Toronto plans to appeal the court ruling that killed the city's ban on shark fin projects. City solicitor Anna Kinastowski said her team has filed papers ahead of a deadline that sets the stage for a legal battle if council gives the thumbs up later this month or in February. The shark fin by-law was struck down by an Ontario Superior Court judge in November for being outside the city's jurisdiction.

2013 will bring plenty of subtle changes to transit in Toronto, including new articulated busses and renovations to Union and Pape stations. A new, more permanent rush hour traffic management scheme for Yonge-Dundas station is also in the works, hopefully at the expense of the current plastic barriers. New service interruption displays for the ticket halls are also coming soon.

Speaking of transit improvements, Metrolinx's plan to extend the buried portion of the Eglinton Crosstown LRT isn't proving popular with some local residents. Two sub-surface stops - Leslie Street and Ferrard Drive - will be cut from the route if the plan gets the go ahead. Should Metrolinx build as many stops as possible or is tunneling more important?

Two local steeds will be in the United States for Barack Obama's second inauguration. Honest Ed and Tecumseh, two Toronto police Clydesdale-Thoroughbred crosses, will march with horses from across North America down Pennsylvania Avenue on Jan. 21.

Meet the bike-riding lawyers who fought for two recent coroner's reports into cycling and pedestrian safety. Albert Koehl and Patrick Brown hope that by having statistics on the number of road injuries will lead to better equality and protection for all road users.

Everyone knows a major sporting event is nothing without a mascot, and that's why Pan Am Game organizers are throwing down the gauntlet to local children to design a cheery character to represent the 2015 event. Kids might consider designing some sort of cash cow, since the character is likely to be one of the event's highest earners.

Finally, somewhere in the murky depths of Lake Ontario lie nine Avro Arrows, the legendary Canadian supersonic fighter jet project abruptly cancelled in 1959. Despite promising tests, all existing prototypes, designs, and documents were destroyed and several hulls dropped into the lake. Since then, continued interest in the project has lead a team of enthusiasts to search the bed for the lost jet. No luck so far...

QUICK LINKS:

• Toronto man arrested for driving at 187 km/h [The Star]
• Parents of boy killed in Hwy. 401 accident plead for hit-and-run driver to surrender [The Star]

Chris Bateman is a staff writer at blogTO. Follow him on Twitter at @chrisbateman.

Photo: "Untitled" by Lisa on the Run from the blogTO Flickr pool.