Top Stories – Oct 15 – No RCMP Wrongdoing

The Chief Civilian Director of the Independent Investigations Office of BC has determined a Kelowna police officer and his K-9 did not commit an offense when a suspect suffered a bad bite in August 2020. The incident happened on the Rail Trail as RCMP investigated an alleged theft of an electric-assist bicycle. A suspect was located and suffered the bite during an interaction with police.

Snowbirds start your engines.  Word this morning is that the United States will reopen its land borders to travelers on November 8th.  Anyone crossing will have to show they are fully vaccinated. The only fly in the ointment is that the U-S still hasn’t decided if people with mixed vaccines will qualify.

The latest weekly numbers show a drop in Covid cases in the Central Okanagan. Between October 3 and 9th, there were 186 new infections, down from 223 the week before. Numbers stayed the same in Vernon at 63, while in Penticton there were also 63 cases, but that was up from 48.

Taking a look at the latest covid-19 numbers in BC shows 580 new cases with 104 of them in Interior Health. There were an additional 9 deaths including a person in their 20s. In the Northern Health region, bars and nightclubs have been ordered closed and restaurants must stop serving alcohol at 10pm as the number of cases continues to balloon, especially toward the Alberta border.

The province is contributing $2 million from the Innovative Clean Energy Fund to support the engineering and design of a first-of-its-kind plant in Merritt. It’s supposed to capture carbon dioxide and convert it to clean fuels. About 620 direct jobs will be created during the design and development phases of the project.

New rules protecting young workers go into effect today in BC. The changes raise the general working age in British Columbia from 12 to 16, but youths that are 14 and 15 are able to do many ‘appropriate’ jobs defined as light work’ with permission from a parent or guardian. The new rules don’t prevent kids from babysitting or delivering newspapers part time.

The house fire on Timberline Road in south Kelowna earlier this week resulted in a fatality. On Wednesday during their search through the burned house, RCMP and Kelowna Fire crews located the remains of a person. The investigation into the fire is ongoing.

The Transportation Safety Board says there’s no evidence that a freight train sparked a wildfire that destroyed Lytton this summer. Investigators confirmed with both CN and CP railways that there had been no rail grinding activities on the track. They also found no signs of hot bearings, burned brakes or other potential fire-creating causes in a train that went through that day.

Big White is telling its staff to get vaccinated. It’s the latest in a number of BC ski resorts making the demand. Senior VP Michael J. Ballingal says new and existing employees, as well as volunteers, will be required to show their record of full vaccination to Big White’s human resources department by the 24th.

Over the next two months, nearly 4,000 youth in government care will receive an iPhone to help keep them connected to friends and family, and provide better access to online services, resources and opportunities. The Phones4Youth program, the first project of its kind in BC and is now beginning to distribute smartphones from Telus to every youth in care aged 13 or older, regardless of their care status. They’ll get the phone and 5 gigabytes of data.

Sports 1

The Canucks road trip continues today in Philadelphia. It’s their 2nd game of the regular season, and face off against the Flyers is at 4.

One game in the CFL today. The 8 & 1 Blue Bombers take on the 2 & 6 Elks in Edmonton. The BC Lions host Calgary tomorrow at 4.

The Kelowna Rockets have just 1 game this weekend. It’s their home opener against Kamloops, tomorrow at 7. The team released 20 year old Kelowna-born goalie Cole Schwebius yesterday after he cleared waivers.

The West Kelowna Warriors continue their longest road trip of the season through the Kootenays. They play tonight and tomorrow in Cranbrook after a Wednesday win in Trail.

The Kelowna Chiefs begin a 4 game road trip today in Kamloops, before moving on to 100 Mile tomorrow.

It might not be an 87-0 win like last weekend, but the Okanagan Sun will try to keep their winning ways alive as they host the Vancouver Island Raiders tomorrow night at the Apple Bowl. Tickets are available on the Sun website and click ‘shop’ from the drop down menu.