So I'm contemplating putting my tree up on the weekend. Yep, over a month before the big day. For one reason or another we haven't had a tree up in three years. But I have to agree with those who suggest Christmas and holiday lights should be put on hold until after Remembrance Day. I say holiday because there is actua...

This is Vanese Ferguson with Coffee Talk. I'm going to talk federal budget but I'm going to try and keep it to a minimum. The three things that really lept out at me -and there were many - was a deficit of 62.3 billion dollars with no plans to balance the budget in the forseeable future. Secondly - this is an understat...

This is Vanese Ferguson with Coffee Talk. I don't regularly concentrate that much on the United States midterms. But of course, with Canada's financial health being eroded by trade policies orchestrated by U.S. President Donald Trump, I was keen to see how it would go. Well, the Democrats took the Senate and it appea...

This is Vanese Ferguson with Coffee Talk. The Canadian Taxpayers Federation brought its Debt Clock to Ottawa Sunday - the point of which was to show the federal government's $1.3-trillion debt going up in real time ahead of the budget which comes down on Thursday. The CTF says the debt is increasing by 179 million ever...

Lieutenant Justin Boyes, Corpora David Braun, Corporal Brendan Downey, Master Corporal Joshua Roberts, Corporal Dustin Wasden....these are just a few of the names of the soldiers who died in Afghanistan- the ones that come quickly to my mind as I covered their deaths, sometimes I interviewed families. A dozen soldiers ...

This is Vanese Ferguson with Coffee Talk. So not wanting to jump on the ole conspiracy theory bandwagon but with the uptick in AI has anyone else noticed how many entities have been hacked? Last week word came out that numerous websites, including Canadian government sites, were taken offline so they could put in a pat...

This is Vanese Ferguson with Coffee Talk. I wouldn't get too excited by news that talk having recently gotten underway again between Canada and the United States will bear fruit. Word is that U.S. President Donald Trump is facing challenges heading into the midterms and aside from the obvious benefit, in my eyes, to hi...

This is Vanese Ferguson with Coffee Talk. First off I have to say how disgusted I am by whoever is using Private Shaun Farrell's death to fraudulently raise money through gofundme. If you missed it in the news, the family of the young soldier from Prince Albert who died in the fire at CFB Wainwright has taken to social...

This is Vanese Ferguson with Coffee Talk. I think the Alberta referendum had its uses. It brought to light the gross inequities in transfer payments between Quebec and the rest of the country. I'm not opposed to the concept of transfer payments. Saskatchewan has been a recipient in the past. However the disproportianat...

This is Vanese Ferguson with Coffee Talk. So, I finally got rid of our landline this year. I held on to it because I preferred using it to talk to my Mom. Then I realized most of the time I put my ear buds in and I chat with her when walking the dog. However, the internet/Bluetooth/Wi-Fi at my place despite the fac...

This is Vanese Ferguson with Coffee Talk. In medieval Europe, public executions were held in town squares, marketplaces, or outside city gates. You probably remember the movie Braveheart and the final moments of William Wallace's life when he was hung, and drawn and quartered. That movie came out in 1995 and I remember...

This is Vanese Ferguson with Coffee Talk. So I experienced distracted driving this week, but not maybe how you'd think. I wasn't looking at my cell phone to read a text, I wasn't even talking on my phone with the Bluetooth in my vehicle, nor eating, nor putting on make up, nor fiddling with radio or temperature control...

This is Vanese Ferguson with Coffee Talk. According to a new survey from Angus Reid Institute 64 per cent of people polled in Alberta and 70 per cent in Saskatchewan say AI data centre development should be limited. The non profit also says fewer than one in five would encourage more investment in AI data centres. Half...

This is Vanese Ferguson with Coffee Talk. As we head into the season of gathering together be it Thanksgiving, kids coming home on a school break, maybe even look as far ahead as December, I am trying to also focus on those folks struggling to get by. There are some decent prices right now for turkeys at various stor...

This is Vanese Ferguson with Coffee Talk. To say it is alarming that AI "agents" are trying to hack government agencies in Canada and the U.S. is a gross understatement. And the questions around this are plentiful. Did the company's with this AI allow it to attempt to hack? Did governments ask for this proces...