That’s one more week done and done, Edmonton.
Which is nice for those of us craving a weekend, but sobering when you think that August is half over and 2009 is rushing toward its completion. Time moves so quickly.
This also, quietly, marks our two-month anniversary of websiting. Quietly is exactly how I like to mark such events.
I also should have mentioned yesterday (because of an Edmonton Sun link) that if I mention the story comes from The Canadian Press (CP) that means the story is written by CP staff and not the newsroom. The Canadian Press is a wire service, which means they cover events and provide their versions to newsroom (who pay for the service) and the newsrooms give their stories to the wire service to be used by newsrooms elsewhere. Now you know.
I’ll also try to avoid these links, but sometimes CP gets a scoop and other times the newsrooms will just use The Canadian Press story to save sending a reporter to cover the story.
Now…onto today’s headlines…
Alberta court upholds revoking of plea bargain in deadly crash
Edmonton pickers share fruit of their labours with city’s needy
City litterbugs cleaning up their acts
Should helmets be mandatory for adult bike riders?
And here’s one that just about everybody had…because this will affect all of us (or it came from a handy news release): Algae bloom hits Alberta’s Lake Isle
It’s Friday but I’m still paying attention. So let me know what you think of these headlines, and any other interesting Edmonton stories out there.
OK, the helmet thing bothers me. A lot.
Before anyone jumps on me for being anti-safety, that’s not it. I think helmets are a good idea. I just think that by focusing on a mandatory helment law we’re missing the bigger safety issue altogether:
Cyclists need safer places to ride.
Edmonton’s streets are not set up for bicycle safety and cyclists are banned from riding on sidewalks (crackdown on whyte). By narrowing the focus on helmets, there’s a bit of blaming the victim going on and the city gets to ignore the larger safety issue.
Hmmm…Sally and Jeff, I think I feel a guest blog coming on…
A couple of points, both of which probably make me an A-Hole:
re: “lotto feeling the pinch” – I’m, uh, not really sure that buying a lottery ticket counts as ‘philanthropy’ per se… The proceeds may be going towards a good cause, but I don’t really think that’s the primary reason people buy tickets for these Mega Lotteries.
Also, TOO MANY OF THEM! There are dozens and dozens of these lotteries every year now, and they’re all trying to divvy up the same amount of pie; let’s be honest the number of people who are going to spend $100 on a lottery ticket is a limited pool. Of course that pool is going to shrink as the economy gets worse…
re: “city litterbugs…” – “People get the message”…? For reals? Because the example cited sounds like more a case of ‘Man Is Not Completely Retarded And Decides To Not Litter Directly In Front Of Bylaw Officers’ than ‘Man Totally Reforms His Littering Ways’.
I don’t know if helmets should be mandatory, but much like seatbelts I’m all for people opting out of healthcare to have their personal choice.
I agree that the places for cyclists to ride is a bigger issue. Both in terms of pathways and bike lanes and in drivers sharing the road.
Derjis, I’m going to be all over that litterbug story and its ilk. To me, they always end up being “one or two people we talked to get it, but looks like everyone else does not…”
Now…if anybody wants to buy a $100 ticket for the first annual edmontonian home lottery…
Derjis is right on on the litterbug…who would litter right in front of a bylaw officer?!
“Wilson said in one case a man was about to toss a cigarette butt on the ground, saw officers approaching and quickly swung around to place the spent smoke in an ashtray.”
i think it’s great that anyone thinks their campaign to stop anything is successful based on people not doing it in front of the police.