The City has released a list of 224 charges filed as a result of last week’s Project Traveller raids. The charges have been filed against people in Toronto, Detroit, Windsor, and Edmonton, targeting what cops say is a sophisticated drug and gun ring run by a gang, the Dixon City Bloods. Thirty-five of the suspects have been arrested, while 10 remain at large. The Star reports that during the year-long investigation, police became aware of the existence of the now-infamous video that allegedly shows Mayor Rob Ford smoking crack, though the mayor denies that such a video exists, and that he smokes crack.

Speaking of the mayor, it seems he’s now not so sure about hiring a security detail, after all. Ford said during his regular Sunday radio show that a weekend incident at Taste of Italy, where a woman allegedly threw a beverage at him, made him realize that it might be time to hire security—something his brother, Councillor Doug Ford (Ward 2, Etobicoke North), has long advocated for. But Doug said Monday that his brother’s mind is not yet made up. “At the end of the day, he’s the boss,” the councillor told the Globe and Mail.

A new survey of Canadian university students found that 90 per cent of them are overwhelmed by the demands of academics. The Canadian Organization of University College Health survey found that more than half of students experience overwhelming anxiety and more than 80 per cent report being exhausted. The data, from a survey of 30,000 students across the country, will be used to look at the mental-health needs of students and to create a national benchmark. Sounds like a good idea.

Three cases of the measles have been confirmed in Burlington, according to the Halton Region Health Department—all in children from one family. It’s believed the kids may have contracted the disease while travelling outside of the province. “There certainly have not been any measles cases circulating locally here, so travel exposure probably played into it,” Dr. Monir Taha, a health department spokesperson, told the Star. Watch for symptoms, folks!

And finally, the Toronto Blue Jays seem to be getting it together: after a season start that could only be called disappointing, they extended their winning streak to six games with last night’s defeat of the Colorado Rockies. Looks good on you, guys.

A sticky incident during this weekend’s Taste of Italy festival made Rob Ford concede that it might be time to hire security. While the mayor was attending the festival in Little Italy on Saturday, he found himself in the line of fire of a drink described as a slushie; a 27-year-old woman was arrested and charged with assault for allegedly throwing the beverage. During his Sunday radio show on Newstalk1010, Ford agreed with a caller who said that the mayor should employ a security detail. He has previously cited cost concerns and a preference to mingle freely with constituents as reasons for not having security or a driver.

A key advisor for the McGuinty government figured prominently in the $275-million settlement to kill a power plant approved for Mississauga, the Globe and Mail reports. Internal government emails show that the Bay Street lawyer Robert Prichard led talks to compensate the company set to build the plant and worked on an agreement with involved hedge fund lenders, the Globe reports. The costly decision to cancel the plant in Mississauga, and another in Oakville, is currently being investigated by a legislative committee.

And NXNE wasn’t the only musical game in town over the weekend—Toronto hosted the annual MuchMusic Video Awards on Queen Street West last night. Co-host PSY performed “Gangnam Style” and won for Viral Video of the Year, and Canadian rappers Drake and Classified each took home two awards. Miss the broadcast? The Toronto Sun’s photo gallery will probably get you as caught up as you need to be. (That is to say, don’t worry about it.)

One fifth of the cost of homes in the GTA is made up of various fees and charges that make their way to government, a study by Altus Group, commissioned by the Toronto Star, found. The study looked at fees and charges in six GTA municipalities—Town of Oakville, City of Brampton, City of Markham, Town of Bradford-West Gwillimbury, Town of Ajax, and the City of Toronto—and found that on average, about 20 per cent of the cost of a new home went to government fees and charges like development charges, property and land transfer taxes, and HST.

Longtime Mississauga mayor Hazel McCallion will find out at about 10 a.m. this morning if she’s been found to have violated conflict-of-interest laws. McCallion has been accused of violating the Municipal Conflict of Interests Act when she took part in Peel Region council votes and moved amendments that would save her son’s company millions in development charges. Ontario Superior Court Justice John Sproat will release his decision today.

Good news for travellers: a VIA Rail strike was averted at the 11th hour when a tentative deal with the Canadian Auto Workers union was reached last night. A strike looked likely last night until a deal was reached just before the midnight deadline. Details of the tentative agreement haven’t yet been released, and ratification votes are being scheduled.

After 23 years in politics, former Ontario premier Dalton McGuinty will end up with a generous severance package. McGuinty gets about $313,000 in severance after resigning as MPP for Ottawa South on Wednesday. Unlike federal MPs, provincial MPPs do not have a pension plan.

Animal shelters are important, but they’re also usually at capacity. Thankfully for Toronto’s ownerless pets, the Toronto Humane Society now has a little extra green space for them to enjoy.

Today, Evergreen and Purina—the former an environmental charity and the latter a pet-food maker—launched a new rooftop haven for cats at the Toronto Humane Society’s building on River Street. The space, previously an open stretch of concrete with no shade, now features native plants, rest areas, and edibles designed to be safe for pets. As part of the fourth year of its Paws for the Planet initiative, Purina donated $50,000 to Evergreen in order to provide green spaces at five different animal shelters across Canada, this being one.

“Evergreen worked with the Humane Society to see what they wanted for their facilities,” said Ashley Emmett, a manager at Purina, “and the plan was developed from there.”

The new space at the Toronto Humane Society includes container vegetable gardens, which will grow food for shelter animals like rabbits and guinea pigs; catnip and cat grasses for the resident felines; and native trees and shrubs, which will provide shaded areas on the balcony for both the animals and the shelter volunteers.

“One of the main issues here was providing some shade and some shelter for the volunteers to use the space—to bring animals up here, to use the space for other purposes, or just to make the space available,” said Evergreen project manager JR Leo, who did the design.

The courtyard-like area features 14-foot-tall walls, which provide a unique opportunity for the volunteers to give cats some safe outdoor time. “It’s a space where they’ll be able to take the cats outside, where they normally wouldn’t be able to be,” Emmett said. “That’s what’s fantastic about this space in particular.”

“What this is is a culmination of all the Evergreen principles into a rooftop patio,” Leo said. It’s a space that incorporates native plants, improves the local economy—includes a food program—and optimizes an urban space by greening it.

If you’re jealous of the animals’ new digs, you can enter Purina’s contest to win $5,000 for your own backyard makeover. As a bonus, each entry means another $5 for Evergreen’s stewardship and restoration program, up to $50,000.

Photos by Terri Coles/Torontoist.

Councillor Jaye Robinson (Ward 25, Don Valley West) was booted from Mayor Rob Ford’s executive committee yesterday, removing the only remaining woman from the 13-person group. Robinson recently publicly advised the mayor to take a leave of absence in the wake of the scandal that emerged amid reports he was allegedly videotaped smoking crack cocaine. As well, Ford demoted another councillor, Paul Ainslie (Ward 43, Scarborough East). The mayor made no direct statement about the changes, but his brother and council member Doug Ford (Ward 2, Etobicoke North) said they had been in the works for a while. Robinson is expected to hold a press conference this morning.

Busy day for the mayor yesterday—in addition to his executive shuffle, Ford had a legal win when he was awarded partial costs in a failed libel suit. An Ontario Superior Court judge ordered George Foulidis, owner of Boardwalk Pub, to pay the mayor and a failed council candidate more than $160,000 in legal costs, related to his unsuccessful $6-million suit against Ford. The mayor and Bruce Baker had sought full costs of more than $267,000.

Toronto’s casino debate, which ultimately ended in council voting against a proposed downtown casino and expanded gaming at Woodbine, cost the city at least $370,000, according to city manager Joe Pennachetti. Released yesterday, a letter by Pennachetti in response to an inquiry from Councillor Mary Fragedakis (Ward 29, Toronto Danforth) about the cost of the city’s casino debate stated that there were $313,000 in consultant costs and $57,100 in public consultation costs, not including HST. The Ford brothers called for a reopening of the discussion of a new casino at Woodbine on their weekly Sunday radio show.

U of T wants fake grass, and if they don’t get it they’ll make the city pay…literally. The University of Toronto promised yesterday to send the city a bill if city council rejects the school’s proposal to install fake turf on its back campus ahead of the Pam-Am Games. A vote on the proposal is expected to come before council this week. Mayor Ford is expected to argue against a motion to designate the school’s field as a cultural heritage landscape.

A display of kid-created axolotl artwork at Planet Kid.

Nine-year-old Matthew Clowater first heard about the axolotl (pronounced ACK-suh-LAH-tuhl) from his 11-year-old brother Thomas, who did a school project about the animal. Clowater’s interest was piqued, and he began to do his own research. “I think they’re really cool because they can grow back body parts,” he explained, “like half of their brain and a third of their heart.”

The axolotl—the name comes from the Aztec language and means “water monster”—doesn’t go through metamorphosis like other amphibians. Native to Mexico, they’re aquatic and gilled as adults. Their only remaining natural habitat is Lake Xochimilco in Mexico City. Axolotls are classified as critically endangered because of threats to their natural habitat and the introduction of new species, like Asian carp, to the area.

Axolotls are often used in medical research because of their ability to regenerate lost limbs in months. Some have even been documented regenerating vital organs—including, yes, parts of their brains. They can also accept transplants of body parts and organs from other axolotls. These unique characteristics obviously make the animals interesting to researchers who study organ transplants and brain injuries.

Also, they’re adorable. Have a look:

Wanting to do something to help the axolotl, Clowater settled on an art show. “I decided on art because I am really good at it,” he said, “and if people see colours and something really pretty they might buy it even if they don’t really need it.” Clowater recruited five of his friends from Howard Park Junior Public School to create a collective called Epic Arts. Together, they created the artwork for the show.

Epic Arts paired up with Planet Kid when Clowaters’s father approached owner Sara Fillmore. The store has a display wall near its entrance, and Fillmore offered to give the kids the spot to hang their artwork.

“I hope that the collective of artists will come up with other ideas and other things that they could fundraise for with their art. I would love to continue it,” Fillmore said. “Frankly I think it’s extraordinary that a kid that age has got the initiative to step up and do it. If i can help by creating the space that’s available for them and collecting the money for them…it’s awesome.”

Though the artwork is already on display at the store, Epic Arts’ show officially opens at Planet Kid on Wednesday, June 10 at 4 p.m. The work will remain on display into July. It’s being sold by donation, with a suggested minimum price of $10 each. One hundred per cent of funds raised will go to the Restauración Ecológica y Deserrollo A.C. (REDES MX), a Mexico-based axolotl preservation society.

Photos by Terri Coles/Torontoist.

Dedicated bike lanes, the city’s first, will officially open on Sherbourne Street today, though Torontonians were already able to enjoy them during the weekend. The launch of the lanes, which have curbs and a buffer strip, mean there is now a bikes-dedicated north-south route for cycling commuters in the city.

Two Toronto councillors are asking the city and province to set up “angel cradles,” which allow for the safe drop-off of newborns whose parents cannot or will not care for them, in Ontario. The cradles would be modelled after one in use in Edmonton—parents could open a door to a cubbyhole located within a hospital and place the infant inside, and an alarm to alert hospital staff would sound when the door was closed. “In establishing such a facility within the City of Toronto, there would be the creation of a safe, anonymous, and effective alternative for mothers who have delivered a child but who are unable or unwilling to care for the baby,” read the motion, which was drafted by Councillor Michelle Berardinetti (Ward 35, Scarborough Southwest) and seconded by Councillor Josh Matlow (Ward 22, St. Paul’s).

The email records of Chris Morley, the chief of staff of former Ontario premier Dalton McGuinty, were destroyed five weeks after all documents related to the cancellation of two gas-fired plants were ordered released, according to a report prepared by his successor’s office. Morley’s email account, along with those of three other senior McGuinty staffers, was permanently deleted shortly after he left Queen’s Park, the Globe and Mail reported. The Ontario Provincial Police is now investigating the deletion of government records.

In other Queen’s Park scandals, Premier Wynne is defending her office’s dress code, which bans such items as crop tops, muscle shirts, and spaghetti straps. Critics of the dress code think that Premier Mom is totally harshing on their personal style, man. We wonder if those who are put out have ever held any job, ever. Also, crop tops? This ’90s revival has to end.

A resident of the home the Toronto Star says was the backdrop for a photo of Mayor Rob Ford and two young men who were later shot was convicted of trafficking cocaine in 2011, the paper reported. Elena Johnson, who lives at 15 Windsor Road in Etoboicoke, was convicted of cocaine trafficking in 2011, and her brother Fabio has a 2005 conviction for possessing a prohibited weapon. TheStar says it was provided a photo of Mayor Ford standing in front of the Windsor Road home with three young men—including murder victim Anthony Smith—by the men trying to sell a video that allegedly shows the mayor smoking crack cocaine.

An internal video released to the Star shows Toronto police chief Bill Blair reprimanding his forces for “idiot” behaviour. In the video, Blair takes officers to task for offences like racism and lying in court saying, “If you want to be an idiot, you don’t get to be an idiot wearing our uniform.” The Star obtained the video through a Freedom of Information request.

Police have linked the cases of three men who have disappeared from Toronto’s gay community within the last three years. The disappearances of Skandaraj “Skanda” Navaratnam, 40, Abdulbasir “Basir” Faizi, 44, and 59-year-old Majeed “Hamid” Kayhan—who all went missing between mid-2010 and late-2012—were originally thought to be unrelated, but yesterday police said that they believe there is a connection and that foul play has not been ruled out.

Toronto Community Housing Corp. is “callous,” according to a report released Thursday from city Ombudsperson Fiona Crean. The report found that eviction is not being used by the TCHC as a last resort after reviewing the cases of 79 seniors who were evicted from community housing in 2011 and 2012. “The general approach to seniors who fall into arrears is too often harsh and unthinking,” Crean said. She made 30 recommendations for changes at the TCHC, including better training for staff.

The University of Toronto is redesigning its historic building at 1 Spadina Cresent, which has over the years been used as both a military ward and a medicine production facility. The 138-year-old building, which began as a theological school, is currently empty, but on Tuesday the university will reveal its plans for a facelift. “It’s finally time to give this part of the campus, and the city, the beauty it deserves,” said Richard Sommer, dean of the school’s John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape and Design, said to the Star.

Mayor Rob Ford hired four new staffers over the past week, to replace those who departed in the wake of reports from the Toronto Star and Gawker of a video that allegedly shows Ford smoking crack cocaine. The Globe and Mail gives the four new employees as Rob Krauss, Katrina Xavier-Ponniah, Victoria Colussi, and Jonathan Kent—they’ll be special assistants to the mayor, focused largely on taking calls from constituents. The National Post reports that two other existing staffers—Amin Massoudi and Thomas Beyer—have been given new roles. Ford told reporters outside his office yesterday that he plans to hire more staff, so now would be an excellent time to update your LinkedIn profile.

In other Ford news, federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty told reporters that he had “personal” talks with the mayor and his family since the scandal begun in May. Flaherty is a longtime friend of Rob Ford and the Ford family, and declined to comment on the specifics of the conversations. And an Ipsos Reid poll found that just over half of respondents believe that a video showing the mayor allegedly smoking crack cocaine does exist, while others think the reports of a video—which Mayor Ford has said does not exist—are examples of a media agenda against the mayor. Support for the mayor is, probably unsurprisingly, highest in his native Etobicoke.

Other things are also happening, we swear! For example, TTC CEO Andy Byford was apparently surprised to discover that there is no plan for easing congestion along the city’s ever-expanded waterfront included as part of Metrolinx’s The Big Move plan. So that’s reassuring, 512 and 504 streetcar users! In a Canadian Club lunch talk on Monday, Byford called on the federal government to contribute more financially to Toronto transit.

A Toronto Star reporter, Alex Consiglio, was arrested, handcuffed, and ticketed at Union Station after taking photos of two GO Transit workers who were injured in a skirmish with a man who tried to open the doors of a moving train on Sunday. Metrolinx communications staff told theStar that members of the media aren’t allowed to take photos at Union Station without permission, while acknowledging that the same restrictions don’t apply to tourists or other non-reporters. Go Transit is reviewing the incident.

The provincial Liberals could be considering a host of new fees and fee increases as a means to raise money, according to an internal memorandum found among documents related to the cancellation of two power plants. Some of the listed suggestions include bringing back photo radar, a 75-cent surcharge on phone bills, and making inmates pay rent while incarcerated. Finance Minister Charles Sousa said that photo radar would not be returning, but didn’t reject any of the other ideas at this point, saying that at this point they are still “recommendations that are brought forward.”

Finally, the police are seeking the public’s help in investigating the death of Rigat Essag Ghirmay, after parts of her dismembered body were found in a duffel bag in the west end on May 24. Adonay Samuel Zekarias, who is 41, has been arrested and charged with indignity to a dead body, and it’s expected that the charges will be upgraded to murder. Police are working to recover the rest of Ghirmay’s remains and to learn more about how and where she died. A detective told the Star that it’s believed Ghirmay died at her home at 285 Shuter Street, and cops would like to speak with anyone who may have seen the accused with a black, yellow, and green Tracker bag with rollers in the Humber Boulevard and Alliance Avenue area over the past two weeks.

Mayor Rob Ford told Maurie Sherman of KISS 92.5 FM on Saturday that, once again, he’ll stick with his family’s tradition of going to the cottage over Canada Day weekend, rather than attend the Pride parade. “Like I’ve always said, if it lands on the same weekend when I take my family up north, unfortunately, my family comes first,” Ford told a caller. The parade falls on Sunday, June 30 this year.

The Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation is giving $81 million to horse-racing tracks to compensate for cutting a slots revenue-sharing program last year. The funds will go to tracks that spent money on expansions before OLG made its unexpected move. The Georgian Downs track north of Toronto will get $31.5 million.

Soil samples around the GE Hitachi uranium progesssing plant in the city’s west end will be tested for contamination. “The sampling and testing is being done in response to concerns expressed by the community and the request for soil testing made by Toronto’s medical officer of health,” said ministry spokesperson Kate Jordan in an email to the Toronto Star.

The Dufferin Bridge will be closed to vehicles for 18 months, starting on June 12. It was set to be replaced in 2016, but the City decided to make repairs early following a recent inspection, which raised safety concerns. The bridge will still be usable for pedestrians and cyclists.

Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne warned yesterday that she is prepared to intervene in Toronto’s affairs if it becomes necessary, as the city deals with the fallout from accusations that reporters saw a video that allegedly showed Mayor Rob Ford smoking what appears to be crack cocaine. “I’m worried about the situation,” Wynne said yesterday. “We’re monitoring it very carefully and, as appropriate, we will be involved.” The scandal is hurting Toronto’s reputation, the premier said, and also distracting the city from official business, particular work on its multimillion-dollar transit plan.

The mayor’s office sent a one-line denial yesterday of speculation that it had destroyed the email and phone records of a former staffer, in response to a strongly-worded letter it received from the province’s transparency watchdog. The letter from information commissioner Ann Cavoukian said that if documents had been destroyed, all steps to recover them must be taken, but the emailed response from Ford’s office stated “At no point did any member of the mayor’s office order the records of former employees to be erased.” Cavoukian told the Toronto Star she was reassured by the response.

Federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty told his Ontario counterpart Charles Sousa that a GTA-only increase to the provincial HST, with the aim of raising money to fund transit, would not be allowed, as it would violate the terms of the 2010 agreement to harmonize sales tax. “We did not lower the GST to have it taken away from Ontarians by the Wynne government with a new sales tax hike,” Flaherty said. A one-per-cent regional sales tax was one of the fundraising measures recommended in a Metrolinx report on transit funding that was released earlier this month. Flaherty hasn’t explicitly ruled out the possibility of a province-wide sales tax hike.

The first public polling of the Metrolinx recommendations has found that the public isn’t sold on them: 69 per cent of respondents to the Forum Research poll are against a five-cent gasoline tax to fund transit, and 68 per cent disapprove of an increase in the HST.

And sadly, there are reports from the CBC that an Ontario ORNGE air ambulance crashed in dense bush in Northern Ontario shortly after midnight, resulting in the deaths of two pilots and two paramedics. The transportation safety board will conduct an investigation.

CORRECTION: May 31, 2013, 9:55 AM This post originally said that federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty had ruled out the possibility of a province-wide sales tax hike. In fact, he was referring to the possibility of a regional sales tax hike.

A Toronto Sun editor received a call from an unknown person looking for payment for a story on Mayor Rob Ford that involved a video—assumed to be the video of the mayor allegedly smoking crack that two Toronto Star reporters say they saw—before the Star or Gawker broke their own stories nearly two weeks ago. An editor in the newsroom was contacted by someone asking if the paper would pay for a Rob Ford story, Sun editor James Wallace told the Globe and Mail. “My understanding is there was no mention of crack, no mention of the mayor smoking,” Wallace said in the interview. “It was a generic inquiry whether we paid for stories, and that there was a video that would be embarrassing to the mayor.” The editor likely dismissed the call as a prank, he said, and Wallace only learned of the call within the past couple of days. “Do I feel a little bit stupid about that now? Yes, because, had I known, I would have had someone follow up,” Wallace admitted.

The mayor spoke to the press yesterday as well, but it was to comment on recommended taxes outlined in the Metrolinx report released earlier this week. “I will not support any of these new taxes on the residents of Toronto who are telling me, ‘We just can’t afford it.’ They’ve said it over and over and over to me,” Ford told reporters yesterday. The taxes, set to pay for the Metrolinx Big Move plan, would include a one per cent HST increase, a five-cent-per-litre gas tax, a commercial parking levy, and increased development costs.

If you’ve ever had the frustrating experience of being bumped from a flight, you’ll be happy to hear that the Canadian Transportation Agency ruled yesterday that Air Canada’s current compensation for passengers who get booted isn’t adequate. The CTA decided that when passengers are booted from domestic Air Canada flights due to overbooking, they must receive more than the $100 cash or $200 voucher towards a different flight that the airline currently offers. The agency has not yet said specifically what the compensation ought to be or issued a final ruling.

If you usually use the Don Valley Parkway during your morning commute, you may need to find an alternate route today: the DVP is one of several Toronto streets flooded from heavy overnight rains, thanks to an overflowing Don River. A large stretch of the road from the Gardiner to the Bayview and Bloor exit is closed and will likely remain so for most of today.

And it was announced yesterday that Murray Frum, a local developer and philanthropist, died Monday at the age of 81. The millionaire father of former George W. Bush speechwriter David Frum and late CBC broadcaster Barbara Frum donated more than 80 pieces to the Art Gallery of Ontario and co-built the gallery housing them. “Thanks to Murray’s foresight and generosity, the AGO’s Frum Collection of African Art is one of the most significant collections of African art in North America,” AGO board of trustees president Tony Gagliano said yesterday. Frum, a lifelong non-smoker, died of advanced lung cancer.