Back in the early 2000s, Omaha’s 311 was on a real roll, selling lots of records, playing plenty of gigs, and making their share of big-budget music videos.
In 2001, they managed to get Shaquille O’Neal for a cameo in the video for their song You Wouldn’t Believe. At the time, O’Neal was playing for the LA Lakers and the team was in the middle of a playoff run. The team stipulated that O’Neal was not to play any basketball outside of official games and practices for fear that he might get hurt.
But 311 convinced him to play a little hoops in this video, completely in contravention of orders from the Lakers. There was an added complication.
For some reason, O’Neal showed up with two left shoes. Where was anyone going to get a pair of size 22 basketball shoes at short notice? Nowhere. Shaq still agreed to appear in the video—but if anyone filmed his feet, he promised that he’d sue.
Being on tour as Nirvana must have been a pretty intense thing. There were all those nights where Kurt (and sometimes the rest of the band) smashed all their gear onstage. The label had granted the band a $750 equipment allowance when the band went on tour, but given the amount of gear that was trashed, that didn’t go very far.
Hotel rooms and dressing rooms also suffered, often using fire extinguishers in ways they were not intended.
Then there was the time one of their tour vans almost went up in flames. Kurt, who was often keen on using destruction to alleviate his boredom, was giving an interview with a journalist and apparently got bored. So he set the van’s curtains on fire.
The flames were put out before there was some real damage, but the label was not impressed.
Federal Sports Minister Jacques Olivier, left, presents a cheque to chairman of the Calgary Olympic Development Association Bob Niven at a ceremony in Calgary on March 30, 1984. Niven, who was president of the bid committee for the 1988 Calgary Winter Games, died May 26 at the age of 80. Niven was vice-chair of the organizing committee and served as mayor of the Olympic village during the Games.
One of the men who brought the Winter Olympic Games to Calgary in 1988 has died.
Bob Niven, who was president of the bid committee, died May 26 at the age of 80.
Niven was vice-chair of the organizing committee and served as mayor of the Olympic Village during the Games.
Canada Olympic Park named its high-performance training facility in his honour.
The legacy facilities from the 1988 Winter Games gave athletes a place to train and compete and helped make Canada a strong winter sport country.
Niven’s obituary states he died of corticobasal degeneration, which is a rare progressive, degenerative neurological disease that primarily affects speech, motor function and balance.
According to his obituary, Niven was born Aug. 16, 1942, in Maryport, England. His father, Robert H. Niven, was a Canadian pilot serving in the Royal Air Force who was killed in action three months before Niven was born.
Niven travelled to Canada with his mother, Andrea, in 1946. On the voyage his mother met Canadian military surgeon Max Cameron. They married and the family settled in Calgary.
Niven spent 45 years working in the oil and gas industry after completing a master’s degree in mechanical engineering at the University of British Columbia in 1957.
He spent 12 years volunteering for the Calgary Olympics as bid committee chair and vice-president of the organizing committee.
He also served as the chairman of the Calgary Olympic Development Association (now WinSport), which provides training for Olympic athletes and maintains the 1988 facilities.
Niven was inducted into the Alberta Sports Hall of Fame in 2012.
As crime continues plaguing Kelowna's downtown core, more business owners and employees are coming forward with calls for help. Last month the city's mayor said council was very close to unveiling some key strategies to address the growing problem but as Jayden Wasney reports, what those initiatives are is still unknown.
Kelowna City Hall will pay tribute to a beloved community builder this week by flying its flags at half-mast.
Former city councillor, MLA and MP and continual community builder Al Horning died March 20 at age 83.
The city said in a notice sent out on Monday that flags at civic facilities throughout the city will be lowered to half-mast on Saturday, June 10 to honour Horning.
“Al Horning represented the epitome of community service,” Mayor Tom Dyas said in a press release.
“He was an inspiring leader whose years of dedicated public service in all three levels of government have resulted in a legacy of benefits for our community.”
Horning served as city councillor from 1980 to 1988 and from 2002 to 2005. He was instrumental in key transformational city projects, including the expansion of the Kelowna International Airport runway.
Last February, in recognition of Horning’s years of dedicated service, Dyas announced that a new road would be named in his honour, connecting the airport to Rutland – both of which benefited from his decades of advocacy on their behalf.
His greatest accomplishment, according to a 2019 Kelowna Daily Courier article, was the expansion of the airport runway, which allowed bigger planes to come into Kelowna, and later fighting for the Western Star military truck contract.
He didn’t always set his sights on such sizable goals, also working to build the ball diamonds of Rutland.
WATCH: "You just start slowly. You don't have to go all out every time..." It's Bike Week and cyclist Patty Boge wants you to give biking a shot!
Summer weather brings out a growing number of cyclists on Winnipeg streets, but you may have encountered more than usual on your Monday morning commute.
Bike Week board chair Dave Elmore says he believes there needs to be more cycling education for both cyclists and drivers, as more active transportation infrastructure pops up across our city.
“The numbers are constantly growing — I think the pandemic actually created even more growth because we know lots and lots of people went out and bought bikes or dragged that old bike from wherever — in their shed somewhere — and got out riding their bikes during the pandemic,” Elmore told Global Winnipeg.
“A lot of those people are looking to continue. I think they enjoyed riding their bikes, and they’d kind of forgotten how much they enjoyed it.”
Elmore said the city has taken some good steps forward so far with active transportation, but there’s more to be done.
“We need to move more in a direction of giving people alternatives in how they transport themselves, because we can’t continue to grow just a car city.”
Bike Winnipeg’s Mark Cohoe said taking up cycling isn’t just about improving your health, it can also go a long way toward fostering healthy communities. He says events like Bike Week can act as a gateway for getting Winnipeggers on two wheels rather than relying entirely on cars.
“When you’re spending less on your transportation, you’ve got an ability to spend more in your local shops — and you’re probably also a bit more likely to shop locally and be that frequent, loyal customer that I think businesses would really like to see,” he said.
“Often we find the perceptions (of cycling) are worse than the reality, so we’re giving people the chance to get out on a day when they’re going to be comfortable, when they know some of their friends and their workmates are going to be doing it as well.”
One prominent cycling proponent in Winnipeg is the city’s mayor, Scott Gillingham.
Gillingham told Global Winnipeg that he cycles to work whenever possible, and encourages other residents to do the same.
“I try to ride to City Hall as often as I can. I’m a fair-weather rider, so I only ride in spring summer and fall, but I try to ride at least once a week, try to get to the office on my bike,” Gillingham said.
“Often I have offsite meetings, so I need my vehicle, but I ride when I can.”
The mayor said the city is investing in active transportation so more people can feel comfortable cycling — and that his experience as a cyclist in traffic has been generally positive.
“I find most motorists are respectful of cyclists and share the road … I encourage all motorists and cyclists to share the road together.”
Christian Routenburg-Evans’, 18, won the Royal Canadian Legion’s provincial public speaking contest for the senior division 2023
Supplied by Jody-Lynn Routenburg-Evans
For Christian Routenburg-Evans, 18, the first year of high school was not the carefree learning experience he’d expected. Within the first semester, he said a fellow student started harassing and sexually assaulting him.
By the second semester, the Owen Sound teen says the sexual assault only got worse and included the student cornering him in the boys’ bathroom on multiple occasions.
He says the experience and what happened after he spoke out shaped his high school experience. He is speaking about it now in hopes it helps other students and enacts change within the school system, a system he said failed him by not holding his assailant to account.
“I didn’t tell anybody because I was embarrassed, and it’s something that I also didn’t realize that it’s not a normal thing until I really thought about it,” Routenburg-Evans says.
“I was a 90-plus student when I entered high school, and then I was struggling to get credit and hardly passing classes. My mental health was declining. I suffer from depression, PTSD and anxiety from that situation, and it’s also changed me in ways that I am not even sure about to this day.”
Routenburg-Evans turned his story about his sexual assault into a speech that won the Royal Canadian Legion’s provincial public speaking contest for the senior division 2023, but it’s taken him a while to get to a point where he feels comfortable talking about it.
Christian Routenburg-Evans’, 18, won the Royal Canadian Legion’s provincial public speaking contest for the senior division 2023
Supplied by Jody-Lynn Routenburg-Evans
Reporting the assault
“It was a week or two after the fact that he sexually assaulted me. We were at a parent-teacher meeting, and my teacher was questioning why I wasn’t staying on track and not focusing in class. I said because I was staying away from this certain student, and I was afraid that he was going to continue touching me,” Routenburg-Evans says.
After admitting what had happened to his parents and school administrators, Routenburg-Evans says they reported the incident to school administrators and the police.
Routenburg-Evans said the assault was brushed off by school administrators with a minimal response.
He says the student assault him at least two more times after it was reported to school administrators.
The director of education for the Bruce-Grey Catholic District School Board congratulated Routenburg-Evans for his award but said it could not comment specifically on the incident.
“We take the safety of all students and staff seriously and we follow our student discipline and police protocols. We are not able to speak specifically about a specific incident, its investigation or results, because they involve the personal information of students,” said Gary O’Donnel.
Routenburg-Evans says his family would eventually drop charges against the student instead of going through a lengthy court process to ensure a peace bond could be put in place requiring the student to keep a certain distance from him.
“I couldn’t concentrate in school, and I was always worrying about what was going to happen to me in between classes or after school. I wasn’t sure if people were going to follow me and try to hurt me because I spoke up about something that happened,” he says.
Bullied for speaking out
Routenburg-Evans says that because the school’s action towards the student was minimal, many of his classmates doubted that anything had happened to him.
“Peers would verbally harass me in many ways and sometimes physically.”
He says students started rumours that what happened was “a gay encounter” or just ordinary boy behaviour, not sexual assault.
“When I was sexually assaulted in the continuous years after the fact, I would beat myself up inside because I didn’t defend myself because I was frozen in place. It’s just so hard to get around that mental factor that I couldn’t do anything,” he says.
The Canadian Centre for Male Survivors of Sexual Abuse estimates one in six men have experienced some form of sexual abuse during their lifetime.
The agency notes on its website that it is difficult for men who were sexually abused as a child to come forward and that limited resources are available that specifically focus on the issues men face in these situations.
“Sexual assault with boys is seen as something that happens in the locker room, it’s supposed to be normal, and it’s not something that is talked about enough for people to realize that they’ve been in these certain situations and it experience sexual assault they just don’t know it because it’s just a normal thing to happen.”
Sharing the experience to help others
Routenburg-Evans says he has worked hard to not feel ashamed about what happened to him.
“I’m hoping to start speaking at many school boards in Ontario because they need to change the way they deal with sexual assault. I feel like a lot of it’s brushed under the carpet and is not as widely talked about at all in schools.”
He hopes that his speaking out makes it easier for victims, especially males, to feel comfortable reaching out for help.
“The main point is it’s not your fault. You have to go and tell somebody and talk to a close family member or friend, just to let them know how you’re doing because this could be affecting you inside, and it’s just going to get worse (as) you get older.”
After performing his speech in the Legion’s competition, Routenburg-Evans says several men approached him to share their own stories of sexual abuse.
“I think that students need to know that they all deserve a safe school environment and shouldn’t be scared of who’s coming behind them or what’s going to happen to them if they speak out about this stuff,” he says.
“You are stronger than you realize, and your voice matters.”
Victims of sexual assault can find help through the Kids Help Phone at 1-800-668-6868, the Victim Support Line 1-888-579-2888, or Male Survivors of Sexual Abuse Provincial Crisis and Support Line 1-866-887-0015.
Police in Lindsay, Ont., continue to investigate a purse-snatching incident on May 13, 2023. A surveillance image of a suspect was released on June 5, 2023.
Kawartha Lakes Police Service
Police in Lindsay, Ont., have released a photo as part of an ongoing purse snatcher investigation.
According to the Kawartha Lakes Police Service, on Saturday, May 13, a man grabbed a purse from a woman as she was walking on Kent Street West.
Police say a witness followed the suspect and was able to recover the purse.
The suspect was last seen running north on York Street.
On Monday, police released a surveillance image of the suspect running from York Street onto a nearby trail.
The suspect is described as being in his late 20s, standing five-foot-eight, around 170 pounds. He had a dark beard and was wearing a blue top and a red and blue baseball cap.
Anyone with information about this incident is asked to contact police at 705-324-5252 or anonymously via Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477) or at khcrimestoppers.com.
A township in eastern Ontario says it’s working with provincial police to evacuate some residents near a wildfire around Centennial Lake.
Madawaska Township says as of Sunday a 24-hour evacuation notice has been issued for some seasonal residents around the 50-hectare fire near Centennial Lake, about 150 kilometres west of Ottawa.
A provincial forest fire update Sunday says there were 34 out-of-control wildfires across the northeast and northwest regions of Ontario.
The province says 12 crews and three helicopters have been assigned to a 9,000-hectare wildfire burning north of Sioux Lookout, the largest of note in Ontario.
The Ministry of Natural Resources has restricted travel around a nearly 7,000-hectare wildfire near Wawa and around several smaller fires burning near Cochrane.
Wildfires burning in Nova Scotia and Quebec have forced thousands of people from their homes and Alberta recently ended a related provincewide state of emergency.
WATCH: F-16 jets trigger sonic boom in chase after unresponsive aircraft over D.C.
A small plane that caused a stir when it flew over the nation’s capitol and crashed in Virginia left behind “highly fragmented” wreckage in a mountainous area that will take days to gather and sort, a federal investigator said Monday.
A day after the unresponsive plane caused the military to scramble fighter jets, NTSB investigator Adam Gerhardt told reporters it will take investigators a while to reach the remote crash scene about two to three miles north of Montebello in mountainous terrain. They expect to be on the scene at least three to four days.
Attention on the crash and its cause was heightened by its unusual flight path over Washington and a sonic boom caused by military aircraft heard across D.C. and parts of Maryland and Virginia.
Speaking at a briefing Monday morning, Gerhardt said the wreckage is “highly fragmented” and investigators will examine the most delicate evidence on the scene, after which the wreckage will be moved, perhaps by helicopter, to Delaware, where it can be examined, he said. The plane is not required to have a flight recorder but it is possible and there are other avionics equipment that will have data that they can examine, Gerhardt said.
Investigators will look at when the pilot become unresponsive and why aircraft flew the path that it did, he said. They will consider several factors that are routinely examined in such probes including the plane, its engines, weather conditions, pilot qualifications and maintenance records, he said.
“Everything is on the table until we slowly and methodically remove different components and elements that will be relevant for this safety investigation,” he said.
A preliminary report will be released in 10 days and a final report will be released in 12 to 24 months, he said.
Police said Sunday night that rescuers had reached the crash site in a rural part of the Shenandoah Valley and that no survivors were found. It was not immediately clear how many were onboard. Virginia State Police said officers were notified of the potential crash shortly before 4 p.m. and rescuers reached the crash site by foot around four hours later.
The Federal Aviation Administration says the Cessna Citation took off from Elizabethton, Tennessee, on Sunday and was headed for Long Island’s MacArthur Airport. Inexplicably, the plane turned around over New York’s Long Island and flew a straight path down over D.C. before it crashed around 3:30 p.m.
The plane flew directly over the nation’s capital, though it was technically flying above some of the most heavily restricted airspace in the nation.
According to the Pentagon, six F-16 fighter jets were immediately deployed to intercept the plane. Two aircraft from the 113th Fighter Wing, out of Joint Base Andrews in Maryland, were the first to reach the Cessna to begin attempts to contact the pilot. Two F-16 aircraft out of New Jersey and two from South Carolina also responded to the incident.
Flight tracking sites showed the jet suffered a rapid spiraling descent, dropping at one point at a rate of more than 30,000 feet per minute before crashing in the St. Mary’s Wilderness.
The North American Aerospace Defense Command said in a statement that the military aircraft was authorized to travel at supersonic speeds, which caused a sonic boom that was heard in Washington and parts of Virginia and Maryland. The aircraft also used flares to try to get the pilot’s attention.
In Fairfax, Virginia, Travis Thornton was settled on a couch next to his wife, Hannah, and had just begun recording himself playing guitar and harmonica when they were startled by a loud rumble and rattling that can be heard on the video. The couple jumped up to investigate. Thornton tweeted that they checked in with their kids upstairs and then he went outside to check the house and talk to neighbors.
The plane that crashed was registered to Encore Motors of Melbourne Inc, which is based in Florida. John Rumpel, who runs the company, told The New York Times that his daughter, 2-year-old granddaughter, her nanny and the pilot were aboard the plane. They were returning to their home in East Hampton, on Long Island, after visiting his house in North Carolina, he said.
Rumpel, a pilot, told the newspaper he didn’t have much information from authorities but suggested the plane could have lost pressurization.
“It descended at 20,000 feet a minute, and nobody could survive a crash from that speed,” Rumpel told the newspaper.
A woman who identified herself as Barbara Rumpel, listed as the president of the company, said she had no comment Sunday when reached by The Associated Press.
The episode brought back memories of the 1999 crash of a Learjet that lost cabin pressure and flew aimlessly across the country with professional golfer Payne Stewart aboard. The jet crashed in a South Dakota pasture and six people died.
A Toronto Police logo is shown during a press conference in Toronto on Aug. 5, 2022. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Cole Burston
CLB
A suspect is in custody after a stabbing in Toronto, police say.
Toronto police said the incident occurred just after noon on Monday in the Bloor Street West and Gardenvale Road area.
Police said officers received reports that a person had been stabbed.
According to police, a man was located with injuries.
The severity of his injuries was not immediately known.
Officers said the suspect fled eastbound on Bloor Street West, where they were taken into custody.
-more to come…
STABBING: Bloor St W & Gardenvale Rd 12:04 pm – reports of person stabbed – suspect fled E/B on Bloor St W – police o/s – located man with injuries – @Toronto_Fire, @TorontoMedics responding – suspect in custody#GO1281064 ^sc
— Toronto Police Operations (@TPSOperations) June 5, 2023
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