Good morning, fellow Reginans! I’m back from a short trip to tropical Winnipeg, Manitoba, a Prairie city that’s a mere 573 kilometre drive from our fair town. Things I saw there include: the crumbling new stadium, a bunny, my dad, people who are enraged by provincial PC government plans to close half the city’s emergency rooms (!!!) and the Bridge Drive-In, Canada’s most awesome ice cream stand. I haven’t paid attention to the news in a week. How are things going? Really? Uh oh.
1. STALKED IN REGINA Local women share their awful experiences.
2. BIG COUNCIL MEETING TONIGHT The topic: city budget 2.0. Paul Dechene wrote a thing earlier. Go read it.
3. POT LEGALIZATION: YOU’LL ALWAYS HAVE YOUR CONVICTIONS Marijuana should never have been illegal but the federal liberals have no plans for amnesties in their pot legalization legislation.
4. UNSTABLE, WARMONGERING, THERMONUCLEAR DICK-MEASURING TWITS South Korea is reacting badly to American threats about nuclear weapon tests.
5. CONTINENTAL-SCALE REARRANGEMENT Global warming made a Canadian river disappear almost overnight (well, four nights). Can you imagine living by river that suddenly vanishes? What if you were a farmer, or a vacation lodge owner? What if the river fed a drinking water supply? Scary stuff.
6. BRITISH PM CALLS SNAP ELECTION, WON’T DO TV DEBATES The BBC has “five things you need to know”.
7. “LET’S CHANGE THE CONSTITUTION AND GIVE THE SKETCHY LEADER MORE POWER, WHEEEE!”: TURKEY I guess 51.3% of Turks are dolts.
8. ONE BEAVER TO RULE THE COWS 150 cattle followed a beaver around. Weird.
HEY!!!!! SUPPORT ALTERNATIVE MEDIA!!!!! For all its mediocre NHL teams, refitted libraries and delicious Goog Specials, one thing Winnipeg doesn’t have? A free alternative newspaper like Prairie Dog. In fact, most Canadian cities outside of Vancouver, Toronto and Halifax don’t have an alt paper. Even supposedly urbane Calgary lost its alt a couple of years ago. It’s true that some people (mostly conservatives) might suggest the era of these papers has ended, but ya know, judging from the state of Saskatchewan, Canada and world (see above), I humbly suggest it’s a good idea to support a newspaper like ours that supports supposedly “outdated” (or so conservative types would have you believe) concepts like unions, public ownership, health care, abortion access, etc. You can learn more here.
EQUALITY IS A MARATHON The Boston Marathon used to be dude-only. It’s hard to imagine, but it’s true: it was only 50 years ago that a woman first ran it (and it was another five years before they were officially allowed to enter). Here’s a short video about this hero, featuring pics of the deranged nobody who tried to stop her.
