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Posted

Spoke too soon

A special weather statement is in effect for all of southern Manitoba, including the city of Winnipeg.

After a string of warmer weather, winter is getting ready to strike. An intense low pressure system with a strong cold front will sweep across the province Wednesday afternoon, bringing an abrupt end to the mild November weather.

Behind the cold front, temperatures will plummet to what is actually normal for this time of year with overnight lows in the minus double digits.

Alongside falling temperatures, blustery northwest winds are expected with 60 gusting to 90 km/h likely. The flurries accompanying the winds will reduce visibility at times.

Conditions will improve Thursday night as winds begin to diminish.

Posted

(CNN)The Russian passenger jet that crashed over Sinai, Egypt, was brought down by a bomb estimated to contain 1 kilogram (2.2 pounds) of explosives, the head of the Russian Federal Security Service said Tuesday, and the Russian government is offering a $50 million reward for information about those who brought it down.


 



The government had initially resisted the theory that the plane fell victim to terrorism, perhaps in retaliation for Russia's support of the government of Bashar al-Assad in Syria.


 


But in a turnaround, the government is offering the reward, according to the official Sputnik news.




 



Also on Tuesday, a U.S. defense official said Russia had conducted a "significant number of strikes" in Raqqa in northern Syria in the past several hours. The terrorist group ISIS, which has claimed responsibility for downing the plane, has made its Syrian headquarters in Raqqa.


 


 


***I wonder if this will embolden the west and Russia to work more closely on attacking ISIS.  Im not familiar with Russia's track record on military operations but might they put less importance on minimizing civilian casualties?  In other words, could Russia gladly blow ISIS out of the desert?


Posted

G&M

Police in Mississauga shot a young man whom they suspected was wearing an explosive device just hours after attackers in Paris killed 129 people using assault rifles and suicide vests.

The man was released from hospital after being struck four times shortly after 1 a.m. on Saturday, police said.

Hamza Mohamed Abdi, 26, faces one charge of possessing an imitation weapon for a dangerous purpose, two charges of uttering death threats and one charge of failing to comply with a recognizance.

Posted

A new $85 million Pan-Am Clinic will be built adjacent to the Reh-Fit Centre on Taylor Avenue.

Reh-Fit, a not-for-profit medical fitness facility, will build the new clinic, while the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority will lease the space.

Dr. Wayne Hildahl, Pan-Am's CEO, said the current clinic is 30 years old and space there is cramped.

Plans are to build an 85,000 square foot building just east of the Reh-Fit Centre. That would be 20,000 square feet more than the current clinic.

Premier Greg Selinger said the province would pay the $40 million cost of equipping the new clinic while Reh-Fit would be responsible for the $45 million building.

Posted

why did the chicken cross the rd?

 

 

Because it could not stop for death. emily dickenson

 

To die. In the rain. Alone. hemingway

 

You saw it cross the road with your own eyes. How many more chickens have to cross the road before you believe it? Mulder

 

The fact that you are at all concerned that the chicken crossed the road reveals your underlying sexual insecurity. Freud

 

Because the government had fooled him into thinking that he was crossing the road of his own free will, when he was really only serving their interests. orwell

 

We don't really care why the chicken crossed the road. We just want to know if the chicken is on our side of the road or not. The chicken is either with us or it is against us. There is no middle ground here. Bush

 

In my day, we didn't ask why the chicken crossed the road. Someone told us that the chicken crossed the road, and that was good enough for us. Grandpa (lol)

Posted

A litte bit of (somewhat) local news:

 

National Post

 

After a multiyear journey, Manitoba Telecom Services Inc. has struck a deal to sell its Allstream unit to U.S.-based Zayo Group Holdings Inc. for $465-million in cash consideration.

 

Zayo, which is based in Boulder, Colo., has a market capitalization of about $5.7-billion (U.S.), is in the same business as Allstream, which operates a national fibre-optic network and provides connectivity and managed communications services to enterprise clients. It is traded on the New York Stock Exchange.

 

The agreement to sell to a strategic player comes more than two years after the federal government rejected an earlier deal to sell to Egyptian investment firm Accelero Capital Inc. on national security grounds.

 

But MTS chief executive officer Jay Forbes said he has “high confidence” this deal, which the company announced Monday, will win the necessary regulatory approvals and close in the first quarter of 2016.

 

While MTS was engaged in talks with potential buyers, executives also spent time in Ottawa to “understand the complete needs and expectations of all the relevant regulatory stakeholders.”

 

“We undertook our own due diligence on each and every one of the prospective acquirers that we entertained, looking at them through that lens of national security,” Mr. Forbes said in an interview with The Globe and Mail. “We look at Zayo as a very public company and as a trusted, precleared secure provider to the United States government. We think we have a party that meets the needs and expectations of that regulatory community.”

 

Ottawa’s rejection of the Accelero deal – which was valued at $520-million (Canadian) – came as a shock to management at Winnipeg-based MTS. Since that time, the company has regrouped and hired Mr. Forbes, who took over in January of this year after long-time CEO Pierre Blouin retired.

 

Mr. Forbes undertook his own review of both MTS’s Manitoba consumer communications business and the national enterprise services division. In May, he announced plans to reduce capital expenditures and cut 500 jobs at Allstream over this year and next.

 

By the summer, MTS had hired bankers to advise it on the sale and said it was actively courting strategic players, as well as entertaining interest from financial buyers.

 

“We had the participation of six strategic bidders and multiple offers for consideration,” Mr. Forbes said, adding that they decided on the Zayo bid because it represented “full value for this asset” and “also gives us a reasonable degree of certainty in terms of closure.”

 

Zayo said in a statement it plans to reorganize Allstream into three parts. Allstream's communications infrastructure, which represents about half of its revenue, will be incorporated into Zayo's own core business operations, while maintaining a "strong Canadian brand and presence," and will form Zayo Canada. 

‎Zayo said it expects about $300-million in revenue from Zayo Canada.

 

The ‎remaining part of Allstream's business will be organized into two separate business units - voice and universal communications and a small business division. 

Zayo has an 87,000-mile fibre network in the United States and Europe, and the Allstream acquisition would represent a North American expansion for the company. It provides Internet bandwidth and data-centre and cloud services to customers ranging from wireless carriers to finance and health-care companies.

 

U.S. telephone company AT&T Inc. was a past investor in Allstream – which was once known as AT&T Canada before rebranding in 2003 after emerging from creditor protection. The following year, MTS bought the company for $1.7-billion and the division has underperformed for many years.

 

Zayo would be the first U.S. carrier to fully own a Canadian telecom operator, a prospect made possible by a 2012 change to the Telecommunications Act to permit foreign investment in companies with less than 10 per cent of the total telecom market in Canada.

 

In 2014, Canada’s telecom market had revenues of $45.9-billion. Allstream’s revenue for the year was $644.1-million, well below the 10-per-cent threshold of about $4.6-billion.

 

The deal to sell to Zayo should not be subject to the “net benefit” test under the Canada Investment Act – in April, the threshold for review of private-sector investments increased to $600-million, up from $369-million – but the government can still review the transaction on national-security grounds. It also requires approval from the Competition Bureau.

 

If the Zayo deal does receive the necessary approvals and closes in early 2016, the next possibility investors will ponder is the sale of MTS itself.

 

Earlier this month, when the company announced its third-quarter results, Mr. Forbes also revealed a plan to overhaul customer service and rein in costs at MTS by cutting capital spending and offering voluntary buyouts to an expected 200 to 250 employees. He said he expects the efforts to result in $100-million in additional free cash flow annually.

 

After that announcement, Desjardins Capital analyst Maher Yaghi wrote that if an Allstream sale finally does happen, it “would improve the valuation of MTS and even put the remaining company on the block to become a potential takeover candidate by either Telus [Corp.] or BCE. [inc.]”

 

Asked about a potential sale of MTS, Mr. Forbes said his focus is on completing the three-year transformation plan and “to continue to evolve this organization to be far more customer-centric and, as a consequence, create meaningful value for our shareholders.”

 

He said the company will share more detailed plans on what it will do with the proceeds of the Allstream sale next year but said they could be used to retire some debt MTS incurred to prefund its pension obligations, as well as purchase wireless airwaves from Wind Mobile earlier this year.

After closing costs and other adjustments, Mr. Forbes said the net proceeds of the Zayo transaction will be $425-million.

 

“The Accelero deal actually whittled down to about $400-million in net proceeds … so while the gross proceeds associated with this transaction are slightly less than what we had with Accelero, the net proceeds will be nicely above that,” he said.

 

In either case, it seems MTS fetched more for the asset than some expected it would. In an August report, Barclays Capital analyst Phillip Huang said consensus estimates pegged Allstream’s value at $300-million to $400-million. Earlier this month, RBC Dominion Securities Inc.’s Drew McReynolds said he assumed a $425-million value for Allstream.

 

MTS will retain responsibility for retirees and other former employees under Allstream’s defined benefit pension plan. Pension benefits for current employees will remain Allstream’s responsibility.

Posted

(CNN)St. Louis Rams wide receiver Stedman Bailey was hospitalized after being shot twice in the head in the Miami area Tuesday, the National Football League said on its official website, citing an unnamed source who was informed of the incident.

Bailey, 25, was in critical but stable condition Wednesday, his team said in an online statement. The Rams themselves did not say what happened to Bailey other than he was hospitalized after an unspecified incident, but said they have spoken with the player.

Posted

remember when MTS was a  profitable crown corporation, and all the money it made went to the citizens benefit?

 

can't have that.

Still a strong company.  I know the argument was that the expense of taking the telecom into the future was too big.  But I read a comparison between MTS and Sasktel where Sasktel was quite favorable.

 

The voluntary retirement happening at MTS right now isnt a bad thing.  Good for the company and good for the people.  Employees have been asking about it for years.  They used to do it more often and they have people who have worked 30, 35, 40+ years that have been waiting for the right offer to retire.

Posted

 

remember when MTS was a  profitable crown corporation, and all the money it made went to the citizens benefit?

 

can't have that.

Still a strong company.  I know the argument was that the expense of taking the telecom into the future was too big.  But I read a comparison between MTS and Sasktel where Sasktel was quite favorable.

 

The voluntary retirement happening at MTS right now isnt a bad thing.  Good for the company and good for the people.  Employees have been asking about it for years.  They used to do it more often and they have people who have worked 30, 35, 40+ years that have been waiting for the right offer to retire.

 

 

 

remember when MTS was a  profitable crown corporation, and all the money it made went to the citizens benefit?

 

can't have that.

Still a strong company.  I know the argument was that the expense of taking the telecom into the future was too big.  But I read a comparison between MTS and Sasktel where Sasktel was quite favorable.

 

The voluntary retirement happening at MTS right now isnt a bad thing.  Good for the company and good for the people.  Employees have been asking about it for years.  They used to do it more often and they have people who have worked 30, 35, 40+ years that have been waiting for the right offer to retire.

 

Some have worked there 30-40 years & are waiting for the right offer to retire? They've maxxed out their pensions so WTH? 

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