Steven Wilson

The man who was charged in the death of an RCMP officer in 2021 has pleaded guilty to manslaughter.  

Alphonse Stanley Traverse, a 43-year-old originally from Winnipeg, was originally charged with manslaughter in the death of Constable Shelby Patton in Wolseley in June of 2021. The charge was upgraded to first-degree murder after his preliminary hearing, which was held in Regina in November of 2021.  

As technology changes and advances, it will oftentimes be incorporated into the classrooms. The advent of computers, and the access to them, has grown leaps and bounds in the past 40 years. Smartphones have revolutionized ways in which classroom materials can be delivered, or even how assignments can be submitted.  

With autumn officially starting on Saturday, the temperatures in the southeast so far this month have been decidedly un-autumn-like. The average daytime high for the month has been nearly five degrees warmer than the 30-year average.  

With El Nino, the weather phenomenon known for causing milder than average winters in the prairies, starting earlier than normal this year, there were many wondering if it would have an earlier impact on the weather for southeast Saskatchewan.  

Saskatchewan residents could be seeing a bit of a break on their SaskEnergy bills starting next month. The provincial government has approved a rate decrease request from SaskEnergy.  

The decrease, which will take effect on October 1st, will see the commodity rate for natural gas go from $4.20 per gigajoule to $3.20 per gigajoule, a 24.5 percent decrease. There will be a slight increase, though, in the delivery service rate, as it will be increasing by five percent.  

The end of the 2023 harvest is on the horizon.  

The most recent crop report from the provincial Ministry of Agriculture, released Thursday morning, showed that 79 per cent of the harvest has wrapped up in southeast Saskatchewan. This is above the five-year average of 74 per cent and is just behind the rest of the province, which is 82 per cent complete.  

With the summer winding down, Members of Parliament from across the country are returning to Ottawa after a summer in the constituency. This includes Souris-Moose Mountain MP, Dr. Robert Kitchen.  

Kitchen didn’t just take some time off during the summer, though, as he was busy in and around the riding.  

A good old-fashioned Saskatchewan winter. That is the prediction for the year from the Old Farmer’s Almanac.  

“We’re looking for really cold spells to start in the middle of November, and then also to be especially cold at the end of December into the beginning of January, and then from the end of January all the way through the middle of February,” explained Jack Burnett, the managing editor of the almanac.  

The Saskatchewan United Party is adding their opinions regarding the offer of $2 million dollars for an MRI machine for southeast Saskatchewan that was declined by the provincial government in the spring.  

Producers here in the southeast managed to make great progress on getting the 2023 crop into the bin last week. The latest crop report from the provincial Ministry of Agriculture showed 66 percent of the harvest is done, up from the five-year average of 64 percent. The southeast is slightly behind the provincial average of 68 percent, though.  

The South East Cornerstone Public School Division is looking for school bus drivers.  

As of Wednesday, there were nine rural routes that did not have a driver, including one of the Weyburn Rural routes, two routes in Radville and Carlyle each, a route in Fillmore, and a route in Ogema and a route in Pangman.