Staff

Temperatures soared on Wednesday afternoon to a record-high for January 31 in Winnipeg.

El Nino continues to bring an abnormal winter to southern Manitoba, with a daytime high of +7 at Environment Canada's weather station at The Forks. 

The previous warmest day on record at The Forks was set in 2009 with a temperature of +3.5. There is one other warmer day on record, however, of +5 at the airport, which was set in 1952. At 5 a.m. on Wednesday the temperature in downtown Winnipeg was already at +5.

The Estevan Police Service issued a warning to a homeowner Monday after a break-and-enter complaint was determined to be unfounded.

Police said in a release that they were called to a residence on the south end of the city. Investigation on the scene indicated that the complainant was the one who had damaged her home.

Police also reported the following calls from the first part of this week:

Tuesday

The College of Physicians and Surgeons of Saskatchewan announced 14 new charges against Dr. Mehdi Horri, who practises in Estevan, on its website January 20.

From the website, here are the allegations - which have not been proven - against Horri.

Several people are out of their homes on Tuesday following an apartment fire in the middle of the night.

The City of Winnipeg says in a release that crews were called just after 3 a.m. to reports of a fire in a three-storey apartment building in the 400 block of Redwood Avenue.

Upon arrival on scene, crews found smoke coming from the building. They launched an interior fire attack, declaring the fire under control at 3:33 a.m.

The Estevan Police Service are cautioning the public that the 'grandparent fraud' is targetting people in the area.

EPS announced Tuesday morning they received multiple complaints of that type fraud over the past several days.

"This type of fraud involves the caller pretending to be a grandchild and needing money for legal issues, and requesting the grandparent send money via Western Union or other financial institutions," stated the release.

A 29-year-old man from White Bear is in custody and facing three counts of assaulting a police officer, along with two counts of attempting to disarm a police officer.

The Estevan Police Service reported that the charges were laid in their list of weekend calls, and that the man will appear in answer to the charges in court "at a later date."

He was not identified.

The Estevan Police Service reported Monday morning that a man who was the subject of a 'request-to-locate' notice Sunday was found in Regina and arrested for theft of auto.

The notice was issued through the Saskatchewan Crime Watch Advisory at 2:18 p.m. Sunday.

It said 58-year-old man Glen Barnstable was last seen on the morning of January 25 at his home in Estevan. Police believed he was operating a black 2006 GMC Envoy with Saskatchewan license plate GRAMZ.

A judge in Regina provincial court handed a man a 2.8-year, or 1,025-day, sentence following a guilty plea to an offence involving a sawed-off shotgun that occurred in Estevan last March.

Adam Samuel Bachorcik pleaded guilty on October 31, 2023, according to Judge Murray Hinds' decision posted to CanLII, to the Criminal Code charge of:

The Saskatchewan government announced Thursday that it will no longer supply pipes for smoking meth, crack, and other illicit drugs.

The province will also discontinue providing materials on how to use illicit drugs. 

Third-party organizations will not be permitted to use funding from the Ministry of Health or the Saskatchewan Health Authority for those purposes.

The Saskatchewan Teachers' Federation (STF) announced Thursday that educators will go on another one-day strike next Monday.

This comes after teachers in the province engaged in a single-day strike on Tuesday.