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DUES have been paid and now the Kelowna Rockets hope to reap the benefits of patiently developing the D line.
PERSONAL INJURY columnist Paul Hergott says there’s a big difference between being single and happily married which goes right down to both your pocketbooks.
EAST COAST musician Jenn Grant opens for Torontonian Ron Sexsmith Oct. 9 at the Kelowna Community Theatre.
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THURSDAY September 12, 2013 The Central Okanagan’s Best-Read Newspaper www.kelownacapnews.com
Alleged drug deal at heart of murder trial Cheryl Wierda CONTRIBUTOR
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WELCOME TO WEST KELOWNA…Premier Christy Clark brought her cabinet to West Kelowna Wednesday for the first time since being elected MLA for Westside-Kelowna. Despite slipping on her walk down the dock at the Cove Resort to pose for a group photo with her ministers prior to the closed-door cabinet meeting at the resort, Clark said she was unhurt as a result of the tumble. “I can take a fall,” she said with a smile, adding, “we have soft wood here.”
▼ EDUCATION
Minister sees OKM upgrade up close Education Minister Peter Fassbender got a close-up look at what $15 million buys in Kelowna in terms of school expansion, Tuesday. Fassbender was taken on a tour of the construc-
tion at Okanagan Mission Secondary School. The school is getting an additional 16 classrooms, a second full-sized gymnasium, an expanded drama department area, and improvements to more than 1,000-squaremetres of existing space inside the school.
The construction is expected to be complete by September 2014 and will create space for an additional 200 students. The school will need it as it will take in an estimated 300 Grade 7 students next year as the Central Okanagan School District reconfigures the
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middle and high school grades in the Mission area to accommodate growth until a new middle school can be built in the Ponds area of the Upper Mission. But that won’t happen for several years, say school district officials. The Grade 7 students at OKM will be housed
s t n e v E l a i c e p S 6th starting Sept. 1
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in a large 10-room portable classroom complex that the school district has dubbed “Portable City.” It is currently in use at the school and has 10 classrooms all connected through a central structure.
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ASSISTANT EDITOR
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Alistair Waters
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Brittney Irving was scrambling to collect marijuana to fill a drug order the day she was shot four times, allegedly by the man who she was dating and assembling the order with, Crown counsel submitted during their opening statement in the Joelon Verma murder trial Tuesday. Irving, who was “stressed” about paying legal fees stemming from her arrest for growing marijuana in March 2010, allegedly contacted Verma by text about needing to make more money and was putting together a large pot deal with Verma on April 6, 2010, said Crown counsel Mallory Treddenick. That day, she collected 50 pounds of marijuana—worth an estimated $100,000—and, according to text messages, was supposed to meet with Verma, said Treddenick. The Crown says the last time Irving’s phone was used was at 1:53 p.m. that day, when she wrote a text, allegedly to Verma, Brittney Irving saying “On route babe. See you in 10.” The Crown alleges that Verma later called his cousin Jason Labonte to help him after he got a truck stuck in the mud. Labonte eventually took officers to a side road off McCulloch Forest Service Road and pointed out where he helped pull out the truck, said Const. Tim Russell. Russell returned with other officers—and a dog handler—on April 26, 2010. Police service dog Talon found Irving’s body in the woods about 10 minutes after they began searching, testified dog handler Const. Robert Hodder. She was lying on her back and “appeared to be wearing clothes that didn’t fit her,” said Hodder. The running shoes were “obviously too big” and she was also wearing a men’s work-style shirt, testified Hodder. See Drug A13
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