bird on a wire toronto

Morning Brew: October 22nd, 2008

Photo: "Birds of a feather" by brilliantboy08, member of the blogTO Flickr pool.

What's happening in the GTA:

Apparently Ontario's Air Quality Index (AQI) data collection and reporting system is so flawed that it falsely gives Torontonians the sense that the air in the downtown core is cleaner than it actually is. The problem? Readings aren't taken in the core, and reports relayed by the media therefore don't really reflect reality (i.e. that the brown cloud that hovers stagnant on your street corner is really bad for you).

The spotlight is again being shone on the financial-goings-on of Greektown's Taste of the Danforth Festival. Is the organizational infighting, finger-pointing, and dubious cash handling affecting the quality of the festival itself?

When an innocent bystander is killed by a stray bullet on Yonge Street, or an Indy car driver crashes into a wall and dies on Lakeshore Boulevard, we see makeshift memorials (usually flowers and photos) pop up and remain for weeks. When a known gang member gets taken out in a drive-by shooting, do they deserve to have the same right? Not so, according to city councillor Mammoliti.

The next time your heart stops beating at Union Station (not from seeing that incredibly sexy man/woman on your morning GO train commute, we're talking actual cardiac arrest), your life might be spared with the help of new defibrillators to be kept at the ready.

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Someone out there must know the shaved headed, pot-bellied guy depicted in these TTC security camera images. Toronto police and the TTC really want to find this guy, because he's believed to be the suspect in more than one incident involving the attacking of women disembarking transit buses. I can't imagine he's grown back his hair and lost the pot belly already.

Note to the media: we know that the accidental slaying of Jane Creba was a horrific and unfortunate byproduct of unwanted gang violence on our streets. The fact that she was "crouching" or "trying to duck" doesn't make the incident any worse than it already is, so stop publishing melodrama and start publishing real stories already.

Has the National Do-Not-Call List reduced the amount of unsolicited calls coming to your phone? The Consumer Association of Canada thinks it's going to be a dismal failure, and might actually result in more spam calls coming to those not yet on the list.


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