Photo: "Thursday's Walk About" by Metrix X, member of the blogTO Flickr pool.

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

Former (complete embarrassment of an) Environment Minister and now Transportation Minister John Baird is slamming Toronto's Pearson International Airport [Star] for being lousy and lax with security. Apparently he was able to walk onto the tarmac during a scheduled visit. Umm... maybe he was allowed to walk onto the tarmac because he's the federal Transportation Minister who was there on a scheduled visit, wearing a security pass, with RCMP officers in tow? Run to your local hardware store and stock up on duct tape so you can seal yourself in your basement when the terrorists attack, everyone!

A Mississauga woman who is facing deportation to Pakistan claims that if sent back, she'll be dead within a short time [Sun]. She's gotten death threats from some guy back home who has received retaliatory death threats from her older brother, and all of this "bloodshed will go on and on." So... will our government tell her she's S.O.L. and send her back, or take heed to her concerns and reconsider her deportation?

The Dundas West BIA is running a campaign against city councillor Adam Giambrone [NP] (talk about over-use of the Obama-style photo manipulation!), on the heels of his desire to eliminate rush hour streetside parking across the city. My take? Our traffic problem is absolutely horrific, and people can't get around. Some worry about loss of business if people can't park right out front of their establishments, but perhaps a greater problem is that people can't get to those businesses because it takes 30mins to drive 2km in this city and the TTC streetcars barely move.

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Rats. Look at what we started [NP]. Sorry, Chinatown. But it does appear that you need to get your act together. And the city should be doing more. Move toward daily garbage pickup if we have to... the problem need be taken by the horns.

The Toronto Blue Jays have their home opener at Skydome on Monday. I'll be there, in the rowdy 500s, wishing we had a championship contending team. As will everyone else, later in August, when the Jays host a weekend to honour the 92-93 team [CityNews]. Heck, if you can't win big, you may as well get all nostalgic about when you could, right?

Google may be poised to buy Twitter [G&M]. As much as I love Google, why must they own everything that is good? I kind of like the idea of Twitter being a standalone service. In related news, blogTO has been accused of both Tweeting way too much, and not Tweeting nearly enough, making it very difficult for me to know how much we should Tweet.

Are teens drinking, smoking, and having less sex than before [CityNews]? Or are they jut getting better at lying on surveys?