MERRITT, B.C. - The Tumbleweed Playschool Society is a small, non-profit preschool with the purpose of nurturing children in the community of Merritt. Tumbleweed Playschool has been running for over 40 years, serving hundreds of families of Merritt and enriching the lives of three- and four-year-olds. Students gain fun...

Efforts to protect local waterways from invasive mussels are being ramped up by the province's partners.B.C. Hydro is supporting B.C.'s Invasive Mussel Defence Program (IMDP) with a new five-year commitment of $900,000 in annual funding beginning in 2024"Invasive mussels pose an increasing and significant risk not...

KAMLOOPS - Technology in the world of firefighting, when it comes to wildfires is changing, and looking to be at the forefront of that change is Fire and Flood Emergency Services. The company opened up their first shop in B.C. today at the Kamloops Airport - nearly eight years to the day after it was founded.What start...

Rusty Brewer's husband, Bill, was a cowboy at Douglas Lake Cattle Company. After he died in a drowning accident, Rusty and her two- and four-year-old children moved to Merritt in 1976 and found comfort in hockey. Rusty got hooked on the game. And the game was a step-father, of sorts. Soon enough, she was a billet mothe...

VANCOUVER - Canfor Corp. says it has signed a deal with an affiliate of Domtar Corp. to buy its El Dorado lumber manufacturing facility in Arkansas for US$73 million. The facility in Union County, Ark., produces dimensional lumber and specialty wood products. Canfor says it expects production capacity at the mill to in...

SURREY, B.C. - British Columbia homicide investigators say a man from Surrey has been charged with aggravated assault in relation to one of two stabbings in White Rock, B.C. A statement from the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team says 28-year-old Dimitri Nelson Hyacinth has been charged over the alleged assault of ...

VANCOUVER - B.C. Supreme Court Justice Kevin Loo says court documents detailing alleged bullying and harassment of Surrey Police Service members by the RCMP shouldn't be kept from the public. Loo refused to seal the material, saying allegations that are "sometimes justified and sometimes spurious," are tende...

VICTORIA - A B.C. Conservative private member's bill to classify publicly funded sports teams and events according to the "biological sex" of participants, banning transgender athletes, didn't make it out of the starting blocks. The Fairness in Women's and Girls' Sports Act was voted down at first reading, a ...

VANCOUVER - Pro-Palestinian protesters who set up an encampment at the University of British Columbia campus in Vancouver have brought in food, water and other supplies to prepare for what may become a protracted stay. The encampment went up Monday and now has supply tents, filled with large quantities of bottled water...

VANCOUVER - London Drugs is investigating whether personal data was compromised in a cybersecurity incident that prompted the company to close all of its stores across Western Canada until further notice. A statement from the retailer and pharmacy chain says it will notify "affected individuals" if the probe ...

OTTAWA - Liberal MP Pam Damoff says she won't run again in the next federal election, saying she has experienced misogyny, disrespectful dialogue in politics and threats to her life. Damoff says she's proud of her time in politics but it is no longer for her, and it's time to turn the page to a new chapter. She has re...

OTTAWA - A federal commission of inquiry into foreign interference plans to release a report Friday on alleged meddling in the last two general elections. Commissioner Marie-Josée Hogue is slated to make a statement to the media following the public release, but will not take questions. The inquiry recently wrap...

OTTAWA - A woman accusing former New Democrat MP Romeo Saganash of sexual assault has filed a civil suit, saying she never wanted prosecutors to divert his criminal charge to a restorative justice program. Carmen Roy, who fought to have her name released in the case, alleges she was sexually assaulted a year ago, and n...

OTTAWA - The first seniors to register with the new federal dental care plan can now start submitting claims. The government says about 1 million seniors are now eligible to receive dental care under the program. The program was conceived as part of a co-operative political pact between the Liberals and the New Democra...

OTTAWA - The Opposition Conservatives continue to out-fundraise other federal parties, bringing in millions more than all the others combined in the first three months of the year. The Tories raised nearly $10.7 million from more than 51,000 contributors between January and March. That's more than three times as good ...

Quebec's new rules banning the construction of shared gender-neutral bathrooms in schools come into effect today. The government directive requires that all new bathrooms and locker rooms in schools across the province be designated for either boys or girls. School service centres, however, do have to ensure any studen...

LONDON (AP) - German tennis legend Boris Becker was discharged from bankruptcy court in London after a judge found Wednesday he had done "all that he reasonably could do" to repay creditors tens of millions of pounds. Becker fell far short of repaying his creditors in full, but Chief Insolvency and Companies ...

WESTMORELAND, Kan. (AP) - One person died Tuesday when a tornado ripped through the small city of Westmoreland in northeastern Kansas, destroying houses, RVs and outbuildings, authorities said. Pottawatomie County officials said on Facebook that a tornado struck the city of about 700 people Tuesday evening, destroying ...

NEW YORK (AP) - The pro-Palestinian demonstration that paralyzed Columbia University ended in dramatic fashion late Tuesday, with police carrying riot shields swarming the Ivy League campus, bursting into an administration building protesters took over the previous night and making dozens of arrests. A statement releas...

BEIJING (AP) - The first scientist to publish a sequence of the COVID-19 virus in China said he was allowed back into his lab after he spent days locked outside, sitting in protest. Zhang Yongzhen wrote in an online post early Wednesday that authorities had "tentatively agreed" to allow him and his team to re...

NEW ORLEANS (AP) - A new congressional map giving Louisiana a second majority-Black House district was rejected Tuesday by a panel of three federal judges, fueling new uncertainty about district boundaries as the state prepares for fall congressional elections. The 2-1 ruling forbids the use of a map drawn up in Januar...

BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) - Democratic state Sen. Timothy Kennedy won a special election Tuesday for the New York congressional seat vacated by Democrat Brian Higgins. Kennedy defeated Republican Gary Dickson for the upstate New York seat, helped by a 2-to-1 Democratic registration advantage in the district, which includes Bu...