Uptown bar fights ... again: Increase in violence after Charlotte bars close has Uptown police responding to more crimes than usual.

Full story: Charlotte.com

'Uncontacted tribe' sighted in Amazon: Half of the more than 100 uncontacted tribes in the world live in the Amazon and now one of them has been photographed.

Full story: CNN.com

Crane collapses in Manhattan's Upper East Side: AP reports at least one person killed, crane operator injured.

Full story: MSNBC.com

Just saw this press release from PETA about a planned protest this morning:

SEXY 'MOUSE' IN BIKINI TO CONFRONT LOWE'S SHAREHOLDERS OVER CRUEL GLUE TRAPS

PETA Rep at Annual Meeting Will Grill Company Execs About Their Refusal to Follow Other Major Retailers and Ban Cruel Devices

Charlotte, N.C. — Wearing a gray bikini, "mouse ears," and a "tail" while lying in a giant "glue trap," a PETA member will confront shareholders at home-improvement giant Lowe's annual meeting in Charlotte on Friday. Other PETA members will hold signs that read, "Lowe's Tortures Animals." Inside the meeting, a representative of PETA—which owns 123 shares of Lowe's stock—will read a statement about the company's sale of glue traps, which cause a painful and lingering death for any animal who gets caught in them. Many major retailers—including Walgreen's, CVS, Rite Aid, Albertsons, and Safeway—refuse to sell glue traps.

Date:         Friday, May 30

Time:        9-10 a.m. (the protest starts at 9 a.m. and the meeting starts at 10 a.m.)

Place:        Ballantyne Resort, intersection of Ballantyne Commons and John J. Delaney Drive

Glue traps are pieces of plastic or cardboard coated with an extremely sticky adhesive that are designed to ensnare any small animal who touches the surface of the trap. Trapped animals suffer tremendously for days before dying of starvation or dehydration. Patches of skin, fur, and feathers are ripped off animals' bodies as they struggle to escape, and many animals even chew off their own legs in an effort to free themselves. Even though Lowe's officials have been shown graphic evidence of the immense suffering that glue traps cause, Lowe's continues to sell these cruel devices.

In addition to being cruel, glue traps aren't effective. The only effective long-term method of controlling small mammal and bird populations is modifying the area so that it becomes unattractive or inaccessible to these animals.

"When it comes to rodent and bird control devices, glue traps are the cruelest," says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. "If so many of the nation's leading retailers can ban the sale of glue traps and stop the animal suffering that they cause, so can Lowe's."

PETA's statement is available upon request. For more information, please visit PETA's Web site HelpingAnimals.com.

Myrick calls for off-shore drilling: U.S. Rep. Sue Myrick is frustrated with gas prices and her solution is to allow oil and gas drilling in the Atlantic. Drilling areas would include the North Carolina coast.

Full story: Charlotte.com

China seeks earthquake aid from Japan: Tense relations between the two enemies have been improving in the last two years. China is now asking for help with the evacuees of it's devastated southwestern Sichuan province.

Full story: CNN.com

An administrator at Central Regional Hospital in Butner spent $250 meant for patients on a portrait of herself, at a time when thousands of mentally ill people languish on waiting lists. The News and Observer

Vet school dogs aren't in danger of being euthanized after all. The News and Observer

A state House committee approves anti-abortion rights license plate (Associated Press via The Winston-Salem Journal)

Nancy Pelosi says she'll "step in" if Democratic race doesn't end by end of next month. (CNN)

New York will recognize gay marriages performed elsewhere. (CNN)

Fort Bragg hospital stops birth announcements, citing abduction fears. The Fayetteville Observer

By George Bush

Oh, Scotty McClellan, we hardly knew ye. I mean that literally. I hardly knew you. I think my nickname for you was "Roundhead," or maybe "Bubbles." I knew you were the guy who had to go out in front of the press when I screwed things up, but there's a point at which the farmer has to forget the name of the fatted calf, if you know what I mean.

So I'm cool with your book, I guess. Karl's another matter entirely. To say that he was mad is an understatement. He said that he's going to rape you.

(Photo credit: Associated Press)

News Groper features more than 50 parody blogs by politicians, celebrities, business tycoons, and foreign despots.

Do Dunkin Donuts and Rachael Ray support terrorism? Yes, that's an amazingly stupid question, but it was asked over and over again in the past few days by conservative bloggers. Inspired by rightwing nut commentator Michelle Malkin, conservatives had a collective fit over a scarf Ray wore in a commercial for the donut company. Malkin & Co. said Ray's scarf — which was black-and-white with a paisley design — looked too much like a keffiyah, or, as Malkin described it, "the traditional scarf of Arab men that has come to symbolize murderous Palestinian jihad" — or, as you and I may know it, "that thing Yassir Arafat always wore."

So, in case you thought conservatives' paranoid outlook and tone-deafness toward other cultures were getting better, think again. The result of the conservatives' campaign?  Dunkin Donuts gave in to the bloggers' lunacy and pulled the commercial.

Malkin praised DD for caving in to her and her Brownshirts' demands, writing, "When [fashion statements] lead to the mainstreaming of violence, they matter . . . In post-9/11 America, vigilance must never go out of style."  A million jokes can be made out of this kind of madness, but the bottom line is that Malkin and her horde of ignoroid supporters are cultural fascists, pure and simple. Which brings up one of my favorite quotations: "Although it is not true that all conservatives are stupid people, it is true that most stupid people are conservative." - John Stuart Mill, British political philosopher, 1806-1873