The high-and-mighty technology company has decreed that it will only accept plastic as payment, cash is not acceptable, nor are Apple Gift Cards, which previously could be used to buy an iPhone.

Diane Campbell, a disabled woman on a fixed income, learned this the hard way when she walked into the Palo Alto, Calif. Apple store with $600 in cash, yet was turned away from the sales counter.

An Apple store clerk told Campbell that Apple’s policy is aimed at preventing people from buying iPads and reselling them in foreign markets.

The press release issued by Virgin stated, “Not unlike Buzz Aldrin or Chuck Yeager, you have the opportunity to be part of a monumental moment in air travel.”

Yeager’s attorneys state in the suit that, “at no time did General Yeager give his permission to defendants.”

As a general rule, Yeager rarely allows the use of his name or image for commercial products or services, the lawsuit stated.

The suit seeks a court order preventing the company from continuing to use his name and for the profits earned by Virgin from using his name, as well as punitive damages.

Yeager was a fighter pilot in World War II, and later became the first person to fly faster than the speed of sound in 1947.

As an Air Force test pilot, his career was highlighted in the 1979 book “The Right Stuff,” which was later made into a movie.

The other name in Virgin’s advertisement belongs to former astronaut Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin, who walked on the moon as a member of the Apollo 11 crew.

Remember back in November, when we brought you this story about Kurt Greenbaum, a columnist for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch who had a school employee fired over a comment on his newspaper’s blog?

Well, Mr. Greenbaum is back, and he seems to think that the Internet has a short memory, as he simply tries to return to his blog and Twitter account after a six-week hiatus with no mention of the incident or an apology for what he did.

Unfortunately, for Mr. Greenbaum, the Internet met his return yesterday with an overwhelmingly negative response on Twitter and other social media sites - so much so that it overwhelmed his server and took his Web site off-line for several hours.  Although Greenbaum does not seem to be allowing comments on his blog entries, the jabs against him on Twitter and social news aggregator Reddit were coming fast and furious in the late afternoon and evening.

Greenbaum seems clueless about the hate that his actions have stirred up on the Internet.  In fact, in a move that reeks of hubris, his most recent blog post outlines the job loss trends in the St. Louis area - does he not realize that HE IS RESPONSIBLE for one of those job losses?

Feel like telling Greenbaum and his bosses what you think about this?

Let the publisher know:
Kevin Mowbray - Publisher, St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Phone: 314-340-8970
E-mail: kmowbray@post-dispatch.com

In this Consumerist article, it looks as if AT&T is no longer selling the iPhone online to customers who enter a Zip code assigned to the New York City Metro area.  It is unclear at this time if they have pulled them from store shelves in NYC as well.

A Consumerist reader gave this account of her experience with an AT&T customer service representative named Daphne:

I was on the AT&T Wireless website trying to get an iPhone. However, when I put in my zip code 11231, the site says the iPhone is unavailable. This seemed a little odd so I started punching in other famous zip codes: 90210, 60609 (spiegel catalog), 02134 (zoom, an old children’s show).For theses cities, LA, Chicago, Boston, iPhone is available. Then I looked up some other zip codes: Dallas, Miami, St. Louis, Philadelphia, San Francisco. All those cities are ok. Then I started putting in more NYC zip codes: midtown, Staten Island, the Bronx…no iPhone available.

This is weird…AT&T has cut off New York City.

They even contacted AT&T support to verify the problem:

Daphne (AT&T):  Welcome to AT&T online Sales support. How may I assist you with placing your order today?

Laura: Hi, I was looking at the iPhone 3Gs and the system tells me that I cannot order one in my ZIP code. My zip code is 11231. (Brooklyn, NY) Is this true? Are iPhones no longer available in New York City?

Daphne (AT&T): I am happy to be helping you today . Yes, this is correct the phone is not offered to you because New York is not ready for the iPhone.

Daphne (AT&T): You don’t have enough towers to handle the phone.

Laura: Thank you for your help. So the phone is not available to people anywhere in the city?

Daphne (AT&T): Yes this is correct Laura.

If this is true, it sure doesn’t bode well for AT&T, especially on the heels of operation Chokehold earlier this month!

A member of the owner’s family had held up his hand, and while the driver initially stopped, he continued after pausing, and ran over the dog. Sears’ excuse was that, “most dogs move out of the way.” Yes, someone from Sears actually said that.

Read the account here, and don’t forget to let Sears know what you think of this:

Contact Sears: (847) 286-2500 [Executive Customer Service line]

When Dan MacKenzie, a Glocester, Rhode Island farmer, lost his property to foreclosure earlier this week, the bank that repossessed the farm - Wells Fargo - refused to allow MacKenzie access to the buildings to care for the animals that were housed inside.

Wells Fargo Bank also refused the help of the Rhode Island Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RISPCA), telling the Society that it would make arrangements to care of the animals itself.

Dr. Ernest Finocchio, the president of the RISPCA visited MacKinzie’s property on Tuesday, and discovered that many of the animals, including eight horses and two pigs, had not had any water to drink.

Finocchio placed a bucket of water in front of the horses, and seven of the eight horses drank from the bucket without any hesitation, an indication that they had not been given any water in a long time.

Until Wells Fargo allows MacKenzie back onto the property, students from the University of Rhode Island’s veterinary care program are helping the RISPCA care for the animals.

Let Wells Fargo know what you think about their behavior in this case:
Call Wells Fargo: 888-818-9147

The district, in suburban Syracuse, sent home a letter to parents that stated that programs involving a singular tradition were not allowed to take place during regular school hours. They were directly referring to the long-standing tradition of Santa Claus visiting children in their classrooms.

Parent Patti Puma told TV station WSYR, “We are going to take [petitions] to the school board to say to them maybe there is one family who doesn’t want it, but there are a whole lot more that do and that there really is no legal precedent to take Santa Claus out of the school or to celebrate other traditions.”

What do you think - should the East Syracuse/Minoa Schools allow Santa back in the classroom?

Let them know:
E-Mail Dr. Donna DeSiato Superintendent of Schools or call the district office at (315) 434-3012

So here’s the scoop - Post-Dispatch columnist and Social Media Director Kurt Greenbaum posted a note on the Talk of the Day section of the newspaper’s Web site, stltoday.com, asking readers to write in and comment on the strangest thing they’ve ever eaten.  It was somewhat related to a story the paper had run on eating venison.

Well, before you know it, someone writes in on the comment box “Pu**y.”  For those of you who can’t read between the *’s, it is a feline expression for a part of a woman’s anatomy.  Got it now?  Good.

The moderators at the stltoday.com site removed the post, and the commentor tried again, and it was removed a second time.  Now, here is where the line was crossed.

In violation of the newspaper’s privacy policy, Greenbaum traced the IP address of the anonymous commenter to a private school, and contacted the headmaster of the school to tell him of the two offending posts.  He also provided the headmaster with the IP address of the poster’s computer, and timestamp information that allowed the IT staff at the school to pinpoint the exact computer and who was using it at the time the comment was posted.

The poster turned out to be a school employee (we don’t know yet if it was a faculty member, support staff, administrator, etc.) and that employee, when approached by the headmaster, resigned from the school upon hearing that his comments had been traced.

After the employee resigned, the headmaster called Greenbaum to let him know how the incident played out, and Greenbaum blogged about it on his personal blog, as well as on his blog on the stltoday.com site.

So what’s the lesson here?  Don’t trust the news media with your IP address - your anonymous comments could be tracked down by an irate editor with an axe to grind!

What do you think - was Greenbaum in the wrong here?  Let the St. Louis Post-Dispatch know how you feel:

E-Mail: generalmanager@stltoday.com
Telephone: 800-365-0820

The 9-year-old claims that his teacher, Peter Addabbo, instructed him to go into the bathroom and turn his shirt inside-out. The shirt Johns was wearing that day was blue, and read “New York No. 52” on the front and “Sabathia” for the Yankees’ pitcher C.C. Sabathia, on the back.

Addabbo is a Boston Red Sox fan, according to Nathan, and the classroom is decorated with Red Sox paraphernalia. “Just because my teacher doesn’t like the Yankees I should still have the right to wear a Yankees shirt,” he told the Syracuse newspaper, the Post-Standard.

After complying with his teacher and reversing his shirt, Nathan was teased on the playground at lunchtime by students from fifth-grade classes. He continued to tell the paper, “It was such a horrible day, I don’t ever want anything like to happen again.”

Baldwinsville Schools Superintendent Jeanne Dangle claims that the district is conducting an investigation into the student’s claims, and has told his parents that she will report back to them in a few days.

“I was stunned, absolutely flabbergasted,” Nate’s dad told the Post-Standard. “I couldn’t believe it. He was distraught. The school preaches all about not allowing bullying, and this really felt like he was being bullied.”

What do you think, was the Red Sox supporting teacher in the wrong here? Let the school district know:

Van Buren Elementary School
Phone: (315) 638-6121
Principal: Terry Bick

Baldwinsville School District
Phone: (315) 638-6043
Superintendent: Jeanne Dangle

District e-mail contact: pmckenna@bville.org