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[] | 2016-08-26T13:12:18 | null | null | null | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.comoxvalleyrecord.com%2Fsports%2F390465721.html.json | http://media.bclocalnews.com/images/BlackNewsMedia-CLR.png?t=12345? | en | null | Tyler VanAnrooy leads the way at Sunnydale Men's golf | null | null | www.comoxvalleyrecord.com | Sunnydale Men’s Sunday Golf results from Aug. 14:
Low gross (0-10) Tyler VanAnrooy 65, Thomas Drew 72, Mitch Carr-Hilton 73, Greg Koster 74, Jon Huisman 76. Low gross (11+) Wally Pettigrew 79, Corey Nickerson 81, Silvio Alberti and Greg Mahrt 83 each, and Jim Buchanan 84.
Low net scores were Jim Johnson 60, Guy Traverse 67, Jack Currie 68, Dave Fauteux and Dave Pye 69 each, with John Houston and Darrell Smith 70 each.
Skins 11+ payouts went to Wally Pettigrew, Earl Costello and Greg Mahrt. Pro Shop skins payouts: Tyler VanAnrooy two skins and the low net with 65; Greg Koster, Mitch Carr-Hilton, and Dave Pye one each.
KPs went to Silvio Alberti, Wally Pettigrew, Keith McNeillie and Tyler VanAnrooy claimed two. Pot-of-Gold winners were Wally and Tyler.
Greg Koster’s sponsored Long Drives-Pro V1 winners were Jon Huisman, Jim McCaffery and Larry Ferguson.
Sponsored hole winners were; 40 Knots Winery-Wally Pettigrew, Rob Speers Pro Shop-Darrell Smith, Subway-Earl Costello, Marc & Beckie Club Caterers-Wally Pettigrew, Daryl Robbins Accountants-Tyler VanAnrooy and Corey Nickerson, Paradise Plants-Dan Woods.
Sunnydale’s Men’s Club Championship is fast approaching. A sign-up sheet will be placed in the pro shop. The draw will be made the morning of Friday, Aug. 26. Tee assignments will be based on handicaps. Only those who have signed up will be included in the draw.
This is a no cost event. However, to get into the optional Saturday/Sunday snips and pots-of-gold you will have to pay when you sign up in the pro shop.
This will be a shotgun start—mostly on the back nine and the ladies will start on the front nine—to be reversed on Sunday. Sunday tee assignments will be determined by score. | http://www.comoxvalleyrecord.com/sports/390465721.html | en | 2016-08-01T00:00:00 | www.comoxvalleyrecord.com/4d73ae4c9c7a12d69de363c344d6ff0c2500cb302510a9c0dfabb23d4d30e569.json |
[] | 2016-08-26T12:56:15 | null | null | null | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.comoxvalleyrecord.com%2Fcommunity%2F390464231.html.json | http://media.bclocalnews.com/images/61367comox09swi-web.jpg?t=12345? | en | null | Explore outdoors with Strathcona Wilderness Institute Aug. 20-21 | null | null | www.comoxvalleyrecord.com | The Strathcona Wilderness Institute is hosting a hike to Croteau Lake this Saturday, Aug. 20.
This weekend, the Strathcona Wilderness Institute is offering several exciting opportunities for exploration and education.
On Saturday, Aug. 20 at 9 a.m. experienced hiker Diane Andiel will guide a moderate (11km) hike past Battleship and Lady Lake to Croteau Lake.
On Sunday, Aug. 21 at 10 a.m. naturalist Joel Kositsky will lead a two- to three-hour nature hike in beautiful Paradise Meadows, observing berries, blooms and birds.
All events meet at the Strathcona Park Wilderness Centre on Nordic Drive, near Raven Lodge. Suggested donation for attendance is $5-$10.
Contact strathconawilderness@gmail.com to register, or find more information on our website at strathconapark.org. | http://www.comoxvalleyrecord.com/community/390464231.html | en | 2016-08-01T00:00:00 | www.comoxvalleyrecord.com/ed67ef85c44319ae5c31eeb47bfb343ed41ad1434a01125fa540da44c75d2bb2.json |
[] | 2016-08-26T13:02:10 | null | null | null | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.comoxvalleyrecord.com%2Fbusiness%2F390463041.html.json | http://media.bclocalnews.com/images/60972comox09bush-web.jpg?t=12345? | en | null | Bush boosts arts council by donating camera | null | null | www.comoxvalleyrecord.com | It’s always a pleasant surprise when a call from a lawyer is good news. This was just the case when Comox Valley Arts heard from Bob Bush at Bush and Company Law Office last April.
While in the process of a big move from a co-tenant location on 10th St. Downtown Courtenay, to their brand new custom designed building at 860 Cliffe Avenue, Bush came across the video camera that he had purchased to make professional quality commercials for the firm. He soon realized that there was far too little time to make good use of the Sony HD NXCAM.
During that transition period, Bush also met with Adil Amlani from Sure Copy about an order of brochures, and somewhere along the way the camera was brought up.
Amlani mentioned that while serving on the board for the Comox Valley Arts Council, he was advised that there was a definite need to acquire more audio/video equipment for member use as part of their community loan program, which empowers youth to express their creativity without the huge expense of purchasing and maintaining equipment.
A connection, and great community support opportunity, was created and Bush subsequently donated the HD cam to the Comox Valley Arts Council in late July. It was perfect timing as one of the CVA members and volunteers, Kayla MacDonald Video Productions, put it to good use during Filberg Festival.
McDonald, along with CVA Board members Kate Brown and Jamie Bowman, produced a “Speakers Corner” interview station at the festival for the weekend. With the high-quality camera, they were able to gather some great feedback from attendees as to why the arts are important to them and the community.
The CV Arts Council thanks Bob Bush and Bush and Company Law Office for the very generous donation that will be put to good use. For more information about the Community Loan program, visit ComoxValleyArts.com and become a member or volunteer. | http://www.comoxvalleyrecord.com/business/390463041.html | en | 2016-08-01T00:00:00 | www.comoxvalleyrecord.com/ef9302df71dd60a0cf71f722bfaa6c7e079d7cd10c6aee571d7fc55c798249ec.json |
[] | 2016-08-26T12:54:45 | null | null | null | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.comoxvalleyrecord.com%2Fcommunity%2F391185911.html.json | http://media.bclocalnews.com/images/BlackNewsMedia-CLR.png?t=12345? | en | null | Royal LePage cycling team preparing for Petite Fondo Shelter Foundation fundraiser | null | null | www.comoxvalleyrecord.com | With just two weeks to the Petite Fondo Shelter Foundation fundraiser, the Royal LePage Team and friends have been busy hitting the roads, training for the event.
If you haven’t registered yet there is still plenty of time. If you are interested in doing some training with a group, the team meets Wednesday evenings at the RLP office and heads out at 6:15.
It is never too late to participate and with several different training levels, there is something for everyone.
The Royal LePage Shelter Foundation is a national charity designed to support families escaping violence at home; providing shelter, education and prevention programs. All money raised in the Valley stays in the Valley, helping our community to grow stronger and healthier.
The ride is Sunday, Sept. 11, and features three distances; touring our beautiful Valley, with stops at two wineries and finishing at the Royal LePage office with a barbecue.
For more information or to register for the ride, visit www.petitefondo.ca | http://www.comoxvalleyrecord.com/community/391185911.html | en | 2016-08-01T00:00:00 | www.comoxvalleyrecord.com/96315bb84e1e374f38b2bdf00b71a81ad55d1a3bd12c69e74cb5b718018409ac.json |
[
"Tom Fletcher"
] | 2016-08-26T12:58:02 | null | null | Gold mine near Prince Rupert shut down last summer for permit violations, owners charged for failing to report spill | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.comoxvalleyrecord.com%2Fbusiness%2F390008831.html.json | http://media.bclocalnews.com/images/31694BCLN2007minebanksislandgold7web.jpg?t=12345? | en | null | Banks Island miners face 18 pollution charges | null | null | www.comoxvalleyrecord.com | Two men and a mining company in receivership have been charged with 18 pollution infractions related to their shut-down gold mine on an island near Prince Rupert.
Benjamin Mossman and Dirk Meckert are scheduled to appear in Prince Rupert provincial court Sept. 7. Also charged is Banks Island Gold Ltd., which went into receivership after being shut down last year for provincial permit violations.
The Yellow Giant mine was ordered shut down by the Ministry of Environment in July 2015 after a tailings spill was reported on a tip. There is one charge of failing to report a spill of a polluting substance, and the other 17 charges are for failing to comply with permits.
North Coast MLA Jennifer Rice raised the issue in the legislature this spring, after receiving a letter from the Gitxaala First Nation referring to two separate tailings spills. Rice said the ministry did not inspect the operation for 15 months, until receiving a complaint.
NDP mining critic Norm Macdonald told the legislature a worker at the mine "became fed up, put his job on the line, sent the ministry and me a tip and pictures that documented what was going on there."
Energy and Mines Minister Bill Bennett said the mine was shut down when the situation was brought to its attention. The mine's 90 employees lost their jobs.
The province has a $420,000 security bond from the mining company, to provide ongoing monitoring. In March the mines ministry and Banks Island Gold removed explosives from the mine site and in May ministry technical staff assessed the hazardous materials on site.
The B.C. Conservation Officer Service, which recommended the charges, would not comment on the current condition of the Banks Island site, because it is evidence for the prosecution. | http://www.comoxvalleyrecord.com/business/390008831.html | en | 2016-08-01T00:00:00 | www.comoxvalleyrecord.com/d6c550b9f83e0cd0917ac78b526f99bb09aa57225607b259d4b0108dddfe3f46.json |
[] | 2016-08-26T13:12:59 | null | null | null | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.comoxvalleyrecord.com%2Fopinion%2Fletters%2F391186141.html.json | http://media.bclocalnews.com/images/BlackNewsMedia-CLR.png?t=12345? | en | null | Former UBID trustee Anne Alcock responds to Grant Loxam | null | null | www.comoxvalleyrecord.com | Dear editor,
I am writing this letter to defend myself against the false accusations against myself and the former Union Bay Improvement District board that Glenn Loxam recently had published in both local newspapers. (UBID trustee explains situation, The Record, Aug. 11).
To begin with, he said that I said in my letter of resignation, “I was no longer confident that a water infrastructure agreement with KIP was possible.”
I did not say that, but this is what I actually did say: “The community has recently elected two new trustees to the board. I feel that these trustees are acting in the best interests of a developer, and acting apart from the board, and are therefore in a conflict of interest. I cannot, in all conscience, work as a trustee under these conditions, and I see no way forward with the current situation as it is.
“Over the years, myself and members of the board have been accused by this developer of not wanting to meet with him. This is simply not true.
“I am tired of his repeated accusations of lying, accusing us of not meeting with him and of not having the best interests of this community at heart.”
I ask you, Mr. Loxam, why you didn’t quote what I actually said, but I think I know why.
I have worked tirelessly for the past five years and four months as a trustee on the UBID board. For those of you who are unaware, this is a volunteer position.
I was elected by a huge majority of landowners who were concerned, as I was, that a developer was in charge of decision-making in the community instead of the elected board.
When I began my term, this community was virtually broke. To make a very long and complicated story short, there is now almost $1.8M in the bank.
Myself and the other elected trustees did the job that people elected us to do, and I am proud of our accomplishments, all of which were in the best interests of this community. None of the recent board members had a vested interest in doing this job.
I would now ask the landowners of this community a couple of questions. Do you believe that a developer or your elected board has your best interests at heart?
Do you think a developer is really going to give you a “free” water treatment plant, which he has repeatedly told the community this year? What it all boils down to for me is this: I and my fellow trustees on the previous board did not believe the developer, based on a number of reasons, the least of which is his complete inaction over many years.
The two newly elected trustees choose to believe a developer. If you doubt what I say, please call either of the two new trustees and ask them some hard questions about this “free” water treatment facility.
I feel that the only thing we can do now is join the CVRD. It isn’t the perfect solution, but there are only two choices: Have a by-election (which the minister seems to be leaning towards), which could result in the developer owning your water system, or joining a higher level of government (CVRD) who the developer can neither bully nor control. Your choice.
Now, I’m going to get on with the rest of my life and, as someone recently said to me, “You can hold your head up high in this community.” That’s exactly what I’m going to do.
Anne Alcock
past trustee
Union Bay
Improvement District | http://www.comoxvalleyrecord.com/opinion/letters/391186141.html | en | 2016-08-01T00:00:00 | www.comoxvalleyrecord.com/c6443a22b54cc7fe3f30f7feeb187eadd0e25bdbd4a688294a401575db2a3874.json |
[
"Staff Writer"
] | 2016-08-26T13:08:38 | null | null | In honour of Canada's 149th birthday, we have compiled some Canadian trivia questions. How many can you answer? | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.comoxvalleyrecord.com%2Flifestyles%2F384892721.html.json | http://media.bclocalnews.com/images/17474summerlandCanadaflag.jpg?t=12345? | en | null | CANADA DAY QUIZ: How well do you know Canadian trivia? | null | null | www.comoxvalleyrecord.com | null | http://www.comoxvalleyrecord.com/lifestyles/384892721.html | en | 2016-08-01T00:00:00 | www.comoxvalleyrecord.com/15f80f2ff676e8650ff83b5f43b7a8e2b59dc83422686d85821ed92adde91f9b.json |
[
"Tom Fletcher"
] | 2016-08-26T13:08:50 | null | null | 1,800 new spaces in 30 communities to start construction this fall, minister Stephanie Cadieux says | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.comoxvalleyrecord.com%2Flifestyles%2F381686451.html.json | http://media.bclocalnews.com/images/36574BCLN2007daycarewikimedia7web.jpg?t=12345? | en | null | Child care spaces funded for 30 BC communities | null | null | www.comoxvalleyrecord.com | Daycare spaces are in short supply in some areas of B.C. and costs are high.
More than 1,800 new child care spaces should be under construction by this fall, with the latest round of financing from the B.C. government.
New or expanded facilities in 30 communities have been selected from funding applications received in January, said Children and Family Development Minister Stephanie Cadieux. The $11.3 million budget for this year is the third phase of a child care expansion project funded by the ministry.
The province's goal is to have construction underway by September.
"It will vary somewhat from provider to provider, depending on whether they are building a facility from the ground up with this money, or whether they are adding to an existing facility," Cadieux said.
Projects in the Lower Mainland include six sites in Surrey, two each in Abbotsford, Langley and Coquitlam and one each in Maple Ridge, Pitt Meadows, Burnaby, Delta and Squamish.
On Vancouver Island, funding goes to three projects in Duncan and one each in Nanaimo, Victoria, Comox, Port Hardy and Tofino.
In the B.C. Interior, three projects are approved for Kelowna, two in Penticton, and one each in Naramata, Castlegar, Cranbrook, Enderby, Princeton, Houston, Kamloops, Merritt, Vanderhoof and Dawson Creek.
For a full list of facilities and number of spaces, see backgrounder here.
The ministry has posted a new child care map on its website to help parents locate facilities here.
The province provides child care subsidies to qualified low-income parents, and covers about 15 per cent of daycare operating costs. But the cost of land and operations drives the price of child care up to $1,400 per month or more in urban areas. Cadieux said the province is working with municipalities to review regulations.
"We're looking at the restrictions we put on child care providers in terms of outdoor space, in terms of sun access," she said. "We want to make sure that child care is safe and that we have quality, but we also want to make sure that we're not creating a situation that is unreasonable." | http://www.comoxvalleyrecord.com/lifestyles/381686451.html | en | 2016-08-01T00:00:00 | www.comoxvalleyrecord.com/d477a7c46a63914feb4f5da4278b3a6400eb15f133e64dcd911268abdb72e8ab.json |
[] | 2016-08-26T12:59:56 | null | null | The Comox Valley Small Business Association presented Carolyn West-Price Touhey with its Small Business of the Year award. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.comoxvalleyrecord.com%2Fbusiness%2F388488081.html.json | http://media.bclocalnews.com/images/5592comox09SBA3Touhey.jpg?t=12345? | en | null | SmartBiz Strategy named Small Business of the Year | null | null | www.comoxvalleyrecord.com | The Comox Valley Small Business Association (SBA) presented Carolyn West-Price Touhey with its Small Business of the Year award at the organization’s annual awards reception.
“I am so pleased to be recognized by such a diverse group of successful entrepreneurs, who not only commented in the nominations about my commitment to the organization, but also my consulting services and the commitment I make to helping businesses succeed,” Touhey said.
Nominations were submitted by other members of the organization based on specific criteria: “The business owner accepts business and personal challenges with professionalism and grace. Provides superior product and ongoing customer service, offers generous support to the non-profit sector, environmental awareness and or stewardship, and support to the group.”
Comments about Touhey which were noted in the nominations and at the presentation include: “She is quick to share her expertise in small business marketing through ongoing support to our group—from the engaging Mastermind sessions she created and facilitated to website assistance and ongoing press releases.
“She has been a long-standing member of this organization and has given her heart and soul to it over the years. She cares about the success of each and every one of her clients—always professional and always happy to offer helpful advice.”
Touhey founded her own marketing consulting/coaching company in the U.S. in 1990 and continues to operate SmartBiz Strategy. In addition to helping start-ups get “started on the right foot to avoid the trial-and-error approach of DIY marketing,” Touhey particularly enjoys helping existing businesses and non-profits get to the next level through an integrated approach to marketing that helps spread a budget and maximize impact.
In addition to running her marketing business, she also teaches marketing workshops and webinars to entrepreneurs in the U.S. and Canada. She is co-owner of Two Eagles Lodge, an award-winning B&B in Union Bay.
Touhey served on the executive board of the SBA for six years (2009-2015). She was also honoured with the Business of the Year award for SmartBiz Strategy in 2010. She is also vice-president of the Comox Valley B&B Association.
The SBA, which started in 1998 as the Comox Valley Home-Based Business Association, provides networking and educational opportunities for small and home-based businesses that operate in the Comox Valley or neighboring areas.
The group meets on the first and third Thursdays of the month (except December, July, and August) in Courtenay.
The SBA is a member of the Comox Valley Chamber of Commerce. FMI: CVEntrepreneurs.com and on Facebook. | http://www.comoxvalleyrecord.com/business/388488081.html | en | 2016-08-01T00:00:00 | www.comoxvalleyrecord.com/6aae64b645c048966c1caca3cb34ec62dd19eaa09251c665e52b346f02782a4e.json |
[] | 2016-08-27T00:48:57 | null | null | Bryce Casavant is throwing his hat into the political arena | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.comoxvalleyrecord.com%2Fnews%2F391459231.html.json | http://media.bclocalnews.com/images/23189comox0917447porthardyBryce-Casavantforweb.jpg?t=12345? | en | null | Former CO who refused to kill bear cubs hopes to run in provincial election on Vancouver Island | null | null | www.comoxvalleyrecord.com | Bryce Casavant with world famous bear cubs Jordan and Athena has thrown his hat into the political arena.
Kathy O'Reilly-Taylor
North Island Gazette
North Island baby bear rescuer and armed forces veteran Bryce Casavant is throwing his hat into the political arena.
Casavant has announced he will run in the new provincial Comox/Courtenay riding as an NDP candidate in the 2017 election. Casavant, who lost his job as a conservation officer after refusing to kill healthy cubs Athena and Jordan in 2015, became an international headline that resulted in a public outcry and support from comedian Ricky Gervais.
"Because I did not kill the bear cubs, I was removed from my job by the B.C. Government,” said Casavant. “The public rallied behind me with over 300,000 supporters and tens of thousands of complaints online and in writing to the Provincial Government.
"During litigation with my union and the B.C. government, I came to a settlement agreement in which I chose to accept a position with the Ministry of Forests and to undertake doctoral studies in environmental sustainability.
“I have spent my life doing the right thing and now I want to do the right thing for the people of British Columbia," he said.
Casavant was born and raised in the Comox Valley and is a Canadian Forces veteran who served in Afghanistan.
He grew up at his family’s property on Powerhouse Road, across the street from Ruth Masters - a local activist legendary for her battles to save properties from Strathcona Park to Clayoquot, and from MacDonald Woods to Seal Bay.
In 2013, Casavant joined the B.C. Conservation Officer Service.
"As a staunch defender of social equality, I felt I must do something. Earlier this week, after a rigourous vetting and screening process, I was officially approved by the B.C. NDP Party as a nomination candidate for the new Vancouver Island North-Comox-Powell Riding.”
Casavant is now looking for support.
"I am a passionate father who is dedicated to social equality and to our environment. I am asking that you support me in seeking the Courtenay Comox nomination in order to represent NDP members during the May 2017 election." | http://www.comoxvalleyrecord.com/news/391459231.html | en | 2016-08-01T00:00:00 | www.comoxvalleyrecord.com/4aa06ac09f61983d57958074bdb83b5b89b19e10ef34981d005116fd05cc80a4.json |
[] | 2016-08-26T14:49:59 | null | null | null | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.comoxvalleyrecord.com%2Fsports%2F391339641.html.json | http://media.bclocalnews.com/images/BlackNewsMedia-CLR.png?t=12345? | en | null | Matt Hamilton fires six-under par at Crown Isle Gentlemen's Night | null | null | www.comoxvalleyrecord.com | A warm and wonderful Comox Valley evening greeted Gentlemen’s Night at Crown Isle on Aug. 23.
The night’s prize winners were led by: Matt Hamilton who shot a six-under par to win low gross with a 30 on the front nine for the Prime Chop House. Matt also won Any gross/net eagle on #5 for the Eagle Radio 97.3 FM.
Low net was won by Rod Hunter with a 31 for Hollis Wealth. Jason Andrew continued his winning streak with the LD for 12 under on #1 for Bill Anglin, Re/Max and on #2 his 2nd shot was KP for Thrifty Foods.
Brad Gough won LD on #1 for over 13 handicap, McDonalds and he also won 2nd shot KP on #2 for the Head Shed.
Bob McCusker hit the 200-yard magic circle on #8 for Mike Hamilton Logging. Bob also was closest to the Mustang on #3 for Westview Ford. Doug McIntosh was a double winner with KP 13+ on #4 for Assante Capital and a KP everyone on #16 for Gee Associates.
Other winners were: Ralph Worley who was double bunkered on #3 for Coastal Community Credit Union; Dennis Teasdale won a sleeve of Pro-V1’s on #4 from Sean Sweeney, Barristers;
John Davis had the longest putt on #5 for Finneron Hyundai; Garth O’Neil had 3rd shot KP+13 on #5 for Russ Keil at Scotia MacLeod; on #6 Wayne Valera was closest to the spot for the White Spot Restaurant;
Wayne Fontaine had the KP-12 on #7 for Sean Sweeney and Sean gave another sleeve of Pro-V1’s to Dave Webb for his KP+13 also on #7;
Al Sabey hit the 150-yard magic circle on #8 for Brian Rice Toyota, and on #8 Jayson Welsh hit the 250-yard magic circle for BMO Nesbitt Burns; on #9 Tom Bennett hit his 2nd shot closest to the house for Art Meyers Royal LePage; the KP everyone on #12 Was won by James Ingrey for Jim’s Clothes Closet.
Draw prizes were won by: Jim Heald in the Blind Draw for Budget Blinds; Councillor Ken Grant won the draw for Dave Wheeldon; Philip (keep it in the family) Hunter won the Hidden Hole on #3 with an eight for the Golf Shop at Crown Isle;
Just for laughs, Bob Kitchen won the Joke of the Night for Canadian Tire; our starter Brett McLean won the draw prize for Hartman Auto Supply; and finally Dennis Webber won the brew from Sleeeman’s. | http://www.comoxvalleyrecord.com/sports/391339641.html | en | 2016-08-01T00:00:00 | www.comoxvalleyrecord.com/f31b9362c3206d9d265259f518f5164db1612291b8831a1de338783e3e7e11d7.json |
[] | 2016-08-26T13:12:40 | null | null | null | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.comoxvalleyrecord.com%2Fsports%2F390465121.html.json | http://media.bclocalnews.com/images/BlackNewsMedia-CLR.png?t=12345? | en | null | Bustup at Boomtown on Labour Day weekend at fish and game club | null | null | www.comoxvalleyrecord.com | The Valley Regulators are hosting the annual 2016 SASS Canadian National Championship around the Labour Day weekend at the Courtenay and District Fish & Game Protective Association, after a four-year hiatus.
More than 100 cowgirl and cowboy competitors of all ages will don colourful Old West apparel and try to shoot their way to a championship title. Black-powder and smokeless powder shooters alike will strap on their six-guns, grab their rifles and shotguns, and head into the Bustup at Boomtown for some noise, smoke, fun and friendly competition.
Single Action Shooting Society (SASS) members share an interest in preserving the history of the Old West and competitive target shooting. Every SASS member selects a shooting alias based on a character or profession from the Old West or western films. Another requirement is to adopt a shooting costume and most shooters develop a western wardrobe for day and evening wear. Buckskins, Victorian ball gowns, period military uniforms, saloon girls and gamblers in their finery are all part of the fun. This year, we are also putting on the first-ever Canadian Wild Bunch Championship, which uses costumes and guns made popular in the movie "The Wild Bunch".
Thousands of volunteer hours have gone into the ongoing construction of "Boomtown" and we want to show it off. We now have 19 permanent structures, making Boomtown the most impressive Cowboy Action range anywhere in North America. Our newest buildings include a train station and trestle in addition to the bank and barbershop, livery, mine shaft, several saloons, general store, jail, fort, and house.
When the smoke and dust settles, count on witnessing some great shooting from competitors from all across Canada and USA. Not surprisingly, some of the best (and youngest!) shooters in Canada come from our very own Comox Valley.
Admission is free and the spectators are invited on Wednesday and Thursday Aug. 31 and Sept. 1 from 9am to noon to see the Canadian Wild Bunch Championship. Then Saturday and Sunday Sept. 3 and 4 from 9 a.m. to noon spectators will watch the full SASS competition with 10 action-packed and historically accurate Old West stages. Contact Phil Peterson at 250-334-3479 or keanauto@shaw.ca for more information. | http://www.comoxvalleyrecord.com/sports/390465121.html | en | 2016-08-01T00:00:00 | www.comoxvalleyrecord.com/92c3cc8e715ee26b9cd474e051bd11557260dbf74ee2881bd4157ef6576b6e24.json |
[
"Staff Writer"
] | 2016-08-26T12:52:16 | null | null | Photographers from across the province competed in amateur competition | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.comoxvalleyrecord.com%2Fcommunity%2F391187111.html.json | http://media.bclocalnews.com/images/2985abbotsfordAmateurphotographjers.jpg?t=12345? | en | null | Voting open for People's Choice Amateur Photography Competition | null | null | www.comoxvalleyrecord.com | Cameras were the focus as 70 photographers from across B.C., including Metro Vancouver, the Fraser Valley, Kelowna and Nelson, competed in the fourth annual Next Generation BC Amateur Photographer of the Year Contest at the recent Abbotsford International Airshow.
Sponsored by London Drugs and Black Press Media, the contest took place Aug. 12-14, as participants captured their best air, crowd, static, and wildcard shots.
Photographers experienced close-up action at the airshow including Friday's twilight show, and earned the "hot-side" tour at the airshow where they shot exclusive aircraft including the F-35, CF-18, FA-18, Breitling Jet Team, the Snowbirds and more for a chance to win the title of B.C.'s next Amateur Photographer title.
Awarding categories also include The Best in-air photograph ($750 grand prize), The Best ground/static scene photograph ($500 prize),The Best crowd scene photograph ($250 prize ), The Best video submission ($500 prize) all courtesy of London Drugs and honorary acknowledgement for Best Wildcard entry.
For the People's Choice Award Winner, the time has arrived for the public to vote on their favourite photo and be entered for a chance to win BC Lions game tickets.
For voting and contest information, click here. | http://www.comoxvalleyrecord.com/community/391187111.html | en | 2016-08-01T00:00:00 | www.comoxvalleyrecord.com/a7329efd2b819d3d3de204c983e74c74a0b8283310fcf5d84f140be0c362c217.json |
[] | 2016-08-26T13:13:48 | null | null | null | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.comoxvalleyrecord.com%2Fopinion%2Fletters%2F389756411.html.json | http://media.bclocalnews.com/images/BlackNewsMedia-CLR.png?t=12345? | en | null | Water restrictions unnecessary | null | null | www.comoxvalleyrecord.com | Dear editor,
As the CVRD moves to Stage 2 and reduced watering hours, I wonder why this is necessary? Comox Lake is nearly full and our neighbours to the north in Campbell River continue to be on Stage 1, as they were during the last year’s drought.
Similar water supplies, but very different approaches. It seems still a mystery that brown lawns saved little water last year in the Comox Valley, on Stage 3.
The Town of Comox is taking the mystery out of water metering and water consumption. They are working smarter to implement water meters and user pay to those who use less than 250 m3 per year, who will pay less than the $327 flat rate. Wondering if this is why in Comox , many residents have chosen to go brown.
It seems that about half the residents would pay a lower rate if they do not maintain landscaping. While I respect that this a personal choice, there are many properties in the Comox Valley that are alive and vibrant on the same water supply.
Collectively, taxpayers are funding irrigation of green parks and playing fields, which is a good thing. There is no shortage of water.
An interesting aspect of the Comox approach is that less than 10 per cent of those with meters installed have volunteered to sign up for user pay. It is also very interesting that the average annual consumption of water per metered customer has changed very little from 2013,2014, 2015 and into 2016. Water meters do not save water, without user pay and tiered rates, it seems. Is this surcharge approach necessary on the Comox Lake water system? Do we really need to go brown?
I appreciate the transparent approach that Comox has taken with meters and their website and would like to see the same sort of transparency and information sharing by the CVRD.
Stating that lake inflows are lower than outflows is not justification for Stage 2 restrictions –and where did all the Stage 3 water go last year?
Phil Harrison
Area B | http://www.comoxvalleyrecord.com/opinion/letters/389756411.html | en | 2016-08-01T00:00:00 | www.comoxvalleyrecord.com/46727a69d1e1957110de727221b266e86440f6f7b7a9f86dade69c07f185ba9c.json |
[] | 2016-08-26T13:04:33 | null | null | WiL performs Friday, Aug. 19 on Comox Rotary Stage at Filberg Park in Comox | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.comoxvalleyrecord.com%2Fentertainment%2F390601761.html.json | http://media.bclocalnews.com/images/15736comox09WiL-4.jpg?t=12345? | en | null | Where there's a WiL, there's a concert | null | null | www.comoxvalleyrecord.com | WiL performs Friday evening, Aug. 19, on the Comox Rotary Stage at Filberg Park in Comox as part of the Filberg Summer Concerts.
Mark Allan
Special to The Record
The website address for singer WiL is www.ibreakstrings.com, which should give you an idea of his passionate live performances.
Sometimes playing an acoustic six-string somewhat like Pete Townshend attacks his electric Gibson, WiL matches that fierceness with fervent singing. He alternates with moments of tenderness that catch your breath in contrast to his intensity.
Born WiL Mimnaugh, based in Calgary for many years, and now living in Qualicum Beach, WiL hits the Comox Rotary Stage on Aug. 19 after what is bound to be a strong set by Cory Woodward in the second of three 2016 Filberg Summer Concerts.
As well as his live performances, WiL’s profile is growing thanks to songs that include There Is, Here We Go, Look Around, Hold Me On and Roam, which became an anthem to Travel Alberta’s award-winning media campaign Remember To Breathe.
His most recent album El Paseo was nominated for Solo Roots Album of the Year at the 2015 Western Canada Music Awards.
He’s got a new album coming out and will take it on the road. After playing Aug. 13 in Nanaimo and Aug. 19 in Comox, he has a date Aug. 26 in Gold River before heading toward Alberta.
To hear him at his best, though, you need to catch WiL live. His live reputation has allowed him to share stages with such respected musicians as Feist, Matt Andersen, Matthew Good and Big Sugar.
WiL used to perform live with drummer Kevin Haughton, a former Comox Valley resident.
WiL’s songs incorporate a broad sampling of styles that include country, rock, folk, blues and pop that blend into his own sound.
He will be especially inspired to deliver a good performance because WiL’s opening act Aug. 19 is Woodward, The Bear of the popular Vancouver Island trio Lion Bear Fox who skillfully opened for the Cowboy Junkies at last year’s Filberg Festival.
The Edmonton-born singer-songwriter, now living in Nanaimo, has his own production company Little Bear Music and he released a CD titled The Bear last year. That followed 2012’s The Truth, an album that featured Carly Rae Jepsen
Woodward “has the uncanny ability to spark a connection between himself and some of the greatest musicians of all time!” raved Exclaim! magazine about The Bear.
After being a featured songwriter at the Vancouver Folk Festival in 2008, Woodward performed across Canada, Europe and the U.S.
Woodward opens Aug. 19 for WiL at 7 p.m. on the Comox Rotary Stage at Filberg Park in Comox. Gates open at 6 p.m. Children 12 and younger are admitted free when accompanied by a ticketed adult.
Headliner Aaron Pritchett follows a talented local band led by Luke Blu Guthrie to close the three-concert series Aug. 25.
For information, including ticket prices, visit bit.ly/2b2g808 or email events@filberg.
Mark Allan is a director for the Filberg Heritage Lodge and Park Association | http://www.comoxvalleyrecord.com/entertainment/390601761.html | en | 2016-08-01T00:00:00 | www.comoxvalleyrecord.com/d9eb2195cebb45ae9df17985aabdd01fe6c77764815edf9490c5ad155231b981.json |
[] | 2016-08-29T20:51:29 | null | null | null | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.comoxvalleyrecord.com%2Fsports%2F391638961.html.json | http://media.bclocalnews.com/images/BlackNewsMedia-CLR.png?t=12345? | en | null | Madman McKays Jays only undefeated team in men's slopitch | null | null | www.comoxvalleyrecord.com | Madman McKays Jays continued their winning ways las week in Comox Valley Men’s Slopitch, getting by Seeco Slammers 18-16 and crushing the Avengers 19-4.
The Tier 1 leaders remain the only undefeated team in the12-team league with an 11-0-1 record. Second-place West Coast Grinders kept the Jays in sight, winning 11-2 over Heaters 4.0 and knocking off Solo La Puntita 14-8.
The Avengers collected their second win of the year, outscoring Solo 18-17, while the Slammers dropped Heaters 4.0 11-3.
In Tier 2 play last week it was first place versus second place, with KNB Steamers outlasting Weavers Leather Ballbusters 20-14 to take a firm grip on top spot.
The Steamers also took care of The Danny Glovers 18-11. The Ball Busters rallied to take their other game 16-9 against Rennie’s Rascals.
Coco Locos won their second game of the season 17-17 over the Rascals. CV Marine Misfits were 16-5 winners over Danny Glovers and 17-4 victors over the Locos. | http://www.comoxvalleyrecord.com/sports/391638961.html | en | 2016-08-01T00:00:00 | www.comoxvalleyrecord.com/9af66f5d76a8f17e292a91ba1da73c197026fab1c1e3915219cd1d8a7a05ce5c.json |
[] | 2016-08-26T12:51:13 | null | null | Help send a sick child to camp Wednesday August 10 | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.comoxvalleyrecord.com%2Fcommunity%2F389086381.html.json | http://media.bclocalnews.com/images/67260comox09pirates.jpg?t=12345? | en | null | Pirate Pak Day returns to White Spot | null | null | www.comoxvalleyrecord.com | Record staff really got into the spirit of Pirate Pak Day last year, dressing up for the occasion.
Record staff
Have lunch; help the kids!
That’s the idea behind White Spot’s annual Pirate Pak Day.
Wednesday, Aug. 10, is Pirate Pak Day at White Spot restaurant locations throughout B.C. and Alberta.
For the seventh year, $2 from the sale of each Pirate Pak and select entrees will be donated to Zajac Ranch for Children, a B.C. charity based in Mission, dedicated to giving children and young adults with life-threatening illnesses and chronic disabilities an unforgettable summer camp experience.
The Adult Pirate Pak offers five classic burger options; the Legendary Burger, Mediterranean Chicken Burger, Bacon Cheddar Burger, Sriracha Portobello Veggie Burger and Sriracha Goat Cheese Turkey Burger. Each mouth-watering choice is served in a fun cardboard boat, and comes complete with fries, coleslaw, a soft drink, a scoop of premium rich ice cream and a chocolate “gold” coin. This year, select sandwiches, salads and entrees will also be included on the Pirate Pak Day menu.
To date, White Spot has raised more than $450,000 for Zajac Ranch for Children and sent more than 300 kids to camp.
There were 45,563 Pirate Paks sold on Pirate Pak Day last year. The Courtenay location sold 630 Pirate Paks (495 adult Pirate Paks and 135 Kids Pirate Paks) - an increase of 209 over its 2014 numbers. | http://www.comoxvalleyrecord.com/community/389086381.html | en | 2016-08-01T00:00:00 | www.comoxvalleyrecord.com/d647fc378bb93a50b8947a47db6fb9bbabc6c4e07b746eca5224fb51606cb4f5.json |
[
"Tom Fletcher"
] | 2016-08-29T18:49:39 | null | null | Province has alternatives if Canada Post employees begin strike action | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.comoxvalleyrecord.com%2Fnews%2F391636531.html.json | http://media.bclocalnews.com/images/40679BCLN2007CanadaPostMailboxwikim7web.jpg?t=12345? | en | null | B.C. prepares for possible postal disruption | null | null | www.comoxvalleyrecord.com | The B.C. government's plan B for income assistance cheques and other time-sensitive documents could be re-activated as the long-running Canada Post labour dispute reaches another deadline.
The Canadian Union of Postal Workers is in a legal position to strike as of Monday, but postponed threatened rotating strike action after weekend talks with a federal mediator. Its initial action would be an overtime ban rather than a full-scale walkout that would disrupt mail delivery.
Canada Post served lockout notice in July, with the two sides far apart on issues including pension changes for future employees and pay for rural carriers.
Income assistance, rent subsidy and other B.C. government payments are not affected if they are direct deposit. For mailed cheques and information, updates on possible postal strike effects to the Ministry of Social Development will be available as necessary at this website or at 1-866-866-0800.
Phone and online contacts are set up for questions about affected provincial departments:
• Ministry of Advanced Education and StudentAidBC online here.
• Ministry of Children and Family Development 1-877-387-7027
• Medical Services Plan payments online here or 1-877-405-4909
• ICBC inquiries 1-800-663-3051
• Family Maintenance and Enforcement program 604-660-2528
• Public Guardian and Trustee online here or 604-660-4444
• Vital Statistics 1-888-876-1633
• WorkSafe BC online here or 1-888-967-5377 | http://www.comoxvalleyrecord.com/news/391636531.html | en | 2016-08-01T00:00:00 | www.comoxvalleyrecord.com/423ae1b2d98861eaf2b516668a4476fb91cd33822d569daccecbe5db85b82af5.json |
[] | 2016-08-26T13:04:52 | null | null | Wear white, bring a gourmet picnic and be entertained by Ken Lavigne | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.comoxvalleyrecord.com%2Fentertainment%2F390459371.html.json | http://media.bclocalnews.com/images/59939comox09ken-web.jpg?t=12345? | en | null | VIMSS hosting A Night of White fundraiser on Aug. 27 | null | null | www.comoxvalleyrecord.com | Ken Lavigne is scheduled to entertain at the VIMSS Night of White fundraiser on Aug. 27
The Vancouver Island Mountain Sport Society (VIMSS) looks forward to welcoming guests to their stunning surprise location for A Night of White on Aug. 27.
This glamorous evening will begin with guests arriving in a meadow lined with white tables, chairs and lights in their most fashionable white attire. Guests will be charmed and entertained by the one and only Ken Lavigne while they enjoy their own gourmet picnic creations.
Conversation is bound to flow over some bubbly, beer and wine for sale at the event. All proceeds are going to VIMSS; a non-profit society which support young, Vancouver Island, emerging athletes in mountain sports.
Arrive in style with Ambassador Limousines who are offering a special price on a ticket and ride to the secret location. The VIMSS team has been busy collecting spectacular prizes. Some will be won at the event (best dressed, best gourmet picnic, best flower arrangement and best etiquette), and some are to be auctioned off on the night, in fun and creative ways by the VIMSS team.
To whet your appetite, here’s a list of just a few of the exciting prizes collected so far: a pair of Rossingal skis, whale watching trip for two, a return Harbour Air flight, an autographed Canucks photo, tickets to the Yellowpoint Christmas Spectacular 2016, accommodation and lift passes at Mount Washington, a night at the Old House Hotel & Spa and the Accent Inn, a Pacific Mist Hydro Spa gift pass, Toscano’s gift certificate and more.
VIMSS is excited to announce a few of this year’s guest judges including Chef Gaetane of Island Gourmet Trails and George Ehler of Blue Moon Winery and Ciderworks as well as Kevin and Val Moore of Renaissance Gardens.
Also set to host and MC this spectacular evening is the GOAT morning show host, Dave Tymo. Prepare to be entertained.
The evening is set to become an annual fundraiser for VIMSS. The society hopes to book a new ‘surprise’ location for guests to enjoy every year. This is intended to become a tradition for years to come where guests can explore and glow in some of the most stunning locations of the beautiful Comox Valley.
Visit www.nightofwhite.ca for tickets and further information. | http://www.comoxvalleyrecord.com/entertainment/390459371.html | en | 2016-08-01T00:00:00 | www.comoxvalleyrecord.com/08e396941e796b9aeed73faa388770a2ad1e2fe04cb30385849e55e9ff07cdde.json |
[
"Tom Fletcher"
] | 2016-08-26T13:07:19 | null | null | Few BC Parks bookings going to commercial operators, solution is more campsite spaces, Environment Minister Mary Polak says | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.comoxvalleyrecord.com%2Flifestyles%2F385640471.html.json | http://media.bclocalnews.com/images/18489BCLN2007CampingBarriereLakeJasonKoppwiki7web.jpg?t=12345? | en | null | Provincial campsite rush mostly B.C. residents | null | null | www.comoxvalleyrecord.com | Solitude in the wilderness is still available in B.C., between holiday weekends when demand peaks at B.C.'s most popular parks.
Foreign visitors and those on package tours are a small fraction of the demand for B.C. Parks campgrounds around the province, but B.C. resident campers are still using a few tricks to get spaces for high-demand parks.
Some have protested the use of online reservations by motorhome tour operators who sell them as part of a package for tourists.
"Our provincial campsites are not products to be sold, they belong to the people of B.C.," Green Party leader Andrew Weaver said this week.
Environment Minister Mary Polak told Black Press numbers are being tracked for the current year, and the proportions haven't changed much. In 2015, fewer than one per cent of reservable B.C. Parks spaces were booked by tour operators, who also use private camping facilities.
Three quarters of reservations are from within B.C. The second highest share is from Alberta at 14 per cent, the U.S. accounts for 3.6 per cent, the rest of Canada 2.8 per cent, and all European countries combined are 6.6 per cent of the total.
The BC Parks system has 10,700 camping spaces in total, and 5,600 are reservable, to manage demand for the most popular spots.
First-come, first-served sites are kept out of the reservation system in some popular locations to accommodate travellers who drop in along the road. For high-demand periods like the recent Canada Day weekend, savvy campers work the reservation system.
At Golden Ears Provincial Park, one group booked for two weeks as soon as the 90-day eligibility window opened, then dropped the first week, giving them the coveted Canada Day weekend dates before they were generally available.
"Every year we look to change things to keep people from cheating, and every year they find new ways," Polak said. "Really the only answer is going to be finding a way to expand the number of sites that we have available."
It's shaping up as a record year for the Discover Camping reservation service, with 92,000 bookings so far this year.
B.C. Parks has added four new sites for this summer. Reservations can be made for Garibaldi Provincial Park in the Whistler area, Ruckle Provincial Park on Saltspring Island, Okanagan Falls Provincial Park, Inland Lake Provincial Park near Powell River and Dry Gulch Provincial Park near Radium Hot Springs. | http://www.comoxvalleyrecord.com/lifestyles/385640471.html | en | 2016-08-01T00:00:00 | www.comoxvalleyrecord.com/c6ad0be6d8898aa9b4b36686c7f014b47a46190636f17aa06d8ba11b4277cd17.json |
[] | 2016-08-26T13:12:05 | null | null | null | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.comoxvalleyrecord.com%2Fsports%2F391331381.html.json | http://media.bclocalnews.com/images/64650comox09RIPTIDE-WEB.jpg?t=12345? | en | null | Riptide U14 boys win gold at BC Soccer 'A' Cup championships | null | null | www.comoxvalleyrecord.com | The Riptide U14 boys won the gold medal and the Fair Play award at the BC Soccer 'A' Cup championships.
The Marine Harvest Riptide U14 Boys soccer team won the gold medal and the Fair Play award at the BC Soccer ‘A’ Cup championships, held in Burnaby in July.
The Riptide made it to the final with a 2-1 win over Vancouver United, a 2-0 loss to Delta Coastal Selects, and a 3-2 win against Surrey.
In the final game they were up against Delta who had defeated them in their second game. It was time for retribution, and the Riptide boys dug deep and came up with a great performance to defeat Delta 2-0. | http://www.comoxvalleyrecord.com/sports/391331381.html | en | 2016-08-01T00:00:00 | www.comoxvalleyrecord.com/33a89faed0e5989a788c8d3603e7756c02e2877bd0a57cc3bf90e0c3abaee374.json |
[] | 2016-08-26T13:04:11 | null | null | null | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.comoxvalleyrecord.com%2Fentertainment%2F390460241.html.json | http://media.bclocalnews.com/images/60109comox09boondock-web.jpg?t=12345? | en | null | Boondock plays Simms Park free concert on Sunday, Aug. 21 | null | null | www.comoxvalleyrecord.com | Boondock takes the stage at Simms Park at 7 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 21 as part of the free summer concert series.
Come hear the fun, energetic sound of Boondock playing at Simms Park in Courtenay at 7 p.m. on Sunday, Aug. 21. This performance is part of the free summer concert series hosted by the City of Courtenay.
Boondock is a four piece homegrown band that has country roots but now plays a unique mix of country and rock.
They have played all over Vancouver Island at festivals, pubs and private functions with a diverse set list including original country-rock music, top 40 and classic rock.
Band member Amanda Usher talks about their sound: “Even people who don’t necessarily like country music, are finding a new love for the genre.
“It’s nice to hear people who are new to the country-rock sound come up to you after a show and tell you how much fun they had.”
Band members include Amanda Usher on vocals. Amanda also contributes original song-writing. Randy Gabel on guitar brings an upbeat rock influence. Roger Boon heads up the rhythm section on drums, and Scott Brown on bass and back-up vocals.
Simms Millennium Park is located by the 5th Street Bridge, across from Lewis Park. Sit on the chairs provided, or bring your own lawnchair or blanket.
The final Simms Park concert series performance of the season is on Sunday, Aug. 28 at 7 p.m. with Time Well Wasted, a 12 piece dance band playing the greatest hits of your well wasted youth.
For concert information, call the Courtenay Recreation Lewis Centre at 250-338-5371 or get updates at www.courtenay.ca/simms
Boondock’s performance is sponsored by Dave Wheeldon, investment advisor at CIBC Wood Gundy. The Simms Summer Concert Series is jointly sponsored by the Comox Valley Echo and The Goat 98.9 FM along with the City of Courtenay. | http://www.comoxvalleyrecord.com/entertainment/390460241.html | en | 2016-08-01T00:00:00 | www.comoxvalleyrecord.com/23a00415a68c45ffac47e59fd16cb4e009d78f030664b2293dd11131c6605b56.json |
[
"Leslie Cox"
] | 2016-08-26T13:08:27 | null | null | There is nothing that yells “summer in the garden” better than sunny-faced flowers, in my opinion. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.comoxvalleyrecord.com%2Flifestyles%2F385727351.html.json | http://media.bclocalnews.com/images/58881comox09Falsesunflower.jpg?t=12345? | en | null | Summertime blooms and bugs keep gardeners busy | null | null | www.comoxvalleyrecord.com | The false sunflower
There is nothing that yells “summer in the garden” better than sunny-faced flowers, in my opinion. So, I just have to rave about our false sunflower, Heliopsis helanthoides ‘Helhan’. (Also known as Heliopsis Loraine Sunshine.)
This special cultivar of a native North American perennial has been in full bloom in our garden since early June.
What sets it apart? Brilliant yellow, daisy-like flowers atop delightfully variegated leaves. Best of all, this plant will bloom straight through until frost which is a huge attractant for bees and butterflies.
And fuss-free! No diseases seem to bother this plant, and the only purported problem pest is aphids. However, I have not noticed any aphid problem in the five years, or so, since we added ‘Helhan’ to our garden inventory. This 30-inch (75 cm) tall, 18-24-inch (45-60 cm) wide, clump-forming plant has been a real stellar performer.
What more can a gardener ask for?
Well, for one thing, I wish the fall webworms would leave our pear tree alone! Just spotted a nest, which John has cut out, leaves included, and put in the garbage. Will have to keep a watchful eye for any others that may appear.
Do not be fooled by the common name of this pest. They have been active since late May or early June when the adult moths emerged from their pupae, where they had been over-wintering. Egg-laying on host plants, like our pear tree, began shortly after emergence.
Once the larvae hatch, they form colonies and begin feasting on the leaves. The formation of the webbing actually begins shortly after the onset of feeding. It is enlarged as the larvae grow and require more food, eventually becoming multi-layered and dense-looking.
This is the very clue which helped me to pinpoint that we have the orange-race of fall webworm, (Hyphantria cunea).
Now typically, this pest will not kill its host tree. However, their webs can be unsightly and fruit production can be seriously impacted if the tree is covered in web tents. Defoliation means photosynthesis is endangered.
For more information about this pest, visit my website at duchessofdirt.ca.
Leslie Cox co-owns Growing Concern Cottage Garden in Black Creek. Her website is at www.duchessofdirt.ca and her column appears every second Thursday in The Record | http://www.comoxvalleyrecord.com/lifestyles/385727351.html | en | 2016-08-01T00:00:00 | www.comoxvalleyrecord.com/416117e31015f7b8507692b148aaf91b9fdff321397b2a18ef6696ac786deb17.json |
[] | 2016-08-26T13:12:34 | null | null | null | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.comoxvalleyrecord.com%2Fsports%2F390466111.html.json | http://media.bclocalnews.com/images/61967comox09sara-aug-18-web.jpg?t=12345? | en | null | Tight points battles at Saratoga Speedway | null | null | www.comoxvalleyrecord.com | Terry Guest
Special to The Record
It was a beautiful, warm, sunny Saturday night at Saratoga Speedway as the I.M.C.A Modifieds, Roadrunners, Galaxy Motor Mad Max cars and the Bombers cars put on a great show for the fans, with all the action being sponsored by Upland Contracting.
Tight points battles in all classes made for some great racing. In the Modified class, the points battle was as tight as ever going into the night, with Travis Stevenson leading the way by only 78 points over Dano Bryant and Chris Beaulieu.
The Roadrunner field was equally close, as Tristen Zeinstra led Ryan Guest and Austin Hack by only 92 points. Heat race action wins went to Damon Dunn, Kevin Hack, Tyler Clough and Jeff May.
Fifteen laps were awarded to the Galaxy Motors Mad Max cars for their main event which saw Dunn and Craig Gagne battle for the lead. Dunn jumped out in front early and battled bumper to bumper with Gagne, but Dunn led all 15 laps to take the win.
Twenty laps were given to the Roadrunners for their main event which saw a great battle early as all of the cars bunched up, tightening up the pack. But it was Guest who finally made his way into the lead on lap 10 and not look back from there, taking home yet another main event win.
The Bomber car Island Invitational saw 10 cars enter into a 40-lap main event. Darrel Larson jumped out to an early lead and pulled away, with Bill Gallagher and Chad Taks on his bumper. But Larson would not be stopped on this night as he eventually pulled away from the pack. Second went to Gallagher and third to Brian Baltis.
Forty laps were also awarded to a nine-car Modified main event. Brad Kotscherofski started pole and pulled away early, driving the race of his life to hold off Bryant, Stevenson and Beaulieu (who were all on his bumper late in the race) to take home his first ever Modified main event win.
EXTRA LAPS This weekend Saratoga hosts the second Crash to Pass Boat Race of the year … Jason Beaulieu won the first race … the Big Rig Highway Thunder will also be on the card, along with the Hornet cars and the Galaxy Motors Mad Max cars ... | http://www.comoxvalleyrecord.com/sports/390466111.html | en | 2016-08-01T00:00:00 | www.comoxvalleyrecord.com/7ad2e5296ae83e4c937a9c1d0409c970372c16afbd77cc2c8e7450f503e5118b.json |
[] | 2016-08-26T13:12:29 | null | null | null | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.comoxvalleyrecord.com%2Fsports%2F391315851.html.json | http://media.bclocalnews.com/images/BlackNewsMedia-CLR.png?t=12345? | en | null | Pat Peden leads the way at Sunnydale Tuesday Ladies golf | null | null | www.comoxvalleyrecord.com | Pat Peden must be ramping up her game just in time for this coming weekend’s two-day club championship. She shot an impressive low gross winning score of 82 at Sunnydale Tuesday Ladies Day on Aug. 19.
Carolyn Walker was second with 88 followed by Teri Sleigh 91, Laurie Appleyard 92, Vicki Bombini and Barb Dixson 97 and Joan Brown 98.
On the net side of the scoreboard, Linda Broadbent finished in top spot with a score of 70. There was a three-way tie for second by Chris Annand, Cheryl Bickle and Fran Gibson with 71.
The other net winners were Diane Hing 73, Charlene Cebryk 74 and Penny Wagenstein and Maylene Friesen 76.
Fran Gibson had the lowest number of putts with 27 while Diane Hing had the longest putt on #9. KP winners were Lois Westbrook (#10 sponsored by Rob Speer Pro Shop), Doris Squire (#15) and Becky Kenner (#5 for 25+ Hcp).
Three birdies were recorded for the day by Carolyn Walker, Patricia Lowe. Joan Brown and Lois Westbrook, Carolyn Walker and Maylene Friesen all chipped in.
A big thank you is sent out to our ground crew for keeping Sunnydale Golf Course in such superb shape during the hot August weather. | http://www.comoxvalleyrecord.com/sports/391315851.html | en | 2016-08-01T00:00:00 | www.comoxvalleyrecord.com/a87b1f91266521e90f12e6d7b17e2afd88205720209b511efd23e05eb149aca9.json |
[
"Tom Fletcher"
] | 2016-08-26T13:00:23 | null | null | Asian demand for B.C. wood products peaked in 2013, analyst says China sales on pace for 50 per cent drop | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.comoxvalleyrecord.com%2Fbusiness%2F391328001.html.json | http://media.bclocalnews.com/images/63096BCLN2007thomsonchinaosb7web.jpg?t=12345? | en | null | Lumber exports shift to U.S. as China sales slump | null | null | www.comoxvalleyrecord.com | Wood products exports from Canada to Asia were down 18 per cent in the first six months of 2016, with the biggest decline being softwood lumber from B.C. to China, according to the Seattle-based Wood Resources International.
Lumber sales to China are on pace to drop by 50 per cent this year compared to 2014, as B.C. lumber producers direct their sales to a healthy U.S. lumber market, according to customs data tracked for the Wood Resources Quarterly (www.woodprices.com).
The latest edition notes that by value, 75 per cent of B.C.'s exports to Asia in 2015 and 2016 are in the form of lumber, while 77 per cent of exports from Washington and Oregon are logs.
Asian demand reached a record high in 2013, with China passing Japan as the largest importer of North American wood products in 2011. The B.C. and federal governments promote wood construction in China and Japan, and B.C.'s forest minister is required to conduct an annual trade mission to China, Japan and other Asian countries.
The shift in demand provides extra urgency for talks to renew the Canada-U.S. softwood lumber agreement that expired last year. B.C. sales are booming without the export cap that both Ottawa and Washington have agreed will be required. | http://www.comoxvalleyrecord.com/business/391328001.html | en | 2016-08-01T00:00:00 | www.comoxvalleyrecord.com/eebe1a73dbe48b8388e24c76793da18887c2777fb84b2cb60f89d3c71ab2142f.json |
[
"Tom Fletcher"
] | 2016-08-26T13:11:41 | null | null | Premier Christy Clark has pulled out the duct tape to fix up rural schools, school buses and the minimum wage | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.comoxvalleyrecord.com%2Fopinion%2F390325601.html.json | http://media.bclocalnews.com/images/3565BCLN2007ClarkOakesruralschools7web.jpg?t=12345? | en | null | BC VIEWS: Premier Red Green’s fast fixes | null | null | www.comoxvalleyrecord.com | A totally spontaneous expression of gratitude breaks out for Premier Christy Clark and Cariboo North MLA Coralee Oakes at the Quesnel rodeo after a rural school fund was announced in June.
Comedian Steve Smith, better known as Red Green, is touring B.C. in September, reprising his popular TV series in which he fixes every conceivable problem with duct tape.
Green’s “I’m Not Old I’m Ripe” tour hits Chilliwack, Victoria, Nanaimo, Courtenay, Surrey, Vernon, Kelowna and Prince George.
His formula for deploying the handyman’s secret weapon has proven so popular that Premier Christy Clark may have been inspired. She’s had quite a flurry of hasty repairs in the last few months. Here’s a recap.
The B.C. minimum wage was starting to lag behind other provinces, even after the overhaul it received in 2015, where annual increases are tied to inflation.
Like Red’s truck tires, there has been a lack of inflation, and a surge of government spending back east leaving B.C. in the dust. B.C.’s wage rose 20 cents last year and was set to go up by another whole dime this fall.
There was that familiar ripping sound in May as Clark and Jobs Minister Shirley Bond announced the September increase will be patched up to 40 cents, with another 40-cent increase next fall. Two wraps should hold it until after the election.
Remember the episode where Red taped two old Hyundai Ponies side by side to make a handyman’s Hummer? The school system has seen that kind of work in recent months.
The first roll was applied by Education Minister Mike Bernier when he announced in March that the ministry’s “fix-it fund” was going from $35 million to $40 million. Then in mid-May, he announced 80 successful projects. The “fix-it fund” had fattened to $45 million, and Bernier was just getting his sleeves rolled up.
Hey school districts, remember the $25 million in “administrative savings” the ministry demanded for the second year in a row? Now that you’ve squeezed that from your budgets, Bernier’s good news at the end of May was that the government’s giving it back to use for “front line services for students.”
One of those services could be “maintaining schools despite falling enrolment in certain regions,” Bernier announced May 31, foreshadowing the next layer of repairs.
Sure enough, a “rural schools fund” was rolled out on June 15. Clark and Cariboo North MLA Coralee Oakes made the announcement in Quesnel, where Kersley and Parkland elementary schools were going to close.
Also eligible for a special fund was Okanagan-Similkameen, where Osoyoos high school students were going to be bused a half hour to Oliver. This is hardly unusual in rural schooling around B.C., but these are swing ridings, you see.
Kootenay Lake district declined the opportunity to keep Yahk elementary open, with an anticipated fall enrolment of zero students. This all comes during the annual ritual combat between the ministry and Vancouver school board over keeping half-empty schools open.
Bernier had one more roll in his overalls. School bus service, one of those things jettisoned or saddled with hundreds of dollars in fees per student as districts scraped up those “administrative savings,” was selectively saved with another $15 million fund announced last week.
There have been a few other country fixes. They’re not going to ban weddings on farms any more, for instance.
That old jalopy in the back yard you’ve been trying to soup up and get back on the road? Soon you can get a collector plate for that thing, which is perfect if you can only get it running once or twice a year.
To paraphrase Red, if the voters don’t find you handsome, they should at least find you handy.
Tom Fletcher is B.C. legislature reporter and columnist for Black Press. Email: tfletcher@blackpress.ca Twitter: @tomfletcherbc | http://www.comoxvalleyrecord.com/opinion/390325601.html | en | 2016-08-01T00:00:00 | www.comoxvalleyrecord.com/b2c0cf03fe60e0afcd772363748ec5c1d1bef0515419163da74e66011e94f0b9.json |
[
"Earle Couper"
] | 2016-08-28T20:50:56 | null | null | null | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.comoxvalleyrecord.com%2Fsports%2F391546081.html.json | http://media.bclocalnews.com/images/BlackNewsMedia-CLR.png?t=12345? | en | null | Towhees boost B.C. to national U18 Women's rugby championship | null | null | www.comoxvalleyrecord.com | G.P. Vanier Towhees’ rugby talent continues to fly high.
The latest success story for the Courtenay program came Aug. 16-21 at the age-grade national championships in Toronto, where four Towhees helped the Team BC U18 Women capture the Canadian title.
Tyra Schaad, Neila Schaad, Olivia Kellinghusen and Dawson German were on the 25-player B.C. team that won three of four games. Team BC defeated Equipe Quebec 41-0 in their Day 1 opener on Aug. 16 then whipped Nova Scotia Keltics 56-15 on Day 3 (Aug. 18) before falling 24-20 to Ontario Storm on Day 4 (Aug. 19).
Despite that loss, B.C. picked up two bonus points (by scoring four tries and staying within seven points of the winner, which was the deciding factor in the round-robin series) to remain in the running for the gold. But B.C. faced a tough task on Day 6 in the Prairie Wolfpack, who at 3-0 had been the class of the tournament.
But as BC Rugby recounts, the team was more than up to the challenge:
“The BC U18 Women's team rebounded from a disappointing performance against Ontario and defeated the Wolfpack 8-5 today at the Canadian Rugby Championships. The win secured the national championship for the team!
“B.C. put their counterparts under pressure throughout the game, starting with the set pieces and then getting into the attacking spaces of the opposition and taking away any room for them to effectively run. A win while preventing the Wolfpack from earning a bonus point was the difference.
“Led by Captain Sarah Klok, B.C.’s forwards tackled their hearts out on defence and when B.C. had the ball, plenty of ‘go forward’ was created by getting into gaps with excellent support play.
“B.C.’s backs also delivered on the defensive side of the ball and with the forwards, turned the Wolfpack over several times. A well executed 3/4 switch sprung Shalaya Valenzuela who supplied both pace and footwork to score.
“Hera Sfikas added a penalty to round out the scoring. The Wolfpack scored a well-earned try early in the first half, but then B.C.’s determined effort kicked in and secured the win. A great team effort was the difference.”
B.C. also won gold in the Men's U16 and U18 divisions, silver in Women's U16 (where Nicolette Vinnedge of Vanier was on the non-travelling reserve roster) and bronze in Senior Women. “It was a good tournament for B.C., proving that they remain the top province for producing young rugby talent, particularly up to the U18 level,” noted BC Rugby News.
“There are gaps to fix for sure, for example the drop off from gold in Women's U18 to last place in Women's U20 earlier this summer. The Men's U19 team won gold in their division in July. Congratulations to the players and coaches.”
LINE OUTS BC Rugby notes Dawson German brought her Canada U18 experience to the nationals and provided a great deal of leadership…the U18s played in Seattle prior to coming to Ontario, preparing for the national championships with a two-game exhibition series against the USA Highschool All Americans… | http://www.comoxvalleyrecord.com/sports/391546081.html | en | 2016-08-01T00:00:00 | www.comoxvalleyrecord.com/66d420b5d5d81e3d86d5bcdabebb3386878d8b0959270cbb8bed6b69733fbd9e.json |
[] | 2016-08-26T12:53:20 | null | null | The OneAreaCode Skateboarding Foundation of Courtenay is hosting a fundraiser Aug. 29 at The White Whale. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.comoxvalleyrecord.com%2Fcommunity%2F391192171.html.json | http://media.bclocalnews.com/images/4520comox09board.jpg?t=12345? | en | null | Skateboard auction features local artists | null | null | www.comoxvalleyrecord.com | There will be some fancy artwork at Monday’s skateboard auction.
The OneAreaCode Skateboarding Foundation of Courtenay is hosting a fundraiser Aug. 29 at The White Whale with a skateboard auction and DJs.
Ten local artists have painted blank skateboard decks that will be auctioned off to raise funds to assist kids from financially disadvantaged homes with skateboarding equipment and shoes.
We will be having a gala with a showing of the painted decks with works from Hellen Utsal, Done Creative, Scott Bertram, Amanda Ritchie, Droner, Troy Hardy, Brain Paste and more.
Organizers thank sponsors The White Whale, Gladstone’s Brewery and Rattan Plus. The event runs 5-11 p.m. at 975 Comox Rd. in Courtenay.
OneAreaCode Skateboarding Foundation has operated on Vancouver Island since 2013. We work to raise the education, physical and mental wellbeing of school aged skateboarders by hosting skate community and family events, and by assisting children to access shoes and equipment based on their community and school contributions. | http://www.comoxvalleyrecord.com/community/391192171.html | en | 2016-08-01T00:00:00 | www.comoxvalleyrecord.com/e78501473477b0d2759659b008581b624f1826be86f0886b9d9f89fb5cca549f.json |
[] | 2016-08-26T13:11:16 | null | null | null | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.comoxvalleyrecord.com%2Fopinion%2F389886051.html.json | http://media.bclocalnews.com/images/favicon2.ico | en | null | Comox Valley Record | null | null | www.comoxvalleyrecord.com | You have already participated in this poll. Thank you!
Last Week's Question of the Week Final Results Would you support an increase in homeowner taxes as an alternative to paid parking at the hospital? Yes 52 %
No 47 % | http://www.comoxvalleyrecord.com/opinion/389886051.html | en | 2016-08-01T00:00:00 | www.comoxvalleyrecord.com/bdc073017fc8ac4dac29765ae7f8e238bfb8df0c638f3a3f8cea014d1b38624d.json |
[
"Scott Stanfield"
] | 2016-08-26T13:09:48 | null | null | A group of residents are requesting the Province to dissolve the Union Bay Improvement District. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.comoxvalleyrecord.com%2Fnews%2F391193851.html.json | http://media.bclocalnews.com/images/BlackNewsMedia-CLR.png?t=12345? | en | null | Group wants UBID dissolved | null | null | www.comoxvalleyrecord.com | A group of residents are requesting the provincial government to dissolve the Union Bay Improvement District and to transfer its responsibilities to the Comox Valley Regional District.
So far, 325 Union Bay landowners and tenants have signed petitions that have been forwarded to Peter Fassbender, Minister of Community, Sport and Cultural Development.
“It’s only water and fire protection,” said Bruce Livesey, who initiated the Protect Our Water Group because he feels something is wrong with the governance in Union Bay. “The CVRD already does the rezoning and the planning and the taxes for Union Bay. Why not give them the fire and the water?”
The group feels the CVRD is better equipped to protect drinking water in Langley Lake, and to oversee fire protection and street lighting maintenance.
Former trustees Anne Alcock and Alan Webb, and former chair Carol Molstad, recently resigned from the UBID board. The remaining trustees are Glenn Loxam and Peter Jacques.
Livesey, also a former UBID trustee, says the request has nothing to do with the board.
“The timing is perfect,” he said. “As improvement districts become dysfunctional such as this one, the Province has been taking them over and turning them over to cities and municipalities. This is their mandate to do that. They don’t want improvement districts. It’s just another small level of government that they’ve been trying to dissolve for years, actually.”
“This is a golden opportunity for this to happen, and get this community out of the mess that it’s in,” Livesey said. “This bickering that’s been going on here for 20 years is outrageous. This could stop it. Take the reins away and give them to somebody else. Union Bay does not have the capacity to handle this.”
Protect Our Water Group intends to send another package containing more petitions.
“The response has been wonderful,” Livesey said. “We’re hoping to have another 100 names to submit by next Sunday.” | http://www.comoxvalleyrecord.com/news/391193851.html | en | 2016-08-01T00:00:00 | www.comoxvalleyrecord.com/44293b460ba3a50d515fd48c3a9fe3b40e6b494ca63d32b58075bee7c863092e.json |
[
"Tom Fletcher"
] | 2016-08-26T13:03:01 | null | null | Four per cent rate hike already in effect, more to come as BC Hydro looks for savings to offset slow industrial demand | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.comoxvalleyrecord.com%2Fbusiness%2F388687371.html.json | http://media.bclocalnews.com/images/9960BCLN2007DamRevelstokewiki7web.jpg?t=12345? | en | null | BC Hydro rates rise as demand slows | null | null | www.comoxvalleyrecord.com | Revelstoke dam on the Columbia River is due to have a sixth water turbine added, but Site C is BC Hydro's priority today.
BC Hydro is going ahead with its planned four per cent rate increase this year and deferring more debt to future years as it revises its electricity demand forecast downward.
The provincially-owned utility has not asked for an increase in its government-imposed rate plan despite a revised demand forecast with $3.5 billion less revenue over the next 10 years. BC Hydro has filed a three-year plan with the B.C. Utilities Commission that would increase rates four, 3.5 and three per cent in the next three years. The four per cent increase is already showing up on customer bills as an interim increase.
With the Site C dam on the Peace River and other upgrades amounting to $2 billion a year, the plan includes additional deferred debt until 2023, when Site C is due to be completed. BC Hydro CEO Jessica McDonald said the long-term nature of capital projects means its capital cost savings don't start until the next decade.
BC Hydro has also cut some of its familiar Power Smart activities, such as the fridge buy-back plan and incentives for energy efficient light bulbs.
McDonald said BC Hydro is seeing lower revenues due to two warm winters and downturns in mining and forest products. It still projects growing overall demand as population and economic growth continue.
NDP energy critic Adrian Dix said the new deferred debt represents roughly $500 for each of BC Hydro's two million customers, and it is a political move to get the B.C. Liberal government past next year's election.
The 10-year rates plan imposed by Energy Minister Bill Bennett in 2013 overstated demand to justify the construction of Site C, and translates to a 28 per cent rate increase. It allows the utilities commission to regain control over approving customer rates by 2020, after five years of political direction.
Dix said with the new demand forecast and commodity prices expected to remain low, BC Hydro should have added a sixth turbine to its Revelstoke dam for $450 million before embarking on the $9 billion Site C project. | http://www.comoxvalleyrecord.com/business/388687371.html | en | 2016-08-01T00:00:00 | www.comoxvalleyrecord.com/f9f58dee9a1389389bcd26b18e06fc83d93c089a92d27b91a73eb2e32b40c048.json |
[
"Jocelyn Doll"
] | 2016-08-30T22:49:51 | null | null | On Monday morning Alexandra Morton and the crew of the Sea Shepherd stopped in Campbell River to protest fish farms | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.comoxvalleyrecord.com%2Fnews%2F391794171.html.json | http://media.bclocalnews.com/images/11241campbellriverYoungprotestorWEB.jpg?t=12345? | en | null | Fish farm protestors descend on Campbell River | null | null | www.comoxvalleyrecord.com | Tony Roberts Jr. carries a young drummer on his shoulders during a protest Monday morning over fish farming. Roughly 60 people took part in the event which included a march from Spit Road to the Big House.
On Monday morning Alexandra Morton and the crew of the Sea Shepherd stopped in Campbell River and stood hand-in-hand with members of local First Nations bands to protest fish farms.
The group of around 50 walked down the road from the spit to the Big House where people stood to speak.
“We have the right to look after our food sources and salmon farms are infringing on our way of life,” said George Quocksister Jr., hereditary chief of the Awhwaoo Tribe of the Laichwiltach Nation.
He, as well as other speakers, said they believe salmon farming is killing wild salmon and in turn harming First Nations’ livelihood and traditional territory.
James Quatell, Wei Wai Kum elder, went so far as to compare fish farms to residential schools. He said it is just a different form of genocide.The speakers at the protest claimed that fish farms are the reason that the number of wild salmon has decreased. In a press release they claim that 40 per cent of the young salmon leaving the Musgamagw Dzawada’enuxw territory in the spring of 2015 were killed by sea lice from salmon farms.
They also claim that the government has broken its promises to engage First Nations in consultation.
Tony Roberts Jr. of the Wei Wai Kum nation, said he would like to see the farms put on land.
“We have gone back 20 years in the last six months on negotiations and dealings with DFO,” he said.
He feels that it is his duty to get rid of fish farms to ensure that the wild salmon resources are still available when his grandchildren are grown up.
“It is time now that we stand together and support each other,” he said.
Ernest Alfred, another delegate speaking against fish farms, said he is fearful of what will happen to the coast if the salmon disappear.
“We are the leadership here, we are the protection here and we are going to have to say something, we are going to have to take control,” he said.
Morton spoke very little, only thanking those present for “adding another boulder to the avalanche.
“You are going to win and I am with you 100 per cent,” she said.
From the Big House the group crossed the Island Highway to serve Marine Harvest with an eviction notice.
“There is a lot of emotion with respect to salmon in British Columbia and on the coast,” said Jeremy Dunn, executive director of the BC Salmon Farmers Association. Though many of the protesters were First Nations people, they do not represent the beliefs of the entire local First Nations community.
Marine Harvest has protocol agreements regarding operations within the territories of the Wei Wai Kum, the Wei Wai Kai, the Homalco and the K’omox First Nation. All members of the salmon farmers association have similar agreements with First Nations bands whose land they are operating on.
“We look to work in a collaborative fashion with everyone on the coast to have an economically important aquaculture industry and conserve wild salmon which we believe and know to be very achievable,” Dunn said.
Harold Sewid, a hereditary chief of the Wiumusgem Qwe’Qwa’Sot’Em band, has been working as a commercial fisherman his whole life and for the past 19 years also been working with fish farms.
“In the 19 years I haven’t seen anything that is overly concerning,” he said.
And he made it very clear, from when he was first hired, that if there were things about the operation that concerned him he wouldn’t be afraid to speak out about them. Sewid does everything from changing nets to hauling feed out to the farms. Though he thinks everyone has a right to their own opinion, he feels he has a well informed opinion.
“Personally I don’t see what the claims are,” he said. Morton, the Sea Shepherd and the Musgamagw Dzawada’enuxw are on a protest tour down the coast. On Aug. 15 three of the First Nation’s leaders boarded the Cermaq/Mitsubishi salmon farm in the Burwood Islands and also served an eviction notice. | http://www.comoxvalleyrecord.com/news/391794171.html | en | 2016-08-01T00:00:00 | www.comoxvalleyrecord.com/c2712f2c1a5ac08b90be924ad6ba4510a20dd992d6d85b70338a6aa5426e50c0.json |
[] | 2016-08-27T20:49:20 | null | null | Humpbacks put on a show Thursday evening | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.comoxvalleyrecord.com%2Fnews%2F391500581.html.json | http://media.bclocalnews.com/images/58213comox09humpbacksinmarina.jpg?t=12345? | en | null | Whales in the Comox Marina | null | null | www.comoxvalleyrecord.com | A kayaker has a close encounter with a couple of humpback whales in the Comox Marina Thursday night.
Terry Farrell
Record staff
Whale watchers, both on the water and ashore, experienced an up-close encounter with a pair of humpbacks Thursday night.
The two whales were spotted swimming at the Comox Marina, very close to shore, and were seen by dozens of onlookers from various locations.
“It was a truly rare - possibly the first-ever - visit from two humpbacks into the Comox Marina,” said Peter Hamilton, who witnessed and photographed the visit.
Hamilton said Thursday was a particularly successful day for whale watching.
“I was also out with six orcas off Comox and one other humpback near Texada Island.”
Spotting and identifying whales is nothing new for Hamilton. As the founder of Lifeforce, a marine wildlife protection, research and education organization, he has spent the better part of the last 35 years in and around the waters of B.C.'s West Coast.
“I started Lifeforce in 1981, feeling there was a need for an organization to look at the inter-relationship between human, animal and environmental problems. There were, at the time, organizations for each one of those, but no one really dealt with all the issues, together.”
Whale sightings, in general, are up in the past few years.
“We've seen an increase in humpbacks and transient orcas over the last several years. It used to be very rare to see humpbacks, but ... over the last five years, we started to see them more and more often,” said Hamilton.
Thursday's Comox Marina sighting come on the heels of an equally rare visit from a juvenile fin whale, earlier in the month.
finwhale by CVRecord on Scribd
The fin whale is the second-largest type of whale, and can grow to 80 feet in length. They are approximately 20 feet at birth. The one seen in the Comox Marina was estimated to be roughly 40 feet long, which would make it a juvenile age. | http://www.comoxvalleyrecord.com/news/391500581.html | en | 2016-08-01T00:00:00 | www.comoxvalleyrecord.com/c8fc6fc6bc24272f2ea1f69ff616e0a3c899d3857c792f42e6f6cdd36ce9ca1a.json |
[] | 2016-08-26T13:12:12 | null | null | null | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.comoxvalleyrecord.com%2Fsports%2F391319341.html.json | http://media.bclocalnews.com/images/59240comox09cilady-web.jpg?t=12345? | en | null | Abigail Rigsby wins Crown Isle Ladies Club Championship | null | null | www.comoxvalleyrecord.com | Abigail Rigsby accepts the Crown Isle Ladies Club Championship trophy from director of golf Rod Prieto.
It is always so much fun watching golfers play well, so it was a real thrill watching 17-year-old Abigail Rigsby score a 69 on her first day and 73 on the second day to win the overall low gross of 142 for the Crown Isle Ladies Club Championship on Aug. 15-16.
The low net winner was Judy Costantino with her two-day 134.
First flight low gross winners were Dee Horie with 156, Jacquie Hooper 166 and Katy Macaulay 170. Low nets were Sheila Van Gisbergen with 137, Sue Fulkerth 138 and Carol Ayley 144.
Second flight low gross winners were Shirley Ketter with 169, Helen Flynn 178 and Daneen Karch 178. Low net winners were Evie MacDonald with 135, Sandy Linhart 142 and Pat Johnson 142.
Third flight low gross winners were Linda Foreman 182, Judy Aldcroft 192 and Julie Tuepah 195. Low net winners were Margaret Forgeron with 140, Peggy Simpson 141 and Jan MacFarlane 146.
The two-day KPs on #4 were Jacquie Hooper and Peggy Simpson; #7 Daneen Karch and Abigail Rigsby; #12 Sandy Linhart and Ev Shaw; #16 Sheila Van Gisbergen and Abigail Rigsby.
Aug. 17 was the final day of interclub competition at Myrtle Point. Katy Macaulay, Val Dingwall, Sue Fulkerth, Helen Flynn, Tracy Kennett and Daneen Karch kept us from being dead last.
Aug. 23 was “Criers” format, dropping your two worst holes for a “par.” Low gross winner was Maggie MacLean with 78 followed by Dee Horie 80, Val Dingwall 81 and Judy Pouliot 83.
For low net scores we had Tracy Kennett with 61, Pamela Stevens 62, and tied for third were Peggy Quinney, Linda Stickney and Jane Cunningham with 63. Fourth spot was shared by Anne Kostiuk and Peggy Simpson with 64.
Birdies were made by Anne Sands on #5, Peggy Quinney on #7, Selma Cole on #12, Shirley Ketter on #12 and #13, Sandy Dudley on #13, and Judy Aldcroft and Maggie MacLean on #16.
KPs were made by Iris Peterson on #7 and #16 and Pamela Stevens on #10.
Sept. 21 is the final 9 & Wine, raising money for cancer research. A portion of the entry fee goes directly to the cause. The shotgun start is a little earlier at 5 p.m. Pink will be the preferred colour, there are lots of door prizes and a silent auction with great offers.
Call the Pro Shop to sign up for this fun evening. It’s the last for the season. | http://www.comoxvalleyrecord.com/sports/391319341.html | en | 2016-08-01T00:00:00 | www.comoxvalleyrecord.com/0bdd7bd4a48d52dfd07d2b4ea7fabcda94cdbcf45a93286b9fad514a81d68fd2.json |
[] | 2016-08-26T13:05:55 | null | null | The Celebration Singers are ready to kick off their 23rd season of song. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.comoxvalleyrecord.com%2Fentertainment%2F391191871.html.json | http://media.bclocalnews.com/images/BlackNewsMedia-CLR.png?t=12345? | en | null | Singers seeking tenor and bass voices | null | null | www.comoxvalleyrecord.com | The Celebration Singers are ready to kick off their 23rd season of song.
Music has been ordered, venues booked, and soprano and alto sections are full to overflowing with voices. Completing the tenor and bass sections is the final task.
If you have a tenor or bass voice, come and try us out this fall. The Celebration Singers is a non-auditioned community choir that provides an opportunity for members to learn, laugh, and most of all sing and perform together.
Jenn Forsland directs the choir, and is an accomplished and honored music educator in the Valley. She has the talent to shape a large choir into a beautiful uplifting sound.
Our music is an eclectic mix of traditional choral music, folk, jazz, gospel and everything in between. Music that lifts the soul and honours diversity.
We are open to receive new and returning members to complete the bass and tenor sections. If you have never sung in a choir, but have the inclination to hone your singing skills, or if you are an experienced singer... we have a place for you.
For more information and to register for the fall semester, visit www.celebrationsingers.ca or contact Kelly at 250-338-8971. First practice is Monday, Sept. 12 at 7 p.m. at Isfeld Secondary. | http://www.comoxvalleyrecord.com/entertainment/391191871.html | en | 2016-08-01T00:00:00 | www.comoxvalleyrecord.com/4ba9f2a11b686194dc825f5261cebbf1b6361f5b350bf15ffd83bead1361ca5f.json |
[
"Tom Fletcher"
] | 2016-08-26T12:59:09 | null | null | Vehicle traffic up 5% with no net fare increase and discounts offered for vehicles pulling boats and travel trailers | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.comoxvalleyrecord.com%2Fbusiness%2F391094851.html.json | http://media.bclocalnews.com/images/59772BCLN2007ferrySpiritofBC7web.jpg?t=12345? | en | null | More discounts coming as BC Ferries traffic rises | null | null | www.comoxvalleyrecord.com | BC Ferries sailings have been busier this year, thanks in part to strong tourist traffic and no net fare increase.
BC Ferries plans to continue its campaign of price promotions this fall and next spring in an effort to maintain increased passenger and vehicle traffic.
First-quarter results for the Crown corporation show passenger traffic up 2.5 per cent and vehicle loads up 5.1 per cent for the three months ended June 30, compared with the same period in 2015.
Buoyed by a strong tourist year for B.C. and no net fare increase, BC Ferries carried 5.3 million passengers and 2.1 million vehicles in April, May and June. The 1.9 per cent average fare hike was erased by a reduced fuel surcharge due to long-term contracts for cheaper diesel fuel.
Helped by reduced operating costs and higher retail sales from terminals and on-board gift shops, net earnings were $27 million for the quarter, up from $18.8 million in the same period last year. Revenues were up 4.9 per cent to $219 million, while costs for the quarter went up 1.5 per cent to $178.6 million.
BC Ferries CEO Mike Corrigan released the first-quarter results at the corporation's annual meeting in Victoria, where he also announced that unspecified pricing promotions will be offered this fall and next spring. This year BC Ferries has been offering discounts on over-length vehicles pulling boats or travel trailers.
Corrigan also announced he will be stepping down as CEO at the end of the fiscal year next March. He was promoted in 2012 to replace former CEO David Hahn, and presided over a controversial service review that saw sailings reduced on money-losing routes.
Transportation Minister Todd Stone praised Corrigan for reducing operating costs and embracing new technology, including three new medium-sized ferries using liquefied natural gas fuel that have been built in Poland.
LNG retrofits are also scheduled for the Spirit of B.C. and the Spirit of Vancouver Island, the workhorses of the main Tswassen-to-Vancouver Island route.
Corrigan's term also saw the first cable ferry in the BC Ferries fleet, the Baynes Sound Connector to Denman Island. Stone said the cable ferry cut fuel costs by half. | http://www.comoxvalleyrecord.com/business/391094851.html | en | 2016-08-01T00:00:00 | www.comoxvalleyrecord.com/e1e88ece2bd79201ce9e8cdf44915c935bc63c3d3c0ec460c5ec8f66fbc90abb.json |
[
"Erin Haluschak"
] | 2016-08-30T18:49:49 | null | null | As of noon Tuesday, campfires are allowed within the Campbell River Forest District | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.comoxvalleyrecord.com%2Fnews%2F391765721.html.json | http://media.bclocalnews.com/images/99133comox09campfire-840542_960_720-1.jpg?t=12345? | en | null | Campfire ban lifted for the Comox Valley | null | null | www.comoxvalleyrecord.com | The campfire ban has been lifted as of noon Tuesday for the Comox Valley.
A campfire ban issued by the Coastal Fire Centre will be lifted by noon Tuesday in certain areas on Vancouver Island, including the Comox Valley.
Fire information officer Marg Drysdale says due to the ongoing wet and cooler weather and vegetation hydration, the ban will be lifted, but in only certain areas.
"The campfire ban will remain in the South Island Forest District, which is south of Hindoo Creek (north of Buckley Bay), south of Strathcona Park and Nootka Sound," she explained.
Because the Comox Valley falls within the Campbell River Forest District, fires will be allowed.
"We had a system coming in and we expected it to remain all over the Coastal Fire district. The system stalled halfway down," Drysdale added."We're expecting rain well into Friday, so we'll wait and see what happens (for the remaining ban) and where it's going to land."
Currently, Drysdale noted there is one forest fire west of Campbell River which has a modified response under the watch of the Coastal Fire Centre. She added it is a remote fire which was caused by a lightening strike. | http://www.comoxvalleyrecord.com/news/391765721.html | en | 2016-08-01T00:00:00 | www.comoxvalleyrecord.com/1da54421d198aa21f178d45a11434d656fb730b85d06c136a1c6eecd50b4ef35.json |
[] | 2016-08-26T13:12:55 | null | null | null | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.comoxvalleyrecord.com%2Fsports%2F390464521.html.json | http://media.bclocalnews.com/images/BlackNewsMedia-CLR.png?t=12345? | en | null | Lots of winners at Sunnydale Ladies golf | null | null | www.comoxvalleyrecord.com | Sunnydale Thursday Night Ladies Aug. 11 had another nice evening for golfing.
Winners were: Kathy Reid for the longest putt on #1 and Kathy was closest to the pin on her second shot on #3; Deb McMahon had the longest drive on #2.
Fran Wright was closest to the pin on #5 on her 3rd shot; Gloria Sandberg was closest to the painted rock on #9.
Four ladies had the low putts of 14 and Judy Mann won the draw. Most honest golfer was Joan Shymko.
Weekly prize winners: Booster Juice-Joan Shymko, Boston Pizza–Peggy Ferguson, Courtenay Country Market-Louise Smiley, Fluid Bar & Grill–Deb McMahon, Great Canadian Oil Change/Car Wash-Mary Lynn Doubinin, Investors Group Janet Gee/Locals Restaurant–Kathy Meunier;
Investors Group Keith Gibson–Elaine Starchuk, Jo Klassen’s Grill–Helen McLoughlin & Deb Hames;
Labellamie Hair Studio-Maylene Friesen, Michaels Off Main–Pearl Madden, Panago Pizza-Peggy Cummings; Plates Eatery-Cathy Hamilton, Pro Shop-Jill Marshall, Subway-Brenda Lund, Sunnydale Golf-Ardene Larison and Judy Mann, Town Pantry/White Spot-Leslie Bird, Whistle Stop Pub-Anna Butler, golf glove-Fran Wright, hat-Shauna Reid. | http://www.comoxvalleyrecord.com/sports/390464521.html | en | 2016-08-01T00:00:00 | www.comoxvalleyrecord.com/3bf85e677c59602611783a608c94993c909e7dbdd1c987fa3049581918da1f85.json |
[
"Canadian Press"
] | 2016-08-28T22:49:23 | null | null | Talks continue, with rotating overtime ban set to begin Monday if no agreement by midnight Sunday | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.comoxvalleyrecord.com%2Fnews%2F391545211.html.json | http://media.bclocalnews.com/images/68221BCLN200782072cranbrookdailyCPweb.jpg?t=12345? | en | null | Postal workers union give details of job action if no deal is reached Sunday | null | null | www.comoxvalleyrecord.com | OTTAWA – Contract talks continue between Canada Post and its largest union, but neither side is hinting as to whether any progress has been made.
A federally appointed mediator has been meeting with the two sides since Friday to try to reach a deal.
The Canadian Union of Postal Workers says if there is no deal by midnight, it would begin job action on Monday by having its members refusing to work overtime on a rotating basis, starting in Alberta and the Northwest Territories.
CUPW served 72 hour strike notice Thursday night, accusing Canada Post of forcing a labour disruption by refusing to bargain in good faith.
The two sides have been deadlocked for months on the issues of pay scales for rural letter carriers and proposed changes to pensions for future employees.
A CUPW news release says the initial job action will cause little disruption to Canada Post customers and that its members will still be delivering mail every day.
The Canadian Press | http://www.comoxvalleyrecord.com/news/391545211.html | en | 2016-08-01T00:00:00 | www.comoxvalleyrecord.com/7939d4c68830f16755523c26a236f67e397d0e755d846698ce45a3ed2611752c.json |
[
"Tom Fletcher"
] | 2016-08-26T13:00:49 | null | null | Designer of Kicking Horse and Jumbo resorts gets approval to proceed with $175 million project east of Prince George | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.comoxvalleyrecord.com%2Fbusiness%2F390477731.html.json | http://media.bclocalnews.com/images/66407BCLN2007Oberti-Oberto7web.jpg?t=12345? | en | null | B.C. approves Valemount glacier resort plan | null | null | www.comoxvalleyrecord.com | The B.C. government has approved a master development plan for a new year-round ski resort in the Cariboo Mountains west of Valemount.
Valemount Glacier Destination Resort is a $175 million project led by Oberto Oberti, who designed the Kicking Horse Mountain Resort near Golden and the controversial Jumbo Glacier Resort proposal west of Invermere.
The Valemount plan includes lifts and gondolas that would carry skiers and sight-seers to the summits of Mount Pierre Elliott Trudeau and Mount Arthur Meighen. Its vertical drop of 2,050 metres would be higher than Whistler-Blackcomb and the largest in North America.
"There are very few places in the world, and none in North America, where you go and ride a lift to the very top and the glacier is below you," said Jill Bodkin, a director of the company.
Valemount is a remote community of about 1,000 residents near the Alberta border east of Prince George. The region is west of Jasper National Park, which attracts visitors from around the world.
On the project's website, Oberti says people will travel to Switzerland for this kind of mountain resort experience, so a three-hour drive from Prince George isn't an obstacle to success.
Valemount Mayor Jeanette Townsend called the master plan approval "exciting news." She said the community attracts visitors who stay there to avoid the expensive accommodation in Jasper and the resort will take it to the next level.
Chief Nathan Matthew of the Simpcw First Nation said his community has been involved since the beginning, and he sees the project as an important economic development for the northern part of Simpcw's traditional territory. | http://www.comoxvalleyrecord.com/business/390477731.html | en | 2016-08-01T00:00:00 | www.comoxvalleyrecord.com/0ee5c12d15a17e2f25d76bea082137041f1bb2f6ec45b672c6112a740fa5cedf.json |
[] | 2016-08-26T13:13:22 | null | null | null | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.comoxvalleyrecord.com%2Fopinion%2Fletters%2F390466911.html.json | http://media.bclocalnews.com/images/BlackNewsMedia-CLR.png?t=12345? | en | null | Suggestion of blackmail unfounded and untrue | null | null | www.comoxvalleyrecord.com | Dear editor,
Re: “Bias not a dirty word, says ex-councillor”, The Record, July 26, 2016.
Let’s talk about words. As a former leader of the BC Liberals and Comox ex-councillor, you will be well aware of the power of words and how they can be used to incite or defame.
Going back to your September, 2014 letter to The Record, you called Baybrook a “rotten, derelict building,” a powerful image, repeated in subsequent letters by several Baybrook-area residents. Emotive words like these probably went a long way in persuading the Comox Town Council to order the demolition of Baybrook.
The tragedy is that these words were not true. Professional assessments of this house, the original heritage home of famed Canadian Mack Laing, showed it to be sound and in good condition. In addition, both Heritage BC and the National Trust for Canada, in letters to Comox mayor and council, urged preservation of “this important heritage property” and offered assistance.
In your July 26, 2016 letter, we have your new attack word, “blackmail.” To say that I insinuated that the present town council had blackmail on their minds while choosing two Mack Laing Nature House Advisory Committee members is unfounded and untrue.
Do you even know what blackmail means? It means threatening to reveal damaging information about someone in order to extort money or compliance from them. There was no damaging information to reveal so blackmail was never an issue. My point was that the Town’s choice of committee members from two organizations that receive funding from the Town created the possibility for a conflict of interest.
Town council also appointed some members publicly known to favour the demolition of Shakesides. Bias in this case is a dirty word. Words like blackmail, rotten and derelict are always dirty words, especially when they are used untruthfully.
Marilyn Machum
Comox | http://www.comoxvalleyrecord.com/opinion/letters/390466911.html | en | 2016-08-01T00:00:00 | www.comoxvalleyrecord.com/87adbd819042908fb4a3c3699f03023fae20dbdf99f83014487d05bcd990c6bf.json |
[] | 2016-08-26T13:13:27 | null | null | null | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.comoxvalleyrecord.com%2Fopinion%2Fletters%2F390466441.html.json | http://media.bclocalnews.com/images/BlackNewsMedia-CLR.png?t=12345? | en | null | Letter to the mayor on hospital parking | null | null | www.comoxvalleyrecord.com | Dear editor,
The following is an open letter to Mayor Larry Jangula, regarding the hospital parking:
Dear Mayor Jangula,
There’s mounting concern by taxpayers for having to pay for parking at our new hospital. This has piqued my interest so I thought maybe we need to look at this from another perspective.
Medical emergencies, loved ones in care, medical tests/exploration….you go to the hospital. You go there only when you need to. When you go….you park your car and pay the parking fee. There’s no alternative to the hospital. It’s unlike going to shop on Fifth Street where there is no parking fee.
If there were a parking fee on Fifth Street people may very well choose to shop where there is no parking fee, e.g. a local mall. Should the city decide to put parking meters on Fifth Street you can bet there would be an uproar by vendors and passively by shoppers.
Look at other parking within this jurisdiction for example: the city, the regional district and the Vancouver Island Health Authority employees parking lots. Research finds that none of these employees pay for parking at their work location. Yet some of these employees are the same people who make the decision to have pay parking at the hospital. So, it seems that the decision makers are making decisions about ‘other’ peoples’ parking costs but not their own.
I recognize you are not able to arbitrarily decide whether patrons of the hospital pay or not for parking but you certainly can advocate on our behalf.
Pay parking at the hospital has also adversely impacted public use of the Aquatic Centre and North Island College, who need now to take evasive action to avoid implications of the hospital charging for parking. Who benefits from this?
This is ‘our’ hospital as although it is stated we, the taxpayers of the Comox Valley, pay 40 per cent while the balance comes from Province. I trust as our elected officials that this matter reflect a more sensitive outcome.
Larry Wenezenki
Courtenay | http://www.comoxvalleyrecord.com/opinion/letters/390466441.html | en | 2016-08-01T00:00:00 | www.comoxvalleyrecord.com/ef2f6982042b31e37fa498bc6e306823cf077b7b3640b74ac2c024b78041a4c5.json |
[] | 2016-08-30T22:49:53 | null | null | Comox Valley RCMP report, Aug. 23-29 | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.comoxvalleyrecord.com%2Fnews%2F391793081.html.json | http://media.bclocalnews.com/images/74362comox09RCMPcarlights-ES-BPfiles-web.jpg?t=12345? | en | null | Thieves steal the spotlight in weekly RCMP report | null | null | www.comoxvalleyrecord.com | Between Aug. 23 and Aug. 29, the Comox Valley RCMP received five calls regarding theft from vehicles. Items taken include a purse, a GPS and keys. The Comox Valley RCMP are reminding residents to ensure their vehicles are locked at all times, and valuables are not left in them.
DUI report
From August 23 to August 29, five impaired drivers were taken off the streets of the Comox Valley. One driver was issued a 90-day immediate roadside prohibition, and their vehicle was impounded. Two drivers were issued three-day immediate roadside prohibitions and two drivers received 24-hour driving prohibitions.
Hotwire fails
On Aug. 23, the Comox Valley RCMP were advised of two vehicles that were entered overnight and their ignitions were damaged. One vehicle was parked on the 1800 block of Mallard Drive, Courtenay, the other was parked on the 1600 block of Trumpeter Crescent, Courtenay. (216-10524) (2016-10486)
Smashed window
The Comox Valley RCMP received a report of mischief to a vehicle on Aug. 24. Sometime overnight, an unknown person(s) broke the rear window out of a vehicle that was parked on the 2300 block of Ulverston Avenue, Cumberland. (2016-10556)
Jewelry theft
A break and enter was reported to the Comox Valley RCMP on Aug. 26. Sometime over the previous six days, an unknown person had entered a house on the 600 block of Murrelet Drive, Comox. While in the residence, jewelry was stolen. (2016-10678)
Fishing gear stolen
A report of theft from a boat was received on Aug. 26. Sometime overnight, unknown person had entered a boat that was trailered on the 2500 block of Falcon Crest Drive in Courtenay. Once on board, the culprit stole several fishing rods, downriggers, fish finders and a GPS. (2016-10690)
Stolen bike
On Aug. 26, the Comox Valley RCMP received a report of a stolen bicycle from the 2200 block of Lambert Drive, Courtenay. The bike is described as a 27 speed Hybrid “GT” mountain bike, blue and white in colour. (2016-10675)
B&E at Lake Trail
During the early morning hours of August 27, the Comox Valley RCMP were advised of an alarm from a school located on the 3000 Block of Lake Trail Road in Courtenay. Upon attendance, it was evident that the premise had been entered. While inside, the unknown person(s) set off a fire extinguisher. (2016-10733)
***
If you have any information regarding any of these files, or any other crime, please contact the Comox Valley RCMP at 250-338-1321.
If you wish to remain anonymous, contact Comox Valley Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477) or online at comoxvalleycrimestoppers.bc.ca. When reporting through Crime Stoppers, you never have to identify yourself or testify in court, and you could receive a cash reward for your information. | http://www.comoxvalleyrecord.com/news/391793081.html | en | 2016-08-01T00:00:00 | www.comoxvalleyrecord.com/8d3f4810f8cece4a9a0a24fab3ad8cb14686e949775a38dedc4637bced3b5e43.json |
[
"Canadian Press"
] | 2016-08-26T13:03:49 | null | null | Tragically Hip kick off tour's final show with fan favourites | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.comoxvalleyrecord.com%2Fentertainment%2F390816951.html.json | http://media.bclocalnews.com/images/BlackNewsMedia-CLR.png?t=12345? | en | null | Downie calls out to Trudeau during Tragically Hip's final show of tour | null | null | www.comoxvalleyrecord.com | KINGSTON, Ont. — The Tragically Hip mixed fan favourites, newer songs and some politics on Saturday night during the final show of their "Man Machine Poem" tour.
Lead singer Gord Downie, who started the show wearing a metallic silver suit and hat with a "Jaws" T-shirt underneath, hugged and kissed his bandmates before they stepped on stage at the K-Rock Centre in the group's hometown of Kingston, Ont.
Minutes earlier, as the raucous sold-out crowd waited for the band to emerge, an impromptu rendition of O Canada broke out and a banner reading "Thank You Prime Minister Downie!" was passed around the arena.
The band immediately gave fans what they wanted to hear, starting their set with four straight hits from the classic album "Fully Completely:" opener "50 Mission Cap," followed by "Courage (for Hugh MacLennan)," "Wheat Kings" and "At the Hundredth Meridian."
The Hip then segued into their latest album "Man Machine Poem," with four tracks including the single "In a World Possessed by the Human Mind."
Before "Machine," Downie launched into one of his trademark onstage rants, calling out to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who was in the crowd for the show. Trudeau's official photographer tweeted a photo of the prime minister and Downie embracing before the concert.
"Well, you know, prime minister Trudeau's got me, his work with First Nations. He's got everybody. He's going to take us where we need to go," Downie said from the stage.
"It's going to take us 100 years to figure out what the hell went on up there," he continued, "but it isn't cool and everybody knows that. It's really, really bad, but we're going to figure it out, you're going to figure it out."
Many anticipate this will be the band's final tour, given the recent news that Downie is battling terminal brain cancer.
Before performing the "Road Apples" song "Fiddler's Green," Downie seemed to reference the outpouring of support from fans in the wake of his diagnosis.
"Thank you, people, for keeping me pushing and keeping me pushing," he said, which prompted a "Gordie!" chant from the audience.
After playing 21 songs, Downie and his fellow bandmates — guitarists Rob Baker and Paul Langlois, bassist Gord Sinclair and drummer Johnny Fay — embraced and prepared to retire for a pre-encore break. Downie was left alone on stage to take in the roaring ovation.
After returning for a few more songs, Downie again spoke about his fondness for Trudeau.
"Thank you to the prime minister for coming to our show, it really means a lot to all of us," he said.
"We're in good hands, folks, real good hands. He cares about the people way up North, that we were trained our entire lives to ignore, trained our entire lives to hear not a word of what's going on up there. And what's going on up there ain't good. It's maybe worse than it's ever been, so it's not on the improve. (But) we're going to get it fixed and we got the guy to do it, to start, to help.
"Thank you everybody. Thanks for listening to that. Thanks for listening, period. Have a nice life."
David Friend, The Canadian Press | http://www.comoxvalleyrecord.com/entertainment/390816951.html | en | 2016-08-01T00:00:00 | www.comoxvalleyrecord.com/81191fefbf2974044d5c0d5c39c4024c38139f2ce843cdea4cb54e5e31fab9a1.json |
[] | 2016-08-26T22:49:00 | null | null | 'New look' Royston Community Club has northern neighbours to thank | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.comoxvalleyrecord.com%2Fnews%2F391452521.html.json | http://media.bclocalnews.com/images/20280comox09Roystonvolunteers.jpg?t=12345? | en | null | Black Creek Lions Club lends helping hand in Royston | null | null | www.comoxvalleyrecord.com | Members of the Black Creek Lions Club spent nearly 300 hours cleaning up and restoring the Royston Community Club.
Erin Haluschak
Record Staff
It took nearly 300 hours to complete, but now the Royston Community Club has a new back deck, a clean basement, and a new fan system, thanks to a service club that came to help.
Fred Tutt of the Royston Community Club said the Black Creek Lions Club donated hundreds of hours to help with the clean-up and landscaping of the back parking lot, which helped make the hall drier, safer and improved the building overall.
Black Creek is approximately 25 kilometres north of Royston.
President of the Black Creek Lions Club, Terry Levesque - a Royston resident - explained Tutt was seeking the assistance of a service club to lend a hand.
“I bumped into Fred and in our Lions Club we have a carpenter, we have a restoration company, so we jumped right at it.”
He said one of the biggest overhauls was removing the mould and installing a new fan system to ensure air circulation.
Levesque added the club in now planting trees on the outside of building to ensure the bank remains in place near the back parking lot. | http://www.comoxvalleyrecord.com/news/391452521.html | en | 2016-08-01T00:00:00 | www.comoxvalleyrecord.com/cb461117998e4f5abb4a5c511ead1b3c87698ec617e0620141ea1bed5dbe3223.json |
[] | 2016-08-26T13:13:44 | null | null | null | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.comoxvalleyrecord.com%2Fopinion%2Fletters%2F390013621.html.json | http://media.bclocalnews.com/images/BlackNewsMedia-CLR.png?t=12345? | en | null | Alcock rebuts Loxam's comments | null | null | www.comoxvalleyrecord.com | Dear editor,
I am writing this letter to defend myself against the false accusations against myself and the former board that Glenn Loxam recently had published in both local newspapers. (UBID trustee explains situation, see http://www.comoxvalleyrecord.com/opinion/390013091.html)
To begin with, he said that I said in my letter of resignation , “I was no longer confident that a water infrastructure agreement with KIP was possible”.
I did not say that, but this is what actually did say: “The community has recently elected two new trustees to the board. I feel that these trustees are acting in the best interests of a developer, and acting apart from the board, and are therefore in a conflict of interest. I cannot, in all conscience, work as a trustee under these conditions, and I see no way forward with the current situation as it is. Over the years, myself and members of the board have been accused by this developer of not wanting to meet with him. This is simply not true. I am tired of his repeated accusations of lying, accusing us of not meeting with him and of not having the best interests of this community at heart.”
I have worked tirelessly for the past five years and four months as a trustee on the UBID board. For those of you who are unaware, this is a volunteer position. I was elected by a huge majority of landowners who were concerned, as I was, that a developer was in charge of decision-making in the community instead of the elected board. When I began my term, this community was virtually broke. To make a very long and complicated story short, there is now almost $1.8M in the bank. Myself and the other elected trustees did the job that people elected us to do, and I am proud of our accomplishments, all of which were in the best interests of this community. None of the recent board members had a vested interest in doing this job.
I would now ask the landowners of this community a couple of questions. Do you believe that a developer or your elected board has your best interests at heart? Do you think a developer is really going to give you a “free” water treatment plant, which he has repeatedly told the community this year? What it all boils down to for me is this: I and my fellow trustees on the previous board did not believe the developer, based on a number of reasons, the least of which is his complete inaction over many years. The two newly elected trustees choose to believe a developer. If you doubt what I say, please call either of the two new trustees and ask them some hard questions about this “free” water treatment facility.
I feel that the only thing we can do now is join the CVRD. It isn’t the perfect solution, but there are only two choices: Have a by-election (which the minister seems to be leaning towards), which could result in the developer owning your water system, or joining a higher level of government (CVRD) who the developer can neither bully nor control. Your choice.
Now, I’m going to get on with the rest of my life and, as someone recently said to me, “You can hold your head up high in this community”. That’s exactly what I’m going to do.
Anne Alcock
Past Trustee, Union Bay Improvement District | http://www.comoxvalleyrecord.com/opinion/letters/390013621.html | en | 2016-08-01T00:00:00 | www.comoxvalleyrecord.com/8642e2c9d6c93dfa8dfe59ca41af1d08158bd8a6841c8ce676e7cf915123d3b0.json |
[] | 2016-08-26T13:13:32 | null | null | null | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.comoxvalleyrecord.com%2Fopinion%2Fletters%2F391187001.html.json | http://media.bclocalnews.com/images/BlackNewsMedia-CLR.png?t=12345? | en | null | Not much sympathy for politicians | null | null | www.comoxvalleyrecord.com | Dear editor,
What a wonderful sentimental piece of fluff that (Oct. 18 editorial) was; brought tears to my eyes.
Being away from home for such long periods of time must be heartbreaking but, tens of thousands of lesser mortals were doing just that with the Fort McMurray experience. No first class tickets or expense claims for those ungrateful souls and a pension….bah, maybe when they are 65, but not after one round at the trough.
Politicians come to our doors with promises of whatever they think we want, with dedication to causes and tales of their knowledge and commitment, only to sit behind their leaders toeing the line and acting like a bunch of monkeys at the zoo at feeding time.
I sincerely hope your editorial was written to elicit a response from your readers because the only sympathy you will find for politicians is in the dictionary.
That heartfelt old saying, “Politicians are like baby’s diapers, they should be changed often and for the same reason” still resonates with me to this day.
And if the Liberals of BC are still blaming the NDP of making a mess 20 odd years ago then maybe they aren’t up to the task.
Keith Murphy
Courtenay | http://www.comoxvalleyrecord.com/opinion/letters/391187001.html | en | 2016-08-01T00:00:00 | www.comoxvalleyrecord.com/0af83bc3d22f38cc4db354a762b97019fc1921ba7b058b72602ef0e6404e3fe0.json |
[] | 2016-08-26T13:09:24 | null | null | Four structures on Mount Washington have been destroyed by fire in past seven years | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.comoxvalleyrecord.com%2Fnews%2F391314501.html.json | http://media.bclocalnews.com/images/57057comox09Aug.30Fireservices.jpg?t=12345? | en | null | Referendum set for proposed Mount Washington community fire protection service | null | null | www.comoxvalleyrecord.com | A referendum will be held in September regarding a proposed fire protection service for the Mount Washington resort community,
The Comox Valley Regional District will be holding a referendum on Saturday, Sept. 17, 2016 regarding a proposed fire protection service for the Mount Washington resort community, including all residential, commercial and recreational areas at Mount Washington.
Since 2009, four structures on Mount Washington have been destroyed by fire. In 2015, the resort and concerned citizens requested that the CVRD consider establishing a fire protection service. More information about the Mount Washington fire protection service project can be found at www.comoxvalleyrd.ca/mtwashingtonfireproject .
Qualified electors in the proposed service area are being asked to vote to determine support for this service. Voters must either be a resident elector or a non-resident property elector. The CVRD must conduct the referendum in accordance with the Local Government Act which is a provincial statute. The Act includes certain requirements:
• Leases must be for at least 99 years in order to make a lease holder eligible to vote
• Properties that are owned by a corporation, in whole or in part, are not eligible to vote
• Residents, including renters, in the proposed service area must have lived in the service area for at least 30 days before voting
Advance voting will take place from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 7, 2016 at the CVRD boardroom, 550 Comox Road, Courtenay, BC. Regular voting day is from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 17, 2016 at the Alpine Lodge (Marmot level), #1 Strathcona Parkway, Mount Washington, BC. Electors can request an application to vote by mail by sending an email to elections@comoxvalleyrd.ca or by calling 250-334-6000.
The CVRD uses ‘voting day only registration’ and therefore voter registration before voting day is not required.
All voters must bring to the voting place two pieces of identification, at least one that shows their signature and one that shows their residential address (photo ID is not required). In addition, non-resident property electors must also bring
• Proof that they are entitled to register in relation to the property (for example a state of title certificate or 99 year lease agreement – according to case law, a lease with a term stated as 60 years plus two 20 year renewals does not qualify as a lease of at least 99 years; the wording of the lease must be 60 years plus two 20 year extensions in order to be considered a lease of at least 99 years); AND
• Written consent of the majority of property owners for one of the owners to vote if the property is owned by more than one individual.
For more details, please visit www.comoxvalleyrd.ca/vote
–CVRD | http://www.comoxvalleyrecord.com/news/391314501.html | en | 2016-08-01T00:00:00 | www.comoxvalleyrecord.com/c857d7a34b9f0e2711b957dec368d234bffd76526e6186beae5c87d60cf7d2fa.json |
[] | 2016-08-26T13:11:33 | null | null | Improvement district in limbo after majority of trustees resign | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.comoxvalleyrecord.com%2Fopinion%2F390013091.html.json | http://media.bclocalnews.com/images/BlackNewsMedia-CLR.png?t=12345? | en | null | UBID trustee explains situation | null | null | www.comoxvalleyrecord.com | Glenn Loxam
Guest column
Many Union Bay landowners are now aware that on July 27th, three Union Bay Improvement District (UBID) trustees submitted their resignations effective July 31, 2016. As one of the two remaining trustees on the board, I would like to clarify several public comments circulating with regard to these recent resignations.
First of all, of the three trustees who resigned (Alan Webb, Anne Alcock and chair Carol Molstad) it was only Alan Webb who gave a valid reason. Mr. Webb has sold his property in Union Bay and moved from the community. With two years remaining on his three year term, it was understandable that he wanted to leave the politics of the community to other landowners.
Ms. Molstad gave no reason for quitting in her letter, and Ms. Alcock simply stated that she was no longer confident that a Water Infrastructure Agreement (WIA) with Kensington Island Properties (KIP) was possible. She stated that UBID has tried to have meetings with the developer over the past year, but could not arrange one. Mr. Brian McMahon, VP of KIP, has documented proof of his many attempts to contact the UBID to arrange meetings; but all went unanswered or were ignored. Now they are trying to blame the developer for their downfalls.
In a recent interview, Mr. Webb stated that a new agreement with KIP was reached months ago and that the developer has “dragged his feet” by not signing this agreement. In fact, this agreement, which was negotiated with the government facilitator and the UBID administrator, allows KIP to begin land development and pay capital expenditure fees per lot as they are developed. This approach does nothing for the landowners of Union Bay, as they would be required to finance the bulk of the water treatment facility and upgrades to water infrastructure to the tune of millions of dollars.
In the 2011 WIA, the developer (KIP) would pay for the installation of the treatment plant and the infrastructure upgrades needed to supply water to their lands at no cost to the current landowners. The agreement states that KIP would be repaid with capital expenditure credits (CECs) for each lot developed until such time as the $1.3 million investment was repaid. In essence, this would be an interest free loan to the people of Union Bay to bring treated water to the community. It should also be noted that, in the 2011 WIA, the developer is responsible for all costs related to any improvements to the Langley Lake water source and its dam, if and when the need for additional water arises.
However, because the previous board of trustees refused to grant an extension to the agreement, the work could not be completed by the December 2014 deadline. Trustee Peter Jacques and I are confident that, with some adjustments, this previous agreement can be extended and made workable. Unfortunately, with three trustees needed to form a quorum, we no longer have the ability to negotiate any changes to the agreement, nor conduct any business on behalf of the landowners.
At present, we are still awaiting word from Minister Fassbender as to how we can move forward as a community. There is an Island Health deadline approaching and we need the support of the developer in order to meet this requirement.
Glenn Loxam is one of the two remaining Union Bay Improvement District trustees. | http://www.comoxvalleyrecord.com/opinion/390013091.html | en | 2016-08-01T00:00:00 | www.comoxvalleyrecord.com/5270f9806d72f1b046ee08463af356ef002d203716d0650a2120282c761acf78.json |
[
"Tom Fletcher"
] | 2016-08-30T20:49:50 | null | null | Some urban districts struggle with overcrowding, special funds for declining rural schools, bus service to take effect | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.comoxvalleyrecord.com%2Fnews%2F391773061.html.json | http://media.bclocalnews.com/images/2045BCLN2007Schoolstudentblurwide-BJ7web.jpg?t=12345? | en | null | B.C. school enrolment up for second year | null | null | www.comoxvalleyrecord.com | Students return to public school next week, with changes to curriculum and some provincial exams.
Students are returning to class next week in most of B.C.'s public schools, with enrolment expected to be up province-wide for the second year running.
Education Minister Mike Bernier says early forecasts show about 529,000 students, an increase of 2,900 from last year. But that increase is centred on fast-growing school districts, while many rural areas continue to struggle with declining student numbers.
Among changes that parents and students will see this year is a new curriculum in place up to Grade 9, with a test year for changes in the senior grades. Bernier said the new emphasis on collaboration and communication skills does not mean a watering down of the basic skills, and is designed to improve students' ability to work at modern jobs.
Report cards are to continue this school year, but the ministry is reviewing its system with an eye to providing more frequent updates. Parents are being consulted on the changes, Bernier said.
Foundation Skills Assessment tests in grades four and seven are also continuing after years of protests from teacher unions, but that program is also being examined for possible changes. FSA tests will be "enhanced" but not eliminated, Bernier said.
Provincial exams continue for graduates in math and English, but science and social studies will now be assessed at a classroom level rather than school-wide tests, Bernier said.
The ministry provided a series of top-ups to education funding this year, for bus service and to keep selected rural schools from closing. Applications are still being taken for a transportation fund until Sept. 30, requiring districts to drop across-the-board school bus fees to qualify.
Districts may still charge transportation fees for international students or those from outside a school catchment area.
NDP leader John Horgan highlighted the crowding in Surrey school district, where 7,000 students remain in portables despite an expansion program. The NDP says the B.C. government's claim of record per-student funding ignores a reduction of education funding as a share of the provincial economy.
"Since 2001, the B.C. Liberals have dragged public education funding in this province from the second best in Canada to the second worst," Horgan said. | http://www.comoxvalleyrecord.com/news/391773061.html | en | 2016-08-01T00:00:00 | www.comoxvalleyrecord.com/a5771d1ef8ccd41e507c7391f49c9897980f05a4e99e9953eb8b86043d014263.json |
[
"Tom Fletcher"
] | 2016-08-26T12:57:37 | null | null | No permit required for weddings, festivals on farms if fewer than 150 people attend, says Agriculture Minister Norm Letnick | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.comoxvalleyrecord.com%2Fbusiness%2F388995481.html.json | http://media.bclocalnews.com/images/15664BCLN2007farmWeddingCarriagewikim7web.jpg?t=12345? | en | null | Brides, bands allowed back on farmland | null | null | www.comoxvalleyrecord.com | Almost a year after B.C. farm weddings were banned due to a crackdown on agricultural land use rules, the B.C. government has clarified what commercial activities are allowed on farmland.
Farmers can host up to 10 commercial weddings, concerts or non-agricultural events per year without a permit from the Agricultural Land Commission. Farmers can take payment to host a wedding or other event as long as no more than 150 guests attend and a list of conditions are met, according to regulations that took effect Tuesday.
To qualify, event hosts must provide all parking on the farm rather than along roads, with no permanent parking lots or structures, and the event must end in less than 24 hours. For more than 10 events a year or exceeding 150 guests, properties with farm tax status must apply to the ALC for a permit.
The new regulation also clarifies ALC policies to allow, with no permit, farm tours and demonstrations, hayrides, corn mazes, pumpkin patch tours, harvest and Christmas fairs and special occasion events to promote farm products.
Agriculture Minister Norm Letnick said the regulation requiring farms to generate at least 50 per cent of its revenue from farm products is also scrapped, after consultation in the past year suggested the new rules instead.
The crackdown on farm weddings came last fall, when the ALC issued stop-work orders to B.C. farms including the Fraser Valley, Kelowna and Vancouver Island.
The restriction came after the province expanded farm uses to allow breweries and distilleries to operate on protected farmland with the same rules used to permit wineries. The rules allowed for processing of farm crops into products such as juice or jam for commercial sale. | http://www.comoxvalleyrecord.com/business/388995481.html | en | 2016-08-01T00:00:00 | www.comoxvalleyrecord.com/049dc8a10078e38b9f4d40985c3036138db52edae898b467b9d500d2b8a71199.json |
[] | 2016-08-26T13:11:08 | null | null | Answers needed regarding Canada's refusal to act | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.comoxvalleyrecord.com%2Fopinion%2F389527021.html.json | http://media.bclocalnews.com/images/BlackNewsMedia-CLR.png?t=12345? | en | null | Editorial: Azer case a massive fail by the federal government | null | null | www.comoxvalleyrecord.com | A Courtenay mother is devastated, in the wake of what can only be described as a massive fail by our federal government.
Alison Azer received word recently that charges in Iran against her ex-husband, stemming from the alleged abduction of her four children, have been dropped.
According to Courtenay-Alberni Member of Parliament, Gord Johns, the reason for dropping the charges was Canada’s lack of action, when contacted by Iranian authorities.
Iran acted upon an Interpol red flag notice on Saren Azer, who now lives in the Middle Eastern country with the four Azer children. He is wanted in Canada for four counts of abduction in contravention of a custody order. Saren took the four Azer children from their home, on a court-approved holiday, in August of 2015. They never returned.
Iranian authorities arrested and detained him in June, set a court date, and, according to Johns, alerted Canadian authorities.
Again, according to Johns, this is when the Canadian government stepped in - not to fly a lawyer out to Iran to represent the country and Alison in the case, but to “stop the RCMP from communicating further with the Iranian authorities.”
There is something fundamentally wrong about this action.
Clearly, there is information missing.
It is unfathomable that the federal government would veto any action on this case without just cause. We do know that Saren Azer had connections with the previous Canadian government, including ties with former defence minister Jason Kenney. However, when asked whether that plays a part in the current government’s perceived refusal to act on this case, Johns said he does not believe that has anything to do with it.
“I don’t think it’s political, in the sense of his (Saren’s) past history with the Conservatives; absolutely not,” said Johns.
So what is the reason?
“We don’t know. That is the question I am asking the government; why they are stalling; why they are failing to act.”
In the meanwhile, a mother waits in Courtenay, her entire world in shambles.
One thing we can say with some certainty: had the children involved been Justin Trudeau’s, this case would be closed already.
Every child should be treated with the same level of importance.
–Terry Farrell | http://www.comoxvalleyrecord.com/opinion/389527021.html | en | 2016-08-01T00:00:00 | www.comoxvalleyrecord.com/d635e7b048636014fa05aacdc6def81f808909add53595b67b89ee5c7d41a6a0.json |
[] | 2016-08-26T13:13:13 | null | null | null | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.comoxvalleyrecord.com%2Fopinion%2Fletters%2F391187501.html.json | http://media.bclocalnews.com/images/BlackNewsMedia-CLR.png?t=12345? | en | null | Beech Street not the place for pump house | null | null | www.comoxvalleyrecord.com | Dear editor,
It is very disheartening to realize that four people out of seven at the CVRD sewage commission would vote for a sewage pump house site which would destroy the peaceful lives of immediate neighbours to that property and disrupt the whole neighbourhood. Residents from the Comox Valley take advantage of the calm rural neighbourhood to walk, cycle and relax.
Do we prefer a fast, cheap solution with disregard for people’s lives? This is how we got into this situation in the first place with the Willemar Bluffs.
How can anybody suggest building a sewage pump house among water wells we rely on? The engineers suggested that many shallow wells could be at high risk during and after construction. If the groundwater becomes contaminated, would that be discovered before people fall ill or die?
I went to a meeting attended by the hydrologist, he did not recommend the construction of a sewage pump house on Beech Street. There is a much better environmentally friendly solution that will save millions in the long run.
It seems like some members of the sewage commission are looking for a solution that does not consider the big picture. What is strange is that Beech Street was put on the last place out of five suggested places.
There were questions posed by some sewage committee members at a recent meeting at CVRD regarding serious concerns should the sewage pump house be built on Beech Street. They were completely ignored and there was no discussion. Why?
These are very big decisions being made by politicians. Are they asking for the best solution by the experts or are they setting the parameters for them to work within, rightly or wrongly?
Slava Simice
Area B | http://www.comoxvalleyrecord.com/opinion/letters/391187501.html | en | 2016-08-01T00:00:00 | www.comoxvalleyrecord.com/2d6aab7c989663f82330061fefaf5a59bf9c28ba791677af71d072c0852ce64d.json |
[
"Tom Fletcher"
] | 2016-08-26T12:57:11 | null | null | B.C. stands in the way of Justin Trudeau government's plan to hike Canada Pension Plan contributions, but likely not for long | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.comoxvalleyrecord.com%2Fbusiness%2F389123291.html.json | http://media.bclocalnews.com/images/82199BCLN2007Bateman-Jordan13-2.4.jpg?t=12345? | en | null | Business pushing back on CPP expansion | null | null | www.comoxvalleyrecord.com | Jordan Bateman, Canadian Taxpayers' Federation
The B.C. government is hearing objections from businesses and individuals faced with increasing Canada Pension Plan contributions in the coming years, and is the last province needed to ratify the increase.
Instead of joining other provinces in meeting the federal government's July deadline to adopt the change, the B.C. government launched a consultation phase expected to run through August. And they are getting push-back on a plan that would increase payroll deductions and employer contributions starting in 2019.
Jordan Bateman, B.C. director of the Canadian Taxpayers' Federation, said he's receiving hundreds of responses to his call to supporters to make their views known to the B.C. government. Most concerned are employers who would pay higher contributions for each of their employees.
Employer and employee contributions are to go up from the current 4.95 per cent of earnings to 5.95 per cent by 2023. For each employee earning $54,900, the employer contribution goes up $7 to $8 per month in each of the first five years of the phase-in.
"Obviously, lots of people are concerned about having to pay more," Bateman said. "But the interesting ones are the small business owners who talk about just how close to the edge they are financially."
B.C. Finance Minister Mike de Jong joined other provinces in agreeing in principle to the expansion in June. Federal Finance Minister Bill Morneau said he is concerned about the decline in workplace pension plans and wants the CPP to move from replacing one quarter of employment income to one third by 2025.
The Canadian Federation of Independent Business surveyed its members nation-wide when the CPP plan was announced, and more than 80 per cent wanted consultation and a delay of implementation. Morneau has indicated he plans to table legislation this fall.
B.C.'s refusal to sign on could derail the federal plan, but it shows little intention of doing so.
"British Columbia is committed to engaging with stakeholders in advance of ratifying the agreement in principle," said the statement from de Jong's office announcing the consultation.
The province's consultation website and feedback address can be found here. | http://www.comoxvalleyrecord.com/business/389123291.html | en | 2016-08-01T00:00:00 | www.comoxvalleyrecord.com/0a766efacad354e8176280f39ea82c6179a85af0a7c59018f3cc3512cc038340.json |
[
"Leslie Cox"
] | 2016-08-26T13:08:01 | null | null | Who thinks about leaf colour in relation to how a plant handles weather conditions? | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.comoxvalleyrecord.com%2Flifestyles%2F391192531.html.json | http://media.bclocalnews.com/images/4604comox09Brunneramacrophylla-JackFrost-.jpg?t=12345? | en | null | Going for silver in the garden | null | null | www.comoxvalleyrecord.com | Going for gold is certainly the aim of athletes competing at the 2016 Rio Olympics but in the garden silver is what wins big. Especially during periods when the weather is dry.
Truthfully, who thinks about leaf colour in relation to how a plant handles weather conditions? Most of us usually focus on flower colour, leaf structure, height, and spread. Those who have metered water may be more concerned whether the plant likes frequent watering, or if it will survive on a weekly ration of a mere cup or two.
So, when the weather is dry for weeks on end, performance really does come through with silver-coloured leaves. The metallic tone is excellent for reflecting the sun’s rays which helps the plant retain moisture. And the more silver a plant has in its leaves, the better it can withstand the heat.
Artemisia ‘Powis Castle’ is a good example of pure silver leaves. Dusty miller is another fine one. And both are at the top of the podium for their performances on the merest amount of moisture.
But there are other plants with added features which can come from behind and overtake those top performers. Plants such as lamb’s ears, Stachys byzantina, with their furry texture on silvery leaves. The soft fur is a magnet for collecting dew and rain, hanging onto it, allowing the plant an extended spurt of moisture.
The biennial, Salvia argentea, is another good podium candidate with its furry, silvery leaves. But watch this one - it may lose marks to slug predation.
Bottom line, the more silver the leaves, the more reflection. However, too much of one colour can be a little overpowering. Enter the underdogs. Plants with grey-green leaves, another good colour for reflecting the sun’s rays. The almighty artichoke is a good example in this category.
Other candidates are purple-leaved heucheras with silver overtones, like ‘Silver Scrolls’ and ‘Pewter Veil.’
These would add a delightful presence in the garden line-up, mixed in with the pure silver species. And do not discount green leaves with silver, such as some of the brunneras.
It does take all manner of special characteristics to make the podium. But remember, silver can still be a top performer over gold in the garden. | http://www.comoxvalleyrecord.com/lifestyles/391192531.html | en | 2016-08-01T00:00:00 | www.comoxvalleyrecord.com/cc65e4eae334537a134bd68f54911f10ea841779a8b8e3fee31d9bc6c0761196.json |
[
"John Arendt"
] | 2016-08-26T13:06:29 | null | null | B.C. Day, on Monday, Aug. 1, is an opportunity to celebrate this spectacular province. See how well you know British Columbia. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.comoxvalleyrecord.com%2Flifestyles%2F388492001.html.json | http://media.bclocalnews.com/images/60468summerlandimage.jpg?t=12345? | en | null | B.C. DAY TRIVIA QUIZ: How much do you know about British Columbia? | null | null | www.comoxvalleyrecord.com | B.C. Day, on Monday, Aug. 1, is an opportunity to celebrate this spectacular province. See how well you know British Columbia. | http://www.comoxvalleyrecord.com/lifestyles/388492001.html | en | 2016-08-01T00:00:00 | www.comoxvalleyrecord.com/6fb141be0703e546bbb48a7aa94c16f787525b6f7ef4947a8f15f365444f3d88.json |
[
"Scott Stanfield"
] | 2016-08-26T12:55:48 | null | null | null | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.comoxvalleyrecord.com%2Fcommunity%2F390462361.html.json | http://media.bclocalnews.com/images/60752comox09coffee-web.jpg?t=12345? | en | null | Coffee With...Dali Lin | null | null | www.comoxvalleyrecord.com | Dali Lin was the Taiwan fencing champion for four years.
Courtenay resident Dali Lin was part of the Taiwanese fencing team that in 1976 travelled to Montreal for the Summer Olympics.
But he did not compete. The team withdrew from the Games because China pressured Canada to deny Taiwan the right to compete as the Republic of China.
“For a period of time, Taiwan wasn’t a member of the Olympic (movement),” said Lin, recalling Taiwan returned to Olympic competition as Chinese Taipei in 1984 in Los Angeles.
“We worked for many years to get it back. But not to use the original name…China wanted one China, not two. Because they are a UN member, and Taiwan is not. Even to this day, Taiwan still is not a member of the UN. China is so insistent. One-China policy. And because, they now have more international power.
“Many countries, apart from USA, recognize only one China, which is mainland China. We have no UN membership, but in the Olympics, somehow we worked it out.”
Lin developed an interest for fencing back in the days when he enjoyed movies such as the Three Musketeers.
“I even made a sword myself, because my father ran a sawmill. When I was in junior high school, one day I passed by the YMCA, and they have a poster there. There’s a picture of fencing. I was so excited. I went in to ask but they already finished. There was a team from Japan in Taiwan to do a demonstration.”
Though disappointed, he was inspired to purchase fencing equipment and a book. In the early years, Lin taught himself the sport by reading the book and fencing against the wall.
“For the first three years, I didn’t have a chance to even practice against anybody until I got into university. The school had a fencing club.”
Seems he taught himself well. For four years running, he was the fencing champion of Taiwan.
“I was the best in Taiwan for four years,” said Lin, recalling competitions with the national team in Japan and Hong Kong. “Back then, in Taiwan, to go abroad, it’s a big deal. Taiwan was still under martial law. We were a long time in martial law, so the people cannot have real freedom like here.”
Lin came to Canada in 1992. He built a sawmill, T.F. Specialty, which operated for 11 years on Comox Logging Road.
He and his wife Jin later purchased Maple Pool Campground.
To this day, he still fences.
“I never really stopped,” Dali said. “Now it’s purely for fun.”
Though one year, in 2002, he won a trophy at a provincial fencing tournament in Victoria.
Jin was also a competitive fencer, both in Taiwan and Canada. She placed second one year at a different competition in Victoria. | http://www.comoxvalleyrecord.com/community/390462361.html | en | 2016-08-01T00:00:00 | www.comoxvalleyrecord.com/bf7e7000ae58ae5b4c6acd918eedb5b763b94003b61cc9a5d66c88a186088ba1.json |
[] | 2016-08-26T13:10:29 | null | null | A 92-year-old Comox man died after he was struck by a vehicle at a crosswalk Sunday evening | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.comoxvalleyrecord.com%2Fnews%2F391212641.html.json | http://media.bclocalnews.com/images/BlackNewsMedia-CLR.png?t=12345? | en | null | Pedestrian identified in Comox collision | null | null | www.comoxvalleyrecord.com | The BC Coroners Service has identified the 92-year-old man who died after a motor vehicle incident in Comox on Aug. 21.
He was Robert Anthony Leslie of Comox.
Leslie crossed the street in a crosswalk at the intersection of Torrence and Guthrie roads about 6:20 p.m. Sunday when he was struck by a vehicle.
He was transported to St. Joseph's General Hospital but succumbed to his injuries a short time after arriving at the hospital.
The BC Coroners Service and RCMP continue to investigate this death. | http://www.comoxvalleyrecord.com/news/391212641.html | en | 2016-08-01T00:00:00 | www.comoxvalleyrecord.com/c1a15c86e1c680b4363429a67b2f2da43da215de74948570aa4e6ac96168ccd1.json |
[] | 2016-08-30T02:49:42 | null | null | Humpbacks act differently than orcas | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.comoxvalleyrecord.com%2Fnews%2F391680071.html.json | http://media.bclocalnews.com/images/58583comox09Injuredhumpback.jpg?t=12345? | en | null | MERS sending out message to 'be whale wise' | null | null | www.comoxvalleyrecord.com | Terry Farrell
Record staff
With the increased presence of humpback whales in our waters comes the need for education and awareness on how to handle sightings.
The Marine Education and Research Society has launched a campaign, called "See a Blow, Go Slow," in an effort to reduce the risk of collision for boaters and whales.
“Humpbacks have come back from the brink of extinction and have literally changed the landscape of coastal British Columbia,” said Jackie Hildering, a MERS education and communications director, and humpback researcher. “We've got a second chance with these animals, but with that comes a needed awareness as to what is safe behaviour, not just for the whales, but for the boaters.”
Hildering stressed that while many boaters on the West Coast are familiar with the characteristics and swimming habits of orcas, humpbacks are not at all the same.
“The huge difference is that killer whales are toothed whales that have biosonar,” said Hildering. “Killer whales are most often travelling in a linear direction and are highly surface active. Killer whales are big dolphins - they are only about eight metres long.
“Humpbacks are a baleen whale that are not known to have biosonar. They can be astoundingly unaware of boats. They are most often not travelling in a linear direction. They are generally feeding in our waters, so they can surface very, very unpredictably, and most importantly, they are giants. You're dealing with animals as big as school buses.”
In short, they're dangerous, because they are unpredictable.
There are numerous things boaters can do to protect themselves and the animals from any inadvertent strike, which could cause severe damage, not only to the animal, but also to the vessels and those aboard.
“It's important, if you know there is a humpback around, not to position yourself anywhere near a 'bait ball' (small school of fish, easily identified by large clusters of birds on the surface). If there are any humpbacks around, they are likely to surface within that area,” said Hildering. “They can suddenly surface, after long dives, and they are highly acrobatic.
“If you see a humpback, it's advisable not to move in closer. The Be Whale Wise guidelines (see http://www.seeablowgoslow.org/), which suggest 100 metres for a killer whale, that's not enough, depending on what the humpbacks are doing. You want to maintain your distance, be alert that they could surface, certainly not get any closer than, say, 200 metres.
“People think this is only about whale safety, but it's very much about human safety.”
Hildering was concerned with reports of jet-skis and motorboats attempting to corral the humpbacks around the Comox Marina last week.
She said not only is it a dangerous practice, but it's also against the law.
“There definitely are shortcomings in the regulations that exist, but it comes down to ‘you may not disturb a marine animal.’ As long disturbance can be proven, charges can be laid under the Fisheries Act,” said Hildering.
There have been documented cases of collisions with humpback whales that have not ended well for the boaters, including one case from 2013, where the boater, in an unavoidable collision with a humpback, was seriously injured and needed reconstructive facial surgery afterwards.
“Even this summer, there was an incident in Campbell River, where a whale was hit not once, but twice, by boats, and one boat was actually lifted up into the air.
“There's one humpback out there - we believe it's the one that is very often around Campbell River now - and he's got a big gash on his back, as a result of getting hit.”
Another humpback whale, 'Slash', is described by Hildering as being the "poster child" for what can happen as a result of contact with boats.
“She has a terrible huge prop scarring down her back (see accompanying photo),” said Hildering. “It was probably done by a tugboat. Who wants to hurt any animal, let alone a protected species? But it can happen.”
Hildering said boaters and humpbacks can share the water - it's a matter of being educated and aware.
“You just need to be alert,” she said. “If you see a blow, either shut down, or proceed really slowly. Be aware of areas of density of humpbacks, and be aware that even if the whale goes down, it could come up right away again.
“We are so fortunate to have them back, to have a second chance with these amazing animals... there just needs to be an awareness that there's a new kid on the block. And he's a really big kid.” | http://www.comoxvalleyrecord.com/news/391680071.html | en | 2016-08-01T00:00:00 | www.comoxvalleyrecord.com/9d87c48f2875371f3d517ae567c9c6f767f2c05d5c3c94692d314ef88bef5130.json |
[
"Staff Writer"
] | 2016-08-26T12:51:44 | null | null | Shoreline from Point Holmes to Goose Spit to be cleaned up | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.comoxvalleyrecord.com%2Fcommunity%2F390594761.html.json | http://media.bclocalnews.com/images/BlackNewsMedia-CLR.png?t=12345? | en | null | Shoreline cleanup Aug. 27 needs volunteers | null | null | www.comoxvalleyrecord.com | The Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup is coming to the Comox Valley, and volunteers are needed to make it happen.
On Saturday, Aug. 27, volunteers will be cleaning up four kilometres of shoreline from Point Holmes to Goose Spit. The event starts at 10 a.m. and is expected to take about two to three hours to complete.
Volunteers will meet at the Cape Lazo Campground Shelter (park on Hutton Road). Refreshments will be available.
For more information, call Larry MacDonald at 250-650-6585 or visit shorelinecleanup.ca | http://www.comoxvalleyrecord.com/community/390594761.html | en | 2016-08-01T00:00:00 | www.comoxvalleyrecord.com/6982804057a73005356255c980c909a4595cba8824f1d1b738dd4cd855cbde16.json |
[
"Canadian Press"
] | 2016-08-26T13:06:12 | null | null | Whether it's home screenings or community viewing parties, much of Canada will be tuning in for iconic rock band's final bow | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.comoxvalleyrecord.com%2Fentertainment%2F390688221.html.json | http://media.bclocalnews.com/images/56997CPT122356039.jpg?t=12345? | en | null | Televised Tragically Hip show an 'unprecedented event:' CBC | null | null | www.comoxvalleyrecord.com | TORONTO – Few Canadian television events qualify as a momentous occasion for the nation, but Saturday's Tragically Hip concert promises to be special.
It seems like much of the country will be tuned into CBC's live broadcast of "The Tragically Hip: A National Celebration" from Kingston, Ont., when factoring in home screenings and community viewing parties.
Yet how many people will watch is anybody's guess at this point.
"This is an unprecedented event for us," said Jennifer Dettman, CBC's executive director of unscripted content.
The sentiment is true on many levels, she adds.
The last stop on the Hip's "Man Machine Poem" tour is widely expected to be their final performance, as lead singer Gord Downie is facing terminal brain cancer. After tickets to the tour sold out within minutes, fans launched a campaign urging the CBC to carry the band's Kingston show as a live TV event.
Dettman wouldn't speak to the contract negotiations that led to the Hip agreeing to the broadcast.
"CBC made both a competitive and financially responsible offer to acquire the broadcast rights, and we're thrilled to be able to offer this national celebration to as many Canadians as possible," she said.
The concert won't just be on the main CBC network, it will also be broadcast through various other platforms such as CBC Radio One, the CBC website and its YouTube and Facebook channels.
With so many viewing options, that will make it tough to capture how many eyes and ears are focused on the Hip this Saturday.
That's where ratings agency Numeris comes in. The Toronto-based company tracks viewership figures by using meters and viewing diaries prepared by a panel of Canadians representative of the population.
Their data shows that most huge audience draws are typically live programming, led by major sporting events.
The Super Bowl is the biggest TV event nearly every year — drawing about six million to eight million viewers in recent years — while a handful of other annual celebrations like the Academy Awards, the Golden Globes and Grammys are perennial favourites too.
The gold medal game of the men's hockey tournament at the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics is considered to be the most-watched broadcast ever in Canada. It drew 16.6 million viewers, according to data from Numeris, about double the number of people who tune into most Super Bowls.
Those kinds of numbers will be hard to beat, even for a rock band with as much Canadian clout as the Hip.
Numeris spokesman Tom Jenks wouldn't guess how many viewers will tune into the CBC broadcast, but acknowledges it'll probably be a pretty big number.
The agency said it will be counting every public screening — from restaurants to movie theatres to community viewing parties — and each person streaming the concert on their phone. Viewers who playback the show on their DVRs within seven days will also be included in the final numbers.
"Our system captures all viewing," Jenks said.
Potentially driving those numbers higher is the decision make the Hip's concert a one-time broadcast, with no encore presentation and no availability on on-demand platforms.
"Our goal was to bring the experience of this live concert to Canadians in that moment," Dettman said.
"I'm sure the band will figure out what they will want to do with the concert afterwards."
She said the goal is to give all Canadians the same "crescendo" feeling that will ripple through the arena in Kingston.
"Our goal is to bring the experience ... to as many Canadians as we can," she said.
"The idea that we're all together experiencing this moment at the same time is really special."
Follow @dfriend on Twitter.
David Friend, The Canadian Press | http://www.comoxvalleyrecord.com/entertainment/390688221.html | en | 2016-08-01T00:00:00 | www.comoxvalleyrecord.com/e5bafc6552bd3bad4929839ed37b77b867075df1141f07dd6fca8fec0aea26bf.json |
[] | 2016-08-26T16:48:26 | null | null | It is estimated that 25 per cent of individuals in Canada who are HIV positive are unaware of their status | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.comoxvalleyrecord.com%2Fnews%2F391192131.html.json | http://media.bclocalnews.com/images/BlackNewsMedia-CLR.png?t=12345? | en | null | HIV testing Thursday in Courtenay | null | null | www.comoxvalleyrecord.com | Despite studies showing that early detection provides the best possible outcome for those living with HIV, it is estimated that 25 per cent of individuals in Canada who are HIV positive are unaware of their status.
AIDS Vancouver Island’s testing day aims to provide accessible HIV and STI testing, promote awareness about the importance of early detection, and educate individuals about how simple it is to implement regular testing as part of a healthy lifestyle.
The event will feature point-of-care tests, including the Rapid HIV test, with results available in less than 60 seconds. Pre- and post-test counselling will also be available.
“Offering the 60 second tests greatly reduces the anxiety people feel about waiting to get their results,” said Leanne Wingert, key event organizer and support worker at AIDS Vancouver Island.
“We can provide testing and offer support all in one visit. We’re hoping people will come to the event and see how easy getting tested can be,” Wingert added.
The testing day will take place Thursday, Aug. 25 from 9 a.m. to noon at the Courtenay AVI office, 355 Sixth St.
Light refreshments will be offered to those who attend, plus a chance to win a door prize. | http://www.comoxvalleyrecord.com/news/391192131.html | en | 2016-08-01T00:00:00 | www.comoxvalleyrecord.com/65b5adb2c794de1b1bbf874f14222e5cf32b87663292ed69277c613232182036.json |
[
"Shannon Lough"
] | 2016-08-26T13:10:10 | null | null | Two months after having an endoscopy Joan Dudoward received a letter telling her that the endoscope used was not cleaned properly. | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.comoxvalleyrecord.com%2Fnews%2F391353941.html.json | http://media.bclocalnews.com/images/73852princerupertWEB.Joan-Dudoward.SL.35.jpg?t=12345? | en | null | VIDEO: Prince Rupert woman treated with unclean medical equipment, Northern Health, B.C. Centre for Disease Control confirms more than a hundred affected | null | null | www.comoxvalleyrecord.com | A routine check-up at the hospital has turned into a nightmare for a Prince Rupert woman.
A month-and-a-half after having an endoscopy to inspect her nose and throat, Joan Dudoward received a letter from Northern Health stating that the endoscope used at the Prince Rupert Regional Hospital was not cleaned properly.
From April until the end of June 2016, the endoscope, which is a flexible tube with a light and a camera used in nonsurgical procedures, was being cleaned with the wrong cleaning solution to disinfect the equipment. There were 104 patients affected and Dudoward was one of them.
“I was majorly stressed out,” she said in an exclusive interview with the Northern View. “I'm a cancer survivor. I try to keep my health up for my mom, I'm a caregiver for a 95-year-old woman.”
Dudoward had gone to the Prince Rupert hospital for an endoscopy on June 29 at 3:30 p.m. after complaining to her physician about reoccurring plugged ears and a sore throat. She received the letter from Northern Health on Aug.24, which stated the error did not impact the diagnostic outcome of the tests and the process error has been corrected.
The letter also states that the BC Centre for Disease Control has been consulted and “the risk of a patient being exposed to a virus as a result of this process error is extremely low.” The contact number for the director of acute care services is offered in case she has any other questions or concerns. Dudoward has many.
She called to find out why the instrument wasn't cleaned, what had happened and how many people had gone through the procedure before and after her. “She said she's not permitted to tell me anything about this,” was the response Dudoward said she received.
The vice-president of medicine for the Northern Health authority, Dr. Ronald Chapman, was quick to respond to media inquiries and stressed the importance of transparency. He said, based on previous experience, once they realized the mistake had occurred they consulted the BC Centre for Disease Control as well as the Northern Health infectious disease specialist in Prince George.
“The risk for the patient is extremely low. We're not concerned that it will at all have any negative impact on their health,” Dr. Chapman said. He added that it's Northern Health's policy to make patients aware even if the risk to them is low. “We believe it's important to be open with those patients and to be fairly transparent so at least they are aware of the mistake. In this case, we don't recommend any particular follow up or tests for the patients.”
This type of process error has happened before, Dr. Chapman confirmed. Not with the same scope, but he said there are many different endoscopes used and each are made by different manufacturers that have various recommendations on how to clean the equipment.
“The health sector is run by human beings and it's fairly complex. If mistakes do happen what we encourage our staff to do is to make management aware so they can learn from that experience,” he said. “I'm happy to say where those mistakes have happened in our environment, a process has been put in place and we haven't had any repetitions after some of those learning experiences.”
For the 104 patients that were affected by this incident, Dr. Chapman said their general practitioners have been notified and if they have any questions they can speak to them and the infectious disease specialist. They can also contact Northern Health's Patient Care Quality Officeto register a complaint.
For Dudoward, who had a bone marrow transplant in 2011 to battle leukemia, she is concerned and has already scheduled a meeting with her physician in early September.
“I'm thinking that my body is not going to be able to fight off infection like I was able to before the cancer because chemo takes a lot out of your body so this is like a bomb exploding in my life,” she said. | http://www.comoxvalleyrecord.com/news/391353941.html | en | 2016-08-01T00:00:00 | www.comoxvalleyrecord.com/d2c7eae0be1c52842914d3ced851217ce5189c94a5224071fd6c9abc38cda4a5.json |
[] | 2016-08-26T13:02:36 | null | null | null | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.comoxvalleyrecord.com%2Fentertainment%2F390460621.html.json | http://media.bclocalnews.com/images/60604comox09bryanschair-web.jpg?t=12345? | en | null | Wet Paint art show and sale Aug. 20-21 at Saratoga Beach | null | null | www.comoxvalleyrecord.com | Bryan’s Chair by Jenny Mitchell will be one of the works on display at this weekend's Wet Paint art show and sale.
A group of art friends who have painted and shared their passion for several years will be hosting the third “Wet Paint” Art Show and Sale in a Saratoga Beach garden Aug. 20-21.
The eight artists from Comox, Black Creek and Campbell River plan to delight the senses with their fresh and marvellous array of new paintings.
The art of Loree Cunningham, Sonia Hauser, Shelly Hollingshead, Jenny Mitchell, Michelle Ohlsson, Elaine Prodor, Lesley Rieck and Kathi Rudko represents a wide range of experience from a few years to more than two decades, and an eclectic mix of subjects and styles.
Seascapes, landscapes, still life, figurative art and abstracts in a variety of mediums (acrylic, oil, watercolour and mixed media) will be on display at the show.
While our coastal environment can be seen reflected in many of the artists’ works, the style and interpretation of each painter is unique.
Several of the artists will have their easels set up and be painting ‘en plein air’. They will be happy to discuss their process, technique and inspiration with the public.
The show and sale will be open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 20 and Sunday, Aug. 21 at the Saratoga Beach garden of Lesley Rieck at 8870 Clarkson Dr., Black Creek.
Come enjoy the garden ambience and a light refreshment, watch our artists paint, and perhaps take home a new piece of original art to brighten your day and beautify your home. | http://www.comoxvalleyrecord.com/entertainment/390460621.html | en | 2016-08-01T00:00:00 | www.comoxvalleyrecord.com/26bb0521874d87d4082f8b1fa623e910563cf958457067cc6a69003dedb4f4f8.json |
[] | 2016-08-26T13:03:27 | null | null | null | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.comoxvalleyrecord.com%2Fentertainment%2F390459811.html.json | http://media.bclocalnews.com/images/60028comox09groovement-web.jpg?t=12345? | en | null | New Groovement kicks off Atmosphere Gathering Friday night in Cumberland | null | null | www.comoxvalleyrecord.com | The New Groovement kicks off Atmosphere Gathering Friday night in Cumberland.
Karly Blats
Special to The Record
The New Groovement, a Victoria-based funk, soul and hip-hop band with roots in Port Alberni, are ready to have audiences dancing with their 11-piece ensemble at a Cumberland music festival happening this weekend.
The Atmosphere Gathering is a three-day festival, taking place in the Village of Cumberland from Friday, Aug. 19 to Sunday, Aug. 21 that features a variety of live performances, DJ’s and workshops. The New Groovement will be kicking off the festival on Friday at 7 p.m. on the Atmosphere Stage.
Two of the 11 band members are originally from Port Alberni—trumpet player Dave Chase and trombone player Jason Dolynny—but the majority of the band resides in Victoria.
The New Groovement was formed close to four years ago when Reuvan Sussman, drummer, band manager and organizer, moved back to the Island from Ontario and wanted to style a band featuring his favourite musicians.
“When I came back I had this community of musicians and I assembled my favourite people from all these different bands that I was playing with,” Sussman said.
The New Groovement includes four horns, congas, timbales, bass, drums, guitar and vocals—led by Steph Wisla and her partner-in-rhyme the Danimal House—that Sussman says is a musical merger sure to keep the crowd dancing.
“We try to get people to sing along and we try to do crazy dance moves,” Sussman said. “We will co-ordinate outfits and it’s just a good time.”
The group plays a blend of original tunes and brings a variety of influences to the stage from the band’s 11 members.
“Everybody has their own influences to contribute. I like to say we’re kind of a cross between the instrumentation of The Roots, danciness of Jamiroquai, and the soul and funk of Aretha Franklin,” Sussman said.
Making their mark in B.C.’s music scene, The New Groovement won the 2016 Album of the Year at the Vancouver Island Music Awards for their first full-length studio album, The Orange Album, that was produced with the help of well-known Vancouver Island producer, Joby Baker.
The group has been nominated for Urban Artist of the Year at the Western Canadian Music Awards that will be announced in October, and last summer they were named band of the year by Victoria radio station, The Zone.
They’ve played at plenty of festivals and well-known venues around B.C. since their inception, including Tall Tree Music Festival, JazzFest in Victoria and Nanaimo’s Longwoodstock.
Sussman said the band is thrilled to be playing at this year’s Atmosphere Gathering.
“I would say it’s going to be one of our biggest highlights this summer and the band is really excited about it.”
Dave Chase, New Groovement trumpet player, grew up in Port Alberni and said the band has also played several shows in the Valley, including the Alberni Canal Downwind Challenge at Canal Beach in June, and will be onstage at this year’s Salmon Festival on Sunday, Sept. 4.
“We are a dance band and we like to kind of put on a bit of a show so we have audience participation,” Chase said.
Chase said the band will be active on Twitter and Instagram during their time at the Atmosphere Gathering using the hashtag #NGMatmosphere. Folks can tune in to check out the band’s behind-the-scenes shenanigans.
For more information on this weekend’s Atmosphere Gathering, visit www.atmospheregathering.com. | http://www.comoxvalleyrecord.com/entertainment/390459811.html | en | 2016-08-01T00:00:00 | www.comoxvalleyrecord.com/b417d3df14dc3748c5097a127fd1d9290e9f16e92637f6c6789ff847a51758cf.json |
[] | 2016-08-26T13:12:50 | null | null | null | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.comoxvalleyrecord.com%2Fsports%2F390465311.html.json | http://media.bclocalnews.com/images/BlackNewsMedia-CLR.png?t=12345? | en | null | Comox Valley seniors preparing for BC 55+ Games | null | null | www.comoxvalleyrecord.com | A number of Comox Valley seniors are preparing for the BC Senior 55+ Games, to be held Sept. 20-24 in Coquitlam.
Seventy-five participants from the Valley area will be competing in badminton, darts, dragon boat racing, five-pin bowling, golf, ice curling, lawn bowling, slopitch, soccer, swimming, table tennis, and track and field.
The locals will be part of Zone 2’s (Ladysmith-North end of Vancouver Island and Powell River) 310-person contingent heading to Coquitlam.
For more information on this year’s BC 55+ Games, visit the official website at www.bcseniorsgames.org | http://www.comoxvalleyrecord.com/sports/390465311.html | en | 2016-08-01T00:00:00 | www.comoxvalleyrecord.com/63eeb468054bdf21455c833dbd43f0dff1600cf96fc06afa4c604c901339b753.json |
[] | 2016-08-26T13:09:59 | null | null | Collected recyclables help feed the hungry in Cumberland | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.comoxvalleyrecord.com%2Fnews%2F391342901.html.json | http://media.bclocalnews.com/images/68500comox09MOOP.jpg?t=12345? | en | null | Atmosphere Gathering cleans up nicely | null | null | www.comoxvalleyrecord.com | MOOP volunteer Riane DaSilva from Denman Island (left) and co-coordinator Rhia Ironside were kept busy during Atmosphere Gathering.
Jamie Bowman
Special to The Record
The party is over; now the hungry are getting fed.
After three days of intense music, dance, art and workshops at Atmosphere Gathering festival, a team of dedicated volunteers has brought Cumberland’s Village Park back to what it was. They’ve dismantled the stages, Big Top tent and myriad infrastructure, while the MOOP (Matter Out Of Place) team has the park super clean again.
It was the third year for the festival, organized by Cumberland Village Works, which again featured hundreds of volunteers and a stellar line-up of international and local music stars, plus art, culture and workshops.
While attendees were generally good at using recycling and trash receptacles, the MOOP volunteer crew of 18, led by Erin Matz & Rhia Ironside, walked the event site and campground all weekend, gathering compostables, recyclables and garbage.
The results: over $1,000 in deposit-return refundables. But this year, Matz, Ironside and the CVW producers decided that that money should go directly into the community. They chose the Comox Valley Better Life Centre, a local organization that engages youth and adults to provide food for the hungry.
The Atmosphere MOOP volunteers worked in shifts from 8 a.m. until 3 a.m., keeping up with the roughly 1500 festival-goers each day.
“We’ve been to festivals that claim to be about love and awareness, but leave enormous amounts of trash,” said Ironside. “We believe that celebrations can be clean and not produce so much waste.”
“We are so happy to have Village Park, right in the centre of Cumberland,” said Atmosphere co-producer Melissa Roeske. “We live here, we love it and we want to keep it as the beautiful place it is. And, we felt it was important to give back to the Valley community.”
Meanwhile, presenters at Atmosphere repeatedly encouraged festival-goers to check out the village and many did.
“It’s looking amazing here,” said Matz on Wednesday, as she and volunteers put the finishing touches on the cleanup. “We have an intimate relationship with Mother Nature; we have a responsibility and we need to set examples of how she should be treated.”
The Better Life Centre has been operating six years, helping people in need and those who serve the community, buying food, preparing and delivering meals.
The group has evolved into a bottle-return service to fund its projects. “We have kids going door-to-door all over the Valley, leaving cards offering to pick up bottles,” said spokesman Carey Porcher. “The kids are really behind this and we’re behind the kids.”
Both Better Life Centre and MOOP can be found on Facebook. Contact BLC at 250-218-9420 to arrange bottle pickups. | http://www.comoxvalleyrecord.com/news/391342901.html | en | 2016-08-01T00:00:00 | www.comoxvalleyrecord.com/21028edeeee4bc7abfa5cb81bca00086138fa272747f45c98177f83fa502de18.json |
[
"Canadian Press"
] | 2016-08-31T00:49:52 | null | null | Two sides avert job action that has loomed for months | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.comoxvalleyrecord.com%2Fnews%2F391803281.html.json | http://media.bclocalnews.com/images/18051BCLN2007Canada_Post_TruckWikimediaCommons.jpg?t=12345? | en | null | Canada Post, postal union reach tentative deals | null | null | www.comoxvalleyrecord.com | Canada Post and the Canadian Union of Postal Workers have reached tentative agreements, averting the prospect of a labour dispute that has loomed over the talks for months.
In a statement, Labour Minister MaryAnn Mihychuk says the agreements were reached "voluntarily," but provides no other details about the deals themselves.
The issue of differences in paycheques for rural mail carriers — most of whom are women — and urban letter carriers had been at the forefront of protracted contract talks between the two sides.
The negotiations were extended twice since the weekend, when a deadline expired on a 72-hour job action notice issued last Thursday by the Canadian Union of Postal Workers.
The two sides were in talks nearly around the clock at the request of a special mediator appointed Friday by Mihychuk.
Canada Post described the tentative agreements as short-term. It said they are for two years and that four-year contracts were typically negotiated in the past.
"The agreements will avert a work disruption, bringing much-needed certainty in the postal system for our employees and customers," said Canada Post in a statement. "Canadians can now use the postal system with confidence."
The tentative agreements, however, still must be ratified by the members.
The Canadian Union of Postal Workers is Canada Post's largest union, representing more than 50,000 postal workers
The Canadian Press | http://www.comoxvalleyrecord.com/news/391803281.html | en | 2016-08-01T00:00:00 | www.comoxvalleyrecord.com/0c91b18e80c624d97bb5d7393c23221047f38a58931576dd83e98ec1da986ca6.json |
[
"Erin Haluschak"
] | 2016-08-26T13:09:36 | null | null | Fifth pedestrian in four days to be hit by a vehicle in the Comox Valley | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.comoxvalleyrecord.com%2Fnews%2F391214081.html.json | http://media.bclocalnews.com/images/12402comox09DSCN0895_web.jpg?t=12345? | en | null | Pedestrian in serious condition after incident on Comox Road | null | null | www.comoxvalleyrecord.com | Comox Valley RCMP continue to investigate a pedestrian who was struck by a vehicle on Comox Road Wednesday.
A 51-year-old pedestrian is in serious condition at St. Joseph's General Hospital after he was hit by a vehicle on Comox (Dyke) Road after noon Wednesday.
Comox Valley RCMP Const. Rob Gardner said around 12:53 p.m., a pedestrian stepped out behind a parked vehicle on Comox Road near Scott Road and was struck by a vehicle.
He was taken to hospital with leg and head injuries.
Gardner said while the investigation is still in the early stages, it appears the pedestrian stepped out from in front of a parked vehicle on Comox Road, near a curve in the roadway.
A northbound vehicle came around the curve, past the parked vehicle and struck the pedestrian as he stepped out, he added.
Traffic around the Valley was backed up in both Comox and Courtenay, as the roadway was closed for more than an hour.
As this is the fifth incident involving pedestrians, cyclists and vehicles since Sunday, Gardner is warning both drivers and pedestrians to be cognizant of everyone on the roadway. | http://www.comoxvalleyrecord.com/news/391214081.html | en | 2016-08-01T00:00:00 | www.comoxvalleyrecord.com/9e0cfe612a7cc5e12918e6a428bfd19d57dd8b3b1b8e2848ef982281dfe7480c.json |
[] | 2016-08-26T13:12:24 | null | null | null | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.comoxvalleyrecord.com%2Fsports%2F390465861.html.json | http://media.bclocalnews.com/images/BlackNewsMedia-CLR.png?t=12345? | en | null | Jason Andrew unstoppable at Crown Isle men's golf | null | null | www.comoxvalleyrecord.com | Once again it was Jason Andrew winning the marbles (or golf balls) at Gentlemen’s Night at Crown Isle on a challenging weather evening on Aug. 9.
Jason shot a 34 (2 under par) for the low gross for the Prime Chop House. Jason, that adds up to a lot of steaks this season! Jason also won the LD for low handicap on #1 for Bill Anglin, Re/Max.
On #4 he also won a sleeve of Pro-V1’s for low KP for Sean Sweeney, Barristers. After all that, Alan Sabey won the low net with a 35 for Hollis Wealth.
Our other multiple winners were: Terry Cox with a “2nd shot KP+13” on #2 for the Head Shed; and the “longest putt” on #5 for Finneron Hyundai.
Thomas De La Rey had a good night with “2nd shot KP-12” for Thrifty Foods; and “KP-12” on #7 for Sean Sweeney. Russ Keil had a better night with 3 prizes for “LD 13+” on #1 for McDonalds;
Russ won his own prize on #5 with a “3rd shot KP+13” for Scotia MacLeod; Russ also won the “KP 13+” on #7 for Sean Sweeney.
Our final multiple winners were the Wiwchar brothers, with Riley (thanks Hockey Canada) winning “2nd shot closest to the house” on #9 for Art Meyers Royal LePage. Tory took time out from his world travels to win the “Hidden Hole” with a score of eight on #9.
The rest of the field included: Doug McIntosh “closest to the Mustang” on #3 for Westview Ford; Brandon Somers was “Double Bunkered” on #3 for Coastal Community Credit Union;
Stan Campbell dropped in from the UAE to win the “KP+13” on #4 for Assante Capital;
Marshall Chuck Brown won “any eagle gross/net” on #5 for the Eagle Radio 97.3FM; Dave Webb was hungry for the burger on #6 “closest to the spot” for the White Spot Restaurant.
We had our “Magic Circles” on #8 with Gary Morton at the “150 yard” for Brian Rice Toyota; Mike Finneron near the “200 yard” for Mike Hamilton Logging; Rob Hunter near the “250 yard” for BMO Nesbitt Burns; John Davis won “KP everyone” on #12 for Jim’s Clothes Closet; Kolt Almgren got the “KP everyone” over the water on #16 for GEE Associates.
Draw prizes were won by: Sandy Bain for Hartman Auto Supply; Jon Lloyd won the “Blind Draw” for Budget Blinds; Ian Munroe won the “Joke of the Night” for Canadian Tire; Ron Ward won Dave Wheeldon’s draw and Dennis Webber won the Sleeman’s draw. | http://www.comoxvalleyrecord.com/sports/390465861.html | en | 2016-08-01T00:00:00 | www.comoxvalleyrecord.com/9df694fa6404638c0d11db2caf7e7bb09384f517752fa734ff06c6fb0d4d70be.json |
[
"Tom Fletcher"
] | 2016-08-26T13:11:48 | null | null | Indigenous Affairs Minister Carolyn Bennett's position boils down to blaming racist, indifferent cops | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.comoxvalleyrecord.com%2Fopinion%2F389749591.html.json | http://media.bclocalnews.com/images/20136BCLN2007Bennett-Carolynswear-in7web.jpg?t=12345? | en | null | BC VIEWS: Missing women inquiry pre-determined | null | null | www.comoxvalleyrecord.com | Toronto MP Carolyn Bennett is sworn in as Minister of Indigenous and Northern Affairs, November 2015.
The federal government’s National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls is preparing to get underway in September.
With five commissioners led by B.C. judge Marion Buller and a budget that has swelled by a third to $54 million before it even starts, this inquiry has one big advantage over all the previous studies of Canada’s intractable problems of poverty and violence in aboriginal communities.
In this case, the politicians all agree what the outcome is going to be. They’ve been saying so for months, since the Justin Trudeau government got elected on this and other passionate, if questionable, promises.
Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould, a member of the We Wai Kai Nation on the B.C. coast, a former Crown prosecutor and chair of the B.C. Treaty Commission, announced the terms of reference last week. She stressed that the inquiry will not attempt to retry cold cases, but to examine the “root causes” of the high numbers of missing and murdered women.
Next up was Indigenous Affairs Minister Carolyn Bennett, who has no doubt at all what those “root causes” are: racism, sexism and the lingering effects of colonialism. Bennett has been meeting steadily with grieving families since being appointed, and now accepts that racist, indifferent cops are the main “root cause.”
Bennett explained this conclusion from New York in April, while attending a “Women of the World” summit. It’s an “uneven application of justice,” she told The Globe and Mail, a phrase we’ll hear again and again.
“You end up with people who have been told it’s an overdose, or a suicide or an accident,” Bennett said.
RCMP have reported close to 1,200 unsolved cases of murdered or missing indigenous women since 1980, a figure that Bennett scoffs at. What’s her evidence? She’s talked to families, and knows it’s “way more” than that.
One of the previous inquiries was by a United Nations official, James Anaya, in 2014. He noted the alarming statistics of education outcome and violent offences against women, and referred to 660 cases documented by the Native Women’s Association of Canada. He also described being besieged by demands for a national inquiry, as he went through the stacks of studies that have already been done.
“Since 1996,” Anaya wrote in his UN report, “there have been at least 29 official inquiries and reports dealing with aspects of this issue, which have resulted in over 500 recommendations for action.”
As the latest inquiry was being launched, Perry Bellegarde, the current Assembly of First Nations national chief, recited Bennett’s speaking points about the conclusions it will reach.
Bellegarde told CTV the problem is vastly under-reported because “…oh, it’s an accidental death. Oh, it’s a suicide.” Then he called for more money for housing and other programs via the failed Indian Act system.
There are several glaring factors that apparently will not be discussed, because they fall outside the politically correct boundaries of this pre-determined narrative.
One is the even more alarming number of aboriginal men and boys who are victims of violent crime.
Another is the rate of domestic abuse reported by indigenous women, which Statistics Canada estimated this year at about 10 per cent of their population. That’s three times the national average, but it was not mentioned amid the demands for justice at the inquiry.
Another key issue that is forbidden from discussion is the social and economic viability of remote communities. Some of them haven’t been able to maintain clean water and safe housing, much less education and employment, despite billions in spending every year.
Tom Fletcher is B.C. legislature reporter and columnist for Black Press. Email: tfletcher@blackpress.ca Twitter: @tomfletcherbc | http://www.comoxvalleyrecord.com/opinion/389749591.html | en | 2016-08-01T00:00:00 | www.comoxvalleyrecord.com/a2f664366f6b727953d80d523c3a1bc3dc983028bc9692e5afec16678c45674a.json |
[] | 2016-08-26T12:51:01 | null | 2015-10-16T12:16:32 | null | http%3A%2F%2Felorientalonline.com%2Ften-reasons-why-you-should-remodel-your-home%2F.json | http://elorientalonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/kitchen-remodel-300x200.jpg | en | null | Ten Reasons Why You Should Remodel Your Home | null | null | elorientalonline.com | If you are looking to increase the value of your home or remodel the inside to bring it up to date you can never go wrong with the upgrades as long as you stay within a reasonable budget. Courtesy of Integrity Restoration, below are ten reason why to remodel your home.
1) Going Green – Is your gas and electric bill getting higher and higher? By replacing windows from a single pane to dual pane energy efficient windows can save you money every month.
2) Getting ready to retire – If this is the home you will be living in during your retirement years, it is important to make the necessary upgrades with age in mind. Adding features like toilets with more mobility, step in showers or baths with safety bars are just a few upgrades that can help you in your later years.
3) Better sales potential – Remodeling the exterior of your home will bring up the value. By adding a new roof, new paint, clean window treatments and improving the landscape will enhance the curb appeal of your home.
4) Upgrade your kitchen – The kitchen is the center piece of your home. Friends and family will gather there and spend most of their time in the kitchen. Some basic upgrades can be replacing your refrigerator, buying a new stove or installing new cabinets to make the area more functional and pleasing.
5) Upgrade the bathroom – Your bathroom may work fine the way it is, but items like changing out that boring mirror, replacing the plumbing, and adding new lighting can dramatically improve the functionality and looks of your bathroom.
6) Not time to move because of the kids – If you plan on staying in your neighborhood because your kids have friends near by or you do not want to change schools for the next 5 – 10 years, then make the home improvements now. Make your home enjoyable to live in and do not put off remodeling because you might move in 10 years from now.
7) Are you embarrassed of the way your home currently looks? – Those old avocado counter tops need to go. Change out the out dated colors in your bathroom and kitchen. It will make a dramatic improvement about how you feel for your home.
8) Upgrade that stale look. If your home is in need of a minor face lift, paint the baseboard and walls to a more appealing color. If you are on a budget, this is an inexpensive way to upgrade your home.
9) Do you have a basement? If the answer is yes, then convert it to a living area such as an extra bedroom, media room, game room or even a closet. This will add square footage to your house and increase the value.
10) Avoid buying a new home. You could spend months looking for a new home, but your efforts might go more rewarded by making some upgrades to your current home. Remodeling your kitchen and bathroom or taking down that wall that has been annoying you might just be the solution. | http://elorientalonline.com/ten-reasons-why-you-should-remodel-your-home/ | en | 2015-10-16T00:00:00 | elorientalonline.com/006d2ede114e0d5b465bb57d69de9b0c0a23eab1bdc240a9eddbf3abcb22f7e6.json |
[] | 2016-08-26T12:49:26 | null | 2016-04-23T09:53:02 | null | http%3A%2F%2Felorientalonline.com%2Ffumigation-for-termites-an-in-depth-overview%2F.json | http://elorientalonline.com/fumigation-for-termites-an-in-depth-overview/ | en | null | Fumigation for Termites: An In-depth Overview | null | null | elorientalonline.com | How It Works
Fumigation, also known as “tenting”, is one of the most commonly used methods employed to kill drywood termites. During fumigation the homeowner’s house is covered in a nylon tent and the house is filled with a poisonous gas. Sulfuryl fluoride is often the gas of choice by exterminators. Over the course of several days the gas penetrates into the house’s walls and kills the termites.
The pest control company must ensure the air is safe to breath before the homeowner is allowed to move back in.
Average Cost
Termite treatment company Green Heat SD says the average cost to treat a termite infestation with fumigation will vary by location and pest control company. A homeowner should expect to pay roughly $1 per square foot of their house.
Application Time
The pest control company will have your home or structure tented in 1 day under most circumstances.
Treatment Time
Can range anywhere from several days up to a week. Factors such as severity of infestation, dosage, temperature, and size of structure will determine the required treatment time. The average homeowner can expect to vacate their home for about 2 days.
Hassle Factor
Clothes and food must be packaged up and removed from the house prior to treatment. In addition, the homeowner must not inhabit the house while it is being treated.
Advantages
Only available method that treats an entire home or structure.
Can eliminate undetected colonies of termites.
Often the cheapest way to treat an entire structure for drywood termites.
Disadvantages | http://elorientalonline.com/fumigation-for-termites-an-in-depth-overview/ | en | 2016-04-23T00:00:00 | elorientalonline.com/29bf2f78f2fb508c8b9204ab2c80a308691303a763fa897e566a622e90be5fcc.json |
[] | 2016-08-26T12:51:34 | null | 2015-12-04T12:32:29 | null | http%3A%2F%2Felorientalonline.com%2Fhow-does-thermal-bed-bug-treatment-work%2F.json | http://elorientalonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/bed-bugs.jpg | en | null | How Does Thermal Bed Bug Treatment Work? | null | null | elorientalonline.com | If you’ve never heard of thermal bed bug treatment, you may be wondering if it works and how. Fortunately, you don’t have to deal with harsh, dangerous chemicals anymore when your home is infested with these pests. Instead, a professional exterminator can take care of the problem with bed bug heat treatment. Green Heat SD explains how it works:
A large heater is brought into the home. There is no need to locate the nests because heat can reach everywhere. The bugs will have no escape and will actually come out of their nests, searching for relief. The home is heated for six to eight hours. The amount of time will essentially depend on the size of the problem and the size of the house. The exact temperature will be determined by the professional, and will be lethal to the bed bugs. You can move back in. You really don’t have to move out for the treatment. Your belongings are safe as long as they can withstand temperatures up to 140˚. When the bugs are all dead, you are immediately allowed back into the home.
Don’t let bed bugs take over your life because you are wary of bed bug treatment. Look into bed bug thermal treatment to see how beneficial it can be for your infestation. | http://elorientalonline.com/how-does-thermal-bed-bug-treatment-work/ | en | 2015-12-04T00:00:00 | elorientalonline.com/c4f67d96d45ff386b47a925d00a2efddda2394587c0805185a38eb791cf4e769.json |
[] | 2016-08-26T12:50:30 | null | 2015-10-16T12:23:52 | null | http%3A%2F%2Felorientalonline.com%2F3-things-to-consider-before-a-home-restoration%2F.json | http://elorientalonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/home-improvement-300x224.jpg | en | null | 3 Things to Consider Before a Home Restoration | null | null | elorientalonline.com | You may need to have some work done to your home. There are certain parts of the home that may need to be restored while other parts may need to get replaced completely, such as excessively damaged carpets that are no longer fluffy or soft. Before you start the home restoration, there are a few things to consider. Thanks to Integrity Restoration of San Diego, here are 3 questions you should ask:
Which Rooms Need the Most Work?
Some rooms may need more work than others. Starting with the most damaged rooms in the home may be the best thing to do. Spend time evaluating the property to determine what you like and what you think needs to change.
What Kinds of Improvements Do You Want to Make?
You may have a few home improvement ideas on your mind. You might want to remove the carpet from your bedroom floor and have any hardwood floors restored to look glossy and new instead of rough and damaged. Make a list of the home restoration ideas you would like to go through with to improve the look of your home.
Who Will You Hire to Help With the Home Remodel?
After you decide on the work that needs to get done in different rooms, decide who you want to hire to help out. Hiring professionals who have restoration and remodeling experience is the best way to ensure a successful outcome. | http://elorientalonline.com/3-things-to-consider-before-a-home-restoration/ | en | 2015-10-16T00:00:00 | elorientalonline.com/27721ab2a1f41a6823f53436e287df7dcb2eae035e459f0ec98ae1fa814d95cc.json |
[
"Baltimore City Paper"
] | 2016-08-30T20:47:14 | null | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | null | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.citypaper.com%2Fnews%2Fthisweek%2Fbcpnews-wednesday-charm-city-circulator-public-meeting-20160830-story.html.json | http://www.trbimg.com/img-57c5ee41/turbine/bcpnews-wednesday-charm-city-circulator-public-meeting-20160830 | en | null | Wednesday: Charm City Circulator Public Meeting | null | null | www.citypaper.com | Aug. 31
6-8 p.m., Baltimore Museum of Industry, 1415 Key Highway, (410) 727-4808, transportation.baltimorecity.gov, free.
This is the second of four meetings being held by the Baltimore City Department of Transportation to allow citizens to voice their concerns about proposed changes to the Circulator. The city wants to cut the Circulator’s Banner Route, which runs between the Inner Harbor and Locust Point; the Green Route, which runs from Johns Hopkins Medical Campus, Fells Point, and downtown; and the Purple Route Northern Extension from Penn Station to 33rd Street. Public transportation is key in a city like Baltimore—have your say. | http://www.citypaper.com/news/thisweek/bcpnews-wednesday-charm-city-circulator-public-meeting-20160830-story.html | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | www.citypaper.com/af63f9a64ce9e97e58b0e61c32299b1a360bc1de9985b950481a406d821892da.json |
[
"Baltimore City Paper"
] | 2016-08-30T20:47:18 | null | 2016-08-31T00:00:00 | null | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.citypaper.com%2Fnews%2Fbcpr%2Fbcp-083116-bcpr-20160831-story.html.json | http://www.trbimg.com/img-57c5e901/turbine/bcp-083116-bcpr-20160831 | en | null | Baltimore City Power Rankings: Chase Brexton workers, waterways, BPD, more | null | null | www.citypaper.com | ↑ Bloomberg Businessweek
Last week, we found out that Baltimore City Police have been watching us from above—via a plane mounted with surveillance cameras—for months. It would still be a secret today if not for the piece Monte Reel wrote for Bloomberg Businessweek. Not gonna lie: we sometimes feel…well…a bit defensive when out of town outlets try to write about our city (and when they scoop us on our own turf), but Reel not only brought facts—he delivered compelling images and video to boot. His story continues a conversation about crime, race, and policing—and has the power to effect real change. Well done.
↑ Chase Brexton workers
Last week the workers at Chase Brexton Health Care voted 87-9 to join the 1199 SEIU United Healthcare Workers East labor union. Employees are spending nights and weekends catching up on paperwork because they have more and more clients, thanks to the increased access to insurance from the Affordable Care Act. The vote came after reports that management at the health care provider had come out very strongly against its employees unionizing and fired five managers, a move workers said was linked to the organizing efforts. Given Chase Brexton's mission to serve low-income and LGBTQ patients, the anti-organizing efforts did not go over well with the health care provider's base, drawing a protest of several hundred. Props to the workers for voting so overwhelmingly to unionize in the face of strong opposition from management. Hopefully, the changes that come about from collective bargaining can help Chase Brexton continue to uphold its mission.
↓ Waterways
Bad news, guys. Not only is meth getting into our local waterways—it could have lasting negative consequences for the animals and plants that call those waterways home. That news comes courtesy of a team of scientists who have spent the last 18 years studying the Gwynns Falls. They say that when sewage leaks, meth (along with lots of other nasty stuff) can get into streams, and that could have an impact on bacteria in the water, algae levels. Add sewage leaks to the already long list of structural problems we need to fix in this city as soon as possible.
↓ George A. Nilson
Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake sacked the long-time City Solicitor on Aug. 19, a day after news broke that he had hired a long-time lawyer with secret ties to neo-Nazi organizations. Nilson carried Rawlings-Blake's water faithfully for years, even when it was full of stink: he called a secret $659,000 mayoral phone purchase "neither out of the ordinary nor in violation of the law" and a city council bill to mandate police body cameras "illegal." In one of his rare disagreements with the mayor, he said he disagreed with her decision to fire him.
↓ Baltimore Police
Assuming the BPD has the best intentions in employing a private surveillance plane to give investigators "Google Earth with TiVo capability," it made little sense for Commissioner Kevin Davis to not tell the mayor and other public officials he had done so. On its face, Persistent Surveillance Systems appears to have great potential to solve daytime gun murders and other serious crimes. But it's far from certain that its use is constitutional—and since the BPD kept the program on the down-low, such things are impossible to monitor. The department's scant detailing of the system—Who owns the footage? Who can access it? How is it used? —hardly inspires the confidence and trust the department says it is working to build. | http://www.citypaper.com/news/bcpr/bcp-083116-bcpr-20160831-story.html | en | 2016-08-31T00:00:00 | www.citypaper.com/ebcdd227255a3fd1dc23edce0bea78beedd633c3af8c18b0d0bccf896860e057.json |
[
"Baltimore City Paper",
"Kate Drabinski"
] | 2016-08-30T20:47:23 | null | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | null | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.citypaper.com%2Fnews%2Fcolumns%2Ffield-tripping%2Fbcp-083116-field-tripping-20160830-story.html.json | http://www.trbimg.com/img-57c5e9d2/turbine/bcp-083116-field-tripping-20160830 | en | null | Field Tripping: Nostalgia Tripping | null | null | www.citypaper.com | This week's field trips were all about nostalgia, the perfect way to start marking what is (I hope) the slow transition from summer to fall. It's a zillion degrees outside, but the ladyfriend swears she can smell a change in the weather, and in a sense of hope and solidarity, I say I can, too. I'm already nostalgic for summer, even though it isn't over yet, remembering fondly the start of it when the season lay out in front of us, full of promises for trips to the beach—we never made it there—and long bike rides—they were surprisingly short this time around. Ah, beginnings, when everybody's batting 1.000 and we're all tied in the race for the pennant. Miss you already.
First up on the nostalgia train was a surprise trip to Harrisburg, PA with the ladyfriend. She didn't tell me where we were going or why, but once we passed York, PA on I-83, I started to get suspicious that she was taking me to a state capitol to visit the heart of Pennsylvania's democracy. Little did I know, Harrisburg also boasts the National Civil War Museum, which is basically a big building meant to summon nostalgia for a time period most of us know little about and to which few of us can claim any real ties but that shapes us all deeply, whether we know it or not. Civil War nostalgia veers from the ugly Lost Cause stories of the South to Northern fantasies of ending slavery.
I love the Civil War for its position as a fulcrum in the struggle for emancipation, because we aren't there yet. It interests me for the way people do history about it, the way the stories North and South tell have the effect if uniting the nation in a story of white armed struggle, as if the war wasn't always and forever about slavery.
Harrisburg's story of the Civil War turned out to be about the Fighting Men of North and South, what one of my favorite historians, David Blight, might call a reconciliation narrative. Each part of the museum represented North and South as two similarly situated fighting forces, both with their own struggles as they each fought for their beliefs. The exhibit ends with a very short story of Reconstruction, claiming that it failed partly due to Federal overreach. Well, that's one way to look at it, but here we are, 2016, and we still need "Federal overreach" to get Baltimore to seriously look at its racist and sexist policing practices. The Department of Justice was founded during Reconstruction to give the Feds more ways to litigate civil rights violations, and I would not be the first to argue that it was the lack of Federal overreach that led to the failure of Reconstruction, and this same lack risks leaving Baltimore's response to the recent DOJ report nothing but window dressing.
But I digress. The museum's exhibit ends with a sign carrying a few words from Frederick Douglass in 1871: "We are sometimes asked in the name of patriotism to forget the merits of this fearful struggle, and to remember with equal admiration those who struck at the nation's life, and those who strove to save it—those who fought for slaver and those who fought for liberty and justice." That's it. I was like, um, it's pretty obvious he said something after that, like about how that's a terrible demand? He did. The rest of the quotation is: "I am no minister of malice. I would not strike the fallen. I would not repel the repentant; but may my right hand forget her cunning and my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth, if I forget the difference between the parties to that terrible, protracted, and bloody conflict." That makes a lot more sense. Douglass reminds us, just six years out from the war, that our memory of it cannot forget that these were two different sides, and one was fighting for slavery. The museum's nostalgia renders it unable to hear the rest of Douglass' words, and for me, that helped me understand the rest of the place, and its dangerous history.
This was one kind of nostalgia—as cerebral as it was affective, a series of arguments even as it hit me in the gut. But then there's the nostalgia that's purely personal, about which one cannot really be intellectual at all. And that's what I felt when my friend Brian took me to an Ani DiFranco show in Annapolis last week.
Here is how I remember Ani DiFranco: I first saw her in the student center of Barnard College, shortly after I realized that the feelings I had about that one girl on campus might mean something. I hadn't kissed a girl—or anyone, if we're being honest—but I was pretty sure I was a lesbian. But I was pretty sure none of the lesbians would believe me, they'd see right through me, know I was just trying to be cool and failing miserably. And then I was listening to Ani DiFranco on repeat on my boombox as I chain smoked Camel Lights, dumping the butts in an old spaghetti sauce jar as Ani's songs 'Untouchable Face' spoke my whole romantic life and 'Not a Pretty Girl' spoke to the angry feminist I was just starting to see emerge. I'd been a feminist forever, but Ani really helped me tap into the angry part.
I hadn't heard a lot of her songs in 20 years, but that night I still remembered all the lyrics, felt all the feelings of unrequited love, longing, desire, that exquisite pain of finally seeing what you want and not being able to get quite close enough to it, and oh my goodness, that was a nostalgic night. Time passes, it turns out, and we change, but we are still who we were then. We best not forget, though, how we are shaped by our, and a collective, past. | http://www.citypaper.com/news/columns/field-tripping/bcp-083116-field-tripping-20160830-story.html | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | www.citypaper.com/5fec9d060017e56515c96cd00ce6be43dd9d64df4d385444ae71eb309a6af73c.json |
[
"Baltimore City Paper",
"Edward Ericson Jr."
] | 2016-08-26T13:06:01 | null | 2016-08-24T00:00:00 | null | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.citypaper.com%2Fblogs%2Fthe-news-hole%2Fbcpnews-former-talking-head-sonar-operator-loses-appeal-in-federal-pot-conviction-20160824-story.html.json | http://www.trbimg.com/img-57bde691/turbine/bcpnews-former-talking-head-sonar-operator-loses-appeal-in-federal-pot-conviction-20160824 | en | null | Former Talking Head/Sonar operator loses appeal in federal pot conviction | null | null | www.citypaper.com | Former Talking Head and Sonar impresario Daniel McIntosh is still in federal prison, and will likely stay there until the end of his 10-year sentence. A federal court rejected his appeal this week, saying it found "no reversible errors" in his trial or sentencing.
McIntosh was convicted in 2012 of being part of a 16-person conspiracy (including the real estate developer Jeremy Landsman and Anthony Marcantoni, owner of the Ground Control martial arts studio in Owings Mills) that brought hundreds of pounds of pot to Baltimore, in tractor trailers and by airplane. Prosecutors said McIntosh used Sonar, a defunct nightclub and concert venue, as "cover" for the drug dealing, and used some of the drug proceeds to make payroll and cover bills at the club. Judge Roger Titus reluctantly sentenced him to 10 years, the mandatory minimum for the three-time felon, saying "I have hope for you."
Titus sentenced McIntosh to half of what prosecutors asked for, and only one-third of what the federal sentencing guidelines call for. As a career offender, McIntosh could have gotten 360 months to life. "Listen," McIntosh reportedly told investigators when they arrested him, "I don't believe for one minute my government's going to sentence me to life in prison for selling marijuana."
Not life, but a hard decade for a 40-year-old with Lyme disease.
Click here for more from Edward Ericson Jr. or email Edward at eericson@citypaper.com | http://www.citypaper.com/blogs/the-news-hole/bcpnews-former-talking-head-sonar-operator-loses-appeal-in-federal-pot-conviction-20160824-story.html | en | 2016-08-24T00:00:00 | www.citypaper.com/1143afa23ae154d8681024d95c87375095412bc143ee7fd085611553ddb04dc0.json |
[
"Baltimore City Paper"
] | 2016-08-26T13:04:26 | null | 2016-08-24T00:00:00 | null | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.citypaper.com%2Fbcpnews-tuesday-chain-of-flowers-big-eater-dumbcharger-murderboats-20160823-story.html.json | http://www.trbimg.com/img-57bd1fe1/turbine/bcpnews-tuesday-chain-of-flowers-big-eater-dumbcharger-murderboats-20160823 | en | null | Tuesday: Chain Of Flowers, Big Eater, Dumbcharger, Murderboats | null | null | www.citypaper.com | Aug. 30
8 p.m., The Crown, 1910 N. Charles St., (410) 625-4848, facebook.com/TheCrownBaltimore, $8.
If you thought shoegaze was all about dreamy, weightless fuzzies, think again. Described by Noisey as “Wales’ best-kept secret” and “Robert Smith having an aneurysm,” Chain Of Flowers packs a punch. With six members, they can’t really help it. Check out their big sound with support from New York dream-pop band Big Eater and locals Dumbcharger and Murderboats. | http://www.citypaper.com/bcpnews-tuesday-chain-of-flowers-big-eater-dumbcharger-murderboats-20160823-story.html | en | 2016-08-24T00:00:00 | www.citypaper.com/88bd944cc768caaa5ec22f34e0e9bf330da2b9288c1acc38124bcb5f4e04150c.json |
[
"Baltimore City Paper",
"Dan Savage"
] | 2016-08-31T10:47:06 | null | 2016-08-31T00:00:00 | null | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.citypaper.com%2Fnews%2Fcolumns%2Fsavage-love%2Fbcp-083116-savage-love-20160831-story.html.json | http://www.trbimg.com/img-57c5e17b/turbine/bcp-083116-savage-love-20160831 | en | null | Savage Love: Client Tell | null | null | www.citypaper.com | I have been seeing sex workers for 30 years, and I shudder to think how shitty my life would have been without them. Some have become friends, but I've appreciated all of them. Negative stereotypes about guys like me are not fair, but sex work does have its problems. Some clients (including females) are difficult—difficult clients aren't typically violent; more often they're inconsiderate and demanding. Clients need to understand that all people have limits and feelings, and money doesn't change that. But what can we clients do to fight stupid, regressive, repressive laws that harm sex workers?
Not A John
You can speak up, NAJ.
The current line from prohibitionists—people who want sex work to remain illegal—is that all women who sell sex are victims and all men who buy sex are monsters. But talk to actual sex workers and you hear about considerate, regular clients who are kind, respectful, and sometimes personally helpful in unexpected ways. (A sex worker friend had a regular client who was a dentist; he did some expensive dental work for my uninsured friend—and he did it for free, not for trade.) You also hear about clients who are threatening or violent—and how laws against sex work make it impossible for them to go to the police, making them more vulnerable to violence, exploitation, and abuse, not less.
There is a large and growing sex workers' rights movement, NAJ, which Emily Bazelon wrote about in a terrific cover story for the New York Times Magazine ("Should Prostitution Be a Crime?" May 5, 2016). Bazelon spoke with scores of sex workers active in the growing and increasingly effective decriminalization movement. Amnesty International recently called for the full decriminalization of sex work, joining Human Rights Watch, the World Health Organization, and other large, mainstream health and human rights groups.
But there's something missing from the movement to decriminalize sex work: clients like you, NAJ.
Maggie McNeill, a sex worker, activist, and writer, wrote a blistering piece on her blog ("The Honest Courtesan") about a recent undercover police operation in Seattle. Scores of men seeking to hire sex workers—the men ranged from surgeons to bus drivers to journalists—were arrested and subjected to ritualized public humiliation designed to discourage other men from paying for sex.
"These crusades do nothing but hurt the most vulnerable individuals on both sides of the transaction," McNeill wrote. "The only way to stop this [is for] all of you clients out there get off of your duffs and fight. Regular clients outnumber full-time whores by at least 60 to 1; gentlemen, I suggest you rethink your current silence, unless you want to be the next one with your name and picture splashed across newspapers, TV screens and websites."
The legal risks and social stigma attached to buying sex doubtless leave some clients feeling like they can't speak up and join the fight, and the much-touted "Nordic Model" is upping the legal stakes for buyers of sex. (The Nordic Model makes buying sex illegal, not selling it. In theory, only clients are supposed to suffer, but in practice, the women are punished, too. Bazelon unpacks the harms of the Nordic Model in her story—please go read it.) But sex workers today, like gays and lesbians not too long ago, are coming out in ever-greater numbers to fight for their rights in the face of potentially dire legal and social consequences.
Clients need to join the fight—or perhaps I should say clients need to rejoin the fight.
In "The Origins of Sex: A History of the First Sexual Revolution," which I read while I was away on vacation, author Faramerz Dabhoiwala writes about "Societies of Virtue" formed all over England in the late 17th century. Adulterers, fornicators, and Sabbath-breakers were persecuted by these groups, NAJ, but their campaigns against prostitutes were particularly vicious and indiscriminate; women were thrown in jail or publicly whipped for the crime of having a "lewd" appearance. The persecution of streetwalkers, brothel owners, and women guilty of "[walking] quietly about the street" went on for decades.
Then a beautiful thing happened.
"In the spring of 1711, a drive against 'loose women and their male followers' in Covent Garden was foiled when 'the constables were dreadfully maimed, and one mortally wounded, by ruffians aided by 40 soldiers of the guards, who entered into a combination to protect the women,'" writes Dabhoiwala. "On another occasion in the East End, a crowd of over a thousand seamen mobbed the local magistrates and forcibly released a group of convicted prostitutes being sent to a house of correction."
Male followers of loose women, soldiers of the guard, mobs of seamen—not altruists, but likely clients of the women they fought to defend. And thanks to their efforts and the efforts of 18th-century sex workers who lawyered up, marched into court, and sued the pants off Society of Virtue members, by the middle of the 18th century, women could walk the streets without being arrested or harassed—even women known to be prostitutes.
I'm not suggesting that today's clients form mobs and attack prohibitionists, cops, prosecutors, and their enablers in the media. But clients can and should be out there speaking up in defense of sex workers and themselves. Sex workers are speaking up and fighting back—on Twitter and other social media platforms, sometimes anonymously, but increasingly under their own names—and they're staring down the stigma, the shame, and the law on their own. It's time for their clients to join them in the fight.
I'm a 26-year-old gay male, and I like to explore my feminine side by wearing female clothes. I have a boyfriend who likes to do the same thing, but he doesn't have the courage to tell his parents that he's gay and explores his feminine side by wearing female clothes. I want to adopt early school-age boys and teach them that they can explore their feminine side by wearing female clothes. My question has two parts. First, in regard to my boyfriend, how can I encourage him to tell his parents he's gay and wants to explore his feminine side by wearing female clothes? Second, in regard to adopting early school-age boys, how do I teach an early school-age boy that it's okay for them to explore their feminine side by wearing female clothes and also teach them that they don't have to be gay at the same time?
Dressing A Future Together | http://www.citypaper.com/news/columns/savage-love/bcp-083116-savage-love-20160831-story.html | en | 2016-08-31T00:00:00 | www.citypaper.com/449b4d8e6da5dc6c91b1b5fdea543cc59de7cf4a476ef6a7a5839a817c1fe58f.json |
[
"Baltimore City Paper",
"Brandon Soderberg"
] | 2016-08-27T20:46:30 | null | 2016-08-27T00:00:00 | null | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.citypaper.com%2Ftopic%2Fweed%2Fthehighlife%2Fbcpnews-the-high-life-what-weed-does-to-the-godfather-20160827-story.html.json | http://www.trbimg.com/img-57c1ee5a/turbine/bcpnews-the-high-life-what-weed-does-to-the-godfather-20160827 | en | null | The High Life: What weed does to 'The Godfather' | null | null | www.citypaper.com | For the most part, the weed hasn't been working this summer. Even endless eighths of A.K. 47, an alarmingly pleasant strain with a sour, plain yogurt-like flavor and a high that really encourages lots of darting around, deep thinking and chatting, can't quite quell my ennui. Mostly this has to do with the mordant state of the country—namely, Trump—and Baltimore and its police, a shining beacon of "wow, y'all aren't even trying": the summer began with BPD bringing riot gear out to a vigil for Lor Scoota and is wrapping up with the damning DOJ report and, um, a secret surveillance program which records Baltimoreans. (Of course, some police are totally trying).
But still, last Sunday night I was smoking a bowl of Hawaiian Purple Kush—a murky mellow strain with a strangely delicious damp basement taste and a blurry underwater-ness to its high—for the umpteenth time this year and watching "The Godfather" for the umpteenth time in my life. The caustic, radically pragmatic cynicism of 1972 American classic helped this high. Plus the movie has a distracted quality in which it totally allows tangents and ugly mug-charming character actors (John Marley! Joe Spinnell! Abe Vigoda! Lenny Montana!) to steal it away for a few moments. It is convivial in that way.
The movie also has a kind of stoney glow to it during its daytime shots and this Rembrandt-y void-gazing darkness to it elsewhere—nice for watching while weeded. And Marlon Brando as extrasensory old-ass Vito Corleone, handling a cat like it's a slinky in the first scene and shuffling around like a mumbling, messy-haired weirdo in chill-out clothes up until he croaks makes him a kind of unofficial, unflappable hero of the high, don't it?
And with some help from the weed, the movie got me giggling. There's a moment where a slow dissolve takes us from a close-up of Marlon Brando's Vito Corleone in bed, post-assassination attempt, to a wide shot of the Sicilian countryside, where Al Pacino's Michael Corleone is hiding out for a while after icing Sollozzo and McCluskey (a cop!) in retaliation for his pops getting popped. The dissolve is a one-quarter clever matching of two images: the pillows behind the Don loosely line up with the mountains of the countryside and a tree lines up closely with the Don's mustache and for a second they all occupy the same space, and so, Brando's a silly face in the sky and his mustache a bunch of greenery. I rewound it a few times and watched it happen again and again, lol-ing.
Then, I took a screenshot of it. Then I tweeted the screenshot with the comment, "my fave part of 'the godfather' is when his mustache turns into a tree." I didn't think much of it. A few hours later, it had scooped up about 200 retweets and nearly 400 likes. About a week later, it's at nearly 3,000 retweets and over 7,000 likes. I don't entirely understand why this happened. I try real hard not to think about why people enjoy the things I put on the internet and just appreciate that they appreciate things. This line of thinking, where we take the internet very seriously until it's inconvenient or it rewards us with a cheap rush of approval we don't totally dig and then hold it at a distance like some data-cruncher is a bummer if you ask me. It's a byproduct of deciding the internet isn't "real" or that, as Virginia Heffernan writes in "Magic and Loss: The Internet as Art," the internet's "glorious illusion" is that it "is life." I disagree with Heffernan on this one at least even if I get her point, because, jeez louise, everything is life, everything is real.
Still, I certainly had more interesting things to point out about "The Godfather" while I was high than "yo dawg, tree mustache lmao." Though I also enjoy kicking at the canon, even when it's a movie I like quite a bit and find deeply moving like this one (Luca Brasi speaking to Vito at the beginning makes me tear up every time), so I tweeted that out, I guess. If any movie could afford to get zinged, it is "The Godfather," right?
Plenty of people got the joke: "#OnePerfectShot," someone tweeted with a smirk; another responded with, "ITS THE CIRCLE OF LIFE," invoking "The Lion King"; another quipped, "directed by david lynch"; City Paper contributor Adam Katzman texted me, "I think that photo captures the liminal space where the tree reflects both the Don's mortality and his role as the Corleone family's roots so maybe the entirety of Twitter was responding to the idea of death and family in Trump's America," then in another text, joked, "I Vox'd it."
Others didn't get the joke. The internet is where all the people that don't get it gather and get loud. Many thought I was making some far less entertaining and way more predictable point about how well-conceived this movie is down to every shot even a dissolve. "Pure genius filmmaking, directors are gods, no other way around it I'm afraid" to quote film culture parodist Kentucker Adler mocking this line of thinking in a vicious video essay on "Powder." And ayo, one dude totally Vox'd me even. He (of course it was a he) tweeted, "Perfect example of the Match Cut" along with a link to the Wikipedia entry for "Match Cut." This match dissolve however, is very, very dumb. It might literally be the only poor aesthetic decision in the whole movie. It signifies very little and even if it "says" this or that, it's silly. The sole misstep in an otherwise rather perfect piece of pop cinema. Jonathan Rosenbaum—who wrote seminal stoner cinema essay, 'What Dope Does To The Movies' by the way—says "The Godfather" is "a generic gangster film with arthouse trimmings" which he intends to be a sick burn I guess, but something that's a little smart and a little dumb is ideal if you ask me, a grown man who reviews pot for money.
Anyways, here are some of the a-little-smart, "The Godfather"-on-weed observations I had last weekend. Namely, how exactly has America fallen in love with this movie yet loathed and perpetually misunderstood street gang culture which operates under the same kind of sturm und drang strategy surrounding retaliatory violence? The answer is obvious—the dual American traditions of racism and cognitive dissonance—but you get my point. | http://www.citypaper.com/topic/weed/thehighlife/bcpnews-the-high-life-what-weed-does-to-the-godfather-20160827-story.html | en | 2016-08-27T00:00:00 | www.citypaper.com/1263913c913619275b3e3108a1af81909204c447e0c2c483e18da0688d895219.json |
[
"Baltimore City Paper",
"Baynard Woods"
] | 2016-08-30T20:47:13 | null | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | null | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.citypaper.com%2Fnews%2Fcolumns%2Fconflicts-of-interest%2Fbcp-083116-confllicts-of-interest-20160830-story.html.json | http://www.trbimg.com/img-57c5ea79/turbine/bcp-083116-confllicts-of-interest-20160830 | en | null | Conflicts Of Interest: The Starr Report | null | null | www.citypaper.com | I was sitting in an interview room on the fifth floor of the Police Headquarters and I was hungover as fuck. Two detectives sat across from me; their lieutenant at my side. I was hungover because my band played the night before and I was in Homicide because T.J. Smith, the public information officer, responded to a tweet asking me to give a statement to detectives.
It started the day before, at the #StopFOP protest at the Hyatt Regency downtown, where the police union, the Fraternal Order of Police, had members from around the state convening for a biennial convention. It was coming just after the Department of Justice released its devastating report about the police department's racial bias, unconstitutional practices, and use of force. This was a couple weeks after Korryn Gaines and her five-year-old son were shot in Randallstown after a six-hour standoff with Baltimore County Police. And just a couple more weeks after all the charges against the officers being tried for the death of Freddie Gray were dropped.
To the protesters, these were more signs that the FOP's union contracts protect bad cops. A few of those protesters were committed enough to chain themselves to hotel stairs and to each other in an act of civil disobedience.
As the action continued and numerous on-duty Baltimore police officers arrived to cut through the protesters' chains and arrest them (for more details about the incident, see Brandon Soderberg's Aug. 15 story), who was doing what became increasingly confusing; on-duty city police mingled among non-uniformed FOP conventioneers. When the BPD's Lt. Clayton and other officers tried to tell one activist, Baltimore Bloc's Payam, to stay back, a tall, muscular, bald man body blocked him and pushed him forward. When these two got into a verbal altercation, Clayton askedPayamif he had business in the hotel. "Okay, now you're trespassing," he said, clearly violating one of the issues brought up in the DOJ report: If you tell someone they are trespassing, you must first give them a chance to leave before arresting them, or you are violating their Fourth Amendment rights.
As Payam was escorted to the elevator, Soderberg filmed a man wearing a yellow FOP Lodge 3 Political Action Committee shirt as he pushed another activist who was trying to get on the elevator. Was he on-duty? He did not seem to be, but he was contributing to the situation in a variety of ways (later on, T.J. Smith confirmed to City Paper that this man, a BPD officer, was not on-duty when this happened). As officers carried away another arrestee, I saw the same man push, or throw—it was hard to tell—another man, Brendan Orsinger, into the wall by the elevator bay. When I asked him who he was, he shot me the bird.
Orsinger was arrested within a few minutes.
This is, at much greater length, what I tweeted, and presumably, what Smith saw. The off-duty officers acting as union activists were making a tense situation much worse and endangering not only activists and innocent civilians but also their on-duty colleagues. So when Smith asked me to give a statement, I said sure, although I was a bit reluctant. I would write what I had to say. But then again, it was a chance to see how these interviews worked.
I told them what happened, basically as I wrote it above, but also, stupidly, agreed that the discussion could be off the record. It was a pleasant conversation, led primarily by Detective Kimberly Starr. When I got home, I decided to Google her and was surprised to discover that she and the FOP Lodge 3 and its president, Gene Ryan, were jointly suing the Police Commissioner and the Baltimore City Police Department about the very same issues the activists were protesting.
At stake, for both the FOP and the protesters, was the civilian access to the internal affairs files of police. Since the FOP is a union whose purpose is to protect its members, investigations into individual officers should be personnel matters and kept from the public, union officials insist. Butprotesters argued that police could not police themselves and needed outside investigation and, or at least, some civilian oversight. (I call them protesters instead of activists here because FOP members are also activists, but with opposing goals).
That could come in two different ways: either through the Civilian Review Board, which is generally considered toothless, or by putting civilians on the stronger Police Trial Board. The protesters called for the latter, arguing that "The FOP systematically attempts to bar community elected citizens from serving on Police Trial Boards [and]… regularly uses political influence to prevent the passage of legislation that would hold police officers accountable for their racist and deadly practices."
An even more forceful solution, according to the protesters, would be to "replace the initial internal investigations of police misconduct and brutality with external investigations" due to investigators' "economic or political ties to the FOP [and] Maryland police departments."
As a body, the FOP is against all of these reforms.
What was unusual here is that Det. Starr herself was personally involved in a lawsuit designed precisely to keep the police department from sharing her own internal affairs records with the Civilian Review Board. So there is considerable overlap—and opposition—between the demands the protesters made at the hotel and those Starr was making in court, even if hers is addressed specifically toward sharing files and aiding the Civilian Review Board, claiming they are precisely the kinds of personnel files exempted by the Maryland Public Information Act.
In a brief filed about a month before the protest, the state's ACLU called Detective Starr's suit against the department an attempt "to shut down any possibility of civilian oversight of police in Maryland."
Starr's entire suit is an attempt to keep the Civilian Review Board from "from investigating in any manner," asserting that the department should "be prohibited from aiding the Civilian Review Board, in any manner, in investigating any FOP Member or Officer."
Starr, it turns out, is or was under investigation herself, although the suit does not say why.
So, is this how it works? The person investigating the misconduct of an off-duty police officer acting as a union activist also is or has been under investigation and is involved as a named party in active litigation with the same body that the off-duty officer was seemingly acting as an activist on behalf of? And the investigator is openly against the very ideas the other activists are promoting. And the ideas at stake are precisely about how these investigations—the very one that she is conducting about what is at stake in the one being conducted on her—go down. It makes my head spin. And somehow she is supposed to be fair? | http://www.citypaper.com/news/columns/conflicts-of-interest/bcp-083116-confllicts-of-interest-20160830-story.html | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | www.citypaper.com/dd3f7c658fea6e0b74f9acbc63849917e193212ac846dd5faa3436e7a44a5f22.json |
[
"Baltimore City Paper"
] | 2016-08-29T18:46:49 | null | 2016-08-29T00:00:00 | null | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.citypaper.com%2Fphotos%2Fbcpnews-wing-dam-record-release-party-in-photos-20160829-photogallery.html.json | http://www.trbimg.com/img-57c47eda/turbine/bcpnews-wing-dam-record-release-party-in-photos-20160829 | en | null | Wing Dam Record Release Party in Photos | null | null | www.citypaper.com | null | http://www.citypaper.com/photos/bcpnews-wing-dam-record-release-party-in-photos-20160829-photogallery.html | en | 2016-08-29T00:00:00 | www.citypaper.com/a67705cf2efe0389456a30c60481d646341db1a4e61229175f9d420d6d33b777.json |
[
"Baltimore City Paper",
"Brandon Weigel"
] | 2016-08-28T14:46:37 | null | 2016-08-28T00:00:00 | null | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.citypaper.com%2Fblogs%2Fthe-news-hole%2Fbcpnews-in-the-current-city-paper-fiction-and-poetry-jake-the-snake-and-more-20160828-story.html.json | http://www.trbimg.com/img-57c2ec09/turbine/bcpnews-in-the-current-city-paper-fiction-and-poetry-jake-the-snake-and-more-20160828 | en | null | In the current City Paper: Fiction and Poetry, Jake 'The Snake' Roberts, and more | null | null | www.citypaper.com | In recent years, our Fiction and Poetry issue has featured a contest that let readers submit their own works. This year we decided to switch things up, inviting local fiction writer Susan Muaddi Darraj to edit and curate this year's selections. In the issue you'll find poems and short stories from published authors here in Baltimore and much, much more. Here's a rundown:
-'The Tour Guide' and 'The Scientist,' by Thea Brown
-'Arab Men I Have Loved in Passing' and 'City Animals,' by Mejdulene B. Shomali
-'Forty Years Later: What I Know' and 'From Bombay to Baltimore,' by Lalita Noronha
-Milestone, by James Magruder
-Napoleonic Poem, by Kim Jensen
-Possessions, by Jen Michalski
-Childhood in the South, by Carla Du Pree
-Ghost Hunters, by Lucas Southworth
-Mother's Dresser, by Rosalia Scalia
-Like Bees Wanting Out the Terrible Hive, by Andria Nacina Cole
-Gunther & Co.'s seasonal menu goes beyond local offerings
-Jake 'The Snake' Roberts turns his baggage into healing performance art
-Staring back at Charlie Parker on Pontella Mason's 'Bebop' | http://www.citypaper.com/blogs/the-news-hole/bcpnews-in-the-current-city-paper-fiction-and-poetry-jake-the-snake-and-more-20160828-story.html | en | 2016-08-28T00:00:00 | www.citypaper.com/628f05de14b769a2f4ecdaf85a801f57bbdace3c2681cc7802a51534c06f58bb.json |
[
"Baltimore City Paper"
] | 2016-08-30T22:47:30 | null | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | null | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.citypaper.com%2Fnews%2Fthisweek%2Fbcpnews-thursday-901-arts-10th-anniversary-fish-fry-fundraiser-20160830-story.html.json | http://www.trbimg.com/img-57c5f22d/turbine/bcpnews-thursday-901-arts-10th-anniversary-fish-fry-fundraiser-20160830 | en | null | Thursday: 901 Arts 10th Anniversary Fish Fry & Fundraiser | null | null | www.citypaper.com | Sept. 1
Election season brings out the worst in people, sure; but it also seems to remind everyone that working within your own community is one of the best ways to actually change things. We're thinking about that as 901 Arts—the grassroots youth arts center in Better Waverly—celebrates its 10 year anniversary. The center, which was started by parents and community members, offers year-round art and music classes (and homework help) with the ultimate ideal that kids who are given a creative outlet will go out into the world with confidence and support. Come out for some good food (vegan options available, too), a silent auction, and raffle to benefit 901 Arts. 5:30-7:30 p.m., 901 Arts, 901 Montpelier St., (410) 366-2252, 901arts.org, $10, children 12 and under $5. (Rebekah Kirkman) | http://www.citypaper.com/news/thisweek/bcpnews-thursday-901-arts-10th-anniversary-fish-fry-fundraiser-20160830-story.html | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | www.citypaper.com/e243af6bf784dcdb7d3a7052a28672539246d951ed95cb4dcadee3be01206a42.json |
[
"Baltimore City Paper",
"Lucas Southworth"
] | 2016-08-26T13:00:10 | null | 2016-08-24T00:00:00 | null | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.citypaper.com%2Fbcp-082416-feature-southworth-fiction-20160824-story.html.json | http://www.trbimg.com/img-57bcf7e0/turbine/bcp-082416-feature-southworth-fiction-20160824 | en | null | Ghost Hunters | null | null | www.citypaper.com | My mother liked to tell us ghost stories at supper. A long time ago, she said, in that yellow
house up the block, a man stumbled down the stairs and broke his neck. She stopped and
cut her asparagus into pieces and paused for a long, painful moment to chew, to wait
until my brother and I were squirming, could barely breathe. Then she said: This was
back when people still had wakes in their homes. So they mourned the dead man there,
and afterword his wife collected the half-burned candles and put them in a drawer. She
told her family to use the same candles at her funeral, in the same arrangement, in the
same upstairs room. Maybe the family couldn't find them ten years later, or maybe they
forgot or never saw the note. Maybe they were too darn busy or they didn't have the time
for what seemed like a trivial little request. A few nights later a neighbor saw flames in
that upstairs window. He rushed to call the fire department. When they arrived, they
found no fire. My mother's sister told us a different story. She drove us to school each
morning, and we had to pass that yellow house, that abandoned house. She held her
breath from it and shielded her eyes and made this strange croaking sound that seemed to
follow us up the block. She said that a slave had once escaped his plantation and snuck
into that house to hide in a room upstairs. It wasn't long before they discovered food
missing from the cupboard, discovered him. Back at the plantation, the overseer punished the slave, burning his legs so badly he couldn't stand for a month and never walked again without a lilt. Later, someone saw fire in that upstairs window. The fire department came.
There was no fire. I told this to a boy on the playground. He scooped a handful of sand
and watched it sift through his fingers. He said two girls had slept there once, in that same
upstairs room. It was winter, a long time ago. The floors creaked and the wind turned
and the girls were scared. Their mother reminded them she would be in the next room,
just on the other side of the wall. If the girls needed her, all they had to do was knock. For
much of the night, the older sister listened to the younger sister sleep. She stared into the
dark, too warm under the blankets, the air too cold outside them. Then she heard the
door open gently and shut gently. Footsteps crossed the floor. A hand combed its fingers
though her hair. The mother woke to sharp knocks on the wall. She lit her lantern,
rushed to next room, and found her daughters but no one else. There were stories in the
paper: A gardener had claimed to see the old wife standing in the parlor, her hands out,
her fists flaming. A real estate agent had heard someone running up and down the stairs
and another thought she could make out moans of hunger. On a website, we found video
from a team of ghost hunters that had stayed there. They had brought a children's piano
with them, and, in the dark, it began playing itself. We got older, we heard more stories,
the house stayed a block away. Once, when I was a kid, I tiptoed into my parent's room
and stood there silently until they woke. My mother led me back to my bed. She
unbuttoned the top button of her nightgown and then buttoned it again. This is the
South, she told me. Not all histories are ghost stories, but all histories are the stories of
ghosts. I nodded. I didn't understand. Not really. Even yesterday, back visiting my
parents, I took a walk and crossed to the other side of the street as I passed the house. I
held my breath like my aunt had done. The upstairs windows were covered as always, boarded, but I searched them for fire anyway, the illusion of fire.
Lucas Southworth's first collection of stories, "Everyone Here Has a Gun," won the Grace Paley Prize. He teaches fiction and screenwriting at Loyola University Maryland. | http://www.citypaper.com/bcp-082416-feature-southworth-fiction-20160824-story.html | en | 2016-08-24T00:00:00 | www.citypaper.com/8c935cc9eded7fcebc8f0bd254f995d2c89a8c86d9a19adadb16cc535bff4ecf.json |
[
"Baltimore City Paper",
"Brandon Weigel"
] | 2016-08-31T14:47:08 | null | 2016-08-31T00:00:00 | null | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.citypaper.com%2Fblogs%2Fthe-news-hole%2Fbcpnews-in-this-week-s-city-paper-the-history-and-future-of-mckeldin-plaza-police-surveillance-and-more-20160831-story.html.json | http://www.trbimg.com/img-57c6e9fe/turbine/bcpnews-in-this-week-s-city-paper-the-history-and-future-of-mckeldin-plaza-police-surveillance-and-more-20160831 | en | null | In this week's City Paper: The history and future of McKeldin Plaza, police surveillance, and more | null | null | www.citypaper.com | The construction crews are already at work on McKeldin Plaza, having already torn down several walking bridges. There is a plan in place to greatly change the design of the original plaza, and to tear down its brutalist centerpiece, the McKeldin Fountain. But the details of what it will be are still murky. Our cover story this week looks at the design choices that influenced how the original McKeldin Plaza functioned, and how some of those are likely going to be undone with the new plan. Here's a rundown:
-A look at how McKeldin Plaza came to be, and the plans to undo it all
-Police see no problem with secret surveillance
-Gorging on comfort food at Breaking Bread
-Carmelo's Way: How Baltimore's Carmelo Anthony found himself and countered critics at the Olympics
-The highlights and lowlights of Fields Festival
-Conflicts Of Interest: The Starr Report
-A Huey Luv Story: HUEY Brand's Larry Luv makes fly shit for dark days
-Baltimore City Power Rankings: Chase Brexton workers, waterways, BPD, more
-Murder Ink 8/31/16: 9 murders this week, 200 murders this year
-Field Tripping: Nostalgia Tripping
-Savage Love: Client Tell | http://www.citypaper.com/blogs/the-news-hole/bcpnews-in-this-week-s-city-paper-the-history-and-future-of-mckeldin-plaza-police-surveillance-and-more-20160831-story.html | en | 2016-08-31T00:00:00 | www.citypaper.com/b9bfbf88b1d1b0b9aaa2a3d535cde5e51d7a2d2c8c5e1d5d0428e7257a0a258d.json |
[
"Baltimore City Paper"
] | 2016-08-30T22:47:21 | null | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | null | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.citypaper.com%2Fnews%2Fthisweek%2Fbcpnews-wednesday-african-drums-and-dance-by-nyame-nti-20160830-story.html.json | http://www.trbimg.com/img-57c5f196/turbine/bcpnews-wednesday-african-drums-and-dance-by-nyame-nti-20160830 | en | null | Wednesday: African Drums and Dance by Nyame Nti | null | null | www.citypaper.com | Sept. 7
7-8 p.m., Mt. Vernon Place, 699 Washington Place, (410) 962-5070, mvpconservancy.org, free.
Have some mid-week fun tonight at this free evening of African drums and dance. The event is put on by Nyame Nti, a group dedicated to better mental health by way of the arts. Come out and shake a tail feather. | http://www.citypaper.com/news/thisweek/bcpnews-wednesday-african-drums-and-dance-by-nyame-nti-20160830-story.html | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | www.citypaper.com/8419dc06255bec6997ea73783f0d54b764671ec61a39d1915ab3a9eccbdec657.json |
[
"Baltimore City Paper"
] | 2016-08-26T13:02:07 | null | 2016-08-24T00:00:00 | null | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.citypaper.com%2Fbcpnews-thursday-maryland-state-fair-20160823-story.html.json | http://www.trbimg.com/img-57bd1ece/turbine/bcpnews-thursday-maryland-state-fair-20160823 | en | null | Thursday: Maryland State Fair | null | null | www.citypaper.com | Aug. 25
Through Sept. 5, Maryland State Fairgrounds, 2200 York Road, Lutherville-Timonium, (410) 252-0200, marylandstatefair.com, $8.
Revel in the great American pastime of eating grease-dripping funnel cake while contemplating which pig is A, the cutest, and B, would make the best bacon. Then see what that funnel cake looks like post-digestion as you ride roller coasters and other questionably-sound contraptions. Really, it’s great. | http://www.citypaper.com/bcpnews-thursday-maryland-state-fair-20160823-story.html | en | 2016-08-24T00:00:00 | www.citypaper.com/db3d166eea73b6021793f0a34abfe6704b6d341b9888967aa9c2ec82ea623a2b.json |
[
"Baltimore City Paper",
"Rob Brezsny"
] | 2016-08-30T20:47:21 | null | 2016-08-31T00:00:00 | null | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.citypaper.com%2Fnews%2Fcolumns%2Ffree-will-astrology%2Fbcp-083116-freewillastrology-20160831-story.html.json | http://www.trbimg.com/img-57c5e08b/turbine/bcp-083116-freewillastrology-20160831 | en | null | Free Will Astrology: 8/31/16 | null | null | www.citypaper.com | ARIES (March 21-April 19): Truth decay is in its early stages. If you take action soon, you can prevent a full-scale decomposition. But be forewarned: Things could get messy, especially if you intervene with the relentless candor and clarity that will be required for medicinal purification. So what do you think? Are you up for the struggle? I understand if you're not. I'll forgive you if you simply flee. But if you decide to work your cagey magic, here are some tips. 1. Compile your evidence with rigor. 2. As much as is humanly possible, put aside rancor. Root your efforts in compassionate objectivity. 3. Even as you dig around in the unsightly facts, cherish the beautiful truths you'd like to replace them with.
TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Are you willing to lose at least some of your inhibitions? Are you curious to find out what it feels like to cavort like a wise wild child? If you want to fully cooperate with life's plans, you will need to consider those courses of action. I am hoping that you'll accept the dare, of course. I suspect you will thrive as you explore the pleasures of playful audacity and whimsical courage and effervescent experiments. So be blithe! Be exuberant! Be open to the hypothesis that opening to jaunty and jovial possibilities is the single most intelligent thing you can do right now.
GEMINI (May 21-June 20): What's the current status of your relationship with your feet? Have you been cultivating and cherishing your connection with the earth below you? The reason I ask, is that right now it's especially important for you to enjoy intimacy with gravity, roots, and foundations. Whatever leads you down and deeper will be a source of good fortune. Feeling grounded will provide you with an aptitude for practical magic. Consider the possibilities of going barefoot, getting a foot massage, or buying a new shoes that are both beautiful and comfortable.
CANCER (June 21-July 22): A woman in the final stages of giving birth may experience acute discomfort. But once her infant spills out into the world, her distress can transform into bliss. I don't foresee quite so dramatic a shift for you. But the transition you undergo could have similar elements: from uncertainty to grace; from agitation to relief; from constriction to spaciousness. To take maximum advantage of this blessing, don't hold onto the state you're leaving behind—or the feelings it aroused in you.
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): In one of my dreams last night, a Leo sensualist I know advised me to take smart pills and eat an entire chocolate cheesecake before writing my next Leo horoscope. In another dream, my Leo friend Erica suggested that I compose your horoscope while attending an orgy where all the participants were brilliant physicists, musicians, and poets. In a third dream, my old teacher Rudolf (also a Leo) said I should create the Leo horoscope as I sunbathed on a beach in Maui while being massaged by two sexy geniuses. Here's how I interpret my dreams: In the coming days, you can literally increase your intelligence by indulging in luxurious comforts and sensory delights.
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Play a joke on your nervous anxiety. Leap off the ground or whirl in a circle five times as you shout, "I am made of love!" Learn the words and melody to a new song that lifts your mood whenever you sing it. Visualize yourself going on an adventure that will amplify your courage and surprise your heart. Make a bold promise to yourself, and acquire an evocative object that will symbolize your intention to fulfill that promise. Ask yourself a soul-shaking question you haven't been wise enough to investigate before now. Go to a wide-open space, spread your arms out in a greeting to the sky, and pray for a vision of your next big goal.
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): The Illuminati do not want you to receive the prophecy I have prepared for you. Nor do the Overlords of the New World Order, the Church of the SubGenius, the Fake God that masquerades as the Real God, or the nagging little voice in the back of your head. So why am I going ahead and divulging this oracle anyway? Because I love you. My loyalty is to you, not those shadowy powers. Therefore, I am pleased to inform you that the coming weeks will be a favorable time for you to evade, ignore, undermine, or rebel against controlling influences that aren't in alignment with your soul's goals.
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): The dictionary says that the verb "to schmooze" means to chat with people in order to promote oneself or make a social connection that may prove to be advantageous. But that definition puts a selfish spin on an activity that can, at least sometimes, be carried out with artful integrity. Your assignment in the coming weeks is to perform this noble version of schmoozing. If you are offering a product or service that is beautiful or useful or both, I hope you will boost its presence and influence with the power of your good listening skills and smart conversations.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): If you are attuned with the cosmic rhythms in the coming weeks, you will be a source of teaching and leadership. Allies will feel fertilized by your creative vigor. You'll stimulate team spirit with your savvy appeals to group solidarity. If anyone can revive droopy procrastinators and demonstrate the catalytic power of gratitude, it'll be you. Have you heard enough good news, or can you absorb more? I expect that you'll inspire interesting expressions of harmony that will replace contrived versions of togetherness. And every blessing you bestow will expand your capacity for attracting favors you can really use.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): The fictional character known as Superman has one prominent vulnerability: the mineral kryptonite. When he's near this stuff, it weakens his superpowers and may cause other problems. I think we all have our own versions of kryptonite, even if they're metaphorical. For instance, my own superpowers tend to decline when I come into the presence of bad architecture, cheesy poetry, and off-pitch singing. How about you? What's your version of kryptonite? Whatever it is, I'm happy to let you know that you are currently less susceptible to its debilitating influences than usual. Why? Well, you have a sixth sense about how to avoid it. And even if it does draw near, you have in your repertoire some new tricks to keep it from sapping your strength.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): It's quite possible you will receive seductive proposals in the coming weeks. You may also be invited to join your fortunes with potential collaborators who have almost fully awakened to your charms. I won't be surprised if you receive requests to share your talents, offer your advice, or bestow your largesse. You're a hot prospect, my dear. You're an attractive candidate. You appear to be ripe for the plucking. How should you respond? My advice is to be flattered and gratified, but also discerning. Just because an inquiry is exciting doesn't mean it's good for you. Choose carefully. | http://www.citypaper.com/news/columns/free-will-astrology/bcp-083116-freewillastrology-20160831-story.html | en | 2016-08-31T00:00:00 | www.citypaper.com/017d8725e2ec14e1a6edd1442bbe280fb22ddc5c401bb6373415a08e4d50bb53.json |
[
"Baltimore City Paper"
] | 2016-08-30T22:47:29 | null | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | null | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.citypaper.com%2Fnews%2Fthisweek%2Fbcpnews-thursday-the-art-rising-open-mic-3-20160830-story.html.json | http://www.trbimg.com/img-57c5efd1/turbine/bcpnews-thursday-the-art-rising-open-mic-3-20160830 | en | null | Thursday: The Art Rising Open Mic 3 | null | null | www.citypaper.com | Sept. 1
8-11 p.m., Impact Hub, 10 E. North Ave., (443) 821-7482, baltimore.impacthub.net, $5 before 8:30 p.m., $10 after.
Mark the first day of September at this open mic hosted by Chin-Yer Wright of the Baltimore Scene Art Movement and Kenneth Morrison of art activism organization Dewmore Baltimore, featuring art vendors and music compliments of DJ Smallwood. If you’re so inclined, you can even bring out your own talent. | http://www.citypaper.com/news/thisweek/bcpnews-thursday-the-art-rising-open-mic-3-20160830-story.html | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | www.citypaper.com/8cb314a3a730d3368b99943476e571d8cf1714c0ca6d837df9b1d63446f53312.json |
[
"Baltimore City Paper",
"Mary Zajac"
] | 2016-08-26T12:54:35 | null | 2016-08-24T00:00:00 | null | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.citypaper.com%2Fbcp-082416-eats-gunther-20160824-story.html.json | http://www.trbimg.com/img-57bcf446/turbine/bcp-082416-eats-gunther-20160824 | en | null | Gunther & Co.'s seasonal menu goes beyond local offerings | null | null | www.citypaper.com | Judging by Gunther & Co.'s (3650 Toone St., [443] 869-6874, eatgunther.com) Instagram account, there are three things people already love about the three-month-old Brewer's Hill restaurant: cleverly named cocktails (a Meet the Beet-alls or a Rye'n Gosling, anyone?), oysters all ways, and the 16-foot high, staggeringly lush living wall of plants that anchors the east end of the equally dramatic dining room like a textured wallpaper gone au naturel.
It really is nearly impossible to talk about Gunther & Co. without talking about the dramatic renovation of what was once the Gunther Brewery (previously covered in this paper). In a nutshell, owners Jerry Trice, who is also executive chef, and Nancy Hart, also director of operations, fell in love with the historic site, which had stood vacant since the late 1970's. Over the course of nine months, they re-imagined 7,600 square feet of space, creating a raw bar and banquettes, an open kitchen that stretches on forever, private dining on the mezzanine level, and the living wall. Décor-wise, it's a post-industrial, east-side second cousin to Cosima or Woodberry Kitchen.
Menu-wise, Gunther & Co.'s scope is broader than either of those restaurants, roughly adhering to seasonality, but not beholden to strictly local offerings. The result is a poker hand's worth of menus, which can be a little bewildering when they're laid out on the table before you. One sheet is a wine list, which admirably ranges across appellations and price points. Another sheet, lists small plates and sandwiches on one side and cocktails on the opposite. The final sheet is the dinner menu, a slightly more formal array of appetizers and entrees with by the glass beer and wine offerings on its opposite side.
Ultimately, though, the passing confusion is worth it, given the range of dishes. A heady cloud of aromatics rises from the earthenware dish of wood oven roasted oysters ($13). Balanced on a bed of fennel stems and fronds, the oysters become little velvety, briny pillows poised to explode with one bite. Heat also brings out both the flavor and the sweetness of ripe peaches (dubbed Peaches-N-Herbs, $12), grilled so the edges are caramelized and dressed with saba, pistachios, and a sprinkle of basil and dill. A garnish of blue-cheddar adds a welcome savory to the sweet, and the kitchen riffs on the same concept in the feta and watermelon salad ($13), where prosciutto and almonds turn summer's favorite picnic fruit into the star of a sophisticated mixture of salty and sweet, crunch and silky fat.
Balance is also the key to a plate of tea-smoked duck breast ($26)—all subtle smokiness, with just the right amount of earthiness from the addition of olives and crispy-edged grilled oyster mushrooms. The portion is generous, as is the kitchen's robust version of steak frites ($28), served with mounds of garlicky Swiss chard and excellent fries. It is a surprise then, that the Thai seafood hot pot ($25) should leave me wanting more, both because the coconut curry broth is addictive and because a few more mussels or a larger piece of rockfish would not go amiss.
If there is one drawback to Gunther & Co.—and it's a biggie—it's service. Despite a warm and almost courtly welcome by host, the rest of the evening, service-wise, was a struggle. More than once our server wandered off, creating long, empty stretches of waiting to place an order for drinks, waiting for the drinks themselves, and waiting for appetizers and entrees. At several points, a different server checked in with us and facilitated our order, while our original server sauntered over a while later with no explanation of the turtle's pace of the meal. Perhaps the most surprising incident came duringdessert, when several of us questioned the freshness of the whipped crème fraiche accompanying an otherwise lovely chocolate pave ($8). Crème fraiche is normally rich and slightly tart, but this tasted metallic, fizzy, and off. There was no bone to pick; no dessert to send back. We impressed that we did not want the charge to be removed from the menu. No one felt ill. But we did ask the server to check with the kitchen to make sure the garnish was what it was supposed to be, so that in case it was not right, the kitchen would know. Instead, he resisted with a long list of explanations. At the end of a very long evening (just over two hours from start to finish), this was not the diplomatic response.
In an old jingle, Gunther Beer touted itself as "the happiest tasting beer today." That the old brewery is once again putting out a tasty product is a real treat. With a few tweaks, you could find real happiness there.
Gunther & Co. is open for lunch, dinner, and late-night dining Monday-Saturday; and for brunch and supper on Sunday. | http://www.citypaper.com/bcp-082416-eats-gunther-20160824-story.html | en | 2016-08-24T00:00:00 | www.citypaper.com/82d47ade44a816d9a2938c4906e2c2b3bb32ef37925ee4c7518ff696b1a7b0bd.json |
[
"Baltimore City Paper",
"Rosalia Scalia"
] | 2016-08-26T12:49:15 | null | 2016-08-24T00:00:00 | null | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.citypaper.com%2Fbcp-082416-fiction-scalia-mothers-dresser-20160824-story.html.json | http://www.trbimg.com/img-57bcf1f1/turbine/bcp-082416-fiction-scalia-mothers-dresser-20160824 | en | null | Mother's Dresser | null | null | www.citypaper.com | In the evening, after dinner, the grownups drink espresso laced with Sambuca or anisette, the aromas of licorice, of anise, of coffee rising up like extended fingers and mingling with whiffs of garlic, tomato, and basil, remnants of the now finished dinner. The guest declines the espresso and instead wants the Sambuca as a shot—"with the fly"—three coffee beans anchored at the bottom of the glass, the Holy Trinity of health, happiness, and prosperity.
Chin-chin, they say, toasting with demitasse cups and shot glasses, lifting them high above the table, giddy with relief that among them is a newly minted citizen of their new country.
Chin-chin, they toast the guest, a lawyer who helped them file the correct papers.
They stuff cannoli with sweetened ricotta cheese dotted with chocolate chips, and their rough, calloused hands pass them around on pure white, fine bone china with gold rims and hand-painted peonies. The women cut wide circles in the centers of cakes, one a giant rum cake, shiny with thin, sugary icing, so that the slices, layered with vanilla and chocolate cream and flavored with real dark rum, will be even. The men cut and light cigars. Spoons and forks clink against the delicate, hand-painted peonies as they reprise the journey to the exalted summit of citizenship, their words bouncing back and forth between their old and new tongues, words reverberating through the home like racing soap bubbles.
None of them—extended family and one honored guest—notice two tiny girls, in their special, matching dress-up dresses and shiny, black, patent-leather shoes over lacy, white ankle socks, slip out of the kitchen. They run to the bedroom, where the mother's dresser sits against the wall between two lace-curtained windows. The almost twins in polka dots and bows, lace and ribbons, hold hands as they gaze at two statues atop the dresser. The statue of the lady in the blue gown with extended arms beckons the girls with her serene smile. Under the blue gown the lady's bare foot treads on a brown snake as she balances with both on a blue and brown half-circle. Next to her an even more intriguing boy with golden hair stands by himself, his child head topped with a large, golden crown. He wears an astonishing silk, white cape with a fur border. Longing to touch them, the awestruck girls stare at the lady and the boy, unaware that their own small faces and polka-dotted dresses are reflected in the dresser's polished sheen.
In the kitchen the grownups' laughter sounds far away and does not disturb the silence of the bedroom. Together four small hands pull open the dresser's bottom drawer. Four small patent-leather shoe-clad feet climb onto the open drawer's ridge, where they stand close enough to extend their short arms, stretching their fingers toward the statues, trying to touch the beautiful lady and the crowned boy.
They fail.
Each clutching the dresser's top edge for purchase with one hand, they reach with the other for the lady and the boy, except with their combined weight, both statues slide slowly and then quickly toward them. The dresser pitches forward, toppling over and hitting the floor with an explosion, its drawers escaping in all directions, silk, lace, pressed linen, and cotton flung wide. With a bang that rivals thunder, the dresser delivers the lady and the boy to the girls. The lady flies into the arms of one girl but she's too heavy, and the girl watches the lady roll sideways over her patent leather shoes, surviving the fall with a chipped nose and scratched gown. The boy with the shiny crown rushes past the other girl, soaring like Icarus for a half a second before he plummets, smashing into pieces on the hardwood floor, only his silk and fur cape still intact.
All of the adults—extended family members and one guest—burst into the bedroom, talking at once with old and new world words. They survey the damage, snatch both girls, now crying, from the wreckage, and thank God in two languages for a tragedy averted, for a minor miracle that the fallen dresser did not crush the girls under its solid wooden weight. The grandmother sweeps the pieces of the shattered statue of the boy into a dust pan, the pieces clinking as they tumble into the trash can. The girls know that after the guest leaves, they're in trouble, not understanding they're the real jewels.
Rosalia Scalia's fiction has appeared or is forthcoming in "The Oklahoma Review," "North Atlantic Review," "Notre Dame Review," "The Portland Review," and "Quercus Review," among many others. She holds an MA in writing from Johns Hopkins University and is a Maryland State Arts Council Independent Artist's Award recipient. | http://www.citypaper.com/bcp-082416-fiction-scalia-mothers-dresser-20160824-story.html | en | 2016-08-24T00:00:00 | www.citypaper.com/5a0717d97e660c4c2676c2f6e02093db86259c5f7a8677d5d6e79c7bfe1e162d.json |
[
"Baltimore City Paper"
] | 2016-08-30T22:47:19 | null | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | null | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.citypaper.com%2Fnews%2Fthisweek%2Fbcpnews-saturday-9th-annual-diy-fest-20160830-story.html.json | http://www.trbimg.com/img-57c5f2c2/turbine/bcpnews-saturday-9th-annual-diy-fest-20160830 | en | null | Saturday: 9th Annual DIY Fest | null | null | www.citypaper.com | Sept. 3
Before you buy that $30 eyeshadow palette or $15 artisinal jam, know that you can make these and much more on your own. Also, stop spending $300 dollars on a week's worth of groceries at Whole Foods, for fucks sake. Baltimore is host to many experts on living cheaply and making your own stuff, so take a day to learn how to eat healthy on a budget, make your own makeup, can your own food, grow your own mushrooms, even make your own games and train your own dumb dog. All of these workshops and many more are held at this year's DIY Fest along with tons of craft and zine vendors. Everything—except surgery—is much more satisfying with you do it yourself. Noon-6 p.m., Space 2640, 2640 St. Paul St., diyfest.org, free. (Maura Callahan) | http://www.citypaper.com/news/thisweek/bcpnews-saturday-9th-annual-diy-fest-20160830-story.html | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | www.citypaper.com/7b7e1a12cfc482d042c9cbf74fcbdcb4d23101de89250032a16610acc9c01dda.json |
[
"Baltimore City Paper",
"Kim Jensen"
] | 2016-08-26T12:51:23 | null | 2016-08-24T00:00:00 | null | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.citypaper.com%2Fbcp-082416-feature-jenson-napoleanic-poem-20160824-story.html.json | http://www.trbimg.com/img-57bcfca4/turbine/bcp-082416-feature-jenson-napoleanic-poem-20160824 | en | null | Napoleonic Poem | null | null | www.citypaper.com | It can happen that one night
you find yourself skiing through a pedestrian mall
in the middle of Paris
as snow falls on the glass roof
—a luminous parasol
above the Champs-Élysées.
And it can happen
that you wake up and find yourself
in Baltimore
and you'll remember
the five kids cut down this week
all within a few minutes of your street.
Two teens who fought
then shot.
A high school sophomore pistol-whipped
at a bus stop.
Three children of a man, mad at his ex—
drowned in a bathtub
one after the next
at the Marriott
of the Inner Harbor
—our shrine of progress
our flotilla of diversions-an armada of Sunday pleasures
where we grab a snack and plant a buck
in the outstretched hat
of the juggling clowns—the Peruvian musical duo
El Condor Pasa echoes above choppy waves
toward the water taxi parades.
And we love
an urban place to walk
with lots of urban shops
and lots of cops.
And the skyline amplifies the sad whispers of an ordinary night-
the sugary neon signs of EMPIRE. Empire...
and it's only missing one piece
the Arch of Triumph
presiding over the Western end of Pratt.
On it we'll inscribe the names of the Generals and the Titans
who made it all possible
and beneath it we'll entomb the unknown soldier
from the Napoleonic wars
of Baltimore.
Kim Jensen (www.kimjensen.org) is a Baltimore-based writer, poet, activist, and educator. Her books include a novel, "The Woman I Left Behind" and two collections of poems, "Bread Alone" and "The Only Thing that Matters". | http://www.citypaper.com/bcp-082416-feature-jenson-napoleanic-poem-20160824-story.html | en | 2016-08-24T00:00:00 | www.citypaper.com/5b0a9a5f66d4ba95a6a10e0c36b28ee41614684a07c62e04453ad0b6fc7ccf81.json |
[
"Baltimore City Paper"
] | 2016-08-26T12:59:45 | null | 2016-08-24T00:00:00 | null | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.citypaper.com%2Fbcpnews-wednesday-soil-matters-a-symposium-on-urban-soils-20160823-story.html.json | http://www.trbimg.com/img-57bd1e98/turbine/bcpnews-wednesday-soil-matters-a-symposium-on-urban-soils-20160823 | en | null | Wednesday: Soil Matters: A Symposium on Urban Soils | null | null | www.citypaper.com | Aug. 24
6-8 p.m., Parks & People Foundation, 2100 Liberty Heights Ave., (410) 448-5663, parksandpeople.org, free (RSVP to community.greening@parksandpeople.org).
Gardening in the city isn’t easy. Unpaved space is scarce, and often the soil has been contaminated by hazardous chemicals. But with the know-how, it’s possible to create sustainable food sources from the ground up. Learn the basics of urban soils, composting, nutrient management, and more so you can start your own micro-farm. | http://www.citypaper.com/bcpnews-wednesday-soil-matters-a-symposium-on-urban-soils-20160823-story.html | en | 2016-08-24T00:00:00 | www.citypaper.com/e6d2e2594c6f936912bbd765822bdbc1c8a760c4b49dc78a32e67ed5f9445f66.json |
[
"Baltimore City Paper"
] | 2016-08-26T12:58:18 | null | 2016-08-24T00:00:00 | null | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.citypaper.com%2Fbcpnews-friday-apocalypse-20160823-story.html.json | http://www.trbimg.com/img-57bd1efe/turbine/bcpnews-friday-apocalypse-20160823 | en | null | Friday: Apocalypse | null | null | www.citypaper.com | Aug. 26
9 p.m., The Paradox, 1310 Russell St., (410) 837-9110, thedox.com, $20-$25.
A while back, The Paradox—the legendary club responsible for nurturing Baltimore club music for 25 years—announced it would be closing its doors to make way for the new Hammerjack’s venue. So there was a closing party months ago, but then demolition stalled. But tonight’s aptly named party—DJ’d by Australian rockers Pendulum and many others—kicks off what is currently scheduled as the final weekend for the Paradox. Dance the night away, go home and rest it off, and then come back on Saturday for the ultimate, for-real-this-time final blowout hosted by Ultra Naté. | http://www.citypaper.com/bcpnews-friday-apocalypse-20160823-story.html | en | 2016-08-24T00:00:00 | www.citypaper.com/20e0b846a124c45e4a8199b92af296b510100880401b920655a43ad28904022e.json |
[
"Baltimore City Paper",
"Maura Callahan"
] | 2016-08-30T20:47:22 | null | 2016-08-31T00:00:00 | null | http%3A%2F%2Fwww.citypaper.com%2Feat%2Fbcp-083116-eats-breakingbread-20160831-story.html.json | http://www.trbimg.com/img-57c5e8af/turbine/bcp-083116-eats-breakingbread-20160831 | en | null | Gorging on comfort food at Breaking Bread | null | null | www.citypaper.com | Returning from three days of camping at Fields Fest, I needed some serious hangover food. Not for a booze-induced hangover per say (though that was certainly part of it), but more like the in-need-of-relief-from-living-off-Cheez-Its-and-dried-salami-and-getting-four-hours-of-sleep-a-night kind of fatigue. So, clearly, I needed a burger. Make that a burger with fries and wings and whatever else I can manage.
Opened on Pigtown's Main Street last year, Breaking Bread (771 Washington Boulevard, [443] 708-1903, breakingbreadllc.com) boasts chef Kimberly Ellis' handcrafted burgers, wings, and other comfort dishes in a casual spot co-owned with her husband.
The door opens to a Roman column flanked by a table presenting a bowl of mints and an armored knight figurine draped with a black and orange boa. African masks and paintings adorn a cherry red painted brick wall. Against another wall are old-school quarter machines vending Skittles and Mike and Ikes. By the kitchen door, a large chalkboard lists the day's specials (including a soup of the day) in colorful script. There's a lot going on here, but somehow it feels understated and unified.
The restaurant also offers a kids' menu, breakfast, catering, takeout, and delivery—a total package, minus a liquor license. There is a bar, but not for ordering drinks, though you can bring your own for a $2 corkage fee. Instead, diners can peek into the kitchen to watch beef get sculpted into burgers or chat with the affable servers and Ellis herself. I've been going to Breaking Bread with my mom, a Pigtown resident, and she and Ellis have bonded over being mothers of four. The setup here is ideal for solo diners who find themselves craving a snack but don't want to take up a table.
And if you're not here for a burger, you're here for snacks. Ellis' "famous" stickywings are deserving of their title: the meat falls cleanly off the bone, the skin crackles under each bite, remaining crispy beneath the thick coat of mildly spicy honey sauce. The wings come in six-piece ($8.99), twelve-piece ($14.99), and eighteen-piece ($19.99) plates, all topped with cilantro and scallions and served with plenty and very necessary hand wipes. Confession; I am not normally of a huge fan of wings—I'd rather indulge in red meat, I'd rather not deal with the work and mess if they're going to be just OK, etc.—but I make an exception here, and I look forward to trying the various "soon to be famous" wings, which can be served naked or with hot honey, BBQ, jerk, or buffalo sauces.
Also pleasantly messy and aptly named are the "awesome fries" ($7.99), a plate of french fries topped with pulled, slow-cooked barbecue beef, sour cream, cheddar cheese, and scallions. The beef is impeccably tender, spicy and sweet. I would easily enjoy the beef on its own, but I can't complain when fries are in the picture. The fries are solid—thick and crispy with just the right amount of salt.
Each time I've dined at Breaking Bread has been on a Tuesday, when the restaurant offers "BOGO" (buy one get one) half off burgers. The first time, I ordered the black & bleu ($10.99): a blackened burger topped with bleu cheese. Often, blackened burgers come out dry and overcooked on the inside, but here, the inside of the burger was still juicy while the exterior was crisp and smoky. On my second visit, however, I got the All American burger ($9.99), a 1/3 lb. patty topped with red onion, American cheese, and chipotle aioli, and found it to be slightly overcooked for a "medium" request—I also couldn't taste the aioli—and my friend found her mushroom swiss burger ($13.99; the burger special of the day), ordered medium rare, to be totally absent of pink. Despite missteps in grilling to order, the meat is rich and fresh—never frozen, and it shows.
Also on the burger menu are the standard cheeseburger ($10.99), bacon cheeseburger ($11.49), and a turkey burger ($10.99) served with pineapple-habanero salsa and pepper jack. As stated above, I always go with red meat—health be damned—but for what it's worth, Mom reports that the turkey burger is a winner. All burgers come topped with colby-jack, American, swiss, or cheddar, plus lettuce and tomato, or to order. The buns are buttery enough to warrant more hand wipes—not a bad thing at all—and come with chips, which are interchangeable with french fries or sweet potato fries for an additional charge. On my most recent visit, the server also offered garlic Parmesan fries, which we enjoyed along with a serving of flavorful sweet potato fries.
The welcoming and familiar service gives the sense that you're dining at a friend's house. Our server frequently laughed with us and even serenaded another diner—quite well, I might add—for her birthday. He pulled up a stool to their table and just started singing, low and warm. Normally, singing wait staff brings nothing more than secondhand embarrassment, but here it seemed organic and felt anything but irritating.
I enjoy dining with my mother in part because our genes (and our jeans, as she pointed out) allow us to pack away a lot of food. So a plate of wings and two burgers and fries later, we are somehow ready for more. Ellis' desserts vary by day; usually there's an elegant cupcake arrangement at the bar. On this particular visit we ordered the bread pudding ($5)—probably the best I've ever had. Served in a shareable but not overwhelming portion, the pudding soaks up a rich bourbon sauce topped with whipped cream. Even if I hadn't any more room in my belly, I would still order this, and if I collapsed or vomited from overeating it would be kinda worth it. Isn't that what dessert—and American dining—is about?
Breaking Bread is closed on Monday and open for lunch and dinner Tuesday-Thursday; lunch, dinner, and late night dining on Friday and Saturday; and brunch and lunch on Sunday. | http://www.citypaper.com/eat/bcp-083116-eats-breakingbread-20160831-story.html | en | 2016-08-31T00:00:00 | www.citypaper.com/af7d96c15c2ada4bdfb3cf93ee07bb62b1b5cd6151b8d209713a71b274bb0f12.json |
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