Elevate your local knowledge

Sign up for the iNFOnews newsletter today!

Select Region

Selecting your primary region ensures you get the stories that matter to you first.

Kelowna news

Woman killed in car crash spread joy through social media

KELOWNA – Joselyn Casavant’s Facebook status updates were "hilarious," according to one of her hundreds of friends. The 21-year-old who died after being hit head-on by a speeding Honda on McCurdy Road last weekend is being remembered by family and friends as someone who genuinely cared about making other people happy. Anthony Kuchma, 23, first met...

Those red light cameras? Apparently they work pretty well

THOMSON-OKANAGAN - There’s no question drivers run red lights on the highways and byways of the Southern Interior but compared to the Lower Mainland, they’re amateurs. A story this week in the Vancouver Sun shows the worst 25 intersections for red-light running out of the 140 intersections where ICBC operates red-light cameras account for more...

Southern Interior water beat by Chilliwack in tap water taste test

THOMPSON-OKANAGAN - Waterworks staff in the Okanagan and Kamloops will be drowning their sorrows tonight after losing out to Chilliwack in a tap water taste test which wouldn’t have looked out of place at a winery. “It’s a clear winner,” joked Tanja McQueen, CEO of the B.C.Water and Waste Association, who hosted the tasting and...

Local bands seek musical peak in B.C. contest

THOMPSON-OKANAGAN - Two bands from the Thompson-Okanagan are in the running for the musical opportunity of a lifetime. This year’s chosen dozen for the Peak Performance Project include Vernon-based artist Windmills, and Kamloops-based Van Damsel, the only musicians from the B.C. Interior. The rest of the Top 12 are dominated by artists in the Lower Mainland...

Kelowna going to Memorial Cup semi-finals

KELOWNA - The Kelowna Rockets finished round robin play in Quebec with one win and two losses but were still able to secure a berth in the Canadian Hockey League Memorial Cup semi-final round thanks to owning a better average of goals-for and goals-against. The Rockets beat Rimouski Oceanic earlier this week but fell to...

Kelowna company expands delivery to Europe and Asia

KELOWNA – The company formerly known as Kelowna Flightcraft is expanding its cargo routes overseas. Now called KF Aerospace, the Kelowna-headquartered aviation services company will have routes four times a week between Toronto and Europe via Brussels and daily service between Toronto and Atlantic Canada. Within two months the network will expand to include all...

How far the City of Kelowna must go to get commuters out of cars

KELOWNA - Forget bike to work week; this is just one of 52 weeks in a larger year-around social engineering campaign to change your mindset on getting from A to B that will hopefully reduce our overall need to engineer new roads and bridges. And in the Central Okanagan, that's no small task which probably...

Nine salmonella victims in B.C. Interior contracted from live chicks

THOMPSON-OKANAGAN - The Interior Health Authority is bearing the brunt of a B.C. salmonellosis outbreak connected to live poultry distributed from a hatchery in Alberta. The health authority has dealt with nine of 13 confirmed cases within the province and one of the two that required hospitalization, according to Althea Hayden, a public health physician....

Laundry privatization decision expected this summer

THOMPSON-OKANAGAN - Hospital Employee Union members who filled the Interior Health Authority board meeting yesterday to show their concern about laundry service privatization got a polite but firm message from chairman Erwin Malzer. “Thank you very much for bringing your concerns to us but no decision will be made until we receive the request for...

Solar Road stabbing victim identified, murder charges laid

WEST KELOWNA – The man who died after being stabbed in the chest during a fight in West Kelowna April 29 has been identified and charges against the suspect upgraded to second-degree murder. Jose Amestica, 50, will appear in court June 2. He was originally charged with aggravated assault until the victim, Kevin McNally, 44,...

Local singer takes home award for best female country music star

KELOWNA – A singer-songwriter born in Kelowna won the Coachella Valley Music Awards for best female country music album this month. Kelly Margaret Derrickson, daughter of First Nation Grand Chief Ron Derrickson, took home the award May 17. Nominations are made by 200 industry insiders, including radio and TV personalities, music writers and journalists, music...

Two people arrested for brandishing weapon at Swankie’s

Kelowna – A man and woman were arrested for brandishing a weapon at a Rutland restaurant Tuesday. Const. Joe Duncan says the pair, a 33-year-old man and a 33-year-old woman with no fixed address, were arrested a few hours after the Swankie's Hot Dog Restaurant on Rutland Road was closed following an incident involving a weapon...

Aboriginal health strategy hopes to improve care outcomes

THOMPSON-OKANAGAN - Tailoring healthcare for the 54,000 First Nations living within the Interior Health Authority will improve the quality of life and health outcomes and ultimately save money by reducing the need for services amongst a population that is overrepresented within the system. That’s the message behind the aboriginal health and wellness strategy adopted yesterday...

Campapalooza campacacancelled

THOMPSON-OKANAGAN – A first-of-its kind event that gives parents a chance to get a taste of all the different summer camp options in one place has been cancelled. Campapalooza was to be held at Okanagan College May 30, but according to their website has been 'postponed until April 2016.' The event would have brought together...

What would you pay for a gently-used school board office?

KELOWNA - For sale: one well-used school board office built in 1972 and the four acres of land that sits under it. Asking price: $6.5 million. Make us an offer, please. After three years on the market and a recent price cut, the Central Okanagan School District head office across from Orchard Park Mall, which...

‘He’s grabbing onto my gun,’ says cop charged with assault

LANGUAGE ADVISORY KELOWNA – An RCMP officer accused of assault says the elderly bar patron he took to the ground, punched three times and arrested last year was going for his gun. “I (felt) a very distinct feeling on my right hip,” the accused, Const. Grant Jacobson, 32, said in court today, May 26. “In...

Health authority continues to monitor possible Ebola cases

THOMPSON-OKANAGAN - If the ongoing Ebola epidemic has a human face within the Interior Health Authority, it’s that of Patrice Gordon, a nurse practioner who returned from West Africa last December and promptly began displaying the early signs of of the disease. Gordon tested negative for the virus, but since then the health authority has...

Condoms in Kelowna high schools the goal of pilot project

KELOWNA - Condoms could soon be handed out to students around the Central Okanagan if a pilot project gains approval. The Central Okanagan School District is considering a request from the Interior Health Authority to allow local high schools to participate in a condom pilot project. The pilot project will supply participating schools within the...

Rimouski little challenge for Rockets

QUEBEC CITY - The Kelowna Rockets defeated the Rimouski Oceanic 7-3 on Monday night at Le Colisee in Quebec City, improving to 1-and-1 and securing at least a chance to play in a tie-breaker game at the 2015 MasterCard Memorial Cup, with one game still remaining in the round robin. Nick Merkley, Leon Draisaitl and...

Kelowna housing market numbers reach pre-financial crisis levels

KELOWNA - The Kelowna housing market has reached levels not seen since 2008, right before the global financial crisis, when the local market was red hot. Both single-family and multi-family housing starts as well as total residental sales have been trending upward since then, according the Canadian Mortage and Housing Corporation’s spring housing market outlook....

UPDATE: Barfly says RCMP officer assaulted him after long day at the pub

LANGUAGE ADVISORY KELOWNA – A Kelowna man says a local RCMP constable assaulted him during an arrest at a downtown pub after 13 hours of drinking last summer. Const. Grant Jacobson pleaded not guilty to criminally assaulting John Patrick McCormick, 61, on the patio of Rose’s Pub in Kelowna at around 2 a.m. June 28,...

Clerk pepper sprayed in Kelowna robbery

KELOWNA - Early Sunday morning a man entered the Mac’s Convenience Store on Richter Street demanding cigarettes before pepper spraying the clerk and fleeing the scene. Cpl. Joe Duncan with the Kelowna RCMP says they received the call around 2:30 a.m., May 24, that a man had robbed the Mac’s Store in the 2100 block...