Well, Adam Vaughan was right. Interviewed by CP24 shortly after CUPE local 416 president Mark Ferguson announced that the City had offered his union a take-it-or-leave-it offer on Friday, Vaughan speculated that the two sides might be a lot closer to a deal than they were letting on. That seemed a dubious observation when the City announced that it would impose new terms and conditions of employment as of 12:01 a.m Sunday., at which point the a lockout or strike could legally begin.

The photos of the week collect each of the editor-selected photos of the day into one post for a contest to be decided by our readers. Sponsored by Posterjack, the photographer whose image receives the most votes will be awarded with a voucher code for a 24"x36" poster print of their work.

All the rules and fine-print can be found in the original announcement post on the blogTO Flickr page. One thing to add, however, is that the voting period ends at 12:00 p.m. on Monday, after which the winner will be contacted with the good news.

On the 2nd December, 1919, theatre tycoon Ambrose Small was hard at work in his office at the Grand Opera House on Adelaide Street West. The day before he'd sold his empire and deposited a massive $1 million cheque in to his personal account. F. W. M. Flock, Small's attorney, also in the office that evening, would be the last person to see the millionaire alive.

Just after 6:00 pm, his work for the day complete, Small left his office and bought a newspaper from a street vendor. Turning up the velvet collar on his jacket, he disappeared into the cold night, never to be seen again. In the years to come, the vanishing of Ambrose Joseph Small would become one of Toronto's most sensational mysteries and one of its most enduring unsolved crimes — if indeed it was a crime at all.

Apparently city officials have been watching too much "Who Wants to be a Millionaire?" because they have just presented CUPE 416 with their so-called final offer and told to "take it or leave it."

CUPE has decided to go with the latter, according to local president Mark Ferguson, who says the offer "basically guts [their] collective agreement."

In 1798, John Sullivan, an illiterate Irish immigrant new to the town of York, was on a drinking spree with his friend Flannery, nicknamed "Latin Mike" for his habit of reciting quotations he had learned in church. During a spirited drinking bout, Flannery forged a note for three shillings and ninepence (less than a dollar) under the name "Fisk" and persuaded Sullivan to hand it in to the bank.

Successful, the pair spent the money on whisky at a local bar, but when they were found out Flannery fled town leaving his friend to take the fall. Sullivan was tried, convicted and hanged from a makeshift rig on King Street opposite Toronto Street where a crowd of people in their best clothes had turned out to witness the spectacle. When he finally swung from the gallows — a poorly tied knot failed to kill him the first time — John Sullivan became the first recorded person to be executed in the town of York.

Although Gordon Chong's report on the feasibility of the Sheppard subway extension won't go before the City's executive committee until February 13, excerpts revealed by the Toronto Sun indicate that the project is "doable" (or "do-able," as some would put it). That's mildly surprising given the reticence of the private sector to fund subway expansion in the past. So what's the catch?