Mark Saunders, 57, has been given a dignified farewell to the Toronto Police Service as he retired as chief. Then, with 671 new cases in a single day, the southern Australian State of Victoria (population merely six million) has declared an 8 p.m. curfew in a desperate battle against COVID-19. Below that, the rather astonishing case of a Peel Region father who lost custody of his daughter Tatiana but was given permission to take her to France. Go figure. You can guess what happened. Finally, time may be ticking away for Tik Tok, the China-based app that is now a pawn in US-Beijing rivalry.

Gary Brian notes that thunder-banger scared the beegeebers out of Walle.

Good booming Sunday. It was a lively hour or so just after 9 a.m. Reports indicate that there is a difficult outage still ongoing at noon near Don Mills and York Mills Rds. Moore Park and possibly related areas had a brief blackout about 9.20 a.m. Very brief. Paul Landolt started a lively thread at Leaside Facebook by declaring: “Now THAT was a cool-sounding slab of thunder!” Some comments noted frightened pups.

Toronto recorded just nine new cases of COVID-19 in the 24-hour period ending at midnight. Overall, the province saw 116 new cases, a figure in line with the generally declining (but still present) threat of the infection. Ottawa reported 16 new cases, Peel Region reported 14, York Region 20 and Windsor-Essex 13.

This will certainly be a long weekend to remember for at least one Lotto Max player in Thornhill, OntarioThe lone winning ticket for Friday night’s whopping $70 million jackpot was sold in the community just north of Toronto. The Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation says this is the third time the maximum jackpot has been won in Ontario. The draw also offered 18 Maxmillions prizes of $1 million each, and six of them were won, including one which will be split by two ticket holders. The winning tickets for those prizes were sold in Ontario, Quebec, the Prairies and British Columbia. The jackpot for the next Lotto Max draw on Aug. 4 will be approximately $26 million — Canadian Press

The City says that it’s 50 Automated Speed Enforcement (ASE) cameras issued a total of 7,645 tickets between July 6 and 20, 2020, the first two weeks following the start of issuing tickets. Some 890 of these were sent to drivers unfortunate to fly down the four-lane speedway known as Renforth Drive in Etobicoke. The camera there is at Lafferty St. between Michael Power High School and Hollycrest Middle School.

Wrongly programmed cameras sent fines for driving under limit

The City release also says that the company programming the ASE cameras made a mistake with two of them. It set the limit at 30 km/hr in a 40 km/hr zone. Funny, but not so funny if you got one of these tickets. Some 299 tickets were withdrawn. The full news release may be seen here.

Giant bulb at corner of Glen Rd and Summerhill Ave will remove half the southbound lane

The City is building a large bulb in the curb at the southwest corner of Glen Rd. and Summerhill Ave. It’s apparently part of the Vision Zero scheme to make things safer for pedestrians. But the new alignment takes the curb well out into what was the southbound lane. Vehicles will now apparently creep by each other at crawl speed when entering or leaving Glen. In March, The Bulldog published pictures of road narrowing at intersections to the south. It seems Glen Rd. is being re-made in North Rosedale possibly through ratepayer petition, but that is speculation. This work also raises questions about the much wider intersection a block away at Douglas Drive and Summerhill, a frequent short cut for drivers heading to Glen Road south.

The corner as it was

The Ministry of Health reports an uptick of new COVID-19 cases in the context of a whopping test sample of 30,033 in the 24-hour period ending at midnight. It’s a hint of how mega-testing will find stuff that’s otherwise missed. Wednesday and Thursday saw a count of fewer than 100 each. But all indicators seem to show that this round of virus-fighting will be won by the good guys. The world awaits a vaccine.

Summerhill Floral Boutique to close until further notice

Mount Pleasant Village BIA flower poles

Sunflowers in bloom at Longo’s

Wildcats deliver goalie pads to arena

Going, going, gone

The Summerhill Floral Boutique at 1057 Mt. Pleasant Rd. (upper left) will be mothballed at least until the end of the pandemic, says Brad McMullen, head of the grocery chain. The location may re-open as a flower shop depending on where the pandemic goes. At upper right, we see one of the 38 flower poles along the Mount Pleasant Village BIA. The BIA has received a public art grant in the amount of $33,500 to give the poles a painted vignette by 38 different Toronto artists, all according to a theme. More to come as plans get finalized. Further down we see magnificent sunflowers in bloom at Longo’s. Bottom left, those gritty Leaside Wildcats are gearing up with newly-cleaned and repaired goalie pads for a 2021 season, fingers crossed. Finally at the bottom right is the forlorn Sunnybrook Plaza as captured by Rudy Limeback.

Patrick Cardinal/Canadian International Air Show

Royal Canadian Air Force CF-18, United States Air Force F-16 and KC-135 pilots practiced response procedures in high-density airspace over the GTA Wednesday. Many heard their presence. The exercises ensure NORAD forces remain ready to respond to aerospace threats 24/7 anywhere in Canada and the United States. Photo: Patrick Cardinal/CIAS

Education Minister Stephen Lecce addresses media at live event

Ministers of the Ontario government are outlining details of the 2020 return-to-school online Thursday. Among the information so far is a plan to have children in Grade Four and up wear masks and high school kids in the GTA attend class on alternating days. The news conference continued at 1.30 p.m. and may be seen at the CBC.

Businesses in Toronto are finally permitted to re-open this weekend. For many, this means allowing patrons inside the premises. But that’s still likely to require entry by appointment only in order to ensure distancing.