A dramatic news conference yesterday in Toronto where a 32-year-old councilor Adam Giambrone abruptly walked off stage after making a brief, but emotional statement apologizing for cheating on his live-in girlfriend with several women.
He apologized to his long-term girlfriend Sarah McQuarrie, the public and his colleagues and said that he realized a "public career of integrity cannot survive deceit in my private life."
"There are weeks that change your life, and this one has certainly changed mine," he said, standing at the podium with blood-shot eyes.
However, he then abruptly walked off stage without directly addressing the allegations, discussing his political future or taking questions from reporters.
Two minutes later, his executive assistant came to the podium and indicated he would read out Giambrone's full statement.
"He will spend the next few days in private," said the flak, "His mayoralty campaign ends today."
Giambrone will stay on as chair of the TTC and will continue his duties as councilor…Every reporter in the room was stunned by this sloppy self-slinging of a public man's reputation.
The news comes just hours after the Toronto Star reported Giambrone had confessed to cheating on his live-in girlfriend several times throughout 2009.
Giambrone admitted to having several mistresses after a Toronto university student publicly claimed she started having sex with the 32-year-old TTC chair about a year ago, when she was 19 years old- A university student who had been on Twitter with the handle Porno Mouth--More coming up…
News on Honda and Toyota recalls
And today's news from TOKYO - Honda's expansion of its global recall for faulty air bags suggests automakers are turning cautious amid consumer scrutiny of Toyota's safety lapses, a trend that could see more recalls in the coming months.
Honda Motor Co., Japan's No. 2 automaker, says it was recalling an additional 437,000 cars globally, bringing its 15 month-old recall to nearly one million vehicles.
Intense criticism of Toyota that they were too slow to acknowledge problems has other automakers wanting to make sure they are ahead of the curve.
"No one wants to be Akio Toyoda," says one analyst referring to Toyota's president who has apologized repeatedly for his company's woes.
"You're seeing the down side of not doing it…Automakers are "obviously going to be motivated to be more aggressive on these things."
Washington Storms
This is one of those days Ladies and Gentleman when we can easily claim superiority over our American neighbors when it comes to staying cool despite the big blow of snow.
We Canadians know for the most part how to stay calm, cool and Canadian. But the story from the capital of the Free World today isn't about calm and cool.
Washington, D.C., and neighboring Montgomery County, Md., may have just lived up to its reputation as "wimpy" weather warriors -- suspending snow plow operations as a blizzard bears down on the region.
The National Weather Service on Wednesday used the phrases "extremely dangerous" and "life-threatening blizzard" to describe conditions in Baltimore and Washington, which have both set records this week for the snowiest seasons ever. Wind gusts have reached as high as 60 miles per hour as the blizzard passed through the region.
While the rest of the country often makes fun of Washington, D.C., for being cowardly when it comes to snow management -- President Obama last year busted on the local government when his daughters' school closed down for ice, saying "when it comes to the weather, folks in Washington don't seem to be able to handle things" -- the nation's capital is unaccustomed to weathering six inches of snow at once, much less several feet.
The White House officially changed its tune on Wednesday when it told staff that they didn't have to come into the West Wing to work, but could telecommute. Sarah Feinberg, a top aide to White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, told Fox News that Emanuel was coming to work Wednesday. However, senior Obama adviser David Axelrod said he's working from home with no plans to come in to the White House.
WTOP radio in Washington reported that the District Department of Transportation sent trucks to the Port of Baltimore to refill their salt coffers. As of Wednesday morning, the district had 9,000 tons of salt on hand, with another 32,000 tons on the way, well below the city's usual stockpile of 40,000-50,000 tons.
At the same time, the city is dealing with as much as 25 percent of its plows being out of commission at any one time. The city started with 204 plows, as well as additional contracted plows, Bobcats and front loaders but is facing a variety of repair issues, such as broken fan belts or salt spreaders. If it's determined that the salt spreader is broken, it is sent out to plow and the salt spreader is fixed later, said a spokesman, describing it as a constant back-and-forth.
As for salt, she said they are not rationing as loads are coming in from Baltimore.
Obama and Bank Bonuses
There is a Canadian response to this kind of story…And because Colbert pays so much attention to Canada he can quote us tonight by saying these oh so Canadian words to those who run Washington. "Are you freakin' kidding me?"
From Blowing Snow in Washington to blowing an attempt to cozy up to the people on Main street by attacking Wall Street. I predicted for you that Obama couldn't wear the Populist Halloween Costume for long. It's not who he is. He feels more comfortable at Harvard Yard than he does in Joe's Junk Yard and today the costume was peeled off when Business Week published the following .
After taking a tough tack with them for weeks, Obama now says he doesn’t “begrudge” J.P. Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon and Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein their respective $17 million and $9 million bonuses. “I know both those guys; they are very savvy businessmen,” Obama said in the interview with BusinessWeek. “I, like most of the American people, don’t begrudge people success or wealth. That is part of the free- market system.” He added, “there are some baseball players who are making more than that and don’t get to the World Series either, so I’m shocked by that as well.”
Experts in the Political world and fund raising world and media world and all are connected in the USA say Sarah Palin remains a top-tier candidate among members of the GOP. Gallup finds more Republicans want Palin to run for president than any other potential candidate. Stay tuned…
Alberta's Budgets
Very soon in Alberta there will be a government commissioned report calling for a rollback in the devastating royalty regime installed by the Stelmach government and it will be a victory for energy and Stelmach hopes a victory for him.
His incredibly fat budget by any provincial standard was brought down yesterday and the folks are howling.
The Deficit in a province that used to have nothing but surplus after surplus is in excess of 5 billion dollars. Oil Sands revenue is scheduled down the road to be larger than natural gas and conventional oil combined and at the moment since 50% of the provincial GDP comes from Energy, that industry will be successful in getting government to get out of the way or else. There are simply too many jobs at stake when Edmonton tries to push back on the industry. It is the equivalent of taking a Chicago Politician's knife to a gun fight.
TTC fights Back
And back to the civil war on the buses and subway platforms of Toronto where the Sun writes there are at least two sides to every story:
Toronto Transit employees launched a Facebook group listing their frustrations with the public, the media and a management many say isn’t doing its job.
The site, Toronto Transit operators against public harassment, also includes photos of the litter, beer bottles, graffiti and window etchings left behind by passengers on subway cars. There’s even a picture of a passenger riding with his feet on subway seats.
One TTC employee wrote he wished he had a camera to capture images of the person who was planning to poop in an elevator, or the guy who urinated while riding on an escalator.
And then there’s the common complaint that every driver has: The rider who won’t pay.
Others complained TTC isn’t enforcing its bylaws, including TTC bylaw 3.17, a rule that has stung many media photographers and videographers in the past. It states: “No person shall operate any camera, video recording device, movie camera or any similar device for commercial purposes upon the transit system without authorization.”
Or 3.25, the clause about leaving behind bodily fluids other than a toilet. Or 3.19(a) that states riders won’t put their feet on seats.
The storm of controversy began last month when a TTC rider photographed George Robitaille, 55, asleep in the collector’s booth. Since then, a deluge of pictures and videos have appeared in the media, showing some TTC workers napping, taking breaks and reading the newspaper comics on the job.
