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Newsstand: July 18, 2012
Knock, knock. Who’s there? Wednesday. Wednesday, who? Wednesday in the news: it’s not the heat, it’s the humidity—but it’s not that bad; Toronto’s storm chasers; the personal data of millions of Ontarians is missing; TCHC head reiterates gun policy; and a section of Bathurst Street is closed.
Sure, yesterday was hot, but not that hot. Toronto thermometers reached as high as 37 C, which made most places without a/c a sweaty, hot mess, but August 25, 1948 was even sweatier, hotter, and messier by 1.8 C. So stop complaining.
City staff are investigating the sewer system to figure out why so many of the homes in certain neighbourhoods flood during heavy rain like the city experienced on the weekend. Nearly $1 billion is going to be spent in the next 10 years to combat basement flooding in 32 especially vulnerable areas of the city. Apparently, the City employs its own Twister-style storm chasers. But, rather than trying to deploy a revolutionary piece of tornado-analyzing technology into the heart of an F5, the City workers go around during storms to ensure catch basins are not blocked, which is a bit less glamorous.
The personal information of about 2.4 million voters from as many as 25 provincial ridings has been mistakenly lost on two unencrypted USB drives. Each person’s missing Elections Ontario record includes his or her name, date of birth, gender, address, and whether or not he or she voted. What is perhaps most alarming is that Greg Essensa, Ontario’s chief electoral officer, has known about this since the end of April, but the public is only being alerted now.
Monday night’s tragedy on Danzig Street in Scarborough has the president and CEO of Toronto Community Housing, Gene Jones, taking a firm approach to gun ownership. He told reporters that there is a strict no guns policy on TCHC property and that he will even evict anyone visited by a person carrying a gun. Jones also talked about the importance getting of jobs for disenfranchised youth. We hope that a meaningful discussion can continue into the future about what has been behind the recent rash of public shootings (and any shooting, for that matter).
Bathurst Street is closed from Lake Shore Boulevard to Fort York Boulevard this morning after, guess what, concrete fell from the Gardiner Expressway. This also means that the 511 Bathurst streetcar is not running between Queen Street and Exhibition. Adjust your commutes accordingly, but whatever you do, don’t go near the corner of Queen Street and Spadina Avenue.