Wheatland County has approved changes to its artificial intelligence policy, adding stronger privacy restrictions and an explicit safeguard against using AI to broadly monitor or profile residents online. Council approved amendments to the county’s AI policy Sept. 22 after a lengthy discussion about personal information, chatbots, automated decision-making and public concerns about how governments could […]

Most people never stop to wonder how a news story finds its way onto the page. But for Cal Millar, former Windsor Star reporter, the path from tip-off to headline has always been a story worth telling. Now 82, Millar pulls back the curtain in his new memoir, My Life as a Reporter, offering an […]

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration has lauded its revamped website America.gov as a way to simplify Americans’ access to information and services scattered across a plethora of agency sites, but President Donald Trump probably won’t like some of the answers his new site says are sourced from government information. Asking the site — which […]

A “radicalized” subculture formed among the ranks of officers at a Montreal police station in a multicultural neighbourhood before it was rocked by allegations of racism and criminal misconduct, newly released internal briefing notes say. The documents, obtained by The Canadian Press through access to information legislation, are part of a package prepared for the […]

Council looks ahead to 2027 budget while approving age-friendly initiative, grant changes and new municipal rules Hartland council tackled a packed agenda on Sept. 8, with discussions ranging from major changes to New Brunswick’s property-tax system to garbage collection, senior services, and its first look at the 2027 budget. Council also revised its municipal grant […]

Quebec’s election oversight body received an influx of complaints after it announced that it was sending unilingual French information guides to all voters ahead of the Oct. 5 elections. Documents released through access to information legislation reveal Élections Québec received 160 complaints over five days after the agency announced the change on its website on […]

The white Nissan pickup was left on a street in west Phoenix. In the trunk were a tile saw, boxes of ceramic tile and an open bag of adhesive. Ramón Barraza, the man who drove it, never returned for it. It was 7 a.m. when Barraza left the apartment he shared with his girlfriend near […]

Starbucks plans to close 250 North American stores later this week. It is the second big round of store closures under Starbucks Chairman and CEO Brian Niccol, who joined the company in 2024. Last September, Starbucks closed 627 stores in North America and Europe. In a letter to employees, Starbucks Chief Operating Officer Mike Grams […]

Candidates for St. Thomas city councillor seats and the mayor’s office alike pitched their platforms to the public at an all-candidates meeting on Wednesday, Sept. 16. The meeting, hosted by the St. Thomas Kinsmen, was moderated by Matt Sharpe and was livestreamed.  Council candidates had two minutes each to speak from a podium and share […]

Jim Ross, a man who helped Mat Siscoe get elected mayor of St. Catharines, went on to receive approximately $65,000 in municipal contracts to host tele-town hall and other virtual consultation sessions for the City since 2022 without following the proper procurement safeguards, an investigation by The Pointer has found. Since 2022, Mayor Siscoe has […]

Editor’s Note: Reporter Ed Smith is a former member of the Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority board who joined in 2019, and as a private citizen participated in public efforts to hold David Barrick accountable, before Smith joined The Pointer as an investigative reporter covering Niagara Region.  How does David Barrick continue to find work? Among […]

This year, Ottawa parents Crystal Mask and Garrett Hansen had to have an unsettling conversation with their two kids as they went back to school: “do not drink from the water fountains”. “It was hard,” Mask told The Pointer. “They’re four and five, they see their friends doing it, they think it’s okay.”  In March, […]