City
Morning Brew: Union Ratification Vote Delayed, Toronto Hydro Hacked, Massive Heroin Bust, Housing Market Upswing, Adopt an Author
Photo: "When Unions Strike" by Stacy Gagnidze, member of the blogTO Flickr pool.
What's happening in the GTA (and sometimes beyond):
AAAARRRRRGGGHHH! This municipal worker strike clearly isn't over until it's over. There's now word that the union, still not completely satisfied with the terms of the tentative deal reached yesterday morning, will NOT be holding the member ratification vote today as previously planned. I'm so glad that I'm leaving town for a week of canoeing up north. Maybe by the time I return, things will be cleaned up.
Sentencing of the teenage girl who was more than complicit in the Stefanie Rengel murder came down yesterday, and it came down hard. Melissa Todorovic, who can now be named because she's been sentenced as an adult, got a life sentence for pushing her boyfriend to kill Rengel. She showed more emotion at sentencing than she did through most of the trial, apparently. Sentencing of the young offender boyfriend ("D.B.") is expected in September.
A hacker got into Toronto Hydro's electronic records, and made off with customer account information that was on file. There's no immediate risk (no credit card numbers were swiped), but the information taken could possibly be used by a malicious person to deviously get financial info from you if you fall for their phone/mail/email phishing attempts in the future.
A heroin bust associated with a flight arriving at Pearson airport from Pakistan led the RCMP to one of the largest hauls in Canada's history. Almost 120kg of the stuff was discovered in two locations (one in Brampton and one in Toronto), which represents about $100-million in street value. While our soldiers are over in Afghanistan are dying (in part trying to curb heroin production), it appears that demand for it over here has increased.
The Toronto housing market is showing signs of recovery. Citing trends in "blue chip" areas like the Beach(es) as an indicator of overall trends, it looks like we may be headed for an upward swing in selling prices.
And one of Toronto's favourite literary festivals, Word on the Street, is trying something new this year. For $100, you'll be able to "adopt" an author. Sounds like a neat fundraising concept, and I'm hopeful that it takes off.
Discussion
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Does anyone know of other TTC update twitter feeds until TTCU_community can sort itself out?
Well hopefully they can start by cleaning up the god awful mess left by the Caribana parade on Saturday. Ease them back into the swing of things. Incase they have forgotten how to reach over and pick up litter. I can only assume they will need a 6 week re-training course as well. Asshats.
Or, you can hope we can fix everything the way Stephen Colbert says: if we all just pretend together, we can keep surfing the bubble.
Last night Anne Demenski was on the news going on about how unfair it is that union workers can't go back on thursday.
WTF?? Anne, HELLO, you guys willingly didn't work for 35 days or so, and NOW you are angry because we don't let you go to work on YOUR schedule?? Seriously, shut the hell up.
And then i wake up to this news? PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE, fire them all!
Don't forget that it was rampant spending (of money that nobody actually had) that caused the economic crisis. What's the solution -- more spending?
Once cheap/easy money becomes a thing of the past (and Mark Carney himself acknowledged it will), we are going to find out we're not as rich as we thought.
If you bought a house/condo recently with a small down payment, watch out!
WRONG - the Taliban were the ones destroying the poppy seeds. We need that heroin to continue our war on drugs and incarcerate our poorest and most vulnerable citizens.
I understand it's not realistic. But i think finding a way to end this sort of strife with our city workers, or more specifically the union that represents them, needs to be a goal of city councel.
And i don't hate Unions, BTW. I hate THIS union.
And more specifically, I hate what this union is now.
Just because I think the union is wrong, and that I side with the city on this issue doesn't mean i am anti-union. I spare no love for Miller either.
It was about sickdays which they still have!
Banked sick days in city offer
http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/article/673376
It was about sick days which they still have! They still keep!
<a href="http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/article/673376"; target="_blank>http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/article/673376<;/a>
The union is making sure that they are getting all the clean-up work.
Contracting out garbage pickup increases costs and adds one extra layer of profits for the contractor that have to be paid. How exactly is that supposed to help matters? Nor does it prevent service disruptions.
Why not read a few stories about private contractors and learn a little?
http://www2.canada.com/coquitlamnow/news/story.html?id=81f3da46-9161-4363-8d72-2ce116cbd349
http://www.canada.com/surreynow/news/story.html?id=6824b8d9-ecc2-4c5f-951b-d82ada8eed23&;k=60822
http://lailayuile.wordpress.com/2008/01/31/city-of-parks-now-city-of-garbage/
thx david miller!
Is Miller having a melt down before our very own eyes?
He looked nervous, fidgety, beat up and haggard.
At one point, he looked like he was going to burst into tears.
Mayor Miller, if you are reading this, please resign immediately for the sake of your health, your family and the city of Toronto.