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Morning Brew: Rob Ford crack video dealer is in jail, Holyday takes Etobicoke, Hunter wins in Scarborough, TTC prepares to close King and Spadina, and free cats

One of the men who offered to sell the Toronto Star a copy of the alleged Rob Ford crack video was arrested as part of the series of raids in north Etobicoke dubbed Operation Traveller, the paper says. The home of 27-year-old Mohamed Siad, who used the street name "Soya," was searched by police during the raid but it's not clear whether the alleged video was recovered. He's in segregation after being stabbed in prison while waiting to face drug and gun charges. Do you think a video will ever surface?

Doug Holyday is Queen's Park bound. The Etobicoke-Lakeshore byelection candidate and now former deputy mayor edged out fellow councillor Peter Milczyn last night to give the PC's their first Toronto seat since 1999. The unofficial Elections Canada result has Holyday with 16,130 votes to Milczyn's 14,513. It's expected Cllr. Norm Kelly will take over from Holyday as Rob Ford's deputy.

In Scarborough-Guildwood, the Liberal's Mitzie Hunter appears to have retained the transit-dominated seat for her party. Hunter declared herself a "subway champion" for the election, despite previously backing an LRT for Scarborough. NDP candidate and former TTC Chair Adam Giambrone is projected a distant third. Are you surprised by the results?

The driver of the streetcar at the centre of the Sammy Yatim shooting video it taking time off to recover from the trauma of last Friday's events. Chad Seymour was praised for his actions as the standoff unfolded, calling central control, opening all the doors, and remaining on the vehicle until all the passengers had exited as protocol dictates. The TTC is also considering retiring the streetcar's registration number - 4058 - for fear of it becoming an icon.

Get ready for traffic mayhem. The TTC is closing King and Spadina to all vehicular traffic Tuesday for a period of two weeks while construction crews replace the complex tangle of streetcar tracks. Like Spadina and Queen, which was closed last June, King and Spadina is a "grand union," a four-way intersection. The road is expected to open August 20.

Finally, it's free kitty weekend at City of Toronto animal shelters. Residents can claim a sterilized, micro-chipped, vet-checked, de-wormed and vaccinated moggy without having to pay the normal $75 adoption fee. As a bonus for cat lovers, a new bylaw allows up to six felines per home, up from three.

IN BRIEF:

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

Image: twurdemann/blogTO Flickr pool.


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