CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrisey vowed Wednesday that his administration will improve transparency and policies within the state’s embattled foster care system. Morrisey, a Republican, announced the changes after eight listening sessions statewide to identify areas of improvement and a review of critical cases. Morrisey said he heard attendees at one […]

Cottage owners and disaster prevention experts in Manitoba are urging governments to develop comprehensive wildfire management plans after a pair of devastating wildfires. Close to 1,000 people were forced from their homes last week as a wildfire near the Rural Municipality of Lac du Bonnet, spurred by dry, hot and windy conditions, burned nearby. The […]

The Saskatchewan Rivers School Division Board of Education is seeing excellent progress after revamping their Board Advocacy Plan and Board Development Plan. Trustee Alan Nunn updated the board of the progress of both plans at their recent meeting. This year the Board focused their development work on Governance and Leadership, as well as Learning and […]

The Republican-controlled Federal Trade Commission voted Thursday to dismiss a lawsuit against PepsiCo that the previous commission filed in the waning days of the Biden administration. The lawsuit, filed in January, alleged that PepsiCo was giving unfair price advantages to Walmart at the expense of other vendors and consumers. The lawsuit had relied on the […]

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Eunju Kim, who escaped starvation in North Korea in 1999, was sent back from China and fled a second time, told the United Nations on Tuesday that the country’s leader must be held accountable for gross human rights violations. Gyuri Kang, whose family faced persecution for her grandmother’s religious beliefs, fled […]

WASHINGTON (AP) — For generations, official American documents have been meticulously preserved and protected, from the era of quills and parchment to boxes of paper to the cloud, safeguarding snapshots of the government and the nation for posterity. Now, the Trump administration is scrubbing thousands of government websites of history, legal records and data it […]

● Mayor Lovatt has submitted a formal pre-budget request to Ontario Finance Minister Peter Bethlenfalvy laying out Town priorities in need of greater Provincial support. ● He warned of a growing infrastructure gap, exacerbated by rising costs and a lack of sustainable funding for small but fast-growing towns like Stouffville. ● Lovatt noted the potential […]

Alberta’s access to information watchdog has found the provincial government to be non-compliant with its own freedom of information rules. A new report from information and privacy commissioner Diane McLeod says Alberta’s government has implemented internal procedures and policies that allow government employees to wrongfully deny freedom of information requests. The report, released Friday, follows […]

Vancouver affordable housing advocate Rohana Rezel is six years into a freedom of information dispute with the City of Vancouver and Airbnb over data on short-term rental owners, but he says the issue has evolved beyond housing into a fight for “public transparency.”  Rezel filed two requests with the city under the Freedom of Information […]

Senior federal officials have been looking quietly for ways to bring together Canadians who don’t see eye to eye on the economy, immigration and social issues. With a general election looming, officials prepared to meet last November to brainstorm solutions to the problem of social fragmentation, according to an internal presentation drafted by the Department […]

The number of property tax accounts in arrears has risen sharply in St. Catharines since 2022, according to documents obtained by The Pointer through a Freedom of Information request. The disturbing increase aligns with the controversial hikes in municipal tax rates introduced by the current City Council. Residents of Niagara’s largest city were shocked in […]

The Ontario government is considering shortening the length of teachers’ college in order to address a worsening shortage of educators, documents obtained by The Canadian Press suggest. A freedom-of-information request on teacher supply and demand came back with research and jurisdictional scans the Ministry of Education conducted last year on the supply issue and the […]