TRICKY black-fronted dotterels at Eric Singleton bird sanctuary are befuddling visitors by pretending to have broken wings. The quirky birds lie on the ground feigning injury to distract potential predators from their nest, which is pretty vulnerable since they just lay eggs on the ground. If anyone goes near them the cheeky beaks flutter away,…

KIM TRAN was a social leper growing up in Perth’s northern suburbs. The Highgate business-woman, who immigrated to Australia from Vietnam at age three, says she and her older brother were the only Asian students at school, and thus suffered from racism. Puberty did her no favours either, she says. “They called me ‘Asian pizza’…

VINCENT’S ºnewish CEO Len Kosova has been dubbed “competent” and “effective” at his first annual performance review, but the process has revealed deep flaws in the way the council historically handled its CEO contract renewals. Mayor John Carey says this time round the council deliberately pushed Mr Kosova’s contract renewal decision until well after the…

LISA SCAFFIDI has kept her lord mayoral chains, scoring 54.76 per cent of the Perth vote despite the release of a damaging corruption and crime commission report in the middle of her campaign. But her loyal deputy, Cr Rob Butler—who was also outed for having not declared a trip (this one paid for by the…

WHEN police don’t want lots of journalists trampling through murder scenes, or traumatising victims of crime, they’ll ask them to “pool footage”. What this means is, one crew takes the footage and then shares it with journos from rival organisations. On Tuesday night, journalists were informed just one crew — the ABC — would be…

JOHN CAREY was re-elected Vincent mayor last Saturday by the skin of his teeth, with just 81.18 per cent of the vote. Yep, really scraped over the line. Every candidate he endorsed was also elected. Despite this, the mayor says there’s not going to be any voting bloc. “I’ve been voted down seven to one…

STIRLING mayor Giovanni Italiano says he almost lost his ward seat last Saturday because his only rival was a woman. Re-elected to the top job by his council colleagues during the week, he told the Voice there had been a “gender issue” leading up to the poll. In his Osborne ward he collected just 33 more…

WA’s most-populous council, Stirling, is not so popular when it comes to voting. It had the lowest average voter turnout of all four councils in Voiceland, with just 26,300 of 134,800 electors bothering to cast a ballot in last weekend’s council elections. In its Inglewood ward, just 20.5 per cent of its 19,000 electors could…

BARRY McKENNA is Bayswater’s new mayor. The veteran councillor was voted in by colleagues after Sylvan Albert lost his ward seat at last weekend’s council elections. Cr McKenna won the mayoral ballot 7:4 against Cr Terry Kenyon, a two-time former mayor. Following a high-profile south ward campaign, Mr Albert lost his seat to Catherine Ehrhardt,…