Manitoba's highway map has been upgraded to provide more details on the 511 traveller information system, Infrastructure and Transportation Minister Steve Ashton said today.

The map is also available online, which shows an overview of the province. Users can then select specific regions, which can be enlarged to provide more detail and downloaded.

The new map also features a local artist Glenn Hayes painting of a Manitoba highway scene.

"We continue to use the provincial highway map, which is distributed free of charge, to boost tourism opportunities in Manitoba," Ashton said.

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/Provinces-highway-map-upgraded-available-online-173353381.html

The proposed Polo Park Target store easily cleared its first hurdle at city hall Tuesday as west Winnipeg councillors took mere minutes to approve a plan for the U.S. retailer's 144,000-square-foot store on the current Canad Inns Stadium site.

City council's Assiniboia community committee voted unanimously to approve plans for a two-storey Target store that would rise on 3.2 hectares of land at the northwest corner of the 10.6-hectare stadium site.

At the end of the 2012 Canadian Football League season, the Winnipeg Football Club plans to move into new offices at Investors Group Field at the University of Manitoba.

Once the Blue Bombers vacate the premises, the city intends to conclude the $30.25-million sale of the Canad Inns Stadium site to a partnership between Polo Park Shopping Centre owner Cadillac Fairview and Shindico Realty.

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/west-winnipeg-councillors-quickly-ok-target-store-plan-173441781.html

MIAMI - Travel companies say they are getting permits once again to take Americans on cultural trips to Cuba after the U.S. government tightened requirements following complaints that the tours were skirting a ban on outright tourism to the Communist island.

A month after travel companies complained of delays in processing their so-called people-to-people licenses under new restrictions for organized group travel to Cuba, at least 20 have now been granted.

U.S. travel operators say they have kept most of their itineraries intact, but some have added additional programming and eliminated others after Cuban-American Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) criticized the programs as essentially being coverups for tourism.

"We're just grateful that we received the license and we can begin operating our programs again," said Tom Popper, director of Insight Cuba, one of the groups chastised by Rubio in a Senate floor speech last December.

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/travel/cultural-trips-to-cuba-on-schedule-again-as-contested-people-to-people-licenses-are-renewed-173218281.html

INDIANAPOLIS - Devastating spring freezes and a historic drought have stripped some charm from rustic fall destinations, leaving some corn too short to create mazes, orchards virtually devoid of apples and fall colours muted.

Extreme weather has forced agritourism ventures in the heart of the country to scramble to hold onto their share of an industry that generates hundreds of millions of dollars each year.

Pat Schaefers, who runs Schaefers Corn Maze near Lollie, Ark., hopes visitors to the farm's two mazes won't mind that the corn is just 6 to 8 feet this fall — up to 4 feet shorter than the wall of corn families and school groups normally pay to get lost and turned-around in.

"It's just not up to par," she said of the corn in her two mazes. "It's not anything like it's been in past years."

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/travel/spring-freeze-drought-leave-corn-maze-orchard-operators-worried-about-fall-tourism-season-173167371.html

(A complete article published originally in the WFP, Oct.  '72)

Mayor Steve Juba has announced the appointment of an executive director of Winnipeg's centennial celebrations. Robert E. Stewart, former manager of the Red River Exhibition and of the Manitoba Centennial Concert Hall, assumes the new post immediately, with offices in the Centennial Centre. Councillor Pearl McGonigal, chairman of the sub-committee on centennial celebrations, has said a citizens' committee will be .formed immediately to prepare a program for centennial year —1974. She said Mr. Stewart will work with groups which have shown interest in centennial projects. Mayor Juba has urged all Winnipeg citizens to undertake voluntary centennial projects either privately or through various organizations.