Alberta UCP membership drive and Heche on death’s door

In The News is a roundup of stories from The Canadian Press designed to kickstart your day. Here is what’s on the radar of our editors for the morning of Friday, August 12, 2022 …

What we are watching in Canada …

It’s deadline day to buy $10 Alberta United Conservative Party memberships to vote for the next leader and premier.

The party is accepting drop-offs by 5 p.m. and online memberships until midnight.

The party will then go through the memberships, confirming the information, while the final tally is expected to be ready in two weeks or so.

Seven candidates are on the ballot seeking to replace Premier Jason Kenney in the party’s top job.

Kenney announced in May he was quitting after receiving a lukewarm 51 per cent support in a party leadership review.

The candidates have been proposing a range of policy ideas from health care to education reform, but the focus of debate has been on how to leverage Alberta’s relationship with the federal government to get a better deal in areas such as equalization.

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Also this …

Campers say a convicted Canadian sex offender identified himself as security at a South Dakota campground, where he was staying with two children at the centre of a Saskatchewan Amber Alert with their mother.

Benjamin Martin Moore, 50, was located late Tuesday at a campground that takes part in the state’s annual Sturgis Motorcycle Rally. Glencoe Camp Resort posted on social media that its security team assisted in locating and apprehending Moore. The campground did not respond to a request for comment.

Camper Brian Lester said he and his wife stay at the resort every year when they attend the rally. He said they were surprised to see children there on Sunday because they thought it was an adults-only campground. Lester also noted that the children and adults didn’t have a tent and were sleeping in their car.

Lester said he also brought up the issue with a security guard in the campground later Sunday. That’s when a man, whom Lester said he later recognized as Moore, came up and told him that he was with the children.

“He says, ‘We’re down from Canada. I’m working security the week of the rally,” Lester said.

The children didn’t seem distraught, Lester said, and he saw no abuse taking place.

Moore was taken into custody at the campground late that night.

Saskatchewan RCMP issued an Amber Alert on Monday for the seven-year-old girl and eight-year-old boy.

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What we are watching in the U.S. …

Former U-S President Donald Trump called late Thursday for the “immediate” release of the federal warrant the FBI used to search his Florida estate, hours after the Justice Department had asked a court to unseal the warrant, with Attorney General Merrick Garland citing the “substantial public interest in this matter.”

In messages posted on his Truth Social platform, Trump wrote,
“Not only will I not oppose the release of documents … I am going
a step further by ENCOURAGING the immediate release of those
documents.”

He continued to assail the FBI search of Mar-a-Lago as “unAmerican, unwarranted and unnecessary.”

Should the warrant be released; a request now with the judge; it could disclose unflattering information about the former president and about FBI scrutiny of his handling of sensitive government documents right as he prepares for another run for the White House.

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What we are watching in the rest of the world …

Latvia and Estonia say they have left a Chinese-backed forum aimed at boosting relations with Eastern European countries.

The move follows China’s closer relations with Russia, whose invasion of Ukraine is seen as a possible first step in a series of moves against countries that were once part of the Soviet Union.

It also comes after Beijing launched economic and diplomatic retaliation against another Baltic state, Lithuania, after it expanded ties with the self-governing island democracy of Taiwan, which China claims as its own territory and threatens to annex by force.

Along with its stance on Ukraine, China has come under strong criticism for firing missiles and sending ships and warplanes off the coast of Taiwan in response to a visit there by U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

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On this day in 1985 …

Petro-Canada became the country’s largest service station owner when it paid Gulf Canada $886 million for 1,800 stations and four refineries in Ontario and Western Canada. The move gave Petro-Canada about 4,300 service stations across Canada, compared with 3,400 for Imperial Esso.

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In entertainment …

Anne Heche is on life support after suffering a brain injury in a fiery crash a week ago and her survival isn’t expected, according to a statement from a representative.

The actor, who is in a coma and in critical condition, is being kept on life support for possible organ donation, according to the statement released Thursday night on behalf of her family and friends.

Heche, who’s been hospitalized at the Grossman Burn Center at West Hills hospital north of Los Angeles, suffered a “severe anoxic brain injury,” the statement said. Such an injury is caused by a sustained lack of oxygen to the brain.

“She is not expected to survive,” the statement said. “It has long been her choice to donate her organs and she is being kept on life support to determine if any are viable.”

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Did you see this?

Researchers and scientists say they need better pay — or Canada will lose its best and brightest minds to other countries.

More than a thousand people have signed an online petition calling on the government to increase the number — and the amount — of scholarships and fellowships available through Canada’s three main granting agencies.

And thousands of researchers have signed onto an open letter in support of that call.

The letter was printed out on sheets of paper today, and the 60-metre-long train was presented at a rally on Parliament Hill.

Funding for research students in Canada comes mainly through scholarships and fellowships from the three federal granting agencies: the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.

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This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 12, 2022

The Canadian Press