Photo: "Soar!" by gardinergirl, member of the blogTO Flickr pool.

What's happening in the GTA (and sometimes beyond):

February's national job loss numbers are terrible, with Ontario leading the way. The national jobless rate now stands at 7.7%, and it's not just manufacturing jobs that are being rocked by the ongoing downturn - professsional, scientific, trade, and education sectors are being heavily affected as well.

The fate of every ash tree in the city or Toronto (or as many as 6% of all trees in the city) is in question, if the seemingly unstoppable emerald ash borer beetle isn't made stoppable.

ZING! It happens to every city blogger eventually... and Posted Toronto's Rob Roberts Peter Kuitenbrouwer raises some good points in a succinct diatribe about our (less and less loved and more and more loathed) transit system. Is the TTC a bloated bureaucracy, incapable of avoiding yet another fare increase?

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A long, complicated, multi-jurisdiction police chase went down yesterday and ended with a couple of tow truck drivers (who had been listening in on their scan radios) being lauded as heros. Would you take on a frantic, fleeing, 6-foot 280-lb man?

ZOMGF TMZ! It would appear that the Toronto Star is now in the paparazzi business. Today's exclusive front page story (online right now, anyhow) is a "rare glimpse" of an elusive police officer who is being charged with sex harassment. The story details their quest to track him down, and comes with a stalker style photo with a giant copyright watermark. Umm... what?

Layoffs of workers at the newly renovated Art Gallery of Ontario may be in the cards in the not-too-distant future. A significant drop in visitors and corporate bookings is leaving the gallery feeling pressures to cut costs.

And happy Friday the 13th, original style: