By Hamutal Dotan

‘New GM’ to emerge from bankruptcy (Toronto Star): “Canadian taxpayers will provide reeling General Motors Corp. with $9.5 billion (U.S.) in aid and take a 12 per cent stake in the once mighty automaker, which will seek court protection from creditors today.” [More coverage in the National Post and the Globe and Mail.]
Enlarging high schools hurts teens, report says (Toronto Star): “Smaller high schools, which are disappearing across the province as boards look to cut costs, are better for teens, says a report to be released today by People for Education.” [More coverage in the Globe and Mail.]
Professor finds similar Toronto neighbourhoods have wildly different homicide rates (National Post): “When Sara Thompson began plotting where people were being killed in Toronto, she expected to find her markers clustered in certain neighbourhoods… But what struck the assistant professor at Ryerson University was that other neighbourhoods with similar characteristics had consistently few murders. Apparently, in Toronto, not all vulnerable neighbourhoods are created equal.”
A river…runs through it (Toronto Sun): ” From an industrial wasteland to a well-planned environmentally friendly masterpiece—in 25 years. That’s what Waterfront Toronto is planning for the long-neglected 121 hectares known as the Lower Don Lands, largely a square slab of concrete jutting out into Lake Ontario, between the Keating Channel and the Shipping Channel.” [Related coverage in Torontoist: Futurist: Toronto in 2020.]
Builder of High Park daycare vows to open (Globe and Mail): “The man behind a High Park Avenue daycare centre will prepare to open it next month despite Toronto City Council dropping ‘the nuclear bomb of municipal regulations’ to stop him. Ward 13 Councillor Bill Saundercook introduced a one-year interim control bylaw in council on Wednesday, slapping a moratorium on new daycare centres along a three-block stretch of the residential street from Glenlake Avenue to Dundas Street West.”
A leader with a passion for animals, loyal supporters—and an iron grip (Globe and Mail): “In interviews with The Globe and Mail, more than 20 current and former employees and volunteers, and visitors described volunteer president Tim Trow as a combative man with a sharp temper whose iron grip on the Toronto Humane Society has hurt the very animals Mr. Trow strives to protect.”
Five cent plastic bag fee starts Monday (CP24): “Shoppers in Toronto will want to remember to bring their own bags to the grocery store starting Monday. On June 1, the City of Toronto starts requiring stores to charge a nickel for single-use plastic bags.”