The province’s H1N1 vaccine priority groups have expanded to include children with chronic illness, women who have just given birth and their partners, Nova Scotia’s chief medical officer announced yesterday. According to Dr. Robert Strang, these groups will be eligible to receive the swine flu vaccination effective immediately. People in the first risk group, including pregnant women and health ...

The last cruise ship of the season arrived in Halifax yesterday, capping what port authorities are calling a milestone year for cruise travel in Halifax. The Crystal Symphony, a Crystal Cruise Line vessel en route to Montreal from Boston, came into port yesterday. It’s the last of 118 vessels and over 227,000 visitors to dock in the Halifax harbour this year. The direct impact of cruise travel ...

A new bill that would do away with long-gun registration is already coming under fire from local police. On Wednesday, Parliament voted 164 to 137 in principle for C-391, a private member’s bill to end the decade-old registry of shotguns and rifles. According to the Conservatives, the registry is a billion-dollar waste that targets honest gunowners while doing nothing to fight crime. But ...

Police are reminding bar patrons in the Halifax area to keep a close eye on their drinks after a large quantity of a popular date-rape drug was seized in Upper Sackville yesterday. Halifax RCMP spokesman Cpl. Joe Taplin said officers discovered 44 vials of GHB (gamma hydroxy butyrate) at a home on Lylewood Drive. “It’s been a while since we heard about (GHB), but it looks like it’s back out ...

Last year at this time car owners faced a provincewide shortage of snow tires, forcing them to drive in potentially dangerous conditions without the proper equipment. With the first snow of the season forecast for Friday afternoon, there’s no shortage in sight this year. Unlike many others, Wayne Rawding of Hydrostone Auto Repair is excited for the coming snowfall. “People started coming in two ...

Karen Ellet, the wife of the late Howard Hyde, has been found. On Wednesday, police announced Ellet, also known as Karen Kormanaski, was a missing person. Late Thursday, they announced she had been “located safe and sound.” No further information was given.

The NDP government has emerged from its first legislative session upbeat and relatively unscathed, but things may not be so easy in the future. Here are some highlights of the fall session: PAINT IT BLUE, THROW IT UNDER THE BUS: The most important single item this fall was the budget. Any other year introducing a $592 million deficit would have been a political nightmare to defend. But being in ...

Halifax Regional Police say they have issued several tickets recently to motorists failing to stop for school buses with their lights flashing. Since students returned to school in September, police say there have been numerous complaints of drivers passing buses in both directions on roads throughout the municipality. “While a number of different areas have been identified, one location on the ...

While the newly proposed five-year transit plan has hit some traffic snarls, Lower Sackville’s Coun. Bob Harvey says Halifax Regional Council needs to push the plan forward as quickly as possible. According to Harvey, the problem is this: Metro Transit needs to close a $13.6-million funding gap and the city’s 23 councillors are obligated to look after the interests of the people in their ridings ...

Halifax Regional Police are investigating two robberies that took place in Dartmouth Tuesday night. The first occurred just after 6 p.m. at the Zellers pharmacy in Mic Mac Mall. A male suspect passed a note to the clerk demanding drugs and indicating he was carrying a firearm. The suspect proceeded to flee on foot. The second robbery occurred at approximately 9:30 p.m. at the Ultramar on ...

The NDP govern­ment has no intention of closing down schools in Nova Scotia in response to the H1N1 pandemic, the province’s education minister said yesterday. Marilyn More told reporters all public schools will remain open as Nova Scotia heads into the second wave of the pandemic. “The virus is now in the wider community,” she explained. “Public health officials have told us that closing ...

The common-law wife of Howard Hyde was reported missing late yesterday afternoon by Halifax Regional Police. Police issued a release around 4:30 p.m. asking for the public’s help in locating 51-year-old Karen Kormanaski. Kormanaski, who also uses the surnames Ellet or Usher, testified recently at the high-profile fatality inquiry of her common-law husband. Hyde died on Nov. 22, 2007, after a ...

Senior bureaucrats cast doubt on two key NDP health-care promises yesterday. During the election campaign in the spring the NDP promised to keep all rural ERs open as well as open up the Cobequid Community Health Centre in Sackville 24 hours a day. Yesterday Cobequid Centre vice-president Barbara Hall said they are currently only looking to extend service by an hour or two, rather than round the ...

Health officials haven’t detected a single case of seasonal influenza in the province this flu season, meaning every lab-confirmed case of flu has also been a lab-confirmed case of H1N1. “H1N1 is the only flu strain we are currently seeing,” said Nova Scotia’s deputy chief medical officer of health Maureen Baikie. Baikie spent over an hour yesterday going over the latest numbers released by the ...

The number of Halifax-area schools reporting high levels of absenteeism continues to climb, bringing the total to 83 out of 137 schools. According to Halifax Regional School Board spokesman Doug Hadley, 18 extra schools reported Tuesday that an unusual number of students were staying home. He added, however, that some of the schools that were first to report are now back to near-normal ...

Say it ain’t snow? Environment Canada’s forecast last evening said there was a possibility of more than 10 centimetres of snow during the overnight hours tonight into early tomorrow morning. The forecast called for rain beginning in the evening, changing to snow before midnight. High winds were also forecast with temperatures hovering around the freezing mark. Around noontime yesterday ...

An NDP bill would beef up privacy for injured people but could also block information from the public and media on high-profile incidents. Legislation introduced yesterday would prevent the hospital status of a sick or injured person to be given out to anyone but family members. It could also profoundly affect how news stories are covered. Take the recent case of Taylor Mitchell, the woman who ...

Three men are facing various weapon and drug charges after Halifax RCMP conducted a search warrant at a home on Caldwell Road in Eastern Passage late Monday afternoon. Police say amongst the items seized during the 5 p.m. search was a Taser, a weapon not found often when warrants like this are executed, according to Halifax RCMP spokesman Cpl. Joe Taplin. Police say also seized was a switch ...

Officials at Halifax Stanfield International Airport are encouraging drivers to shut off their engines as they wait outside the terminals. The airport launched its Idle-Free campaign yesterday in an attempt to reduce the number of people running stationary vehicles along the arrivals road and in the delivery area. As part of the initiative, numerous signs have been installed to remind people ...

Co-authors Trevor Adams and Stephen Patrick Clare are on a mission to make sure you know about the best in Atlantic Canadian literature. Over the last 18 months, the pair have read hundreds of books from authors in the four Atlantic provinces, and with the help of local experts, have created a new book titled Atlantic Canada’s 100 Greatest Books. “We were really touched by how much people cared ...