Photo: "summer fun" by angiemckaig, member of the blogTO Flickr pool.

Your Toronto morning news roundup for Wednesday July 30th, 2008:

A shortage of donor organs, which results in long wait times and, presumably, some potentially avoidable deaths, has renewed debate about how Ontario should deal with the growing problem. Should Ontarians by default be organ donors upon death, but have the option to opt out before dying (rather than by default being non-donors, and having to opt in before death)?

In addition to over 3000 bicycles recovered in the increasingly bizarre Igor Kenk alleged bike theft crackdown, a box containing 3kg of wacky tabacky was seized on Monday. So far there's no word on whether or not the marijuana was stolen from fellow Torontonians. Unlike with the bikes, police won't be accepting photos of you with your weed as proof of ownership.

Yesterday afternoon, a large, internally decaying oak tree suddenly fell on a playground in High Park, narrowly missing several playing children. One child an one adult were injured in the incident, which provided CityNews with a headline you just have to click on. ZOMFGWTF! "They could be dead right now!"

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A glass bottling plant in Toronto will be shutting down and laying off some 430 workers. Amongst the reasons cited for the closure are allegations that the LCBO is abusing its government monopoly powers to too aggressively push alternative packaging (which may or may not actually be more environmentally sound). The LCBO denies the accusation, adding that alternatively packaged products account for less than 5% of sales.

Grocery store chain Loblaw has cut prices on over 1000 items in an attempt to lure back customers that have been choosing to shop at buying-power giants like Walmart. This counter-intuitive news comes shortly after the company announced major restructuring and higher overall costs due to increases in fuel costs. Hopefully the 1000 items they slashed prices on are staples, and not obscure items like canned water chestnuts, head cheese, and frozen squid.

One of the judges on the CBC show How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria? was arrested and charged with assault and forcible confinement this past weekend, but police waited until after the final episode aired before releasing the juicy details (which include his alleged victim climbing down from the fourth floor balcony to the one below to escape).