ENCOURAGING households to dehydrate food scraps might be a solution to an unpleasant choice between burying mountains of trash or incinerating it. By sucking all the moisture out of organic waste, a Korean invention called Smart Cara reduces organic waste to 10 percent of it’s volume, leaving a powdery waste product. In Korea where regulations…

WESTERN religion lurking in the curricula of mainstream schools is deterring Aboriginal students, says indigenous researcher Jesse J Fleay. Based out of ECU Mt Lawley’s Kurongkurl Katitjin centre, Mr Fleay says it’s not just Aboriginal people and Torres Strait Islanders who feel alienated by western society and decades of poor leadership in educational policy, but…

WHEN a team of young film-makers set out to make a quirky documentary about Perth’s 2015 lord mayoral election, they had no idea of the storm about to erupt. Running for a third term, incumbent Lisa Scaffidi suddenly found herself in the headlines for all the wrong reasons when a Corruption and Crime Commission report…

MEDIATION between lord mayor Lisa Scaffidi and WA’s local government department has reportedly broken and she will now face a public hearing in front of the State Administrative Tribunal. The SAT had been trying to mediate an agreement on what potential sanction Ms Scaffidi might face over failures to declare gifts and travel, but two…

SCARBOROUGH Beach Road through the Mt Hawthorn town centre will now have a 40kmh speed limit. It’s a “big win for the community” and “good for the local economy” says Vincent mayor John Carey. Main Roads agreed to the reduced speed after lobbying by the Mt Hawthorn Hub and Vincent council, which believes a pedestrian-friendly…

VINCENT council has moved a step closer to sending its waste to industrial incinerators. The council is part of the Mindarie Regional Council, which has made moves to join with its eastern neighbour in calling for tenders for the construction of an alternative waste facility to divert more rubbish from landfill. Although details of the…

LAST Sunday’s Hip on Heritage film festival at the Astor Theatre was a milestone in the Mt Lawley Society’s mission to prove heritage is not just for stuffy history buffs. With a separate student category, the festival invited younger film-makers to showcase their work. Society president Paul Collins said he was chuffed with the next…

SANTA won’t be handing out free parking to shoppers in Perth this year with councillors effectively killing the proposal by sending it back to committee. Deputy lord mayor James Limnios had led the push for free weekend parking in the CBD, saying it would help retailers compete with suburban shopping centres for the all-important Christmas…

LEEDERVILLE is set to shine on Sunday December 4 with a more tech-savvy Light Up Leederville Carnival. The fifth annual carnival, organised by UpBeat Events, will see the traditional fireworks display replaced with a five-metre LED light dome, “magical” raining lights and an angel wings display. UpBeat creative director and Vincent councillor Jimmy Murphy said…

VINCENT council has been left with a $635,000 debt after a search of archives found it pocketed money that was supposed to be destined for benevolent institutions. The council has been managing Leederville Gardens Retirement Village since July 2002, and under the village’s constitution surplus funds are supposed to go into a trust account. Money…