Rob Ford has new axe to grind - sleeping parks and rec staff. The furor started when Councillor Giorgio Mammoliti snapped a picture of an worker apparently sleeping at a community centre in his ward. "If this is the case, I'm going to ask for the manager and the employee to be dismissed," said Ford. It's not clear whether the worker was on a break or sick.

The Toronto Sun's Joe Warmington, usually a staunch defender of Rob Ford, is telling the mayor not to throw stones over the sleeping worker incident. We shouldn't forget that both Mammoliti (strip club lunch) and Ford (reading at the wheel, allegedly smoking crack cocaine, the Garrison Ball, etc.) have been caught on camera and avoided the consequences. Are they right to target the worker?

Toronto Zoo's much-discussed elephants will make the first leg of their trip south to the U.S. today, according to the zookeeper's union. The pachyderms will live out the rest of their lives in a California sanctuary but we won't know much more about the journey following the border crossing - staff have signed a non-disclosure agreement.

Star reporter Robyn Doolittle will release a book next March called "Crazy Town" about the life of Rob Ford and his relatives. Penguin Canada says the book will contain "shocking new revelations" about the mayor, just in time for the 2014 election.

Ontario's coroner is making new calls for mandatory side guards on trucks after a 25-year-old cyclist was crushed yesterday morning at Dundas and Spadina. She was dragged and trapped for several minutes until firefighters used inflatable bags to lift the truck. Transport Canada says there isn't enough evidence the guards would save lives.

A menagerie of cats, turtles, gerbils, and birds have been pulled from a house fire overnight in the Bloor and Lansdowne area. The owner was rescued too, suffering from smoke inhalation. Firefighters say an unattended candle appears to be the cause of the blaze.

Finally, South Etobicoke is a library desert, according to The Grid. In one particularly unfortunate neighbourhood it's over 2.6 kilometres to the nearest book repository, the longest distance in the city. Other black holes appear in north Toronto. New branches at Fort York and Scarborough Civic Centre will fill gaps.

IN BRIEF:

• Pan Am Games: City sued over aquatic centre construction contact [Toronto Star]
• Police horse overcomes trauma, snags glory [Toronto Star]
• Ontario drivers pay bulk of road costs, study says [CBC]

Chris Bateman is a staff writer at blogTO. Follow him on Twitter at @chrisbateman.

Image: Brian Bettencourt/blogTO Flickr pool.