Charlotte Helston

LUMBY — A small North Okanagan community is in mourning following the tragic death of a teenager who was killed in an industrial accident. Bradley Haslam, 18, was on the night shift at Tolko's Lavington mill when he became entangled in the conveyor belt. No one saw it happen. He was discovered by the shift supervisor...

"I'M APPALLED THEY GAVE THE COVENANT, THEN THEY STARTED ARGUING ABOUT WHAT IT MEANS." A…

There have been reports of a sow bear and her cub near BX Elementary School along Silverstar Road over the past few days. WildSafe B.C. coordinator Marnie Cuthill says residents can help keep the bears in the wild and away from residential areas. "The bear appears to be using the BX Creek riparian area as...

VERNON — A unique school program has been cancelled and despite the efforts of a former student to bring it back, the district says there's nothing it can do. To Anita Kajla, Global Education is more than just a class. It's a life lesson. Conceived about a decade ago by two North Okanagan teachers passionate...

Among the 800 British Columbians who have approached lawyer Tony Merchant about being part of a class-action lawsuit against the makers of the controversial birth control pill Yasmin is the family of Salmon Arm woman Rhonda Bergen, who died suddenly last winter after five weeks on the drug. Yasmin and Yaz, made by pharmaceutical giant...

ARMSTRONG — A young Enderby man had been drinking in the hours before he was hit by a car and killed last spring, a coroner's report says. Danny James Noble, 23, had a blood alcohol level of 0.10 per cent, which coroner Andrew Cave said is "considered a moderate to heavy level of intoxication" in...

A dangerous prank brought police and the fire department to an Armstrong high school Wednesday afternoon. Just after lunch, a group of Pleasant Valley Secondary School students rushed to the principal's office to report smoke was pouring through a hallway. It was determined a smoke bomb had been set off, and the fire department and...

VERNON — Movie-goers were ushered out of Galaxy Cinemas Tuesday around 6:30 p.m. after a potentially dangerous structure failure was found in the projection room. Staff had seen fallen bricks earlier that morning, but the extent of the damage wasn't known until a structural engineer arrived that evening and ordered everyone out of the theatre....

VERNON — Conservation officers have been inundated with bear complaints within city limits over the past few weeks, and they don't blame the bears. Sgt. Josh Lockwood says the city has a garbage problem at the root of its bear problem. Of 97 black bear complaints, 89 were related to garbage, 12 to bird feeders...

VERNON — City hall is turning down a community's plea for enhanced fire services without much debate. Two weeks ago, a representative of Canadian Lakeview Estates approached council about the possibility of staffing the Okanagan Landing firehall with two full-time professional firefighters. Jim Dubois said emergency response times are not good enough at 14-20 minutes....

VERNON — A strategy is being put in place by the Vernon fire department to extinguish overtime costs by the end of 2014. Fire chief Keith Green told city council Monday that an overtime trend that started in 2011 is not sustainable. He says blazes like the August Birnie Road fire and the Rise fire...

TIMELINE: TAYLOR VAN DIEST WOULD BE 20 YEARS OLD TODAY In a courtroom a few months ago, an Okanagan mother watched the man accused of murdering her daughter, and the trial she prays will bring justice, shift out of reach as the trial was pushed back a year, leaving painful waiting and the torment of...

VERNON — A pair of young Vernon men have been arrested for break and enter following an incident at a local high school. Around 3:30 a.m. Vernon officers were called to Seaton Secondary School for an entry alarm on the third floor east roof door. The property reference on site told officers there was evidence...

A man believed to have connections with the Hells Angels was in Lumby over the weekend selling t-shirts without a vendor's license. RCMP spokesperson Gord Molendyk says Lumby officers stopped to investigate a man and a woman tending a Hells Angels Motorcycle Club merchandise booth Saturday around 2 p.m. The couple was working out of...

There's been a renewed interest in book-borrowing in North Okanagan communities. The Okanagan Regional Library says circulation was up three per cent in 2012.  "You've got some avid readers in the North Okanagan," says spokesperson Michele Rule. The regional library covers the South, Central and North Okanagan, as well as the Columbia-Shuswap. Of all those areas,...

VERNON — North Okanagan politicians want to dump a Ministry of Transportation proposal they say would make a high-traffic Vernon intersection less user-friendly. The Ministry of Transportation has proposed making the intersection of Highway 97 and Birnie Road right-in, right-out only, but the Regional District of North Okanagan believes that will inhibit and endanger the...

ENDERBY — A construction mishap at the Enderby Super Save Gas Station Thursday afternoon could have been a lot worse. The station's main building burned down last fall, and construction is now underway for its replacement. Const. Robb Daly says RCMP responded to a report of an accident at the construction site early Thursday afternoon....

"I THINK IF EVERYONE DID ONE THING IN THEIR ABILITIES THAT WAS SUSTAINABLE, THE WORLD WOULD BE A BETTER PLACE" A four minute video featuring twelve-year-old Elizabeth Varges, of Vernon, demonstrates the many ways her family is tackling sustainability in their backyard, and beyond. Varges' video, Sustainability in Our Backyard, won first place in this...

A young Vernon man will be trying to win—for the second time—top spot in the CrossFit Regionals this weekend in Richmond. Jeremy Meredith, 26, quickly rose to the top after first getting into CrossFit in 2007, then winning second place in the 2011 Canada West Regional. Twice he's made it to the World CrossFit games,...

NORTH OKANAGAN — According to financial reporting, 43 per cent of the $5.7 million payroll at the Regional District of North Okanagan (RDNO) went to just 24 top managers and staff last year. Payroll was also up almost eight per cent last year, due in part to an accounting anomaly and a concerted effort by...

Vernon has installed two more electric vehicle charging stations and they are open for business. "Even without any announcement, one already had its first customer," the city's communications officer, Courtenay Pitcher said in a media release. These are the second and third electric vehicle (EV) charging stations in Vernon, in addition to one owned by...

A $5,000 grant is helping restore a historic Vernon church that in its day cost $14,000 to build. The St. James Catholic Church was built between the years of 1908-1910, and was described in the Vernon News as "one of the most handsomest edifices of its kind in the interior." The gothic revival style church...