The City of Toronto and the Kiwanis Club of Casa Loma are at odds over the management and future of the Casa Loma attraction and its costs. A conflict of interest involving the board's chair, shortcomings on fundraising, and a failure to implement strategic vision have the mayor calling for complete replacement of the existing controlling board. Years of perpetual construction/restoration aren't seeming to be doing the castle much good either.

The Toronto Humane Society's River Street shelter is set to reopen on June 28th following renovations and staff retraining, and a vow to uphold higher standards of care. After the animal welfare scandal that included arrests and raids on the facility (and the discovery of a mummified cat), the THS's greatest challenge will be to regain faith in donors and volunteers.

The Entertainment District BIA is not backing down on G20 weekend. Rather than doing what most businesses and organizations are doing (closing for the weekend to avoid the potential chaos), clubs and restos in the city's most chaos-accustomed area are doing their best to lure paying customers in. Many restaurants are offering "summit deals" and offering special discounts when you shop and eat in the area.

The most striking result of a CTVGlobeMedia-commissioned mayoral election poll is not that occasional foot-swallowing penny-pincher Rob Ford is in the lead -- it's that nearly 40% of the electorate remain unsure who they'd vote for. If I'm John Tory or David Miller, the gears in my head are turning perpetually and preventing me from sleeping. None of the declared candidates seem to be striking a strong cord with Torontonians.

Why not stall and let animal control work with tranquilizer darts? Two dogs were shot and killed by police in a Mississauga neighbourhood this weekend, presumably before animal control arrived. The pair of English terriers were collarless and intimidating kids and getting aggressive, forcing police to make the tough call to take them out in the interest of public safety.

How does a Forest Hill house party for youths celebrating the end of the grade 8 school year result in the death of a 17-year old? That's what police are trying to figure out. The city's 20th homicide victim was the result of an altercation and stabbing, perhaps after a group of older teens tried unsuccessfully to crash the party.

Apparently it's not just fare fraud and evasion that's proving costly. The president of the union representing electrical workers at the TTC has been arrested and charged with theft over $5000. It's alleged that TTC employee Mike Santos was involved in the theft of copper wire from the transit commission with subsequent resale to scrap yards.

Today's did you know: because a bicycle isn't motorized, it's not illegal to be drunk and riding a bike, although it's certainly not advised from a safety perspective (and if police stop you they can slap workaround charges on you, such as a fine for public intoxication).

It's something most of us guys did as kids, and even though it's technically in violation of municipal bylaw, there's never been a ticket issued. Spacing's Matt Blackett is leading a movement to reconsider bylaws pertaining to playing games and sports on roads and laneways. Aside from being a quintessentially Canadian experience, why should road hockey remain illegal if the bylaw is never going to be enforced? It's all about liability.

City council has voted in favour of amending City of Toronto bylaws pertaining to idling of vehicles. The maximum idling time allowed has been reduced from three minutes down to one minute, and hot or cold weather isn't going to be an excuse to ignore the law. Also worth noting is that TTC buses are not going to be exempt from the revised bylaw. The transit commission has already responded to the change by declaring that they won't be able to comply because turning on and off the ignition on TTC buses several times daily creates the risk of damaging the vehicles.

Be prepared for potential minor cell phone reception and call connection stability issues during the G20 meeting. Authorities will likely be employing site-specific cell signal jamming strategies and creating moving bubbles of cell signal jamming around motorcades.

Not everyone is doing nothing but griping over the insanities and inconveniences that are coupled with the G20 meetings in Toronto. Some residents in the vicinity of the Metro Toronto Convention Centre have been cashing in on the opportunity, by renting out their condos at exceptionally high rates. Some area hotels have also more than doubled their rates, which indirectly means that taxpayers are being gouged (are the RCMP and OPP paying standard rates for all of the rooms they'll be occupying?). Capitalistic supply and demand, baby.

OMGWTFFERTILIZER! Some guy went into a rural store in Lincoln, Ontario and bought a typically large quantity of commonly-used ammonium nitrate fertilizer. The problem? This type of fertilizer can also be used to produce a bomb (bigger than Timothy McVeigh's Oklahoma City OMGWTFbomb), he didn't produce ID or leave his name (which is standard protocol for these kinds of purchases), and... the G20 meetings are coming up soon. On that tip, the fences are going up, and so are the messages from protesters.

Members of the Mississaugas of the New Credit First Nations band have voted in favour of accepting a federal government compensation package totalling $145-million and related to Toronto and Burlington land purchases that date back to 1797 and 1805. 1,842 band members will each be compensated a lump sum of $20,000, plus $1500 per year. Tens of millions of dollars will also be injected into community development and needs.

The City of Toronto's previously confidential "Parking Ticket Cancellation Guidelines" (PDF) has been made public, and contains some nuggets of information that may be of interest to drivers in the city. Apparently getting a parking ticket cancelled is relatively easy if you have the right excuse. Whether you're delivering a pizza, going to church, are a city councillor conducting city business (or in some cases are simply confused about the bylaws), you have a good chance of getting off without paying the fine.

A house in High Park, that's been unoccupied for some time and appearing to be under renovation, exploded early this morning, sending debris onto the street and prompting a 3-alarm response from firefighters. Fortunately, nearby houses were spared. The cause is under investigation.

There's a new school opening in the city, but curriculum is not going to have the standard reading, writing, and arithmetic. The "Espresso Institute of North America" is a school of coffee that will open in Little Portugal. The brainchild of Ezra Braves, owner of Ezra's Pound, will teach burgeoning baristas the finer skills of roasting, brewing and serving coffee, machine maintenance, and more.

Rampant speculation (and for some who are dismayed by the lack of choice in the current candidate list, hope) has been put to bed. After moderating a mayoral candidates debate last night, John Tory set the record straight and quashed rumours once and for all by declaring definitively that he has no intentions of jumping into the 2010 mayoral race.