There is a one week slowdown of traffic on Mount Pleasant Road due to “utility work” It began yesterday and runs until Thursday, July 19, 2012 from Garfield Avenue to Carstowe Road. The northbound lane is closed from 7 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.; the southbound closed from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. for utility work from July 12 to 19.
New fire chief is J.W. (Jim) Sales
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J.W. (Jim) Sales has been appointed Toronto’s new Fire Chief in a City Council vote today. Mr. Sales has extensive fire department experience but comes to Toronto from the City of Barrie’s Department of Community Operations. Chief Sales has successfully led the fire departments in both Markham and Edmonton. He has 27 years experience and has served as the general manager of Community Operations for the City of Barrie since 2008. Chief Sales began his career as a firefighter and EMS responder.Lawn Summer Nights draw young bowlers
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It’s kind of a standing joke about lawn bowling and the older set. So everyone at the Leaside Lawn Bowling Club is pleased to see the turnout of younger bowlers for the fundraising nights for Cystic Fibrosis research. The story is here written by Laura Booth in InsideToronto.com with a nice picture of one youthful team by Nick Perry. InsideToronto.com
Police release “Is this a butt dial?” PSA
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One of a number of amusing public service messages released by the Toronto Police to encourage people to turn off their phones before they go into the pocket or purse. The idea is to avoid so-called “butt dials” which waste the time and resources of 911 operators. Toronto Police Service
List of Target stores to open in 2013
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Target Stores has released the list of stores that will open in Canada in 2013. There will be 125 Target locations in business by the middle of next year. As we have posted frequently, one of these will be at the now-closed Zeller’s store in the East York Town Centre. Another will be within an easy drive in Shoppers World Danforth at Danforth and Victoria Park Ave. Target openings in 2013
Holiday makers flock to Costa Concordia
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Court rules on music downloads, photocopying
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The Supreme Court of Canada has thrown out a lower court decision requiring music downloaders to pay a royalty fee to the songwriter or music publisher. The court also reversed a decision that teachers violate copyright law if they make photocopies parts of a text books for the purposes of student instruction. CBC,ca
Police check “substance” at Danforth PO
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Police say they may be close to clearing the scene on Danforth Ave. where they have been looking into a suspicious substance found at a Canada Post distribution centre. The office is at 684 Danforth Ave. Around 8 a.m, a package containing the suspicious substance was discovered by a worker in the building. Traffic is being diverted between Jones and Pape. .
Tetra pak heiress dies in cocaine squalor
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One of the world’s wealthiest women has been revealed as a hopeless drug addict who spent her final days at her exclusive London mansion in what is being called absolute squalor. Eva Rausing apparently led a double life as she and her husband mixed with European royalty and counted Prince Charles among her acquaintances. She was found dead at the age of 48 after her husband was arrested for drug offences. He may have lived with her body for days. Eva Rausing and her husband, Hans Kristian Rausing, 49, an heir to the Tetra Pak packaging fortune, enjoyed a life of leisure and luxury in the world’s most exclusive circles. National Post.
House prices still going up in Toronto
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Further strong increases in Toronto helped push up the prices of new homes in Canada by 0.3 percent in May, a month before the government announced it was tightening mortgage rules, according to Statistics Canada data released on Thursday. The Toronto-Oshawa area posted a 0.5 percent increase on a monthly basis and 5.5 percent on the year. The annual increase for all of Canada was 2.4 percent, slightly down from 2.5 percent the month before. Reuters
Civilized parking — top up the meter by phone
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| Vancouver top up meters |
Some nine months ago we posted word that there was an experiment at hand to see if motorists in a number of Canadian cities might be able to use a system which would let them top up their parking meters remotely by smartphone. In fact, this system has been operating successfully in Vancouver since 2006. Of course, Vancouver meters have a public clock that shows the time remaining. Unlike Toronto meters, they do not issue parking slips. Nonetheless, the top-up application should be adjustable to Toronto meters. Our post in September 2011 said the idea was mentioned by Councillor Karen Stintz. Although she has not yet replied to mail from The South Bayview Bulldog on this topic, our post at the time attributed this explanation to her: Drivers would pre-register, phone the number on the meter, and buy more time by redialing the number. If a parking officer wanted to issue a ticket he would have to check the electronic time clock to see if the driver was overdue. Toronto has what many taxpayers feel is a rapacious tax collection system posing as parking control. We call it “gotcha” parking and indeed that is what it is. This system would be an opportunity for City Council to prove that it really has the best interest of taxpayers at heart and is not just intent on picking their pockets. Vancouver Sun
Children, children, please don’t be so silly
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However inept (or not) Stephen Harper may have been for calling Calgary Canada’s greatest city, the response of Thomas Mulcair and Bob Rae is truly absurd. It’s hard to believe they are so desperate for whatever minuscule political advantage that may be at issue here to begin carping about such an off hand remark. At least Bob Rae, who is known to have a sense of humour, made his complaint sound like that of a true hometowner (Toronto) But Mr. Mulcair is not to be believed. “I want to work hard for all Canadian cities,” said Mr. Mulcair, an Ottawa-born Montrealer who grumped: ” ‘I’m better than you’ is not the best way to get results.” Somebody, get this man a McHappy Meal.