IT would appear staff at Raigmore Hospital may not have been far off in their diagnosis that management there were trying to play down the health scare in which several people collapsed.

SHERIFF Ian Abercrombie's findings in the fatal accident inquiry into the death of Inverness mechanic Kevin Mykoliw are pretty damning on the lorry parking dangers that were allowed to develop in an area of the city's main industrial estate - and particularly galling to businesses, including the Highland News, whose safety fears were ignored for years.

THE experiences relived this week in our pages by a 17-year-old Inverness girl and her father on the dangers of so-called legal highs are likely to send a shiver up the spine of many parents.

THE dark side of the internet was unleashed on a 15-year-old Inverness girl this week.

AS we constantly hear about the dire straits that council and other public agencies are facing because of swingeing spending cuts, it will come as a surprise to many to learn today of the substantial perk being enjoyed by the temporary chief of the North's fire brigade.

SUPERMARKET giant Tesco has gone to some lengths to soften the blow of the two-month shutdown while its busy store at Inshes is revamped.

THEY may be almost poles apart both geograpically and culturally, but it is rather appropriate as the World Cup final looms this weekend that football is to form a common bond between Inverness and South Africa.

A NEW bus boss in the Highlands appears to be sending out all the right signals - unlike some of his firm's drivers in recent months.

SECURITY cameras are a generally accepted part of modern life, especially in a growing city like Inverness.

TWO events of national importance which were poles apart and spanned two eras took place at the end of last week.

THE timing this week at Highland Council on the appointment to and continuation of two senior managerial jobs will raise a few eyebrows.

IT is not uncommon for newspapers to receive offensive letters. We accept them as part and parcel of a business which deals in providing news and stories that will not be to the liking of everyone involved.

CONGRATULATIONS to the team behind the spectacular charity Strictly Come Dancing Inverness show at the weekend which raised a stunning £35,000 for Highland Hospice and the Ice Centre venue.

DISTURBING evidence of how public agencies dealt with safety complaints over a stretch of Inverness road has emerged during the fatal accident inquiry into the death of mechanic Kevin Mykoliw.

IT is an emotional dilemma for anyone suffering from a debilitating illness and also their families and friends when news emerges of a potential treatment that could offer a cure or relief from a future of suffering.

AS the nation goes to the polls, the emphasis of the final throes of campaigning has been on the austere times to come as all political parties acknowledge the need for tough public spending curbs.

THE story of six-year-old Liam Wilson's terrible injuries which he received when he was knocked down by a car in Carnarc Crescent touched many of our readers.

IN a year which began with blizzards and a big chill which threw transport links and holidays in chaos, this spring's mild start promised fine days to come - especially for those managing to avoid the problems of the British Airways cabin crew strike on their travels.

THERE is a General Election countdown on at the moment - but you would be hard-pressed to find much evidence of it locally at the moment.

ANYONE who loses their job in the current economic downturn deserves sympathy, as finding another is fraught with difficulty.

INVERNESS teenager Shaun Miller received a hero's welcome when he walked into Clach Park on Sunday for the friendly match against Aberdeen which was a fundraiser for the cash-strapped Highland League club.

LATE-night revellers and drinks industry observers could be excused for being confused by opening hours in operation in city bars and clubs at weekends following unsuccessful attempts by two premises last week for licence extensions.

IT is a piece of red tape worthy of anything that Sir Humphrey and his civil service underlings could have dreamed up in the sitcom Yes Minister.

ALARM bells are ringing over a new drugs craze which has emerged in Inverness in recent weeks.

IT is a sad and worrying situation when it takes the intervention of a local newspaper to spur Highland Council into action to help a pensioner with health problems living in one of its properties which is clearly in an unsuitable condition.

THE damning report from the Asbestos Training and Consultancy Association (ATAC) which shows local authorities have failed to manage asbestos in their schools is a shocking indictment on them.

THE financial pressure of staff and services at Raigmore Hospital in Inverness has been causing widespread concern in recent months.

NORTHERN Constabulary has just performed a climbdown in its attempt to keep secret the number of registered sex offenders who have moved into the Highlands and Islands.

IF you've been the recipient of a parking ticket in recent times you're likely to feel a bit aggrieved by the claims this week that police officers and civilian staff are regularly flouting roadside restrictions outside their city headquarters at Burnett Road.

MANY readers were touched by the plight of domestic abuse victim Sylvia Porter who spoke to us last week of her fears for her life after her former partner was jailed for only nine months following a vicious assault on her.

IN an era when money is the major factor and freedom of contract has handed football players significant advantages to move around, it is pretty remarkable for a footballer to notch up 500 senior games with the one club.

STAFF at bars, shops, supermarkets and entertainment venues have to be extra careful these days as they increasingly find themselves at the frontline of ensuring age regulations are enforced.

EVERYTHING seems to revolve around the weather just now.

THE plight of cash crisis city football club Clach has been well documented and administrators are still in the process of trying to produce a rescue plan to stop it from going under.

THE shock news as we went to press that two people have died and three were rushed to hospital in separate suspected drug-related incidents again rams home the serious nature of the drugs problem in the city.

AS Christmas shopping fever begins to take a grip, consumer organisations have been busy issuing warnings to know your rights and beware of scams both in the shops and on the internet.

OBTAINING information from Highland Council about how it is dealing with the problem of asbestos in schools has proved to be difficult.

THE scenes of drunkenness witnessed by local crime prevention panel chief Jim Ferguson on the streets of Inverness until 4 o'clock in the morning confirmed his worst suspicions - and also proved to be something of an eye-opener.

IT will come as a bitter pill to staff to learn that while an exercise is under way at cash-strapped Raigmore Hospital which could lead to axing more beds or even whole wards, its general manager has resigned.

THE management of the Love2Love nightclub in Inverness certainly seems to have stirred up a hornets' nest with the decision to refuse entry to male clubbers who have uncovered tattoos.

IT is hard not to have sympathy for Inverness landlady Doreen Murray. She had leased out the flat she owns in Drynie Terrace to a woman who appeared to be a pleasant young mum and was even shown pictures of her kids, who were said to be at boarding school.

MANY people in Inverness will be saddened and anxious to learn this week of the critical plight of two local institutions.

SOME critics are accusing Highland Council of dragging its heels on identifying the risks posed by asbestos in its schools.

THE worldwide web is a wonderful innovation that has brought many changes to our lives and habits.

HOUSEHOLDERS in Hilton caught up in the weekend's mayhem when 15 cars were damaged by drunken yobs deserve a great deal of sympathy.

THIS paper has a memory longer than most. Remember when traffic trundled through Inverness High Street and when the ferry plied from South to North Kessock?

THERE'S nothing like modern art to get the blood throbbing around the veins.

THE admission by a very experienced local publican that he and other bar bosses have on occasions taken advantage of special offers in supermarkets to stock their hostelries is certainly a sign of the troubled times in certain sectors of the licensed trade.

THE reluctance of the police and Highland Council to discuss revelations at last week's court case into the "Death Row" fatal bus crash in Inverness began to raise suspicions.

IT is not difficult to have sympathy for Dalneigh resident James Plenderleith and the plight of his family living beside anti-social neighbours.

TWO very contrasting stories this week indicate the widely differing welcome holidaymakers in Inverness have been receiving this summer.

ATTEMPTS to rehabilitate and monitor high risk sex offenders in society is a thorny and emotive topic on which views differ widely.

FOR the sake of Caley Thistle and Ross County and their fans, we can only hope that the Livingston demotion debacle is not going to be one of the most embarrassing own goals in Scottish football history.

IN these tough economic times, all businesses and public sector organisations are eager to save a few quid.

PENNY-pinching city workers are being blamed for safety worries at the spruced-up play area at Walker Park in the Kingsmills area.

SERIOUS acts of vandalism are thankfully few and far between in this part of the world.

SEVERAL Inverness people achieved their 15 minutes of fame on television this week by giving their problems an airing in front of millions of viewers.

MANY people, upon learning of the website set up by a group of young people to moan about their treatment by Eastgate Centre security guards, would have been tempted to dismiss it as a childish and petty prank.

THE city centre is looking good underfoot after the official completion (well almost) of the £6 million Streetscape facelift. But it now appears it is overhead hazards that shoppers and pedestrians need to beware of after claims that many of our city centre building need urgent repairs.

IT can be very difficult these days to tell the age of young people and therefore understandable that shop staff need to be extra cautious when it comes to situations such as when alcohol is being bought.

IN this credit crunch, job-loss world somehow it's refreshing to see a group of people returning to the good old, bad old days of direct action.

VANDALISM – wherever it strikes in the city – is a crime which cannot be brushed away as just something all kids do at one time or another.

THE seemingly never-ending Inverness Streetscape works are attracting more worries over how safe the costly facelift actually is.

AFTER all the hype that surrounded TV celebrity chef Jamie Oliver's crusade to bring the healthy eating issue to the nation's attention and school meal plates, it is rather surprising to see hundreds of secondary school kids in Inverness are turning up their noses at the menus and turning their backs on the dining halls.

THE indications that another three young people have died in Inverness in drug-related incidents in the space of a fortnight is yet again a sobering wake-up call about the extent of the problem in the city.

THEY may deal with the unpleasant side of life, but sewage plants are essential.

ANYONE in the unfortunate position of taking ill and collapsing would believe the best place to do so was at a hospital where treatment would be instantly on hand.

THE next four weeks will be the most important in the 15-year history of Caley Thistle as the club goes head to head with its four other relegation rivals in what will be a tense battle for SPL survival.

WHAT is classed and promoted as art can often leave people bemused and bewildered – especially high-profile exhibits like unmade beds and animals in formaldehyde.

THERE is something pretty distasteful – even in these tough economic times when people are broke and cash is hard to come by – about trying to make a fast buck to line your pockets on the back of charity.

DOUBLE glazing salesmen – as well as politicians, traffic wardens and (unfortunately) journalists – regularly feature at the top of surveys of the most hated or mistrusted professions.

THE army appears to have gone to remarkable lengths to try to persuade a sheriff not to jail a Black Watch private who indecently assaulted two children of another soldier as they slept in their beds.

BOSSES at NHS Highland may have started out with the best of intentions when they decided to introduce a scheme to recognise the long service of employees, but it appears to have been so badly thought out that it has created a great deal of ill feeling.

A YEAR ago the Highland News exposed the CashBlack affair – the extraordinary system that allowed senior civil servants to hop from one highly-paid public agency job to another with pockets full of golden handshake cash.

THE thorny subject of making the punishment fit the crime has arisen again in Inverness following the sentencing this week of four young men who carried out a vicious attack on two local footballers in the city centre.

WE all have a right to expect our children to be educated in a safe environment – therefore two stories on our news pages this week concerning local schools, old and new, must be sounding alarm bells among parents.

IT seems ironic that the fate of the much campaigned-for Asda store in Inverness could rest with rivals Tesco almost as much as the Scottish Government which ordered last week's five-day public inquiry into the planning application for Slackbuie.

THE problem of lazy school-run parents causing dangers to kids by parking too close to the gates of city primaries has emerged at two different city locations in the past few weeks.

IN a week when Britain's former bank chiefs were humbled into saying sorry of sorts for presiding over the megabucks mess which has caused the economic turmoil hitting us all and a massive bail-out by taxpayers, a financial timebomb on a smaller – but just as important scale to many – was dropping through the letterboxes of hundreds of Highland Council workers.

OUR collection of photographs of boarded-up buildings across Inverness is just a snapshot of what people can see in the city at the moment.

THE appointment of former England captain Terry Butcher as the new manager of Caley Thistle will hopefully give the club the lift it needs and change of fortune to battle out of the SPL relegation zone.

RIGHT-MINDED people in Inverness were shocked and disgusted to learn of the living nightmare young Inverness woman Shevonne Bowie found herself in when we exclusively revealed last week that she was the victim of a hate campaign after being mistaken for Maxine Carr, the woman who covered up for Soham double child murderer Ian Huntley.

NHS Highland certainly seems to be living up to the "national" part of its title – but for all the wrong reasons as it sends mums-to-be all around the country in search of special cots for their pre-term babies.

WITH jobs being lost, established shops like Woolworths closing, and the general doom and gloom surrounding the economic downturn, you would think anything that offers people a bargain would be good news.

IT has taken eight months, but the Scottish Parliament through its finance committee appears to have finally woken up to the facts we revealed in April about a lot of public cash ending up in the bulging bank accounts of civil servants through pretty loose compensation procedures.

THE latest skirmish in the Inverness store wars saga looks far from over with the news a group of councillors will try to overturn the planning permission granted last week for Tesco to build its fourth store in the city.

PENSIONER Lulu Matheson became a celebrity last week after national newspapers and TV and radio stations beat a path to her door when they picked up on our exclusive story of the botched police drugs raid on her cottage home in Shieldaig in Wester Ross.

WE'RE all aware times are hard these days with jobs being shed at alarming rates up and down the country and most people wary of spending in the turbulent economic climate, even with Christmas fast approaching.

THE bold move by a group of cycling enthusiasts to bid for a modern velodrome to be created in Inverness to prepare racers for the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow will seem like a pipe dream to many observers.

IN small towns and villages throughout the Highlands, small shops and the local post office are the lifeblood of the community, cherished and highly valued by those that use them.

HOW many meetings and how many miles of red tape does it take to get double yellow lines painted on a road?

ANYONE under the naive belief that the Highlands have escaped the excesses of drug culture hitting other parts of the country are likely to have been shaken out of their complacency by events in recent weeks.

HAS the council housing crisis really now reached a stage when young people must deliberately make themselves homeless to try to get an edge in the system?

LIZZ Jenkin made the heartwrenching decision to terminate her long-sought pregnancy at 22 weeks when tests revealed her baby was suffering from critical heart problems which would have required the agony of multiple operations.

THE shocking number of suspected drugs-related deaths in Inverness over the last few weeks has led to speculation over contaminated or extra-strength batches of heroin being in the city.

KNIFE crime and violence on the streets of Inverness have been hot topics in recent months.

THE name of toddler Thomas Brown is one which haunted the operators of the Inverness Aquadome for many years after his tragic death in a drowning accident almost eight years ago.

"IF you go down to the woods today, you're in for a big surprise..." goes the children's song.

SO the Highlands is still the safest place to live in UK, according to Northern Constabulary Chief Constable Ian Latimer.

THE margin between glory and agony was as small as a split-second or a fingertip on many occasions at the Beijing Olympics over the past fortnight, particularly in competitions like swimming, cycling and relay running.

THE contract warning "Your home may be at risk..." that most homebuyers used to skim over is now becoming a reality in Inverness with the stark message from money advice experts that times are tough, and about to get a lot tougher.

THE disgraceful mess left by fly-tippers on the shores of Loch Ness is almost beyond belief.

SHOULD a life sentence for murder mean life? That's a question that has been on the minds of many people in Inverness over the past week and one posed in our own Big Vote on our website.

THE horrendous death toll on the A9 over the past two weekends has led to the inevitable calls for dualling of the highway between Inverness and Perth as a matter of priority.

THE £6 million Inverness Streetscape project hasn't had its troubles to seek over the past year.

HIGHLAND Council's local licensing board added bite to its bark this week in tackling two troublesome problems – under-age drinking and business rates debt shirkers.

ONE of the most difficult aspects of battling the under-age drinking problem is when adults willingly become involved in buying or providing booze for youngsters.

SO 'Murray Mania' kicked in at Wimbledon this week after the London crowds finally warmed to the battling young Scot.

WELCOME news this week that an eyesore in the city centre is due to get a £7 million renovation and face-lift.

OUTDOOR enthusiasts are likely to be aghast at the drama involving a group of runners who ended up in the firing line in the woods at Ardersier last week when they unwittingly set off an army booby trap while on a training run.

THE revelation this week that supermarket chain Sainbury's appears to have gone cold on the plan to open a store in the Longman will come as a blow to those demanding more competition among food retailers in the city in an effort to break the Tesco stranglehold.

SEX, drugs and rock 'n' roll... a well-worn description for the music business and some would say a pop festival just wouldn't be the same without these elements.

THE incredible pressure on the housing market in Inverness and the rest of the Highlands over the last few years has left more and more young couples and families not knowing where to turn in their attempts to secure suitable and affordable homes.

THE plight of people in need of dental treatment in the Highlands has been a contentious issue for several years — from the time that most practices went "private" and the shortages that followed meant finding a dentist prepared to give treatment on the NHS became, well, like pulling teeth.

NEWS that the RockNess festival appears to be becoming an international attraction is just the kind of boost the area needs ahead of what could be a tough tourist season with the constant dire warnings of the "credit crunch" biting and the pound's continued strength against the dollar.

FOR the second week in a row, the Highland News has had complaints about the state of the pavements and roads in Hilton, with two people falling and hurting themselves in the same street due to what they say are uneven pathways.

IT stinks! There's no two ways about it, no-one likes treading in dog dirt.

THE controversy surrounding the various manoeuvres of supermarket chains in Inverness have constantly been in the headlines over the last few years – none more so than Asda and its saga in finding a site to try to break the near monopoly of rivals Tesco.

THE indication that Inverness appears set to avoid the credit crisis hysteria sweeping the housing market in many parts of the UK will come as good news for many homeowners, but cold comfort for young couples trying to take their first step onto the property ladder.

FOR most of us the prospect of pocketing £138,000 largely depends on our weekly lotto flutter paying off, a good run of draws on the pools or a huge jackpot win at the bingo.

THE Highland News runs checks on hundreds of potential stories and features every year, some difficult and some straightforward – but rarely have we encountered the level of resistance from officials in public agencies to our requests for information on the situation regarding migrant workers from Eastern Europe who have moved into the Highlands.

IT is inevitable that anger and upset will be felt in any community where violence has claimed a young life.

THOSE who bemoan the perceived lack of "bobbies on the beat" and a visible police presence in the city may be heartened this week by statistics from Northern Constabulary's Inverness area command showing a major drop in the number of violent crimes over the past 12 months and a significant cut in incidents of vandalism.

IN a month when Northern Constabulary has joined other forces in a campaign against under-age drinking and yob culture in general, it is easy to see why a local couple are losing patience with the situation at their farm on the outskirts of Inverness.

ANYONE who has witnessed the eyesore caused by recent high winds blowing rubbish from the Inverness Retail Park around the surrounding countryside will have considerable sympathy with the remarks made by Provost Bob Wynd demanding curbs on the use of plastic bags.

IT may seem an irony that those who want to stop oil and gas exploration in the Moray Firth for fear it could harm the dolphin population cite the hundreds of cars and buses that come to see the creatures every year.

NICE work if you can get it – a job with a full-time pay equivalent of £32,000 a year with a skill requirement of knowing how to wash your hands properly and being able to teach others to do the same.

TWO questionable decisions are highlighted in our pages this week which have left local women in the lurch.

GOING on holiday, especially to far-off places, is supposed to be relaxing and fun – but as we report this week that isn't always the case.

IT seems there's hardly a week goes by when problems associated with drink aren't highlighted in our pages.

THE number of teens being lifted by the police for being drunk and incapable is growing.

IT'S shop till you drop, as ASDA gets the green light.

PREGNANCY is an emotional and often worrying time for mums-to-be and their nearest and dearest – and all the more so when there are complications or the possibility of premature delivery.

IT appears all is not well within Highland Council, with talk of mutiny in the ranks.

IT may the season of goodwill, but that seems to have escaped the mindless morons who torched a charity's van in Culloden this week.

AS an exercise in open government and local democracy, Tuesday's hearing into Asda's eagerly anticipated planning application for a superstore in the Slackbuie area of Inverness turned into a farce.

THE people who have turned to the internet auction site Ebay in an attempt to make some money from the Van Morrison gigs in the city next weekend ought to be ashamed of themselves.

IT looks like quite a few youngsters are going to be disappointed on Christmas morning if the latest games console craze, the Nintendo Wii, was top of their presents wish list.

IT is a bit ironic that Highland Council planners and education chiefs seem to have got their sums wrong with a brand new primary school in the city.

A RARE honour was rightly bestowed on Inverness Caledonian Thistle on Monday when it was presented with a Special Achievement Award at the Highlands and Islands Business of the Year ceremony.

IN the week in which Hallowe'en falls, its seems entirely appropriate to bring readers the story of a team of paranormal investigators carrying out a series of experiments at Culloden Battlefield.

THE huge increase in the number of assaults taking place in the North will be seen by many as a frightening consequence of the recent growth of the area – although law enforcement agencies will be quick to point out that despite the latest figures, Inverness is still the safest city in Scotland.

THESE are worrying times for pet owners.

TO hundreds of young Caley Thistle fans, popular midfielder Richie Hart was a hero.

THE shock and anger in the Loch Ness-side village of Fort Augustus is a sign of the revulsion felt by the vast majority residents at the daubing of anti-English slogans on British Waterways Board buildings in the village.

YOU can get in and out of the country with a paper passport, which contains just a few simple details such as date and place of birth and of course an unflattering picture.

HERE we are well into September with most optimists still hoping for a late summer burst of good weather.

WE can only hope that it is hysteria or over-protectiveness that has apparently made the parents of two local youngsters to buy body armour for their children.

THE rapid growth of Inverness has brought well-documented problems of crime and anti-social behaviour – although nothing on the scale of the sprawling urban areas where tragedies involving knives and guns are now reaching shocking proportions.

THE resignation of Charlie Christie as manager of Caley Thistle this week came as a bolt out of the blue to the club’s fans as well as football writers and pundits.

WE have all become used to the building boom in Inverness over the past few years, with major housing, retail and commercial developments springing up all over the city at an incredible rate.

STREET upon street of cafes, bars and restaurants with outside eating and drinking areas is a common and accepted sight in most countries on the continent.

THIS week sees the return of our popular “48 Hours in the City” feature in which we attempt to give a picture of what’s happening on the streets of Inverness at weekends – and once again its been a bit of an eye-opener.

IN it’s very short lifetime, the first politically-led Highland Council has shown it’s mettle by abandoning plans to axe valued publicly-owned care homes.

MOST parents will testify that a good education is pretty near the top of the wish list for their children – especially in the current climate where more and more teenagers are being channelled towards colleges and universities after their schooldays come to an end.

THERE’S something pretty sick about community nurses being threatened, harassed and sometimes assaulted as they go about trying to help patients in their homes.

IT was rather ironic that a week which began with the spotlight falling once again on a new probe into guilt or otherwise of the Libyan jailed for the Lockerbie bombing outrage should end with Scotland again bearing the brunt of a terrorist attack.

OVER the years there have been sporadic complaints from locals and tourists about the antics of boy racers in and around the city — and, in particular, at Inverness Castle.

IN this age of high speed communication, broadband, e-mail, you name it, you would think it would be a simple matter to get a message from A to B without any unnecessary hold-ups or inconvenience for any of the parties concerned.

IT is nothing short of a scandal in this day and age that an increasing number of people in the Highlands, including children, are being forced to live in B&B accommodation.

PASSENGERS have never had it so good for air travel choices and prices out of Inverness.

DESPITE December's decision by the Crown Office that there was not enough evidence in a new police report to prosecute a person named as the prime suspect, it was clear that the Renee MacRae murder mystery was one that would not go away.

THE stereotypical images of football hooligans are gangs of lager-lout skinheads and bovver boys wreaking havoc on the streets and pubs around football grounds or smarter-dressed "casuals" scheming organised ambushes on opposing fans.

JIMMY Greaves was right. Football is a funny old game. And often the antics off the pitch are as interesting or strange as those on it.

IT is difficult to imagine the stomach-churning shock of an abused girl who is suddenly confronted by the sight in a public place of the molester she thought was out of her life forever.

THE plight of Inverness dad Sinclair MacIvor touched the hearts of many readers recently when he spoke exclusively to the Highland News about his anguish at the loss of his wife Donna and their newborn baby girl within hours of each other in hospital in tragic circumstances. He told us how, despite the heartbreak, he was trying to be strong for the sake of their six-year-old son Colin.

THE show will go on, according to bosses behind the redevelopment at Eden Court Theatre.

WE'VE never been so popular – or so it would seem. As the polling cards started dropping through letter boxes this week, we learned an incredible number of people want to represent us this time round at various levels of government.

IT is worrying when a group of young mums complain that their children are suffering from constant illnesses which they believe are linked to the conditions inside their homes.

"IT'S a Small World After All!" That's the Disney tune which resounds around the theme parks of Florida embracing thousands of holidaying Brits at the Magic Kingdom and other fantasy worlds.

OUR story this week about the car valet finding herself convicted of careless driving for her vehicle's tinted windows raises a number of interesting questions.

HUNDREDS of staff at two NHS Highland buildings face some difficult decisions if plans go ahead to severely restrict parking outside the offices.

IF you want action, and action now, then the Highland News is proving to be THE paper for you.

EVICTING someone by mobile phone voicemail, as happened to a former Inverness soldier, does not seem the most sensitive, caring and helpful way of dealing with someone whose life situation should be regarded as fragile.

NOTHING arouses emotions in others more than the killing of a child.

BOTTLE attack victim Steven McFarlane has made a brave decision to allow pictures to be released of his badly scarred face, and hopefully something positive will come of it.

PLANS to establish a ‘wet hostel’ for alcoholics in Inverness should be welcomed. Such facilities have already been established in other Scottish cities and offer a vital lifeline to people at their lowest ebb.

THERE’S troubled waters brewing on the River Nairn with canoe enthusiasts and anglers coming into conflict as a result of legislative changes in Scotland’s access laws.

IT IS bad enough for Malcolm Morrison that he is seriously unwell and has been for a long time, so it must pain him further that other people have decided he is “not ill enough” to access a small pension pot.

ALL too often it can seem that those in charge of running the country and its infrastructure are putting the cart before the horse. Or, in the case of our train services, the crap before the horse.

ARAM Jaber was feeling quite settled and at peace with his life until last week.

CHANCELLOR Gordon Brown may be trying to curry favour with the electorate with his swingeing cuts on civil service jobs in advance of this year’s elections.

MANY regulars at Caley Stadium were quite left quite bemused last week by the hysteria in certain quarters of the media that followed Caley Thistle’s 2-1 victory over Rangers.