The South Bayview Bulldog

Couche-Tard, the Quebec gas bar and convenience store giant, seems set to get even bigger. The Wall Street Journal says Couche-Tard (Night Owl) will be the likely winner of an auction of CST Brand Inc, a $3.4 billion convenience store operator with some 2,000 stores in the U.S. and Atlantic Canada. No price is mentioned. CST operates mainly under the Corner Store brand. Couche-Tard owns the name Mac’s, On-The-Run, Circle K and in Quebec, Couche-Tard. It also has large gasbar operations in Europe.

Toronto Blue Jays batters re-discovered the baseball Tuesday night as they defeated the Yankees in new York by a clear margin of 12 to 6. Russell Martin homered twice, including a go-ahead shot in Toronto’s eight-run eighth inning, and Troy Tulowitzki had four hits as the Blue Jays erased a six-run deficit to triumph. Edwin Encarnacion hit a tying homer and drove home three runs in the eighth as Toronto took advantage of an unexpected unravelling of the New York’s pitching staff. The win moves the Jays back into the lead in the AL East, just ahead of Baltimore and Boston.

Cab drivers call the hurried-up licensing of Uber transportation by Toronto on Tuesday just a political stunt. CBC

OLiveira, Goncalves and Pedroso

Brazilian synchronized diver Giovanna Pedroso is pinning the blame for the miserable showing of she and her partner Ingrid Oliveira on Oliveira’s all-night sex romp with a handsome canoeist Pedro Goncalves. Pedroso, 17, says Oliveira, 20, kicked the younger girl out of their apartment and left her to wander the Olympic Village all night. Next morning, the two exhausted swimmers finished last in the ten-metre synchronized event. Some reports say spectators laughed at the performance. “I have been waiting for four years to be present at the Olympics,” she raged to Brazil’s O Globo newspaper.

Debris flying around Bayview / Branch & minor scratches my surprise this car owner

The winds have been just strong enough to irritate some people around South Bayview this afternoon.  It’s recycling night and Mother Nature has decided to mix things up a little before the Waste Management trucks could pick up their loot.  The alarming sound of popping could be heard as cars drove over coffee cups flying down the road.

88 South Leaside diverting both ways via Moore, Southlea due to a fallen tree branch blocking the roadway at Sutherland and Leadale. #TTC

— TTC Service Alerts (@TTCnotices) August 16, 2016

Look at the backup of streetcars in this CBC photo

One of the new Bombardier streetcars has derailed on King Street while it was pushing another older model streetcar which had also derailed. A spokesman said the new streetcar derailed because of debris in the tracks left by the morning rainfall. Both streetcars were empty at the time. The lesson for anyone who thinks about this is not so much that streetcars can derail (we wish they didn’t). No, the unbelievable profligacy of streetcars is this. They require an entire stand-by system of buses to take over when one — just one — streetcar blocks the tracks. The shuttle buses were in service Tuesday afternoon. Bus systems are flexible. A bus can sit idle by the side of the road while the others continue service. They don’t require a back-up system of streetcars to replace all the buses.

So here it is. The heavy to moderate rain began about 4 a.m. and will continue in what Environment Canada calls a periodic fashion. That means we may see some breaks. In the meantime, there is local flooding in all the known spots. The underpass on Bayview south of Moore will be showing water. The rain may fall heavily at times and a few thunderstorms are likely as well. Rainfall amounts are expected to be highly variable, with 20 to 40 mm likely. A few areas may even exceed 50 mm where showers and thunderstorms are most prevalent. The system responsible for this rainfall is a moisture-laden low pressure disturbance from Texas.

Transformer fire Yonge St near Roxborough Rd, report that a truck may have struck the pole and left the area ^ma

— Toronto Police Operations (@TPSOperations) August 16, 2016

https://twitter.com/tpscalls/status/765533831491383296

Hazard calls now for traffic signals out at many locations along Danforth Ave. Obey the rules of the road at uncontrolled intersections ^ma

— Toronto Police Operations (@TPSOperations) August 16, 2016

The Skyway bridge at Burlington was closed to all traffic on the QEW Monday afternoon for several hours as OPP and medical personnel negotiated with a “distressed man”. This drawn-out discussion came to an end with the man being taken for medical care about 6.30 p.m.

UPDATE: Burlington Skyway re-opens after police investigation resolved https://t.co/E41Ami8Xpr pic.twitter.com/SQHWjklVHG

— Hamilton Spectator (@TheSpec) August 15, 2016

Ontario doctors have voted by 63.1 percent to reject a fee agreement hammered out between the MInistry and the Ontario Medical Association. The OMA says the vote means it will immediately request a meeting with the provincial government to communicate its expectations for renewed negotiations. Voting took place Sunday during a town hall-style meeting in which doctors argued over the agreement. In rejection the deal doctors turn down a 2.5 percent a year increase to the $11.5-billion physician services budget. The undertaking that doctors would  co-manage the deal is also  rejected with many physicians suggesting their real influence in such an arrangement was largely fictional.

Analysts predict a price war nastier than anything seen so far as Loblaws tells its suppliers to reduce the price of everything the grocer buys by 1.45 percent. In response, the huge wholesale buyer United Grocers, which buys for Metro and other Loblaws competitors, has told manufacturers that it wants the same cut in prices. The meanness of the atmosphere is revealed by a threat to simply reduce all invoices by that amount if the sellers don’t comply. What’s going on? Many informed business sources say it’s about the ambitions of Walmart and Costco to muscle their way further into the Ontario grocery market. It is said these two mammoths have already made inroads in Quebec, controlling as much as 15 percent of the market.