Mayoral candidate Rocco Rossi unveiled his "Transit City Plus" strategy for dealing with Toronto's worsening public transit crisis. He believes that by eliminating the city's debt through the sale of assets such as Toronto Hydro, and by adopting a "continuous tunneling" method to avoid start/stop costs, we could work on expanding our subway system rather than relying exclusively on a cumbersome LRT network. He feels that adding 2km of subway tunnel and track and one station per year, starting on the Sheppard East line, is doable.

While it's not native to these parts and certainly not accustomed to such cold waters, there's a crocodile on the loose in a pond at Barangas On The Beach near Hamilton...and so far it's managed to avoid capture by animal conservationists from the Indian River Reptile Zoo. They think it was set free by its (delinquent) owner, but clearly it can't remain free to roam and surprise/chomp unsuspecting nature enthusiasts or their pets.

In what was a massive crackdown on gangs in Toronto and Ottawa, over 1000 officers raided over 100 locations early yesterday morning. Guns, body armour, drugs, jewels, and money were seized and so far 71 people have been arrested. Police are convinced that their efforts put a huge dent in the operations of rivals gangs in the northwest part of the city (the Falstaff Crips and Five Points Generals) and will reduce gun crime in those areas significantly.

While Shoppers and Rexall are warning that proposed changes to provincial regulations concerning drug company payments to pharmacists will result in 10% revenue losses and necessary cuts to services, Loblaw is singing a different tune. The grocer giant is seemingly seizing the opportunity and revealing plans to expand their inclusion of pharmacies in their stores and offer extended hours.

And the Toronto Sun is attempting to play fair and balanced today, posting a one/two good news/bad news punch regarding TTC customer service. The good news: a TTC bus driver is being hailed as a good Samaritan after she helped a distressed pedestrian in need. The bad news: another driver is being investigated after practicing very poor judgment and refusing to give an elderly passenger a transfer mid-trip (resulting in the 67-year old man having to walk from his transfer point).

Photo "Bacon is Life" by *Lemur*, member of the blogTO Flickr pool.