Stephanie Martin-Smith Soul Purpose Summer is always jam packed full of things to do and with four boys it seems as if it is flying by. On those warm sunny days you just want to hit the pause button and make it last as long as possible.

Jim Hagarty Wandering Mind A man called the Gazette last week to inform us that he was going to sue us.

A 53-year-old mother of five children lost her life at a railway crossing not far from her home on Forest Road last week. Jagjit Dhindsa died when her minivan was struck by an eastbound VIA Rail passenger train at the crossing.

Tori Sutton Staff Reporter It took over 40 years to collect, but over the course of three days hundreds of items in Sheldon Hahn’s huge vintage collection will be auctioned to the highest bidder.

The Stratford Police Service will receive a funding boost to allow it to help fight hate crimes across the province.

Perth County OPP received a report of a theft from the Community Centre in Atwood this past weekend. An eight-foot-by-four-foot steel fence with two-inch angle iron frame that is used to drag behind a tractor to smooth out the baseball diamond was stolen.

The Stratford Nationals have made it clear they’re not going down without a fight, winning two out of three games last week. Last Thursday, the Nationals snuck by the Hamilton Thunderbirds 8-7 in the home game.

The Stratford Tennis Club held its annual Super Set Tournament on the weekend. Saturday’s rain prevented the men’s singles events from being completed, but the club was able to crown the ladies’ champion – Krista Plociennik downed Marta Andrekovic 8-5 to take the 2008 Super Set title.

The Stratford Foodland Senior Rookies won the Oakridge Minor Baseball Tournament on the weekend, defeating the home team 11-9 in the final game. Stratford came out early in the game, taking an 8-4 lead into the fifth inning.

Stratford City treated their fans to an exciting game last Thursday, but were unable to defeat Serbija, losing 3-1. It was the second time City had faced Serbija in five days.

The Stratford Hiller Royal Lepage U9 Strikers lost a heartbreaker 5-4 against the undefeated league-leading Orangeville Storm in Orangeville on Tuesday night.

Stratford Kickmaster U12 Boys went 1-2 at the Aurora Can-Am Challenge on the weekend. Stratford opened pool play friday with a 2-0 loss at the hands of the Oak Ridges Knights. Game two saw Stratford blank the Aurora Stingers 4-0.

The Stratford Furniture Major Mosquitos were narrowly defeated by Brantford, losing 13-12. Owen West led the offence with a double and two singles while Marshall Adlington and Owen McLeod both singled three times.

Flames: Tori Savelle 3B, GS; Aliya McNeil 2B; Alexie Smith 1B; Faith Flanagan 1B; Alicia Young 1B.

The Royal Canadian Legion Branch # 8 Stratford was honoured and proud to have participated in the Stratford Canada Day Celebrations.

We honour the freedom of speech highly; everybody is indeed entitled to speak their mind freely in our great country. The views about abortion rights have been split for a long time; to compare an advocate for the ProChoice to Adolf Hitler is an extreme view.

Stephanie Martin-Smith Soul Purpose OK, not to keep harping on the environment, but it will be refreshing when Lucas and I don’t have a conversation that begins with, “Does the sky look green? Do you see that too?”

One of the best ways to minimize the significance of any concern is to draw a comparison between the issue in question and a similar situation. This is usually done when questions of pay and benefits come up.