GAS PRICES UP BY ALMOST A NICKEL, DIESEL UP AS WELL
Nova Scotia gas prices are noticeably higher this morning. They’re up by 4.8 cents per litre, to $1.07 in the local area. Your best price for diesel is up by about half that amount, to $103.5 per litre this week.
LOCAL WOMAN GOES TO COURT FOR MACDONALD STREET ARSON CHARGES
A 32-year-old Pictou County woman is up on charges of arson, mischief, and uttering threats following a full probe into a suspicious fire in New Glasgow back on the night of September 10th. At the time, police said the fire had started at the front of the house, between 10:30 and 11 at night. The house had three apartments, with one on the bottom floor and two on the upper floor, but people were only living in the two upstairs. No injuries were reported and her first court date is March 1st. (NGRP photo)
COVID CASES HAVE PREMIER AND STRANG STAYING CAUTIOUS, LEARY OF NB’S INCREASE
There’s a slight sigh of relief over Nova Scotia’s coronavirus count this morning, with four new cases being reported in the latest update. Public Health says one travel-related case is in the Northern Zone, while the new case in the Eastern Zone is a close contact of a previous case.
Officials say the two cases in the Central Zone are also close contacts of previously reported cases. Premier McNeil says the count of just four cases is encouraging, but major caseload increases just across the border in New Brunswick are cause for concern. The Premier and Dr. Strang have another livestream planned for early this afternoon.
CANADIANS TRYING TO FLY HOME IRKED BY CORONVIRUS NEGATIVE TESTING MANDATE
Vacationers trying to return home to Canada from tropical sunspots were denied seats on their return flights yesterday under new rules requiring anyone traveling to the country to prove they have passed a recent COVID test -19.
Ten passengers from WestJet Airlines Ltd. were not allowed to board their plane to Calgary from Cancun, Mexico, while eight Air Transat passengers were unable to catch their flight to Toronto from Holguin Airport in Cuba.
The two flights are the airlines’ first international return flights under a rule that came into effect Thursday that requires international passengers aged 5 and over to prove they have tested negative for COVID-19 in the past. 72 or 96 previous hours, depending on which country you’re returning from.
OPPOSITION SAYS TOO MANY PLAYERS DELAYED THIS WEEK’S ALERT REGARDING AMHERST SHOOTER’S CAR BEING LOCATED AND HIS ARREST, MINISTER SAYS HE’LL CONSIDER SIMPLIFYING THE NS SYSTEM
The armed 24-year-old accused of shooting and wounding a Moncton teacher Tuesday at suppertime is back on the minds of Nova Scotia opposition leaders – this time because of the lag-time between the RCMP approving the final wording of its emergency warnings on the topic, and the first actual warning that came into peoples’ phones on Wednesday. While this newsroom was alerting our listeners from Amherst and down the Sunrise Trail into Pictou County as early as 7 o’clock Wednesday morning, those alerts did not hit peoples’ phones until several hours later. To explain that, RCMP are blaming the triple-layer backlog among RCMP here and in New Brunswick, plus Amherst Police, where the shooter’s abandoned car was found. Chuck Porter, the minister responsible for the Emergency Management Office, which actually sends those alerts in Nova Scotia, says he’s willing to discuss granting police direct access to the system, instead of keeping that extra level of delay. But Porter says that’s still not a guarantee of things improving. (AlertMedia Photo)
ANOTHER DEATH IN THE WAKE OF WASHINGTON VIOLENCE, TRUMP ISSUES NEW VIDEO
A fifth person has died as a result of this week’s riots by Trump supporters in Washington. This time, it’s a police officer who had been on life support as a result of the mob over-running the U-S Capitol. It comes after Donald Trump issued a new video last night, telling people who got out of hand at the deadly incident, that they will be punished, “to the full extent of the law. “ (Reuters Photo)
DRY CELLS TO BE ABOLISHED IN NOVA SCOTIA JAILS
A woman serving time at the Womens’ Prison in Truro is getting part of the credit for the province deciding to end the practice of “dry celling,” which involves keeping inmates isolated in cells without toilets to determine if they are concealing drugs in a body cavity, and watching by camera for body functions that could plant those items in a toilet bowl, if one were available. Lisa Adams was helped by a prisoners’ rights group in fighting back against the practice.
Provincial Justice Minister Mark Furey says a review of the practice has concluded the use of new body scanning technology has eliminated the need for dry celling. (Cdn Press)
FISHING ORGANIZATIONS SAY NORTHERN PULP’S LIAISON GROUP DOESN’T INCLUDE THEM
The Maritime Fishermen’s Union, the Gulf Nova Scotia Fleet Planning Board and the P-E-I Fishermen’s Association say there is no one on Northern Pulp’s Community Liaison committee pitching their official points of view. In their combined news release on the topic, the groups say “We are concerned that several members of Northern Pulp’s environmental liaison committee may claim to represent commercial fishing interests. We are also concerned that Northern Pulp may claim that they have consulted with and considered the interests of commercial fishers in this region.” Although the mill’s roundtable group says it has people representing the fishing point of view at its table, the three groups say nobody currently on the Environmental Liaison Committee officially represents them or has the authority to speak about their concerns. Northern Pulp has not issued a follow-up news release over the accusations, even though it has been mentioned in the company’s court documents. (Stingray News Photo)
“GHOST” FISHING GEAR HURTING OUR OCEANS AND BEACHES
Federal Fisheries officials say more than 63 tonnes of lost fishing gear was retrieved from our section of the Atlantic Ocean in 2020 as part of a government program to reduce marine pollution. Federal Minister Bernadette Jordan says most of the so-called “ghost gear” collected were abandoned traps and pots from lobster and crab fishing. The majority of it came from the Bay of Fundy and coastal waters off the southwestern shore along with the Gulf of St. Lawrence and off the shores of Newfoundland. (File Photo)
