Photo: "401 - bokeh" by craig.dales, member of the blogTO Flickr pool.

What's happening in the GTA (and sometimes beyond):

Wait a minute... how did 38 fully armed Toronto police officers get assigned to a new "transit unit" and start patrolling the TTC subway system over two weeks ago, without any major media reporting on it until now? The Sun reports that the unit has been active since May 18th, joining unarmed TTC Special Constables. Should the TTC constable role now to be re-examined?

Something is in the air, and it stinks. The threat of a summer strike by unionized city workers may mean that garbage collection will be halted. They want a 3% pay raise because, heck, if city councillors and cops got theirs, why shouldn't they get theirs as well?

The much-anticipated "wavedeck" bridge down on the waterfront at Lower Simcoe is close to completion, and will debut next week. The Dutch designer behind the $5.5million project is convinced that people will liken the bridge (one of five being built along the shoreline) to the Canadian Shield, and will be flocking to it to have their eyes animated by it, to lay down on it, and to make out on it. Ahhh, yeah.

A big, tall garage built by a resident in Downsview has his fellow residents calling on building inspectors. I'm not one to call for strict bylaws that restrict us from doing what we like with our own homes and property, but that thing is huge!

We all know that tow truck drivers have friends (mechanics, insurance brokers, personal injury lawyers, etc) and get kickbacks for referring you to them. But if police officers are working with tow truck operators, that adds a whole other layer of potential dishonesty to this problem. One OPP officer is being investigated for just that.