Medicine Hat Media

Posts Tagged ‘Alberta’

In a deflated economy we’re still seeing a lot of business activity and expansion in the ‘Hat’. To name a couple examples, the Northlands strip mall and positive suggestions from City Council that the Events Centre is still in the works.

In my opinion, it’s great to see that our region hasn’t folded up the tents to wait out the storm. Long live our entrepreneurs!


So, there I was, merging onto the #1 from the overpass by The Medicine Hat College. There was a police officer next to me and as I began to merge he was not slowing down or speeding up to let me go in front or behind him. So I tapped the gas to get in front just as he begins to go into the right lane to go onto 13th. He pulls back and turns his lights on, drag. I was not speeding by enough to warrant a ticket, so what else could it be? He says “You did not signal”, which is like impossible (like as in, one in a billion amount of times I will forget it, since I am a very signal, mirror, shoulder checking type of person – usually). Although in thinking back, I did not see him signaling, but whatever. He checked my signal light, and it was working.

So in the way that funny stories go, he says “You have a nice car”. Oddly enough, I have been pulled over so rarely that it is years in between, and despite having probably the most recognizable car in Alberta/Saskatchewan (probably), it has never been the reason I have been pulled over in the past. He checks my insurance and it turns out that it is out of date. Double drag. But he calls it in and of course it is valid. He seems to be a good guy about it and polite as well, and not a jerk, something most people would contrarily attest to, and not without warrant, because usually cops seem all too happy to write out some tickets as opposed to realizing people are fallibly human. This one time I was going like 7kph over the limit at 11pm on Highway #3, got pulled over, cop asks why I was speeding, I said “I do not have cruise control and sometimes my foot eases on and off the gas ever so slightly”. Apparently that is not a good reason, and 7kph over on the loneliest of roads is a hazard to everyone around me.

He comes back to my car, we talk a bit, and in saying I am from Saskatchewan and only recently changed my plates over to Alberta plates. Insurance is way different there, which he agreed with and even said he liked Saskatchewan’s system better (diss to expensive Alberta insurance), he did not give me a ticket for either offense.

Long story short, most of the time police officers seem to hand out tickets without reason other than “because”, but sometimes it is not entirely a bad experience.


On November 11th and 12th of 2008, the so-called entrepreneurs, StoresOnline, visited Medicine Hat for four Internet marketing seminars at the Callaghan Inn. Other seminars took place in Lethbridge and Calgary.

Before I start off, Stores Online is a scamming company that only wants your money and does neither encourage or even convincingly feign having healthy business-consumer relationships, which is the way to run a business. If you want to hear the truth about them, continue reading.

The StoresOnline logo

The StoresOnline logo

The invitations that were sent out offered users the ability to build their wealth with websites, a complimentary meal for you and a guest and a free MP3 player for you and a guest. The seminar lasted roughly 90 minutes with a collective audience of about 80 people per seminar, or about 320 people between the two days and four seminars. My invitation was full of typos, including the name of who the invitations were sent to. Is this professional? No.

The seminar kicked off with speaker Rich Putnam proclaiming his knowledge of Internet marketing with occasionally getting the crowd involved by raising their hands to questions. Maybe now is the time I should point out the fact that most of the crowd were all around their middle-ages, at least 40 years or older, and the questions Rich Putnam would ask were technologically related words such as “Hosting”, “Servers”, etc. Most of which, when asked, the crowd had a very basic understanding of, or no idea at all. Putnam would also randomly quote ancient philosophers, such as Aristotle (whom he confused with Albert Einstein somehow), which to me, seemed like a vain attempt at sounding intellectual and proclaiming false medical facts such as “It is a medically proven fact that raising your arm releases oxygen into your brain which makes you smarter and happier.” Rich Putnam also even went as far as to tell the audience to skip weddings and funerals to attend the Stores Online workshops. Apparently as well, the creator of Dell Computers’, Michael Dell, was at this event, but would not stand up. Sounds like a clever way to throw out a business name everyone knows, to ensure the crowd that the event is really important.

Stereotypical image provided by StoresOnline

Stereotypical image provided by StoresOnline

At the end of the 90 minute seminar, during of which, Rich Putnam had thrown out many technological and Internet-referencing terms to the more elderly crowd who seemed to not understand (based by the lack of raising their hands), the associates handed out the order forms. Encouraged by Putnam, about 15 or 20 people filled these forms out. The forms immediately ask you for your credit card number, debit card number or check number and Putnam encouraged the crowd to “Not worry about the price, just fill it in. Then you can start your website right away!” One lady exclaims that she cannot spend such a large amount of money in 3 minutes, to which Putnam replies “You have to make business decisions fast.” and when she shows opposition and says “Not that fast.” He shoots her down saying “… Well, some people don’t make any decisions ever in life.” Professional. Keep reading, it gets better…

THE JUMP – Read the rest of this entry »


More on this subject can be found at: http://www.medicinehatmedia.com/2008/11/richardson-family-murders-steinke-trial/

Everyone in Medicine Hat and across the Canadian Prairies has heard of Jeremy Steinke and the Richardson Family. Indeed, news of their actions reached far across the nation as the daughter of the Richardson family became the youngest person ever charged with a multiple murder in Canadian history.

In a brief synopsis, the two allegedly met at a punk rock show in 2006 and for the next while they began communicating on social networking sites such as Nexopia. During their courtship, Richardson’s parents grounded her from seeing Jeremy due to the massive age difference. The eventual outcome was a triple murder of the family by Steinke and in part by Richardson. Shortly after, the two fled to Leader, Saskatchewan, where they were at length arrested.

On July 9, 2007, Richardson was found guilty of three counts of first degree murder and on November 8, 2007, she was sentence to ten years in prison, which was the maximum penalty a person under 14 years of age could receive, as well as four years in a psychiatric institution and four and a half years under conditional supervision in the community.

Steinke’s trial date was pushed back until November 14, 2008 and is taking place in Calgary. The jury was chosen in three hours of 6 men and 6 women, who were not allowed to research Steinke, Richardson, or their past history, although it seems unlikely that the jury, who are but a few hours down the road from Medicine Hat, would not already be well informed of the case.

More information about the history of the Richardson Family Murders can be found at:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jasmine_Richardson
http://everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=1897982


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