John Lewis

While near-hurricane force winds wreaked havoc in Otago on Sunday, the cost of the damage was yet to be determined.

A heavily intoxicated 38-year-old Dunedin woman was given a rude awakening by Dunedin police after she fell asleep at the wheel of her car at an Andersons Bay service station.

An Otago Corrections Facility employee is questioning whether he has been deliberately targeted by gang associates after his house in Milton was damaged in a suspicious fire yesterday.

National certificate of educational achievement (NCEA) exams begin in less than two months, and Otago secondary school teachers are concerned about the effect of planned strike action on their pupils' preparations for the exams.

The Harlem shake, heel toe, crip walk, cupid shuffle, glide and popping are all manoeuvres perfected by two Dunedin hip-hop teams competing in the New Zealand aerobic and dance championships this weekend.

Whenever Jess McMillan rides Johnny on the roads around Mosgiel, her mother is never far behind in the car, following with hazard lights blinking.

Building stools, taking extended lunch breaks, and teachers shouting you lunch instead of shouting at you - yesterday was like a school day in the twilight zone for Kaikorai Valley College pupil Nathaniel McMonagle (13).

For $US100,000, you too could own a Martin Jetpack to fly yourself to work.

"When you kick teachers, you kick the kids." The slogan, being shaken on a placard, made the Post Primary Teachers' Association's message loud and clear during strike action in Dunedin yesterday.

"It's damaged a lot of people and it's going to go on for a lot longer yet.

Education Minister Anne Tolley is adamant there will be no moratorium on implementation of the National Standards while a newly formed advisory group discusses perceived flaws in the initiative.

Minister of Education Anne Tolley has announced she will establish a National Standards advisory group.

Scrapping with each other is not traditionally a productive way to raise funds for a team.

After spending much of his working life in "the big smoke", Mark Jurisich has taken up the management of the Royal Albatross Centre at Taiaroa Head, in a bid to live "the quieter life".

The growing popularity of the Otago Maori and Pacific Island Festival in Dunedin has prompted organisers to expand the two-day event next year.

KiwiRail's decision to increase the short-list of prospective tenderers for a $500 million contract to build Auckland's electric trains, has surprised and disconcerted members of a working group hoping to win some of the construction work for Dunedin's Hillside Engineering workshops.