WFP Editorial Staff: The Esplanade Riel, with its restaurant plaza looking out over the Red River, has become one of the city's iconic images, a favourite for TV news cameras, postcards and admiring visitors.

Although it will be overshadowed eventually by the Canadian Museum for Human Rights as the city's most recognizable image, the pedestrian bridge/restaurant will always be a vital landmark and an important link between downtown Winnipeg and the francophone community in St. Boniface.

Unfortunately, the same cannot be said of the restaurant itself, Salisbury House, which was selected by the city seven years ago following a competitive process. The chain is a Winnipeg institution and thousands of people love its food, but it has proven to be the wrong concept for that location. The company claims it is losing money on the bridge and it tried to negotiate a new deal with the city, which decided instead to issue expressions of interest for a new operator.

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/breakingnews/plaza-needs-vision-187079401.html

A committee of Regina city council is being asked to approve an additional .45 per cent hike in property taxes, a measure designed to support the city's plan for a new football stadium.

The city recently unveiled a proposed budget that would lead to a 4.45 per cent increase in taxes — but that proposal did not include any stadium tax.

According to the city, Regina must commit to increase taxes by .45 per cent every year for the next ten years in order to finance the stadium project.

That would mean a .45 per cent stadium tax in the first year, 0.9 per cent in year two, and so on, up to around 4.5 per cent in year 10.

With a .45 per cent stadium tax added in 2013, the total mill rate increase this year would be 4.9 per cent.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatchewan/story/2013/01/15/sk-stadium-taxes-130115.html

SALT LAKE CITY - A conservative Utah group believes the Sundance Film Festival's lineup featuring 'obscene' movies is at odds with Utah's culture of family values, and wants the state to pull its financial backing.

The Sutherland Institute says the state shouldn't back a festival that features films about porn stars and women having affairs with one another's adult sons. He's referring to a pair of movies featuring well-known Hollywood actresses: "Lovelace" starring Amanda Seyfried, and "Two Mothers" starring Naomi Watts and Robin Wright. "Lovelace" is rated R. "Two Mothers" is not yet rated.

The festival kicks off Thursday in Park City, Utah....       ...The festival is one of the state's largest annual money-makers. The University of Utah estimated that last year's festival brought $80.3 million in economic impact for the state.

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/fpnewsfeatures/conservative-utah-group-objects-to-state-funding-of-sundance-festival-cites-obscene-lineup-186989201.html

TOKYO - Japan's two biggest airlines grounded all their Boeing 787 Dreamliners for safety checks Wednesday after one was forced to make an emergency landing in the latest blow for the new jet.

All Nippon Airways said a cockpit message showed battery problems and a burning smell were detected in the cockpit and the cabin, forcing the 787 on a domestic flight to land at Takamatsu airport in western Japan.

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/breakingnews/dreamliner-787-makes-emergency-landing-in-japan-due-to-battery-problem-187054731.html

The number of tourists visiting recession-stricken Spain rose by one million people, or 3 percent, in 2012.

Industry, Energy and Tourism Minister Jose Manuel Soria said Wednesday that 58 million people visited Spain last year, up from 57 million in 2011.

Tourism and exports are the two main sectors that have managed to skirt the economic crisis plaguing Spain since the collapse of the country's bloated real estate sector in 2008 fueled concerns about its banks and public finances.

Spain is battling to emerge from its second recession in three years and has an unemployment rate of 25 percent, the highest in the European Union.

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2013/01/16/spain-sees-1-million-increase-in-number-tourist-visitors-in-2012/

(A complete article published originally in the WFP, Jan.  '71)

A step-up in construction on 130 miles of highway between Grand Rapids and Ponton "is going to start paying off for Manitobans this week," Highways Minister Joe Borowski said Friday. In a statement, the minister said the accelerated development for Highway 6 will result in savings in building costs, as well as provide better access to the north. The new route will reduce the travelling distance between Winnipeg and Thompson by more than 200 miles. The first commercial carrier to use the route was Gray Goose Bus Lines. The new service will also make it easier for people living north of Eriksdale to reach The Pas-Flin Flon area because the service will tie in with the present Flin Flon-Thompson service at Ponton, said the release. Work on the extension of the highway began in December, 1969, and was accelerated when it was decided that better access to the north was needed as soon as possible. Mr. Borowski said all grades will be completed by mid-summer and asphalt surfacing will start as soon as weather permits in the spring. The completed highway will have a 24-foot wide surface with five-foot shoulders. "As a result of the speed-up we were not only able to provide faster access, but let contracts for bigger jobs which produced lower prices," said the minister.