Top Stories – Feb 13 – Wildfire Mitigation

At Kelowna’s council meeting today, Parks staff will be updating members on the Community Resiliency investment grant application for 180-thousand dollars. It would be used for wildfire mitigation projects, primarily in McKinley Mountain Park. Some will also go to FireSmart activities like hazard assessments for all critical infrastructure in the city.

BC Hydro research shows many couples are engaged in power struggles over home energy use. Some of the most common contentions are related to heating and cooling, including overall home temperature being too hot or cold by keeping a door or window open. Failing to turn off lights or electronics is another source of conflict.

International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach says the organization is not on the wrong side of history by aiming to help Russians and Belarusians qualify for the 2024 Paris Games. Bach insists sports must respect human rights of all athletes and not discriminate just based on their passport.

It’s a fair distance from the downtown Westbank one, but West Kelowna is looking to put a new dog park in the Smith Creek area. The land for the current one is owned by the school district and it needs it back for the new George Pringle High School. Construction of the dog park along Wildhorse Drive could begin this Spring.

Bed Bath & Beyond’s 54 Canadian stores are going out of business. It shot to popularity in the 1990s as a go-to shopping destination for couples making wedding registries and planning for babies. But it has seen demand drop off in recent years as its merchandising strategy to sell more store-branded products flopped.

Turkish justice officials are targeting contractors allegedly involved in shoddy and illegal construction after a pair of earthquakes collapsed thousands of buildings in southeast Turkey and northern Syria. Rescuers pulled more survivors from the rubble on Sunday, including a pregnant woman and two small children, but the death toll from the quakes also surpassed 34,000.

Kelowna RCMP are asking anyone that may have dashcam footage from around Orchard Park Mall Saturday evening to get in touch with them. There was a report a large group of teens had set off a firecracker or smoke bomb in the food court around 6pm, ran toward the bus loop, and then took off when police arrived.

Prime Minister Trudeau announced that a cylindrical object flying at high-altitude over the Yukon was shot down on his orders on Saturday. Like the one over Alaska, military officials are not saying if it was a balloon or where it may have come from. Yesterday, another object, at 40,000 feet was brought down over Lake Huron.

Russian forces continued to shell Ukrainian cities amid a grinding push to seize more land in the east of the country. In Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest city, one person was wounded after three Russian missiles hit infrastructure facilities. Ukrainian officials say that Moscow is having trouble mounting a broad offensive in the area.

Sports

Super Bowl 57 and the Lombardi Trophy belong to the Kansas City Chiefs . They beat the Philadelphia Eagles yesterday 38-35 thanks to a 27 yard field goal with 11 seconds left in the game.

The Canucks are back home and play Detroit tonight at 7. On Saturday morning they lost 5-2 to the Wings in Motown.

Cody Fajardo appears to be headed to the Montreal Alouettes. The Als are effectively swapping quarterbacks with the Roughriders, who are expected to officially sign Trevor Harris when free agency opens tomorrow.