Photo: "untitled" by Squeakyrat, member of the blogTO Flickr pool.

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

A small group of protesters (including Toronto Councillors Adam Vaughan and Olivia Chow) showed up to speak out against plans by Porter Airlines (endorsed by feds Jim Flaherty and John Baird) to build a new terminal and double they fleet at the Toronto Island Airport [G&M]. It's likely little consolation for the downtowners who oppose the plan, but 10 new turboprops running from the island likely means a few less jets flying over Mississauga and a few hundred less taxis driving to and from Pearson.

If you were an immigrant business owner and got a phone call demanding that you send them thousands of dollars to a foreign country or face violence, what would you do? Police are hoping that rather than obliging, victims of extortion cases like this (in Markham and Richmond Hill) report the incidents instead.

High Park dog walkers are going to be part of a pilot program that aims to have pooch poop diverted from landfill - by offering paper poopie bags and green bins throughout the park [Star]. A few problems may prevent this from working out, including the questionable suitability of the paper bags for larger pooping dogs, squeamishness on the part of poop-picker-uppers, and the potential for plastic bags ending up in the poopy bins anyhow. Poop.

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I'm having a hard time making much sense of this news piece [CityNews]. Apparently a Toronto woman who fell ill in Mexico (and NOT with swine flu) is being told by an unknown person or organization that she can't return to Canada because there are no beds for her back home, even though there are beds available and she's in stable enough condition to fly. Did I get that right?

University Avenue is closed to traffic again today [Sun], as Tamil protesters continue to peacefully occupy the streets. It's not certain when the protests (and the minor inconveniences to Torontonians) will end, or when the downtown stretch of road will return to normal. Will the message of the people in Toronto be heard by the U.S., Canada and the United Nations and create action in Sri Lanka? I guess time only will tell.

And Build Toronto is continuing to earmark various locations around the city that are "ripe for development" [Star]. It would be great to see some of this land used for TTC commuter lot expansion.