Weapon Pulled On Cab Driver

A heated argument in Saint John ending with a weapon being pulled on a cab driver.  

City police tell us it happened late yesterday afternoon on Peters Street, just off of Waterloo Street. A 20 year old man got out of the car, kicked the door, took out the weapon before being arrested. The driver wasn't hurt in the incident and no cash was stolen.

Police say they also nabbed two car prowlers in the area of Carlisle Crescent on the east side.

MLA Hosting Meeting Tonight On Flooding In St. George

Wild weather is here to stay it would seem.

One Liberal MLA wants to make sure homes and businesses in his riding are prepared and protected as much as they can be.

Flash flooding in Charlotte County last month was a scary reminder of the devastation water brought to the area in 2010.

Residents of St. George, Lake Utopia, Boney River, and everyone in between are welcome to attend a meeting on the topic tonight.

Charlotte the Isles MLA Rick Doucet is hosting the meeting tonight at 7pm at Magaguadavic Place.

Logan Pleads Guilty To Manslaughter

A guilty plea from a Saint John man charged in connection with a brutal beating at an uptown rooming house that led to a 66 year-old's death.

35 year-old Nicholas Logan pleading guilty to manslaughter after Duncan MacDonald died in hospital on April 10 from injuries he sustained from the March 16 incident on the corner of Duke and Prince William.

MacDonald had a broken neck, punctured lung and a severe brain injury. The official cause of death was blunt force trauma to the head. 

After the incident, Logan told police he had felt "a strong desire to wipe out everyone in the building." Logan has been undergoing mental health assessments at a hospital in Restigouche, where he's been remanded until his next court appearance on August 30: a disposition hearing before sentencing. 

Judge Henrik Tonning calling cases like this one "very complicated."

Malloch Looking For Awnswers To Flooding Issues

With the clean up pretty much completed in the wake of another flash flood in the St Stephen area - attention is turning to what steps are needed to better deal with changing weather patterns.
Charlotte - Campobello M-L-A Curtis Malloch tells Tide News it's time for serious soul searching by trying to determine what to look at - where to look at it - what can we do different as we move ahead with infrastructure.
Malloch says he will continue to push the issue with his government colleagues in Fredericton - he says he also wants to make sure the best support is available to emergency responders and volunteers when dealing with natural disasters.

East Side Apartment Complex Evacuated

Light smoke and a strange smell filling an apartment complex causing an afternoon evacuation. 

Platoon Chief Eric Garland says they evacuated everyone in the 48-unit apartment building at 10 Woodhollow Park while crews looked for the source—which they found to be a malfunctioning ventilation system that's now in need of servicing. 

Fire crews were on the scene for about an hour, and everybody was allowed to return home. One older woman was brought to hospital, but Garland says it's nothing serious.

Target Hosting Job Fair Throughout Week

As the Port City holds onto the title of highest unemployment of all cities in a Stats Canada survey, this announcement could bring some hope to Saint Johners looking for work — a major retail chain is doing some hiring.

Target is hosting a job fair throughout the week at Loch Lomond Place. It runs from 8:30am to 5:30 on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday and from 11:00am to 8pm on Wednesday.

The store itself will will open sometime before Christmas.

Jewish Historical Museum Gets $25,000 Donation

The Saint John Jewish Historical Museum fund has just received a big donation from a man who passed away last week.

Author, lawyer, educator and human rights advocate Lorne Rozovsky has given the group $25,000. In a letter, he wrote that he wanted to make a lasting contribution to the preservation of the history of the city's Jewish community.

Rozovsky died last Monday at the age of 70 after a 15-month battle with pancreatic cancer.

Cheap, Unique Entertainment For The Entire Family

Acrobatics, costumes, bagpipes and standup comedy: just a few of the wild and wacky performance styles you can expect at the Port City's most unique theater festival....which you may not have heard of yet.

Fundy Fringe Fest is a brand-new theater festival coming to the Port City. The  titles range from "Morlock the Warlock" to "That Boob Show" and "I Get Naked," and the performers are from all over Canada.

Sandra Bell of the Fundy Fringe Fest tells CHSJ News it's not your usual highbrow theater experience, and there's something at Fringe everyone can appreciate.

The Fundy Fringe Festival festival runs from August 21 to the 25 and a $50 festival pass gets you into 8 different shows of your choice. For more information, click here.

Firefighters Find Cause Of Gas Smell On West Side

Fire crews getting to the bottom of a strong smell on the West side of Saint John.

The calls started coming in just after 10pm, with numerous West side residents reporting a strange smell in the air—many saying it smelled like natural gas.

Firefighters tracked down the source of the odour—a Maritimes and Northeast substation on the West side that had released a small amount of gas. Wilson says the low atmosphere and the fog at the time made the smell seem much worse than it actually was.

He says there was no danger.

Harper: Feds Will Review Exotic Pet Store Rules

The federal government will review whether or not it needs to play a role in how exotic pet stores are regulated says Prime Minister Stephen Harper. 

Early on Monday, two young brothers in Campbellton were killed by an African rock python that escaped its enclosure in an apartment located above exotic pet store, Reptile Ocean. 

As Harper made the vow yesterday, zoo staff seized 23 reptiles—among them, snakes, lizards and a Cuban crocodile—and euthanized four American alligators belonging to the store. Officials say they had to put the animals down because no zoo would take them.

The species of python is banned in the province unless you have a special permit. Environment Canada spokesman Mark Johnson says the department was enlisted to help transport the python to Reptile Ocean 11 years ago after it was abandoned at the SPCA in Moncton.

Funeral Today For Brothers Killed By Python

A funeral service is being held today for the two boys killed by a python in Campbellton. 

Four year-old Noah Barthe and his six year-old brother Connor were found dead on Monday morning after a 45-kilogram African rock python escaped its enclosure in the apartment, which is above an exotic pet store.

Preliminary autopsy results show the boys died of asphyxiation.

Campbellton's deputy mayor, Ian Comeau, says the brothers will be buried together in one casket and that the service will celebrate their short lives. The funeral will be held at St. Thomas Aquinas Roman Catholic Church.
  
Both the apartment and store are owned by Jean-Claude Savoie, a family friend, who took the boys shopping and to a farm before hosting a sleepover on Sunday with his son.

Two Hospitalized After East Side Crash

A two-car crack up on the East side of Saint John.

Division Chief Mark Wilson of the Saint John Fire Department says two people were brought to hospital after the crash, which happened just after nine o'clock in the evening on the corner of Westmorland Road and Retail Drive. 

Their injuries are not life-threatening.

Milltown Blaze Leaves Man Temporarily Homeless

A Bordertown blaze gutting a mobile home in the Milltown area, leaving a man temporarily homeless. 

Crews from St. Stephen and Calais, Maine, responded to the fire which was reported at 3 o'clock in the afternoon. No word yet on a cause. 

The Canadian Red Cross is providing emergency lodging for the man, who they say is focusing on his daughter's wedding today.

Fire In Milltown Trailer Park

Fire crews from Calais and St. Stephen responding to a fire today at the Milltown trailer park.

No word yet on the extent of damage or any injuries.

New TV Ad By Premier Drawing Some Fire

The Canadian Taxpayers Federation says it should be the provincial Conservative party paying for the new TV ad featuring Premier David Alward. 

He's talking about turning around the economic fortunes of the province and bringing New Brunswick workers back home from out west but the Federation's Atlantic Director Kevin Lacey tells CHSJ News he doubts taxpayers in the province want to foot the bill.

The ad cost 15 thousand dollars to make and another 75 thousand dollars to air. 

A spokesperson for the Premier says they're just trying to be transparent but Lacey views it as the first ad of next year's provincial election campaign.

Report Complete On Chemo Underdosing At Regional Hospital

Health Canada should regulate the mixing of drugs outside a licensed pharmacy. 

That conclusion emerges from a report on why more than 12 hundred cancer patients at the Regional Hospital and in Ontario were receiving lower dosages for their chemotherapy than they should have, some for as long as a year.

Saint John To Be Visited By Prime Minister

Prime Minister Harper will be making a brief stop in Saint John at noonhour. 

He's here for what is described as a photo op with Premier David Alward and Arthur Irving at the Irving Oil refinery. 

This comes just a few days after the announcement that Trans Canada is moving ahead with the West to East pipeline which has the support of the federal government as a way to reduce dependence on foreign oil, get more money for Alberta oil and spur some economic activity.

Alward Government It Is Doing Something To Combat Food Insecurity

The Minister of Healthy and Inclusive Communities isn't taking issue with the estimate of 24 per cent of children in the province growing up in homes where getting enough food is a problem. 

Dorothy Shephard, who's also the M-L-A for Saint John Lancaster, tells CHSJ News the Alward Government is not sitting back, waiting for the provincial economy to get better. 

She says the government spends about 1 and a half million dollars a year on 29 different programmes which include community gardens, one of which just opened on land leased to the Carleton Community Centre by the Port Authority.
 
Shephard also says food mentors go into communities to teach people how they can shop well by buying nutritious foods that are cheaper than processed food. She points out the community gardens are full of people.  

Patient Registry Matches 800 NBers With Family Doctors

A provincially-run registry that matches doctor-less patients with family doctors is showing results.

800 New Brunswickers have been matched with a family doctor or nurse through Patient Connect NB, and another 300 are being matched right now. 2000 people have signed up for the service in total.

Patient Connect NB was established at the end of May. To register for the service, click here.

Councillor Confident Simms CEO Will Help Unemployed Workers

With the announcement the West side icon will be shutting its doors, the CEO of Simms has said he'll help out of work employees find new jobs — and Ward One Councillor, Bill Farren, believes he'll be true to his word.

Farren tells CHSJ News he knows Tom Simms will do his best to take care of those who find themselves unemployed when the Simms Corner factory shuts its doors this fall.

Farren says that's just in Simms' make-up, calling him a man of the people and a good, true businessman.

In a release Simms said it was a tough choice to let go of a team of employees they've worked with for decades. No word on how many people will be out of a job.