Adam Giambrone is leaving municipal politics. The (scandal-embroiled) city councilor won't be running for re-election in Ward 18, essentially ending his short but mostly successful political career in Toronto. Maybe he'll fall back on archeology? Kevin Beaulieu, Giambrone's current executive assistant, intends to run for the city hall seat in Ward 18, and Giambrone may choose to enter provincial or federal politics a few years from now.

There's been a huge drop in Toronto hospital admissions related to heart and lung problems over the course of the last 10 years, and some are directly attributing this to anti-smoking legislation which made it illegal to smoke indoors at restaurants and bars as of 2001. It's hard to believe that so many smart people still choose to smoke cigarettes, but at least now there's some clearly positive results of curbing second-hand smoke deliver to those smart enough to not smoke.

The battle against bad landlords (aka "slumlords") is beginning in Toronto. 100 inspectors are poised to do a once-over and rating of nearly 5,000 rental buildings, with the intention of gathering a list of locations that require dire repairs and improvements. Hopefully change actually comes to the worst of the bunch, and this exhaustive effort proves worth the effort and money.

The University of Toronto is about to reveal a new "School of Global Affairs," thanks to a massive $35-million donation from gold-miner Peter Munk and a $25-million injection from the provincial government. Its home will be at the former Meteorological Service of Canada building at Devonshire Place and Bloor, and will feature an electronic sign that broadcasts the world's news.

And the folks up in the 500s were in usual rowdy form, but seemingly tempered by 1hour-plus long lineups for beer, as the Jays hosted Chicago at the 2010 season home opener at SkyDome. Lowlight of the night was when a fight broke out in section 534, and a guy responded to crowd's "throw the shoe!" chant by throwing his shoe at fans three rows below. Toward the end of game, which the Jays lost 8-7 in 11 innings, paper airplane squadrons begin sorties from the upper deck as crowd chanted "you suck, Rios!"

Photo: "Sailing" by Andrey Zhukov, member of the blogTO Flickr pool.