Short Week Headlines
Click for more terrible front pages.
Good morning, Edmonton.
While we’re not trying to doom and gloom you, we are going to begin with homicides; stories that are most prevalent in Edmonton news right now.
Overall, Edmonton’s got 33 homicides on record in 2011. That’s the most of any city in Canada. Though, with stories like this and this from the Edmonton Sun you’d think we lived in a war zone. I doubt a death penalty would reduce one year’s higher than usual homicide rate. Let’s remember – ALL newsrooms - that our crime rate is down,down, down.
Also, I think I’ve mentioned this before in Headlines, but the Sun’s staffers should know that the highest penalty for murder in Canada is life in prison with no chance at parole for 25 years. Not 25 years and you’re out. We can also send people away as “dangerous offenders” in Canada, which means they do not have a release date at all. These tiny bits of information, usually added at the end of a story or an opinion piece, do have an impact on how people perceive crime and criminals.
After this weekend’s (and today’s) stories I am now officially pleading with Edmonton newsrooms to stop talking to criminologist Bill Pitt. “Everybody in this city is armed” sounds like the worst crime research ever.
There are connections to Edmonton’s Somali community within our high homicide rate, and within the homicide rate for the last number of years. Police continue to try and work with members of the community to solve the many murders and killings within this population. Though, the crimes reach right across Canada inside of Somali gangs. There are, of course, many Somali-Edmontonians willing to help police, and who want to see the city operate in a peaceful manner.
Detectives, and extra Edmonton Police officers brought in to help solve homicides, are busy. An excellent point made in this story that paramedics and medical staff likely help keep the homicide number down.
While police try to solve as many killings as they can, prevention of crime is going to be the key to keeping homicide rates down on a more permanent basis.
We might have started things off with homicide, though I do hope you don’t think I’ve switched to a “If it bleeds, it leads” approach with the Headlines. I mean, I don’t want to scare anyone into thinking Edmonton has a murder around every corner. It doesn’t.
Hopefully, by compiling a lot of the weekend stories (good ones, interesting ones, ones the Edmonton Sun had) we can have a fuller conversation about what’s going on in our city, and see the work of police, community groups, and individuals to bring killers to justice and keep things as safe as possible.
Now, just for criminologist Bill Pitt, let’s put away all of our knives and continue with the day’s stories. (more…)
Monday Headlines
It's a double rainbow dudes. (Photo: Deja Springfield)
Welcome to a new week, a sunnier week, Edmonton.
So, last week there was a bit in the Progressive Conservative leadership debate about not funding a new downtown arena in Edmonton. Now the wording is getting a little, let us say, tricky.
Now, for the second time in a week, a columnist who was in favour of a downtown arena is having second thoughts.
Chinatown is again at the centre of debate and discussion around the downtown LRT connnector.
There’s been a lot of talk about historic and heritage buildings in the news recently. Another way we could lose these great old gems is the same way we can lose any building; fire.
This is one of the worst summers for mosquitoes in recent memory, and Mike Jenkins is among those at the head of the battle against the bug.
Edmonton newsrooms need a new crime expert. The one always cited, Bill Pitt, doesn’t believe the crime rate is going down. I haven’t seen any studies or figures he might have to back that up though.
There was some sort of car race this weekend. I’ll find out what kind after the jump. (more…)
Long weekend = One more day of fun
It’s the Heritage Day long weekend, Edmonton, so get out there and soak in all that summer.
Over the next four days (counting Friday night) there’s a lot to do in Edmonton.
Capital Ex continues at Northlands. A Taste of Edmonton is still at Churchill Square. (Both run until Sunday.)
And, of course, Heritage Day means Hawrelak Park becomes the Heritage Festival. It’s the 35th go-round for Heritage Fest, with more than 60 countries and ethnicities represented. There will be culture and food, all three days of the weekend, in the park. Plan your adventures with the map.
The winless Eskimos play tonight. Meh.
Friday night is a really good music night. Juliette Lewis is playing the Starlite Room, Metric (and Hot Hot Heat) are at Capital Ex, Fred Eaglesmith is in Stony Plain at the Blueberry Bluegrass and Country Music Festival, and there’s that little thing called the Big Valley Jamboree over in Camrose.
On Sunday, The Old Wives are playing at Lyve on Whyte and Audio/Rocketry is at the PawnShop.
And Capital Ex has more music at the Telus Stage Saturday and Sunday. Plus, The Be Arthurs can be found at Centre Stage.
There are dinosaurs!!
ShareEdmonton had an event that really caught my eye. (What can I say, I have a soft spot for chess.) This weekend is the Edmonton Chess Festival. Checkmate.
I also keep forgetting to mention Saturday as a great farmers’ market day. You’ve got the year-round Old Strathcona version, or summer’s City Market Downtown.
It’s the end of the month, so you can check Gregg’s July movie preview and his new look at the August releases, if you’re hitting the movie theatre.
Don’t tire yourself out this weekend, since Folk Fest starts Wednesday night, and the Fringe is on the horizon.
And, because I’m going to mention it all of the time, the edmontonian and Unknown Studio will be celebrating their first birthday(s) Monday, August 23.
Edmonton Headlines
It’s another busy Thursday, here in Edmonton news-land.
Plenty popping up on the Edmonton City Centre Airport, the Heritage Festival and Big Valley Jamboree are in the news before this weekend, mosquitoes are arriving, plus Vue asks a question about whether we should change our poet laureate.
And St. Albert baseball diamonds are burning up.
Dig in.
from the Edmonton Journal:
MLAs, Enbridge join fight for Edmonton airport (This comes as the airports authority prepares to shut down one of the runways. Hey, how did everyone miss all the months of debate, days of public hearings, and city council vote on the City Centre Airport LAST YEAR? Also, maybe Enbridge wants to keep its name out of headlines, you know, what with its devastating oil spill in Michigan and all.)
Edmonton airport upgrade 25% under budget (This would be at the Edmonton International Airport.)
A question of dollars … gadzillions of dollars (Arena, Indy, and more questions from Dan Barnes.)
Historic Edmonton church saved from demolition
Money transfer scam targeting seniors
Giant robot dinosaurs stalk boreal forest
This bad news: Meat Loaf cancels Edmonton gig can be offset with this good news: Mickey Rooney coming to Sherwood Park
from the Edmonton Sun:
Heritage Festival goes 100% green, say organizers
City’s cat crisis (People are tossing cats like trash.)
‘Hope on the horizon’ for MS sufferers
BVJ to text storm alerts (Learning from last year.)
Holiday demand pumps up gas prices
from 630CHED/iNews880:
“Mini me” mosquitos invade metro
from CBC Edmonton:
MLA lured by money to delay joining Wildrose (Although, to be fair, if he’s using his Independent research budget up before jumping ship, it makes sense. If.)
School construction to last into fall (It’s not like schools have a calendar on when they are in session or not.)
St. Alberta baseball association faces $20K bill (They only set their baseball diamonds on fire.)
from Global Edmonton:
from Vue Weekly:
Citizen powered (Campus and community radio stations, like our own CJSR, are going to get a few government-mandated bucks.)
Disappearing act (What did happen to that study on the oilsands and water resources?)
Changing of the guard (Should we dump the poet laureate for a songwriter laureate?)
from SEE Magazine:
Arena deal does not add up (And Fish Griwskowsky wants Katz and Co. to know, For the record, downtown is not dead yet.)
One more day until the long weekend!
Big Valley Stage Collapse
So by now, we all obviously know about the tragic scene this weekend at the Big Valley Jamboree. There’s not much to say about it, besides how deeply saddened we are that such a beloved event wound up costing someone’s life, and that there are now reports that the province is calling for a probe into what caused the collapse.
The thing I’d like to mention about Big Valley, which is kind of unrelated to the nuts and bolts news of it, is that Jeff and I actually heard about the stage collapse while casually checking Twitter. Over the course of the night, we watched as information was tweeted and retweeted from the concert site, including photographs of the scene and initial injury counts. People offered consolation to panicked family and friends, and other reconnected online.
This was particularly interesting to me because, regardless of the accuracy of the information being put forward, it allowed people to connect as a community during a really horrible moment. Not only could you check on your friend at #BVJ and make sure they were alright, people (myself included) who had no connection to the event whatsoever could feel like they were doing SOMETHING by re-tweeting information or offering their sympathies to worried onlookers. It was a lot better than watching the shocking scene unfold alone in my living room and feeling helpless.
There were also some claims that cell providers (specifically Rogers) had shut down cellular service, allowing only for emergency calls (we ourselves re-tweeted this one, figuring that even if it wasn’t true, it would go a long way towards easing the minds of frightened friends and family). Telus Mobility’s Chris Gerritsen says that, at least for Telus, this wasn’t the case. He attributes any difficulty getting through to a sudden influx of calls.
“We’ve got a robust network, of course,” he says. “But there aren’t an infinite number of lines.”
(Rogers Wireless never returned my call).
Anyway, for those following events on Twitter, much of the information from Big Valley came by way of Vancouver singer Jessie Farrell, who was there performing. I exchanged e-mails with her Sunday.
“I was using my cell,” wrote Farrell. “Most of my tweets were from the convention centre. We ran there from our trailer when we saw the stage collapse.”
“I’m very active online. I tweet and am on Facebook daily. Twitter was the easiest way to let people know what was going on. I know a lot of people I’m connected to had people they knew at [Big Valley Jamboree] so I wanted to let them know what I knew.”
She added that the response to her tweets were overwhelmingly positive.
“Mostly people were sending their prayers and wishes for everyone to be safe… The organizers and first responders were all amazing. They did a truly fantastic job. Of course I would return to BVJ. This was a tragic freak occurance.”
