Joe Warmington

TORONTO - Police hope a laptop will provide quick clues into the life of Ayanle Hassan Ali.

TORONTO - For 45 years, Dimitrios “Jimmy” Tsirimokos has been serving tasty breakfast and lunch at the corner of Princess and Adelaide with his legendary scowl that is actually a smile.

TORONTO - An arson at a Peterborough mosque gets a visit from the prime minister. An attack on our precious soldiers in the country’s largest city gets a tweet.

The good news is James Akam — an Afghan interpreter for the Canadian troops — received a letter inviting him for an interview at the Canadian Embassy in Berlin.

TORONTO - Immigration Minister John McCallum has not only said that James Akam — an Afghan interpreter who assisted Canadian troops for three years — can come to Canada, but insisted he was “pleased” to make it happen.

Did you hear about a big Liberate Queen’s Park rally planned for May 9 to call for rules to allow for politicians to be recalled?

TORONTO - When they first opened the e-mail at police headquarters, they were bracing themselves for a public complaint about one of their officers.

Even while “battling for his life” in hospital, Councillor Rob Ford’s mind is on politics.

“It’s in his blood,” said brother Doug Ford of the former mayor, who is valiantly fighting cancer.

There have been recent setbacks, Doug said.

“Rob is back in Mount Sinai,” Doug Ford first told me Tuesday night on my final Late Shift show on Newstalk 1010.

On Wednesday afternoon, Doug stopped by to see his younger brother in the cancer ward.

“He is in one hell of a battle, let me tell you,” said Doug. “It’s tough.”

Sitting in a hospital room can leave a guy feeling blue, and Doug said he had to remind Rob about all the people who care about him.

“It’s unbelievable how many times a day I get asked about Rob. He doesn’t believe me, but everywhere I go that is the first question I get. We do appreciate all of the well wishes.”

That very question came up on the Late Shift from singer Jenny James who — with her guitar player, Geoff Hlipka — was in to perform for my final show.

“How is Rob, Doug?” asked the “Mayor Ford (The World Will Remember)” singer, while she was on my show with co-host Ross McLean and Don Cherry.

Not sugar-coating it, Doug was candid.

“He is in a real fight.”

Unfortunately, there’s more to worry about than the side effects of the latest round of chemotherapy — administered to fight a reoccurring set of malignant tumours in his bladder and surrounding area.

“The problem is — with this disease — there is no cure,” said Doug.

If you have committed a crime in 1989 or 2016, hope it wasn’t in Toronto Police 54 Division.

The East York division arrested a woman for attempted murder in a case that was cold for 27 years — and on the same day, rounded up a gang of alleged thugs and took two deadly handguns and hard drugs off the street, too.

One investigation used vintage policing techniques. The other utilized smartphones and social media.

Both worked.

Second piece of advice: If you have committed a crime and got away with it for a quarter of a century, it might not be the wisest move to brag about it.

Especially in 54 Division.

“This division never forgot the case,” said Insp. Paul MacIntyre.

He certainly didn’t. He was a rookie cop on Oct. 29, 1989 when a Toronto cabbie was allegedly assaulted from behind with a blunt object before seeing his car roll over an embankment and land in a backyard.

The driver suffered life-threatening wounds and was left paralyzed on his left side.

Three people he had picked up managed to get out of the taxi and flee — never to be heard from again.

But as MacIntyre said so well. They don’t drop any case.

“We got a tip from someone with new information,” said Det.-Sgt. Jim Gotell, who heads up 54’s detective detail.

The first thing he did was pull the file on this “cold case” and he could not believe what he found.

“The detective work in 1989 was stellar,” Gotell said. “The information they left us for the future was seamless. It was incredible police work.”

The probe was headed back then by now-retired detective Mike McDonald, who “left it ready for the day that call came in.”

Sources say someone overheard a woman in a bar talking about what had happened and how she got away with it.

That person dropped a dime.