Photo: "hat man" by torontocitylife, member of the blogTO Flickr pool.

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

The Ingram Transfer Station has been accepting garbage 24/7 since the strike began but with the unions slowing down access, some people have just been (illegally) dumping their waste outside the boundaries of the facility. The unions have blocked city attempts to clear the trash bags but now the province is blocking the union and letting the city safely clear up the garbage pile. Hopefully it's a perpetual injunction as it won't take long for the pile to re-form if the strike goes on another 3 weeks.

The show must go on! Caribana organizers are working to make sure the city strike and one of Toronto's biggest summer festivals mesh well: Tomorrow's launch will be moved to Yonge-Dundas Square, there may be two other venue changes, and the festival will need to hire cleanup crews. CBC Metro Morning Friday host Matt Galloway asked one festival organizer if the unions will picket certain events. The answer was an unconvincing 'no,' but how do you picket something like Caribana? I say let loose, join the party, and sign a deal.

Kristian Thanapalan was just a 23 year old who wanted to study at York U and play volleyball in the wee hours Friday night (Saturday morning), but as many as 25 other guys had another plan: beat Thanapalan to death with baseball and cricket bats. If police can make any more sense of this than me they're not saying anything... at least until their press conference later today.

Ouch. 9. Ouch. 1. Ouch. 1. That's about how it must have gone for the 28 year-old who fell into the well of a container car at the CP rail yard and found himself dragged 6 kilometres as he called the police. The mind boggles at the thought of how this would happen, but it starts to come into focus when you realize alcohol played a crucial role. Of course, so did the doctor who reattached the man's foot. I guess it's all the more reason not to drink in rail yards.

Hot damn, some good news for a change. This really is the good shit: new research findings suggest swearing does a body good. It seems dropping an 'f-bomb' helps reduce pain (tell that to the guy dragged by a train!), but The Star can't quite connect the value of John Baird's recent 'fuck off' comment.

Lots of stuff going on last weekend. Perhaps most ironic was the 10th birthday party at the CN Tower for SpongeBob SquarePants. The city could use a good sponge bath right now, and again after the garbage is collected.