By André Bovee-Begun

“This is something that we can do,” says Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. He’s talking about developing the long-awaited vaccine against AIDS, and he’s got surprisingly good reason to be optimistic. We get to start off today by reporting something many people thought would ever happen: an experimental HIV immunization treatment works pretty well. The six-shot course, tested in Thailand on sixteen thousand subjects over three years, lowers the chance of contracting HIV by around 31%. Though that’s clearly just a beginning, with the status quo at seventy-five hundred people contracting HIV every day, such a result still points to a great potential improvement. Admittedly, the vaccine—which was funded by the American government and army and tested in Bangkok—isn’t too closely tied to Toronto, but we thought you’d like to know about it, anyway.
Okay, back to lousy news now. You knew it was coming. Fare hikes are looming for the TTC. The transit agency is apparently selling so many discount Metropasses that it’s putting itself out of business (funny that we have so much trouble buying one every time the first of the month rolls around). Some city councillors are saying the transit agency was either incompetent or disingenuous when it put together its budget, which the TTC fell $17.4 million short of meeting, even though its energy costs were four million dollars under what was expected. “You cannot provide a service and expect that those using the service aren’t going to pay their fair share,” said Etobicoke councillor Doug Holyday, pushing for a price increase for the transit agency. The TTC will need all the money it can get to pay for the Transit City plan and other capital improvements, which call for more than a billion dollars in construction over the next year alone.
Did you miss John Tory, Toronto? Well, he missed you, and to prove it, the defeated 2003 mayoral candidate and former PC leader will be on the air for two hours, five days a week. It seems he’s landed himself a radio show in a prominent spot on the new Newstalk 1010 CFRB lineup. Tory is widely expected to challenge David Miller and George Smitherman in a bid for the mayor’s office in 2010, but he’s been playing coy on that issue for now. Tory will take over as host of Live Drive weekdays from 4–7 p.m., bumping out John Moore. Moore will stay on Newstalk, but move to a 5:30 a.m. slot, which we’re sure he doesn’t mind.
Use the internet much? Small Canadian ISPs are trying to drum up public resistance to a CRTC decision that could let big Canadian telecoms price the small providers out of business by charging them impossible-to-meet prices for access to Canada’s broadband infrastructure. The CRTC is also in the midst of proceedings on net neutrality, network competition, and an appeal over a ruling allowing Bell to shape traffic on its networks.
Two DriveTest employees have been charged with fraud after police uncovered more than 160 false drivers’ licences used to obtain loans and other provincial documents and ID, with 140 more “suspicious” identities outstanding. Police say the licences are worth about five thousand dollars each on the street. The province says it plans to make such fraud more difficult in the future by implementing photo-comparison technology. DriveTest, the agency that administers the province’s road tests for vehicle licensing, is in the middle of a month-long strike over job security.
Another of the so-called Toronto 18 has pleaded guilty to terrorism charges stemming from a 2006 plot to set off bombs in Toronto. Ali Dirie, now 26 years old, will be sentenced October 2. Digest this while you mull over your morning coffee: “Dirie and the other man, whose identity remains under a court-ordered publication ban, used code words such as ‘wives’ and ‘girls’ and “black chicks” for firearms, and “food” for ammunition.” Of the eighteen men originally charged, only one other has pleaded guilty, and one was convicted in September 2008.
Don’t blink or you’ll miss it! Jamie Kennedy sold his Wine Bar! A pair of giant pandas that the Toronto Zoo really, really wants would bring in more than $4.6 million apiece next year—could we somehow hand that over to the TTC? And forget swine flu: kudzu, the killer bee of economically harmful plants, has tasted the sweet soil of southern Ontario! Does the vine that ate the south have any appetite left for us? Maybe it’ll use the CN Tower as the world’s biggest toothpick.