Biden says he’s mulling health emergency for abortion access

Court ruling concludes Canadian Wheat Board saga

It remains to be seen whether the recent court ruling in a lawsuit filed after Canadian Wheat Board’s dissolution in 2012 puts the whole debate to rest, as some no doubt hope.

But either way, the dust has settled on the post-CWB world. The sun still rises and a new generation of farmers on the land only knows by name an institution that for generations influenced every aspect of Prairie grain farming.

The first Rural Revival column I wrote for this newspaper more than 30 years ago was about a thousand farmers from Western Canada demonstrating in support of the Wheat Board. It was in the aftermath of the Western Grain Marketing Panel report, one of several efforts that eventually included a plebiscite to help the federal government decide what to do about a vocal minority of farmers who wanted marketing “freedom.”

The polls at the time suggested about two-thirds of farmers were comfortable enough with the single-desk system for food wheat and barley to keep it around. It served as a counterbalance to canola, which they sold on the open market. They essentially had a dual market.

The new normal in Canadian politics

“Nothing happening, all at once.”

Welcome to the new normal of Canadian politics, where normality is the new normal. Routine and stable are in; disruptive and excessive are out. Exhibits A and B are the Alberta referendum and the British Columbia election. Voters opted for stability over volatility.

The opposite of being normal is being different from the norm. In politics that means different from where we’ve been and what we’ve come to expect. Two competing trends have dominated our politics for the past decade and a half — progressivism and populism. Think Justin Trudeau and liberal, progressive identity politics in Canada, and Donald Trump and conservative, populist MAGA politics in America. We are now experiencing a swing away from both those trends.

Representing this “new normal” are Prime Minister Mark Carney, for one, and newly elected British Columbia premier, Lorne Doerksen, for another. Both are considered normal because they talk and act like adults in a childish political world. Their political flair is to not have any political flair. They stand out for not standing out.

Affordable southwest Winnipeg attached two-storey home designed with families in mind

Those in the market for a new entry-level home tend to have one main thought in mind. That thought, in most cases, centres on how much value a dwelling delivers — in both price and livability.

Spencer Curtis, owner of Hilton Homes, says he and his design team are acutely aware of how meticulously prospective buyers scrutinize entry-level new house options, which in most cases are attached two-storey models.

“That’s why we keep tweaking plans to make those homes better,” Curtis says. “This model, the Wilkens, is by far our most popular plan. We put a lot of thought into its design, and are always working at making it as functional and family-friendly as possible.”

Right from the get-go, the Wilkens distinguishes itself from other attached two-storey homes with its square footage.

Olympics Overnight: Speedskater Blondin wins silver in the mass start, Bowman narrowly misses podium in halfpipe skiing, Jamaica returns to bobsled track

Here’s what you missed overnight at Day 15 of the 2022 Beijing Olympics.

Nobel laureate Toni Morrison dead at 88

NEW YORK - Nobel laureate Toni Morrison, a pioneer and reigning giant of modern literature whose imaginative power in "Beloved," ''Song of Solomon" and other works transformed American letters by dramatizing the pursuit of freedom within the boundaries of race, has died at age 88.

Publisher Alfred A. Knopf announced that Morrison died Monday night at Montefiore Medical Center in New York. Morrison's family issued a statement through Knopf saying she died after a brief illness.

"Toni Morrison passed away peacefully last night surrounded by family and friends," the family announced. "The consummate writer who treasured the written word, whether her own, her students or others, she read voraciously and was most at home when writing."

Few authors rose in such rapid, spectacular style. She was nearly 40 when her first novel, "The Bluest Eye," was published. By her early 60s, after just six novels, she had become the first black woman to receive the Nobel literature prize, praised in 1993 by the Swedish academy for her "visionary force" and for her delving into "language itself, a language she wants to liberate" from categories of black and white. In 2012, Barack Obama awarded her a Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Actor-director Cooper takes new approach to familiar tale

TORONTO — In his self-directed version of A Star Is Born, Bradley Cooper plays a rock star named Jackson Maine.

Note the name: it marks the character as a member of a cinematic lineage that descends all the way to 1937.

That year, the first A Star Is Born was made, with Frederick March in the role of alcoholic actor Norman Maine. The name stayed in 1954, when James Mason took over the role of an actor who first nurtures the career of Judy Garland’s up-and-coming star Vicki Lester before his drunken shenanigans threaten to derail it. By 1976, Kris Kristofferson played the role of musician John Norman Howard, a rock singer with a musical stake in the ascent of Barbra Streisand’s Esther Hoffman.

Cooper, 43, remembered the Maine name, but also brought his own vision as a first-time feature filmmaker to the new version, which opens Thursday, Oct. 4, opposite Lady Gaga after the originally designated director, Clint Eastwood, dropped out. While actors might not want to see different interpretations of a role, Cooper embraced the opportunity to see all the past iterations.