Happy New Year! Let's make this as easy reading as possible so as to save all those bleary eyes out there on this first day of 2011.

Apparently Toronto's homicide cops aren't doing quite as good a job as they once were. Although the homicide rate was about average in 2010 -- 60 victims in total -- the "clearance rate" (number that were solved) dropped to only 26. "We are struggling to solve murders," admitted an anonymous detective. So if your New Year's resolution was to eliminate someone, chances are decent that you'll get away with it.

The Toronto Public Library may be forced to close a branch in 2011 on account of not receiving the 3.3 per cent budgetary increase they had requested back in November. The City has offered only two per cent, which means that the Urban Affairs branch at Metro Hall might be closing shop. A vote on January 6 will ultimately decide its fate.

How's this for a misleading headline. "'Majority' want to dump bag tax" -- so reads an article in the Toronto Sun that notes in its body that "Ford's spokesman Adrienne Batra said Friday that the mayor's office had received several calls and e-mails that day about the bag tax.The 'overwhelming majority' of those calls were people urging him to scrap the bag tax." So what does that mean? Three or four people total? Those are some rather liberal scare quotes.

The Post sums up 2010 via its list of under and overachievers, which is a pretty good one. In the former column go Mike Layton, Light Rail Transit, George Smitherman, Chris Bosh, the AGO and LG Fashion Week. In the latter column go Rob Ford, the dude who threw waffles at the Leaf game, CP24, the Regent Park revitalization, the TIFF Bell Lightbox and summer.

IN BRIEF

Canada no longer perfect.
Woman charged in alleged abduction of newborn.
Our year in review photo post.

Photo enedkl in the blogTo Flickr pool.