I Read the News Today... Oh Boy !

[CharlotteNCguy]

The nutria are coming....the Nutria are coming!

COLUMBIA, S.C. - State wildlife officials are concerned that a large, rat-like rodent called nutria may soon be showing up in the Savannah and Pee Dee river basins.

The furry bucktoothed rodent looks like a mix between a beaver and a rat and weighs up to 20 pounds. They have become a nuisance in other southern states because they eat marsh plants and dig through dams.

They are enough of a problem in Louisiana that hunters and trappers get a $4 bounty for each tail they produce and residents are encouraged to eat them. A government Web site's recipes include stuffed nutria hindquarters and nutria chili.

Nutria have been found in every Southern state since first brought to Louisiana from South America in the 1930s, but haven't been documented in South Carolina, according to the state Natural Resources Department.

"We'd rather not have them," agency biologist Jay Butfiloski said.



http://www.alastaro.fi/kannisto/nutria.jpg

 

[CharlotteNCguy]

VANCOUVER, British Columbia (Reuters) - Police were on the search on Friday for a thief who made off with three "male appendages" from a Vancouver-area x-toy store and may now be looking for batteries. A clerk discovered the man stuffing the fake body parts into his clothes and asked "if he was going to need batteries for these three objects," the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said in a news release. "The male calmly stated 'no' and then panicked and fled, running out of the store with the three objects, minus batteries," the police statement said.

 

[sueanninct]

Re: The nutria are coming....the Nutria are coming!

COLUMBIA, S.C. - State wildlife officials are concerned that a large, rat-like rodent called nutria may soon be showing up in the Savannah and Pee Dee river basins.

The furry bucktoothed rodent looks like a mix between a beaver and a rat and weighs up to 20 pounds. They have become a nuisance in other southern states because they eat marsh plants and dig through dams.

They are enough of a problem in Louisiana that hunters and trappers get a $4 bounty for each tail they produce and residents are encouraged to eat them. A government Web site's recipes include stuffed nutria hindquarters and nutria chili.

Nutria have been found in every Southern state since first brought to Louisiana from South America in the 1930s, but haven't been documented in South Carolina, according to the state Natural Resources Department.

"We'd rather not have them," agency biologist Jay Butfiloski said.



http://www.alastaro.fi/kannisto/nutria.jpg

If my gerbil ever went for a swim in toxic waste, that's probably what he'd look like when he came out.

 

[ZfrkS62]

Re: The nutria are coming....the Nutria are coming!

COLUMBIA, S.C. - State wildlife officials are concerned that a large, rat-like rodent called nutria may soon be showing up in the Savannah and Pee Dee river basins.

The furry bucktoothed rodent looks like a mix between a beaver and a rat and weighs up to 20 pounds. They have become a nuisance in other southern states because they eat marsh plants and dig through dams.

They are enough of a problem in Louisiana that hunters and trappers get a $4 bounty for each tail they produce and residents are encouraged to eat them. A government Web site's recipes include stuffed nutria hindquarters and nutria chili.

Nutria have been found in every Southern state since first brought to Louisiana from South America in the 1930s, but haven't been documented in South Carolina, according to the state Natural Resources Department.

"We'd rather not have them," agency biologist Jay Butfiloski said.



http://www.alastaro.fi/kannisto/nutria.jpg

TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA GUINEA PIGS!!!

 

[EarthquakeMan]

Stranger than fiction . . . good stuff CNCGuy.

Some odds and ends from the police blotter (you still have the local constabulary on your back?)

In the Netherlands, customs officials stopped a man with a suitcase containing two thousand baboon noses. He got away. They never did figure out why someone would want baboon noses.

In El Paso border agents arrested a man trying to smuggle 756 pounds of balogna into Mexico.

In Johnson County, Indiana, thieves stole a truck containing twenty-five thousand sets of Billy Bob Teeth. (To chew the bologna?)

 

[CharlotteNCguy]

Stranger than fiction . . . good stuff CNCGuy.

I am glad you like.....

How about this one:

TORONTO (Reuters) - A stripper mauled by a tiger in an Ontario safari park has won C$800,000 (341, 560 pounds) in damages because her scars meant she could no longer work, Canadian media say.

Jennifer-Anne Cowles was driving through the park nearly nine years ago with her then boyfriend when a tiger jumped into their car and tried to drag them away. The two insisted their windows had been shut when the tiger charged, although the park had challenged that.

The judge accepted on Friday the couple's testimony that the power windows had been inadvertently lowered when one of the big cats bumped against the car, frightening them.

In a ruling delivered on Thursday and reported in a number of Canadian newspapers, Justice Jean MacFarland said she could only imagine the "stark terror experienced by these young people during this horrendous event."

She awarded Cowles over C$800,000 in damages, almost half of it to compensate for income she would have made as a stripper.

Her musician boyfriend, David Balac, won C$1.7 million, because his injuries left him unable to work as an accordion player.

 

[CharlotteNCguy]

MICHIGANTOWN, Ind. - Could it be... Satan? A central Indiana pet shop owner says a turtle that was the only animal to survive an October fire has developed an image of Satan's face on its shell.

Bryan Dora says it looks like the devil wants us to know that he was there.

Dora says he can see a goatee and a pair of pointy horns on the shell of the palm-sized red-eared slider turtle named Lucky.

He says Lucky is healthy and its behavior hasn't changed.

Investigators could not determine the cause of the fire, which destroyed the A-Dora-ble Pet Shop and several other businesses in Frankfort, about 40 miles northwest of Indianapolis.

Dora has produced a DVD of the turtle's story that he plans to auction on the Internet. He will also offer the winning bidder the chance to buy Lucky off-line.
http://www.charlotte.com/images/charlotte/charlotte/11172/124817526716.jpg

 

[CharlotteNCguy]

GREENWICH, Conn. - A former Stamford police officer has been charged with lewd conduct involving a toy banana. Arthur Bertana, 62, who had been on probation for lewd conduct more than four years ago, was arrested Saturday after police said he placed a toy banana in his pants and flashed people.

Bertana was charged with breach of peace and interfering with a police officer.

"Over a span of time, there were several reports of a subject wearing extremely tight pants with an obvious bulge stuffed down his pants," Sgt. Roger Petrone Jr. said Wednesday.

Bertana would allegedly greet passersby on the busy street while trying to draw attention, Petrone said. At times, he placed a bag in front of his pants, then moved it and show the bulge, he said.

"It was a yellow, plush, child's toy banana," Petrone said. "It had a smiley face on it."

Bertana was released on a $5,000 bond for a March 21 appearance in Stamford Superior Court in Stamford.

 

[CharlotteNCguy]

I haven't shared the news in a while...LOL

VANCOUVER, British Columbia (Reuters) - A woman has been arrested after she rammed a car into her neighbor's apartment in an apparent fight over a loud television, Canadian police said on Thursday. The Penticton, British Columbia, woman got into her 1985 BMW after becoming upset with her neighbor and drove the car across the lawn and through some patio furniture before the vehicle hit the side of the building, police said.

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. - Thomas P. Budnick says his lawyer's incompetence was to blame for his assault conviction. The funny thing is he was representing himself. He took his case before the state Appeals Court on Wednesday, arguing that the trial judge never should have allowed Budnick to defend himself against charges of trying to poison a friend by lacing a bottle of beer with nitric acid.

STANWOOD, Wash. - Police are looking for an oversized but rather limp gorilla. Owner Mike McDaniel said the 25-foot blue and yellow inflatable animal was cut from its tether at the Viking Village shopping center after the air was let out because of high winds last Friday. The overgrown ape, which was being used to advertise a hot tub sale at the mall, was more vulnerable to thieves because they could make an instant getaway, McDaniel said.

BOISE, Idaho (Reuters) - An Idaho strip club that attempted to get around a ban on full nudity by giving patrons sketch pads for special "art nights" was cited for violating the city's nudity rules, officials said on Tuesday. The citation was issued on Monday night to the Erotic City Gentleman's Club in Boise, Idaho. Boise allows full nudity for "serious artistic" _expression only, so the club handed out pencils and sketch pads to patrons so they could sketch naked women. A police spokeswoman said officials concluded, however, that patrons were not focused on art, so officers cited three dancers for violations of the city nudity ordinance.

 

[CharlotteNCguy]

This girl is nasty.....

http://i.a.cnn.net/cnn/2005/US/04/30/wedding.stress.ap/vert.wilbanks.01.ap.jpg


http://www.thesmokinggun.com/graphics/art3/0513051wilbanks2.gif

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/graphics/art3/0513051wilbanks3.gif

 

[CharlotteNCguy]

ATLANTA (AP) - Maybe hot sauce is the cure for cold feet.


Jennifer's High Tailin' Hot Sauce, a nod to the saga of runaway bride Jennifer Wilbanks, has sold briskly since its debut Wednesday.

"I'm in the hot sauce business and this is the hottest thing I've got right now," said David (Pappy) Ryan, who runs Pappy's Peppers in Lawrenceville, Ga. and says he's sold 10 cases of the private-label sauce.

He's not the only one cashing in: Herobuilders.com, a Danbury, Conn.-based manufacturer, has sold out of its first batch of 250 Runaway Bride action figures at $24.95 US each.

The 30-centimetre-tall figures feature a dark-haired woman in jogging pants with a colourful towel similar to the one Wilbanks wore over her head and a midriff-baring jogging shirt that says Vegas Baby.

"It's an unbelievably incredible story," said Emil Vicale, who owns Herobuilders.com. "We had over a million hits in one day. That's never happened before."

Wilbanks items have also flooded EBay since a man auctioned off a slice of toast carved with a drawing of the runaway bride for $15,400. (The winning bidder has refused to pay.)

 

[sueanninct]

You have to love the name of this place!!

ASPEN, Colo. - A new business called Toasty Chicks Delivery hopes to profit from an invasion of construction workers this summer by having women in snug T-shirts drop off lunches from area restaurants. Toasty Chicks will take food orders, relay them to the restaurant of choice, pick up the food and deliver it to the work site, founder and owner Rodney Millspaugh said.

 

[CharlotteNCguy]

You have to love the name of this place!!

ASPEN, Colo. - A new business called Toasty Chicks Delivery hopes to profit from an invasion of construction workers this summer by having women in snug T-shirts drop off lunches from area restaurants. Toasty Chicks will take food orders, relay them to the restaurant of choice, pick up the food and deliver it to the work site, founder and owner Rodney Millspaugh said.

that is awesome! - I didn't see that news item !!

 

[sueanninct]

Man Says He Was Fired for Drinking Coors

DENVER - Ross Hopkins still likes to drink Bud, even though he says a brief tryst with a Coors beer cost him his job at a Budweiser distributor. Hopkins, 41, is suing American Eagle Distributing Co., saying the company wrongly fired him for drinking Coors in a bar two years ago. "They flat-out told me 'We're putting food on your table so you could put it on theirs?'" he said Tuesday. "I thought I could drink it, no problem."

Hopkins' lawsuit, filed in a Greeley court, seeks unspecified damages for lost wages and benefits. No trial date has been set. Jeff Bedingfield, an attorney for the distributor, declined to comment, saying: "American Eagle prefers not to try this case in the media."

Colorado law says workers cannot be fired for a legal activity while off duty and away from work. There are exceptions, such as when a worker's actions relate to an occupational requirement or create a conflict of interest.

In a court filing, American Eagle said Hopkins' termination "was necessary to avoid a conflict of interest with his responsibilities to American Eagle and/or the appearance of such a conflict of interest." Hopkins, who was a warehouse supervisor for the distributor, said he was not wearing a uniform or representing American Eagle when he was at the bar in May 2003 with some co-workers. He said he had ordered a Budweiser but a waitress brought Coors. He decided to drink it because he didn't want to wait. The son-in-law of the distributor's majority shareholder also was at the bar, and offered twice to buy him a Budweiser, but Hopkins turned it down both times.

He was fired the following Monday.

 

[CharlotteNCguy]

Local News !!!!

CHARLOTTE, North Carolina (AP) -- An 86-year-old woman was jailed after police said she called emergency dispatchers 20 times in a little more than a half-hour -- all to complain that a pizza parlor wouldn't deliver.

Dorothy Densmore was charged with misusing the emergency telephone hotline, jail spokeswoman Mandy Giannini said.
She told dispatchers Sunday that a local pizza shop refused to deliver to her south Charlotte apartment, said Giannini. She also complained that someone at the shop called her a "crazy old coot," Giannini said.

Densmore wanted them arrested. Instead, police came to arrest her, and she resisted, Giannini said.
When an officer arrived at her apartment, the 5-foot (1.5-meter) -tall, 98-pound (44.5-kilo) woman attacked him, Giannini said. Densmore scratched him, kicked and bit his hand, she said.

Densmore also is charged with resisting a public officer and two counts of misusing the emergency telephone system, jail records show.


http://www.thesmokinggun.com/graphics/art3/0525051densmore1.jpg

 

[sueanninct]

I wouldn't want him to hurt her, but......

I bet this man could handle Josette!!

A 73-year-old Kenyan grandfather reached into the mouth of an attacking leopard and tore out its tongue to kill it. Peasant farmer Daniel M'Mburugu was tending his potato and bean crops in a rural area near Mount Kenya when the leopard leapt on him, authorities said yesterday.

M'Mburugu had a machete but dropped it to thrust his fist down the leopard's mouth.

"It let out a blood-curdling snarl that made the birds stop chirping," he told the daily Standard newspaper.

"This guy is very lucky to be alive," a Kenyan wildlife official told Reuters.

 

[sueanninct]

Redneck Games Celebrate 10th Anniversary

EAST DUBLIN, Ga. - In his garage, Melvin Davis keeps 230 trophies he's won racing motorcycles, go-karts and pickup trucks. But he's best known for a sport that earned him four trophies topped with crushed Bud Lite cans.

"Yeah, looking back on it I'm proud. But when I done it I felt a little silly," said Davis, 68. "People were going, `There's the bobbing-for-pigs-feet champion!'"

Bobbing for pig feet, the mudpit belly-flop, the armpit serenade — they're all part of the Redneck Games, a series of good ole'ympic events for the ain't-so-athletic celebrating their 10th year in middle Georgia.

Started as a Southern-fried spoof of the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, with a propane torch lighting a ceremonial barbecue grill, the gag games draw tourists like moths to a backyard bug-zapper. What started as a gathering of about 500 during the 1996 Olympics ballooned to 10,000 by 2001 and reached an estimated 15,000 last year. More are expected when the 10th Annual Redneck Games are held next Saturday.

The actual events, which have changed little over the years, hew to self-deprecating stereotypes and backwoods bawdiness. The mudpit belly-flop judges contestants on their flabby form and sonic splat as they drop gut-first into muddy water, splattering nearby spectators. The armpit serenade rates children on their musical skills pumping air through a damp hand beneath their underarm. The 12-year-old winner in 2000 squeezed out a recognizable rendition of "Dixie."

There's also hubcap hurling — think junkyard discus — and redneck horseshoes, played with toilet seats. The most competitive sport, however, is bobbing for pig feet, where contenders dunk their heads in tubs of water to see how fast they can remove raw pork shanks with their teeth.

Davis, a retired state bridge inspector, won the title in the Redneck Games' first four years, and has been trying to reclaim it ever since. His record, he says, was clearing seven pig feet in 13 seconds. His secret: bite for the tip of the hoof, not the flesh.

"Being that they're frozen, you can't grab them by the shank part, so you've got to get it by the toes," Davis said. "Now, there ain't many people who want to stick their head in a tank of water and get a raw, frozen pig's foot out of it, after what they've been walking through."

Davis has no problem describing himself as a redneck. He has a dog named Bubba. He loves to eat fried rabbit. His Chevy pickup has a homemade hood ornament of an anatomically correct bulldog (unquestionably male).

 

[CharlotteNCguy]

His Chevy pickup has a homemade hood ornament of an anatomically correct bulldog (unquestionably male).

now there is a sentance you don't read everyday....


(come to think of it that might make a good AV for Cookie)

 

[sueanninct]

I guess people don't get gas in Australia....

SYDNEY (Reuters) - An Australian bus driver who called police after he found a package on his bus which emitted a strange sound when touched was left red-faced when it turned out to be a novelty store cushion. The driver found the package on the rear seat of his bus after completing his route around the Sydney beachside of Coogee Sunday. Fearing it could be an explosive device of some kind, he called the police.

"It was an unattended item, emitting a popping sound," a police spokesman said.

"Just as a precautionary measure, police went and investigated. It's a whoopee cushion," he said.

 

[sueanninct]

I know someone who likes ANY story about this redhead!

LOS ANGELES, Aug. 5 — Oscar-winning actress Holly Hunter is pregnant for the first time at age 47, her spokeswoman said Friday.

''She is pregnant with twins and expecting this winter,'' the publicist said. The father is longtime boyfriend, actor Gordon MacDonald.

 

[sueanninct]

We need more politicians like this!!!

NEW YORK - With his campaign for city council going no place fast, Victor Bernace felt he needed something special to spark interest in his next fundraiser. How about exotic dancers?

The New York Democrat said Saturday he plans to have bikini-clad go-go dancers and men in nothing but briefs at a "Havana Night" campaign party next month at a Manhattan nightclub. There will be no nudity at the $20-per-head event, Bernace said, but he promised "a sexy, erotic show."

"I'm throwing a fun event. Most politicians — I've been to their fundraisers, and they are boring," he said. "People can go with a standard politician who will disappear into the woodwork. I'm trying to be part of the next generation."

Asked if he thought a risque event might offend some voters, Bernace said he wasn't concerned and suggested the event might help get young men interested in politics. "I'm not running for mayor in a small, old-time religious town in Utah. I'm running in New York City," he said. "I might as well try to energize a different base."

 

[sueanninct]

It definitely gets the point across!

LOS ANGELES - For years, Howard White has advertised his strip club near Los Angeles International Airport with a not too subtle marquee reading "Live Nude Nude Nudes." But some tourists and nearby businesses say White has gone too far with his latest pitch for the Century Lounge: a freshly posted sign proclaiming "Vaginas R' Us."

"We don't appreciate the signage and we're working with the city to make sure this establishment is adhering to all codes," said Laurie Hughes, executive director of Gateway to L.A., an association that promotes businesses along Century Boulevard just east of the airport.

White, who posted the new sign Tuesday, says he's simply advertising his business. "In a sort of a naive way, I felt that there was nothing terrible about it since the 'Vagina Monologues' was on Broadway forever," White said. "I didn't feel there was anything terrible about it."

Los Angeles city officials say White's sign doesn't break the law. "The word 'vagina' is not an obscene word and we're not in a position to question the First Amendment," said City Councilman Bill Rosendahl, whose district includes the airport area.

But the business association is pursuing another avenue of attack. It contacted the retailer Toys R Us, which aggressively defends its trademark name.

Toys R Us spokeswoman Susan McLaughlin said the company knows about White's sign and will be "looking into it immediately."

 

[sueanninct]

GREENVILLE, S.C. - South Carolina Republicans say the Democrats need to stop dragging their feet and return the beer money they are owed. Democrats say the check's in the mail.

The latest dispute between the two political parties began in April when St. Louis-based Anheuser-Busch Co. wrote a $5,000 check intended for the South Carolina Republican Party. Instead, the envelope was addressed to the state Democratic Party, which promptly deposited the money.

Katja Zastrow, Anheuser-Busch's regional director of governmental affairs in Washington, said in an e-mail statement that the check went astray "through a series of administrative oversights." She said they are working with both parties to resolve the situation.

Democrats say they have sent a refund check back to Anheuser-Busch.

"Nobody should expect us to write a check to the Republican Party," said Lachlan McIntosh, the Democratic Party's executive director.

 

[sueanninct]

Earn easy cash in your spare time!!

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Catch a stray cow from the hundreds roaming the streets of New Delhi, haul it to a state shelter and you will be given 2,000 rupees ($46) for your pains.

The Hindustan Times newspaper said Friday the Delhi High Court had passed an order instructing city authorities to offer money to rid the Indian capital of the cattle menace.

An estimated 35,000 cows and buffaloes roam free in the capital, sharing space with hordes of monkeys, camels and stray dogs. Traffic routinely comes to a halt to allow animals to amble across highways, leading to accidents and sometimes deaths.

Cows are sacred to Hindus, who make up a bulk of India's billion-plus population, and just a rumor of mistreatment can prompt angry mobs to attack people in revenge.