Photo: "Fractured Streetcars" by blogTO Flickr pooler PDPhotography.

Your morning news roundup for Wednesday December 19th, 2007:

Recall the recently averted Go Transit strike? Yesterday the union rejected the tentative deal, and the threat of the empire striking back is once again real. Strike or strike not. There is no try.

It takes some real criminal guts to steal a police officer's badge and wallet, but it does happen now and then. While a bunch of cops were playing hockey, someone swiped their stuff. Good thing is wasn't officer John McClane's stuff - he wouldn't let anyone get away with it.

Some people are dealing with excess gas (chew your food well and eat less carbs, folks), while others can't seem to find any gas. A number of gas stations in the GTA are out of fuel, apparently due to the big storm this weekend. Hopefully the problem doesn't get worse, making it even harder to find the spice melange.

Police have made an arrest related to "insider" vendor lottery fraud. The arrest comes 9 months after the CBC exposed the problem, and after the suspect ate 389 lobsters, took 3 trips around the world, and built a custom mansion with an indoor racetrack for the two new Ferraris (I made most of this up). No word yet as to whether or not the suspect's name is Brewster.

The TTC is in agreement that any new light rail streetcars purchased be 25% Canadian-built. This is the second good news story coming from the TTC in recent weeks, the first being the return of free rides and extended service on New Year's Eve. It's a little more difficult to hate the TTC today, but I'm sure most Torontonians will manage to muster it up by this evening when they learn that if their subway drops under 50mph bad things will happen.

Bonus points to the first reader to name all 5 movies referenced.