february 4 – the edmontonian: awesome since 2009

News of the Edmonton

You know winter is waning (not over, but at least waning) when the melts bring that nice "brown-ness" to the ice under the High Level Bridge.

Hello there, Edmonton!

Some Edmonton roads are due for widening, according to a city report. Or, you could throw down a few bus lanes, add a couple of bus rapid transit (BRT) routes and clean up the commutes that way.

Some council members think it’s time to review a policy of “earned days off” for city staff. Man, if I had known about this I’d already be working for the city.

Northlands is looking into the possibility of holding the Indy race on its property. If a downtown arena goes ahead, and redevelopment of the City Centre Airport moves forward this is probably the best bet to keep holding the race inside city limits.

How about one more event for Winter Light? You like soups and stews, don’t you?

Motorcycles are going to be getting some free parking in Edmonton’s downtown.

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Class sizes in kindergarten to grade 3 are on the rise. It’s interesting, teachers were just offered a deal from the provincial government to limit class sizes if they gave up their raises. Then the Premier stepped down and the talks were off.

Hey, what are you doing on February 24? (It’s a Thursday.) We should get together and watch the 2011 Alberta Budget. It’s like the Super Bowl for political nerds.

Athabasca University is going to work with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization to bring libraries to more people.

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The Edmonton Journal’s got a new big boss. In other news news of note, the Winnipeg Free Press is opening its own coffee shop. Whoa. When everyone else is zigging with iPad apps the Free Press just zagged with a real-world move.

There are some changes coming to air travel security. No more will they take your nail clippers! Speaking of flying…you will be able to get to Yellowknife a little easier.

Feb 04, 2011 | Categories: NEWS | Tags: edmonton, february 4, headlines | 3 Comments »

Edmonton Headlines – CP1

Of course CP1 means this is the first full day we have working doors at both Jasper Avenue entrances to Commerce Place.

Hey, it’s only the city’s signature street. Above you can see my first venture through the solid gold, state-of-the-art, robot-butlered doors that took more than a year to fix. Of course we’ll have more to say about our favourite doors as we officially end Door Watch ’09 (’10)…

Anyway, it’s actually nice that we can joke around about Commerce Place because the local news is being dominated by a sad story. Oh, and there’s Haiti too.

There are reasons sad, awful, violent stories dominate the headlines. There are fair arguments to be made for having them on the front page. There are also arguments to be made against them getting as much coverage as they do.

Here’s some stuff that’s important, but will probably only make you angry when it’s about taxes and whatnot.

from the Edmonton Journal:

111th Street intersections close temporarily for South LRT testing

So a game-show host and lawyer walked into my bedroom… (It’s about Lucy the elephant, not Paula Simons’ weird dreams. I think.)

Minister expects budget ‘haircut’ (That’s a nice way to put it.)

The question of question period

from the Edmonton Sun:

Charge laid after vicious minor hockey spearing

Firefighters ‘shook up’ at inferno scene

Stabbed police dog back at work (Though, the dog did tell his loose cannon partner “He’s getting too old for this stuff.”)

from the Edmonton Examiner:

Skill Centre offers ‘different way of learning’

from 630CHED/iNews880:

Airport lands: Council wants more “sizzle”

City sets LRT vision (Now, just to find $3-billion…)

School board in holding pattern after teachers’ ruling (Teachers are to get money they were offered but with provincial budget cuts looming the question is where the money will come from.)

from CBC Edmonton:

Shell announces more job cuts

from City TV Edmonton:

Return to the Legislature (Surely the governing Tories had hoped to be rolling in oil cash by today, you know, so they wouldn’t have to care about whether or not they know what they’re doing.)