Source:  Brandon Police Service Media Release On Thursday, Police received a report of Break, Enter and Theft to a residence in the 2700 block of Lorne Avenue. The complainant said when they arrived home and found someone had broken into the residence and ransacked through the bedrooms. Stolen was a jewelry box containing 3 Pandora bracelets, 3 Tiffany’s bracelets, Mexican silver jewelry worth approximately $15000. Police continue to investigate.

The newly created Brandon Food Council is seeking twelve members to help achieve its vision of a sustainable food system. First envisioned in the Brandon Food Charter and coordinated by Food Matters Manitoba, the Brandon Food Council will be tasked with developing a community food strategy, building partnerships between food systems stakeholders, supporting community projects, enhancing public engagement and education, and advocating for solutions to food insecurity. The Brandon Food Council has received broad support from both community members and city hall. Brandon Neighbourhood Renewal Corporation and the City of Brandon Poverty committee have been leading champions. “It is truly exciting to see this initiative finally come to fruition after so much hard work, dedication, and collaboration. This is such a great opportunity to bring Brandon together to collectively work towards a sustainable and just food system” – Jan Chaboyer, City Councillor and Member of the City of Brandon Poverty Committee. Available positions include six general members who are residents of Brandon, and six representatives from community groups or networks connected to food security, food production, food business, community health, youth services and food systems research. “The goal is to ensure that members represent the diversity of food systems stakeholders and includes equitable representation of underrepresented groups,” Carly Gasparini, Executive Director of Brandon Neighbourhood Renewal Corporation. Those who identify as Indigenous, youth (age 16-30), newcomers or refugees, elders or seniors, persons with disabilities, and those with lived experience of food insecurity are encouraged to apply. Members will meet every second month. Membership terms are 2 years with possibility of renewal. Applications can be completed online at http://bit.ly/BrandonFoodCouncil, or by filling out an application form at the Brandon Neighbourhood Renewal Corporation Offices at City Hall (410-9th, Main Floor). Applications are due by 4:30pm on November 30, 2018.

Thursday afternoon, RCMP and Brandon Firefighter/Paramedics responded to the intersection of Highway #1 and Highway #468 for single-vehicle crash involving a trailer. It appeared as though the vehicle left the highway and drove into the median, before coming back up onto the roadway. The result was a toppled U-Haul trailer, and both the vehicle and trailer facing east in the westbound lanes of the Trans-Canada Highway. Thankfully, nobody was injured during the incident.  Photos by Liam Pattison Photography.

Source:  Brandon Police Service Media Release On Wednesday at approximately 2:59pm, RCMP advised they had a couple of calls regarding an erratic driver coming into Brandon from the south on Highway #10. BPS members located the driver and vehicle in the 1600 block of 18th Street. The driver was arrested after failing the roadside ASD and transported to BPS where he provided samples of his breath that were over the legal limit. A 65yr old Cypress River, Mb man was arrested and released to appear in Court on November19th.

BRANDON – A group of Computer Science majors became Brandon University’s (BU’s) first team to top all Manitoba entries in the ACM North Central North America Regional Programming Contest last weekend. On Saturday, Nov. 3, the BU team of Logan Praznik, Jason Klimack and Andrii Hrytsenko took part in the regional competition of the International Collegiate Programming Contest (ICPC) in Winnipeg, one of 12 regional sites where the event was simultaneously staged. Competing on site with several teams from the University of Manitoba and the University of Winnipeg, Praznik, Klimack and Hrytsenko posted the top score at the location — a first in BU’s six years of competition. Overall, the BU team placed 23rd out of nearly 300 competing entries representing universities in eight central U.S. states as well as Manitoba. “It’s rewarding to see that you can compete with other big universities and you can win,” said Hrytsenko, who is a graduate of Vincent Massey High School in Brandon, while Praznik and Klimack are both alumni of Crocus Plains Regional Secondary School in Brandon. The students are given a list of 10 problems and are tasked with solving as many as they can in five hours, working in a team of three but with only one computer. That means they will tackle some elements of the problems together, while working out other parts on paper on their own. The BU team was the only one in Manitoba to solve five of the problems. Across the region only 16 teams solved more than five problems, and two problems were not solved by any team at any site. “The test isn’t designed to be completely solved,” said Dr. Ashraf Abdelbar, a Professor of Mathematics and Computer Science at BU and the team’s coach. “Part of the challenge is looking at the problems and deciding which ones you can solve the quickest, because time is also part of your score. There is a lot of strategy involved.” The BU team, which was supervised at the competition by Dr. Gautam Srivastava, an Associate Professor in the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, has had plenty of experience to develop their strategy and teamwork. This year’s competition was their third working together as a team. “The first time you compete you are nervous,” Hrytsenko said. “With more experience you are able to relax and to focus on the problems.” Abdelbar has taken teams to the competition for more than 15 years, predating his arrival at BU. To help develop skills in local students he organizes a high school programming competition each year as well as training at BU that begins each fall. The programming contest began in Texas in the 1970s and has grown to involve more than 50,000 students from six continents. After the regional results are tabulated, more than 120 teams will be invited to take part in the 2019 World Finals next spring at the University of Porto, in Portugal.