Tightrope walker Nik Wallenda’s plan to conquer Niagara Falls

From the Toronto Star: Wallenda can’t afford to make a similar stumble this Friday during his highest-profile act yet: walking 550 metres across Niagara Falls, on a wire 60 metres above the gorge. “This is unique because it’s the longest unsupported or unstabilized cable that anyone’s put up in the history of wire-walking,” Wallenda says….

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How did these people survive a plunge over Niagara Falls?

From the Toronto Star: Death, taxes, Niagara Falls. In the old days, those were the only certain things in life — or death — according to the river men who patrolled a thunderous Horseshoe Falls before it became somewhat tamed by hydro companies. During the 19th and 20th centuries, thousands of suicide and accident victims…

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News regarding the Maid of the Mist

I’ve waited for the “dust to settle” before posting more about the Maid of the Mist. There were lots of articles posted, but as usual, other than the local sites they were mostly Associated Press or Canadian Press articles. Here are a selection of good articles: Niagara This Week – New boat lease for NPC…

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Canada nixes Wallenda’s Niagara rope walk

From UPI: Canadian officials in Niagara Falls have denied daredevil Nik Wallenda’s application to walk across the Niagara Gorge on a tightrope next summer. Wednesday night, the Niagara Parks Commission voted to deny a permit for the stunt, planned for June, the Toronto Star reported. The plan was for Wallenda to cross from Goat Island,…

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Pressure mounts to OK walk across Niagara Falls

From the Toronto Star: As an aerialist’s bid to tightrope walk across Niagara Falls next summer hangs in the balance, the commission ruling on his proposal is facing pressure to let the event proceed. Nik Wallenda, a seventh-generation member of the famed tightrope-walking Wallenda family, hopes to fulfill his lifelong dream of walking across the falls…

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Whale of a police escort for U.S.-bound killer whale

From the Toronto Star: Ikaika the killer whale was escorted out of the country in a procession worthy of a head of state. A witness said he counted at least 14 Niagara Regional Police cruisers, with lights flashing, two transport trucks and a crane slowly escorting the 9-year-old male orca from Marineland toward Hamilton airport…

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Canadian park sues SeaWorld to keep killer whale

From the Orlando Sentinel: The Canadian theme park Marineland has sued SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment in U.S. court, in the latest chapter of an international custody battle over a killer whale. In its lawsuit, filed last week in Orlando, Marineland asks a federal court judge to issue an injunction that would prevent SeaWorld from retaking…

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Send killer whale back to Florida, court tells Marineland

From the Toronto Star: Ontario’s Court of Appeal has upheld a lower court decision ordering Marineland to return a killer whale to the Florida water park that loaned it out. In July, an Ontario Superior Court judge ordered the Niagara Falls amusement park to return Ikaika, a 9-year-old male orca, to SeaWorld, the Orlando, Fla.-based…

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Niagara Falls high-wire plans could go haywire

From the Toronto Star: A daredevil’s plan to be the first person in a century to walk a tightrope across Niagara Falls may take a tumble even though it’s just gotten off the ground. Nik Wallenda, a seventh-generation member of the Flying Wallendas, a family of tightrope performers, is hoping to fulfill a lifelong dream…

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