Mosquitos Problems This Summer

Experts are predicting mosquitoes to come on strong for the rest of the summer.

The pesky insects develop in water and so any standing water in people yards are making for great incubators.

Naturalist David Mizejewski with the National Wildlife Federation says products to protect yourself from mosquitoes work differently, but effectively.

"We leave a trail of water vapor and carbon dioxide through our skin and out of our breath and that's what mosquitoes are following," says Mizejewski, "and so a lot of these herbal products will actually mask that and keep the mosquitoes from being able to find you."

Mosquito bites can be painful, but Mizejewski says rarely do they produce serious illness.

Layton Visits Northwest

NDP Leader Jack Layton is touring Northwestern Ontario this weekend.

Layton will be in Ear Falls and Red Lake Saturday attending a breakfast and the Norseman Floatplane Festival.

He will then head to Kenora Sunday for a round-table on pensions and seniors.

Layton will wrap the day up with the NDP Kenora Nomination meeting.

Kenora NDP Prepare for Election Call

NDP in the Kenora riding are planning to have a candidate in place for the next federal election by the end of this month.

A riding meeting has been set for Sunday in the Kenora area.

Tania Cameron, who ran for the NDP in the last federal election, is the only confirmed candidate so far.

Last weekend, the Liberals nominated Roger Valley to carry their banner into the next election, which could come as early as this fall.

Portage Avenue Underpass Closed a Third Week

Another closure of the Portage Avenue underpass is planned for next week.

Beginning Monday, motorist access will be prohibited from 9:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. all next week and 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. next Friday.

Officials say this closure is necessary for crews to work on the west lane of the underpass and to install new sewer lines.

Pedestrian traffic through the area will still be permitted during the closure.

Local Support for Atleo

Area native leaders are throwing their support behind newly elected national chief of the Assembly of First Nations Shawn Atleo.

The former vice-chief from B.C. won the title following eight rounds of voting in Calgary yesterday.

Couchiching First Nations Chief Chuck McPherson believes Atleo's campaign unfairly benefited from the fact roughly one-third of the 639 eligible voters are from B.C.

The province with the next largest bloc of voters is Ontario, with 134 eligible chiefs.

But McPherson says Atleo will get cross-country support because there is too much to do.

P-E-T Scans now Pubicly Insured

Ontario will make positron emission tomography, or P-E-T, scans a publicly insured health service for some cancer and cardiac patients.

P-E-T scanning can provide information about abnormal tissues such as cancer that is not always found with M-R-I or C-T scans.

By October, insured P-E-T scans will be performed in Ottawa, London, Toronto, Hamilton and Thunder Bay.

Phone Service Down

Hospitals in Emo and Rainy River and Rainycrest found themselves without telephone services briefly yesterday afternoon.

For the second time this year, crews working near the LaVerendrye hospital severed a phone cable.

However, the outage did not impact phone service to the Fort Frances hospital.

Service to the other facilities was restored within an hour.

FFCBC Day Two Events

Today, the field for the Fort Frances Canadian Bass Championship was inverted as anglers head back to Rainy Lake for the second day of fishing.

First on the water at 7:00 a.m. was the team of Steve Mattson from Brainerd and Gordon Fothergill of Grand Rapids, who left last yesterday. They are currently 41st after day one.

Last year's champions left last from the government dock at Pither's Point Park.

Weigh-ins at the tent site will be at 4:00 p.m.

Be sure to join B-93 as we broadcast live from the site beginning at about 3:20 p.m.

FFCBC Day One Weigh-Ins

Last year's winners of the Fort Frances Canadian Bass Championship have put themselves in a good position in their drive for five.

Joe Thrun of Annandale, Minnesota and Jim Moynagh of Carver, Minnesota ended the first day of fishing with a 5-fish catch of 19-point 1-4 pounds of bass.

Thrun says the fishing was far better than they saw in pre-fishing.

"We didn't really get anything like this in practice," says Thrun. "It's a lot better than we expected and hope to do it again tomorrow."

The team has also won titles in 1998, 99 and 2007

Matt Christy of Superior, Wisconsin and Chris Hay of Brooklyn Centre, Minnesota are 3/10's of a pound back in second

Ron and Dan Lindner of Baxter, Minnesota are third.

The top angler from the Rainy River district is Andrew Perrault of Fort Frances who is 6th with his partner Jeremiah Gardner from Eagle Lake.

The big fish of the day was caught by Scott and Blair Dingwall of Dryden who reeled in a bass weighing in at 4.82 pounds.