Victorians may be begging for amalgamation, but Saanich residents want nothing to do with it. Last week, Victoria’s 11 neighbourhood associations threw their support behind amalgamating police forces with neighbouring municipalities in a letter to Solicitor General John Van Dongen.

Police have identified the 25-year-old Abbotsford man who died of gunshot wounds following a drug related shooting early Tuesday morning. Cpl. Dale Carr, of the integrated homicide investigation team (IHIT), said the victim was Dustin Lee Wester of Abbotsford.

A spectacular accident early on the morning of July 15 on Sooke Road resulted in a driver being transported to hospital where he was pronounced dead on arrival.

A man trying to talk his way into an elderly Esquimalt woman's home to administer a medical test has prompted a warning from police. Victoria police say the man came to the woman's door and told her he was there to perform a test ordered by her family doctor, who he referred to by name.

Thursday night will be the public's chance to speak for or against building a new emergency shelter on the site of the Ellice Street playlot. A public hearing on rezoning the park to allow construction of a new Streetlink shelter to replace the current Store Street location.

Water consumption in the Capital Region remains below the monthly average, despite the warm and dry weather that has persisted. The demand for water to-date in July is sitting two and a half per cent below the 10-year monthly average. As of Monday, the Sooke reservoir was 83 per cent full.

British Columbians care about kindergarten and they want their view heard. About 1,200 people responded to the B.C. government’s kindergarten public consultation.

early Tuesday morning. A security guard doing rounds at the Meadowfair Mall in the 34900 block of South Fraser Way saw a stick poking out of the ceiling of the Liquor Barn.

"Slow, People and Toads on Road" said the yellow sign on the corner of Ryder Lake Road and Elk View Road. Volunteers with orange and yellow construction vests and blue gloves slowly walked along the windy road, looking at their feet.

The murder of a University of Victoria student on View Street Saturday may have been the first shooting in downtown Victoria in five years, but it raises the spectre of more gun violence in the city.

Dominating the Sooke ice arena, where the Sooke Fine Arts Show gets underway this Saturday, a life-size bronze sculpture poised as in mid-dive. Roughly 350 volunteers are creating an art gallery in the arena.

Every year hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars are poured into getting Luminara lit. The bill for illuminating Beacon Hill Park with colourful and intricate lanterns runs about $150,000 annually.

A man has been airlifted from Crescent Beach after he was hit by a train Tuesday evening. The man, believed to be in his late 20s, was conscious when emergency crews reached him south of 1,001 Steps around 7:30 p.m., according to Sgt. Geoff Shaw of the Surrey RCMP.

Mexican workers Rosalio Perez, left, Miguel Olguin and Ignacio Bernal pick raspberries on Galey Farm off Blenkinsop Road. They may not speak English but they have exemplary berry-picking skills, says Rob Galey, who has hired Mexican workers for the first time this summer.

Victoria police aren’t suffering for lack of response to their invitation -- posed in pamphlets and a Pat Bay highway billboard -- to become a ‘top cop.’ Applications have doubled over last year, said Interim Chief Bill Naughton.

The movement toward a more green lifestyle can seem overwhelming at times, especially if one stops to think of how much pollution and waste countries like China, India and the United States introduce into the environment daily.

Tom Fletcher is legislative reporter and columnist for Black Press newspapers. He's based in Victoria.

Conflicts over lake use aside, the Capital Regional District last week unanimously approved a new 10-year lease agreement for the Victoria Rowing Society on Elk Lake.

National under-23 player Connor Meakin (left) checks Canadian Olympic team member Ken Pereira low to the ground during exhibition field hockey action at the University of Victoria on Saturday. The Olympic team won the match 6-0. The squad winds up its six-day training camp in Victoria on Thursday.

The Camosun College board of governors welcomed a new member last week. Scott Marshall was appointed to the board by the provincial government and starts July 31.