Toronto Mayor Rob Ford answers questions at a press conference at city hall in Toronto on Friday, May 31, 2013. A campaign that raised $200,000 dollars to purchase an alleged video appearing to show Toronto Mayor Rob Ford smoking crack was a "beautiful example" of the fundraising power of the Internet, says the website that hosted the controversial crusade. "That campaign really just speaks to what crowdfunding is about, which is giving the power to people to decide what matters to them and to fund what matters to them," said Danae Ringelmann, co-founder of crowdfunding website Indiegogo. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Michelle Siu

We are now nearly four weeks separated from the start of the Mayor Rob Ford crack video scandal, when reporters from two news organizations reported viewing a recording of Ford smoking from what appeared to be a crack pipe.

No one else in the general public has seen that video because, as the legend now goes, the video was intended to be sold for "six figures" – a price tag neither organization was willing or able to pay at the time.

U.S. gossip site Gawker was, at least, up for the challenge and launched a campaign to collect $200,000 in public donations through the website Indiegogo.

The campaign was controversial, ethically questionable and, ultimately, successful.

But when Gawker turned around to pay for the video, their source had disappeared, presumably amid the heat from the glare of an

With reports coming out of radiation levels in the groundwater near the Fukushima Daiichi power plant being 30 times greater than the safety limit, and with all but two of Japan's 50 nuclear reactors offline since the 2011 earthquake and tsunami, it seems that the world needs to get real about the safety of nuclear power.

According to CBC News, Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), the company that runs both the Fukushima Daiichi and Fukushima Daini power plants, found that the groundwater in the area around Fukushima Daiichi contains 30 times the safe limit of a radioactive substance called 'strontium-90'. Strontium-90 is one of the radioactive byproducts left over from fission reactions of uranium and plutonium, so it's found in nuclear waste from power plants and it's produced in nuclear explosions as well. If people are exposed to strontium-90, such as through drinking contaminated water, it's been found that most of it just passes through their system, but any amount of this '

Who says complaining doesn't accomplish anything?

It did in British Columbia.

On Wednesday afternoon, B.C. Premier Christy Clark rescinded her government's decision of last week to give significant raises to senior staff.

"The decision [to give raises] was very much at odds with what I talked about during the campaign," Clark told reporters.

"I've always believed and I said this during the election campaign: Leadership listening to people and fixing things when you realize that they're not right. British Columbians talked to me, they said this loud and clear, they didn't think this was right.

"I'm not satisfied that any of those raises were necessary for staff. So as of today I will rescind those changes."

The raises boosted salaries of top government aides — many of whom were working for the B.C. Liberal campaign in May — by as much as a whopping 18 per cent. As explained by CKNW radio, all chiefs of staff now lose their salary bumps except the premier's deputy chief of staff who is now

Entomologist David Moskowitz cooked cicada and pineapple on the grill. (Screengrab/YouTube)

Yum, bugs.

Cicadas are bugs with red eyes and orange-lined wings that emerge for a mating fiesta every 17 years, according to the Wildlife Conservation Society. The society says a cicada's mating call can be as loud as a train whistle.

[ Related: 10 scintillating facts about cicadas ]

This subspecies of cicadas is reemerging in the Northeastern U.S. as the weather warms and heading up north to a backyard near you. In some cases, they're heading straight for the barbecue.

In honour of unusual eating opportunities, entomologist David Moskowitz recently uploaded a video of him and his son cooking cicada and pineapple on the grill. Moskowitz seems uncertain at first, but he says the bugs are "nutty" and "delicious."

His son seems less impressed.

"I'd say they are definitely a delicacy," he says.

[ Related: Billions of sex-starved cicadas invade Nova Scotia, U.S. East

Across the board for all parties, it was a challenging session with flubs, missteps and scandals galore.

The NDP had to deal with Thomas Mulcair's Reese Witherspoon moment and two tax delinquent MPs while Justin Trudeau came under-fire for earning speaking fees from charities prior to becoming Liberal leader.

But for the Conservatives, it was the session from hell.

Here are ten things that wrong for the Tories' this session.

1. The beginning of the Justin Trudeau era

The spring-session was Justin Trudeau's first as Liberal leader. As has become the Tory's modus operendi, they chose to attack. Unfortunately, this time, some of their attacks backfired.

Their 'just in over his head' commercials caused a backlash against negative ads while an orchestrated push from the PMO about Trudeau-speaking fees was widely criticized.

[ Related: Tories file conflict of interest complaint against Justin Trudeau

Using traps and cars, it seems frustrated Ottawa residents have found a solution to keeping squirrels from wandering into their houses — sending them to Quebec.

Alone and without even so much as a language lesson, curious squirrels living near the upscale Westboro neighbourhood are being deported to the other side of the bridge that connects Ottawa to Gatineau, QC, according to the Ottawa Citizen.

The squirrel smugglers are apparently none other than Westboro residents themselves. One of them revealed a neighbour's' squirrely activities to the Citizen's news tip line, the local newspaper reported.

[ More Buzz: Creepy video of giant snake opening a door goes viral ]

"Are they French-speaking squirrels?" an Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources spokesperson reportedly said to the Citizen.

Whether the squirrels are welcome among Quebecois residents or not, it's usually illegal to deport them to Quebec or any other province. The Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources website says humans cannot

Patrons leave a LCBO outlet in Mississauga, Ont., December 31, 2007. THE CANADIAN PRESS/J.P. MoczulskiCanada's patchwork of legal alcohol consumption ages could see a slight change, should Ontario side with a new recommendation to increase its age of consent.

The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) released a report this week that suggested the province's legal drinking age be increased to 21 — two years older than its current mark and three years older than several other provinces.

The CAMH report says the province can decrease the $2.9 billion price tag attributed to alcohol abuse through a series of changes that would make obtaining booze more difficult and punishment for abusing it more drastic.

"While there are policy measures in place, there is still work to be done in various areas, such as alcohol pricing and advertising in order to address drinking behaviours that can be harmful," Dr. Norman Giesbrecht said in a statement.

Among that list of recommendations is the suggestion that Ontario consider boosting its legal drinking age to 21, which matches the United States but

Justin TrudeauParliament is recessed for the summer, but that's not stopping the Tories from continuing their attacks on Liberal leader Justin Trudeau.

Conservative MP Ben Lobb has written a letter to Federal Ethics Commissioner Mary Dawson asking her to investigate whether Trudeau broke conflict of interest rules by voting against Bill C-377 – the union financial transparency bill — even though he has accepted $35,000 in speaking fees from unions since becoming an MP.

"Under the Conflict of Interest Code for Members of the House of Commons, Members like Justin Trudeau are banned from acting in any way which could cause a real or apparent conflict of interest, and from using their position as a Member to further their own private interests," an email distributed to Conservative staffers and supporters notes.

"MP Lobb wrote to the Commissioner to raise concerns that Justin Trudeau may be using his position as a Member of Parliament to advance the interests of groups who have made direct, substantial,