- The worst fears for Jasper have been realized as the wildfire that sprung up almost overnight swept into the townsite. The full extent of the damage is not clear, but the photos that have come out so far suggest that not much will be left when the smoke clears. This hits home to many people more than other recent wildfires since a lot of us have actually been there; spare a thought, though, for the people who actually lived in the town.
- A new poll indicates that Kamala Harris is winning over swing voters following Joe Biden's withdrawal from the race. To anyone with the slightest bit of political awareness it is downright bizarre that there are any swing voters; how ignorant do you have to be to think "maybe I'll vote for a Democrat, or maybe I'll vote for Donald Trump". But heck, we'll take it. Meanwhile Colorado Republican representative Lauren Boebert is peddling MAGA conspiracy theories that Joe Biden is already dead.
- A delegation from Manitoba, including housing minister Bernadette Smith as well as the mayors of Brandon and Thompson, is visiting Houston to study their efforts to house the homeless. Houston has adopted a "housing first" model that has successfully housed 30,000 people since it was initiated just over a decade ago.
- The City of Winnipeg is making it easier to build housing by eliminating the need for a traffic study for projects with 20 or more units. Of course the NIMBY types are up in arms; perhaps that's part of the reason that Coun. Brian Mayes, who notwithstanding his other virtues is all too happy to advocate for those people, has been dropped from the Executive Policy Committee. I'm not too keen on the fact that he is being replaced on the committee by the erratic Vivian Santos, but that's another story.
- The Manitoba government has denied a request by the City of Winnipeg to extend by two years the deadline to complete an extensive upgrade of a sewage treatment plant. The effluent from the plant is a significant contributor to the decline of Lake Winnipeg.
- Following electrical problems that cut power to some units of an apartment building in Toronto's St James Town neighbourhood, some residents expressed their displeasure by throwing their own feces at workers who had been sent to fix the matter. Evidently they don't understand that this will only prolong the outage; meanwhile some others think that the strongly worded letter sent to building residents advising them not to do this is an inadequate measure. Nonetheless, the Toronto Police Service does not yet have anything on file regarding the matter.
- The International Olympic Committee is strongly objecting to an American investigation into a scandal in which the positive drug tests of 23 Chinese athletes were never disclosed by the World Anti-Doping Agency. The IOC is threatening to reject Salt Lake City's bid for the 2034 Winter Games unless the officials sign a contract affirming "respect" for the WADA.
- Remember the confrontation between two Niagara Regional Police officers back in 2018 that led to one of them shooting the other 10 times? The shooter, Det.-Sgt. Shane Donovan, was initially charged with attempted murder but stated that the other officer, Const. Nathan Parker, had pulled his gun first after previously attacking with a baton, following a dispute over bathroom breaks. Parker's own brother has described him as a "monster". Subsequently Parker was charged with assault with a weapon, but Donovan's testimony was later found to be tainted by having allegedly seen information that he shouldn't have had access to; his denial of this led to a perjury charge against him. He has now been acquitted of that charge. It's really not easy to get a conviction against a cop...
- A judge in St. Louis has overturned the conviction of a man who has served 33 years in prison for a murder. Christopher Dunn was convicted on the basis of testimony from two boys who later recanted their statements, saying they were coerced. The judge has ordered his release, but this has not yet occurred, and the state Attorney General Andrew Bailey intends to appeal the decision.
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