Premier Danielle Smith's Alberta Next panel is in Lethbridge tonight as she continues to take the public's temperature on the province's relationship with Ottawa. The panel's town halls are aimed at addressing grievances Smith says are allowing separatist sentiments to fester and the results are to inform which questions would be put to a referendum next year. The panel was recently in Medicine Hat, in Smith's home riding, where the crowd gave overwhelming approval to the panel's six proposals. Those include taking greater control of immigration by withholding social services fr

The Alberta government is set to release this afternoon its revised school library book ban. The new version would come three days after the government directed school boards to pause their work in complying with the original ministerial order. School boards initially had until the end of the month to remove books containing what the province deemed sexually explicit content, including images, illustrations and written descriptions. That led Edmonton Public Schools to compile a list of over 200 books it needed to remove, including literary classics such as Margaret Atwood's "The Handmaid's Tal

Federal investigators are looking into a train derailment in British Columbia's Kootenay region near the Alberta boundary. The Transportation Safety Board says in a statement that a team is being deployed to the site near Elko, B.C., where investigators will gather information and begin to assess what caused the derailment. A spokesman with rail operator Canadian Pacific Kansas City has confirmed the derailment at about 8 p.m. Tuesday, where multiple cars left the tracks. CPKC says the 12 cars involved were empty and no one was injured as a result of the derailment. It says its crews responded

Alberta's education minister is directing school boards to pause a government order to remove books with explicit sexual content from libraries. Demetrios Nicolaides says in an email to school divisions and officials that they should pause any development or distribution of lists of books that are to be removed. He says the pause is in effect until further notice. A draft list from Edmonton Public Schools of books to be removed from libraries was leaked online last week. It contains more than 200 titles, including Margaret Atwood's ``The Handmaid's Tale,'' which prompted the au

Edmonton police say they have charged a man with first-degree murder after a woman he knew was found with fatal gunshot wounds inside a car in the city's downtown over the weekend. Police say they responded to a call for a shooting in the 119 Street and Jasper Avenue area just before 4:30 a.m. on Saturday. A 39-year-old woman was located dead inside an SUV. Police say a Monday autopsy found the woman died from gunshot wounds. The man, 42, has also been charged with aggravated assault and breach of probation. Police say the man and woman knew one another.

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith will be right at home in her political backyard tonight when she visits Medicine Hat, kicking off the back half of her provincewide consultations on the province's relationship with Ottawa. Smith, who represents the riding of Brooks-Medicine Hat in the Alberta legislature, will be joined by the 15 people she tapped to join her on the panel. The first five town halls have aimed to address grievances with the federal government that Smith says are fostering separatist sentiment. The six recommendations put forth by the Smith government for debate at

Police have charged a man with three counts of aggravated assault for stabbings at the Calgary Stampede last month. Police say they identified the 18-year-old following an extensive investigation that included witness interviews and camera footage. Officers executed a search warrant of the suspect's house and seized a folding knife and clothing they say believe are consistent with the stabbings. The man is scheduled to appear in court next week. Three males were stabbed in an area of the Stampede midway, including two 18-year-olds and one 15-year-old. Police have said all three

Alberta's police watchdog has charged a pair of RCMP officers from two northern detachments with breach of trust. The Alberta Serious Incident Response Team, or ASIRT, says it was directed in mid-February last year to investigate two officers from the Morinville and Westlock detachments, located north of Edmonton. Watchdog officials say there are reasonable grounds to suggest an offence had been committed, but wouldn't comment further as the matter is before the courts. They say Sgt. Daniel Mayowski of Westlock and Sgt. Sheldon Robb of Morinville both were charged with breach of

The bad news for Alberta's oil-reliant budget is set to get worse. Finance Minister Nate Horner says softening oil prices mean this year's projected budget deficit is expected to grow by $1.3 billion, and will now finish at $6.5 billion in the red when the fiscal year ends next spring. That represents a massive multibillion-dollar swing in Alberta's financial fortunes, as it is coming off an $8.3-billion surplus the year prior. The government says uncertainty created by U.S. trade policy is hurting the Alberta economy and remains a significant risk going into the rest of the year.