"What's on Tap" is a weekly round-up of stories and links that may be interesting to Drinking Liberally patrons.

Join us every Tuesday evening from 5:30 p.m. onward at Tobacco Road Sports Cafe, 222 Glenwood Avenue in Raleigh. Happy hour specials end at 6 p.m. You can find more information about us on Facebook or our home site, and follow us on Twitter - @RaleighDL.

[Sorry, but today's links do NOT open in a new tab or window. I'm working on it from Savannah!]

Local

• Morgan Street, between St. Mary’s and Hillsborough, home to Irregardless Café and other local spots, is now a two-way street.
• Raleigh City Council agenda for Tuesday, May 4.
• NBC-17 stops the presses for a “Special Report” – Does the Shake Weight Really Work?

State

• Camden County school superintendent smacks down Gov. Perdue’s budget cuts: “In my view, if the education of our children is a priority, this budget does not reflect that.”
• Arizona, with its crazy immigration law, is seventh in the country in the number of illegal residents in the state. Guess who is number 8.
• The state is fighting with Amazon and other online business over sales tax collection on the Internet.

National

Most of the national coverage is on the massive BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Here are some perspectives you may not have seen.

• In exchange for accepting volunteer help from gulf fishing boats to deploy containment booms, BP tried to get the volunteers to sign settlement agreements waiving their right to sue BP in exchange for $5,000. The Alabama Attorney General has ordered BP to stop.
• NOAA bans all fishing from the mouth of the Mississippi to the western Florida panhandle for at least 10 days.
• Guess who was cementing the oil spout when it exploded. Could it be - Halliburton?
• BP spent $10.4 million lobbying the federal government in 2008, and increased that by 53% in 2009.
• Up to $1 billion in funds from a tax on oil may help with the cleanup, but BP’s non-cleanup liability is limited to $75 million by federal law.
• If the oil spill reaches the Gulf Stream, it could foul the entire eastern coast of North America.

In other news:

• This Week in Congress, courtesy of Congress Matters and Daily Kos.
• United and Continental will finally merge to form the world’s largest air carrier.
• One in five inmates is sexually assaulted at some point in his incarceration. It’s time to stop prison rape now.
• For Jason: One-third of American bee colonies did not survive the winter.

Global

• Thursday’s general election in the UK is still a three-way toss-up; the perennial third-place Liberal Democrats could force a hung parliament and win major concessions in the next government.
• The sole surviving gunman from the 2008 Mumbai assault that left 165 dead was convicted today. He could face the death penalty.
• If you hug an elm or birch or maple daily, you will love this solar hot air collector made from everyday parts.
• And finally, Stephen Hawking says searching for alien life in the universe is potentially “risky”, mainly because such life would probably kick our collective Terran asses.

If you have a story you think would be good for What’s on Tap, please add it as a comment or email it to frankthomas at gmail.com.