Good morning central Victoria!
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We’re in for a sunny day with a slight (30%) chance of a shower late this afternoon and evening - Bendigo 31, Maryborough 31, Castlemaine 30, Kyneton 29, Redesdale 31, Echuca 32.
Catch up on news here:
‘Life-saving’ Bendigo school to re-open in 2017
Students left despairing for their future after the sudden closure of Anglicare’s Educational Support Unit last year have been thrown a lifeline by the state government. Read more here.
Councillors vote for full pay
The appropriateness of councillor remuneration was the hot topic at Wednesday night’s council meeting, with several councillors strongly advocating in favour of a motion to set maximum allowances. Read more here.
Murder accused faces court in Bendigo
A Bendigo man charged with the stabbing murder of an 18-year-old in Ironbark in September has appeared in court. Read more here.
Keep an eye out for dodgy tradespeople
Imagine: You’re at home, and you hear a knock on the front door. You open it to find someone claiming to be a tradesperson. They tell you a job has fallen through and offer you their services at a reduced rate, since they’re in the area. What do you do?
Late night car blaze
Witnesses have captured dramatic footage of a car fire beside the Calder Freeway last night. Read more here.
Bendigo Spirit star Gabe Richards excited about WNBL game number 250
A clash against arch-rival Townsville Fire seems a fitting way for Bendigo Bank Spirit star Gabe Richards to reach her 250th game milestone. Read more here.
State of the nation
Need a national news snapshot first thing – well, we have you covered.
Regional news
►GOULBURN, NSW: Tales of devastating losses have been shared at The Loaded Dog pub after fires sweep through the region. Employee Vicki Bowes said she heard of one landowner who had lost 200 head of sheep at Lower Boro: “He lost stock in the fire before Christmas. He had just replaced those and now he’s lost more in this fire.”...read the full story.
►MELBOUNRE, VIC: Rainbow Serpent Music and Arts Festival organisers are calling for a fresh approach to recreational drugs laws after a horror weekend in Melbourne resulted in three deaths…full story here.
►SYDNEY, NSW: 40 years on the memories of the Granville train disaster are still raw for rescuers like Gerry Buchtmann who pulled both the living and the dead from beneath a road bridge that had collapsed onto two commuter train carriages in the nation’s worst rail disaster.
► WAGGA WAGGA, NSW: If it’s so hot outside you wouldn’t walk your dog, why would you race a horse? animal activists ask. This comes after a full cart of races went ahead on Tuesday in temperatures above 40 degrees...catch up on the full story.
National news
►Properties have been damaged and other homes remained under threat as bushfires raged into the evening across the Hunter Valley and near the ACT...catch up on the latest here.
►A toddler has been taken to hospital in a serious condition after he was pulled unconscious from a backyard swimming pool in Sydney's west. The boy is the latest victim in a string of water-related incidents this summer...full story here.
► 2016 has been declared the hottest year on record. The World Meteorological Organisation said temperatures in 2016 were about 1.1 degrees higher than the pre-industrial period...That beat the 2015 record by 0.07 degrees.
National weather radar
International news
► Now will Julian Assange be extradited to the US to face charges? Last week, the WikiLeaks Twitter account, widely believed to be run by Julian Assange, tweeted: "If Obama grants Manning clemency Assange will agree to US extradition.” But he has in the past promised much more than he delivered.
►INDONESIA: Permadi Arya became famous – or infamous, depending on how you look at it – for his satirical YouTube videos lampooning extremism. One of them, You are Shiite, sends up those who preach that only Sunni Muslims will be guaranteed a plot of land in heaven. But not everyone was amused.
Faces of Australia:
With two generations of leather tanning in her blood and a love of nature, taxidermy was a natural progression for Hillston local Cassandra Hall.
Her grandfather was a drover and the source of Cas’ skills in leather working.
Not scared to get her hands dirty as a child, Cassandra would go out hunting with him and help mount his prized catches.