Year in Review: January

Here are our top 10 stories for the month of January 2016. We'll be presenting our annual Year in Review feature between now and Jan. 1.

1. Broken bolts on the newly opened Nipigon River Bridge forced the Ministry of Transportation to close the span for 17 hours, effectively halting Trans-Canada traffic while an assessment and temporary repairs were made. When the bolts broke, cables tightened, raising the road deck nearly 60 centimetres. The province launched an immediate investigation, but did not release a report for several months.

2. Lakehead University graduate Adam Wood was one of four people killed in a school shooting in the small Saskatchewan community of La Loche. Police arrested and charged a 17-year-old, who cannot be named under the Youth Criminal Justice Act, with four counts of first-degree murder and seven counts of attempted murder after the shootings.

3. A frost-bitten infant was taken to hospital after his father left the 17-month-old in a freezing vehicle for six hours while allegedly doing drugs. The suspect was charged with child abandonment, failing to provide necessities and theft under $5,000.

4. Thunder Bay police arrested a 40-year-old man in conjunction with a pair of grisly killings in December 2015. Benjamin Marki was first put under 24-hour surveillance while investigators looked for evidence in the deaths of 60-year-old Wilfred Pott and 50-year-old Anne Chuchmuch, whose burned bodies were discovered after a suspicious house fire. Maki was living with the couple at the time.

5. Norm Gale was officially named city manager after holding the job in a temporary form for several months after former city manager Tim Commisso stepped down the previous fall. Gale was the long-time Superior North Emergency Medical Services chief who would face the threat of a municipal workers’ strike before his first year on the job came to a conclusion.

6. Jail guards settled their contract dispute with the province after an 11^th-hour deal was reached with the province – albeit not exactly on the terms the guards were hoping for. The province deemed the workers provided an essential service and sent the negotiations to an arbitrator.

7. Nishnawbe Aski Nation officials called on the provincial and federal governments to launch a suicide task force during an emotional conference held in Thunder Bay. Grand Chief Alvin Fiddler called it a 30-year pandemic, saying more than 600 NAN community members had taken their own lives over the past three decades.

8. Kyle Stoney and Carl Rae pleaded guilty to charges related to the 2014 death of 52-year-old Christopher Adams. Stoney pleaded guilty to manslaughter charges, while Rae copped to aggravated assault charges. Both were initially charged with second-degree murder.

9. The death of a 40-year-old woman in a John Street home led to charges against another woman. Kimberly Fox, 36, was charged with second-degree murder after the body of Charlotte Hudson was discovered after a neighbour phoned 911.

10. Residents finally moved into the newly constructed Hogarth Riverview Manor. The structure, run by St. Joseph’s Care Group, would endure a year of growing pains. The provincially funded facility replaced a pair of city-run homes, Grandview Lodge and Dawson Court.