] AMSTERDAM/PARIS (Reuters) - From camera phones to
] wireless computer connections, the freshest crop of
] gadgets in years are being unveiled to mainstream buyers
] at this week's CeBIT trade fair, but few may be in a
] spending mood.

] Global economic malaise and the threat of war in Iraq
] (news - web sites) have cast a pall over the technology
] sector and its traditional sales pitch -- spend money on
] technology to save money through productivity gains -- is
] wearing thin.
]
] But vendors converging on the world's biggest showcase of
] new hardware and software in Hanover, Germany, are
] expected to pull out the stops to generate some demand.
]
] "We're going to see camera phones from every manufacturer
] and many other weird and wonderful mobile devices as
] manufacturers struggle to drive the replacement market,"
] said analyst Ben Wood at market research group Gartner
] Dataquest.
]
] Starting next Tuesday and running into the following
] week, CeBIT will welcome some 6,500 exhibitors -- down
] from 8,000 two years ago -- and attract more than
] half-a-million visitors to a sprawling high-tech
] metropolis made up of more than 24 aircraft-hangar-sized
] halls.

Yahoo! News - CeBIT Parades New Gadgets to Combat Hi-Tech Gloom

] For nine and a half years, 38-year-old Robert Williams
] served as a security guard at Crossgates Mall.
]
] On Monday, a shopper refused to leave the mall after he
] was asked to remove a t-shirt. That t-shirt was clad with
] antiwar slogans. The protester, Steve Downs of Selkirk,
] was arrested.
]
] Security guard Robert Williams was on duty and signed the
] formal police complaint. He said mall management told him
] to sign.
]
] But this Friday after completing his shift, Williams was
] fired.

Mall security guard fired

Last week, a high school sophomore wore an AntiWar T-shirt she purchased at a thrift store to school and was suspended for 10-days for refusing to turn it inside out. The 2003 winter home coming queen, an honors student with a 3.8 GPA, posted a message on a teen forum asking for advice regarding her case.

“I am so mad because I am a sophomore and I don’t want to fail ya know?
This really pissed me off. So I am suspended right now and everything.
What do you guys think? I think its b!#%&*!#”

A member of the AntiWar LiveJournal community posted the 16-year olds forum message to the group. In order to understand the reasons why the student was punished so harshly, questions from the community are being emailed to the student. Her unedited answers are published to the thread.

Last month, Bretton Barber, a high school junior in Dearborn Heights, Mich., was sent home for the day for wearing a T-shirt purchased off the Internet with a picture of President Bush and the words "International Terrorist." School officials permitted the 16-year-old student to return to campus the next day.

At the moment, this story has a beginning and middle but it does not have an end.

To learn more, to watch the tale unfold or if you are a LiveJournal member and would like to participate in creating this story, go to the LiveJournal AntiWar Community Thread: http://www.livejournal.com/talkread.bml?journal=antiwar&itemid=634947

Non-LiveJournal members can also participate in the story creation and voice their comments and concerns through a thread made today in the New Digital Reporter’s Journal (blog): http://www.livejournal.com/users/ndr

Student Suspended 10 Days For Anti-War T-Shirt

] It's believed to be the largest Chee-to in the world. The
] cheesy glob of fried cornmeal that Navy Petty Officer
] Mike Evans found last week in a bag of the snacks is
] about the size of a small lemon and weighs in at about
] half an ounce.
]
] Evans, 41, a fervent user of online auctions, posted his
] find on eBay. He never expected the flurry of attention
] that followed.
]
] Radio stations from around the country interviewed Evans,
] a Gulf War veteran stationed in Pearl Harbor who
] patiently explained that he bought the bag of Chee-tos
] for his 3-year-old son. Giant Chee-to T-shirts and
] Chee-to puppet auctions sprung up online. And pranksters
] bid up the Chee-to into the millions of dollars -- so
] much that eBay cancelled the sale and a frustrated Evans
] donated the Chee-to to a good cause: a sleepy farming
] community in Iowa.
]
] "I was absolutely astounded that something like a Chee-to
] could become a pop icon," said Evans. "It's
] international. I've even seen it online on a Russian
] site."

CNN.com - Crunch! Giant Chee-to spurs online frenzy - Mar. 7, 2003

] DEARBORN -- A Dearborn High School junior was sent home
] from school this week for wearing a T-shirt emblazoned
] with an anti-war message.
]
] Bretton Barber, 16, said he wanted to express his opinion
] Monday when he wore a T-shirt he bought over the Internet
] that shows a picture of President Bush and reads,
] "International Terrorist."
]
] Concerned the shirt could spark tensions in a district
] where more than 50 percent of students are Arab-American,
] school officials told Barber to turn the shirt inside
] out, take it off or go home.
]
] Barber said he decided to go home rather than surrender
] his freedom of expression. He returned to school Tuesday
] without the shirt.

Student gets sent home over his anti-Bush T-shirt - 02/19/03

] The refusal of a man to leave a Pyramid Cos. mall after
] bothering customers not the peace T-shirt he was wearing,
] sparked his arrest, Pyramid executives say.
]
] The arrest Monday at Crossgates Mall in Guilderland, near
] Albany, became a national public relations nightmare for
] Pyramid - an incident tied to peace protests, freedom of
] speech and the looming war in Iraq.

Wrinkle in T-shirt incident disclosed

] The security officer at Crossgates Mall who signed a
] trespassing complaint against a war protester was fired
] Friday.
]
] Robert Williams said he was called into the mall security
] office about four hours into his shift and told he was
] fired because of Monday's incident and for signing the
] complaint against Steve Downs, 60, of Selkirk.
]
] Downs' arrest brought Crossgates national notoriety and
] sparked a protest march against the facility's policies.
] He was arrested for trespassing when mall officials told
] him to leave or remove an anti-war T-shirt he had
] purchased there.
]
] On Wednesday, amid a protest over Downs' arrest,
] officials from Pyramid Management Group, which operates
] the mall, said they would drop the charge against Downs.
]
] Williams, who has worked in security at the mall for more
] than nine years, said he signed the complaint on the
] orders of his boss, assistant director of security Fred
] Tallman. Those orders came after Tallman told the
] Guilderland police officer working the case that he
] (Tallman) was too busy to come to the police station and
] that Williams represented the company and should sign.

'Guard says he lost job in T-shirt flap' - timesunion.com

] Sopranos star James Gandolfini is suing the makers of the
] cult show after discovering its creator had been made an
] offer he could not refuse.
]
] Gandolfini, who plays mobster Tony Soprano, has begun
] legal proceedings against US network HBO to get out of
] his contract before filming starts on a fifth series of
] the hit drama.
]
] His lawyers say Gandolfini is unhappy because he was not
] told the show's creator David Chase was being paid $20m
] for the upcoming series.

MediaGuardian.co.uk | Broadcast | Has fat lady sung for Tony Soprano?

] Digital broadcaster Pseudo.com plans to release a weekly
] TV show hosted by rap star Ice-T on the Internet
] file-sharing network Kazaa, in attempts to start a new
] model of advertising-supported television.
]
] Pseudo President Edward Salzano said Thursday that the
] show--a feature on hip-hop culture called "One
] Nation"--will be available exclusively to Kazaa's roughly
] 60 million registered users beginning in the next two
] weeks. People using Kazaa to trade video, audio and text
] files will be able to download a new episode of the
] hour-long show weekly and watch it anytime.

Pseudo spins hip-hop TV show on Kazaa | CNET News.com

] The issue of student anti-war protests in schools came of
] age during another controversial military action, the
] Vietnam conflict, when a trio of Des Moines, Iowa,
] students took their cause of protesting the war all the
] way to the Supreme Court. In Tinker Vs. Des Moines
] Independent School District (1969), 15-year-old John F.
] Tinker, his younger sister Mary Beth and 16-year-old
] Christopher Eckhardt fought for their right to wear black
] armbands as a silent protest against the war.
]
]
] The school board banned such protests, the students
] refused to remove the armbands and they were told to
] leave school and not return until they complied with the
] school's policies. The district was eventually found
] guilty by the Supreme Court of denying the students'
] First Amendment rights. As a result, students' rights to
] free expression were broadened following the decision,
] though many schools now have "disruptive" clothing rules
] in their codes of conduct.

MTV.com - News -Anti-War T-Shirts Land Teens, Lawyer In Hot Water