Photo: "Felines" by Lyndsay Jobe, member of the blogTO Flickr pool.

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

1050chum.com now redirects to cp24.com. It's bye bye oldies on AM 1050 and hello news radio [NP], but so far I'm not impressed about one critical aspect - there's no "listen live" link to be found on the site! Without streaming the radio station on the web, CP24 is missing out on a huge number of potential listeners. Like most people, I probably won't hear the new station until and unless I get into my car. So far reviews are mixed. How this will affect 680news ratings will be interesting to observe.

While print newspapers the world over are collapsing, one Toronto-based paper is seeing a huge (almost 12%) increase in its readership. The Toronto Sun toots its own horn, after surveys indicate some significant gains [Sun]. My theory? With all the loses in blue-collar jobs, perhaps it's the Sun's help wanted section (and not their stellar news coverage) that's driving the increase.

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Despite ongoing economic woes, the transformation of the waterfront's Queen's Quay/Bayfront is forging forward [Star]. Yesterday a more pedestrian-friendly redesign was unveiled, which is likely to please the public (so long as it doesn't severely compromise vehicle traffic).

Here's an idea the average Joe/Jane can get behind. To make up for huge budget shortfalls, instead of raising Toronto property taxes by the proposed 4%, raise them by half that and make up the rest by freezing salaries of unionized civic workers [G&M]. Something tells me this will never happen.

A rather interesting student activity for a sex education class in a small Ontario town has parents and educators debating [G&M] where the lines should be drawn. As part of the curriculum in the class, 14-year old boys were instructed to go to a pharmacy, buy condoms, and then come back and fit them on a wooden penis. This activity goes against one parent's own wishes to have her son practice abstinence until he's married. I can count the number of guys I know that have waited for marriage to have sex on... exactly... umm... zero fingers.