Okotoks

National Human Trafficking Awareness Day is on February 22, and the Alberta government has announced new funding to put an end to human trafficking.

Human trafficking violates the fundamental human rights and takes advantage of those who are vulnerable, subjects victims to forced labour, sexual exploitation, and other forms of abuse.

Because of this, it perpetuates the cycles of poverty and trauma and affects individuals and communities all over the province.

Foothills County is under a wind warning today (Feb. 22).

Environment Canada issued the wind warning this morning, because westerly winds gusting near 90 km/hr are expected to develop later today.

The high winds could cause loose objects to be tossed around and could cause branches to break.

These high winds may also lead to power outages and fallen tree branches.

The wind gusts should diminish Sunday morning.

To stay up to date on the weather, head over to our weather page.

A fatal disease is spreading amongst Alberta's deer population.

Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) is a brain disease that affects deer, elk, and moose in North America, including right here in Southern Alberta.

"It's a strictly fatal disease, so it's always deadly," explains Dr. Sabine Gilch, who is a professor of Prion Diseases at the University of Calgary. "It is contagious, so it is transmissible from animal to animal within a population. And the very special thing about it is that it is caused by very unique pathogens that are called prions."

If you're looking to get hitched this year, some great professionals are waiting to help you.

The third annual wedding fair and market 'The Rehearsal' is back again this year at the Highwood Centre.

Running from 11 a.m. until 4 p.m. on Saturday, February 22 it features a sell-out of over 35 vendors.

The vendors are all wedding professionals from Southern Alberta.

There will also be giveaways and all the advice you can handle

The Foothills School Division (FSD) is warning the school community about a potential scam.

It's surrounding the PowerSchool data breach from January.

At the time, FSD released a statement saying they were not affected by the cyber-attack, as they don't use PowerSchool for its student information system.

Support staff with the Foothills School Division (FSD) will soon be going on strike.

CUPE Local 5040, which represents around 300 support staff at FSD, served the division with a 72-hour strike notice on Thursday (Feb. 20) evening.

This comes just over a week after they voted in favour of job action.

Film enthusiasts are in for a treat this weekend.

Thanks to the Okotoks Film Festival, people can watch all of the 2025 Oscar-nominated short films at the Okotoks Cinemas starting today (Feb. 20).

"We are showing all of the packages of short films that have been nominated," Festival Organizer Katie Fournell explains. "So, there's three categories of short films at the Oscars. There is live action, documentary, and animated."

"Hurry, Hurry Hard!" will be heard this weekend at the Provincial Stick Curling Championship.

It takes place at the Bob Snodgrass Recreation Complex from Friday, Feb. 21 to Sunday, Feb. 23.

Open ceremonies kick off at 1:30 p.m. on Friday at the curling rink at the Rec Plex.

Stick curlers from around the province will be in High River for the weekend with the winners moving on to compete in the Canadian Stick Curling Championships in April.

Stick curling is just like curling but athletes use a stick to push the curling rocks out of the hack.

Canada defeated its archrival the United States 3-2 in overtime in the 4 Nations Face-Off final on Thursday night in what was an emotionally-charged affair for players and fans alike.

The rematch between the two sides was intense, although it did not consist of three fights in the opening nine seconds, as the preliminary round game in Montreal did last Saturday, a 3-1 win for the Americans.

Connor McDavid scored the game winner, while Nathan MacKinnon and Sam Bennett scored in regulation for Canada. Brady Tkachuk and Jake Sanderson replied for the U.S. 

Seventy per cent of Canadians are in favour of dollar-for-dollar retaliatory tariffs on the United States, a new poll suggests.

Nearly half of respondents to the Leger poll — 45 per cent — said they were strongly in favour of such tariffs, while 25 per cent said they were somewhat in favour.

U.S. President Donald Trump has pledged to impose steep tariffs on imports from Canada and other countries.