Photo: "Toronto Sunset" by iliaa, member of the blogTO Flickr pool.

Your Toronto morning news roundup for Friday May 16th, 2008:

Steal a hummer and drive it over a police car as you attempt your getaway. What sounds like a common feat in GTA IV actually happened yesterday in Markham. Three young men face a slew of charges. Perhaps they should get a hotshot lawyer to blame it on the game.

Increasing fuel costs may lead to another TTC fare increase next year. At $2.85 per ride, it had better come with a shoe shine and a smile, or else the Toronto transit riders union will be forced to strike without warning at 11pm on a Friday night, forcing drivers to not have to deal with the annoyances and dangers that come with the job. In other news, the TTC is proud to announce that the system should be fully wheelchair accessible by 2017 (three years ahead of previous estimates).

Toronto tourism is a joke. What better way is there to give it a boost than to appoint world-renown comedian Russell Peters a global ambassador to Toronto? Pardon my pessimism, but cracking jokes about Toronto in London and Moscow seems like less likely a successful strategy than, say, improving our city and making more attractive a place for tourists to come and enjoy themselves.

--

It's Victoria Day long weekend! Because the weather forecast looks miserable, we'll likely want to buy and do stuff around the city on Monday. Here's a summary of what's open and what's closed.

A Toronto nursing home has been reprimanded for unacceptable conduct and is tentatively barred from taking on new residents. When a resident is choked to death by a restraining device, you know something isn't quite right at "Leisureworld".

Tobacco retailers in Ontario have just 2 weeks remaining to comply with new provincial laws that force them to eliminate cigarette displays. Will hiding smokes from view in stores reduce the number of people that light up? Will a pack-a-day smoker forget to buy them if they're not in view? It'll be interesting to see the effect this new law has.