St. Albert news

• Hiker being followed by black bears located by RCMP in Athabasca

  01-08-2017 22:00 via edmontonjournal.com
  Mounties helped find and escort a 70-year-old woman out of wilderness trails near Athabasca after she told her sister she was being followed by two black bears. 
  The hiker’s sister contacted RCMP Tuesday morning after her sibling failed to return home when expected. She also told officers that when her elderly sister reached her by cellphone, the connection was fuzzy but she said she was being followed by two black bears. A second phone call was just muffled noise, said Athabasca RCMP
  
  Read more

• Police charge two teenagers with string of arsons

  01-08-2017 21:59 via edmontonjournal.com
  Police have charged two teenage boys with arson after nine fires were set throughout the Callingwood neighbourhood earlier this month. 
  From July 15 to 26, fires were reported near a church, school and condo unit in southwest Edmonton, said the Edmonton Police Service in a Tuesday news release. 
  Three fires involved garbage cans, logs and a propane tank in a dog park near 69 Avenue and 172 Street. 
  Surveillance footage released on July 27 led to the identification of the suspects,
  
  Read more

• Combustion company fired up about move to Edmonton International Airport

  01-08-2017 21:58 via edmontonjournal.com
  A Calgary-based company that researches and develops industrial heaters is moving into Edmonton International Airport’s (EIA) Alberta Aerospace and Technology Centre.
  Absolute Combustion International, which now operates out of space in nearby Nisku, will take over a 1,700-square-metre bay in the centre north of the main passenger terminal in late August, company president Koleya Karringten said Tuesday.
  The firm will initially have about four people working at the facility, set up in 
  
  Read more

• Wildlife: Niobe Thompson's Great Human Odyssey gets Emmy nomination

  01-08-2017 21:22 via edmontonjournal.com
  Surely one of the most gorgeous and fascinating documentaries ever made by an Edmonton production company, Niobe Thompson’s The Great Human Odyssey is up for an Emmy — TV’s equivalent of an Oscar, Grammy or Tony.
  While the dramatically-scored series about the tenuous journey of human survival played on CBC’s The Nature of Things, it also ran on PBS’ NOVA down south. It’s here Odyssey earned the Outstanding Science and Technology Documentary Emmy nod.
  &ldq
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• Off-highway vehicles barred from provincial forests in southern Alberta

  01-08-2017 21:18 via edmontonjournal.com
  The provincial government has banned the use of off-highway vehicles in southern Alberta forests in an attempt to prevent a catastrophic wildfire.
   
  With no significant rainfall in the last month, public forests south of the Red Deer River are parched, making the risk of wildfire extreme, Chad Morrison, senior manager of wildfire prevention for Alberta Agriculture and Forestry, said at a news conference Tuesday.
   
  The current conditions are similar to 2003, when the Lost Creek fire in
  
  Read more

• Rare total solar eclipse will break hearts in Edmonton

  01-08-2017 20:48 via edmontonjournal.com
  While a sliver of the United States will get the rare opportunity to witness a total solar eclipse later this month, Edmonton residents will miss out on most of the shadow show because of how far north we are.
  A strip of darkness about 100 kilometres wide — known as the path of totality — will, on August 21, cross mainland America from Oregon to South Carolina marking the first coast-to-coast crossing of the U.S. since 1918.
  Such is the excitement among astronomers and the press sout
  
  Read more

• 'So much more than cow farts': Group urges speed on methane regulation

  01-08-2017 20:35 via edmontonjournal.com
  The province isn’t moving fast enough to develop methane regulations, says a coalition of industry, labour and environmental group.
  The group is pushing for strong, smart, effective and fair regulations that were promised by the government as part of its climate leadership plan in 2015. 
  Progress Alberta is one of the signatories of a letter sent to Premier Rachel Notley urging speedy action on the file.
  In Edmonton Tuesday its executive director, Duncan Kinney, called on the gov
  
  Read more

• Erik Sabrowski ready to lead Edmonton Prospects into playoffs

  01-08-2017 20:06 via edmontonjournal.com
  Erik Sabrowski has been “Mr. Everything” for the Edmonton Prospects this season.
  The 19-year-old local product has stepped up to become the unquestionable leader on the team and whether he’s on the mound, in the field, or at the plate, he always finds a way to contribute.
  On the mound, Sabrowski led the Prospects in strikeouts and was among the team leaders in innings pitched, wins and ERA.
  He has also played first base and left field and was red hot at the plate hitting .339 w
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• Man pretending to be clergy member charged with child exploitation

  01-08-2017 19:16 via edmontonjournal.com
  Police have charged a 33-year-old man who pretended to be a member of the Catholic clergy with the exploitation of two teenage boys.
  Multiple electronic devices including child pornography images were seized at a north Edmonton residence on July 27, said a Tuesday news release from the Alberta Law Enforcement Response Teams. 
  The Internet Child Exploitation unit launched an investigation after the mother of one of the boys alerted police to sexually graphic messages exchanged online. T
  
  Read more

• Mail-in ballot applications available for Edmonton civic election

  01-08-2017 19:01 via edmontonjournal.com
  Edmonton residents can now ask for a special mail-in ballot if they’re unable to make it to the polls for October’s civic election.
  The ballots are available for people physically incapable of attending a polling station, or who will be away or working on the Oct. 16 election day, the city said in a Tuesday news release
  They can apply for a special ballot online, or by phone, mail, fax or in person. For details see the elections website.
  The ballot packages will be printed after
  
  Read more

• Terry Jones: Purse needs to increase at Century Mile

  01-08-2017 17:03 via edmontonjournal.com
  Job one is to get the purses up. Way up.
  If the new Century Mile horse-racing facility is going to be successful, that has to happen. And Paul Ryneveld said he believes Century Mile can deliver not long after opening.
  “The purse structure is going to be the big thing. The horsemen look at the average daily purse distribution. We’ve done what we believe are conservative projections and believe our casino should be almost double Northlands,” he said of the take from the slot mach
  
  Read more

• Curtis Stock: Long road to success for James Hahn

  01-08-2017 15:53 via edmontonjournal.com
  Who’s next?
  That’s the advertising slogan for this week’s Mackenzie Tour — PGA Tour Canada Syncrude Oil Country Championship Aug. 3-6 at the Windermere Golf and Country Club.
  But it’s not just about who is going to be the next one to win this tournament.
  It’s much more about who is going to be the next PGA Tour Canada player to make it to the big show, the PGA.
  The next one?
  While James Hahn is now a two-time winner on the PGA and comes off a Top 10 finish in
  
  Read more

• Tuesday's letters: Roadway changes impede traffic flow

  01-08-2017 14:00 via edmontonjournal.com
  Last week, I noticed changes along Jasper Avenue.  On the north side, I noticed white lines and poles blocking areas where vehicles can turn on and off Jasper.
  Now there is a lane for parking 24 hours a day instead of being used as a traffic lane during rush hour. Instead of a vehicle being able to move to the curb to turn right they have to do it from the traffic lane. If they have to wait for pedestrians, they are now holding up more traffic. Idling cars waste fuel and contribute to green
  
  Read more

• Popular Alberta high school scholarship runs $7.5 million over budget

  01-08-2017 14:00 via edmontonjournal.com
  One of the province’s more popular scholarships ran $7.5 million over budget last year because of a sharp increase in applicants and how the program is administered, the government says.
  Typically, 19,000 students receive the Alexander Rutherford Scholarship each year, but 4,765 more students than anticipated received the award in the 2016-17 academic year. 
  The scholarship was also over budget to the tune of $5.5 million in the 2015-16 academic year. 
  A government spokesman said
  
  Read more

• Opinion: Training goes both ways in Ukrainian deployment

  01-08-2017 14:00 via edmontonjournal.com
  Looking down from a Ukrainian Armed Forces Mil Mi-8 helicopter, I surveyed Ukraine as never before — marvelling at the country’s measureless tracts of sunflowers and wheat fields nourished by chornozem soil — understanding by seeing it from this height why this land, known from ancient Greek times as Europe’s breadbasket, has again and again, been made victim by the depredations of rapacious invaders. Since February 2014 the trespassers have been Russians.
  Ukrainian &ldqu
  
  Read more

• Opinion: Don't repeat past mistakes in Alberta's best places

  01-08-2017 14:00 via edmontonjournal.com
  The best planning anticipates and prepares for future excellence. The worst simply perpetuates past failures. Recreation planning currently underway for the spectacular public lands of Alberta’s Oldman drainage and Porcupine Hills appears aimed at the muddy middle. We can do better.
  Past government failures have filled our headwaters with uncontrolled off-highway vehicle (OHV) use, summer-long squatters’ camps, gunfire, motorcycle racing, weeds, muddy streams and too many fish and wi
  
  Read more

• Graham Thomson: Kenney vs. Jean — the tortoise and the hare?

  01-08-2017 14:00 via edmontonjournal.com
  Call it the “Conservative Summer of Love.”
  Well, that’s what the polling firm Mainstreet Research is calling it.
  A Mainstreet-Postmedia opinion poll indicates the new United Conservative Party is by far the most popular party in Alberta.
  It has the support of 57 per cent of decided voters, compared with 29 per cent for the NDP, according to a phone poll of 2,100 Albertans conducted July 27-28 (with a margin of error of two per cent, 19 times of 20). The Alberta Party is at nine
  
  Read more

• Funicular construction in final stages, set to launch in fall

  01-08-2017 14:00 via edmontonjournal.com
  Motorists driving through the river valley can’t miss the new structure set to connect the downtown core with the trails below.
  The Mechanized River Valley Access — also known as the funicular — is still on target, going through the “final touches” of construction and planning to start trips in the fall.  
  The project is roughly 90 per cent complete, Jesse Banford, the city’s director of facility infrastructure delivery, said Monday. 
  Still needing t
  
  Read more

• Kitchen refacing: Refresh the look of your kitchen with lower cost and less hassle than a renovation

  01-08-2017 08:00 via edmontonjournal.com
  When Rolf and Lea Traxel decided to bring in Ken Nicholl of Reface Magic to quote on redoing their two-tiered kitchen island, they had no idea they’d end up with a brand new kitchen.
  The Traxels had worked with Nicholl’s company, Reface Magic, on their previous home’s kitchen and loved the results.
   “He came to take measurements, but while he was there, I started talking about what I didn’t like in the kitchen,” recalls Lea. For instance, the upper cabine
  
  Read more

• Hot sellers and favourite moments as K-Days ends

  01-08-2017 04:45 via edmontonjournal.com
  As K-Days wound down Sunday, career exhibition workers were gearing up for the next stop while others welcomed relief from a busy summer job.
  Scooter Korek, a vice-president with North American Midway Entertainment, has been travelling the circuit for more than 40 years and said “90 per cent” of the K-Days midway will come down within 12 hours. The next destination for the company is Regina, where it will open on Wednesday. The core staff numbers about 450, he said. “They come
  
  Read more

• PGA moves Canadian golf tour into spotlight

  01-08-2017 04:29 via edmontonjournal.com
  The Canadian Tour was a lot of things when it first rolled through Edmonton two decades ago, but “Big Time” was never one of them.
  The Tour produced big-time players and delivered big time golf, with players loving the courses, hospitality and the support they received in Edmonton specifically, but it always had a small Mom and Pop feel to it.
  Those days are over.
  After being relaunched in 2013 as The Mackenzie Tour/PGA Tour Canada, this thing is an entirely different animal.
  With th
  
  Read more

• Edmonton Prospects player Erik Sabrowski ready to lead the team into playoffs

  01-08-2017 04:24 via edmontonjournal.com
  Erik Sabrowski has been “Mr. Everything” for the Edmonton Prospects this season.
  The 19-year-old local product has stepped up to become the unquestionable leader on the team and whether he’s on the mound, in the field, or at the plate, he always finds a way to contribute.
  On the mound, Sabrowski led the Prospects in strikeouts and was among the team leaders in innings pitched, wins and ERA.
  He has also played first base and left field and was red hot at the plate hitting .339 w
  
  Read more

• Anton Slepyshev's rookie season with Edmonton Oilers was both promising and puzzling

  01-08-2017 03:24 via edmontonjournal.com
  2016-17 Edmonton Oilers in reviewAnton Slepyshev
  More and more, Anton Slepyshev is looking like the one legitimate piece to emerge from the most interesting trade sequence in the Craig MacTavish era. The then-Edmonton Oilers’ GM twice traded down at the 2013 draft, ultimately exchanging the #37 overall draft pick for no fewer than five selections in the third and fourth rounds. Stu MacGregor and company used that basket of picks to stock the prospect shelves with forwards Bogdan Yakimov (n
  
  Read more

• Technology would change Edmonton's tornado response today, officials say

  01-08-2017 02:28 via edmontonjournal.com
  Thirty years ago, Edmonton Coun. Ed Gibbons was pacing up and down his Clareview driveway, waiting and hoping his children would arrive home safely.
  When he heard about a tornado ripping through eastern Edmonton and Strathcona County on the afternoon of July 31, 1987, he called his wife, who scurried from work to scoop up their three kids at summer camp in Gold Bar Park on the city’s eastern edge.
  Snagged in traffic, his family didn’t arrive home until 8 p.m.
  “All I could think
  
  Read more

• Reports of sexual assaults on the rise in Edmonton, police chief says

  01-08-2017 01:52 via edmontonjournal.com
  The number of sexual assaults reported in Edmonton has jumped 13.3 per cent year-over-year, says the city’s police chief. 
  “We do know it’s the tip of the iceberg,” said Edmonton police Chief Rod Knecht, speaking at a coffee session with reporters Monday. 
  The increase amounts to an additional 63 sexual assaults reported between Jan. 1 and July 24, 2017, when compared to the same period in 2016. 
  The latest statistics are alarming but not surprising, said M
  
  Read more

• Defensive back Cauchy Muamba rejoins Eskimos

  01-08-2017 01:51 via edmontonjournal.com
  For the second time in as many weeks, the Edmonton Eskimos brought in a familiar face to practice.
  On the heels of signing Hugh O’Neill, who spent last week on the practice squad before taking over main kicking duties for the injured Sean Whyte on Monday, the team announced the signing of veteran defensive back Cauchy Muamba.
  Having spent the past three seasons in green and gold, including the 2015 Grey Cup championship, the five-foot-11, 195-pound St. Francis Xavier product, who became a
  
  Read more

• Pride Centre of Edmonton launches fundraising campaign to help fund new space

  01-08-2017 01:36 via edmontonjournal.com
  The Pride Centre of Edmonton is looking for funding from the public as the opening of its new centre, almost tripling its space, nears.
  The new space, set to open in September, will be 4,600 square feet — 2,700 square feet larger than its current home in the same building, acting executive director Kristy Harcourt said Monday. 
  The centre has reached 80 per cent of its funding goal for construction, but is still looking for $30,000 by September to complete the renovation.
  “We&rs
  
  Read more

• Reilly takes some bad with plenty of good in Eskimos offensive breakout against Lions

  01-08-2017 01:10 via edmontonjournal.com
  It wasn’t all club-record-setting touchdown passes for Mike Reilly on Friday.
  In a game that stands as the Edmonton Eskimos’ largest margin of victory on an otherwise perfect season, the quarterback who had gone the last 220 pass attempts without throwing an interception finally had a moment of imperfection.
  With 412 passing yards – including a 65-yard bomb to rookie Duke Williams on the first snap of the game and Vidal Hazelton’s historical high 108-yard touchdown r
  
  Read more

• Edmonton police make arrests in Callingwood arson spree investigation

  01-08-2017 01:08 via edmontonjournal.com
  Edmonton police have arrested two suspects after a series of arsons in Callingwood.
  Southwest division detectives began investigating after a fire was reported at Talmud Torah School at 6320 172 St. on July 15.
  Surveillance footage captured male suspects lighting fires in dumpsters and garbage cans behind a condominium unit, near a baseball diamond, in a dog park and three incidents at Talmud Torah School.
  Detectives believed those male suspects could be connected to nine suspected arsons that o
  
  Read more

• RCMP investigate woman's death in northern Alberta

  01-08-2017 00:29 via edmontonjournal.com
  Mounties are searching for a man believed to be involved in the death of a 21-year-old woman on the Bigstone Cree Nation in northern Alberta.
  Joelle Cardinal was found dead outside a residence in the Willowridge Estates area at 2:18 a.m. Monday after suffering from what the RCMP describe as an “intentional traumatic injury.”
  A 20-year-0ld man understood to be known to the victim is being sought by police, said a news release Monday from RCMP K-Division.
  Dwayne Beauregard is desc
  
  Read more

• Edmonton sees uptick in violent crime due to homicides, police chief says

  01-08-2017 00:25 via edmontonjournal.com
  City police are grappling with an uptick in violent crime due to the number of homicides in 2017, which have largely been drug-related.
  “Drugs is the overwhelming impetus for the homicides,” Edmonton police Chief Rod Knecht said Monday.
  He estimated that is true in about 70 per cent of cases. 
  He noted about half of the homicides have also involved a firearm and police have been busy with firearm seizures — “clearly, the use of firearms is up in the city,”
  
  Read more

• Officials urge caution after woman swept away in river, rescued by boat

  01-08-2017 00:14 via edmontonjournal.com
  The weekend rescue of a woman who was swept away in the North Saskatchewan River highlights the need to exercise caution along the riverbank, says a city official. 
  “It’s a very swift river,” Edmonton Fire Rescue Services spokeswoman Maya Filipovic said Monday. “It get dangerous for our crews as well to go out there and attempt these rescues.”
  Police and fire crews were called to the river around 6:30 a.m. Sunday.
  “The caller said he saw somebod
  
  Read more

Follow @StAlbertNews on Twitter!