There’s no strict recipe for Stef Ferrari’s seasonal fruit crostini with ricotta

Hydro Québec faces issue we should avoid

You might be tempted to call it a canary in an electric power generation coal mine.

The election of our discontent: City at a crumbling crossroads, grumbling residents say in poll

There’s an undercurrent of unhappiness running through the Winnipeg electorate as the municipal election day approaches.

One-half of Winnipeggers believe the city is heading in the wrong direction, according to a new Abacus Data poll, with nearly one-third unsure if Winnipeg is regressing or progressing.

Only 21 per cent of residents believe the city is on the right track, the Free Press-commissioned poll found.

That discontentment extends to how the city spends its tax dollars, with four in 10 Winnipeggers believing they receive poor value for what they pay in property taxes.

Former host/VJ Rick Campanelli revisits his gambling addiction in new memoir

To many Canadians, veteran media personality Rick Campanelli is better known as Rick the Temp, the energetic, baby-faced intern-turned-VJ on MuchMusic in the 1990s and early 2000s.

But behind that winning smile was a much darker reality.

In his new memoir, Tempted: My Story, released last month via HarperCollins Canada and co-written with John Meyer, Campanelli, 56, opens up for the first time about his struggles with a serious — and secret — gambling addiction, which reached its nadir in 2008 when the then-host of Entertainment Tonight Canada was detained by U.S. Homeland Security for unpaid casino debts on a flight back from Las Vegas.

The Free Press caught up with Campanelli in advance of his Winnipeg launch Monday evening at McNally Robinson Grant Park. This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

Rifles win the battle, but lose post-season push

The Winnipeg Rifles huddled around a television in their hotel meeting room in Saskatoon on Saturday, hoping for an outcome that would lend them control of their fate come Sunday afternoon.

The junior football club had scratched and clawed to give itself a fighter’s chance at the playoffs entering the final week of the Canadian Junior Football League regular season, but needed some help to set up a win-and-in scenario.

That wouldn’t come to fruition. The Rifles held their collective breath in suspense for the better part of three hours as the Edmonton Huskies pushed the Edmonton Wildcats to the brink before ultimately falling 35-31, ending Winnipeg’s season.

“It was a very anxious feeling. I think everyone was on edge the whole time, throughout the dinner, throughout the day. But that’s just kind of normal travel days in general, in the (Prairie Football Conference), it’s just such a tight conference,” said Rifles fifth-year right tackle Jaden Sawatzky.

Morning-show veteran swaps microphone for macchiatos at new Corydon café

Good news if you were used to having your morning coffee with Terri Gale, who earlier this summer signed off from CTV Your Morning, after 15 years on the job.

Gale, the three-hour program’s longtime weather expert, and her husband Rob Gale, the ex-head soccer coach of Valour FC and co-founder of the Northern Super League’s new Winnipeg franchise, are the owners of Golden Hour Café and Bar at 775 Corydon Ave.

Gale (formerly Apostle) nods when she is asked who would know more about caffeinated beverages than a person who, for the last decade and a half, set her alarm to go off in the wee small hours.

“I do love coffee and take mine black. Except because I hate burning my tongue — not a good thing when you speak for a living — I got into the habit of throwing a couple of ice cubes in my cup, to be on the safe side,” Gale says, seated on the second level of their attractive, 2,100-square-foot premises, which officially opened in mid-September.

Mayoral hopefuls trade accusations

Two mayoral hopefuls traded accusations about meddling in each other’s campaigns as the incumbent rallied supporters for his re-election bid on the eve of advanced polls opening across Winnipeg.

A social media post made by Mike Vogiatzakis, one of 12 nominees in the Oct. 28 race for the top job at city hall, caught the attention of rivals Sunday.

The funeral director took to Facebook midday to criticize Kevin Klein — a competitor he said he thought of “as a friend” until the former Tory cabinet minister made a U-turn after pledging to back the Vogiatzakis campaign.

“Good speaker? Yes. Good looking guy? Sure. Someone I trust now? Absolutely not,” he wrote in a lengthy post.