Fort Frances Times Online Edition - January 4, 2018

The New Year's baby for 2018 is Caleb Pistilli.

He was born on Tuesday, Jan. 2 at 11:34 a.m., weighing seven pounds even, at La Verendrye General Hospital here.

Proud parents are Megan and Mike Pistilli of Fort Frances.

Each year, gifts and gift baskets are provided for the New Year's baby by local businesses and organizations.

Fort Frances Lakers' captain Julian Uhryniuk looked for a friendly stick to pass to during his team's 7-6 shootout loss to the last-place Minnesota Iron Rangers last night at the Ice For Kids Arena. Uhryniuk later set up the game-tying goal in the dying seconds to force overtime.

MONTREAL—A young Quebec woman has had to have her arms and legs amputated after she spent four hours in freezing temperatures following an electric jolt that raced through her body.

Samantha Mongeon says her younger sister, Sabryna, 18, was driving a car early on Christmas morning when she lost control of the vehicle and collided with a hydroelectric pole in western Quebec.

NIAGARA FALLS, Ont.—Diane Zhao has made the journey from China to Niagara Falls three times before but she has never seen it like this—a veritable ice palace, straight out of a fairy tale.

“I just wanted to see the ice and the frozen falls,” Zhao said of her fourth trip to the falls.

“It's so huge and beautiful.”

OTTAWA—Young political staffers on Parliament Hill, who often are ambitious and desperate for a foothold in their chosen profession, can be much more vulnerable to the scourge of sexual misconduct than their older, more experienced colleagues and elected counterparts, says Green Party leader Elizabeth May.

CENTRAL SAANICH, B.C.—The first baby born on southern Vancouver Island in 2018 made a dramatic entrance Monday, delivered on the floor of the family's laundry room with her father's help and coaching from a 9-1-1 dispatcher.

Rob Tuit, 33, described the experience as “a blur” as he and his wife, Elaine, welcomed their second child early on Jan. 1.

TORONTO—Fans and a “Who's Who” of hockey yesterday remembered Johnny Bower as a great goaltender and a better man.

OTTAWA—An Ottawa-based firm has been tapped by the federal government for a three-month pilot project designed to look for warning signs for suicide before tragedy strikes.

Advanced Symbolics Inc. is an artificial intelligence service company set to examine suicide hot spots across the country to better understand precursors to suicide.

OTTAWA—Joshua Boyle, the former Afghanistan hostage who now finds himself behind bars in Canada and facing a battery of serious criminal charges, will have to wait at least a few more days to find out if he'll be released on bail.

WASHINGTON—U.S. President Donald Trump returned fire with both barrels yesterday against criticism levelled at him in a new book that says he never expected—or wanted—to win the White House, his victory left his wife in tears, and a senior adviser thought his son's contact with a Russian lawyer during the campaign was “treasonous.”

OTTAWA—A federally-commissioned blueprint for a new watchdog to review Canada's border agency has some worried it lacks the necessary bite to ensure true accountability.

A report produced for Public Safety Canada says the government should establish an independent body to handle public complaints about the Canada Border Services Agency.

OAK BAY, B.C.—The father of two girls who were found dead in a Victoria-area home on Christmas Day has been charged with two counts of second-degree murder.

Andrew Berry, 43, was arrested and charged after he was released from hospital, RCMP said in a release yesterday.

MONTREAL—Do not bring pictures of the boss.

That's what Anton Pushkar, owner of an indoor Montreal axe-throwing facility, tells enthusiasts who may want a particular photo as their target.

“We've had people saying, 'Can I put a picture of somebody really special right on the bull's eye?'” Pushkar said in a recent interview.

Extreme cold across the Prairies that forced people—and even penguins—inside over the holidays is loosening its bone-chilling grip.

Wind-chilled temperatures well into the minus-30s C saw the Calgary Zoo bring in the flightless birds, but the thermometer has been rapidly climbing into the single digits in Calgary and Edmonton.

WASHINGTON—When it comes to weather, it's hard to sound scarier than “bomb cyclone.”

It's a version of a real weather term that applies to a massive winter storm that pulled together yesterday off the U.S. Southeast coast.

But as fearsome as the storm is with high winds and some snow, it may not be quite as explosive as the term sounds.

SPRUCE GROVE, Alta.—A gas station operator near Edmonton has used some unparliamentary language to publicly protest an increase in Alberta's carbon tax.

The illuminated sign at the Tempo Gas Station in Spruce Grove on Tuesday night used the f-bomb in front of the words “NDP" and "Trudeau.”

TORONTO — Defined-benefit pension plans in Canada generally ended 2017 in better financial condition than they’ve experienced for most of the past decade, according to figures released Wednesday by Mercer.

KAPALUA, Hawaii—Dustin Johnson sat outside the Honolua Store on the first day of the new year, scarfing down the “Hobo Breakfast” of steamed rice and eggs as the sun just was starting to filter through the Cook pines that line the entrance to Kapalua.

He abruptly closed the lid on his carton and announced, “Let's go.”

BUFFALO, N.Y.—Underselling your team's chances against Canada is becoming a popular tactic among coaches at the world junior hockey championship.

First, Swiss coach Christian Wohlwend predicted Canada would crush his team two days before the Canadians routed Switzerland 8-2 in the quarter-finals.

NEW YORK—Jeff Glass is starting to get comfortable in goal for the Chicago Blackhawks.

Glass, the 32-year old rookie who bounced around the hockey world before finally reaching the NHL last month, made 23 saves to lead Chicago to a 5-2 victory over the N.Y. Rangers last night.

“This is my chance right now,” Glass said after securing his second career NHL victory.

CHICAGO—All DeMar DeRozan wanted to talk about was the lift Toronto's bench provided.

As for his recent scoring tear?

“I don't think nothing of it,” he remarked.

DeRozan had 35 points, and Delon Wright set career highs with 25 points and 13 rebounds, as the Raptors beat the Chicago Bulls 124-115 last night.

SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Security researchers at Google say they’ve discovered serious security flaws affecting computer processors built by Intel and other chipmakers.

Google’s Project Zero team said Wednesday that the flaw could allow bad actors to gather passwords and other sensitive data from a system’s memory.

Felipe Rodriguez says he thought he was hallucinating when an eagle snatched his sister's little white dog from her yard, flapped its massive wings and disappeared over the trees.

Did he really just see that?

ST. LOUIS—A cheetah named “Bingwa” at the St. Louis Zoo is a proud mother—eight times over.

The zoo announced yesterday that the four-year-old cheetah gave birth Nov. 26 to eight cubs (three male and five female).

It's the largest litter of cheetah cubs ever delivered at the zoo.

The average litter size is three-four cubs.

Felipe Rodriguez says he thought he was hallucinating when an eagle snatched his sister’s little white dog from her yard, flapped its massive wings and disappeared over the trees.

Did he really just see that?

WASHINGTON — The term bomb cyclone sounds scary, but it’s a real weather term and it fits the storm that sprang up from the U.S. Southeast.

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump launched a scathing attack on former top adviser Steve Bannon, responding to a new book that portrays Trump as an undisciplined man-child who didn’t actually want to win the White House and quotes Bannon as calling his son’s contact with a Russian lawyer “treasonous.”

A human trafficking lawsuit just settled between two Indonesian fishermen and an American boat owner will not impact nearly 800 other foreign fishermen in Hawaii’s fleet who are banned from leaving boats when the vessels reach shore, industry officials say.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. — Before the Army’s 27th Infantry Division was decimated in a bloody World War II battle, Stan Dube sketched portraits of his fellow soldiers. The 17 drawings were forgotten after the war and stashed in an attic for decades before being found a year ago by his son.

Boneless skinless chicken breasts save the day for so many busy folks who want to get a lean, protein-filled, affordable dinner on the table in a hurry.