In a frame from protesters' video, Donald Wesley Jr. walks through a geotechnical testing area on Lelu Island near Prince Rupert. 'We have a lot of spikes put on this island,' he says.
Amanda Stanley, “science program officer” for the Seattle-based Wilberforce Foundation, headed up to Prince Rupert a couple of weeks ago to check on one of her projects.
That would be the camp on Lelu Island where a splinter group of Tsimshian tribal members and supporters maintain an effort to blockade and disrupt testing required for an environmental permit application to construct a liquefied natural gas terminal.
Stanley tweeted a picture from the camp, looking past a Mohawk warrior flag at the coastline. “So inspired by these defenders of land, water and salmon,” she wrote.
Wilberforce, the California-based Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, Hawaii-based Sustainable Fisheries Partnership and others have poured money into anti-LNG campaigns in B.C., as they funded opposition to oilsands development before them. Indeed, the record suggests the long project to establish what environmental front groups named the Great Bear Rainforest was a strategy to stop hydrocarbon exports from western Canada, even as U.S. sources ramped up production.
So what’s been going on at this “science program” on Lelu Island? Its own multi-media promotion material provides some glimpses, featuring sweeping allegations and efforts to block scientific evaluation with crude threats and intimidation.
A video series called “A Last Stand for Lelu” shows two self-styled warriors confronting drilling vessels. Their RCMP escort boat suggests these ships and habitat study crews had federal permits to conduct testing at the time.
[Watch video below.]
One man, identified as Donald Wesley Jr., walks the island with a rifle over his shoulder. Among his claims is that the drilling isn’t for testing, but is actually the start of construction on the Pacific Northwest LNG terminal, which still awaits a decision from the Trudeau cabinet.
Wesley says that since crews didn’t present permits to him personally, “they’re the radicals. They’re the extremists. They’re the terrorists.”
Then he describes his preparations.
“We have a lot of stuff on the island to keep [away] helicopters and drillers, the geotech drillers that want to come onto the island and start borehole testing,” he says. “We have a lot of spikes put on this island.”
OK, who’s the extremist?
The video series is co-produced by a fellow named Tamo Campos, identified as a representing “Beyond Boarding,” with a link to an expired website.
Campos came to prominence in B.C. protest circles during the recent oil pipeline standoff at Burnaby Mountain. He appeared with his grandfather David Suzuki and other well-known protesters in a carefully choreographed show of entering a court-ordered restraining zone and briefly being arrested.
Again, they were interfering with authorized scientific testing while attempting to create the impression for media of grassroots opposition.
Wesley, his father Donald Wesley Sr. and a supporter from Hartley Bay named Matthew Danes, claim to represent hereditary chiefs. In June, a dozen Tsimshian hereditary chiefs and elders issued a letter stating that Wesley Sr. “took it upon himself to occupy Lelu Island solely on his own accord” and doesn’t represent the community.
“We do not appreciate Mr. Wesley inviting environmental militants and outsiders into our territory without the respect and manners dictated by the protocols of our ayaawyx [laws],” they wrote.
The Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency and the B.C. Environmental Assessment Office required Pacific Northwest LNG to consult with five aboriginal communities. The Metlakatla, Kitselas, Kitsumkalum and Gitxaala bands have benefit agreements for the project signed or in progress. The lone holdout, Lax Kw’alaams, elected a new council last fall that embraced the project with conditions.
And 40 Lax Kw’alaams students just graduated from pre-apprentice training sponsored by the provincial and federal governments and the UA Piping Industry College of B.C.
Tom Fletcher is B.C. legislature reporter and columnist for Black Press. Email: tfletcher@blackpress.ca Twitter: @tomfletcherbc
A LAST STAND FOR LELU - PART 7: Warriors from VoVo Productions on Vimeo.

BC VIEWS: Tree-spikers cling to Lelu Island


Who's behind Prince Rupert anti-LNG protest camp? A father, his son, and their U.S. foundation backers [WITH VIDEO]


Mounties are looking for whoever threw a gin bottle at a taxi, breaking a window and hitting the cab driver in the head Thursday night in North Vancouver.
Police say the driver was heading east on East 29 Street toward Lynn Valley when the bottle smashed into the cab, cut up the man's face and broke his tooth.
His passenger was also hit by flying glass shards, police say, but she was not hurt.
Officers found a bag of tomatoes near the scene and believe the culprit may have been throwing them before trying the 375ml Bombay Sapphire gin bottle.
Police recovered that, as well as a skateboard.
"Throwing anything at moving traffic, whether it be bottles or tomatoes, is incredibly dangerous," said Sgt. Doug Trousdell. "Fortunately this didn't turn out to be even more serious."
Anyone with information is asked to contact RCMP at 604-985-1311 or CrimeStoppers at 1-800-222-8477, quoting file number 2016-22114.

Taxi driver hurt after gin bottle thrown through cab window in North Van


Police also found bag of tomatoes, skateboard at the scene


Toronto MP Carolyn Bennett is sworn in as Minister of Indigenous and Northern Affairs, November 2015.
The federal government’s National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls is preparing to get underway in September.
With five commissioners led by B.C. judge Marion Buller and a budget that has swelled by a third to $54 million before it even starts, this inquiry has one big advantage over all the previous studies of Canada’s intractable problems of poverty and violence in aboriginal communities.
In this case, the politicians all agree what the outcome is going to be. They’ve been saying so for months, since the Justin Trudeau government got elected on this and other passionate, if questionable, promises.
Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould, a member of the We Wai Kai Nation on the B.C. coast, a former Crown prosecutor and chair of the B.C. Treaty Commission, announced the terms of reference last week. She stressed that the inquiry will not attempt to retry cold cases, but to examine the “root causes” of the high numbers of missing and murdered women.
Next up was Indigenous Affairs Minister Carolyn Bennett, who has no doubt at all what those “root causes” are: racism, sexism and the lingering effects of colonialism. Bennett has been meeting steadily with grieving families since being appointed, and now accepts that racist, indifferent cops are the main “root cause.”
Bennett explained this conclusion from New York in April, while attending a “Women of the World” summit. It’s an “uneven application of justice,” she told The Globe and Mail, a phrase we’ll hear again and again.
“You end up with people who have been told it’s an overdose, or a suicide or an accident,” Bennett said.
RCMP have reported close to 1,200 unsolved cases of murdered or missing indigenous women since 1980, a figure that Bennett scoffs at. What’s her evidence? She’s talked to families, and knows it’s “way more” than that.
One of the previous inquiries was by a United Nations official, James Anaya, in 2014. He noted the alarming statistics of education outcome and violent offences against women, and referred to 660 cases documented by the Native Women’s Association of Canada. He also described being besieged by demands for a national inquiry, as he went through the stacks of studies that have already been done.
“Since 1996,” Anaya wrote in his UN report, “there have been at least 29 official inquiries and reports dealing with aspects of this issue, which have resulted in over 500 recommendations for action.”
As the latest inquiry was being launched, Perry Bellegarde, the current Assembly of First Nations national chief, recited Bennett’s speaking points about the conclusions it will reach.
Bellegarde told CTV the problem is vastly under-reported because “…oh, it’s an accidental death. Oh, it’s a suicide.” Then he called for more money for housing and other programs via the failed Indian Act system.
There are several glaring factors that apparently will not be discussed, because they fall outside the politically correct boundaries of this pre-determined narrative.
One is the even more alarming number of aboriginal men and boys who are victims of violent crime.
Another is the rate of domestic abuse reported by indigenous women, which Statistics Canada estimated this year at about 10 per cent of their population. That’s three times the national average, but it was not mentioned amid the demands for justice at the inquiry.
Another key issue that is forbidden from discussion is the social and economic viability of remote communities. Some of them haven’t been able to maintain clean water and safe housing, much less education and employment, despite billions in spending every year.
Tom Fletcher is B.C. legislature reporter and columnist for Black Press. Email: tfletcher@blackpress.ca Twitter: @tomfletcherbc

BC VIEWS: Missing women inquiry pre-determined


Indigenous Affairs Minister Carolyn Bennett's position boils down to blaming racist, indifferent cops


Revelstoke dam on the Columbia River is due to have a sixth water turbine added, but Site C is BC Hydro's priority today.
BC Hydro is going ahead with its planned four per cent rate increase this year and deferring more debt to future years as it revises its electricity demand forecast downward.
The provincially-owned utility has not asked for an increase in its government-imposed rate plan despite a revised demand forecast with $3.5 billion less revenue over the next 10 years. BC Hydro has filed a three-year plan with the B.C. Utilities Commission that would increase rates four, 3.5 and three per cent in the next three years. The four per cent increase is already showing up on customer bills as an interim increase.
With the Site C dam on the Peace River and other upgrades amounting to $2 billion a year, the plan includes additional deferred debt until 2023, when Site C is due to be completed. BC Hydro CEO Jessica McDonald said the long-term nature of capital projects means its capital cost savings don't start until the next decade.
BC Hydro has also cut some of its familiar Power Smart activities, such as the fridge buy-back plan and incentives for energy efficient light bulbs.
McDonald said BC Hydro is seeing lower revenues due to two warm winters and downturns in mining and forest products. It still projects growing overall demand as population and economic growth continue.
NDP energy critic Adrian Dix said the new deferred debt represents roughly $500 for each of BC Hydro's two million customers, and it is a political move to get the B.C. Liberal government past next year's election.
The 10-year rates plan imposed by Energy Minister Bill Bennett in 2013 overstated demand to justify the construction of Site C, and translates to a 28 per cent rate increase. It allows the utilities commission to regain control over approving customer rates by 2020, after five years of political direction.
Dix said with the new demand forecast and commodity prices expected to remain low, BC Hydro should have added a sixth turbine to its Revelstoke dam for $450 million before embarking on the $9 billion Site C project.


Four per cent rate hike already in effect, more to come as BC Hydro looks for savings to offset slow industrial demand


Guns seized from visitors entering Canada at the Huntington-Abbotsford border crossing, 2014.
Canadian Border Services Agency has seen a 116 per cent increase in the number of firearms seized in the Pacific Region in the first half of 2016.
With a 10 per cent increase also recorded in the Prairie region, the CBSA is working with U.S. officials on a firearms awareness campaign to remind Americans about restrictions on bringing guns into Canada.
"Attempting to smuggle firearms across the border can result in immediate forfeiture, hefty fines and even significant jail time," said Kim Scoville, CBSA's regional director general for the Prairie region.
Visitors entering the border inspection line should declare any firearms at their first opportunity. Border services officers will take possession of the weapon if it is declared, but the visitor has the option of shipping it back under CBSA supervision or surrendering it without prosecution.
The RCMP has procedures for visitors bringing firearms into Canada


Guns intercepted at Pacific region border crossings up 116 per cent compared to this time last year


Just 853,000 sockeye salmon are estimated to be returning to the Fraser River this summer. That's about a third of what was expected, making it the worst Fraser sockeye run in 120 years.
The worst return of sockeye salmon to the Fraser River in more than a century has kept the commercial fishery shut down and curtailed aboriginal food fishing.
The run size estimate of 853,000 returning sockeye – the lowest on record since 1893 – is barely one third of the 2.3 million salmon that had been expected to come back this summer. Only twice before in the past century has the Fraser run dipped below one million.
Mike Lapointe, the chief biologist for the Pacific Salmon Commission, agrees this year's return is bad, but says it's not a catastrophe on the same scale as 2009, when millions of Fraser sockeye unexpectedly went missing and triggered the Cohen Inquiry.
"I'm not sure I agree with people characterizing it as a disaster," Lapointe said. "When you start from a spot that's already pretty low and you get poorer than average conditions, unfortunately you can get this type of return that's very low but not completely out of the realm of possibility."
Pre-season estimates indicated there was a one-in-10 chance the run could be this poor.
In contrast, 2009's return of 1.5 million was proportionally much lower than the more than 10 million sockeye anticipated and called into question the models used by fishery managers.
The bulk of sockeye in this year's Fraser run were destined for the Chilko Lake system. Lapointe said their rate of return will likely be around 20 adult spawners for every 1,000 juveniles that went to sea. That's much less than usual, but in 2009 the Chilko return rate was just three per 1,000.
Sockeye return on a four-year cycle and this part of the cycle is traditionally the lowest, so expectations weren't high.
But wildly inconsistent salmon returns seem to be increasingly prevalent as the cycle gets more lopsided.
In 2010, the Fraser welcomed back a record 30 million sockeye.
And Lapointe said 2018 could once again be a big year, and even 2017 might exceed 10 million salmon, based on the number of adults that previously spawned.
There are also signs marine conditions that have been bad for a few years could improve.
A warm water blob in the North Pacific that's thought to have reduced the food supply and attracted predators since 2014 has dissipated.
Lapointe said the recent results throw up more questions than answers.
"Is this a pattern that's going to become more frequent because the ocean is becoming less of a favourable place for juvenile salmon?"
Watershed Watch Salmon Society executive director Aaron Hill agreed this summer's record low return may not be as big a surprise and could soon reverse, but added the consequences right now are severe for First Nations who depend on salmon.
He listed past overfishing, viruses and parasites from salmon farms and extraction of water from the watershed as some of the factors that may be harming salmon populations.
"But the big one compounding all these other stressors is the climate," Hill said.
"Not only is it the worst return on record but the fish swimming up the river are swimming into river water that's lethally warm. A lot of fish won't even make it to the spawning grounds. We just don't know how many."
More variability and wild swings in the salmon cycle appear likely, Hill added.
"It really puts a fine point on the need to move on things we know we can do to improve the numbers of salmon that get up the river and survive to spawn."
Hill said the province has "abdicated its responsibility" to initiate more aggressive climate action to help reduce impacts on the fishery when it released its new climate plan last week.
And he said the federal government must do more to respond to the recommendations of the Cohen Commission.
"This crisis of Fraser River sockeye has not gone away."

Dismal sockeye salmon run is Fraser River's worst return in 120 years


853,000 fish estimated returning is worse than the disaster year of 2009 that triggered the Cohen inquiry, but not as unexpected


ICBC wants to increase basic auto insurance rates by 4.9 per cent – the fifth straight annual increase – as it continues to grapple with rising numbers of crashes, claims and dramatically increasing costs.
The typical driver will pay $3.50 a month or $42 a year more for basic insurance if the hike is approved.
But the corporation is also raising optional rates by 2.8 per cent so the average customer who buys both basic and optional insurance with ICBC will see their insurance bill rise $5 a month, or $60 a year.
ICBC CEO Mark Blucher said the basic rate hike would have been much worse – 15.5 per cent translating into a $130 annual premium increase – had the province not approved another major transfer of $472 million from the optional to the basic side of operations.
A compounding factor has been the long decline of interest rates, which result in less investment income revenue to ICBC.
"These external pressures have really created a perfect storm and it's a really significant challenge for the organization," Blucher said in an interview Thursday.
ICBC had raised rates 5.5 per cent a year ago, and the province's rate smoothing policy requires the annual change be within 1.5 per cent of the previous year's increase.
The number of crashes has climbed 15 per cent in two years and damage claims are up 11 per cent.
Vehicles are increasingly reliant on technology and expensive materials that have become more costly in recent years as the loonie sagged against the U.S. dollar.
Despite much safer vehicles, injury claims have soared to $2.4 billion, up 60 per cent from $1.5 billion in 2008.
"We've seen no evidence that these strong trends are abating," Blucher said. "In fact, if anything, they're continuing to escalate going forward."
Blucher also noted there are more cars on the road in B.C. today – 3.1 million up from 2.8 million in 2011 – and people are driving more because of cheaper gas, contributing to more accidents, particularly in densifying urban areas.
And he pointed to personal injury lawyers as an aggravating cause of ICBC's spiralling claims costs.
"B.C. is the only province in Canada where you can sue another motorist for even a minor traffic accident," Blucher said, noting an increase in lawyer-represented claims and advertising by injury law firms.
Internal operating costs have been cut by $186 million a year, and ICBC is counting on more savings ahead, through its modernization program, by more aggressively combatting insurance fraud and from a hoped-for drop in distracted driving as motorists respond to stiffer penalties.
But transfers from the optional side to bolster the basic side will likely be needed for the foreseeable future, Blucher said, because basic premiums can't keep up with rising costs.
In a surprise move, the B.C. government will this year forgo extracting its usual $160-million annual dividend from ICBC's optional side into general revenue.
"Forgoing the dividend this particular year is one strategy amongst a litany of others we're employing to get that basic trate increase down," Transportation Minister Todd Stone said.
Stone said the $514 million the province has transferred out of ICBC in dividends since 2012 is small compared to the $1.4 billion over the same period that has been shifted from the competitive optional side to basic to apply downward pressure on basic rates.
The minister would not say if the government would permanently give up the ICBC dividend.
Adrian DIx, the NDP critic for ICBC, said the dividends to government have exceeded $1.2 billion since 2010 and predicted they'll resume after next year's election because the BC Liberals are "addicted" to using ICBC as a "profit centre."
Dix said the reliance on shifting huge amounts of capital from optional to basic raises troubling questions.
"Next year they've got to find that $472 million," Dix said. "What they've done is create a disaster at ICBC and their only hope is to deceive the voters until after the election."
He said ICBC's new move to hire more claims staff underscores problems with completing the computer modernization that was supposed to make operations more efficient.
"The transformation project has taken longer than World War 2 and is not close to finished."
ICBC's basic rates rose 11.2 per cent in 2012 and at least five per cent every year since.
The new rate hike is subject to B.C. Utilities Commission approval.
ICBC Rate Pressure Charts

ICBC seeks 4.9 per cent basic rate hike as crashes, costs climb


$60 a year increase for most drivers once optional auto insurance increase is included


Using a backdrop of new construction in Victoria, Finance Minister Mike de Jong and Premier Christy Clark announce a new property transfer tax on foreign buyers that took effect this week.
The lights came back on in the B.C. legislature last week to reveal the government’s sudden decision to impose a 15 per cent tax on foreign property purchases in Metro Vancouver.
This came after months of government refusal to intervene in a heated urban market in ways that might devalue properties for people whose homes represent a large chunk of their life savings.
It remains to be seen whether this large wrench applied to the problem will cool the market, or trigger declining property values as similar efforts have done in other major cities. The extent of the ripple effect on B.C. communities outside Metro Vancouver is also something that will be closely watched.
Premier Christy Clark and Finance Minister Mike de Jong announced the tax with a week’s notice, leaving realtors and developers scrambling to close deals before thousands more in property transfer tax was imposed on foreign buyers.
This dramatic intervention was based on less than five weeks of information on the nationality of buyers. Early results showed foreign buyers represented five per cent of Metro Vancouver real estate sales. Another two weeks of data showed a spike to nearly 10 per cent, and suddenly the big wrench came out.
Housing Minister Rich Coleman acknowledged that the surprise tax left the real estate industry “taken aback and a bit grumpy.” They worried foreign buyers might back out of deals after sellers have bought another home. They also fear that the tax might pop the real estate bubble, causing a rapid reversal of the long sellers’ market that has taken on a life and a psychology of its own.
One thing is certain. The province’s windfall from the property transfer tax can only grow even further as foreign buyers pay up.
The size of this windfall was shown in the government’s audited public accounts for the 2015-16 fiscal year, which de Jong released just days before announcing the new real estate tax.
The property transfer tax has been a cash cow for the province since Bill Vander Zalm introduced it in the 1980s, and by 2015-16 it had reached about $1.5 billion. For comparison purposes, that’s almost twice as much as total provincial revenue from the forest industry.
The current B.C. budget had forecast that property transfer tax revenues would decline this year and next year. The public accounts showed that for 2015-16, the government took in $468 million more than expected, meaning real estate accounted for most of the provincial surplus.
How much more is raked in by the new transfer tax on foreign buyers remains to be seen, but it will be substantial. And Coleman allows that he has been developing “a really cool plan” to use that money to improve the housing situation for lower-income people.
A couple of weeks ago I described the clamour of urban protesters demanding that governments build thousands of units of social housing. Coleman has long rejected the idea of social housing projects that create clusters of poverty, and he assured me last week that isn’t going to change.
B.C. has 20,000 low-income households getting a rent subsidy today, and Coleman suggested that will be increasing. He’ll be announcing new measures in September to stimulate construction of new rental housing.
It remains to be seen how that will work as well. But it gives the B.C. government lots more money to spend in an election year.
This is the latest of a string of Clark’s election-year fixes. I’ll look at some others in a future column.
Tom Fletcher is B.C. legislature reporter and columnist for Black Press. Email: tfletcher@blackpress.ca Twitter: @tomfletcherbc

BC VIEWS: Real estate tax increases windfall


Finance Minister Mike de Jong found an extra half billion from property transfer tax last year, with much more to come


OTTAWA – Contract talks continue between Canada Post and its largest union, but neither side is hinting as to whether any progress has been made.
A federally appointed mediator has been meeting with the two sides since Friday to try to reach a deal.
The Canadian Union of Postal Workers says if there is no deal by midnight, it would begin job action on Monday by having its members refusing to work overtime on a rotating basis, starting in Alberta and the Northwest Territories.
CUPW served 72 hour strike notice Thursday night, accusing Canada Post of forcing a labour disruption by refusing to bargain in good faith.
The two sides have been deadlocked for months on the issues of pay scales for rural letter carriers and proposed changes to pensions for future employees.
A CUPW news release says the initial job action will cause little disruption to Canada Post customers and that its members will still be delivering mail every day.
The Canadian Press

Postal workers union give details of job action if no deal is reached Sunday


Talks continue, with rotating overtime ban set to begin Monday if no agreement by midnight Sunday


B.C. Day, on Monday, Aug. 1, is an opportunity to celebrate this spectacular province. See how well you know British Columbia.

B.C. DAY TRIVIA QUIZ: How much do you know about British Columbia?


Premier Christy Clark and her ministers aren't concerned about a backlash or downturn in B.C.'s hot urban real estate market from their sudden decision to impose a 15 per cent tax on foreign buyers in Metro Vancouver.
Housing Minister Rich Coleman said Wednesday the development industry was "taken aback and a bit grumpy" after Premier Christy Clark announced Monday that the new tax takes effect Aug. 2.
Clark confirmed Wednesday that there would be no exemptions to the new tax for real estate sales that were signed but not registered before the deadline. That includes pre-sold condos that were purchased before construction, if they are going to buyers who are not citizens or permanent residents of Canada.
Finance Minister Mike de Jong said tax changes are generally done on short notice, and the government expected there would be some cancelled sales as a result. But the purpose of the tax was to discourage foreign sales and replace them with sales to B.C. residents, he said.
"Part of it relates to the fact that properties going on the market are being scooped up so quickly." de Jong said. "This disruption, this change is taking place in a market where there is incredibly strong domestic demand."
The government intends to put the revenue from the foreign buyer tax into a housing affordability fund, but Coleman said there will be no return to government directly building social housing projects.
New initiatives will be announced in September, with incentives for builders to create more rental housing. The province already provides rent subsidies to 20,000 families to keep them in market housing, and that approach has better results than concentrating low-income people in government housing, Coleman said.

Government shrugs off foreign real estate fallout


Construction industry disruption expected as new tax threatens deals, says Finance Minister Mike de Jong


RCMP have released these pictures of the Good Samaritan and his truck taken at the scene of the Aug. 14 Hwy. 1 crash that injured an officer.
If your name is Earl and you are the man who pulled over his semi to help an injured RCMP officer, the police would like to talk to you.
The man with the truck is one of two Good Samaritans who stopped to provide assistance the morning of Sunday, Aug. 14 when an RCMP vehicle was rear-ended at the scene of a rollover accident in the westbound lane of Highway 1, near the 232 Street overpass in Langley.
"Earl" may have important information about the collision or its aftermath, RCMP said.
RCMP released photos of Earl and what is believed to be his truck, a greyish-blue Volvo tractor trailer, hauling a white 53’ refrigerated. There is a silver logo on the tractor’s door.
Earl has a tattoo on his right forearm.
The second witness was an Asian man in his 50’s. He is described as short, wearing a white button down shirt and tan pants.
He was driving a model year 2000 or newer tan or gold sedan in good condition .
Police believe the second witness was traveling behind the grey pick-up truck that collided with the police vehicle.
Anyone with any information on these individuals is asked to contact Sgt. Patrick Davies at 604-539-2730.

If this is you, please call police about Langley crash


RCMP release photo of Good Samaritan who stopped to help injured officer


Premier Christy Clark and Environment Minister Mary Polak plug in an electric car at an announcement of the government's latest climate change plan in Richmond Aug. 19.
A B.C. Liberal operative was out with the online spin hours before Premier Christy Clark confirmed the much-leaked news in a Friday afternoon announcement at an obscure location in Richmond.
The, er, freeze is continuing for B.C.’s ground-breaking, world-saving carbon tax, which hasn’t changed since before Clark was elected in 2013.
The spin was Olympic-themed, with a picture labeled to show B.C. as a swimmer far out in the lead in the pool, to symbolize that it’s the other provinces that need to catch up in the race to save the planet.
Clark has been saying that for years, and there is merit to it. Even without a tax on “process emissions” such as from cement kilns, B.C.’s carbon tax encourages imports of non-taxed cement from the U.S. and China.
Alberta business professor Andrew Leach, who advised the Stephen Harper and then Rachel Notley governments on greenhouse gas policies, summed up the problem this way.
“Until the rest of the world has policies that impose similar cost, you’re not actually reducing emissions to the extent you think,” Leach said. “You’re just displacing the emissions and the economic activity to other jurisdictions.”
Alberta is moving to join B.C. with a modest carbon tax, but the NDP government plans to spend the proceeds rather than return them in income tax as B.C. has done. And Washington state and most of the rest of the world have no carbon tax as such, so their businesses benefit from B.C.’s “climate leadership.”
B.C.’s foreign-funded eco-radical community was, needless to say, appalled. The Pembina Institute’s Matt Horne and career protesters Tzeporah Berman and Merran Smith were named to the premier’s advisory committee last year, along with business, academic and aboriginal representatives.
They concluded that increases to B.C.’s broad-based tax on carbon fuels should resume its upward march in 2018.
Other committee members, including the mayors of Surrey, Comox and Burns Lake, were not heard from. Public discussion on this issue is now reduced to a staged conflict between those who demand a holy war on deadly carbon dioxide “pollution,” and those who don’t care if their grandchildren perish in a hell-fire of fossil fuel use.
We’ve just come off another El Nino year, like the hot year of 1998. Regular readers will recall the last time I discussed this topic was this spring, where I questioned the premier’s dire warnings of another horrendous forest fire season.
What followed has been one of the slowest forest fire seasons in the last decade, although dry conditions have finally emerged this month. Climate predictions, like next week’s weather forecast, are less than consistent.
I am regularly sent messages calling me a “climate change denier,” the nonsense term that continues to be used by federal Environment Minister Catharine McKenna among many others. I know of no one who denies that climate is always changing, at times dramatically.
If you wish to believe that paying an extra seven cents a litre for gasoline in B.C. is helping to slow the very gradual increase in temperatures we’re seeing in the northern hemisphere, you are free to do so.
You may even be persuaded to take a government subsidy and buy an expensive, short-range electric car. Me, I’m off to Prince Rupert and Revelstoke pretty soon, so I’ll stick with my little four-cylinder gas sipper for now.
Hydro-powered B.C. represents a small fraction of the less than two per cent Canada contributes to global greenhouse gas emissions. We’re not the problem, and no, the world is not looking to us for guidance.
Tom Fletcher is B.C. legislature reporter and columnist for Black Press. Email: tfletcher@blackpress.ca Twitter: @tomfletcherbc


Premier Christy Clark isn't going into next year's election with a promise to jack up Canada's only significant carbon tax


Surveillance footage taken at 68 Schooner Street in Coquitlam on July 26 shows two people appearing to dump a dog's body into the trash.
BC SPCA staff are looking for the public's help to identify two people who tossed a dead dog into a Dumpster about a month ago in Coquitlam.
Officials were alerted to the remains by the city's animal control, said Lorie Chortyk, the SPCA's general manager of community relations. Necropsy results that were just received suggest the young, female Boxer-cross likely died of extreme heat exposure.
Security footage from 68 Schooner Street shows a light-coloured van pulling up behind the building, and two people getting out to discard the animal.
"Someone will know this dog," Chortyk said. "They will recognize the people in the footage."
She added the SPCA is not so focused on how the dog was discarded, but how it died. Charges of animal cruelty could be considered if it turns out the animal died after being left in hot car, for example.
"If there was no wrongdoing in this case, then we just close the file. We just want to know what happened."
Anyone who recognizes the people or the dog's blue and grey collar with red and black leash are asked to call the BC SPCA's animal cruelty hotline at 1-855-622-7722.
The last time a dog's body being left in a Dumpster made headlines was in 2012.
A German shepherd named Captain was found beaten and bleeding in a Dumpster in Kitsilano four years ago.
His owner, Brian Whitlock, was jailed for 60 days for causing unnecessary suffering to the animal.

VIDEO: Dead dog thrown in Dumpster in Coquitlam


The BC SPCA trying to identify two people after a Boxer-cross that had apparently died of heat exposure was found in a Dumpster.


Canada Post and the Canadian Union of Postal Workers have reached tentative agreements, averting the prospect of a labour dispute that has loomed over the talks for months.
In a statement, Labour Minister MaryAnn Mihychuk says the agreements were reached "voluntarily," but provides no other details about the deals themselves.
The issue of differences in paycheques for rural mail carriers — most of whom are women — and urban letter carriers had been at the forefront of protracted contract talks between the two sides.
The negotiations were extended twice since the weekend, when a deadline expired on a 72-hour job action notice issued last Thursday by the Canadian Union of Postal Workers.
The two sides were in talks nearly around the clock at the request of a special mediator appointed Friday by Mihychuk.
Canada Post described the tentative agreements as short-term. It said they are for two years and that four-year contracts were typically negotiated in the past.
"The agreements will avert a work disruption, bringing much-needed certainty in the postal system for our employees and customers," said Canada Post in a statement. "Canadians can now use the postal system with confidence."
The tentative agreements, however, still must be ratified by the members.
The Canadian Union of Postal Workers is Canada Post's largest union, representing more than 50,000 postal workers
The Canadian Press

Canada Post, postal union reach tentative deals


Two sides avert job action that has loomed for months


A new book by Eric Murray and Hamish Bond lifts the lid on a unique partnership that has built a legendary domination of world rowing. In this exclusive extract, written immediately after the Rio gold medal race, Murray opens up on the Olympics final and why their chalk and cheese relationship works.
There were just 10 days to go until the heats of the men's pair at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro and I was sitting on the side of the road, a few kilometres from our training base in Lucerne, covered in blood, wondering what part of me was broken.
Earlier that day we had rowed one of the toughest training sessions of our life, racing the New Zealand double sculls crew of Robbie Manson and Chris Harris into a stiff headwind down the Lucerne course. It was our final session before heading to Brazil, and once we were off the water our boats were packed away, ready for shipping. Hamish and I had decided to keep our road bikes with us, although we were under strict instructions not to do any more training until we hit the Olympic course at Lagoa Rodrigo de Freitas in Rio.
So much for that idea. With our bodies stiff after the last session, we decided to loosen up with one last ride. We had two full days of travel ahead, during which there would be no time for any form of exercise. That would be, in Hamish's word, "sub-optimal". A casual pedal around the picturesque Swiss countryside couldn't do us any harm, surely. We both thought it was a way to stay ahead of our programme and the opposition.
It had been that sort of season for us, one in which we sought every possible advantage. Hamish had become obsessed with the set-up of the boat, making minute adjustments to the rigging in the search for every last scintilla of speed. Noel Donaldson and I would roll our eyes at every new measurement, but Hamish's theory was always the same: if it makes the boat feel better and makes it easier to work harder, then it couldn't hurt. We had to accept his rationale, and his hunches were invariably right.
It wasn't just the rigging of the boat that had concerned him, it was the boat itself. We had ordered a brand new shell from Empacher for the European season, but as soon as we had rowed our first session in it in Sursee, ahead of the Lucerne World Cup in May, we knew something wasn't quite right. Hamish had immediately felt his back tighten up, and every stroke seemed to require a massive effort. It wasn't that there was anything wrong with the boat, it just didn't feel like our boat.
We persisted for the rest of the week, trying to familiarise ourselves with the particular idiosyncrasies of the new shell, but we just couldn't seem to find a rhythm. Instead, Hamish's back became steadily worse, to the point where he didn't know whether he would be able to race in our first world cup of the season. He had already spent the first two months of the new season out of the boat with a back problem caused, in true Hamish fashion, by training the house down before Christmas. That had meant a slow return to training together in the pair. A part of us didn't mind the time to ourselves, but we knew we would have to catch up.
Continued below.
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Unfortunately, once Hamish was fit to row and we had come back together, there had been no gradual easing back into work. We were told we would be racing the Cambridge Town Cup at Lake Karapiro in January, which doubled as a selection regatta for the national trials. There we would be up against the best of the lightweight pairs, which had been formed from the national lightweight four that had qualified for Rio and included Hamish's brother Alistair - and they were absolutely flying in training. We had already raced them over 500m pieces at Karapiro and they had smashed us.
We did not want to be at the regatta. Hamish risked re-injuring his back, and lurking in the recesses of our minds was our unbeaten record. How would we feel if we were dusted up by the lighties on home water? Not that what we thought mattered - we were doing the race.
Less than three weeks after getting back together for any kind of decent training, we lined up in the final of the Town Cup regatta and took the best part of 1600 metres to reel in James and Jamie.
Amazingly, given our lack of preparation, we posted a winning time of 6:16, which was almost as fast as we had ever gone at Karapiro.
From that point on we buried ourselves in training, not ever going back to the monotony of Dick's endless miles, but ensuring that every session had an intensity that tested us mentally as well as physically. By the time we left for Sursee in late April we knew we were on track. Until we got in our brand new boat.
After three days' training in our new shell and with Hamish's back becoming progressively worse, we had to make a decision. Hamish spoke to Noel and told him he felt he was only a 30 per cent chance of lining up in Lucerne. We racked our brains to think of a solution, and then it hit us: let's get the old boat and see how that goes. We called Empacher and asked them to deliver the boat we had used for the World Championships for the past three years, and by the next day it was ready for us at the team base. At least we thought it was.
It had the same lemon-yellow hull and was exactly the same dimensions, but both of us sensed something wasn't quite right.
We buried our doubts for the sake of getting out on the water, and within a couple of sessions Hamish was beginning to feel more like himself, and we were both feeling more comfortable on the oars. It was the rowing equivalent of taking your favourite golf club out of the bag - it seemed to respond when we needed it to, and flex to our particular rhythm. Forty-eight hours later we were on the start line in Lucerne and six minutes and 26 seconds after that we had won our heat. It wasn't pretty, but it was a start.
We were used to the first race of the European season being sloppy, so we weren't overly concerned. We just carried on with our normal preparation and vowed to be slow and steady out of the start, and to power through the middle as we always had. We duly won the final ahead of the Dutch and the British, but we still had some doubts about the boat. There was just something about it that made us think it may not be the boat we thought it was.
Seeking answers, we paid a quick visit to the Empacher team and after a few minutes the mystery was solved. We had not been delivered our World Championship-winning boat; we had been delivered one out of the very same mould that had previously been used by a Swiss crew. Our boat - the one we thought we had - had been given to the Czechs. They had even rowed it in the final Olympic qualifying regatta. And they had qualified.
Much to the Czechs' disappointment, we took it back off them for the rest of our time in Europe. Meanwhile, we had the former Swiss boat packed up and ready to deliver to Rio. That would be the boat we would row at the Olympic Games. We now had Old Faithful for the final World Cup in Poland and, I guess, New Faithful for the Olympics. The freshly minted shell we had originally ordered - sporting a silver fern that had been printed on specially for us - was put back on the rack. Hopefully it found a good home.
With the first world cup done, we headed to Italy for another block of training. It would prove to be the toughest 10 days of the year. We rowed good solid pieces for the first few days, followed by an atrocious session that left us wondering what had happened. That's why rowing is a sport of suffering. No matter how many kilometres or years you put into it, it always finds a way to kick your arse. Dan Plews, our physiologist, managed to calm us down by pointing out that our stress readings were the highest they had been all year.
We hadn't suddenly lost our form; we had just buried ourselves in training. A couple of days after that we found our pace again and headed to Poznan for the final world cup of the season.
The heat was the same old story - we were sloppy. We managed to win by a three-second margin, but we were sick of getting to regattas and then rowing badly. That night we had the longest debrief we had ever had as a pair. We had never debriefed with Dick, and hardly with Noel either, but we needed answers and we resolved to stay in the room till we found them. Hamish wanted to discuss how the boat was feeling, but eventually we settled on a much simpler solution - we just needed to get out on the water and be mongrels.
We knew our first 500 wasn't the best part of our race, so we looked at the GPS, saw that by the 200m mark we were settling into race rhythm, and decided we would get there faster, and hold it for longer. And while we were at it, we would absolutely destroy the morale of every other crew. In the semi-final we did exactly that, winning in a time of 6:16:800, seven-tenths of a second off our best-ever world cup time. We had figured out what had been missing: we had forgotten our killer instinct.
The final was as routine as we could make it, stretching out over the field and gaining clear water to watch the battle between the two British crews behind us. It was a win and it was one step closer to the Olympic regatta, with one last block of training to complete in Sursee, and one last bike ride around the Swiss countryside ...
'What the hell did you do?' Hamish asked me as he sat on his bike saddle and looked at me trying to figure out how many parts of my body were bleeding and which of them might be broken. I didn't know. All I could think about was the fact that I was 10 days from the Olympics and I had stacked myself in a heap on a Swiss road. It turned out I had simply hit the kerb, thinking it was a ramp on to the bike path. We took a few minutes to take stock of the damage, both of us fearing that I may have sustained a serious injury. Once we realised I was probably okay, we pedalled back to base and breathed a combined sigh of relief.
I was certainly sore. My hands and knuckles had been badly scraped, my chest ached, and my right shoulder, which had borne the brunt of the impact, felt as if it had been punched by a heavyweight contender. All we could think about was how much worse things could have been - a broken hand, a dislocated shoulder or a popped rib would have rendered the past four years completely wasted. As it was, I had simply lost a bit of skin and dented my pride. All things considered, I was happy to take that.
We flew out to Rio the following afternoon. "One more regatta to go" became our mantra. Hamish was quiet and nervous, but I knew he felt good in the boat, and when he was like that it gave me a lot of confidence. I watched him filling out his Brazilian arrival card and in the "purpose of visit" section he ticked the box next to "Business".
I loved that. It encapsulated everything we were there for; we were there to win.
Neither of us had ever been to Rio before, but landing at the airport and seeing the Olympic signage everywhere gave us an immediate sense of familiarity. The first thing I did was snap a selfie with Usain Bolt, at which point Hamish just shook his head at me.
But to me that was a cue that we were at the Games and this daily, grinding, endless campaign was reaching its denouement. We were at the biggest show on earth and it was time to go to work, to make sure we finished what we had started when we had committed to another Olympic cycle after London.
The next day we took the team bus to the Lagoa and saw the course for the first time. It was an incredible setting. To the east lay the oceanside neighbourhoods of Copacabana, Ipanema and Leblon, their famous promenades along the bleach-white beaches thronged with tourists and Cariocas alike, the small corner restaurants, known as botecos, heaving with drinkers and diners at all hours of the day. Above the start line, in the northwest, the sheer cliffs of the Corcovado rose 700m above the leafy streets and apartment towers, on top of which Rio's most famous landmark, Christ the Redeemer, surveyed the city and harbour below.
We had been given the opportunity to visit the course and the city at the conclusion of the World Championships in 2015, but we had turned it down. We had asked Noel Donaldson if the course was 2000m long. He had said it was. We decided that that was all we needed to know. I had wanted to get home to Jackie and Zach, and Hamish and Lizzie had an overdue honeymoon to take.
We understood it was a venue that could throw up some tricky and changeable conditions, but that was nothing new to us. Having each spent more than a decade rowing on Lake Karapiro, we were fairly confident we had experienced the worst conditions in rowing. We would soon learn that this wasn't the case.
We didn't even row on the first day of training. We spent the morning rigging the boat to the precise measurements we had taken in Europe, and by the time we finally picked up the shell to put it in the water, the course was closed. Undeterred, we headed out first thing the next day and immediately felt fast. The big kilometres had been done, the boat was dialled in and all that was left to do was put it all together. We trained on the water for the rest of the week, and during our last 1000m time trial, two days before the heats, we flew down the lake at a pace that would have eclipsed our own world best time. That was all I needed to know.
If there is one key difference between Hamish and me, it lies in our perception of situations. I was supremely confident that we could reproduce our speed on demand. Hamish, on the other hand, was not so optimistic. Of course he knew we were fast, but he remained on edge about the heats and about the regatta. It is just how he is put together - he is hard-wired for contingency. In the same way he insisted on making small adjustments to the rigging, he was always thinking about every possible thing that could go wrong.
After so long together, and with the end in sight, I realised that I had never given him enough credit for just how hard he thought about everything we did, and just how singular and all-consuming his will to win was.
On August 6, the first day of competition, we arrived at the Lagoa in time to see the start of Mahe Drysdale's single sculls heat. The surface of the course was glass, the early morning sun illuminating the cliff face of the Corcovado. We watched Mahe get under way and then headed straight to the team tent to go through our own preparations. By the time we emerged, less than an hour later, a vicious wind had whipped the surface of the lake into a frenzy of white caps.
We put the boat in the water and rowed out for the warm-up. Ten minutes into it, Hamish turned to me and said, 'There's no way we can race in this.' Yet as he spoke, we watched the Australian single sculler Kim Brennan heading down the course in her heat, her boat filled with water. If the organisers were still sending off the women's singles, there was no way they were going to call us back.
All we could do was warm up as normally as possible, while trying not to sink, and get to the start. We had never raced in anything like it. In fact, the only time we trained in anything close to it was when we were hightailing it back to the pontoon at Karapiro when a storm had blown in. It was an unbelievable scene, made even more so when the Serbian crew of Milos Vasic and Nenad Bedik capsized during the third 500m of our heat. The middle part of the course was the most treacherous, and also where we would usually drop the hammer.
All we could do was keep the strokes long and smooth and trust we had more speed and ability than anyone else.
We safely navigated the course and won the heat, but it was a strange feeling to have been more technically than physically challenged.
Hamish described the race to me as like walking down a flight of stairs and suddenly finding one of the steps missing. Anything could have happened - we were just glad it happened to the Serbs and not us. We were disappointed it had to happen to anyone. All the rowers were thinking the same thing: how can you turn the pinnacle event of our sport into a storm-tossed lottery?
The next day officials decided to postpone the regatta for the entire day, a decision that was made early and far too prematurely in our opinion, notwithstanding the fact that our men's lightweight four had ventured onto the Lagoa for a training run and had promptly sunk. It was a sign of things to come as FISA and the Olympic broadcasters spent the week weighing up the best interests of the rowers against the best interests of the God of Television.
Television was always going to win that battle.
The impact on us was negligible - we had made it safely through to the semi-final and knew we could deal with any unforeseen delays.
We spent the time working on the boat, training when we could, and resting at the team day-house, which was nestled under the outstretched hands of Christ the Redeemer, just five minutes from the boat park.
On August 9, with conditions vastly improved, we lined up in the semi-final. After our victory in the heats, we reminded ourselves of the attitude we had taken into the semi-final at Poznan. The heat had been about getting down the course safely, but now it was time to stamp our authority on the regatta. We had drawn the British and South Africans, the capsizing Serbs, who had come through the repechage, and the Hungarians and Czechs. We knew the Brits and South Africans would go out fast, so we followed them, hunted them, and pulled away before the first mark, setting up a lead that we would keep all the way.
We were satisfied but far from happy. We had massive expectations of ourselves. Expectations that we had fostered since our first victory together in 2009. With expectation came standards and we knew we could do better. We also didn't want to take anything for granted. Not long after our race, the women's and men's double sculls were knocked out of the medal races, both finishing fourth in their semi-finals. We watched on numbly as their Olympic dreams were shattered. It brought back memories of 2008 and our own Olympic nightmare in the four. We never wanted to feel like that again, and so far we hadn't, but the reminder of that agony was right there in the tears of our team-mates. It reinforced the cut-throat nature of semi-final racing at the Olympic Games.
There is very little you can say to someone in that situation.
Rather than offering words that would go unheard and hugs that would remain unfelt, we simply redoubled our determination and prepared for our final. We were motivated for that race by the expectation of success and the fear of losing.
Two days later, on August 11, 2016, Hamish and I won our second Olympic gold medal in the Rio sunshine. It was the third-slowest time of our pairs career (six minutes and 59 seconds). It was also our 69th consecutive victory in the pair. We had claimed six world championships and set the world best time in the coxless pair, and we had claimed a world championship title and set the world best time in the coxed pair. We rowed to the pontoon, climbed out of the boat and embraced. Hamish called it our "quadrennial man-love moment".
In our post-race interview we were asked about the impact of our first coaches, Charles Haggie at Mercer for me, and Peter Foster and the legendary Fred Strachan at Otago Boys' for Hamish. Right at that moment, I think we both thought about our 15-year-old selves. It is a bloody long time to have been rowing boats. And it has all been worth it.
It was a different feeling to winning at London. Yes, we were proud as Punch, but we were more relieved than anything else. We had come to Brazil for business and the job was done. Later that evening we sat at the New Zealand Club, looking back over the beach of Ipanema. We were asked what we thought of each other, and the truth is what we feel is enormous mutual respect. Australian triple Olympic gold medallist Drew Ginn said after the race that most crews have a commonality, but that the Kiwi Pair's strength lies in the differences between the two men. He may be right.
Hamish used to joke that I was able to pull big numbers in training because I was "no brain, no pain", but as we sat around the table sharing a beer or two, he talked about my self-belief, which can counteract his doubts, and my ability to dig deep, even when swimming in lactate [high intensity training]. I know there have been times when my life and his goals haven't aligned, but our two different lives have had to work together. I had to have in mind that Hamish was going to allow only so much. I had to give a little bit and he had to give a little bit.
Somewhere in the middle the magic happened.
We sat at that table long into the night, and I saw the stress and the strain start to leave his face. I have never met a man more committed, more determined or more singularly focused on a goal. For the past eight years every decision Hamish has made has prioritised rowing. There was not a day when I didn't think to myself that he could probably do all of this with someone else in the boat.
I'm glad he didn't exercise that option.
We spoke about that, too. He said that the one thing he knew was that no matter how hard he went, I would be able to follow, and we both knew that there was never a time when I would let him down in that boat.
That was quite enough mutual respect for one night, for what we always knew didn't need discussing. We were two very distinct personalities and we found the finest of intersecting lines upon which those personalities could bleed into one. It was on that line that we rowed a boat into history.
On that line we became the Kiwi Pair.
Extract reproduced with permission from The Kiwi Pair by Hamish Bond and Eric Murray. Published by Penguin NZ. RRP $40. Available nationwide.
- NZ Herald

Eric Murray and Hamish Bond: 'Somewhere in the middle the magic happened'


A new book by Eric Murray and Hamish Bond lifts the lid on a unique partnership that has built a legendary domination of world rowing. In this exclusive extract, written immediately - New Zealand Herald


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Carlos Creek Winery is the first in the Midwest to be able to bottle wine in single-serving plastic miniatures. (Lowell Anderson / Echo Press)
When the puck drops for Minnesota Wild games at the Xcel Center this season, fans can sip on wine from Alexandria's Carlos Creek Winery as they watch.
The winery has signed a contract to be the sole provider for wine at the St. Paul arena's hockey games and other events, such as concerts.
The deal was made possible when the winery added equipment so it could bottle single-serving plastic bottles. The winery is first in the Midwest to be able to offer this type of bottle, according to Tami Bredeson, president of Carlos Creek Winery.
The sports venue is a first for Carlos Creek, but may not be the last, if things go well at the Xcel.
"We may be able to parlay that into other opportunities," said Tyler Bredeson, vice president for operations for Carlos Creek.
The opportunity became available when Barefoot wines opted not to renew as the Xcel 's wine vendor.
Based on Barefoot's sales, Michelle Bredeson, vice president of sales, said that the "low-end of expectations" is to sell about 30,000 single-serve bottles per year at the Xcel. Each serving is 6.3 ounces, about one-fourth of a bottle.
The winery will be selling its Minnescato, Trinity and Chardonnay brands and its Minnesota Nice line of wines — Wobegon White, Hot Dish Red and You Betcha Blush, which has a label featuring two moose playing hockey.
The sales at the Xcel will start with the beginning of the Wild's season in October.
If hockey and wine may seem an unlikely pairing, Carlos Creek also has other new outlets:
Minnesota State Fair: Minnesota Nice single-serve miniatures are available at the French Creperie restaurant that started this week.
Guthrie Theater: Carlos Creek wines will be the exclusive wines available in the VIP Kitchak Lounge of the Minneapolis theater, to be served at some special events. The winery is working on getting its wines served at all bars in the Guthrie, offering a changing selection of wines served from full-size bottles.
Ordway Theater: While a deal is not yet finalized, Carlos Creek wines should soon be available at all the bars in the St. Paul theater and will be the exclusive wines available in the private donors lounges. Like the Guthrie, the wine selection will change and be served from full-size bottles.
While selling wine at the new venues is a good opportunity for the winery, the ability to build up the Carlos Creek brand in the Twin Cities metro area makes the deal even more attractive.
"If all goes well, it should make Carlos Creek more at the forefront of people's minds when they are buying wine in the Twin Cities," Tyler Bredeson said.


When Katie Coopet went to work Monday, she expected it to be a typical day working at the snack bar in the waterpark at Arrowwood Resort and Conference Center.
The 17-year-old, who will be a senior at Alexandria Area High School this fall, also works as a lifeguard at the waterpark. But Monday, she was "off duty" - or so she thought.
She not only had to call 911 for one of the lifeguards on duty who was having a seizure, she helped save the life of another lifeguard who also ended up having a seizure.
"I almost had to do CPR on my friend," she said. "At one point, he just stared at the ceiling, there was nothing there. His eyes were lifeless."
Coopet recalled the events that took place Aug. 22 during her shift at the waterpark. There were four lifeguards on duty and two people working the snack bar. She was one of them. Shortly after 5 p.m., one of her co-workers told her to call 911 because one of the lifeguards was having a seizure on the pool deck.
"She wasn't in the water, which was good," Coopet said.
While on the phone and after she knew help was on the way, Coopet told a coworker, whom she described as panicky, to wait outside for the ambulance.
"I tend to stay the calmest," she said, "so I stayed with the girl, who seemed terrified, and told her EMS was on its way."
In addition, Coopet called the waterpark manager, Beth Housen, and explained what was happening.
"She was calm and had a cool head. Katie did a good job," Housen said. "She was very professional."
Once the seizing lifeguard was being tended to by EMS and everything was OK, Coopet was asked by Housen to change into her swimsuit and move from the snack bar to lifeguarding.
Coopet said she was on her way to her car when she saw one of the other lifeguards, Austin Hohler. She said he has a history of seizures and she had witnessed two of them. She asked him if he was OK because he looked a little off. Hohler assured her he was fine. Coopet jokingly told him, "If I come back and you're on the floor, I'm going to punch you."
Because she has been with him having seizures before, she knew his signs. When she came back from changing into her suit, she asked Hohler again if he was OK.
"He just stared at me blankly," she explained. "I took him into our lifeguard room and had him sit down. I asked him what day it was, what time it was. He couldn't speak. And he was pale as a ghost."
Coopet said she has been through lifeguard training and is CPR certified so she remembered with seizure patients that you have to protect their head and put them on their side. However, at that point, her co-worker and friend was not actually seizing. She said Hohler was sitting down and that he was "kind of going in and out of it." She told him to lean on her as she felt like something was going to happen.
Although she could recall most of what happened, Coopet said some things are still a little fuzzy.
She remembers taking off his glasses and his lifeguard whistle from around his neck. At that point, Housen was with them and Coopet asked her to get a cold towel to put on Hohler's head.
"Katie saw that he was in trouble and took charge," said Housen. "She did an awesome job. I am proud of her. I am proud of all of them. As a group they worked hard and pulled together."
Coopet explained that Hohler wasn't necessarily having a seizure, but he was more or less twitching and it wouldn't last more than a few minutes.
At one point, however, he stopped breathing. "I had two fingers on his neck at all times, his heart was beating, but he wasn't breathing.
"I told him I needed to see his stomach rise and at that moment, his eyes darted open and he looked at me," explained Coopet. "I got him calmed down and told him to focus on me."
After Hohler had the first seizure, Housen called 911. Housen said she had to repeat herself a couple of times because the dispatcher thought she was still needing an ambulance for the first incident. She had to explain that there was a second person who was seizing.
At one point, Coopet said she took the CPR mask out of the first aid kit and ripped it open.
"I had it ready just in case," she said.
After five or six cycles of Hohler going in and out of consciousness, Coopet said he looked at her and got teary-eyed.
"I asked him if he was scared," Coopet said. "Even though he couldn't answer, I knew he was. I promised him he was going to be OK and I would get him through this. He stared right through me, like nothing was there."
Coopet admitted that she, too, was scared.
"Even if I am freaking out, I don't show it. I do what I need to do," Coopet said. "I was just doing my job."
That's the kind of job Coopet plans to do after she graduates. Coopet has plans to go to nursing school in Washington state with a goal of becoming a trauma nurse.
Her mother, Tracie Berglund, said it is very fitting. "Since she was 2, she's wanted to be in the medical field."
"I am so very proud of her. She's going to do well whatever she decides to do," Berglund said.
Hohler was transported to the Douglas County Hospital and then to Children's Hospital in the Twin Cities. According to a family member's Facebook page, he was expected to go home Thursday. Hohler was contacted and the newspaper is awaiting his response. Watch for a follow-up story in next week's Echo Press.

Teen keeps cool in face of medical emergencies


Wild about wine: Carlos Creeks to sell in Xcel Center


The Minnesota Vikings Gjallarhorn is on a tour of Minnesota, and two of the stops are local: Kensington Rune Stone Park and the statue of Big Ole in Alexandria. (Contributed photo)
Big Ole has a fresh paint job, and next week, he'll briefly have an accessory to complement it.
On Tuesday, Aug. 30, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., the original Vikings Gjallarhorn from 2007 will be placed near the Big Ole statue.
The stop is one of 23 along the Sound the North tour, during which the original Gjallarhorn travels to iconic places throughout Minnesota. Before visiting Big Ole, it will also be placed at Kensington Rune Stone Park from 8 to 10 a.m.
"We're taking it to all different kinds of iconic as well as scenic locations in Minnesota," said Minnesota Vikings Marketing Intern Monterae Carter. "During our research we found out about the Big Ole statue, and it seemed so interesting so we decided to make a stop there."
During the stops in the area, the public may take photos with the Gjallarhorn and is invited to tag them with #SoundTheNorth if shared on social media.
"We have props that they can use to make the picture extra fun," Carter said.
Jim Bergquist, executive director at the Runestone Museum, says it was just good timing that the tour stop was planned right after Big Ole's remodel wrapped up.
"We didn't know they were coming up here, but they called and said they would be here and they were curious to know if Big Ole would be finished," he said. "I think they were kind of planning to come up anyway and have a picture, but it's all the better now that Big Ole is finished with his paint job."
Bergquist encourages the public to come view the Gjallarhorn next week.
"There should be room for a good-sized crowd," he said.
ABOUT THE GJALLARHORN
The blowing of the Gjallarhorn has been a Minnesota Vikings tradition since 2007, and it is sounded before home games by an honorary figure from the community. Throughout the game, the horn is also sounded to signal important plays.
The use of the Gjallarhorn dates back to Norse mythology, when the arrival of gods was signaled by the sound.
The current horn, different from the one traveling around Minnesota, now resides at the recently opened U.S. Bank Stadium. It is fixed on a platform of its own in the northwest corner, rather than on the sidelines of the field as it has been in the past.
As it resides in a new stadium, it's fitting that the horn itself is also new, since the previous one shattered into pieces due to cold temperatures in January 2016.
On July 22, Vikings Head Coach Mike Zimmer was the first to sound the Gjallarhorn from its new home.


BECKER COUNTY, Minn. - A helicopter clipped a power line on the north side of Pelican Lake, downing the line and causing a grass fire that took about an hour to extinguish, Audubon Fire Chief Chris Wiedenmeyer said Tuesday, Aug. 30.
The helicopter was spraying potato fields by County Highway 20 near the Becker and Otter Tail County line when it hit the power line. When the line hit the ground, it started a grass fire that grew to about an acre, Wiedenmeyer said.
The helicopter reported the fire to Otter Tail County dispatch, which relayed the message to Becker County, Wiedenmeyer said. The pilot was apparently not injured, he said.
The helicopter pilot then left the scene and continued his flight, Wiedenmeyer said.
Nine men from the Audubon Volunteer Fire Department responded with a fire truck and a grass fire rig, Wiedenmeyer said.

Helicopter clips power line, sparks grass fire


A panoramic view of some of the people gathered and activities offered at Sunday's Youth Outdoor Activity Day at the Alexandria Shooting Park. The free event drew more than 1,700 kids. (Eric Morken | Echo Press)
Glenwood 10-year-old John Jenson gets a high five from volunteer Jalen Johnson after hitting his mark at the bowfishing station at the Youth Outdoor Activity Day in Alexandria on Sunday. (Eric Morken | Echo Press)
Glenwood's John Jenson, 10, takes aim at a target in a pool below him on the ground as she shoots from a platform in a boat at the bowfishing station on Sunday. Fargo native Jalen Johnson served as a volunteer to help kids out at the station. (Eric Morken | Echo Press)
Alexandria 10-year-old Erica Johnson looks at some furs with her grandpa, Paul Johnson, during Sunday's Youth Outdoor Activity Day. (Eric Morken | Echo Press)
Simon DeBlieck of Alexandria helps out his 6-year-old daughter, Kayla, at the rope-making station as Erica Johnson looks on in the back. The rope-making opportunity, which was hosted by the Boy Scouts of America, was a popular attraction for kids in its first year at the Youth Outdoor Activity Day. (Eric Morken | Echo Press)
Kayla DeBlieck had just gotten done making her own rope at the Alexandria Shooting Park on Sunday afternoon and was ready to hurry on to the next event.
It was down to the last hour of the five-hour Youth Outdoor Activity Day, and there was still so much to do.
"I don't really like to go fishing, but I really like to just do stuff in nature," Kayla said. "I like to be in the outdoors so much because I want to explore."
The 6-year-old from Alexandria came to the right place. This year's third-annual youth day hosted by the Douglas County Pheasants Forever chapter and Viking Sportsmen group had a total of 39 different events for kids to try.
Those range from the entertainment to educational variety. There were staple events like trap and archery shooting, fire building and a shoot/don't shoot course, geocaching and mock blood trails.
Many are set up to get kids a taste of hunting or fishing, but not all of them. There was a pollinator booth, a chance to build a bird feeder, ATV safety tips and rides and a climbing wall. Many of the parents or grandparents that brought their kids on Sunday were hunters or anglers themselves, but the popular theme was anything that kids can do in the outdoors is time well spent.
"It's wonderful," Kayla's dad, Simon, said. "We fish a fair amount. We go up and visit grandparents a lot in Park Rapids, and they have a lake place. We go out on the lake and they go on tubes and fish and swim. We live out in the country, so they do some walking and there's deer and turkeys wandering around. I'm just glad they want to be outside."
EVENT GROWS AGAIN
Dean Krebs, president of Douglas County PF, said late in the day that 1,700 kids had registered for the event. That wasn't a final number, but it's already more participants for the third straight year — from 542 kids in 2014 and 1,391 last summer.
That's the goal for the hundreds of businesses and outdoor groups around Alexandria, Minnesota and country that provide time and financial support to make this an entirely free event that offers food and fun for kids 16 and younger.
"We're always trying to make sure we have the same or more kids, yet I think the quality of our events went up," Krebs said. "We had more events this year with a rock climbing wall, butterfly preschool, ATV course. I was telling somebody else that not one of these kids were in front of a screen today. I haven't seen one screen. No iPads, no internet, no TV, and they're having a ball, which is fantastic."
A DIFFERENT EVENT FOR EVERYONE
Paul and Paulette Johnson of Alexandria were there with three of their grandkids in Ethan, 14, Sidney, 12, and Erica, 10. Hunting and fishing has been a part of the Johnson family for years, but they were blown away by the depth of activities offered in their first time coming to the event.
"Things we've never even seen," Paulette said. "It's very exciting with all the items, the places they can go and do."
"I think this is a fantastic program," Paul added. "I've never been out here before. There's so many kids out here that don't get exposed to this stuff. I think it's wonderful."
Ethan was on a mission to test out his accuracy with throwing a tomahawk. Sidney tied her first rope.
"It was hard," she said. "You have to spin it really fast, and I was tired at the end, and it was hard to keep going. It's been really fun, and I've gotten to try a lot of things I haven't tried before."
Glenwood's John Jenson, 10, has never been bowfishing, but he'd like to now. He climbed onto the boat that was set up for kids to take aim with a bow and shoot at a target in a small pool on the ground below them.
Jenson hit his mark as a smile came to his face. He was up for trying just about anything, including shooting a muzzleloader for the first time on Sunday morning.
"It was really fun and it kicked back a little, but not much," John said.
Hunting is already a passion for him. He shot his first wood duck and pheasant last year. This year, he'll try to get a deer for the first time, and his excitement level is pretty high.
"One out of 10, probably a 25," he said.
That love for the outdoors has been ingrained in him through a lot of hunts with his dad, David.
"He was with me all the time last year, and he's ready this year," David said. "I bet he'll be out with me 90 percent of the time."
TAKING IT FURTHER
Organizers of the youth day love to hear that, and are taking steps to provide similar opportunities for kids who might not get that chance already.
A $24,220 grant that the Viking Sportsmen and Douglas County PF received through the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources Hunter Recruitment and Retention Program for this year's event helped purchase almost 1,000 prizes that were given away.
That included fishing poles, BB guns and bows for beginners and those with some archery experience.
The grant also came with responsibility to go further than just viewing this as a one-day event. Organizers got adults involved by letting them shoot alongside their kids at the trap and archery ranges as a way to get whole families involved.
The registration process involved surveys to track how involved families already are in the outdoors and the interest they would have in getting more involved if opportunities were provided.
A group like the Minnesota Darkhouse and Angling Association already has a mentored spearing day set up for this winter that kids could sign up for on Sunday.
"They come here, they sign up and they'll take them out on a spearing trip this winter," Krebs said. "That's just one example. Each one of these groups, they are going to be keeping track with what connections they're making with these kids and these families and reporting back to us."
Krebs was in Minneapolis for a Recruitment, Retention and Reactivation summit on Saturday to learn more about some of the best practices in getting more young people outside.
The goal this year is about more than just hosting a one-day event. It's about providing a spark and doing what they can to help kids keep or create a passion for the outdoors.
"That's really the next phase of what we want to do with youth day here is provide the context so families can expand further into some of these activities," Krebs said. "They try it here, they get their interest and make a connection and then go out and do it with some of these groups that we have here."


Some say lightning doesn't strike the same place twice. But that may not be the case for a Reynolds, North Dakota rancher. Paul Lenz raises SimAngus cattle, and according to livestock specialists what happened on his farm is out of this world.

Rare second set of triplets a surprise for ND rancher


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Pat Cash and Amanda Davies explore which country will finish the year holding the prestigious Davis Cup trophy.


Photos: Day 2 at Flushing Meadows Serena Williams is all smiles after she beat Russia's Ekaterina Makarova 6-3 6-3 in their first round match. Williams is bidding for a record 23rd grand slam singles title. Hide Caption 1 of 11
Photos: Day 2 at Flushing Meadows Fresh from claiming an Olympic silver medal, Juan Martin del Potro was in action on Tuesday. The Argentine eased through against compatriot Diego Schwartzman 6-3 6-3 7-6 (7-3). Hide Caption 2 of 11
Photos: Day 2 at Flushing Meadows Del Potro's vanquisher in Rio, Andy Murray was also untroubled in his opening match beating Lukas Rosol of the Czech Republic 6-3 6-2 6-2. Hide Caption 3 of 11
Photos: Day 2 at Flushing Meadows The players may have struggled in the searing heat -- temperatures were again tipping 30˚C on Tuesday -- but fourth seed Agnieszka Radwanska wasted little energy in her opening match brushing aside American Jessica Pegula 6-1 6-1. Hide Caption 4 of 11
Photos: Day 2 at Flushing Meadows It was a similar story for Romania's Simona Halep -- a semifinalist in 2015 -- as she defeated Kirsten Flipkens of Belgium 6-0 6-2. Hide Caption 5 of 11
Photos: Day 2 at Flushing Meadows Venus Williams, however, was made to work hard for her victory over Kateryna Kozlova of Ukraine eventually winning through 6-2 5-7 6-4. Hide Caption 6 of 11
Photos: Day 2 at Flushing Meadows Eleventh seed, Carla Suarez Navarro of Spain completed a double bagel -- 6-0 6-0 -- victory over Teliana Pereira of Brazil on Tuesday. Hide Caption 7 of 11
Photos: Day 2 at Flushing Meadows Canada's Eugenie Bouchard crashed out in three sets (6-3 3-6 6-2) to Katerina Siniakova of the Czech Republic. Hide Caption 8 of 11
Photos: Day 2 at Flushing Meadows Switzerland's Stan Wawrinka served up a 7-6 (7-4) 6-4 6-4 win over Fernando Verdasco of Spain. Hide Caption 9 of 11
Photos: Day 2 at Flushing Meadows Verdasco's compatriot David Ferrer had more luck in his opening round match, progressing against Alexandr Dolgopolov after the Ukrainian was forced to retire before the end of the first set. Hide Caption 10 of 11


Serena Williams and Andy Murray were in action on day two at Flushing Meadows.


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Tennis stars Rafa Nadal, Yannick Noah, Mats Wilander, Mary Pierce, Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario, Chris Evert & Michael Chang discuss Paris' grand slam.


London (CNN) Andre Agassi's body will always bear the scars of 21 years on the unforgiving tennis circuit, the days when he pounded his opponents into submission with his relentlessly aggressive baseline game.
"I'm 46 years old and occasionally I have a hard time putting my shoes on in the morning," Agassi said in an interview with CNN in Umag, Croatia in July, where he played his old friend Goran Ivanisevic in an exhibition event. "No question that my body is older than its years."
The transition from professional athlete to retiree can often be challenging and the American realized he had to find a new focus once he stopped playing and he's now devoting most of his time to his new passion: building schools in the United States.
Agassi's wife and fellow multiple grand slam winner, Steffi Graf, runs a foundation aimed at helping children who have been traumatized by war or violence.
The way he has adapted to life away from professional tennis is a source of pride to Agassi, especially as the prospect of retirement had filled him with dread.
"It's like preparing for death," said Agassi. "Nobody knows what it's going to feel like and nobody knows when it is going to happen and when it does, it's your time."
Photos: Andre Agassi is pictured during his breakthrough year in 1988, when he reached the semifinals of the French Open and the U.S. Open, sporting highlights and a mullet. Hide Caption 1 of 10 Photos: Agassi, at the age of six, stands next to his father Emmanuel "Mike" Agassi and older sister Rita Agassi and older brother Phil Agassi in 1976. In his autobiography "Open," Agassi talked extensively about how driven his father was in helping his son pursue a career in tennis. Hide Caption 2 of 10 Photos: At the 1988 U.S. Open, the 18-year-old Agassi upset his boyhood idol Jimmy Connors in straight sets to reach the semifinals. Although he would be beaten by then top-ranked Ivan Lendl, a star had been born. Hide Caption 3 of 10 Photos: Sometimes you need a headband to control your hair ... in his autobiography "Open," Agassi revealed he sometimes wore a wig during matches and that he'd lost the 1990 French Open finals because of fears his hairpiece was falling apart. Hide Caption 4 of 10 Photos: Agassi also made a lasting impact on tennis fashion -- introducing denim shorts. Hide Caption 5 of 10 Photos: Agassi won his fourth major at the French Open in 1999 after coming back from two sets behind to beat Andrei Medvedev and complete a career grand slam. Hide Caption 6 of 10 Photos: At the 1994 Olympics in Atlanta, Agassi became the first American tennis player to win Olympic gold in the men's singles since 1924 after he beat Spain's Sergi Bruguera in straight sets. Hide Caption 7 of 10 Photos: Agassi blows kisses to the crowd after winning his first round match at the 2006 U.S. Open. But he would retire from the sport at the age of 36 after losing to Germany's Benjamin Becker in the third round. Hide Caption 8 of 10 Photos: Andre Agassi with his wife and fellow multiple grand slam winner, Steffi Graf , at a boxing event in Las Vegas, Nevada last year. The pair have two children and rarely play tennis anymore. Hide Caption 9 of 10 Photos: Pete Sampras enjoys his 14th and final grand slam triumph at the 2002 U.S. Open after beating Andre Agassi in the final. Hide Caption 10 of 10
Child prodigy
Yet retirement also came as "a relief," said Agassi, who lives and works in Las Vegas with his family -- he and Graf have two children -- and devotes most of his time to education. "I had accomplished what I wanted. I pushed myself as far I could go."
Coached by his father Mike, a volatile former Olympic boxer from Iran, Agassi was a child prodigy who grew up playing hustle matches in Las Vegas.
In his 2009 autobiography "Open" Agassi recalls Mike Agassi once pointing a handgun at another driver while he was in the car and remembers beating former NFL star Jim Brown at the age of nine to win a $500 bet, arranged by his father.
Having taken the tennis world by storm as a young upstart with long hair, denim shorts and lightning-quick reflexes and footwork, Agassi wrote in his autobiography that at times he hated tennis "with a dark and secret passion."
He regained his love for the game in his late 20s and would leave the sport as one of its most popular competitors and most eloquent spokesmen.
'Athletes die twice'
With 35-year-old Roger Federer out for the rest of the season with a knee injury, Serena Williams turning 35 next month and her sister Venus aged 36, there has been speculation that tennis may see a spate of high-profile retirements sooner rather than later.
"I don't think there is a right moment to retire," Agassi said. "The truth is that athletes spend a third of their career not preparing for two thirds of their life."
After dedicating their entire existence to getting an edge, athletes can hit a brick wall once they retire and have to get used to life on the outside where the highs and lows of winning and losing are less pronounced.
U.S. baseball star Jackie Robinson once famously said: "athletes die twice," the first time being the day they retire from playing elite sports.
The likes of four-time Olympic track champion Michael Johnson and former Wimbledon winner Pat Cash have thrived in their new roles, working in the media and in the case of Johnson, opening his own performance center for young athletes.
Yet there are plenty of athletes who have struggled.
Former England footballer Paul Gascoigne's problems with alcohol addiction since his retirement are well-documented while Australian swimming star Ian Thorpe struggled with depression and alcohol abuse during and after a brilliant career that earned him nine Olympic medals.
In an interview in 2014, British two-time Olympic track cycling champion Victoria Pendleton said she missed the regimented structure professional sports had given her in retirement.
Tearful goodbye
This month's U.S. Open is the 10th anniversary of Agassi's memorable retirement, when he lost to Germany's Benjamin Becker after struggling through the first two rounds with a bad back which required a cortisone injection and three anti-inflammatory shots.
After a four-minute long ovation from the crowd at Arthur Ashe Stadium, an emotionally and physically drained Agassi paid tribute to his New York fans, telling them: "The scoreboard said I lost today, but what the scoreboard doesn't say is what it is I've found," as tears rolled down his face.
"Over the last 21 years, I've found loyalty. You have pulled for me on the court and also in life."
Has Serena underachieved?
Although Agassi's day-to-day commitments don't leave him much time, he said he follows tennis when he can and is most impressed by Novak Djokovic and Serena Williams.
The top-ranked Djokovic will bounce back from his Wimbledon and Olympic disappointment to win the U.S. Open, Agassi predicted.
The Serb's shock third-round defeat by American Sam Querrey ended his hopes of a third straight Wimbledon title and ruined his chances of becoming the first man since Rod Laver in 1969 to complete the calendar year grand slam.
He then was knocked out of the Olympic tennis tournament in the first round by eventual silver medallist Juan Martin Del Potro.
Andy Murray went on to win his second Wimbledon title before successfully defending his Olympic title in Rio and many are tipping him to claim a second U.S. Open victory.
But Agassi says Djokovic is still the man to beat. "He will come back for the U.S. Open," he said.
"Anybody that knows me knows that I think he should win everything all the time," said Agassi, a two-time champion in New York. "That is how he separated himself from everybody."
Agassi is equally impressed with Williams, who tied Graf's Open era record of 22 slams at Wimbledon and will overtake the German if she wins her seventh U.S. Open.
"It's remarkable," Agassi said. "I've kind of joked for a long time, quite frankly that she is probably one of the only persons I've ever seen that, no matter how much she wins, she could always be considered an underachiever.
"Because I remember years when all of a sudden she didn't and you're going: 'Why didn't she?' She's so good."

Andre Agassi: Prospect of retiring 'is like death'


Andre Agassi talks to CNN's Open Court about retirement, Novak Djokovic and Serena Williams.


Tennis legend Venus Williams talks about living with Sjögren's Syndrome, a condition that causes fatigue.


The Williams sisters are from Compton, California. CNN's Christina Macfarlane goes there to learn more about them.


CNN's Christina Macfarlane catches up with Stanislas Wawrinka one day after winning the French Open.


CNN correspondent Isa Soares travels to Manacor to interview Rafa Nadal about his new tennis academy.


ATP Tour player Tommy Haas goes backstage at London's O2 Arena where the tennis elite get rock-star treatment.


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The former number 1, Caroline Wozniacki trains for the New York Marathon in early November.


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The 2013 Wimbledon champion talks about going into the hotel industry. Christina MacFarlane reports.


Serena Williams maintains a close relationship with her family. Don Riddell visits her father Richard at his Florida home.


Open Court's Pat Cash and former top 10 player Barbara Schett look at the do's and don'ts of a tennis player's diet.


Petra Kvitova and Novak Djokovic won their first Wimbledon titles in 2011. Open Court looks back at their journey.


Hear how Roger Federer overcame a back injury to win one of the most prestigious trophies in tennis, The Davis Cup.


World number 4 Simona Halep has her eyes set on beating Serena Williams in the future. CNN's Pat Cash reports.


(CNN) It all began at the Newport Casino Club on Rhode Island way back in 1881 and since 1978 the US Open has been held at Flushing Meadows.
The last grand slam of the season has been contested on grass, clay as well as the current hard courts but only one player has won the title on all three surfaces.
This year marks another milestone for the tournament as the Arthur Ashe Stadium gets a roof for the first time — making rain delays a thing of the past.


It all began at the Newport Casino Club on Rhode Island way back in 1881 and since 1978 the US Open has been held at Flushing Meadows.


2013 Wimbledon champion Marion Bartoli talks candidly about the mental side of the game.


The Bryan brothers strike a new chord with fans


World number 1 doubles pair Bob & MIke Bryan invite Open Court to their tennis garden gig.


Story highlights Roger Federer targets Australian Open return
Federer has suffered an injury-blighted year
Swiss will miss upcoming US Open
(CNN) It's been a "painful" year for Roger Federer, but one he is determined to put behind him as he targets a return to the tennis court in time for January's Australian Open.
Federer was last in action in July when he suffered a semifinal defeat to Milos Raonic at Wimbledon, with a knee injury having sidelined him since, ruling him out of the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.
The same injury means the 35-year-old will also miss out on the US Open, which gets underway on August 29, while he will be absent from the season-ending ATP World Tour Finals in November as well.
The Swiss, however, is confident of a return to fitness in time for the first grand slam of 2017, which commences in Melbourne on January 16.
"I'm working for the Australian Open," Federer said at an event in New York. "I'm doing well."
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Becker: Reaction to coaching job surprised me


CNN's Don Riddell talks to Boris Becker about coaching Novak Djokovic and the reaction to the announcement.


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Martin Emmrich proposed to Michaella Krajicek on court at a grass warm up event in front of an unsuspecting audience.


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44-time Grand Slam Champion Esther Vergeer invited Pat Cash onto the court to experience wheelchair tennis first hand.


Open Court meets 2-time grand slam champion Amelie Mauresmo who now runs an indoor Paris tournament.