David Zammit

A plethora of crimes across western Canada appears to have left a mark on multiple communities in Saskatchewan, including some in the southeast.

The unsolved crime spree from the early part of July travelled through Chaplin, Swift Current, Tyner, and Eston.

According to an RCMP crime map, the first law-breaking instance in the southwest was a fuel theft in Chaplin.

The two alleged suspects then evaded police in the Swift Current area.

Home and business owners will be paying more for power starting next month and again early next year.

The provincial government approved SaskPower's 4 per cent increase request last week which takes effect as of September 1. They also rubber-stamped a second 4 per cent increase come April 1, 2023.

Don Morgan, the minister responsible for SaskPower, said unchanged rates for the last four years played a factor in the pair of increases.

A series of planned power outages across southwestern Saskatchewan commencing today will leave some folks in the dark.

Residents east, south, and southwest of Shaunavon and east and southeast of Eastend will be without power from 6:30 a.m. until 9 a.m. today.

"We're taking down two feeders at a substation, so this is a system improvement thing we're doing," SaskPower Spokesperson Joel Cherry said. 

An estimated 560 customers will be affected.

Nearly 500 motorists across Saskatchewan incurred a costly mistake to start their summer last month.

According to the Saskatchewan Government Insurance's (SGI) June traffic safety spotlight, police caught 482 impaired drivers - 319 of which received criminal charges.

"An impaired driving charge or even getting your licence suspended can really wreck your summer," said SGI's Manager of Media Relations Tyler McMurchy.

A smooth-shelled turtle unearthed six years ago in southwestern Saskatchewan's backyard has turned into a rare find.

According to a team of paleontologists, the 2016 discovery near Grasslands National Park is a Leiochelys Tokaryki. Making it only the second of its kind studied in North America, the other being in Mexico.

"It suddenly hits, like wow, this is something that hasn't been discovered before and we're the first people to really look at it," Caelan Livke, a University of Regina Master of Science student, said.

A smooth-shelled turtle unearthed six years ago in southwestern Saskatchewan's backyard has turned into a rare find.

According to a team of paleontologists, the 2016 discovery near Grasslands National Park is a Leiochelys Tokaryki. Making it only the second of its kind studied in North America, the other being in Mexico.

"It suddenly hits, like wow, this is something that hasn't been discovered before and we're the first people to really look at it," Caelan Livke, a University of Regina Master of Science student, said.

One of Saskatchewan's long-standing traditions was turned into a charity event Friday night in the southwest.

Twenty bulls hit the chutes in Lancer, with five riders surviving the eight-second count, but the evening put on by Caitlyn's Crusaders was all about raising money for the MS Society of Canada.

Caitlyn Stenberg, who was diagnosed with MS in 2018, succeed in her fundraising mission again, bringing in over $4,200.

The Swift Current Rural RCMP are on the lookout for a missing 37-year-old female.

According to an RCMP press release, Marley Cook was last spotted at a Gull Lake residence on the evening of May 28 and hasn't been in contact with her family since.

The RCMP says she's 5-foot-3 and 120 pounds with brown eyes and medium/long black hair.

Cook has a scar on her right jaw and was last seen wearing a tank top and shorts.

She has ties to Saint Paul, Alberta area, but police haven't been able to confirm if she's left Saskatchewan. 

The west part of Saskatchewan Landing Provincial Park is pegged for some significant upgrades this summer.
 
A new service centre will be built this year in the Bison Hollow campground in the northwest part of the park. The facility will feature eight showers and eight washrooms and cost the province over $700,000.

SaskPower is turning to a United States-based company to up its potential energy capacity.

Yesterday the Crown corporation announced they'd applied to the Southwest Power Pool (SPP) to upgrade their current transmission line from 150 megawatts to 650 megawatts by 2027.

The move would allow SaskPower to continue its shift to more renewable energy while attempting to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 50 per cent from 2005 by 2030.