Shannon Quesnel

"WE ARE NOT THE VICTIMS. WE ARE THE SURVIVORS." PENTICTON - Penticton man Jamie Paul Wolanski was sentenced today to six years for stabbing a teenager to death at a 2011 graduation party. The sentence came after what Judge Gale Sinclair called "heartwrenching" victim impact statements from slain teen Andrew McAdam's family who are still...

Skaha Beach was turned into a dragon boat town this weekend with dozens of tents and thousands of athletes. The 2013 Raymond James Penticton Dragon Boat Festival is more than just a competition stocked with hard-core athletes who carried paddles in sheaths on their backs.  It was also a time to celebrate as athletes and...

PENTICTON - The new top cop wants to remove the worst prolific offenders from the crime equation. Supt. Kevin Hewco is the new RCMP regional commander in charge of the Penticton, Summerland, Oliver, Keremeos and Princeton detachments. The 27-year-vet says 40 or more per cent of crimes are committed by a fraction of the criminal...

PENTICTON - Different generations of hockey players played together outside the South Okanagan Event Centre for the Vancouver Canucks Young Stars Classic. For the past week prospects competed for spots on the Calgary Flames, Edmonton Oilers, San Jose Sharks, Winnipeg Jets and the Vancouver Canucks. Earlier on Sunday there was a hockey clinic where younger players...

PENTICTON - Every year nearly two dozen RCMP officers jump on their bikes to cycle from Kelowna to Penticton to Osoyoos and back to Kelowna for their Cops for Kids fundraising campaign. This year's team made a stop at Boston Pizza on Main Street where the owner donated $2,000 to the cause, team captain and...

SOUTH OKANAGAN - A new fad diet urges customers to trim their energy usage to not only save money but also the environment. Fortis B.C. wants to push its South Okanagan Similkameen Energy Diet and the Regional District of Okanagan-Similkameen signed up at Thursday's district meeting to help with grants for willing residents. The first...

PENTICTON - A drunk driver struck and killed a former Penticton man in Nanaimo on Sunday, Sept. 1. Tyler Edwards, 34, was heading northbound on a Yamaha motorcycle on Stewart Avenue when the accident occurred. Edwards entered the fast lane to pass a slower moving truck. A Nanaimo man, 61, driving a Jeep stopped at...

HIGH STREAM ADVISORY NOW LIFTED: B.C. RIVER FORECAST CENTRE PENTICTON - Environment Canada might have recorded no rain last night but Twitter was all wet. People were tweeting about the heavy rain and thunderstorms that continued until early this morning. A few say they were woken up by the blasts of wind. A high stream...

PENTICTON - Children will get to shake the hands of NHL hockey heroes at the tail end of the Vancouver Canucks Young Stars Classic this weekend. The week-long hockey camp at the South Okanagan Event Centre will have prospects competing for spots on the Calgary Flames, Edmonton Oilers, San Jose Sharks, Winnipeg Jets and the...

PENTICTON - A female black bear and her cub trashed some Naramata garbage bins for easy meals this weekend. WildSafe B.C. co-ordinator Zoe Kirk was called about the bruins eating out of garbage cans on Saturday evening. She along with local volunteer Craig Henderson picked up the loose trash and put it into a bear-proof...

PENTICTON - Council's message of not tolerating messy properties was heard loud and clear at Tuesday's council meeting. Real estate agent Rick Appleton says the owners of 555 Wade Ave. East, Ming Leung and Shun Yi Chen, will clean the site. The property was one of two on the city's hit list with the other...

PENTICTON - The sun was shining and a deck was burning for one resident on Sunday morning. A deck at a Veteran Drive's residence caught fire shortly before 11:51 a.m. There were reports of smoke fire chief Wayne Williams says but some thought it was coming from a barbecue. A neighbour spotted the burning deck and...

PENTICTON - If you think you're not being taxed enough there's an app for that. Penticton launched a survey Tuesday to find out what citizens think about their community and whether they would support more taxes for more revenue. The survey also has boxes for how friendly city staff are, how quickly the new patient...

PRINCETON - A coal mining company hopes silt dams and silt fencing will mean no more particulates entering the Tulameen River. Coalmont Energy Corp. placed two temporary silt dams and four silt fencing stations along Collins Gulch following Aug. 24's 24,605 litre spill of coal mine tailing water. The catching devices were installed Saturday and...

PRINCETON - Coalmont Energy Corp. has been ordered to clean the Tulameen River shoreline affected by Saturday's 24,605 litre spill of coal mine tailing water. The Ministry of Environment clean-up order to the company was part of the government's investigation following the incident which turned Tulameen River water black. Both the ministry and the Interior...

PENTICTON - Advance polls for the upcoming Sept. 7 byelection are in with 793 votes cast. It was four votes shy of tieing with the 797 advance ballots filled out for the general election in 2011. Wednesday's advance polling station took in 416 ballots and Thursday's station accepted 377, city spokesperson Simone Blais said. With...

PENTICTON - The grey veil over Penticton is predicted to lift come Friday afternoon to reveal sunshine until Monday. This spells good news for sun lovers as the Labour Day weekend is considered a last chance grab at summertime fun. Children will be going to back to school starting Tuesday, unless of course their vacation...

SUMMERLAND - A car versus truck smashup near Summerland Wednesday sent a local and four others to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. A 1991 GMC pickup driven by a Summerland man, 79, was entering Highway 97 from Arkell Road sometime before 4:30 p.m. where it was struck by a 2013 Ford Focus driven by a Penticton...

THOMPSON-OKANAGAN - Just because Tulameen River water has turned black does not mean there's cause for alarm. The B.C. environment ministry and the Interior Health Authority assure the public the black water, caused by 24,605 litres of dark water overflowing a coal mining site's tailing pond, has little or no impact to drinking water sources...

PENTICTON - Mayoral candidate Garry Litke defended city council's actions on land deals and transparency at Tuesday's meet-the-candidates event at Penticton Lakeside Resort. Mayoral candidate Vic Powell attacked candidate Litke's record on city council and cited a botched Eckhardt Avenue land deal. The mayoral portion, which also included candidate and first-timer Brian Henningson, came after...

PENTICTON - It's pretty simple to prevent bruins from becoming 'bad news bears'. Homeowners should keep their yards free from trash and fruit growers should leave no fruit on the ground and keep their fences electrified. People who follow these steps and obey the rules can go a long way in keeping bears from being...