I used to play trumpet, and my crowning musical achievement came not with playing reggae and ska/rocksteady covers at the Garden Works Christmas party (1997), but with having had the privilege of playing “Taps” at my elementary school’s Remembrance Day assembly, circa 1989.    As the only trumpet player in my school band, the...

So the Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan drama is about to come to a head Wednesday with the Harper government’s decision on whether or not to approve the takeover bid by Australia’s mega corporation BHP Billiton.  Most are predicting that Harper will cave under the pressure from Brad Wall, Saskatchewan Party premier and...

Once again council has given the proverbial finger to the taxpayers of Rossland.  This time, council has adopted a Revitalization Tax Exemption (RTE) Bylaw that gives another financial break to developers in the resort areas of the City.  Advocates of development at any cost have repeatedly pointed to all the taxes that...

Just how private should our communications be in this country? While it’s not touted as often in Canada as in the United States, we do live in a supposedly free country. At the end of a decade in which freedoms and privacy have been under attack, it seems, as much as terrorism (particularly In the United States with the...

Every pre-season I make the same promise to myself: this year is going to be different. When the snow hits and the chairs start rounding the bull wheel, I’m going to be ready. My need for cardiovascular fitness, endurance, flexibility and strength training will be aligned via a realistic and attainable regime, the ultimate ...

Editor's note: the following is a list of things that took place during the author's trip to Palestine a couple of weeks ago.A large demonstration was held in central Nablus calling for the release of the thousands of prisoners held in the Israeli gulag.Israeli forces shelled Gaza.The Palestinian Authority arrested 53 men in...

 So you've looked at some of the warning signs I talked about last week and now you're pretty sure you have a virus. Now what? The most important message I want to get across is that you have to DO SOMETHING. I frequently get told, "I don't have any data to protect, so I'm not worried."   This is a terrible misconception for...

Once upon a time our ancestors split one another open with roughly shaped stone hatchets in the interests of divining insights into future events.    Given our closer ties and more intimate connections to our physical environment back in the olden days, I’m of the mind that a fair bit of the sought after information revealed...

A couple of weeks ago, a friend of mine I met through blogging hosted a bloggers' retreat weekend at her home in Calgary. I was so excited to participate that I booked an overnight trip on the Greyhound to get there, and another overnight trip to get back. The total cost for a round-trip on the Greyhound to Calgary, if you ...

The ski season unofficially kicked off this past weekend with a bang, literally.   At 4:20pm on Sunday afternoon a window pane rattling thunderclap shook Rossland before dumping several hours of heavy hail on the Golden City. Starting Saturday afternoon however the snowline has dropped significantly in the Rossland Range....