Photo: "Kensington" by Bertrand (Nascimento) Riviere, member of the blogTO Flickr pool.

Your Toronto morning news roundup for Thursday July 17th, 2008:

The Toronto Maple Leafs will be giving away free tickets to a pre-season game in September. This is a good move on their part, since it's become apparent that if you can't afford to show up wearing a designer suit, you can't likely afford to buy a ticket. For one day only, the ACC will actually be filled with the everyday sports fans.

An Ikea showroom will soon be opening at the corner of King and Church. It won't be a traditional store in that you won't pick up your furniture there. Instead you'll order and get delivery (presumably from one of the other locations outside of the downtown core). Looks like Leon's at the roundhouse will have some competition for downtown condo dwellers' particleboard coin.

A trial girls-only sexual education program for grade 7/8 students at a Waterloo school is getting great reviews. The same concept, applied to boys the same age, hasn't even been attempted because even as adults we giggle too much when the topic of sex comes up

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The Hudson Bay Company, Canada's longest running company, has been purchased by a U.S.-based conglomerate. The flagship location south of the Eaton Centre may someday soon include a Zellers and a Lord & Taylor.

The massive Lakeview power plant that was torn down a couple of years ago won't be replaced by a new plant. Could this mean that people will get a park with a lake view instead? That would be much nicer use of the land.

Reader picks for Toronto in the travel section of the New York Times have been published. I can't say much about their hotel recommendations, but their picks for things to do (other than Kensington Pedestrian Sundays) seem a little dry. I also have to wonder if the long journey up to Kenny's Gourmet in Richmond Hill for Chinese food is worth the effort. Anyone ever eaten there, and care to comment?