With Mother's Day only a few days away, businesses are coming up with creative ways to help your family celebrate. Everything from brunch in a box to colourful bouquets and home delivered chocolate.

We can expect to see more seasonable temperatures by next weekend, says a meteorologist from Environment Canada.

Winnipeg will soon test "small cell" technology to improve cellular reception in parts of Winnipeg, ahead of a possible future transition to 5G service. 

They're not necessarily treating sick patients in hospitals, but a number of Manitoba-based scientists are working long hours and facing incredible pressure to battle the novel coronavirus from their labs and research facilities.

Florian Schneider (date: 5/9/2020 - Rank: 10)

Bing Liu (date: 5/9/2020 - Rank: 9)

Neil Ferguson (date: 5/9/2020 - Rank: 8)

Katie Miller (date: 5/9/2020 - Rank: 5)

Solar Opposites (date: 5/9/2020 - Rank: 4)

Laurie Garrett (date: 5/9/2020 - Rank: 3)

Billy O'Toole (date: 5/9/2020 - Rank: 2)

Nail Salons (date: 5/9/2020 - Rank: 1)

With the business world -- and the world at large, for that matter -- changing at what feels like a moment's notice, businesses and brands have never been required to be as limber as in this current moment. Marketing leaders want hard evidence and objective facts for decision making. It wasn't long ago that multi-touch attribution was the prized child of the hype cycle among marketers.

Legal experts and leading scientists have teamed up with Creative Commons to create the Open COVID Pledge to help speed up the battle against the coronavirus pandemic. The Pledge gives broad permission to anyone to use intellectual property not otherwise accessible to the public, and generally replaces the need for any other license or royalty agreement.

The U.S. Postal Service recently has been battered by a decline in the number of packages it delivers, partly caused by the coronavirus situation. It reportedly is losing $2 billion each month and will be "illiquid" by Sept. 30. The USPS is chartered to do the hard and often unprofitable work no one else wants to do, but the White House has rejected talk of a bailout for the service.

As a result of the pandemic, USPS, which has run at a loss for years, is even more cash-strapped. It expects to lose $2 billion each month during the pandemic. That prompted Postmaster General Megan Brennan to ask Congress for $50 billion in funds -- $25 billion to offset lost revenue from declining mail volume due to the pandemic, and another $25 billion for modernization.

In this uncertain and increasingly homebound era, customers are turning online for everything from groceries to cat food. It's more important than ever to make sure that websites are optimized for the highest-possible customer engagement and conversion. E-commerce optimization is one game that companies struggling for market share in the midst of a pandemic must play.

With something like 380 websites being created every minute, building an e-commerce shop can be a daunting task. It's easy to look at all of the success stories out there and think, "How could I possibly be that lucky?" However, the opportunity for growth in e-commerce is not slowing down. E-commerce sales are projected to grow 85 percent from their 2019 totals by 2022.

Contact tracing is a big job, like trying to drain an ocean with a teaspoon. It involves finding people who have been exposed to the coronavirus and testing them to determine if they are infected or are carriers. Public health officials then can take necessary steps to prevent the virus' spread. It's a perfect fit for CRM, and Salesforce's core technology is coming to the forefront.

Merchants soon will be able to sell products on Google Shopping at no charge. Previously, they had to pay per click, but the cost was not fixed. There was no minimum, but they had to set a maximum for ad spend and Google would stop displaying their ads once the maximum was reached. Starting next week, search results on the Google Shopping tab will consist primarily of free product listings.

Google soon will require all advertisers to prove their legitimacy, regardless of the advertising content. All advertisers will have to verify their identity, submit personal IDs and business verification documents, said John Canfield, Google's director of product management for ads integrity. Google began requiring political advertisers to verify their identity in the runup to the 2018 elections.

Oracle and Zoom just entered a deal that for once is more about technological audacity than about dollars -- a partnership to host Zoom on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure. In just a few months -- basically since the beginning of the novel coronavirus pandemic -- Zoom has seen demand for its service grow from about 10 million daily meeting participants to more than 300 million.

You can reduce the story of CRM to a lot of things, especially its many component parts. Social networking, cloud computing and analytics are mentioned often. We don't need an exhaustive list, but if we stop there I think we miss a lot. To me CRM isn't about the parts, although like most people following the industry, I get a modicum of joy when a vendor adds something new to the toolbox.

Consumers and companies worldwide have ramped up online ordering for software products and digital goods as they struggle to improve productivity and security while working remotely and spending more time at home. The sharp spike in online commerce aligns with the timing of the current global pandemic. Software-based offerings accounted for the highest levels of growth.

Shopify has unveiled an app that lets users discover local businesses, receive relevant product recommendations from their favorite brands, check out effortlessly, and track all their online orders. It can gather and track orders automatically, but it also works without auto-tracking. Consumers can get a customized feed with deals, trending items and recommendations from their favorite stores.

Google is integrating its Google Meet videoconferencing application with Gmail, and it already appears as an option in some users' accounts. It is making the service available to everyone for free in the coming weeks, on the Web and through mobile apps for iOS and Android. Users will be able to start or join Meet videoconferences from within Google Calendar as well.

Salesforce has announced a new version of Work.com designed to help businesses function safely during the COVID-19 pandemic. "Work.com is a completely new initiative using an existing domain name that we previously owned," said Salesforce spokesperson Joel Steinfeld. "Our focus is on speed and moving as quickly as possible to help our customers, and Work.com is an optimal way to do that.

A reignited fire at the Bluefin Restaurant in Souris, P.E.I. has been extinguished says Souris Chief Colin LaVie.

Some Prince Edward Islanders are raising concerns about returning to work under the province's plan to ease back COVID-19 restrictions, but if they choose to stay home they could lose financial support from the federal government.

Sign makers in P.E.I. have been busy since the province announced its plans to ease back COVID-19 restrictions, as businesses are ordering signs and decals ahead of reopening.

Prices on P.E.I. for gas, heating oil and diesel all took a big jump upwards Friday.

A petition is being circulated to get a $600,000 bridge replacement project near Millvale scrapped.

With opposition parties continuing to call for the legislature to be convened, P.E.I. Premier Dennis King says that opportunity for them to examine the government’s spending is coming.

The fire which destroyed the Bluefin restaurant in Souris, P.E.I. has been tough for the community’s residents, says restaurant owner Amber Jenkins.

Women on P.E.I. are having a harder time holding onto their jobs than men in the COVID-19 pandemic, which runs contrary to the national trend.

P.E.I. had the lowest unemployment rate in the country in April, but behind that seemingly strong showing are hiding problems in the labour market.

P.E.I.'s Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Heather Morrison says the powerful and potentially deadly drug fentanyl has been found in street drugs in the province.

Tourism Cavendish Beach says it is hopeful the Confederation Bridge and province will reopen to certain visitors as soon as it is safe to do so.

Officials with Maritime Pride Eggs say their Summerside, P.E.I., egg facility will cease processing operations on June 5.

Health PEI plans to create a COVID-19 unit within the Prince Edward Home to be used for any long-term care resident — living in any long-term care facility on the Island — who is diagnosed with the virus.

All of P.E.I.'s 27 confirmed cases of COVID-19 are now considered recovered, said Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Heather Morrison.

RCMP in Souris, P.E.I., say an incident that shut down the community from 6 p.m. Friday until close to midnight ended with one man in custody and no injuries.

The craft brewing industry in P.E.I. is suffering, with sales down from about 40 to 80 per cent.

With time on their hands, many Islanders have tapped into their creative sides. Some people who are artistic had more time to create and try new things, while others discovered untapped potential as makers. 

The owner of P.E.I. Brewing Co., the oldest craft brewery on P.E.I., says the business went from preparing for its best year to its worst year.

Sheldon Lavers didn't leave his window for hours Friday night as police negotiated with a man next door who they believed had a gun and was smashing items inside.

Artists from Michigan and around the world are painting 50 murals in Flint to refocus the city's image on art rather than the lead-tainted water crisis.

Authorities investigating Flint's water crisis have used search warrants to seize from storage the state-owned mobile devices of former Gov. Rick Snyder and 65 other current or former officials, The Associated Press has learned.

Former Gov. Rick Snyder says news coverage about search warrants being used to get his state-issued cellphone and computer from government storage in the Flint water investigation is "very sloppy and misleading."

A $28.8 million spending bill nearing legislative approval would allocate funding to combat lead in Michigan drinking water systems and investigate sexual assaults by clergy.