News

A black-capped chickadee readies a nest by excavating a hole inside a dead tree along a trail near Great Chief Park. While chickadees are known to nest in old woodpecker holes, they can also make their own holes in rotting trees, carefully dumping the wood chips away from their nesting site to avoid attracting predators.

A female driver was killed early Tuesday morning in a two-vehicle crash near Sylvan Lake.

A Rocky Mountain House Catholic school teacher who had been warned to stop touching students inappropriately has pleaded guilty to one count of sexually assaulting five students.

Red Deer City RCMP are after a man who robbed the Alberta Treasury Bank and attempted to rob the Royal Bank last Thursday.

Kealyn Jensen, three, points to a ladybug on her father Brad as her brother Connor, six, in background, collects the insets. The trio spent the afternoon cleaning up their Glendale home’s front yard and discovered the heat had brought out hundreds of the insects.

Aliyah Bun, five, cracks open a plastic egg to find a clue inside to help her answer questions about wildlife, in an nature-egg hunt at the Kerry Woods Nature Centre. After answering all the questions correctly, egg hunters were rewarded with prizes. For related video, see www.reddeeradvocate.com

The recession is turning out to be one way to break a drug addiction.Methadone clinics in Calgary, Red Deer and Medicine Hat have seen an increase in clients who have either lost their jobs or worry that may happen, said Bill Leslie with Central Alberta Methadone Program in Red Deer.

City staff were busy cleaning up 54th Avenue on Monday after an ice jam on the Red Deer River caused flooding that left a layer of silt along the roadway.

Alberta’s ban on weed and feed lawn products goes into effect in 2010, but some Red Deer homeowners have already said good riddance to herbicides.

A gopher peers out of its hole in the parking lot median at the Kerry Wood Nature Centre recently. The disappearance of snow and the return of warm weather has brought the rodents out of their winter hibernation.