April 11 Edmonton Headlines
Welcome to a new week, Edmonton. I am starting to get my hopes up that spring is really, truly here.
Edmonton’s new police chief is now officially known. While he’s currently the top uniformed RCMP officer in the country Rod Knecht does have Edmonton, and Alberta, connections.
A city council committee will look at the LRT expansion plans this week, considering building it in six stages.
Beyond the new Royal Alberta Museum, how much of downtown’s redevelopment has to come from tax dollars? While Vancouver, Montreal, and Toronto are larger cities, they did see new arenas go up without public money.
The City of Edmonton is weighing in on a controversial powerline to built outside the city. Like a lot of others, the City wants to see power lines goes underground.
Edmonton is the site of an interesting study on the cost of eating healthy, and when money doesn’t necessarily mean the best diet.
A big mortgage fraud bust has been made here by the RCMP.
After hearing the hockey program at Concordia would be canceled an Edmonton businessman is throwing some money to the school to keep players on the ice.
Edmonton’s Rwandan community is remembering the genocide that destroyed their homeland.
Women, and their children, leaving abusive situations will soon have a new, affordable place to live.
Let’s take a peek deeper into the news bag to see what’s happening… (more…)
Busy Headlines – no, seriously, there’s a lot going on in Edmonton
Wow. A federal election, an all-day city council meeting on the downtown arena, a sensational murder trial, and a fire this morning. I do not miss the panic of being in a daily newsroom today. It is sweet indeed to be able to sit back and take a wider look at what’s going on. (Still took me all morning though.)
Speaking of that fire…we received this report, and photos from Amanda, this morning:
FIRE!
I was awakened to the thrum of engines running just outside my window. During the winter that meant snow-clearing was in progress. Surely not today…I went to the balcony and looked out to see what the commotion was: there were fire trucks lined up north of 99th St. and when I looked towards Whyte Ave I saw flames, smoke and a huge jet of water being directed to the fire! I thought about what businesses those were – it must be the beauty shop, the restaurant and a few offices up on the second floor. All this next to The Empress Ale House and the laundromat on the corner.I saw the pool of water on the street gathering volume as the water pump truck continued to jettison its powerful spray on to the roof of the building. Flames kept curling up relentlessly as the water attempted to douse them. There were men up on the roof, as well, attempting to douse the flames. Emergency lights blinked, firefighters barked out orders, and early morning risers were glued to their windows or were out on the street getting a closer look. I certainly hope that there were no people inside and that the damage will be minimal.
The traffic today down Whyte Avenue and down 99th Street will be more than a bit hectic. Perhaps this is a good day to walk to work. The smell of smoke and burning fills my nostrils as I finish writing this…
And that’s just where we begin today’s look at Edmonton.
Champion Concordia
Here's the Thunder in action earlier this season. (Photo: Jason Bouwmeester)
I was actually caught by surprise today when Jason (Remember him? The guy you’re supposed to be helping achieve dreams.) sent along some more great soccer photos of the Concordia Thunder.
The surprise came in the fact the Thunder won the national title this weekend.
Yeah, I hadn’t heard anything about that either. At least the London Free Press is all over this.
That aside, let’s talk about what sounds like a great game.
(Photo: Jason Bouwmeester)
Also, it’s got a great name: 2009 Big Kahuna/adidas Canadian Colleges Athletics Association Women’s Soccer National Championships. There will be a test, so memorize all of that.
Alesha Weicker put in an early goal, which was quickly countered by the Fanshawe Falcons. (Bias alert: I went to Fanshawe.) Nothing was settled in regular time.
It looked like nothing was going to be settled in extra time either. Sudden death shootouts loomed.
But Laura Ellis sniped home the winner with seconds to go.
Weicker took tournament MVP honours, while teamamtes Kelly Anderson, Trish Arnds and Lindsay Monkman made the All-Star roster.
There you have it, Edmonton. The Concordia Thunder women’s soccer team is the newest champion in the city of such. It’s also their first title.
Next year’s tournament is right here in Edmonton, hosted by NAIT. Could we be so lucky as to see an all Edmonton final? We have one year to wait.
In related CCAA sports news, the national Cross-Country championships will be hosted in Camrose by Augustana, this weekend.
(Photo: Jason Bouwmeester)
