Rebecca Fox

Glasses-wearing scientist by day, corset-wearing burlesque artist by night.

Some passengers of Easy Rider might have been saved if Maritime New Zealand had made float-free locator beacons mandatory, former Port Chalmers Fishing Co-operative president Steve Little says.

A mind shift is needed so people stop viewing injuries as "accidents" and instead view them as no different from cancer or heart disease, a visiting Canadian injury prevention specialist says.

Berwick farmer Dan Lyders has taken matters into his own hands and completed flood protection work he claims the Otago Regional Council should have done years ago - and sent it the bill.

"Grumpy" customers setting upon receptionists has led the Otago Regional Council to review its security and plan a $300,000 overhaul of its reception area including installing CCTV.

Palmerston's air quality will be continuously monitored next winter after real-time testing of small particulates (PM10) in the town's air showed some of Otago's highest real-time figures reported during mobile monitoring.

Otago ratepayers may be hit with a 3.9% increase in the Otago Regional Council general rate this year, with some facing even larger targeted increases on top of that.

Otago regional councillors are calling on ratepayers to have their say on planned rates rises of up to 7% in the coming year.

Proposed work on the controversial Riverside Rd spillway, part of the Taieri Plain flood protection scheme, has again led to clashes between upper pond farmers and the Otago Regional Council.

A small group of Mosgiel residents may soon have to decide whether to live with the risk of being flooded by the Silver Stream or contributing to protection work costing $430,000 which may only give them "a pretty limited benefit".

National education testing results should not be used to judge a school or teachers' performance, visiting Australian academic Margaret Wu says.

Sick of discarded parking receipts littering the floor of your car, the gutters and Dunedin's shoreline?

If you felt autumn had started early in Dunedin you would not be far wrong, as the latest weather figures show the city to be the wettest and coldest of the six main centres during February.

Reports of dogs harassing penguins on Otago beaches have led authorities to again warn dog walkers to take extra care in areas that are home to marine wildlife, or their animal could be seized.

A gale warning for Foveaux Strait might delay the start of this year's Bluff oyster fishing season.