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Kelowna

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...

What to do with 100,000 metres of steel rail, ties and a grafitti-covered boxcar

KELOWNA - Now that the CN Rail corridor purchase is complete, there’s the small matter of removing about 100 kilometres worth of steel rail, railway ties, flashing lights and signs, and some contaminated soil sites. Oh, and one graffiti covered boxcar. Fortunately for the Okanagan communities that just ponied up $50 million in cash and...

Water board calls on province to take action on invasive mussels

OKANAGAN - The Okanagan Basin Water Board is using the province’s declaration of June as Invasive Species Action Month to prod it into increasing its role in the fight against zebra and quagga mussels. “Awareness is great but action is better. The water board is doing all it can within its mandate to prevent 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...

Rain nearly over in Okanagan

NEAR RECORD HEAT ON THE WAY OKANAGAN - While it has not been record-breaking, it has been very wet throughout the Okanagan this week, with an average of about 25 millimetres of rain falling in the first three days of June alone. Heading just north of the Okanagan, Kamloops has received most of the rain...

Abandoned camper underscores illegal dumping problem in Central Okanagan

KELOWNA - They had to use a tow truck to get rid of a piece of garbage, an old camper, illegally dumped up Postill Lake Road today. The regional waste reduction office says it recently learned through social media of the dumped camper. The camper is just the tip of a much larger problem though...

Gospel Mission extends its reach to courtyard

KELOWNA - The Gospel Mission, Kelowna’s single mens shelter, has announced it will build a courtyard next to its Leon Ave. building, with the aim of giving downtown homeless somewhere to go during the day. “Too often during the day the homeless, due to lack of options, are staying in places that put them at...

Ethel Street cycle track separates bikes from cars and pedestrians

KELOWNA - A determined cycist could cover the first phase of the Ethel Street active transportation corridor in about two minutes but the construction of a new cycle track between Bernard Avenue and Saucier Avenue will be welcomed by local cyclists. Construction on the corridor begins this month and will continue in phases until 2020...

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...

Knox Mountain disc golfers score deal with city

KELOWNA - If disc golf is gaining popularity as a sport it’s because of guys like Ryan Derksen. Despite the rain this week, the young man from Saskatchewan was chucking discs at far-off holes, enjoying a solo practice round at the Knox Mountain Park disc golf course. “I played in Calgary yesterday. Whenever I travel...

UBC celebrates 10th graduating class in the Okanagan

OKANAGAN - Two major milestones in health sciences are being celebrated with Convocation 2015. The first class of 30 physicians will have graduated from UBC’s Faculty of Medicine’s Southern Medical Program, based in the Okanagan. The Okanagan School of Nursing sees the first cohort of its “2+2 BSN program” of collaborative nursing graduates. These students...

Salmonella outbreak proof that monitoring system works: Buckerfield’s CEO

KELOWNA - The recent spike of salmonella cases connected to live poultry sales is a good news story, proof the system works rather than an indictment of its failings, according to a local business. “Fourteen cases is a very small number and it was detected and caught and the public was actually protected from what...

United Airlines drops service to Kelowna

KELOWNA – After less than a year of service between Kelowna and San Francisco, United Airlines has departed for good. The carrier first started service to Kelowna in October of last year and according to airport spokesperson Jenelle Hynes had already decided in December that it just wasn’t economically feasible to continue the once-daily flights...

Community gardens get big green thumbs up in Kelowna

KELOWNA - Better support for community gardens, both public and private, can happen if there is a better understanding of what food security means for the community.  City staff hope to provide a better understanding by amending the food security policy in the official community plan and the zoning bylaw.  “This is turning a landscape...

City changes targets after failing to meet greenhouse gas targets

KELOWNA - Despite the many efforts made by the city to reduce its own greenhouse gas emissions and those of its citizens, Kelowna is a long way off the target it set for itself in 2007. That’s when Kelowna signed on to the B.C. Climate Action Charter and pledged by 2017 to reduce greenhouse gases...

Local woman uses social media to find long lost father

"IT'S GOING TO BE MY FIRST FATHER'S DAY IN 46 YEARS WHERE I ACTUALLY KNOW WHO MY FATHER IS." KELOWNA – A local expert in social media found out the power of Facebook last weekend when she used it to find and meet her father for the first time in 46 years. And even though...

UPDATE: Woman hit on Highway 33 in Rutland

KELOWNA – RCMP investigators are on the scene of a crash involving a vehicle and a woman in her 70s on Highway 33 in Kelowna. Const. Steve Holmes says the woman was crossing Highway 33 near Roxby Road in front of Coopers Foods, June 1 just after 3 p.m. when she was hit by a...

Injunction fails, Okanagan Rail Trail land purchase goes ahead

KELOWNA - The last real hurdle to the purchase of the CN Rail corridor purchase was removed this morning in B.C. Supreme Court where an injunction sought by the Okanagan Indian Band blocking the sale was denied. “With no injunction in place CN is within its right to sell the corridor lands,” City of Kelowna...

Three Days Grace announces Kelowna concert date

KELOWNA – Canadian rockers Three Days Grace will play Prospera Place in Kelowna as part of the band’s 15-city Canadian tour that kicks off July 3 in Toronto. The platinum-selling group will stop in Kelowna on Tuesday, Nov. 24, to promote their new album HUMAN. Three Days Grace exploded onto the scene in 2003 with...

Cool, wet weather to hit Okanagan

NEAR-RECORD HEAT EXPECTED BY WEEKEND OKANAGAN - The warm weather we’ve been having is about to step aside to make room for cooler temperatures and rain, lots of rain, over the next few days. Environment Canada has issued a special weather statement for all of the Okanagan Valley as well as the Shuswap, Nicola and...

UPDATE: Young Kelowna man found

Update: RCMP say missing person Ryan Vetter, 20, has been found. —— KELOWNA – RCMP are asking for help to find a missing 20-year-old man with autism who’s been missing for over 24 hours. Police say Ryan Vetter was last seen Saturday morning, May 30, at his home in Rutland. Vetter was wearing glasses, a...

Property tax exemption? How do I get me one of those?

KELOWNA - It's hard to see what Valley First Credit Union in Rutland, the yet-to-be-built luxury Westcorp hotel near Kerry Park and the newly-rebuilt Kelowna Yacht Club might have in common. But what links them is all are either eligible or have already received a ten-year property tax holiday under Kelowna’s revitalization tax exemption bylaw,...