Dollarama has told investors and the public that it will soon up prices to 4$ on some items and that it is netting more than 49% of its business with the Interac card. Dollarama is also conducting a trial run of credit cards at some stores in British Columbia. The low price retailer has been a long-standing hold-out to the use of Visa and MasterCard (much less American Express) in its stores. The rationale has always been that it would only cannibalize cash business. The most interesting insight might be how much business formerly done with cash is now done with Interac and other debit cards. That is, has Interac grown business much. Annual same store sales grew by 7.3 annually. It is a tough guess but the answer to that question might be “quite a bit.”  More interesting stuff about Dollarama in Toronto Star story.

Reports Friday say  that Tesla has persuaded 115,000 would-be owners of the company’s Model 3 car to plunk down $1,000 for the opportunity to do that. That would seem to translate into a tidy $115 million. As to the car itself, it was unveiled last night in California to much romantic lighting and not a lot of information. Although, the CEO, Elon Musk, says the car will get 215 miles per charge and that he is “fairly confident” it will be available by 2017  Consumerist 

The Danforth will be closed for all or most of Sunday, April 3, 2016 between approximately Euston Ave (near Jones Ave) over to Broadview Ave. The 2016 Greek Independence Day Parade will form up at Eastern Commerce Collegiate Institute, 16 Phin Avenue, at 11 a.m.  It will proceed northbound at about 1 p.m. on Euston Avenue, and then westbound on Danforth to Broadview. Police add that motorists can expect delays in the area and should consider alternate methods of transportation. The TTC may experience delays. The parade will take place regardless of weather conditions which are predicted as chilly (minus 1) with the possibly of light snow..

CNN’s Jeanne Moose on especially thoughtless ponytail dumped in fellow passenger’s lap. Photo was snapped, posted and had gone viral before the flight landed.

It is an April 1st morning in which an electrical bummed out the Bloor-Danforth subway line (Line 2) but the service was restored by 9 a.m. TTC reports. .The 6.30 a.m. incident is in hand but there is no power and buses are running between Broadview and Victoria Park stations.

In Hackensack New Jersey an innocent driver is dead after a speeding police cruiser hit the car broadside The officer in the car was speeding to the chase of a motorcyclist who had refused to stop. In fact, the biker was apprehended in a separate incident and tonight some are asking about the wisdom of this chase.

City council has voted 36 to 5 to redevelop the Gardiner Expressway on the specifications of the Hybrid Plan. The rather overwhelming detail of the project is made a bit clearer by the points below. This was the plan which was only narrowly accepted by council last summer. Politically, it seems like an enormous win for Mayor Tory, who last year adopted the Hybrid as the way to go  Some Councillors seemed to reflect exhaustion and inevitability. Councillors Pam McConnel and Kristyn Wong-Tam voted reluctantly in favour, as no doubt did others. The stretch of roadway in question is 1.7-km long and contains these elements:

• Maintains elevated stretch of the Gardiner Expressway west of the Don Valley Parkway.
• The elevated deck would need to be replaced.
• Existing on and off ramps east of the Don River that extend to Logan Avenue would be demolished.
• East of the Don River, Lake Shore Boulevard East would be reconstructed into a six-lane, tree-lined boulevard.
• Drivers would be able to get on or off the Gardiner on new ramps built between the Don River and Cherry Street.
• Construction would take about six years total; up to a year and a half of road detours would be required.
• Ninety per cent of commuter trip times would remain more or less unchanged but some trips from the east will  take an estimated three to five minutes longer than if the
• Gardiner remained unchanged.
• Cost: About $414 million up front in capital costs and $505 million for operations and maintenance over the anticipated 100-year lifecycle.

The Medical Express website reports on the revealing work of Dr. Tim Stockwell at the University of Victoria’s Department of Addiction. It shows an amazing amount of methodological fudging in studies that suggest moderate drinking is good for you. These studies — dozens of them — compare life expectancy among such drinkers with abstainers but forget to mention that the abstainer group is full of people who are essentially fatally ill. They’ve stopped drinking because of their critical condition. Take those ill people out of the abstainer group and it is clear that the best results are achieved by those who simply leave  booze alone. Now, have you got a nice Merlot by the glass?

Interesting story about Rogers decision to free SportsNet from the monthly paid business confines of cable and let it run in the wilds of uncharted streaming. The tale is animated in tones of a wager on the future of broadcasting and wired entertainment. Globe and Mail

Most people are probably able to keep their excitement about the Tesla Model 3 down to a thumping heart and a sweaty brow. But hundreds more are so keyed up that they are standing in line at the Tesla dealership in Yorkdale Mall and another on Lawrence Ave. E. to plunk down $1,000 for the right to buy one in two years from now. Truth is stranger than fiction. An electric car no one has seen being ordered while engineers wonder if it is indeed able to meet half of the hype. You will even have to stay up late to see it unveiled tonight because the event is in Hawthorne, California. You can live-stream the event on Tesla’s website, starting at 11:30 p.m. South Bayview Daylight Saving Time. That’s only 10.30 if you are still on Leaside Standard Time. Good luck to all.

A pit bull has been shot dead by police as it held a child by the throat and bit the boy several times during an attack in Scarborough Wednesday night. The attack occurred at Conlins Road and Good Road near Morningside and Highway 401. Police responded to the scene and found the dog still holding the child. Paramedics said when they were called to the scene they found a child with multiple bites to the body. The child was taken to a local hospital suffering from serious but non-life-threatening injuries.