In a week of massive news stories, this little gem did not escape my attention, appearing midweek on most sites and a few days later in newspapers.

It seems rich moms from Manhattan hire disabled people to pose as family members in order to skip the lines at Disney World. These hirees are given the name “travel concierge” and take these jobs willingly through Dream Tours, a company that helps organize vacations for people with special needs.

EVERYBODY WINS

The “Disney rule” allows guests with a wheelchair or scooter to bring up to 6 more people to a specialized entrance, plus Mouse Corp. International (I made that name up) provides a special Disney escort for the 'family' trip. The guides/concierges/whatever make up to $1000/day, and FREE Disney World. While other families can wait 2 hours plus, these groups are on rides within 1 or 2 minutes.

You can imagine the ...

This weekly summation is also a regular feature of my radio program on Newstalk 610CKTB every Friday afternoon at 5:20.

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The “5”

5. Chris Hadfield Returns – The beloved Canadian astronaut relinquished command of the International Space Station and returned to earth this week. Hadfield, among the most popular space travelers ever, is credited with generating world wide interest in the space program, with his programs, features, photos and social media savvy. The next Canadian scheduled for space travel will be in 2016.

4. Rob Ford Crack Cocaine – No stranger to controversy, the Toronto mayor had perhaps the most serious of all allegations leveled against him, when reporters claimed to have seen a video of Ford, smoking what appeared to be crack cocaine. In the video, being shopped around to news sites, it is said Ford can be heard making disparaging remarks about ...

Add it to the list, a growing list of scandolous accusations leveled at Toronto's mayor that include alcoholism, inappropriate touching, off-hand inaccurate remarks about his football team, and so on.

As accusations go, this latest one is a doozy. It is alleged that his Honor is clearly identifiable on a cell phone video smoking (and inhaling) from a device consistent with crack-pipe smoking, and further he makes remarks about Justin Trudeau saying he wants to shove his foot up the young leader's “ass so fair it comes out the other end.” Ford then appears to say, “Justin Trudeau is a fag.” He rambles and trails off on other subjects as well.

THE STAR

Many will of course say that this is another attempt by the Toronto Star to disparage the mayor. In fact it was 2 Star reporters who were called to view the video on May 3rd, which they ...

In the city of Keene, New Hampshire, a group of five men and one woman spends a good part of their day walking around the downtown core feeding parking meters.

LEAVE A NOTE

A note stuffed under the wipers reads “Your meter expired; however, we saved you from the king's tariffs.” They sign the notice: Robin Hood and his Merry Men.” The activists estimate they feed $8-15 per day into the meters, about $1700 since they began their quest last December.

They also estimate the city has lost over $40,000 in parking fines from about 4000 tardy downtown workers or shoppers. However, that's not where the city says they have a problem. Traffic wardens claim they are being harassed by the Merry Men who follow them, crowd them, make video recordings of their activities and fire off taunts telling them to “get another job” or asking “why are you stealing ...

It sure would be nice to have an extra $90K around to simply make a problem go away. In my case I could make several problems go away with 90 thousand dollars. You?

In Senator Mike Duffy's case, he seems to have had the next best thing: A friend with 90 thousand dollars to help make a problem go away. This friend apparently wants no repayment, nothing in return, and was willing to keep the whole thing quiet. Some friend. Man, I'm hangin' out in all the wrong circles.

NIGEL WRIGHT

Duffy's Mr. Right in fact is Nigel Wright (pictured below), and he is Prime Minister Harper's chief of staff. It is alleged a personal cheque was passed to Duffy to help him pay back money he had inaccurately claimed as part of a Senator's residence allowance, in itself a sweet deal if ever there was one. Senators are permitted ...