Photo: "CNE - swing ride" by Phil Marion, member of the blogTO Flickr pool.

Your Toronto morning news roundup for Monday August 18th, 2008:

Wacky weather is the story of the summer. We've seen near daily sun showers, thunderstorms, funnel clouds, hail, and now sunsetning (that's sunset plus lightning, and Sam Javanrouh captured it well).

With the looming potential for a federal election in the near future, Prime Minister Harper has announced a September 22nd by-election in Toronto's Don Valley West riding. It's been a Liberal stronghold for 15 years, and could be an interesting test of the waters for the Conservatives.

Will the Canadian version of the ongoing and elusive "war on terror" be a major platform issue in the next federal election? A newly revealed open letter from the Taliban to the Canadian people states: "The Canadian people have to realize if their sisters, their brothers and their children are being killed in Afghanistan, it is because of the wrong policy of the government of Canada and their falling under the influence of [America] when they sent occupation soldiers to Afghanistan."

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We've gotten used to filling the cupboards under our kitchen sinks with once-used grocery bags, and we love not having to sort recyclables (instead just tossing stuff into our new, gigantic, blue recycling bins). But what about those pesky plastic bottles from bottled water? In London, they may be taking some first steps to start curbing their sale. Tap water is still perfectly good to drink, isn't it?

Our Olympics medal-earning drought in Beijing ended this weekend when Canada picked up seven. Meanwhile, right here at home, a firefighter on a charity mission to help burn victims at Sick Kids won over the hearts of Torontonians when he completed a 50km swim across Lake Ontario.

Did you know that recording and archiving television on your Bell PVR or doing the same with music and videos on Apple's Time Machine could be a violation of copyright laws under the proposed bill C-61?

The latest rumour in the Mats Sundin saga is that he's ranking the New York Rangers as his preferred place to play hockey this fall, if he plays this fall at all.