Photo: "172/365 - Butterfly" by bending light, member of the blogTO Flickr pool.

Your Toronto morning news roundup for Wednesday July 9th, 2008:

Toronto's Chinatown (specifically the Dundas & Spadina area), is looking to clean up its image. It doesn't want to be known as a rat-infested, stinky, dirty neighbourhood, and the local BIA and the City are working hard to change that. If all goes as planned, tourists will be able to shop for $3 t-shirts without having to step over rotting durian boxes.

Environment Canada recorded some 430 lightning strikes during brief but severe storms that blasted the GTA yesterday. Sadly, one of those lightning strikes killed a man, who was seeking shelter under a tree in Christie Pits. Parts of the city also saw flash-flooding and downed power lines. Thankfully, no tornados were observed this time around.

A human leg bone was found near the still unopened Cherry Beach sports fields. Forensic investigators are hoping to match the DNA from the (partially animal-gnawed) bone, but aren't sure they'll be able to do that since it was found in a pool of DNA-altering toxic sludge. We can only hope that all the toxic sludge and human remains are removed before kid soccer players arrive for game day.

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An arrest was made in yesterday's road rage incident that led to the death of a driver. Is the charge of criminal negligence leading to death appropriate, or should this guy be tried for manslaughter?

Canadian mobile service providers Bell and Telus have joined competitor Rogers in the highway robbery parade. Last week, Rogers announced ludicrous pricing planes for the iPhone, and this week Bell and Telus both announced that they'd begin charging $0.15 for incoming text messages. Shouldn't the government step in at some point? The way things are going, I wouldn't be surprised if we saw a major resurgence in the use of the archaic pager/land-line combo.