Photo: "On The Platform" by anotherfaceinthecrowd, member of the blogTO Flickr pool.

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

Thoughts go out to the friends and families of loved ones lost in last night's tragic plane crash near Buffalo, NY. 49 people died including all 44 passengers, 2 pilots, 2 flight crew, and (miraculously) 1 person on the ground. The plane was built by Bombardier, here in Toronto, and while they don't go as far as saying "it could happen here", CityNews does have a standalone news piece reminding us that Porter operates the same model out of the island airport.

Toronto has been experiencing extreme and unusual weather events in recent years (snow records, floods, heat waves, storms), and some believe that climate change is something we need to study and prepare for. But given our current fiscal trouble, should the city be allocating $250,000 to study the weather now?

We can't very well blame the recession for lower than expected revenues from red light traffic cameras, or can we (perhaps drivers are more conscious of the cost of driving)? The city is stalling plans to install a bunch of new red light runner camera setups because revenue from existing installations fell short of expectation. Each one costs $100,000 and needs to pull in a lot of violations resulting in paid fines to be profitable.

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Anyone married to Oliver Killeen is urged to come forward to police. Yes, all of you. An elderly British man was arrested in Toronto for, believe it or not, bigamy. He has wives here in Ontario, in England, and Ireland, (and maybe in the US too) and he brags about how easy it is to con women. The way he talks makes me think he's an International version of Toronto's infamous Dimitri the Lover.

With a surge in the numbers of students seeking university degrees, is it time that Toronto look to create a new "no-frills university"? A report suggests that we consider an all-undergraduate, arts and science focused school, with a major online learning component.