Last week, I talked a bit about consumer-level tools for working with digital photos. This week, let’s step it up notch. Simple photo editing tools like iPhoto or Picasa are easy to use, but they aren’t that powerful. At the other end of the spectrum are full-featured photo editors. The gold standard is Adobe Photoshop […]

MP Alex Atamanenko and federal New Democrats today condemned the arrest of peaceful protesters at Kingston Penitentiary in the wake of the Government’s planned closure of a local prison farm and the sale of its livestock.   “For the Government to be selling off prison farms at this time is disgraceful. This protest shows just how much […]

A fire that completely gutted a house in the 1000 block of 7th Avenue last night may well have taken the homeowner’s life as well, had it not been for the man’s pets. Fire chief Gerry Rempel said the homeowner was the only person in the house, and he was sleeping right through the smoke […]

 My son did a really neat thing this week – a neat thing that served to underline some ugly truths of our modern world. Let’s start the story with my shameless bragging: my 12-year-old son, upon hearing me discuss the food bank’s current crisis, took it upon himself (with no prompting from me), to answer […]

 Interior Health (IH) is pleased to announce the launch of High Acuity Response Teams (HARTs) this fall that will enhance transport and care needs of acutely ill patients throughout the health region. These teams will consist of highly-trained critical care nurses responding with a BC Ambulance Service (BCAS) basic life support...

A young man who was swimming in the Kettle River near Cascade Falls is missing and presumed drowned. Nicholas Rypien, 19, of Fruitvale was swimming with a group of friends in the river near Christina Lake on July 31, when he got caught up in the rapids and was not seen again. The Grand Forks […]

With the devastatingly horrific accounts of John Fulton’s murder becoming public, I find myself taking a moment to look at depression and the varying degrees of severity manic depressives (technically bi-polar affective disorder) experience.   “What do you know?” you ask. Well, let me tell you before you embarrass yourself in the forum below. Though […]

The culmination of over 13 years of planning, proposals, grant writing, and construction will be coming to fruition next Friday as the Christina Living Arts Centre hosts it’s grand opening.   This official ceremony will mark the region’s first Leadership in Energy and Ecological Design (LEED) building which will house Canada’s first LEED artisan’s gallery.   […]

Governments love ‘sin’ taxes. They fill up the coffers while creating the illusion that government is the high-minded protector of society’s moral well-being. But should government be running ‘sin’ businesses? If the performance of the BC Lottery Corporation (BCLC) is any indication, the answer is no – it creates far too much risk for players […]

 It’s still impaired driving if you’re driving a boat. That’s a message local police are failing to get through to residents, as road stops continue to net inordinately high numbers of impaired drivers leaving local lakes, campgrounds and beaches.   This past weekend saw two impaired charges and four suspensions, while the weekend of July […]