Photo: "in the same vein" by blogTO Flickr pooler gingerbugjones.

Your morning news roundup for Tuesday April 8th, 2008:

Yesterday Mayor Miller began his broader campaign/quest for a nationwide handgun ban by using the series of virtual tubes that are the Internets. A YouTube video plea, a Facecrack group, and an online petition all aim to push Ottawa to ban something that's... already banned, no?

A couple of sword-yielding wannabe ninjas didn't need handguns to burst into a bank and get away with an undisclosed sum of money. Police dogs were able to help officers find their 3-foot long swords, but the faster-than-lightning ninjas possess real ultimate power and are hence still on the loose.

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That itch might require more than a scratch. Going to an east end hospital and/or Walmart may have earned you more than a physical and everyday low prices. An outbreak of the measles has Toronto Public Health running immunization clinics today and tomorrow to help curb the problem.

In arts news, Luminato festival organizers are talking about long-term planning and intend to bank $15-million for the future. Hopefully this doesn't mean that this year's festival will be extra skimpy.

Toronto may see future residential developments equipped with central vacuum - on a much larger scale than what we're used to seeing though. Waterfront Toronto is looking to the city for support for a suction-powered, futuristic, combined household waste removal and energy renewal system. It's not often that it's this easy to definitively state that an idea sucks.