Elevate your local knowledge
Sign up for the iNFOnews newsletter today!
Vernon news
Early spring both good and bad for local farmers
OKANAGAN – The early heat felt across the Okanagan this year has local farmers springing into action. Producers of vegetables, fruit, hay and alfalfa crops say the warm weather came at least two weeks early this year, meaning they can plant earlier, expect higher yields and very likely harvest earlier as well. At the Kelowna...
Hot dog calls on rise as weather heats up in Southern Interior
THOMSON-OKANAGAN - Though summer isn’t even officially here, the unseasonably warm weather in the Interior is already prompting concerned calls about dogs left unattended in cars. “We’ve had three or four already this morning (May 22) and yesterday we had half a dozen before lunch,” Cam Buksa, spokesman for the Central Okanagan branch of the...
Few answers in head-on collision that killed Vernon boy
VERNON - What caused a vehicle carrying a Vernon boy to swerve across Highway 97 a year ago remains a mystery, even with the findings of a coroners report. The May 4, 2014 accident killed Rodney Michael Boring, 14, on a stretch of Highway 97 going through Lake Country. Boring was the passenger in a...
Alpaca headed to Armstrong auction makes a break for it
ARMSTRONG - A runaway alpaca caused quite a scene in the Armstrong area Thursday. It jumped out of a truck while being unloaded at Valley Auction, off Highway 97 in Spallumcheen, and made a break for it, May 21. “The little fellow takes off on us,” Valley Auction owner Don Raffan says. “At one point...
Locally filmed Tomorrowland starring George Clooney hits theatres
VERNON - A movie partly filmed in the North Okanagan opens in theatres today. Disney’s Tomorrowland — starring George Clooney, Hugh Laurie and Britt Robertson — hits the big screen Friday, May 22 In Vernon, your first chance to see the film will be at Cineplex. The first showtime is 4 p.m. today. You can...
Vernon man dies after fall from sailboat
VERNON – A Vernon man fixing a mast on a sailboat at the Vernon Yacht Club died after falling from a ladder Thursday. David Gilbert Jones, 82, struck the rigging and parts of the boat and then landed in the lake after falling from the ladder Thursday morning, May 21, according to a media release...
Tolko’s mountain of ash plagues Spallumcheen residents
SPALLUMCHEEN - Palisades Mobile Home Park resident Beverly Anderson first experienced what she calls a “soot storm” shortly after she moved in last year. “My first mistake was we went out and left all the windows open. When I came back in it was like a dust storm all over my floor, and my cupboards,”...
Dangerous driver who left Vernon nurse paralyzed sent to prison
“I HAVE BEEN GIVEN A LIFE SENTENCE WORSE THAN JAIL”: NURSE VERNON - An accident of some kind was inevitable the night a Vernon woman’s life changed forever, court heard during a sentence hearing for the man who ran into her car and fled the scene. Michael Timothy George Heeley, 22, was driving recklessly before...
Study at UBC Okanagan seeks breast cancer survivors
OKANAGAN - A researcher from UBC Okanagan is hoping to find survivors of breast cancer for a study on the effects of increasing physical exercise after treatment and rehabilitation. Cristina Caperchione, an assistant professor with the School of Health and Exercise Sciences, is leading ProjectMOVE which has secured a $200,000 research grant from the Canadian...
Second crossing 20 years out but planning now is essential, transportation ministry says
WEST KELOWNA - If you ask project director Murray Tekano, the current study about where to put a second Okanagan Lake crossing is not just a public relations exercise to be seen doing something. Tekano says 20 years for planning a major infrastructure project such as the second bridge is standard for the industry and...
Why Vernon won’t have fireworks at this year’s Canada Day celebration
CITY DOESN'T PUT ON THE SHOW, BUT IT MANAGED TO PUT IT OUT VERNON - A time-honoured tradition won’t be on the lineup of events for Canada Day in Vernon this year due to a shift in the event’s organizational structure. Normally, Vernon resident Terry Schmauder would lead preparations for the Canada Day fireworks show,...
Man says bull called Slow Poke was violent despite name, sues Vernon rodeo company
KAMLOOPS – A novice rider is suing a rodeo company in Vernon, B.C., over a bull named Slow Poke that he alleges failed to live up to its name and caused him serious injury.
Numerous snake scares in the Okanagan
THOMPSON-OKANAGAN - Snake encounters have shaken up a number of Okanagan residents in the last few days — including one in an apartment building — and a wildlife control expert says in many cases, it has to do with the weather. Pete Wise runs a wildlife control service based in Vernon and says he’s had...
You have a few more months to register your off-road vehicle
THOMPSON-OKANAGAN – Good news for the estimated 200,000 trail riders across the province as the government has pushed the deadline to register off-road vehicles from June 1 to Nov. 1. According to a press release sent Wednesday, May 20, the deadline change will give users more time to prepare for the mandatory registration as well...
Police step up efforts to curb speeding in Armstrong
ARMSTRONG - Several speeders were surprised to find police waiting for them on a backcountry road in Armstrong this week. Residents in the Otter Lake Road area of Armstrong have expressed concerns about speeders to police and city council, and those worries prompted an enforcement blitz early Tuesday morning, RCMP spokesperson Gord Molendyk said in...