David Miller has enlisted the aid of a team of hired guns to find savings in the municipal budget. Their recommendations should arrive in time to incorporate into the 2008 budget, but too late for Tuesday's vote on controversial new taxes. City Council is optimistic that the group, whose members include Col. John "Hannibal" Smith, Templeton "Faceman" Peck, "Howling Mad" Murdock, and B.A. Baracus, will be able to solve all our problems.

Karen Butler-Lynch was awarded $28,000 plus legal costs after a judge ruled that alleged racist comments did not justify her dismissal from women's shelter Dr. Roz's Healing Place. The firing arose from a dispute between shelter bosses, who are all women of colour, and Butler-Lynch, who is a woman of Caucasianness. Dr. Roz could not be reached for comment.

A group of American legislators has finally apologized to Maher Arar, the innocent Canadian who was kidnapped by the CIA, then flown to Syria where he was jailed and tortured. Although Arar has been shown to have no association with any terrorist organizations, he remains on a U.S. no-fly list, presumably on the premise that if he wasn't pissed at the U.S. government before, he probably is now.

A 4.5 metre sculpture created over the summer by local youth has been stolen from a Scarborough park, proving the truth of the old adage "some people are just assholes."

City Hall is looking at the idea of turning the corners of Yonge and Bloor and Bay and Bloor into "scramble intersections" where cars and pedestrians take turns getting the green light. Right now scrambling is uniquely a pedestrian prerogative on most city streets.

Photo by robbanz from the Torontoist Flickr Pool.