Baltimore Anarchists Rally for Red Emma's Bookstore

Annie Linskey, Baltimore Sun

On a recent Sunday night, three men sat at Red Emma's
Bookstore and Coffeehouse, Baltimore's newest anarchist
infoshop. They were there to see a screening of several
films produced by the Independent Media Center.

The organizer of the evening's activities, John Duda, seemed
disappointed with the turnout. "Was anything else going on tonight?" he asked.

One customer, with a mop of brown hair, volunteered a reason
why so few comrades-in-arms turned out for the event: "The
Anarchists Union and the Women's Healthcare Collective meet
on Sunday nights," he said. A-ha.

"A 'Plague of Artists' Is a Battle Cry for Brooklyn Hasidim"

Tara Bahrampour, New York Times

Several weeks ago Mikey Weiss, an electronics store owner with an
overgrown blond Mohawk, was visited in his shop on the north side of
Williamsburg, Brooklyn, by a couple of men in mink hats.

"These two Hasidic guys, dressed as Hasidically as you could possibly
dress, came in and asked me what kind of people live in this
neighborhood," Mr. Weiss said, adding that he told them the area was
largely populated with people in their 20's and 30's, including many
artists.

"They said: 'Artists! That's it!' " he recalled. "They said, 'We want to
hear about these artists we've heard are moving to our neighborhood.'
They asked: 'Are they noisy? Do they cause trouble?' "

"Japan Threatens Huge Dollar Sell-Off"

Heather Stewart, The London Observer

Japan is warning the White House that there will be 'enormous capital flight' from the dollar if the Bush administration maintains its laissez-faire approach to the mounting currency crisis.

Tokyo fears that Japan's strongest economic recovery in a decade could be derailed by the sudden appreciation in the yen against the greenback.

"CIA To Spy on Chat Rooms"

Declan McCullagh, CNET News.com

The CIA is quietly funding federal research into surveillance of Internet chat rooms as part of an effort to identify possible terrorists, newly released documents reveal.

In April 2003, the CIA agreed to fund a series of research projects that the documents indicate were intended to create "new capabilities to combat terrorism through advanced technology." One of those projects is research at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y., devoted to automated monitoring and profiling of the behavior of chat-room users.