with citizen’s groups, as well as the Free Press, calling for proper oversight of rates (Time for the PUB to review Winnipeg water rates, Editorial, Sept. 26).

The need to increase rates to build the North End sewage plant is understandable. Siphoning off utility proceeds to make up other tax revenue shortfalls is another matter. But it is not the only questionable practice. If there was Public Utilities Board oversight of Winnipeg’s water and sewer rates, it would certainly be asking why the city is spending more than $3 million annually to operate the 164-kilometre-long, Greater Winnipeg Water District railway (GWWD) on ratepayers’ behalf.

The GWWD has come to the attention of the Railway Relocation Study, led by Lloyd Axworthy. All existing rail lines within the city are under review, as is the feasibility of a new railway bypass.

The GWWD is an example of a railway that has outlived its usefulness and sits on a pocket of land close to downtown that could be converted to higher-value uses.

The election of our discontent

There’s an undercurrent of unhappiness running through the Winnipeg electorate as the municipal election day approaches.

One-half of Winnipeggers believe the city is heading in the wrong direction, according to a new Abacus Data poll, with nearly one-third unsure if Winnipeg is regressing or progressing.

Only 21 per cent of residents believe the city is on the right track, the Free Press-commissioned poll found.

That discontentment extends to how the city spends its tax dollars, with four in 10 Winnipeggers believing they receive poor value for what they pay in property taxes.

HBC closing downtown Bay store in February

In February, just five years shy of its 100th anniversary, the Portage Avenue Bay store, the mammoth icon of a bygone era of downtown department store shopping, will shut down for good.

HBC's decision to close the 650,000-square-foot store at Portage Avenue and Memorial Boulevard — twice the size of the Winnipeg Ikea store — won't come as a surprise to most people in the city.

Over the years, the company has closed some of the store's six floors and its basement, consolidating stock on just two levels. Last year a company-wide valuation of HBC's real estate holdings valued the downtown Winnipeg building at precisely $0.

"The decision to close this store was a difficult one," said Iain Nairn, president and CEO, Hudson's Bay Co.