Jon Wells

Four years after elevating the Emily Bailey missing persons case to a homicide, Hamilton police are searching a building in the heart of the city, on Stinson Street

The good news includes a fitting farewell for a legendary soldier, plus fundraisers for exemplary causes: one led by career volunteer Connie Price, and the other funded by the Dianne Baboth Memorial Golf Tournament, which supports playgrounds at McMaster Children’s Hospital that help lighten heavy moments for families.

Eastwood Arena, closed since mid-April, will reopen in the fall, according to Coun. Cameron Kroetsch who said it will stay open for at least one year or longer.

Hamilton police Const. Preston Gabriele has long done good deeds on the job, but one of his most recent received special recognition May 28 in Windsor, when he received the On-Duty Difference Maker award, given to an officer who “has exceeded job expectations” while on duty in uniform by The Police Association of Ontario. Last December, Gabriele took the initiative to repair a woman’s doors, after her partner had tried to break into her home.

That element of danger trying to survive a ride on an 1,800-pound bull persisted amid the party atmosphere of the Professional Bull Riding event in Hamilton, festooned as it was with music, giveaways, and pyrotechnic pageantry.

The feel good news this week includes a Hamilton triple-A baseball team fundraising since last fall to attend a legendary tournament this summer in Cooperstown, N.Y., and a woman whose ability to speak with clarity is compromised but whose mission and message comes through loud and clear.

Summer weather is here and the good news is the return of Romeo Palombella’s 1971 VW Super Beetle. Plus let’s lounge around with nostalgic TV sitcom fluff, and raise a frosty mug to Hamilton’s oldest tavern and reminisce about its role in the suds strike of ‘58.

A car crash in 1999 left Steve Foglia with catastrophic injuries, but the life-changing event also ultimately inspired his only child, his son Stevie — who had been in the back seat of the car — to pursue a science career that has led him to develop technologies helping treat patients living with chronic pain.

On Monday, June 29, Brandon Dean hits 2,000 consecutive days climbing the Dundurn stairs, and will mark the occasion with a gathering of supporters, stair climbers, and anyone else who wants to drop by at 6 p.m., at the terminus of Dundurn Street South at the base of the escarpment. In other good news, we celebrate the Hamilton General Hospital School of Nursing Class of 1956, and enjoy another Beetle tale.

Since 1846, this newspaper has told the story of Hamilton. The characters keep changing, but The Spectator and the city beat on together, day by day, page after page.