Lacombe

The Town of Olds Community Connections Centre is continuing its annual Backpack Drive to support local children heading back to school.

Donations of new or gently used backpacks and lunch kits are being collected for the Olds Community Connection Centre’s drive.

School supplies are also welcome.

The Lacombe Performing Arts Centre (LPAC), in partnership with FCSS Lacombe, is once again offering dementia-friendly music sessions this fall.

The free weekly program runs Tuesdays from 10:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m., from October 7 to December 2, at LPAC.

Registration is required by emailing admin@lacombepac.com or calling 403-588-4386.

The sessions are designed to build community connections, uplift spirits, and create an inclusive environment for people living with dementia.

On Wednesday, drivers using Highway 11 east of Red Deer will have to take an alternate route due to railway maintenance near Range Road 244.

Highway 11 between Highway 815 and Highway 601, east of Red Deer, will be closed from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m.

The Blackfalds Community Group on Facebook is promoting a local Blackfalds athlete for national recognition as Youth Athlete of the Year.

Draeton, a goaltender with the Red Deer Rustlers Hockey Club, is currently sitting in third place in the online contest, which ends Thursday (August 21) at 7:00 p.m. PDT.

If named Youth Athlete of the Year Draeton will be featured in a 3BRAND advertisement in Sports Illustrated and receive a $25,000 prize.

Draeton is one of 10 athletes nominated, and votes are being cast daily for free or additional votes by donation.

More information is released as the RCMP Major Crimes Unit seeks the publics assistance in locating wanted 20-year-old male Ashton Deschamps.

Deschamps is wanted for the second-degree murder of 31-year-old Chanse Twins, a resident of Ermineskin First Nation, which occurred on August 13, on the Louis Bull First Nation. 

Deschamps is described as: 

After a summer of rodeos, dinosaurs and door-knocking, Pierre Poilievre is now officially heading back to Ottawa as a Conservative member of Parliament for Alberta.

The Tory leader will represent the sprawling rural riding of Battle River—Crowfoot, in the province's eastern region, after winning a byelection on Monday. 

"Getting to know the people in this region has been the privilege of my life," Poilievre told a crowd at a victory party in Camrose, Alta., on Monday night. "In fact, I've had a hell of a lot of fun."

Air Canada and the union representing its flight attendants have reached a tentative deal to end a strike that began on Saturday morning.

The airline said it will gradually begin operations Tuesday.

The two sides met through the night with a federal mediator before reaching a tentative agreement that will be brought to members of the Air Canada component of the Canadian Union of Public Employees.

"Your right to vote on your wages was preserved," the union said in a post on its website announcement the end of the strike.

Wetaskiwin and Ponoka RCMP have arrested and charged two in connection with a $60,000 equipment theft.

On Aug. 8, Wetaskiwin RCMP received a report of a company work trailer that had been broken into in Wetaskiwin County near Malmo. About $60,000 worth of tools were stolen.

One of the stolen items contained an Apple AirTag, which pinged to a home in Ponoka.

Today, the Honourable Heath MacDonald, Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food, announced the initial list of regions that will qualify for the Livestock Tax Deferral in 2025.

Alberta's government is looking to power some of its jails with solar energy.

The province says it's planning to build solar installations at five of its 10 correctional facilities, with early energy cost savings estimated at $1 million per year.

"The solar installations are expected to offset approximately 80 per cent of the energy used at each site," Michael Kwas, press secretary for Infrastructure Minister Martin Long, said in an email.

He said the estimated savings will likely change as the installations are further designed.