Top Stories – Sept 24 – Culture Days Begins

For the fourth year in a row, the Rotary Centre for the Arts is acting as an official Culture Days Hub. The RCA is producing several community events and presenting additional events as a host venue. They begin today and run for a month. Have a look at the schedule on the RCA website.

A situation on Academy Way yesterday morning resulted in a 28 year old Kelowna man being arrested without incident. Police were called after reports of a possible domestic dispute and the man faces possible charges of common assault. Authorities were applying for a search warrant for the apartment unit to look for a weapon, possibly a firearm.

British Columbians can now complete and file provincial family law case applications online as part of the plan to modernize access to court services. It allows people to digitally fill out and file forms by answering simple questions for many family matters. They include child support, parenting arrangements, case management and protection orders.

The number of new covid cases in the Central Okanagan took a significant drop last week. There were 257 positive tests around here… down 103 from the previous week. Vernon and Kamloops also saw decreases.

Yesterday in BC there were an additional 861 cases of covid with 164 of them being in Interior Health. There were 55 people in hospitals in the interior and 45 of those were in critical condition. A total of 1,915 people have died from the virus in BC.

The BC government is working on a plan for permanent paid sick leave and wants residents to provide input. Based on the results of surveys already submitted, the province is proposing options of three, five or 10 days of paid sick leave. Comments on those options will be accepted until October 25th at engage.gov.bc.ca/paidsickleave .

After the dry, hot summer, the Regional District, Kelowna and West Kelowna are again allowing barbecues in public parks. A reminder that they have to be fueled by propane. The parks in Glenrosa that had been closed earlier this summer during the Mt. Law Wildfire are also open for grilling.

Believe it or not, in just under a week winter tires are required for all mountain roads. BC Transportation says one way to prep for winter weather is to install four matched winter tires that carry the M+S or 3-peaked mountain/snowflake winter tire symbol. Tread should be no less than 3.5 millimetres

Quebec is offering up to $15,000 in bonuses for full-time nurses to prevent more of them from quitting the province’s struggling health-care system. Nurses in some hard hit regions could receive up to $18,000. Part-time nurses who switch to full-time work will also get bonuses of 15 grand.

Sports

The Kelowna Rockets wrap up their exhibition schedule this weekend with a home and home series against Kamloops starting tonight in the Blazers’ barn. They return to Prospera Place for a 7pm start tomorrow

The NHL preseason begins this weekend. The Canucks’ first game is on Sunday against the Seattle Kraken in Spokane at 6pm.

The Seahawks take on the Vikings Sunday afternoon.

The BC Lions are at home tonight taking on Saskatchewan in a 7:30 start at BC Place. They are evenly matched with both having 4 & 2 records.

Golf’s Ryder Cup begins today at Whistling Straits in Wisconsin with the US taking on Europe.

Formula 1 is in Sochi this weekend for the Russian Grand Prix.

The West Kelowna Warriors begin their BCHL pre season schedule tonight at Royal LePage Place against the Silverbacks at 7. They head up to Salmon Arm for a game tomorrow.

Meantime, the Kelowna Chiefs have the Exhibition Showcase at Rutland Arena this weekend. They play Kamloops tomorrow at 2, then have a double-header on Sunday against Fernie at 10am and North Okanagan at 7pm.