What does restructuring Toronto Animal Service staff mean anyway?

Mayor Rob Ford believes the city has no business running pet social programs when the city is financially strapped, Star reporter Robyn Doolittle reported Sunday. http://www.thestar.com/news/cityhallpolitics/article/1093401--2012-the-doomsday-budget-not-so-much

Well, 2012 budget proposals are out today. http://www.toronto.ca/budget2012/pdf/2012_opbudg_presentation.pdf 

On page 16, an interesting little note says:

"Shift Restructuring, Animal Services (0.56M)"

Arguably, Toronto Animal Services, already overworked, do great work. How many animals will that $56 million "saving" doom? Pet social programs aren't a luxury in the GTA. They not only spare animals from death and disease, they perform an essential service for Torontonians who, in the case of domesticated animals, often cause the problem in the first place.

Want to do know how much they do? Start with this blog:

http://iwantapounddog.blogspot.com/

 

Is it too late to send that baby back?

thestar.com has a story today about babies' moods in the womb. Apparently it's written all over their faces and supposedly it's not gas.

http://www.thestar.com/sciencetech/article/1092473--oh-baby-you-have-your-daddy-s-smile?bn=1

I'm always suspicious of studies that always have the undercurrent of a "bad mother, bad mother" mentality (is that tiny frown the result of a cigarette?) but it's Friday, I'm back to blogging (promise) and so I'll just keep it light. In that vein . . . 

Yikes. Maybe that's too much visual information.

*

P.S. my blog is still political decoder but the twitter account attached is @linda_diebel. But if you're following me on Twitter at the old address,you'll still get my tweets which will be more regular than once a month.

Guess it would have helped to give you the link to the original story: http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/politics/article/1046169--analysis-will-olivia-run-for-the-top-ndp-job

Whoa, too many women in political leadership positions and why, why, the whole place could just blow up.
Thought it was amusing today to see so many comments to my story on Olivia Chow and the NDP leadership saying, to paraphrase, "Hey, wait a minute, Kim Campbell was already PM in 1993." Yup she was there for a few months so I suppose that's the quota.
Really folks?
I don't know if Olivia Chow will run for the job which, barring events, could include the Official Opposition leadership and - the reason today's negative shots on women at the top - a shot at the position of PM in the next election.
There was a buzz about Chow all week, in the lines at City Hall, outside Roy Thomson Hall, and the Star likes to get stories people are talking about out there.
I expected a wide diversity of opinion. But we're still on the "too many women" for PM theme?
Sheesh.

He's not The Boss. Michael Ignatieff plays on his inner Obama.

Try as he might, though, the Liberal leader can't get the "Rise Up" refrain from Springsteen to reverberate like, "Yes, We Can!"

At a Bramton rally last night, he began the chant, encouraging the crowd to join in and finally got a half-hearted reply.

Rule for campaign slogans: Don't wait until you're halfway through the camapign to start chanting.

Lesson learned: Don't wait until halfway through your campaign to introduce your anthem.

Feds to Vale: Here's $1 billion and a lake too

It should be added to recent reporting on the $1 billion Export Development Canada loan to Brazilian mining giant, Vale S.A., that Ottawa is also throwing in a lake - or is in the last stages of doing so. Vale reportedly plans to use $250 million of the unsecured loan (officials say they trust Vale) for Vale's proposed nickel refinery at Long Harbour, Newfoundland and Labrador. The company plans to use nearby Sandy Pond as a toxic tailings dump, sealing the fate of aquatic life that includes prize-winning trout. An environmental coalition has taken the Sandy Pond case to federal court, arguing that a Fisheries Act amendment allowing dumping contradicts the act itself. (It allows lakes to be reclassified as "tailings impoundment areas" and a dozen more are already on the list.) There has been no decision yet from the court, but it would be a surprise if Sandy Pond escapes a grim fate.

The loan is structured to offer $500 million upfront and the rest of the money if Vale shows itself to be giving more goods and services/support contracts to Canadian companies. The Steelworkers union is critical of the deal, especially since the union's membership in Sudbury and Labrador have just been through an 11-month strike. They see it as a "reward" to the company once known as Vale Inco (previously Inco).

Hard to argue this isn't one sweet deal.

 

BP oil spill: if you can't see it, it doesn't exist

The Obama administration merrily announced this week that most of the BP oil spill has been cleaned up, saying 75 percent of the oil had been captured, burned off, evaporated or broken down. (Evaporated?)

Phew. I was getting worried there.

But read Joseph and Amanda Boyden's recent piece in Maclean's for a very different - and scary - view. They walked a Pensacola Beach with experts using ultra -violet lights to see oil that couldn't be seen by the naked eye, or with infrared light. Moreover, whenever they dug a small hole in sand that looked okay,  oil flooded into the hole. Not only is it a beautifully written piece, it chronicles the extraordinary efforts to which BP has gone to keep journalists away from dirty beaches, as well as sugarcoating the facts.

Seems like BP has succeeded and we can all breathe easier. Comforting.

Who wants to think that all that unseen oil could be deep in the marshes and on the bottom of the Gulf?

The Only Way to Save 'The Office'

Okay, it's just my opinion, but in a sop to a day-so-humid-my-brain-cells-are-fried, I have a solution to save The Office when Steve Carell leaves at the end of next season.

Two words: Kathy Bates.

After Michael Scott (Carell) leaves, have Ms. Bates (Jo), who's CEO of the company that bought Dunder Mifflin, decide to move with her two Great Danes to a new head office at, you guessed it, the branch office we know so well. Make Dwight Schrute (Rainn Wilson) even more obnoxious (and he was going that way this season) and, hijinks ensue. Sure, I've always liked the Ricky Gervais version better, but I think Bates could elevate The Office a cut above even the British version.

Just a thought and, like I said, my brain is melting.

A taste of The Office:

In memory of Fred's Stella

Fred, so, so sorry about Stella. And your Mom. Please don't stay away too long. Toronto needs your voice! http://www.onebarkatatime.blogspot.com/

(Repeating this for a separate post)

Police leave protestors vulnerable without gas masks

G20: I saw a few police officers removing gas masks from protestors' bags in Allan Gardens and others saw the same thing elsewhere on the weekend.  We're not talking about black-garbed thugs in bandanas, but young people, as well as volunteer street medics, who'd bought the masks as a precaution (as did most journalists). Why? It's illegal to carry a gas mask to a demonstration with the potential for tear gas?