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Morning Brew: Ford met with Lisi during work hours, Deputy Mayor calls for "a pause," how the crack video surfaced, and protestors and a WWF star hit City Hall

Rob Ford met with suspected drug dealer Sandro Lisi at least 10 times while he was on the clock at City Hall, according to court documents. On Aug. 12 the pair met in the parking lot of an Etobicoke high school as councillors at City Hall criticized his drunken behaviour at Taste of the Danforth. None of the details in the papers have been proven in court.

Deputy Mayor Norm Kelly told Rob Ford he needs to "take a pause" and temporarily step aside as mayor. Kelly told Ford he could "protect his family, himself health-wise, his political career and the vitality of his administration" during a private meeting yesterday afternoon. Ford spent the day guiding students around his office and did not speak publicly.

Star reporter Robyn Doolittle will release her book on the life and times of Rob Ford in Feb. and it's promising new revelations about Toronto's chief magistrate and his family. Before that book hits the shelves, Doolittle has written the most detailed account yet of how reporters from the paper viewed the crack video.

Just when things seemed to have reached a surreal nadir at City Hall, the Iron Sheik showed up to challenge Rob Ford to an arm wrestle. The former WWF star, who has had his own struggles with cocaine, posted a video on Instagram calling the mayor a "son of a bitch" and vowing to "break [his] fucking back." Yikes. Hossein Khosrow Ali Vaziri, to use his real name, left after a brief media scrum without meeting Ford.

In Nathan Phillips Square, a group of protestors wrote chalk messages and handed out free gravy from a coffee urn. This guy, however, summed up the feeling perfectly with his sign.

Rob Ford took a group of school kids on a tour around his office yesterday. The group stopped to look at the fish tank and the scales from the mayor's failed "Cut the Waist" challenge as Ford blew a kiss to the gathered media. "Forever sorry."

Doug Ford is talking about the scandal surrounding his brother affected him. "When my father died, I knew it was coming because he had cancer and there was time. But this came out of nowhere," he said in the Sun. He said he had "the chills" the night after Ford made his big revelation. "I am exhausted," he said.

Finally, Newsweek has an interesting theory about how Rob Ford is able to keep his job while being an admitted crack user - he's a "cultural adventurer." "Rob Ford has jumped this cultural divide. He ventured into a black neighborhood to use a black drug with black men."

IN BRIEF:

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

Image: Jack Landau/blogTO Flickr pool.


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