call HART crazy .. but

Good thing .. I guess! Being a local here in Winnipeg … it’s nice to get these assholes off the streets! I remember a few summers ago, it was pretty bad. Not only were people racing between lights after Polo Park Shopping Center (at St.James Street – going west) .. they would sit there at the lights, revving up .. and wait until the last second when it turned yellow or red again. It was quite annoying.

Wed, December 13, 2006
By CHRIS KITCHING, STAFF REPORTER

A pair of Winnipeg teens is facing charges following a landmark police investigation into street races that were captured on video and brazenly uploaded to youtube.com.

It is the first time city police have charged a person, let alone two, in connection with actions in an Internet video.

The five-minute clip — captured on video by a passenger — shows cars racing at high speeds on recognizable streets in Winnipeg. The clip has since been removed from the popular site where people can post homemade video.

Police traffic unit Sgt. Barbara Tobin said the teens are charged with dangerous operation of a motor vehicle (a Criminal Code offence), and three Highway Traffic Act offences — racing with another vehicle, imprudent driving and careless driving.

“To the drivers that engage in this type of behaviour we will use whatever means at our disposal to proceed with charges,” Tobin said.

“It was the first time we had ever utilized footage from the Internet. We looked to find out if there were ever any precedents on that, which we didn’t find.”

Mark De Leon, the alleged driver, and Mathew Zigue, his alleged passenger and cameraman, are slated to appear in court in January.

While De Leon declined comment yesterday, his alleged sidekick was surprised charges had been laid after learning about them from a Sun reporter.

In one scene in the video, a car races at high speed against a dark-coloured Honda Civic, at one point passing through a school zone near Tec-Voc High School in the West End.

The car also does two sprints. One scene shows the speedometer reaching 120 km/h.

CAA Manitoba president Mike Mager said the “reckless” actions in the video could have injured or killed someone.

“I’m glad the police followed up on it and they’ve taken steps to charge the individuals. It is a deterrent and they won’t do it in the future,” Mager said.

The edited footage was uploaded to YouTube in June and deleted after the link and stinging comments by two people in the local automotive industry were published in the Sun in August.

Two names appeared at the end of the homemade video, and viewers got a glimpse of the driver’s face and licence plate.

In August, University of Manitoba law Prof. David Deutscher said the Internet video may not be admissible as evidence in court.

“The usual test for the admission of photo or video evidence is that you have to have someone there that says, ‘This video accurately depicts what took place,’” he said.

Copyright © 2006, Canoe Inc. All rights reserved.

SOURCE: Winnipeg Sun

call HART crazy .. but

It’s NOT the Winnipeg International Airport anymore .. it’s the ..

Winnipeg James Armstrong Richardson International Airport

New name for Winnipeg’s airport
DEC 10 2006 11:10 AM

Winnipeg International Airport will now bear the name of a Canadian aviation pioneer.
As of Sunday, it will be known as the Winnipeg James Armstrong Richardson International Airport.

Justice Minister and Provencher MP Vic Toews was on hand for the announcement….

(click above for audio)

Richardson founded Western Canada Airways in 1926. His carrier was the first national carrier to fly out of Stevenson airfield, which later would become Winnipeg International Airport.

CJOB’s Brenton Driedger reporting.

SOURCE: CJOB

call HART crazy … but

There was a civic election here in Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada – and our Mayor Sam Katz got elected for another four years. Get This…

Voter turnout was near an all-time low, with 171,395 votes cast on Wednesday — about 38 per cent of the 450,000 registered voters in the city. In the 2002 civic election, 48.7 per cent of eligible voters cast ballots.

THE REASON THERE WAS A LOW TURNOUT BECAUSE NOBODY KNEW WHERE TO VOTE OR WHEN TO VOTE AND FELT THEY WEREN’T ON ANY REGISTERED VOTER LIST YOU IDIOTS.

Every election is different here. I think one of the “election promises” was to reduce costs was to not register people or send them voting cards. As a result, citizens were supposed to bring their driver’s license or two pieces of ID to prove who they were at the last voting poll. However, I can’t remember where the last voting poll was – there has been 3 elections (provincial/federal) since the last civic election.

We have a sign on our mailbox “NO JUNKMAIL” and I receive the mail everyday. All junk mail is trashed. But, that was only the candidate junk mail. If it wasn’t for about 20 volunteers for one candidate campaigning across our street during rush hour traffic October 24, thus bringing another 20 volunteers from her competitor on the other side of the street .. we would have never even remembered that it was voting day October 25th. Therefore, my wife and I couldn’t care less about going to vote and we didn’t.

If it is worth anything – I am glad Sam Katz got re-elected. He is good for Winnipeg. There was nobody else running of importance that impressed Winnipeggers i.m.o.

And speaking of Dirty Campaigning

Ottawa launches complaint against new U.S. ad
Updated Thu. Oct. 26 2006 8:58 AM ET

CTV.ca News Staff

Ottawa has lodged a complaint with Washington in response to a Republican television ad that slams Canada as a bad neighbour on the world stage.

The swipe at Canada is secondary to the ad’s first purpose, which is to blast Democratic Senate candidate Harold Ford Jr.

The 30-second ad features various actors who suggest Ford supports gun control, has lax fiscal policies and is slack on terrorism and nuclear threats against the U.S.

“Canada can take care of North Korea,” says one man featured in the ad. They’re not busy.”

…..

MORE: CTV.ca

call HART crazy .. but

October 11, 2006 = was the first day we had snow here in Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada .. it dried up and replaced by windy rain and a slight hail .. but then cleared up before night fall. In the morning, October 12, 2006 – there was at least 2-3 cm of snow on the ground and the temperature was -0.1c.

According to Environment Canada .. this is how the future looks for us .. weather-wise ..

Environment Canada’s Official Weather Warnings
Warnings
City of Winnipeg
10:01 PM CDT Thursday 12 October 2006
Wind warning for
City of Winnipeg continued

Winds northerly 60 gusting 90 km/h tonight and Friday.

A massive low pressure system in Northern Ontario is slowly drifting towards Manitoba. This system is generating very strong northerly winds of 60 gusting 90 km/h over the Red River basin. Winds will continue throughout the day on Friday. A few flurries are also expected tonight over most of the Red River basin..With the likelihood of brief periods of very low visibilities in snow and strong winds at times tonight. However downwind of Lake Winnipeg snowsquall activity caused by the cold air streaming over the warm lakes is likely to enhance snowfall amounts in narrow bands..Thus a heavy snowfall warning is in effect for these areas with localized amounts of 10 cm of fresh snow forecast by Friday morning. Visibility will be extremely poor in these lake-effect snowsqualls

Yes .. it’s true – I’m officially wearing SOCKS now … and SHOES … (and keep my CROCS for inside the house) .. and long legged regular jean pants. Time to dig out of the basement some of my winter accessories for the car .. the snow brush .. my parka .. ski-doo boots, gloves, touque .. scarf .. etc

call HART crazy .. but

For my brother’s birthday in May, I gave him a “1-Month Free Internet Service” coupon .. printed on my free PetLvr.com E-Card site. He doesn’t have internet, because he didn’t pay his bill. One day, I tried to find out how much he really owes and was thinking of suprising him, and pay off his bill .. but, I couldn’t figure out if he owed $50.00 or $500.00 in unpaid DSL bills. God only knows that the Phone Company is worse than Canada Revenue Agency in trying to determine information about yours or anybody elses account, without quadruplicate verification and cross checkings in place! Thus, the reason for my offering to only pay for 1-month service, should he ever get service back.

Well .. he wants to surf in June, and begged me to sign him up on dial up service .. so I did! Netscape.ca Dial Up service. I wonder if it’s any good.

Anyway, I paid for the first month, using my own credit card .. (with the understanding that if he doesn’t set up some prepaid check authorization withdrawal that I will cancel before July 1, 2006) .. and was about to get him going .. (we were talking over the phone while I did this) … and ..

His computer doesn’t have a dial-up modem. It just had the DSL modem – and that doesn’t work! haha .. oh well .. no porn for him tonight or whatever the need to use the internet so quickly was for. Actually, I think he wanted to sign into his William Hill betting online account and bet on a few sports games.

10-Day Weather Forecast for Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada

OCTOBER 4th, 2005 .. there is a weather warning in effect here ..

Upcoming Forecast:
2030 PM UTC OCT 04 2005
(Winnipeg — Environment Canada)

WEATHER WARNING IN EFFECT
Tonight…Cloudy. 40 percent chance of showers this evening. Rain beginning overnight. Wind northeast 30 km/h gusting to 50. Low 2.

Wednesday…Rain mixed with snow. Wind northeast 30 km/h gusting to 50 increasing to 50 gusting to 80 in the morning then diminishing to 30 late in the day. Temperature steady near 2..

call HART crazy … but

.. So is our weather …. They already have a link to tomorrow’s Flight Delays … what’s up with that?

There shouldn’t be any snow until AFTER Halloween, i.m.h.o. – Did we have Summer? Where did it go?