Steph Kenny wipes her eyes on her shirt cuff as she talks about the home her family left behind. She’s folded up on the couch, surrounded by boxes filled with toys and fragments of her family’s life, in the basement where they now live. Their former Woodlawn home is just a series of memories: the basement full of bikes, a swing set and a bouncy castle; afternoons spent in the backyard with the family who lived up

Students receiving Nova Scotia Student Assistance this year can expect a one-time payment of $750 next month. Approximately 13,000 students enrolled in Nova Scotia’s universities, NSCC and private career colleges will receive the COVID-19 Response Grant, the province announced Monday. The money is to cover extra costs associated with post-secondary education during a pandemic. “We know many students are facing additional financial challenges due to COVID-19,” Lena Metlege Diab, minister of Lab

Just after 8 a.m., Sheldon MacLeod leaves home, armed with his coffee, for the 75-minute commute to the News 95.7 office in Halifax. As he drives he sips, flipping through radio channels, getting abreast of the day’s top stories. He enters the office after nine and gets straight to work. His goal: finding out what’s happened, to whom, and why it’s important. MacLeod has worked in radio for more than two decades. For the last seven years he’s hosted The Sheldon MacLeod Show, a three-hour talk sh

Lack of volunteers means centre can only open four nights a week Sackville’s only overnight warming centre opens for the winter on Wednesday. The centre, located in the basement of Gateway Church on Beaver Bank Road, is open Wednesday through Saturday, from 9:30 p.m. to 5:45 a.m. Mike Poworoznyk, director of the centre, said the goal is to open seven nights a week, but it’s been a challenge The centre opened in March 2019 in response to a growing homeless population in the area. Poworoznyk

Nova Scotia announced nine new cases of COVID-19 on Friday, all in the central zone, with one at an elementary school in Bedford. Dr. Robert Strang, the province’s chief medical officer of health, said the student is currently self-isolating and Bedford South School will be closed for cleaning and contact tracing. The school is expected to reopen by Dec. 3. Public health officials will be in touch with that person’s close contacts as part of their ongoing investigation. Nova Scotia currently h

Halifax to dispense $8M in federal funding to affordable housing projects in Lakeside, peninsula Three non-profit housing organizations will receive funding to build over 50 new affordable housing units in Halifax under a federal affordable housing program. Council voted on Tuesday to allocate $8 million to developments by Adsum for Women and Children, the Mi’kmaw Native Friendship Centre, and the North End Community Health Centre (NECHC). The proposals were part of the municipality’s investme

Online petition gets hundreds of signatures over plan to drop name An online petition is calling for Sir John A. Macdonald High School to keep its name, but a Mi’kmaw historian said they’re missing the point. There were more than 600 names on the online petition just days after the principal announced the name of the school in Upper Tantallon should change to something more inclusive. Tanis Leach, a Tantallon resident, organized the petition. She said the community should have been consulted

The principal of a high school in the Halifax region says a more inclusive name is needed for her school, currently named after Canada’s first prime minister. Darlene Fitzgerald, principal of Sir John A. Macdonald High School in Upper Tantallon, said the school’s name has been a concern for her since she started her job four years ago. “I feel I need to do this for the kids, for the students at our school, and for our communities,” she said Thursday. The first government-funded residential sc

More than 100 people gathered in Halifax on Saturday to call for rent control in Nova Scotia. ACORN Nova Scotia, a community union that advocates for low-and moderate-income people, organized the rally and march. It wants the province to cap annual rent increases at three per cent. A previous rent control law was scrapped in 1993 by the Liberal government of the day. Jonethan Brigley, former Dartmouth chair of ACORN, attended the rally outside Halifax City Hall. Brigley said his apartment buil

Voting has historically been inaccessible for students and youth living away from the electoral riding they consider home, but this year, students can vote on campus with special ballots. In past federal elections, there’s been a low voter turnout for youth aged 18-24. In 2011, overall voter turnout was 61 percent but less than 40 percent of youth voted. “I always thought that my vote didn’t really matter and that’s why I didn’t vote in the 2011 election,” says Al Schnare. At the time