Charlotte Helston

VERNON - Vernon’s mayor took an opportunity to confront B.C.’s Minister of Finance on a matter of fairness for all municipalities at a luncheon Wednesday. Mayor Rob Sawatzky said the provincial government's budget accomplishments were built by downloading services to municipalities. He asked Finance Minister Michael de Jong if he had plans to help local...

HOW ONE GIRL HELPED PUT CONNOR DEE AWAY She explains how he lured her, used her, tormented her, and all the things she hopes the next girl does differently.  VERNON - She still gets a shiver when she is reminded of him: The car he drove, having her picture taken or a Facebook request from...

VERNON - Would you let your 11-year-old flash her chest to a stranger on the street? Of course not. But the predators aren’t on the street anymore; they’re online. Sgt. Mathias Vanlaer works for B.C.’s Integrated Child Exploitation Unit and says the old adage “Don’t talk to strangers” is as relevant as ever.  Just this...

VERNON - His name will never make headlines like Amanda Todd or Rehtaeh Parsons, but a Vernon man due to be sentenced for blackmailing underage girls online could have a more lasting impact on similar cases, according to a former prosecutor. Connor Dee, 28, had nothing to do with the high-profile suicides of B.C.'s Amanda...

THOMPSON-OKANAGAN - Despite a spike earlier this summer, accidental drownings in B.C. plateaued mid-summer and were actually fewer than they were last year. According to the B.C. Coroners Service, water claimed 54 lives across the province between January and August of this year. That’s ten more than were recorded in mid-July when authorities reported a...

VERNON — There’s new movement on the Kelowna Pacific Railway as Canadian National Railway will start freight service on 75 per cent of the KPR rail network. CN will resume operations on 97 miles of track running from Campbell Creek, B.C., located approximately 10 miles east of Kamloops, to Vernon, Lumby junction and Lumby, B.C. CN will...

"HE'S CREATING A WEB OF COMPULSION... THAT IS ALMOST UNIMAGINABLY DEVASTATING TO HIS VICTIMS." VERNON - A man who lured girls over the internet, extorted nude photos of them, and was in the possession of child pornography won't be going back to jail if his defense lawyer gets his way. Connor Dee, 28, pleaded guilty...

VERNON - A Vernon man kept nude photographs of girls as young as 11 on his cell phone, neatly organized into folders titled with their names.  Connor Dee, who according to online profiles is originally from Pritchard, near Kamloops, has been in custody for a year and a half after evidence contained on cell phones...

OKANAGAN - Health officials say around 500 kg of potentially poisonous cheese entered the marketplace before a recall went into effect, and an Okanagan cheesemaker says “that’s scary." With one dead and 10 more people across B.C. and Alberta sick with E. coli after eating Salmon Arm’s Gort’s Gouda cheese, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency...

VERNON - It was supposed to be a fun road trip back to Alberta with her girlfriend, sightseeing along the way. But Annemarie McCrie wishes they’d never stopped at Gort’s Gouda Cheese Farm. McCrie, 37, is one of 11 people in B.C. and Alberta to have eaten the cheese and become ill with E. coli...

CLOONEY HIMSELF WOULD DO A DOUBLE TAKE VERNON - If Enderby can't have the real George Clooney, they can at least have some fun. Cardboard cutouts of the celebrity—who is in town for the filming of Tomorrowland—are making their rounds in the small town. Debonair in a black tuxedo and standing just the right height,...

VERNON - With them or against them, Sensible B.C. campaigners want British Columbians to have a say on how police handle a very controversial plant. It's the first day signatures can be collected for a petition that, if successful, will put marijuana reform before voters in the form of a referendum. On the ballot would...