Yahoo will hire Web whiz kid Scott Thompson to lead the fight against Google and Facebook. Yahoo has been run by interim CEO and former Chief Financial Officer Tim Morse. Thompson has been running PayPal, the online payments unit of eBay, since early 2008, and was previously its chief technology officer. PayPal processed $29 billion in payments in the third quarter of 2011.

Police say they’re treating the death on Airdrie Rd. on New Year’s Day as a homicide. The victim has been identified as 46-year-old Lisa Lebitka who had rented the home for about two years. She is said to have been an interior designer. Ms. Libitka  lived at 211 Airdrie with her three children and a boyfriend.  A man is in custody but his identity has not been confirmed.  This morning media satellite vehicles dotted the street as they prepared to broadcast into the noontime newscasts.  

A police car and the police identification unit sat outside the modest semi-detached home which was the focus of investigation. The address is on Airdrie Rd just north of Heath Road. As reported in the post below, a man is in custody following the discovery of a woman’s body in the home. Neighbors are deeply shocked. They spoke of a domestic argument.  It appears police came to the home Sunday around 4 p.m. It is not clear how or by whom they were called. The Toronto Sun and the Toronto Star have published a photograph of a door and porch of a home which is part of a semi-detached residence at 211 Airdrie Rd..  According to a story in the Star neighbours said Lisa Lebitka, 45, was renting the home, where she lived with her boyfriend, known to them as Paul, her three young children from a previous marriage and their golden retriever, Bella.

Just before Christmas, Larry Vander Schaaf, writing in Canada Free Press (online) noted a change in the greeting at Tim Hortons. It is a distinct move away from cordial service. Vander Schaaf says Hortons has eliminated the greeting “Hi, welcome to Tim Hortons, my name is Sally, how can I help you?” In its place is the cold (but naturally much shorter) “Sally speaking”.  Ugh. Vander Schaaf first thought the change was a bone-headed decision from American management. But he tells the South Bayview Bulldog it was really a bone-headed decision by Canadian management. Either way, it moves Tim Hortons a step away from the warm place that Canadians have come to expect.

If you are worrying about your personal debt, it’s very likely that you’ve also made a resolution to get it under control. That’s the word from CIBC  which has polled a sample of average Canucks and found they are vowing to get back into the black. That’s good.  Speaking of the black, let’s hope we don’t have too much of the lights-out kind here in Toronto. Many engineers and union bodies are saying the province is not addressing the need to re-build Toronto Hydro’s infrastructure. They say we’re heading for a crisis. Given the number of planned power plants that have arbitrarily been cancelled during election campaigns, that prediction seems fairly believable. As to Mayor Ford, the Toronto Star has run a story saying there was a call to 911 on Christmas morning from his mother-in-law. She claimed Mr Ford had been drinking and was trying to take his kids to Florida without his wife’s permission.  Police say they find no evidence of physical abuse and there is no corroboration that the mayor drinks to excess. What does this story say about Ford?  Maybe that he has a very busy mother-in-law. What does it say about the Star?