Railway maintenance and construction workers based at the Toronto Terminal Railway (at Union Station) have reached a last minute deal to prevent a strike. Without a contract since the end of 2009, the tentative deal includes wage hikes and improved benefits.

A report by The Hay Group, which cost City Hall $50,000 to commission, has declared that the job of mayor of Toronto is under-compensated compared to other municipalities such as Mississauga and Montreal. The group recommends that our city's next mayor should get a $16,000 raise to bring the annual salary up from about $167,800 to around $183,600. How do the leading mayoral candidates feel about this? All are rejecting the suggestions, instead maintaining that they would actually reduce the top job's wage, freeze it, or donate any increases to charity.

Two ski and snowboard hills previously operated by the City are in danger of being shut down this coming winter. As a cost-cutting measure, the idea was to have private companies step in and operate the facilities, but since the call was put out for bids and proposals, none have come forward. The hills in question -- at Centennial Park Etobicoke and Earl Bales in North York -- may still be saved via public funds, but how and when this might happen is a big question mark with a tight timeline.

It would appear that a malicious crazy has made an attempt to harm dogs and/or dog-owners in Toronto. A board containing several sharp nails facing upright was discovered buried in the sand at an off-leash dog park at Cherry Beach. This kind of thing isn't new in the city, but it's equally disturbing and alarming each time nonetheless. Poisoned food was a problem in 2008 in High Park.

He was lost in a Bradford cornfield overnight, but at about 6am this morning a three-year old boy was found after surviving a 12-hour ordeal. The boy went missing yesterday behind the family farm, but with the help of a search helicopter, police dogs, and about 50 officers he was found tired and a little dazed, but safe.

Vacancy rates of downtown office spaces are hitting double digits. Despite the overall economy having been on an upward recovery from a fairly significant recession in 2009, there's a growing number of unoccupied offices in the core. A variety of factors appears to be at play here, including downsizing trends as a result of the recession and a glut in recent and ongoing new office space developments.

The sole person arrested and charged under the highly controversial G20 security fence law (under the Public Works Protection Act) showed up in court yesterday -- only to learn that the courts had no record of the charges. Police are suggesting that this was the result of an administrative error. Whether or not they plan to correct this administrative error and still pursue charges isn't yet clear. What is clear to me, however, is that security and policing of the G20 was a monumental challenge fraught with confusion, miscommunication and screw ups.

Residents of Birkdale and Midland Park neighbourhoods in Scarborough have been pinching their noses and forced to abandon their own backyards as a seemingly worsening, putrid odour emanates from a paper milling company in the area. Atlantic Packaging (the company responsible) says it hasn't changed its processes, and is investigating the problem (but has been doing so since March with no solution). Until the problem is found and fixed, residents will have to try to ignore the smell of rotting eggs and sewage while they enjoy that poolside cocktail or backyard barbecue.

Things are getting heated in the municipal politics arena, which, at times, seems more like a school playground. Mayoral candidate Rob Ford is turning down an opportunity to go one-on-one with fellow candidate George Smitherman on a CFRB talk show, and Smitherman isn't shying away from calling it like he sees it. Accusing Ford of "chickening out" and his bid being a "peekaboo candidacy," Smitherman suggests that Ford is afraid to take him on in debate. The Ford team has responded by saying that they will debate, but on their own terms and when the time is right.

It could be a headline from last last year, or from a few months ago. And it's once again a headline. John Tory is reportedly considering entering the mayoral race. Somehow he continues to spur speculation despite having officially bowed out back in January. With many Torontonians displeased with the current front-running candidates, and with the backing of former (oh, so beloved) Premier Mike Harris, he has a good chance of making headway with those adamant to see an end to spending problems at City Hall.

Pakistani mangoes are so different from other, more common types mangoes that people are willing to go to great lengths to savour their sweetness -- including travelling to Toronto from the US to get a taste, and putting themselves at risk of criminality by trying to smuggle crates back with them. Banned in the US pending adherence to agricultural pest control standards (which may happen in the fall), the fruit is more readily available now in our fine city's ethnic stores and fruit stands.

Are you an Enbridge Gas customer? Have you gotten your July bill? Picked your jaw up off the floor yet? Last year they made errors by setting monthly rates too low for many of their customers, and they've had to make adjustments to their July 2010 instalment invoices to make up for the underpayments. As a result, many customers have a massive instalment to pay this month. In some cases, customers are going to have to pay the equivalent of an entire year's worth of service (i.e. more than 10 times their usual monthly instalment).

New bike lanes on Jarvis are painted and ready for use, and the former reversible centre car lane is gone. Naturally, motorists aren't pleased by the perceived negative impacts on traffic congestion, and cyclists are pleased with the convenient and much safer city riding option. The City won't be dedicating any resources to measuring the actual effects of the change until the fall (because in the summer, vehicular traffic is up to 20% lighter than peak). Shouldn't the impact studies include all seasons of the year? I suppose it wouldn't be fair to cyclists to measure the impacts of the change on cyclists in say, January (because in the winter bike traffic is probably down 95% from peak).

A teen up in Owen Sound has been charged with careless driving after being involved in an accident while he was riding his bike. Police claim that the teen was distracted as he was texting on his cellphone while cycling, inadvertently hit a parked car, was thrown from his bike and smashed the back window of the vehicle. Oops.

While a stretch of the Danforth between Greenwood Avenue and Monarch Park does have 11 Ethopian restaurants, the Danforth-Mosaic BIA isn't likely to support calls to have the area officially designated "Little Ethiopia." It's too diverse an area to be labelled such (and perhaps some parts of the stretch on Bloor between Christie Pits and Lansdowne might also be a contender for that title).

Were her wounds caused by rubber bullets, by blank "muzzle blasts," or something else altogether? Police making up the G20 Integrated Security Unit have said they used harmless muzzle blasts (blanks) to scare off protesters near the temporary detention centre, but according to an activist who was treated in hospital it would appear that rubber bullets may have been used on that final day of the G20 meetings. Why we are only learning about this now might have something to do with a lawsuit that may stem from the incident. This and a number of other lawsuits are being launched against the Toronto Police, in addition to reviews of police actions by the Ontario Ombudsman, the Toronto Police Services Board, and by the Office of the Independent Police Review Director.

He's been caught on camera three times but not yet been caught by authorities. Peel region police are appealing to the public to assist in the identification of a suspect who is described as armed and dangerous and is accused of multiple bank robberies in Mississauga this summer.

A solution to the traffic congestion problem (that appeared with the introduction of a number of condos towers at CityPlace) is in sights but won't be implemented for a couple of years. Fort York Boulevard will eventually be extended to Bathurst but until then navigating the area where Fort York Boulevard and Bremner meet Spadina will continue to be a challenge shared by motorists, pedestrians, and transit users.