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Glynn Brothen

Glynn Brothen

  • Joined: January 01, 2023
  • Articles: 1329

2015 TOP STORIES: Major crimes across the B.C. Interior

THOMPSON-OKANAGAN - This year had no shortage of crime stories, with the RCMP launching several major investigations and the courts wrapping up cases from previous years. Here is a summary of some of the top crime stories of 2015. In August, a man was found dead in Vernon’s Polson Park. Police have kept mum on...

Kamloops plan to help youth homeless goes national

KAMLOOPS - Several agencies in town do their best to help curb homelessness in Kamloops, but one is being recognized nationally for assisting homeless youth. Katherine McParland, youth homelessness manager with Interior Community Services, has joined forces with 15 agencies in town to help teens who are homeless or could be soon. McParland and other...

Penticton couple became millionaires on Boxing Day

PENTICTON - A lottery ticket purchased at Penticton’s Cherry Lane Shopping Centre let a local couple keep the celebration going the day after Christmas. Lindsay Slobodzian and Grzegroz Slobodzian checked their lottery ticket while Boxing Day shopping, Dec. 26, just an hour before hosting a family get together, and found out they won one of...

Kamloops police searching for man behind Instagram scam

KAMLOOPS - Police are on the lookout for a man accused of illegally obtaining a stay and food at a Kamloops hotel by pretending to be an Instagram advertising executive. The man stayed at a hotel and ate for free by promising to promote the business on the phone photo sharing app Instagram, but he...

Gift of dress, community spirit, thrills Salmon Arm mother and daughter

KAMLOOPS - The mother of a young girl whose community rallied to get her a dress for the winter formal says she’s amazed by the generosity and Christmas spirit of strangers. “I am amazed and in utter shock,” Janet Perry says. “I could not believe it." Perry’s daughter Olivia Perry-Coultas, 17, is a student in...

Massive gun-bust case tossed due to numerous mistakes by Kamloops Mounties

KAMLOOPS - After RCMP raided a Kamloops trailer filled with guns and ammunition in December 2013, they displayed their haul at the RCMP detachment where the city’s top cop posed for pictures and told reporters about the dangers of illegal firearms. They got multiple weapons including shotguns and chopped up, rebuilt long guns, ammunition, drugs...

School and seamstress spin holiday magic for Salmon Arm student

SALMON ARM - Things were looking grim when Olivia Perry-Coultas and her teachers started looking for something she could wear to the Salmon Arm Secondary winter formal dance — few things fit and time was running out. But the generosity of her community and strangers helped her feel like a princess for the special day....

Missing Red Deer man could be in Kamloops

KAMLOOPS - A 19-year-old who has not been seen for more than a week may have travelled to Kamloops. Members with the Red Deer RCMP detachment are searching for Conor DeMerchant, who was last seen in Red Deer Dec. 5. Police think he may have travelled to either Kamloops or Edmonton. DeMerchant is 5’9” tall,...

OWNERS FOUND: Old family photo from Kamloops thrift store is finally going home

KAMLOOPS - The search for the owners of a family portrait from the 1960s has a happy ending after the daughter in the photo identified herself and got in touch with the Lillooet woman who found it in a Kamloops thrift store. Dallas Kempfle purchased a picture frame at Value Village two years ago and...

Trying to find the family in a portrait found at a Kamloops thrift store

KAMLOOPS - A family treasure was the last thing a Lillooet woman expected to find when she bought some second-hand picture frames at a Kamloops thrift store, and now she's searching for the family it belongs to. When Dallas Kempfle brought the frame home from Kamloops’ Value Village in 2013, she opened it up and...

Penticton man pleads guilty to transporting illegal firearms through Kamloops

KAMLOOPS - A Penticton man who paid two teenagers to drive him and a trunk full of guns to the Fraser Valley before being chased throughout Kamloops’ Aberdeen neighbourhood won’t be out of jail until late next year after receiving his sentence today, Dec. 7. Nicolas Stephen Galbraith, 29, was supposed to have his trial...

How a minor break-in led to arrest in six-year-old Kamloops sex assault

KAMLOOPS - A man suspected of committing a serious sex assault in Kamloops six years ago was identified as a suspect after the Alberta courts ordered him to submit a DNA sample for breaking and entering a college campus last year.   On Nov. 27, Kamloops RCMP said Taylor James Howard Matchett was arrested in...

One year later: The shooting of a Kamloops police officer

KAMLOOPS - It’s been one year since residents in the Batchelor Heights neighbourhood of Kamloops awoke to the sound of gunfire, only to find out a Mountie was gravely injured and a manhunt was underway. Cpl. Jean-Rene Michaud pulled a white sedan over on the side of the road on Dec. 3, 2014, around 2:45...

Changing speed limit signs on the way for B.C. highways

THOMPSON-OKANAGAN - Highway drivers will start seeing variable speed signs later this winter as the Ministry of Transportation begins installing them this week, though they won't be functioning until early in the new year. The pilot project, which is currently in its testing phase, will include signs on sections of the Trans-Canada, Sea to Sky...

Inspired by music, this Kamloops tree lights up when it feels the beat

KAMLOOPS - You might have noticed the festive lights strung across several trees on Victoria Street, but there’s one tree different than the rest. The tree, in front of Blenz Coffee shop, will only light up when a passerby connects its sensor to an instrument. “It’s actually very simple,” developer Aras Balali Moghaddam says. “The...

Kamloops artists sound off on Syrian conflict through music, spoken word

KAMLOOPS - Local artists are sharing their gifts to provide both commentary and support following ongoing conflict in Syria and the upcoming arrival of refugees to the area. Singers and songwriters Deandra Dey and Timothy Brookbanks recently produced a track, Wait and See, and are hoping to donate funds received from their song toward refugee support....

The Sheepdogs set to rock Vernon and Kamloops in early 2016

THOMPSON-OKANAGAN - Canadian band The Sheepdogs will be making two stops in the Southern Interior on its cross-country tour next year. The tour follows the latest album, Future Nostalgia, released by the Juno award-winning rock band from Saskatchewan. Tickets will go on sale this Friday, Dec. 4, for the Feb. 17 show at Cactus Jacks next...

Chase RCMP searching for suspects after armed bank robbery

CHASE - Police are searching for two suspects after staff at a bank in Chase were robbed at gunpoint this afternoon. RCMP Sgt. Gary Heebner says officers were busy investigating a false report of shots fired in the North Shuswap when a man holding a long-barrelled gun entered the Royal Bank  branch at around 1:20...

Cattle rustler convicted in Kamloops starved cows to cover up theft: Rancher

KAMLOOPS - Ranch hand Jason John McDowell was sentenced in Kamloops earlier this month for defrauding his Cache Creek employer and stealing cows from an Alberta ranch owner. But somehow the sentencing judge never heard half the most damning allegations: He didn’t just sell his boss’s cattle, he nearly starved off his entire herd to...

Brent Butt to make only B.C. stop in Kamloops on cross-Canada tour

KAMLOOPS - Canadian comedian Brent Butt will make a stop in Kamloops next year for a stand-up show. The creator and star of CTV sitcom show Corner Gas will perform at the Sagebrush Theatre on March 20. The Kamloops show will be the last stop on his cross-Canada tour and is the only stop scheduled...

Suspects in Merritt car-jacking face assault charges in court

MERRITT - Two suspects arrested after an alleged car-jacking turned into a police standoff at a Merritt hotel are in court today. Samantha Kathleen Vleeming, born 1990, and Cory Claudio Battilana, born 1984, were arrested Nov. 25 after police followed up on a report of an attempted car-jacking at gunpoint. A man allegedly offered two...