Brenda Martin is Quinte’s Newsmaker of Year

We heard her tearful, sobbing pleas for help for what seemed like years before she was finally released from a Mexican Prison this Spring.  Brenda Martin is the Quinte Broadcasting newsmaker of the year for 2008. The 51-year old Trenton native was convicted of money-laundering in Mexico and sentenced to five years in April after spending several years in prison without ever being charged in connection with a multi-million dollar internet fraud scheme orchestrated by her former boss Richard Alan Waage of Edmonton . An Edmonton journalist alerted our newsroom and other local media to Martin’s plight and it eventually became a national story making it to front pages across the country until her release and transfer back to Canada on May 1st. Martin is currently living in Trenton.

Belleville Plant Closing in New Year

It wasn’t the New Years greeting that nearly 90 employees at a Belleville plant were wishing for this afternoon.  Workers at Interface Flooring on Lahr Drive in the Northeast Industrial Park were informed, late this afternoon, before leaving for their New Year’s break that the facility will be closing at the end of February leaving all of them without a job. Callers to our newsroom say company officials blamed the downturn in the economy for the Atlanta, Georgia-based company’s decision to close its only Canadian faciility. Interface is the world’s largest manufacturer of modular carpet.  Company officials have been unavailable for comment.

Four Strike Out Playing Mailbox Baseball near Trenton

Four people playing mailbox baseball have struck out with the Quinte West OPP.  Officers reponded to reports of a man with a baseball bat and smashed mailboxes on Bernard Long, Miron and Stockdale Roads and County Road-5 overnight. A vehicle with five men and a woman inside was stopped by OPP on Stockdale Road early this morning.  Four of the occupants have been charged with mischief.  If you find your mailbox damaged this morning you’re asked to contact Quinte West OPP.

Repatriation of Three Soldiers Today at CFB Trenton

A repatriation ceremony will be held this afternoon at C-F-B Trenton at 2o’clock today for three Canadian soldiers, returning home in flag-draped coffins aboard military planes from Afghanistan.

Private Michael Freeman, Sergeant Gregory Kruse and Warrant Officer Gaetan Roberge were killed on the weekend in two separate roadside bombings — the same fate that has met six other soldiers in just December alone.

In fact, the U-S ambassador to Afghanistan says the number of roadside bombs has doubled, from one-thousand in 2007 to roughly two-thousand this year.

Trenton Convenience Store Not a “Drive-Thru”

Alcohol reportedly played a major role in a crash that caused massive damage to a Trenton convenience store and wrote-off the car that crashed into it.  Quinte West OPP responded, at 3 o’clock this moning, after a car slammedn into West Street Convenience.  They found a man laying on the street suffering from a compound fracture of his right leg. He was taken to KGH for treatment.  The vehicle in question had been taken without the owners permission.  Charges are pending.  The suspects name hasn’t been released….but,  police say he is a Trenton man.

Power out for many areas in Quinte

Hydro One is reporting countless power outages as a result of the extreme weather.

A caller to our newsroom says the power went out in rural Marmora and Lake around 9:30 this morning.

Hydro One is reporting power outages across Ontario, sweeping eastward alongside the storm.

The areas hardest hit in our listening area right now seem to be those around Tweed…where thousands of households are without electricity.

A diagram on the power company’s Web site shows the longer the wind has been in an area, the greater the extent of the damage.

Holiday RIDE programme going strong in Belleville

The drunk-driving prevention programme is still going strong in Belleville.

City police say they stopped 835 vehicles Friday night.

Of those stopped for questioning, two separate stops resulted in drug seizures.

Two drivers were charged with having a blood alcohol level of over 80 milligrams… one of those a 19-year-old male driver from Kingston.

He will appear in court in January.

Police use caution with armed suspect

A gun and the wrong license plates have landed criminal charges for a couple in Belleville.

City police say they were at a north end plaza doing parking enforcement when they noticed one vehicle allegedly displayed illegal license plates.

When police saw a man and a woman get into the suspect vehicle and begin to drive away, officers stopped them for questioning.

It was then that officers saw what appeared to be a handgun slotted between the seats.

The couple was arrested and the man was charged with carrying a concealed weapon and breach of probation.

The weapon turned out to be a pellet gun.

Attempted break and enters in Belleville

Belleville Police responded to two separate attempted robberies in the past 24 hours.

In one case, Belleville officers on duty with the RIDE programme responded to the call of an alarm at the LCBO in Stirling…and arrested one person after they found liquor in the suspect’s vehicle.

In the other case, officers responded to an alarm at a Belleville Transit building on Coleman Street…to find nothing had been taken…but that the place had been damaged. Police suspect the alarm scared off the culprits in that case.

Extreme weather for Quinte

Wind gusts of up to 90 kilometres an hour are heading our way.

Forecasters at the Weather Office at CFB Trenton say a cold front is heading toward Quinte from the west, and bringing with it the rough weather.

The weather office predicts the most severe weather will start around 11:00 this morning.

The city of London has already felt the brunt of the cold front.

Forecasters say wind speeds there reached 100 kilometres an hour there earlier today.