Starbucks remakes its future with an eye on beer and wine

http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/food/2010-10-18-starbucks18_CV_N.htm

Starbucks remakes its future with an eye on beer and wine
10-18-10
Bruce Horovitz, USA TODAY

SEATTLE — The Starbucks of the future arrived today.

If Starbucks (SBUX) executives have it figured out right, this could be the prototype for the next generation of stores for one of the world's most influential brands.

A very different kind of Starbucks is on tap. It will serve regional wine and beer. It offers an expansive plate of locally made cheeses — served on china. The barista bar is rebuilt to seat customers up close to the coffee.

Most conspicuously, the place looks less like a Starbucks and more like a cafe that's been part of the neighborhood for years — yet that's "green" in design and decor. This is the calling card of independent java joints that have been eating and sipping away at Starbucks' evening business for decades. U.S. Starbucks stores get 70% of business before 2 p.m.

The corporate eyes of Starbucks — and the nation's ultracompetitive, $15 billion chain coffee business — are laser-focused on this Starbucks store on Olive Way in Seattle's bustling Capitol Hill area. The 10-year-old location was closed for three months to be revamped into a Starbucks that may not look or sound like any Starbucks you know. But if this location is a hit, some version of it may eventually come to a Starbucks near you.

Starbucks, which turns 40 next year, is entering middle age with a keen desire to improve the way that its customers — and its stockholders — respond to the brand. For customers, the company wants to make the stores seem friendlier and more a part of the neighborhood. For stockholders, the company wants stores to be more profitable by targeting greater evening use.

Even then, the company is aware of the footprint it leaves no matter what it does. The 16,000-unit chain ranks among the world's most widely copied brands. When Starbucks sneezes, global pop culture feels the draft.

USA TODAY spent a day behind the scenes on an exclusive tour of the renovated store in the midst of last-minute construction activity before its big reopening.

Inside, the floor is stripped to highly polished concrete. Some of the chairs were salvaged from the University of Washington campus. Empty burlap sacks — once used to transport Starbucks coffee beans — hang from the walls. And an oversized table — designed for customers to share — is made from flooring salvaged from a local high school.

Until now, two local cafes owned by Starbucks have been used as "living labs" to test the new look and ambience of future stores, but without the Starbucks name. Instead, these two locations were named simply by their street locations. Very subtle "inspired by Starbucks" signs are etched on their doors.

But this one most assuredly is a Starbucks. A sign hoisted above the store — designed to mimic the antiquated sign above Seattle's famous Pike Place Market — can be seen from blocks away.

A striking move

Starbucks is not standing still. With competition from McDonald's and Dunkin' Donuts at a feverish pitch — even as Starbucks recovers from the aftershocks of the recession — this ranks among the most striking moves Starbucks has made in decades.

"It's the biggest undertaking of design of any retailer in the world," says Arthur Rubinfeld, global development chief at Starbucks. Each new company-owned store will be LEED certified, meaning it jumps through lots of "green" hoops to meet tough sustainability standards. Call it environmentally responsible design that relies on energy efficiency and the reuse of old things to make new things.

But it doesn't come without risks. For one, the new store doesn't instantly look like Starbucks. The colors are muted. The lighting, particularly in the evenings, is dimmed. The whole design tenor is low key, as if trying to look like it's been part of the neighborhood for decades. It simply doesn't scream Starbucks when you walk in the door.

That's a serious gamble for a chain that's spent four decades and billions of dollars establishing a highly recognized brand.

It doesn't come cheap. If this new design is a hit, Starbucks could ultimately expand pieces of it to as many as half of its stores globally. A minor redesign can cost $25,000, while a new construction can exceed $400,000, Rubinfeld says.

He won't speculate what the new design could cost if it expands worldwide. But just based on the sheer number of Starbucks stores, it could conceivably cost hundreds of millions of dollars.

"This is the natural evolution of the brand," Rubinfeld says. "This is all about elevating the brand's position worldwide."

Or is it? Some skeptics say Starbucks is too familiar to be hip.

"People don't go to Starbucks to be cool or to show off," says Bryant Simon, a Temple University professor and author of Everything but the Coffee: Learning about America from Starbucks. "They go for a predictably good cup of coffee and a place that's predictably clean and safe."

Others find the new concept to be a bit too savvy.

"The idea of serving coffee all day to hype up consumers and alcohol at night to calm them down sounds like a perpetual motion machine," says Robert Thompson, pop-culture professor at Syracuse University.

But brand guru Scott Bedbury, who was marketing chief for both Starbucks and Nike back in the 1990s, says the evolution is critical for Starbucks and notes that wine sales could bring in "latte-like" profits.

"Brands have to evolve or die," he says. "It's a tall order. But if anyone can pull it off, it will be Starbucks."

A sense of mission

On a tour of the Olive Way store, just five days before its reopening, the sense of mission is palpable. So is the nervousness.

A painter finesses a final coat of lacquer on a remodeled doorway entrance. A worker climbs a ladder to install energy-efficient lighting. A store manager gathers a group of a dozen uniformed baristas in the area where beer and wine will be poured.

The baristas seem slightly excited — if not nervous — about selling beer and wine to the very same customers to whom they've served coffee and cappuccino for years.

A barista asks about the difference between selling a customer a glass of wine or a cup of coffee.

"Just treat them like they're regular customers," a training manager responds.

At this location — and for Starbucks as a company — much of this change is about goosing evening business. While some locations do brisk night business, many sit nearly empty. It's a lot cheaper for Starbucks to drive more evening traffic into stores it already owns than to build more.

At this particular location, most of the business has historically been morning commuters. "We had not built a night business," says Kris Engskov, regional vice president. But before renovating, the company sat down with store customers and asked them what it could do to get them to come more often — including in the evening.

They asked for an outdoor deck. An indoor-outdoor fireplace. Sustainable furniture. And expanded menus. This store now has all of that. And a barista bar runs through the center, with tables on either side and seats at the bar itself. The purpose is to help customers feel closer to the coffee — and to the baristas.

Starbucks learned this from one of its "living labs." At its Roy Street Coffee & Tea, also in Seattle's Capitol Hill area, folks can sit at the barista bar and make friends with the barista — almost like a bartender. The barista also pours beer and wine.

Eric Banks, a music professor at a local college, is a regular customer. He usually gets a hot beverage, but this day he's sipping on a $7 glass of wine.

"It's not just the wine. It's the unwind," he says. "The atmosphere here is all part of the experience." And independent coffeehouses don't have the deep pockets to pay for this kind of design upgrade, he says.

In here, the tomato bisque is made by a popular, local chef. Cold drinks are sold from an old steel tub filled with ice. Fresh tulips sit in a glass vase. But one thing that Starbucks officials hoped would be a hit at this living lab was a bomb: ice cream. The store tried to sell Starbucks ice cream by the scoop, but it was a total disconnect with customers. So it won't be tried — at least for now — at its other stores.

Whitney Queral, a student from Olympia, recognizes that many women feel "safe" in Starbucks because it doesn't sell alcohol. It's a place where women don't have to worry about pickup lines from drunk guys.

Even then, she says, while sitting with a girlfriend at the Roy Street store, she'd certainly feel comfortable buying a glass of wine in a Starbucks.

Starbucks is dead serious about its new, friendlier face. It's about Starbucks looking and acting as though it's always been in the neighborhood and is ultrahip to sustainability. It's about Starbucks as a place that even wants you to stop by in the evening and perhaps stick around for a glass of wine or beer while listening to a local singer or stand-up comic.

The wake-up-in-the-morning company that invented the $4 cup of coffee is trying to reinvent itself as the hang-out-in-the-evening company, too, with mood lighting, heritage furnishings and wine at up to $9 a glass.

After two years of non-stop experimenting, the first of the new Starbucks-branded stores is here.

"It's like opening a Broadway play," Rubinfeld says.

Starbucks officials, awaiting consumer reviews, really want to know just one thing: Will this store be toasted — or roasted?

Starbucks Announces Free Wi-Fi, Proprietary Content Network

http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2010/06/starbucks-announces-free-wi-fi-proprietary-content-network

Starbucks Announces Free Wi-Fi, Proprietary Content Network
Eliot Van Buskirk June 14, 2010

NEW YORK — Starbucks’ coffee drinks have become synonymous with the high costs consumers are cutting back on these days, but at least the Wi-Fi connections in its stores will no longer require a credit card.

Free Wi-Fi is in my mind just the price of admission.Starting July 1, Starbucks will let anyone connect to its WiFi network for free. This fall, the company will add a content network called Starbucks Digital Network, in partnership with Yahoo and other sites, which will include local content you won’t be able to read anywhere else. Both offerings will be free.

“Free Wi-Fi is in my mind just the price of admission — we want to create … new sources of content that you can only get at Starbucks,” chairman and president and CEO Howard Schulz told the Wired Business Conference. “This is a thing that doesn’t exist in any other consumer marketplace in America.”

Starbucks hopes to make money from these initiatives indirectly, by “enhanc[ing] the experience” and making the content “so compelling that it drives incremental traffic,” said Schulz as he announced the new initiative at Wired’s Disruptive by Design conference on Monday.

McDonalds has free Wi-Fi too, of course, as does just about every other coffee place in the country other than Starbucks. Schulz admitted that both of those stratas have been competing with Starbucks on coffee as well as internet service, with McDonalds stealing bargain-oriented customers and boutique independent coffee shops in urban areas grabbing some of its loyal epicures.

However, none of Starbucks’ direct competitors have their own localized content networks on the level of what Schulz described. In some communities, Starbucks functions as a sort of community center — a “third place” between home and the office, in Schulz’s words — and this infusion of local news and information, along with a free way to get it, could enhance that effect.

Each customer must log in to Wi-Fi and the Starbucks Digital Network with a unique identifier, so Starbucks won’t only know where you are, but who you are, potentially allowing for targeted messaging to offset cost further. Focus groups have been quite receptive to the free Wi-Fi and local content customers will get in return, says the CEO.

So, where will all of this content come from? Especially, when Starbucks wants it to be updated multiple times a day, so people always see something new.

In addition to the inked partnership with Yahoo, Starbucks is talking to AOL’s Patch.com content-creation division about having it create customized content for the network. In addition, the network will include free online access to the Wall Street Journal, with a percentage of subscription revenue generated when coffee drinkers decide they want to access those articles elsewhere, too.

24 Secret Restaurant Menus Revealed

http://www.couponsherpa.com/ask-coupon-sherpa/secret-restaurant-menus-revealed/

24 Secret Restaurant Menus Revealed
3/3/2010

Mention "secret menus" and many people think of hidden functions on Blackberries or Xbox games. Actually, secret menus refers to items you can special order at restaurants that aren't mentioned on standard menus.

Some places, like Chipotle Mexican Grills, have a whole secret menu that's limited only by your imagination. On the other hand, In-N-Out Burger's secret menu" is so unsecret it's posted on their Web site. Kind of takes the cool factor out of having the inside scoop, doesn't it?

If you're looking to impress a date or just like that feeling of "knowing the chef," here are 24 restaurants that offer secret menus. Remember, not all may participate in the hidden menu. However, if you try to order something and the server looks at you with a blank look, don't give up. Describe the dish and usually they'll make it for you anyway.

Just keep it under your hat.

1. Arbys

•Chicken Cordon Bleu Sandwich - This spin on the cordon bleu is a chicken breast with a piece of ham on top of it with melted Swiss cheese.
•Wet Fries - Hot fries smothered in cheese sauce.
•French Dip – This is a classic Arby’s menu item that is off most menu’s but can still be ordered.

2. Blimpie

•Cheese Trio - This sandwich is a no meat alternative to the normal Blimpie sandwiches, and combines three different types of cheese.

3. Burger King

•Mustard Whopper - This is a normal Whopper with one difference, mustard is spread onto the sandwich instead of mayo.
•Veggie Whopper - A great alternative for vegetarians who love the flavor of Burger King, the beef is substituted for with a veggie patty.
•BLT - A bacon, lettuce, and tomato sandwich that comes in either a small or medium size.
•Ham and Cheese - A classic sandwich option that you can have served either hot or cold.
•Frings - An order of frings will split your French fry order with onion rings.
•Suicide Burger - This is a large burger including four meat patties, four slices of cheese, bacon and special sauce.
•Rodeo Burger - A burger assembled with onion rings and bbq sauce on it.
•BK Club - This sandwich is the Original chicken sandwich with bacon, tomato, and cheese.

4. Chick-fil-a

•Fried Club - This is their normal club sandwich with the fried chicken substituted for the grilled chicken.

5. Chili’s

•Chili – This food is the name sake of the company, so even though it has been off the menu for many years they will still make you a bowl of chili if you request it.

6. Chipotle
Chipolte will make you any combination of ingredients they have available to them. Listed below are some of the favorites.

•Nachos - Made with tortilla chips, your choice of salsa and meat, beans, and topped with a layer of cheese.
•Quesadilla - These come in two sizes, the children’s size which is made with two soft taco shells layered with your choice of fillings, or the full size which is a normal burrito tortilla folded in half with your choice of fillings. You can get a side of salsa or sour cream for no additional charge with these.
•Quesorito – A quesadilla with any of the fillings used in a burrito, rolled together and baked in the tortilla warmer. This is a crispier version of a quesadilla.

7. Dairy Queen

•Chocolate Chip Blizzard - This blizzard sounds like your basic chocolate chip ice cream, but its not. It is made with quick to harden chocolate usually used on the dipping cones.
•Banana Split Blizzard - All your basic banana split flavors blended together into a blizzard.
•Jack and Jill Sundae - A classic sundae with marshmallow and hot fudge.
•Lavender Blue Sundae - This is a blueberry sundae with marshmallow.
•Frozen Hot Chocolate - In some places this is still on the menu seasonally, but basically it is hot chocolate blended with ice to give it a frozen crunch.
•Peanut Buster Parfait - This is a multi level sundae combining fudge, vanilla soft serve, and peanuts.

8. Dunkin Doughnuts

•Turbo Hot Coffee - An extra shot of expresso in your coffee.

9. Fat Burger

•Hypocrite - A veggie burger topped with bacon.

10. In–N–Out Burger
Famous for its not-so-secret menu, all In-N-Out Burger employees should be aware of these options.

•Double Meat – Two beef patties, lettuce, tomato, spread, and bun. You can always order onions either grilled or sliced.
•3 by Meat – Three beef patties, any veggies and sauce you desire with no cheese.
•3 x 3 – Three beef patties, three slices of cheese, veggies and bun.
•2 x 4 – For those who love cheese this is a great option, two meat patties with four slices of cheese.
•4 x 4 – Four beef patties, four slices of cheese, veggies, and a bun. A cure for anyone’s hunger
•Grilled Cheese – 2 Slices of cheese melted with lettuce and tomato and a bun.
•Protein Style – A low carb alternative to any burger wrapped in lettuce instead of a bun
•Animal Style – A beef patty smothered in mustard before its cooked, with lettuce tomato, pickle, extra spread, and grilled onions.
•Animal Style Fries – Cheese, spread, grilled onions, and pickles piled high on top of fries.
•Flying Dutchman – Two meat patties and two slices of cheese, with nothing else not even a bun.
•Fries Well Done – Fries cooked extra crispy, almost like potato chips.
•Fries Light – Fries cooked less, they will be more tender and oily.
•Neapolitan Shake – Chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry ice cream blended together into one shake.
•Extra Toast – Buns that have been left on the grill longer until they are extra crispy.
•Veggie Burger / Wish Burger – This burger has no meat or cheese, but lots of grilled onions lettuce and sauce along with double tomatoes.
•Cheese Fries – Fries with a layer of cheese melted on top.
•Untoasted – Any burger with a bun that has not been toasted.
•Mustard Grilled Patty – A burger with mustard spread on it before grilling.
•Chopped Chilies – Diced jalapenos can be added to any burger.
•Large & Extra Large Shakes – Although they are not on the menu they are available upon request.
•100 x 100 Burger – Although they are not on the menu they are available upon request.

11. Jamba Juice
Since Jamba Juice keeps the ingredients that create their hidden menu drinks under wraps all we have for you are the titles.

•Pink Starburst
•Raspberry Dreamin’
•Pineapple Dreamin’
•Bluetopia
•Sourpatch Kid
•Now and Later
•Peanut Butter and Jelly
•Apple Pie
•Fruity Pebbles
•Strawberry Shortcake
•Red Gummy Bear
•White Gummy Bear
•Chocolate Gummy Bear
•Push Pop
•Skittles

12. KFC/A&W

•Poutine - This is a Canadian favorite that includes French fries, fried cheese curds, and gravy layered together.

13. Little Caesers

•Stuffed Crust Pizza - If you ask for it they will make you a pizza with the cheese stuff crust made famous by Pizza Hut.

14. Long John Silvers

•Side of Crumbs - This is a (Free!) box of fried batter parts that have fallen off the fried fish or chicken. Great to put on top of salads.

15. McDonalds

•Biscuits and Gravy - This one may only be available in the South – but it’s the classic combination of gravy smothering hot biscuits.
•McKinley Mac – A big Mac with quarter pounder patties.
•Grilled Cheese - A bun grilled with American cheese inside.
•Big Mac with Quarter Pounder Patties - This is great if you are looking to decrease the cost and calories of the classic Big Mac Sandwich. You get the entire flavor with less meat.
•All American - This is a normal sized hamburger with only pickles and ketchup.
•Big McChicken - This is a huge sandwich in which the chicken patties replace the bun.
•Fries with Big Mac Sauce - Fries smothered in the secret and special big Mac Sauce.
•Chicken and Waffles - This is a McGriddle sandwich with chicken in the middle.
•Neopolitan Milk Shake - 1/3 vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry ice creams blended together into one shake.
•McLeprichon - This shake is only available in March and is composed of the shamrock shake mixed with the chocolate shake making a mint chocolate shake.
•Pie McFlurry - If you purchase a pie you can have it blended into your McFlurry.
•McGangBang - This is a double cheeseburger with a chicken patty in between the two beef patties.
•Land, Sea, and Air Burger - The Land, Sea, and Air burger, has a beef patty, chicken patty, and fillet-o-fish patty all piled high onto a bun.
•Root Beer Float - You can pick any size of root beer and they will add the vanilla ice cream on top.
•Coke Float - Any size of coke with ice cream. You can even get it with chocolate ice cream.
•Monster Mac - A big Mac composed of 8 meat patties.
•2 Cheese Burger Meal Mac - Two cheese burgers, fries and a drink.

16. Popeyes

•Naked – Any Popeyes sandwich you can order “naked”, meaning their will be no breading on the meat.

17. Potbelly’s Secret Menu

•Cheeseburger – This is a meatball sandwich with ketchup replacing the marinara and the addition of mustard, cheese, and pickles.
•Fireball – A meatball sandwich with chili on top.
•Wrecking ball – A combination of both the meatball sandwich and the wreck sandwich.

18. Sonic

•Frito Pie - This is a southern favorite with layers of chili and fritos.
•Grilled Ham and Cheese - This is your basic warm gooey ham and cheese sandwich.

19. Starbucks – With the large variety of different Starbucks franchises it is important to know what’s in any hidden menu drink you order. Many should know these options however, since they are not all the same just remember the ingredients in case they do not know and they will be happy to make the drink for you.

•Biscotti Frapuccino - This is a typical frapuccino but it has a biscotti blended inside. You will have to purchase the biscotti separate when you are checking out, but you can have it in any flavor frap.
•Short Drink - This is a less expensive version of any Starbucks drink. It is smaller than a tall with a lower price.
•Red Eye - This is a shot of espresso in regular drip coffee.
•Black Eye - This drink has 2 shots of espresso in regular drip coffee.
•Green Eye - This drink includes 3 shots of espresso in regular drip coffee.
•Poor Mans Latte - We recommend you do not tell your Barista you are planning on creating this drink when you order. Order an iced Americano with no water and half ice, then use the free milk on the side to mix it up to your standards.
•Poor Mans Chai Latte - Same recommendation as above applies here. Order a Chai Tea Misto with extra foam, two tea bags, and half cinnamon and half vanilla syrup.
•French Pressed Coffee - If you want coffee served fresh from a French press you may have it with any variety in the shop.
•Chocolate Cream Frapuccino - This is a frapuccino made with chocolate syrup and chocolate frapuccino base.
•Cake Batter Frap - Order a vanilla frappucino and ask for both the vanilla bean and almond flavorings. It will taste just like cake batter.
•Crunchberry Frap - Flavored like the crunchberry cereal, this is a strawberrys and cream frappucino with hazelnut flavoring.
•Strawberry Blended Lemonade - Although this had been taken off the menu, most locations will still blend the strawberry flavoring with lemonade for you.
•London Fog - This is made with vanilla flavoring in Earl Gray Tea.
•Zebra Mocha (also called a Tuxedo or Penguin Mocha) - This is a mix of the white chocolate and regular chocolate mochas.
•Red Tux Mocha (also called Bleeding Penguin) - The same mix of white chocolate and regular chocolate mocha with raspberry flavoring.

20. Subway

•Pizza Sub – This sub was taken of the menu in most locations when Subway began marketing itself as healthy alternative to fast food. However, upon request you can get the Pizza Sub which combines cheese, tomato sauce, and pepperoni.

21. Taco Bell

•Cheesy Gordita Crunch – This is a seasonal favorite for many, however it can be ordered year round.
•Green Sauce – Although this sauce is still available in most South West locations, if you request it at your local restaurant usually they will have it on hand.
•Double Grilled Quesadilla – An extra crispy quesadilla.
•Chili Cheese Burrito – A burrito filled with chili and cheese instead of the usual mixes.
•Enchirito – This is a enchilada of beef, beans, cheese, diced onions, and red sauce.

22. Taco John’s

•Ranch Burrito - We’re not certain what exactly is in the ranch burrito, however it appears to have either a beef or chicken option.

23. Wendy’s

•Grand Slam - This burger has a total of four meat patties.
•Big Bacon Classic - This is your classic burger with bacon.
•Value Crispy Chicken Club – A reduced price Crispy Chicken sandwich with bacon, lettuce, tomato, and mayo.
•Jr. Cheeseburger Deluxe – This value sized burger includes lettuce, tomato, onions, pickles, and ketchup.
•Barnyard – A spicy chicken sandwich with ham, bacon and beef separated by cheese.

24. White Castle

•Seasoned Fries - Classic fries with additional seasoning for flavor.

More 'cannabis shops' than Starbucks in Denver

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/6938607/More-cannabis-shops-than-Starbucks-in-Denver.html

More 'cannabis shops' than Starbucks in Denver
Denver has been named the 'cannabis capital' of America after it emerged that is has more "pot shops" than Starbucks coffee houses.
By Nick Allen in Los Angeles
05 Jan 2010

The city in Colorado has issued more than 300 licences for medical marijuana dispensaries, more than there are state schools or shops that can sell alcohol.

More than half of those licences were issued last month. The surge has been attributed to the introduction of new regulations on Jan 1, 2010 which will prevent new dispensaries from opening within 1,000ft of another one.

Denver has subsequently been described as "America's Cannabis Capital" by the National Organisation for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.

In October a local newspaper in the city advertised for a medical marijuana reviewer.

Users of marijuana in the city's dispensaries are required to hold a state-issued Medical Marijuana Registry identification card, asserting that they require it to alleviate a medical problem.

Colorado is one of 14 states in the US where marijuana is allowed for medicinal purposes.

The others are Alaska, California, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington.

Growing, possessing, distributing and smoking marijuana are still illegal under US federal law, which makes no distinction between medical and recreational use.

Starbucks, Costco and Whole Foods team up

http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSTRE52L03920090322

Starbucks, Costco and Whole Foods team up on labor bill
Sat Mar 21, 2009

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Starbucks, Costco Wholesale Corp and Whole Foods Market are joining forces to propose alternatives to a bill that makes it easier for workers to unionize but is strongly opposed by U.S. corporations.

The three retail giants said on Saturday they sought a "third way" as big business and labor unions face off over the Employee Free Choice Act, backed by President Barack Obama.

The "card check" legislation would let workers form a union when a majority of employees sign authorization cards. That would change the current practice in which workers usually vote on unionizing, although the bill would leave the election option open for workers to choose.

Passing the bill is a top priority of labor unions, which in November helped Obama win the White House and the Democrats increase their hold on Congress. Unions, which suffered decades of declining membership, argue that elections allow anti-union managers to intimidate and harass employees.

U.S. businesses and investors oppose the legislation, with analysts saying retail names from Wal-Mart to Target would face higher labor costs and greater unionization risks. Wal-Mart said last week it was confident the legislation would be defeated in Congress.

Starbucks, Costco and Whole Foods, which invited other corporations, unions and public interest groups to join them, proposed instead that unions be given more access to meet with workers, stricter penalties for labor violations and a guaranteed right to request secret ballots in all circumstances.

"We believe in and trust our employees, which is neither anti-union nor pro-status quo," said Costco CEO James Sinegal.

The three companies will provide more details of their proposals on Sunday.

"Given the severe economic crisis facing America, it is time to avoid the polarization that has occurred on both sides of this issue, and instead, come together to find a productive approach," said Lanny Davis, an attorney with Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe, who was cited in the statement.

(Reporting by Edwin Chan; Editing by Peter Cooney)

Obama, in a ‘slap in the face’

http://wsws.org/articles/2008/dec2008/warr-d19.shtml

Obama, in a ‘slap in the face,’ invites right-wing evangelist to the inauguration
By David Walsh
19 December 2008

President-elect Barack Obama’s various appointments and political choices are taking on an almost provocative character. The Joint Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies announced Wednesday that Rick Warren, a right-wing millionaire evangelist, will lead the opening prayers at Obama’s swearing-in ceremony January 20.

Warren is a religious bigot and know-nothing, hostile to gay rights and abortion rights, a believer in creationism and “free market enterprise for religion, as well as for everything else” and a supporter of American imperialism’s agenda to dominate the globe.

The son of a Baptist minister, he preaches a sort of New Age evangelism at the Saddleback Church in Orange County, California, where he has gathered a large following. The author of The Purpose Driven Life, Warren avoids for the most part the semi-fascistic rhetoric of televangelist and former Republican candidate for president Pat Robertson and the late Jerry Falwell, claiming to be a man of the “middle” and not the Christian right.

His mentor, he explains, is management consultant Peter Drucker and he has been compared to “entrepreneurs” like Ray Kroc (of McDonald’s) and Sam Walton (of Wal-Mart). In turn, he claims to be mentor to former GE chief Jack Welch and pastor to Rupert Murdoch, two of the most unsavory and ruthless business figures around. Warren’s web site approvingly cites this comment from Forbes magazine: “If Saddleback ministry was a business its influence would be compared with Dell, Google or Starbucks.”

Despite the affable, ‘up-to-date’ façade, Warren’s primitive and anti-democratic views are hardly a secret. He compares same-sex marriage to incest, pedophilia and polygamy, claims that socially-minded theologians advocate “basically Marxism in a Christian form,” denounces supporters of abortion rights as “Holocaust deniers,” and opposes stem-cell research.

On the right-wing Hannity & Colmes talk show on the Fox cable channel in early December, host Sean Hannity suggested that the US should kill Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad—“We need to take him out.” The “non-political” Warren concurred, commenting, “the Bible says that evil cannot be negotiated with. It has to just be stopped. … In fact, that is the legitimate role of government. The Bible says that God puts government on earth to punish evildoers.”

Speaking of homosexuality during a television interview in December 2005, Warren commented: “[I]s it natural? Is it the natural thing? … If Darwin was right, which is survival of the fittest then homosexuality would be a recessive gene because it doesn’t reproduce and you would think that over thousands of years that homosexuality would work itself out of the gene pool.”

In regard to Proposition 8, a measure to ban gay marriage, which was on the ballot this November in California, Warren told his supporters: “There are about two percent of Americans [who] are homosexual, gay, lesbian people. We should not let two percent of the population … change a definition of marriage that has been supported by every single culture and every single religion for 5,000 years. This is not even just a Christian issue, it is a humanitarian and human issue, that God created marriage for the purpose of family, love and procreation.”

Warren thrust himself into the 2008 presidential election as well, hosting a forum this past August in which he quizzed presidential candidates Sen. Barack Obama and Sen. John McCain about a number of “hot-button” issues (see “Obama, McCain vie for support of Christian right”), including abortion, same-sex marriage, each candidate’s “greatest moral failure” and his attitude toward “evil.” Obama’s willingness to appear in such a setting and his pandering to the religious right were the most significant aspects of the event.

Now, after naming a host of Bush and Clinton leftovers and other pro-big business, pro-war functionaries to his cabinet and winning the ringing endorsement of the current president and vice-president in the process, the president-elect has picked Warren to deliver the invocation at his inauguration.

The choice is cynical, made purely out of political expediency.

In a review of The Audacity of Hope (see “Obama’s The Audacity of Hope: Portrait of a modern American political operative”), we noted Obama’s transparent opportunism on the question of “faith.” Raised essentially without religion by his liberal mother, “a citizen of the world,” the aspiring politician realized at some point in his sojourn that “Americans are a religious people” and that he had to come to terms with the “African American religious tradition” if he was to find acceptance by the political establishment. His account of discovering “God’s spirit” in a church on the South Side of Chicago lacks the slightest ring of truth.

In inviting Warren, Obama is seeking to build up support among the most reactionary and backward elements of the population for his administration and its policies of war and austerity. The New York Times described the action as “an olive branch to conservative Christian evangelicals.” A further illustration of the “seamless transition” from the Bush to the Obama administration.

A host of gay rights and liberal organizations have denounced the inaugural invitation to Warren, decrying it as “a slap in the face.” Joe Solmonese, president of Human Rights Campaign, in an open letter to Obama, called the decision “a genuine blow” to gay and lesbian Americans. He went on: “Our loss in California over the passage of Proposition 8 which stripped loving, committed same-sex couples of their given legal right to marry is the greatest loss our community has faced in 40 years. And by inviting Rick Warren to your inauguration, you have tarnished the view that gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Americans have a place at your table.”

Solmonese noted that Warren “has often played the role of general in the cultural war waged” against gays and lesbians.

Kevin Naff, editor of the Washington Blade, a gay newspaper, argued that the Warren decision revealed a “tone-deafness to our concerns” that “must not be tolerated. We have just endured eight years of endless assaults on our dignity and equality from a president beholden to bigoted conservative Christians. The election was supposed to have ended that era. It appears otherwise.”

The People for the American Way, a liberal advocacy group, noted that Warren’s supporters would “portray his selection as an appeal to unity by a president who is committed to reaching across traditional divides. … [T]he sad truth is that this decision further elevates someone who has in recent weeks actively promoted legalized discrimination and denigrated the lives and relationships of millions of Americans.”

Sara Posner, writing in the Nation, commented: “Now it has officially gone too far: Democrats, in their zeal to appear friendly to evangelical voters, have chosen celebrity preacher and best-selling author Rick Warren to deliver the invocation at Barack Obama’s inauguration.’

Obama firmly defended the invitation to Warren at a press conference in Chicago Thursday. The soon-to-be president asserted that he would remain “a fierce advocate for equality for gay and lesbian Americans.” His decision to permit the evangelical bigot to deliver the invocation merely expressed his desire “for America to come together, even though we may have disagreements on certain social issues.” This was, he explained, “part of the magic of this country … that we are diverse and noisy and opinionated.”

This argument, a rationale for the worst sort of unprincipled politics, is absurd. It doesn’t take much insight to understand that providing a public and key political platform for a rabid enemy of gay and democratic rights undermines equality for gays and lesbians, along with everyone else.

The vast bulk of the population has no interest in “coming together” with the likes of Warren and the rest of the fundamentalist-evangelical Christian hierarchy, a social element deeply hostile to the working class, the poor and minorities, as well as to science, culture and everything smacking of the 21st, 20th and other recent centuries. Such a confluence of interests is “magical” indeed, rooted in fantasy and wishful thinking.

Obama and his entourage are clever politicians, but too clever by half. They calculate that they can move as far to the right as they like, because the official American “left” has nowhere else to go and, in any case, no stomach for opposing such a trajectory.

It’s perfectly true that the Nation editorial board, officials of People for the American Way and many well-heeled gay rights advocates will never break from the Democratic Party. In the end, these elements will rationalize and explain away every reactionary measure taken by the Obama administration—they are bound to the Democrats by class interest, defenders all of the profit system.

The mass of the American people, however, is another matter. They have no interest in sticking with the Democrats. Seeing Obama for what he is, a venal and dishonest representative of the American financial and corporate elite, will be an essential political experience and open up the floodgates.

Is Washington Mutual the Next to Fall?

http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/content/sep2008/db20080916_498821.htm

September 16, 2008
Is Washington Mutual the Next to Fall?
The Seattle-based S&L, much exposed by the housing bust, has seen its stock plummet. But a new CEO is working to shore up confidence
by Christopher Palmeri

Washington Mutual (WM), a company that once considered itself the Starbucks (SBUX) of banking, now has a stock price lower than that of a latte.

Shares of the Seattle company, the nation's largest savings and loan, fell 27% on Sept. 15, to $2 a share, following news that other struggling financial-services giants Lehman Brothers (LEH) and Merrill Lynch (MER) had succumbed to the mortgage meltdown. WaMu shares rose 16% on Sept. 16 to close at 2.32 as investors responded to rumors that banking giant JPMorgan Chase (JPM) may make an offer for the company.

The question on many investors' minds is whether WaMu is more like IndyMac, the big bank taken over by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. in July, or Wachovia (WB), a troubled institution that under new CEO Robert Steel appears to have won back some investor confidence.

The man in the spotlight at WaMu is Alan Fishman, a banking industry veteran who took the job as chief executive on Sept. 8. Fishman replaced Kerry Killinger, a 25-year veteran of the bank, who built WaMu from a small thrift to a national player in mortgages, only to see that business collapse with the housing bust. A WaMu failure could cost taxpayers some $24 billion, figures Richard Bove, an analyst with the brokerage firm Ladenburg Thalmann (LTS).

Pep Talk

In a 12-minute conference call with investors on Sept. 8, Fishman offered little in the way of new strategy, opting instead for just some words of inspiration for the troops. "I know I need to hit the ground running, and I'm prepared to do that," he said.

Run he did. In Fishman's first week on the job, WaMu announced it was cooperating with the federal Office of Thrift Supervision to provide more information about its operations and business plans. When credit rating agency Moody's (MCO) downgraded the bank to junk-bond status citing its limited financial flexibility, WaMu pre-announced its earnings for the third quarter in an effort to soothe investors. The bank noted that it had $50 billion in "liquidity" available and capital ratios "significantly above the levels of well-capitalized institutions."

Even so, Fishman has a tough road ahead. WaMu has $239 billion in real estate loans, according to analyst Bove. Some $53 billion of those are the dreaded adjustable-rate loans in which the payments are optional and losses are as high as 35%. In July, Bove put WaMu on a list of several dozen shaky institutions. He figured any bank with nonperforming loans greater than 40% of its reserves and equity was in trouble. WaMu's was right at that 40% threshold.

Bove's loss estimates are close to that of other analysts. Fred Cannon, a bank analyst at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods, put out a research note on Sept. 15 that estimated WaMu losses could hit $28 billion this year and next. If that were the case, the bank would need to raise a further $5 billion in capital, Cannon said.

Where that money would come from is uncertain. The bank has already raised some $10 billion in the past year, including $7.2 billion in April from a group of private equity investors led by TPG.

White Knight?

Many analysts feel Fishman's best bet is to find a merger partner, but there are fewer of those around these days. Bank of America's (BAC) acquisitive Chief Executive Kenneth Lewis said on Sept. 15 that he had no interest in WaMu. The most likely candidate remains JPMorgan Chase, which allegedly made a $8-per-share offer earlier this year. Says Nancy Bush, a banking industry analyst with her own firm, NAB Research: "They better hope somebody buys them fast."

Words of support came oddly enough from Moody's analysts after announcing their downgrade last week. David Fanger, a senior vice-president at the firm, said that WaMu, by its nature as a federally insured institution, had some capital-raising advantages over investment banks. Its two main sources of funding are consumer deposits, which are largely stable even in tough times, and loans from the Federal Home Loan Banks system. In the S&L crisis of the late 1980s and early '90s, financial institutions received similarly poor credit ratings and were able to survive. Some were later acquired by WaMu during its aggressive expansion over the past two decades.

WaMu has lately been luring retail depositors with interest rates on 13-month certificates of deposits offering 4.5%, at the very high end of the industry. The firm has some strong retail banking positions, including top market-share positions in Southern California, Miami, and Seattle. In his conference call on Sept. 8, Fishman dismissed a question about selling bank branches to raise money as "way early." He also said he didn't immediately foresee a need for the bank to raise additional capital. Said Fishman: "The opportunity to create a great national retail franchise has never been better."

Palmeri is a senior correspondent in BusinessWeek's Los Angeles bureau.

Restaurants That Lack Calorie Counts Face Fines

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/19/nyregion/19calorie.html

July 19, 2008
Restaurants That Lack Calorie Counts Now Face Fines
By JAMES BARRON

Mark Loersch, who teaches nutrition to high school students, noticed something in a McDonald’s restaurant on West 42nd Street in Midtown Manhattan that he had not seen back home in Onalaska, Wis.: calorie counts posted next to the prices. A Big Mac has 540 calories, the sign said.

“It’s a good idea,” Mr. Loersch said, adding that knowing how many calories are in each item on the menu might make customers choose lighter ones. “A Big Mac is 300 calories less than an Angus mushroom and Swiss burger.” (Well, almost. The difference is actually 280 calories.)

The signs that caught Mr. Loersch’s eye on Friday are now required at many chain restaurants in New York City, and as of Saturday, city health inspectors can begin issuing citations that carry fines to restaurants that do not have calorie information posted with their prices.

Since May, inspectors have had the authority to cite restaurants that did not conform to the city’s calorie-posting rules. As of July 12, 277 restaurants had been cited.

But the health department had said there would be a “no fine” period at first, and that period was extended after the New York State Restaurant Association challenged the rules in federal court. The United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit eventually denied the restaurant association’s request to extend the no fine period beyond midnight Friday. The fines will range from $200 to $2,000.

On Friday, a check of half a dozen chain restaurants in Midtown showed that all had calorie counts posted. That was a change from early May, when the McDonald’s at 1560 Broadway, at West 46th Street, was one of the first restaurants cited for not having calorie figures posted.

Another restaurant cited on the first day calorie violations were issued, the Burger King at 561 Seventh Avenue, at West 40th Street, also had calorie figures on the signs above the counter.

“Scary, as I stand here holding, like, 3,200 calories,” said Nick Perna, a marketing specialist who had just bought a Whopper with cheese, French fries and a soft drink.

A colleague, Derek Cummings, took a closer look at the sign and said the total was only 1,720 calories. According to the sign, that was the maximum for a Whopper meal. The minimum was 1,260. The range covered extras a customer could order, like extra fries and extra cheese.

“I went sans cheese,” Mr. Cummings said, holding his own Whopper, “so I saved something.”

The calorie counts are part of a health department campaign that affects more than 2,000 restaurants, or about 10 percent of all restaurants in the city. The postings are required only in restaurants with more than 15 outlets nationwide, and the rules were supposed to take effect in April. But they were delayed while the restaurant association took the city to court.

Judge Richard J. Holwell, of United States District Court in Manhattan, ruled against the restaurant association, and the association took the case to the appeals court. The case has yet to be decided, but the judges refused to delay the fines any longer.

“If the court should find in our favor and they’ve started fining people, the question arises, are they going to give the fines back?” Chuck Hunt, a spokesman for the restaurant association, said on Friday.

He said his group had never been opposed to providing information about the calorie counts. “It’s a situation where the commissioner of health has been so adamant in his insistence on the way in which it must be done that has kept us in opposition,” Mr. Hunt said, referring to Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, the commissioner.

Had there been some flexibility, Mr. Hunt added, “I doubt we would have pursued the legal challenge as far.”

Some customers said the calorie counts might change people’s menu choices. But Tina Nguyen, an astrologer who was on a break from a class she was taking for a real estate license when she stopped at the Starbucks at 1372 Broadway, did not like the idea that the city had required the figures to be posted.

“This is starting to feel Big Brotherish,” she said. “If they want to change our eating behavior, the city could offer courses instead of picking on these restaurants.”

Confessions of a Barista

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/paul-krassner/confessions-of-a-barista_b_110853.html

Paul Krassner
Confessions of a Barista
Posted July 4, 2008

Hi, my name is Paul. I'm a barista at Starbucks -- or I should say that I was a barista -- but I still feel that I am one, even though I've been given my walking papers, my pink slip, whatever you want to call it, I've been fired from my job. Just my luck, on Independence Day weekend, I'm suddenly dependent on family, friends and Unemployment Insurance.

It's all because the economy sucks so bad that it's turning inside out. They're closing down 600 "under-performing" stores -- some wise guy said, "Yeah, and 38 of 'em are on my block" -- and letting go of 12,000 employees. People can no longer afford to drive to a Starbucks and then buy a cup of coffee that costs more than a gallon of gas.

What I'll miss about my work is the atmosphere -- you know, the ambitious writers tapping away on their keyboards, and the unsuspecting readers who enjoy their output -- sort of like a literary laptop dance.

What I won't miss about my work is the feeble attempt at humor by customers. Each time somebody says, "Oh, I get it, when you say tall size, you really mean small size," they always think they're the first one who ever made that observation.

And those jokes that just make you groan out loud: "Darth Vader walks into a Starbucks and orders a grande breakfast blend. The barista says, 'Would you like room for cream?' And Darth Vader says, 'No, I prefer it on the dark side.'" Or this one: "A spark plug walks into a Starbucks and orders a venti Sumatra. And the barista says, 'Okay, I'll serve you. Just don't start anything.'" Or this: "A skeleton walks into a Starbucks and says, 'Give me a macchiato and a mop.'" And this: "A woman walks into a Starbucks for a capuccino, and the barista says, 'Would you also like to buy something from our bakery and wash it down with a new Norah Jones CD?'"

I didn't move to Los Angeles to be a barista. I'm actually an actor. At first I resented being a cross between a waiter and a vending machine. On one occasion, I really lost it. A customer was being so rude to me, criticizing me for overcharging him, I just said, "Sir, please look carefully at your receipt. The machine doesn't lie." That's when he went into a rage. Well, I served him his "latte with everything," including the saliva I managed to add.

But then I had a little epiphany. I was at the airport, and I saw a sign -- "Last Starbucks Before Terminal 2" -- and I felt a little surge of pride. I had come to identify with the brand. And I realized, all right, if I'm an actor, then I'm playing the part of a barista, and I will put all my training into that role.

As a result, I paid attention to the other actors, the ones who were playing the part of customers, and I understood that they were addicted to caffeine and I had become addicted to being their dealer. Well, my new friends, that's it for now. Thank you for listening. This is my first time at Baristas Anonymous, but you can be sure I'll be back.

'Save Our Starbucks'

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121642002363666365.html

Cities, Customers Launch 'Save Our Starbucks' Efforts
By JANET ADAMY and ANNA PRIOR
July 19, 2008

Now that Starbucks Corp. has disclosed the 600 locations it wants to shutter, a phenomenon is taking hold: the Save Our Starbucks campaign.

In towns as small as Bloomfield, N.M., and metropolises as large as New York, customers and city officials are starting to write letters, place phone calls, circulate petitions and otherwise plead with the coffee giant to change its mind.

"Now that it's going away, we're devastated," said Kate Walker, a facilities manager for SunGard Financial Systems, a software company, who recently learned of a store closing in New York City.

It's an unusual twist in the saga of Starbucks, one of the fastest growing retailers of the past decade. For years, Starbucks gained attention when a town didn't welcome it. Independent coffee shops complained about the big-muscled competition, and residents bemoaned the erosion of local character.

But ever since Starbucks announced this month that it would close 600 stores by early next year, as its business struggles, the rallying cause has switched to saving these endangered locations.

Ms. Walker is in charge of consolidating 525 people from seven of the company's New York City offices into a new building in January. The Starbucks inside that building, at Madison and 44th, "was something that we were using to psych people up" about the move, she said.

Her hopes were dashed after Thursday night, when Starbucks released the list of the stores that it plans to close. She scoured the Internet to find a phone number for the company's main office and jotted down a company post office box address so she can ask officials to reconsider. "I know it's going to be tough but I'll keep trying at it," Ms. Walker said. "It's sort of an extension of our office."

Although the states with the largest number of closings are California, Florida and Texas, the impact is greater proportionally elsewhere. Mississippi, for instance, is slated to lose 41% of its Starbucks locations; North Dakota, 33%; Minnesota, 32%; and Nebraska, 30%, according to an analysis by William Blair & Co. analyst Sharon Zackfia. That calculation excludes licensed Starbucks stores.

Ms. Zackfia said that the states with the highest percentage of closures include many with low population density and signify that Starbucks "expanded before some markets were ready," she said.

Online, several "Save Our Starbucks" petitions have popped up for various stores across the country, including locations in San Diego, Dallas and New York City.

Starbucks spokeswoman Deb Trevino said officials at the company are discussing how to handle such pleas; she would not give details of what they're considering. "It's not a simple answer," she said.

The closures will mean Starbucks will eliminate some 12,000 jobs, which comes out to 20 for every location it plans to shut. In addition to creating jobs and generating revenue, Starbucks stores serve as key draws for other retailers, making the loss of one a blow to the surrounding area.

When rumors started to swirl about the fate of the Starbucks on Main Street in Madison, Miss., Mayor Mary Hawkins Butler said she immediately rang up Starbucks' corporate headquarters. She didn't know for sure until the store appeared on the list released Thursday night.

One resident asked her whether a petition might help change Starbucks' mind, Ms. Butler said. She plans to call Starbucks to ask them to reassess that store.

Requests to reconsider are also coming from higher-profile entities. The to-be-closed list includes locations developed with Magic Johnson Enterprises. The basketball star has for 10 years helped open 118 stores in less economically robust urban areas that might not have otherwise attracted a Starbucks. Eric Holoman, the company's president, said the firm plans to talk with Starbucks about "applying additional filters to be certain that closure is the only option," he said.

Bloomfield, N.M, may also make its case to Starbucks, said Jo Duckwitz, who works in the city's procurement office.

Ms. Duckwitz does not think the customers in this city of less than 7,000 people will sorely miss the cafe, but it is a potential blow to the city's campaign to bring more shops to Bloomfield, she said. "We have very few retails outlets here, practically none," Ms. Duckwitz said.

Ms. Walker, the New York facilities manager, has not determined whether there is another Starbucks nearby the new office that will appease employees.

"Knowing Starbucks, there's probably one within a few blocks," she said. "But that's probably two blocks too far."

Write to Janet Adamy at janet.adamy@wsj.com and Anna Prior at anna.prior@wsj.com

Group finds Starbucks logo too hot to handle

http://www.startribune.com/nation/18969709.html

Group finds Starbucks logo too hot to handle
By PAUL WALSH, Star Tribune
May 15, 2008

Seems that one person's smut is another person's morning latte.

A Christian group based in San Diego found grounds for outrage over the new retro-style logo for Starbucks Coffee.

The Resistance says the new image "has a naked woman on it with her legs spread like a prostitute," Mark Dice, founder of the group, said in a news release. "Need I say more? It's extremely poor taste, and the company might as well call themselves Slutbucks."

The group, which claims more than 3,000 members nationwide and has found a place on the fringe advancing various conspiracy theories, is calling for a national boycott of the coffee-selling giant.

The logo will run on Starbucks cups for "several more weeks," said company spokeswoman Bridget Baker, and will live on as the logo for Pike Place bags of coffee.

The image is a less-revealing version of what the chain used for many years, starting when it first opened in Seattle in 1971. That original logo was resurrected in its Northwest outlets for a time in 2006 to mark the chain's 35th anniversary.

Baker said the newly revived logo was "modified a bit [from the original] based on feedback" from Starbucks customers during its 2006 appearance. "We feel it's appropriate," she said.

The explanation for that initial logo is explained in the book "Pour Your Heart into It: How Starbucks Built a Company One Cup at a Time," written by company founder Howard Schultz:

"[Creative partner Terry Heckler] poured [sic] over old marine books until he came up with a logo based on an old 16 Century Norse woodcut: a two-tailed mermaid, or siren, encircled by the store's original name, Starbucks Coffee, Tea, and Spice. That early siren, bare-breasted and Rubenesque, was supposed to be as seductive as coffee itself."

Paul Walsh • 612-673-4482

Comic Book Conspiracy

http://www.realdetroitweekly.com/article_3798.shtml

By Thomas Matich
Feb 5, 2008
T. Casey Brennan
Comic Book Conspiracy

Ann Arbor was host to a gathering at a house I had never visited before. On the back porch, with my red plastic cup freshly filled from the keg, I sipped and exhaled winter breath. That night I encountered T. Casey Brennan, the man who, legend has it, shot JFK.

Brennan started writing comics in the late-'60s with Warren Publishing’s horror series Eerie. As the '70s stormed ahead, Brennan penned tales for Warren horror magazines Creepy and Vampirella and DC Comics’ House of Mystery among countless others.

“I began reading them in kindergarten in September of 1953,” Brennan says. “I was five-years-old, it was a one-room school on a gravel road, no inside toilet or running water and the teacher had to shovel coal. There was a kid that had a massive collection of old time comic books and I began reading them and I became very enamored by the whole concept.”

With his stories, Brennan loved to create his own world and he used language like a machine gun, peppering his prose with vivid Vampirella speech bubbles that took readers on a creepy joy ride. By 1990, Brennan’s activism to remove cigarette smoking from comics caused then Arkansas Governor, Bill Clinton, to designate January as “T. Casey Brennan Month.”

Now, 59-year-old Brennan is homeless, nearly nomadic, splitting time in cities such as Ann Arbor, Pittsfield and Ypsilanti. He enjoys going to parties and in my email correspondences with him, he often asks if I know of any bashes. He considers himself a street-punk and feels that America has reached a cultural revolution that is genuine, unlike the hippies.

“I hated hippies then. I hate them now. Woodstock should’ve been napalmed,” Brennan says. “There’s nothing on this earth more sickening to me than a hippie."

In 2003, a car hit Brennan. He suffered post-concussion syndrome, a bleeding liver and a hernia. He had to learn how to talk again and with the help of some punk rock kids that took him in, he says he learned a different concept of what constitutes good and bad artistically.

In an email, Brennan sent me two Conjurella stories, where he writes about his involvement in the JFK assassination as an unwilling teenager through hazy, suspenseful recollections that involve CIA MK-ULTRA mind control and Nazi experiments. A few days later, I sit with Brennan at a Starbucks in Ann Arbor and ask him if his JFK stories are fact or fiction, to which Brennan says he’s willing to testify and take a polygraph. But it seems certain people don’t want the truth exposed, as he’s received death threats and political persecution. “If people want to deal with the JFK stuff at all, they want to deal with it as art that tests the limits of freedom of expression,” Brennan says. “Nobody wants to hear that I am telling the truth. But I take my fucking life … my reputation in my hands every time I’m forced to admit that.” RDW

T. Casey Brennan’s comics are available at Vault of Midnight: 219 S. Main St., Ann Arbor.

Restaurants to Post Calories

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/23/nyregion/23menu.html

January 23, 2008
City Tries Again to Require Restaurants to Post Calories
By DIANE CARDWELL

New Yorkers wondering just how many calories they are consuming in each grande-size white hot chocolate at Starbucks (490) or Double Whopper with cheese at Burger King (990) could soon see those numbers printed alongside the price, according to revised regulations approved on Tuesday by the city’s Board of Health.

Under the rules, which officials rewrote after a federal judge struck down similar provisions in September, any chain that operates at least 15 outlets nationwide would have to display calorie content on their menu boards, menus or food tags — essentially wherever the restaurant lists the information that customers use to make their choices.

“Most people underestimate calorie content by a lot,” said Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, the city’s health commissioner, adding that he considered the rules a potent weapon in the crusade against rising obesity rates. “Even dietitians get a lot of it wrong.”

Dr. Frieden said his department’s research showed that consumers often make faulty assumptions about the calorie counts of items on a menu. But when they have the information, he said, they tend to choose food with fewer calories.

As a result of the regulations, set to go into effect on March 31, Dr. Frieden predicted that some restaurants will eliminate some of their offerings, like appetizers that top 2,000 calories.

Chuck Hunt, a spokesman for the New York State Restaurant Association, which successfully challenged the earlier rules in Federal District Court in Manhattan, said his group was considering suing over the revised regulations.

“It’s cumbersome, and it really isn’t going to work,” he said, adding that many operators of fast-food restaurants were franchisees who would not be able to easily afford to comply with the rules. He said that federal regulations designed to reduce obesity by listing calorie content on food in supermarkets had not kept the epidemic at bay.

In December 2006, the Board of Health approved the first set of menu-labeling requirements for chain restaurants, making New York the first city to do so.

The city, seeking to make the requirement less burdensome on restaurant owners, had limited it to those that had already disclosed calorie counts in some way. Some chains, including Wendy’s, White Castle and Quiznos, stopped providing the information at their restaurants in the city while they weighed how or if to comply.

Denny Lynch, a spokesman for Wendy’s, said that although the chain was in favor of providing the information, the new Board of Health regulations would be difficult to put in place because there were so many variations in their meals. It is almost impossible, he said, to accurately represent calories with a single number.

“For us, the idea makes sense,” Mr. Lynch said. “But now take the idea and put it into practice at the restaurant and it is complicated, very difficult to do.”

Wendy’s, he said, places a poster with the complete nutritional content of the various components of their meals as close to the cash register as possible. He said that was a better solution.

Representatives of White Castle and Quiznos did not return telephone messages seeking comment.

In the lawsuit filed by the Restaurant Association, Judge Richard J. Holwell ruled that the original regulation was pre-empted by the federal Nutrition Labeling and Education Act of 1990 because of the way the city had limited the chains to which it applied. In his decision, he provided a framework for the city to redraft its rules, which health officials say they closely followed.

The new rules will apply to about 10 percent of the city’s 23,000 restaurants, about the same number as would have been affected by the earlier version. The restaurants that will fall under the new regulation serve about one-third of the food eaten away from home each year, according to health officials.

“The real question for us is, is the industry going to become part of the solution or are they going to keep going to court to hide from the customers what they’re serving them?” Dr. Frieden said. “If your business model depends on keeping information from your consumers, that’s a problem.”

Starbucks goes on a diet

http://www.thatsfit.com/2008/01/03/starbucks-goes-on-a-diet/

Starbucks goes on a diet
Posted: Jan 3rd 2008
by Bethany Sanders
Filed under: Food and Nutrition, Healthy Habits, Diet and Weight Loss, Healthy Products

Are you Starbucks-addicted and looking to trim down in the New Year? You might appreciate this news. In 2008, Starbucks will be offering a new skinny latte that's fat and sugar free. Grand total calories in a "tall"? 90, down from 400, for a white chocolate mocha latte.

I don't drink coffee, nor have I ever (gasp) been inside a Starbucks, but I have my vices and I know what it means to sacrifice tasty treats for better health. The new skinny may be an alternative for those who need their coffee fix, and if not, Diet-Blog has a few other options for making that coffee habit a little more diet-friendly.

A Venti Mocha, in Russian at Last

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/06/business/worldbusiness/06cnd-sbux.html

September 6, 2007
A Venti Mocha, in Russian at Last
By ANDREW E. KRAMER

KHIMKI, Russia, Sept. 6 — With the hiss of an espresso machine and a note in Russian explaining the meaning of tall, grande and venti, Starbucks opened its first coffee shop in Russia today in a mall outside of Moscow.

The opening sealed a victory for the company in a fight with a Russian trademark squatter who had barred Starbucks from coming to Russia for more than three years, just as a coffeehouse culture burst onto the scene here. Starbucks refused to pay the squatter and eventually prevailed in court.

Still, that dispute highlighted the challenges for Starbucks as the chain strives to expand outside the United States, a market that will eventually become saturated, making future growth at home more difficult. Starbucks intends to open 20,000 coffee shops overseas while operating about that number at home.

With the opening of the first Russian café, Starbucks, which is based in Seattle, now operates in 43 countries, said Carole Pucik, a Starbucks spokeswoman. The company plans to open a flagship Russian shop on Old Arbat Street, an iconic address in downtown Moscow, later this year. “We see lots of opportunity here,” Ms. Pucik said.

The menu of basic coffee drinks is the same as in the United States, and indeed everywhere in the world, Ms. Pucik said, while the sandwiches and baked goods are adapted for local tastes. The Russian shop, for example, offers a mushroom and cheese sandwich.

One thing that is different is the price of a cup of coffee. Hard as it may be to believe, the prices can actually be higher than in a typical Starbucks in the United States.

In Russia, the prices are a reflection of the oil-driven economic boom times here; a tall filter coffee costs 75 rubles, or about $2.92. The priciest item on the menu was a venti mocha, for 230 rubles, or about $8.98. For comparison, a venti mocha at Starbucks in New York costs $4.71.

Starbucks, meanwhile, is betting Russians will take to the carry-out coffee culture that bolsters sales in the Untied States but is all but unknown here. Russians typically sit down to drink hot beverages. Yet Starbucks officials say that may change as the pace of life picks up. “Moscow is a dynamic city,” Ms. Pucik said. “They will want a choice of taking their drink with them.” The company is offering its standard paper cups.

Starbucks first registered its trademark in Russia in 1997 but did not open any coffee shops here because of the economic crisis of 1998. Then in 2002, as the economy was picking up again, a former car alarm salesman and trademark squatter, Sergei A. Zuykov, filed a request with Russian authorities to cancel the chain’s trademark because it had not been used in commerce in Russia. He then registered Starbucks in the name of a Moscow company he represented as a lawyer.

Mr. Zuykov defended his claim to the brand for three years while asking Starbucks to pay $600,000 for him to abandon his registration, which the company declined to do.

He lost his case in November 2005 as Russia stepped up its bid for membership in the World Trade Organization and hewed closer to international standards in intellectual property right protection.

Still, in spite of this setback that allowed competitors a head start, Starbucks said it sees plenty of room for more coffee shops in Russia. Ms. Pucik, the spokeswoman, cited data from Euromonitor International, a market research company, showing Moscow has one coffeehouse for every 3,187 people. For comparison, New York has one for every 365 people and Paris one for every 126 people.

Dunkin' Donuts going free of trans fat

http://www.ocregister.com/news/dunkin-trans-fat-1822528-doughnut-chain

Sunday, August 26, 2007
Dunkin' Donuts going free of trans fat
The change is to take place at 5,400 U.S. restaurants by Oct. 15.
By MARK JEWELL
The Associated Press

BOSTON Dunkin' Donuts, the food-on-the-go chain whose name celebrates a treat that's symbolic of unhealthy eating, is trying to refresh its image by largely eliminating trans fat across its menu, Homer Simpson be damned.

Dunkin' planned to announce Monday that it has developed an alternative cooking oil and reformulated more than 50 menu items – doughnuts included. The Canton, Mass.-based chain says its menu will be "zero grams trans fat" by Oct. 15 across its 5,400 U.S. restaurants in 34 states.

About 400 locations nationwide that took part in a four-month test already have made the switch to a new blend of palm, soybean and cottonseed oils. That includes all restaurants in New York City and Philadelphia, which are forcing restaurants to phase out their use of artery-clogging trans fat.

The ice cream chain Baskin-Robbins, another unit of Dunkin' Brands Inc., plans to be zero grams trans fat by Jan. 1.

Dunkin' isn't claiming it will become "trans fat free," but does say any trans fat in foods including doughnuts, croissants, muffins and cookies will fall below half a gram per serving. Federal regulations allow food labels to say they've got zero grams of trans fat, provided levels fall below the half-gram threshold.

A nutrition advocacy group welcomed Dunkin's addition to the list of restaurant chains that have recently shifted away from trans fat.

"It's good news that they're dropping most, if not quite all, trans fat," said Jeff Cronin, spokesman for the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a Washington-based nonprofit. "If Dunkin' Donuts can do that, anyone can."

But Cronin cautioned that when it comes to Dunkin's doughnuts, "we're still talking about a food that's mostly white flour, sugar, and fat."

Dunkin' isn't positioning its namesake product as health food – a shift that would involve more disbelief suspension than might be possible for a treat synonymous with portly, doughnut-gobbling Homer from television's "The Simpsons."

"The goal was not to make a healthy doughnut, it was really to create a doughnut that was better," said Joe Scafido, Dunkin's chief creative and innovation officer. "Certainly, we did not create a healthy doughnut."

Although its coffees are by far a bigger seller, the New England-bred, 57-year-old chain was founded on the reputation of its doughnuts. Now, Dunkin' claims to be the first major chain to introduce a zero grams trans fat doughnut, although smaller doughnut makers have already done so. Mainstream doughnut makers' products can have around 5 grams of trans fat apiece.

The main source of trans fats is partially hydrogenated oils, formed when hydrogen is added to liquid vegetable oils to harden them. Evidence suggests that artificial trans fats boost "bad" cholesterol and lower "good" cholesterol, increasing the risk of heart disease and stroke.

Dunkin' is ahead of Krispy Kreme Doughnuts Inc., which has yet to roll out a zero gram trans fat doughnut but hopes to do so. Brian Little, a spokesman for the North Carolina-based chain, said, "We continue to work aggressively with outside supply partners, and our goal is to get to zero trans fatty acids while maintaining great Krispy Kreme taste."

A call seeking comment from another chain, California-based Winchell's Donut House, wasn't immediately returned.

Starbucks Corp., Dunkin's Seattle-based rival in the coffee shop niche, said in May that it would cut artificial trans fats out of its food and drink by year's end in stores in the continental U.S., Alaska and Canada.

Dunkin's announcement follows about four years of research of more than 28 alternative cooking oils and proprietary blends.

This past spring, hundreds of restaurants began taking part in a test to gauge customer reaction to the blend that Dunkin' ultimately selected. Managers at participating stores were split into two groups, with one receiving conventional cooking oil, the other receiving the experimental oil, and neither group knowing which type they received. Dunkin' closely watched sales and customer response at restaurants with the experimental oil.

"We got no negative consumer feedback, and we sold 50 million doughnuts in that time," Scafido said.

Dunkin's 1,900 locations outside the U.S. are expected to begin using the new oil over the next couple years, he said.