Top Stories – Aug 23 – Motorcyclist Dies

There was another fatal accident on Horizon Drive in West Kelowna… this one involving a speeding motorcyclist. Police say the 45 year old Kelowna man lost control, veered off the road, hit a tree, and went down an embankment. When first responders got to him, he was pronounced dead by paramedics. RCMP are hoping to talk to witnesses of the accident that happened about 5:30 on Saturday afternoon.

The striking BC General Employees Union has imposed a ban on non-emergency overtime for members. It won’t apply to those working for the BC Wildfire Service for the duration of the current season. The union says workers’ willingness to perform overtime can mask the impact of systemic issues including under-staffing, excessive workload and high turnover.

Moderna says the federal government has purchased 12 million doses of the company’s vaccine that targets both the original strain of COVID-19 and the Omicron variant. It depends on Health Canada’s approval of the vaccine, which was submitted for review on June 30. The agency is reviewing a similar vaccine from Pfizer.

Pot shop owner SNDL will buy Kelowna-based cannabis manufacturer Valens Company and combine the businesses in an all-stock deal valued at 138-million dollars. SNDL is behind the Value Buds and Spiritleaf brands, and says deal is expected to close in January.

The fourth annual charity ride to honour a Penticton man who was gunned down in Kamloops in 2019 will go ahead next month. The ride for Rex Gill will take place Saturday, September 24. There will be a breakfast by donation at Coyote Cruises in Penticton, where Gill drove the bus for 14 years from 8-9am. Riders will then head to Konquer Motorcycles in Kelowna for a barbecue by donation at 11:30.

A survey by the Angus Reid Institute found 56 percent of Canadians say they aren’t able to keep up with the high cost of living. 80 percent said they have reduced some types of spending in the last few months. Indications last month showed a slow down in inflation for the first time in more than a year… a period that has seen food prices jump by an average 10 percent.

The Kelowna fire department was called to a first floor apartment fire on Ellis just south of Harvey yesterday morning. The sprinkler system had activated and suppressed a fire on the stove top of the unit. Firefighters completed the job but there was fire and water damage to the unit and some water damage to the first floor.

Two downtown parkades in Kelowna are abuzz with new EV charging locations. At Memorial Parkade, two chargers are available on the second floor. At the Library Parkade, two Level 2 chargers are on the first floor and five Level 1 chargers were added to the fourth floor. That gives a slower charging option for longer term, all-day parking customers and area residents

Forget gold and silver, petroleum products are now high on the list of thieves. About 13-thousand litres of diesel was stolen from the school district works yard in 100 Mile House. Police say it appears a fuel line had been put through a fence and into a tank on the property, and because of the large amount, they would have used a large truck with a mounted fuel storage tank.

Sports

The Blue Jays are in Beantown for three games against the Red Sox. Toronto is in 3rd place in the AL East, 8 games behind the Yankees and 6 ahead of Boston.

Baker Mayfield is officially QB#1 in Carolina. The former first overall pick, acquired in a July trade with the Cleveland Browns, will start Week 1 after beating out Sam Darnold in training camp.

Tom Brady returned to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ facility yesterday for the first time since August 11. The quarterback returned after being excused from training camp for “personal reasons.”

Under threat of Russian attacks in a war that stopped all soccer in Ukraine in February, a new league season starts today in Kyiv with the goal of restoring some sense of normal life. However, in a sign of what is going on in the country, no fans will be allowed in the 65,000-seat downtown Olympic stadium.

The Dallas Cowboys are the most valuable National Football League team for a 16th consecutive year, according to the annual list published by Forbes. They have only made the playoffs four times in the last 12 seasons, but are worth 8 Billion dollars, up 23% from last year.

For the 2nd time since the pandemic began Arizona Cardinals defensive end J.J. Watt won’t play after testing positive for COVID. He’ll miss the last 2 preseason games. Last year the Cards said the team was 100% vaccinated.