If you have New Year's plans in New York, you can rest easy: flights to the Big Apple and area are following a normal schedule as of this morning. Despite the improved flight schedule, both Porter and Air Canada recommend passengers check with their airlines before arriving for their flights, in particular those heading to New York

Remember those old textbooks you used to get at school? They came with highlighted and dog-eared pages, and had a number of names and years scratched out on the front cover--that is if they even had a front cover. Well, the Toronto District School Board is looking to change that by moving to digital textbooks as early as 2011. Trustee Michael Coteau's motion to reduce costs spent on printed textbooks was recently approved, which could save the board up to $100 million in the next decade by going digital.

For Toronto Constable Scott Mills, graffiti means opportunity. As the police services legal graffiti art co-ordinator, his beat is actually just anywhere the spray paint goes, including Broadcast Lane in Cabbagetown. Broadcast Lane used to be completely "bombed" - covered in rapid-fire graffiti by quick-handed vandals. With Constable Mills's lead, business owners agreed to have their back walls turned into murals to detract from unwanted graffiti tags. Code within the underground world dictates that to 'tag over' is to disrespect, and for the past four years, the program's been working.

Tired of "Rob Ford and 2010" retrospectives? Then how about "Rob Ford and 2011" prospectives? The National Post looks at what's on the agenda for our mayor in the new year, which includes: the budget (Ford has asked his staff to name a "priority item" they wish to protect); land transfer tax; banning transit strikes (it's now up to the provincial government to declare the TTC an essential service); Transit City; the waterfront; police; and the Lawrence Heights redevelopment.

IN BRIEF:

• Toronto foodies talk about getting their buzz on
• Leafs lose to Canes
• Big theatre productions headed to Toronto

Photo by squirrel brand in the blogTO Flickr pool.