Mitt Romney's Advice to College Grads: Start Having Babies as Soon as Possible

"Get married, have a quiver full of kids if you can." That's the commencement advice Mitt Romney delivered this past weekend to 110 new graduates of Southern Virginia University, a largely Mormon school near Lynchburg, Virginia, where many students volunteered with Romney's failed presidential campaign.

Family-values talk at a Latter Day Saints school is hardly surprising, but perhaps some of Romney's scriptural citations were. In a speech peppered with admonitions that graduates should marry and start families young, he dropped in a Biblical reference, Psalm 127, more often associated with another religious tradition: the Quiverfull movement.

America's Fertilizer Keeps Blowing Up. It Doesn't Have To

It didn't take long in the aftermath of April's explosion in West, Texas, for the problems with the fertilizer industry to come into focus. Inspections are virtually non-existent; regulatory agencies don't talk to each other; and there's no such thing as a buffer zone when it comes to constructing plants and storage facilities in populated areas.

Lost in the fallout, though, is a damning fact: fertilizer doesn't have to be explosive. Pure ammonium nitrate like the kind that caused the West disaster is already banned in the United Kingdom, Germany, Colombia, the Philippines, and China, due to its explosive risk; Australia's largest fertilizer manufacturer discontinued the use of the compound after it was used in the 2002 Bali hotel bombing. And the Department of Defense has pressured fertilizer manufacturers overseas to neutralize their own products, warning that anything less constitutes a threat to American personnel. But in the United States, with the backing of the chemical industry, explosive ammonium nitrate has held onto a small but powerful share of the market as the fertilizer-of-choice for citrus growers.

Muzzling Science: How Tories Control The Message

The Harper government’s iron grip on communications has been acutely felt in federal agencies and departments that engage in scientific research, resulting in a dramatic drop in press releases, the muzzling of scientists, and, in one department at least, a process that flags “negative” interview requests from news media, often leaving them unanswered or denied, internal documents show.

Since the Tories formed government in 2006, the clampdown and centralization of communications by the Privy Council Office (PCO) – the bureaucratic arm that serves the Prime Minister’s Office – has been well documented, from directives to use the term “Harper Government” on official Government of Canada communications to tightly stage-managed press conferences.

Opposition hammers government over unaccounted-for spending

The NDP is calling for an inquiry into $3.1 billion in unaccounted-for spending highlighted in the auditor general’s latest report.

In a report released Tuesday, Auditor General Michael Ferguson said the funds were earmarked for public security and anti-terrorism measures between 2001 and 2009. But when Ferguson and his team went through the Treasury Board's books, they were unable to identify where the $3.1 billion had been spent.

Ohio Measure Punishes Public Colleges For Helping Out-Of-State Students Vote

A new effort from Republican lawmakers in the Ohio House of Representatives would financially punish state universities for helping out-of-state students vote in Ohio during their college years.

Under the proposal, if a state university provided an out-of-state student with a letter or utility bill to prove Ohio residency and thereby allow the student to vote locally, the Columbus Dispatch reports, the school would then be forced to charge the lower in-state tuition rate to that student.

Seattle May Day Rally Turns Violent

SEATTLE — Police used "flash bangs" and pepper spray against some protesters who pelted them with rocks and bottles late Wednesday, as violence erupted during May Day in Seattle.

Several dozen protesters, many using bandanas to cover their faces, began clashing with police in downtown Seattle hours after a peaceful immigrant-rights march ended.

Protesters threw rocks and bottles at police officers and news crews. As they moved through downtown Seattle to another nearby neighborhood, they flung construction street barriers, trash cans and newspaper bins on the streets in an attempt to block advancing police officers. Windows of local businesses were broken and vehicles with people in them were banged around.

Executive Pay Of Austerity Advocates Saves Companies More Than $1 Billion Via Tax Loophole

WASHINGTON -- Companies in the Fix the Debt coalition, which advocates for federal austerity policies, qualified for $1 billion or more in tax breaks tied to executive pay packages from 2009 to 2011, according to a new report by the liberal think tanks Institute for Policy Studies and Campaign for America's Future.

Pat Toomey: Background Checks Died Because GOP Didn't Want To Help Obama

Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) revealed that some members of his party opposed expanding background checks for gun sales recently because they didn't want to "be seen helping the president."

Two weeks ago, only three Republican senators voted for the bipartisan background checks amendment sponsored by Toomey and Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), despite overwhelming popular support for such a measure.

Mike Rogers Confronted Over Sequestration Concerns At Town Hall

WASHINGTON -- As the ripples of sequestration begin to spread across the country, members of Congress are in their home districts for recess this week, meeting with their constituents and hearing their concerns. On Tuesday, dissatisfaction with the budget cuts spilled over into Rep. Mike Rogers' (R-Ala.) town hall meeting, when a local businessman stood up and said he worried that sequestration was going to destroy his business.

John Mullins, 57, is a lifelong resident of Auburn, Ala., where Rogers held his Tuesday meeting with constituents. For the past 15 years, he's owned Collector's Corner, which sells comic books and other paraphernalia.

Tories Take Greater Control Of CBC, Canada Post, Via Rail, As Critics Voice Outrage

Opposition and labour leaders are in an uproar after it was revealed the Harper government plans to take more direct control of Canada’s Crown corporations, in particular the CBC, Canada Post and Via Rail.

Following news on Tuesday that the Tories are planning to inject themselves directly into wage negotiations between the CBC and its employees, the Globe and Mail revealed Wednesday that the government has similar plans to control expenditures at all other Crown corporations, but plans to focus mostly on Canada’s national broadcaster, railway company and postal service.