The South Bayview Bulldog

A Condominium Corporation is suing Freed Developments Ltd. because it led buyers to believe the Six50King building would be decorated inside by Munge Leung Design Associates. It wasn’t  CBC

Sting

Sting will be the feature performer at halftime of the NBA all-star game in Toronto on February 14, 2016, at Air Canada Centre. Cirque du Soleil will perform a routine before the game that illustrates “the story of a basketball dream.” Earlier this month, organizers announced Toronto rapper Drake will coach Canada’s team at the NBA all-star celebrity game on Feb. 12 at the Ricoh Coliseum. The Canadian team includes two-time NBA MVP Steve Nash and Toronto Blue Jays all-star right-fielder Jose Bautista. Comedy star Kevin Hart will coach the U.S. team, which includes actors Michael B. Jordan and Jason Sudeikis.

UNION BROKE LAW WITH PAID SMILES

A Waterloo union local broke the law when it paid 23 members $100 each to stand behind Liberal leader Justin Trudeau and smile when he campaigned here last Sept. 15. In law, that’s like making a $2,300 donation to the Liberal Party. Unions can’t do that. The Canada Elections Act says only citizens and permanent residents can make political donations. “We didn’t know that we were breaking the law,” said Russ Jessop, business manager for United Association Local 527, a union representing plumbers and pipefitters. “We feel bad. But now we know. And we’ll make sure we let everybody else know, now that we know the rules.”

UBER TAKES EDMONTON

Edmonton has legalized Uber. It is the first Canadian City to do so. Under a bylaw to become effective March 1, 2016, Uber can operate legally as long as it gets proper insurance and charges a minimum  total cost of $3.25 or more and the consumer agrees to the price ahead of time. At times of peak demand, prices on the Uber app can double or more. Council declined to put in a maximum, but will revisit the issue again in six months or less, once they have data from the market.

The Moro blood orange is in at Summerhill Market, making it’s celebrated but rather short appearance between January and about April. The sweet, aromatic and deep red citrus carried by Summerhill comes from California’s Imperial Valley where farmers and scientists have been working to create a fruit as famous as the Mediterranean variety. Italy and Spain are important blood orange origins. It is a nice bit of midwinter cheer and The Bulldog can’t resist the packages of pre-sliced blood orange available at Summerhill. You can buy them uncut as well although their skin can be a little thicker and thus harder to peel than conventional oranges.

The concern is for pregnant women and the Zika virus impact on the unborn. But it cannot be contracted from mosquitoes in Canada. CBC

The appearance in recent months of a large sidewalk billboard on the southwest corner outside Tim Horton’s is evidence of a City government that can’t stop spending.  The billboard is purportedly a direction-finding aid of some sort (Mt. Hope Cemetery, Sunnybrook Hospital etc) but nobody believes that. These billboards are about imposing dangerous obstructions on the curb of a busy street just to make a buck. Drivers hurtling south on Bayview (and they do hurtle) are now be able to ponder the glory of the Audi. Motorists may or may not also make a guess whether there’s a pedestrian lurking behind there somewhere.

A thrilling 3-3 match between the Leaside Wildcats and the Toronto Aeros was robbed of 20 seconds of overtime play Wednesday night by the league ice-time curfew. All games in the Provincial Women’s Hockey League must end before or precisely at the 120 minute mark. It’s about money and the cost of ice. In this case the teams were engaged in a furious contest to bag a full two-point victory for their rankings. But with 20 seconds left in the five-minute sudden death period, the curfew buzzer ended things. One issue was a bruising collision between Leaside’s Mariah Hinds and Toronto’s Erin Near midway through the OT period. Both women were badly shaken and lay on the ice for as much as 90 seconds before gamely climbing back onto their blades to the cheers of their friends

LEASIDE’S CATCH UP GAME

After a scoreless first period, Leaside’s Sarah Brooks got her team going with a goal at 5.11 of the second. It was a good start but the Midtown ladies had to employ their catch up game to the very end to get a tie. Toronto’s Blair Allison and Sabrina Repaci both scored in the second to give the Aeros a 2-1 lead as the ice was flooded for the third. The teams came back full of fight for an enjoyable third period with Emma Pye scoring at 12.32, Emma Low-A-Chee scoring for Toronto at 14.31 and Cynthia Cavanagh tying the game at 19.35 of the third as Leaside launched six attackers at the Aeros. Pye and Low-A-Chee both scored on power plays. Birch, Pye and Hinds had assists, Pye twice.  An exciting game and interesting to note that a win here would have tied the Wildcats with the second place Whitby Wolves. All of which is might-have-beens.

A 6-year-old boy walking to school with his mother in New Jersey has been attacked by a raccoon which mauled the child and left deep wounds in his face, according to police and eyewitnesses. Police have the raccoon’s carcass and have ordered rabies tests due back Friday. Raccoon behaviour across Canada is of concern since the discovery of rabid raccoons in Hamilton. The Ontario government is on an aggressive program of feeding bait to raccoons to immunize them. According to witnesses, including the boy’s mother, the raccoon made a direct run at the  boy as he and his mother walked to school. A witness told police the animal ran across the street, jumped on the boy’s back and crawled onto his face Wednesday morning. Police Chief Michael Foligno told local media a man ran over and grabbed the raccoon before beating the animal to death with a stick.

GOOD SAMARITAN

Shannon Lampert made a 911 call after seeing the disturbing attack. “The boy was bleeding,” she said. “It looked like it bit under his eye and bit the side of his face. I just called police.”  Danny Walls, a good Samaritan who was driving by, jumped into action. “I’m coming around the corner from the gas station, I see this lady acting really hysterical,” he said. “She’s jumping around, she’s like ‘somebody help me, somebody help me.’ I thought she was crazy because I didn’t see anything, snow was piled all the way up. When I kinda drove up, maybe about five or six feet away from her, I seen this huge raccoon on top of the kid, and I could see his red jacket.” Walls exited the car with a fiberglass painter’s pole and began to strike the raccoon until it released its grip on the child.

A 69-year-old man has died at St. Michael’s Hospital after a huge truck wheel smashed into the windshield of his SUV on Highway 400. OPP say the accident happened about 9:30 Wednesday morning when the southbound truck lost a set of wheels. They hurtled across the highway into the northbound lanes and struck the SUV.

Good morning

Many residents of Moore Park, Bennington Heights and those in parts of South Leaside heard the sound of Springtime as they woke this sunny Wednesday. No doubt others across the area heard such music as well. These may be birds which don’t go far from here even in harsher weather than the zero degree day forecast for January 27, 2016. It certainly seemed to suit the feathered early risers. Nice and a lot more in touch with what’s happening than the groundhog superstitions yet to come in February.

Authors Ian Hamilton  and R. J. Harlock will be at Sleuth of Baker at 907 Millwood Rd. at Sutherland Drive tomorrow (Thursday January 28, from 6 to 7:30 pm). They will be introducing their newest novels, The Princeling of Nanjing (#8 in Ian’s Ava Lee series) ($19.95) and A Cold White Fear (#7 in Robin’s Meg Harris series) ($17.95). There will be short readings, questions and signings.