By Connie Burton
Five local athletes at the midget level were invited to join Team Southwest for the Saskatchewan Winter Games held at Moose Jaw from Feb. 14-20, 2010, simultaneous to the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympic Games Feb. 12-28, 2010.

By Sheri Monk
An article published in the Canadian Veterinary Journal in September of 1989 implores the government to consider banning the use of ruminant foodstuffs to animals of any kind. The same article also suggests it would be prudent to ban the inclusion of bovine and ovine brain, spleen and tripe from baby foods, as the United Kingdom had already done. A document from 1992 spelling out the government’s position on the possibility of BSE entering Canada was woefully wrong and contrary to widely held scientific knowledge about the disease. …

By Sheri Monk
The Badger has learned a new case of BSE was discovered two weeks ago, but the public was not informed as part of the government’s new communication strategy.
The decision not to announce new cases of BSE was made in August of 2009 and the public was informed by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) online.
“The CFIA is committed to providing all stakeholders, including the general public, media and trading partners, with timely information about disease detections in farmed animals. As such, we have revised how we report online …

By Sheri Monk
The Leader and District Make a Splash Fund received a $50,000 cash infusion from Sandhills Credit Union last week.
To date, a total of $265,000 has been committed – the committee wants to raise $700.000.
“The basin is cracked. We had it sandblasted and painted five years ago and it helped prolong the life a little bit, but now last year, it had that problem again,” explained Jackie Mertin, speaking on behalf of the committee.
The new pool may be bigger than the existing facility and will feature a beach …

Canada’s gold medal win and after-party over USA
VANCOUVER – If I’ve learned one thing from covering the Olympics in Vancouver it’s that a scribble pad makes an impeccable umbrella.
And on Feb. 26, a day after Canada’s women’s hockey team achieved golden status, I dodged rain drops with my note pad as I rushed with anticipation towards Team Canada’s drizzly downtown press conference.
Since a hockey roster is a large entity, only four Canadian women’s hockey players were in attendance and they included Jennifer Botterill, Jayna Hefford, Caroline Oulette and the …

The hospital is now reopened, as of the evening of Feb. 1.
An airborne asbestos threat at the Maple Creek Hospital caused its evacuation and the suspension of employees late last week. The facility was closed just after 5 p.m. on Feb. 25 because of concerns related to potentially loose asbestos. Patients were transfered or released and all staff were ordered to leave the building. The asbestos contamination was removed yesterday, and pending air quality results, officials are hopeful the facility will be reopened this week.
Beth Vachon, executive director of health …

By Sheri Monk
On Dec. 3, 2009, Jodi Stork welcomed a new member to her family – an insulin pump.

By Sheri Monk
The new Cypress Credit Union building under construction at Maple Creek will not feature brick as included in original designs, but will be entirely stucco.

By Sheri Monk
North of the river hills, past the transition of grazing land into fertile farmland is the town of Eatonia, nestled in a comfortable, somewhat isolated quiet between Leader and Kindersley.

By Dorian Geiger
If TSN’s Off the Record and CTV’s political broadcast Powerplay were ever to be combined into one show and Stephen Harper named the host, it would be eerily similar to the 50th Annual Kinsmen Sports Celebrity Dinner that took place in Saskatoon on Feb. 5.