Three stories in the news today from The Canadian Press:

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ALBERTA PREMIER TO VISIT FORT MCMURRAY FIRE ZONE

With cooler weather helping crews hold the line on the Fort McMurray wildfire, Alberta Premier Rachel Notley is planning to visit the city today to start work on getting its evacuated residents back home. It’s been almost a week since the monster inferno razed entire neighbourhoods and sent all of Fort McMurray’s more than 80,000 residents fleeing north and south.There’s still no word when they’ll be able to go home, but Notley and her officials say crews will begin surveying the fire damage as well as checking on crucial utilities such as natural gas lines and the power grid.

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INSURANCE COMPANIES BRACING FOR WILDFIRE BILL

More than a dozen insurance companies are deploying mobile units to assess the extensive property damage inside the Fort McMurray fire zone. The last assessment estimated 1,600 structures, mostly homes, had burned, along with scores of vehicles. The Insurance Bureau of Canada says that between the Slave Lake fires and massive flooding in southern Alberta in 2013, the province already accounts for almost 60 per cent of all insurance claims resulting from severe weather events.

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ALFRED E NEUMAN LOOKALIKE HAS 15 MINUTES OF FAME:

A seven-year-old Alberta boy is becoming a sensation in the satirical press. TJ Desjarlais bears such a marked resemblance to Mad Magazine icon Alfred E. Neuman that the magazine requested a photo of the boy that will be featured in the June edition that went on sale last month. And TJ says he’s “kind of” enjoying the attention.

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