The WA Brekkie Blog | Wednesday, November 23, 2016

DUNSBOROUGH: The Dunsborough community have promised to boycott a “convenience store” with fuel, should the development go ahead in the town centre. According to residents, the controversial development would be the third petrol station within 200 metres of each other in the small town centre, which is already subject to traffic gridlock in peak tourist times. Read more. 

MANDURAH: A parent of a Mandurah student has sparked a clash between local politicians over a controversial gender-identity program, which was proposed for Halls Head College. Read more. 

ESPERANCE: A recent survey of Cape Arid National Park, east of Esperance, has revealed positive results for the threatened western ground parrot with scientists hearing the call of young parrots. Read more. 

WHEATBELT: Wheatbelt Detectives have launched an operation to target the distribution of Methamphetamine within Northam, and have already arrest 10 people. Read more.

Need a national news snapshot first thing – well, we have you covered. 

►  BENDIGO, VIC: A 30-year-old man has been arrested after a police operation in a central Bendigo car park, after the man had terrorised motorists across the city for the last week, police say. The Bendigo man was living in a blue Ford Falcon with no number plates when he was caught by police in a car park near the intersection of Williamson and Myers streets on Tuesday morning. More here.

► ALBURY-WODONGA, VIC: A Snapchat message from an ex-boyfriend became even more concerning for a woman when she saw it contained a photograph of herself walking in a park, taken by the man following her from afar. More here.

► BALLARAT, VIC: A homeless man who stole seven-month-old American Staffy Poppy and sent the Ballarat community on a viral manhunt has been jailed. The Ballarat Magistrates’ Court heard the ‘Bring Poppy Home’ Facebook page helped identify and locate Christopher Ballantyne, who stole Poppy from a Ballarat house on June 29 this year. More here.

► WAGGA WAGGA, NSW: THE parents of Australia’s 100th Victoria Cross (VC) winner, Corporal Cameron Baird, will return to Kapooka where their son marched out 16 years ago to present an award named in his honour. More here.

► ILLAWARRA, NSW: Anthony Millan looks into the camera’s lense with a five-year-old’s zest, and just a glint of mischief behind his bright, brown eyes. Anthony is a big brother, and a perpetually smiling recent addition to St John’s Catholic Primary School in Horsley. He is, according to his school principal, “just a delightful little boy”.  More here.

► GOULBURN, NSW: A semi-trailer laden with Christmas hampers caught fire on the Hume Highway near Marulan on Monday afternoon. More here.

► SUTHERLAND SHIRE, NSW: Danielle McGrath’s family and partner Aaron Roberts have spoken of their heartbreak at losing “a unique, beautiful soul” while thanking the community and authorities for their “overwhelming” support. Ms McGrath, 26, died after being hit by an earthmoving truck towing a trailer on a Caringbah pedestrian crossing a fortnight ago. More here.

► TAMWORTH, NSW: WHEN Senator John ‘Wacka’ Williams was confronted by a pack of wild pigs on his Inverell farm, he was lucky to escape unharmed – he says an Adler shotgun could have controlled the situation. Senator Williams was one of a number of Nationals MP to stage a late-night revolt in the Senate, crossing the floor to support lifting the ban on the rapid-fire seven-shot gun. More here.

► HUNTER, NSW: Thornton beauty Aleyna FitzGerald has been crowned Australia’s Next Top Model. The 17-year-old defeated Byron Bay’s Sabine Jamieson in the finale to take the reality TV show title. More here.

► BURNIE, TAS: A negligent truckie who lost control and killed a man on the Frankford Highway wakes up everyday and relives telling the man’s wife at the scene about what he had done. Phillip Allan Woodforde, 51, on Tuesday pleaded guilty to killing Lindsay Forbes Wright by negligent driving, near Frankford, on January 28 this year. More here.

► CLEVELAND, QLD: CLEVELAND’S David Halhead says support is coming from unexpected places after infected tissue behind the 23-year-old’s eye developed into a tumour. More here.

► MOUNT ISA, QLD: A senseless act of vandalism cut power and inconvenienced a number of customers in Camooweal, says Ergon. Ergon Customer Delivery Manager Mark Biffanti said vandals threw a piece of fence wire into powerlines on Saturday morning causing the lines to clash, burn and fall. More here. 

► MURRAY VALLEY, SA: The next step in rabbit control is on the way as several areas have passed as trial sites for a new strain of the rabbit calicivirus, RHDV1 K5. Land owners in Cambrai, Lameroo, Meningie and Sedan will be participating in the trial of the new strain next Autumn.  More here.

► CLARE, SA: Country roads have hazards around every bend, and every road user has a responsibility to take extra care to ensure a safe summer. There have been 79 fatalities and 614 serious injuries on South Australian roads this year already, with the Mid North topping the list for the entire state with 15 fatalities as of November 16 – already equalling the region's road toll figures for all of 2015. More here.

► A number of senior Nationals MPs have staged a revolt in the Parliament over the importation of the Adler shotgun, with two backbench senators crossing the floor and four others, including three cabinet ministers, abstaining from a vote to lift the ban on the firearm. More here.

►  The man accused of killing schoolgirl Quanne Diec was put in witness protection and spiralled into mental illness after witnessing the aftermath of a triple-murder a year before he allegedly snatched the schoolgirl, Fairfax Media has learnt. More here.

►  Lawyers for a young man charged over the shooting death of police accountant Curtis Cheng argue he was denied his legal right to silence in a "ruse" by investigators. Talal Alameddine​ is accused of supplying the gun used to shoot Mr Cheng outside the Parramatta police headquarters on October 2, 2015. More here.

► Supertaxes on sugary drinks have been applied or are about to be applied in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Belgium, France, Fiji, Mexico, South Africa and five regions in the United States. Australia could be next. More here.

► The parliamentary committee considering whether to recommend the federal government ratify its extradition treaty with China has called a last-minute hearing with the Attorney-General's Department due to "real doubts" emerging from both sides of politics over the deal. More here.

1889 - The first jukebox made its debut in San Francisco, at the Palais Royale Saloon

1964 - The Rolling Stones show up late for the BBC radio shows, "Top Gear" and "Saturday Club" and are banned by the BBC. 

1979 - Marianne Faithful was arrested at Oslo Airport in Norway for possession of marijuana. 

1980 - In southern Italy, approximately 4,800 people were killed in a series of earthquakes. 

1988 - Wayne Gretzky scored his 600th National Hockey League (NHL) goal. 

1990 - MTV banned Madonna's "Justify My Love" video. 

Actress and singer Miley Cyrus and TV personality Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi celebrate birthdays today.

A week after he was born, doctors told Jett McNamara’s parents he would never walk. 

“They were wrong,” young Jett says – three years later – as he speeds around his Kennington home, walker and wheel-chair ditched in a corner.

Jett McNamara was born without a lower spine and with severely deformed feet. 

He was supposed to be wheel-chair bound for the rest of his life. 

But this week, the three-year-old aspiring mechanic ditched his wheelchair – nicknamed ‘hot wheels’ – and started tearing around the front yard of his Kennington home.