Border breakfast wrap-up | July 24, 2015

Here is a quick wrap-up of what is making news in your region and further afield this morning, along with the latest weather today and over the weekend. 

SOPHIE Mirabella has distanced herself from the travel claims controversy swirling around former Liberal Party parliamentary colleague and wedding guest, Bronwyn Bishop.

Mrs Mirabella said on the campaign trail in Wodonga on Thursday that the string of personal travel expenses claimed by the Speaker of the House of Representatives, which began with a helicopter flight between Melbourne and Geelong, were “unacceptable” and undermined good work done by politicians.

A SECTION of Thomas Mitchell Drive in Wodonga that was the scene of a fatal accident five years ago will be upgraded with a $1.7 million federal government funding windfall on Thursday.

The works will take place on a stretch of road between Chapple Street roundabout and Jack in the Box Creek crossing.

SLED dog racing returns to Victoria’s Alpine region this weekend.  

The fifth annual Falls Creek Sled Dog Classic will attract drivers or “mushers” from throughout Australia for the July 31 and August 1 event.  

Peter Dobbs  from Victoria will return to defend his title in the six dog class with his team of Siberian huskies, while Darren Watson will be back to defend both his two dog and four dog titles.

THE Ovens and Murray coaching jigsaw is starting to take shape, with Albury the latest to announce its coaching structure.

Just days after Wangaratta locked in Brendan Cairns for 2016, the Tigers have confirmed premiership duo Chris Hyde and Daniel Maher will coach the club again next season.

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

► DUBBO, NSW: MORE than one in eight Australians fear losing their sight more than any other sense, but Dubbo optometrist Carina Ng said we take our sight for granted. Ms Ng is a volunteer optometrist with Onesight, a global not-for-profit organisation which aims to ensure every person has access to vision care. She also works at OPSM Dubbo.

► BALLARAT, VIC: THERE was blood, dead bodies and multiple casualties after a gas explosion at Australian Catholic University Ballarat campus on Thursday. But it was all part of a major disaster simulation for final year paramedics students who were required to apply principles of command, control and triage (allocate a priority) in a situation limited to resources.

► ORANGE, NSW: AS THE median Sydney house price sits at $1 million, Orange is becoming increasingly popular with big-city buyers priced out of the metropolitan market. Williams Machin First National Orange real estate agent Doone Grist says it’s no surprise Orange is a property hot spot, as the median price of a house here is around $338,000. Mrs Grist said around 30 per cent of her buyers came from metropolitan areas.

► HORSHAM, VIC: WEARING a hood over your head has been deemed unacceptable at Horsham Plaza. Horsham Plaza management has asked all patrons to take the hood of their jumper or jacket off before entering the centre. Horsham Plaza manager Allison Roberts said the move was put in place to discourage anti-social behaviour and ensure personal identify recognition.

► ILLAWARRA, NSW: Figtree woman Catriona Fell knows only too well the struggle carers and family members face when a loved one is diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. Ms Fell was devastated when her father Ian was diagnosed with the most common form of dementia in 2007; passing away six years later. Every day she wishes her dad was still here, yet she has compassion for the carers who revealed in a new study they had wished their loved one with Alzheimer's dead. Read more.

TASMANIA: PAULINE Roberts knows about random acts of kindness, having performed a few herself, but a gesture from an elderly stranger this month was so generous the Hadspen woman can barely express her gratitude. Mrs Roberts was shopping with Jacob Peters – an autistic man who lives in supported accommodation owned by MrsRoberts and her husband Todd – when the anonymous man approached the pair with an envelope. ‘‘I said, ‘No, please’, but he gave me the impression if I said no I’d be offending him,’’ Mrs Roberts said. ‘‘I was catching up with Jacob outside when I realised the envelope was quite heavy.’’ Read more.

► SOUTH-WEST VIC: SOUTH-WEST police are worried ice addicts are being attracted to cheap heroin which is reportedly flooding the Western District drug market. Police sources said ice addicts often used a combination of other drugs as they came down from ice, which is classed as a stimulant. Heroin, cannabis and Valium are relaxants which allow ice addicts to sleep and overcome the compounding effects of crystal methylamphetamine. Read more.

► NEWCASTLE, NSW: IN A significant win for Newcastle ratepayers, Port Waratah Coal Services has offered to stump up a $12 million deal to offset the impacts of its planned T4 coal loader on Kooragang Island. The coal giant has been under increasing pressure to increase the developer levy it would pay on the project after state planning bureaucrats recommended it pay just $528,140. The Newcastle Herald can reveal that a new deal offered by the company includes a $2.03 million  upfront payment to Newcastle council when construction starts, and $400,000 a year  (plus inflation) for 25 years. Read more.

► LITHGOW, NSW: IT WAS a family tragedy story that will live long in the minds of all who knew her but the case is now officially closed on the brutal murder last year of popular Lithgow doctor Leonie Geldenhuys. Thirteen months after the events of June 3 2014 the Coroner has dispensed with a full scale inquest into the death of the lady all knew simply as ‘Dr Leonie’. He also dispensed with an inquest into the death of her husband. Read more.

► NORTH-WEST TAS: LONG-RUNNING sexual abuse of boys by a North-West school principal has led to a Royal Commission being urged to investigate the Tasmanian Education Department. The call followed the Supreme Court, in Hobart, recently hearing the principal was moved to another school in the 1980s after the department investigated his behaviour. The group People Protecting Children is urging the Royal Commission Into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse to probe how the department responded to all alleged and substantiated child sex abuse cases. Read more.

► The first alleged member of the Islamic State to return to Australia was being escorted by authorities into Sydney on Friday after giving himself up to Australian Federal Police in Turkey. Fairfax Media can also reveal that police and security agencies have been sharing information about Adam Brookman's activities in the Middle East with a view to charging the Melbourne nurse with serious criminal offences.

► Bill Shorten has challenged Tony Abbott to fight the next election on the issue of climate change, declaring: "I've got a three-word slogan for him: Bring it on." Describing climate change as "an economic and environmental cancer", the Labor leader has vowed to build an emissions trading scheme and not be intimidated by "ridiculous scare campaigns".

► Labor is taking Attorney-General George Brandis, QC, to court, to wind back higher fees for people divorcing their partners and going through the Family Courts. Senator Brandis recently sneaked through a regulation raising divorce application fees from $845 to $1200 in the Federal Circuit Court and from $1195 to $1200 in the Family Court, despite the Senate disallowing a slightly smaller hike last month. Labor has vowed to disallow the new regulation, which its family spokesman Graham Perrett has called "an insult to justice" when Parliament resumes next month. Read more.

► Sexual predators are using crowded trams and trains to "hone their skills" as offenders, as an increasing number of passengers report attacks while travelling on public transport in Melbourne. Police said those who expose themselves or rub against passengers on public transport could become emboldened if they are not caught, and escalate their offending to serious sexual assaults and rape. Trams that travel along St Kilda Road to Carlton through the Domain interchange are some of the worst routes for sex attacks, possibly because large groups of private school girls use these services, according to police. Read more.

► July 24, 1969: It was one small step for man, and one giant leap for mankind. And on this day 46 years ago, astronauts Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins returned safely back to Earth. The successful Apollo 11 mission completed a goal President John F. Kennedy vocalised to US Congress in 1961, to land a man on the moon and return him safely to Earth by the end of the 1960s. Apollo was later dedicated to Kennedy. Five subsequent Apollo missions also landed astronauts on the moon, with the last in December 1972. Twelve men walked on the moon as part of these. Watch more about the landing here:

► BALI: An Australian man has been sentenced to one year in prison after being caught smoking a cannabis joint on a Bali beach. Nicholas James Langan, 24, from Townsville, remained impassive in Denpasar district court as the judges revealed the sentence. Langan had told authorities he had a history of drug and alcohol addiction and impulsively smoked the drugs with his Indonesian driver Hanung Pekik Hermantoro. Police found less than 1 gram of cannabis in the men's possession, a half-smoked joint and a small bag of the drug. Read more.

► BEIJING, CHINA: A Myanmar court has sentenced 153 Chinese nationals to life in prison after convicting them of illegal logging, prompting an angry diplomatic response from Beijing. Life sentences are generally treated as 20 years in Myanmar's judicial system. Two Chinese minors received 10-year sentences for the same offence. The case has strained ties between the two countries since the Myanmar army made the arrests in January in the country's northern Kachin state. The countries share a border to China's south-west. Read more.

► UNITED KINGDOM: A 15-year-old boy from the north-west of England has pleaded guilty to inciting a terrorist attack on police officers at an Anzac Day parade in Melbourne. The plot was developed in an intense exchange of thousands of instant messages sent half way around the world from the teenager's mobile phone, London's Old Bailey was told. One of the texts encouraged its recipient to "get your first taste of beheading". Read more.

HOLLY Mack is a young woman wise beyond her years.

At three weeks before her 13th birthday, she is taking a hands-on approach to reducing the negative stigma associated with stepfamilies.

The Mater Dei student created a poster paying tribute to the man she calls Dad – Joe Mack – for National Stepfamily Awareness Day, which is on Saturday, July 25.

“I would like to say thanks to my dad for being an awesome dad, the first dad I knew, and for being my inspiration for the poster. Thank you, Dad,” Holly said. Read more.