CBC Newfoundland Morning

Earlier this week, we heard that NL Health Services plans to hire a private cleaning company to work at one of its facilities. The plan is to contract out housekeeping at the old hospital in Corner Brook which will become a clinic when the new Western Memorial Regional Hospital opens on June 2. NL Health Services officials told CBC that it needs all of its current housekeeping staff at the new hospital. So the health authority will hire a private company as a short-term temporary measure, to ensure that it can provide vacation time to its regular unionized staff. Sherry Hillier is president of CUPE NL, that union that represents housekeeping staff in the Western zone.

A hub for locally-produced food in Western Newfoundland just became even more environmentally friendly with the purchase of an electric vehicle. The Western NL Food Hub is an online store that's a project of Food First NL It sells food produced around the Western region. Now, it has a sweet new ride that's saving money AND allowing it to expand its services. Richard Butt is program coordinator with Western NL Food Hub.

Anyone who's been diagnosed with cancer knows how hard that is. If you're a transgender person with a gendered cancer, the diagnosis comes with a whole other layer of challenges. Gendered cancers are cancers related to one's sex assigned at birth. James Moriarty is an advocate for trans people with cancer, and he uses his own experience to help others.

Owen Burt has supported the provincial Liberal party for years, volunteering on several Liberal campaigns and publicly supporting Premier Andrew Furey. Burt is currently running as the Liberal candidate in the Baie Verte-Green Bay byelection, but he's ALSO a member of the federal Conservative Party. Amanda Bittner, a professor of political science at Memorial University weighs in on the situation.

Smartphones and social media are making young people sick. That's according to clinical psychologist Dr. Simon Sherry, a professor in the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience at Dalhousie University. He's calling for the Atlantic Provinces to ban cell phones and social media in schools, to help improve students' health in and out of the classroom. Dr. Sherry spoke with the CBC's Hillary Johnson.

They've been digging in and sowing the seeds of an idea for a few years now. This summer, it's set to blossom. The non-profit group Gander Grow Co was formed to set up a permanent farmer's market in Gander. Now, thanks in part to the Town, the market is set to open in July. Alison March is the chairperson of Gander Grow Co.

It's a stretch of road the late Beaton Tulk travelled many times, but the former MHA, who passed away in 2019, likely did not imagine that Route 330 would one day be named in his honour. On Tuesday, Premier Andrew Furey announced that the highway that passes through towns such as Musgrave Harbour and Carmanville will now be known as the Beaton Tulk Highway. Tulk was involved in provincial politics starting in the late 1970s. And he served as Premier for four months, from October, 2000 to February, 2001. That's when the provincial Liberals underwent a leadership change. Two members of Beaton Tulk's family spoke with reporters outside the House of Assembly yesterday - his daughter, Christine Tulk, and his widow, Dora Tulk.

It's been a great start to iceberg season in this province so far. Right now, there are icebergs off Coachman's Cove, Lumsden and Brighton, and there are at least a dozen icebergs visible off the Great Northern Peninsula. Terry Hedderson is owner/operator of Daily Catch Ocean Tours in St. Lunaire-Griquet.

If you or your child spend much time on social media, you've probably checked out TikTok. The video-sharing app is one of the most popular online tools used by kids between grades four and eleven. It also has some unique features which could compromise the privacy or safety of users if they you don't know much about them.

Canadian internet safety group Media Smarts has published a new TikTok safety guide for parents and kids. Matthew Johnson, education director for Media Smarts, spoke with CBC's Leigh Anne Power.

A special delegation of veterans, military officials, politicians and media will leave St. John's for France on Wednesday morning on a Canadian military plane. It will carry a team that will collect the remains of a Newfoundland soldier killed during the First World War and bring them back home to Newfoundland. The CBC's Terry Roberts will follow the delegation. As he prepared for the assignment, he spoke with Eleanor Manuel of Twillingate, whose grandfather - Frederick White - was killed in Beaumont Hamel on July 1, 1916. He has no known grave, and Eleanor says it's crossed her mind that the unknown soldier who's coming home could be the remains of her grandfather.