Free Republic

So here I am in Seattle, America's coffee capital, and the flacks at Starbucks won't even talk to me about the measure on Berkeley's November ballot that would require coffeehouses to sell only Fair Trade, organic or shade-grown coffee. (Fair Trade means the importers paid growers at least $1.26 cents per pound for coffee beans. Shade-grown coffee, the measure explains, "is planted in a shaded, forest-like setting created by a canopy of trees," which provides habitat for native songbirds.) Violators would be subject to a $100 fine, six months behind steel bars or both. Tully's and Seattle's Best Coffee...

It's a tax that could hit Seattleites where it really hurts: their coffee mugs. A group of child-care advocates, seeking more money for early education, filed an initiative Friday that would place a 10-cent city tax on Seattle's lifeblood -- espresso drinks. But in Seattle, where voters have already voted to tax their tobacco, their meals and their hotel rooms, among other things, initial word of the proposal caused barely a jolt among the area's latte lovers. "Coffee, in a way, it's kind of a luxury item," said Patty Grazini, who frequents the Diva Espresso Bar in Seattle's Greenwood district....