• Winner: Beginning next June, Delta Airlines will offer a daily nonstop flight between Salt Lake City and Paris. This culminates more than a decade of lobbying by city and state officials. It also signals another rung on the ladder of status for the Wasatch Front. It also promises to bring in millions more in tourism and business dollars.

• Loser: One in four Americans did not read a book at all last year, according to a new AP-Ipsos poll. This means that, despite the wild scramble to get the last Harry Potter book as soon as it hit the stores, the written word is losing its punch. It also could mean a general loss of imagination, discovery and a host of other things one tends to get from reading and from no other source.