Matt Grevers relishes ovation after Olympic bid falls short

Kelly Taylor

Kelly Taylor is a Winnipeg Free Press copy editor and award-winning automotive journalist. He's been a member of the Automobile Journalists' Association of Canada since 2001.

Israeli election once again up for grabs

The next general election in Israel will be held on Oct. 27. Needless to say, like most elections in the country’s modern and fraught history since 1948, it is a critical contest between right and left, secular and orthodox, and left, moderate, right and extreme.

Also, given Israel’s complex proportional representative political system, which allocates a seat in its 120-seat Knesset (parliament) for winning only 3.25 per cent of the national vote, this election is nearly impossible to predict.

Even before 1948, Israelis’ ardent faith in democracy, their differing points of view and penchant for arguing led to the establishment of a multitude of political parties representing a smorgasbord of almost every conceivable position on the political spectrum.

Because no political party has ever won the 61 seats required to form a majority government, the major parties have frequently had to rely on fringe parties to hold power.

Weed control increasingly important part of harvest

We often think of harvest as an annual “rush,” but in reality, it moves at more of a rhythmic pace, especially when the sun is shining, the fields are ripe, and the equipment is running smoothly.

Operators and machinery steadily grind away at the unharvested crops, moving from field to field as needed. Grain carts and trucks roll back and forth, hauling the grain into storage, often sidling up to the moving combine so it can unload on the fly.

Of course, the equipment needs servicing, and the people need food, but every operation has a system that minimizes the downtime and maximizes the effort. So far this season, Manitoba farmers are running ahead of the five-year average for harvest progress.

However, a brief reference in the latest crop report urges producers to break up that synchronicity and pause to closely examine patches of weeds in their fields before they push them through with the combine.

Booze sales down, gaming and cannabis up in Manitoba

MANITOBA Liquor and Lotteries delivered $724.1 million in profits to the province in 2025-26, with the lion’s share coming from alcohol, even as booze sales continue to shrink.

The Crown corporation’s contribution to Manitoba’s general revenues decreased by $6 million or 0.8 per cent from last year’s allocation of $730.1 million, its annual report shows.

That indicates stable overall performance “despite a changing operating environment,” the recently-released report said.

Those changes include the order from Premier Wab Kinew last year to remove U.S. alcohol from Liquor Mart store shelves after President Donald Trump launched a trade war against Canada as well as Manitobans’ changing tastes.

Michael Douglas comes to terms with fears, fame, father

NEW YORK — Michael Douglas, the award-winning actor and producer, recently turned 82. He is a cancer survivor, a recovered addict, a married man, the father and son of actors.

He is also an author, who begins his memoir with a message of thanks to his family — past and present and future — for the “sense of immortality.”

“Many times my father was asked, ‘Kirk, are you jealous of your son?’” he said during a recent interview at a Manhattan hotel, referring to his late father, fellow actor and sometime combatant Kirk Douglas.

“And he said, ‘Jealous?’ This is a sense of immortality, a continuity of generations.’”