Ballarat breakfast report | Wednesday, November 2, 2016

Catch up on news from across the region and beyond below…

Clergy abuse victims are calling for proceeds of a $2.1 million beach house owned by disgraced Catholic bishop Ronald Mulkearns to be used to start a fund to help those still impacted by the scourge of sexual abuse. More here.

Commercial cannabis grow houses are a major concern for police not only because they are illegal and a safety risk, but because the profits are used to fund other serious crimes. More here.

A pack first used by Bendigo Health staff to help move deceased overweight patients might soon be used in more hospitals after the organisation won a WorkSafe award. More here.

LGBTI leaders are urging Bendigo to follow the lead of other regional cities and host its own pride festival, a move they say would foster acceptance for the region’s queer community. More here.

Horsham Highway Patrol officers have pleaded for road users to stick to the speed limit after a 32-year-old Horsham man died on the Kalkee Road overpass in Horsham on Sunday. More here.

The Wimmera will have fewer female councillors in the next term after the election resulted in women winning less than 33 per cent of seats. However, Yarriambiack Shire is one of 15 out of 79 councils in Victoria with majority female representation. More here.

A hoon driver whose dangerous antics put a group of spectators in grave danger has shaken his head and muttered to himself in disbelief on getting a hefty driving ban. More here.

Small childcare providers will not be forced to close due to funding changes, Education Minister Simon Birmingham has assured. The senator visited Wodonga Early Years Childcare service as part of his tour of education facilities. More here.

MORE BALLARAT NEWS, CLICK HERE

Need a national news snapshot first thing – well, we have you covered. 

► CANOWINDRA: The father of murdered school teacher Stephanie Scott has died in a tragic accident at a farm near Canowindra in the central west of NSW. Full story.

► ILLAWARRA: A ‘siege’ that shut down a Berkeley street for more than six hours on Monday was the work of a teenager with a fake gun and a black texta, a court has heard. Full story.

 ► BLACKHEATH: Blackheath has become the world’s first town where all the shopfront businesses have agreed to phase out plastic straws. Full story.

► BEGA: Motorists are being advised the Snowy Mountains Hwy on Brown Mountain will be closed from Monday,  November 14, to Friday, November 25, for essential maintenance work. More details.

►  NOWRA: He was 80 pounds of devotion, full of character, fiercely loyal and simply a loveable black Labrador.

And if you lived around Jervis and Berry streets, especially in the early 1970s there was a pretty fair chance you knew of Spoofy. Full story.

► BALLARAT: Ongoing testing at the Craigieburn Victorian Emergency Management Training Centre have revealed elevated levels of toxic perfluoro chemical PFOS. Full story.

► NEWCASTLE: Newcastle man and former ADFA cadet Harlan Agresti, who was last year found guilty of raping a fellow cadet in her quarters, has had his conviction set aside on appeal. Full story.

► GOULBURN: THE recent spate of inmates being caught with mobile phones in Goulburn Correctional Centre may be coming to an end, with a two-year trial of phone-jamming equipment to start at the prison soon. Full story.

National news 

► MELBOURNE: Lloyd Williams won his fifth Melbourne Cup - a record - when his well backed Almandin wore down Irish raider Heartbreak City in a war of attrition down the Flemington straight to take the 156th Melbourne Cup for jockey Kerrin McEvoy and trainer Robert Hickmott. Full story.

► CANBERRA: Kevin Rudd has ripped into Malcolm Turnbull over the government's proposed asylum seeker laws, saying they must be opposed, and arguing the Prime Minister is pandering to a "Hansonite insurgency" and that he has misrepresented the 2013 deal struck with Papua New Guinea. Full story.

► SYDNEY: A young girl and her mother have been taken to hospital with serious injuries after they were hit by a vehicle while out trick-or-treating for Halloween in Sydney's west. Full story.

► SYDNEY: A major new study is being launched into the effect of controversial lockout and last drinks laws in Kings Cross and the Sydney CBD, including whether they have pushed violence to neighbouring areas. Full story.

► BEIJING: Justice Minister Michael Keenan has directly raised with China's top police official the federal government's concerns regarding the four Australians detained in connection with Crown Resorts' activities on the mainland. Full story.

► BANGKOK: An Australian man wanted in Queensland on kidnapping and torture charges has been photographed socialising in Bangkok bars. Full story.

► JOHANNESBURG: James Starkey invited his killer in. So says the general manager of the luxury apartment block in Johannesburg where Mr Starkey, an Australian banking consultant, was found dead in his room last month. Full story.

1986 - The 12-by-16-inch celluloid of a poison apple from Walt Disney's "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs"" was purchased for $30,800. 

2001 - The computer-animated movie "Monsters, Inc." opened. The film recorded the best debut ever for an animated film and the 6th best of all time. 

IT HAS been a long time between drinks for Western Bulldogs supporters, just ask retired Wagga footballer Graham ‘Curly’ Ion.

The Bulldogs will be out to break the AFL’s longest premiership drought on Saturday when they attempt to win their first flag since 1954 against Sydney.

Few people can appreciate just how long the wait has been better than Ion, who played in the Bulldogs’ last grand final back in 1961.

A Footscray man through and through, Ion watched on from the grandstand as a 13-year-old when the Bulldogs won the 1954 grand final. Read more.