One Year Headlines (But not one year OF headlines)
This was the picture from our very first post. It's from our Great Smitty's Adventure.
Let the week (or four days) of patting ourselves on the back begin, because we’re 1!
Knowing us we’ll probably do some navel-gazing too. We just can’t self-congratualte without our high-school era low-self esteem kicking in.
Don’t you like us?! Look at us! We’re pretty!
*ahem*
Yes, the edmontonian turns 1 today. And while I won’t bore you now by patting myself on the back, I’ll do it later. Trust me. :)
No, right now we’ll do what we always do, we’ll talk about what’s going on in Edmonton. Like Councillor Jane Batty’s vendetta against emergency vehicle sirens (so loud!), former Sun columnist Kerry Diotte entering what’s becoming a crowded Ward 11 council race, a couple of stories dealing with Edmonton Police disciplinary hearings and examinations of what happens when things go bad, plus that darn Indy.
Cake and punch will be served in the atrium later.*
from the Edmonton Journal:
Alberta wrong on pension issue (Malcolm Mayes has a great cartoon on this.)
U.S. laws could backfire: minister (So, what you’re telling me, Environment Minister Rob Renner, is that oil companies that desperately want to go green can’t do it when customers demand a greener product. Right…)
Gravel pit neighbours irate at shrinking buffer zone
20 new spider species found (This is great for science but bad for nightmares.)
Proposed budget short on teachers (You might not think anything of that headline. Until I tell you the budget is for the school board. Which usually requires, you know, teachers.)
Flagpoles will make Epcor Tower tallest
Epcor crusader carried the torch for city taxpayers
Burying provincial treasures puts our history out of reach (All the good stuff will be in an old slaughterhouse. I’m not kidding.)
Edmontonian captures ‘Miss Elegance’ title (Damn, flippin’ right we’re elegant.)
And from the Calgary Herald: Alberta’s regulatory changes to save oil and gas sector $170M
from the Edmonton Sun:
Hate crime down in Edmonton: Report
from The Canadian Press:
Government members vote down rival’s bid for extra caucus funding (No more money for the Wildrose Alliance. Who didn’t see that coming?)
Ex-Redwater MLA killed in car crash
from 630CHED/iNews880:
Batty hopes for more discretion in overnight fire truck siren use (Except when the fire trucks or ambulance are on the way to her house, I bet. Then she’d probably want everyone to hear the emergency vehicles and get out of the way. Oh brother…)
Edmonton Startup weekend – No talk, all action (It’s June 25-27.)
from CBC Edmonton:
Low-income Edmontonians struggle to access healthy food
Assault victim alleges double standard of justice (Some interesting facts dug up by CBC regarding the case of Constable Mike Wasylyshen, a son of a former police chief.)
Police van was hot, crowded, disciplinary hearing told (As Andrew Hanon writes, it’s been a long, long time since this incident and memory fades.)
So, not a good PR day for the Edmonton Police Service.
Former Sun Columnist running in city election (And Metro says another new candidate entered the Ward 11 race.)
from CTV Edmonton:
Abandoned gas station sites across Edmonton under review (The city considers incentives for people to buy the empty and/or contaminated land.)
Future of Edmonton Indy still unclear (Would it be ironic if the race continued, but had to move from the City Centre Airport to Leduc? Probably just delicious coincidence.)
from Global Edmonton:
High water warning (I thought the North Saskatchewan was looking a little high and fast.)
*There’s no cake. No punch. And no atrium. But we will talk about the last year, online news, and that darn cat, later.
Hey, right now, I’ll take any comments or ideas for the daily headlines. What’s good, what’s bad, what’s boring, what do you want more of?
Almost summer Headlines
Yeah, I splashed around. It was hot!
Hello Edmonton!
I have a confession. I’d never really been to the Alberta Legislature on a nice, sunny weekend. I finally made it there this weekend.
Wow.
I really didn’t know that it was such a fun place, with families and people splashing around in the pools. Good show. It was really cool to see the Legislature grounds turn into a busy park.
It also brought to my attention the amount of people who play, or practice, volleyball. That seems weird to me. But I’m told volleyball is quite big around these parts.
from the Edmonton Journal:
Gay cop honoured for notable ‘firsts’ (It is Pride week.)
The law that few want to practise (It’s family law.)
Let’s shout about mental illness (Take that, stigma.)
Injured soldier hopes for third tour
Insulation coming off for electricity prices (Ah, the deregulated market.)
Alberta’s own oil blowout disaster (Looking back at a big “spill” here.)
MLA pushes for online oil-well registry
Suspicious death in north Edmonton (Meanwhile…charges in the city’s last homicide…)
Movie Gallery closing most of its stores in Canada
Time capsule holds clunky artifacts, spot-on predictions (Where’s my flying car?)
And from the Calgary Herald: Province’s luxury car policy a bit of a clunker, critics say
from the Edmonton Sun:
Silent sirens initiative bugs some councillors (Councillor Jane Batty wants those darn, noisy emergency vehicle sirens to be quiet while she’s getting her beauty sleep.)
$36,000 statue commemorating dead homeless? (Surely we’ve spent money on worse ideas.)
Alberta special needs students to head back to regular classrooms
Alberta Liberals eye new tactics (Just a Liberal OR an NDP candidate running in some constituencies? It also looks like the governing Tories are looking at their tactics too.)
Wildrose’s Anderson jumps all over paint job for plane
‘Albertans want pension reform’: Labour leader
from Metro Edmonton:
Giving Edmontonians car-free options
from 630CHED/iNews880:
Public hearing about former gas station sites (They’re some of the worst looking plots of land in the city.)
Morley Scott’s first Eskimo broadcast
from CBC Edmonton:
Paul Band purges teaching staff
Listeria worry prompts Smith’s meat recall
Accessory charges stayed in Mountie’s death (The Mountie shot dead in Hay River, NWT by Emrah Bulatci.)
Const. testifies at fellow officer’s assault trial
from CTV Edmonton:
City councillor calls bar violence ‘an epidemic’ (The compliance team is talking about Whyte Avenue’s Iron Horse today.)
Men convicted of killing Mounties to appeal sentences
from CityTV Edmonton:
A “sinking” attraction (I bet that sinkhole is full of candy.)
That’s 11 months of headlines.
And we’ve been around (almost officially) one year. More to come…
Pipe down, loudmouth
Our resident cranky lady, Janine Edwards, is back, and wants you to quiet down.
Darling Edmontonians, we have a problem. And that problem is noise. You see, our delicate ears cannot handle the terrifying noise that motorcycles make.
Shut-up, ambulance!
Living where I do, it makes sense. All too often, they rip through my neighbourhood, startling myself and my little old lady neighbour next door. They are ridiculously loud, and I was more than happy to hear that the city is telling them to quiet down.
But then, I saw that people are now complaining the sirens on emergency vehicles are too loud. Where do we live? Communist Russia?
The sound of emergency sirens are too loud? You would have hated bomb raid sirens during WW2. The common theme here: sirens save lives.
I live near a fire station, and I’ll admit… Occasionally the fire trucks will awaken me in the night. But rather than get angry at them I consider this: that emergency vehicle is potentially SAVING SOMEONE’S LIFE.
So maybe it jolts you out of your light sleep, but that emergency vehicle is on its way to put out a fire, stop crime, or give much needed medical attention to someone. Are you really that selfish that you’ll whine about the siren sound?
Other people on the road need to know the good guys are on their way, so that they can make way for them. Those precious seconds mean something in situations which can be life or death. So when I hear someone whining about the decibel levels of sirens, I want to push the mute button on them.
Rather than complain about the heroes, let’s stop a real noise menace! I’m talking about drunks and “woo girls.” I’m sick of trying to go to bed and hearing drunk people having their loud conversations on street corners. Of girls ‘wooooing’, and of overly loud laughter. I’m tired of waking up to the party crowd, honking horns, and arguments. Where’s the noise crackdown on them?
I want the loud mouth partiers to shut-up. Is that too much to ask? Go home! It’s a Wednesday night!
Is it too much to ask that instead of punishing the police and emergency vehicles – we give emergency responders duct tape for the jerks who wake me up, while they describe some rad thing that just happened at the club? Or they can taze them. I don’t care, I just want some sleep.
Feel free to use your sirens on the way over to taze the loud drunks.
