Although he might not have needed it, Ford received the blessing of Clayton Ruby yesterday to seek a temporary stay of a judge's decision to remove him from office until his formal appeal can be heard in January. Ruby was the lawyer who represented Paul Madger, the Toronto citizen who brought the case against Ford, who could have appealed against a stay in a hearing scheduled for Wednesday.

In a joint statement, Ruby and Magder said their decision was made "to give the city of Toronto a measure of stability." The pair didn't rule out opposing Ford's appeal itself. Is this a fair move by Ruby and Magder?

Over at Spacing, John Lorinc discusses the merits of council appointing a mayor from within over holding a costly byelection should Ford lose an appeal. Among the benefits: having council's most polarizing figure out of the way when it comes to discussing new ways of paying for transit expansion. Do you agree with him?

TTC CEO Andy Byford is asking manufacturer Bombardier to explain why Toronto's Rocket subway trains are malfunctioning. In a meeting scheduled for Friday, Byford will hopefully find out what can be done to remedy an electrical problem that requires the new trains to be removed from service if the doors fail to close three times.

Like it or not, more GO Transit riders will be railroaded into using Presto cards in January as Metrolinx plans to eliminate its monthly paper fares in the new year. Riders resisting conversion to electronic fares say they're concerned about the card's reliability. In other GO news, fares will increase by roughly 5 per cent in February.

The Masonic Temple at Yonge and Davenport is unlikely to become condos, according to the Toronto Star. Protected features on the interior and exterior and condos on the neighboring properties make the site unsuitable for adaptive reuse or demolition. Bell Media, the owners of the building, is moving its current tenants, MTV Canada, out.

Toronto's most prolific parking enforcement officer has pulled in nearly $4 million, that's 97,265 tickets over five years by catching illegally parked cars in Forest Hill and North Toronto. For his non-stop effort, Zulfiqar Khimani earns over $100,000 a year.

Finally, here's a link to Universe, a 1960 documentary set at the David Dunlap Observatory in Richmond Hill that takes the viewer on a tour of the solar system and, you guessed it, the universe using some pretty imaginative interpretations of planetary surfaces (this was pre-moon landing and Voyager program, of course.) There's also some neat, albeit brief, scenes of downtown Toronto.

IN BRIEF:

• Fake Viagra, dog fur-stuffed toys seized in $3M bust [CBC]
• Councillor Ana Bailao's drunk driving case in court Dec. 17 [The Star]
• 'Booze can' shooting victim identified [CBC]
• Woman, 89, dies after Avenue and Lawrence collision [CBC]

Chris Bateman is a staff writer at blogTO. Follow him on Twitter at @chrisbateman.

Photo: "109. Rust Ride" by enfys photography in the blogTO Flickr pool.