Kelowna

Get ready for new Kelowna HOV lane rules
KELOWNA - There are some new rules to follow if you're driving Highway 97 through Kelowna, starting January 19. The High Occupancy Vehicle lanes will transition to time-of-day operations. From 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday to Friday excluding holidays, the HOV lanes must be observed. At all other times, the lanes will be available...

Counting Crows ‘Hanginaround’ Kelowna this spring
KELOWNA – Counting Crows will be stopping in Kelowna for a concert this spring as a part of the band’s world tour to support their new album Somewhere Under Wonderland. The band hasn’t toured Canada in over 15 years. “It’s about time we’re getting back to Canada,” lead singer Adam Duritz says in a media...

Big and Rich returning to Merritt
JOINS DIERKS BENTLEY, LADY ANTEBELLUM AND OTHERS MERRITT - Dierks Bentley was announced as the Saturday night headliner for the Rockin’ River Fest in Merritt back in November and now several other big country names are set to join him. Big and Rich, who have previously performed in Merritt, will return to close out the...

Service planned for Fire Chief’s daughter killed in car wreck
KELOWNA – A memorial service for Alexandra Nyuli, the woman who died last week after her vehicle left the road in Joe Rich and tumbled 100 m down a bank will be held this weekend in Kelowna. Nyuli, who was 21, was one of three daughters of Joe Rich Fire Chief Curtis Nyuli. On Jan....

Kelowna RCMP ‘routinely’ breach privacy during strip searches: Judge
KELOWNA – Kelowna RCMP "routinely" violate the right to privacy of female prisoners during strip searches at the detachment and show "ignorance of the law" on the subject, according to a ruling from a provincial court judge. Judge Ellen Burdett said local Mounties' practice of recording and broadcasting female strip searches to a guard room...

Highway 1 closed for avalanche control Friday
AVALANCHE RISK AGAIN HIGH THOMPSON-OKANAGAN - If you are heading east for the long weekend you might want to adjust your travel times. In addition to a winter driving advisory from the Shuswap to the Alberta border, delays of up to three hours are expected on Highway 1 through Glacier National Park on Friday. Drive...

STAHN: Community needs to step up to stop tagging
There’s urban art, known as graffiti to many, and then there’s tagging—the ugly scribbles, words and obscene pictures that end up on our buildings, on murals and even in tot lots. This has been a growing issue throughout the region and in the past year has hit some pretty low lows. Penises drawn on playground...

Lake Country to jump on rail corridor purchase if no vote fails
KELOWNA — Lake Country will move ahead quickly with the purchase of its portion of the CN Rail corridor should the alternative approval process succeed, a prospect that seems increasingly likely. “If we’re good and we don’t reach the 931 by noon on Feb. 23 then hopefully we would have a special council meeting on...

Family Day fun events in Kelowna
KELOWNA – It’s family day next Monday and with many people getting a three-day weekend Kelowna has a pile of fun events to make it special. Start the weekend off with a special parent and child floorball game at OKM Secondary Feb. 6. With rules that limit stick contact and physical play, the action is...

Smoky skies advisory for Interior
THOMPSON-OKANAGAN - Fires to the north of us are causing smoky conditions and the Ministry of Environment is now warning people to take additional precautions because of the smoke. A smoky skies advisory was issued today for the Thompson, Shuswap, Okanagan, Similkameen, Nicola, Boundary and Fraser Canyon areas. Similar advisories have also been issued for...

UPDATE: Smoky skies advisory ends
THOMPSON-OKANAGAN - After more than a week under a smoky sky advisory, the smoke has finally cleared. There have been more than 1,100 wildfires this year and more than 252,000 hectares have burned. Six of those fires have been more than 10,000 ha in size with the largest reaching more than 88,000 ha. Smoke from...

Power back on after outage hits large chunk of Central Okanagan
KELOWNA - Only 124 customers in Vernon remain without power following an outage that affected thousands of B.C. Hydro customers in Kelowna, Lake Country and parts of Vernon. The brief power outage started at roughly 7:20 a.m. leaving more than 7,000 people in the dark. B.C. Hydro blames a transmission circuit failure for the outage....

Spring is in the air
TEMPERATURES TO WARM, RAIN TO FALL THOMPSON-OKANAGAN — If you’ve been dreaming of spring weather, this weekend could be your dream come true with temperatures hovering near the double digits, and bringing rain. Lots of rain. Wednesday temperatures will hover just above seasonal normals of 1 Celsius, according to Environment Canada, but by Friday will...

Heavy snow and freezing rain on the way
THOMPSON-OKANAGAN - A winter storm is bringing heavy snow to much of the province today and tonight and the Southern Interior is no exception. Environment Canada says to expect heavy snow on Highway 1 from Eagle Pass to Rogers Pass—up to 25 centimetres by Friday morning—and on Highway 3 from Paulson Summit to Kootenay Pass....

Chicken-killing bobcat tranquillized and relocated
KELOWNA – A Kelowna resident lost four chickens to a bobcat earlier this week—maybe the same cat seen hunting in neighbourhoods in the Upper Mission. Conservation office Ed Seitz says he was called Wednesday after the chickens were killed at a property in the lower Mission along Lakeshore Road. Last week, a bobcat attacked a...