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7/29/2010
5am
The biggest buzz in metro this morning (Thursday) is coming from those darn mosquitos!
Most are small but determined little stingers...so small you may not notice you've been stuck for drinks until it's too late. The rest are mid-sized mosquitos that thankfully aren't the kind linked to west nile virus.
The city keeps a graph of mosquito activity based on numbers of females caught in traps...and as of yesterday (Wednesday), the mosquito meter is going up like an overheated thermometer. If there's any good news on the graph it's that these are so-called "nuisance" mosquitos. The bad news is you can swat 'em, smack 'em, squish 'em; spray 'em, or zap 'em but they'll keep coming back for more.
Old timers will tell you this spike in mosquito activity is nothing...and they're right...historic tracking shows Edmonton's mosquito swarms of the past were much worse.
Best advice is use a bug deterrent like "Off", stay away from long grass and wet areas and wear protective clothing. On a super hot day like today...that's easier said than done.
EM
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7/29/2010
3:05am
A woman charged with second-degree murder in the death of a toddler in Foster care, is scheduled to appear in court in Morinville Thursday morning.
The name of the accused is not being released. She's charged after a 21-month-old Morinville girl died in early March. The cause of death has not been made known.
The accused did not appear when the case was last in court, back on June 24th. (bp, jc)
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7/29/2010
3:00am
Will she, or won't she?
That is the question on many minds Thursday morning as an accused child killer is once again slated to appear in a Westaskiwin courtroom. Allyson McConnell, 31, is charged in the deaths of her two young sons back in February.
This will mark the eighth scheduled appearance for McConnell. She has been unable to be there, either because she was recovering from injuries, or she was being examined at Alberta Hospital.
This horrifying story made headlines around the globe. Police were made aware of something tragic in McConnell's Millet home after a woman jumped from the Calgary Trail overpass onto Whitemud Drive below. Investigators ended up finding the bodies of 10-month-old Jayden and his two-and-a-half-year-old brother Connor McConnell dead in the family home. The cause of their death has not been made known, but those close to the situation say the boys were found in the bathtub by their father, Curtis. Court documents showed Allyson, a native of Australia, and Curtis McConnell had been embroiled in a custody dispute.
If McConnell appears Thursday, it will likely be by closed circuit television. (bp, jc)
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7/28/2010
8:32 pm
Fire has seriously damaged a museum in southern Alberta.
The blaze broke out early Wednesday morning at the Museum of the Highwood in High River.
Fire officials say it started outside the building and made its way to the roof or attic.
It took firefighters from three nearby fire departments several hours to extinguish the blaze.
The museum is housed in a former Canadian Pacific Railway station, and there is reported to be extensive smoke and water damage to the main floor and the collection inside.
There's no word yet on what caused the fire. (The Canadian Press, CHQR, twd)
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7/28/2010
8:28 pm
Premier Ed Stelmach says the province is busy processing more than 23-hundred applications for flood relief from people in southern Alberta.
And Stelmach says the government has hired more staff to speed the process up.
He says so far about 140 cheques have been issued since the province announced its $203 million flood aid package.
He says the total damage from flooding caused by heavy rains earlier this year will likely be more than a half-billion dollars.
The government program applies to losses and damage that is not covered by regular insurance. (The Canadian Press, CJCY, twd)
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7/28/2010
8:24 pm
A city man will have to spend four-and-a-half years behind bars, for a pair of knife-point drug store robberies.
That's the penalty for Gregory Shawn Severeight, 34, after he pleaded guilty to one count of robbery, and another count of robbery with a weapon.
The charges stem from an incident at a Rexall pharmacy at 92nd Street and 144th Avenue in June of last year, and another at IDA Stadium Pharmacy near 111th Avenue and 95th Street this past February. Prescription drugs were taken in both instances. (The Edmonton Journal, bp, twd)
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7/28/2010
8:20 pm
A sketchy forecast could cause more fires to spark in the province this long weekend.
Anastasia Drummond, a Wildfire Information Officer,
"We're looking at a calling for hot but unsettled conditions all week, and everyday that we see these warm temperatures without some substantial rain we're just going to see that hazard continue to increase. Now that we are heading to a long weekend we know that there's going to be a lot more people on the landscape, so we are looking at more fire starts unfortunately," explains Anastasia Drummond, a Wildfire Information Officer.
Drummond adds it's important to make sure you're fire is completely out if you're camping which can take multiple douses of water. (rw, twd)
Also, if you see a fire call 310-FIRE
On The Net:
Alberta Fire Bans
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7/28/2010
6pm
UPDATE: Edmonton Fire Rescue says the two-alarm blaze at Thermax Metal Treating in the east end Wednesday caused $1.5 million in damage.
Investigators say the fire started in a tank of mineral oil, used to cool super-heated stainless steel products. An employee was lowering one of these products into the tank when a secondary cooling line on the tank was hit. The leaked oil then ignited, and the flames quickly spread.
It took crews less than an hour to bring the fire under control. Nobody was seriously hurt.(bp)
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(7/28/10 at 1 p.m.)
Fire fighters gained the upper-hand on a blaze in an industrial area near Sherwood Park late Wednesday morning.
The blaze is now completely out, as crews work at dousing any hot spots.
Photo: 630CHED's Don Lawson
The fire broke out at around 10:00 a.m. Wednesday at Thermex Metal Treating near 18th Street and 73rd Avenue.
Crews were initially worried about the type of smoke the blaze was creating, fearing it could be toxic. It wasn't considered dangerous and nobody had to be evacuated.
It was later determined that hydraulic line broke, tipping molten steel from an overhead crane into a quenching tank of ...
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7/28/2010
4:30pm
Envision Edmonton, the pro City Centre Airport-lobbying group, has decided to pull out of its exhibitor's booth at Capital EX.
The group says Wednesday night will be its last on the fairgrounds. Envision Edmonton is trying to gather 80,000 signatures on a petition to force a plebiscite on the future of the airport, which is scheduled to close down.
A last-minute meeting with Northlands failed to resolve anything. Mary Ann Stanway with AIRCO, one of the lease holders at the airport, tells 630 CHED an offer from Northlands to set up a static display, and not try to gather petition signatures wasn't good enough for them.
"We weren't asked to leave, we have chosen to leave because it won't provide us with what we need at this point and time which is the signatures on the petition," says Stanway. "We were welcome to stay as long as we just made an information booth. So, it's not as though Northlands has said that we were an unwelcome group. It's just that they did not welcome this particular activity we were doing."
Envision Edmonton was at Capital EX for five days.(sj/bp)
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7/28/2010
4:30 pm
The Edmonton International Airport says its billion dollar expansion is on time and under budget as it doubles in size from eight to sixteen football fields in length.
The expansion will offer kids play areas, performance areas, full service restaurants and enhanced features for the business traveler that the airport did not want to expand on just yet.
It will also have a new control and office tower around eight stories high that will look more like an abstract piece of art.
There are 13 possible gates at the new terminal which is surrounded by a brand new cement apron the size of 35 football fields and 18 inches thick.
And if you're headed through Canada Customs, Paul Garbiar, Vice President of Infrastructure and Technology for EIA, says you'll like what you see.
"One of the things we recognize is that when international travelers come into Canada it might be their first time in Canada, or their first time in Edmonton, so were going to create a really good impression in that area," remarks Garbiar. "We've got sort of a vaulted ceiling look. We have some sustainable features like a living wall and then ...
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