Perhaps it’s the child in all of us here at the local newspaper, but we always feel like the new year really begins with the first couple of weeks when everyone goes back to school.
In fact, for the media, it is a bit like a fresh start. Government press releases start pouring in again. Politicians answer their phones – well, some of them do. Readers start emailing us about their burning issues. Citizen groups start revving up the letters and Facebook comments. It gets our journalistic adrenaline pumping.
This past week alone, we’ve been told that we should be doing many more good news items. And that included something about the new chimpanzee sanctuary. Never mind that it’s not in Burnaby – but, we’re told, if we were a real newspaper we would be covering this achievement.
We’re game. We’ve always had a soft spot for chimps.
Apparently the first group of ‘retired’ chimps arrived last week at the Project Chimps Sanctuary in northern Georgia. It’s the first transfer of an eventual 220 chimps that are being moved from a research center in New Iberia, Louisiana.
In fact, we think that’s something to raise a glass of suds to and cheer or make happy chimp-like sounds to in any case.
And with that clumsy segue we move to our second good news story of the first week of our new school year.
Tucked in the voluminous stream of government emails this week was the gem that red tape is being cut on patio drinking.
Establishments that have patios can now serve booze without having a liquor licence for the inside portion of the restaurant or pub.
Yes, B.C. is truly becoming a much more civilized province. Now, there are conditions, of course. The patio must comply with local zoning regs, and be affixed permanently to a structure. Sadly, no pop-up patios seem to be allowed in this change.
Which brings us to our third good news story of the week.
Donald Trump is ending his press ‘black list’.
For those who missed it – and we understand why – Trump, the Republican presidential candidate, had refused to let certain media organizations into his events. Coincidentally, those media organizations were the same ones that he believed had published critical stories on him.
We’d like to believe that we would have been on that black-list if he cared about Canada. Alas, we will just have to settle for being on certain local politicians’ black lists.
