In the wake of the less than well-received Bills game and the passing of its founder, Rogers finally has a reason to celebrate today. Earlier this morning the CRTC finally made a decision approving Rogers Broadcasting's application for a 24 hour Toronto news channel.

Shocking news I know given that Rogers' Citytv juggernaut can't even find anything interesting to put on Breakfast Television. Now, with 24 hours to fill, how many traffic accidents and changing weather conditions can they possible cover? Perhaps they'll continue their current strategy of recycling day old story ideas from various un-named local blogs?

Next Saturday (December 20th), Smirnoff is taking over the Windsor Arms Hotel. Billed as the Red Night Party, the event will feature DJs Joey Negro, Pete Simpson, Felix and Gani and more, including our own Carlos Weisz on visuals.

It's all part of Smirnoff's global series of events that have previously touched down in cities like Paris, Moscow, London, Shanghai and New York. Aside from the music and, um, vodka, normally off limit parts of the hotel - including the hallways and secret rooms - will be open for party-goers to explore.

Kubo Radio has closed its doors - at least temporarily. While the restaurant is open for private functions through the holidays, come the new year it will be shutting down. A notice posted to the front door explains that the restaurant will be undergoing renovations and will re-open again in the Spring.

Does Destiny Tea & Cafe have a cockroach problem? According to Ryerson student Joram Muzones it does. Apparently, Muzones and some friends were at the popular Markham hangout on Sunday when some chunks surfaced in her hot chocolate. According to Muzones:

So I get the hot chocolate, no problems there drink looks good, took a few sips, maybe a good one inch worth off the drink and I decided to put some sugar into the drink and I started stirring. As I stirred the drink I saw something in it and I thought it was chocolate chunks. When the thing finally surfaced what I saw was 2 BIG cockroaches, and a couple of legs floating around. *gags*

With magazines folding all over the place, it's worth taking a moment to applaud a local favourite. Spacing Magazine is celebrating its 5th anniversary this month. It's hard to believe that it was back on December 3rd, 2003 that they went to press with their first issue and filled the much needed gap for coverage of public space issues, civic engagement and urban play. Along the way, the magazine has won numerous awards (including Canadian Small Magazine of the Year) and featured stunning photography from the city's unsurpassed talent pool of photobloggers.

This Wednesday, to celebrate their achievement, Spacing is throwing a party at The Great Hall. There will be live music, photos from Rannie Turingan and large panels displaying the finalists from their thinkTORONTO urban design ideas competition. Oh, and cake.

Well, not really. But War Child Canada sure knows how to get my attention. The Toronto-based charity continues to be ahead of the curve when it comes to using the web, local artists and other unconventional tactics to raise awareness about the plight of child soldiers in Darfur, The Congo and Sierra Leone.