News

cgallant@medicinehatnews.com@CollinGallant Hatters had their backs up this week as the Financial Post painted a bleak picture of the local economy. It’s not uncommon, almost standard in fact, for residents of any town to react badly when they feel slighted by “the media.” But it’s a more complicated topic at the ground level as well as [...] Read More »

gslade@medicinehatnews.com@MHNGillianSlade Students at Margaret Wooding School in Redcliff are halfway through a program called 12 days of giving to help those who are homeless. Each day there has been a focus on specific personal care items to bring to school for The Mustard Seed. Principal Craig Corsie says the school has a focus on responsible, [...] Read More »

gslade@medicinehatnews.com@MHNGillianSlade An animated Christmas light display at a home in Dunmore is also holding a special event on Tuesday evening from 6-8 p.m. at 510 Third Avenue. Santa will be handing out candy canes to the children. Save on Foods is providing hot chocolate and cookies. To keep warm there will also be a bonfire, [...] Read More »

cgallant@medicinehatnews.com@CollinGallant The winter solstice is the longest night of the year, but city council’s final meeting of 2019 on Monday could be right up there. Still, an anxiously awaited update to the city’s budget to account for provincial budget cuts plus a half-dozen public hearings likely won’t set a record. The agenda for Monday’s meeting [...] Read More »

Medicine Hat College business students had a Dragon’s Den-style business pitching competition last week, featuring products such as edible shotglasses and a house sitting app. Jaubron Widdis was part of the team that won first prize in the second section with Hide-a-Shot, a biodegradable, water-soluble shotglass that contains a pre-portioned drink of your choice. “It’s [...] Read More »

WINNIPEG – A recent spike in violent crime in Manitoba’s capital has been at the centre of conversations by men who get together in the downtown core each week. “Men want to be better community members,” says Healing Together founder Ryan Beardy. He says he formed the group so men in Winnipeg would have a [...] Read More »

Some unlikely neighbours are moving in around the northernmost communities of the Northwest Territories, across the icy tundra of Canada’s High Arctic. Inuvialuit hunters and trappers say grizzly bears are showing up in increasing numbers on islands of the Beaufort Sea and experts say climate change is likely a driving factor. “The grizzly bears are [...] Read More »

VANCOUVER – Standing out in the rain on a path between tents in Vancouver’s Oppenheimer Park, Shane Redpath said he has no idea where he’ll go if he’s forced out of the homeless camp. Redpath has lived in Oppenheimer Park for nearly the full year that it’s been in place and while it’s often framed [...] Read More »

TORONTO – No winning ticket was sold for the $31 million jackpot in Friday night’s Lotto Max draw. The jackpot for the next draw on Dec. 17 will be approximately $40 million[...] Read More »

WINNIPEG – A Manitoba Mountie is dead following a crash on the Perimeter Highway. RCMP say the collision happened Friday afternoon on the highway that surrounds Winnipeg. Police say the officer was on duty at the time. RCMP say they are deeply saddened and their thoughts are with his family. No other details were released. [...] Read More »

CALGARY – The Calgary Fire Department says a person has died in hospital after being pulled from a burning home in the city’s Glendale neighbourhood. A release from the department says fire crews were called to a residence on Kelwood Place Friday around 11 p.m. and were met by heavy smoke and flames pouring from [...] Read More »

HINTON, Alta. – Police say an evacuation that had been ordered in a hamlet near Hinton, Alta., following damage to a natural gas line has been lifted. However, RCMP are advising the residents of Brule that gas to the community has been shut off and they could be without for several hours. Mounties were called [...] Read More »

EDMONTON – Alberta’s Opposition is renewing its attempt to have the ethics commissioner investigate whether the government was in a conflict of interest when it passed legislation firing an elections official investigating Premier Jason Kenney’s United Conservative Party. “The passing of this bill … is a gross violation of the rule of law,” NDP Leader [...] Read More »

EDMONTON – RCMP are asking for help to identify three people whose remains have been found in Alberta over the past 40 years. The missing persons and unidentified human remains unit says the remains of one woman, who was last seen alive before 1975, were discovered in Hinton, Alta., in 1985. She was between 16 [...] Read More »

ROCHFORT BRIDGE, Alta. – The chief of the Alexis Nakoda Sioux Nation in Alberta says many people are grieving the death of a couple and their three young grandchildren in a house fire. The adults have been identified by family as Marvin and Janet Gibbs, who had been married for seven years. Chief Tony Alexis, [...] Read More »

Tim Kalinowski Lethbridge Herald tkalinowski@lethbridgeherald.com The Community Foundation of Lethbridge and Southwestern Alberta handed out over $286,000 in grants to various community projects through the Henry S. Varley Fund for Rural Life and Community Priorities Granting Program on Thursday. About 37 projects in total benefited from the funds this year, many of which were based [...] Read More »

SUBMITTED BY THE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE With the holiday season fast approaching, Lethbridge businesses are leaning in to the holiday retail frenzy. According to the Retail Council of Canada, in 2019 Canadians are estimating to spend about $790 on their holiday purchases, but in reality, will most likely spend over $820. >The same survey also [...] Read More »

For 30 years, New West Theatre has been entertaining southern Albertans with its unique blend of music and mirth. That’s quite an accomplishment – a cause for “Celebration.” And that’s the focus of New West’s holiday show this year, opening Wednesday. “This show is a tribute from our family to yours,” the performers say, celebrating [...] Read More »

Lethbridge Herald Lethbridge School Division officials issued a statement Friday afternoon in relation to a CBC report earlier this week titled “Former employees laun-ch bullying accusations against Lethbridge principal.” The CBC story is in reference to LCI principal Wayne Pallett. Four current or former unnamed staff members accuse Pallett of bullying behaviour in the last [...] Read More »

Dave Mabell Lethbridge Herald dmabell@lethbridgeherald.com Now being described as “the oilsands of sun and wind,” southern Alberta is receiving a $1.5-billion boost from its fast-growing alternative energy industry. Overseas investors continue to underwrite new Alberta projects, a just-released report confirms, due to strong demand around the world for energy from renewable resources. “International investment is [...] Read More »

GARY, Ind. – Former Gary Mayor Richard Hatcher, who became one of the first black mayors of a big U.S. city when he was elected in 1967, has died. He was 86. Hatcher died Friday night at a Chicago hospital, Indiana state Rep. Ragen Hatcher, a Gary Democrat, said. Hatcher had to overcome opposition from [...] Read More »

KHARTOUM, Sudan – A court in Sudan convicted former President Omar al-Bashir of money laundering and corruption on Saturday, sentencing him to two years in prison. That’s the first verdict in a series of legal proceedings against al-Bashir, who is also wanted by the International Criminal Court on charges of war crimes and genocide linked [...] Read More »

North Korea says it successfully performed another “crucial test” as its long-range rocket launch site that would further strengthen its “reliable strategic nuclear deterrent.” The announcement on Saturday comes as North Korea continues to pressure the Trump administration over an end-of-year deadline set by leader Kim Jong Un to salvage faltering nuclear negotiations. North Korea’s [...] Read More »

SAN FRANCISCO – California Gov. Gavin Newsom has rejected a $13.5 billion settlement that Pacific Gas and Electric struck just last week with thousands of people who lost homes, businesses and family members in a series of devastating fires that drove the nation’s largest utility into bankruptcy. The decision announced Friday in a five-page letter [...] Read More »

SAN FRANCISCO – California gov. Gavin Newsom has rejected a bankruptcy reorganization plan that Pacific Gas and Electric reached just last week with thousands of wildfire victims, including a $13.5 billion settlement. Newsom says in a five-page letter to PG&E CEO William D. Johnson that the plan’s most important elements are providing safe and reliable [...] Read More »