TOP 12 ALBUMS OF 2012 PAGE 2 merrittherald.com
2012 B.C. QUIZ PAGE 5
CENTS RETURN TO ACTION PAGE 14
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THURSDAY, JANUARY 3, 2013 • MERRITT NEWSPAPERS
Merritt home to B.C.’s first baby of the new year Tim Petruk
KAMLOOPS THIS WEEK
FIRST OF THE NEW YEAR Merrittonians Geraldine and David James are first-time parents to David Jr., the first baby born in 2013 in the province. The baby was born at Royal Inland Hospital in Kamloops at 12:02 a.m. on Jan. 1. Dave Eagles/Kamloops This Week
If everything had gone according to schedule, Geraldine and David James would not be the proud parents of the first baby born in B.C. in 2013. For starters, the firsttime parents from Merritt were not supposed to welcome their bundle of joy into the world until Jan. 9, which was the due date doctors gave Geraldine after she found out she was pregnant. But, things changed and those same doctors decided to have the James go to Royal Inland Hospital in Kamloops on the weekend for a C-section, given concerns about the baby’s weight. So, there Geraldine was, with surgery scheduled for 7 p.m. on New Year’s Eve — a slot that would have given her one of the last 2012 babies in
the province. “Then I guess there was another lady who they decided had to go in first,” Geraldine told KTW from her hospital bed at RIH. “By the time they brought me in, it was about 11 or 11:30.” The surgery went as planned and little David Junior Ricky Joe James — all eight pounds, 11 ounces of him — entered the world at 12:02 a.m. That made Baby James the first of 2013, not only at RIH, but in all of B.C. Since then, Geraldine said, there have been a flurry of media interviews over and above all of the stuff that comes with being brand-new, first-time parents. But, she said, her son appears to be loving the attention. “Baby’s doing good,” the 40-year-old said. “Happy, healthy and quiet.”
First Nations vets’ fight for benefits continues Emily Wessel
THE HERALD reporter@merrittherald.com
First Nations veterans got no closer to receiving remuneration for their participation in the First and Second World Wars and the Korean War in 2012, according to First Nations Veterans of Canada President Percy
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Joe. The advocacy group is still fighting for equal benefits with non-First Nations veterans. Some of its efforts include marking unmarked graves of fallen First Nations soldiers. “It’s been difficult,” Joe, who is also chief of the Shackan Indian Band, said. “We
haven’t been able to meet with [the government]. Of course, for myself to meet with them is difficult, just to get out to Ottawa, because we don’t have funds for travel.” Joe said one of the group’s new focuses is on facilitating access to benefits for veterans living in Canada who served in the American forces.
“In the past, U.S. forces, the marines in particular, came up openly into Canada to recruit Aboriginal soldiers,” Joe said. “A lot of natives are veterans of the U.S. forces and right now a lot of them can’t access their entitlement unless they go down to the U.S.
See ‘Veterans’ Page 3
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