to move up and down
Bridge on main route between B.C. and Seattle collapses sending cars, people plunging into the water
The Interstate 5 bridge collapse into the Skagit River was caused by an oversize truck hitting the span, the Washington State Patrol chief said.
“For reasons unknown at this point in time the semi struck the overhead of the bridge causing the collapse,” Batiste told an overnight news conference.
The truck made it off the bridge and the driver remained at the scene and cooperated with investigators. Two other vehicles went into the water Thursday evening as the structure crumbled. Three people were rescued and are recovering. (AP Photo/Joe Nicholson)
Lottery winner puts $1-million toward effort to legalize marijuana
Bob Erb has been playing the lottery since he was a young pothead in the 1970s, smoking 15 joints a day. Today, Mr. Erb is still crushing 15 joints a day — except now he’s smoking them as a multi-millionaire. The 60-year-old Terrace, B.C., farmer and grandfather won a $25-million jackpot last November and promptly began doling money out to friends, family, charity and hard luck cases. Perhaps the biggest recipient, however, has been a cause very close to his heart: the legalization of marijuana. Mr. Erb has dropped $1-million for the effort, and is probably now the biggest financial backer of 420 Day, the annual pot-fuelled haze of a protest this Saturday. He spoke with the Post’s Sarah Boesveld Thursday about his high life and plans for bringing pot legalization to national attention. (BCLC)
Brian Hutchinson: ‘Vansterdam’ can learn from U.S. legalized marijuana experiment
So long, Vansterdam. Thanks to surprising initiatives taken south of the border, this city’s dubious reputation as North America’s marijuana capital is coming to an end. On Tuesday, voters in Colorado and Washington State embraced measures to allow any individual aged 21 and up to possess marijuana, as much as one ounce. That’s quite a lot, really; enough to make about 28 joints.
In B.C., five former attorneys-general have called for marijuana legalization. So have some mayors. But they have also chosen to ignore or downplay potential health risks associated with pot. They haven’t acknowledged every reasonably likely outcome.
But here’s a great opportunity: Our neighbours are about to experience legal, recreational marijuana use. We should watch their bold social experiment unfold, and take lessons from it before doing anything else. (Rick Wilking/Reuters files)
Weeks after posting haunting Youtube video on her years of torment at classmates’ hands, 15-year-old B.C. girl commits suicide
VANCOUVER — There was an outpouring of condolences following the suspected suicide of a British Columbia teenager who last month posted a gut-wrenching video to YouTube of her treatment at the hands of relentless bullies.
Coroner Barb McLintock said Thursday night that preliminary indications suggest Amanda Todd, 15, took her own life one day earlier.
Todd posted a haunting, black-and-white, nine-minute video on Sept. 7 in which she doesn’t speak, but holds up a series of white pieces of paper with brief sentences in black marker.
B.C. wildfire evacuees wait for word on damage as wind threatens to rekindle flames
(Photos: Jeff Bassett, Tom Ockelton, THE CANADIAN PRESS)
Ecstasy can be ‘safe’ if taken in its purest form, B.C. health chief says
B.C.’s top health official says taking pure ecstasy can be “safe” when consumed responsibly by adults, despite warnings by police in Alberta and British Columbia about the dangers of the street drug after a rash of deaths.
Dr. Perry Kendall asserts the risks of MDMA — the pure substance originally synonymous with ecstasy — are overblown, and that its lethal dangers only arise when the man-made chemical is polluted by money-hungry gangs who cook it up.
That’s why the chief provincial health officer is advocating MDMA be legalized and sold through licensed, government-run stores where the product is strictly regulated from assembly line to check-out. (Photo: Nick Procaylo/Postmedia News)
Reclusive billionaire selling ‘enchanted island’ in B.C. for $75M
After 18 years of transforming B.C.’s James Island from an abandoned industrial town into a star-studded island retreat, reclusive U.S. telecom billionaire Craig McCaw has put the property back on the real estate market for $75-million.
Although the island is easily spotted from nearby Sidney, B.C., there are few locals who know the goings-on of the 342-hectare property, which is equipped with a Jack Nicklaus-designed golf course, a fake western village and a fleet of themed electric cars — all shielded from public view by a tight security detail. (Photos: Sotherby’s International Realty Canada)
Biologists investigating after possible ‘Frankenfish’ sighting in B.C. pond
Government biologists will inspect a Burnaby, B.C., pond for a suspected snakehead fish dubbed Frankenfish for its monstrous ability to decimate native species and slither onto dry land.
Matthias Herborg, an invasive species expert with the Environment Ministry, said Wednesday that a YouTube video supposedly taken from a pond at Central Park appears to show a snakehead.
Zombie attack? Have no fear, the B.C. government is here
If British Columbians are suddenly struck with an overwhelming need to eat brains, the province has cobbled together advice on how the living can fend off the zombies.
The B.C. government is hoping its fictional advice will generate interest in a set of social media tools that aim to help the public in real emergencies.
A blog tapping into the popular horror genre was launched this week on the Emergency Info BC website, and it’s penned from the perspective of a citizen who finds her town infected with a strange virus. (Photos: Leo Ramirez/AFP/Getty Images)
Japanese man’s Harley-Davidson turns up in B.C. after being swept away by tsunami
The owner of a Harley-Davidson motorcycle that washed up on B.C.’s Haida Gwaii — a rusty remnant of the devastating tsunami that struck Japan a year ago — has been identified.
Japanese media has identified the owner of the bike as 29-year-old Ikuo Yokoyama.
“I’m very thankful that it came back,” he told local broadcaster NHK in Japanese. “I would like to thank the man who found my bike in person, but because it’s hard to do that, I’d like to thank him here right now.” (Photo: Screengrab from NHK World News)
RCMP charge man targeted by B.C.’s ‘Justice Trolls’
They’ve turned in their superhero costumes and taken down their videos, but the escapades of a group of Chilliwack teenagers who targeted alleged sexual predators continue to be fodder for a police investigation.
“I know, up on the top you are seeing great sights, but down here at the bottom we, too, should have rights.”
Banned political speech or Dr. Seuss quote? In one British Columbia town, it’s both.
The best-kept secret tree house in Whistler
Joel Allen’s decision to learn a trade was the best move of his life, he says. It led him to Whistler, where he’s built a spectacular fort whose precise location is top secret unless you’re among the lucky few to find it.
B.C. student’s bra artwork sparks controversy over portrayal of Muslim dress
Sooraya Graham’s mural print of a woman wearing full Islamic dress and holding a bra in her hands while folding laundry, was ripped off the wall by an outraged university staffer at Thompson Rivers University in B.C.
‘Can you spare a fine?’: RCMP ‘panhandlers’ ticket distracted B.C. drivers
At least in Chilliwack, police officers disguised as panhandlers have become the B.C. RCMP’s newest tool in cracking down on distracted driving.
