<strong>Open data incubator proposed for Waterloo</strong>
Waterloo city staff proposed the construction of an open data incubator on Monday, says <em>The Record. </em>The plan would involve converting the Carnegie library located at 40 Albert St., and would cost the city an estimated $3.8 million. The goal of the incubator would be to attract entrepreneurs who are in the field of open data to the region, and become the home of open data startups and then help them relocate once they are on their feet. According to city councillors there is currently no data to suggest whether or not the incubator, which would be named The Data Mine, would generate revenue, be charitable, or become some combination of the two. In a unanimous vote, the city council decided to spend $234 000 of the 2014 budget on architectural and design work, deferring decisions on the remainder of the project costs to the 2015 budget.
<strong>New youth unemployment plan features big role for private sector</strong>
On Monday, Toronto-based NPO Civic Action announced a new youth unemployment strategy in partnership with the province of Ontario, says <em>The Toronto Star.</em> The idea is to bring private-sector jobs into the picture, as it has been recognized that governments alone cannot be successful in solving all youth unemployment. The first stages of this new strategy will involve private-sector job and mentorship programs. The report on which the new strategy is based highlights several issues with youth unemployment such as discrimination and a lack of meaningful connections. Civic Action aims to tackle these problems by creating a mentorship initiative, engaging small and medium sized enterprises, making the job market more transparent, and creating employer designed internships.
<strong>Ottawa police not charged after fatal police chase</strong>
The Ottawa Special Investigations Unit will not be pressing charges against any of the parties involved in the police chase that ended in the death of an Ottawa civilian, says the <em>Ottawa Citizen. </em>The police chase, which took place Feb. 17, involved two police cruisers and a Volkswagen Jetta. The two cruisers were parked along the side of the highway when they noticed a Jetta without its taillights on. When one of the cruisers attempted to pull the Jetta over, it sped up from 120 km/h to 160 km/h. A full-fledged police chase then ensued, but was called off when it approached an area with a higher volume of traffic. The Jetta continued to flee, and upon crashing into a snow bank, the driver was flung from the car. The man, whose name has not been released, was pronounced dead at the scene.
<strong>Bingemans takes noise exception too far with Frosh Circus</strong>
The annual Frosh Circus Block Party, held at Bingemans, resulted in a flood of noise complaints from as far as two kilometres from the site, says <em>The Record.</em> Kitchener residents voiced their complaints to the police, the University of Waterloo, and city councillors (UW did not sponsor the event). The main complaint was not about the music (which was overly loud), but about the profanities shouted by the MC. The event had been given a noise exception by the city, but according to councillor Scott Davey, the event took it too far. Over the course of the night the police arrived at the party twice with requests for the music to be turned down. Davey will be meeting with Bingemans and bylaw enforcement staff in order to discuss the incident and future noise levels.
