News

Dale Woodard Lethbridge Herald Small businesses in Alberta are being offered a helping hand. As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to hinder small businesses, the province is offering supports to help owners through a tough time with additional pandemic support through a new financial relief program, the Enhanced COVID-19 Business Benefit, beginning in April. The Enhanced COVID-19 Business Benefit provides [...] Read More »

Tim Kalinowski Lethbridge Herald tkalinowski@lethbridgeherald.com Blood Tribe members are calling for the reform of the current electoral system after about 300 people were not allowed to vote in the municipal election at the Lethbridge polling station back in November. A separate problem happened in Calgary when the location of the vote was changed the day [...] Read More »

Andrea Bourque-White, Library Assistant, Lethbridge Public Library People have been eating versions of pizza for centuries. What we know as pizza can be traced back to late 18th century Naples, Italy, but it wasn’t a family favourite like it is today. So, how did pizza become one of the world’s most popular foods? Back in [...] Read More »

Many people no longer attend religious services. According to the sociologists, this percentage of people is increasing as the years go by. While many who are active in religious groups decry this trend, others of us want to warn “Be careful before you assume that we’ve rejected all sense of the Great Mystery!” I’m one [...] Read More »

Are you thinking of using cannabis? Are you already using? Cannabis is a psychoactive substance that has many short- and long-term health risks including: impairment, memory issues, mental health problems, lung damage and risk of dependency and cannabis use disorder. If you are using, ensure that you read the product labels. Know what and how [...] Read More »

Tim Kalinowski Lethbridge Herald tkalinowski@lethbridgeherald.com With a few minor tweaks based on the feedback received from parents, the Lethbridge School Division Board of Trustees approved most of the boundary changes previously proposed during Tuesday’s meeting. Board chair Christine Light said she and her fellow trustees realize these changes would be hard for some parents, but [...] Read More »

Delon Shurtz Lethbridge Herald dshurtz@lethbridgeherald.com A Fort Vermillion man who was expected to resolve dozens of criminal charges, but then fired his second lawyer late last year, is still hoping to resolve his matters without having to stand trial. During a brief hearing Tuesday in Lethbridge provincial court, lawyer number three, Ingrid Hess, said she [...] Read More »

Cole Parkinson Southern Alberta Newspapers It would be hard to find anyone who did find a new set of challenges throughout the year 2020, and Mayor Andrew Prokop counts himself among those people. With the vast majority of the year dominated by the COVID-19 pandemic, Prokop reflected on the strange year that provided plenty of [...] Read More »

LETHBRIDGE HERALDdshurtz@lethbridgeherald.com Trying to take on three police officers at the same time didn’t turn out well for a 43-year-old Lethbridge man. Daniel Edward Collier was a passenger in a motor vehicle that was stopped by police last month, after police noticed the vehicle had a burned out taillight and licence plate light. The officer [...] Read More »

LETHBRIDGE HERALDtkalinowski@lethbridgeherald.com City council voted to reject a motion from its Community Safety Standing Policy Committee which would have allowed the City’s current Temporary Face-covering Bylaw to expire on Tuesday as previously planned, and instead voted to extend the bylaw until at least April 30. As chair of SPC, Coun. Ryan Parker brought the committee [...] Read More »

OTTAWA – Public Safety Minister Bill Blair says he assumes security authorities signed off on an arrangement to allow a company owned by a Chinese police force to run Canada’s visa application centre in Beijing. Blair says he can only make assumptions because the arrangement was put in place in 2008, under the previous Conservative [...] Read More »

OTTAWA – The Canadian Judicial Council says a Quebec judge has resigned after the Supreme Court of Canada declined to hear his appeal. Supreme Court Chief Justice Richard Wagner says Michel Girouard’s decision to step down from the Quebec Superior Court “narrowly avoids his removal from office by Parliament.” A 2012 complaint alleged that Girouard, [...] Read More »

PORT HAWKESBURY, N.S. – A former Canadian soldier who killed three family members and himself in 2017 received sporadic mental health treatment immediately after he left the military in 2015, a fatality inquiry heard Thursday. The provincial inquiry in Nova Scotia learned the Canadian Armed Forces had arranged for therapy to continue for Lionel Desmond [...] Read More »

OTTAWA – A British Columbia businessman who made an illegal contribution to New Democrat MP Peter Julian’s 2015 election campaign has been ordered to pay $7,500 to the receiver general of Canada. Elections commissioner Yves Côté says Robert Gibbs, co-owner of Romar Communications, provided free website development services to Julian’s campaign. Gibbs told Julian’s campaign [...] Read More »

An agreement to delay logging of an old-growth stand of British Columbia forest is giving a one-year reprieve to one of Canada’s most endangered species. Just a tiny handful of spotted owls remain in the Canadian wild, with some estimates putting the number as low as three. B.C., the federal government and a First Nation [...] Read More »

CALGARY – A judge has sentenced a man with a benign brain tumour, who lost consciousness while driving and killed a Calgary woman, to 27 months in prison. James Beagrie, 48, was originally charged with criminal negligence causing death after his truck hit Anjna Sharma, a mother of three, who had been on a walk [...] Read More »

CALGARY – A man who killed and dismembered his father has been sentenced to life in prison with no chance at parole for 15 years. A jury found Zaineddin Al Aalak guilty in December of second-degree murder in the death of 53-year-old Mohamed Al Aalak. He was also convicted of offering an indignity to the [...] Read More »

CALGARY – Pembina Pipeline Corp. is reporting a $1.2 billion net fourth-quarter loss thanks mainly to $1.6 billion in non-cash after-tax impairment charges on its proposals to build an Alberta petrochemical plant and Oregon LNG export facility. The Calgary-based company said in December it and joint venture partner Petrochemical Industries Co. of Kuwait had decided [...] Read More »

EDMONTON – An Edmonton Police Service officer has been charged with sexual assault. Alberta’s police watchdog, the Alberta Serious Incident Response Team (ASIRT), says the alleged assault happened on Jan. 20 when the officer was off duty. In a release, ASIRT says the man knows the woman and during an encounter committed a sexual assault. [...] Read More »

CALGARY – Many Albertans hoping to book COVID-19 vaccination appointments for older loved ones Wednesday instead spent hours being kicked off the government’s booking website or getting busy signals on the phone. Some 230,000 people born in 1946 or earlier are now eligible to be immunized at 58 sites across the province. Appointments are being [...] Read More »

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – Two U.S. Navy warships operating in the Mideast have been affected by the coronavirus, authorities said Friday, with one already at port in Bahrain and another heading there now. A dozen troops aboard the USS San Diego, an amphibious transport dock, tested positive for COVID-19, said Cmdr. Rebecca Rebarich, a [...] Read More »

WASHINGTON – The Senate parliamentarian dealt a potentially lethal blow Thursday to Democrats’ drive to hike the minimum wage, deciding that the cherished progressive goal must fall from a massive COVID-19 relief bill the party is trying to speed through Congress. The finding by Elizabeth MacDonough, the chamber’s nonpartisan arbiter of its rules, means Democrats [...] Read More »

WASHINGTON – Less than a month after excoriating Donald Trump in a blistering floor speech, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said Thursday that he would “absolutely” support the former president again if he secured the Republican nomination in 2024. The Kentucky Republican told Fox News that there’s still “a lot to happen between now” and [...] Read More »

WASHINGTON – The Senate parliamentarian has dealt a potentially lethal blow to Democrats’ drive to hike the minimum wage, deciding that the cherished progressive goal must fall from a massive COVID-19 relief bill the party is trying to speed through Congress, Democratic Senate aides said Thursday. The finding by Elizabeth MacDonough, the chamber’s nonpartisan arbiter [...] Read More »

WASHINGTON – The United States launched airstrikes in Syria on Thursday, targeting facilities near the Iraqi border used by Iranian-backed militia groups. The Pentagon said the strikes were retaliation for a rocket attack in Iraq earlier this month that killed one civilian contractor and wounded a U.S. service member and other coalition troops. The airstrike [...] Read More »