INSIDE: Cops think single suspect behind three armed robberies Pg. 4 T U E S D A Y
February 8, 2011
11 N E W S ,
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E N T E R T A I N M E N T chilliwacktimes.com
Bad apples & binners City hall may be trying to He goes thedumpster name of slam the lidbyon Spideybut man divers, one ‘bottle guy’ says don’t judge
When it comes to the Fraser Institute rankings, certainly not School District No. 33 officials
BY PAUL J. HENDERSON phenderson@chilliwacktimes.com
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raig unloads 10- and five-cent bottles and cans from a milk crate attached to the back of his rusty bike into the Chilliwack bottle depot’s red trays. Glass bottles are heavy and take up a lot of room so he can only carry so many on his bike. He estimates this load will net him about $10, but that is likely an exaggeration. While he packs the trays, another man unloads cases of Budweiser empties from his pickup truck. An attractive, well-dressed woman pulls up to the depot next to him in an SUV. She is obstructed from getting to the entrance because of Craig and the man with the pickup and both offer to get out of her way. But as she passes by, Craig says he gets a derisive sneer from the woman. “People like that look down on me because I’m just a bottle guy,” he says. Craig—who asked that his last name not be used— logs about 100 kilometres a day, seven days a week, on the streets of Chilliwack. He works hard for the approximately $20 to $60 a day he earns collecting bottles, cans and other containers with deposits—money he uses for what he calls “extras.” Craig wanted to tell his story, to present what it is like to be a bottle guy, or “binner,” because he was upset about a recent crackdown by the City of Chilliwack on people like him.
BY TYLER OLSEN tolsen@chilliwacktimes.com
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hilliwack elementary students in public schools did worse on their foundation skills assessment (FSA) tests in 2010 than in previous years, according to the Fraser Institue’s annual report card on British Columbia schools. But school district superintendent Corinne McCabe said the test data are unreliable markers of school success. The right-wing think tank released its annual—and controversial—report Monday. The report ranks schools based on the scores of FSA tests given to Grade 4 and Grade 7 students. McCabe, however, said the FSA data is practiEB IRST cally useless because of First reported on the number of students chilliwacktimes.com who don’t take the test, and because Chilliwack’s elementary schools don’t include Grade 7 students, whose test results are used for the rankings. “Because of that really the rankings don’t represent how our schools are doing,” she told the Times. “It’s not an appropriate way to use the scores even if we had all kids writing . . . There are just so many factors that it’s not a meaningful piece of information.” According to the report, most Chilliwack public schools did worse in 2010 than in previous years. Of 17 public schools in Chilliwack, 15 came in below their five-year
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Bruins put end to losing streak
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See BINNERS, Page 4
See SCHOOL, Page 10
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