It’s not uncommon, in the Koots, to find wildlife in one’s backyard – but imagine waking up one morning to find two llamas lounging on your lawn. Fruitvale’s Darcy Samulak doesn’t have to imagine anything – except maybe how to feed his furry new friends, and how to find their owners.  “When we got up […]

If you’re like me, a cat person who does a lot of walking around town (not with the cat, obviously), you might have been noticing an awful lot of missing cat signs posted on telephone poles and community bulletin boards. It seems that every few days, there is a new sign up announcing another vanished […]

For the parents, and siblings of Australian Owen Rooney, every day is a painful reminder that he is still missing one year after his mysterious disappearance from Grand Forks, B.C.  “It’s always there – it never really feels normal. A huge part of you is missing and you don’t know where he is or if […]

Two local residents are now in jail after two separate incidents, according to Castlegar RCMP Sgt. Laurel Mathew. “Robyn Mackay, age 51, who was charged with the attempted murder of her father in August 2010, in Castlegar,  has pled guilty and received a jail sentence of six years,” Mathew said, adding that 31-year-old Joshua Street was […]

The West Kootenay Kennel Club will be hosting their 35th annual All Breed Championship Dog Show, Obedience Trials and Rally Obedience Trials Aug. 19-21. Their new location is the Castlegar Community Church Soccer Field (the old Kinnaird Middle School – 1250 26 St.).  For the second time six All Breed Championship shows will be held starting […]

Work is afoot in BC to halt the growing losses of bee colonies in the first industry-wide step to mitigate the epidemic. The Province will be giving $25 million to Genome BC in support of its ongoing research in the attempt to address bee-specific infectious diseases, as well as other issues of agriculture, forestry, fisheries, […]

Coffee Creek, the Eholt Summit east of Greenwood and 50-Mile north of Revelstoke are three Columbia-Kootenay-Boundary places to have received webcams on DriveBC’s website. Highways in the Columbia, Kootenay and Boundary areas include high mountain passes where weather can change quickly. The new webcams provide travel and weather conditions with the click of a button, […]

In an effort to cut energy costs and take action on climate change, 33 local governments in the Columbia Basin — including three regional districts and two First Nations — have taken another step. As part of their climate change commitments, each local government has recently completed a 2010 inventory of their energy use and […]

A government review panel has painted a picture of a bloated B.C. Hydro Corp. which is overstaffed by up to 1,200 employees. Panel member Cheryl Wenezenki-Yolland, acting deputy minister of advanced education, said Thursday that the Crown corporation is overstaffed in the communications, human resources and engineering departments. The panel responded to Hydro’s proposed rate […]

The question of why the toadlet crosses the road is simple biology — to get to their home on the other side — but the question of why so many have to die each year isn’t. Tens of thousands of western toadlets, each not more than the size of a dime, get squashed as they […]