Toronto’s Elephants Grounded, But Councillors Fly to California
Toronto’s elephants are grounded at the zoo for now, but soon, two Toronto city councillors and zoo staff will fly to the much-disputed California animal sanctuary to review the medical records and health of the pachyderms in the herd.
To finalize the re-location plans for the Toronto Zoo’s three female elephants, councillors Michelle Berardinetti, Giorgio Mammoliti, and zoo CEO John Tracogna, revealed Thursday they will fly to California with an established zoo veterinarian in the coming weeks. Mammoliti, who has previously travelled (on the city’s dime) to China on several occasions to secure the zoo’s panda loan, will be paying for his own airfare, as will Berardinetti.
Concerns over the health, care and treatment of the animals at PAWS, the Performing Animals Welfare Society sanctuary, have delayed plans in the elephant move – even putting Bob Barker’s $880, 000 transportation donation at risk. Though zoo staff, and a five-member team visited PAWS earlier, for some reason, officials declined to view the facility’s medical records, partly instilling the current environment of doubt.
Facebook’s IPO at 10.6B
You know what’s cooler than $9-billion? $10.6-billion! Facebook Inc. will aim to raise $10.6-billion for the largest tech-based IPO, even larger than Google Inc., in a prospectus released on Thursday.
The eight-year-old company is expected to have an initial public offering price of between $28 to $35 a share, placing the company’s total valuation at a range between $77-billion to $96-billion. Though $12.6-billion remains the magic number for the social network’s current market estimate, the company stands to earn even more, with a maximum of $13.6 billion, if they receive an over-allotment of options.
That’s a lot of Appletinis.
DSK Could Face Gang Rape Charges
Dominique Strauss-Kahn may face gang rape charges after an escort girl claimed he and three others forced her to have anal sex, while holding her down.
Some outlets of the French media are suggesting that the state prosecutor might open up an inquiry about these allegations, from a 25-year-old Belgian call girl over her encounters with Strauss-Kahn in December 2010, in Washington, D.C. According to her testimony, Strauss-Kahn held her hands, pulled her hair, and hurt trying to sodomize her.
The former leader of the International Monetary Fund is currently under investigation for “aggravated pimping in an organized gang.”
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Joanna Adams writes for Toronto Standard. Follow her on Twitter at†@nowstarringTO.
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