Grandson of the inventor of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups accuses Hershey of cutting corners

The grandson of the inventor of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups has lashed out at The Hershey Co., accusing the candy company of hurting the Reese's brand by shifting to cheaper ingredients in many products.

Hershey acknowledges some recipe changes but said Wednesday that it was trying to meet consumer demand for innovation. High cocoa prices also have led Hershey and other manufacturers to experiment with using less chocolate in recent years.

Brad Reese, 70, said in a Feb. 14 letter to Hershey’s corporate brand manager that for multiple Reese's products, the company replaced milk chocolate with compound coatings and peanut butter with peanut crème.

“How does The Hershey Co. continue to position Reese’s as its flagship brand, a symbol of trust, quality and leadership, while quietly replacing the very ingredients (Milk Chocolate + Peanut Butter) that built Reese’s trust in the first place?” Reese wrote in the letter, which he posted on his LinkedIn profile.

New report says youth should help guide Ottawa’s campaign against online exploitation

OTTAWA - The federal government should listen to young people as it takes on the problem of online harms, a group of youth advocates told reporters on Parliament Hill Wednesday.

The John Humphrey Centre for Peace and Human Rights held a joint press conference with the youth advocates in Ottawa to present a new report. It says current systems aren’t protecting young people in digital spaces.

"Youth are calling for clear federal action," including a national youth advisory council on digital safety, said Blue Vetsch.

The report outlines harms young people are experiencing online, including sexual exploitation and technology-facilitated gender-based violence.

McDonald’s Canada launches late-night meal collab with Drake brand OVO

TORONTO - McDonald's Canada has cooked up a collaboration with rapper Drake's brand.

The fast-food giant has launched a new late-night munchies meal with OVO.

The star of the meal is the Nite Sprite, which mixes Sprite with blue raspberry syrup and comes in a black paper cup with the OVO owl on it.

It is being sold alone or as part of the Afters meal, which also includes a Junior Chicken or a McDouble paired with a poutine.

Making the most of Winnipeg’s biggest opportunity

The critical moral test for any community is the world it leaves for its children.

Without a doubt, Winnipeggers want all their city’s young people to have successful lives. Here are things we know make success possible: graduating from high school and avoiding disasters like addiction to drugs, teen pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases and becoming involved with the criminal justice system.

Most citizens understand this. And if they were told there are proven ways to make it much more likely for our wishes for Winnipeg’s young people to come true, they would probably say “Hey, let’s do more of that!”

But mostly, we don’t.

Manitoba to screen infants for defect that causes sight, hearing problems

Manitoba has become the third jurisdiction in Canada to implement universal newborn screening for congenital cytomegalovirus, which can lead to complications as a child grows up, including hearing loss, vision problems and developmental disabilities.

‘Neighbourhood staple’ Oakwood Cafe to shutter

At one of the Oakwood Cafe’s last lunch rushes, one might guess the restaurant packed full of diners was influenced by the announcement a day earlier the decades-old South Osborne neighbourhood institution would be closing its doors for good.

That’s partially true — some customers beeline to veteran server Kendra Menard with questions, well-wishes and hugs — but every time it happens, a chain reaction follows: diners just here for lunch, shocked, ask their companions if it’s true, if the Oakwood is really closing.

Menard has been a server at the Oakwood for 23 years, almost half her life. It shows: while speaking with the Free Press on Friday, she welcomes guests by name and preps drinks at tables reserved by regulars before they show up.

Pointing to a single-seat table, she tells a story of a regular, Bob, who was at that table for breakfast nearly seven days a week for years. Menard’s children shovelled his snow and staff would call to check on him if he didn’t show up.

Main Street Project basement becoming donation-based ‘store’

Soon, Winnipeg’s homeless population will have their own store to shop for clothing and hygiene products, free of charge.

The basement of Main Street Project’s Main Street shelter is being transformed into a donation-based “store” where homeless people can pick out the clothes they want, instead of just accepting the donations they are given.

“A lot of the time we like to buy clothes that fit us well and look good and make us feel good. And I think it will be great to be able to offer that same experience to people in the community who may not otherwise have that opportunity,” said Cindy Titus, interim director of development at Main Street Project.

Part of the store will be named Ashley’s Closet, in memory of former Winnipegger Ashley Tokaruk.

Food inflation spiked 7.3% in January. Here’s what’s driving the increase

OTTAWA - Statistics Canada reported an easing in the headline inflation rate Tuesday but a jump in the pace of food inflation amid tax changes and lingering pressures at the grocery store continue to put the squeeze on consumers.

StatCan said Tuesday that the annual rate of inflation edged down to 2.3 per cent in January. Economists had expected inflation to hold steady at 2.4 per cent.

The agency said gas prices were 16.7 per cent lower year-over-year in January, largely thanks to the end of the consumer carbon price in April. Shelter inflation — long a pain for households in Canada — also fell to its lowest level in nearly five years as rent pressures abate.

Those declines helped offset food inflation, which accelerated to 7.3 per cent annually in January from 6.2 per cent a month earlier.

Food inflation expected to jump in January amid tax changes: economists

OTTAWA - Economists expect tax changes from a year ago will result in a year-over-year surge in food prices when Statistics Canada reports January inflation figures later this week.

StatCan will publish its January consumer price index report on Tuesday, a day later than originally scheduled.

The agency recently adopted a Monday publishing schedule for the consumer price index but shifted the January release to account for a regional holiday in eight provinces.

A Reuters poll of economists expects the annual rate of inflation held steady at 2.4 per cent in January, according to LSEG Data & Analytics.

A look at Ramadan and how Muslims observe the holy month

CAIRO (AP) — Observant Muslims the world over will soon be united in a ritual of daily fasting from dawn to sunset as the Islamic holy month of Ramadan starts. For Muslims, it’s a time for increased worship, religious reflection and charity. Socially, it often brings families and friends together in festive gatherings around meals to break their fast.

Ramadan is followed by the Islamic holiday of Eid al-Fitr.

First day of Ramadan expected around Feb. 18-19

Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic lunar calendar; the month cycles through the seasons.

Modern, historic letters showcase love in dangerous times

Love is in the air at Oseredok.

The Ukrainian cultural and educational centre’s current exhibition, Love Letters: A Timeless Experience, bears witness to the fraught and emotional journeys of past and present Ukrainian-Canadian couples through historical love letters, digital declarations and personal artifacts as they navigated courtship, separation and reunion.

Spanning the 20th and 21st centuries, the exhibition draws on a combination of archival material, including the cultural centre’s collection of rare wedding photographs and studio portraits, and visual installations to trace the love lives of Ukrainian-Canadians across the decades.

A letter-writing manual penned in 1913 by linguist and author F. Dojacek forms the backbone of the immersive show.

Food-culture extremes reverberate back to farm

The absurdity of our civilization’s extreme relationship with food hit me like a runaway snowboard the other night while watching the Ozempic Olympics in between commercials advertising pizza and french fries.

The relentless marketing, alternately promoting weight-loss support and foods that lean towards making us fat, isn’t aimed at the elite winter athletes strutting their stuff on the world stage in Italy. It’s a safe bet they didn’t achieve the peak of human fitness on a diet of pizza and french fries. It’s equally doubtful they require injections of the GLP-1 class of drugs to help manage their weight.

These athletes deserve our admiration and respect, but to be fair to the rest of us, most working stiffs don’t have the time, drive or resources to devote full-time to the pursuit of extreme fitness.

No, those commercials are aimed at the couch potatoes back home, subjecting us to both temptation and a shortcut to redemption as we bear witness to these feats of human endurance.

‘Looksmaxxing’ hammers home a new standard of attractiveness

‘Pain is beauty” is not a new concept. Guys hitting themselves in the face with hammers? That’s new.

Affairs of heart inevitably require less romantic finance talk sooner or later — so why not today?

Valentine’s Day may be for lovers, and a chat about personal finance certainly risks dulling the passions of the day. That is unless you love money.

Yet it is a discussion that nonetheless should happen … eventually. Often sooner is better than later, hopefully, well before popping the big question.

That decisive question could be happening right now. Valentine’s Day is the premier day for couples to get engaged and that big ask (and hopefully affirmative answer) often comes with a hefty capital allocation for a sparkling speck of costly rock set in a ring made of an increasingly high-priced precious metal.

De Beers coined the notion of three months’ salary as the rule of thumb to spend on an engagement ring amid the Great Depression. At the time, diamonds weren’t common for engagement rings. Today, the world’s priciest gem is considered the norm — and the bigger the rock, the greater the profession of your love, according to the marketing.

Relationship with city’s icy waterways warms many a Winnipegger’s heart

In summer, a screened porch or gazebo adds another room to Winnipeg houses, full of light and fresh air.

A balcony in a high-rise apartment seems to double the horizon available to residents: it feels like you could step out into the branches of a big old elm or a cottonwood, full of birds.

In the same way, the frozen Assiniboine, Red and Seine rivers add concert hall- and football stadium-sized swathes of space to the city.

The iced-over rivers provide new ways of seeing and understanding this place we call home.

Elmwood students’ clothing venture instils pride, breaks down stereotypes in blue-collar neighbourhood

Xander Woodley is spending his fourth period filling orders.

The Grade 12 Elmwood High School student pulls a blank sweatshirt from the supply closet and double-checks the customer’s purchase: one double-extra-large GPS Crewneck in navy.

He walks over to the heat press at the back of the graphics lab and flips through a stack of transfer sheets to find the correct design.

“It’s a map of our community of Elmwood; these are all of the streets, as well as the Red River and co-ordinates of where we are,” Woodley says, pointing to the line-art rendition of the northeast Winnipeg neighbourhood, the ward boundaries of which run from McLeod Avenue to the Canadian Pacific mainline and from the eastern bank of the Red River to Lagimodiere Boulevard.

Province warns of measles exposure at Jets game as cases surge

Manitoba public health officials are warning attendees of a Winnipeg Jets game they may have been exposed to measles, as the province continues to grapple with outbreaks.

The Gordie Bell hockey sweater: Homecoming tale of former Portage Terriers netminder’s jersey

Strangely, the first thing I did after opening a much-anticipated Canada Post parcel was smell the contents, hoping to find a hint of my father’s scent.

It didn’t come as much of a surprise after almost 84 years there is none of my late father Gordie Bell’s DNA attached to his 1942 Portage Terriers Memorial Cup jersey I had been gifted. It wasn’t all bad though. More than eight decades have passed since that celebrated national championship and none of the foul odour often attached to used hockey sweaters is detectable either.

In contrast history and nostalgia almost drip from the woven wool jersey.

That ’42 Memorial Cup isn’t the only national title claimed by Junior Terriers. The club won the Centennial Cup in 1973 and the RBC Cup in 2015. But the Memorial Cup team holds special significance, especially if your last name is Bell.

Get vaccinated for flu, COVID-19, measles to protect crowded hospitals: top doc

The province’s top doctor is asking Manitobans to get vaccinated as respiratory virus season threatens to strain hospitals and measles outbreaks tear though parts of Manitoba.

Loblaw and OpenAI partner to integrate PC Express into ChatGPT

Loblaw Cos. Ltd. is integrating its grocery delivery app into OpenAI's chatbot ChatGPT, the grocer announced on Thursday.

The partnership means consumers can explore menu ideas and curate a list of ingredients in the chatbot, and then buy the suggested products on Loblaw's PC Express app, the company said.

"Conversational AI is becoming a new interface layer for how people plan and search and make decisions," said Loblaw chief digital officer Lauren Steinberg in an interview.

Canadians are already using tools like ChatGPT to answer everyday questions such as what to make for dinner, how to make a high-protein meal plan or how to prep for a birthday party, she said.

Increased taxation requires thorough justification

This year, the City of Winnipeg sent me two “love letters.” The first arrived in May, informing me that it (the city) was “delivering affordability,” with the lowest municipal property tax rates in Canada, the lowest municipal fees on new housing, and the lowest garbage and recycling fees in Canada.

School nutrition program prompts student trash talk

One student’s trash has become another student’s research sample at Robertson School.

Manitoba to study food prices

The Manitoba government has followed through on its promise to conduct a study on groceries in a bid to lower food costs.

Project leads will investigate whether differential pricing — in which shoppers are charged different prices by the same retailer based on customer segment, location, time or demand — is occurring in Manitoba.

Antitrust and anti-competition policies, supply chain vulnerabilities and geographic food deserts will also be probed, the government said Wednesday.

“We know Manitobans are struggling with the price of food, and we know that the prices of food continue to grow in ways that are very concerning,” Finance Minister Adrien Sala told reporters.

Kraft Heinz pauses plans to split into 2 companies, says its problems are ‘fixable’

Kraft Heinz said Wednesday it's pausing its plans to split into two companies.

Steve Cahillane, a former Kellogg Co. chief who became CEO of Kraft Heinz on Jan. 1, said he wants to ensure that all of the company's resources are focused on profitable growth.

“I have seen that the opportunity is larger than expected and that many of our challenges are fixable and within our control,” Cahillane said in a statement.

The company's shares were flat in morning trading Wednesday as Kraft Heinz reported lower quarterly and annual results. Investors are likely concerned that Kraft Heinz believes its businesses aren't strong enough to stand on their own, said Robert Moskow, an analyst with TD Cowen, in a research note.