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Glynn Brothen
Local university develops international partnership in Mexico
KAMLOOPS - Representatives from Thompson Rivers University’s international department made a formal agreement with a Mexican university this month to provide students at both institutions more opportunities for research and exchange. Baihua Chadwick, the associate vice present and CEO of TRU World Global Operations was in Acapulco June 16 to join Dr. Javier Saldaña from...
UPDATE: Highway between Merritt and Spences Bridge reopens following rock slide
MERRITT - The highway between Spences Bridge and Merritt has reopened completely following a rock slide yesterday afternoon. According to Drive B.C., the slide took place around 12 p.m. June 26 on Highway 8, at Voght Street, about 45 kilometres west of Merritt. It originially blocked traffic in both directions about 45 kilometres west of...
Lytton community leader gets three years in prison for bizarre sex assault
SHAVED YOUNG MAN'S PRIVATE PARTS WHILE HE SLEPT KAMLOOPS - A community leader who used his reputation as a means to keep his bizarre sexual behaviour and assault on a young man secret will spend the next three years in a federal prison, a Kamloops Supreme Court Justice decided today, June 26. Michael Hume, a...
Chamber backs local business after councillor strikes out because of Ajax support
KAMLOOPS - A letter signed by local business people in support of the proposed Ajax Mine has come under fire recently, but not everyone feels the move to offer support to the mine is as premature as one councillor seems to think. The Kamloops Chamber of Commerce is challenging Coun. Denis Walsh's opinion that business...
Fire at North Shore fourplex still under investigation
KAMLOOPS - A fire ripped through a house and garage on Selkirk Avenue yesterday and while investigators are still trying to determine what happened, the assistant fire chief is saying it's too early to call it suspicious. Members of Kamloops Fire Rescue were called to a fire at a fourplex house on Selkirk Avenue yesterday,...
Woman who went missing in Okanagan bush has outstanding warrants
PEACHLAND - The Winnipeg woman who went missing for more than a week and then was found by two men checking on livestock on an old logging road near Peachland is due for a court appearance in Manitoba. Kara Jo Leigh Stoyanowksi, 24, went missing for nine days after she left a recreational area near...
Police-themed party gets surprise police visit
PRINCE GEORGE - Police-themed birthday parties are all the rage with young boys, often complete with badges and hats, but not all young boys get to have actual cops at their birthday party too. When Cpl. Dave Tyreman found out four-year-old Capper was hosting a police-themed birthday party on June 20 he decided to roll...
Safety levels at Kamloops jail questioned by union chair after violent assault on corrections officer
KAMLOOPS – A union chair is calling on the province to offer staff more protective…
Second assault at Kamloops jail this week
KAMLOOPS - Emergency personnel were on scene at the Kamloops Regional Correctional Centre for an inmate assault this morning, June 24. Dean Purdy, chair of the corrections and sheriffs services component of the B.C. Government and Service Employee’s Union, says an ambulance and fire truck arrived at the jail this morning. “The inmate-on-inmate violence occurs...
City wins case after rejected contractor takes matters to court
KAMLOOPS - A Supreme Court Justice dismissed a civil suit between the City of Kamloops and a construction company that was denied a bid on a municipal project after ruling construction company officials did not comply with instructions on the paperwork. True Construction Ltd. challenged city officials after its bid in 2010 to build the...
Three strikes and you’re paying for it
KAMLOOPS - Mounties and community volunteers were out in full force on one of the city’s busiest roadways today, June 23, to remind people of the dangers and price of speeding. Citizens on patrol are stationed near Guerin Creek Way off of Summit Drive to count the number of drivers going above the 60 kilometres...
Deceit, identity theft and bigger breasts will cost jailed fraudster over $17K
KAMLOOPS - After stealing an 83-year-old man’s identity to use as a co-signer on breast implants, a tummy tuck and liposuction, a local woman owes more than $17,000 along with nine months in jail, a Kamloops Provincial Court Judge decided today, June 23. Judge Len Marchand sentenced Brandie Bloor, a woman with a history of...
Dial-a-dope dealer caught in undercover sting
KAMLOOPS - A local dial-a-dope dealer will see three and a half more months behind bars after pleading guilty in Kamloops Supreme Court to two counts of drug trafficking today, June 22. Adam Duhamel, 34, was arrested in May after investigators obtained his number and began texting him for drug deliveries in an undercover operation....
Court anticipates guilty plea from accused murderer
KAMLOOPS - The man accused of the only murder in the Tournament Capital in 2014 will be sentenced later this summer after indicating he’ll plead guilty to second degree murder earlier this month. Christopher Frank Butler is accused of killing 26-year-old Deanne Wheeler in a Cherry Avenue apartment on December 30 last year. He appeared...
First Nation welcome signs cut down near Kamloops on eve of Aboriginal Day
SAVONA - Investigators with Kamloops Rural RCMP are appealing to the public for information after two signs welcoming people to the Skeetchestn First Nation were cut down the night before National Aboriginal Day on Sunday. The signs, which stood next to the Trans-Canada Highway in the Savona area, were discovered sawed down Sunday morning, June...
Woman taken to hospital after incident at Kamloops pool
KAMLOOPS - Paramedics and members of Kamloops Fire Rescue transported a woman under medical distress to Royal Inland Hospital from the Canada Games Aquatic Centre last Thursday. Jeff Putnam, a city manager who oversees park and civic facilities, says in a media release, the woman’s injuries were unrelated to swimming. "The staff on hand responded...
Firefighters battling house fire in Ashcroft neighbourhood
ASHCROFT - Firefighters are currently battling a house fire on Mesa Vista Drive in Ashcroft. Members of the Ashcroft Fire Department are on scene with three fire trucks along with RCMP officers and paramedics, according to witnesses. Details have not been confirmed by members of the fire hall. We will have more information as it...
SNELSON TRIAL: Ex-wife of accused was vigilant after hearing of missing girl
KAMLOOPS - Katherine Oystryk, 44, remembers hearing about Jennifer Cusworth and watching out for her own safety after the 19-year-old girl went missing from a Kelowna house party her then-husband attended 21 years ago. Now Oystryk's ex-husband, Neil George Snelson, 48, stands accused of manslaughter in Cusworth’s killing. This is his second trial. Oystryk testified...
UPDATE: Police take down suspect after gas station robbery, release after questioning
KAMLOOPS - Police have released a man in custody after their search for a man who produced a knife in a gas station robbery. Mubeen Ahmed, a supervisor at the Summit Drive Super Save Gas station, said a man entered the location between 1 and 1:30 p.m. produced a knife and demanded cash from the...
SNELSON TRIAL: Cusworth was beaten to death: Pathologist
GRAPHIC CONTENT ADVISORY KAMLOOPS - Around seven or eight blows to the head caused the death of a 19-year-old girl who was found beaten, bruised and strangled in a watery ditch at the side of a pumpkin farmer’s property in Kelowna in 1993. In Kamloops Supreme Court today, June 4, Dr. Ronald Roy, a forensic...
SNELSON TRIAL UPDATE: Friends recall last moments with Jennifer Cusworth
KAMLOOPS - The last time Jennifer Cusworth’s friends saw her alive at a house party, they planned to get her home safely after drinking into the early morning hours of October 16, 1993. For Pam Coulombe and Faith Klinksiek their plan didn’t work out; the 19-year-old disappeared from the party. A jury heard Coulombe and...
No fire hydrants to fight Kamloops trailer park fire
KAMLOOPS - After a fire ripped through a double-wide trailer at the Iron Mask Mobile Home Park earlier this week the local fire chief has confirmed private hydrants on the property were lacking water flow. “Our thoughts from all of the staff at Kamloops Fire Rescue go out to the family who suffered from this...
Kamloops worker shot in chest with nail gun did not have access to instruction materials
KAMLOOPS - A Kamloops construction company must better inform its employees on the use of nail guns after a man accidentally shot himself in the chest last month. According to WorkSafe B.C. inspector Vince Strain, a worker on a Columbia street construction site was trying to attach a brace on architectural trusses with a nail...
Crown argues Gaglardi and company should pay more for environmental damage
KAMLOOPS - The case against Dallas Stars owner Tom Gaglardi and the Northland Properties Corporation is not over yet as a Crown prosecutor argued the two should pay more for causing extensive environmental damage to a fish habitat. Crown prosecutor Digby Kier argued in Kamloops Supreme Court today, June 2, that the court impose a...