Top Stories – Dec 21 – Shooting Injures Two

The West Kelowna RCMP is investigating a shooting that left two men with serious injuries. The 911 calls came in at 5:30 yesterday afternoon about shots fired in the parking lot of a hotel in the 4000 block of Pritchard Drive. Police do not believe this was a random incident and the two men are at KGH. Anyone with information or were in the area and have dash camera footage, please call the West Kelowna RCMP or CrimeStoppers.

There were 2,550 new cases of covid-19 in BC over the past 3 days. The government did not report how many were the Omicron variant. 70 percent of the positive tests were on the south coast. There were 268, or 10.5% of the total in Interior Health. More measures will be announced today at 1:30.

With the winter solstice today, it marks the shortest day of the year in the Northern hemisphere. Around here, the sun will officially rise at 7:53 and set at 3:59 for 8 hours, 5 minutes and 28 seconds of daylight. Tomorrow, we get 4 seconds more!

As promised, the Coquihalla Highway between Hope and Merritt reopened yesterday to commercial trucks and inter-city buses. The Hope-Princeton, Highway 3, will be open to all traffic at 8am. Highways and police are reminding motorists to drive to the conditions so holiday travel can be safe.

A Vernon man in his 40s died while snowboarding in an area of SilverStar that was closed. He was found unconscious in the Putnam Creek area Saturday morning by a skier after falling into a ravine. The unidentified man could not be resuscitated.

Restaurants and bars facing ongoing challenges from the pandemic will continue to receive support with extension of the food delivery cap. It limits fees charged by food delivery companies at 15%. An additional cap of 5% will also be extended for other related fees associated. The cap is now in place until December 31 next year.

If you get your power from FortisBC get set to pay more. It received approval from the BC Utilities Commission for its 2022 electricity rates, which will result in a 3.47 percent general rate increase for customers, effective January 1. A residential customer with an average use of approximately 1,100 kilowatt hours per month would see their bill increase by about $5.36 per month.

The University of Calgary has cancelled the rest of in-person exams. The university says it’s because of rising cases of the Omicron variant. Some students at U-B-C also demanded in-person exams be cancelled, but the University said they could be deferred instead for some students.

Experts are calling for masks such as the N95, to become the new standard to curb the spread of the Omicron covid variant. A professor who studies viruses in the air was shocked when she recently boarded a bus in Lake Louise, and was asked to take off her N95 respirator. She was told to put on a surgical mask and compares it to substituting a seatbelt with a piece of rope.

Sports

For Canucks captain Bo Horvat, better communication between the players, new head coach Bruce Boudreau, and new president of hockey operations Jim Rutherford is at the heart of his team’s massive improvement, winning their last 6 games. He says they listen to what players have to say and are willing to change things or do things to help them not only off the ice but on as well.

Hockey Canada has withdrawn from the upcoming Spengler Cup in Davos, Switzerland due to health concerns. Canada won the last edition of the tournament, which was held in 2019.

Two NFL games that were postponed on the weekend will be played today. The Seahawks take on the Rams while Washington is in Philadelphia. Both games start at 4.

The women’s hockey Rivalry Series between Canada and the U-S has been affected by covid and the border. Last night’s game in Minnesota was cancelled after Canada won the previous game Friday in St. Louis. The next one is scheduled for January 3 in Edmonton.

There will be no NHL games until at least the 27th. The league and the players union agreed to suspend play through Christmas Day, but no games were scheduled for Boxing Day. However today’s games between Washington and Philadelphia along with Tampa at Vegas will go ahead if testing results permit it.

NFL Hall of Fame linebacker Lawrence Taylor is facing felony charges in Florida after not reporting an address change because of his status as a registered sex offender. He turned himself in after police informed him of an active warrant for his arrest. Taylor was released shortly after his booking on $500 bail.