A powerful winter storm ripping through British Columbia created havoc on highways, turned mountains into danger zones Tuesday, and sparked an avalanche on Vancouver Island that injured an 18-year-old skier. RCMP spokesman Cpl. Darren Langan said the avalanche was minor and that rescue crews were on scene Tuesday evening to evacuate the four skiers caught in the slide. Langan couldn't say how badly injured the victim was, but no one else was hurt and everyone has been accounted for in the group. He said the skiers called for help with a cellphone, which led to the activation of the Comox Valley Search and Rescue Team and the local RCMP. The avalanche happened near Moat and Circlet Lakesin the backcountry of Strathcona Provincial Park, outside the boundaries of Mount Washington Ski Resort. Elsewhere in the region, at least 25 centimetres of snow was expected to fall on the North Shore mountains and Whistler region before tapering off by Wednesday. In the Okanagan, up to 40 cm was forecast. According to meteorologist Ross MacDonald, the Metro Vancouver area was to get at least 30 mm of rain by early Wednesday. That rain, however, was expected to clear up by Thursday or Friday. "It'll be pretty dry for a couple of days but we might see a little bit of . . . showers on Saturday," said Environment Canada meteorologist Colin Tam. With temperatures above freezing in Metro Vancouver, no snow is forecast with the precipitation. The heaviest rains are expected near Hope, where 70 mm of rainfall is forecast by Wednesday morning. A travel advisory has been issued for the Coquihalla Highway. MacDonald said at least 40 cm of snow is expected over the summit before the storm passes. A similar amount is expected for the Kootenay Pass.
A snowstorm that sharply reduced visibility in Turkey's Bosphorus Strait forced maritime authorities to shut the key shipping channel on Tuesday, shipping agent GAC said. Traffic for all northbound and southbound vessels was suspended at 11:45 a.m. (0945 GMT) because of the poor visibility, GAC said in an email. It was the second day of intermittent closures. The snowstorm also prompted flag carrier Turkish Airlines to cancel 76 flights scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday, after cancelling dozens of flights on Monday due to the weather, according to its website. GAC said the Dardanelles Strait at the other end of the Sea of Marmara remained open to tanker traffic. The Bosphorus and Dardanelles are the only maritime outlet for oil, grain and other commodities from Russia and other Black Sea countries. Poor weather frequently forces their closure in winter.
1. They [the women] are never allowed to look at the ultrasound because we knew that if they so much as heard the heart beat, they wouldn’t want to have an abortion. –Dr. Randall, former abortionist
2. Even now I feel a little peculiar about it, because as a physician I was trained to conserve life, and here I am destroying it. -Dr. Benjamin Kalish, abortionist
Stockman Introduces Legislation to
Repeal School Gun Ban!
“I have one concern — protecting children from dangerous predators. By disarming qualified citizens and officials in schools we have created a dangerous situation for our children.” — Rep. Steve Stockman (R-TX)
Dear Kevin,
We told you that Rep. Steve Stockman would be the most aggressive defender of our gun rights on Capitol Hill.
He proved us right on Thursday, when he introduced the Very First pro-gun bill in the Congress, in the face of a tidal wave of anti-gun hysteria.
Congressman Steve Stockman has introduced H.R. 35, the Safe Schools Act of 2013 — a bill to allow principals, teachers, and staff to possess firearms in order to defend their students.
Before 1996, American kindergartners didn’t have to fear that if a crazed gunman burst into their classroom, they would be nothing but sitting ducks.
Before then, they didn’t have to worry that federal law openly advertised that there would be no one to protect them.
“In the 22 years before enactment of ‘gun free school zones,’ there were two mass school shootings,” Stockman said. “In the 22 years since enactment of ‘gun free schools,’ there have been 10 mass school shootings.
“Not only has that bill utterly failed to protect our children, it appears to have placed them in danger,” said Stockman.
Indeed, it has.
Within a couple of years of the reenactment of the Gun Free School Zones Act, the Columbine tragedy occurred. And the series of copycat school massacres has shocked and saddened our country ever since.
Clearly, the gun ban is not working. And it’s past time to try a new approach.
It’s time to go on the offensive! It’s time to repeal gun control, rather than talk about “enforcing the gun laws on the books.”
We don’t want to enforce gun control laws — that’s what makes innocent people, including children sitting in their classrooms, less safe.
Anti-gun zealots who have enacted one unsuccessful gun ban after another have come up with a slew of reasons why our nation’s lawmakers should be protected by an army of heavily armed guards, but our children should be vulnerable.
There is a word for this — it’s “hypocrite.” It is time to protect our children with the same tools and the same zeal we use to protect our congressmen.
It is time to pass the Stockman bill and give real protection to our children.
Contact your Representative. Ask him to cosponsor H.R. 35, the Stockman repeal of the gun-free school zone ban.
Click here to contact your congressman