by Armine Yalnizyan In the past few weeks some of Canada’s most respected economic authorities, including Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney, have voiced concerns over the fragility of the recovery, globally and at home.  Now Paul Krugman joins that chorus of Cassandras, pointing his finger straight at the wishful thinkers who say Canada’s heavy lifting […]

Kootenay West MLA, Katrine Conroy is celebrating the successful completion of the HST initiative petition. “This is an historic democratic achievement for the people of BC” stated Conroy. “However the attempt by the BC Liberals and their friends to thwart the public will is a dangerous precedent for democracy.” Conroy joins her colleagues and the […]

 A 73-year-old Castlegar man is in Trail hospital after being repeatedly stabbed early this morning, according to police. “At (about) 12:15 a.m., Castlegar RCMP received a report of an elderly adult male being the victim of a stabbing incident within his residence,” said Staff Sgt. Dan Seibel. “RCMP attended the 800block of Sixth Avenue (and […]

After years of deteriorating farm income, mounting debt and ill-designed income stability programs, can life on Canadian farms get worse?  It certainly appears so. The government is forecasting that the price of many farm commodities will decline in 2010.  And despite a complete overhaul by the Conservative government, farm income programs are causing the same […]

The Provincial Animal Health Centre has confirmed that a dead crow from the Central Okanagan area has tested positive for West Nile virus (WNV). This is the first positive case of WNV in a crow ever in B.C. and the first evidence of any WNV activity in the province this year. To date, there have […]

 Finally – an event in which you can serve your community by breaking stuff. City councillor and manager of Andrew Sheret and Splashes Russ Hearne said a special evening is coming up to raise money for ALS and the local food bank – and you do it by shattering glass.   “It'll be at the Castegar Golf Club, and it's patterned ...

 Castlegar Mayor Lawrence Chernoff is heading to the coast for the fourth meeting of the Major Industry Taxation Committee this Friday, and he said this gathering should bring with it some concrete answers to the issue. “This Friday, we're going to put forward some of our ideas to members of the UBCM (Union of B.C. Municipalities)...

 Photo courtesy the Kootenay Boundary Regional RCMP: Const. Derek Hall displays some of the drugs seized at this year’s Shambhala Music Rave. Almost twice as many people were arrested and charged last weekend as there were in 2009 as they came to, or left from, the Shambhala Music Rave event. “Charges are being pursued against […]

Last week, I talked a bit about consumer-level tools for working with digital photos. This week, let’s step it up notch. Simple photo editing tools like iPhoto or Picasa are easy to use, but they aren’t that powerful. At the other end of the spectrum are full-featured photo editors. The gold standard is Adobe Photoshop […]

 It seems to me that God doesn’t have a sense of humour ... or, at least, according to His earthly representative, He doesn’t. Do you remember the Dutch cartoons that threw the Muslim community into fits of violence? How about the Christian reaction to the Comedy Central Jesus cartoon? And now, the most recent outrage comes...