Travel Manitoba and the Manitoba Lodges and Outfitters Association welcome Mariko Izumi as guest speaker to the MLOA banquet on December 10 at the Canad Inns Polo Park in Winnipeg. Mariko is the host of the World Fishing Network’s Hookin’ Up, where she takes viewers to fishing hot spots around the world. A meet and greet autograph session takes place 2-4 pm and at 6 pm during the keynote speech, Mariko will share her knowledge on using the internet, social media and other modern communication tools to connect with a new generation of clients and outdoor enthusiasts. All are welcome - get your tickets through the MLOA at 204-772-1912.

http://www.travelmanitoba.com/images_tr/pdf/mariko_mloa.pdf

In the newest issue of Travel Manitoba’s tourism industry e-newsletter, read about the importance of alignment, how industry associations can help your business and how research is playing a role in the tourism industry’s new frontier. If you don’t already get Travel Currents delivered to your inbox every month, sign up here.

http://us5.campaign-archive1.com/?u=4d33aa3852ca803b0b4a4bdde&id=56ab754805&e=ce98203eee

ALTONA - Sunday shopping has come to Altona, if businesses choose that path.

Altona councillors voted unanimously to give second and third reading to a motion that allows businesses of any size to be open on Sundays from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.

First reading was given to the motion at a previous meeting, but since then, councillors said they hadn’t had any comments from the public. “We’ve had no feedback at all,” councillor Tim Fast said.

He explained the motion allows businesses to choose whether or not they want to remain open.

Councillor Ted Klassen agreed. “Sunday shopping is now left up to the individual business,” he said.

http://www.pembinatoday.ca/2012/11/01/altona-approves-sunday-shopping

ALTONA - An R.M. of Rhineland ward is dry no more, after voters supported a move to lift liquor restrictions.

Only seven per cent of eligible voters turned out for the liquor vote on Oct. 24, which for the first time made it legal to sell liquor in Ward 5, a strip of land from Altona to and including Rosenfeld.

Voters weighed in on seven different types of liquor licences with varying levels of support.

The majority of the 52 voters who weighed in supported the sale of alcohol under a dining room licence, with 85 per cent voting yes.

That mirrored the results of an online survey on pembinatoday.ca in which 89 per cent said the booze ban should be lifted.

http://www.pembinatoday.ca/2012/11/01/booze-ban-lifted-in-rhineland-ward

WFP Editorial: The Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs is building a casino a half hour east of Brandon, hoping to parlay the success of a gaming house at Brokenhead reserve -- also about a half hour out of Winnipeg -- into economic spinoffs for the 63 First Nation bands. To date, only a handful of bands in Manitoba have seen any kind of monetary return on their gaming investments.

South Beach, built by seven bands at Brokenhead in 2005, makes money, especially for American developer and operator, Hemisphere Gaming Inc., which signed an agreement giving it 47 per cent of earnings before taxes. This reduced the profits shared by the owners, more so what's left over for the 56 other bands in Manitoba.

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/opinion/editorials/odds-long-for-63-betting-on-casino-176914171.html

Complete: Though the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs has decided to continue its support of the Spirit Sands Casino development, a bid to bring a casino to Brandon isn’t dead just yet.

At the same time, Brandon Mayor Shari Decter Hirst says a 2007 gaming market study, which concluded the Brandon and western Manitoba market could only support one small-sized casino facility, is outdated and needs to be conducted anew.

"The province has said that, based on what I believe is an outdated market analysis from 2007 — it’s outdated because of the huge population boom we’d had in western Manitoba — that market analysis says there’s only room for one casino in western Manitoba and that license for that one casino had been awarded to the AMC who gave it to Carberry," Decter Hirst said on Thursday morning.

"I don’t think there’s anyone who doesn’t agree that the Brandon market is a much stronger market for tourism and gaming. We have the capacity with our existing infrastructure to have a more efficient operation of a casino."

The mayor made the comments in the wake of an announcement by the AMC yesterday that Hemisphere Gaming Inc. has signed an agreement to develop and manage the much-delayed Spirit Sands Casino project near Carberry.

In an early morning press release, Grand Chief Derek Nepinak said Hemisphere Gaming had a "solid track record" managing the South Beach Casino, and that it had developed a good relationship with the AMC and Manitoba’s First Nations since 2005.

Under a 10-year deal, Hemisphere Gaming will finance, develop and manage the Spirit Sands project on leased reserve land owned by Swan Lake First Nation. Initial construction will begin in early spring 2013, and consist of a facility with up to 450 slot machines and up to 12 table games.

The original design for the $40-million Spirit Sands Casino, which had been developed by HLT Advisory Group, called for 300 slot machines, five gaming tables, three restaurants and a full-service hotel. Under Hemisphere Gaming, however, the scaled down project cost about $15 million to build and will not include a hotel in the initial phase of construction.

"That’s not part of the current plan, initially at least," Hemisphere spokesperson Barbara Czech told the Sun. "Hemisphere want to build a project that the market can bear. Build to existing demand, and then grow the business, and then expand it as demand increases."

The Spirit Sands Casino project has been in the works for at least two years and was originally supposed to open in 2012 following a ground-breaking ceremony in 2010. But construction never began.

As part of the original agreement with the AMC, Red Lake Gaming Enterprises — a Minnesota-based tribal casino operating company owned and operated by Red Lake Nation — was not only to manage and operate the Spirit Sands Casino, but was also expected to secure financing for the project, something the chair of the AMC Gaming Chiefs Committee, Fisher River Chief David Crate, said the company was unable to do.

"So we basically ended the agreement with Red Lake and we moved on. Then we started discussions with Hemisphere Gaming," Crate said yesterday.

One year ago, Hemisphere Gaming was the subject of a CBC News investigation which found that the company had made more than $43 million — mostly in management fees — on the South Beach Casino, while the casino itself had total net earnings of nearly $39 million.

However, Crate said none of the gaming chiefs were concerned with Hemisphere managing Spirit Sands.

"Basically it’s a new agreement. It’s a different agreement than the South Beach agreement. Management is going to be through the Spirit Sands board, which is comprised of leadership from AMC and we also have the definitive agreements which were signed with Hemisphere which clearly sets out the arrangement and the kind of relationship we’re going to have with them."

An excited Swan Lake First Nation Chief Francine Meeches was relieved that an agreement to build the casino was finally signed.

"Even ourselves at Swan Lake, we’ve been wondering when this is going to come to fruition because we never know when," Meeches said. "Whatever we build around that area is ours. All the projects that we were hoping to put in that area, now we can actually really focus on those projects that we were hoping for and create some jobs for the people."

Last May, the City of Brandon partnered with a First Nations business group to examine the financial case for a casino development inside city limits.

Through what the city called an "unprecedented partnership," the agreement in principle paired the Tribal Councils Investment Group — the business arm of seven Tribal Council groups representing 55 of Manitoba’s 61 First Nations bands — and the municipal government with the intent of building a casino on city-owned land.

Decter Hirst said she and the head of the TCIG were caught flat-footed by the Thursday morning announcement.

"Both of us were quite surprised," Decter Hirst said. "As soon as I saw the info on the (Brandon Sun) website I sent a quick email off to (TCIG CEO Allan McLeod) who is a subscriber to the website — it was ‘holy cow.’"

At an AMC assembly earlier this year, Chief Nepinak had promised to hold another assembly to meet with City officials in September, and then again in October, according to Brandon city manager Scott Hildebrand. But those meetings never took place.

As a result of the announcement, Decter Hirst and Hildebrand said those involved in talks with the AMC feel blindsided.

"We were puzzled in that the Assembly didn’t take place and apparently we were held at arms length while they negotiated the deal with Hemisphere. And that’s not good partnership. That’s not the kind of relationship we want to have," Decter Hirst said.

"The most frustrating part is the business decision," added Hildebrand. "There’s millions and millions of cars that go by (the Trans-Canada Highway and Highway 10). We never decided what location but it makes so much sense to have Brandon as the partner."

When asked whether the city was abandoning its pursuit of a casino in Brandon, Decter Hirst suggested that the province and the AMC have let outdated information guide their decisions.

"The province has said based on the 2007 market analysis there’s only room for one casino. So we need different market analysis if we’re going to have two casinos. AMC today announced they’re putting their casino eggs in the Carberry basket.

She also suggested that the AMC’s announcement was not the end of the road.

"We never want to jeopardize the investment that’s going to be made in Carberry, however, Brandon needs to be at the table of a casino. Whether that’s a provincially run casino based in Brandon or whether that’s a market that’s large enough that supports a casino that has Brandon at the table, it’s a good economic development opportunity."

Her comments were echoed late Thursday by McLeod, who said the TCIG always operated under the assumption that Spirit Sands was going to be built near Carberry by Red Lake Gaming.

While he said a Brandon casino is "stuck politically" at the AMC and with the province, he still believes a gaming development partnership with Brandon is possible, and he has a mandate from his board of directors to pursue it.

"If we thought that the Brandon casino made sense, why not let us continue on and do that one?" McLeod said.

"Everything that we do, we do with the blessing of our board of directors. And our board met on Oct. 24 and suggested, and passed a resolution for us to continue with a Brandon casino.

"Things have happened today pretty fast. We don’t like knee-jerk reactions so we’re going to regroup. We’ve got our business plans and we’ll do the best we can do every day."

http://www.brandonsun.com/breaking-news/no-casino-for-brandon-176938431.html

QUEEN CHARLOTTE, B.C. - Mother Nature apparently turned off the taps for a series of idyllic hot springs on a remote west coast B.C. island following Saturday's 7.7 magnitude earthquake.

Four naturally-sourced pools on Hot Springs Island in Gwaii Haanas National Park that have provided spiritual and medicinal comforts to locals and tourists for generations. have completely run dry.

A superintendent with the park and Haida Heritage Site, part of the Haida Gwaii islands, says he was disturbed by the lack of steam rising from the tiny island and barren pools when he journeyed to the site to confirm the rumours.

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/canada/naturally-beautiful-hot-springs-vanish-after-bc-earthquake-176847481.html

SAN DIEGO - A rerouting of tens of thousands of vehicles a day began Thursday without a hitch at the busiest crossing on the U.S.-Mexico border as part of a major expansion that aims to keep lines manageable while allowing heightened inspections for drugs, weapons and other contraband.

The smooth sailing eased fears that the reconfigured lanes for Mexico-bound motorists would create epic traffic jams.

Mexican customs employees in yellow jackets waved motorists to empty inspection lanes Thursday. Mexican President Felipe Calderon, who drove through an inspection booth Wednesday night, said the $76.4-million upgrade will mean shorter waits to enter Tijuana....        ...About 35,000 motorists go back and forth across the border at San Ysidro every day. U.S.-bound motorists grew accustomed to waiting two hours or more after the 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon led to more thorough inspections.

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/travel/busy-us-mexico-border-crossing-gets-major-makeover-as-worries-fade-about-epic-waits-176854311.html

NEW YORK, N.Y. - Red double-decker tour buses began rolling Thursday and Circle Line boats started plying the waterways from a Hudson River pier as tourism in New York City took a few more baby steps toward normalization after the disruptions of superstorm Sandy.

Many other attractions in midtown and upper Manhattan reopened Wednesday, including the Empire State Building, Broadway theatres, the Museum of Modern Art and Metropolitan Museum, and many stores. Top of the Rock and the Rockefeller Plaza ice rink were also open.

City parks, including Central Park, were expected to reopen Saturday, according to Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Liberty Island, where the Statue of Liberty is located, and Ellis Island both experienced "severe water damage" from the storm, according to National Park Service spokeswoman Jane Ahearn, and were closed pending damage assessment. The 9-11 Memorial was also closed but Joe Daniels, the CEO of the 9-11 Memorial organization, said in a statement that it "came through in beautiful shape," with the "survivor tree" — which survived the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attack — continuing to stand tall among the memorial's oak trees.

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/travel/double-decker-buses-circle-line-resume-as-nyc-tourism-takes-a-few-more-steps-to-normalizing-176831671.html

Trailed by a solemn entourage of astronauts and shuttle workers, Atlantis began its slow journey to retirement Friday, the last space shuttle to fly in orbit and the last to leave NASA's nest.

Atlantis emerged just before dawn from the massive Vehicle Assembly Building and, riding atop 76-wheeled platform, began the 10-mile trek to the Kennedy Space Center's main tourist stop.

About 200 workers gathered in the early morning chill to see the space shuttle out in the open for the final time. They were joined by the four astronauts who closed out the shuttle program aboard Atlantis more than a year ago.

"My opinion is it looks better vertically," said Christopher Ferguson, the astronaut who commanded Atlantis' final flight in July 2011.

"It's a short trip. It's taking a day," he added. "It traveled a lot faster in its former life. But that's OK. … it's got a new role."

http://www2.tbo.com/news/breaking-news/2012/nov/02/space-shuttle-atlantis-makes-trek-to-kennedys-tour-ar-551986/

(Excerpts from an article published originally in the WFP, Nov.  '70)

Rain, snow, winds and freezing temperatures failed to dampen the enthusiasm of those celebrating the opening of the Manitoba Theatre Centre during the weekend. Saturday's schedule kept the theatre people and their guests on the go from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. "Breakfast with the stars" on the stage at the Centennial Concert Hall threatened to become a breakfast without the stars when several of the guests, who had accepted invitations to attend, cancelled their plans at the last moment. However , Canadian actor Lloyd Bochner, Jeanne Carson, Darren McGavin and his wife Kathie Browne, who had arrived only a few minutes before the breakfast started, filled the gap and chatted with the more than 100 people there. Toby Robins, a Canadian actress now living and working in London, came in late straight from Winnipeg International Airport and joined in the breakfast festivities. After the breakfast, the group scurried across the road to the theatre for the official turning over of the building to the theatre officials. Premier Schreyer accepted the key to the theatre and in turn presented it to Mr. Cohen.  Max Steinkopf, son of Maitland B. Steinkopf, chairman of the Manitoba Centennial Corporation, accepted a life-time pass to MTC on behalf of his father. Mr. Steinkopf was unable to attend the opening because he is ill in Vancouver.  "This is a real emotional experience," said Mr. Cohen. The theatre centre building has been planned for years and the final realization is the result of the cooperative efforts of many people.” he added. The theatre building, constructed of concrete, wood and glass, met with a favorable reception from the guests….        …The pace slowed down on Sunday as the visiting celebrities were entertained at government house and attended a government of Manitoba dinner at the Hotel Fort Garry. The new theatre will be the focus of interest Monday night when the curtain rises on the first play of the season, A Man's a Man, written by Bertolt Brecht, and directed by John Hirsch.