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Education

UNB enhances MBA program

FREDERICTON - Students at the University of New Brunswick will have the opportunity to sharpen their entrepreneurial skills thanks to a newly established graduate program in business administration. The university is now offering a Master of Business Administration (MBA) with concentration in entrepreneurship and students will receive this designation on their degrees upon graduation. Students who began their MBA in the fall of 2008 will be able to take advantage of the new option. Students graduating in May 2009 will also be able to receive this designation on their degree as long as they complete the prescribed courses.

Volunteerism

Nominations sought for awards

FREDERICTON - New Brunswickers are being encouraged to submit nominations for the eighth Family and Community Volunteer Awards. The awards are presented in four categories: youth, adult, senior, and organization. Nominations will be judged on contributions made to New Brunswick families and/or communities, and winners will be announced during National Volunteer Week, April 19-25, 2009. Winners in each category will present $1,000 to the New Brunswick non-profit organization of their choice.

Workshop

RCMP supports anti-violence effort

FREDERICTON - The RCMP in New Brunswick are helping finance a workshop on the victimization of women by their partners to be held later this week. The Mounties say they recognize the importance of engaging men in reducing male violence against women and are therefore supporting the Muriel McQueen Fergusson Centre Workshop 2008, to be held Wednesday at the Wu Centre in Fredericton. The RCMP were criticized for not doing enough to prevent family violence following the recent murder of St. Thomas University professor, John McKendy. The workshop will be a free public event.

Fuel

Wood pellets scarce in Miramichi

MIRAMICHI - A shortage of wood pellets is causing headaches for some Miramichi homeowners this year. Thanks to a shortage from suppliers, local businesses have run out of the pellets many people use to heat their homes. Kent Home Improvement manager Eddie Dean says he started to notice the shortage about a month ago. Dean says suppliers can't keep pace with growing demand. Pellet stoves are popular because homeowners have more control over heat levels and they are considered environmentally friendly.

Language

Petition criticizes English-only signs

DIEPPE - A Dieppe man has collected the names of 1,500 city residents who believe there are too many English-only signs in his city. Martin LeBlanc-Rioux says he will present the petition to Dieppe council in the New Year asking for a bylaw to force businesses to put up bilingual signs. Council has asked businesses to erect bilingual signs, but LeBlanc-Rioux says businesses need to be forced to do so.

Conference

FHS student headed to event in Poland

OTTAWA - A Grade 12 student from Fredericton is one of two Canadian high school students who will attend the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change in Poland in December. Taryn McKenzie-Mohr, 17, attends Fredericton High School. She and a student from Ottawa were selected by the British Council Canada because of their interest in global issues and their communication skills. The United Nations conference sets the agenda for international efforts to tackle the challenges posed by climate change.

Tourism

Bouctouche named runner-up for award

BOUCTOUCHE - The town of Bouctouche is runner-up for an international sustainable tourism award. The town ranks second only to New Zealand in the best destination category at the Virgin Holidays Responsible Tourism Award announced recently in London, England.

Appointment

New Brunswicker made senior adviser

OTTAWA - Carolyn Stewart-Olsen, the New Brunswicker whose close relationship with Prime Minister Stephen Harper goes back to his earliest days in the Opposition, has a new position in Harper's office. Long one of Harper's press secretaries, Stewart-Olsen became a senior adviser in the prime minister's office shortly after the fall election. Olsen, once an emergency room nurse in Moncton, began in Ottawa in the early 1990s, working for Preston Manning.

Legal

Former chairman to pay on debt

MIRAMICHI - After being ordered to appear for a Judgment Debtor Examination, former Provincial Court judge, Drew Stymiest, has agreed to pay $1,000 a month for eight months on money he owes the Miramichi hospital. Convicted of 20 counts of fraud and sentenced to jail following a trial in 2006, Stymiest, former chairman of the Miramichi hospital board, was ordered to pay $212,800. In the two years since the conviction, a total of $48,531 was repaid in two payments in 2006 and 2007. Those funds were garnished from back pay and vacation pay owed to Stymiest from his time on the bench. With those amounts paid, there is still $164,269.10 owing.

Internet

Archives launches communities site

FREDERICTON - A new website identifying thousands of communities where people live or have lived in New Brunswick over the past 150 years has been launched by the Provincial Archives. Where Is Home? New Brunswick Communities Past and Present contains the names and locations of more than 4,600 communities. The database also has the derivations of each community name; listings of the changes those names may have undergone and descriptions of distinctive features of communities. More than 600 documents and 900 photographs are connected to the community descriptions. The public is encouraged to provide the archives with additional information for the website, found at www.archives.gnb.ca.

Arts

Beaverbrook work on loan in Europe

FREDERICTON - One of the most valuable, and most contested, paintings in the Beaverbrook Art Gallery's collection is currently on loan to two European Galleries. The Fountain of Indolence, J.M.W. Turner's 1834 oil on canvas, is included in the exhibition, Turner in Italy, which opened this month at the À Palazzo dei Diamanti in Ferrara, Italy. The exhibition, co-organized by the Italian gallery and the National Gallery of Scotland, then travels to Edinburgh for display from March 27 to June 7, 2009. The masterpiece is key to an ownership dispute between the New Brunswick gallery and the Beaverbrook U.K. Foundation, which claims it owns the painting and wants it back.