Latest news with #BradHall
CBC
4 days ago
- Business
- CBC
After 20+ years, the family that runs Yellowknife's Coffee Break News is looking for a new owner
After more than 20 years, the family that runs a beloved Yellowknife newsletter is looking to pass the business on to a new owner. Lynn Elkin bought the Coffee Break News from its original owner back in 2002, thinking her son Brad Hall, who was still in high school at the time, might enjoy running the newsletter as a part-time job. She ended up being right. Hall has been the voice behind the newsletter ever since, giving Yellowknifers information on what's going on in the city each week, along with movie times, short articles, quizzes and two full pages of jokes. Hall said he likes the freedom of getting to choose each week what to research and write about. "I like learning new information," Hall said. "But I also like to do such things on my own terms. That may be one of my favourite things about it." In 2022, the family moved to Alberta to be closer to Hall's brother and his kids. While their printer, Kopycat North, and others in the community have offered help, it's been hard to run the Yellowknife newsletter from afar. They are now looking for someone to take over the business — or at the very least, the delivery side of it. How the newsletter gets made Hall does all the research and writing of the newsletter himself each week, fielding emails, looking online for information on events happening in Yellowknife, and gathering facts for quizzes and articles. He then gets all of the content formatted in the newsletter, along with advertisements. Then Elkin or her husband gives it a proof-read, and they send it to the printer. Hall also oversees the delivery process to get new copies to the 50-odd Yellowknife businesses that carry the newsletter each week — though a student at the Yellowknife Aurora College campus has taken over making the stops since Hall moved away. Hall estimates that, all in all, he does about 12 to 15 hours of work on the newsletter each week. Elkin says she is proud of how long they have kept the newsletter going strong, through changes like the advent of social media and the COVID-19 pandemic. "When social media really took off a while ago, we really weren't sure that Coffee Break News was going to still be around, but what we found is that social media has its place, and it's not for everyone, and sometimes it's really hard to find all of the information," she said. "So we found that people had come back to reading us and telling us we were a place that they go for certain things — particularly the public service announcements. And other people who love the jokes." During the COVID-19 pandemic, they pivoted to an electronic flip-book version within two weeks of lockdowns beginning, which they continue to offer alongside the classic print version. "We're pretty proud of that," Elkin said. "It would have been easy to say, 'Oh, forget it!' but we think it provides real value and it's fun." Advice for the future owner Since they moved to Alberta, it's been a more challenging business to maintain. Right now, Hall is volunteering his time, because they decided they wanted all of the profit for the newsletter to stay in Yellowknife. After printing and delivery costs, Elkin said, that's just enough money to offer local businesses and non-profits some discounts on advertising. Hall, who has now been running Coffee Break News for about half his life, said it would be a big change to pass it on to someone else — but he would be supportive of anyone who wanted to try it. "My advice for them would be to make it their thing, kind of like I made it mine," he said. "Giving it a personal touch." Elkin also said she would encourage anyone who takes on the project to add their own "flair". "But remember who it's for. It's for the community," she said. "Make it so it fits where Yellowknife is and who Yellowknife is becoming as a community." Chris Woods, the manager of Capitol Theatre, said it's been great working with Hall and Elkin over the years, adding that people tell him all the time that they find showtimes for the theatre in Coffee Break News each week. "They've done an amazing job taking our show times, formatting them, adding synopsis, posters. It's basically like having an ad agency working for you." He says he is also just a fan. "I read it every week. I like the little stories and I like the jokes," he said. He feels it would be a "great loss" if Coffee Breaks News ended. "I've worked in a number of cities that had a Coffee Break News-type publication, and a lot of them failed after a while just because the person who was running it felt overwhelmed and they couldn't continue it," he said. "The fact that this one has been going on for 20 years is just simply amazing."
Yahoo
08-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
New Arkansas environmental laws address waste application, Buffalo wastershed
A handful of environment-adjacent legislation made it into law this year. (Photo courtesy of National Park Service) Arkansas lawmakers passed a handful of bills during the 2025 legislative session to address environmental concerns, such as the application of industrial biosolids to farmland and a moratorium on medium and large swine farms in the Buffalo River watershed. Rep. Brad Hall, R-Van Buren, rallied legislators to pass Act 1009 overwhelmingly in both chambers, after months of complaints by Crawford Country residents of noxious odors from a waste lagoon and fields where Denali Water Solutions, a waste disposal company, stores and applies waste from chicken processing plants to farmland as fertilizer. The bill requires the Arkansas Department of Energy and Environment's Division of Environmental Quality to levy the maximum penalty allowed under state law when those permitted to apply industrial biosolids either over-apply or apply industrial biosolids near a rain event. It also authorizes DEQ to write rules specifically 'to authorize no-discharge land application permits of industrial waste.' Hall said he made it clear to company representatives that the odor from its operations, which he described as smelling 'like death,' was unacceptable to him. 'I'm tired of people living like that,' Hall said. 'It's ridiculous. I mean, it's obscene. They [Denali] don't have to live like that where they live, so they shouldn't expect everybody else to live like that.' Hall's bill went through numerous substantive amendments. Its final form, he said, was prompted because Denali promised it would shut down the open-air waste lagoon in Crawford County by Jan. 1, 2026. A Denali spokesperson said they 'have not committed' to a specific shutdown timeline. 'The Crawford County storage facility remains a critical storage asset, particularly during periods of inclement weather when land application is restricted,' Denali spokesperson Nancy St. Pierre wrote in an email. 'Denali will continue to use the site through the remainder of 2025 as we work to continue developing alternative storage capacity and long-term infrastructure solutions throughout the region.' St. Pierre said obtaining permits and permit modifications from DEQ were 'critical' in order to shut down the lagoon. Hall said 'you better have your popcorn ready' if Denali doesn't abide by the agreement he said they made and the situation has to be addressed again during the 2027 legislative session. DEQ fined Denali $19,800 earlier this year after numerous incidents where the company was documented applying waste to farmland within 24 hours of a rain event — defined as when there is a 50% chance or greater of precipitation. Such application practices are prohibited in the company's permits. A letter last year from Denali to state regulators stating its intent to violate its permits to apply during those periods while self-imposing requirements on itself earned a sharp rebuke from the head of DEQ's Office of Water Quality, Stassie Wassel, who wrote that Denali had 'a duty to comply' with the requirements 'explicitly set forth' in its permits. 'DEQ does not recognize the legitimacy of 'self-imposed requirements' and will not rely upon any assertions from the May 8 letter as mitigating factors for future enforcement actions relating to non-compliance on behalf of Denali,' Wassel wrote in a letter dated May 2024. Perhaps the most visible piece of environmental legislation that made it into law this year was Senate Bill 290, now Act 921. SB 290 in its original form would have stripped away a decade-old moratorium that prevented medium and large concentrated animal feeding operations, or CAFOs, from obtaining certain water permits necessary to operate within the Buffalo River watershed, while setting new hoops for agencies to jump through if one wanted to institute a watershed-based permit moratorium in the future. Aided in their cause by Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Buffalo River advocates expressed relief that the final form of Act 921 ultimately preserved the moratorium for the Buffalo watershed in its current form. They also said that it never should have reached the 11th hour the way it had. 'We were pretty crestfallen after the three heads of three state agencies got in there and had their say, and in spite of that, the committee still voted to support SB 290 before it was amended,' said Gordon Watkins, president of the Buffalo River Watershed Alliance. 'And then we were, needless to say, we were happy to find out that the governor subsequently stepped in and twisted some arms and amended it to a more acceptable level.' Even with the protections for the existing moratorium, Watkins said his organization is still opposed to the legislation as a whole. He said he felt 'sorry for the rest of the state that's going to be under these onerous requirements' if other watersheds end up needing a similar moratorium in the future. Thompson also emphasized that his organization was 'extremely grateful' to Sanders for her role in preserving the existing swine farm moratorium. 'It was a tough position for her to take,' Thompson said. 'Still though, the fact that the agencies will have to jump through additional hoops down the road is unfortunate, but we did get a big part of what we wanted, so we were pleased. We owe it to the governor.' Senate Bill 427 / Act 945 of 2025: Sponsored by Sen. Bart Hester, R-Cave Springs, and Hall, the act creates the Arkansas Wind Energy Development Act, 'to minimize any adverse effect upon the environment' or upon Arkansans' quality of life as a result of wind turbine construction, operation and decommissioning. It creates a requirement that the construction, operation or redevelopment of a wind turbine be permitted by the Arkansas Public Service Commission and local governments if there are specific local regulations regarding wind turbines. House Bill 1681 / Act 812 of 2025: Sponsored by Rep. DeAnn Vaught, R-Horatio, and Sen. Joshua Bryant, R-Rogers, the act creates a matching grant program for water and sewage utilities for use in infrastructure and improvement projects. Vaught has been vocal about the deterioration of utility infrastructure, especially in rural areas of the state. Senate Bill 421 / Act 578 of 2025: Sponsored by Hester and Rep. Howard Beaty, Jr., R-Crossett, the act reauthorizes the Arkansas Natural Resources Commission to borrow money via general obligation bonds 'for the development of water, waste disposal, and pollution abatement projects.' The measure will require approval by voters either during the 2026 general election or via a special election called by the governor before bonds can be issued. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
15-03-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
GB clinch bobsleigh bronze at World Championships
Great Britain secured just their second World Championships medal in four-man bobsleigh in 86 years as they won bronze in Lake Placid. The British quartet of Brad Hall, Arran Gulliver, Taylor Lawrence and Greg Cackett held on to their overnight third position in the United States, taking second place in runs three and four to finish behind two German teams. The GB team's aggregate time of 2:45.00 was 0.48 seconds slower than that of the winning German team, piloted by Francesco Friedrich. Friedrich has now won the past seven World Championships in the four-man sled, alongside taking gold at the 2018 and 2022 Olympics. Hall's team had gone fastest in Friday's second run to cut Friedrich's lead to 0.29 seconds, only for the entire heat to be voided after completion because of poor track conditions. The same team secured Great Britain's first podium finish since World War Two at the World Championships two years ago, finishing joint-second with Latvia.
BBC News
15-03-2025
- Sport
- BBC News
GB clinch bobsleigh bronze at World Championships
Great Britain secured just their second World Championships medal in four-man bobsleigh in 86 years as they won bronze in Lake British quartet of Brad Hall, Arran Gulliver, Taylor Lawrence and Greg Cackett held on to their overnight third position in the United States, taking second place in runs three and four to finish behind two German GB team's aggregate time of 2:45.00 was 0.48 seconds slower than that of the winning German team, piloted by Francesco has now won the past seven World Championships in the four-man sled, alongside taking gold at the 2018 and 2022 team had gone fastest in Friday's second run to cut Friedrich's lead to 0.29 seconds, only for the entire heat to be voided after completion because of poor track same team secured Great Britain's first podium finish since World War Two at the World Championships two years ago, finishing joint-second with Latvia.
BBC News
16-02-2025
- Sport
- BBC News
GB win two more Bobsleigh World Cup bronzes
Brad Hall led Great Britain to overall four-man and combined bronze at the final race of the Bobsleigh World Cup season in makes it a hat-trick of overall bronze medals at this year's World Cup after Hall and Taylor Lawrence sealed third in the two-man event on World Cup medals are awarded once points from all seven races are added together.A Germany team led by Johannes Lochner won the final four-man race in Norway to secure the overall Lawrence, Arran Gulliver and Leon Greenwood would have won overall silver themselves had they finished second behind Lochner, but they missed out by just four hundredths of a second to another German team led by Francesco Friedrich, who took overall gold for the seventh year GB team, which included Greg Cackett in three races, ended the four-man season on 1,444 points and won six medals, including two gold in Winterberg and St Moritz last only missed out on the podium once, at the season opener in Altenberg in December."We came into today wanting that overall silver but we can't be too disappointed with bronze - it's more proof that we are in a great place heading into next month's World Championships and next year's Olympics," said Gulliver."Brad's driven brilliantly all season and he did that again today. We gave him a good start and our times at the top are improving all the time - which is exactly what we want as we look to peak for the Worlds in a few weeks."The Boblesigh World Championships take place Lake Placid, New York, from 6-16 March.
