The Lalani Group, owners of the historic building at Yonge and Gould that burned down recently, are in more trouble. According to a lawsuit filed by the contractor hired to secure the structure after its north wall fell last April, they have yet to be paid for the work. The statement of claim alleges that Quantum Murray LP is owed $69,091.18 for "emergency support and clean-up of a building which had collapsed." Although not proven yet, it's tough to give this company the benefit of the doubt (on this and that other thing).

No big surprises here, but the Star examines the degree to which Rob Ford and his team plan to privatize city projects and services. Along with inviting private businesses to look at the City's budget for possible savings, we can expect motions to privatize cleaning services at police stations, outsourcing of garbage collection and public/private partnerships to fund arenas. David Soknacki, a former Toronto budget chief, expressed skepticism that such proposals would make it through council. "It will be very interesting to see if Mayor Ford can marshal the votes to get these initiatives through.... But times have changed, and I think people still have the taste of the last garbage strike in their mouths. They also voted very strongly for change."

The Globe features a cool gallery of posters made by Toronto illustrators. It'd be nice, however, to learn a little about the creators rather than just look at the images, some of which aren't the highest of quality. So, watch for that in a future blogTO article!

The SIU has reopened their investigation into the alleged assault of Dorian Barton after new photos were published by the Star that may help to identify the officers involved. Barton suffered a broken shoulder when (he claims) he was struck by a police baton and riot shield back in June. I wonder if the SIU is getting embarrassed that the paper keeps doing its job?

IN BRIEF

• Accused in police officer's death was a trained snowplow operator.
• An Alberta Clipper has paid a visit.
• Is this actually an article?

Photo by louise@toronto in the blogTO Flickr pool.