The South Bayview Bulldog

No winning ticket was sold for the $5 million jackpot in Saturday night’s Lotto 649 draw. However, the guaranteed $1 million prize went to a ticket holder in Ontario. There were also 25 guaranteed prizes of $100,000 each. The jackpot for the next Lotto 649 draw on Feb. 20 will be approximately $7 million.

See later post

Alberta missionaries react with joy at sight of choppers/CBC

Tourists board helicopter early Saturday/CBC

Nurses happy to be heading home/CBC

Helicopters apparently paid for by GoFundMe donations have lifted some 150 Canadian tourists, missionaries and nurses from a distant locale in Haiti to the main airport in Port Au Prince, the capital. Rioting, looting and associated violence has made it too dangerous to travel the roads in the poverty-stricken land. According to Global News, the GoFundMe campaign was started on Friday, with a goal of $9,000. It is said to have exceeded that goal, hitting more than $16,000 as of Friday night. Some 113 Canadian tourists are said to be safe back home. They landed Saturday night on an Air Transat flight along with a few people from other airlines at Trudeau airport just after 9 p.m.

BILLY BISHOP OPEN AGAIN AFTER CRASH

Billy Bishop Airport is open again Sunday after a brief closure Saturday when a small plane flipped over on landing. The pilot is said to be recovering from minor injuries. Police and emergency crews responded to the island airport around 5:30 p.m.

Toronto Police will not be enforcing these on-street parking bylaws on Monday, Family Day.

Pay-and-Display/Metered Areas
Rush-Hour Routes
Posted signs indicating Monday to Friday regulations

All other areas and parking offences will continue to be enforced.

Like-minded people are a marketplace, it seems. This CBC report offers yet another insight on how the social media phenomenon of the last ten years has changed everything.

Josh Matlow (Ward 12) has said in a release Friday that Premier Ford is taking over Toronto subways not to improve transit but to gain control of subway lands and air rights worth billions. Matlow says the subway upload has no affect on the government’s ability to construct and own new lines or extensions. He points out that the province is already building, and will own, the Eglinton Crosstown LRT. Release and petition

Hydro One and the Ontario government are eyeball-to-eyeball over how much the big-money boys at the top of the utility are going to get in salary and bonuses. So far, Hydro has refused to act on a request from Energy Minister Greg Rickford to cut Hydro’s CEO’s salary and incentives to no more than $1.5 million. Instead, Hydro has maintained that it will stick with a plan to pay as much as $2.8 million for the CEO. But the government has the power to issue a formal, legal directive to the utility on pay. Hydro, like many semi-public utilities and agencies, has once again trotted out the argument that it can only get the best qualified CEO by paying such sums. It is a position to which many taxpayers reply: “Who says?” Canadian Press

Your days on the loose are numbered

41 Division police have had a lucky break in their hunt for a violent ATM thug who grabs women from behind as they are at the automatic teller. In at least one case reported here Tuesday he held a knife to the throat of the victim. The very next day, Wednesday, February 13, 2019, he struck again at Lawrence Ave. East and Birchmount Rd. He had a knife but that it did not stop the woman from fighting back. And this time the bank camera caught the perpetrator’s face full on. Fortunately, the woman did not suffer serious injuries but she is out some cash. The man is described as 6’0″, with a medium build, and a light complexion. He was wearing a black hooded jacket, with the hood worn up, a black and grey toque, grey pants and black shoes. He has committed five other such thefts in Scarborough.

Michelle Shemilt

Monica Witt

Marcella Zoia

Life has it travails, as notable businesswoman Michelle Shemilt (left) has found as she faces charges in the hit-and-run death of Michael Watts, a homeless man who was sprawled unconscious across a Cabbagetown lane near her home as Shemilt drove by. He died on the spot. Sun court reporter Sam Pazzano was at a court appearance for Ms. Shemilt. At centre is Monica Witt, once an admired cryptologist and counter-intelligence investigator with the US air force. Then in 2013 Witt, 39, decided she wanted to betray the US and live in (either) Russia or Iran. She’s now enjoying (if that’s the word) life in Tehran. Go figure. Lastly at right is that chair girl, Marcella Zoia, 19, who is getting the razzy treatment from some for her bad behaviour (Narcity linked). Will she grow up soon? Instagram.

The snowy, icy winter has left Toronto without road salt. The search for salt to melt ice and break up hardened snow recalls a similar issue during the ice storm of December 2013. City News found some at Lowes in Vaughan. Then, doctors say missing as few as two days of school a month can cause irreparable damage to a child’s ability to excel. Below that, the distressing report of a BBC reporter who has interviewed a British girl, now 19, who ran away to Iraq as an ISIS bride. The story says she has had two children die there and is now nine months pregnant. Just heartwrenching. Finally, in case you missed it, Wire Fox Terrier King is Best of Show at the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show.

King is Best of Show at Westminster Kennel Club Show

They’re clearly giggling over at GO Transit tonight with the release of an over-the-top video to accompany the appearance of one of their highway buses at the Canadian International Auto Show opening Friday. Heaven seems a little closer as thunder and lightning herald a ride on this darkly-conceived commuter behemoth. Catch the ebony Tomcat growling its approval. Rather like the voice of God commanding you to get aboard. Listen, at least the kids will have fun sitting behind the wheel of the big green bruiser.