Weekend Newsstand: August 18, 2012

If you're not eating something with cheese on it right now, you need to seriously reconsider your definition of Saturday. In the news: Rallying in support of Pussy Riot, budget talk heats up, garbage collection is getting better, and cops open up on Twitter.

By Sarah-Joyce Battersby • Illustration by Brett Lamb

Supporters of Pussy Riot had gathered for a rally in support of the group just as the judge in the trial handed down the sentence. All three women were found guilty of hooliganism motivated by religious hatred and sentenced to two years of corrective labour. At a similar protest in Russia, people were arrested. But at the Russian consulate on Bloor Street East, people just protested.

The chair of the Toronto Police Services Board is wondering how right Chief Bill Blair is about police layoffs. In the face of another possible round of budget cuts and austerity, Blair warned that asking the police to hold their budget at current levels would almost definitely require layoffs. But Alok Mukherjee thinks the cops can figure it out without resorting to booting boots from the street. Mukherjee doesn’t know how they can avoid layoffs, just that they maybe can.

Speaking of not knowing what to do, some city councillors aren’t sure they want to go through the same cost-cutting budget smackdown as last time. A letter from the City manager asks for all budgets to be frozen. But councillors are weighing in on the demand, saying that it’s just really shitty to have to keep all the budgets so low all the time.

Another dispatch from the front lines of newly privatized garbage collection: it’s getting better. After getting off to a slow start in their first week, Green For Life have improved pick up times and missed less pick-ups altogether. Stay tuned for the next instalment of Garbage Watch, when service probably gets a little bit better still.

Looking for something fun to do on a Wednesday night? Well, look no further! Now you can just stay in and tweet at and about cops, like you always wanted. Sgt. Tim Burrows, the force’s social media manager, hosts #copchat every Wednesday as a way to build ties between the public and the police, like you always wanted.

And there are a few road closures around town this weekend, including parts of Bloor, Eglinton, and in and around the Port Lands.