Poison to perform at 2011 Rock the Park

Rock the Park organizers have confirmed that Bret Michaels and his band Poison will be opening this year’s concert series.
Scheduling had to be changed for some bands because of conflicts, but confirmed for this year’s event is Poision on Thursday evening, Meat Loaf, Cheap Trick, Blue Oyster Cult and Bad Company’s Brian Howe on Friday evening and Stone Temple Pilots, Our Lady Peace, Sloan and Bleeker Ridge on Saturday evening.
The concert series runs July 21 to 23 in Harris Park.

Spring crackdown starts

London police are kicking off their annual spring crackdown on rowdy students.
Project LEARN (Liquor Enforcement and Reduction in Noise) starts Wednesday and ends April 30.
During the crackdown, police increase patrols in student housing areas around Fanshawe College, the University of Western Ontario and Richmond Row night spots where students gather.

$1-million grant awarded

A London researcher is the first in Canada to get a renewed government grant that will help change policies for mental health patients.
Dr. Cheryl Forchuk, the assistant director at the Lawson Health Research Institute, gets $1 million to further study the relationship between poverty and societal inclusion for people who have lived with mental illness.
Forchuk is the first researcher ever to have a Community-University Research Alliance (CURA) grant renewed.

Child porn charges laid

A 15-year-old boy faces child porn charges after a month-long investigation in London.
London police say they searched a London home on Friday and charged the teen after a cyber crime investigation that began in early March.
The boy is charged with four counts of possession of child pornography, three counts of making available child pornography and one count of accessing child pornography.
The arrest was made possible by a grant from the ministry of community safety and correctional services and the attorney general.

Ambulances on hold outside London ERs

Ambulances and their patients waited outside London emergency rooms for more than 685 hours in March — that’s an average of one working paramedic crew unavailable for emergencies for every hour of every day that month.
The approximate cost of waiting: about $100,000.
“If the vehicles are (waiting) in emergency, they’re not on the streets,” said Neal Roberts, director of emergency services and in charge of administering Emergency Medical Services (EMS) for London and Middlesex.