The Toronto Public Library board is apparently rejecting Rob Ford's budgetary ideology and instead asking for a 3.3-per-cent or $5.51-million increase in funding over last year. The library board is the first of Toronto's major agencies, boards and commissions to pass a budget request since Ford was elected. They always say it's the quiet ones you have to look out for.

The Ontario Provincial Police has agreed to hand over documents that the Liberals hope will show extreme spending during the G8 and G20 summits by former Police Chief Julian Fantino, who is running for the Conservatives in a bitter by-election race in Vaughan. The Conservatives have been keeping Fantino from public venues, like Tuesday's debate, to avoid missteps that could diminish his lead. Liberals were quick to label Mr. Fantino's absence "a stinging rebuke to all the people of Vaughan who showed up and for him to think he's above basic democracy and doesn't need to answer to the citizens he's running to represent." See story above.

Ferne Sinkins, the Toronto Humane Society board member who had 50 sickly cats seized from her home, has decided to take a leave of absence. Michael Downey, president of the THS, made the announcement about Sinkins Wednesday evening. The decision came before the board of directors was to discuss her fate in an emergency conference call. After all the controversy in the last year, I wonder if they call it the Cat Phone now.

As we know from the "Police Academy" and "Naked Gun" movies, there can never be enough police hi-jinks; there's always room for a sequel (and another one after that...) Luckily, journalist Derek Finkle concludes his "Toronto Police Farce" today with part two. In the finale, police detective Garry Carter reveals what he believes to be the real reason the biggest mob sting in Canadian history had a premature fate: to keep the investigation of Susan Eng from ever becoming public.

Toronto architects have been honoured for turning a Saudi wasteland into a park. The planning and architecture firm won the Aga Khan Award for Architecture for the sweeping transformation of a once-polluted Saudi waterway into a system of parks in the heart of the desert, using a system of bio-remediation.

In Brief:

• Leafs play-off chances slim.
• What's the deal with the new TTC board?
• To Bieber or Not To Bieber...that is the question.

Photo by ZensLens in the blogTO Flickr pool.