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Alberta

The St. Mary River Irrigation District (SMRID) is notifying irrigators that they are now accepting water orders.

For the 2025 irrigation season, water allocation will remain at 12 inches at the farm gate based on the recent Irrigation Water Supply Forecast from Alberta Agriculture and Irrigation.

Crews have started flushing lines and are charging the system for water startup, expected to be available across the entire district by May 5th to 9th.

The City of Fort St John announced this morning on its Facebook page that evacuees can return to their homes this morning, but Fish Creek Community Forest remains closed.

The wildfire is moving northeast, away from Fort St. John.

BC Wildfire Service has taken over firefighting efforts from the Fort St. John Fire Department.

Updates will be shared as they become available. 

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith is deflecting accusations that she's stoking the fires of separatism, despite her government moving to lower the bar for holding a referendum.

Earlier this week, Smith's government proposed legislation that would make it easier for citizens to call for a vote to secede from Canada, drawing heated condemnation from Indigenous leaders who warn it would violate treaties.

A vocal set of right-wing supporters are pushing for an Alberta exit following the federal Liberals' election win Monday.

The release date for Season 5 of The Chosen has officially been announced. 

The Chosen: Last Supper will premiere on Prime Video in the U.S. on June 15 and in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Sub-Saharan Africa, the UK, and Latin America in July. 

The theatrical debut in March in the U.S. and April 11 internationally saw huge success, grossing $60 million and counting.

In the last issue we discussed warm and cold clouds, and we learned that most of our local precipitation is produced in cold clouds, which means that most of it starts off as snow, even in the summer.

This week we are going to look at the different types of precipitation we experience and examine how each type forms.

Next on our list of precipitation types is sleet or ice pellets.

This form of precipitation is created when raindrops freeze in the air before they reach the ground.

Christian artist Leeland is under doctor's orders not to use his voice after a recent discovery. 

On Thursday, the popular Christian singer, who is also a part of the all-star collective, The Sons of Sunday, announced that he has severe vocal cord irritation and a small polyp on his left vocal fold. 

"The polyp is very, very small and could go away with just vocal rest, which is what I’m hoping for," said Leeland in a post on Instagram.

A year-and-a-half after announcing it would massively reorganize the health-care system, Alberta's government says it's now in the final stages of the still-controversial revamp.

The United Conservatives are dismantling the provincial health authority, Alberta Health Services, reducing it to a hospital services provider and putting four new agencies in charge.

Health Minister Adriana LaGrange is proposing legislation that would officially shuffle workers represented by five different unions from AHS to a different agency and the Health Ministry.

The idea of Alberta opting out of the Canada Pension Plan isn't moving ahead — at least for now.

Premier Danielle Smith says she won't be putting the creation of a provincial pension plan to a referendum any time soon.

"I'm not seeing that there's an appetite to put it to the people at the moment," Smith told reporters at an unrelated press conference Thursday.

"I have said that I would put it to the people if I saw evidence they wanted to vote on it (but) I'm not seeing that at the moment."

Derek Carr, the quarterback for the New Orleans Saints, recently shared his testimony at a Las Vegas Church, and how God is meeting their family during hard seasons of life. 

This past Sunday, Carr was asked to give the message at ChurchLV in Las Vegas, Nevada. 

To begin, Carr addressed rumours saying he did indeed have a shoulder injury and that he and the team are working through it. 

Then he shared what happened to his wife and their four kids while recently on vacation. To start, everyone got quite sick. 

1 John 5:14-15

"This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him."

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Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.