Photo: "espresso @ Blondie's Cafe" by StartTheFStop, member of the blogTO Flickr pool.

What's happening in the GTA (and sometimes beyond):

Councillor Sandra Bussin revealed herself as - and apologized for being - the "anonymous" Sandra who called into John Tory's radio show last week to defend the mayor - and slam Tory. Known as one of the mayor staunches allies, the move has some councillors salivating over the opportunity to punish Bussin. Seems to me that any councillor pursuing this further is wasting city time and money as much as they claim the Mayor is.

We've heard before that our green bin material often just ends up in the garbage, but The Star followed that compost on its direct route to Michigan. After showing that evidence to the City, garbage manager Geoff Rathbone fired the processor involved. Maybe Toronto needs to get some pigs to handle the organic waste?

Do you have a minute for sick children? Usually that question is followed by a request for money, but in the case of former SickKids Foundation president Michael O'Mahoney, he was given 2.7 million reasons to go away. O'Mahoney suggests he's received far less than the nearly $3 million reported, but at roughly $600,000 per year in salary while with SickKids, it looks like the sick kids themselves are getting the short end of this stick.

Some good news for cancer patients on Avastin in Ontario: ombudsman Andre Marin declared the cut-off for provincial coverage of the treatment arbitrary and unjust, even saying "this situation verges on cruelty." Health Minister David Caplan didn't sound so good trying to defend the current policy, but then again, how could anybody cutting off funding for cancer treatment sound good?

It's good Jim Balsillie follows hockey not baseball as he notched strike three in his bidding to become an NHL owner. The bankruptcy judge in Arizona decided Balsillie was circumventing the league, knocking him out of contention at all, while only dealing the NHL a glancing blow in their bid effort. Although I was beginning to think otherwise, it seems Balsillie knows when to hang up the gloves - at least for now - as he confirmed he is ending his pursuit of the Coyotes and not appealing the decision.

What's a dog to do? Facing cruelty at home a dog seeking a better life may get treated just as cruelly at the Human Society, according to a 3-year-old investigation. But that was three years ago you might say? Cruelty-related allegations, along with ones of poor management and fiscal irresponsibility, still exist.

Over a year ago, Joseph wondered about the acceptability of his streetcar driver stopping to get a snack, meanwhile blocking traffic on Dundas West. Now Chris Selley is citing that experience in his screed against the TTC driver practice of stopping for a coffee, calling the 3 minute breaks one of the most demoralizing aspects of life in Toronto. At the very least drivers should be able to jump the queue... but it seems to me that letting drivers stop for several minutes mid-route would contribute to streetcar/bus bunching as much as traffic would (I'm looking at you Adam Giambrone).

In case you haven't seen a newspaper or website lately... the Habs come to town to battle the Leafs in the NHL opener tonight. Expect wall-to-wall coverage tomorrow morning, featuring playoff predictions and news of where to hop on the bandwagon.