You'd think it would be common practice these days for everyone to regularly wash their hands, especially if they work in the health-care profession. Ontario's Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care advises that frequent handwashing is "the single most effective way to prevent the spread of communicable diseases." (Cooties are the obvious exception here, since they can only be prevented by administering a cootie shot.) Unfortunately, the statistics indicate that health-care workers aren't very diligent......

Barack Obama thumps Hillary Clinton in last night's primaries. Obama for the first time won the majority of Latino voters, the majority of women voters, and the majority of senior citizen voters, while broadening his support in the demographics he was already winning. On the bright side for Hillary, she did manage to win the vote of nearly 87 percent of the voters who thought she was more qualified to be President than Obama.......

Kennedy Station will remain closed today, at least for the morning. So, if you live in Scarborough, enjoy those shuttle buses. It's Super Tuesday! Barack Obama is closing the gap with Hillary Clinton in a number of key states, most notably California. Meanwhile, the Republican race is boiling down to a dogfight between Mitt Romney, running on the "I hate liberals the most" platform, and John McCain, running on the "I might actually be......

Good morning university and college students, and good news: you don't have to go to school today. The University of Toronto updated its website shortly after 9 a.m. this morning to say that "Due to severe weather conditions on Friday, Feb. 1, U of T Missisauga is closed, U of T Scarborough is closed as of 10:00AM, and U of T (St. George) is closed as of 11:00AM. University buildings are closed and classes......

The TTC says that they plan to improve service on the 501 Queen streetcar route, which has been the object of much complaint over unpredictable service and frequent delays. The good news story here is that National Geographic recently declared the route one of the top ten streetcar trips in the world, so next time you're standing out in the freezing sleet desperately scanning the horizon for a glimpse of that red rocket, make......

Just in case this is something you like to be reminded of, you're going to die someday. The good news is that day is likely to be further off than ever, because average life expectancy in Canada has risen, with a baby born in 2005 likely to live to 80.4 years of age. On the other hand, who wants to be an 80-year-old baby? CIBC has announced that they will be selling $2.75 billion......

Andy Warhol's Factory parties were the ultimate hot spot for an elite cabal of celebrities, radicals, drag queens and porn stars. There has never been a better place to rock out while on an amphetamine high amid mass-produced silkscreen paintings and a fleet of floating silver balloons. Now, just replace Warhol's notorious gang of New York vagabonds with a bunch of over-stimulated children, and you have the idea behind Bunch's next edition of their popular......

Today at 2:00 a.m., University of Toronto law graduates received an email from their alma mater, stating that an "unprecedented announcement" would be made at 1:00 p.m. today and inviting them to join the law school "for this special moment" via webcast. Breathless even by U of T law standards, the email left alumni everywhere in suspense. Would it be the launch of a new global declaration on human rights? An announcement that justice had......

It is entirely possible that in 6 months, the only building standing on the south side of Queen Street West between Abell Street and Dufferin Street will be Woolfitt's Art Supplies. For those of you not that familiar with the 'hood, that is roughly the distance from the Drake to the Gladstone on the other side of the street. Just yesterday, the nabe sometimes referred to as The Art and Design District lost its......

Toronto places three roads in the province's worst twenty streets. Steeles placed fifth, Bathurst ninth and Dufferin twelfth in the survey of the worst-maintained roads in Ontario. That having been said, be glad you don't have to drive in Sudbury (first, third, eighth and tenth). Take THAT, Sudbury! Dutch traffic planner says Toronto needs "naked streets." By which he means downtown core streets with no speed limits, traffic signals or curbs. Pick your joke: 1.)......

"It's hard to beat the system / when we're standing at a distance / so we keep waiting / waiting on the world to change." - JOHN MAYER How Do You Get To Massey Hall? I don't know, I only came close. I can at least tell you that practice has nothing to do with it. I'd practiced my speech a lot. Last night I was invited to represent my party (the Green Party of......

Last night's Ontario leaders' debate was replete with the kind of wit, sophistication, and rhetorical flourish we've come to expect from our candidates. Tory to McGuinty: You're a big fat liar. McGuinty: Am not. Hampton: Are too. Big fat liar. McGuinty: You guys are the liars. Green Party Leader Frank DeJong wasn't invited to the big kids party, even though he got a haircut and everything. A five-alarm fire at a wrecking yard in......

The price of oil scaled new heights yesterday, climbing up over $80 US for the first time ever. That's good news if you're an oil company, but bad news if you're a regular folk who likes to go places, or do things, or eat stuff. McDonald's Canada is going upscale. Influenced by popular chains such as Starbucks, the fast-food giant will renovate its restaurants to make them more "comfortable," creating cosiness with leather chairs,......

Apparently, Rod Muir, Waste Diversion Toronto founder, former Toronto mayoral candidate, and current Waste Diversion Campaigner for the Sierra Club of Canada, doesn't mind his nickname. "Mr. Garbage" loves, well, our trash, inspired by all of the lost energy and resources we throw out every day. As ecologists (and increasingly some economists) point out, human beings are the only creatures on Earth that create true "waste." Everything that every other lifeform produces ends up......

In spite of legislation passed by opposition parties requiring the government to achieve Kyoto standards by 2012, the Conservative government has presented their original plan which doesn't even come close. A spokesperson said "We wanted to meet our Kyoto obligations, but it looked like it was going to be really hard." The government did say they were commited to ensuring that future generations had a climate of some kind. The Three Amigos summit ended......

Like many Torontonians, we love the TTC but we're often boggled by the way it's run when it comes to human elements, like their hideous website and merchandise offerings. We are not only distressed at the removal of the Walk Left/Stand Right signs, but also noticed the Please Do Not Block Doorway stickers are no longer in the classic TTC typeface (based on Gill Sans), but a boring and generic sans serif instead. Accessibility......

Ever since the creation of the Greater Toronto Transit Authority (GTTA) last year we have been eagerly awaiting some information about what it is they actually do and/or when/where they will actually do that thing. So, last week when Dalton McGuinty announced that (if re-elected) he would invest $17.5 billion in transit programs to be administered by the GTTA we decided it was time to do some serious research (i.e. Google them). Alas, we......

We have good news for fans of Joel Plaskett Emergency. Tomorrow (Wednesday, May 2), Joel's going to be shooting a video for "Fashionable People," the first video from his latest album, Ashtray Rock, and everyone's invited to take part. All you've gotta do is show up from 5-8 p.m. at St. Joseph's Catholic School (at 50 Curzon Street, near Queen and Leslie; here's a Google Map). It's all-ages, and you have to wear black,......

The good news: tonight, there are three great literary events happening in our fair city. The bad news: you’re going to have to choose. Mark Truscott’s Test Reading Series presents Reg Johanson and Jordan Scott at Mercer Union, A Centre for Contemporary Art (37 Lisgar Street) tonight at 7:30 p.m. Reg Johanson has traveled from East Vancouver for tonight’s performance. His first book, Courage, My Love was published by Line Books last year. Reg’s critical......

Are you hungry? Not "man, I could go for an Oh! Henry" hungry, or "that chow mein was good but I should have ordered some chicken balls" hungry, but "another three cents and I can get a loaf of bread this week" hungry. If you’re reading this, chances are you don’t fall into the latter category, but many people in Toronto do. In fact, according to the publication Who's Hungry [PDF], a staggering 1 in......

It’s fitting that Maggie MacDonald is one of four self-appointed prime ministers of the Republic of Safety. She’s a political and creative force, using art as her weapon of choice. Her current bands, The Hidden Cameras and the aforementioned Republic of Safety, are musical meeting points for sex and politics. She’s exhibited her visual art and had her comics published in The Globe and Mail and Lola magazine. When she was just 20, MacDonald ran......

After a three week hiatus, the music listings are back! Hope everyone enjoyed the holidays. The year is still ramping up, so the list this week will be a bit quieter than usual. However, the good news is that this is already shaping up to be an amazing year, if the recent tour announcements are any indication. There are a ridiculous number of great bands coming through Toronto in the next few months, including......

The Christmas tree that a judge banished from the Jarvis Street courthouse lobby was mysteriously moved back to the lobby yesterday morning, then back to the hallway, and apparently will now be returned to the lobby at the orders of the Attorney-General. Little Cindy Lou Who was quoted as saying “it’s a Christmas miracle.” The debate over the pay raise for Ontario MPPs is set to close, in spite of NDP members complaining that......

Yes, a few weeks after our initial confusion over the Toronto International Latin Film Festival at the Royal Cinema, it's confirmed: The Royal Cinema (at 608 College St.) is re-opening its doors officially on December 15th, with the exclusive Toronto engagement of Monkey Warfare. Now, although we didn't like Monkey Warfare much (if at all), this is only good news. The aim of the new Royal cinema is in line with the other Theatre D......

The Maple Leafs have announced that GM John Ferguson will get a one-year contract extension. It's not that we think he's doing a bad job per se (though, sorry to break it to you, no Stanley Cup this year) but we kinda find ourselves agreeing with the Globe's David Shoalts in saying, "So what?" It's a slightly more exciting announcement than, "Our team colours will continue to be blue and white or white and blue,......

Following-up on this morning’s news of a last-minute deal to save Toronto’s bid for the 2015 World’s Fair, it’s now being reported that Toronto’s bid for Expo 2015 (doesn’t have the same ring as Expo ’86, does it?) is dead in the water. Is this good news? Bad news? Are you indifferent about it? Would this have been a key cog in the revitalization of the waterfront? Was it worth a projected deficit of $700......

And where can we get some? 110 Spadina Ave. is the building that houses the House of Anansi Press among other things. The medium-sized publisher is having an amazing year. First was the news that two of their books, Rawi Hage's De Niro's Game and Gaetan Soucy's the Immaculate Conception, made it on to the weirdest Giller shortlist in years. Then this morning the boys and girls at Anansi got even more good news. Hage's......

So the CBC couldn't hang on to This is Wonderland and there are rumours flying around that Hockey Night in Canada might be shuffling over to a rival network but there's some good news at the Ceeb if they can still pick up Arrested Development in syndication. One question though: who's programming the CBC's fall schedule? Why is the only news that we can get excited about is the CBC picking up a much abused......

We know that keeping track of shows is tricky. You've gotta check Torontoist (obviously!), all the newspapers, the artist's website, venue websites, and call your friends. It sucks, and sometimes you only hear about a show once tickets are sold out or - worse - once it's already happened. But we have good news. Our Bostonist pals sent us a link to Tourfilter. Tourfilter's a super-easy way to track when your favourite bands roll through......

CopyCamp is an "unconference" (hateful term) coming to Toronto September 28, 29, 30, at Ryerson Student Campus Centre. It's very much a planned do-it-yourself-you-participants affair, so there's no agenda (yet) and the wiki doesn't go up until a couple of weeks prior. From their site:CopyCamp is a place to meet people making art and making waves, an opportunity to discover how the Internet can work for artists and fans, and a chance to debate......