Photo: "1" by Spirited_Away, member of the blogTO Flickr pool.

What's happening in the GTA (and sometimes beyond):

Will they pave the old Canada Malting silo site and put up a 600 space parking lot to serve the Island Airport? As rumours swirl about the potential for several more airlines (including US-based Continental) to operate out of the controversial downtown airport, Air Canada Jazz (who was evicted in 2006) is still pursuing legal action at the federal level against the Toronto Port Authority. If expansion is in the TPA's plans (and they're not in bed with Porter), shouldn't Jazz be a shoe-in?

Outgoing mayor David Miller is writing a book highlighting the interactions and experiences he's had with the people of the city during his tenure as mayor. All politics aside, I'm really looking forward to reading this when it comes out in June of 2010. I had the pleasure of hearing him tell a few personal stories about memorable Torontonians, and they were great.

Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair had what sounds like a serious and honest heart-to-heart with residents of the Jane-Finch area, regarding the issues of racial bias, stigmatization of the community, and challenges with curbing youth violence and gangs. It's a breath of fresh air to have a chief of police who isn't afraid to take the issues on in this way.

Students at Northern Secondary plan to protest police presence in their school today. The protest stems from the recent YouTube arrest video/incident, which I thought clearly showed who was to blame for the fiasco.

Wang "David" Chen, the Kensington shopkeeper who was charged with assault and kidnapping of a convicted thief, is finally in court today. His defense attorney is hoping to see the charges against him dropped, but if they're not, he plans to launch a constitutional challenge of our citizen's arrest laws.

And news out of an Oshawa Zellers store has us wondering whether draping the Canadian flag with ghouls and spider webs is extremely offensive, kinda gauche, or not worth being concerned about whatsoever.