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Newsstand: September 12, 2012
Welcome to Wednesday Newsstand; side effects may include nausea, depression, headaches, hair loss, and erectile dysfunction. In the news: Rob Ford is in football trouble again, Toronto man gives money to bullied bus monitor, some religious parents don't like their kids learning facts, and Gardiner holds onto its concrete.
Only a day after Mayor Rob Ford was criticized for leaving a City Hall meeting early to coach his high school football team, reports say he continues to use city resources to help with his coaching duties after testifying that he had discontinued the practice. The Globe says that special assistants within the mayor’s office are working with youth teams coached by Ford and that city cell phones are being provided as contact numbers on team websites. Team members also expressed concern that their coach was spending too much time on his mayoring hobby.
Yesterday, a Toronto man handed over a cheque for $703,000 that he raised for a Greece, New York, bus monitor who was famously bullied by her middle school charges in a video that went viral a few months ago. Max Sidorov had hoped to give Karen Klein a vacation, but ended up raising enough money to allow her to retire and travel. Which works out well because, to be fair, it doesn’t seem like she was doing such a great job as a bus monitor.
Conservative Christian and Muslim parents are sending a form letter to Toronto schools asking to be informed ahead of time if certain subjects are going to be discussed in their children’s classrooms, so they can decide if they want to pull their kids from class. Parents concerned that their children may develop critical-thinking skills can check off selected topics from a list that includes “placing environmental issues/concerns above the value of Judeo-Christian principles” and any implication that homosexuality, birth control, or abortion are ever acceptable. The letter also allows parents to be advised of the teaching of “witchcraft, black magic, spirit guides, Satanism, (and) wizardry,” which is going to leave a big hole in the Hogwarts curriculum. The full text of this absurd, terrifying letter can be found here.
Headline from the 680 News website: “No concrete fell from Gardiner today, police confirm.” Congratulations, everyone.
