Please consider supporting this petition, to protect our health and environment around London, Ontario:
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/dont-frack-around-london-ontario

Note: preparations currently are underway to bring fracking to the London, Ontario area.

We also are collecting petition endorsements from local groups and organizations -- separately from the personal signatures. To send in one of these endorsements, e-mail Stop Fracking Ontario.

We are calling for a ban on shale gas fracking in the municipality of London, Ontario. Since this London ban would not protect either the city's Great Lakes water supplies, or the farmlands around our region, we also are calling on the municipal government to support a province-wide ban on shale gas fracking.

We've got a serious problem at London city hall and it's worse than sinkholes, LCW, June 15
Regardless of how you feel about regulating backyard hens, you should support citizens having "standing" before London's standing committees

CITIZENS ARBITRARILY BEING DENIED STANDING AT STANDING COMMITTEES
Local mainstream media remains silent on this travesty. Why? Because they don't know shit from Shineola® about local democracy and how it's supposed to work (proper process as per London's Council's Procedure By-Law)

ALL TALK NO ACTION: ‎"Your municipal government works for you and it needs to hear your ideas and suggestions in order to meet the expectations and challenges of the city." ~ Mayor Joe Fontana ~ Bwahahahahahahahahahahaha!
Altlondon.org gives Mayor Joe Fontana (pictured left) the prestigious "Bonehead of the Month Award" for denying citizens the right to have "standing" and be heard at the standing committee level regarding backyard laying hens when a long-awaited, comprehensive staff report on the matter was before committee (with staff recommending an August 16th public participation meeting, which committee also shot down).

The standing committee recommendation still has to go to city council.

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THOUGHT DU JOUR: BACKYARD LAYING HENS ~ You've got to break a few eggs to make an omelet. Get cracking!

The line that London council has bigger issues to deal with than regulating backyard laying hens is specious. Nothing's bigger than grassroot food issues, more so during an economic downturn.

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The London Police Cyber Crime Unit received a complaint of illegal images on a computer.

As a result, a search warrant was conducted at a residence on Barclay Road. Charged with two counts of possession of child pornography is Ryan Siebenmorgen.

The accused, a 34-year-old London man, took the stolen car to 360 Chippendale Crescent where he set the car on fire.

No one was injured in this fire and the London Police Service Criminal Investigation Division took over the investigation. Damage was estimated at $5,000.

On Sunday, June 12, 2011, at 4:20 p.m. the accused returned to the residence on Thompson Road where he stole the car from and started another fire in the car port area.

Warmer temperatures allowed the asphalt to drop into a void in the road base caused by a hole near the base of the sewer manhole.

This hole allowed sand and road base material to be drawn down and then flushed away by sewage. This created the void in the roadbed and the resulting cave-in.

Following work to locate underground utilities, excavation and repairs began on Saturday.

During the excavation, hydro facilities (not in service), abandoned and in-service utilities and three large operating sewers within the affected manhole and construction site complicated the removal of the original (1930's constructed) manhole.

Game 2 between the London Majors and the Ottawa Fat Cats is set for 1 pm tomorrow on Sunday, June 12, at Labatt Park during Sifton's Pack-the-Park Day ~ a fundraiser for the Sunshine Foundation.

Orser wants the course closed ASAP, citing past staff reports that the course costs the City about $180,000 per year more than it makes. Figures disputed by the executive of CUPE local 107. Previously, council decided that the course be re-evaluated after one more golfing season.

INSANE: Former junk-hauler Orser, who has no experience whatsoever in golf course operations or recreational golf itself, is now acting like a self-proclaimed expert on the issue, even calling the report's recommendations "insane."

Has he read the 29-page, task force report?

Not likely. It just came out Friday, June 10th. Let me think, what do you call a council member who comments on a report he hasn't read?

Standard practice in sound, standing-committee decision-making is to carefully review a report on the weekend before the committee meeting, then listen to the presentation of the report with an open mind, asking questions for clarification as required and then discussing the matter with committee colleagues before arriving at a decision as a recommendation to city council.

CLOSED MIND: Orser's made up his mind before the task force report is even presented to committee. Decision-making at its worst, which shows a lack of respect for the 18 task force members and their deliberations.

As usual, it's best to ignore Councillor Orser's vigorous lip flapping as just more hot air from the Ward 4 media hound.

The matter goes before the Community and Neighbourhoods Committee on Tuesday, June 14 and city council thereafter.

PS: For the record, I support Councillor Orser's initiative to permit and regulate backyard laying hens in London, as more than 300 cities in North America have already done. How do you like those apples?

On a related note, for a sitting council member ~ in this case Ward 4 Councillor Steve Orser ~ to insult and verbally attack a private citizen (me) from the council floor, a citizen who’d applied to sit on a volunteer sub-committee, violates Council’s Code of Conduct By-law and in this instance, is also considered actionable in a court of law pursuant to the Libel and Slander Act.

As you read the following letter ~ and I'm not criticizing London's city clerk who's simply doing her job in a polite and respectful manner (something certain members of council could learn from) ~ remember that during the discussion of my proposed appointment, I was verbally assailed and defamed by Ward 4 Councillor Steve Orser from the council floor with the Rogers TV-London cameras rolling.

Six other members of city council also opposed my appointment, including the mayor, after Orser's inappropriate tirade (Sandy White, Bud Polhill, Dale Henderson, Denise Brown, Paul Van Meerbergen, Joe Fontana).

Also worth noting is that of the two applicants for the sub-committee (two citizen representatives were sought by the City), neither one was selected. Instead, an individual that hadn't bothered to apply was appointed to the group.

B.A. Wells

I have been asked by City Council to express their thanks to you for submitting your name for consideration with respect to our recent process of appointing citizens to the Guy Lombardo Tempo VII Hydroplane Sub-Committee.

City Council was very pleased and appreciative of the response from interested Londoners.

Adam Garner pitched seven shutout innings as the Barrie Baycats beat the Toronto Maple Leafs for the third time in four days and won their fourth straight game with a 5-0 win over Toronto on Thursday night at Barrie Metals Stadium.

Barrie swept the Leafs in an Intercounty Baseball League doubleheader on Sunday afternoon at Dominico Field at Christie Pits and followed that up with another dominating win on Thursday, as they moved into sole possession of first place in the IBL with an 8-1 record, a half game better than idle London.

The reeling Leafs meanwhile lost their third straight and dropped to 5-7, 4 ½ games back of the Baycats, while remaining in fifth place in the IBL standings as the season approaches the one-third mark.

The Leafs get their next chance at a win Friday night in Hamilton. They host the Brantford Red Sox Sunday at 2 p.m. at Dominico Field at Christie Pits.

On Wednesday, June 8, 2011, at 2:26 a.m., the London Police responded to a complaint of gunshots in the area of Richmond Street and Central Avenue on Richmond Row.

On arrival, they located a number of empty shell casings. Police were able to obtain a description of those involved and advised other police cruisers in the city of the suspect vehicle.

INTERCOUNTY BASEBALL ACTION TUESDAY MORNING: London Majors @ Burlington Twins, Tues. June 7 @ 11 am. Live on www.pointstreak.com.

Seven forestry crews are currently working to clear roads and sidewalks.

As of 9 am, the main area affected is Wharncliffe Road South between Byron Avenue and Springbank Drive with a combination of trees down and power outages. Wharncliffe could remain closed in both directions most of the day.

Some intersections might not have working traffic signals. Motorists should treat those intersections as four-way stops.

Approximately 2,000 homes are still without power. Hydro crews have restored power to 8,000 homes.

Parks and Recreation crews are checking the city’s bike paths for downed trees and branches. People are asked to use caution when using the paths.

People with tree-related issues (trees on public property) should calls the City’s forestry line at 519-661-5783.

The Brantford Red Sox scored six runs in the fourth inning, seven runs in the sixth and five more in the eighth on their way to a wild 18-10 comeback win over the Kitchener Panthers in the lone game played in the Intercounty Baseball League on Monday night.

It was the long awaited home opener for Kitchener, who led 7-0 after just three innings but the Red Sox took over from there to improve to 6-3 and tie the Panthers (6-3) for third place in the IBL standings after out-scoring Kitchener 18-3 from the fourth inning on.

Brantford pounded out 18 hits and won despite committing six errors early in the game in Kitchener to fall behind. The Panthers also made three errors as the teams combined for 28 runs, 36 hits and nine errors in the game.

At the end of May, some of us gathered for a "Don't frack with us!" protest in London, Ontario.

The rally call-out said ~ "Fracking is a toxic, dangerous and wasteful form of natural gas extraction that we may see around London, Ontario. The water pollution is the worst of the fracking impacts. Tap water has become flammable after fracking is done to break gas out of nearby shale rock. A stew of toxic chemicals is pumped into each gas well, and radium is one of many underground substances that can be unintentionally released during this extraction.

In spite of all of those dangers, there are plans for shale gas exploration around London -
http://stopfrackingontario.wordpress.com/fracking/in-ontario/london/ In addition to water contamination, we also should be concerned about explosion risks, air pollution, water depletion, methane greenhouse gas releases, earthquakes, increased truck traffic, and deforestation.

If you are worried about all of these threats from fracking, please come out to this rally to show your concern, and learn more about what we are up against."

Two sets of photos from the protest can be seen here (on Facebook) and here (on Flickr).

Andrew Lawton, a staunch critic of Canada's health-care system, espouses Christian and conservative values as a blogger and political commentator.

Mr. Lawton spent nearly four weeks in the critical care trauma unit at Victoria Hospital on Commissioners Road East in London about five-and-a-half months ago.

Taylor Frederick drove in the winning run with a walk-off single with one out in the bottom of the ninth as the Ottawa Fat Cats downed the Brantford Red Sox 4-3 in one of two games played in the Intercounty Baseball League on Saturday.

Frederick’s single off Stefan Strecker scored Mark Charrette from second base to give Ottawa the dramatic win, helping the Fat Cats improve to 5-7 while the Red Sox slipped to 4-3.

Ottawa took a 2-0 lead with a pair of first inning runs on a two-run single by Clae Mathis, but the Red Sox battled back on a two-run double by Lee Delfino in the seventh which tied the game.

The Fat Cats went ahead with a single run in their seventh on an error before Brantford again tied the game in the eighth on Wayne Forman’s RBI single, setting the stage for the ninth inning rally.

Marek Deska carried a one-hitter into the ninth inning and finished up with a three-hit complete game as the Toronto Maple Leafs handed the London Majors their first loss of the season, downing London 5-2 in Intercounty Baseball League play at historic Labatt Park.

Deska allowed just a second inning solo homer to Cleveland Brownlee until the ninth, when he survived a London rally to wind up surrendering just two runs on three hits with 12 strikeouts and no walks, while throwing an ironman-like 134 pitches.

Toronto improved to 5-4 with the win while the Majors (5-1) suffered their first loss in six games as they couldn’t figure out Deska, who was dominating right up until the ninth.

Toronto finally got to London starter and loser Ryan Hart in the fifth inning when Brandon Dui’s RBI single tied the game at 1-1. They went ahead for good with two runs in the seventh on a run-scoring single by Jordan Castaldo and an RBI double by Kyle Degrace.