Alberta bans masking mandates in schools, guarantees in-person learning

MPI gambles with low rate request

It sounds a bit like a gamble from a player in an industry that is almost pathologically averse to gambling.

Manitoba Public Insurance is currently going through the Public Utilities Board process to set car insurance rates for 2027-28, and it’s asking the PUB to approve a 2.38 rate hike.

As a provincially-run insurance business, MPI is already a bit of an outlier, because, through its government masters, it’s answerable to the Manitoba public in a way that private insurers aren’t.

Private insurers spend a fortune calculating risk, offsetting that risk with reinsurance to spread it out across the insurance spectrum, and always finding a way to ensure there’s a profit margin built in.

Wesmen setter Tristan Arnold ready to meet the challenge

In a group that features some intriguing unknowns, Tristan Arnold is a certainty for the Winnipeg Wesmen.

The fifth-year setter and team captain enters his final men’s volleyball season as the unquestioned starter for the first time after spending most of his university career buried behind some talented players, then promoted briefly before bouncing between the bench and the floor.

It’s easy to see why the Glenlawn product is stoked for the upcoming campaign. This opportunity didn’t come without challenging his patience and some questions about his belonging in the sport he’s played from a young age.

“I’ve worked really hard to continue to play volleyball,” Arnold told the Free Press Tuesday. “There’s been a couple of times throughout my career where I’ve thought about packing it in, but I was just too committed to the boys, too committed to whoever I was playing for at the time.”

Most incumbents regain their seats… but not all

When it comes to civic elections, voters like incumbents — but that doesn’t mean they are always invincible.

Jets pack up early amid whispers of fractured locker room

There was no smoking gun. That's just not the Winnipeg Jets way — to air any potential dirty laundry in public. They'll keep things bottled up as tightly as possible, trying to create the illusion of a united front.

But as players and coaches gathered for an autopsy on their 2018-19 NHL season Monday, there were enough clues dropped about how the body ended up in the morgue. And they all point to something suspected for quite some time about this club, one with such lofty expectations that came up painfully short: there were a multitude of issues, both on the ice and off.

Exhibit A: head coach Paul Maurice's take on one of the priorities heading into next season.

"We’ve got a few ruffled feathers in there that we’re going to have to flatten out before we get going," Maurice offered up, without providing any further details.

Alberta bans masking mandates in schools, guarantees in-person learning

EDMONTON - The Alberta government says school boards can't require students to wear masks in school or be forced to take classes online.

In a release, the government says it has made regulatory changes that guarantee students have access to in-person learning.

The changes also say that students cannot be denied in-person education by school authorities due to their personal decision to wear or not wear a mask.

Last week, the Edmonton public school board asked Alberta Health and Alberta Education whether it can require masks as schools deal with a wave of viral illnesses that is sending thousands of students home sick and straining hospitals.