Sunday, December 1, 2013

Who elected Rob Ford?

We did, because taxing and spending were out of control 

 newMayor        

Newly-elected Toronto Mayor Rob Ford holds a press conference on December 1, 2010 — his first day in office. Ford promised to end the free-spending ways of the former administration, a message heard loud and clear by the city’s electorate. CRAIG ROBERTSON/TORONTO SUN FILES


With all the revisionist history being written about who was responsible for electing Rob Ford as mayor in 2010, it’s time for some perspective
.
Ford was elected mayor of Toronto — piling up an impressive 47% of everyone who voted in a hotly contested mayoral race — because people were rightly concerned about runaway taxing and spending at City Hall.

Because under the previous administration of David Miller, spending was approaching unsustainable levels.
And because public concern about what was happening went undetected by arrogant, spendthrift and out-of-touch city councillors, too busy feathering their own nests to realize Ford had captured the public’s growing anger with City Hall.

After all, to these councillors Ford was a buffoon, a loud-mouth, a lone-wolf, a not very bright, penny-pinching councillor from suburban Etobicoke.

http://www.torontosun.com/2013/11/29/who-elected-rob-ford



Man accused of selling secrets to China

By ,Toronto Sun
First posted: | Updated:

rcmp            
 Officers held a news conference on Sunday to announce that they have charged a Burlington man with trying to sell classified information to China. (JACK BOLAND, Toronto Sun)


A Burlington man allegedly tried to supply China with classified information related to border security, according to the RCMP.

Officers arrested Qing Quentin Huang, 53, under the Security
Information Act on Friday.

He is charged with two counts of attempting to communicate information the Canadian government is safeguarding to a foreign power.

Huang worked for a company that builds patrol ships, frigates and naval auxiliary vessels for Canada.
“In these types of cases, sharing of information may give a foreign entity
a tactical, military or competitive advantage,” alleged the RCMP’s 
 


Puerto Rico, with at least $70 billion in debt, confronts a rising economic misery

   

   View Photo Gallery — Puerto Rico in crisis: Burdened by high unemployment, a shrinking population and overwhelming debt, the small island is struggling.


Boxes and wooden crates filled with household items bound for the U.S. mainland are stacked high in the Rosa del Monte moving company’s cavernous warehouse, evidence of the historic rush of people abandoning this beautiful island.

The economy here has been in recession for nearly eight years, crimping tax revenue and pushing the jobless rate to nearly 15 percent. Meanwhile, the government is burdened by staggering debt, spawning comparisons to bankrupt Detroit and forcing lawmakers to severely slash pensions, cut government jobs and raise taxes in a furious effort to avert default.

The implications are serious for Americans outside Puerto Rico both because a taxpayer bailout would be expensive and a default would be far more disruptive than Detroit’s record bankruptcy filing in July. Officials in San Juan and Washington are adamant that a federal bailout is not on the table, but the situation is being closely monitored by the White House, which recently named an advisory team to help Puerto Rican officials navigate the crisis.

The island’s problems have ignited an exodus not seen here since the 1950s, when 500,000 people left for jobs on the mainland. Now Puerto Ricans, who are U.S. citizens, are again leaving in droves.

They are choosing the uncertainty of the job market in Orlando or New York City or Philadelphia over what they view as the certainty that their dreams would be crushed by the U.S. territory’s grinding economic problems.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/puerto-rico-with-at-least-70-billion-in-debt-confronts-a-rising-economic-misery/2013/11/30/f40a22c6-5376-11e3-9fe0-fd2ca728e67c_story.html?hpid=z3 

Guess What Happens to 76-Year-Old Woman While Rally to End ‘Knockout Game’ Wraps Up Nearby

While 76-year-old Yvonne Small walked along a Brooklyn, N.Y. street at 11:35 a.m. in Friday’s bright sunshine, an unknown assailant punched her in the back of the head and knocked her to the ground…and perhaps made her the 10th New York City victim of the infamous “knockout game.”

76 Year Old Woman May Be New York Citys 10th Knockout Game Victim           
Surveillance photo may be of alleged attacker of 76-year-old Yvonne Small. (Image source: WPIX-TV)


Small was was treated at a hospital and discharged, and her attacker was being sought by police, according to the New York Daily News.


In a distressing bit of irony, as small was being attacked, a rally against the “knockout game” — in which thugs try to knock a stranger unconscious with a single punch then post video of the attack online — was finishing up in the same neighborhood.



No arrests after Tyler Johnson was shot and killed Saturday morning








                           
JOHNSON
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Tyler Johnson, 30, was the victim of the Saturday morning shooting at Caroline and King.
 
 
A 30-year-old man is dead after a shooting early Saturday in downtown Hamilton.
Emergency crews were called to the area of King Street West and Caroline Street at 3:15 a.m. for reports of a stabbing. 

An altercation had broken out between two groups of men outside Vida La Pita, a takeout restaurant. Things "quickly escalated" police say, and
 one man produced a handgun.
Tyler Johnson, 30, was shot.
Yamen Balki was working at Vida La Pita on Saturday morning when the shooting took place. He didn't see anything, but he said some of his employees heard a gun shot. 

"They saw a car fly by out of the Tim Horton's parking lot and that was it, it all happened in seconds," Balki said.