Morning Brew: Heightened Security and Major Delays at Pearson Airport, BMO Field Expansion, Carjacked While Delivering Newspapers

Photo: "Shadow Dancin'" by bokehmucho loco, member of the blogTO Flickr pool.

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

What's open and what's closed today? Given that Boxing Day landed on a weekend this year, government offices are closed today, but most malls and other retailers are open for extended bargain shopping hours. And we can buy booze.

Holiday travel at Lester B. Pearson International is normally rather chaotic as hordes of people hop on flights to visit friends and family afar and take vacations to greener pastures. But after a suspected would-be bomber was thwarted by passengers on board an Amsterdam to Detroit flight on Christmas day, hundreds of flights from Toronto (and the world over) were delayed or canceled as security was beefed up. Passengers have been limited to one carry-on bag, subjected to far more rigorous than usual physical searches, and are required to remain seated for the final hour of the flight.

A minivan was carjacked in the west end at 4am on Sunday morning, as a man was getting in and out to deliver newspapers. Strangely enough, his wife and two kids were also in the van and luckily were allowed to get out of the vehicle unharmed a short distance away from where the suspect made his initial move.

A $2-million upgrade appears to be in the cards for BMO Field. City council will vote next week on a proposal that will see 1,249 seats added (along with upgrades to washrooms) before the 2010 soccer season kicks off (pun intended). MLSE is footing the bill (pun intended).

The ROM's Lee-Chin Crystal has been singled out by the Washington Post as "Worst of the Decade in Architecture," prompting mixed reaction from Torontonians.

2009 has been a really rough year for small businesses in Toronto, and many are facing imminent closure. Amongst the most missed already are Pages, Le Bar a Soupe, Mel's, Dooney's.

And Mayor David Miller isn't all that impressed with what the candidates aiming to replace him as mayor in 2010 have had to say so far. Once the race actually starts, I'm sure we'll get a much better sense of who the candidates are and what they want to do for Toronto.