WOW Thread. I can't believe this actually happened.

[Anto]

Why is the City of Toronto throwing millions into buying new garbage trucks?
That’s what Councillor David Shiner wants to know after he found out the city’s bid committee approved two contracts — worth almost $40 million — to purchase up to 114 trucks.

Shiner says the contracts were awarded despite the fact council could decide later this year to contract out the rest of the city’s trash collection.
“I can’t understand why the city’s bid committee awarded contracts to replace 114 garbage trucks — more than half the fleet — when city council hasn’t decided on contracting out and is in the midst of labour negotiations,” Shiner told the Sun. “

That is $40 million for new trucks that we may never use.”
Back in August, the city’s bid committee awarded a contract valued at $19.7 million for 37 new garbage trucks with options to buy an additional 26 trucks. Last month, the bid committee approved a second contract, worth $19.9 million, to buy 25 garbage trucks with an option for 26 more. Because the individual contracts aren’t worth more than $20 million, council didn’t have to sign off on the purchase.

The Willowdale (Ward 24) councillor will ask Mayor John Tory’s executive committee later this month to put off buying any new garbage trucks until council decides whether it should contract out trash collection east of Yonge St. He also wants the committee to ask the city manager to report back on the issue.
In a separate letter to the city’s auditor general, Shiner asks for the awarding of the two truck contracts to be reviewed.

Solid waste management officials said the new trucks were ordered in 2015 for delivery this year as part of the city’s regular capital replacement program.
“The trucks were already scheduled replacements given certain current trucks are at the end of their lifespan and must be replaced,” said Lisa Duncan, acting director of collections and litter operations.

“The ordered trucks are a combination of styles of automated curbside collection trucks to be used for collecting various materials such as organics or garbage.”

https://www.torontosun.com/2016/01/16/40m-for-garbage-trucks-city-might-not-use

 

[blackram]

Sounds like the city staff are trying to make an end-run around the city council by doing things under the radar. And really?!? $20 million is the small expenditures spending limit by which city council doesn't need to be made aware of?

 

[Puetra]

 

[blackram]

I don't know what's more unbelievable, that the passenger was flipped out of the pickup like that and survived, or that he was drinking but wasn't arrested because he was under the limit?

 

[Stoner]

[h=1]This woman ‘beat up her husband with nunchucks because he refused her sex’[/h]
https://metro.co.uk/2016/01/23/this...nunchucks-because-he-refused-her-sex-5641043/

 

[blackram]

I bet she's going to be given some probation and community service for doing that. Meanwhile if her husband had fought back, then he'd be looking at a supermax sentence.

 

[Signingin]

Go figure.

Terry Fox's dad approaches cancer diagnosis with 'never give up' attitude of son

https://www.torontosun.com/2016/01/...-diagnosis-with-never-give-up-attitude-of-son

 

[Prick]

[h=1]Female student in custody after 6 stabbed at Dunbarton High School in Pickering[/h][h=2]None of the injuries are believed to be life-threatening.[/h]
https://www.thestar.com/news/crime/2016/02/23/students-stabbed-at-pickering-high-school.html

 

[Pullmyfinger]

GUIYANG, Feb. 16 (Xinhua) -- Southwest China's Guizhou Province is expected to evacuate more than 9,000 residents for the protection of the world's largest ever radio telescope before its completion in September, local authorities said Tuesday.

The evacuation is facilitated by a proposal delivered last year by several members of the Guizhou Provincial Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), according to Li Yuecheng, secretary-general of the CPPCC Guizhou Provincial Committee.

The proposal asked the government to relocate residents within 5 kilometers of the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope, or FAST, to create a sound electromagnetic wave environment, said Li.

The Guizhou provincial government is expected to resettle 9,110 residents in Pingtang County and Luodian County in four settlements by the end of September, he said.
Each of the involved residents will get 12,000 yuan (1,838 U.S. dollars)subsidy from the provincial reservoir and eco-migration bureau, and each involved ethnic minority household with housing difficulties will get 10,000 yuan subsidy from the provincial ethnic and religious committee.

Construction of the FAST began in March 2011 with an investment of 1.2 billion yuan.
Upon completion, the telescope will be the world's largest of its kind, overtaking Puerto Rico's Arecibo Observatory, which is 300 meters in diameter.

 

[UncleBob]

[h=1]Retired lawyer, 62, demands a refund and threatens citizen's arrest after Key West stripper refuses to have sex with him[/h]

• John Ciardi narrowly avoided getting arrested after making a scene at Living Dolls club in Key West, Florida, Wednesday
• Ciardi, 62, from Massachusetts, grew irate after a stripper refused to have sex with him, or to refund $200 he had offered her for services
• He threatened to make a citizen's arrest after a police officer declined to arrest the stripper
• Ciardi was charged with drug offenses in Utah in 2012 and disbarred in the state two years later

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ar...tml?ITO=1490&ns_mchannel=rss&ns_campaign=1490

 

[blackram]

Retired lawyer, 62, demands a refund and threatens citizen's arrest after Key West stripper refuses to have sex with him

• John Ciardi narrowly avoided getting arrested after making a scene at Living Dolls club in Key West, Florida, Wednesday
• Ciardi, 62, from Massachusetts, grew irate after a stripper refused to have sex with him, or to refund $200 he had offered her for services
• He threatened to make a citizen's arrest after a police officer declined to arrest the stripper
• Ciardi was charged with drug offenses in Utah in 2012 and disbarred in the state two years later

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ar...tml?ITO=1490&ns_mchannel=rss&ns_campaign=1490

Winner! :biggrin2:

 

[S C I]

A Pennsylvania man was arrested twice in one day Wednesday when, after being released from a police holding cell, he decided to steal a police car he found idling outside the station.

According to Pittsburgh news station WTAE, Mario Tiller, 37, kicked off this unfortunate sequence of events by panhandling in traffic while sipping from a half gallon jug of wine, as the victims of neoliberal austerity politics are entitled to do.

Motorists were like “ew, a homeless” and called the cops, who, upon seeing Tiller had a number of lacerations on his face, did the right thing for once and called him an ambulance. (He said he had walked into a door.)

Unfortunately for everyone, but especially him, Tiller was already quite drunk during his ambulance ride and groped a female paramedic while attempting to expose himself. When he subsequently arrived at the hospital, he caused enough of a “disturbance” that they sent him back into the waiting arms of the cops.

It’s not known whether they stitched him up first or if they were like, “Wow, we can see why someone beat you up, GTFO rn.”

Tiller was kept in a holding cell (i.e. drunk tank) overnight and released with a citation and what the cops hoped was a slightly clearer head. To celebrate his newfound freedom, he stole a police SUV — which, to be fair, was unlocked, unmarked, and idling conveniently outside the station with the keys in the ignition, like some sort of ethical test.

The plucky Tiller was apprehended 23 minutes later in the nearby town of Elizabeth and re-arrested for a number of crimes, namely: “Theft, receiving stolen property, indecent assault, open lewdness, disorderly conduct, and public drunkenness.”

This is obviously a very sad story about one of many who’ve been failed by the system, but I still have to give it up to the man for sheer, dogged persistence.

 

[Prick]

 

[Waxed]

[h=1]Porn star Mary Carey is ending her more than six-year marriage due to lack of sex[/h]

• Adult film actress Mary Carey filed paperwork for divorce from husband Mario Monge last week
• Documents cited irreconcilable differences, but she said for her their marriage fell apart due to lack of sex
• The couple got married in July 2009 and do not have any children
• Carey shot to international fame by running for California governor against eventual winner Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2003

[url]https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3488280/Porn-star-Mary-Carey-ending-six-year-marriage-lack-sex.html[/URL]

 

[Rolex]

 

[Poroit]

:biggrin2:

 

[Wise Guy]

TORONTO - A man is in double-double trouble after allegedly hijacking a TTC bus and forcing the driver at knifepoint to make a Timmy's run early Friday.
The bizarre abduction began when the bus pulled up to a stop in the area of Albion Rd. and Finch Ave. W. just after 12:20 a.m.

"A man boarded the bus and he produced a large knife to the driver causing the other passengers to flee," Const. Jenifferjit Sidhu said Friday.
She said the knife-wielding man then forced the TTC employee to drive the bus.

"He also made the driver run red lights," Sidhu added.

The bus eventually stopped at a Tim Horton's on Sante Dr. — near Steeles Ave. W. and Hwy. 400 — and theman exited the bus.
York Regional Police took the lead on the call at that point because the coffee shop is located on the north side of Steeles in Vaughan.

When officers arrived at the scene around 12:45 a.m. the man was inside Tim Horton's, Const. Laura Nicolle said.
Neither York Region nor Toronto police could say what transpired once the man was inside the Timmy's.
However, a source claims he was sitting at a table sipping a coffee when police arrived.

"Officers directed customers out of store and the man was ordered to get down on the ground," Nicolle said, explaining the man was taken into without incident.

Daniel Ferreira, 31, faces charges of assault with a weapon, mischief endangering life, forcible confinement, uttering threats and taking a motor vehicle without consent.

The Toronto resident is expected to appear in Newmarket court Friday.
TTC spokesman Brad Ross said the bus driver was not physically hurt but he was shaken by the brazen crime.

"The TTC has counseling programs for its staff and will offer whatever assistance the employee needs," he said.

 

[Skipper]

Banned From Amazon for Returning 37 Things
Greg Nelson calls axing of his account "egregious"

https://www.newser.com/story/222323/banned-from-amazon-for-returning-37-things.html

 

[blackram]

Banned From Amazon for Returning 37 Things
Greg Nelson calls axing of his account "egregious"

https://www.newser.com/story/222323/banned-from-amazon-for-returning-37-things.html

I don't know, 37 items is a lot of returns.

 

[blackram]

Microsoft's AI Twitter bot goes dark after racist, sexist tweets | News | Tech |

Tay, Microsoft Corp's so-called chatbot that uses artificial intelligence to engage with millennials on Twitter, lasted less than a day before it was hobbled by a barrage of racist and sexist comments by Twitter users that it parroted back to them.


TayTweets (@TayandYou), which began tweeting on Wednesday, was designed to become "smarter" as more users interacted with it, according to its Twitter biography. But it was shut down by Microsoft early on Thursday after it made a series of inappropriate tweets.


A Microsoft representative said on Thursday that the company was "making adjustments" to the chatbot while the account is quiet.


"Unfortunately, within the first 24 hours of coming online, we became aware of a coordinated effort by some users to abuse Tay's commenting skills to have Tay respond in inappropriate ways," the representative said in a written statement supplied to Reuters, without elaborating.