Mayor David Miller, several city councillors, and others in the race for the city's top job are blasting candidate Rob Ford for "irresponsible" and "disgusting" remarks he recently made about city council. Specifically, Rob Ford has openly suggested that there's corruption at city hall (referring to the exclusive 20-year contract recently awarded to Tugg's Restaurant, an Ashbridge's Bay boardwalk pub), but he hasn't filed any official complaints or provided any evidence to support his very serious accusations. In related news, polling of decided voters shows Ford widening his lead over George Smitherman.

A warm summer, abandonment, and failure to spay and neuter cats is resulting in a major spike in feral cat populations in Toronto. The City has estimated that there are 20,000 stray cats on our streets, but cat rescue officials peg the number at closer to 100,000 now. 15 years ago, 80% of adoptions from city shelters were canines but now there's been a complete reversal, with 80% of the animals looking for homes being cats. Maybe its time we invite Bob Barker to town, to give us a scolding and teach us some lessons.

Last night a driver ended up travelling eastbound in the westbound lanes of the 401. OPP at Port Credit got the call, but it took them nearly 15 minutes to finally pull the driver over (he managed to drive against traffic from Trafalgar Road all the way to the 427). A 39-year old man is facing charges, including impaired driving and refusing to take a blood alcohol test.

Plans to abandon the large footprint, sprawling "snowflake" design in favour of building a stacked, four-arena sports complex on the waterfront are intriguing. But the revised, cutting-edge design is also going to cost quite a bit more. Pegged at $88 million ($17 million more than the previous design), the debate about whether or not this is money well spent (and questions about where the extra cash will come from) are just beginning.

Police have released a composite sketch of a man being sought for a violent and disturbing attack near Mimico Go Station in south Etobicoke on August 7th. The suspect reportedly struck a woman with a hammer, sexually assaulted her, and fled.

And Happy Friday the 13th!

Photo: "Feline Art Appreciation" by sniderscion, member of the blogTO Flickr pool.

Morning Brew: Rob Ford slammed for making city hall corruption allegations (and widens his lead), wild cat populations in Toronto skyrocketing, wrong way on the 401, portlands hockey arena pricetag is $88M, suspect in violent assault sought