Vancouver run down for Friday, June 7, 2024. A popular chef in Japan has now been identified
by friends as the person stabbed to death on the downtown East Side early Wednesday morning.
32-year-old Watoro Kakiuchi could not be revived after he was found injured at Main and Union
Streets. It's believed he was waiting for a ride home when it happened. No arrests have
been made. Other news, a driver has been rushed to hospital in critical condition after a strange
incident that shot down the West Lanes of Highway 1 in Burnaby late Thursday morning. RCMP
says some sort of object went right through the windshield, not far from the Willingdon exit.
It's possible it could have come from another vehicle. The area was closed for a couple of hours.
The search has now been suspended for those three mountaineers missing in the back country near
Squamish. They were last seen a week ago on Mount Garibaldi. It's hoped the search will resume
after an examination of video taken by drones. A get ready to pay more to use public transit
in Metro Vancouver. As of July 1, monthly passes will go up between $2.40 and $4.35,
depending on how many zones. Non-passholders will be shelling out an extra nickel or dime
for each trip. These increases are small compared to plans for 2025, when TransLink expects to bring
in a 4% hike right across the system. By the way, TransLink already gets money from several
taxes and levies, including fuel taxes, property taxes, parking taxes, BC hydro levies, and
development fees, in addition to funding from local and senior governments. Sunny and warm
heading into the weekend but not hot. That's what we can expect for the next few days as inland
temperatures hit the mid to upper 20s. For all the details on these Vancouver area stories,
along with the links, go to vancouverrondown.substack.com.