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Kelowna
No busting the Kelowna buskers: Play on, city says
SECURITY MADE ERROR TELLING YOUNG MAN TO MOVE ON FROM PIANO IN THE PARK KELOWNA - Maybe he just doesn’t like the piano. A young man playing the piano in Stuart Park was asked to move along on Canada Day after a security guard hired by the city to patrol the area came along and...
Vernon cop charged with possessing child porn nearing trial date
KELOWNA – The trial of the former Vernon cop charged with possessing child pornography will start the middle of next month after a brief court appearance today. Ryan Hampton, 37, faces counts of possession of child pornography, accessing child pornography, attempting to obstruct justice and half a dozen breaches of court orders. He was arrested...
Feature film to shoot in Kelowna this month
KELOWNA - Cameras will start rolling in the Okanagn next week as an Irish company rolls into town to shoot a new feature film. Tomato Red is a feature film being adapted from a novel by Daniel Woodrell and is about two siblings with big dreams and an ex-con sidekick. Cast names have not yet...
ELECTION 2015: MP Ron Cannan hopes Conservative track record on economy will ensure him a fourth term
KELOWNA - Ron Cannan, Member of Parliament for Kelowna Lake Country, has the weight of history behind him as he looks for a fourth consecutive term this fall. The former Kelowna city councillor took 56 per cent of the vote in the 2011 federal election, a comfortable margin that far exceeded the Conservative’s record across...
Regional District ambassadors to reward good dog owners
KELOWNA – Employees of the Regional District of the Central Okanagan, armed not with tickets but with treats, are in Kelowna again this summer to reward residents who are responsible dog owners. Communications officer Bruce Smith says the ambassador program was so successful last summer they’ve decided to bring the program back. The two ambassadors,...
City borrows $57 milllion for cop shop, parkade construction
KELOWNA - The city has signed on the dotted line, borrowing $57 million to fund the construction of the RCMP police service building and the construction and expansion of the Memorial and Library Parkades. Construction of the 100,000-square-foot police services building by contractor Bird Design-Build has yet to break ground on the site at Clement...
Kelowna makes a push outdoors
KELOWNA - Even locals don’t know all the best places to hike, swim and bike — that’s the premise behind the Active By Nature campaign, which will use advanced route signage, a video and an interactive website to promote Kelowna’s outdoor infrastructure. “A proven and effective way to inform residents about our network and to...
VIDEO: Kenny Vs. Spenny promote upcoming Kelowna show
KELOWNA – The best friends from Toronto who actually kind of hate each other, have put out a video promoting their upcoming show in Kelowna. Both Kenny Hotz and Spencer “Spenny” Rice, stars of the hit TV show Kenny Vs. Spenny, feature in the short video, but it is Spenny who does most of the...
Okanagan apples almost ready to cross the globe
OKANAGAN – The general manager of the B.C. Fruit Growers Association says they are about a month away from knowing if Okanagan apples will be bound for one of the largest markets in the world. Glen Lucas says he had hoped they would have the answers to whether or not local apples will be a...
UPDATE: Severe thunderstorm warnings back in effect for B.C. Interior
THOMPSON-OKANAGAN - If you haven't experienced major rain or thunder and lightning, your turn is likely coming. Environment Canada has issued a severe thunderstorm watch on and off for most of the region today, June 30. At 5:35 p.m., Environment Canada issued a severe thunderstorm warning for the North Okanagan, including Vernon. The storm has...
Wine and fruit waste prompts Kelowna treatment facility upgrade
KELOWNA - The city is looking at upgrading the Brandt’s Creek Trade Waste Treatment facility in a bid to reduce the amount of biosolids it produces and the cost of hauling them away. Staff are recommending the city pay $450,000 for a centrifuge to be installed at the facility located in the North End industrial...
Police arrest, charge 62-year-old man for Bernard Ave. murder
KELOWNA – A 62-year-old Kelowna man has been arrested and charged with the murder of…
Campfire bans in effect this weekend for B.C. Interior
THOMPSON-OKANAGAN – Due to an elevated risk of fire across the Interior of B.C., the Kamloops Fire Centre has banned all open fires, including campfires, as of noon on Friday, July 3. Kelsey Winter of B.C. Wildfire says the step is being taken to prevent human-caused wildfires and protect public safety around Penticton, Kelowna, Vernon...
Kelowna council won’t follow Vancouver’s lead on medical marijuana dispensaries
KELOWNA – More than 80 new medical marijuana dispensaries have opened in Vancouver in the last year, prompting city council there to consider implementing business regulations to keep them from getting out of control. But the mayor of the Interior's largest city says Kelowna council is not planning on revisiting the issue any time soon....
Car roll over accident claims life of Kelowna woman
KELOWNA - A woman from Kelowna has been identified as the passenger killed when a car rolled on Highway 16 on June 26. Coroner Donita Kuzma has identified Jamie Kathleen Doornbosch, 29, along with driver Paul John Constantineau of Thorsby, Alta., as the two people who died at the scene of the single-vehicle accident aproximately...
Second phase of Stuart Park finishes off Kelowna’s waterfront facelift
KELOWNA - Stuart Park, part two, is scheduled to open just in time for Canada Day. Walkways and the new sidewalk fronting Water Street are complete and the lawn has been laid although the City of Kelowna says it will be fenced off for a few more weeks so it can get established. A pair...
UPDATE: Severe thunderstorm watch issued for Southern Interior
THOMPSON-OKANAGAN – We could see severe thunderstorms develop in the Thompson-Okanagan region this afternoon and evening. Environment Canada issued a severe thunderstorm watch this morning covering the South and North Thompson, Nicola, Shuswap and Okanagan regions and upgraded it to a warning for parts of the South Thompson, Nicola and Okanagan regions for a short...
Record heat in the Okanagan
OKANAGAN - Several Okanagan cities were among the 30 communities to set a new high temperature record in the province on Sunday. With a high of 39.3 C on Sunday, June 28, Vernon was one of the hottest Okanagan communities, surpassing a former high temperature record of 35.4 C. With a high of 38.7 C...
Scorching heat sizzles high temperature records
THOMPSON-OKANAGAN – The heat wave blasting the Southern Interior cranked the temperature up a notch Saturday breaking high temperature records in the Thompson-Okanagan. Canada’s hot spot June 27 was Osoyoos where the mercury climbed to 40.9 Celsius, snapping the old high temperature record of 37.7 C recorded on the same day in 2000. Kamloops hit...
Old Western Star plant could soon meet the wrecker’s ball
KELOWNA - The last vestiges of Western Star Trucks, a manufacturing success story in Kelowna, could soon be meeting the wreckers ball. Owner of the site on Enterprise Way, 3752 Investments Ltd., has applied for a permit to raze the former Western Star truck and replace it with a Lowes home improvement store and garden...
Cracks were showing in Westbank First Nation’s private hospital plan last year
WESTBANK FIRST NATION - Despite assertions from the partners behind Canada’s first for-profit private hospital that it is proceeding as planned, documents show the deal to develop the Lake Okanagan Wellness Centre was in disarray last year. When it became clear in October 2014 that Ad Vitam Health Care was out of money and unable...
Heat wave continues though not as hot has originally forecast
THOMPSON-OKANAGAN – While it will still be hot this weekend, it won’t be has hot as first forecast by Environment Canada. The Special Weather Statement issued on Thursday, June 25, for the South and North Thompson, Nicola, Shuswap and Okanagan warning of temperatures as high at 40 Celsius has been ended. Meteorologists are still forecasting...
Mother of boy run over by van says he is out of intensive care
KELOWNA – The 8-year-old boy run over by a work van in his West Kelowna neighbourhood earlier this week is out of the Intensive Care Unit at B.C. Children's Hospital in Vancouver. Jonah Pevach was airlifted to Vancouver after he was allegedly run over by an employee of Abstract Design and Painting the evening of...
Big White Ski Resort not big enough
KELOWNA – Big White Ski Resort, one of the largest in B.C., is not quite big enough to qualify as a municipality. At least not yet. For the last year the Big White Chamber of Commerce has been actively investigating the possibility of becoming a Mountain Resort Municipality, similar to Sun Peaks Resort in Kamloops....