Photo: "on the tram @ 6am" by Dmitry Kichenko, member of the blogTO Flickr pool.

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

A quick catch-up for those of you who weren't with us during the weekend:
The Queen's Quay Loblaws parking lot had a flood, Sushi on Bloor got shut down by Toronto Public Health, Earth Hour in Toronto topped expectations, and Dimitri the Lover exposed himself.

Higher than acceptable carbon monoxide build-up caused by monster truck motocross mayhem forced the temporary evacuation of the Skydome [Sun], and the restaurants and hotels within last night. I guess the remedy was to roll the window (aka the retractable roof) down for a bit?

I had high hopes for Feist and Tokyo Police Club. Despite the fact that Nickelback makes absolutely terrible music, they still managed to take best group, best album, and the fan choice awards at the 2009 Junos last night [CityNews]. Toronto's Kardinal Offishall took best rap song, and Lights scored best new artist honours.

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GO Transit is looking to go green with Lisgar Station (near the 401 and 407 intersection) in Mississauga. A wind turbine is expected to be able to provide as much as 80% of the station's electrical power needs [G&M], paying for itself quickly.

Although minimum wage in Ontario is going to go up to $9.50/hr tomorrow, there's talk that next year's planned increase to $10.25 may be delayed [G&M]. This combined with increased cost of living associated due to harmonized GST+PST doesn't sounds like the ideal situation for our province's poorest working class.

City Councillors won't be asked to freeze their salaries in 2009 [Star], despite the same being asked of civic workers. Once again (recall the special provisions in the TTC employee contract), salaries for comparable jobs elsewhere in the GTA are cited as a reason for jobs within Toronto to be more highly compensated. I don't get this. It's an argument that makes no sense.

And it's Monday, which means that if you're on Twitter and you're having lunch today, you should make it a sandwich and take part in the weekly Twitter Monday Sandwich Fight. Make a sandwich, enter it in the battle, and follow the results by searching hashtag #mondaysandwichfight.